After speaking at many workshops, tweet-up groups, client presentations, webinars, and talk radio shows, I am always asked. “Justin, what would you say your biggest key to success for business people is during these turbulent times” My answer is always this:

These times have taught us a lot about ourselves, our government, and that doing business as usual does not cut it anymore. The game is changing so the biggest tip I have for business people is to understand that in the online world there is going to be a HUGE learning curve for you. You can get educated, dive into the on-line world open minded, or lose your market to competitors. You MUST learn to network as you do off-line at local chamber events on-line using twitter and linked-in. These are my top 2 social networking tools for relationship building.

The reason these tools are so powerful for business professionals, entrepreneurs, and other passionate people, is because this virtual ability to connect with other like minded people with similar passions and form strategic alliances, new business relationships, and opening up doors of opportunity if you can see the angle and execute. It comes down to building relationships and as business people, building relationships leads to new business. This is not an overnight process. It requires sweat equity, knowledge, good communication, business sense online, psychology, and some technical aptitude. Large media outlets do not have the power any longer because of new viral communication tools like twitter. If you are a business professional and need training, coaching, or consulting on how to leverage these tools, sign up for one of my webinars here: Twitter 101 for business webinar

I look forward to your success in the digital age, and please follow me on twitter so we can learn from each other. Every person has a story to tell about their life, and I look forward to learning your.
Justin

How CEO’s Can Create A Blue Ocean Strategy And Save The Company Using Social Media

blue ocean strategy social media

We as CEO’s know the game is changing. It’s not doing business as usual any longer. Old styles of marketing such as direct mail, telemarketing and even email marketing are producing diminishing results. The companies that will be in business in the future MUST take advantage and diversify into an on-line marketing approach that embraces social media and social networking (especially twitter) and formulate a strategy around their products and services.

Believe it or not, the numbers are showing these on-line marketing tactics cheaper than traditional methods (Better ROI) and with shrinking budgets and a need for new ideas, what better solution than social marketing? Now this is easier said then done. I have been in IT and Business for over 10 years and for marketing, lead generation, and sales, departments MUST understand how to use these tools for those purposes. Its not what tools are out these, but how your departments are trained to use them. I conduct workshops for various corporations and have given companies the fast-track approach to social media and help structure the workshops in layman’s terms so everyone understands their role and how it fits with the company culture. Strategy is the most important, and not too many people in corporations have the business and technical sense because of the dis-connect among departments that exists.

Typically, no one in the company even understands all these various on-line mediums, which is why CEO’s will need to bring in outside help to re-shape the company culture around these new paradigms.

Here is a helpful video i put together that gives the following talking points:

1. Old Style of Marketing VS. New Style of Marketing
2. Two Buck Chuck Example (blue ocean strategy)
3. Whole Foods Example (blue Ocean Strategy- Online & Off-line)
4. How you will need outside consultants to help re-shape corporate culture

This video should really touch on some great strategies for you to implement in your organizations right away.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eJPo5hZ2MY

I would appreciate some of your thoughts / insight on this discussion post.
What challenges is your firm facing with formulating a social media strategy?
I would Appreciate your any feedback

Thanks
JustinRFrench CEO Social Networking San Diego
Email me at “snsdjf@gmail.com “> with any questions you may have and i would be happy to offer some advice

4. Trust is very important. We have gained the trust of many clients by always doing what we say and communicating with them regularly and measuring the success of our social marketing strategy. We may even have to make adjustments with the keywords or messaging. It is definitely a process and takes months to lay the proper foundation. Consider it sweat equity or “building brand equity” as Gary Vee says; you are investing in the long run for big payoffs months down the road. I assure you there is no quick fix or get rich quick scheme that can help your business achieve long term growth and success online. Right now we are solving on-line marketing challenges companies are having and leveraging social networking and social media tools as means of meeting and achieving business goals. Social networking used to be just for personal use, but now we have identified how to leverage these mediums to help corporations become more competitive, more visible, and more profitable. As business consultants who happen to be very technical, this has given us an advantage to be able to leverage cutting edge technology for our clients that gives them a competitive edge. That is exactly why clients continue to see the value in working with a highly technical team who is first and foremost business minded and continues to produces on-line social marketing results.

