Highlights from the collection broken down by categories are:

Inbound Marketing

• In 2011, 61% of marketers invested more in earned media compared to 58% in paid digital media and only 14% in paid traditional media
• B2B marketers are shifting their budgets towards inbound marketing with 69% investing in social media
• More than half of marketers increased their inbound marketing budgets in 2011
• The average budget spent on company blogs and social media has nearly doubled in the past 2 years
• Inbound marketing is a lot more cost effective than traditional outbound marketing with a cost per lead  62% less on inbound than outbound lead

Search engines and SEO

• Google is the new yellow pages. 20% of the monthly Google searches are for local businesses
• 75% of users never scroll past the first page! If you are not on first page of Google for your keywords, you need to improve your SEO

• 2/3 of Internet users regularly use social network
• The world and business is becoming more and more social
• Social media conversations actually influence purchases
• More than 1/2 of small business owners say social media sites play an important role in active sales

• 2/3 of marketers say their blog is critical or important to their business
• Blog articles influence purchase decisions
• Companies that blog have 55% more website visitors
• B2C companies that blog generate 88% more leads per month than those who do not and B2B companies generate 67% more leads

• Facebook has become the preferred method for sharing content second only to email
• 51% of B2B marketers agree that Facebook is an effective marketing tool
• Both B2C and B2B acquire customers on Facebook

• More than 1/2 of active Twitter users follow brands and companies on social networks
• 79% of US Twitter users are more likely to recommend brands they follow
• B2C companies with over 100 followers have 146% more leads/month than those with less than 100

To see the charts and graphs of these and many more stats as collected by Hubspot, check out the PDF document below. Enjoy!

I like it when I see a local Lake Tahoe business doing a good job with their social media marketing efforts. In addition to our Once a Month Who’s Doing it Best in Lake Tahoe in Social Media and Digital Marketing Series, I’m going to feature a local Lake Tahoe business in our Tahoe Thursday series. If you can think of any, let me know in the comments section or send me an email milena@outandaboutmarketing.com.

Today’s spotlight goes to Tahoe StandUp Paddleboards.

I’m not going to review their website today. I like what they have done with it. I’d like to concentrate on their social networks instead. Some of them are well linked from their website. (Good start) and some I had to look for. (Constructive criticism here – I had a hard time finding their youtube channel).

Let’s look at each one:

Facebook

Active and engaged feed with good interaction with other companies.

Great custom profile photo.

Excellent use of the custom tabs. I particularly liked the Team Tahoe SUP custom tab with my friend Whitney Wall featured at the top. Great way to bring personality into your brand.

Other tabs worth mentioning are the 2012 boards, telling us what to expect, the welcome tab and the Explore Project.

Overall, a visually beatiful Facebook page. Great job! Can they get even more engagement and likes and perhaps introduce Facebook commerce?  Do they have a well put social media strategy in place? If you want to check your Facebook EdgeRank score for free and establish a benchmark for the company, Facebook Edgerank Checker is a good free tool to use for that. For more detailed Facebook Analytics and intelligence, hit me up.

Twitter

Twitter is one of my favorite networks. The Twitter account for Tahoe SUP didn’t disappoint visually. Great custom background image carrying our the brand with urls to other social networks and website assets.

A quick check on Klout shows Tahoe SUP at 21 with topics of influence of construction, plastic and surfing. What is Klout? Klout has positioned themselves as the standard of influence on the web, a very interesting and controversial topic of conversation. They give you a score of 1 to 100 and the higher your score is the most influence you have on the web. They also analyze your conversations and tweets and assign topics to you they believe you are influential in.

With a fun sport like paddle boarding I would imagine that Tahoe SUP can do a lot better on Twitter. To see the entire Twittalyzer dashboard for Tahoe SUP, head over to the this link. Sure, Tahoe SUP can do better with their twitter activity but at least they are not cross posting Facebook to Twitter as many bigger brands wrongly do. (More on this in another post).

