DSM Recommends... for Social Media

For the past several months, we have been developing a Social Networking marketing program that is appropriate for both small businesses and our core clientele of cosmetic surgeons and dentists. Much like Search Engine Optimization, this is a marketing endeavor that most think they must have but do not understand. Our goal is to make this understandable and therefore manageable.

Social Media is, in its most simple essence, user generated content. In other words, it’s what you have to say. If you can make it interesting and attractive, you will get the attention of others. This is a simple concept and if you don’t lose sight of it, you can develop a social media strategy that is easy to maintain and grow.

The Dog Star Media social media strategy includes three mediums: Facebook, Twitter and Blog/Email. And, we have different goals for each of those three mediums. In the Email/Blog phase, you email out your content to your contact database. On Twitter, the goal is to attract as many loosely connected followers as possible. On Facebook, the goal is to begin conversations. And, since conversations are where information is exchanged, this sets up a potential sales scenario. So, our goal is enlist as many of your email contacts as Facebook friends or followers and to drive your new relationships on Twitter onto Facebook. This is an ongoing process, not an event, so publishing your content on all three mediums remains a staple of the plan.

In terms of frequency, our plan recommends the following: 2 blogs per month spaced at two week intervals, daily Facebook conversation starter post and daily Twitter conversation starter post. When properly coordinated, your content flows out like a coordinated PR flight, with the main source of information introduced in the blog, then daily tied-in comments or questions posted into the more active social mediums on a daily basis. The result is a two-week conversation led by you on the benefits of a specific procedure that attracts followers with interesting content and engages them with leading questions and prompts. And, ultimately, on Facebook, where conversations can occur, you can begin to identify individuals who want to discuss procedures. At the very least, this strategy will raise your profile and awareness and connect you very closely with an ever-growing circle of influence.

We are offering our Social Media strategy in three forms.

Turnkey Social Networking Program:
You only provide the blogs twice each month and Dog Star Media does it all: $850/month.

Show Us How/Set Us Up:
In a three-month primer, Dog Star Media gets you set up, planned, trained and operating your own integrated Social Networking Program: $850/month for three months.

Daily Posting Service:
If you only want to have a daily conversation starter on Facebook and Twitter, Dog Star Media can plan and execute that for $250/month.

If you are ready to talk about using Social Media as part of your marketing strategy, these strategies were designed specifically for cosmetic surgery and dentistry practices and small businesses in general. If you are interested in learning more about how this can work for you, please email me at donald@dogstarmedia.com.

One Day Sale - Special Prices totaling a savings of $2000

Over the next three weeks, Dog Star Media will be promoting our One-Day Sale which will be held on April 6, 2011. It is our goal on that day to motivate existing and new clients focused and mobilized on three of the most requested marketing elements of 2011: Mobile Web Sites, Search Engine Optimization and Social Networking.

Three specially discounted offerings are available on the One Day Sale:

- Additional pages for mobile web sites.

- Competition Ranking Reports for Search Engine Optimization

- Our NEW Daily Posting Service for Facebook and Twitter

More Mobile Site Pages: One-Day Sale Savings: $200

Mobile web site traffic continues to climb. Many of our clients are receiving between 10-15% of their traffic on mobile devices. This time last year, mobile traffic was beginning to average 5%. Dog Star Media mobile sites are easy and inexpensive to improve. Now that clients are asking to add more content to their starter mobile sites due to higher traffic, we want to encourage them by offering a deal on new pages. Normally additional pages cost $100/each.

One Day Sale Offer: Buy 5 mobile site pages, get two free.

SEO Competition Ranking Report: One-Day Sale Savings: $1200

One of the most misunderstood parts of SEO is how you rank against your direct competition on organic keywords. We now offer a specific rankings report that compares keyword rankings between your designated competitors’ web sites and your web site so you know exactly where you stand competitively. YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE A DOG STAR MEDIA SEO CLIENT TO USE THIS SERVICE. Normally, our Competition Ranking Report is available for $100/month for one competitor and $50/month for each additional competitor. Reports are generated once each month on or around the first of the month.

One Day Sale Offer: Sign up for The Competition Ranking Report for one competitor on April 6 and receive two competitors free for 12 months.

Daily Social Networking Posting Service: One Day Sale Savings: $600

After months of research to determine a proper social networking service for small businesses, Dog Star Media is releasing a social networking strategy that supports our One-to-One Marketing philosophies. A stand-alone element of this strategy is a daily posting strategy for your Facebook and Twitter accounts. These conversations starters make it easier for you or your team to participate in social networking with the goal of stirring up conversations that can lead to prospecting. Normally priced at $300/month, your cost for being active each day on Facebook and Twitter is around $10/day.

These services are small but they are among the most requested and hottest items we have right now. If you are interested in one or more of the One-Day Sale items, you may order by emailing me at donald@dogstarmedia.com.

Measure Twice, Cut Once

That’s a great old saying about being prudent. And, if you boil it down, it is one of the core principles of Dog Star Media’s marketing philosophies. Almost everyone will tell you that they measure their marketing results. But in a vast majority of those cases, that measurement invites and is built on human error.

