I’m not ashamed to admit … I LOVE that song. Yes, ‘Video Killed the Radio Star‘ by The Buggles (how do you like that? I even know the name of the group!) is on my top ten songs that I can hear over and over and never get tired of it. Matter of fact, I love all that 80′s cheesy music.

I heard the song on the radio when they were doing a flashback lunch (translation songs that were on the radio when I was in high school) and I turned the volume up to drown out my off-key singing. The song reminded me of the day when MTV launched and all they played were videos. It was such a cool thing to see these videos of the songs we heard on the radio. We sat there for hours with our full-force-caffeinated cokes and watched those videos for as long as our moms would let us sit in front of the TV.

When MTV kicked off their programming, it truly took over the way we listened to radio. Just like what happened when YouTube entered the social media scene. Back in the 80′s, you weren’t a music star until you had a video and now with YouTube, anyone’s neighbor can be in a video and turn into an instant celebrity.

As marketers, we know about all the brands who are finding ways to sell their products using YouTube videos. We get to see the sneak peek from the big guys whose videos that run during the Super Bowl. And most of us women will admit that we’ve watched more then our share of the Old Spice videos, even the ones that never make it to commercial TV.

It’s clear to me that social media has changed the way that we do business and YouTube has played a big part in it. Let’s take a look at how YouTube killed the radio star.

In turn of the millennial, most people had a radio in their home and everyone had one in their vehicles. Radio was entrenched in everyone’s lives as we listened to them broadcast breaking news, celebrity scandals and of course, music. We would sit in our cars before heading into the office to catch that last bit of news about the latest human interest story. Radio was accessible to everyone.

Alright … stay with me here as we fast forward to get back to YouTube.

With all the new options available to us like ipods and mp3 players in our smartphones, radio’s influence has started to decline. Radio has tried over the past decade to re-invent itself with satellite and online programming but it still can’t come close to the number of people who are on YouTube every day.

• With over 2 billion people visiting YouTube every day, it ranks only second to Google as the top search engine (YouTube)
• There are more the 24 hours of video uploaded to the site daily (YouTube)
• Today’s radio audience is almost 9 million (Arbitron)
• The weekly radio broadcast audience is equal to 241,362,000 (Arbitron)

Just by the shear numbers alone we can see how YouTube is overtaking radio as our place to hear news when we’re not in front of our TV’s. Radio use to give us our stories that we talked about at the water cooler and shared with our friends. Now our friends are sharing YouTube videos on Facebook and tweeting the latest viral ad from our favorite store.

YouTube is growing at a steady pace and shows no sign of stopping. Pretty soon we’ll all be singing the lyrics from my favorite song when we talk about YouTube:

In my mind and in my car
We can’t rewind we’ve gone to far
Pictures came and broke your heart
Put the blame on VTR

You are a radio staaaarrrr …..
Video killed the radio star
Video killed the radio star

Just turn the volume up folks. I can’t carry a tune in a bucket.

Have you used YouTube in your marketing campaigns? Please share in the comments.

photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/richardgunn/3836159203/

I was talking business with a good friend of mine who sells coupons for those books that we get in the mail every other month. While she knows that her form of marketing will soon fall to the wayside due to the influx of mobile apps and social sites like Groupon, she’s still out there making sales and filling up pages in those coupon magazines.

When we talked about the why businesses are still buying those half-page ads, she let me know that its partly to the Mommy target audience but mostly, its those folks they call Baby Boomers. The small businesses that she sells to buy those ads because the older generation has always made their buying decisions based on what deal that they can get to the closest pet store in their neighborhood. As our conversation continued, I had to ask the question, “Are Boomers still buying the same way with coupons and ads in the newspapers or has there been a shift in their buying patterns and they’re using social media to make their purchases?”

When I worked with an Active Adult Community last year on a social media campaign,  I learned that the people who lived there were moving slowly into adopting social media programs like Facebook (or as my mom calls it ‘The Facebook’). It appeared their primary reason to be on the program was to connect with their families and friends. But were they using social networks to follow fan pages and help them make a decision about which car to buy?

