CaliberPulse

Social media exists in a state of constant change, which means community managers must evaluate and adapt their strategies often to achieve established goals. Implementing a stagnate social media plan can end up costing your company more than it benefits you.

What do you do when your company has exciting news that will likely meet with strong opposition by the exact target audience you are trying to reach? Preemptively planning and precisely positioning your message to best accommodate that specific demographic could be the best approach.

Facebook users should be accustomed to change and they can expect to see some big ones coming to the social networking site in the near future. Earlier this year, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Graph Search; a new way for users to search for photos, people, interests and places within the social networking site’s database. But wait, there’s more!

We’ve all watched social media become an integral part of PR in recent years and now we are seeing image and video messaging become an integral part of social media.

As the nation slowly recovers from the recession marketing budgets are also recovering. Companies that survived the economic downturn likely implemented a conservative marketing spending plan, and have emerged with a renewed spirit and business strategy. Having survived the financial crisis, the landscape is now filled with strong competition. Brands are turning to their marketing partners for advice on determining how to best communicate their core messaging in this new market and how to distinguish themselves among their competition.

We’ve conducted our fair share of social media bootcamp sessions with clients from a variety of industries and two basic questions seem to always arise, “which social media platforms should I be using and how do you expect me to find time to do all of this?”

Two recent op-ed pieces featured by Mashable presented opposing opinions on the value of LinkedIn’s relatively new endorsement feature. One article, written by Todd Wasserman, called it “meaningless,” while David Berkowitz’s rebuttal article argued that it is “…one of the best uses of game mechanics online...” So which is true?

As we cross the threshold of the eleventh month of 2011, we find ourselves once again in a unique position to reflect on lessons learned in the months behind us and apply them to projections and trends in the year to come. November Caliber Pulse articles will do just that. In this week’s post, we will examine the well-predicted trend of localized marketing.

There is more to having a social media presence than just posting statuses. Having a branded Facebook page may help cultivate an audience or garner high numbers of “likes,” but if you only post one-way marketing or media messages, your audience will eventually lose interest. A page’s number of followers pales in value compared to interaction with them.

Now that you’ve taken the plunge into the world of social media, you are faced with yet another decision. How do you find the best person to maintain your company’s message? The importance of this decision cannot be overlooked. Social media has opened a window that gives your customers a more personal connection with your business. It creates an opportunity for us to talk with our customers instead of at them. As a result, loyal followers expect authentic interaction and finding the person or team who will act as your authentic company ‘voice’ is crucial.

Social media use is experiencing a sharp upward trend in popularity, but is it right for your company or clients? This month we will explore the factors businesses should consider when making the decision to engage in this dynamic marketing medium. Most companies today have an online presence. To interact with their customers, some simply send a monthly or quarterly eblast with information, while others actively engage via Facebook, Twitter, blogs, frequent eblasts and constant website updates. Is it information overload or simply what consumers have come to expect?

August has arrived and with it, the familiar “back-to-school” theme. Let this month serve as an opportune time and reminder to sharpen your skills, knowledge, and invest in new resources. Students around the nation are buying new pencils and notebooks, so why not mirror this trend and advocate that your business invest in a new strategic toolkit?