Oscar marketing 2012: Part 2

(Editor’s note: This is the second of two parts. Read Part 1.)

Continuing in our New Year optimism for improved economic times and healthier customer relationships, here are several opinions from industry experts on using social media to boost your business effectiveness:

Topic: crowdsourcing.
Peter H. LaMotte, President, GeniusRocket, Inc.

“2012 will be the year that ‘crowdsourcing’ stops becoming a buzzword and starts becoming one of the most cost effective ways for small to medium sized business to engage their stakeholders. The term too often associated with contests, is actually a reliable means of real-time engagement. Marketing, customer service, sales, and PR can all be given a huge boost through the use of their crowd, especially via their social media platforms.”

Topic: small businesses.
Jim Joseph, President of Lippe Taylor, Author of The Experience Effect for Small Business

“Biggest trend in social media for small business? Networking. Finding each other to share stories and learning. Finding talent to join the business. Finding prospects to try to convert to customers. For networking, social media is the small business owners’ best friend.”

Topic: advertising.
Michael Ancevic, Senior Vice President – Creative Director at Mullen

“Social media is truly now the mainstream media. So one of the big trends next year is that social will continue to become nearly everyone’s primary source of content and interaction. Because of this, we will see early adopters who have learned along the way to make their advertising content relevant and interesting to get their customers to pass content along for them. Of course like any successful marketing campaign, if that content accurately reflects the strategic business objective, it’s a huge win with positive long-term implications.”

Topic: PR.
Wendy Marx, President – Marx Communications

“Social Media for public relations is evolving from a listening post and ratings game to a strategic tool that provides insight and analytics into customers, prospects, competitors and thought leaders. Never before have PR practitioners had the opportunity to gain real-time insight into customer, prospect and competitor behavior and be able to shape conversations based on that data. New forms of press releases optimized for mobile readers will evolve. PR will also embrace new types of content marketing geared to mobile. All in all, it will be a productive time as PR rises to meet the technological opportunities.”

Topic: customer service.
Porter Gale, Social Media Expert

“In 2012, more companies will consider use of social monitoring and analytics to help them understand sentiment, key influencers and the types of people chatting about their brand. In addition, growth of the social space will raise the importance of dialog between customer service groups and social media teams. This improved collaboration can lead to an integrated plan to better handle inquiries via the various channels.”

Topic: SEO (search engine optimization).
Tom Pick, Online Marketing Executive – KC Associates. Award Winning Blogger at Webbiquity

“One key trend for social media and SEO in 2012 will be resonance. A resonant piece of content (blog post, video, infographics, etc.) combines quality research and thought with an issue that prospective customers really care about (e.g., using technology to better engage buyers early in their buying process). Resonant content is more likely to be read, viewed, shared and commented upon. That sharing across social media sites and networks in turn will drive search traffic to the content, further increasing its reach and impact.
As social-media marketing becomes a strategic imperative, small businesses will have exciting opportunities to expand in new marketing directions this year. Those who do will build trust, value and loyal advocates, and believe me, you’ll need supporters sooner or later.”

Clearly, just having a Twitter account or Facebook page isn’t enough anymore. Businesses must also surround consumers with branded online destinations such as effectively produced videos, a blog, LinkedIn profile, YouTube channel, Flickr profile, etc. Consumers can then pick and choose how they prefer to interact with you. Of course, quality trumps quantity, so building a brand across cyberspace must be done strategically to maximize opportunities without compromising content.

Creating targeted, local marketing campaigns using popular apps are quickly becoming the place where companies go to get in the spotlight with new customers.

So the Oscar Marketing winner for 2012 is: Integrate multiple strategies. By leveraging marketing opportunities online and in your web presence, you too can win the marketing Oscar; those who don’t will go home empty handed.
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