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Social Media Marketing, Online Reputation Management, Internet PR, and Blogs
Web2.0 is all about content, and it's all about branding by sharing. Blogs, customer reviews, ezines, whitepapers, complimentary ebooks, message boards, customer communities, open-forum discussions, user-contributed opinions and company responses to those opinions -- all public, all free ... all incredibly time-consuming.
Maintaining your company image and establishing your company as an industry leader are more challenging than ever. Unless, of course, you have a staff of on-call copywriters who are on top of your social media campaign.
With one of our custom-built Internet PR campaigns, you can cover all of your social media bases including:
- blog posts
- whitepapers
- ezines
- press releases
- forum posts
- positive consumer reviews
- social network activity
- social bookmarking
- news feeds
- viral articles
Request a No Obligation Social Media Marketing Quote
Social Media Marketing Packages
To get started, let's decide what type of social media marketing campaign makes sense for your company. Which of these statements best describes your company's goals?
I Want to Establish my Company as an Industry Leader
I Want to Protect My Brand
I Want to Inspire Customer Loyalty and Repeat Business
I Want to Boost Traffic to My Website
I Want to Establish my Company as an Industry Leader
If you want strong branding, you need a strong information marketing campaign. On the Internet, knowledge is power -- so give your potential clients what they're asking for: killer content.
- How-Tos
- Must-Know Tips and Tricks
- Step-by-Step Technical Help
- Top Ten Lists
- Inside Scoop Whitepapers
- Industry Secrets
Once you've got copy, the key to your successful campaign is to make it viral. Your content needs to be everywhere your customers are: social portals, social bookmarking sites, news RSS feeds, industry forums, blogs, and ezines. If you've taken the time to create truly helpful copy, people won't be able to resist passing it on to friends, relatives, and coworkers. And voila! Your company is branded as the "go-to" company in your area of expertise.
I Want to Protect My Brand (Online Reputation Management)
The truth is that new media interactivity has put your million dollar brand in the hands of millions of consumers. As is becoming a catch phrase in Web2.0 marketing, now, your brand isn't what you say it is, your brand is what your customers say it is.
So how do you safeguard your brand from bad reviews, MySpace rants, and blog bashing? As the old saying goes, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
- First step: Monitor what's being said about your company. Join the communities where your customers talk, and listen.
- Second step: Recognize that the anti-fans may be right. Instead of being constantly on the defensive, acknowledge some of the comments your customers may be making. Show them that you are taking actions to correct any product defects or service issues.
- Third Step: Inspire raving fans. If you've got some hate mail, let's get some fan mail. You can't bury web libel. In fact, the more you try, the worse it's likely to get. (Nothing attracts media and crowds like the news that you're orchestrating a 'cover up.') But you can respond by encouraging positive communities and inspiring customer loyalty on forums, social media groups, blogs, and web communities.
Fill out our free quote form to learn how The Writers For Hire can help to protect your brand.
I Want to Inspire Customer Loyalty and Repeat Business
Although the social media craze may have begun as a way for kids to hang out together, businesses soon caught on: Now corporations can hang out with their customers. We're not talking about "poking" each other on Facebook or friend-spamming customer lists on MySpace. When used correctly, you can interact with your customers in a one-on-one manner that - in the days of paper, airwaves, and telephone marketing - was simply time-prohibitive.
Here's how: Find out where your customers are in the web space and how they interact with new technologies.
Don't guess. A little experimentation is OK if you want to do a few test runs on cost-effective items, but you don't want to spend 10ks posting and promoting a forum, only to have two members in two years. Conduct online research to find out where your current customer base is already active. You can also poll your customers and find out what they're most likely to respond to.
- If you distributed a newsletter on hot industry topics, would they opt in?
- If you blogged on insider tips and advice, would they visit?
- If you polled them on their opinions, would they enjoy answering?
- If you posted a Wiki knowledge base on your website, would they read it?
- If you hosted a forum on your site, would they contribute?
- If you created a group on LinkedIn, would they join?
Once you've decided on the right technologies, implement them. Not only will you keep your brand in front of your customers, but you'll be showing them you genuinely care about their interests and opinions. If you invest in a content rich knowledge base, such as a forum where your customers can help each other, you'll also save a bundle in support calls.
I Want to Boost Traffic to My Website
A social media marketing campaign works hand-in-hand with your traditional search engine optimization campaign. When you post viral content - articles, whitepapers, newsletters, and blogs - people will naturally start sharing these items, bookmarking them, tagging them, posting them on their websites, and sending you backlinks and traffic.
Here are a few more steps you can take to really skyrocket your website traffic:
- Establish relationships with popular bloggers in your industry. (This means establishing a real relationship, not sending a spammy one-line email that says "link to my blog.") After you establish a relationship, encourage these bloggers to link to your blog. This tactic is called blogger outreach, and it can get you great quality backlinks and massive traffic.
- Network. Become active on community forums, groups, blogs, and websites. Answer questions that pertain to your industry in a helpful and honest manner. Then post a link back to an article on your site for more information.
