We’d like to extend a big, hearty welcome to Patty Peck and encourage everyone to pay them a visit for new or used Honda’s and great service.  Keep an eye out for Patty Peck on Facebook as Julieanne begins gen’ing up social content!

1. Leaving your profile incomplete

Signing up for a social media account is pretty simple, but completing it takes a little more effort. It would be unprofessional to leave your account only partially complete. Social media is about engaging people and communicating. You can’t engage your followers if you let your profile sit idle. Add in some fresh content to really get that conversation going. You should also upload a profile picture that’s appealing to the eye. A boring, plain logo probably won’t do the trick, so try to spice it up a bit by maybe putting a human face on it. Post links, blogs or polls to give your business some flair. Show off your company’s personality!

2. Not communicating with users

We’re in a world now where businesses don’t talk down to customers like they used to. Today, businesses have the opportunity to get on the same level and connect with their customers. Through the internet and social media, they can casually talk one-on-one. For instance, if a Facebook fan posts a question on your wall, answer it! Be conversational but informative. People trust word-of-mouth more than any other type of advertising, so what better way to get feedback than from your fans?

3. Posting too much information

While we’re on the subject of word-of-mouth, it is essential to make sure to not post too much content at once. For example, say you have a Facebook page and you want your name out there as much possible. Okay, that’s understandable. But posting all the time is not the way to go. You want your fans to talk amongst each other. This positive word-of-mouth is where you’re going to get more customers, which means more money for you. Let them talk. Let them connect.

You also don’t want to post too often because frankly, it can become a little annoying. If you’re constantly popping up on someone’s Facebook mini-feed, they may delete you as friend or “unlike” you merely because they’re tired of seeing the same friend showing up. All in all… make a post when something important or exciting is happening, but not repeatedly so your fans have a chance to engage with each other.

4. Being pushy

You should treat each new fan as you would every possible customer you meet in person. This means not pushing your product on them the second you’re introduced. You need to create a relationship before you try to sell your brand. Avoid the temptation to directly ask someone to purchase your product the instant they friend or follow you. Rather, focus on building a relationship with them first. No one wants to feel on-the-spot-pressure when meeting a potential client, so step back and build some trust with each other in the beginning.

5.  Failing to measure your impact

If you’re going through the effort of making a profile on a social media site, it would be mistake not to see what’s going on behind the scenes. You should do some research to find out exactly what you want and how to reach those goals. Maybe you want more traffic on certain areas of your website or better brand awareness. Google Analytics is a great way to measure those results. It can show you what areas of your website aren’t getting very many hits, and this can allow you to make a decision on how you want to change things up. It can also be rewarding to know if you’re gaining interest in an area you’ve worked hard on promoting.

“One of the challenges businesses deal with on Facebook is aggregating content from other mediums,” says Mojoloco team member Ellison Belt.  “This product provides a simple way to address that problem without having to re-create the content just for Facebook.”

“The custom landing tab is also a great way to further brand your Facebook page with the look and feel your customers are used to seeing,” says Mojoloco designer Brent Lape.

You can set this custom tab to be the default landing page for new Facebook visitors by making a simple adjustment to your Facebook wall settings.

The “What’s New Tab” allows you to specify a YouTube Video from your YouTube page, 3 articles and 2 events from your Wordpress site, a link to a special promotion, as well as a customer testimonial from a Facebook fan.  This content can be changed and updated at your discretion via a simple administrative tool.

Future plans for the product include incorporating the administrative tool into the Wordpress admin itself, making it even more accessible and efficient for Facebook managers.  Currently, the product is being offered for a one-time setup fee.

View Mojoloco’s use of “The What’s New Tab” here.

Our thoughts and attitude are the only things that we have complete control over in this wild world. This is our greatest power, if we use it, but many people don’t.

As Dr. Viktor Frankl wrote in Man’s Search for Meaning:

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing; the last of human freedoms-to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

The choice is yours. And it really is a choice. You can choose how you think and act. That is one of the main concepts that can help us enjoy life, if we will understand and apply it. Is it easy? No it is not easy. But the power is always there inside of you, no one can take it away.

