I hear clients say to me all the time I just don't have the time to update my status on all the social media sites I belong to. Well now they don't have an excuse thanks to ping.fm. Ping.fm is a free website that allows you to update your status on several sites at once. Its easy to set up.
Ping.fm currently supports more than 30 services, including microblogging platforms such as Twitter, Plurk and Jaiku, social networking web sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Multiply, instant messaging applications such as GTalk Status and Aim Status, and most of the popular blogging platforms. Once you’ve set up a Ping.fm account and added your credentials for the services you use for social networking and social media purposes, you’re ready to return to your Ping.fm dashboard to send messages out to all of your profiles at once.
Adding you social networks can be a challenge for those who don't have there usernames/passwords remembered. I suggest writing them all down prior to setting up your ping.fm account. Ping.fm does a pretty good job of making the process as seamless as possible.
On the main page of the site which they call the dashboard page, you can send out messages to your selected services. You can choose to have ping send your message to all of your services, or you can also filter profiles by “micro-blogs” or “statuses.” A character counter also lets you know the size of your ping, which is vitally important for squeezing your message in under Twitter’s 140-characters-per-tweet limit, for example. And a “Record Video” link allows you to stream a video recording directly through Ping.fm.
My favorite feature of ping.fm is the ability to send out messages through “from” multiple locations. A huge array of “Services/Tools” on the dashboard allow you to set up your Ping.fm account so that you can ping via email, SMS, instant message, Facebook app, iPhone app, desktop app, and so on. This feature allows enormous flexibility in allowing you to send a single message from anywhere and distribute your message to a large number of profile destinations quickly and easily.
Ping.fm is a simple, easy-to-use, and effective tool that help you get more accomplished with your social media profiles
www.ping.fm
Have a marketing question? Send me an email to ckokalis@ckmemarketinggroup.com, also don't forget to check out www.soccalliveonline.com to learn more about our LinkedIn Live networking events.
Chris Kokalis
President/CEO
CKME Group Inc.
414-755-2410 Milwaukee Office
310-492-5058 Los Angeles Office
www.ckmemarketinggroup.com
www.socalliveonline.com
www.linkedin.com/in/ckmegroup
www.twitter.com/chriskokalis
Showing posts with label pr. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pr. Show all posts
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Word-of-Mouth Marketing: Not the most glamorous, simply the most important.
Want to know what drives a multi-million dollar company insane?
Consider the following scene:
You have a free evening and want to go to a movie. There are two you would really like to see. Both run at the same time.
The ads on TV piqued your interest. Yahoo! and YouTube had great previews with all kinds of information. The studio PR machines, working in full force, had likeable heroes from both movies on Leno and Letterman last night. Judging by the fact that one is co-marketing with McDonalds and the other with Burger King, it’s clear these movies are big budget flicks designed to entertain.
While this life and death decision rages in your head, you take the garbage to the curb and run into your neighbor. He saw both movies.
Decision made.
During one a two minute conversation (over a smelly bag of bad dip, diapers and old carpeting), one studio saw millions of marketing dollars fizzle.*
That’s the power of word-of-mouth marketing.
With all of the money spent on branding, advertising, search engine optimization, Internet strategies – pick your tactic, it’s amazing how little effort is directed toward one-to-one marketing. As more marketing tactics battle for our attention through TV, radio, billboards, The Internet, magazines, bathroom signs and gas pump messages, consumers have become more adept at tuning them out. (Be honest – do you remember even one percent of the banner ads you saw when surfing the web today?)
However, it’s still very difficult to tune out a one-on-one conversation (unless you’re married). It’s more important than ever for business to develop marketing messages that are short, punchy and to the point so that they are successfully sent and repeated from person… to person... to person… to person…
Don’t misinterpret this message. It isn’t, “All other forms of marketing are bad and ineffective.” In the scene above, both studios accomplished their initial goals of inform, intrigue and excite. All marketing tactics have their place. Advertising, The Internet, PR and cross-promotions are all viable options for the right product (at the right time and for the right audience).
The real message? Never underestimate or ignore the power of word-of-mouth as a viable marketing tactic. Unlike other options, it can make you just as easily as it can break you. Your marketing strategies should ALWAYS include word-of-mouth and the messages you want relayed through this unending channel. In essence, it is the foundation of marketing. Word-of-mouth was there before symbols were written on cave walls, and it will be there long after the Internet is viewed by kids as a quaint antique.
* Of course, the other studio assumed the credit for your decision. But even the winner knows there are millions of conversations like yours that could be lost.
Consider the following scene:
You have a free evening and want to go to a movie. There are two you would really like to see. Both run at the same time.
The ads on TV piqued your interest. Yahoo! and YouTube had great previews with all kinds of information. The studio PR machines, working in full force, had likeable heroes from both movies on Leno and Letterman last night. Judging by the fact that one is co-marketing with McDonalds and the other with Burger King, it’s clear these movies are big budget flicks designed to entertain.
While this life and death decision rages in your head, you take the garbage to the curb and run into your neighbor. He saw both movies.
Decision made.
During one a two minute conversation (over a smelly bag of bad dip, diapers and old carpeting), one studio saw millions of marketing dollars fizzle.*
That’s the power of word-of-mouth marketing.
With all of the money spent on branding, advertising, search engine optimization, Internet strategies – pick your tactic, it’s amazing how little effort is directed toward one-to-one marketing. As more marketing tactics battle for our attention through TV, radio, billboards, The Internet, magazines, bathroom signs and gas pump messages, consumers have become more adept at tuning them out. (Be honest – do you remember even one percent of the banner ads you saw when surfing the web today?)
However, it’s still very difficult to tune out a one-on-one conversation (unless you’re married). It’s more important than ever for business to develop marketing messages that are short, punchy and to the point so that they are successfully sent and repeated from person… to person... to person… to person…
Don’t misinterpret this message. It isn’t, “All other forms of marketing are bad and ineffective.” In the scene above, both studios accomplished their initial goals of inform, intrigue and excite. All marketing tactics have their place. Advertising, The Internet, PR and cross-promotions are all viable options for the right product (at the right time and for the right audience).
The real message? Never underestimate or ignore the power of word-of-mouth as a viable marketing tactic. Unlike other options, it can make you just as easily as it can break you. Your marketing strategies should ALWAYS include word-of-mouth and the messages you want relayed through this unending channel. In essence, it is the foundation of marketing. Word-of-mouth was there before symbols were written on cave walls, and it will be there long after the Internet is viewed by kids as a quaint antique.
* Of course, the other studio assumed the credit for your decision. But even the winner knows there are millions of conversations like yours that could be lost.
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