Do You Know the True Value of Social Media Marketing?

value of social media marketing

We’ve all heard about the importance of social media marketing. But if you think good social media eliminates the need for a great product, great customer service or other traditional marketing, think again.

Gary Vaynerchuk is arguably one of the most visible proponents of social media marketing. But in a recent video on his YouTube channel, he says people often misunderstand it’s value.

Vaynerchuk helped grow his family business, Shoppers Discount Liquors in Springfield, NJ, from a $3 million retail store to a $60 million success story. And he says social media was only part, though a very important part, of the process.

Here Vaynerchuk explains how many different factors led to his business success. Though he admits social media was certainly one of them:

Vaynercuk would eventually gain fame as an author but also as the host of Wine Library TV. It was a video blog Vaynerchuk ran from 2006 to 2011 that has become an often-cited example of early social media marketing.

But before that, he would help rebrand the family business as Wine Library, a retail wine store. He would also help launch a successful eCommerce site by the same name. And he would use both traditional and search engine marketing to grow sales.

As Vaynerchuk recalls, it didn’t start with a video blog or the trendy social sharing so often talked about today. It started with good old fashioned sales and customer service.

He explains:

“That was done through operations. That was me on the floor selling more. Then the website kicked in the momentum in 2000, 2001, 2002. Then search marketing 2002, 2003, 2004. Then kind of like just fixing, getting better at it in 2004, 2005. And then in 2006 started Wine Library TV which took it to the next place. And the reason it gets so much credit, even from me, is I went from spending millions of dollars, right? To spending no money, and using these new tactics, which is why I knew they would work for big brands.”

And herein lies the real power of social media, Vaynerchuck argues. Far from the only tool at an entrepreneur’s disposal, it is one of many, he says.

After spending plenty on rebranding, eCommerce, TV commercials and ads in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, social media was something new.

It was a chance to build on what had already been done and keep the momentum going. It grew revenue from about $40 million to $60 million while cutting costs dramatically.

No, social media was not responsible for all the growth at Wine Library, Vaynerchuk says. But it was a way to cut costs even if it took more time. Because most entrepreneurs, he says, have more time than money.

Social Media Photo via Shutterstock

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Lumiary Lights the Way for Marketing Your Online Business

lumiary

When you are running your own online business, you need to be a master of many trades. But if marketing is not one of them, don’t worry. Meet Lumiary, the company that says it will pull in all of your marketing stats and analytics, and save you a lot of time overall.

Lumiary

Launched within the last few months, the company offers three simple plans between $10 and $50 a month depending upon the volume of orders your online business generates and the level of service required. There is also a free trial.

Lumiary lets you create an account, fill in the necessary details about your online business, including information on your website, online store and social media channels. Then sit back and let Lumiary start collecting data. You’ll see the information collecting on your Lumiary dashboard giving you a much more complete picture of your business as a whole.

In an interview with Small Business Trends, Charles Valentine, co-founder of Lumiary explains:

“As more and more people were getting online with their store, the next thing they needed to work really easily, which was too technical and too complicated, was online marketing. The life cycle we found is that people start their store, they get a lot of local PR, they’re on social media, they get a pretty good following. But they kind of get to a plateau, and they don’t know how to keep growing. Online marketing is very complicated. A lot of data, a lot of channels, things are always changing. We’re trying to do marketing for people who don’t know how to do marketing.”

Lumiary has a sub-site called Lumiary Academy that is a repository of expert advice and tips on small business marketing topics, as well as lessons from successful brands. But the two main areas which Lumiary offers help with are social media and targeted email marketing.

Social Media

lumiary

If you are doing social media for your online business, you need to know everything from how many people responded positively to your post, to how each post impacted your company’s overall sales.

Lumiary collects data from your Facebook page, Twitter page, Tumblr blog or other channels. It also collects data from Google Analytics and your online store. Valentine says Lumiary then pulls all that data together and shows you insights that will help you create better social media engagement and drive more sales.

The service provides a Buffer-style app letting you create your updates all in one place then post them via Facebook, Twitter, and other channels all at once. Lumiary then tracks those posts to measure the number of likes, how many people visited your store as a result, how many pages they looked at, and how many visits resulted in a sale.

lumiary

Targeted Emails

The service also claims it can help you hone your email compaigns to be more targeted and more effective.

For example, if someone buys a shirt from you, you may want to email them and suggest a pair of trousers that might go well with the shirt. Or, if you are going to be in New York or Chicago for a conference, you can email all of your customers in New York and Chicago and tell them you will be in their area, if they would like to meet you.

Lumiary utilizes MailChimp and collects data from the service to help fine tune your email marketing efforts. This includes making sure that most of your emails don’t wind up in your customer’s spam folder.

