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Be Tech-Savvy but People-Friendly

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

We here at Promoting Group are always encouraging our clients and other business owners to be tech-savvy and to keep up-to-date with the latest multimedia trends and innovations. It is important to network through social media sites, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace for both networking purposes and also to let your clients know that you are in full knowledge of all the latest internet marketing and socializing trends. It is important that you can communicate with your customers on any technological level—through email, Twitter, Google Chat, Skype, instant message, text message, voice message, or message board. It is important to make sure your website is streamlined, user-friendly, and full of useful content. There should be no questions about your company or what services you offer—your website should answer all of those in an up-front and concise manner. These are the markings of a technology- and internet-savvy company, and a modern marketing and PR plan.

While it is immensely important for any company in this day and age to take advantage of internet, technology, and social media marketing advances, it is just as important to maintain traditional customer-service skills. Websites, technological innovations and communication devices, and social media networks are meant to enhance customer service and customer interaction, not replace them. It is imperative that a customer can access your services and information via a website, but it is just as imperative that a customer can call your offices and receive helpful, friendly customer service via the phone from a real person, not a computer-automated messaging service.

Even the most technologically-savvy of us have felt the frustration of being “locked out” of a company. There are contact forms, Frequently Asked Questions lists, question robots, and automated messaging systems everywhere, but sometimes nothing can compete with good old human interaction. Up-to-date technology systems show customers that you are modern, knowledgeable, and scientifically advanced; this will draw customers to your business. Friendly, helpful, person-to-person customer service shows customers that you care; this will keep your customers coming back.

So keep moving forward with social media networking, internet marketing, and technological advancements. This will keep your company looking fresh, working efficiently, and growing with the times. However, never forget the grass-roots of any successful business—customer service. Answer your customers’ questions, make friends with your clients, and always be ready to offer friendly customer service from a real person. There is nothing quite as impressive as a company with the newest technology, but there is nothing quite as comforting as a sympathetic and helpful ear.

Pidgin

Wednesday, May 6th, 2009

Any successful marketing plan in today’s day and age must include a solid social media network. The web has taken over the world of networking, media, public relations, communications, and virtually (no pun intended) every form of marketing there is. However, with the world of social media continually growing and changing, it can be hard to keep up, especially for those who are unfamiliar with the topic in the first place.

Promoting Group has found a great software application, however, that allows you to combine several instant messaging programs that are found on the top social networking sites. Pidgin allows you to use one screen name to log on to a whole variety of instant messaging programs, including AIM, Facebook Chat, Google Chat, Bonjour, MSN Messenger, MySpaceIM, and Yahoo! Messenger among others. Pidgin is free, easy to use, can be downloaded directly from their website, and has won the Linux Journal Readers’ Choice Award for Favorite Communications Tool for the second year running, ahead of Skype.

By using Pidgin, you have the ability to keep all of your instant messaging programs straight, and you can be available for chat, file-sharing, and profile-viewing without having to log into each one separately. This will increase the number of people with whom you can communicate instantly, and you will not have to worry about lack of communication due to use of different programs. You can also impress your clients and customers with your vast social networking knowledge by immediately having access to sixteen instant messaging programs just through the use of Pidgin.

While most people tend to use one of the AIM, MSN Messenger, Facebook Chat, or Google Chat instant messaging programs, it can never hurt to branch out to those who use the less common programs, such as Groupwise. However, keeping track of sixteen different programs is nearly impossible in itself, let alone attempting to be available for communication on all sixteen at once. Pidgin allows you to combine your lists of contacts from each separate program into one list, separated by original application, in one window on your desktop. When singing into your Pidgin account, you will appear signed in to all of your other accounts, so you can communicate with others who have AIM or Google Chat regardless of whether they also are using Pidgin.

Check out the Pidgin website today and try it out for yourself. Like we said, it is free and easy to use, and easy to remove if you decide it is not for you. We think you will find it extremely useful!

7 Reasons Why Waking Up 1-Hour Earlier Helps With Social Media Networking

Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009

Waking up 60-minutes earlier each morning can be enough to keep your friends and followers updated on the most recent events and topics about your company. I have listed 7 reasons that I recommend to businesses that would like to improve there web presences through social networks should follow. In each business, social media networking tactics differs and the amount of time spent on each may vary, but the importance of keeping your networks updated with alerts apply to all business types.

