Social media marketing is the practice of using social media networks and user-generated content platforms to promote a business, product or service. Social media marketing typically involves participating in conversations with a key audience instead of blatantly throwing out a sales pitch to a large number of people.

Social media marketing also includes creating and promoting content that is meant to be shared by users. The viral and personal nature of social media makes it an effective channel for product advertising, reputation management or corporate branding.

Social media facts you should know

Facebook

• The average Facebook user has 130 friends.
More than 25 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) is shared each month.
• Over 300,000 users helped translate the site through the translations application.
• 
More than 150 million people engage with Facebook on external websites every month.
• Two-thirds of comScore’s U.S. Top 100 websites and half of comScore’s Global Top 100 websites have integrated with Facebook.
• There are more than 100 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices.
• People that access Facebook via mobile are twice as active than non-mobile users (think about that when designing your Facebook page).
• The average Facebook user is connected to 60 pages, groups and events.
People spend over 500 billion minutes per month on Facebook.
• There are more than 1 million entrepreneurs and developers from 180 countries on Facebook.

Statistics from Facebook press office.

Twitter

• Twitter’s web platform only accounts for a quarter of its users – 75% use third-party apps.
• 
Twitter gets more than 300,000 new users every day.
• There are currently 110 million users of Twitter’s services.
• Twitter receives 180 million unique visits each month.
• There are more than 600 million searches on Twitter every day.
• Twitter started as a simple SMS-text service.
• 
Over 60% of Twitter use is outside the U.S.
• There are more than 50,000 third-party apps for Twitter.
• Twitter has donated access to all of its tweets to the Library of Congress for research and preservation.
• More than a third of users access Twitter via their mobile phones

Statistics from Twitter and the Chirp Conference.

LinkedIn

• LinkedIn is the oldest of the four sites in this post, having been created on May 5 2003.
• 
There are more than 70 million users worldwide.
Members of LinkedIn come from more than 200 countries from every continent.
• LinkedIn is available in six native languages – English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.
• Oracle’s Chief Financial Officer, Jeff Epstein, was headhunted for the position via his LinkedIn profile.
• 80% of companies use LinkedIn as a recruitment tool.
• 
A new member joins LinkedIn every second.
• LinkedIn receives almost 12 million unique visitors per day.
Executives from all Fortune 500 companies are on LinkedIn.
• Recruiters account for 1-in-20 LinkedIn profiles.

Stats from LinkedIn press centre and SysComm International.

YouTube

• The very first video uploaded was called “Me at the Zoo”, on 23rd April 2005.
• By June 2006, more than 65,000 videos were being uploaded every day.
• YouTube receives more than 2 billion viewers per day.
Every minute, 24 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube.
• The U.S. accounts for 70% of YouTube users.
• Over half of YouTube’s users are under 20 years old.
• 
You would need to live for around 1,000 years to watch all the videos currently on YouTube.
• 
YouTube is available in 19 countries and 12 languages.
• 
Music videos account for 20% of uploads.
YouTube uses the same amount of bandwidth as the entire Internet used in 2000.

Statistics from YouTube press centre.

Blogging

• 77% of Internet users read blogs.
• There are currently 133 million blogs listed on leading blog directory Technorati.
• 60% of bloggers are between the ages 18-44.
One in five bloggers update their blogs daily.
• Two thirds of bloggers are male.
• Corporate blogging accounts for 14% of blogs.
• 
15% of bloggers spend 10 hours a week blogging.
• More than half of all bloggers are married and/or parents.
• 
More than 50% of bloggers have more than one blog.
• 
Bloggers use an average of five different social sites to drive traffic to their blog.

Statistics from Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere 2009.