First a few quick facts about Boomers:

• 77 million people were born between 1946 and 1964, which is defined as the Baby Boomer era (U.S. Census)
• The 50+ have $2.4 trillion in annual income, which accounts for 42% of all after-tax income (U.S. Consumer Expenditure Survey)
• By 2010, the total spending for 50+ households was over $900 billion (immersion active)
• By 2010, adults 45-years-old and older out-spent younger adults by $1 trillion annually (immersion active)

I had always figured Boomers had a larger share of disposable income since most of us have all moved out of their homes. Looking at these numbers shows they are certainly a viable target audience for most consumer products.

So how about their online activities? Once my mom discovered email, I can’t seem to get her on the phone. I leave her messages and she emails me back a response. Here I am, trying to be the good daughter …funny how the world changes due to technology.

• One-third of the 195.3 million Internet users in the U.S., adults aged 50+ represent the Web’s largest constituency (Jupiter Research)
• Email is the most popular online activity among 50+ users, followed by web browsing, research, and shopping (ThirdAge and JWT Boom)
• Adults 50+ spend an average of $7 billion online annually (SeniorNet)
• 27.4 million people age 55 and over engaged in social networking with nearly 19 million of those people using Facebook (comScore)
• Top four online activities for people over 60 are Google, Facebook, Yahoo and YouTube (AARP)

So what have we learned today? Folks over the age of 50 are starting to experiment with social networks but most are using it for the main reason we all signed up … to connect with their family and friends.They’re shopping online but with the exception of AARP, I couldn’t find any brands that are successfully reaching Boomers using social media. From what I could see, there appears to be some issues regarding the marketing message when trying to reach Boomers (stay tuned for a post about the how to reach Boomers) and that may be contributing to the lack of engagement with this target audience.

If you were my client, my marketing advice to you to reach the Boomer generation would be to develop an email communication program, create an Adword campaign to capture their attention when they’re online and attempt to connect to them on Facebook with engaging posts.

But for now, I’m just gonna take my ball and head home. My mom keeps emailing me asking me why I haven’t accepted her Facebook friend request. Guess I better go before I get into trouble.

Are you marketing to Boomers and using social media? Share in the comments your experiences and let us know what worked or didn’t.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/switch75/6516538923/

I’m sure by now you’ve heard about this new social media program called Pinterest. I heard people talking about it and had even seen a few of my friend’s connecting to the site on Facebook. Then I started seeing articles about it on several of the social media sites that I follow. BUT when I read a post from Spin Sucks called The Pinterest Debate Between Two Friends, I couldn’t stand it anymore. I had to get over there and see what all this talk was about.

The minute I clicked over to see those beautiful images arranged like storyboards on my screen, I was hooked. Holy crap, I said, I need to get on this thing. What struck me first was that instead of filling out a simple form to set up an account with an email and password, I had to submit my information for an invite. So I filled it out and I waited … and waited … and waited.

After the first full day of not getting my invite, I did some research on this latest social media craze. First I found out what Pinterest really was and how it worked. Pinterest is an online program that allows you to collect and display the images you find on the web or on other boards and ‘pin’ them to your boards. You set up your boards based on your interests and what inspires your life. My friend Beth told me that she was using Pinterest to help plan her son’s wedding with her future daughter-in-law by looking at bridesmaid dresses, decorations and flower arrangements.

More days passed that week and still no invite. I even asked Beth my-wedding-planner-friend to send me an invite due to the search that I ran called ‘how long does it take to get my Pinterest invite?’ I had read that it can take up to at least a week to get your invite but if you ask a member to personally invite you, you’ll get it faster.

