Social Media is a hot marketing topic this year in Kelowna! The number of inquiries we get about using social media for marketing has quadrupled in 2011. We have seen some media coverage in the traditional press too (see Face to Face is a click away). In the past year, we've had a chance to leverage social media as a marketing tactic for a number of businesses in Kelowna have witnessed very positive results in general. This article digs into some stats about social media's effectiveness vs. other forms of online marketing. It's interesting to see how the different tactics stack up, as well as the shifts over the last year.

In a recent survey by eMarketer.com, small to medium businesses (SMB) in the U.S. were asked several questions about their online marketing efforts and their effectiveness.

Small Business Still Prefer "Traditional" Online Marketing Tactics

From the survey, SMBs are still more likely to say they found new customers by using websites (85.8%), over email (74.3%), and search marketing (74%). Web sites are considered a more “traditional” online marketing tactic and are well entrenched in the marketing programs of most companies whether a site operates as an online brochure, order system or supports the full sales cycle.

Is Satisfaction in Online Marketing Decreasing?

Despite the rise in use of online marketing, SMBs surveyed indicate that satisfaction with many of these channels is decreasing.

Specifically, large decreases in satisfaction were seen in audio podcasts (-53%), webcasts/webinars (-44%), Twitter (-38%), Linked In (-36%), Banner/display ads (-34%) and Blog (-32%).

Are Internet Users Changing Their Behaviour?

While new online marketing programs by inexperienced marketers are going to be less effective, this doesn’t account for such a huge decrease in so many of the online marketing tactics.  Instead these decreases suggest a change in behaviour by Internet users in obtaining information. This change in behaviour is both a reflection on the increased maturity of the average Internet user, the amount of time users are willing to spend looking for something, as well as the ever increasing use of mobile Internet devices.

• Users are more aware of paid advertising including banner/display ads and search marketing (PPC);
• Users are less tolerant of lengthy sales pitches such as podcasts and webinars however informative. Instead users are turning to quicker ways to obtain the information they need, often on a “just-in-time” basis.
• Use of mobile Internet devices has increased to the point where users aren’t looking for information until they actually arrive at their destination, often using tools like Gowalla and Foursquare which alert you to sales and deals near your current location.  This focus on location based marketing is also seen in the popularity of coupons like Groupon and Twongo, as well as the increased use of Google Places.

In fact, the survey statistics show that new channels made up for these decreases, including emailing offers, Google Places, Groupon and other coupon sites, mobile marketing, and location services like Foursquare. These are all new entries on the list for 2011 and yet they all have between a 25% and 50% effectiveness rate according to the SMBs surveyed.

A Key Advantage When Marketing Online: (Nearly) Everything Measurable!

Many of these new marketing tactics are more measurable than some of the earlier tactics. It is far easier to measure the number of Groupon coupons sold or Foursquare discount coupons used over the number of sales resulting from Blog and Podcast consumption. Similarly, savvy Kelowna businesses are taking more interesting email open rates, click-through rates to gauge newsletter performance.  Perhaps this is why small businesses are jumping on these new tactics in such large numbers.

Popular email management tools like Constant Contact have great tracking and measure the number of email opens and internal link clicks on each email campaign. Website analytics software like Google Analytics enables business to see the number of visitors, clicks, time spent, and online purchases.

What does this mean for Kelowna businesses?

The move away from less measurable and out-of-vogue methods of communication towards new and often more measurable methods of communication will help businesses track the effectiveness of their online marketing efforts.  It's easier to justify spending $ on marketing when you can measure the results!

It's Free, right?

Since many of the new digital marketing channels like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and so on are seemingly cheap, small and medium sized businesses in Kelowna should certainly consider them.  Beware that "cheap" and "free" are not really good descriptions of these tools.  Your time is worth money!

Here's a few pointers to get started...

• Create clearly defined goals for your online marketing plan
• Identify your audience (Hint: Use the marketing channels, tools, and websites that your customers are ALREADY using)
• Understand that social media is a 2-way communications channel... it's a party line, not a megaphone
• Do a batch process (eg. write a whole week's worth of content for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn on Monday morning and schedule the release using a tool like Hootsuite)
• Measure the results (Who is clicking on your links in the updates? Do people ask more questions? Do they call for an appointment?  Do they walk in the door?)
• Integrate social media efforts with things like blogs posts, email blasts, in-store contests, special events, radio, print, and video
• Consider hiring a company if your time is better spent elsewhere!

