Social Media has become quite a buzz word lately. It seems that everyone has or wants to jump on the Social Media bandwagon and hopes their sales skyrocket. But there is a lot more to Social Media than just writing a few blog posts and holding your hands out to collect the money. There needs to be a social media plan in place and it needs to be executed like any other plan in order for it to work effectively. Like the old saying goes, “Failing to plan is like planning to fail…”
The most recent Social Media plan that has worked to perfection was Obama’s presidential campaign. This was the start of a new era; both for the American people on January 20th as well as for the way the internet will be used to market products and promote brands. The Obama campaign used the internet and social media to raise awareness, address issues and raise money. Here are some of the highlights from the campaign [1]:
- Obama’s e-mail list contains upwards of 13 million addresses. Over the course of the campaign, aides sent more than 7,000 different messages, many of them targeted to specific donation levels.
- A million people signed up for Obama’s text-messaging program. On Election Day, every voter who signed up for alerts in battleground states got at least three text messages. Supporters on average received five to 20 text messages per month, depending on where they lived.
- There were 3 million donors that made a total of 6.5 million donations online adding up to more than $500 million. Of those 6.5 million donations, 6 million were in increments of $100 or less. The average online donation was $80, and the average Obama donor gave more than once.
With videos, text messages and profiles on popular social media sites such as MySpace and Facebook, the team at Triple O, Obama’s online operation, had a motto: “Meet the voters where they’re at.” This huge undertaking was orchestrated perfectly, the individual pieces of social media worked together, the plan came together and was well executed with a huge victory in the end.
There are new technologies and social media marketing tools coming out that can help to promote your business and brand. Recently, a little application called Twitter emerged, and is now one of the hottest pieces of social media on the market. Nielsen says US traffic to Twitter grew 1,382% between February 2008 and February 2009 — from 475,000 unique visitors to 7 million. Besides the tools available, the way you communicate with your customers is what really makes social media an effective tool to use for business. You need to converse with your audience, establish a relationship and build trust. Gone are the days of big companies hiding behind flashy websites, saying one thing and doing another. Flash and glitter are gone, transparency is in.
InnoGage can help your business capitalize on social media and come up with a plan for success. From political campaigns to not for profit organizations to higher education and companies, we have the experience and the tools for innovative, engaging social media. Feel free to contact us today at info[at]InnoGage[dot]com to learn more about what we can do for you.
References:
[1] Vargas, Jose Antonio. The Washington Post. Retrieved from the web site May 11, 2009. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2008/11/20/obama_raised_half_a_billion_on.html