Even if sometimes things can go wrong in life, and our journey may temporarily seem like a shipwreck, we can still, as Voltaire said, “sing in the lifeboats.” We can choose our attitude in our hearts and minds, in spite of outer circumstances.

If things ever seem to be going off course in my own life, which they sometimes do because I make my share of mistakes, I do a reality check and take inventory. When I do, I always find that I need to pay closer attention to my choices and to my thinking and my attitude.

Happiness comes from the inside out, and the goal is to consciously choose to focus on, enjoy and be grateful for the simple pleasures that come from the genuine good things in life, such as love, laughter and learning.

The Bugs software will also track every aspect of the promotions so that you can know who your brand advocates are, how many times they’ve shared something about your business with their friends, how many friends they’ve referred to your business, how often they invite friends or introduce friends to your brand, and so on.  This is very valuable information to have!

Bugs Go Viral, LLC has partnered exclusively with The Radio People (Y101, MIX98, and US96) in Jackson, MS.  The Radio People will be the only media company in the Jackson market to offer these new and exciting tools.  Facebook promotions work very, very well in conjunction with radio advertising, and we can’t wait to see the great ideas that result from this partnership.

We at Mojoloco will, of course, also offer the Bugs Go Viral software to our clients.  As part of the lead-up to this announcement, we’d like to offer a free sweepstakes promotion to YOU.  If you’ve got a great idea for a sweepstakes or giveaway promotion for your business, send an email to robie@mojolocollc.com.  We’ll pick the best idea and will launch a free promotion for your business.  All you will provide is the prize!  This is a great opportunity to create some fall/holiday buzz!

Hope to hear from you soon!

With the honors of being the first two social media managers actively engaged with Mojoloco clients in the field, we’d like to introduce Emily Eskew and Julieanne White.  Both have a background in some flavor of journalism and/or public relations.  We’re excited to have Emily and Julieanne join our team and look forward to working with them.

While some business owners grumble that social media is merely a fad, others are realizing the marketing power of this revolution.  For example, Pepsi made a bold and gutsy move with their 2010 budget by halting a 23-year streak of Super Bowl advertising.

“In 2010, each of our beverage brands has a strategy and marketing platform that will be less about a singular event and more about a movement,” Pepsi spokeswoman Nicole Bradley said.

According to TNS Media Intelligence, Pepsi spent $15 million on advertisements for the 2009 Super Bowl. Their “Pepsi Refresh Project,” launched in early 2010, encourages businesses, non-profits and individuals to submit ideas that will positively impact communities to be put in an online voting competition.  At stake is a $1.3 million pool that is awarded in amounts ranging from $5,000 to $250,000 to 32 different causes each month.  Anyone who registers on the website (www.refresheverything.com) is allowed to vote daily for any 10 ideas.

But how is giving away cash actually going to make them any money?  It isn’t.  At least, it won’t directly.     Rather than selling a product to a customer, social media marketing engages the consumer through conversation.  Pepsi has sparked a dialogue about their brand in the online community through the use of Facebook and Twitter.  Icons for each network appear after users vote, enabling them to encourage friends to vote for the same idea, which spreads Pepsi’s logo alongside a good cause.  “Viral” is the name of the game.  And viral exposure equals WORD-OF-MOUTH.

According to a study conducted by the Nielsen Company in April 2009, 90 percent of consumers trust recommendations from people they know.  Tied for second most-trusted source are consumer opinions posted on the Internet and brand websites, each gaining 70 percent of consumers’ trust.

“I am less likely to buy a brand that incessantly posts notices of sales,” says Brandon resident Jessica Eubanks.  “I prefer supporting the brands that seem to have made an effort to understand and accommodate my needs.”

This plays into marketing moves such as that made by Pepsi.  However, though Pepsi has made great strides with the social media marketing movement, that doesn’t necessarily mean large amounts of money must be spent on a successful social media campaign.  In fact, 48 percent of marketers report that social media has actually reduced overall marketing cost, according to Social Media Examiner’s 2010 Industry Report.  Cliff Torrence, owner of Retriever Services based in McComb, shifted more funds into new media as opposed to traditional for the first time in 2010 just like Pepsi.