YouTube

The Tahoe SUP YouTube account is also customized with their brand. With 8 videos and 31 subscribers, I’d venture to say they can definitely improve their video presence. Although, they are fairly active with 8,635 views to their channel.

I loved their video on paddle boarding with dogs in Lake Tahoe with the dog whisperer as featured on National Geographic. Nicely done. Who doesn’t like going out on the lake with the dog and enjoying the outdoors.

and finally the Tahoe SUP Blog

Prominently featured right on the home page, Tahoe SUP has an active blog. One thing I couldn’t figure out was how to leave a comment on a blog post but maybe I just missed it. If I didn’t, adding comments to the blog will be a good improvement.

I particularly like the integration of photos, videos and the team within the blog. It makes it easy to look around and get a feel for the sport before you jump both feet into it. And as a passionate paddle boarder, I highly recommend it.

Overall, Tahoe SUP is doing a good job with social media. I’m sure they have limited resources to spend online and if their products are flying off the shelves already, then I’m sure they are analyzing what makes the most sense for the company. I see a lot of opportunities and potential to grow their business and connect with paddle boarders around the world.

I hope spring comes soon and we can all go out and enjoy the sport. I know I can’t wait to grab my Tahoe SUP and go out.

Photo credit: Flickr. Sean MacEntee

2012 is the year that you need to create a social media strategy for your business if you don’t have one yet. Just make this your goal and I promise you it will pay off.

Radian6 report recently released states: “Strategic users are almost three times more likely to execute activities for engaging prospects than informal users (53% vs. 19%)” — and they were likely to see increased revenues.”

A few critical items to include in your social media strategy are:

1. Company Goals and Objectives – Why are you on social media and how does it align with your business goals. You can’t look at social media alone. You need to consider how it complements your existing marketing efforts and how it contributes to your overall business objectives. Starting off with your goals is the best way to make sure you are actually getting involved on social media in the right places and for the right reasons. Measuring your success down the road will also depend on the type of goals you are setting up for your company.
2. Listening – what are people saying about you, your brand, your competitors and your industry. Is it positive or negative. What can you learn from this information and how can you use it to improve your business, your marketing and your social media efforts. An absolutely critical part to every social media effort, listening is what will make you successful on social media. I see way too many companies skipping over this part and not spending enough time and resources to actively listen. Yes, it takes time but thankfully there are plenty of free and paid software options to streamline this process for you.
3. Content Strategy – a very important part to your overall social strategy is the content that you are going to send out to your community. Identify who is it that you are speaking to, what interest them, what makes them share your content, how often they would like to receive it and in what form – video, podcast, text, photos. Create an editorial calendar with your topics and leave some space for breaking news and stories that will come up. Think of the Call to Action you want to include with each piece of content and identify how your content relates to your business objectives.
4. Engagement Strategy – now that you have a clear picture of the type of content you are going to create, think of how you are going to distribute it on the social web. What are your internal or external resources for engagement? How much time can you dedicate daily/weekly to engage and be present? If you don’t have sufficient internal resources what can you outsource to a qualified person or an agency. I don’t recommend outsourcing everything you do as you lose your voice and your authenticity but done properly you can outsource certain tasks.
5. Tactical Strategy – only after you have considered all of these steps, you can dig deeper into the tactical area of your social media. What platforms are best to use to reach your customers. Obviously, we have the BIG FOUR: Facebook, YouTube, LInkedIn and blogging but there are niche social networks that may be more applicable to your business. For example, Pinterest is driving more traffic than Facebook to retailers. So even if Facebook has a huge population base, a social network like Pinterest may be your winner for increasing sales. Having a centralized social media hub from where you can distribute your content will help tremendously with saving time. A good social media platform will also help with your engagement and measurements. We work with a few and can make a specific recommendation for your business if you need assistance in this area.
6. Measurements and Benchmarks – a big conversation topic these days is the return on investment from your social media marketing. Although, there are no industry established measurements yet, there are so many ways to measure your efforts that unless you link them to your objectives (see 1) you will get flooded with data. Starting with your reach (fans and followers), engagement rate, leads, sales, share of voice and customer service just to mention a few, there are indeed ways to measure your efforts. If you are not sure where to start, give us a call and don’t be too alarmed. Only 13% of marketers today are saying that they are very effective at measuring their social media marketing.