Marketing Made Easy

lumiary

Among the insights Lumiary will provide in connection with your social media and email marketing efforts are:

  • The identities of customers most in need of followup based on previous orders and other factors.

lumiary

  • The identities of your most valuable customers and repeat buyers.
  • An overview of which of these customers spent the most in your store and over what period.

lumiary

  • The number of people engaging in your social posts, and how much of of this engagement is resulting in sales.
  • The names of your top selling items.
  • The identities of your newest social followers, and more.

Here’s an overview of the company in action:

Valentine explains the company’s mission as follows:

“Help people focus on their core audience – consumers feel more connected to small independent brands. Focus on those people, communicate with them, make it two-way communication, and help them share the story about your brand. Make it more like a network effect rather than a funnel effect.”

Images: Lumiary

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Live Report from Facebook’s First “Fit” Event for Small Businesses

facebook fit

Facebook’s first “boot camp” for small business owners was held earlier this week. The event took place at Skylight Clarkson Square in New York City and Small Business Trends was in attendance. Although Facebook has done smaller events for years, this one kicked off an official nationwide tour called “Facebook Fit.”

Facebook-Fit-Dan-LevyDan Levy (pictured right), Facebook’s Director of Small Business, explained:

“We’ve made a transformation over the last six months or so in how we serve small business owners. We want to tell them about things they don’t even know about yet.

We think our tools are really simple and effective. We’ll continue investing in the things we do online but we’ll also get out and see people face to face, or as we like to say ‘face to Facebook.’”

The Facebook Fit tour will cover four more cities this year:

  • Miami, Thursday, June 19
  • Chicago, Thursday, July 10
  • Austin, Texas, Thursday, July 24
  • Menlo Park, Calif., Tuesday, August 5
facebook-small-biz

Dan Levy talks about the difficulties his father’s small business went through.

Each boot camp will open with a short “thank you” video from CEO Mark Zuckerberg reminding small to medium sized businesses of their importance to Facebook. Breakout information sessions were also available, hosted by co-sponsors Square, Legalzoom and QuickBooks.

Attendees were continually encouraged to network with each other, building on Facebook’s belief that small businesses learn much from each other. In fact, local SMB support meetups and chamber of commerce events were what initially inspired the launch of Facebook Fit.

Tickets are $25 and Facebook says space is limited.

A Few Statistics

Facebook now has more than 30 million SMBs with active pages, and 1 million of them are using Facebook advertising at least once a month.

One of the most popular aspects of Facebook for small to medium sized businesses is still the ability to gain both broad and targeted reach, especially with sponsored posts, Levy said.

He added:

“Obviously it works. That’s why they keep coming back. Over 70 percent of our customers start out with a boosted post, which is part of what we call our Lightweight Interface. Anybody can use that option, and many are small businesses.”

Author Rhonda Abrams moderating a panel of experienced SMBs using Facebook

Author Rhonda Abrams moderates a panel of experienced SMBs using Facebook

Also, an estimated 19 million small businesses are managing their Facebook page or interacting with customers on a mobile device. So Levy said:

“The big thing you’re going to see from us is investment in mobile tools. We think the power of mobile will be a major transformation SMBs will go through – and are going through right now. Service businesses who are out and about and not behind a counter all day – mobile will become increasingly important.”

The post Live Report from Facebook’s First “Fit” Event for Small Businesses appeared first on Small Business Trends.

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Facebook Fit Event for Small Business Kicks Off in New York

facebook fit

Facebook’s first “boot camp” for small business owners was held earlier this week. The event took place at Skylight Clarkson Square in New York City and Small Business Trends was in attendance. Although Facebook has done smaller events for years, this one kicked off an official nationwide tour called “Facebook Fit.”

Facebook-Fit-Dan-LevyDan Levy (pictured right), Facebook’s Director of Small Business, explained:

“We’ve made a transformation over the last six months or so in how we serve small business owners. We want to tell them about things they don’t even know about yet.

We think our tools are really simple and effective. We’ll continue investing in the things we do online but we’ll also get out and see people face to face, or as we like to say ‘face to Facebook.’”

The Facebook Fit tour will cover four more cities this year:

  • Miami, Thursday, June 19
  • Chicago, Thursday, July 10
  • Austin, Texas, Thursday, July 24
  • Menlo Park, Calif., Tuesday, August 5
facebook-small-biz

Dan Levy talks about the difficulties his father’s small business went through.

Each boot camp will open with a short “thank you” video from CEO Mark Zuckerberg reminding small to medium sized businesses of their importance to Facebook. Breakout information sessions were also available, hosted by co-sponsors Square, Legalzoom and QuickBooks.

Attendees were continually encouraged to network with each other, building on Facebook’s belief that small businesses learn much from each other. In fact, local SMB support meetups and chamber of commerce events were what initially inspired the launch of Facebook Fit.

Tickets are $25 and Facebook says space is limited.

