This is an excerpt from a post predicting how marketing for business will change in 2010. The good news is that small business is thought to have a distinct advantage over large brands and corporate business. Social media marketing will be the significant form of marketing and advertising decreasing. This is extracted for the post and is part 9 of the ten ways marketing will change.

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The key to marketing on social media in 2010 in my opinion is going to be three-fold:

1. Strategy: What are the concrete goals? No, not amount of followers. Hard analytics: Increase sales, amount of business partnerships, amount of leads, % increase to email list. ROI can measured by Pre-Social Media vs. Engaging In Social Media. No, I don’t recommend using social media for direct sales, but instead forming relationships for all businesses, quality customer service, personal touch and more. If you do all that, the sales will happen if you have the right strategy.

2. Technology: Understanding the technology and using the key tools is a no- brainer. But I’m talking about REALLY understanding the functionality, how to build relationships, and what sites are correct for your company and situation.

3. Key Resources: I’ll repeat this twice. NOTHING replaces human interaction (#1). NOTHING replaces human interaction (#2). Engaging, replying, etc. is key to marketing success on social media. In fact, not doing it will cause a backlash: “Company X doesn’t  “get” social media.” It is called social for a reason.

That being said, there are some incredible tools that continue to emerge to help you with the marketing side of things on social media. Meaning analyzing data, understanding relationships, making sure content you create is pushed onto the sites correctly without being annoying and many other goodies. Does this replace interaction? Absolutely not. Does it help market on social media? Absolutely.

To read more of this article click here The Rise to the Top Blog

How do you think online marketing will change in 2010?

This video shows the difference that the Internet has made for business. Feedback about your company is quicker, and different channels are used. The main message, however, hasn’t changed. When a potential customer is looking to purchase, the same fundamental questions to build trust are the same. The difference is where your cusomer looks for them. Social media has changed the playing field. If your company is not out there, your competition will be, and you will lose business.

Last week Blog World was held in Las Vegas and here is a short interview held with Jeremiah Owyang from that event on what he sees as future trends for social media in business. Although Jeremiah recommends using Facebook Connect as a business tool, a number of businesses are adopting Gigya’s Technology. Businesses are having a difficult time keeping up with ‘real time’ customer support, and Jeremial recommends the use of customer advocacy groups. There are some good blogging tips at the end of the video.

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