3. My executive team and I have been consulting with the SMB market for many years. Because we have worked in MANY different industries and capacities such as financial, healthcare, manufacturing, and service, we have been diversified and can provide the proper solution to various online marketing challenges no matter what business they are in. The processes and systems we use are very similar. For me, it’s just like starting a business. Once you start one business, you can start another, it’s just maybe a different target market, product, service, or business model, but the foundations to conducting business are very similar.

We have developed a systematic process of identifying core business problems and challenges with marketing, establishing a framework, agreeing on deliverables, and implementing the proper solution for our clients. The workflow we have created is proprietary and clients have been blown away at the efficiency and results it creates for their company. We make our clients aware that things may not always go according to plan, but they are rest assured knowing we have the right problem solving capabilities, the team in place, and the same concepts we have employed for years that has been largely successful for several other clients. Not to mention a lot of this is due to the trust factor we have gained over the years. At the end of the day, that is what companies pay us to do- solve their online marketing problems. Whether its strategy, planning, training, consulting, implementation, etc. Companies need to go above and beyond for their clients these days and I am seeing this everyday thanks to social networking sites like twitter. Doing business online is a HUGE complexity and sadly many companies have been burned. Just like when I was in the IT field, we had to establish trust first before our clients accepted us. We achieved this by selling ourselves, not just our products or services. Think of doing business on the internet like a science- a science we reveal to our signed clients just how everything ties together for great business success on the internet.

Is your website generating new leads/ new business for you? Test it here: http://www.socialnetworkingsandiego.com/free-website-evaluation/

2. Our country is built on small and mid-sized businesses and because of the Internet, companies are now able to compete on-line with large fortune 500 companies with an even smaller budget. It’s all about having the right strategy. It levels the playing field and enables a communication channel that would have never been possible in traditional marketing or media. We have now seen that a small business with a great product or service and the right strategy can achieve huge economies of scale on-line. Look at what has happened with twitter. Our current business model leverages twitter to be used as a business tool for our clients to achieve some of these business objectives: PR, customer service, branding, marketing, and of course developing lasting business relationships. Twitter has enabled corporations to get back to the foundations of doing business in a digital age which is much needed right now. Being more transparent, not always selling things, and building an on-line community culture around community. Remember- people want to do business with people. Think of this new way of doing business on line as social marketing. If someone from company A does something good for me, say help me out or point me in the right direction, or does a good job on a project, I am going to tell 10 of my friends and just like word of mouth referrals, the same happens now online in a virtual setting.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post!

Social Marketing is a new buzz word going around. Social marketing basically means word of mouth marketing using online tools such as social media, social networking, and other online PR tactics. You know how powerful word of mouth can be, just imagine what it can do for your products and services! Social Networking San Diego has been able to achieve great success for our clients, and the way business is conducted today is very different from the 20th century. Consider our 21st century marketing methods which you can see here:

1. Even though businesses are going through some tough times due to economic conditions, this does not make it ok for management and executives to do nothing. Good leadership in all companies is needed to find innovative ways to be resilient during these times and figure out ways to cut costs where necessary (not employees) streamline operations, upgrade technology, and invest in an online marketing strategy. Why? Because online marketing strategies can mean a more cost effective advertising and marketing approach than traditional marketing efforts and can even reach a more targeted market in a shorter amount of time. Having your company set up on twitter, linked-in, or face book is one thing, but how are you using these tools? This is where you need an online marketing strategist to develop the right creative campaign that can then track results, measure progress, and show good ROI. The economies of scale are much greater with an on-line marketing approach as opposed to off-line. Consider this: an inbound marketing campaign, or inbound marketing system in which we help formulate and execute around your business model. We do the back-end work for our clients on social media and social networking and train them on how to leverage these tools for business development purposes and how to build business relationships online. We function as the out-sourced virtual marketing department and partner with our clients for long term contracts for long term business strategy success.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post!

