Nuts About Blogging

Social media and retail: Welcome to the era Warning!

This Week @ CUEHub, I will focus on social media and its relevance to the retail industry.

What exactly is social media? I went to dictionary.com to see if there a true definition of "socialmedia and to my surprise, there is none. Wikipedia tells us that "social media is a medium for dissemination through social interaction, created using editing techniques and evolutionary very accessible ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media ). Oh, so that's what it …

Breaking up into small pieces that we can understand.

• Social refers to other people
• Media refers to the content or messages that you make
• scalable and highly accessible technology refer to editing tools like Facebook and Twitter. These are Web sites and applications that you use to deliver content to others.

Feeling enlightened? Me neither but I'm sure things will clarify we advanced.

There are many ways to market a retail business. Flyers, posters, radio spots and TV, billboards, Signs trailers and a clown on stilts are a few ways to get your brand message across. Each has its own degree of effectiveness, but they all have one thing in common: they all cost money. Some are really expensive. If you decide to advertise during the Superbowl, you are looking financial commitment to Figure 7. Better stick with the clown on stilts at the moment.

The other thing all marketing vehicles have in common is they are simply advertisements in various formats. What is really important to note is that you are also drawing on the reader or watcher to be 100%. Digital video recorders, TiVo, smartphones, cars with tinted windows dark clown-phobia-how marketing techniques above almost obsolete. There is also another big problem with the "old" market means you: you can not connect to the customer on a deeper level. The messages presented are generic and anonymous. It's like casting a wide network in the ocean and hoping to catch something. As retailers, you should use a harpoon with a pin-point precision to "grab" your client. Social media tool that will allow you to connect to your client on this deeper level, without spending piles of money.

In the Wikipedia article, there is a suggestion that we are in something called "The Age attention. If all the microblogging and social media hog are causing people (or clients as you) to pay more attention to what is happening around them, is not only "The Attention age, it is also a "new golden age for retailers. Think about it. Customers who are actually listening to what you have to say. This is the dream of retail marketing has become reality. Are you ready to take advantage of this new era?

Tomorrow @ CUEHub: Blogging, twittering and Digg'n – wasted bandwidth or marketing of the next generation?

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Wikis in Plain English