How SEO Consultants Can Use Social Media Marketing to Achieve Results in Political Campaigns

Social media marketing has become an essential method of campaigning for political office. During the U.S. presidential campaign in 2008, the Barack Obama campaign team had harnessed the power of social media advertising to achieve victory. This was a phenomenon at that time.

While it is not the only marketing component of any political campaign, social media is certainly a primary one. The reason it plays such a major role can be attributed to the following factors:

1. Better demographic targeting

2. Increased word of mouth (often argued to be the best form of advertising)

3. Greater cost effectiveness

4. A superior ability to generate hype

1 - Targeting Your Demographic Is Easy Online

Unlike conventional advertising in TV or Radio, Social media advertising can be highly targeted. Whereas television and radio may boast a high number of "impressions," these may be unlikely voters. On the web, targeting is much more concentrated and accurate. Facebook, Twitter and StumbleUpon advertising can be placed only in front of those who would be likely to vote for your candidate, statistically making these individuals more aware of your campaign.

The trick is to capture people when they are in the position to explore a topic. When consumers are web surfing, they are already in the "mode" to do so. TV and radio usually try to engage people when they are focused on a drive to work or watching a favorite television show with family.

People are more likely to really delve into the details of your candidate when they are online. And remember, they can press a "Like" button or join a mailing list, which ensures you will have their attention throughout the remainder of the campaign whenever they are online. This simply cannot be done with TV or radio.

2 - Social Media Marketing is One of the Most Effective Methods of Spreading the Word

Word of mouth is one of the most excellent ways to create a buzz. Social media facilitates that on a grand scale more rapidly than any other method. People are reached where they are comfortable, in a place where they are in a position to quickly show everyone they know where they stand about a candidate.

When a hot button issue comes up, your followers are going to link to your positions on this. All you need to do is put up links to videos and other content with a strong headline. Soon it will be re-posted on status updates everywhere in Twitter and Facebook and featured in email "forwards."

3 - Social Media Is More Cost Effective than Any Other Form of Marketing

Because the medium itself is "free" in many ways, to use, you only need to pay for the time it takes your staff to update and interact with your social media outlets. This reduces the budget needed for conventional advertising, while simultaneously increasing its effectiveness.

In addition, many software programs facilitate and reduce the time needed to maintain the different social media accounts.

When some paid advertising is needed it will be less expensive to place ads on different social media platforms like Facebook and StumbleUpon than it would be to do on other media (television, radio, print, etc.).

4 - Hype Sells

Let's face it: hype can arguably be as powerful, if not more powerful than content. This is why generating a buzz online is absolutely quintessential. Social media makes it possible to go "viral" quickly, and in a seemingly organic fashion.

Research has shown that consumers are more likely to respond to what they believe is their own idea or the idea of a friend or family member than they are to respond to something that seems corporate-driven or commercially rooted.

In Conclusion: It's a New Era

Times have changed. For instance, when Obama was elected, Myspace played a huge role. Now, Myspace has become virtually irrelevant, while Twitter and Facebook are the favorites now. That may not last forever. YouTube shows no signs of slowing down, and certainly needs to be one of the primary resources of any social media political campaign strategy.

Keeping up with the latest trends in social media is currently the key to success at marketing virtually anything. Social media marketing is now one of the most actively used advertising methods and are having the greatest impact on instituting expansive publicity for various causes. Political campaign managers must aim to be one step ahead of the opposing candidate's campaign. The chances of winning the race are maximized by finding the most experienced social media marketing consultant and starting your political social media campaign as early as possible.

Nashat Mostafa is the founder and CEO of SEO 7 Services. Throughout an extensive career as a Montreal search engine optimization consultant, Mostafa has worked along side many companies both large and small, to plan and execute effective, results-driven internet marketing campaigns. He has also arranged many SEO training seminars and has published countless articles, in an effort to assist small business owners - in taking advantage of the latest trends in SEO and social media marketing, achieving top search engine placement positions, boosting website traffic, increasing conversion rates and improving Return on Investment (ROI). Montreal SEO 7 Services is well-established in the field of internet marketing and search engine optimization, serving a broad range of industries from fashion and jewellery manufacturers to medical data and software development companies.

