And how did she get so famous?

Viral marketing is one of the top ways to get a product out there today and, if used effectively, can be wildly successful. The sad truth, however, is that it is all luck of the draw. It is only if your product or topic gets picked up and cycled through social media that you have a shot. Lucky for this “artist,” some pretty famous people had some pretty mean things to say.

Rebecca Black, a little tween with a song about “Friday,” became a YouTube sensation literally overnight. So how the heck did this happen? It’s amazing what buzz can do for literally anything. Rebecca Black showed up on a couple buzz feed sites and blogs and landed a spot on Tosh.0 and Michael J. Nelson’s Twitter accounts. The tweets, though insulting Rebecca Black’s song (“Songwriting Isn’t for Everyone”), helped her views climb from just over a thousand to around sixteen million in the span of one week. The song is now on iTunes as a single and has reached number 31 on the iTunes charts, but I’m wondering if Rebecca Black is really still being teased, or if people are really thinking this is a legitimately written and performed song. I also wonder how she feels about being promoted this way, but who cares? She’s famous now. This is a slap in the face to every musician who is struggling to make ends meet, performing in coffee shops and high schools to make a few bucks, but it was pretty much equivalent to drawing the winning lottery ticket. I suppose all press is good press.

Rebecca Black "Friday"

You’ll never be able to talk about a bird “tweeting” without thinking of social media ever again.

Twitter, technically, is a micro-blogging platform. Users write 140 character blog posts, or “tweets,” and can also share photos, videos, and web links. The service has gained a quick following and companies do best to jump on board.

Ways Twitter Serves as a Great Marketing Tool:

-      Encourages Dialogue

-      Broadens Promotions

-      Raises Awareness

Dialogue

Many companies use their Twitter accounts to respond to questions and ask questions of their followers. It’s a great way to establish a personal connection between you and your potential customers.

This dialogue is effective, but what may be even more effective, is when a figurehead of the company is the one with the Twitter account. The personalization that this allows is a far greater use of Twitter as a tool, because the more a consumer feels they can trust the people behind a brand, the more likely they are to trust the brand. Bill Gates is an example of this.

Another clever way to reach customers is by using a company’s character. These characters are typically followed because the content, if well written, is highly entertaining, like Geico’s Gecko.

Promotions

A great way to further your outreach via Twitter is to use Twitter as a format for promotions.  Say you have 800 followers. To increase your followers to 1,000, you could offer a special discount code for your online site if you reach 1,000 by a certain time period.

Not only will this help you build a stronger consumer base, it will also encourage people to make that “first-time buy” which will hopefully lead to many more purchases.

Awareness

There are many avenues you can take to increase awareness of your business using Twitter. The more interesting the better. For another idea, encourage fans to tweet pictures using your products or services. If a follower of theirs sees their tweet, they may not only follow your company – but also may be prompted to use your products or services as well.

The most important things to remember with a Twitter account is to keep it active and keep it interesting. A Twitter that is rarely updated or updated with mundane Tweets (such as, “Writing grant proposals today”) will not help the company. In fact, it may reflect poorly on the brand.

Marketing for any business must include:

-      Determining your marketing goals

-      Identifying your key demographic

-      Developing a plan to reach this demographic

-      Implementing this plan

When it comes to marketing for small businesses versus large businesses, the principles are the same. The difference lies in selectivity. Large businesses can afford to spread their marketing initiatives over a variety of mediums, small businesses have to choose the avenues that will be the most beneficial.

Dreamscape has a lot of experience improving the marketing efforts of small businesses. Here are some important aspects for you to consider:

Power of the Internet

It’s very important that all businesses have an online presence. This should start with a well written, attractive, and easily navigable website.  But to further your outreach, consider creating a Facebook page and a Twitter account for your business. Both services are free, and if you use them well, you will see a positive return on your time investment.

Some quick rules of thumb: enter at least one Tweet a day, post somewhere between 1-4 items on your Facebook page a week, and always respond to people that reach out to you on both mediums. Your customers want to be valued, starting and continuing a dialogue online is an easy (and, once again, free) way to show them they are appreciated.

Budget Marketing

Beyond free social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, most other marketing initiatives will cost you money. However, there are some actions you can take to reduce marketing expenses.

Budget-Conscious Marketing Ideas:

-      Piggy-Back

• Have a booth set up at an event, such as a charity walk or run, or partner with another business to send out mutual mailings and increase your customer base.

-      Barter

• Offer some of your products or services for advertising space.

-       Always be “On”

• Take every opportunity to promote your business. When you send out mail, toss in a brochure. At the end of your emails, list your web address and a very brief pitch.

