Social media is emerging as an important marketing channel driven by increased consumer adoption of social media technologies and the exponential growth in digital word-of-mouth that is occurring over this medium.

Before deploying the right social media strategy for your business, it’s important to understand first how social media influences people’s purchase:

1. Reading a consumer generated review about a personal online on blogs
2. Reading an expert’s review about a product online (authority bloggers)
3. Special deals on company Facebook Fan page
4. Special deals on Twitter
5. Friends’ interactions at companies’ Facebook Fan page (comment, “likes”, wall posting, contest participation)
6. Friends’ status update about a product on Facebook
7. Tweets about a product on Twitter

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

Also read:Top Social Media Tactics for Facebook and Twitter

It’s a strange world. Yesterday, someone asked me for social network marketing strategies; and, today another “convincingly” told me (probably convinced by himself) that social networking sites are not for business at all.

Are Consumers Spending A Lot of Time on Social Media?

When it comes to social networking, more consumers are doing it and doing it for longer periods of time. The latest numbers from Nielsen Online indicate that consumers spend 17% of their online time with social networks in August. That is an 11% increase over 2008.

Not convincing enough to you?

A September 2009 study from Retrevo found that among those under age 35, 39% of Twitter users and 27% of Facebook users checked the sites at least 10 times every day.

Do consumers welcome brands on social media?

More than welcome, in fact.

Performics released a study last week and it found that marketers who embrace the medium and communicate relevant messages in consumers’ language and on their terms could gain customers and grow sales. It also found out:

• 34% of respondents have used a search engine to find information on a product/service/brand after seeing an advertisement on a social networking site
• 30% of respondents have learned about a NEW product, service or brand from a social networking site
• 32% of respondents said messages about printable coupons on social sites resonate with them
• 28% of respondents said messages about sales or special deal notifications resonate with them
• 46% of respondents say they would talk about or recommend a product on Facebook
• 44% of Twitter users have recommended a product
• 36% of YouTube users say that they have gone to an online retailer or ecommerce site after learning about a brand on a social network site

Facts of Social Media Influence

20% of U.S. consumers between the ages of 18 and 24 were influenced by online video when it came to choosing a bank.

29% having commented on a product or brand on a blog and 27% having posted an opinion on a social networking profile.

57% of 18- to 24-year-olds and 48.5% of 25- to 34-year-olds say social media influenced their choice of a hair salon or day spa.

According to a study by GroupM Search and comScore, Internet searchers who use social media are more engaged with brands overall and are more likely to be looking for places to buy and brands to consider. It also found consumers exposed to both a brand’s influenced social media and paid search spent almost three times more time online than the average internet users.

Don’t be shy and do not give up the immense opportunity for engaging with consumers on social networking sites. It’s now not a question of whether or not you should get involved in social media, but how.

Also read:Social Media Marketing Articles To Help You Get Started In Social Marketing

Dec 1 is Cyber Monday for 2008 if you haven’t known yet. comScore reported last year the heaviest online spending day of the season was Cyber Monday (November 26 2007) with $733 million in sales.

What is Cyber Monday?

The term Cyber Monday refers to the Monday immediately following Black Friday, the ceremonial kick-off of the holiday online shopping season in the United States between Thanksgiving Day and Christmas. The premise was that consumers would return to their offices after the Black Friday weekend, making purchases online that they were not able to make in stores.

Cyber Monday is considered the biggest online shopping day of the year. If your business does have online capabilities of selling to consumers, you should get prepared for Cyber Monday.

Tips for Preparing for Cyber Monday

• Learn from the past by referring to the sales data and web analytics log.
• Make sure your website can handle a huge increase in traffic.
• As the traffic is likely to increase, you should allocate enough budget. If you run PPC ad like AdWords, make sure you up the daily budget.
• If you have a special promotion on that day, make sure you reflect it in your ad copy.
• Be clear about delivery dates and ordering deadlines.
• Test. Make sure everything is working! Don’t do things like usability testing as this is not the right time.

CyberMonday – Compare 2008 to 2007 Home pages (Download it here)

Bonus: On Cyber Monday in 2007, 45.5% of all online retail spending came from work locations, edging out the 44.1% of spending from home (source: comScore). Also, find out “Black Friday vs. Cyber Monday Shopping Differs by Generation“.

Update (Dec 3 2008): comScore reported that in 2008 Cyber Monday saw $846 million in online spending, up 15 percent.

Update 2 (Dec 9 2008): check out how satisfied shoppers were on this Cyber Monday as well as Nielsen’s findings (PDF).

Also read:Are You Ready for Black Friday?