I kept waiting and continued to learn more about Pinterest. I found out that the majority of the users are females aged anywhere from 18 – 54. It’s another opportunity to connect with that target market and I could see how this would work for my clients … if I could only get in! (By that time, I was talking in italics whenever I mentioned Pinterest)

And then it came … my invitation arrived on a Sunday. I couldn’t even wait to get into my office on Monday to log on. As I turned on my laptop, I felt like Charlie going to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. The words came to my mouth and I started to sing out loud:

”Cause I’ve got a golden ticket
I’ve got a golden chance to make my way
And with a golden tickkkkeeeetttt, it’s a golden daaaayyyyy”

With my account set up and boards created, I walked through the gates with Willy Wonka. I stared with an open mouth as I moved past the halls, went through the door and there it was – just like the movie – that great big room where ‘you can even eat the dishes.’ I couldn’t get enough and I swear I might have seen something that looked like a chocolate river.

After spending WAY too much time then I should have on the site, my marketing genes kicked in. I started to wonder how these companies that I was reading about were going to interact with me since I am their target audience. I don’t want to turn this post into a breakdown of which company is on Pinterest and how they’re using it. There are about a dozen good articles out there already like this one,7 Examples of Brands That Pop on Pinterest, that can give you more specific uses for my latest obsession.

I like to do things differently and if you haven’t figured that out by now, this will be the post that takes you down the social media marketing path with me. Since I’m a part of this target audience, I’ve decided to run a case study on myself to see if Pinterest really works. I’ve started following the boards of the top brands on Pinterest so I can see what they’re doing right and how they’re using Pinterest to extend their brand.

Follow me on Pinterest and stay tuned to follow the case study to see if this is just a fad or if its a new way for marketing folks to reach the female target audience.

Are you on Pinterest? Share in the comments what you think of this new form of engagement.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dereklakin/5483454646/sizes/l/in/photostream/

That expression about putting lipstick on a pig always gives me a good laugh. For those of you who have never heard this before, the actual definition of this saying is “a rhetorical expression, used to convey the message that making superficial or cosmetic changes is a futile attempt to disguise the true nature of a product.”

When I talk to my clients or attendees at my workshops about finding the voice of their company, I tell them its more then just ‘be real’ or sound like your customer service scripts in your social media posts. Trying to fake your voice is like putting lipstick on a pig. It doesn’t make the pig look better and in the end, it just pisses him off.

The same goes for discovering your company’s voice. Spend just a few minutes to google the words “authentic voice.” There’s a hundred and one articles out there trying to teach you how to find your voice for your company but I’m here to give you my version of this discovery process.

You’ll read the same questions over and over: What type of work are you passionate about? Who are you talking to? How do you let your personality come through? How many times and how many different ways have we heard this? And how many of us have taken the time to come up with an answer that we can translate into our company’s voice?

While it’s good to ask ourselves questions to help find our voice, let’s make sure they’re right ones to get us the answers that we need. I like to think that our voice comes from our own personal journey in our business careers. It’s a combination of where we’ve been to where we are right now in our lives.

It’s more then just using the catch-phrase of ‘discovering your authentic voice.’ It’s about finding out who you’ve become since you cashed your first paycheck. Take some time to think about these questions:

• What job were you in when you first discovered your love for the work that you’re doing?
• What is the word you would use about why you started your business or took the job that you’re in?
• Is it your courage for sticking it out in this economy? Wanting to give back to the community? Why do you get up every day and unlock the doors to your office?
• What experiences have affected you and the way you look at your business?

I challenge you to answer these questions truthfully because that’s where your true voice will come from.

I would love to hear your answers so please share in the comments.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/laughingsquid/1139147746/

As a child of the 70′s, I can’t really speak from experience about what it was like to grow up in the 50′s. But when I start talking about how we engage in social media at one of my workshops or speaking events, I tend to find myself making an analogy related to how social media works like the businesses that flourished in the 50′s.

I actually found a site called 1950′s Memories where people who were raised during that decade shared their memories of what it like to grow up in that time of our history. When I read the section about the ‘Corner Drugstore,’ I found these great quotes:

“I remember the corner drugstore where you could get a chocolate Coke for a nickel. And a Malt for 20 cents. And get to sit next that pretty girl from Algebra class, at least for a while”

“We had a corner store in Terrell, Tx. called Rutledge Drugs. I love their limeades and floates. I loved to go there. That was a treat to walk there on Saturdays.”

