Top Five Social Media Marketing Mistakes

Business Week posts an interesting list of the top 5 social media marketing mistakes.

Businesses Look for Ways to Reward Customers using Foursquare

Foursquare is an emerging social media tool businesses are trying to figure out. Two popular ways businesses can leverage Foursquare include monitoring "check ins" and tracking consumers who are awarded the title of "mayor."

There has been some recent skepticism over best practices for taking advantage of Foursquare, especially in terms of rewarding the "mayor."


Unfortunately, only one person can be awarded the title of "mayor" for a particular location at a time. Rewarding the "mayor" of a particular establishment limits the benefits associated with other customers who "check in" frequently. Fortunately, some companies are looking beyond only rewarding the "mayor" of their business though. Many businesses are utilizing Foursquare by rewarding as many customers as possible. This is accomplished by offering discounts to all consumers "checking in." For example, some local restaurants are promoting happy hour discounts for all customers who "check in" between certain hours (e.g., 1PM - 3PM) versus simply rewarding the "mayor."

Do you have any other great ideas about ways businesses can use Foursquare? Feel free to leave a question or comment regarding your experiences marketing through Foursquare.

Can Social Media Save the Day?

Kristi Hines of Social Media Examiner offers some great insight regarding the benefits of using social media manage a crisis. She provides several ways companies can leverage Facebook, Twitter and YouTube when problems arise.

Personally, I think social media is a great tool for managing a crisis as long as a company is upfront and transparent. What are your thoughts on companies using social media for crisis management?

Best Practices for Engaging Influencers

Reaching out to influential people online can be difficult for almost any brand. Fortunately, there are a few steps a brand or marketer can follow to simplify the process. These include:

• Look at your company, not your favorite blogger - Find out who your top customers are and who influences them first. Also, review internal databases for potential influencers currently doing business with your company.
• Identify what you can offer influencers - Engaging influencers goes both ways. A company should bring something to the table if it wants to partner with an influencer. Do not worry if you have a small budget. A company does not need to offer monetary rewards; however, be prepared to give influencers the chance to reach new audiences or give them access to valuable information.
• Consistency is the key - Many outreach programs fail due to marketers desires to meet short-terms marketing goals. Implement long term plans to help foster and develop relationships with influential consumers.

Source: SmartBlog

Do you like these tips? Feel free to leave ask a question or leave a comment.

Quick Twitter Search Tips

Here are a few good sites for marketers who want to use Twitter search to help promote content:

• Replyz - This site is still in beta, but makes it easy for marketers to find questions Twitter users are asking.
• Key Relevance - This tool allows marketers to build tools to monitor Twitter queries.
• Ice Rocket - Ice Rocket lets marketers review Twitter results in through real-time search.

Please let me know what you think of these Twitter search tools.

Source: PC World

Should Social Marketers Share Results?

Charlotte McEleny on New Media Age questions whether social marketers should share results. I think Charlotte does a good job answering this tough question. In fact, her response supports what I learned in a recent technology management course in my MBA program. A key takeaway from the course was that companies can profit more through information and technology sharing (e.g., Toyota licenses its hybrid technology to Ford).

Lastminute.com reported that it is aiming for £2m revenue from social media. Charlotte feels marketers need to start being more open about their return on investment, similar to Lastminute.com. Only by making return on investment information public, McEleny argues, will social marketers be able to ensure their industry's long-term growth.

Advertising Age reports Fox selling 80% of Super Bowl ads already. For comparison, CBS sold 70% of ads for the 2010 Super Bowl by September 2009. NBC sold roughly 30% of its Super Bowl ads in 2008 through upfront sales in early June 2008.

Source: http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=144304