Turbo Social Media Marketing » Comparison to Traditional Media | Turbo Social Media Marketing

Social Media Not Producing the Leads You Want?

Zack — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 22:21:27 +0000

Early last week, I was reading one of my favorite social media sites, and came across a somewhat disturbing article. The article discusses results of some tests that find that Social Media Marketing does not produce leads for your company, and that it can be considered a waste of money. The author of the article points out at the end of the article that the finding of this test are short-sighted a real answer cannot be derived from these results.

The problem is, the results of this test are wrong, and only because they are not finished. As the author explains in the last paragraph, the results of these tests were observing social media marketing much like that of traditional marketing, where “lead generation happens at the point of arrival.” However the big difference is, is that Social Media Marketing utilizes various aspects of the internet to create buzz and drive traffic to your site. It then becomes your job to capture this traffic as your leads.

Here at Turbo Social Media, with every site we build for a client, we strongly urge them to add in a form on their site, and wherever possible encourage people to fill out the forms. Dangle a carrot for them, with offering a complimentary product, or some advice of some sort and capture their information. People came to your site because they were interested in what you had to say, so do not lose them by not offering them something upon their arrival.

To learn more about building leads through Social Media Marketing, click the red button at the top of the page to watch our free video series or give us a call at 877-673-7096.

Thank You, and I encourage you to leave and comments or questions below. To learn more about the video series, Medical Professionals should click here and Entrepreneurs should click here.

Understanding Your Niche Market and its Relationship with Social Media Marketing

Matthew Arndt — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 03:08:33 +0000

In the past decade or so it has become more than apparent that understanding your target market, and how to reach it, is critical. In more recent years, authors like Seth Godin have written many books about targeting the niche and working to be more specific in who you target. In my work as an expert Social Media Marketer, these same notions have continued to be very important.

Traditional Media is typically a one way conversation. One of the biggest problems with this is that companies aren’t really hearing what their clients have to say. Traditional marketing from the past is also considered these days as “interruption based”, meaning it’s blanket type advertising to the masses, instead of targeted to the ones that are interested. This interruption based type of advertising has become less and less effective lately, because consumers are expecting a more targeted message. I wrote a blog article about this, so check that out here.

Social Media is a very interesting medium in comparison to traditional mediums like print, radio, and television. It is not interruption based, because people have to actively search for your topics to find them. It is also a multi-way conversation, and a way to interact with your clients and prospects, but not a sales pitch like you would see in a commercial or advertisement. It is always better to be addressing a niche market than the general public, and Social Media Marketing makes that possible.

To understand why social media marketing and niche marketing go hand in hand, let me introduce the concept of “The Long Tail”. Some of you may already understand this concept, which was originated by Chris Anderson. Basically the premise of “The Long Tail” is that the modern consumer’s quest to find the exact person/product that they are looking for has been satiated by the access that has been provided by the internet, Amazon, iTunes, and all of the other providers of niche products. “The Long Tail” concept should always be applied to your social media and other marketing efforts because your clients and prospects need to have laser targeted messages. Think about it, the more focused the message is in speaking to the prospect, the more likely they are to purchase what you have to offer. This isn’t a concept that works some of the time, it’s a concept that works EVERY time.

To learn more about Social Media Marketing for Business, fill out the form on the right to watch our free video series or give me a call at 877-673-7096.

Thank You, and I encourage you to leave and comments or questions below. To learn more about the video series, Medical Professionals should click here and Entrepreneurs should click here.

Article by Matthew Arndt, President, Turbo Social Media

How is Social Media Marketing for Business Different From Traditional Advertising?

Matthew Arndt — Sat, 30 May 2009 03:06:06 +0000

Social Media Marketing for Business is much different than the “old school” traditional media marketing with advertising. The fact is, businesses need to share and interact with their customers and prospects in order to achieve optimal returns from their efforts. Lets not forget the importance of good marketing principals like follow-up and drip marketing, but needless to say, lead generation is now happening more often than not by sharing information and by referral online.

When a blogger writes an article that people like, they share it on other social media sites, email it to their friends, and the word spreads based solely on the sharing of information. Social Media Marketing for businesses is different: it is not a hard sell, it is providing some information, defining your company as the expert in their industry, and encouraging interaction with your visitors. Now, I feel it’s also important to have a funnel where people can get more information, such as the opt-in that I have placed to the right offering the free video series, but the important thing is that you are reading this information right now because you are interested, and not because a commercial came on while you were watching your favorite TV show.