Here are some of the latest social networking and social media stats for 2011, this time for Twitter. Click here if you missed our Facebook stats post.

• Twitter's web platform only accounts for a quarter of its users - 75% use third-party apps.
• Twitter gets more than 300,000 new users every day.
• There are currently 100 million users of Twitter's services.
• Twitter receives 180 million unique visits each month.
• There are more than 600 million searches on Twitter every day.
• Twitter started as a simple SMS-text service.
• Over 60% of Twitter use is outside the U.S.
• There are more than 50,000 third-party apps for Twitter.
• Twitter has donated access to all of its tweets to the Library of Congress for research and preservation.
• More than a third of users access Twitter via their mobile phone.

Statistics from Twitter and the Chirp Conference.

Social Media Marketing for Kelowna Businesses

The Okanagan newspaper recently published an article on a presentation James gave at  a Kelowna Chamber of Commerce breakfast meeting on using Social Media in Business. The article is a great summary of the key points given at the meeting:

• Use your social media accounts - 15 minutes a day is a good place to start (a tool like Hootsuite will greatly help)
• Offer tips, tidbits and advice to build your trust levels - offer real value in the form of free information
• Once you have followers who appreciate what you are putting out there, the odd business pitch is fine - but it's a fine line
• Build brand awareness by digital word of mouth - earn the right to be talked about and your customers will carry your flag
• Use social media to direct people to your website or store - it's a great promotional channel that businesses should use

If you're feeling lost or would rather outsource social media marketing, give us a shout at 250-762-4001.  We'd be happy to help.

To read the article click on it below if you've got a magnifying glass handy.

The average sales professional in a Kelowna business typically earns between $60-80,000 per year.  In exchange for their paycheck, the salesperson is responsible for telling the story of the company and ultimately creating revenue-generating transactions. Most business owners consider this salary expense simply a cost of doing business. A well designed corporate website has the ability to do the same things, yet in Kelowna we frequently see business owners choke on their cold glass of water when they hear how much they need to spend on web design and development.

3 Types of Website Design

When looking to have a new website developed, most Okanagan businesses are going to find themselves around one of three prices: under $3000, $5000 to $10,000, and $10,000+. The big question is what type of website design does your money buy you at each of those price levels?

Websites as a Digital Brochure

For the most part, the primary role of websites developed under $3,000 is to simply act as your company’s digital brochure. Websites of this type generally consist of several information pages about who you are, what service or products that you offer and how to contact you. Most of these websites are built from templates and as such have a fairly generic feel to them but a good web developer can still customize them enough to bring out your company’s personality. If you simply want to display your corporate information, websites developed in this price range are quite satisfactory.  Do-it-yourself blogging platforms fall into this category too, and building a free or cheap site with Google’s Blogger.com or using the popular Wordpress platform is a good idea if you plan on adding regular content to your website.  Hint: adding regular content is a great way to climb up the search engine results pages and increase your online inquiries!

Websites as a Sales Tool

If you are looking to have your website do more than just act as a digital brochure and actually generate an ROI, then you need to spend some money on web design. Websites developed in the $5000 - $10,000 range become a useful tool in your sales team arsenal. These custom designed websites engage your customers with dynamic content, such as videos and slide shows, but also have the means of facilitating a two-way dialog with the customer. In this price range, tools to capture customer inquiries, sell products, download info, and provide member-only areas come into play.  Websites of this type are able to act as a tool for qualifying an unlimited number of prospective clients on any given day thus helping make the best use of your sales team’s valuable time.

