If you do not control your brand reputation online, someone else will.
Consider the recent advances on major search engines:
It has never been possible to get negative or libelous in such a short time. If you do not protect yourself, someone can easily post a comment, make a video, create a blog entry, file a complaint, promote your competitors, develop a hate site or more. Even worse, an angry employee leaving the company with the idea of revenge and you disrupt profoundly the psychological. To manage your cyber reputation is not shameless promotion is a defense and good practice.
Social Media has accelerate rapidly and while a year or so ago it was a nice idea, now this really is an absolute necessity for many businesses regardless of size. Brand reputation management also referred to as Online reputation management is critical in keeping, developing and protecting your good name.
Your online reputation can be seen in different ways. Whether you are looking for a job, to sell a product, an investor or looking trying to find an investment, there will always be someone who will use a search engine to learn more about you. People doing this research are generally:
The consequences of poor online reputation management is measured at several levels:
Besides the financial implications needed to develop the credibility of your business, there are potential legal ramifications that may equally capture your time and weaken your financial viability. This will often seal the new legal and reliable results at the top of rankings, which means that even if a case is dismissed or resolved, you will suffer the consequences for years.
Things like:
If you need more help and information, then please do contact us for some no obligation, free advice, we are more than happy to help.
]]>You might ask yourself if you have the resources to get started on social networks? After all, who has the time and budget to imitate Disney or McDonalds? Certainly not a small business!
Well, it is perhaps not the right questions. In fact, a report on marketing via social media in 2011 brings good news to smaller enterprises. These are small business owners who see the best results from their campaigns by marketing through social media.
Over the last 3 years, we have seen the social media strategy uncertain ( 2009 analysis ), moving to regular use ( 2010 report ) to eventually become an indispensable tool of online marketing (current). No one has benefited more than small businesses.
We have conducted some surveys across a variety of sites and connected with social media users and 90% of respondents agree that social media is an important component of their business. In addition, their owners (66%) or freelancers (67%) are likely to be particularly agree on this point.
Virtually all respondents believe that social media helps them stand out in a market increasingly competitive. In fact, 88% find that these new media are increasing their visibility. In addition, 72% noted an increase in traffic and their subscribers. And it is the small business owners who are here to see a 89.2% visibility.
Here are other areas where they see more benefits than their peers:
With freelancers, they report new trading partners, 59% of them found it positive
Small businesses are 2 times more likely to find qualified leads than other types of businesses
48% of freelancers and owners are seeing their sales increase as a direct result of their work on social media
They are also (~ 59%) see a reduction in their marketing budget (social media is FREE)
Owners of small businesses are very busy. For most of them, marketing is just one of many hats.
As in the results we saw from last year, the 2011 study shows that time is a key success factor of this type of marketing campaign. You spend more time (within reason of course) working with social media and this increases the chances of achieving tangible results. The question is: how long does it take?
We can answer in two ways:
It’s a long distance race: those with three years or more experience in the field are those who benefit most. For example, only one quarter of those who embark on the social media adventure might find new partners, while after three years of social media experience, this increases to 80%. So do not judge hastily the value of social media in just a few months. Give it a chance!
There really is no need to spend all your time “doing” social media. It will not take as much time as you fear. In fact, 75% of those active within social media marketing are devoting only six hours a week and are still seeing increased traffic.
Similarly, those who spend at least 6 hours a week are about TWICE as likely to see an increase in sales than those who spend five hours or less.
Although the study does not draw firm conclusions about the “ideal” time, it clearly shows that those who force themselves to spend at least 6 hours per week will be significantly rewarded for their efforts.
So which social tools to use? Almost all in use 4: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs. Two surprises this year Twitter surpasses Facebook over the last year in terms of use, MySpace has a utilization rate of less than 20%.
Freelancers (80%) and small business owners (78%) are most likely to use LinkedIn than others, which represent 71%. As a Business to business social tool, this is not entirely surprising.
The freelancers are those whose use of LinkedIn is the most likely to increase in 2011 (68%) compared to all other (61%). (NB: The study conducted was responded to mainly by American companies)
77% of respondents plan to increase their use of video in 2011. Much of this is mirrored in how video content is being used to greater effect within the more traditional search results. It is also due to how we digest information on-line and audio visual interaction is considered more convenient than documents.
Although this is the first choice of the broader industry, small businesses are behind this shift (82% of large companies see this as a key area for expansion).
With all the reports on SEO and the benefits of the video, I wonder why the small businesses are not leading the field. Contact us for more information about this area of social media marketing, it is not at all expensive to tap into this field when you get creative.
Only 28% of respondents outsource any portion of their social media marketing. Although this represents an increase of 100% over the year 2010, they are not sure when and how to use outsourcing. This may be related to the relative inexperience of the market (50% with less than one years experience).
Managers of a small company are most likely to outsource (34%) while only 24% of freelancers do. A similar phenomenon for the more experienced is reflected in the results.
The tasks that are outsourced (the percentages are of all respondents).
In a survey that highlights the rise of social marketing, it is surprising to see trends that focus on increasing use of marketing methods (online and offline) or traditional marketing. For example, at least 64% of respondents indicate a greater use of SEO and email marketing in 2011.
Email marketing
About two thirds of all companies are considering increasing their use of email marketing, but it is the smallest that are most intent on using this method. For larger organisations, email marketing is going the route of print media, there is a lot of spam and adding to it can damage the reputation of your company.
Event marketing
60% of respondents plan to increase their use of marketing events (and network to speak at conferences or demonstrations). Among them, the freelancers (70%) and owners of small businesses (65%) are significantly more interested in participating in these events than are large companies (38% to 43% depending on their size).
Press Releases
In 2011, 80% of respondents have plans to maintain or increase their use of press releases. With 52% against 24% for companies of 500 to 100 employees, it is again small businesses that provide the greatest increase in their use of this technique. Yet we agree that PR online can make up an important part of the broader social media marketing.
Webinars and tele-seminars
A surprising 42% of all businesses do not intend to use webinars and tele-seminars in 2011/2012. But small businesses are the most keen to use it. In fact, 49% of freelancers are working on the increase, while this is true of only 27% of companies with 500-1000 employees.
Conclusion
These are clearly small businesses that are focused and aware of the benefits of using social media marketing. In most cases, they benefit more than larger companies when they do.
This 2011 study on the use of social media industry has ideas that can benefit people in managing the marketing companies of all sizes, regardless of experience level.
If you are the owner of a small business, do you agree with the results of this study? Where do you invest your marketing efforts this year? What is the best thing you have learnt or gained through social media? Leave your comments here below.
]]>If you have a small business then you need to be aware that Social media is not just for the big guns and large businesses. It is designed to work well for anyone and for a small business, you really are missing out on some truly world class marketing at your finger tips if you are not using social media.
This is not about spamming links to your followers or trying to collect people like top trumps in your groups on LinkedIn your twitter profiles or get random people to “Like” your Facebook page. This is about so much more, and all you have to do is start to understand how and why people use social media to tap into its awesome potential!
Small businesses are small because, they are a local focus, they are in some type of niche, they are new, they are designed to be compact, they are going to grow…. there are many reasons why a small business is small but having a smaller size means that you are more agile and better positioned to respond quickly and make the most of any changes.
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