Social Media Overall Stats

• Three out of every four people in North America use social networks
• 
Internet users spend an average of 6 hours each month on social networks and view more than 800 web pages
44% of Internet users are between the age of 35 and 54
• The biggest age growth sector on Facebook is 35+
• Women are a growth area online 
51% of social network users are female and they consume about 200 pages more than men and spend an extra 2 hours online
• Online video and multimedia has grown over 300% in North America
• The average length of an online video is 3.4 minutes
• 89% of all Internet users have watched a video in the past month
• 
57% of all videos are watched on YouTube
• 
Blogs reach more than 60% of Internet users in North America
• Blogging is growing at almost twice the rate of the Internet
• 
Social networking and multimedia has a reach of more than 80% of the North American population

How to make social media marketing work for your business

A recent report from Jupiter Research has shown why most brands are failing to make impact on social networks.
Many advertisers are building branded social networking pages that broadcast content rather than invite users to interact.
 Most advertisers simply don’t know how to market properly within social networks.

A few tips on how to make social media marketing work for your business:

Building viral buzz is difficult, so instead of relying on viral marketing to get your sales message out, promote your social media pages through paid advertisement.
Engage users through simple things such as contests to keep your audience interested on your branded page.
Focus on media content instead of products. Social media users love multimedia and are more likely to visit a branded page that has entertaining media content rather than product information.

Starting your social media marketing campaign

Choose the best social media site for your business. Obviously if you are selling insurance, a social network focused on online gaming is not the best place for you to promote your business.
Sign up and create a professional profile. Look around the site and observe how people are communicating. Ask a question and see how people will respond.
Publish content that can establish you as an expert in your field. Link your social media presence to your blog or website and add promotional buttons on your pages to make it easy for readers to share your content.
Although social media marketing is becoming a trend, you should not do it because it is popular – do it because it works.

Google started in 1998, after the “big boys” in the search engine game like Yahoo and AltaVista were already well-established. At the time, few people would have bet that Google would overtake them all – but in less than five years they did exactly that. What’s even more remarkable is they did so without a bunch of hype and loud marketing. They literally built a better mousetrap and the world beat a path to their door. So what happened?

Google’s mission in life was to build a search engine that would give people exactly what they were searching for, as fast as possible. If you were searching for “Spanish Villa’s” they wanted to give you the very best and most popular Spanish Villa’s websites on the very first page of results. They developed an amazing mathematical formula for figuring out who visited websites and why, and using that information in their search engine. So … when they began to sell Pay Per Click advertising, they were extremely concerned that advertisers should also put out messages that were highly relevant. Google rewards you for being relevant, and they let people who are searching vote for you. If your ad gets clicked on, it’s relevant. If it doesn’t, it’s not. It’s that simple.

The higher your click through rate – i.e., the more folks who see your ad and click on it – the less you have to pay for the position you want. But if you write lousy ads, Google will make you pay more to get your ads to show at all. So this creates a “Darwinian” effect, a deliberate natural selection that weeds out bad advertisers and rewards good ones. What’s good for Google’s customers is good for Google and good for you. When all the dust has settled, what really matters is that your ads and your content be relevant to the keywords you’re bidding on. Your message must match what the person is thinking. So … what were they really thinking when they typed in “Spanish Villa’s?” That is the question! Figure that out and put it in front of them, and you’ll win at Google. Write an ad that matches exactly what they’re searching for and you’ll beat your competitors by a country mile.

A Valuable Little Piece of Customer Psychology for You:

Here’s a little mental trick (a check list if you like) to help you write Google ads….

1. Imagine that you are not you. You are your customer.
2. You’re not the person with the perfect solution.  You’re the person with the problem.
3. You’ve got an itch and you want to scratch it.
4. And you’re not in front of your computer.
5. You’re sitting in front of their computer.
6. What do you type into the search bar on Google?
7. And what do you hope will come up? Answer that question and you’ll be successful marketing online.

More information that can help follows right here:
“How to Cut Your Bid Prices by NINETY PERCENT – Plus a Permanent Solution to Keywords Made ‘Inactive.’”

• Landing pages.
• Micro sites.
• Website facelifts.
• Complete website re-design.
• Complete Website re-build.
• Complete Website management.