Traditional Media is Interruption Based…

To demonstrate this, I found this great video that summarizes the conversations that businesses are not having with their consumers, and what is likely going to happen with traditional media in the future.

To learn more about Social Media Marketing for Business, fill out the form on the right to watch our free video series or give me a call at 877-673-7096.

Thank You, and I encourage you to leave and comments or questions below. To learn more about the video series, Medical Professionals should click here and Entrepreneurs should click here.

Article by Matthew Arndt, President, Turbo Social Media

Blog Platform or Website: What Do I actually need?

Matthew Arndt — Thu, 28 May 2009 05:45:52 +0000

I’ve been working with the Internet for nearly 10 years now, having built my first website when the internet was just starting to gain momentum with sites like eBay. So when people ask me whether they need a blog or a website, or generally what I would recommend… I guess I should clarify this so that everyone will know the advantages of developing your internet presence in different ways.

When websites were first starting to be put together in the 1990′s, everyone built them using HTML (Hyper-Text Markup Language). This is still what most sites are based on, however, in the past 5 or so years, huge developments in web based software have been developed and are now adopted and accepted by Google. Those languages and ways to code include XHTML, CSS, PHP, AJAX, Ruby on Rails (and many others). I’m not going to get into what each of those do in this post, however, the point is that things have changed with website development and you SHOULD take advantage of the things that will be a real advantage to YOU.

So let me start out by defining what a Blog is:

According to Wikipedia:

A blog is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. “Blog” can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs.

So in other words, a blog is a self publishing platform that makes it extremely easy to add new content and have your visitors see the latest and freshest content available. A website can be built on the blogging software that is selected (we prefer and recommend WordPress). The best part is that this software helps to manage and arrange the content into any way that we want to configure it. Other great things about this way to setup websites is the ease of re-doing the way the design, the built in content editor, and the plethora of software add-ons available (also known as Widgets or Plugins). WordPress also comes ready for search engine optimization, and if you know what you are doing, can be configured to update Google and other sites (as well as your visitors who subscribe to updates).

OK, this all sounds great right? Well it gets better. Blogging software like WordPress can have themes designed that will integrate both your website and blog into the software and tie everything together! Not only will your regular content pages be optimized and configured correctly, but they will also be linked up to the freshest content that you write on your blog!

Finally, blogging software allows visitors to your site to write their questions on your blog articles (the comments can be moderated), but this open discussion brings visitors back to the website and allows the posts to “come alive”. This interaction is why many companies are using blogs as a component of their web strategies.

So what if I already have a website, can I install a blog?

That’s another great question that we get. We have several clients who had websites that we had already optimized (http://www.BeecherChiropractic.com for example). Dr Beecher didn’t really need a redesign, but wanted a blog so that he could benefit from additional search engine traffic that comes from blogging, so we installed a Blog for him and helped him start blogging. You can see his blog here: http://www.BeecherChiropractic.com/blog . Dr Beecher tells me that he now picks up a new patient every week that found him through his website and blog, without the use of Pay Per Click (PPC).

A word about the website that you currently have…

Most people have websites that were built by a company who primarily used HTML to develop them. Now, this isn’t a huge problem, and these sites can be modified so that they are capable of frequent updates and search engine compatibility similar to a blog.

However, it’s the ease of a blog that is the real benefit and the fact that the software is setup with search engine optimization in mind.

The difference between a “Free Blog” and installing your own blog

Many people try to setup a blog on a free blogging site like Blogger, Typepad, or WordPress.com, they start blogging, and wonder why it never really gains momentum like the blogs I’m talking about. There are several reasons for this. First, these blogs are hosted and owned by the companies providing them. They control the content, setup, and what things you can do with them. When we develop our blogs and websites, we install and make configuration changes to provide the highest level of search engine optimization available. Also, the other problems are that people don’t know the proper format of a blog article, how to best optimize it for Google, and most importantly, the best methods for submitting the link to your blog article (syndication) in order to spread the content that you are trying to get out to your target audience. This is why most of our clients have us help them with this part and why they decided not to use the free blog websites. Finally, consistency is key when writing a blog that makes an impact by driving traffic and business.

I always like to get to the bottom line when I write these articles, and the bottom line here is that blogs and websites can (and I recommend) SHOULD be integrated into one solid, easy to use platform for your social media marketing. The amount of time spent setting up this at the beginning makes it well worth the hassle of having to pay to completely redo your website every few years, especially if you feel that the internet is going to be a major part of your marketing in the next few years. I know this was a lengthy article, and I just want to thank you for reading through it. I hope this clears up any confusion that you had about websites and blogs.