“We made the decision because dollar for dollar, it produces a better return,” explains Torrence.  “When we spend money on advertising, we want our phone to ring. Now, even though we are only a couple months into this new direction, we are already seeing better results.”

People today demand a more direct and honest relationship from the companies with which they choose to do business.  When social media marketing is utilized correctly, a business or product is exposed to the customer in a natural and spontaneous fashion without the commercialized overtones of a paid advertisement.

Let’s face the facts; if people aren’t fast-forwarding through commercials with TiVO (Nielsen reports approximately 60 percent of DVR owners fast-forward when possible), they’re probably just tuning it out altogether.

If your business is like most others, you are probably being dragged into new media kicking and screaming.  Recognizing the need to engage customers via social marketing, and creating positive word of mouth via social marketing are two entirely different prospects.  Social Media Examiner’s 2010 Industry Report shows that 56 percent of marketers are using social media at least six hours per week, and one in three spend 11 hours or more weekly.  The initial instincts are commonplace: “How hard could it really be to add a friend on Facebook or post a link to a sale on Twitter?” (sigh).

Correctly utilizing social media is about more than that (hello!).  Being a part of the conversation is essential for success.  The true benefit of social media marketing is not about you broadcasting information to your customers, but about you enabling your customers to talk to each other about your brand.  It’s the job of the social media manager be that enabler.

Ultimately, your social communications need to be in your hands- with a full-time staff person managing your social content.  However, for most businesses, it’s generally a better approach to wade into those waters gently and with professional guidance to help maximize your early efforts and establish a strong social presence.  That’s precisely why we at Mojoloco have invested in the position of social media manager.

If you’d like more information about how a Mojoloco social media manager can help you create and manage good social content, please contact us at 601.414.6656.

Despite its privacy issues, Facebook clearly has a key role in global Internet activity. It has become a kind of universal social network, being used for both personal and business needs. For many individuals, companies and organizations, Facebook has become an integral part of their branding strategy and promotional campaigns.

Facebook provides many tools for maximizing the effect of your presence on the social network, most of all by means of business pages, also known as fan pages. Using a variety of applications and Facebook API tools, one can get creative not only with the page content, but with the design, too.

In this post, we’ll give you an idea of how to use Facebook for your business and self-promotional efforts. Below, you will find best practices for custom Facebook fan page designs, with various approaches to creating an attractive, descriptive and engaging Facebook business page. In addition, the selection of tutorials and resources for Facebook fan page development might help you get started with your own effective Facebook presence.

Giants of the Industry…

Big brands demonstrate the best use of Facebook by far. Getting millions of fans may not seem like a big deal for Coca-Cola or Victoria’s Secret, but these companies managed to create fan pages that engage users on a much deeper level than by just asking them to click the “Like” button. An interesting trend seen across this category is of large companies taking Facebook to a new level, putting it at the center not only of their social media campaign, but of their entire online presence.

Read the entire article and view the examples at Smashing Magazine...

1. When it comes to definitions, I’m a purist.

Public Relations is a planned program of action designed to shape, craft, or protect a brand message.  The Wikipedia entry for “Public Relations” states that:

Public relations (PR) concerns professions working in public message shaping for the functions of communication, community relations, crisis management, customer relations, employee relations, government affairs, industry relations, investor relations, media relations, mediation, publicity, speech-writing, and visitor relations. The first World Assembly of Public Relations Associations, held in Mexico City in August 1978, defined the practice of public relations as “the art and social science of analyzing trends, predicting their consequences, counseling organizational leaders, and implementing planned programs of action, which will serve both the organization and the public interest.” [1]. Others define it as the practice of managing communication between an organization and its publics. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_relations)

Social media, on the other hand, is a broad, umbrella term that simply describes a technological platform that allows people or groups of people to communicate with each other.  Social media isn’t new…it’s been around since the earliest days of the web vis-a-vis chat rooms, discussion boards, and group instant messaging.

