So get ready to take off your “brand” marketer hat and replace it with your “newsdesk” marketer hat.  That is, to produce marketing messages on a daily basis and work to ensure the brand message operates within the context of your customers’ daily lives.

Here are a few best practices to get you started:

• Listen: Tune into what your customers are saying to determine what they care about today.
• Program: Develop content to match daily trends.
• Update: Program content updates to stay relevant.
• Measure: Monitor impact and iterate content accordingly.

Now is the time to get on the same page as your customers and ensure that today’s marketing messages are truly that.  Fishnet can help you create engaging daily content that your customer’s care about. Contact us today!

Spill the beans

When space is limited, you need to get right to the point – and do it quick.

Get their attention

This may seem obvious but you need to keep in mind that Twitter users access the service because they want information from trusted sources or updates from their friends, so the message needs to take that into consideration. Messages that create intrigue or use a joke are great ways to gain attention and prompt action.

Ask a question

It’s been found that tweets in the form of a question are high performers in terms of CTRs. Tweets posed as questions elicit a response, which opens the door for consumer interaction and message sharing.

Make the cut

It will likely take a few tries to get your message honed down to 140 characters.  Tackle it by first including everything you think is important, then start cutting out the extra details until you get to your limit.  One trick to shorten your copy is to try using different synonyms which say the same thing using fewer characters.

Don’t sacrifice grammar

As challenging as writing Twitter ad copy may be, don’t succumb to the temptation of sacrificing your brand image by butchering your words – for example using “u” instead of “you”.  What may be acceptable when texting a friend does not fly for ads that you have invested in.  Invite this creative challenge by finding other ways to tighten up your copy.

Need help writing attention grabbing Twitter ad copy that gets your customers to do what you want them to?  We can help! Contact us today.

Design campaigns to engage and convert fans

To launch an extensive marketing campaign with the sole objective of building your Facebook fan count is a waste of money. Campaigns should be designed to attract leads, buyers and promote repeat business.

Develop a fan strategy

By having a “fan campaign” and content strategy, you can initiate a dialogue with fans from the get-go.

Drive them to opt-in

Use your “fan campaign” to get fans to opt-in to specific areas of interest connected to your brand.  Drive them directly to your website where they can sign up for SMS alert programs. This will enable you to send them targeted content, drawing them out of the social media channel and in-store.

Leverage traditional media

Leverage your print and TV media to drive consumers directly to your Facebook page.  Once there, the “fan campaign” can be used to capture customer data by asking them to sign up to participate in a contest and/or to sign up for specific SMS alerts on the things they are interested in.

Fishnet can help you leverage marketing campaigns to promote the conversion of passive fans into buying customers. Contact us today!

The quick fix: In today’s high-tech world we have grown used to getting instant results.  The same rings true when it comes to SEO.  While the time, effort and planning in the placement of keywords in search engine rankings can bring huge payoffs, marketers often forego this systematic approach and opt for a quick fix.

Avoid this common pitfall by taking the time to implement SEO correctly so you can realize the many great opportunities that SEO presents such as reach, free advertising, good ROI and increased brand awareness.

The backwards approach: Once the quick fix approach proves unsuccessful, marketers often turn to SEO experts to fix their sites.  Since business owners often lack the patience and understanding of how SEO works, they expect instant results and ignore the fact that SEO takes time, focus and proper planning and analysis to be truly successful.  However, with a little patience, SEO success will be realized and the opportunities will present themselves and yield immense results.

Avoid this common pitfall by taking the steps to build your website with SEO in mind from the beginning.

The blind eye: Many businesses turn a blind eye to SEO because they either feel their business is too small or not the type of business that would benefit from online marketing tactics.  It is important to know that every business can benefit by having an online presence. Though a long-term strategy, SEO offers a tremendous opportunity to capitalize on volumes of potential clients through brand recognition and lead generation.

Avoid this common pitfall by including SEO as part of your marketing strategy no matter what your business is and gain an edge over the competition by thinking outside the box.

Need help developing and implementing your SEO marketing strategy?  Fishnet Media can help!  Contact us today.

Take a Bottom-Up Approach

Considering that your social media strategy needs to translate across an array of devices, start with the device that presents the most limitations – mobile.  What sense is there in designing a web app with all the bells and whistles, only to realize down the road that your plan will not work on a 2×5 smartphone screen?  Keeping in mind that simplicity is key, aim to make a great experience on the mobile screen first and then translate it for the web and other devices.  Not only will this approach be much easier but it will save time and spare your team the headache of “scaling down”.

Include the Newcomers to the Scene

Thanks to standards for things such as images and video, even with the mobile device variety and various versions that exist today, it’s easy to keep things looking good across the majority of devices without eating up your technical resources. Be sure to optimize your images and videos for multiple mobile outputs instead of one universal output, so that newer devices with upgraded technology can be fully utilized. Also, make use of the latest tablet and smartphone touchscreens which support richly connected apps with direct links to other apps such as phone dialing and geo-tracking by pre-filling them with user data.

Give Users Control

Users want to know where they are, where they came from, and where they can go at all times. With all the content sharing between apps this needs to be given serious consideration.  You can easily ensure that users are taken to the right piece of content by giving each piece of content is own unique URL.  Once they have arrived, let them know they have landed in the right place by presenting a prominent title, an optimized image and an uninterrupted banner-free post.  Since users begin to think about the share-worthiness of your content after only reading a few sentences, keep your call-to-action (CTA) buttons bright, prominent and always above the fold.

