This has made it important for brands to establish a presence online, specifically in social channels where customers come together to find, explore and interact.

For any marketing to be effective, there is a need to develop a strategy behind the efforts. Where does one begin? Below are some steps to follow for creating a Social Media Strategy.

• Identify your goals – Keep in mind that marketing is effective if results meet or exceed goals or objectives previously set. Thus, the first step in developing a strategy is to identify the business’ digital marketing goals and tie these to the organisation’s overarching goals. The marketing that will be developed will then aim to achieve the goals set.

• Define target audience – The second step is to determine who the customers are. This involves defining your customer segments, making profiles of each segment then mapping out their customer journey. This will allow you to determine, what messages and tactics will be most appropriate and effective.

• Conduct research to see what’s working – Chances are, your competitors are utilizing social to create awareness and increase conversions. The beauty in this is that you can conduct a competitor check to get a glimpse of how they are using social to see what is effective. You can then consider the findings when deciding on the tactics and social media channels to infiltrate.

• Select the most appropriate social channels and tactics – Once you have gained a full understanding of who your customers are and their purchasing behaviour, it is time to select the most appropriate social channels to be active in. Some research may be beneficial at this stage to match the demographics and interests of customers to the social channels.

• Confirm message – What is it that you are trying to relay to your customers and what action would you like them to take? Based on your customer understanding, develop and confirm a message that will appeal to your target audience to entice them to act on your prompts.

• Create a content plan – The content published through your social pages should always be relevant to your target market and should always offer valuable information.

• Measure results – Gather data on your efforts. One way is to enlist in tools that have analysing capabilities.

Social Media Marketing can become an effective marketing method. However, engaging with customers through social media should be calculated . There should be a plan behind it for it to be useful.

The post What you need to know about Social Media Marketing appeared first on Reload Consulting.

In fact, Social Media is well on it’s way to becoming the next economic bubble.

And what’s remarkable is that we’re only just a decade on from the dot-com burst, which saw Internet stocks wiped of close to three-quarters of their total value in a matter of weeks. The lessons from this crash have seemingly been forgotten amid the mad scramble for social media stocks.

Before looking at the numbers, a quick crash course in stock valuation. Most companies (particularly those without tangible assets – like a lot of web companies) are valued based on revenues and profit margins, taking into account growth rate and the potential for future profits to continue long term. That’s an oversimplified explanation, but it’s worth keeping that in mind before looking at the actual numbers being thrown around.

The real key point is the “potential for future profits to continue” because that’s what essentially causes a bubble. Overconfidence in a stock’s future or “speculation.”

Let’s look at the facts:

LinkedIn

LinkedIn went public in May. Initially, it set an asking price of $32 per share. At the time, analysts were calling this overpriced, as it valued the company at around $3 billion, a giant amount when you considered the company’s total revenues were just over $240 million (meaning profit would likely be around a third of that).

Despite this, the asking price was increased to $45 per share just days before the float (adding another billion or so to the company’s value). At this stage, everyone who could work a calculator was double checking their maths.

However, what’s incredible is that on the opening day of trade, the stocks opened at $83 and soared to a high of around $120 per share by midday. At that point, the company was valued at $9.7 billion, close to $7 billion more than what it was worth before the day’s trade and a whopping 40 times its annual revenue.

Social Games

Rumours are currently circulating that social games developer Zynga (think Farmville) is currently filing for an IPO with speculation they’re aiming for a market value of between $15-$20 billion. This would make them the most valued games developer in the world, surpassing Electronic Arts (which incidentally has revenues of around $4 billion) and putting their total value at the same level as Yahoo.

Again, what’s staggering is that Zynga’s revenues are estimated at $850 million (with a rumoured $400 million in profit).

Around this time last year, they were valued at $5.5 billion. So a threefold increase in less than 12 months.

On a smaller scale, PopCap games (makers of Plants v Zombies), have just been acquired (by EA Games no less) for $750 million, despite the company turning over just $100 million in revenues.

Facebook

Speculation is also mounting that Facebook, Social Media’s current champion, is also planning for an IPO worth somewhere in the vicinity of $100 billion. This is despite the company reporting revenues of around $4 billion.

Now Facebook has been growing at an incredible rate, so some might call that valuation justified. But consider that Facebook growth has slowed worldwide for two consecutive months now and total user numbers have actually dropped in the US, UK, Canada, Russia and Norway.