• Very cost effective and competative. (See prices at the bottom of this page)
• Excellent strategic planning.
• Optimised for search engines.
• Professional project management.
• Strong branding.
• Compelling copy.
• Well chosen images.
• Intelligent site architecture.
• Clear Call to Actions (CTAs) resulting in maximum visitor conversion rates.

• Clear Strategic Plan Our experienced web design team will lead you through a comprehensive workshop(s) and then prepare a detailed web plan.
• Professional Project Management Combining a meticulous work ethic, with our years of experience and expertise, produces professional web project management skills which produces results that consistently delivers successful projects on time and to budget.
• Constructed to invite and engage NetIntel’s website design service integrates seamlessly with our Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) service. Your new site will have the inherant trates that maximise the potential to achieve superlative long-term search engine versitility and visibility to naturally invite and engage a strong flow of targeted visitor traffic.
• Designed to convert Utilising clear Call to Actions (CTAs) strong branding, compelling copy, sharp professional images, Intelligent site architecture with clear CTAs, we maximise visitor to sales/enquiry conversion rates.

Company’s who professionally and intelligently manage their email database of existing customers and potential new customers, can see as much as 80% of their company’s total sales revenue come from back-end sales i.e. Their database of existing and prospective clients. The other 20% of total sales revenue comes from their front end sales.

NetIntel will help your company to cultivate and intelligently utilise your email database. We will blend creative, targeted and measurable email marketing campaigns into your marketing mix, that will build relationships, promote brand awareness and drive sales. In addition, NetIntel will track and report on a diversity of key performance indicators, including Open Rates, Click Through Rates and Conversion Rates.

NetIntel create, design and send high-impact emails that are of intrinsic value and interest to your subscribers. The objective is to position you as the authority in your marketplace in addition to maximising your ability to up-sell and retain existing customers, while simultaneously gaining new ones.

Email marketing campaigns are managed and distributed via NetIntel’s email management system.

Email Marketing – The NetIntel methodology

NetIntel’s intelligently managed solution from start to finish:

• NetIntel will direct your email concept, design, copywriting, hosting, mail out and reporting requirements.
• NetIntel leverage the most advanced technology along with, the depth and power of email to improve and establish your customer relationships and brand awareness.
• NetIntel deliver emails that are received, opened, read and acted upon.
• NetIntel perform progressive email testing to ensure maximum delivery and open rates.
• NetIntel use advanced tracking and reporting processes and procedures that ensure email campaigns are effective and profitable.
• NetIntel have the ability to overcome technical and delivery obstacles (spam filters etc).

NetIntel’s Email Marketing campaign construction process and timeline.

• Email Requirements capture
• Campaign strategy and planning
• Copywriting
• Concept design
• Email template build and proofing
• Campaign configuration
• Test mailings
• Database import
• First mailing
• Email response measurement, reporting & review
• Campaign management

On average it can take take upto 2 weeks from requirements capture to first mailing depending on your requirements and the nature of the campaign.

NetIntel, bespoke email marketing campaign solutions for each client. We will estimate the work required to thoroughly establish and launch your email marketing campaign. NetIntel provide a fixed-price quotation detailing the set-up and monthly costs of your email marketing campaign.

• Free website optimisation analysis reports and recommendations.
• Free website conversion optimisation and tracking analysis.
• Free Post lead conversion to sales optimisation analysis and reporting.
• Economies of scale. Leverage our volume to lower your Cost Per Click (CPC).
• Lower your staffing costs.
  
• Accessible Account Managers & a team of Google professionals.
• Our experienced team utilise advanced optimisation techniques.
• Proactive idea generation and recommendations.
• Detailed reporting and campaign analysis.
• Flexible trading terms.
  

Our approach to Pay Per Click advertising maximises Click Through Rates (CTR’s), minimises your Cost Per Click (CPC), achieves the lowest possible Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) therefore, maximizing your Return on Investment (ROI).