Those were the days where you could walk into your neighborhood store and the owner knew your name. Your mother would shop there every week, knew everyone who worked there and they all knew what your family liked best for Sunday dinner. It was a time when everyone developed this close relationship with the people who worked at the neighborhood store. You would chat about your lives, talk about where you were going on your summer vacation and share pictures of your kids with the owner behind the counter.

So what does this have to do with social media and how to grow your business? Just stay with me on this one as I fast forward to 2012. When we’re working through our marketing strategy with our social networks, one of our top goals is to create that feeling of community with our fans. To engage in conversation with them about what they like, what they watch, what book are they reading (or just downloaded), their favorite foods/restaurants and we laugh at the funny pictures of their kids they post in our Facebook contests. After we’ve developed this relationship with our customers, can we really say that we’re that far off from the 50′s neighborhood store?

Last week, I found myself reading an article discussing some new trends in 2012 to follow and one in particular took me back to my 50′s analogy. The trend had to do with the fact that the economy was getting back on track and this year, we could see the rise of ‘mini luxuries’ coming back into our lives. The trend said: Live a little: After years of navigating through a tough economy, people are tired of cutting back and, while they can’t afford to really let lose, they’re eager for little treats or luxuries that make them feel better.

I think we can safely say that there is some economic growth going on in our country. I can see it in my business and I’ve been hearing stories from many of my strategic partners that I work with on different projects. I believe our country is getting ready to turn the corner into another era of doing business.

So ask yourself this … when the economy really starts to pick up and we find that our customers will start spending more of their discretionary income on these ‘little luxuries,’ how will they decide what to buy? Who will be the company that gets chosen to be the luxury item that’s purchased with this week’s paycheck? Will it be your company or the one who took the time to connect with their customers and created their own social network neighborhood store?

Which company will you be in 2012? Share in the comments below.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/halco/2120870122/in/pool-757751@N25/

Wish I could take credit for that line but I can’t. It was a quote about moms from Jay Leno but I figured it would be a good place for us start as we get more specific regarding our last post about knowing your target market.

As we previously reviewed in the last post, once you ask yourself the right questions about who your company is trying to reach, our next step is taking a look at that target’s lifestyles and buying patterns to determine the best way to reach them. This will be one of the many posts where I’ll go into more detail about how to connect with a specific demographic using social networks. Today’s post will focus on moms.

Ever since the first woman went down the General Store to do the weekly shopping, women became known as the decision-makers in the household. Most companies know by now that the best way to get their products and services in more households is to reach out to the woman in the house, specifically moms. Marketing experts will tell you over and over what a strong influence moms have in making every decision from the which house to buy, what car to drive and all the way down to what laundry detergent to use.

Let’s break this down with some stats and figures to give you some idea about how moms are using social media. The obvious place to start is Facebook. Numbers came out a couple of years ago showing that moms use Facebook more then the average internet user. Moms use Facebook to reach out to other moms, stay in touch with family and friends as well as exchange information about parenting and reviewing products for their kids.

Just a few stats about moms and Facebook:

• 23 million US moms were on Facebook in 2011 – that number counts women with children under 18 in the household who use the site at least once each month. (eMarketer)
• This estimate translated means that  moms will make up 17.4% of Facebook users. (eMarketer)
• 96% have Facebook downloaded on their smartphones and more than two-thirds are tapping into Facebook at least once a day to many times a day. (BabyCenter)
• Seventy-five percent still cite “connection” as their main reason, but almost 16% have shifted to using it for entertainment most likely for games as well as Social TV .  (BabyCenter)

What about Twitter? Are moms tweeting?:

