Apr 30 2012

51 Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed

Matt Petronzio
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Have you spent the past week studying the nuts and bolts of the new Gmail interface? Or have you been preoccupied with the space shuttle Enterprise‘s final flight to New York City (and the absurd memes that came along with it)? For whichever reasons you missed our latest digital media resources, use our weekly features roundup to catch up in a flash.

This week, we’ve covered ways your business can use video on Pinterest, digital tools to help you reduce junk mail and tips on how to curate and share great content. We also have a list of the sassiest brands on social media, a rundown of essential tools for marketers and a gallery of iPhone cases that look good enough to eat. We even have video interviews with entrepreneurial trailblazers like Brian Solis and Mark Cuban.

Go ahead and take advantage of these valuable resources!

Editor’s Picks

Social Media

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Business & Marketing

For more business news and resources, you can follow Mashable‘s business channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

Tech & Mobile

For more tech news and resources, you can follow Mashable‘s tech channel on Twitter and become a fan onFacebook.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, akinbostanci.

May 6 2010

Social Media. Lets Start With The Basics:

Social Media Plan – Getting Started

 

One of the most difficult aspects for jewelers is what social network to use and how to integrate into their marketing platform. A lot of jewelers get started, but don’t usually have much success once they do. Remember the whole point to social media is that you give your consumers access to you, your store and your product that has millions of users utilizing each specific network. You are staying relevant with your community that you build. With traditional advertising you might not have the marketing budget to do that. One of the biggest reasons as a business to join a social network is to drive traffic to your website. Why is that so important? Think of your website as a new construction site. No one knows that you are there. A social network can help increase the amount of people that visit your website. Before you can even begin to create an online marketing campaign, you need to set goals and analyze your current website.

The first questions that you need to ask yourself:

Do you currently have a website?

No web presence will be the death of your business. More and more the consumer looks to the Internet to provide information on the products and services they want and need. However, as a recent study has shown, while 66% of consumers search the Internet for local small business information, only 44% of small businesses have a web site. The end result is that the small local business without a website is virtually invisible to these local consumers.

“According to the Nielsen Online Custom Survey from WebVisible, Inc.,” stated Dale Stefancic, co-owner of Entrepreneurs On Call, “92% of consumers have first researched a product on the Internet, and then have purchased that product locally at least once. The end result is that the business that has a website is much more likely to end up with that consumer in their local store. The Internet no longer serves the global marketplace exclusively but now impacts directly the sales of the smalllocal business. Without a website to direct and inform the local customer, a small local business will soon no longer stand any chance of real local success.”

Does your website have the functionality needed to retain consumers?

• Can they register an account on your website?

• Can they share your product, create wish lists, etc?

Once you get consumers to visit your website, it has to be interactive enough to keep them coming back.

Do you want to sell online?

Most brick and mortars have a lot of fear about selling online. It also is something that you can integrate into your marketing platform at a later date. It is just a good idea to research this now, in order to know what you might be dealing with in the future. The way consumers buy product is changing. Being on facebook, or a social platform is great, but if they can not purchase your product then they probably will not be visiting your website again.

E-commerce has many solutions. I don’t know how many times people say,

“If I sell online. I will cannibalize my in-store base/sales.”

“People will price shop me.”

“I don’t have the infrastructure.”

These are all questions that have solutions. Most e-commerce platforms can be custom tailored to fit your needs. You just need to research what will work best for you. Some solutions are simpler than others. In the next article I will be talking about e-commerce solutions that I think work the best for the jewelry industry and why.

Start with the basics and try not to overwhelm yourself. Set your goals first and do your research. If you still don’t know where to start, send me a comment and I can point you in the right direction.

Remember… “One step at a time. Small steps can lead to big success!”