A Few Statistics

Facebook now has more than 30 million SMBs with active pages, and 1 million of them are using Facebook advertising at least once a month.

One of the most popular aspects of Facebook for small to medium sized businesses is still the ability to gain both broad and targeted reach, especially with sponsored posts, Levy said.

He added:

“Obviously it works. That’s why they keep coming back. Over 70 percent of our customers start out with a boosted post, which is part of what we call our Lightweight Interface. Anybody can use that option, and many are small businesses.”

Author Rhonda Abrams moderating a panel of experienced SMBs using Facebook

Author Rhonda Abrams moderates a panel of experienced SMBs using Facebook

Also, an estimated 19 million small businesses are managing their Facebook page or interacting with customers on a mobile device. So Levy said:

“The big thing you’re going to see from us is investment in mobile tools. We think the power of mobile will be a major transformation SMBs will go through – and are going through right now. Service businesses who are out and about and not behind a counter all day – mobile will become increasingly important.”

The post Facebook Fit Event for Small Business Kicks Off in New York appeared first on Small Business Trends.

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“Cash From The Crowd” Could Float Your New Venture

cash from the crowdEntrepreneurs find the American TV program Shark Tank very popular, yet many will never face the scrutiny of Barbara Cochran, Daymond John, or Mark Cuban. Instead, they'll face a larger and potentially tougher audience – the general public who support crowdsourcing new ventures.

Moreover, crowdsourcing can be fraught with problems when milestones are not completed.  In fact, the Washington State Attorney General recently filed a consumer protection lawsuit on a crowdfunding scam, the first such filing on a crowdfunding campaign in the United States.

To be a truly worthwhile success, consider the words of Sally Outlaw (@soutlaw), author of the book Cash From The Crowd: How to Crowdfund Your Ideas and Gain Fans for Your Success. A serial entrepreneur, she is the Founder of Peerbackers and Crowdfunding Academy. She has crafted a solid book meant to address the new way of business financing.

The Truth Behind The Cash Raised

If you suspect there's more to a successful crowdfunding campaign than setting up a video online, this book will answer those hunches and then some.  The nuances that can arise with a crowdfunding campaign launch are covered with thoughtful detail.

Outlaw has done some interesting homework, too. Did you know publisher Joseph Pulitzer used crowdfunding to complete the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty?

Outlaw notes this and other instances to assure readers that crowdfunding, while more technological today due to the Internet, has business fundamentals that should be heeded to be successful.  If you've read recent posts regarding actor Lavar Burton raising $1 million in less than a day to restart his "Reading Rainbow" show, you'll find this note in the introduction sobering:

"Out of the 100,000 plus projects posted on Kickstarter, less than 50 as of this writing have hit $1,000,000 or more. The average raised throughout the entire platform – Kickstarter included – is just over $7,000."

Cash From The Crowd frames what should be done – and what to avoid. Chapter 2 explains the various platforms available, and also includes a comparison chart. There's also a great media checklist, an innovative suggestion on how 3D printing can aid a campaign, and a crowdfunding tool kit that appears at the end of the book.

Moreover, Outlaw's experience shines through as she instruct readers on determining if crowdfunding is a good fit.  Here's a quote that helps fundraisers think more critically of the investor audience they are courting:

"…while communicating with them may be your priority, rarely are you one of theirs…whether you raise the funds you need is completely dependent on you. How creatively you pitch, how persistently you promote, and how hard you work to devise valuable and compelling rewards for your campaign."

The perspective Outlaw brings leads to great lessons in running a business beyond the ask. I was especially pleased with the chapter segments Keeping Your Backers Happy and Equity Offers. Each offers insights meant to support a relationship lasting longer than the day a campaign is fully funded.  When Outlaw outlines the JOBS act, for example, she gives some great detail that can help you weigh your capability against the framework for equity funding.  Here a sample:

"The good news is entrepreneurs will be allowed to sell up to $1 million in securities through this new crowdfunding method. The bad news is there are numerous requirements, restrictions, and liabilities….an issuer – the entrepreneur offering the securities – including its officers, directors, or partners, can be liable for any material misstatements or omissions."

Who Would Benefit Most From This Book

Clearly entrepreneurs with an idea and a dream are the beneficiaries, but so are marketers who have to develop a sound marketing strategy to bring awareness to a campaign.  I also found the tips helpful for those who are interested in unique projects that have traditionally been difficult to fund, such as artists and specialty science projects.

For funding a business, you may want to compare this with other inspired finance books, such as The Crowdfunding Revolution, which focuses more on VC-backed resources and Locavesting, which takes a look at community resources that may also be available to you.  Vet all to see what avenue makes sense for your plans.

But for the best in crowdsourcing campaigns, read Cash From The Crowd for a winning hand in making your crowdfunding effort a true success.

The post “Cash From The Crowd” Could Float Your New Venture appeared first on Small Business Trends.

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