As extremely busy executives, we know the following:

-budget allowances are gone
-competitive forces are growing
-layoffs and cuts have been made, and hopefully not a second round
-sales are down

As the VP of marketing goes into the CEO’s office Monday morning and says “I just spoke to a company on Linked-in who is doing social media and social networking consulting for business development and lead generation and I think we should consider it. This could be our chance to get ahead of our competitors and shift some of our off-line marketing budget into on-line marketing and advertising. The CEO says “That on-line marketing crap has never worked before, what makes you think it will work now? We don’t even understand how the hell it works! Do they even have case studies? What was the ROI?” VP Says “I spoke to a company who seems very credible from their recommendations, has case studies, video testimonials, and has developed a proven system and strategy that really seems to make a lot of sense. I think it leverages social networking and social media sites for business development and lead generation purposes. It really gets back to the old way of doing business by developing relationships with customers first, earning their trust, and then it’s just a matter of time before they do business with us. Plus, the viral ability with online marketing makes word of mouth referrals spread much quicker when they see how great our products are they tell their friends, family, and colleagues. What do you think? CEO says “Well, maybe this couldn’t have come at a better time because sales, marketing, and IT have never seemed to be on the same page, what we are currently doing isn’t working, and this may be a chance for us to gain a competitive advantage. How do we move forward? Well, they offered to do a FREE Webinar for us on the growing trend in social marketing to see if we may be a good fit for the program. I think we should do it. The CEO says “let’s check it out”. 3 months later……Progress has been made, ROI is up 15%, and employees at the various departments are shifting gears and getting re-educated/ re-trained on how to use these social tools and how to sell in a digital age.

“When is your VP of marketing going to take a NEW innovative direction for your firm? Give the CEO some hope so he can sleep”

What is your feedback on this story? How many think this ACTUALLY happened? Please respond below. Leave your comments. I look forward to your guesses-
JustinRFrench CEO & Chief Internet Marketing Strategist
Social Networking San Diego
http://www.socialnetworkingsandiego.com

graphic credited to www.sciencebuddies.org

Here is a reminder of the scientific method with the spin for a social marketing strategy:

Steps of the scientific method:

1.    Ask a Question -what goals are you trying to achieve with your on-line marketing efforts? On-line branding, customer service, online PR, increase traffic, increased visibility, increase website ranking, better conversion, marketing a new product or service….

2.    Do Background Research -we research your competition, identify what keywords are best to use, and formulate an online marketing strategy/ plan tailored around your particular business model (this can NOT be a one size fits all approach to on line marketing!)

3.    Construct a Hypothesis -based on our research/ assessment- we hope to achieve these types of results with this on-line marketing campaign…

4.    Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an Experiment -we will assign the right team, implement the strategy, and market test and confirm our on-line marketing campaign (either 100% outsourced or a joint effort (best results are achieved with a joint effort- we do training, coaching, and educational instruction on who does what in the on-line marketing strategy)

5.    Analyze Your Data and Draw a Conclusion -quarterly reports using analytics, benchmarks, deliverables, goals met, and other ROI measurements compared to alternative marketing efforts

6.    Communicate Your Results -we will report to the executive team what results were achieved, areas we suggest for improvement, and best approaches moving forward.

We work in these 4 capacities:
Hourly Consulting
Monthly Retainer
Per Project Basis
Monthly Subscription

See if your corporation qualifies for starting a social marketing campaign by clicking here: http://www.socialnetworkingsandiego.com/free-website-evaluation/

Want to see some actual Case Studies for existing clients?  Click Here for Case Studies

CEO JustinRFrench

P.S. Here are 4 tips on how to choose the right social media marketing consultant

Guest Post This week by San Diego Corporate Marketing Strategist Holly Reville

1.) What is Social Media?

2.) Branding

3.) Keep it Professional

4.) Messaging

5.) Where to Begin

6.) Networking

7.) Promote

What is Social Media? – Social Media is an ever-growing and ever-changing new phenomenon. It’s the new wave of meeting, networking and connecting with people, most importantly a new method of meeting new potential clients and marketing your business for free. If you stop for a moment to think about the magnitude of this it’s mind boggling. At any given moment there is a worldwide network of people at your reach. Isn’t that an amazing concept? No longer are we restricted to networking within our immediate geographical location. Best of all, people are friendly, helpful and knowledgeable. Those who are not, are weeded out and blocked fairly quickly. The big question that lies in everyone’s head is, “How?” This blog will give you some key insights on what you need to get started and successfully market yourself, product or company through the use of social media platforms.