NetIntel’s Pay Per Click (PPC) construction process & timeline

• Requirements capture
• Keyword Research & Selection
• Copywriting
• Conversion tracking code set-up and inserted (if required)
  
• Google analytics set-up and inserted (if required)
• Deep linking strategy composed
  
• Building your PPC campaign
• PPC Campaign optimisation
• Campaign management

New Pay per click advertising campaigns can be up and running within a few hours, and it takes just 1-2 weeks for a new PPC campaign to start yielding comprehensive results.

PPC investment required

NetIntel Marketing offers a variety of PPC service fee options to suit your needs. NetIntel Marketing can work on a percentage of your PPC budget, on a fixed service fee basis or a mix of both. Whatever your needs, the team at NetIntel Marketing will be more then happy to assist.

Automated customer attraction & retention…

More traffic, leads and conversions… Now

The key benefits of outsourcing your Search Engine Marketing to NetIntel are:

• Free website optimisation analysis reports and recommendations.
• Free website conversion optimisation and tracking analysis.
• Free Post lead conversion to sales optimisation analysis and reporting.
• Economies of scale. Leverage our volume to lower your Cost Per Click (CPC).
• Accessible Account Managers & a team of Google professionals.
• Our experienced team utilise advanced optimisation techniques.
• Proactive idea generation and recommendations.
• Detailed reporting and campaign analysis
• An efficient and comprehensive Link Building Strategy.
• Quick resolution to challenging SEO issues.
• Access to a team of SEO professionals and an Account Manager.
• Benefit from NetIntel’s meticulous, ethical but aggressive SEO methodology.
• NetIntel’s proactive approach to identifying niche search areas.
• Detailed reporting and campaign analysis.
• NetIntel takes full responsibility for results.
• Lower your staffing costs.
• Flexible trading terms.
  

Companies can build visibility on search engines, such as Google, through either paid or natural listings. On Google, the paid listings appear as ‘sponsored links’ down the right-hand side of the natural listings. Depending on the search query, up to three listings may also be displayed in a shaded area above the natural listings.

The means of building visibility via paid listings is called Pay-Per-Click (PPC), while the process of building natural / organic search engine visibility is calledSearch Engine Optimisation (SEO). NetIntel Marketing offers both PPC and SEO services.

NetIntel offer a variety of SEM service fee options. Most SEM programs require an upfront implementation fee and a retainer for monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly SEM work. Whatever your needs, the team at NetIntel will be more then happy to assist.

• Free initial website SEO check.
• Key Phrase Analysis including competitor analisis.
• Weekly reporting, client SERP progress on Google.
• Articles, authoring and submission to news agencies of relevant keyword rich articles.
• An efficient and comprehensive Link Building Strategy. Learn More Watch our Case Study Video
• Quick resolution to challenging SEO issues.
• Lower your staffing costs.
• Access to a team of SEO professionals and an Account Manager.
• Benefit from NetIntel’s meticulous, ethical but aggressive SEO methodology.
• NetIntel’s proactive approach to identifying niche search areas.
• Detailed reporting and campaign analysis.
• NetIntel takes full responsibility for results.

NetIntel’s SEO Proceedure & Timeline

The primary components of our proven SEO methodology are:

• Keyword Research & Selection
• Competitor Analysis
• Link Building Campaign
• Site Optimisation – Immediate and Ongoing
• Building of ‘PageRank’ – Immediate & Ongoing
• Tracking, Measuring & Reporting

All immediate implementation tasks are normally completed within 1 to 2 weeks. Implementation is normally followed by monthly or bi-monthly bursts of further search engine optimisation. Link Building and building PageRank, for your site’s search engine popularity, is an ongoing process.

Your search engine rankings will start to move within 2 to 4 weeks of immediate implementation tasks. Depending on your current PageRank and the level of competition in your industry, it can take anything from 2 to 6 months to deliver top rankings from SEO. We will advise the amount of time and investment required.

NetIntel offer a variety of SEO service fee options. Most SEO programs require an upfront implementation fee and a retainer for monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly SEO work. Whatever your needs, the team at NetIntel will be more then happy to assist.