• 52% of moms use Twitter to keep up with businesses they like or find out about new products. (Lucid Marketing)
• What moms want most from following a company’s tweets are links to interesting articles/news (71%) followed by links to sales or special offers on their websites (67%) and links to downloadable coupons/discounts (63%). (Lucid Marketing)
• Majority of moms (52%) like to see humor in businesses’ tweets – this is my favorite stat! – and that moms like tweets with personality and companies that interact with them on Twitter. (Lucid Marketing)
• ReTweeting to moms is like ‘word of mouth’ intensified. Links to articles of interest to moms is the top reason (76%) for moms to retweet with tweets containing coupon codes or links to online coupon (67%) coming in next, followed by funny tweets (60%) and links to sales on the companies’ websites (54%). (Lucid Marketing)

And we’ve all heard about the infamous group of Mommy Bloggers:

• 3.9 million women with children write blogs in the US. By 2014, that number will jump to 4.4 million. (eMarketer)
• 55% of active (daily) social media moms said they made their purchase because of a recommendation from a personal review blog. (NPD Group, Inc. via Technorati)
• Moms are picky about what brands they blog about – a whopping 77% of mom bloggers will only write about products or brands that they approve of. Another 14% will write about brands or products they boycott. (Technorati)
• One in four of moms have purchased a children’s product because of a recommendation from a social networking site or blog. (NPD Group, Inc. via SFGate)
• For the 20+ million BlogHer Network audience, engaging in reading blogs is their number one regular online activity, above watching TV, visiting Facebook, or reading other traditional media sources such as newspapers or magazines. (BlogHer/iVillage)

There were so many more reports and articles about moms usage of social networks out in the ‘interwebs’ that we can easily see why moms are such a strong force to connect with as you plan your company’s marketing strategy. Remember that while these numbers are impressive, reaching moms is more then just looking at them as a statistic. Moms are an ‘online force to be reckoned with.’ Now that you know where to reach them and how they’re using these social networks, it’s time to find a way to incorporate this strong influence into the direction of your marketing campaign.

“I know how to do anything  – I’m a mom.” — Roseanne Barr

Does your company’s products or services target moms? Share in the comments about how your company uses social networks to reach moms.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chainedreactions/2400761634/

I recently conducted a Social Media workshop for the Florida Business Incubation Association’s bi-annual meeting where we got into a big debate regarding the definition of their target market. It’s one of my favorite workshops called “So you have a Facebook Fan Page … Now What?” We review everything from creating a social media strategy, defining your target market to learning some tricks to help you ‘work smarter not harder.’

Basically the FBIA organization is a business solution of office locations that ‘provide early stage companies with the enabling tools, training and infrastructure to create financially stable high growth/impact enterprises.’ They have many of these locations all over Florida and each office provides the same business experience to their clients. So you’d think that when we started to review their target market that it would take us about 15 minutes to summarize their typical client and we’d move on to the next segment. That was not the case during our workshop that day.

We found that even though each location offered the same business resources to their clients, each office had a different demographic description of their loyal client based on where in the state their office was located. We even saw a difference in the client profiles for the offices that were located in the same city.

As I walk you through a part of an exercise that we did during the workshop, I’ll share with you some of the differences that came up and how we found a way to include them into their social media strategy.

1. What are the demographics of my target market? Think about who you are trying to reach and break it down into very detailed segments such as age, income level, where they live, male and/or female, do they have children?

When we did this with our FBIA group, we found that the locations down in the South Florida area worked with clients who were older then those in the Orlando area. One of the locations in the Orlando area even noted that while they had clients who ranged from mid-20′s to lower 50′s. The funny part about this location was that everyone seemed to act like they were in a college fraternity and the top downtime activity was playing with the foosball table. Our conversations revealed that the geo-location of the office was one of the predominant factors in determining their target market.

2. What are the key issues, concerns and problems that keep your customers awake at night? What are the ways that your products or services can solve these problems?

When we reviewed these questions with our FBIA participants, again we found that each location had a different answer. Some of their clients were more interested in networking with other technology companies to help them grow their business. Others told us that their clients’ top concerns was to move away from the distractions of working out of their homes to a more professional office environment where they could meet with their customers.