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Top Reasons Social Media Advertising Campaigns Fail

Social media marketing and social networking are excellent marketing tools IF they're used right. If you are not utilizing them properly, they will be a major waste of your valuable time. Below, you will reasons why your Social Media Campaign isn't providing the results you were expecting:

1. You are in "sales mode" - If you are only sharing information about what product or service you have to offer, people will NOT find interest. To be frank, it is quite annoying. You MUST share valuable information to build relationships.

2. You do not have a plan or an objective - Before starting on social Media, be sure that the sites you are investing your time match with your objectives. For example, if you are selling real estate, you are not going to want to invest a lot of time on a gaming network site. Take some time to plan out your business strategy.

3. You don't have a target group in mind - In order to be successful, you must have a target group / audience in mind. To go back to the "selling real estate" example, it wouldn't make sense to spend a lot of time promoting on MySpace when the age group is much younger than Facebook.

4. You are not engaging - Social networking means that you should be interacting with others. You do this by sharing valuable information, commenting on others status updates, re-tweeting and sharing articles or posts on blogs that you think people would find value or interest. My motto is to go in thinking only about what you can give to others, not what you will receive.

5. You are sharing worthless information - Keep your audience in mind when posting. Don't post what YOU find interesting. Post things that the average person would find interesting. Want to mix it up a little? Throw in a little bit of humor!

6. You post and tweet too much - Keep your posting minimal. I recommend about 2-3 posts per day on Twitter and Facebook but no more than 6. Make sure you space them out over time. When someone constantly posts, it can become annoying.

7. You are not investing the time to follow others - I personally follow most everyone that follows me. If you want people to take interest in you, why shouldn't they be worthy enough to have your interest too? If you find that they are spamming you or wasting your time, it is easy to stop following.

8. You are outsourcing social media to someone who doesn't understand what your company does and what you want to achieve - Make sure that if you choose to outsource your services, that the person or company spend time with you to understand your goals and objectives. A good social media expert will invest time in learning what your company does as well as what the competition is doing in order to provide you with on-line leverage.

9. You are not using keywords - One of the advantages to using Social Media sites, is that your content gets picked up by Google. This not only gives you more visibility but moves your rankings up.

10. You are inconsistent - Don't post and then disappear for a while. If you want to be successful with social media, you must invest time into it each day (or hire someone to do it for you).

11. You are not passionate - People can see through your words just as they can see through a fake smile. Be sure to share your enthusiasm and excitement about the content you are sharing. It will draw people in.

12. You are not knowledgeable - Make sure that you are educated about the information that you are sharing. If you learn a fact because you read it from somewhere and found it interesting, be prepared to have knowledge on that fact in the event someone wants to know more or even disagrees.

13. You are not building relationships - This is crucial to have an effective marketing campaign. Other than sharing valuable information and engaging in conversations, try to share something personal from time to time. Create videos! They are very effective!

14. You are not educated - If you are choosing to do your own social media campaign, make sure that you take the time to LEARN how to best utilize the different social media platforms. There are TONS of free resources on-line. Utilize them to learn as much as possible.

15. You do not understand the media flow - There is a way to integrate social media platforms so that they all run together. Be sure to learn about having a hub "a blog" and how to use that to intertwine with other social media sites.

There are many ways to demolish your social media campaign. If you are unsure how it all works, take the time to learn from others, hire a consultant, or better yet hire someone who will manage and build your social media campaign. With the right tools, information and time investment, you could easily take your business to the next level by growing your on-line presence.

I provide Social Media services and would like to invite you to check out my website for more information [http://www.socialmedia4you.com].

My name is Shannon McCraw and I specialize in social media services. If you need consulting, training or social media services, please contact me. To learn more about me visit [http://www.whoisshannon.com]

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PR/Media Exposure Campaigns: How Long Should They Be?

