Most companies now have a Social Media strategy in place, whether it be in use for PR purposes (as a lot of big companies are doing with Twitter) or for Lead generation (this is the side that most marketing companies are talking about). Regardless of your approach, it's going to be important to understand how things are working for you.

There are some important statistics that you're going to have to monitor, like audience size and interactions, but if you're active across multiple platforms this can get a bit confusing. The fact that there are hundreds of different terms being thrown around, all of which basically mean the same thing, doesn't exactly help. On top of this, there's some more important and all together more interesting things you're going to want to monitor, and they may not be the first thing that gets drawn to your attention.

What I'm going to do is break down for you all the different things that might get mentioned in a report to help you get a clear picture of how your campaign is going.

Audience

After much speculation and what seemed like an eternity, finally - the Facebook Timeline for brand pages is now live!

Facebook Timeline for pages is a great opportunity for brands that want to tell a more engaging and authentic story of their company.

Timeline makes it easier for people to find information by pushing the Info section, photos, apps and map to the top of the page in a clear navigation bar.

It gives companies of all sizes the opportunity to get creative and use their cover photos, app designs and interactive features to grow their overall presence and influence in the world of social media.

With all this in mind, I will now show you how to get your company's page up-to-scratch and ahead of your competitors!

Firstly however, it is important to note that there are some major changes to company pages such as; how the applications are displayed, the introduction of cover photos (the default landing pages have now gone entirely) and the options for fan interaction have now been improved.

You can enable your new brand page now but on the 30th March 2012 your Page will automatically convert to the new format (much in the same way the new Timeline for profiles was introduced earlier this year) – so it's best to get prepared beforehand.

Follow my guide on how to enable it NOW:

By now we've all heard of Pinterest. You'd be hard pressed to have escaped it in fact. For some of us it's just another one of those Social Media sites floating around in the background and for others it's a big deal. No doubt some of you will have been running around over the last month or so trying to find out all about it, and even more importantly, how to generate leads from it.

There's a lot of blogs out there from people who've been on this from the word go, trying to pinpoint the best strategies for building a brand identity on the site. Pun not intended of course. Now some of these blogs are pretty useful, and at this point there's more than enough information out there to make sure that your brand is forced down peoples throats deep enough that they'll never forget the experience. Some of the strategies are pretty clever too, though they don't vary too differently from that of other platforms.

Twitter moves closer to PPC as it launches self-service advertising

With the rise of social media and it's use in business, different platforms have been quick to bring advertising services to the table. And why not? Google PPC and Facebook PPC are valuable weapons in any company's digital marketing arsenal. However, Twitter have been somewhat slower on the uptake. Whilst its true that there millions of punters on Twitter, all conversing on topics potentially relevant to your business, most people seem to agree that introducing an advertising platform that doesn't compromise the service will prove difficult.

Digital to Direct Marketing – How to make telemarketing the most powerful asset to your marketing strategy

You may not have heard about 'D2D' Marketing. The whole process is a fairly new concept...but one which we feel gives us at Red Wasp the pioneering edge.

Most people are aware of how telemarketing works. You get a list of data to call (usually cold with no prior contact) and work through it systematically, ensuring that call backs are hit on time and opportunities are converted into qualified leads.

Some of you may already have the benefit of having warm leads to follow up on, be it registered interest from a prospect at a trade show or previous customers, which is great, but targeting the cold data is where the hardest challenge lies. So how can we improve that?

The answer is simple. Website traffic. If someone has come to your website, the chances are they are looking for your services or interested in your product. With 'D2D' Marketing there are three steps you need to take to turn these potential interests into the qualified leads we all fight for, and here they are:

What is content marketing and why should I bother?

If you're looking at Red Wasp's website, it's a possibility that you may be considering direct or digital marketing services and as such you may stumble across our blog. It struck me that some people coming here may not necessarily be familiar with content marketing and what it can offer. To be fair, content marketing can go by many names; corporate media, corporate publishing, branded content... the list can go on.

Three top tips to help you write AWESOME content!

You may have heard the famous term “content is king” banded around. It is talked about a lot, and it's not hard to understand why when you consider that pretty much anything you do online is based around it. So, as my first blog post about content writing I thought I’d offer some tips that can help you create awesome blogs, articles, tweets and more to help you really engage customers and prospects.

With nearly 1 billion users, Facebook is an ever-present in most of our lives and it is now being utilised by businesses just as much as the everyday user.

Businesses have learnt to harness the incredible possibilities of connecting with their customers through Social Media, and the power of advertising to new prospects by means of heavily targeted advertising campaigns and promotions.

Twitter has definitely come a long way since its inception, and users from across the globe continue to sign up and get their teeth sunk in.  From what your dog is currently chewing on and how much you hate that certain celebrity (I’m looking at you Justin Bieber) to the hot topics of the world today (Steve Jobs, Occupy Wall Street, you get the picture). But what I love about Twitter is the amazing affects it can have on a business and how it brings so much more to the table.

Here are a few examples of how some companies have added Twitter to their social media marketing strategy to improve their customer engagement:

1. A Leading UK bakery chain use Twitter to promote free vouchers in conjunction with newspapers, respond to customer queries and complaints in real time and promote competitions for all ages with chances to win prizes

Five years ago, Twitter came to life when @jack sent the first Tweet to his seven followers. Now, 100 million active users around the globe turn to Twitter to share their thoughts and find out what’s happening in the world right now.

Read the full article here http://blog.twitter.com/2011/09/one-hundred-million-voices.html

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