Catalyst Marketers

Social Media Marketing 

Quotes by industry leaders...

• "To maximize Twitter for business, a company should consider hiring a virtual assistant who will be able to focus on the social media and really spend time on growing your brand's online presence as well as increase all your online activities. Increasing your company's online activities will help raise your company's online profile." - Lawrence Perry
  
  Let Catalyst Marketers be your Virtual Assistant. Give us a call to find out how we can help drive success for your online marketing strategies.
• "Regardless of which site is in the lead (MySpace or Facebook), 2009 is the year of building social marketing strategy," says Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, Social Network Ad Spending: A Brighter Outlook Next Year. "2010 and beyond will see increased activity and deployments."
• "Social media is a great way to grow a market. It's obviously changing the way businesses connect with customers," said Pete Cashmore. He's CEO and founder of mashable.com, arguably the world's biggest blog for social media news and views.
• "The economy may be stagnant, but we're reminding people we're still here," said Mitch Downey, manager for Planet Smoothie at the Coconut Point shopping center in Estero. He's using Twitter to post weekly specials and upcoming tastings in which the Smoothie team goes to a local gym to give out samples.
  
  "Quite a few of the Apple (computer) store employees come in" after a message or "tweet" goes out on Twitter, Downey said.
• Establishing an authentic presence in social media is where many marketers fall down, according to Shiv Singh, vice president and global social media lead at Razorfish. "Most brands aren't doing it successfully," he said in an interview last week.
• "Like a physician on call, to be appreciated by your constituents in social media is to be open for business practically 24/7." - Bob Cargill
• According to Rich Brooks President of a company that specializes in search and social media marketing, "For small businesses looking to increase their online visibility, combining search engine optimization (SEO) with social media marketing can create a powerful mix that will help grow your business."
  
  Richard Brooks concludes: "Search and social media are essential components of a Web marketing campaign for small business; mix in email marketing, a Web site that converts visitors into customers and analytics to measure your success and you've got an unbeatable marketing strategy that will help your business grow and thrive."
• "Used properly, Twitter is a great way to create new and strengthen existing relationships. And, after all, that's how you grow a business!" - Margie Zable Fisher, President of Zable Fisher Public Relations, a small business public relations firm
• Blanchard calls social media "word-of-mouth on steroids."
  
  "Traditional marketing has been interrupted," he said. "The Web no longer belongs to marketing. %u2026 People have the power now, thanks to social media -- which is why social media is not a fad: There's too much power." - Olivier Blanchard, the self-styled "brand builder,"
• "Social Media is like networking - time consuming, no IMMEDIATE ROI, but indispensable for business." - YukaiChou of www.Viralogy.com
• "Small businesses typically get more than half of their customers through word of mouth, he said, and Twitter is the digital manifestation of that. Twitter users broadcast messages of up to 140 characters in length, and the culture of the service encourages people to spread news to friends in their own network." - Greg Sterling, an analyst who studies the Internet's influence on shopping and local businesses.
• "And if you are a small business person trying to market yourself online you will not make much headway without developing a social media strategy. It is almost a necessity now (and I would certainly add "recommended"). Make that highly recommended." - Caroline Melberg Small Biz Mavericks
• "If you ask me, the key to being successful with social media is patience, perseverance and pushing past the so-called "Dip," a difficult stretch of time (invariably the beginning) when the going can be tough and the rewards may appear few." - Bob Cargill of A New Marketing Commentator blog
• "Social media marketing is here to stay and can bring tremendous value to those who know how to leverage it. From gaining new clients, to gaining visibility, branding, and credibility, not to mention leads, social media marketing is one activity that everyone needs to "find" time for and "create" a budget for." - Nipa Shah
• "Web 2.0 technologies can help you make a virtual community that keeps your business top of mind for your fans and lets your fans help you engage new prospective customers," says Chris Warner, vice-president of marketing for JackBe, a small software firm based in Chevy Chase, Md.
• "Social networks are a constantly changing database of consumer sentiment, attitudes and information, and marketers today have only the earliest glimpse of the potential," said Ms. Williamson. "Companies that want to maximize their presence on the social Web must take advantage of social networks in all stages of the purchase funnel, from awareness to learning to buying to loyalty."