Social Media has become a topic at many marketing meetings.  As an individual, you may be actively interacting with others online through blogs, discussion boards, or social networking sites like LinkedIn or Facebook.  But should your organization be actively participating in social media too?  

There are many types of social media:
•    Multimedia Social Media - Sharing photos and video on Flickr or YouTube
•    Collaboration and Opinion Social Media - Adding content to Wikipedia or sharing your opinion on Yelp
•    Communication Social Media – Blogs, Twitter (a.k.a. micro-blogging), and social networking sites like LinkedIn and Facebook

Organizations are most often utilizing Communication Social Media.

Determining if your target audiences are actively using any of these forms of social media is the first step. For example, an audience made up of business professionals is likely be using professional connection sites like LinkedIn or Plaxo rather than a more personal site like MySpace.  Wherever you decide to focus, build connections and relationships first, and then use the features of the site (such as LinkedIn and FaceBook groups) to expand the value of each site. Start small; don’t try to cover too many sites at once.

Using social media to market your organization can create a positive buzz and help build awareness of your organization, but it does open your organization to negative messages as well.  You risk losing control of the messages being posted about your organization, since anyone can add a positive or negative message, anonymously in some cases, to many social media sites.  If you are concerned about the messages being posted, a blog is a good way to get started.  

If you do decide to make social media part of your marketing efforts, make sure once you start to keep the effort going. While one of the benefits of this activity is attracting individuals to your organization, keeping their attention depends on the generation of new and up-to-date information. As the Harvard Business Review reported recently, most Twitter users send messages (or tweets) very rarely. The top 10 percent of those using the service represent 90 percent of the messages sent – so if you add Twitter to your social media plan, you want to be sure you are in the 10 percent that attracts followers.  Looking across all your social media initiatives, it is important to create a schedule to ensure you keep posting information. You will lose opportunities to interact with potential visitors if you invest in a blog but post very rarely.   

Another decision to be made is whether to advertise on a social media site.  These sites generally have low click-through rates when compared to advertising on a search engine such as Google.  You will have a better return on your resources by building awareness virally through social media, and investing in advertising via search engines and other proven channels.

By determining your social media goals, and focusing your effort and available resources, you can use these viral channels to increase your organization’s brand awareness and your ability to build new connections within target markets.  

Websites today are no longer simply decorative. For organizations of all kinds, they are increasingly regarded as working assets – an essential element of successful marketing. And the harder they work, the greater the need to manage site content economically and flexibly.

A Web Content Management System (CMS) doesn’t have the buzz innovations like Twitter or Facebook. But it’s just as important – a smart tool that leverages your existing web investments to deliver a variety of marketing benefits:

Market responsiveness
Fresh content is important for site visitors and provides motivation for them to return. Fresh content also improves visibility with search engines.

Tracking promotions
Content management extends to banner ads, and includes reporting on click-through traffic for any type of link.

Contact management
Through CMS you can capture visitor contact information, direct their online inquiries to the right department, and build email lists.

Efficient maintenance
Edit and update page content from anywhere, at any time. Change a call to action, post an event, add a news release, upload a PDF, or publish a photograph or video, all without technical knowledge or IT support.

Support for SEO
Marketers who manage their own search engine optimization programs can control page titles, page descriptions and keywords without having to touch source code or know HTML.

Quicksilver’s CMS solution, QuickFlex.NET, includes the following features:

· Unlimited Users

· Role-based security

· Simple administrative interface

· Easy to learn

· Visitor contact management

· Control of meta data for SEO

· Add modules as needs change

· Hosted solution with 24/7 support

Download this PDF to learn more.

QS_ContentMgmt.pdf (685.00 kb)

Andrew Webb (ironic, isn’t it) has been involved with Internet projects since 1995, including experience with strategy and site structure, user experience and creative direction. As director of Quicksilver’s Internet solutions group, he manages delivery of integrated services ranging from site concept to construction, hosting and application development.

People have trouble differentiating between webcasting and web conferencing. While participation via the Internet makes them similar, their optimal audience size and event impact make them different.

You are an executive for a global corporation. Your company is tightening its belt but you must still pass important information on to employees so they can achieve their goals in the coming year. You need to create excitement. You need to move seamlessly among presenters and prerecorded content. You need the wow factor. You consider using the Internet and are about to experience your first webcast.

A webcast is equivalent to a TV broadcast, in which a live (or prerecorded) program is sent from a central location to an unlimited number of viewers, streamed over the Internet as audio and video and received within a branded interface. Savings come from eliminating venue booking and travel costs. Participants still experience a high-end, branded meeting with consistent content, seamless transitions among presenters and prerecorded media with a live-meeting wow factor. The webcast is typically viewed using your computer’s web browser and Windows Media Player or RealPlayer. Different connection speeds can be used based on network needs. Presenters can use PowerPoint as well as pre-recorded media–all in real time. Interactivity can be achieved through audience questions and polling. A webcast retains the live-meeting-style production often provided by a production company. 

Ever get invited to participate in a WebEx, or Live Meeting event? You accept the invitation, dial into a phone conference bridge, connect to the Internet and login to the Web portion of the conference. You and a small group of participants share PowerPoint slides; have discussions; review white papers, etc. Perhaps you view a video or two, exchange control of the meeting and vote on issues. It is a good meeting and all for a reasonable cost. Sound familiar? You just experienced a web conference.

Web conferencing is similar to a face-face meeting or seminar, with multiple degrees of presentation, interaction and collaboration among a smaller group of users. These user-driven Web conferences are generally interactive with the ability to share presentation rights and control of applications among all group members. Attendees generally dial into a conference bridge to receive the audio in real time and access the internet to view the presentation. This technology continues to advance and some leading Web conferencing services such as WebEx and Microsoft Live Meeting are now offering versions which deliver the audio, presentation and video playback as a single Web connection. A Web conference is normally driven by the client who owns the licenses needed for everyone to participate. All media must be pre-loaded into each participant’s computer prior to being viewed making it difficult to ensure that all participants are receiving the same content at the same time.

Webcasting and Web conferencing each have their place in the world of corporate communications. It really depends on who you want to reach and with how big a bang.

Chris Bartot is a Senior Producer with Quicksilver who this past winter helped Right Management reach their leadership over three days using webcasting.