7.  Review and Adjustments - a very important part of every social media strategy is the periodic review and adjustment. Once a month, take a look at what’s really going on, compare it to your plan and make the necessary adjustments to improve your social media effort. Drop the things that are not working and do more of the stuff that’s working. Only after applying your strategy in real life you will know what’s really sticking with your audience and what makes them engage with your brand.

If you need help with your social media strategy, give us a call. We’ll be glad to help out. And if you need more ideas for your social media plan, take a look at Radian6 30 ideas for your 2012 social media plan. I’m sure you’ll find some interesting nuggets of information that you can apply to your business today. Your turn – do you currently have a social media strategy and if not are you planning on creating one soon? Let us know in the comments below.

We’ve partnered with Mari Smith, Facebook social media expert to bring you a completely free webinar on Jan 31st at 11am PST.

Do you remember the “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” game that went viral a few years ago?

Apparently, Facebook is now credited with reducing the six degrees of separation to only FOUR!

That means, if there’s anyone on the entire planet you’d like to get to know, they’re only four people away from you now. So I can’t help wondering, does this change the game too?

Register for the webinar now

I don’t know for sure what Kevin Bacon thinks of this, but it sure does change the game if you’re using social networking to boost your business. That’s why I’m thrilled to hear about Mari Smith’s first big Facebook webinar of 2012, and you’re invited to be there — at zero cost!

You may know Mari as a true leader in the social media space. So having the chance to hear some of her best Facebook and relationship-marketing strategies is an offer that’s impossible to refuse. You can bet I’ll be there when it happens on Tuesday, January 31.

Even if you’ve been on a Facebook webinar in the past year, you know how quickly things change online… especially with everything going on at the world’s largest social network! Do yourself a favor and pick up Mari’s top 5 strategies for connecting and monetizing your business online in 2012. From what I hear, she’s got a whole lot more planned for the webinar, too!
Just so you know, the spots are filling up fast for this webinar, and it’s less than 2 days away. So if you want to join me on Mari’s call, it only takes a few seconds to click the link above and get yourself registered.

I hope to see you on the webinar!

P.S. Mari just let me know this is her biggest ever Facebook event – she’s going to be streaming live from a TV studio in San Diego along with her assistant Lori. Mari expects over 3,000 people to be on the live streaming webinar on January 31st. Be sure to save your spot now!

See you there!

1. Social media marketing requires measurements. Social media continues to evolve, dominate time and demand budget increases. Although many marketers are still not sure of how to measure their social media marketing efforts, they continue to put more time and money into growing their online community. In 2012, marketers will demand more accurate measurements for social media marketing efforts and hope to start proving return on investment from spending time and energy on places like Facebook and Twitter. Rightly so, a marketer’s job is to measure how their activities move the needle and without proof of why this works, social media quickly turns into a waste of time. How are marketers currently measuring their social media marketing? This recent survey from eMarketer shows that fans and followers or size of network is still the number one measurement with 60% of marketers depending on fans and followers to prove their success.  Personally, I’m a lot more interested in the qualified leads from social media, time spent interacting with the brand and the potential increase in sales attributed to social media.

The Econsultancy report “The State of Social Media 2011” noted that 41% of marketers surveyed had no return on investment figure for any of the money they had spent on social channels as of October 2011. This seems to me incredibly high for the time investment it takes to commit to social media. Start measuring your social media marketing efforts today and if you are not sure what or how to measure them, please, give us a call so we can help.

