Facebook strategy

1. Incentivise recruitment of fans
2. Create participation through a prize draw competion
3. Share special online offers
4. Create discssions to engage the audience
5. Add notes pages to create stories

Twitter strategy, tools and measures

10 tips for a business Twitter strategy

1. Listen first. Don’t jump straight in without a strategy - understand conversations in your marketplace about your brand, competing brands and customer concerns. If there aren’t conversations may be a Facebook strategy or blogging strategy may be more appropriate.
2. Integrate with other channels. For service resolve issues promptly via Email or phone. For sales offer coupons to redeem in-store if relevant.
3. Figure out who does the twittering. Don’t outsource this to a PR company - keep it genuine.
4. Reveal the person behind the company. Be human - give a face to the brand. Or faces… tips are given on managing multiple staff Twitterers.
5. Be conversational. Make your Tweets two-way - ask questions, reply to others through @messages.
6. RT Your customers.
7. Post mostly NOT about your company. The best and probably most tricky advice.
8. Link creatively to your sites. i.e. link in a lively way.
9. Report problems…and resolutions. Makes sense.
10. Offer solid customer support. There are some great examples of responsive support @comcastcares in the US and @carphonewarehouse in the UK.

See how other businesses use Twitter

Twitter tools

• Tweetbeep - Like Google Alerts for Twitter - alerts you with email digest when your brands are mentioned. Good idea, but looks like it might have infrastructure problems to me.
• Backtweets - again great in theory - give it your plain URL and it finds all backlinks to it regardless of URL shortener. Doesn’t work 100%
• Microplaza - Nice summary of top Tweets with potentially useful feature to filter by your interests - unfortunately gave me a 500 Internal Error for that option
• TwitterSheep - Enter your twitter username to see a tag cloud from the ‘bios’ of your twitter followers.

Review and evaluation

• How many Twitter users are listing you compared to similar organisations/brands = indication that your tweets are valuable
• Ratio of listing to follower = quality or value of your tweets to subscribers (example ratios Dave Chaffey 1.7%, Econsultancy 1.6%, Scobleizer 2.7%)
• Way categorised = your positioning
• How popular different lists are with other Twitter users

Blogs for product information and reviews

Women trust the recommendations of bloggers so turn to blogs for advice, recommendations and opinion. Whilst other social networks are used for keeping in touch with friends:

Customer acquisition, conversion and retention cycle

Nodal Points - The Emerging Real-Time Social Web (@Reboot 10)

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Nodal Points - The Emerging Real-Time Social Web (@Reboot 10)

View more documents from Jyri Engeström.

Rules of Viral Marketing

Following these rules reduces the risk of braking data protection:

1. Customer who passes friend's details must confirm they obtained the friend's consent.
2. Check not on a marketing suppression list
3. Tell customers they will tell the friend how their contact details were obtained
4. If friend objects to received the message, must suppress contact details

Econsultancy Adv Email Marketing Roundtable June 2009

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Econsultancy Adv Email Marketing Roundtable June 2009

View more OpenOffice presentations from Dave Chaffey.

Website Tactics that Boost Conversion

Tactics to boost conversion:

Perpetual shopping carts: move with the shopper as they move through the site e.g. show total cost that changes dynamically with purchases or show product details, thumbnail images, estimated shipping costs and recommended accessories/related products.

Optimising internal search results:

• Last in-first out = move older inventory for those who maintain stock
• Top sellers = products which historically sell best in a given category
• Hot products = currently moving at the best clip
• Best margin
• Top rated = products endorsed by site visitors through a review or rating function.
• Most likely to generate associated sales

Engage customers and get their opinions - Online surveys

Online surveys are an effective way to pinpoint what your customers want from your site and what they want improved.

When visitors first arrive, use an overlay screen to ask if they would be willing to take a survey. If visitors select ‘Yes,’ the survey loads in a separate browser window. Visitors can then shop the site and complete the survey afterward. If visitors select ‘No,’ the survey is not loaded and the overlay screen disappears.

Ask a series of multiple choice and open ended questions:

1. Based on today’s visit, how would you rate your site experience overall? Scale of 1 to 10
2. Which of the following best describes the primary purpose of your visit? Buy / Check prices / Check order status / Add a review / Enter contest / Other, please specify
3. Were you able to complete the purpose of your visit today? Yes / No
4. Which of the following best describes how often you visit the website? This is my first visit ever / First visit in 3 months / 2-5 visits in the last 3 months / 6+ visits in the last 3 months
5. What do you most value at the website?

Analyse at least 30 to 45 days worth of data to find trends. Counted the number of times a specific recommendation or complaint is mentioned then look for items with the highest number of mentions.

Tips for a Multilanguage email capaign

You must adapt email content for language and cultural differences in each country:

1. Always use local translators
   Use translators based in the countries - have the intimate knowledge of idiomatic expressions and syntax needed to prevent translated messages from seeming a little “off.”
   - Find a translator familiar with your company’s terminology.
   - Request sample translations.
   - Set aside at least 3-5 labor hours a week working with translators
   - If your copy tends to change up until the last minute, you'll need tight, regular communication lines.
2. Recognise country-specific differences within languages
   Work with local translators in each country you’re targeting to account for differences in local dialects, spelling and email format.
3. Adapt the tone of messages to account for cultural differences
   Aggressive sales work for US/UK but tone down the messaging for other European countries.
   Avoid sexual imagery and language in countries with strong religious traditions
   Patriotism, nationalism and flag imagery aren’t effective in other countries.
4. Use appropriate photographs for each market.

Most Effective Social Media Tactics

Social media is difficult to measure quantitatively so hard to calculate ROI which acts a a barrier to adoption. However, the value of qualitative factors to gauge effectiveness should not be ignored.

Measure the value of the resulting conversations and relationships qualitatively not on moment-in-time transactions, such as traffic hits or you may find yourselves employing much less effective social media tactics for the sake of measurability.

Product tours and overviews

Pictures, video and interactive elements can explain complex products much more effectively than text.

- Format
Video, Flash animation, or slides with audio are ways to provide an overview of the customer experience.

- Content
Use voice-overs, images and text that walk prospects through the basics of your service model, concentrating on:o Approach or methodologyo Significant steps and stages of the customer/service provider experienceo Qualifications of company expertso Unique benefits or services offeredo Customer testimonials

- Call to action
Prompt prospects to take the next step to learn more, such as:o Offering a white paper or other piece of marketing collateral to downloado Providing contact information to ask additional questionso Highlighting links to additional sections of your website for more information

White papers can work for any stage of the buying cycle

Different specific subjects or concerns arise at different stages of the buying cycle so it's important to have a different white papers to address them. You should also target your white papers to different members of the decision making unit, who tend to be engaged at different stages of the cycle.

1. Awareness stage - addresses major concerns of end users of your product or service; they tend to be highly engaged in the beginning of the buying process e.g. provide research or insights into a broad industry trend or your prospects’ operational challenge which your product or service helps manage.
2. Research and negotiation stage - answers questions for influencers on the buying committee, such as IT personnel who install or manage new software e.g. overview of the implementation process of the specific technology with existing enterprise systems.
3. Purchase stage - speaks to the economic decision makers e.g. outline cost savings, efficiency improvements or increased revenue customers have experienced.