Social Media Command Centers: What Are They and How Can They Help Your Business?

The new term buzzing around the business world is "social media command center." Tech stuff changes so rapidly, it's hard to even keep up with. But, fortunately, we're here to help you keep on top of the latest trends in the industry.

So, What is a Social Media Command Center?

Super Bowl 2012

Larger businesses, institutions, and universities have stumbled onto the idea of creating these. One specific example was used for the most recent Super Bowl in 2012, held in Indianapolis. A team of 20 professionals staffed a 2,800 square-foot space in downtown Indianapolis for 15 hours per day for the two weeks leading up to, and including, the event. Managers, content developers, analysts, strategists, and a few volunteers made up the team.

The team monitored the major social media to make sure they extended a friendly hand to everyone arriving in the area. It also monitored various social media conversations in the interest of public safety, and combined with other command centers, so that if an emergency arose, the response would be widespread and instantaneous. The third objective was to create regular content and keep people engaged in the event. Finally, the team was to make the positive experience fans had even more intense than usual.

That's how it worked in a nutshell for the Super Bowl. But, the question you are probably really interested in is...

What Can Social Media Command Centers Do to Help Your Business?

Say your company launches a new advertising campaign. Let's say you want new content developed for that campaign as it evolves. The team manning your social media command center could get that new content out to all of your followers, and additional distribution channels, within the same day.

When you need to perform customer service for your products and services, instead of having people call, wait, or perhaps attempt to navigate their way through the maze of phones at your company, they could send a direct message to your social media account. With multiple people managing the account, it would be possible to respond to customer inquiries in a much more efficient manner.

You can also use them to listen to your customers. Ask a question about your product or services (make sure it's yes/no), and see what people say. Hold a contest, which can reveal different ways people are using your product. The point is that you receive a free method for conducting market research!

Would a Social Media Command Center be Right for Your Business?

Now that you know of the advantages of social media command center, how do you think they would add value to your company's bottom line?

Social Media Command Centers: What Are They and How Can They Help Your Business?

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Be Social, But Don't Neglect Your Website

I've written numerous articles in past about the importance of both Social Media and Mobile Website Optimization as a means to better engage customers. Many have taken note and launched successful campaigns. However, I cannot stress enough - your website is your number one online priority when marketing your product/service to your customers.

Social Networks are amazing tools for online marketing efforts and they can be fun to maintain. Yet, sometimes businesses get so caught up in their Social Media agenda that their time is spread thin, leaving the "bread and butter", their website, on the sidelines.

Nfl 2012

In this article I address the methods, as they apply to Social Media campaigns, of making sure that your website comes first:

1. Website Content is the Foundation

Excuse the obvious statement, but in order to post something on your Social Media accounts, you have to have content to post in the first place. If you're just sharing content from others, or creating content only for use on Social Networks, you're not optimizing your marketing efforts. Create all content - articles, news, photos, and videos - for your website first. All content must be rooted from your website, and branch out accordingly.

2. Relate to Your Website

If your website was "done right", then it represents your product/service offering perfectly. All content that you create for your website and for subsequent off-site use (Social Networks, Bookmarks, etc...) should directly relate to encouraging people to "buy" your product/service from your website. Again, it's easy to get sidetracked by developing your brand's Social Media persona too well, by engaging in content sharing activities that don't directly related to your product/service. Sure, it's fun to share info about the latest football news with fans/followers, but for every casual communication, ten should relate to your website, not NFL trade rumors (unless of course you are a sports agent).

3. Link Back to Your Website

This is an absolute statement - everything you post about your product/service on your Social Networks should directly link back to your website. Otherwise, it's just information blowing in the wind, serving little purpose in bringing actual customers to your website - the place where purchases are made. For example, don't post (on networks) complete articles, instead, simply "tease" the audience with an eye catching image, title, or content summary that makes it too irresistible not to click the link.

4. Link to the Relevant Page

Finally, link content posted on Social Networks to the page on your website directly corresponding to the content. Too many marketers post eye-catching content summaries encouraging fans/followers to click through, only to have them land on the website's home page where the item doesn't exist. Many do this thinking that it will increase page views (assuming visitors will look for the content on other pages) but all it gets them is a high "bounce rate" - visitors coming to your page, and leaving immediately if they don't find what they were looking for within a few split seconds.

Conclusion

Remember the balance of website marketing and you'll do just fine. Your website is the foundation of all online efforts and Social Media, Mobile Optimization, Bookmarking, and Link Building is the proverbial icing on the cake.

Be Social, But Don't Neglect Your Website

Marcus Maraih, Content Developer, http://www.StandardMarketing.ca

Top 5 Social Media Trend Predictions For 2012

In 2011 we witnessed a number of fascinating advances in the world of social media (SM) networking. However, with 2011 come and gone we're now left to wonder just what new trends we'll be able to expect from 2012. A few of the highlights of 2011 came as we realized the full impact of Facebook on the growth of social media, saw the strategic play made by many companies to market their brands across the social media landscape, as well as seeing Google make its own attempt at SM networking with the advent of Google+. By analyzing these past innovations, we can begin to get a glimpse of what may be in store for the future of social media. Here are the top five predictions for where social media trends are headed over the next year.

The Growth of Social Gaming

Super Bowl 2012

Given the broad viral spread and addictive nature social media gaming has developed over the past few years, it isn't hard to see how this trend will steadily grow in the near future. One logical development would be in the introduction of live gaming events hosted by big name developers, such as Zynga, whose substantial fan base could help push this trend to ever greater lengths should companies choose to pursue the idea.

The Spread of the Social Search Engine

One foreseeable trend is the growth of the social search. While Google+ has already taken advantage of social search technology, given the implications of such an advance on not only the social networking world but on business as well, it seems safe to assume that others sites will soon be following Google's lead. The ability to conduct a specialized search focused around the personal preferences given in a user's profile information seems to offer limitless potential to web retailers looking for new ways to draw in consumers.

Content Branding in Social Media

Even people who don't care for football often tune in to the Super Bowl just to watch the commercials, where companies have spent millions and millions of dollars for a few seconds of ad space. Nowadays, however, that same kind of viral advertising can be achieved for next to nothing through the use of social networks. As companies are beginning to realize this fact, more and more are starting to use content branding as a means of self-promotion through social media sites, where content can be rated and circulated freely. This is a trend that will only continue to progress.

Social Media Marketing

Since SM networking has now been shown to offer companies a tremendous return on their investments, companies of all sizes have started jumping on the bandwagon and investing in SM marketing campaigns. With the growth of this trend, the next logical step will be for companies to begin branching out into business-to-business marketing, allowing these companies to gain an even better foothold in the social media world.

Customer Relationship Management Through Social Media

With so many other aspects of the business world spreading into social media, it seems the next practical step would be for companies to begin using these social networking and media outlets as an online extension of their help desk services. This would allow companies to communicate with their customers more freely, as well as giving these companies the ability to identify important trends in their customer base via their customers' social profiles.

Top 5 Social Media Trend Predictions For 2012

J.T. Moore is the founder and Producer of Killer Productions, established in 2001. Killer Productions is a full-service Internet video production company.
We specialize in creating effective web videos and web commercials for any industry, product, or service. In addition, the Killer Productions team are experts in developing and implementing profitable web video marketing strategies and video SEO tactics. It is our goal to bring visibility, thereby increasing Internet sales or leads through the proper use of videos and video SEO marketing strategies. Learn more about us by visiting http://www.killerproductions.net or follow us on Twitter: @killer_video