2. Mobile will continue to grow as smart phones are becoming more popular, apps are becoming more available and marketers are realizing that websites need to be mobile friendly for smartphones and tablets. The statistics are staggering when it comes to mobile marketing. A snapshot of important statistics from 2011 from Mobile Marketer shows the incredible rise in mobile and a trend that will continue to go up:

Check your page settings. Go to Manage Permissions on your Facebook page. Make sure no country is selected and your age restrictions is set up to 13+.

This should do the trick and now your custom domain name will work properly. I hope this is helpful. Have you checked your Facebook page when you are logged out to see if it’s visible to people? Does it work properly?

I truly enjoyed the presentations I saw, starting with Troy Thompson from Travel2.0 setting the stage for the day, Mike Henderson from Arborglyph talking about destination marketing videos, Rob Gadtke from KPS3 n mapping media and technology to the buying process and Eric Bengston on Developing an Interactive Strategy.

Below you will find my presentation on how to engage with your fans on Facebook and create a culture and vibrant online community with lots of examples from local and national properties doing it right. I covered custom landing pages, affordable apps, best business practices and measurements. In addition to my presentation, feel free to use my handout on 10 Facebook tips to improve engagement. Some of these tips you can implement today in your Facebook marketing.

What does the future hold? Quora, the people questions and answers forum may replace Google as we count on our friends recommendations a lot more than on robot suggestions. There probably won’t be any more PCs and laptops, just smartphones and iPads/tablets.

I created this short video on social media history, trying to fit the last 40 years in less than 4 minutes to put into perspective where we came from. Let me know what you think.

1. Influencer program – every company needs to have one of them. It’s the smartest program you will develop to have your core advocates promote your product. Their program reads: “Our Influencer program is designed to connect us with you – core enthusiasts that embrace prAna’s company values. Our goals are to open a dialogue for product testing and development ideas; promote ideas of health, wellness and sustainability; and create a community for like-minded people to share their passions.” Create a community of like-minded individuals is exactly what every company needs to be working on.

2. Customer service – Superb! They understand how to treat their customers and make it their mission to have satisfied customers. Under promise and overdeliver is what great marketers do.

3. Products – Excellent quality, great fit and made to last. Everything I have ordered fits and looks great. Start with a remarkable product and you will build a strong customer base with word-of-mouth. Great marketers know that remarkable products get people talking.

4. Story – every company needs a story that people will remember them by. I like Prana’s. What is your story? Is it on your website?

5.  Website – clean design, friendly, well organized, light and encouraging dialogue yet built for the primary goal of selling clothes. Well done.

6. Design and branding – from their catalog, to their photos and logo design Prana has done a fantastic job of providing visually appealing images and collateral to their target market.

7. Customer engagement – Prana is currently looking for T-shirt designs from their customers. I like the name of their contest: How does PRANA look like to you?. An email went out to their influencers too, asking for submission of their favorite clothes. Upon sending your favorite item to Prana, you receive free shipping. Nice little incentive to gather valuable feedback from their most loyal customers.

8. Great causes – Prana is dedicated to support Natural Power Initiative. It fits perfectly with their values.

9. Social – Prana has an active blog, a very popular Facebook page, lots of views on their YouTube channel, and a decent Vimeo channel. I wonder what their social media strategy is but in terms of engaging their fans, Prana scores high in my eyes. One suggestion would be to implement a social purchase incentive, where if you recommend Prana product to friends at the time of purchase, you immediately receive percent off your purchase. Take a look at how Abe’s Market is doing it.

10. Ambassadors – I’m not sure how anyone can become an ambassador but I’m sure if you are interested, you will get a fast response from Prana.

Prana has passionate people who have created a great product and have figured out how to build legendary marketing.

Have you purchased any Prana clothes? Are you going to after this post? Do you have any favorite companies?