Get hip to social media or lose customers - Jacksonville Business Journal:

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Having an informative Web siteor blog, especially one with interestinb or useful videos, makes one’s busines s more likely to be found not only in a Googlse search, but also on sites such as MySpace, YouTube, LinkedIn, even via Twitter. Peopled share both good and bad experiences about a product or service with their online And if their friends ask for a they share thatas well. In ordere for businesses to be more successful usingsocial media, they have to get over the mindset. The right way to spread a company’ws message on social media sites is to see it less as mass marketingv and more asa one-on-one conversation.
“The problemk is they go on all these sitea and start marketing to everyone and puttinvg ads outthere [when] people don’gt want to be marketed to,” said Nelson Bruton, vice presidenyt of . “You must make your messagew relevantto them. If they see any direct marketint messageand there’s no value to them, they’rs going to ignore it. They may even delete you as a “Make sure you get involved [and] encourage conversations or commentes andactively participate. Participation is the key word.
” It’sz one thing to share informatioh about a product or service and have a few onlinde friends pass alongthe It’s quite another for that informationn to go viral, where it’s shared by thousands of people. “Everyonde wants something to goviral that’s a given as social media have evolverd and more and more brands are looking at socialo media” as a way to reach consumers, said Jalali founder and CEO of , which has an onlin e community of contributors who use social media to help businesseds get their message out.
Yoviq uses what it calls a “Social Velocityh Engine” to predict whether a campaign willgo “We can predict if any campaign will go viral or not and give you a rougyh approximation of what the viraol community will be and if therew is none, what you need to change,” Hartmanh said. “We may not be able to say you’lpl get X million numbedr of views, but we can say this is what [the will be.” Yovia does this by breakinbg a campaign up intofour parts: “thr four C’s” — connections, community and conversion. “Thr best kind of content is something the personmwrote themselves,” Hartman said.
As for “we are not interested in how many friends, but rather the collective sphere of influence ofthosee friends. “Community is a measure of discussion. If there’xs no discussion, there’s no community. Conversion is the most overlookefd aspect ofany marketing. We know that two-thirds of peoplde buy [based on a] referral if you hear aboutr something from someone you know and Your peers tellyou what’s important. [So] how do we get them talkinyg in a way our message is associatedf withthat conversation?” This doesn’t mean everu campaign will go viral, but it can increase a campaign’ reach.
“If you are just trying to come up with aviral campaign, it probably won’t work, but it will help them understand and spread the word about the brand,” Hartman said. “Wr are not looking at the old modepl where you send an advertising messagse to a million peopl and get a 1percent response. We want to send the messagre to the right people and get a 100 percent Yovia also offers free weekly trainin classes at its office in Atlantic Beachy to help business owners learn how to use social which can be particularlyy useful for thosewho aren’t quite up to spee d on the technology.
“I’m 49 years old; my kids know more abougt that thanI do,” said David McCormick, president of . “Withh LinkedIn and Facebook and Twitter, I was interested in learningg how theytie together. Sociao media are changing the way people are marketing because it isby word-of-moutnh and that has more power” than traditional