Ok, I have neglected this site, but only because I am working on bigger and better blogs.  Although no longer posting here, visit www.spreadthewealthonline.com to find my blog with lots and lots of posts on tips and tools.  The info is golden, don’t be a hater, check it out.

Spread The Wealth Online

Three Goals of a Social Media Campaign

Previously I spoke about the ‘must haves’ of a social media marketing campaign. In summary, these included:
(1) An effective web design
(2) Complete social media profiles
(3) Training

Objectives are great, they really are, Objectives give you that warm fuzzy feeling inside but many companies need the goals of a social media marketing campaign. I lumped many of these goals into what I feel are the three most important expected results of a social media campaign (this does not include SEO and search engine ranking)

1. Brand Awareness
Brand awareness is a goal of almost all social media marketing campaigns. Companies need to tread carefully because social media marketing can be both positive and negative. Social media marketing opens the doors for clients to interact and leave their personal comments about experiences with the company – both good and bad. Ideally, a company will want to create a positive interactive presence that leads to an increase in website traffic. The website should effectively display the brand and product or service offered. At this point, the remaining three marketing P’s come into play: product, placement, and price. (I lump social media marketing into the overall promotion of the product)
Product – this is what you are trying to sell – the main revenue the company generates (products, services, memberships, affiliations, etc).
Placement – How does your product compare to others in the industry? What sets you apart from the rest?
Price – Is your product priced effectively? How do you compare to competition?
Regardless of how experienced your social media marketer is, if viewers do not want your product then you will not get much benefit from the new marketing scheme. A social media marketer can get your name out there but if your product increases negative interaction or does not sell its self the viewer will move on. This is a hard truth for people attempting to become ‘rich’ with social media campaigns. I often run into many great ideas but it is still a needle in a haystack in terms of success stories from JUST free social media marketing. An organization needs a good product/service, plenty of hard work, efficient management and money or investors.

2. Information
A good marketing campaign will need to inform current and new customers about the company, products and/or services. This should be created by an easy to navigate website. The website design is customized to the individual company and should be properly synced with all major search engines and social media sites.
This is also a great way to inform your customers about your industry. I almost ALWAYS recommend a blog about information related to your industry with postings as often as possible. It’s the start of niche marketing (which is a HUGE topic), helps for SEO in your area of expertise, and creates credibility in the uncertain economic times. (For example, I am busy with my business but I try to set aside a few hours a weekend to write this somewhat weekly blog).

3. Connect/Collect
Connecting with your customers and new prospects and collecting their information may be the most important and overlooked aspects of social media campaigns that is often only seen by larger companies. Connecting is often obvious for social media and can be instigated by either the company or the viewer and the hope is that it is positive..
Collecting data is often the part that is overlooked. Do you know how many people visit your current website? What page brought them to your site? What page they left your site at? What pages are not being viewed often? These are all aspects of website analysis that should not be overlooked by any company.
Obviously, Collecting emails, contact info, comments, and more are just some of the most cost efficient ways to reach out to new and previous customers (more on this HUGE topic later).

Social media marketers love the warm and fuzzy feeling that objectives and goals create. Obviously companies like to see financial results so next week I will focus on: How can social media be ‘Quantified”? I will breifly discuss the subject and then dive into my personal views on the subject.  Don’t Change That Dial, Folks!

As A Sidenote: I would like to say I am truely sorry to our friends in Omaha Nebraska who keep a very clean house they let us use while they are away. As I was writing this blog my toddlers found a RED marker and colored the cream colored walls in the beautiful finished basement. If it is any consolation, they also imagined the marker was ‘lipstick’ so it will forever be remembered in the 2009 Christmas photos. I will now head to the nearest Walmart in search of a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser…

This article will be about the big picture that is often missed by many social media ‘followers’.

What are the basic objectives of any effective social media campaign?

I have come up with the following THREE “MUST HAVES” for success:

1.  An efficient website design. Social media gurus can talk all day about Facebook and Twitter but the most important, sometimes overlooked factor is, THE WEBSITE.  Getting a lot of traffic to a website does not put gas in the car – SALES DO!  If a website is not appealing, confusing, or unprofessional a user will not give you a sale, regardless of how many thousands arrive at the site.

