Tag clouds often show up on blogs and even on some websites. They don’t usually take up too much space – depending on how the site organises its home page. They’re a visual depiction of the tags or keywords that contributors have attached to their content. These could be the terms used in a post on social marketing, or it could be the location a photo was taken. Most tags are single words. And they can be arranged in alphabetical order. Tags that are used more frequently appear bolder or larger. They may also use a different colour. If a blog post, for example, gets lots of responses, its tags will become more prominent. All the tags are hyperlinked to their content.
The advantage of tag clouds is simple. Visitors to your site can find out quickly what your content is about. And, they can decide what they want to go to. In a sense, it’s a table of contents that’s easy to look at and tells you at a glance what’s popular and interesting.
Twitter. Facebook. Yahoo Forums. BeBo. My Space. Flickr. You Tube. It’s hard to keep up, much less develop a way to use social marketing to support your business and your bottom line. To help, here’s some pointer to help you start thinking social.
- Social is different. It’s not another platform you can use to reach customers with your marketing message. You can’t set up a social media presence that operates like another advertising channel – that would encroach on territory that belongs to people, not organisations. Social Media is powerful because it can bring the opinions of your customers straight to your business.
- The first step: listening. There’s a good chance that your customers and potential customers are out there using blogs, forums, comparison sites or even Twitter to talk about your products and services. Someone may be complaining about your customer care or praising a speedy delivery. But you won’t know about it until you start listening. There’s lots of tools out there to help, but it does take some time and effort to find the ones that will work for you. Google Alerts are a good place to start. Just put in your keywords and Google will tell you when they come up. There are also member-only forums (some people call them microcommunities) that won’t let you find out what’s going on until you become a member. So, it’s a good idea to find out where your business might be discussed. From forums for new parents to sites for anglers, there can be quite a list of places you need to look. Don’t overlook Technorati for finding relevant blogs.
- Decide on a strategy: Like any part of your marketing budget, social media efforts should support a clear goal. Do you want more conversions, a wider brand net or positive new brand associations. Or are you looking for information that will help you develop new products? Knowing what you want to achieve will help you determine the best paths to take. It sounds obvious, but so many organisations want to take a toe-in-the-water approach. And just see what happens…You certainly wouldn’t do that with an email marketing campaign, so why do it with your social marketing investment.
- Help others. Don’t just talk about yourself or your product. Mention useful ideas, promote a related charity. Get involved in related themes. It’s not about adjusting your megaphone to reach more people, it’s about finding influencers and winning them over.
Social media sites including Facebook and Myspace as well as platforms like Twitter give companies direct access to their customers. It’s worth remembering that it’s not just the number of people you have access to, it’s the interest they have in your product or service that counts.
Once you’ve built up a following or a group of fans, your organisation has the advantage of its own research team or focus group. Getting ready to launch a new product or service? You have access to reviewers who are already interested in your business. If you’re ready for some constructive feedback, you’re in the perfect position to ask for it. You can even answer customer enquiries and use search terms to find dissatisfied or disappointed customers. Twitter is particularly good for finding out what’s being said in real time. By doing all this in an open forum, you can encourage more customer communication and the kind of commentary that could help move your focus to fresh product positioning or to developing new products. If, for example, some part of your customer service just doesn’t work, you’ll be able to see where things are going wrong. You can also link to new content on a blog, announce the launch of a website or share some news or information about your industry. Or, perhaps you’d like to offer your fans and followers a special discount – as a thank-you for their time and attention. There’s one key question you should ask yourself; how would your customers like you to connect with them?
Social Media is an important part of digital strategy not only because it can increase traffic to a site or boost your click throughs, but because it can tell you what people think about your products and services. And, it can help you use that information to improve the way you do things in the future.
Can you craft words that sell and do you enjoy the challenge of working in a variety of sectors writing websites, blogs, brochures and newsletters?
You need to have marketing experience or a relevant qualification and be pc literate. An excellent command of the English language is essential with proven ability to work to stringent deadlines. See the job profile.