Facebook says they are now focused on increasing “time on site and engagement” rather than raw user numbers but the simple fact remains that they are basically hitting the ceiling of how many people are getting onboard.

This, coupled with the new threat of Google+, makes the 25 times multiplier of revenue to company valuation seem ludicrous. Having said that, my prediction is that their actual IPO valuation will be much higher than $100 billion by the time it rolls around.

The other big consideration with Facebook is how Mark Zuckerberg will deal with the scrutiny of being a publicly listed company. Zuckerberg has already publicly said that he wants to keep his hands firmly on the steering wheel, but that raises another question. Is he going to continue as CEO?

CEOs of publicly listed companies have enormous responsibilities to shareholders and boards, not to mention all the compliance and regulatory requirements that come with it.

This was exactly the reason why Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page brought in Eric Schmidt to be the company’s CEO in 2001, as software engineers rarely make good CEOs.

It’s hard to see Zuckerberg making that call, which also brings into question their long-term revenue potential.

Google+

Even Google is not immune from social media speculation, with Google shares adding $20 billion to the market cap in the first week after it was announced.

Google+ has so far grabbed around 20 million users in its first few weeks following launch, and whilst the revenue potential for Google+ is apparent, it’s yet to make its first dollar.

The Warning Signs

MySpace anyone?

The once great social media site was bought by Rupert Murdoch for $580m a few short years ago, only to be sold for $35 million earlier this year.

At one point, analysts were valuing it at close to $1 billion, and it’s now at less than 4% of that. However, MySpace revenues were at $600 million at the time of that valuation, making its valuation a modest 1.7 times its revenues. Yet, despite the relatively low valuation (by 2011 social media standards), it still turned out to be about 25 times too high.

And then, of course, there’s the fact we’ve been through this before. In the late 90’s all a business had to do was add an ‘e-‘ to the start of their name or a ‘.com’ to the end and watch the masses fight for shares.

At the peak of the boom, Yahoo shares were worth $118 a piece. Following the crash, they were worth $4.

So When Will it Happen?

If I knew that, I’d be keeping it to myself and making a fortune on stock trades.

My best guess is around two years from now. It won’t happen until after the Facebook float and is likely to be triggered by a high profile collapse or downswing in revenues with one of the biggest players that causes a mass exodus.

We’ll have to wait and see… but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

The post The Great Social Media Bubble appeared first on Reload Consulting.

Take Toyota and Lexus for example, which are both car brands of Toyota Motor Corporation with very different positioning strategies. A Toyota Camry and a Lexus IS may be comparable in shape and size, but the two models are designed and marketed to reach two different consumer groups. The Camry is for consumers wanting reliability and economy, and the IS is for high-end consumers wanting prestige and luxury.

When you take a proactive approach to your product positioning, you can influence the market on how they perceive your product. Failure to actively promote and position your product will inevitably result in the market doing it for you, and this can be detrimental to your company’s ability to gain a strong competitive position.

So how do you position your product?

First, you need to select the target market that will be most receptive to your product’s positioning. Segmentation decisions are instrumental in developing your company’s product positioning strategy.

Knowing your target market allows you to effectively position your product to meet the needs of that specific market. With this in mind, you are then able to develop and implement more cost-effective and efficient marketing strategies.

Once you have determined your target market and their needs, you need to formulate a positioning strategy that will appeal to the targeted demographic. You must decide how you want to position your product in the minds of your targeted customers.

A solid understanding of your market and your competitors will assist in being better able to position your product. Comparing your product’s features to that of your competitors and identifying your unique selling points is a good way to determine what differentiates your product.

Revision of your positioning should be an on-going process to help refine your position according to changes in the market. Environmental changes or shifting consumer preferences often force firms to rethink their positioning strategy.

How do you communicate your product positioning?

There are a host of resources available to assist you in communicating your positioning statement to your target market.

Social media is an important modern day marketing channel that, if utilised correctly, can give a company valuable, market-specific exposure and vital product related feedback. A social media presence backed by a solid following creates an environment for open discussion on your product.

There are many innovative marketing tools available today to assist companies in achieving their positioning strategies. Different tools will suit different products, but the key to success is choosing the right mix to match your product and the goals of your company.

So, if it has been a while since you last thought about your product’s positioning, now would be the time to do so.

The post Product Positioning: Stand Out From the Crowd appeared first on Reload Consulting.