R. Levin Marketing Group Designing Digital Campaigns to Grow Your Business

I just spent a day at AdTech, San Francisco visiting with Facebook, YouTube and several up and coming technology vendors. Here’s a quick recap for you to read. You may want to reassess your marketing plans in light of what’s happening in social media. If you need a quick marketing business plan template, save 50% off with this coupon FB50. (Make sure you copy and paste this code into the promotional box, after the green box, add to cart).

1) YouTube is going to open up their branded channels to small business owners. They used to charge

$250,000 to participate in this program, which pretty much limited the experience to big brands. Now, you’ll be able to add tabs to your channel and create more of a social experience. Look how Cleveland Clinic is using their channel to drive traffic to their website and engage their audience via online video.   I circled some items below to help illustrate these points. Subscribe to my channel to get updates.

2) Facebook got rid of “Become a Fan” in favor of “Like” so you now have connections as opposed to “Fans.” The Facebook Connect button and brand will be disappearing and you’ll start seeing Facebook connectivity and features in more locations than ever around the web.

3) Location-based social games are hot for advertisers–Have you heard of Foursquare? The place to “check-in” whenever you’re out and about. It’s kind of like Twitter, only it’s location-based and they reward you for frequency.  I understand most of the users are male, by the way. Well, MyTown is similar but with insane targeting by geo-location and they incentivize check-ins. It’s played by over 1.6 Million people and is the most popular location-based social game ever! Users on MyTown are averaging around 70 minutes of playtime a day and it’s now an Apple Staff Favorite. Local businesses can test it out to capture their target market both by category and location. My Town is at the center of the latest hot trend for casual gaming, according to the San Francisco Business Times.

In summary, companies are spending less time and money on building expensive websites in favor of  leveraging Free social networking sites like YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to expand their audience reach, build trust and engage with their users. Think of it as another way to build word-of-mouth referrals and we all know how valuable those are.  E-mail info@rlevinmarketinggroup.com if you need help with your marketing strategies.

Posted under Marketing Trends, Social Media, The Cocktail Napkin Marketing Plan™

Top 10 Twitter Marketing Tips for Small Business Owners

By Robyn Levin

If you’re like most business owners, you’re super busy figuring out ways to be profitable, however, you feel compelled to join the social networking world. One question that comes up frequently is, “What should I tweet about and how often?” Think about what you want to share when you see the box, “What are you doing?” Be strategic so you’re using your time effectively. Twitter has been proven to help drive traffic to your blog, website and even trigger a phone inquiry like the one I got this week. It’s a good idea to observe 1st and notice what other tweets appeal to you. How often? Once or twice a day works for me. If you have a dedicated social media marketing staff, tweet more frequently. Keep these top 10 Twitter Marketing Tips & suggestions in mind and remember; give value and you’ll get quality followers. Things to “Tweet” about:

1. Hosting an upcoming event or Webinar
2. Writing a new blog post
3. Writing an article
4. Writing a press release
5. Networking & looking for groups or people in your niche
6. Sharing breaking news, industry trends, etc.
7. Re-tweet someone else’s tweet or link
8. Announcing a special offer
9. Sharing a new video
10. Sharing recent & interesting stats

* Big TIP here– include a link to your blog or website and track your results using http://budurl.com

Feel free to “Re-tweet” this post on your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.

Posted under Marketing Trends, Social Media

I came across this blog post,  14 Tools of Highly Effective Twitter Users and it’s loaded with great tips. Browse through it and try some out.  Here’s just a few to sample:

• TweetStats – Statistics for twitter!
• Twibs – Twitter business directory. Find businesses on twitter
• TwitPic – Post pictures to twitter from your cell phone
• #Hashtags – Hashtags are a popular way for twitter users to tweet and keep track of relevant queries in search.twitter.com,View top trending topics.

Thanks to Kenny Hyder for compiling this terrific list of Twitter Tools.You can view the full list at his blog. While exploring this list, I got sidetracked (don’t we all) and landed on another great site that makes custom badges and all sorts of products, zazzle.com.

And, I found this one for video today, it’s Twitter with VIdeo, http://beta.twiddeo.com/

Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/robynlevin

Posted under Marketing Trends, Social Media

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Posted under Marketing Trends, Social Media, The Cocktail Napkin Marketing Plan™

Twitter is getting quite the buzz these days and you may be wondering what’s everyone “Tweeting” about? Today, I logged on and got this error message– “Over capacity, try later. If you’re just getting started, be prepared.

Twitter Mania - Over Capacity

And, if you think it’s for the under 30 crowd, guess again. CEOs and marketing executives are exploring new ways to get closer to their audience and many are getting on Twitter. I recommend Twitter to my Baby Boomer clients that have a strong following and their fans want to know where they’re speaking next. You can also tout your newest product, blog post, video or any other information you want to share quickly.  For example, Twitter asks, “What are You Doing” when you login, so last Friday I shared a video of a Tequila promotion at Guaymas. I also shared my Free 10-minute video on Online PR in an earlier “Tweet”. You can check it out and click Twitter to get your own account.

Some people “tweet” about everything throughout the day, while others provide links to interesting information they discovered on the web. If you have dedicated followers in your business, this may be a great way to keep them updated instantly. It’s addictive and considered the social media drug of choice. You wonder if anyone sleeps anymore. You may even want to “Get Your Mom on Twitter.”

Posted under Social Media

Alltop.com is like a “digital magazine rack” of the Internet, All the Top Stories all the time”, as described on their website.
“We help you explore your passions by collecting stories about “all the topics” on the web.” Now, you can find my blog,
Trends in Internet Marketing here too.  “Alltop RKL”

So, who owns this clever website, Alltop?
Live from their website– Nononina is the company that owns Alltop. It is “two guys and a gal” in a garage—or more accurately,
one guy in home office (Will Mayall), one gal on a kitchen table (Kathryn Henkens), and one Guy in United 2B (Guy Kawasaki) or I say, “Guy Genius”
They’ve been working together since the previous century and are still friends. You can follow Guy Kawasaki on Twitter,
at www.twitter.com/guykawasaki and really watch him in action.  He’s amazing!

Posted under Marketing Trends, Social Media

Ever wonder how your business can benefit by social media? Well, I just attended the eMarketing conference in San Francisco and the central theme was the value and importance of including social media in your marketing plan. We’ve all heard about YouTube.com,  My Space and Facebook, but how can you as a professional or business owner benefit by social media? Check out LinkedIn. Think of it as networking online. This is a great way to generate referrals and get your name out to a connected group of people.  Imagine, every 2 seconds, someone signs up on Linked In and they have 21 million members. You can even form your own group. So check it out.

Posted under Marketing Trends