2.  Complete profiles on social media websites.  It is not OK to start your profile, forget about it for a while, and never finish the profile.  Is that a sign of your work ethic? (btw, I found this out by accident because I have been slacking on LinkedIn.  I have been busy and have taken a few verbal beatings for not practicing what I preach.  Side note: my LinkedIn will get finished but this is an example of not enough time in the day, not laziness)

3.  Training, training, training!  I can not stress this enough, I tell my clients that they are stepping into an interactive marketing campaign and if they are unable to put the time into it then they need to hire someone (like me ) to do the job.  Once the can of worms has been open, it can not be undone and a bad web presence is a major turnoff.   That being said:

• If you are in the process of hiring a social media marketer, you will want to ensure that initial training is provided AND ongoing training will be available on an as needed basis.
• If the site will be company run, web presence consults should occur frequently to ensure the newest marketing trends are being utilized.  In this industry the air is always shifting and it is easy to get left behind.
• If you choose to hire a marketer – please use due diligence, interview, and call references.  It is sadly and industry that has gotten publicity for fly by night companies.

Now that I have spoke about my very general ‘Must Haves’  for success – What would you choose as your three most important objectives of an effective social media campaign?

AND next week I will discuss what I believe are the 3 general GOALS of any social media campaign and look at various ways to ‘quantify’ social media outcomes.  Look forward to it, until then, lets see what you think!

With YouTube that is. Free advertising – a great way to get information out to potential customers with out breaking the bank. It is the number two search engine and has a large following of active users who look for videos of interest. So, like I say, now is my time to test and here is my pretty YouTube.com Commercial “Take One!” I will not set a time limit on the success of this project because I am currently too busy with clients to market it properly. So spread the holiday cheer and pass it on to others if you like it!

Thank You to all who participated in Forefront Marketing Concepts FIRST “Quest for fans” Contest! We are one of the premier web marketing companies in Cincinnati! We offer elite client services for small businesses. Forefront Marketing Concepts offers customized proposals in web site design, SEO, Ad campaigning, and social media integration. Our clients boast about increased lead generation and site traffic after implementing our combined strategy. I would like to Congratulate Trennetta Carter from Atlanta, Georgia for winning our current promotion. She will now have the introductory tools needed to jumpstart her internet presence. This $100 dollar package includes a basic five page website with home page, about me, contact form, blog, and photo gallery or YouTube enabled page to express yourself. She will also have some choice in domain name and three months free hosting to get accustomed to this new form of marketing. If you are interested in this package, a weekly newsletter, or any of our more customized plans, please contact me.

NOW!!!! NEW CONTEST!!!! Now that you are a fan, get all of your friends to join in our “Quest for 250 fans” Contest. We will be awarding another introductory package to TWO of our fans when we hit 250 fans and its two more chances for YOU TO WIN!
Happy ‘Facebooking’!

FMConcepts Web Design Vs. Traditional Web Design

Forefront Marketing’s Design

1. Save money on hosting!

With Forefront Marketing Designs,

we ensure low monthly hosting costs

starting at just $8 dollars a month.

2. Save money on website maintenance fees!

Forefront’s Marketing Design uses a Wordpress platform that is easy for you to edit and modify 24/7 without any technology experience needed. Our customized instruction manual and initial training is all that you will need to get started with confidence! We also can maintain your site or provide additional training for a low cost!

3. Customizable Applications

Wordpress plays with everything! Wanna embed a youtube gallery with your latest posts? No problem. How about image links to all your social profiles. No problem. Lead capture forms? Free. Stats? Free. Google Maps, Analytics, Chat, etc… You bet. Lots of toys to include in your website at a low set up cost and no additional monthly fee.

4. Inexpensive Design

The bottom line is this: You don’t need to pay a designer anywhere from $2,000 – 3,000 dollars just to get your website up and running.

