1. Post different content forms

Don’t assume content is synonymous with words only. It includes video, photo and audio too. Ensure your content mix is balanced because different community members prefer different content.

2. Update content regularly

Avoid the ‘one content fits all platforms’ temptation. What your community members view on Facebook shouldn’t be ‘photocopied’ to your Twitter tweets. In addition, content, especially tweets and Facebook statuses updates, shouldn’t park in your accounts all day. Update at least thrice a day. Otherwise your community members will assume you are doing a copy and paste job.

3. Associate your business with a cause

One tactic that will earn your social media marketing campaign bonus points (and a surge in traffic, albeit temporary) is by aligning your brand with initiatives like the recently concluded Kenyans 4 Kenya.

Keep content about your participation minimal otherwise you will be regarded as a publicity seeking pig. Instead, ask your community to voice their views on issues unleashed by such disasters such as agricultural policy, irrigation and extension services.

A temporary diversion from brand-related content shows that your business cares about – and desires to – be involved in solving real-world challenges.

4 Massage their emotions

Nothing makes an impact on your community’s emotions than that feeling that your business considers them special. So special that they are the first to know of new products and services and also the first to try out the beta versions, so special that they are the first to be invited to the launch parties, so special they are the first to know of upcoming price discounts, so special that you’re the first to send them birthday wishes, etc. You can never go wrong with massaging your community members’ emotions.

5) Emergency responses

Unfortunately, like all relationships, sometimes you and your community members will experience turbulent times. This situation usually arises when businesses experience disasters and their responses are inadequate. Remember BP’s 2010 PR disaster after an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico?

You will be tempted to respond with a ‘know-it-all’ reply. Resist that temptation. Respond politely with a line like, “Thank you for your observation, we are doing our best to contain the situation…”  In these emergencies, constant communication is essential, otherwise your community will suspect you are being evasive. Nothing contributes to your community’s alienation (and possible defection) than defensiveness and evasiveness.

Implementing the five social media marketing tactics above is a strong way to anchor your social media marketing strategy on a stable surface.

One of best websites you should definitely include in your social marketing efforts is Facebook. This social network currently boasts 750 million active members worldwide. Half of them spend approximately one hour daily updating their statuses, posting photographs and video links, and commenting on their friends’ statuses, etc. More than 30% of Facebook users use their mobile phones and other hand held devices to browse this site. One tactic you should begin with is creating a profile page for your business free on Facebook and then requesting your friends, suppliers, employees, etc to ‘like’ it. But that’s not enough, you have to keep the page fresh by updating content regularly and responding to your customers’ comments, complaints, and so forth. These measures will allow your initial base of users to recommend it to their Facebook friends who will then recommend it to their friends…

Twitter is another popular social media marketing website you can’t ignore in your optimization efforts. It currently has more than 250 million users worldwide. Again, it’s free to create your account there and then begin posting content also known as ‘tweeting’. Follow that up by asking your friends, suppliers, employees, etc to follow your business. But that’s not enough, you have to keep the page fresh by updating content regularly and responding to your customers’ comments, complaints, and so forth. These measures will allow your initial base of users to recommend it to their Twitter followers, who will then recommend it to their followers… Just remember to keep your tweets at 140 characters maximum, otherwise the excess copy won’t be published.

Another great website to include in your social media marketing planning is YouTube. It’s the world’s most popular video sharing website, with over 3 billion videos viewed daily! You can record a video explaining your company’s goods and services and then upload it on your account. Follow that by up by sending the link to your Facebook and Twitter friends and followers respectively to get the account on its feet. But that’s not enough, you have to keep your account fresh by updating content regularly and responding to your customers’ comments, complaints, and so forth. These measures will allow your initial base of users to recommend it to their Facebook and Twitter friends, who will then recommend it to their friends…

If your business needs a social marketing strategy that will nurture and grow your business and complement your other online marketing efforts and contribute to your return on investment, talk to Pamoja Media http://pamojamedia.com/services/online-services/social-media-campaigns/ like yesterday.

(Sample digital ad shown above running on the Mashable Website)

The talk about Kenya’s growth and contribution to the IT world has increased the country’s reputation as one of Africa’s leaders in the technology sector. This is true as far as ICT innovations and the tech-world is concerned, but what about the impact on SMEs and corporates? How effectively are businesses in the region using the digital space to market their services and provide product information? Lets first understand what this is all about. According to Wikipedia; “Digital marketing is the practice of promoting products and services using the interactive digital distribution channels to reach consumers in a timely, relevant, personal and cost effective manner.”

Despite the increase in Internet connectivity and speeds, digital online marketing is still relatively adopted in the country and few people fully understand the possibilities it presents. Google Africa, the (government backed) ICT board, Strathmore University, the iHub and Pamoja Media, among other institutions and IT firms, have taken the initiative to increase awareness about the available online opportunities for businesses. This is through holding events with the business community to highlight on how they can take advantage of Internet advertising and marketing to boost their sales numbers and online presence. So, how soon do we expect to see our Internet browsing experience flooded by ads about regular Kenyan products and services that are common during prime-time television? I say NOT too long. There is no doubt the biggest spenders on advertising and marketing in Kenya are the telecommunications industry guys. Safaricom, Zain and Orange already have some online footprint on the digital advertising world (thanks to the infamous mobile price wars).