Let Fishnet Media help you put these user experience best practices into practice to ensure the success of your social media strategy.  Contact us today!

Now that we have your attention, let’s differentiate between the strategies. “Passive” apps allow users to broadcast messages through automatic posts to a newsfeed – allowing them to share their thoughts and opinions to a broad audience. “Active-personalized” apps combine the passive broadcasts with prompts to send personalized direct messages to friends.

So how do you determine which viral strategy is the most effective for your business and your marketing goals? Passive features are better for spreading product awareness widely and for quick adoption (3.17 days to first adoption, compared to 4.77 days for personalized messages). Active-personalized messages, on the other hand, increase the frequency and duration of use and are therefore better for building a loyal customer base and making a product stickier.

When done right these viral strategies are up to 10 times more effective than banner ads in converting users and around twice as effective as email advertising. Let Fishnet Media help you create and implement a cost-effective viral marketing strategy that is tailored to your marketing goals! Contact us today.

Fishnet Media joined over 2,500 other dog-lovers on Sunday, June 12^th at Stratham Hill Park for the NHSPCA’s 19^th annual Paws Walk 2011.  Walking as the “Friends of Fishnet” team, we are proud to have raised over $1,000 for the NHSPCA!

The annual NHSPCA event has become the largest fundraiser for animals on the Seacoast.  Funds raised will save animals’ lives by providing food, safety, medical care and an unlimited stay for an estimated 3,500 animals this year until a family comes to adopt them.

We would like to give special thanks to Jared Lemos, Kelly Lemos, Michael Packard, Jennifer Packard, Matt Neill, Allison Marconi, Kevin Lasante, Jamila Lasante, Lisha Rowe and Crystal Tobin – all who contributed to our fundraising effort.  And of course we would like to give a bark out to our team mascots:  Dogs Lucy, Rudy, Suki, Spydy, Trapper and Fathom!

The NHSPCA is a community resource center that provides animal adoption, education, investigation and sheltering services in a professional and compassionate way. For more information about the NHSPCA, you can visit www.nhspca.org.

Here’s a scenario you can relate to: You dump your marketing budget into a flashy new website and surprise, surprise, you do not see the overnight success you had dreamed of.  You have two options.  One, you could let your feelings of frustration and anger take over and cause you to abandon your site and ignore the hundreds of ongoing revisions that you’ll need to make.  Or two, you can stick with it, continue to invest the time and money needed and eventually see the success you had dreamed of become a reality.  While two is the obvious choice, without patience, it won’t be possible.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither will a great website. When it comes to web tactics, things happen fast.  Think of how quickly you can acquire new friends and fans in your social networks. But when it comes to web strategy (your long-term plans) it’s a game of patience and he who perseveres will come out on top.  In our media-driven world of instant satisfaction it can be really easy to be lured into the trap of abandoning your well-laid plans when immediate success is not achieved.

Don’t get distracted by the hot new blog, website or social network of the day.  Instead listen to your customers and pay attention to the tried and true players in your space.  Then formulate your strategy and be prepared to stick with it for the long haul – continually learning, perfecting and making revisions to ensure your success.  Be prepared for the challenge of sticking it out when the results don’t come overnight, because they won’t.  In fact, they may not come for years.  That’s right, years.  But if you have patience, it will come, and you will come out on top (and be all the more virtuous for it)! Don’t just take our word for it (or even Axl’s for that matter), try it…  We can help.  Contact us today.

Get to Know Your Customers – To truly be seen as genuine to your customers you need to go beyond defining them only in terms of marketing demographics.  You need to dig deeper and get to know who they are when they are not buying your products and services.  Going about this is really pretty simple.  There is nothing you need to “do” except sit back,relax and observe your customer’s online social behavior.  Before you know it you will really feel like you know your customers as you do your own friends – what’s important to them, their likes and dislikes, their passions and interests. Then you can speak up and interact in a way that is meaningful and relevant to them.

Be Likable – Let’s face it…  Being friends with brands is not, well, cool.  So how do you get past this?  By creating an online personality that your customers can’t help but like.  Again it all goes back to; you guessed it, being real.  Be honest, admit your faults, let your hair down, have fun, crack a joke and don’t take yourself so seriously.  Be…  REAL!

Do As You Say – Find out what customers want from you and then make it happen. If you say it’s important to you, demonstrate it.  If you solicit feedback, be prepared to make changes. Social media is not just about acting sincere; it’s about being sincere.  The way you do that is by backing up your words with actions (you know the old saying) and always follow through. Just be sure that you don’t lose sight of your brand and your business: keep your connections and queries relevant.

At Fishnet Media we specialize in keepin’ it real!  Let us help you create a winning online persona that your customers can’t help but like.  Contact us today!

Coke was onto something when they coined the term “smashable”. They wanted a bottle design that could immediately be recognized as a Coke bottle even if it was smashed into a hundred pieces.  Clearly their logo would do them no good if the bottle was shattered into hundreds of pieces.  They would need to rely on the color, contour, size, texture and thickness of the glass bottle to be the differentiators.

Companies today need to think along the same lines and acknowledge the value that every single communication element plays in defining their brand’s identity.  Think of it like this, if your logo suddenly disappeared from your product, marketing materials, signage and website would your brand still be easily recognized by your customers?  Would your packaging, copy, colors, design, font, spacing, graphics and even the navigation of your brand enable widespread consumer recall?  Challenge your company to “smash” your brand and find out, and if you’re not happy with the results, it’s time for a change.

Fishnet Media can help you go beyond the logo and create a smashable brand.  Contact us today.