So go ahead and re-read the opening quote from Peter Drucker and join me in saying, “Ain’t that the truth!” I couldn’t think of a better way to start and end this post about the importance of discovering your company’s target market when you sit down to start planning your marketing campaigns.
 

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ilker/121388412/

I noticed a billboard a few months ago that had a phrase written in large letters “Are We There Yet?” Since I live in the Orlando area, I just assumed that it was a promotion for one of the many theme parks in our city. After a few more times of passing by the same billboard, I finally took the time to read the message and realized that it was really for a local bank promoting their customer service and low banking fees.

Honestly, I still don’t get the connection but that phrase kept rolling around in my head. It brought back memories of going on long driving vacations with my family and being stuck in the backseat watching the the landscapes of different cities go by. So what the heck did that have to do with marketing for a bank? Nothing, I thought. Abso-freaking-lutely nothing.

As we come to the end of 2011, I thought it would be interesting to do a little research to find companies who understand how to get their message across to their audience. I figured that I watch enough TV, read enough articles in the ad agency online sites and I spend enough time on social networks (probably too much time!) to get an idea of which companies who have figured out how to connect with their customers.

I’ve pulled together a few of my favorite holiday commercials from companies whose messages not only ‘get it’ but they have an underlining engagement theme.

Pier One – Loved the creative ads and the tag line about ‘Find What Speaks To You’! It’s such a clever way to show how customers engage with companies they love.Take a look at Pier One’s latest ads that have been running this holiday season.

Best Buy – “Game On Santa” has to be one the best holiday campaigns this year! These speak to the Best Buy consumer about going to straight to the company when you want something, instead of waiting for the big corporate Santa organization to bring it to you. You can’t help but laugh at the look at on Santa’s face with this marketing campaign

Pampers – It truly wouldn’t be the holidays without the heart-warming Silent Night Pampers ad. Whether you’re a parent or not, you can truly understand the underlying meanings here about having a diaper to help your little one sleep ‘in heavenly peace’ so you can have a ‘silent night.’

These were just a few of my favorites that really caught my attention as companies who truly get the idea of how to connect on an emotional level with their customers. I’m sure there are many more that are running now. What were your favorite holiday campaigns in 2011?
 

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ellenm1/4279886363/

We’ve all done it. At least once in our lifetime, we’ve all talked to the TV. We’ve cheered on our favorite team and yelled at a ref for a bad call. We’ve screamed at the TV, “Are you kidding me? Did you folks just vote her off the show?” My favorite was the day I caught myself saying to the screen, “Did you just cry over some guy that you met 2 weeks ago? Seriously?”

It’s true that our television viewing behaviors vary with spy stuff like Burn Notice, competitions like Top Chef and I know that there are many of you out there who plant yourself in front of ESPN for the whole weekend. While our choices are different, we all have one thing about our TV watching routines in common …. Social TV. The official definition from Freebase is Social Television is a general term for technology that supports communication and social interaction in either the context of watching television, or related to TV content. It also includes the study of television-related social behavior, devices and networks.

What this means is that we now have the chance to talk to the TV and they get to talk back to us. We’ve all heard the recent studies that have come out showing us how many people are using their laptops, smartphones or tablets while watching TV. While we know the top activity is checking our emails, the activity following closely behind is engaging in Social Media like Twitter or Facebook DURING our favorite shows, specifically reality shows and sporting events.   

We’ve all seen the graphics in the corner of our favorite shows asking us to ‘join in the conversation on Facebook’ but Social TV takes that tag to the next level. I first started to really notice this new form of engagement when I watched the new NBC show called The Voice. I had decided to boycott American Idol after Simon Cowell left and tried out the show to fill the singing competition void in my life. I was immediately pulled into the show to watch how these judges were going to pick their ‘teams’ but what really caught my attention was that the show was interconnected with Twitter. Scrolling across the screen were constant reminders to connect and sending us to Twitter with The Voice hashtag. While The Voice was different on many levels from American Idol, its biggest difference contributed to the live interaction with the contestants in the Social Media Room who were shown responding to Twitter questions in real-time as in DURING the show.