Websites as Part of Your Sales Team

If you really want your website to be a full on member of your sales team and actually handle the entire sales process, from pitch to closing transaction, then you are typically going to pay $10,000 and up for web design and web development in Kelowna. When you consider that e-commerce sites such as these have the ability to assume a large amount of the workload handled by human salespeople, it doesn’t take long for your business to see a positive ROI from your website. Even if your company does not need your website to be a full on e-commerce solution, it still needs it to be an integral part of your branding and marketing strategy which in the end, results in increased revenue. The stickier that you make your website by creating a feature rich environment with frequently updated content, the greater your chance of converting visitors into clients. As such it’s quite common these days to see the web design costs reaching well over the $20,000 mark.  Custom sites are powerful sales machines for companies that sell products as well as companies that sell services.  If a $50,000 website generates leads that result in $10,000/month, is the website still expensive?  You may pay salespeople more than $50,000 per year and expect the same results.  In this light, the “expensive” website is suddenly a bargain.  We’re not saying replace your sales staff with a website, but we are saying that perhaps your website needs a serious raise!

You Get What You Pay For

Our advice to businesses in Kelowna that have a strong marketing or active sales component is to view your website as an employee.  If you paid your sales team minimum wage, do you think they would generate the results that you expect?  Just like a salesperson, you get what you pay for.   Want a super employee that works 24 hours a day and only complains once or twice a year when the internet dies or power goes out?  Yes, your website probably needs a raise.

by Brad Trites, Account Manager, Twin Creek Media

I am going to make a very bold statement: “There is no marketing tool available to small businesses more powerful than Facebook”. I guess after making a pretty big statement like that, I better support it.

As a small business owner, the last time you took out a really expensive full-page ad in your city’s most popular phone directory or ran a TV or radio ad, did it provide you with constant referrals? Did your clients receive timely updates about new products that you are carrying or your daily specials? What about actively building your brand awareness, did it do that for you? A properly managed business page on Facebook has the ability to do all of these things and a lot more without having to be that word that all small businesses dread, “expensive”.

A Trusted Source
For most businesses the best source of new clients is usually referrals. When a friend tells you that they really like a certain restaurant, you are more likely to try it out. On Facebook, you follow a business’s page by clicking that page’s “Like” button. When you do this, your action is posted in the News Feed of your friends. You essentially just told all of those people, “I LIKE this and you should check it out!”. Since you are an interesting person with great taste, some of your friends will do just that, and guess what? If they hit “Like”, they will automatically tell all of their friends. Some of those people will take things one step further and even visit your website and possibly become a real customer.

Daily Special
Most businesses are constantly changing. They begin to carry new products. They run new promotions. They win an award. They have product tips or advice to share. They land new clients. These are all pieces of information that a small business wants their customers to know about as quickly as possible. Not only that, this is information that your customers want to know about! Facebook gives small businesses the ability to communicate in real time to their customers. This is key in helping you strengthen relationships with your customers and build customer loyalty.

Tag you’re it!
Once your small business has it’s own Facebook page and you have managed to get a couple of hundred people to “Like” it, the next step is to engage your fans and turn them into your own marketing army. If you post compelling content on your page, there’s a good chance that some of your followers will repost your items, “Like” it, Tag it, or Comment on it. Every time someone does one of these things, your brand gets placed in front of another large audience. Even if the majority of those people take no action themselves with the content, the more they see your name the greater their awareness of your brand becomes. If you’re business was given the opportunity to place free ads in front of an audience every day, wouldn’t you go for it? That is exactly the opportunity Facebook provides small businesses.

Lasers are cool…
One of the great things about Facebook for small businesses is that ‘friends of a feather tend to flock together’. If your company’s target market is 16 year old males that skateboard, chances are that those kids that “Like” your page have a Friends List dominated by other 16 year old boys that like to skateboard. Facebook provides an extremely effective way to put your brand in front of an extremely focused intended audience. Traditional marketing tools such as TV, radio, and magazine ads command huge premiums to access such focused target markets.

NOTE: Hey marketers! Did you know that the average age of a Facebook user is closer to 40 than 14!

WARNING!
Simply setting up a Facebook business page is not enough to generate results. Like any marketing strategy, your Facebook initiative requires both commitment and planning. Compelling content needs to be regularly created and posted on your page and a two-way dialog needs to be maintained between your business and your followers. There is both an art and a science to using Facebook as a marketing tool. As such, if you are not prepared to learn what needs to be learned or able to commit the time required to manage your page, then you should strongly consider hiring a social media-marketing specialist.

