Useful, but Powerful Media Tools

Here are just few great tools to use when advertising your company online!

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Here at Most Things Techy, we want to provide you as a business owner or technology-lover the most current and helpful information on social media tools. Our goal is to give you the best tools to advertise your business brand. In order to provide the BEST possible service, Most Things Techy is now offering FREE consultation for you and business! Need to learn more about a certain advertising tool? We can tell you all you need to know. For more information on this new service, just email us HERE, or simply leave us a voicemail at (702) 758-3249 and we'll return your call as soon as possible. We are a 24/7 service, so feel free to call or email any time!

Listen to the Expert

      I was able to talk to Stephen Booth, a strategist and expert on social media and technology. He currently works for Blend IMC, a global marketing team helping companies reach their advertising goals. Stephen is constantly working with media for companies and is a fantastic worker with blogs and Twitter. I asked Stephen a few questions that would be beneficial to you and your company as you seek to utilize advertising via social media for your company.

Q: Why should your company use social media?

A: "Social media is a great tool to help a company become a thought leader in their field. As a company produces quality content on a particular topic, they gain respect and more people start to look to them for answers. The goal is for their name to become synonymous with that topic in the minds of any potential customer. A company should also use social because they can generate leads through social channels. Social should be an integral part of any inbound marketing strategy. A majority of almost any company’s potential customer pool is already active on social media. When a company publishes valuable content via social channels, they are attracting and qualifying potential customers. Companies can leverage the value of their content to gain contact information from prospects, turning them into leads. Finally, companies should use social to get feeback from and have genuine conversations with customers. Social is one of the most effective ways companies have ever had at their disposal to listen to their customers. Brands can use social media to learn more about customer sentiment, how customers use their products/ services, what frustrations customers have with their products services. Smart companies engage with their customers on social and, most importantly, are quick to acknowledge their own shortcomings, address customer complaints, and make changes to their products/ services."

Q: What are the advantages and disadvantages of using social media?

A: "There are so many advantages as listed in the answer above. It would be a disadvantage if a company tried investing in their social presence but didn’t have full organizational buy-in or a content team to support their social efforts because they would probably see a very low ROI."

Q: Does the company need to hire someone to run these operations?

A: "It really depends on many factors like the company’s industry, size of the company, current organizational talent, the company’s social goals, their budget, etc. It would probably be wise for most medium to large companies to hire employees to lead social efforts. Small companies can be extremely effective on social channels, but they can probably utilize existing internal talent to lead social efforts. While social training/ consulting can be helpful to get a company started with their social efforts, social is typically most effective when handled in house."

Q: What advice would you give to a company looking to use social media to advertise their brand?

A: "Think long-term. Don’t expect to see new customers walking in the door from social media tomorrow. Social works best when integrated with an inbound strategy and inbound marketing is slower to boil, but inversely, has a long tail. Do everything with the customer’s needs/ wants in mind. Think of it in terms of making friends in real life. If you’re always hitting people over the head with your product/ service, you’ll be all alone at the bar. Put yourself in the mind of your ideal customer. How can you get him/her exactly what they want when they want it? Have a community mindset. Help others, be social, provide relevant & valuable information to the conversation. It’s not about your company, it’s about helping people meet their needs. If you help people meet their needs, they’re gonna be loyal. Get specialized. Each social network is unique. Don’t expect your Twitter strategy to work for Facebook. It’s better to optimize your presence for results on one particular channel than throw content across a myriad of social channels with little results on any. Once you’re up and running on one network, branch out and spend a month learning the next one on your strategic agenda. Social networks are not created equal. Different social networks work well for different types of businesses. Facebook is generally effective for B2C/ local businesses, but linked in often works much better for national B2B companies. Have a strategy and know why you’re investing on the social networks your on. If a majority of your potential customers are on Tumblr, it would be pointless to put all your efforts into developing your Twitter profile. Content is king. Your engagement is only going to be as good as your content. If you’re putting out weak content, people aren’t going to engage."

Social Media Tools

Should I Use Internet Advertising?

