By Nicole Fletcher

Social has revolutionized the way we communicate, the way marketers market, the way customers consume and the way we all engage with brands. It really and truly is the missing link the marketing industry has been waiting for.

Instead of putting up a billboard or publishing a print ad and hoping the design/messaging is enough to inspire a sale, we can include calls to action and actually know what works and what falls short. We can offer incentives to engage on social networks, capture email addresses from Facebook, drive traffic to the website from print collateral, inspire conversation from email marketing, offer customer service online in real time…the list goes on.

Social Marketing translates your brand into a living breathing personality online and gives you the opportunity to flex your creative muscles. Social is the fuel that powers every other marketing initiative – thereby allowing you to meet your customers no matter where they are or what medium they consume. Whether they’re watching television, reading the newspaper, checking their email or on Facebook, social marketing gives you the tools to supersede all marketing channels and get the greatest return on your investment.

Social Marketing is not in any way reinventing the wheel. On the contrary, it simply applies new technology to the classic marketing principles we’ve used for decades past. It’s finding, capturing and engaging in the conversations that are taking place both on and offline. It’s finding those prospects and being there for them in their moment of need. It’s providing them with information when they need it, support when they ask for it and rewarding them for being loyal customers. Social marketing is establishing a presence you’re proud of and making sure you will be the first company people think of when they need your product.

Social Marketing is the way of the future. The options are: evolve or face extinction.

We were very excited today to announce a relationship we have been working on for months with Robb Mariani to partner with Milwaukee Motorcycle Clothing (MMC – our client) to increase brand awareness of their boots and accessories. Jacob Tyler created the graphics for both the Web sites, as well as a landing page campaign. Check out the screen shots below.

And don’t forget to check out Robb’s Web site at www.RobbMariani.com for more information, and/or you can send him your comments on his Facebook page at anytime. He loves to get feedback! Tell him how much you LOVE Milwaukee Motorcycle Clothing!!

By Nicole Fletcher

Big tweets from the White House as President Obama has announced his intention to hold the first Twitter Town Hall on July 6th at 2pm EST. He plans to address economy and job related questions via the #askobama hashtag. This will allow users to voice their questions not just to the Pres himself, but to the community at large. It’s expected that in the build-up to the 2012 election, Twitter will continue to take a more prominent role and we’re excited to see that.

In other news, Virgin America is embracing social tech to the max with its latest in-air perk. The airline will lend its passengers Chromebooks, made by Samsung, on their flights to test its new wifi services and boy is this a good idea. The Chromebooks, which are neither Macs nor Windows operating systems, are unknown to the public so this really is great promo for them to get their name out there.

Google Analytics announced its most recent social initiatives and stat additions to their platform. In Mashable’s words: Google Webmaster Tools now has a “+1 Metrics” section, which provides reports on the impact of the +1 Button on search. The new analytics show how +1s affect your website’s clickthrough rate (CTR). It tracks the amount of +1s on a given page, the CTR with +1 annotations and the CTR without +1 annotations. The new tool also graphs out the amount of annotated impressions and annotated clicks your website receives over time.

Interesting stuff.

Finally here are some shorts to entertain and enthrall you:

Paypal predicts the extinction of wallets by 2015. Sorry cash lovers.

Google+ launched and in addition, Google calendar got a makeover.

and finally, finally, I discovered a fan page where a watermelon engaged in a like war with the Biebs. The Biebs won.

That’s all for now. Hope you enjoyed this weekly wind down.

By Nicole Fletcher
As posted on nicfletch.com

People are obsessed with Google. You and your brand want to be number one, on page one and your life and the future of your children, and your children’s children depend on it. You’re willing to pay by the month but you don’t really know if it’s working and you’re not number one, nor are you near number one, but you’re too afraid to stop. I get it. No, but really, I do. Search engine optimization is something that took the tech world by storm a few years back and then, when the interweb we all know and love was young, it made sense…and it worked. SEOs put on their black hats and scammed the system. They got you to high ranking spots by clogging the web with keyword packed, cruddy content that now makes up the internet sludge that populates your search results. Thanks for that by the way.

People use search multiple times daily and they use Google (I know, I know – some use Bing). They use it to find what they’re looking for, they buy and that’s that. Well unfortunately times have changed and that algorithm is a mere flicker in the simplicity of yesteryear. To take a walk on the wild side though, while being number one may equate to sales for many companies (JC Penny for Example), for many others (I’d venture to say most) there are other, more effective and less expensive ways to spend your time.

What does that mean? Ditch your SEO tunnel vision and send some love to your other marketing channels.

Do you know that being number one will increase your sales? ( hint: the answer is no). In today’s day and age people are much more likely to seek advice & recommendations from friends than from simple search. People are looking for solid, quality experiences and if you’ve skated by over the years on top ranking search alone…your days are..to be blunt… numbered.

Creativity, quality and you guessed it, SOCIAL are the new names of the game (though it really should have always been this way) and as they say, complacency killed the cat, don’t let it kill you.

Think about your business model. At the core of your business is your brand identity so be sure to create cohesion across all marketing channels. That means from your brick & mortar and your website, to your messaging, print and social networks, every outlet should compliment one another. Make sure your collateral not only looks cohesive, but your “voice” and personality flows throughout all of them.

Take advantage of modern tools. From your website & email marketing, to your social networks (facebook, twitter, youtube, blog etc), print collateral and everything in between, the core of your brand should be social. What does that mean? Think about YOUR CUSTOMER. Make it easy for them to navigate your site, find you on facebook, ask a question, make a purchase and share your quality content because why??? Because you’re an expert. Share that knowledge and push that content out to everyone you can. Give the people what they want. It’s as simple as that. Once you create this “social storm”, as we like to call it, leads, sales and brand advocates will naturally follow. Remember, the more fresh, quality, shareable content you create, the more likely people will be to share your brand and the information you provide. Then, your wolf-pack will naturally grow to more than 3 and all will be well with the world.

Hope you enjoyed this blog post, tweet at me with your questions.