It’s important to remember that any marketing effort, no matter how expensive or cheap, will do you no good if you’re reaching out to the wrong demographic. Always take the time to determine your demographic.

If you do this, chances are your “small business” won’t stay small for very long.

Facebook has been sued several times over privacy concerns. They’ve recently attempted to mend many of their security loopholes, but the platform is not airtight.

If you read the Facebook privacy policy, you will see that although you can control your privacy on the site to a certain degree, Facebook does have leeway with some of your content. Take for example, this statement in clause #3:

Even after you remove information from your profile or delete your account, copies of that information may remain viewable elsewhere to the extent it has been shared with others, it was otherwise distributed pursuant to your privacy settings, or it was copied or stored by other users.

Most Facebook users take for granted the “safety” of Facebook and many don’t consider Internet privacy in general. What’s important to remember is, once information is placed online, others can always find a way to access it.

Facebook as a Marketing Tool

From a marketing end, Facebook is a great tool. Beyond being a place for business-customer dialogue, many companies do well in developing applications (such as quizzes) that are entertaining for users. But it’s important to use user’s information cautiously. Certain applications that you may develop, could, if used improperly, get you sued. All press is good press – until you threaten your customers’ security.

Your Personal Facebook

On the other end, Facebook, and other social media sites like Twitter, can be very dangerous to your business. It’s important that your keep your personal life as private as possible. You never know what may offend potential customers. Let people follow your businesses’ Facebook page, but not your personal one.

The bottom line when it comes to putting anything on the Internet, is consider what your customers would think. If it’s something that may risk the positive perception of your business, don’t put it on the web. But if you must, make it as private as possible – at your own risk.

Establishing a relationship with a potential customer or a current one is an effective way to ensure profit. With the advent of the Internet and social media, it’s much easier than ever before.

Internet:

-      Create a content rich and attractive website. Make your domain name easy to find and search.

-      Offer options for customers, in store (if applicable) and online, to subscribe to your newsletter for additional savings. Use the form to learn more about your customer so you can make your e-mails more relevant (and therefore more personal).

Social Media:

-      Create a Twitter page where customers can learn more about what’s going on “behind the scenes.” Even better, use the format to respond to questions and to create conversations. Use Facebook in a similar way.

-      Encourage current customers to review your products or services on sites such as Yelp.com or Amazon.com. There’s great power in “word-of-mouth.”

-      Make your blog RSS feed compatible. This way readers can stay both current on your content and easily share it with others.

Outside of the customer relationship, knowing more about your customer base will help you to better target both the formation and marketing of your products and services.

What’s great about the Internet is it allows for an easy way of collecting data about your current and potential customer base. Here’s how:

-      Create a membership system, which allows customers to receive your newsletter as well as discounts. Request information such as gender and age in the sign-up form.

-      Use Facebook’s analytics to track who follows your business. You can learn such things as gender and location through this service.

-      Create fun Facebook applications, such as quizzes, which incorporate demographic questions, to help target the quiz results as well as gather information.

There are many creative ways in which to learn more about your demographics. But the key is to be constantly aware of the customer’s privacy. If you wouldn’t feel comfortable providing certain information, don’t expect a customer to.

Back in instant messaging’s heyday, I was always a bit perturbed when someone left an away message with a not-so-specific location.  “At the nail salon.” Now, I’d love to join you for a pedi, but where to head? I’m from New York, where nail salons are about as common as pizzerias, so a generic reference whittled the possibilities down to, oh, about 6 shops in a 2-mile radius.

Today, Twitter is the hot way to tell everyone your business, and–much to my delight–geotagging has made its way into those 140-character posts. Applications like UberTwitter can automatically post a link to a map of the user’s location when a tweet is sent via cell phone. It’s a virtual “You Are Here” for anyone to see. No GPS necessary, either; the application uses the nearest cell phone tower to determine where you’re tweeting from. That New York nail salon? No longer in question.
Imagine the possibilities for marketing. Have an event coming up? Tweet the locale, so everyone knows where to head. Off to a conference? Let clients know which hotel you’re staying at. Have a traveling business or delivery service? Ask employees to tweet from the truck so customers–and you–can track their progress. Geotagging can help target marketing outreach and locate new areas to expand business.
Now, not everyone dabbles in Twitter. It’s one of those “love it or hate it” things, but when everyone from Lance Armstrong to Auntie Anne’s is tweeting, it’s more “gotta do it” than anything else. Fortunately, the Dreamscape Marketing team can take social media off your hands. We’ll stay on top of the latest trends, whether it’s managing your Twitter account or posting news about your latest product on Facebook. A social media campaign can boost traffic to your Web site, improve customer relations and help identify potential business associates–just leave it to us.