So, why not measure twice... that second time being with a technology that verifies for a fact what the metrics are for real. And, once you know what is really happening, you can make one clearcut decision on how to adjust or proceed with your marketing and sales strategies.

Dog Star Media offers some basic, inexpensive and yet invaluable strategies for this sort of measurement. These measuring tools should be at the heart of decision-making, replacing the guesswork and inaccuracy that happens when you use imprecise evaluators, such as opinions. Here are three measurement tools you cannot live without if you are going to do this right.

1) Tracking Telephone Number
This basic tool is the most inexpensive item we offer but it is by far the most important. At a cost of $40/month, a tracking telephone number will tell you exactly the results you are getting from a particular media placement. The unique number is placed in only one location and calls are routed to your main number, recording all the details of the call. This includes the option to record the calls for training and review purposes. Clients who use tracking telephone numbers waste fewer marketing dollars and understand their results better.

2) Competition Ranking Report for SEO.
This new DSM offering is only $100/month and offers head-to-head competitive information about your web site’s organic rankings versus your direct competition. SEO is one of the most necessary and misunderstood services out there. Nearly all business owners feel at least a little out of control about their SEO because they do not understand the techniques to accomplish better rankings. And, the fact that results are heavily influenced by market response and competition does not help. We believe the key to understanding the value of your SEO is understanding how your site stacks up against your main competitors on specific terms. Our Competition Ranking Report specifically delivers that information. Do you need to be a Dog Star Media SEO client to get a report? No. This report can evaluate anyone’s SEO efforts independently. This is a great way to begin understanding where you really stand on searches as they relate to your direct competition.

3) Google Analytics
Sure, Google Analytics is a free service but is it installed on your site and are you using the information it gathers? Many hosts still offer server stats, which are not the same as measuring the user experience. Google Analytics breaks down the user experience in fine detail and it is easy to use with important information easily accessible. For instance, the most important measurement in the last year has related to the measurement of mobile device use on web sites. Google Analytics identified not only the gross volume of mobile visits, but it breaks down the number of visits by which device is being used and compares the user experience on mobile to the general user experience on the site. This has illustrated very clearly for our clients the need for mobile web sites. Now, with the emergence of the iPad as a more popular method of accessing the Internet, it is showing clients the need to add an iPad-specific mobile site.

So, if you are ready to try a tracking telephone number, subscribe to a Competition Ranking Report or look at your Google Analytics to determine the need for such augmentations as a mobile web site or an iPad mobile site, please email me at donald@dogstarmedia.com for more information. These are all very inexpensive tools that can cause you to have remarkable efficiency in your marketing by eliminating human error.

Competition Ranking Report

Dog Star Media is offering a new wrinkle in our SEO service that we think will be great for keeping clients focused on what is important in SEO. Our new Competition Rankings Reports take your website and the keywords we are tracking and put you side by side with competitors you designate. So, you will be able to see how you are organically ranking against the competition on each keyword. This will take away the perception that always clouds the SEO issue where you feel like your competitor is everywhere. It will reduce the battle online to the facts.

On these reports, you will see a comparison on the overall visibility score, your visibility based on your most efficient keywords, and your best keywords against their best keywords. You will also see a breakdown of every keyword and your rank verses your competitor, with the number of spots you are either ahead or behind. This information will put you head to head against your competition on all of your keywords. This specific knowledge can make a huge difference in focusing your head-to-head SEO efforts against specific competitors.

And, this new layer of information, accountability, and reporting is affordable. To track one competitor, the monthly cost is $100/month and to track additional competitors is $50/month each.

If you are interested in knowing how your competitors are doing and you would like to begin receiving Competition Ranking Reports, please contact me at donald@dogstarmedia.com for more information.

The iPad2... Wow!

Earlier today Apple made a big splash with their press conference introducing the iPad2. And, it will be here sooner than you think. On March 11, the new iPad ships and it is going to be a HUGE seller.

See the highlights of the press conference by clicking here:

Available on wi-fi on both Verizon and AT&T, this device is going to push a lot of people onto tablets. With improved graphics, weight and depth, this iPad is built for graphical communication when you consider the front and back facing cameras.

The price will be the same, meaning there is no objection to upgrade and take your FaceTime communications online. This sets the stage for a massive move toward iPads.

Now is the time to get your web site iPad ready. As we previously noted in my blog a few weeks ago, there is a difference between a smart phone mobile site and an iPad mobile site. Until now, the percentage of use with iPads has not necessitated an additional investment in an iPad specific site for most of our clients. However, we have watched iPad specific traffic grow over the past few months and on March 11, this is going to get a major kickstart.

Dog Star Media offers an iPad specific mobile site for $650. If you are interested in making the best first impression when you are found on an iPad, now is the time to get ahead of the wave. Because it is coming. Please contact me today at donald@dogstarmedia.com if you want a smart phone mobile site and an iPad mobile site.