Indelibuzz

It seems like pretty obvious advice: focus your marketing efforts where your target spends time and develop content that will resonate most effectively with them. Your brand has long been using Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. You may have amassed a substantial, engaged fan base and run some successful promotions. All this is necessary, but not sufficient.

If you want to rise above the competition you owe it to yourself and your brand to ensure you’re not only taking advantage the newest social networks, but also optimizing those you’re currently using.

Google+
While Google itself is a well-oiled machine, it was still a surprise to many that Google+ landed in the top ten so quickly – and is at #6 right now. The main idea behind Google+ is to allow users to have all the same features of Facebook, but to provide much greater ability to customize your experience through ‘circles’. In addition, it has Google’s excellent built-in chat functionality and better ease of sharing photos and videos. While currently unfriendly to brands, early Google+ has many important features that will make it increasingly popular from a marketing standpoint, including real time analytics tool Google Ripples.

All of this is why you should take 15 minutes right now to create your brand’s Google+ page, and start paying attention to a social network that’s going to get huge. Grabbing a +1 button for your website (similar to a ‘like’ widget) is also a no-brainer. Guides like this from Read Write Web can help.If you need further inspiration, it’s always good to see what the top brands (61% of which are already on board) are doing on Google+.

Linked In
Of course you’re using LinkedIn and it’s likely the majority of people in your company are, too. But is your brand using it effectively? If you are a B2B brand, it’s an essential tool for talking to customers. However, even consumer brands and non-profits benefit from the opportunity to position the expertise of their staff. When key personnel respond to questions, they develop credibility that reflects positively on the company. Have you created a company profile page? Is your sales and marketing team using Linked In to target customers? If you’re in ‘default ‘mode with this critical social network, it’s time to take charge by starting here.

Twitter
Twitter has finally jumped on the ‘brandwagon’ with smart features that make marketing on that network far more effective. Among enhancements are customizable header images that allow better visibility of  your brand name, logo and tagline. In addition, brands can now use ‘featured Tweets’ to highlight promotions.

Brands will now be able to respond and monitor tweets far more effectively with the ability to separate @mentions and @replies. For the many thousands of brands using this social network for customer service, this is a major improvement. After getting some guidance it’s time to start better taking advantage of Twitter.

Back in the days before social, it was a lot easier. You could spend a lot more time on the message, because the medium wasn’t constantly changing. Because of the sheer speed and volume of change in this channel, we’re continually educating our clients.

The fact is, most busy marketing leads simply can’t allocate the time to become social branding experts, or they don’t have the resources to hire a staff member for that purpose. One thing is clear: However, you manage it, the rewards for staying ahead of the social marketing curve are too great not to make it a top priority for your brand.