Walmart Rebounds!!

This week's post is really just a cool blog that I found on Media Logic.com. I found their latest blog post that discussed some of the brands that have been very successful. I won't bore you with a lot of satistics. I simply encourage you to check out the blog and see if any of your favorite brands are doing well. The data is up to date (relatively) and consists of each brand's Facebook and Twitter (if available) numbers.

The super star in this blog is Walmart. I wrote earlier in a blog about how Walmart's initial Facebook campaign fail. This was mainly due to Walmart trying to portray an image that was confusing to their consumers. However, now, they are using different techniques that focus on social responsibility and old fashioned discounts, and it is working!!! They also made huge investments into managing their social media marketing efforts. They now have 12 Twitter managers!! Of all the companies listed in the blog, Walmart beats all other increases in Facebook fans, and that is an understatement. See for yourself.

This brings me to this week's point. It is very possible to screw up a social media campaign. However, it is also very possible to fix it. One of the beauties of social media marketing is the low cost. This should relieve your fear of any great loss due to an unsuccessful campaign. Here are three steps that I suggest to follow in the event of social media meltdown....

1. Re-analize: Step back and take another look at your company, its image, and your marketing goals.

2. Re-plan: Decide on what platforms suit your goals best, How you are going to use them, and who will be incharge of the campaign (a great campaign manager is key).

3. Hit the ground running: Get your campaign back in action as soon as you can.

New Social Media Product!!!

Today, I found an article on CMS Wire's website about a new CRM that was introduced recently by Nimble. Nimble is a company that was founded by the same man who started GoldMine (a popular CRM system) many years ago. Recently, he decided that the old CRMs are not going to work in today's world. They are not designed to manage all of the connections and contacts that people have through their social networking or social media sites. So, he decided to start a new company, Nimble. Nimble's whole concept is to create CRMs that can manage ALL of your contact information. That even includes your Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and Gmail accounts.

Nimble allows the user to import all of their existing contacts along with their social networking contacts into the system so that with one login, they can get instant contact information from all of their social networking sites. You can view someone's 'bio' and see what you connection to them is (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and all of their contact information. You can also go directly to all of  your social networking accounts from this one page; no more five or six tabs open on your browser. It is simple and fun to use.

So then, this article and this new product makes me wonder: what other business tools with come about due to the immense use of social media by all business professionals? What will we see next? What other current business tools will be adapted to handle our use of social media? My prediction is that business will soon be seeing other IT systems that are designed to meet the needs of social media users. Because of the huge increase in social media marketing, social networking sites are now just as crucial to many businesses as their accounting software or their financial spreadsheets. What do you guys think???

Read the cool article. Then, go register and try Nimble for free!!

Guest Speaker

Today in my Sales Force Management class, Brad Odil from WBKO came and talked to our class. While his discussion was not focused on social media marketing, his theme was change. What he meant by that was we all need to recognize that times are changing. He made a lot of great points about keeping up with technology and how the news industry is no longer all about television but is using many outlets to reach its users.

Brad talked about how the news is now being broadcasted mobily (smartphones) and through online outlets like their website. Revenue for his company comes from selling advertising. So, he is able to use Facebook and Twitter to draw users to the television broadcast or to their website. In turn, this exposes the users to the advertising that is sold by WBKO. This really was interesting to me because I was always currious what the benefit of using social media marketing was to a company like WBKO. What I failed to realize was how the station made its money. Their products are the outlets that have advertising space. They are simply using social media to promote those outlets.

Brad also talked about how our generation is the one that has the power in this realm. We are the ones that are the most knowledge about these sites and have the most experience using them. He said that WBKO did not bring in anyone to put in charge of their social media campaign. They simply got the young employees of the station to put it together and manage it.

I really liked learning about how Brad and WBKO are using social media to promote their business. This is just another example of how this form of marketing can be applied to endless industries and businesses

Here is their Facebook page. Like it and start using their new Coupon Rover!!

Social Media at My Job...

So my blog this week is not all that exciting. However, it is a topic that is personal to me. I work at Buckhead Cafe, and little over a year ago, we started using social media to advertise for our company. If you didn't know, Buckhead is owned my the same man who started Mariah's downtown. Our owner and one of our managers decided to get involved with Facebook and Twitter in order to increase awareness of the two restaurants. Each has its own Facebook page.

Everyday we post new specials for our fans. At first, not many people new about our Facebook page. We would get half a dozen people each week who would take advantage of our deals. Honestly, we kind of got discouraged because not many people knew of our page. We then decided to be very active in getting the word out. We put flyers in all of our togo bags. We held contests among employees to see who could recomend the most fans to our page in a week. As the year progressed, more and more people bacame fans of our page and took advantage of our deals. Some of our customers are avid about using the deal almost everyday!! Look at the links above to see how many fans we have now! (and then like us :0 )

This post is a simple example of how you should not give up on your campaign if it does not take off very fast. Keep trying and get everyone involved in the effort!!

Check out our new Mariah's app for the iPhone!!