Social media is a great way to peal back layers of media and talk straight to your customers and find out exactly what they think. Because of this, social media is often used for customer service.

Here are some quick tips of what people are looking for when they come to social media sites.

What they want:

• Information. Sometimes it’s not just about carrying on a conversation with your customer. They may need information for something. And if this is the case, get it to them as quickly as possible. If you don’t know the answer, tell them you are following up and will let them know as soon as possible. Don’t leave any question unanswered.
• A sense of community. There’s a reason the old saying “you are who your friends are” rings true. Social media is an expansion of people with similar likes and dislikes, so it’s an expansion of a person’s traditional community.
• To be heard. It’s natural for a human being to want their opinions to be heard. It’s basic psychology. It creates a feeling of being valued, which is important for a relationship to be formed, and this is what social media is all about.
• Transparency. Don’t try to hide anything. And always keep this in the back of your mind: once it’s posted, the content can live forever even if it’s deleted. So be honest, be genuine, and be a good representative for your company. (more…)
  

It appears that the search and online advertising merger between MSN/Bing and Yahoo will finally happen. According to a report from All Things Digital, the announcement could come within the next couple of weeks.

MSN initially tried to acquire Yahoo in February 2008, but talks faded. At the time, Yahoo was taking search and advertising dollars from MSN. MSN announced in November that they would not seek a merger with Yahoo but they were still open to an online search collaboration.

Since that time, MSN has launched Bing – the new “decision engine” that replaced Live – which went live in the beginning of June. MSN has an approximately $80 million ad budget behind the launch of the Bing, and it appears to be providing some initial dividends.

According to comScore, Microsoft increased its search engine share by 0.4% in the month of June to increase their total share of search engine to 8.4%. Google maintains a 65% search engine share while Yahoo was second at 19.6%. Google and Yahoo both saw search engine traffic drop 2% and 4% respectively. MSN search results, however, increased 3%.

A merger between MSN/Bing and Yahoo, therefore, would give the joint venture 28% of the total search engine market share – approximately a third of Google search. The merger would also help improve the advertising efficiencies between the two. MSN demographics skew toward the older audience segment, while Yahoo skews toward the younger audience segment. As an advertising medium, that could help the pairing capitalize on being able to provide both demographics to advertisers.

As the merger looks closer and closer to becoming final, our only question is what will they call the new venture – Bingo?

Many times PPC can seem, on the surface, like a set-it-and-forget-it marketing model. But I believe the opposite is true. An initial PPC ad can generate considerable initial user click-through. To maintain and even build upon these initial results over the long haul, however, requires a more active approach. This is when working with an agency like LeapFrog can really catapult your efforts because we have the expertise and the time to jump into the account and optimize it to perfection.

One of the many things we will do to optimize a client’s PPC campaigns is ad copy rotation. Fresh and effective copy helps sustain a PPC campaign’s marketing success. Ad copy rotation helps make sure that the best possible ad message is out in front of your user. We strive to make sure a great message is presented to the user because it is their first introduction to your product or service and oftentimes you only get that one introduction to make your impression.

On a scheduled interval, we add additional versions of ad copy to the rotation. At campaign launch, we run a number of ad texts and serve the best version the most. It’s simple; the ad with the most clicks gets served most often.

By frequently adding additional ad text to the mix, it’s possible to change up your call to action or brand message to see which ones speak to your target audience. The winning ad then becomes the control to test new creatives against and the rotation process continues from there. It is important to test different messages in your ad text because often the ones you think will do the worst will actually outperform all the rest.

Developing a strong rapport with a client without meeting them in person is possible with the effective use of e-mail and telephone calls. However, there’s nothing like the boost a face-to-face meeting can provide to the client-agency connection. Traveling to meet with my clients, without exception, always leads to something good.

I’ve traveled to client offices for many reasons including presentations, campaign reviews, and even to take part in a big event a client was hosting. Visiting a client helps me get to know them and understand their marketing needs even better because, no matter what the reason for the trip, the biggest and best part of spending time with a client is being able to build upon our existing relationship and raise it to an even stronger level.

I personally love the opportunity to meet with people face-to-face because it allows me to have the opportunity to learn more about them, their facial expressions, and their tone of voice that can get lost in e-mail or telephone conversations. Gaining this insight into their personality makes it easier to understand what they really mean in an e-mail or even on the phone. It’s also nice to put faces to names. (more…)

Client curiosity in social media is growing every day. Businesses eager to stay ahead of the curve are getting more and more competitive due in part to an increased focus on the benefits of social media. Many of our clients see their competition integrating social media into their marketing strategies, and they want to be a part of this growing trend. However, they often don’t know which channel is right for them.

My role as an account manager involves helping our clients find the answer to this question based on their marketing needs. A solid social media strategy is an excellent way for many businesses to reach their target audience but not all channels are the right fit for all brands.

The three most common channels clients want to know about when they are considering implementing a social media strategy are blogs, Twitter, and Facebook. The most frequently-asked client questions about all three of these include:

1. What do we do with each of these popular methods?
2. How do we use them effectively?
3. What do we blog or tweet about and/or what type of information should we put in front of our audience?

Using our knowledge of the social media landscape and understanding of the client’s business goals, LeapFrog Interactive is able to provide a social media strategy recommendation that compliments their overall marketing strategy. Developing an effective social media strategy includes taking the client’s target audience demographics, budget, and type of business/industry into consideration. (more…)