Phil Lauterjung

Archive for the ‘Social Media’ Category

Social media continues to receive a lot of press.  Today eMarketer had an article “Why You Need a Strategy for Social Media.” I wonder if someone there had read my last post on this topic?  Probably not, but I can dream can’t I?  Their lead point was that no one is asking if they should have a strategy, but how and where should they participate.

Any one who has followed this blog knows that I don’t have any argument with their premise.  However, as they do with almost everything they post, they had a graph showing the reasons that U.S. marketers use social media.  The graph was from a study done last July by Russell Herder and Ethos Business Law titled: “Social Media: Embracing the Opportunities, Averting the Risks.”  Read more... (427 words, 2 images, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

If you want to grow your business you must to use social media.  It’s as simple as that.

Just in case you need more proof I will share some recent stats from Econsultancy.  This is something they do every six months and it gives a good snapshot of where people are communicating and doing business.  Make no mistake, if you aren’t at least listening in on the conversations you are losing out on very valuable information.  Information regarding your industry, your competitors, and your potential customers is exchanged via social media every minute of every day.  Read more... (396 words, 1 image, estimated 1:35 mins reading time)

NOTE:  I have added a plug-in that gives me more flexibility with fonts and sizes.  So I’m trying to make this more readable.  Let me know what you think in the comments.  Thanks.

I have written in the past about the importance of developing a “buyer persona” that incorporates as much as possible about your typical customer.  The persona should include demographic, geographic, psychographic, and behavioral information about that company and your persona.  Read more... (522 words, 1 image, estimated 2:05 mins reading time)

It seems as though I come across an article every day that questions the use of Social Media as a legitimate tactic to use in business.  The big question is can Social Media be measured?  Can you get an ROI from Social Media?

The best answer that I can think of is – it depends.  Kind of a weasely answer, but bear with me for a moment.  There are currently over 350 million people on Facebook and nearly 50 million on LinkedIn.  There are also tens of millions on Twitter, but that seems to be a more difficult number to pin down.  My point is that there are very large numbers of people using these communities to talk about what matters to them.  Some of them might be your customers or prospective customers.  Read more... (531 words, 1 image, estimated 2:07 mins reading time)

Every once in a while another blogger posts something so profound that it gets repeated over and over.  About a month ago David Allison of Braun/Allison posted 5 Social Trends that bear watching and repeating.  I tweeted it once and it became the most re-tweeted article I sent out last month.

Every business owner and manager should keep a copy of this and refer to it often.  It’s that important for the future of your business.

Here are the 5 trends with a little added commentary on my part:  Read more... (630 words, 1 image, estimated 2:31 mins reading time)

Introducing Snap Shots from Snap.com

I just installed a nice little tool on this site called Snap Shots that enhances links with visual previews of the destination site, interactive excerpts of Wikipedia articles, MySpace profiles, IMDb profiles and Amazon products, display inline videos, RSS, MP3s, photos, stock charts and more.

Sometimes Snap Shots bring you the information you need, without your having to leave the site, while other times it lets you “look ahead,” before deciding if you want to follow a link or not.  All you have to do is ‘hover’ over the link with your mouse to see the Snap Shot box with the added info.  Try it on the links above.  Read more... (176 words, 1 image, estimated 42 secs reading time)