     Can the internet help my company? What would it take to get my name/brand in the top lists on a search engine? How effective is an internet or social media ad? Is it expensive? SHOULD MY BUSINESS USE THE INTERNET?
      These are common questions that any businessman would ask when considering using the power of the internet to advertise his business. As long as your business involves finding new customers, pleasing current customers, and spreading brand awareness, then the internet will most definitely be what you need to get your name out to the public. The internet is a big place, you don't need me to tell you that. There is all sorts of competition out there trying to get their brand above yours, and here is the sad part, it's working. An estimated increase of $35 billion was spent on internet ads last year, and that number is still rapidly rising. The Yellow Pages and random newspapers are not the #1 way to advertise anymore. So, if you're still investing in your black-and-white ad in the local newspaper, it's time to move on.
     Think of it this way; the internet is the Jumbotron in a sports dome and your newspaper or Yellow Pages ad is the sports ticket on the ground under your seat. Maybe someone will notice it, maybe not. Then the janitor comes along later and scoops it up in the trash. Everyone in the sports dome will see that massive screen show off their favorite superstar as he makes the final superbowl touchdown or slam-dunks the ball just before the buzzer. An average 7,017,846,922 access the internet everyday, but only 1.3-1.5 million people even pick up a newspaper.
     I'm not a Rocket Scientist, but I'd say you're catering to much larger audience on the internet than with your newspaper ad. Is the internet an excellent place to advertise your brand? That is a most definite and absolute YES. I'll share with you a few great tools to do this in the next post, so keep coming back.
-Jonathan Williquette

Keep track of business people

     Evernote Hello is an excellent way to keep track of people you meet, business clients you work with, and even meetings you had or are about to make. This application makes it easy by creating a rich, browsable history of individuals, encounters, and shared experiences. To use the app, it's as easy as 1, 2, 3.
     1. All you need to start is an email address, and the app uses LinkedIn and Facebook to get contact information and build a profile.
     2. Scan a business card and Evernote Hello imports all of the necessary information to the new profile.
     3. To schedule a meeting, all you have to do is pull in names from your contact list and the app will create a custom meeting just for you!
     Evernote Hello Connect uses the amazing power of other people's audio tones to remember a whole group of people. Remembering people has never been easier with this new app. Scan business cards to remember people and make connections! Click HERE to get more information on Evernote Hello.
-Jonathan Williquette

Advanced Facebook Marketing

Engage your fans, qualify them, and measure your performance. 

    Agora Pulse Facebook Page Advertising and CRM is the thing to have when it comes to getting your business page out the masses. The application features a wide array of options to help you get a hold of your advertising.

     This new platform offers powerful tools like Facebook Page Analytics. This allows you to follow the progression of your fanbase over time. You have the ability to see your number of fans, visibility of posts, and even the friends of your fans. Agora is also set up with something called Facebook Post Performance. This lets you measure the impact of your posts (in detail) to figure out which ones generate the most positive reactions and also lets you see the negative reactions. Have you ever wondered what to post and when to post it? Agora Pulse tells you! It can show you what type of content is reaching your fans and when, which helps you to post more effectively in the future.
     All these things seem great, and you'd better believe they are! There's one things you may have noticed that may have been overlooked. "Who's my competitor?" This is the big question that so many businesses today are asking. Makes perfect sense right? If you know who's trying to get the top spot on the market and what they're doing to get there, you can combat them in the race to succeed. What would be one of the best tools out there to help you with this? Well, you've probably already guessed it. Yup, it's Agora Pulse. Facebook Competitor Analysis helps you compare your page performance and stats to that of your competition. You can track what works and what doesn’t.
Find out who has the most audience engagement, the highest interaction rate with customers, and the most regular activity. You can also generate detailed comparisons with specific competitors via charts or graphs that allow you to see your page alongside 5 others. Who doesn't want to use that?
     This platform is a powerful tool to help you get your business page running the way it should, and to keep you up-to-date on the effectiveness of that page, while still tracking your competitors at the same time. Click HERE to see about a free trial and also check out pricing.
-Jonathan Williquette

Idea Flight

Get Your Ideas Off the Ground

     Idea Flight is an iPad application design specifically for sharing your ideas and presentations with everyone in your next business meeting. The app allows for one person(the Pilot) to control the main presentation with a group of other people (the Passengers) via bluetooth or Wi-Fi. You can kiss all those annoying extra cables goodbye.
     Everything in the presentation can be sent through the space of Wi-Fi or Bluetooth to each individual iPad in the audience. No more conference cameras and mics, other bulky equipment, or random wires.
     Another great option built into the app is the ability for the presenter to go at his or her own speed and even allow the files and such to be shared directly with their audience. Special files can be sent to evey member of the audience via Dropbox, email, or iTunes file sharing. Everything is so easy to set up and here's the awesome part: it's free.
     Idea Flight has been made by partnering with Dropbox and LinkedIn to provide you with the best business solutions for your next presentation.
-Jonathan Williquette

The Power of Social Media