So, while PR is the art of helping a brand communicate with the public at large, social media is any platform that allows individuals within the public to communicate with each other.  The Brand is the Intruder in that process…the johnny-come-lately.  It always has been.  People find new ways to talk to each other, and corporate big-whigs find new ways to interrupt those conversations with marketing messages.  If you’re a marketer, you ignore this reality at your peril.  Understanding this reality can help you determine an appropriate approach to the social realm.

2.  Social media is the wild west.

We’ve all heard the hesitations and objections: “I don’t want my company on Facebook because someone might post something negative for everyone to see.”  And…boom!  There it is.  That statement comes from a person who is charged with shaping and protecting their brand message and who realizes that social media is not a venue that is conducive to that effort.

You can shape a message on TV…you can shape a message in your advertising…you can shape a message when talking to a journalist.  But you can’t…cannot…can not…fool the consumer (at least not for long).  Consumers today are too smart and too educated and don’t want anyone shaping their messages, dammit!  Social media sites- particularly in the vein of Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace- are silos.  People are there to (ah, surprise!) socialize, and they can and will smell a crafted message a mile away.  And before you finish typing, they’ve already tuned you out…with no small measure of disgust, I might add.

Therefore, brand involvement in social media inherently implies and requires that you assume the risk of negative feedback.  In the social realm, the consumer sees your PR professional and raises you one consumer experience.  Time to fold.  For your social media strategy, there is no replacement for a good product, and no better PR than good service.

3.  Social media strategies that are too brand-centric will fail.

Social media strategies should be consumer-centric.  That’s the nature of social media, and, thus, the nature of social media marketing.  Winning social media strategies NEVER dictate a message.  Winning social media strategies ALWAYS focus on a winning product or service and simply enable customers and fans to talk to each other about it.  That conversation can and often does have nothing at all to do with the product.  But it isn’t important for the brand to be the subject of conversation…it’s only important that the brand become the platform for the conversation.

Mountain Dew has moved 100% of their advertising to social media- particularly, Facebook.  Check out their page: http://www.facebook.com/mountaindew.  You can see that some of the conversation has to do with the product, some is positive, some is negative, and some is completely unrelated.

On the flip side, BP America (http://www.facebook.com/BPAmerica) has defaulted their page to hide user comments.  Instead, you’re greeted with an onslaught of PR messages from the company.  Zero conversation.  And, does anyone really believe that their efforts to shape the message will be successful on Facebook?  Probably not, methinks…

Compare the two pages: Mountain Dew is a free-for-all, tossed salad of feedback and conversation that involves nearly a million people.  BP is one, big, fat, corporate, comb-over effort to shape the message…to the tune of absolute failure and less than 20,000 fans.

Conclusion…

Social media certainly allows a brand to “relate to the public” via conversations that are taking place.  That isn’t always the same thing as “public relations” (based on the definition in #1 above).  Many pros in the business today have adapted their definition of public relations to fit the new media simply because they want to be a part of it, or out of fear that they will be left behind.  Personally (warning: opinion), I think this does a disservice to the field of PR.  PR is a specialty that both transcends and permeates the brand-building realms of marketing, advertising, copy-writing, and design.  PR will always have a place in the branding board room.  Social media hasn’t and won’t change that.

Social media is about joining or enabling conversations…not controlling them.  Understanding the nature of those conversations is key to being a successful social media marketer.  So, while social media is certainly a viable outlet for PR efforts within a greater social media strategy, it is far from being synonymous with public relations.  So, despite what is now fashionable, PR will always be PR, and social media will always be social media.  Understanding what PR is and what social media is will remain crucial in combining them successfully.

PR is about shaping the message.  Social media is about releasing the message and enabling the market to talk about it (CRINGE, if your company initials are “BP”!).

So you’ve built up your fan base and now you’re wondering what you can do to actually turn these fans into paying customers? Here are five clever ways that companies have used our platform to turn their Facebook Fans into customers…and the great thing is that via [this] platform any company, big or small, can run such campaigns for minimal cost and effort.

Read the whole article here…