Bottom Line
Social media marketing creates engaging customer experiences, drives website traffic, foot traffic, and email/phone inquiries. Although social media is primarily about sharing & relationships, it ultimately results in more sales.  Don’t forget: online marketing tactics should be integrated with your offline efforts too!

Next Steps...
At Twin Creek Media, we have setup Facebook pages for many businesses... both B2B and retailers selling direct to consumers. Facebook is just one social network among other notable ones: Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, StumbleUpon, etc. It’s best to have an online marketing strategy that defines measurable goals and uses the best tools for the job. For a primer on the big picture, see our Social Media 101 article or download our Social Media Reference Card.

Need more convincing?
A properly executed Facebook strategy has the ability to generate new customers that are well informed on your business’s developments and willing to actively market your brand on your behalf. Let’s see your telephone directory pull that one off! If you want to chat more about this topic, come visit us at the Twin Creek Media Facebook page and we’ll keep the conversation going!

We'd like to take the opportunity to say CONGRATULATIONS to a few of our clients that recently won awards in the Best of the Okanagan Reader's Choice Awards put on by Okanagan Life magazine.  Way to go guys!

	Voted #1 in Home Furniture (North) Voted #2 in Home Furniture (Central) Voted #2 Home Accessories Store (Central)
	Voted #3 in Garden Centre (Central)
	Voted #1 in Hair Salon (Central) Voted #3 in Day Spa (Central)

It's been a very busy Q2 and Q3 at Twin Creek Media.

As a Kelowna marketing agency with a special focus on internet marketing and web design, we never seem to be able to breathe long enough to update our portfolio with new launches and interesting case studies.  In this project update, we'll give a taste of what the team at Twin Creek Media has been doing over the last 6 months.  (We can't tell you all the goodies though... our clients don't want us to spill the beans about their new competitive advantages and we have trade secrets to keep!)  You'll just have to hire us to reap the rewards of an integrated marketing campaign.

We have been creating new brand identities, database-driven websites, corporate brochures, direct mail pieces, running radio campaigns, shooting videos, building blogs, and driving web traffic through email marketing, search engine optimization and pay per click tactics like Google Adwords and Facebook Ads.  Just one item in that list is powerful, but done together, business goals are targeted with a type of marketing synergy that is amazing to watch.

A Sample of Completed Projects

Okanagan Regional Library

Completely redesigned website, photography, animation, print materials, and Facebook and Twitter efforts lead to many people to rediscover the library's relevance in the 21st century | Name the Marmot Contest big hit with 3000+ kids (and their parents!)

Canadian Association of Home and Property Inspectors

Promotional videos and unique email marketing campaigns draw people to national conference at the Delta Grand Okanagan

Case Furniture Gallery

Online contests builds brand awareness & drives retail store walk ins | Local media get VIP treatment at private event

Quantech Software

Online industry survey reveals what customers really want | Targeted email marketing campaign generates many new leads

SJF Sports

Internet marketing strategy leads to blog and intense social media campaign using Facebook and Twitter | Web traffic increased by 109.4% in 2 months

Our Okanagan

New Okanagan business networking website attracts 800+ new business/association sign ups | Employment, investment, and collaboration opportunities excite valley residents Watch the recent by Global/CHBC here.

The Greenery Garden Centre

Massive online photo contest creates a fun customer experience | web traffic soars with 600+ submissions & 3000+ votes

A Sample of Current Projects

Best Western Inn Kelowna

Search Engine Marketing Analysis reveals what Google thinks |Internet marketing campaign begins to take a leading brand higher than ever

Quantech Software

SEO and Website Usability Score Cards uncover the missing ingredients that will turn "tire kickers" into buyers | Web development focuses on amazing user friendly site which supports Sales & Marketing Dept's goals

Impact Radio Accessories

Continued magazine ad design, catalogue, and eCommerce website improvements assist in great sales performance for 2010 | Work done over the last 4 years spur on international expansion

Clement Turf Farms

Strategic research and industry surveys get to the heart of exactly how where the new revenue opportunities lie | Integrated marketing campaign underway involving both digital and traditional marketing tactics

Okanagan College - Green Business Awards

Easy to use Wordpress blog-style website will help students organize and promote the local Green Business Awards competition

We are pleased to share with you a video interview of Twin Creek Media that was showcased by The Fire Within on ShawTV. We hope you enjoy the behind the scenes look of the team at Twin Creek Media. : )

Since 2004, Twin Creek Media has been a strategic and creative marketing agency located in Kelowna, British Columbia. The firm has carved a place in the marketing world by becoming known for integrated marketing: combining the best of internet and digital with the traditional mediums of print, radio, and TV.

