3 Ways To Grow Your Brand with Google+ at SMW

Google+ is heavily favored among early adopters as a social layer. With 540 million monthly active users, with 300 million viewing their Google+ stream at least once a month, while an additional 1.5 billion photos are uploaded to the site every week. “Slowly but surely we are getting a feeling that there’s a real momentum, but it is still early days and there are plenty of opportunities to grow and add new features and make them easier to use,” Matt Cooke, product marketing manager for Google+, says.

We at Social Media Week are big fans of the tool. Our office regularly uses Google Hangouts for remote meetings. And we are building our own Google+ community (if you aren’t already joining us there, you should…) So, naturally we were excited to have them join us here at SMW NYC as a City Supporting Sponsor. Through their multiple events at Social Media Week New York, Google+ is teaching us how to do social better and connect with customers in a personalized way — something we all need help with from time to time.

  1. Grow With Google
    Every brand wants to grow and expand their influence. This practical session will outline examples from smart brands that are using Google platforms to do just that. Learn how to get more content in a Google search, how to increase android downloads, and meet your marketing objectives.
  2. Make Your Brand Social Across The Web
    Did you know that your Google+ posts show in search results? It’s just one way you can use Google+ to help get your brand discovered across the web and build deeper relationships with current and future customers. Through social, brands are becoming more human and Google+ can play a significant role in helping you and your brand make more meaningful connections.
  3. Continue the Conversation with Google+ Hangouts
    Used by Barack Obama, the NFL, and the Huffington post, Hangouts are a great way for brands to connect with their customers in an increasingly personal way. In fact, our team regularly uses them to conduct remote meetings. Additionally, their feature set facilitates continued engagement by allowing you to record and rebroadcast hangouts, embed them into your own site, and allow users to subscribe for future Hangouts. Which means the tool could really help your business advance.

We are definitely looking forward to learning from the experts at Google at these seminars this week. When a leader offers to show you how to maximize what they do, you take note. Join them.

Changing the World With Laptops: WEB Film Screening

It is difficult for most of us to even remember what our lives looked like before the Internet and cell phones. These technologies have become completely integrated into the operation of our daily live. However, across the planet, not everyone is as connected as we are. There are still 4.6 billion people who live without Internet access, which practically means that there are 68% of the world’s population lives without the resources accessible through the Internet.

NYU Professor, Clay Shirky hypothesizes that the question future generations will ask as they look back at us, are the ways that we used technology to make the world better and improve people’s lives. Organizations like One Laptop Per Child are aiming to do just that by bringing the resources and knowledge, accessible through the Internet, to places that had been previously disconnected.

One Laptop per Child gives durable, inexpensive laptops to entire classrooms of children in remote and impoverished communities. They believe that through connecting to resources online, economies improve, democracy can emerge, and educational opportunities expand exponentially. By simply increasing the percentage of the population with Internet access by 10%, a country’s GDP increases by 1.28-2.5%.

WEB, is an award-winning film that follows families in rural Peru as they receive laptops and get connected to the Internet for the first time.  Interspersed between the touching stories is commentary from leaders in the tech space, who discuss the impact that technology has on our society and our interconnected world.

Join us for a screening of the film and discussion with the filmmakers, Hosted by A Human Right, at SMW NYC!

Featured image courtesy of  Knight Foundation

Social Media Does, In Fact, Matter — To Every Kind Of Business

Let me be honest: I’m sick of seeing posts on LinkedIn looking for volunteers or interns to run social media. Furthermore, many of those that do offer pay, they are only suggesting a $30,000 salary.

The fact is this: those businesses misunderstand what social media is about — as do plenty of fresh-faced college graduates who think the job description consists of tweeting.

Social media managers and strategists don’t post on social media. They create, plan and execute marketing campaigns.

It’s all about social media strategy. Social media matters simply because of this fact — it’s new-age savvy marketing, not a just social tool.

2014: the year of salaried social media jobs

OK, so many businesses aren’t understanding the full importance of social media, but it’s at least important that businesses of every kind — non-profits, corporate and small businesses — recognize its potential. A staggering 88% of marketers would like to know the most effective social media uses.

Forbes declared last month that in 2014, investment in social media would be more than just a luxury — it will become necessary. A quick scan of social media-related postings on LinkedIn show that it’s true — many listings have the words “new position” embedded in there somewhere.

And there’s even data to back up that claim: Business Insider cited Constant Contact’s Small Businesses: Then and Now Survey saying that 87% of small businesses are using social media as a legitimate marketing tool.

The publication also predicted there’d be a vast expansion in these six social media-related jobs: SEO Specialist, Social Media Strategist, Online Community Manger, Social Media Marketing Manager, Social Media Marketing Coordinator, and Blogger or Social Media Copywriter.

This expansion makes sense. The Internet is accessible almost everywhere and folks are consuming more tidbits of information than ever.

People certainly take advantage of it.

According to Chelsea Krost, the average person has their smartphone with them 20 hours out of the entire day. And 80% of people reach for their smartphone when they wake up.

But why are so many skeptical to jump on the bandwagon?

Here’s the big question in social media for businesses: how do I measure the return on investment (ROI)?

That question isn’t easily answered — because there’s no way to be 100% sure you’re tracking the right data to prove this… or that you even can track the right data.

Every company is different. And sometimes it’s about trial and error to figure out which platform is most effective for your business. B2B companies seem to have a lot of success on LinkedIn; while B2C companies, depending on what they do and if they’re business or service oriented, can see great success on Twitter or Instagram.

Regardless, Social Media Examiner reported that some businesses actually have mastered tracking ROI. It seems like most of those businesses don’t have direct proof per se, but use of social media is the differing variable when the company started to see decreases in spending or increases in sales.

Either way, Social Media Examiner’s 2013 Report finds 89% of marketers surveyed claimed increased social media marketing increased exposure and site traffic.

Social media matters — and here’s why

When I talk about social media use I don’t mean quoting eccentric family members at Thanksgiving dinner on Twitter (though I’m guilty of this). I mean using it for marketing, branding, developing brand trust, hearing from individual customers, and doing damage control.

It’s pretty much a given that businesses, marketers, and even individuals (in a lot of fields, you market yourself) should care about these things.

A lot of businesses may not see an ROI on their social media, but the question should be this: why?

Sometimes it’s not about the use of social media as much as how it’s used. Social media can be used poorly or used well. Someone doing a company’s social media should be paid for their expertise — because social media is not just about posting on the platforms, it’s about posting content to the platforms.

According to HubSpot, companies that blog 15 times or more per month see an increase of five times the traffic on their site.

The other key to social media is persistence. Social Media Examiner’s 2013 Report also cited that companies using social media for three or more years said it helped by improving search rankings, creating more partnerships, generating ideas, increasing traffic, providing marketplace insight, and reducing marketing expenses — to name a few things.

Social media in use — effectively — isn’t just about posting. It’s about executing a strategy specifically tailored to a company — and it is proven to help marketing efforts.

So why aren’t you investing in social media?

Lane Blackmer is a self-employed former journalist. Although she’s no longer a newsie, Lane since discovered other uses for social media such as public relations, marketing, job searching and trying to win gift cards from her favorite local businesses through contests. Lane inhabits Philadelphia, where’s it’s not always sunny…but at least there’s cheese steaks. You can follow her on Twitter at @LaneBlackmer.

Image courtesy Social Media Examiner 2013 Report. Featured image courtesy Dan Meyers.