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Friday, January 13th, 2012

I have had a few people ask, “How do you get the analytics for Twitter Chats or Hashtags.” Well, I recently started using a service called HashTracking. They are very wonderful people, quick to respond and very easy to work with. They even provide Snapshots of Tweets, Impressions & Reach, Top 20 List, Drill-down Content Analysis, Detailed Contributor List and Full Transcripts. (mind you this is not a paid endorsement or advertisement of any kind, I just REALLY love their service!)

Twitter hashtag analytic’s also give you a way to:

Track Campaigns
Measure Reach
Calculate Influence
Create Beautiful Presentations

8 Free Tools to Make More of Your Small Business Marketing

Sunday, January 8th, 2012

HubSpot has a suite of free tools you can use to measure the effectiveness and reach of your website, social media and marketing efforts. Each tool takes only seconds to input the required information and have relevant data provided to you on screen that you can use to increase and dial in your marketing campaigns.

Their Twitter grades will tell you in seconds how you rank in key metrics such as power, reach and authority versus other businesses in your market.They also have a Facebook grader which works in a similar fashion.

The Search grader is the best free tool we have come across to instantly view where your website is ranking for found keyword terms and we use it to help improve our search engine optimization efforts.

Take a few minutes to check your marketing efforts using these free tools and use the results to tweak your social media, blogging, website and SEO campaigns.

View all of these free tools and more at Grader.com.

FingerCandyMedia.com Friday: Are You Talking To Me?

Friday, December 30th, 2011

When you tweet, post, blog, circle, email *send smoke signals* who are you trying to reach?

Are you trying to reach me? Well, not technically me, but the “me” in your audience. Do you talk to “me” in words “I” understand and follow things that are important to “me”?

There is this term in ad sales called “Spray and Pray”. It refers to throwing a bunch of things at people hoping one will stick. It assumes that you are not listening to your client and just trying to push something on them or sell them something. Granted not everyone is trying to sell online, many people just use Twitter or Facebook as a personal branding tool to express their individuality, and some might only hope that this will attract and lead people back to their primary business. For example, I am not selling a book, seminars or any product *yet* and my consulting specialty doesn’t really cater to the average person online. My business is niche media and to be honest, I don’t really get clients from Twitter or Facebook. My business has been 100% referral from past involvement in broadcasting as a Non Traditional Sales Manager (that’e what we called digital marketing back then) and speaking at a lot conferences; however I got there by proving myself and knowledge I have gained from using these platforms.

Text Message Marketing White Label Program Update

Wednesday, December 28th, 2011

We will be launching our powerful text message marketing white label program in January 2012. This SMS platform is for agencies who would like to offer SMS marketing to existing and new customers. The platform will utilize Moto Message’s technology integrated into your own website.

If you are interested in adding text message marketing to your suite of marketing options for your clients, please join our early notification list. We will be opening the program in waves of 10 to ensure we are able to provide the same high level of customer service that we do to our own clients.

Agency partners will be able set set their own rates, accept direct payments and create robust text marketing campaigns that will help their clients increase sales and exposure into 2012 and beyond.

Join the email list here to receive notification in mid January of the first 10 spots to open.

FingerCandyMedia.com Friday: Do You Have An Eggs or Bacon Social Media Plan?

Friday, December 16th, 2011

The other day, over my bowl of cereal, the ole Bacon and Eggs adage came into my mind; you have heard that one right?
In a Bacon and Eggs breakfast, the Chicken is involved BUT the Pig is committed.

The act of committing yourself to something is defined as pledging and/or completely engaging yourself in the endeavor. It can be very easy to mistake enthusiasm for a project, as dedication, often times we just ‘get involved’ in projects and fall short of seeing them through.

Over three years ago when I started Finger Candy Media, had no idea what I was getting myself into. I understood marketing, promotions and advertising just as much as anyone else who has been in the business over 15 years; but initially only courted the idea of a Mobile Marketing company. After doing the research and running the numbers it just didn’t add up to what I thought were my strengths.

Mobile Pull and Mobile Push Marketing

Tuesday, December 13th, 2011

Mobile pull marketing and mobile push marketing are terms also used for text message marketing. Mobile pull marketing is a way to have your potential customers interact with your advertising and “pull” them into a purchase. A method to use Moto Message for mobile pull marketing is adding a “text call to action” on your print marketing, online marketing and in store. The customer responds by texting your keyword to our shortcode, 83936. A text message special offer is automatically returned to the customer with the goal of pulling them into taking action towards a purchase.

FingerCandyMedia.com Friday: Social Media and the Seven Diminutives

Friday, November 25th, 2011

When I woke up this morning to my four and half pound, tail wagging, bundle of love, and constant source of inspiration, Sissy; I thought about how much it makes my morning to be greeted like she has not seem me in days…EVERY day. The smile on my face right now at recollection says it all.

It’s the little things that mean a lot to me, in real life, as much as online.

The post title was inspired by Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, although it is my understanding that the word “dwarf” is no longer politically correct. In the story Snow White is lost in the forest and found by seven uh “woodsmen”: Sneezy, Sleepy, Dopey, Doc, Happy, Bashful and Grumpy. They form an alliance to keep Snow White safe from her evil step mother and claim back her birthright. *True Story about the PC of Dwarfs, I even heard that people were petitioning Disney to change the name*

Now back to this story about the SMALL things aka diminutives.

We’ll start with pointing out the definition of the word Social Media. From the dictionary: Social means friendly gathering; Media, a form of communication. So there you have it: a *friendly* gathering to communicate.

Which Mobile Marketing Mediums Lead to Purchases?

Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

A study by ExactTarget finds that 41% of smartphone users have used a text message received via a mobile marketing campaign to make a purchase. The study also shows that 56% have used an email message received on their smart phone to also make a purchase. We would believe that if the study was conducted amongst all mobile phone users, the percentage of people who used a text message to make a purchase would be higher due to the fact that smartphones only account for roughly 45% of all mobile phones. Over 97% of mobile phone users send and receive text messages while the number that use mobile email is much lower.

View the complete eMarketer slideshow here.

Segmenting Your Mobile Marketing Keyword Lists

Tuesday, September 6th, 2011

Capturing your customer’s information through mobile marketing is critical to your success!

You can market to them over and over again in a very cost effective way. You can even create different keyword lists based on interest, which is known as segmenting.

Example:

The owner of a lounge/restaurant is told by certain clients they are only interested in the restaurant and not the lounge. These customers only want to receive marketing messages about your restaurant, and will not be responsive to drink or other lounge related promotions. Going a step further, you will find that certain customers are “lunch crowd” only – more than likely because of the proximity that you are to where they work. These customers are probably only interested in getting messages about lunch.

FingerCandyMedia.com Friday- RGF Factor?

Friday, August 12th, 2011

An old boss of mine used to joke about the “RGF Factor.” The term came in handy selling FOX TV programming, especially during the changing years ie BAI (before American Idol). It was easy to watch a pilot and think, this is going to do well, but it was always another issue when it came time to sell these new programs to advertising agencies.

You could sell spots and dots, projections and programming trends for similar shows. But sometimes, you need some added value.

It was a joke that got bigger one day when I was on the phone with a Media Buyer from a very big national ad agency, I said something like “and then you have to consider the RGF Factor,” she never asked what that was. I laughed so hard when I got off the phone, that just thinking about it right now makes me giggle. She never asked me what the RGF Factor was, but she bought me. Maybe she just trusted my confidence…

R.G.F. Factor = Really Good Feeling

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