News

• Dell has selected WPP Group to co-create a stand-alone agency [PRWeek]
  Dell to form agency with WPP to handle all marketing; will invest $4.5 billion over three years
• Compete Inc released Behavior Matchâ„¢ [Compete via BizReport]
  The platform uses behavioral targeting to determine which websites are the best bet for marketers based on the audience viewing specific sites. Reports are available throughout the life of the campaign so that marketers can make spot changes as new information is gained.
• Advertising on PDF Document [Adobe]
• Coke’s Efforts In Online Virtual World [Read/WriteWeb]

Research

• Consumers respond to direct mail online [Vertis Communications]
  Twenty-one percent of total adults in 2007 have responded to direct mail advertising in the past month by visiting a sender’s Web site, up from 14 percent in 2003. Additionally, findings revealed older men’s responsiveness to direct mail advertising through the Internet has grown the most, with 28 percent of men ages 55-64 indicating this behavior, up from 10 percent in 2003, and 15 percent of men 65 and older exhibiting the same pattern, up from 5 percent in 2003.
• Shoppers Like Recommendations From Online Retailers [Choice Stream]
  “The results of the 2007 survey clearly show how important it is for online retailers to help consumers with product discovery. Personalized recommendations are table stakes in today’s competitive ecommerce environment. But retailers that provide customers with poor quality recommendations are putting their brand and revenue at risk,” said Toffer Winslow, EVP of Sales and Marketing at ChoiceStream. “Online shoppers increasingly expect help with making selections, and retailers that provide high quality guidance are rewarded with higher consumer spending and more frequent visits.”
• Marketing to a B2B Technical Buyer [Enquiro]
• 2008 B2B Marketing Forecast: Rise in Budgets, Online Spending [MarketingCharts]
  Most B2B marketers (some 60%) plan to increase their 2008 marketing budgets – but fully 79% plan to increase their online marketing budgets, according to BtoB magazine’s “2008 Marketing Priorities and Plans” study, scheduled for release Monday.

Search Engine Marketing

• Google has launched a free tool called Template Center via My Client Center
  It allows MCC account managers to create templates for pre-defined AdWords campaigns and share them with their directly linked AdWords accounts.
• Google introduced AdWords Local PlusBox
  The Local PlusBox is a feature that displays more geographical information for a local business ad that appears in the top position above Google search results. When users see the Local PlusBox and click on it, the ad expands to include a map, address, driving instructions, and phone number, in addition to the location name that appears beneath the last line of ad.
• Microsoft launched adExcellence Accreditation Program [via adcenter blog]
• Optimizing your keywords for the content network [Inside AdWords]
  Create a manageable, targeted keyword list; use tightly themed ad groups; use duplicate keywords for appropriate ad groups; use ad group level URLs instead of keyword level URLs; measure content performance at the ad group level; build a comprehensive negative keyword list.
• SES Chicago 2007 Wrap Up & Pubcon 2007 Round-Up [Online Marketing Blog]
  also here at Search Engine Roundtable
• Paid v. Organic Search Tool Launches [Hitwise]
• Video: Matt Cutts Discusses the Importance of alt Tags
  

Social Media / Viral Marketing / Word of Mouth

• YouTube launched Video Holiday Cards [via Mashable]
  YouTube has just added an interesting feature: Holiday Video Cards. Typically when you see greeting card options online, it’s an animation you can choose from, or a really cute picture of a puppy wearing a Santa hat. For certain occasions, we’ve even seen JibJab, among others, offer funny clips you can send out to friends. At first glance of YouTube’s holiday video cards’ page, you’d think the same was true for the popular video-sharing network. But in fact, you can send any video as a holiday greeting.
• 125 Social Bookmarking Sites : Importance of User Generated Tags, Votes and Links [search engine journal]

Display Advertising

• Types, Sizes, Rates & Metrics [MarketingSherpa]
• Copywriting, Design Tips & Ad Networks + How to Counter ‘Banner Blindness’ [MarketingSherpa]

Marketing

• Art of War [MIT]

Also read:Weekly Online Marketing Resources Dec-02-07

They are originally these tips from shop.org for buyers. Here we go:

1. Be trustworthy.
   • Make sure the phone number on the website is working and make sure someone would pick up the phone and give a good impression over the phone.
   • Use Google Alerts to monitor the buzz.
   • List your privacy policy on the website and show how your website uses and shares users’ personal information. A BBBonline seal would be helpful.
2. Clearly specify your return policy. “100% refund; no question asked” would be attractive; and, you would be surprised at the ratio of users asking for return (of course, make sure your products are as good as it’s described).
3. Carefully describe the product details. Don’t expect your buyer to take the trouble to ask questions (yes, you need channel for communications) or purchase without clearly understanding about your product.
4. Build a quality website without pop-ups, pop-unders, spywares, or spams.
5. Make sure your online transactions are securely encrypted. A Hacker Safe logo would show your confidence.
6. Provide multiple ways for online payment. PayPal, Western Union, credit card…People have different habits.
7. Offer competitive incentives like discount and free shipping.
8. Keep buyers notified about success of payment and send them receipt and allow receipt printing online as well.
9. Test and improve.

Also read:7 Google Alerts Tips For Your Business