To learn more about blogging, and social media marketing, fill out the form on the right to watch our free video series on Social Media Marketing or give me a call at 877-673-7096.

Thank You, and I encourage you to leave and comments or questions below. To learn more about the video series, Medical Professionals should click here and Entrepreneurs should click here.

Article by Matthew Arndt, President, Turbo Social Media

Business Coaches leveraging Social Media Marketing to promote programs and events!

Matthew Arndt — Thu, 21 May 2009 06:40:54 +0000

I love being about to share great content about how clients are using social media marketing as well as other forms of traditional marketing in order to hit their business goals. In these two videos below, Kelly O’Neil head coach of Marketing to Millionaires, a program that teaches its clients how to market to the affluent, is interviewed by me! We cover a lot of her marketing strategies and you get the chance to learn from a pro how to market an event and build your business.

In this first Video, Matt and Kelly discuss the ways that Kelly markets her coaching program and how she had been leveraging social media marketing in the past.

In Video 2: Kelly reveals how she has been leveraging social media marketing including blogging, article marketing, and social networking, for her company and to promote her retreat, and what she recommends for her clients…this insider information is incredibly valuable, as Kelly’s private coaching days run more than $10K! Watch and enjoy!

To learn visit Kelly’s blog, visit http://www.MarketingToMillionaires.com

To learn about Kelly’s retreat, visit http://www.MarketingToMillionairesRetreat.com

Now, Kelly leaked that we spent some time with Patti Stanger, of the Bravo TV show, The Millionaire Match Maker, I thought I would also include some photo proof of that. Patti is going to be a special guest at Kelly’s Retreat coming up this October!

To learn more about Social Media Marketing, fill out the form on the right to watch our free video series or give me a call at 877-673-7096.

Thank You, and I encourage you to leave and comments or questions below. To learn more about the video series, Medical Professionals should click here and Entrepreneurs should click here.

Article by Matthew Arndt, President, Turbo Social Media

How El Pollo Loco is beating up KFC on Social Media- And Succeeding!

Matthew Arndt — Sun, 10 May 2009 00:19:53 +0000

I rarely write about big businesses leveraging Social Media Marketing, but I just couldn’t resist today. Large corporations like KFC are being challenged by much smaller chains like El Pollo Loco. For those of you who do not know these companies, both of them serve chicken and associated “family meal” type products, but KFC has 11,000 restaurants and El Pollo Loco has 418 restaurants. So bottom line here is that a company that is 4% the size of its much larger competitor is being challenged head on…and winning.

Lets start by showing the beginning of El Pollo Loco’s Challenge of KFC, this one was a TV Commercial:

Then, to respond to this challenge, KFC went onto Oprah and offered a coupon to everyone to give them a free 2 piece meal to try their new “grilled chicken.” If you’re interested in that, click here. The best part is that they made the deal not valid on Mothers Day…BIG MISTAKE!

Here is El Pollo Loco’s Social Media Marketing Response:

I guess other than entertaining you today, and possibly providing a free meal from KFC…or El Pollo Loco if you have one around you, I just wanted to talk about how Social Media Marketing allows the small business owner to succeed when faced with challenges from much larger competitors, on the cheap! Its effectiveness is unparelleled when working on a regular small to medium business budget. So if you are a small business, keep thinking out of the box and coming up with unique ways to challenge the big guy!

To learn more about Social Media Marketing, fill out the form on the right to watch our free video series or give me a call at 877-673-7096.

Thank You, and I encourage you to leave and comments or questions below. To learn more about the video series, Medical Professionals should click here and Entrepreneurs should click here.

Article by Matthew Arndt, President, Turbo Social Media

Social Media Marketing Works wonders for Niches, what about Fortune 500′s?

