Honest Marketer

First of all, the Long Tail idea has been around for the past 50 years, but Chris Anderson coined the phrase in 2004 in a Wired magazine article. He explains how selling to a niche market is useful to companies such as Amazon or Netflix who sell a lot of unique items. They found that a demographic of people who would buy more of the non popular “non hit” items. From this the Long Tail was formed.

Social Media has helped many companies reach their customers in ways that they never realized was possible. New ways of connecting and marketing are being created everyday to reach more and more of the long tail of products and services. As these new ways of interacting with customers evolve and grows it takes some of the traditional market. The days of TV ads is dying due to services like TiVo, E-mail marketing is eliminated by spam blockers, direct mail gets thrown away and online advertising gets looked over or eliminated with RSS readers. We have to start changing with the times. The days of interrupting us over dinner with a phone call or commercial are not over, but dying.

As social media gets bigger at some point doing old school marketing will actually become the Long Tail, the way of reaching the minority. I’m not saying it’s today or even tomorrow, but in the coming future these two markets will swap. There will never be a time where advertising, direct mail or telemarketing will completely fade off the scene but pretty soon we will be putting it on life support.

Now you may be asking what can I do? We have many of the products available above and have a team of designers at our fingertip to create and mold your marketing vision. If you want to take things into your own hands I would suggest starting by creating a LinkedIn account, Facebook fan Page, and start Twittering. These are all great tools to start you off in social media that will help you get to the Long Tail of your customers. Now these all take your time and energy, but what would you rather part with, your time or your money. The way the market is now, I sure hope it’s your time, but if it’s not be sure to call us and we’ll gladly help with you with your money.

Nick Footer
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Sign Up-Go to Twitter and sign up for a free account

Fill Out Your Profile-Fill out everything and include a picture. Part of Social Media and Twitter is making real relationships with real people and a picture helps.

Pick a Twitter Program-I suggest Twirl or TweetDeck. I use Twirl at work and Tweetdeck at home. I like both because one is extremely simple and the other is extremely complex. I would start with Twirl.

Find Some Fellow Tweeters-If you read any blogs, see if they Tweet. Many of them do since it is such a huge traffic builder. Search for people using the Find People tab on your twitter home page.

Listen-Watch your Twitter stream for 1 week. This lets you see what is acceptable conversation and how to interact with your fellows. As you listen to others, see who they are responding to and follow them if they interest you.

Respond-Start Retweeting others content and answering questions that others have through the @ feature. Begin to add different links you like into your twitter stream. If you blog, add some of your posts.

Connect-This is the all important mother load. I have made many connections with people that I otherwise would have not had the ability to. Lisa Hoffmann, Scott Hepburn, Jesse Liebman, Kirsten Wright, Mike Volpe and many more. Now I have only met one of these people in person, but each of them have helped my company or my person growth.

Nick Footer

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This is a re-post of a post I did on the PRstore Facebook Fan Page:

Recently, I added one sentence to my email signature and great things have been happening. I inserted how to connect with me through my three social media platforms (See sentence below). I have had quite a bit of success connecting with people that I would have never gone looking for on my own. As my networks grow I increase my usefulness to my clients, company and friends. Over the past month, I’ve seen my Facebook friends increased by over 100 and gained about 10 new followers on Twitter via my signature. It works!

Your signature is part of you. The loops, messiness, crossing of T’s and dotting of I’s. If a scribble can convey so much, why can’t your electronic signature? So here is my point: Why not let people get to know you again? Change your email signature from the blah to banging!

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“Why should I care what my friend had for dinner?”

“I like to keep my life private.”

“I don’t get it.”

These are not so common statements that I still hear now and then about social media and Facebook. Normally from people who are in the aging demographic, but even today that demographic is the fastest growing on Facebook.

Ok, is this whole movement to the net just a fad? I have to say no. Years ago our society went through a major change, maybe you heard of it. The industrial revolution. Today we are witness to the internet revoltion. Since we now have a networked world, many people interact with others that we never could have before.  We can talk with and be-friend people in Europe, Africa,  Australia or even your neighbor that all have the same interests, problems, or thoughts. Now how do we find these people. Social media. With Twitter you can search for different words or phrases that others are talking about to see what the world is saying instead of just your local paper. In Facebook, you join groups and gain access to others who enjoy marketing, skateboarding or even other people’s girlfriends.

Now I know some of these ideas seem to be outrageous or even unimportant. How did you feel the first time someone explained email instead of sending a letter. How do you think people felt about the invention of the automobile? Today if you don’t have an email you are in the super minority and probably live in a bomb shelter in the mountains surrounded by land minds and  barb wire. If you don’t understand social media ask. Try. Play. And please come out of that dark, mildew filled space you’ve been living. It’s beautiful outside and you have many friends and family waiting for you at the click of your mouse.

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