5. Search Engine Optimization

Forefront Marketing’s designs are ALWAYS search engine friendly from the start! Stuff that professional SEO’s charge thousand’s for will be included in your website design.

6. Your site will be designed in both CSS and XHTML

These are the up and coming coding technologies that are becoming more universal because of their ease of use and customization.

7. Success is Real!

Forefront Marketing Concepts will enable you to increase local market presence that is infinitely more efficient than your current situation!
Traditional Website Design

1. High Monthly Hosting Fees

If you research your market, companies will offer websites and hosting for industry and charge up to three hundred dollars a month to run your site!

2. Expensive Maintenance Fees

Many traditional websites use older forms of coding that makes it virtually impossible for a non technologically inclined individual to edit. This forces you to continue paying your website provider for any changes needed.

3. Customizable Applications

No customizable applications for you to play with, add to your site, or change once the design is final.

4. Expensive Design

Designers charge thousands of dollars for your introductory site because it is very time consuming to create everything you need with the use of traditional HTML .

5. Search Engine Optimization

Once you have your website designed, you may then need to hire a company to market your website to search engines in order to get seen. This is an additional fee needed to utilize the use of the internet for business!

7. Changing Internet Industry

Having a web presence today means something much different than it did five years ago. You need to be active in multiple places and traditional websites often times do not accomplish this.

8. Success?

We can not guarantee the product of another companies website, but we can guarantee an increase in online social media if you follow our plan or let us do it for you! *

* Forefront Marketing Concepts reserves the right to determine if success has been made by the number of new ‘friends’,’followers’, etc.) on a case by case basis

CONTEST TIME!! Facebook Fan Page Success!

Welcome!

Things have been so busy here at Forefront Marketing Concepts that I have not had a chance to properly introduce myself! Shame on me!

I will make a promise to all of you followers that I will post weekly articles relating to successes, failures, and the latest goings on in the realm of social media marketing and web design – it starts now. Bring it on!

I am very professional when it comes to work, although I push the boundries when it comes to advertising which creates RESULTS. My creativity has lead me to create campaigns that have surpassed expectations time and time again through out of the box ideas and concepts. I also have many tried and true campaigns that are proven to raise awareness for small businesses – I can’t spill the beans on these secrets too much though or else it would be a disservice to my clients.

That being said – The newest campaign being launched today is The Facebook Fan Page for Forefront Marketing Concepts

Facebook Fan Pages

The Good: One of the greatest tools of Facebook, I believe. Facebook fan pages are easily syndicated with your twitter account, website and blog. This creates a pristine opportunity to spread constant reminders to all of your fans about the latest and greatest about your company.

The Bad: Fan pages are a bit hidden in the Facebook realm and I hope that they will look into changing that for the sake of small business advertising. The possibilities are endless with the wealth of information you can gain from your fans and the free marketing you can provide.

The Ugly: Facebook Fan Pages with NO Fans! Like Mine, Day One, Hour 1.

So lets change that
CONTEST TIME!!!!! Quest for 100 Fans! Free Intro Package raffled off to one of the first lucky 100 Fans – Join now for your chance to win! Contest will be drawn when 100 fans have been reached – HURRY! Winner receives – Basic 5 page Website, Blog, Domain name, 3 months free hosting! A 100 dollar value!

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/pages/Cincinnati-OH/Forefront-Marketing-Concepts/168315953262?ref=nf

Success? How fast can Facebook Fan Pages grow with an advertising budget of 20 dollars and a narrowly defined target market? The case study is on this sunny afternoon filled with some Great Cincinnati Bengals play action! This will slow down the success BUT should not ruin the campaign.

Get ready for next weeks article – Forefront Marketing Concepts Web Design Vs. Tradition Web Design Services. This article dives deep into what we do and dabbles into how we do it. It explains how traditional websites have been created up until this point. It also explains how we are able to offer our services cheaper than traditional websites and all of the neat additional things we can do for you for FREE that many webdesigners charge extra for. Get thinking about what cool thing you have seen on a website! I bet we can do it! Live Chat is my personal favorite, what is yours?