Branding – In branding, your goals are to gain brand awareness, associate certain qualities and characteristics that make you/your company unique and over time gain brand loyalty. If you plan on marketing your business through social media it is important to keep brand integrity intact. Your brand is an extension of you and your company. How does this translate to social media?

A.) Avatar/picture – Make sure you use a good picture. A professionally taken picture is highly recommended, but if you choose to take your own just make sure you are dressed in a professional manner and have someone take it for you or use your timer. You do not want the “picture taken in the mirror shot showing the camera”. Use this picture on all of the social networking websites. This will give you brand consistency and increase recognition across platforms. It is important to use your picture. Social networking is about creating relationships, people want to know there is a real person behind the company façade and get to know that person.

B.) Name – You wouldn’t put a different business name on all of your sales material so make sure you don’t have different user names on your social networking websites. When social networking for your business it is common to have your full name or full business name as a user name, whatever you choose, just keep it consistent.

C.) Description – Be sure to describe your company, who you are and what you do on all of the social media profile pages. This is the first and possibly last place an interested person or potential client will go to find out more about you. Have a thorough, concise description and double check spelling and grammar. The description can vary from site to site and be custom tailored to the audience, just make sure all of the essentials are there to easily tell people about you/your company.

D.) Custom colors and background – Most of the social networking websites have an option to customize your page. When doing so try to make sure the colors and images used are consistent across all websites. This will also associate these colors and images to your brand and help you to achieve brand recognition.

For the rest of her VERY INSIGHTFUL post Click Here

Special Thanks to Holly For allowing us to share her work for our readers. Please subscribe to her blog- Thanks
Justin

Register Here <REGISTER NOW>

Doing Business In The Digital Age Through Social Networking Workshop

Heard of twitter?  Are you on linked-in and just Lost?

As busy professionals, you probably have heard lately between sales calls and meetings the talk about twitter or social networking right?  Well, we are extending a GREAT offer to our network to come take part in an interactive workshop where you will see why social sites like linked-in, facebook, and twitter can actually have BUSINESS value associated with them IF you know how to use these tools properly.

Our clients typically see these results from using these social tools effectively:  new alliances, new prospects, sales leads, competitive intelligence, industry trends, and even new business!  This can all be accomplished at a fraction of the cost compared to traditional marketing approaches like direct mail and telemarketing which are producing shrinking returns anyway.

Get an up-grade on your business development methods and marketing tactics or lose out to your web-savvy competition!

Once busy professionals realize the power of building BUSINESS relationships online, it actually increases business for them off-line too.  Think of this workshop as an instructional course on how to do business in the digital on-line world.

What? Doing Business In The Digital Age Through Social Networking Interactive Workshop

Where? Irvine

When? May 20th 6PM PST

What you will learn:

• How to generate prospects using on-line tools

• How to get more clients using social media and social networking

• Get an on-line marketing plan for your business to execute right away

• How to fully understand the internet puzzle

• Learn how to beat your competition on-line

• Learn why social media marketing is cheaper than traditional marketing & how to make $

• 299$ value (99$ introductory rate- next event will be more so sign up now!)

Register Here <REGISTER NOW>

BONUES Free E-Book with attendance- Social Networking 101 For Business Survival Kit

Who should attend?

Marketing Managers

Business Owners

Entrepreneurs

VP’s

Business Development Managers

Sales Professionals

Who is www.socialnetworkingsandiego.com

“Our mission and purpose with SNSD is to ultimately brand your

business locally and globally by driving traffic to your website,

generating pre-qualified leads, and helping your website rank

higher on Google.”- Justin French CEO

This is an Interactive and “How To”  Workshop on leveraging Social Media and Social Networking  Tools like linked-in and twitter to generate leads and build your business brand on-line!

More about Social Networking San Diego

http://www.socialnetworkingsandiego.com

SPECIAL BONUS- Refer 2 other business professionals get your ticket FREE!

Register Here <REGISTER NOW>