1.    Write a blog post. Each morning when you wake up, turn on your computer and research the latest news and hottest topics to formulate a blog post about your nich. Remember to always write about what your blog niche is about and do not branch off to other topics that do not pertain to your audience. Think about posts that you can cover through out the day and takes notes on them, so when you wake up you can write transform all your notes into a post. Be sure to write about something radical and new. This process may take a longer time than what is stated below and that’s okay because your posts should be memorable and cross referenced by your readers.

Total time – 15 minutes

2.    Write tweets. Keep your followers updated about your blog post and the most recent news update about your company. Each business uses Twitter in their own unique way, so once you find the most effective way of utilizing Twitter that works for you - make it your best friend.

Total time – 5 minutes

3.    Update all of your statuses on all social network platforms by logging onto your  Ping.fm. This platform works wonders because it removes the task of you manually updating all your statuses. It reaches to a much broader audience because each of your reader base has a different preference of what network they check on a daily basis, so this caters to all of them to bring quality traffic to your site.

Total time – 5 minutes

4.    Log onto to the social network that you are most social and have the most friends and partners. Read all your messages, and reply back to them. Be sure to converse with your friends and comment on their message boards of your friends’ profiles. The purpose of this task is to keep into contact with the people who follow uou. Keep your fan base happy and more people will follow you and be your friend organically.

Total time – 10 minutes

5.    Make new contacts. Make it a priority to make new contacts each day. If it’s either on Facebook, LinkedIn, or any other social network, attempt to find people with similar interests that you can network with. There are so many people at your disposal that you can easily get into touch. Add people who will find your information important and that you can form a relationship with.

Total time – 10 minutes

6.    Respond to whoever that left you a comment on your blog and other social network platforms. One of the most important factors is to keep in close contact with your followers, henceforth, it is important to get back to them as soon as possible. The whole point of this process is to be social in your networks and use the platforms as a form of media to get the word out.

Total time – 10 minutes

7.    Review. After you have completed all your social networking tasks. Be sure and go back to make sure that everything is done correctly. Keep all your tabs open in order to easily go back in order not to spend time logging back into your accounts.

Total time – 5 minutes

Why Twitter is Awesome for Business

Thursday, February 26th, 2009

I have been asked many times about the usefulness of Twitter in business. The answer really lies in your customer base. It is important to be where your customers are and if your customers are using social media websites then that is where you should be as well. Social Media is not a kid’s game and more and more people are joining social communities like Twitter, Myspace, Facebook, and LinkedIn. It is important to know your customer and build relationships with them. Having a presence on Twitter should not be about advertising it should be about connecting with your customers and learning from them. Twitter is useful for a variety of reasons it can aid in customer service, marketing, News updates, and driving traffic to your websites.

As I stated Twitter is not a forum to sale products. Marketing yourself or your business is a little different in this space. You can still create brand identity and develop new customers and business partners, but it must be done in a new way. You cannot simply try to sell people on your product you must offer cool and useful information to the community in order to develop a following. The self-serving business will not find twitter useful you have to be useful to others in this space and offer something to the community. If you do not offer value to the community you are not much better than a spammer. If you offer advice, tips, or instant updates on the status of your business people will start to follow your company and you will have a successful social media campaign.

Here are some ways a Twitter post can aid in your business:

  • Customer Service: Easy questions can be answered using this forum
  • Branding and Relationships: Keeping people updated (sale announcements, customer feedback, nforming people of emergencies)
  • Direct sales: “30% off using product code XYZ”
  • Consumer Products: Announcing the launched a new product
  • Retail Information: You can get consumer feedback and learn what is working.

As we have seen, more and more people are joining spaces like Twitter. As social media continues to become more mainstream, it will be important for companies to view this as another channel to communicate with their Customers. But remember, you get as much out of social media as you put in, be useful, provide value, and always be rethinking how you want to interact with customers.

 

About Promoting Group

Who We Are: Promoting Group is an internet marketing company whose priority is to make your organization rise above the competition. We are a group of talented and dedicated individuals with a passion for marketing and demonstrated skill in public relations and search engine optimization. We will custom-tailor marketing strategies that are right for you and ...

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