OurTraction

There was a great article in this morning’s London Free Press business section (http://bit.ly/2O53gQ) on social media and brands. The article specifically looked at the importance of monitoring your brand online, even if you’re not actively participating on social networks.

I have become fond of the saying: “Your brand is not what you tell people it is, it is what your customers tell you it is.” More and more people talk about products and services on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. People are listening to these conversations and use them for research prior to making purchasing decisions. It is therefore imperative that you follow conversations about your brand, if for no other reason then to provide a response to negative comments. Tools like real time search engines or applications like TweetDeck are great ways to monitor online conversations.

Your customers are your greatest brand evangelists so why not encourage them to talk about you? You might even find out something you didn’t know about “your” brand.

I’m happy to announce that on Tuesday November 10th I will be presenting a free 90 minute introduction to social media.  This session is intended as a basic primer to the many tools available as well as some techniques and strategies. No background knowledge is expected, but all experience levels are welcome to attend. The course will run from 9 to 10:30 AM and a third of the time will be set aside for discussion and questions.

By the end of the session you should understand:

1. What social media is and how it helps you to build a relationship with your customers.
2. Why social media is relevant for your business or industry.
3. Some of the tools you should use – Twitter, Facebook, RSS Feeds etc

For more information of the location, time and content and to let us know if you are attending; please register here

The real time nature of the internet has become a reality and this has major implications for search engines. With live blogging, Twitter and YouTube thousands of conversations are taking place and information still needs to be  collected, organized, and filtered so that people can actually make sense of it. A number of real time search engines have appeared whose goal is to track information on a topic as it is happening.

Since much of the content produced on a social network stays there, it is not indexed by the major players like Google or Yahoo. Instead a real time search engine “indexes” those conversations. There are a number of search engines that have started to do this;  Topsy (blogs, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, news sites and others), OneRiot (Twitter and Digg), Tweetmeme (Twitter) and Collecta (blogs, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, news sites and others). Facebook is an important part of a social media campaign, but so far to date real time search engines do not have access to information created inside Facebook.

As more and more searches take palce on these platforms there are implications for search engine optimization (SEO) and marketing (SEM).  To show up in real time search results and drive traffic to your website you have to be participating in online conversations.  People will use these new search engines for information on your brand and if you aren’t active on social networking sites then you are leaving your marketing to others.

When you converse with your customers; through blogs and blog comments, Twitter, YouTube, etc, you will be able to take advantage of real time search and see its benefit to your brand.

I came across an interesting article recently on Business Week entitled Social media snake oil? In it, Stephen Baker explores the idea that (like in any young, emerging field) there are “hucksters” out there trying to make a quick buck as social media consultants, without having the proper credentials in place.

We saw a similar trend in search engine optimization that spawned a rapid proliferation of firms that specialized in SEO. Now, many years later, pretty much every web agency and many ad agencies offer SEO as part of their web marketing strategy. As the science of SEO matured, established agencies with a proven track record for delivering results in other forms of marketing started to pick up SEO as part of their regular service offering.

We can probably expect to see a similar increase in social media: with consultants claiming to be experts in the field. Our position at rtraction is that the field hasn’t defined itself yet, therefore there can be no experts – only smart people coming up with creative ideas to engage your customers or constituents in whatever social media space you plan to use.

In order to avoid the Snake Oil salesman, here are some simple recommendations before engaging:

1. Ask your respective social media consultant for concrete examples of how they have used social media to the success of an organization in the past; ask them to prove the return on investment from their efforts
2. Look them up in the social media space – what are they doing and how are they engaging with their target market?
3. Use the search tools available at your disposal, Google, Twitter Search, etc to search their organization and see how they are represented within the social media space
4. Do the same for individual(s) you would be working with, the owners of the company, etc.

In short – if they are representing that they can do creative things in the social media space they should be able to prove it and they should be represented in that space for their own personal/corporate objectives. Social Media is an open space.

We’re proud to announce the addition of Titus Ferguson, Social Media Strategist, to the rtraction team!

Over the past year, we have seen a rapid increase in the number of clients (existing, new and prospective) who are looking not only for the skills and strategies to build a great website, but also to build a network for themselves within the social media sphere.

In his new role, Titus will extend our capacity and let us continue providing our clients with the services and strategies they need to stay “ahead of the curve” and benefit from social media. Titus brings with him a wealth of experience with successful events and campaigns including LOLA Fest and PodCamp London.

The team at rtraction is excited to announce our involvement with the 1000 Acts of Kindness campaign. The Anti-Hate and Anti-Bias Program at LUSO Community Services has challenged everyone in London and beyond to eliminate hate and bias by spreading kindness – one generous act at a time!

The goal is to record 1000 individual acts of kindness over the month of October. But here at rtraction we are going to take it one step further. We pledge to do 500 acts of kindness on our own and we challenge you or your company to do the same!

We are all very excited to see the effect that this will have on our community. You can track everyone’s progress on the 1000 Acts of Kindness website.  Lets make London the kindest and safest community in Canada!