In social media, your identity means everything and it’s the very foundation that builds on your brand recognition, development and reputation management. As such, you may have secured for your brand its own domain name with a fully furnished Web site, jumped onto various social media sites and have also begun attracting and building relationships with your followers along the way. Good on ya.
As you continue to exist online, there will always be some new social network cropping out of the woodwork. And as they pile up the social Web, it’s important to secure your name on each one of them to make sure you have control over your brand’s identity online.
As online marketers, drifting through the social Web seems second nature to us. Employing its many networked platforms to engage with a targeted demographic to boost brand reputation and loyalty, on the other hand, are mere add-ons. However, while we have always put utmost importance on these social media aspects, it’s also important to be safe online.
The school year has finally begun and many colleges and universities are embracing social media as a tool for engaging with its student population. Rather than simply maintaining an official website for campus news and announcements, many schools are starting to diversify its web utilization and “join the conversation.”
In this letter, social media strategist Will Marlow advises colleges and universities to use social media platforms to deliver value to their institution, rather than simply as a means for PR or fundraising.
Several colleges and universities are taking their social media engagement a step further by creating their own customized social media networks. A number of tech companies, including Foursquare, are helping schools boost admissions and student retention by creating tailored apps.
Facebook was initially created as a place for College students to interact and share relevant news and information. Now that it has turned into the universal social network, startups are starting to create more targeted social networking sites.
With the start of the school year comes the launch of Back-to-School-themed campaigns. For the third year in a row, office supplies store Staples partners with DoSomething.org to collect school supplies for children in need. What they are doing different this year, though, is that they’ve incorporated Facebook into their campaign to help students get involved.
Earlier today, Digg unleashed its version 4.0 redesign, finally going live for all its subscribers after nearly a couple of month of invitation-only alpha testing. This, Digg founder and current CEO Kevin Rose, announced on the social news site’s official blog along with a handful of user interface tweaks and new features that aim to enhance usability, social connections and news sharing.
A new burger joint is opening in two weeks in the corner of 40th and Madison in Midtown Manhattan. And while a new fast food establishment opening in New York is hardly news, especially in this non-foodie blog of ours, what easily caught our attention is that the restaurant seems to have been built with both tech and social media at the forefront.
Mentioning Justin Bieber can surely detonate a bubblegum pop-bomb across the Internet. The overall effect makes prepubescent girls worldwide squeal and weep with excitement, snap up every piece of merchandise bearing his image and make YouTube videos lip synching to his songs.
On the other end of the spectrum, the rest of us merely see him as this migratory meme that just won’t go away. And so sites have been set up dedicated to document his everymisfortune, block him from our Web drifting experience and ridicule his overallimage.
Love him or absolutely abhor him, these mentions online give him great leverage that raises him as a brand atop the Web trails.
The future of online advertising will be dependent on collaboration. Big brand advertisers will want influential content providers to leverage their brand while at the same time, content providers will want big brands to further back up their online influence.
Jonah Peretti, CEO of BuzzFeed, says that for content to go viral, it has to be “easy to understand, easy to share and includes a social imperative.” It also helps if it is just a pinch – or more – outrageous.
Online communities are goldmines for brand building. Rather than looking at them as a potential threat, give them official permission to do what they are already doing. Members of such communities are already loyal to your brand. Hand them a Cease and Desist notice and you run the risk of losing an established fan base.
Keeping connected can actually help writers battle the ever looming threat of the Writer’s Block. A whole host of inspiration and insight can be found while engaging with social media, though it does depend on who you follow and watch.
Now is the perfect time to integrate social media and mobile tools into the marketing mix. This colorful infographic shows interesting statistics on the changing mindsets of marketers on internet and mobile marketing.