Twin Creek Media employs an executive team of five and a part-time creative team of 12 who together form a powerhouse of talent and experience. We are passionate about marketing and especially leading Okanagan businesses to integrate their current communications with the digital methods, such as lead-generating websites, ads on Google (Google AdWords), and engaging clients with current social media like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

http://www.facebook.com/twincreekmedia
http://twitter.com/twincreekmedia
http://www.linkedin.com/companies/twi...

Today Internet Marketing is at the forefront of most business improvement, marketing and advertising initiatives. We provide our clients with a single resource for dynamic, fully-integrated and seamless communication services. Our solutions for each chosen media are based on their individual and supportive strengths.

http://www.twincreekmedia.com/

Read our company blog on internet marketing, our marketing services and latest company news:

http://www.twincreekmedia.com/blog/

By James Shaw

Having recently watched the movie Inception, I was struck by the parallels between ideas in this movie and the strategies and tactics used in the marketing world in which I work.  I thought it’d be fun to explore some similarities and differences...

Note: if you haven’t seen the movie, you probably shouldn’t read this post.  It contains a lot of spoilers!

Dom Cobb is a skilled thief, the absolute best in the dangerous art of extraction, stealing valuable secrets from deep within the subconscious during the dream state, when the mind is at its most vulnerable. Cobb's rare ability has made him a coveted player in this treacherous new world of corporate espionage, but it has also made him an international fugitive and cost him everything he has ever loved. Now Cobb is being offered a chance at redemption. One last job could give him his life back but only if he can accomplish the impossible-inception. Instead of the perfect heist, Cobb and his team of specialists have to pull off the reverse: their task is not to steal an idea but to plant one. If they succeed, it could be the perfect crime. But no amount of careful planning or expertise can prepare the team for the dangerous enemy that seems to predict their every move. An enemy that only Cobb could have seen coming. Written by Warner Bros. Pictures

Inception Idea/Plot/Quote	Marketing Lesson or (Twin Creek-ism!)
“Inception” means creating an idea in someone else’s mind.	Every marketing message, whether it’s a movie, radio commercial, magazine, Facebook ad, or Youtube video attempts “inception” to some degree.
They have Leonardo DiCaprio.	Twin Creek Media has Thomas Berger!
Eames: [Shows up while Arthur is in a gunfight] You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling. [Pulls out a grenade launcher]	Sell the dream, not the product.
Cobb: The seed that we planted in this man's mind may change everything.	The goal of advertising is to plant a seed in the mind that changes one thing (the action you want them to take)
Eames: If we are gonna perform Inception then we need imagination.	The best advertising campaigns are usually simple, but highly imaginative.
They have Ellen Page.	Twin Creek Media has Amelia Penner!
Cobb: I think positive emotion trumps negative emotion every time.	Use positive desire and emotions to attract people to your product/service. Specs, facts & stats are secondary.
Ariadne: I just want to understand.	If a visitor doesn’t understand your website’s homepage within 5-10 seconds they will leave.
They are Hollywood movie stars.	We are marketing rock stars.

About Twin Creek Media
Since 2004, Twin Creek Media has been a strategic and creative marketing agency located in Kelowna, British Columbia. The firm has carved a place in the marketing world by becoming known for integrated marketing: combining the best of internet and digital with the traditional mediums of print, radio, and TV.

Check out this cool infographic about the inside workings of how Google works. This infographic came from PPC blog, visit their website by clicking here.

Have you ever been interested in how big Google's data centers are? Or how about what happens when you tweet or write a new blog post? Or just how much Google can accomplish in a second? All of those questions will be answered below!

Infographic by PPC Blog