When it comes to generating publicity for a product or service, trying to determine the amount of time it might take to launch and maintain a successful media exposure campaign is a hard nut to crack. What is the optimal length of a campaign and how much effort will it take to get the job done effectively?

In my PR career, I have launched campaigns that needed the blast of just a few weeks of publicity and I have also maintained lengthy campaigns that generated media exposure for years. I can tell you that a single distribution of a media release is rarely effective. Most times, editors and reporters are working on multiple stories at once and need some time to consider your pitch. Although your release may indeed be interesting and newsworthy, the editor may simply not have the space to use your pitch at that point in the media outlet's editorial calendar. So make sure he/she sees it again when that editorial calendar opens up a few weeks down the line. Keep in mind also that because media outlets receive so many media releases and story pitches these days, it can sometimes take them weeks before they actually get to something you may have sent their way. That's why it's important to conduct extensive media follow-ups over the course of several months to ensure media reception, proper media digestion and hopefully media acceptance of your release or pitch.

I always tell my clients, "No PR agency or publicist can FORCE the media to use their releases, but they CAN make sure that by the end of the campaign, the media has seen or heard about your message in one form or another - which will lead to solid media coverage."

One of the keys to determining the length of a successful campaign is knowing when you have fired all your publicity bullets; when it's time to re-pack the chambers with new ammo; or when you should move onto other marketing targets. Over the past several years, here's how the campaign lengths have broken down for my clients:

1-2 month campaigns: 9%
3-6 month campaigns: 38%
6-9 month campaigns: 37%
9+ month campaigns: 16%

• 1 - 2 month campaigns are most often timely, date-sensitive campaigns - a release or message tied to a current event that may be outdated in 6 - 8 weeks. A while back, one client of mine quickly produced a website aimed at stopping Napster's file sharing services. We launched a campaign a few weeks before the Supreme Court ruling and generated some great spot coverage in newspapers and TV news shows nationwide - the site and the campaign were finished in 6 weeks.

• Most new product publicity campaigns are best suited for the 3 - 6+ month time frame - allowing for the often drawn out lead-times of some media outlets. Having said that though, some product campaigns can be extended for several more months based on media reaction and subsequent consumer interest. For instance, a recent consumer electronics product publicity campaign started out as a six-month program, but that was stretched out over a year because of the sales fervor and popularity of the product.

• The longest campaigns are for those clients whose businesses or expertise are "evergreen and regenerative" - meaning they are not tied to the shelf life of a new product launch; aren't linked to a specific date; and can be re-stoked for a new round of media interest every few months. One of my longtime clients is a "tradeshow specialist". Her expert advice is newsworthy anytime of year and can be covered editorially year after year - especially in business and trade magazines. That lends itself to multiple articles and features month after month in a wide array of media outlets. Remember - creativity and media pitching ingenuity can help add months of success to your publicity campaign.

A large number of hours will be spent planning and shaping your publicity campaign for the media market. The preparation of the media market research and the polishing of the media release may seem painstaking, but when done right, they are well worth the effort. After the initial launch of the campaign, be prepared to spend at least an hour or two each day maintaining it: conducting numerous media follow-ups and making new media pitches, (emails, faxes, mailings and phone calls); fulfilling media requests (forwarding product photos, media kits/product samples, arranging interviews) and tracking/clipping articles and features.

If you have the time, staff and expertise to launch your own campaign, then take advantage of the media and get your message to them. But if your expertise lies in another area, and you or your staff lack publicity generating skills (or have little or no experience in dealing with the media) it might be best to hand it off to someone who can make sure its done right - the first time. Ask yourself these questions when deciding whether you can handle your own publicity campaign:

• Do I have the expertise and time to get it done effectively without hampering my current workload or that of my staff?

• Do I have the writing capabilities to put together a media release or feature pitch to which editors, reporters and producers will respond?

• Do I have the resources to conduct the media research and distribute my release to those media outlets?

Todd Brabender is the President of Spread The News Public Relations, Inc. His business specializes in generating media exposure and publicity for innovative products, businesses, experts and ventures. http://www.spreadthenewspr.com
todd@spreadthenewspr.com
(785) 842-8909

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