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As a small to mid-sized business owner you probably do all your marketing in-house.

Think of ways you might be able to advertise a neighbor business on the bottom of one of your flyers, like a coupon offer that he or she also places for your business on their own in-house marketing materials.

This cross-advertising or, pass-it-on marketing doesn’t cost either of you any additional monies and it really goes along way to building a strong neighborhood business community.

Social media is the darling of the new SEO verticals, but, is it really worth the time and energy you put into it?

You could calculate the rate of return based on how much an hour you or your staff spend in managing your online social media, or using analytics you could delve in even deeper.

Social media need not be the drain on staff or budget resources you may think. Built as part of your on-going marketing strategy social media is but one element in an overall plan.

Many clients plan their social media campaigns months in advance, using their other ad spends as a base for developing any social media campaigns and or plans.

Don’t forget to make sure that your social media (Facebook and Twitter) are branded across all your offline advertising and marketing materials. Letting your customers, and potential customers know the many ways they can reach out to you is half the battle.

Yesterdays post talked about the ins-and-outs of maintaining a Facebook account to represent your business. Today we’re going to expand on those points with this follow up post of an example of a failed campaign, that is ‘one that draws more bad press than good press’.

Texas Pete began its Facebook Fan campaign alluding to an offer that if they reached 100,000 Facebook Fans by 11/15/2009 their Fans would get a coupon for a FREE bottle of Texas Pete Hot Sauce. Recently, Texas Pete posted on their Texas Pete Fan Page that the offer was for a BOGO (Buy One Get One) coupon, NOT a free bottle.

Of course, Texas Pete Fans soon began stating their displeasure with the alleged bait-and-switch and made comments that were not flattering or positive. This one from Melanie FeehanWow, “pretty sneaky. Will have to switch brands. Maybe you should rename to Sneaky Pete”. and this from Chrystal Hawthorne “Not that BOGO free isn’t great, but this did say free bottle. Kind of misleading!”

What this says is that social marketing can be a powerful and beneficial move for your business, but like any part of your business it must be well thought out, and each campaign must be thoroughly tested before unveiling it to the public.

Using Facebook is a difficult decision for some businesses. After all, how does it impact my business model with or without a Facebook account? Quantifying a Facebook account traffic, if any that it generates, how much time and cost would I have to spend on establishing our brand identity for the company.

Tracking your traffic is simple, use a good analytics program on your website, we highly suggest using Google Analytics.

A good example campaign is the recent T.G.I. Fridays “Become a Fan of Woody campaign”. It offers a free Jack Daniels Burger to every fan who signs up if, “Woody” reaches a sign up or fan rate of 500,000 Facebook Fans by September 30th, 2009. That’s one expensive offer if all Fans take them up on the coupon.

Along with the campaign comes two or more videos of Woody trying to recruit or griping about how hard it is to get these Facebook fans. These videos are posted directly on the Facebook Fan Page, and also on YouTube for even more viral spreading of the promotion.

How long the campaign will run after it’s 500,000 Fans offer, will Fridays be able to continue developing this same character?, or will it be retired upon completion?

Your business can implement a much simpler campaign, one involving the giveaway of a product, or not. Things like the demographic of your audience should be decided well ahead of time. Keeping the Facebook Fan page updated should be planned and executed by someone involved with the business enough to know each of it’s departments. And lastly, it should be updated on a schedule, once every two days, three times a week or just once a week. Whatever posting schedule you decide on, keep too it like clockwork.

If your company doesn’t have an experienced social marketer or search engine optimization professional on your team, call us at Blue Bayou for a free consultation anywhere in the U.S on using analytics or setting up a social marketing program at 404-567-6095.