I was hooked and started to find new ways to connect with other fans of the shows that I watch. I posted comments on the Facebook fan page when one of my favorite shows Torchwood started its new season this summer. As we shared our comments about the episode that just aired (yes, I actually went on the fan page right after the show ended!), I felt connected to these thousand of people who wanted to talk about how they missed The Hub and why weren’t we seeing more of Capt. Jack in this season.

Then I tried out Social TV on Twitter. When I found out that Anthony Bourdain would be tweeting live during the first show of his new season of No Reservations, I knew that I’d have my laptop on the couch with me when I watched the show. While I had a hidden agenda to be there (I was trying to get his attention for my Campaign to Bring Bourdain to Orlando), I loved watching the show and reading Tony’s 4-letter word comments about what was going on behind the scenes. It was like someone opened the backdoor to let us see how they decided which restaurant to go to and what the heck was that lady really talking about.

It’s no surprise then that marketing agencies are currently looking for more ways to incorporate their clients’ brands into these online engagement programs. In the months to come, we can expect to see some of these following trends in our Social TV world:

• Viewers will be interacting in more ‘meaningful conversations’ with other fans while they watch their favorite shows.
• Actors starring in our shows will take a more active role in the Social Media programming.
• Brands will be developing new promotions to engage with viewers directly while a show is being aired.
• Keep watching for a new group of social platforms to further connect our TV to our Social Media programs and connecting with other fans.

One thing seems clear – our TVs and our online activities are slowly merging into one new marketing opportunity where television viewers are able to engage with their favorite programs and the companies who are running ads during these shows. The programs who’ll win will be the ones who discover how to connect with this emerging media-savvy generation by creating the ultimate Social Media engagement experience for their fans.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/salty_soul/5473912938/

Whether you have dipped your toe in the sea of Social Media or decided to take the plunge and simply jump in, there are a few keys things to consider as you are wading through Social Networks. If you are like most entrepreneurs, you probably hadn’t thought twice about which Social networks your business and brand should reside. But, as you build your presence online and increase your business and brand visibility, consider that you need to look further beyond the shore and ensure that you have a brand that is easily found and known online.

To do this, here is one of the first steps you can do to create consistent visibility online:

Make sure that you have an easily identifiable naming convention. While most times you hear the word naming convention in use with programs and databases, here we are talking about how you name your business online. For example, if a company name is Advanced Office Supplies and Furniture, you may consider naming your company online simply Advance Office.

Since, it is not ideal to have the War and Peace version of the business name everywhere. For one, it is harder to find and your customers and prospects aren’t going to remember your full business name. It’s not on them to remember who you are. And, once you have your business naming convention established, make sure you are consistent in using this for your Facebook page, YouTube, Twitter, Google+, and Linkedin Company profile pages and channel.

There is an easy way to ensure your name isn’t utilized elsewhere online. Take a look by visiting NameChk.com. This site lets you know if your brand or your business name is being used across Social networks. NameChk also gives you the opportunity to secure the vanity URL or branded Social Media profile or usernames across all the Social Media platforms.

In the example above, you would be looking to secure the username “Advance Office”. This site provides a ton of Social networks. However, you may not be using most of them to promote your Social business presence. That will all depend on your Social Media marketing plan and strategy.  And, should you ever need to, it’s available.

Sometimes it seems in Social Media that we are drinking from a fire hose or drowning in an ocean of information. However, as I always share with my clients, your first goal should be to start small, build your Social Media presence deliberately, and be consistent.

With NameChk, we’re are starting small and that’s a good thing. In my next post, I’ll cover what you need to know what’s being said about you, your business, and brand. And, for more information about that, stay tuned for the next steps in building online visibility.

Dawn Raquel Jensen is Social Media speaker, trainer, and founder of Virtual Options Coaching & Training, a boutique social media firm supporting business owners, executives, and, entrepreneurs. For more information about Dawn, visit http://about.me/dawnjensen or on the Virtual Options fan page.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jaymiheimbuch/4872968937/