Matthew Arndt — Sat, 09 May 2009 09:17:38 +0000

Today I was browsing around and as usual, the mainstream media is picking up Ford’s focus on Social Media Marketing. So, I guess I’ll just start clarifying that our approach with social media marketing is all about small to medium sized businesses, who are looking for the edge in terms of expanding their marketing. Honestly, marketing for a small or medium sized business is so different than that of a Fortune 500 who hires a large creative agency to make 30 second TV clips that just do branding and positioning of their products, its almost a shame that networks like Fox produces content like this video:

Unlike Ford, who as you can see here is still questioning whether or not their investment is paying off, our clients are telling us about what great response they are getting from their Social Media Marketing campaigns. The key here is consistency, and that’s really where a Boutique Social Media Marketing agency like us comes in. We are all about strategy, interacting with prospects, and creating open conversations. To be quite frank with you, I hope that you leave me a comment below telling me how you feel about this. Especially since small business marketing is so different than that of traditional media. Again, I will just mention that finding real success in social media like my client Dr. Troy Don, IS MEASURABLE, and unlike Ford, he can tell you that the move into social media marketing is a profitable venture. So, I feel a bit like I’m plugging my services, but to be honest, I would be so happy if more small businesses just went out and participated on their own, I know its time consuming, but its a great way to build your “brand”, establish credibility, increase your visibility, and best of all generate sales leads!

To learn more about Social Media Marketing, fill out the form on the right to watch our free video series or give me a call at 877-673-7096.

Thank You, and I encourage you to leave and comments or questions below. To learn more about the video series, Medical Professionals should click here and Entrepreneurs should click here.

Article by Matthew Arndt, President, Turbo Social Media

Zerona Laser Lipo Dr Troy Don Leverages Social Media Marketing

Matthew Arndt — Thu, 07 May 2009 06:51:44 +0000

One of the latest projects that we’ve been working on with a ton of success is Dr. Troy Don’s website on Zerona Laser Liposuction, www.TheZeronaLaser.com. Dr Don has his offices located in Los Angeles CA and he offers a new procedure that is a Non-Surgical Liposuction using a product called the Zerona Laser. This is a very new technology, and when Dr. Don came to me on this project, I found that there was a hole in the social media market. We built up the website, helped Dr. Don being blogging about this new laser lipo technology and the procedure. Then we optimized all of the work he was doing for the search engines. When “The Doctors” TV show did a special on the Zerona Laser, Dr Don’s site had only been finished for 3 or 4 days. That day, he received over 330 hits. We also helped Dr Don prepare and submit a Search Engine Optimized Press Release which has helped his rankings soar in the search engines. To hear more about what Dr. Don says about the work we did for him, watch the video below.

Also, to be a good sport and show that what Dr Don is saying about the last week’s activity on his website is true, I’ve included a PDF report from Google Analytics that has his stats over the last week…truly amazing! Thank You Dr Don for your support and allowing us to share your story!

To learn more about Social Media Marketing, fill out the form on the right to watch our free video series or give me a call at 877-673-7096.

Thank You, and I encourage you to leave and comments or questions below. To learn more about the video series, Medical Professionals should click here and Entrepreneurs should click here.

Article by Matthew Arndt, President, Turbo Social Media

Social Media Marketing – the Best Trade Show You’ve Ever Attended!

Matthew Arndt — Sat, 02 May 2009 01:45:13 +0000

In the past, a lot of businesses generated new leads and found out about the latest products for their market at trade shows. They were great…everyone from the same industry convened at the same place, for the same few days, with the intention of taking their businesses and practices to the next level. New products were launched there, giving business owners the chance to have the latest technology to offer their clientele. However, these days, there is a huge shift in the way people are finding out about new technologies.

During this “recession”, many businesses are cutting their trade show budgets. Attendance at these events is diminishing because of a lock on travel funds, and because frankly, a $20,000 trade show booth isn’t the most effective way to spend your marketing budget. Although trade shows offered a great way to interact with prospects and other people in your market, these days, people are turning to the internet, more specifically, the social web to teach and interact about new products and services.

Blogging is a fantastic way to teach your market about the new products and services that you offer. It is the starting point for social media marketing. It provides the exposure and visibility that matters when trying to reach your market, like a trade show, but unlike a trade show, the effect lasts much longer, and you can continue to find new prospects for many years after you post that article! Also, blogging and other social media platforms allow interaction with your current clients and people in your marketplace. Commenting on blogs is a great way to ask questions, and an active blogger will be more than happy to correspond with you publicly! Open conversations not only bring credibility to the table, but also confidence to your prospects and clients!

To learn more about Social Media Marketing, fill out the form on the right to watch our free video series or give me a call at 877-673-7096.

Thank You, and I encourage you to leave and comments or questions below. To learn more about the video series, Medical Professionals should click here and Entrepreneurs should click here.

Article by Matthew Arndt, President, Turbo Social Media