- Use bookmarking and social media profiles. Get a free account to a plethora of bookmarking and social media portals. Pick a few main ones that you want to be active in: Digg, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, etc. But keep accounts in all of them. More accounts mean more places your customers can find you for direct traffic, and many of these sites provide features that also help you with your backlinks.
Social Media Marketing FAQs
What kind of price tag are we looking at?
Social media marketing campaigns start at $1000/month. We can achieve more momentum for your campaign with a $2000 to $10,000 per month budget.
Does The Writers For Hire have a niche industry?
No. And that's a good thing. First, when copywriters have niches, through no fault of their own, they tend to create the same content...over and over and over again. Secondly, for obvious reasons, you really don't want us marketing your top five competitors.
Can I do this myself?
Maybe. Our customers hire us for two primary reasons: lack of writing expertise or lack of time. If you are a decent writer, you should be able to create, maintain, and promote your own social media marketing and Internet PR campaign -- if you can find the time. Some of our customers are quite good writers themselves, but they don't have the 20 to 40 hours a month needed to monitor forums, post blogs, create quality content, or disseminate viral articles.
On the other hand, many of our clients are experts in their industry -- not expert wordsmiths. These clients want a professional writer to express their views clearly and represent their company to their customers, potential clients, and industry colleagues.
Do you need us for the technology? The beauty of social media technology is that it is fairly easy to learn about (that's part of why it's so catchy). But it also takes time to learn how to utilize it effectively. If you plan to do this yourself from scratch, plan on at least a 30 to 50 hour learning curve and a minimum of 20 hours a month in maintenance.
How can you write about/network in my industry? I've got 20 years of knowledge behind me.
Your marketing is a collaborative effort -- particularly in the beginning - so expect to get your hands dirty. In the first months, we'll spend 5 to 10 hours a month communicating with you about your campaign goals, your company differentiators, your target audience, your industry expertise, etc.
At first, we'll be calling you often. Although we do the legwork, you'll still want to be available for download time -- that's time where you inform us of your specific responses to FAQs, muse with us about prevalent industry topics, or instruct us in specific branding guidelines. Don't panic; we learn quickly, and we don't post anything without your explicit approval.
As we get the ball rolling, we will still need you for about an hour a week. You are the expert, after all. We're just the medium for your ideas.
I would do this if I could find the time. I don't want to relinquish control of my social media campaign, but I do need help. What can you do for me?
Plenty. We can help you with two of the most time-consuming aspects of social media:
- 1. We'll do the legwork in uploading profiles, joining groups, and discovering places to interact.
- 2. We'll clean up your midnight stream of consciousness musings, add meat to your Blackberry inspirations, and give structure to your eurekas.
We'll also coach you on social media and information marketing, so you can skip the learning curve and get straight to connecting with your customers.
I know our company needs social media marketing, but I really don't want to deal with it. How turnkey is your solution?
We will try to make this as painless as possible. But, realistically, your campaign won't work well if you aren't involved to some degree. But don't stress. We can quarterback the process and take at least 85% of the load off you.
If you really don't want to, you'll never have to get any more Internet savvy than hitting the send-and-receive button on your email. But please remember that social media marketing is most effective when you work collaboratively with us. Like your traditional marketing efforts, your marketing team needs to understand your industry, your goals, your unique selling proposition, and your target audience's needs.
Does this mean you'll "pose" as me on social media sites? I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that.
We will not pose as you on social media sites. Think of us like social media concierge assistants. Does a Fortune 500 CEO answer all his mail personally? Of course not. He just approves the correspondence prepared by his executive assistant.
We will search for places on the Internet where you and your company can interact. For standard interactions/responses, we will have you approve standard communications material to be used where appropriate. For nonstandard communications, we will suggest a response to you, which you will approve/edit before we post.
In cases where we deem social media profiles to be beneficial to your campaign, we will create profiles for you. Where industry forums and community activity is suggested, we will visit forums and create accounts in industry groups and communities. You'll be able to approve all posts in advance.
If this sounds like you'll need to spend a lot of time reviewing content, you're right -- especially in the beginning. But after a few weeks, you'll find the campaign moves smoothly. Like a trusted employee or personal assistant, we will be able to anticipate your needs and appropriately connect with clients and colleagues.
In the weeks you have more time, we encourage you to get involved in your own social media marketing campaign. We'll coach you on how to start groups on social media profiles, create your own communities, blog, and network online. And of course, you will have logins and passwords to everything.
When will I see results?
A social media marketing campaign is much like a traditional, grassroots PR campaign. Like a PR campaign, you will see some results immediately, but most of your response, increased traffic, media hits, and direct sales will begin to roll in at the six-month to one-year mark.
Add your question. We'll answer you within 24 business hours.
Request a Social Media Marketing Quote
Prices for social media and Internet PR campaigns begin at $1000/month. For general pricing on individual whitepapers, articles, blog posts, etc., please review our writing prices page.
