Social media has made significant changes to the marketing landscape since its rise. Elias St. Elmo Lewis in 1898 pioneered the AIDA sales funnel which is still a fundamental lesson taught to marketers everywhere; social media has given new meaning to each phase’s  function during the purchasing process. Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action are the four cognitive phases consumers follow when going through a high-involvement purchase (a car as opposed to groceries). New world technology and social media have amplified these four phases to lend more influence on a buyer’s decision.

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Tags: Action, advertising, Advocating, AIDA sales funnel, Awareness, Desire, E. St. Elmo Lewis, Facebook, Interest, marketing, social media, Twitter
Posted in Articles, News & Press Releases, Online Marketing |

Don’t get me wrong, as someone who has a background in marketing, I think it is imperative that most companies have both a website and an active social media platform working in conjunction with each other. However, from a pragmatic point of view, many companies must decide whether to invest their online time and resources more into a large-scaled website with many bells and whistles or a well-attended social media front that engages their target audience on a daily basis. This article will explore which of these two online marketing methods is best for your company. (more…)

Tags: a social, customer engagement, Facebook, internet, media platform, media strategies, media v, online social networking, social, social information processing, social media, social media platform, social media strategy, social network service, sociobranding, using social media, web design, website, your social media
Posted in Online Marketing |

In a previous article, I talked to you about how to use Pinterest as a means to drive traffic to your website and drum-up sales. Today I want to talk about how to use this new top 10 social media tool to attract a demographic it has not yet fully reached: men. (more…)

Tags: 4 ways, create content, create funny, demographic, demographics, market, market research, marketing, media tools, Pinterest, social media, task, traffic, user content, virality, website
Posted in Online Marketing |

As I am sure you are aware, Pinterest is being talked about in every coffee shop, hair salon and boutique from here to the Tatooine. But for those uninitiated, think of Pinterest as like twitter for photos and videos, but with a fun layout. Not only does your Pinterest wall show pictures and video from all your friends and followers in a scrolling box, Pinterest creates a captivating interface that posts pictures and video everywhere; up, down, left, right, all over your screen. Upon creation of your account, Pinterest will ask you your hobbies and interests and automatically connect you with relevant and frequent posters of content that fits your tastes. You can filter these posts (or pins) by topics or fans, thus allowing you to find things you are looking for instantaneously or just browse around and see who’s looking at what. Pinterest welcomes new content and is a viral hotbed for interesting and fresh content. (more…)

Tags: advertisement, advertising, brand, business, communication design, Facebook, fun and easy way, fun layouts, graphic design, marketing, Pinterest, product, product brand, product promotion, reacher, small business, social media, target audience, Twitter, your small business, your target audience
Posted in Web Design |

Sam Walton of Sam’s Club and Wal-Mart is noted for saying to his executives “If you need any question answered, go to a store and ask our customers.” The idea of crowdsourcing is quite similar; bringing your clients, experts and fans of your company into the fold to assist your company in creating something palatable for your target audience. Many companies have used this method to gather ideas for their marketing and branding campaigns for a few years now. Doritos has become notorious for their crowdsourcing techniques to create their Super Bowl commercials. Recently, Harley Davidson has shifted almost their entire marketing campaign to their fans who they now rely upon to create the ideas behind their marketing campaigns.

Crowdsourcing is a great way to tackle a project or problem that you may not have the talent pool or skill set to accomplish. It can also be good as a form of surveying tool to see what your target audiences or markets like and dislike. Before your company dives head first into the crowdsourcing game however, lets go over a few basic parameters on how crowdsourcing works:
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Tags: crowdsourcing, management, small business, social media
Posted in Articles, News & Press Releases, Online Marketing, Web Design |

This article is meant to be an elementary glimpse into the world of online marketing; there are many avenues to explore in the realm of marketing on the Internet, but one of the biggies is SEO. Below you will find some of the basic tactics and tricks anyone can do to immediately help with their sites Page Rank (the placement of your site in Google searches). (more…)

Tags: adwords, google, graphic design services, marketing, search engine optimization, SEO, social media, web design
Posted in Online Marketing |

Content used to be king around the Internet, but nowadays context is the new sheriff in town. When writing something for an audience, it’s good to be an expert in the particular field, as a matter of fact many times it is imperative. Marketing Consultant Paul Tobey uses this diagram and explanation to describe the difference between content and context:

“Above you’ll notice that inside the bowl is some water and that water represents the content of the bowl. Your content is your experience and knowledge that you will share with your audiences. You’ll also notice that if your bowl springs even the tiniest of leaks, what happens to all your content? It leaks out – all of it.

So, what is more important that the content? (more…)

Tags: blog, blog optimization, Blogging, Branding, Facebook, google, Online Marketing, optimization, social media, website traffic
Posted in Online Marketing |

My dad runs a successful business. And he has done so without stepping foot on the Internet. How has he done that? (more…)

Tags: blog, blog hosting services, build your online, building, building online presence, e-commerce, easy, Facebook, internet, marketing, media, media platform, Online Marketing, online presence, online social networking, presence, quick, social information processing, social media, social media platform, social media portal, social network service, spam, Twitter, web 2.0, your online presence, your social media, youtube
Posted in Online Marketing |

Last time we spoke, I explained the reasons why you shouldn’t hire and intern to handle your social media. I explained to you how foolhearted it is to trust your whole online identity to someone who has little to no financial interest in your company. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have an intern work with your social media. Quite the contrary. A student intern is well poised to learn about the field of social media and most likely is into social media more than a good percentage of your coworkers.
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Tags: intern, Interns, internship, internships, project management, social media, tasking
Posted in Online Marketing |

“Anything given away has no value.”

Like all teenagers, I would ask (practically demand) my Dad to give me money to go out with my friends every weekend, and he would give me a list of chores and hit me with that quote. When my Dad passed this wisdom on to me as a youngster, I didn’t know what he meant. I just thought it was his own clever way of snaking out of giving me $20 and getting his car washed; but being a small-business owner who worked from the ground-up he knew something I didn’t: the appreciation of incentive for work. Now, as an adult working in the world of social media, I see his advice at work.

As I sift through my clients Twitter feeds and Facebook walls, I can pretty much pick out articles and reposts written by interns versus those being paid for their work. Part of it is skill, another part is effort.
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Tags: a social, advertising, employment, intern, Interns, marketing, marketing internship, media, media content, media manager, Name recognition, Online Marketing, sales, social media, social network service, social networking, using social media, your social media
Posted in Articles, News & Press Releases, Online Marketing |