And true to the traditional corporate trends, many companies will begin to follow suit and seek to find out more information with regards to online marketing. In essence, the telecommunications companies helped the Kenyan online marketer to overcome one of the biggest hindrance yet: proving that digital marketing is safe, targeted, cost effective, within reach and very do-able. I believe in a few months we will start seeing the local neighborhood hair salon running a highly targeted advertisement online. Yes, I know it does sound a bit far-fetched, but its really not. We already have numerous businesses, signing up on online business directories, setting up pages on Facebook and even running Google Adwords.

As a country, Kenya has invested in the technology sector to promote innovation and infrastructure. Now the next step is for the business and government to use the digital space created to reach more clients, increase sales and provide a better service to the population. This, definitely, is the next frontier in the Kenyan marketing and advertising. The pace in which companies and agencies are adopting online digital marketing is amazing and the momentum is set to be maintained as the solutions and advantages presented by digital marketing become more apparent.

But the industry matured and people started charging per impression (number of times an ad shows up on any given site). This type of pricing is called cost-per-impression (CPM). This was better than the monthly sponsorship deals. CPM is usually priced at 1,000 impressions. So when a sales person mentions a $1.00 CPM, it means that an advertiser pays $1.00 for 1,000 impressions of an ad regardless of how many clicks are generated within the 1,000 impressions.

This model was later surpassed with the cost-per-click (CPC). Google has built its whole advertising business on CPC. An advertiser only pays once a click has been generated and traffic sent to their site. CPC are valued more than CPM deals and generally are priced per click. Advertisers prefer CPC to CPM deals as they actually purchase for the traffic that arrives on their site.

Another pricing model is the cost-per-action (CPA) model which has taken off in the last few years. CPA deals are usually set up for affiliates. This system pays a publisher or website once a targeted action such as a sale actually occurs. This model is akin to having a publisher act as sales representative for a company. CPA campaigns work best when they don’t fit the traditional banner ads running on most publisher sites. These campaigns are quite effective whenever ads or links to products are placed within regular site content. Surfers are more skeptical purchasing from an ad than clicking on a product review that directs them to the manufacturer/store website. While a lot of ecommerce stores love this model, publishers shy away from it since an enormous amount of traffic is sent to ecommerce sites without publishers receiving remuneration for it.

In Kenya, leading local websites still price advertising according to sponsorship. Since most advertisers are used to paying advertising on sponsorship deals instead of CPA, CPC or CPM deals; they normally guard campaign targets and information to their detriment. I have been in a number of meetings whereby advertisers will expect a proposal for a campaign they seek to run. Once the proposal it presented, they usually shy away due to the suggested campaign amount as being too high.

At this point, I usually mention that the total amount is not what is important but rather the CPM or CPC rate since the value of the campaign is usually determined by this amount. Some clients comprehend it and are therefore able to move on to the next point in setting up a campaign. On the other hand, others remain skeptical, withhold the target budget amount and mention that this is an entirely new method of pricing advertising and they are not sure they will receive the right value for their money.

For the ones that proceed with placement, we run various optimization tests to ensure that they get the best performing creatives and landing page matched up with the right sites. Constant optimization of a campaign ensures that the goals of a client are met and they in turn want to spend more money with you.

Display and search are directly correlated, judging by a Specific Media study of comScore data. Brand- and segment-related searches (for cars, automakers and vehicle classes) jumped by more than 100% in several categories after consumers were exposed to display ads for those brands.

“Display advertising significantly impacts search, site visitation and engagement,” said Chris Vanderhook, COO at Specific Media, in a statement.

Search clickers exposed to display advertising were 22% more likely to produce a sale than those who were not exposed, according to a September 2008 study of Microsoft’s Engagement Mapping system by Atlas Solutions.

In a ClickZ article, Microsoft’s Young-Bean Song said the study results suggested that search alone was not a cure-all for customer acquisition.

“The issue we have with navigational search is that it completely obliterates the value we’re creating from other digital marketing we’re doing,” Mr. Song told ClickZ. “The idea that search is this magical fountain of customer acquisition—in many cases it’s not.”

David Hallerman, senior analyst at eMarketer, agreed that display can boost search.

“There is a connection between display and search ads,” he said. “Marketers know this intuitively. Often it’s not the search ad alone that gets consumers to act, but the context of all the marketing that preceded it.”

eMarketer predicts that search and display ads will retain the highest share of online ad spending formats through 2013, and will be the only formats to maintain double-digit share through that period.

comScore has found that banner ads actually have similar impacts to print ads. The report states that readers are 46% more likely to visit an advertiser’s site within four weeks of seeing its ads online than if they did not see the ads. The percentage of site visits are higher the closer it is to the date of ad viewing.

The data also pointed out that web surfers are 38% more likely to search for an advertiser’s name with a search engine like Google within four weeks of seeing an online ad. Even without clicks, display ads are driving traffic to an advertiser’s website.

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This in turn means that banner advertising are actually more effective than previously thought. This is good news for both publishers and networks as they seek to improve the value of their product.

• CPC-Cost per Click. The number of impressions does not matter with this banner advertising model.

• CPA-Cost per Action, more commonly known as affiliate advertising.

• CPL-Cost per lead. Normally these banners have a form embedded into them that visitors may complete. Each completed form represents a lead and has a monetary value associated with it.

• Sponsored Banners-When an advertiser agrees to pay a flat fee to a publisher in return for displaying their ad for a specified time frame on a non-rotating basis this is known as sponsorship.

Note: Pamoja Media participates in the CPM, CPC, and sponsorsed banner models.