Sunday, October 13, 2013

Know where your customers hang out

In a social media campaign companies need to understand what kind of social media are their customers into. Are your customers using facebook? Do your customers in rural areas spend as much time on social media as your city customers? How are they interacting? are your customers active social media users? These are the types of questions all companies need to ask themselves before any decision regarding social media marketing takes place. If you don't know where your customers are then you are most likely not going to reach them!

If you are not keen enough, you may end up drowning in the many options social media offers. In order to be effective in managing your company's online presence you need to identify the most potent social media tools. Using those tools effectively will help you maximize your business; it will serve as a direct communication with many of your customers as well. To get you started here is a quick recap on the biggest leaders on social media:

Facebook

With over 1 billion active users Facebook is one of the biggest and most powerful leader of social media.  Facebook started out as more of a social website, but it quickly transformed to a strong tool that can be used for marketing purposes. 
By creating a Facebook page for your business you can effective engage with your audiences in discussions. Posting on your customers' walls will is a good way of getting your company name out there. You can also have a "Like” link on your website; this will serve to drive traffic to your Facebook page. If you want to reach more people you can always pay for advertisement on Facebook. If you know you target audience this could be a very effective way of recruiting new customers. 

Twitter

Twitter has more than 200 million monthly active users. It is a simple yet very powerful social media tool that is being used by businesses everyday. Unlike Facebook, Twitter uses status updates that are limited to 140 characters.  You are only able post very short messages, making this great for a quick and to-the-point post. This has been used by businesses to announce new products or offers as well as special events and overall trends. Twitter can be seen as the tease of social media. Always giving a little sneak peek! This year Twitter bought Vine, a video-sharing app, which lets people craft and share six-second videos, was an immediate hit and has attracted 40 million users

Instagram

Instagram allows you to take photos and instantly share them across different social networks. It allows you to edit your pictures using fun filters. This is an ideal medium for sharing images that build a brand’s identity and personality. Instagram has the potential to be particularly effective for small businesses as it’s a cost effective way of developing brand personality without the need for huge ad campaigns. For some inspiration follow this link: INSPIRATION.... you can also check out Burberry's Instagram page. Burberry is one of the best instagramers, posting frequent images from around London promotes its image as a traditional, British brand. 

Unfortunately, the choice regarding which social media to use does not depend on you. It is pivotal to understand where your customers spend their time in order for you to reach them, check out the full graphic for demographics of social media users.




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Read more at:

http://www.tightlineproductions.com/facebook-vs-twitter-vs-instagram/


Sunday, October 6, 2013

Could an extra 6% beat Amazon?


Have you ever made a purchase on Amazon.com ? I have! My purchases include various school books, a flat iron and a couple of iphone cases. Well, I am not a frequent buyer per se but I am a loyal buyer when it comes to school season. Books listed on Amazon have discounts that range up to 90% in used books, 80% in e-books and 70% in rentals. Not bad huh?


In case you haven't heard Rick Scott is celebrating a deal to open an Amazon.com operations center in the Sunshine State by 2016. The good news is the new 3,000 jobs this will generate. The not so good news is Floridians will have to start paying sales tax on all Amazon purchases. Previously, Florida residents could shop Amazon without having to pay 6 percent tax on purchases thanks to a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that an Internet company would be forced to collect sales tax only in states in which they have a physical presence. If you are not familiar with the subject here is great video to get informed:






With all the commotion going around online sales tax it makes me wonder, how big of a hit will this be on consumers around Florida?  Personally, I would not mind paying $84.80 on a book I now pay $80 for. It sure beats the $150 bookstore price. But what about other kinds of Amazon.com customers. 
Some Floridians could be buying items like a $10,760 Medusa Ring on Amazon.com. A 6% sales tax changes the ring price to $11,405.60. Adding an extra $645.60 that Im not sure everyone is willing to pay. Amazon should take in consideration it customer's trends. If around the months of August and September there is an increase on book purchases then a strategy should be placed to work on customer retention around those months. Specially for the first year, you dont want an extra $8-$10 scaring your customers away. I am curious as to how Amazon will act towards the online sales tax in Florida. Maybe next year we will all receive an extra %20 off towards our book purchases. For now we just wait and see.