Digital Brand Expressions Simplifies Social Media Marketing Management

ORIGINAL POST: www.interbiznet.com


(January 14, 2010) - With the floodwaters of social media rising, Digital Brand Expressions created a 4-step social media process to make it easier for small businesses to large businesses succeed in the social media space.

Now, managing social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn can be done systematically. According to Niki Fielding, President of Digital Brand Expressions the 4-step process is:

1. Claim the company's important "brand" names - "Although claiming brand names on multiple sites is time consuming, it's far less work than dealing with the aftermath of a profile set up by someone else around your brand name."

2. Discover where your competitors are, locate communities made of your customers, reporters, and analysts that cover your industry, and niche networking sites.

3. Narrow the list that makes the most sense for your brand and configure active profiles. Note: do this only after you've gained an understanding the features and functionality of the sites you've chosen.

4. Implement ongoing communications strategies and start connecting with your key stakeholders.

As anyone who has even dabbled in social media knows, "Social media is constantly evolving so it's not enough to merely set up digital outposts," explains Ms. Fielding. "You'll need to dedicate some resources to keeping your content fresh and staying on top of conversations about your brand."

Company newsletters, web pages, email blasts, print and broadcast media, etc., are all effective ways to get the word out about where your brand can be found in the social media space.

Digital Brand Expressions is a search engine and social media marketing consultancy and services firm that helps companies enhance their findability on the Web to drive business success.

Content: Jennifer L. Taylor, Marketing Examiner

Hiring Managers use Social Media in Hiring Process

When looking for a new job, remember to utilize social media sites, especially LinkedIn. According to Jump Start Social Media, as many as 75% of hiring managers use LinkedIn on a regular basis to research candidates before making an offer, compared to 48% using FaceBook, and 26% using Twitter.

"Social media is not only a great networking tool, it's also a way for employers to perform reference checks on job candidates," said Veronica Fielding, president of Digital Brand Expressions and its social media service for consumers, Jump Start Social Media. "Because LinkedIn is the most professionally oriented of the three, it tends to attract hiring managers who are doing due diligence."

When it comes to sourcing job candidates, more hiring managers again prefer LinkedIn to Twitter and Facebook. Of the hiring managers surveyed, 66% of hiring managers visit LinkedIn, 23% visit Facebook and 16% use Twitter to find job candidates to fill openings.

To ensure that your personal brand is professional, monitor what you post on social marketing sites. Ms. Fielding reminds people, "Whether or not you are job hunting, you should be aware that your public profile is easily accessible so be sure to maintain a professional personal brand." Social media sites can enhance a candidate's position or be detrimental.

"Social media tools offer hiring managers the ability to gain a broad picture of an individual," says Rosina Racioppi, President of WOMEN Unlimited, Inc. "I prefer LinkedIn because its focus is on business connections and it allows you to see the professional beyond their resume. Utilizing social media tools enables hiring managers to assess whether a candidate is an appropriate fit for their organization.

The experts at Jump Start Social Media offer these tips for using social media in the job-hunting process:

•Become familiar with the popular social media sites so you can participate in important dialogues, including opportunities to network for jobs.

•Start with one service, get comfortable with it, and branch out from there. The easiest, safest choice is LinkedIn because it has always been 100% business focused.

•Share links to interesting news stories combined with a sentence of insight, and join groups (your alma mater, former employers, industry associations, etc.) in order to participate in online discussions with the other members.

•Ask people in your network to introduce you to the people that they know. It's these dynamic group interactions that help shape perceptions of you and your business acumen.

•Make sure to finish your social media profiles and keep them updated.

•If you are "tweeting" on Twitter, share links to stories, reports, interviews, etc. to which you add your insights.

•Don't overlook Facebook's value as a way of keeping in touch and staying top of mind with the business connections you've made during your career.

Bring it home: If you don't already have a personal brand, start developing one. And by all means, keep your social media sites in line with your personal branding efforts. If you don't want certain people to know something, don't post it for the whole world to see. Use good judment and common sense at the minimum when posting information on your social media pages.

The Jump Start Social Media survey polled 100 hiring managers at small, mid-sized, and large companies. Polling was done by Digital Brand Expressions and interbiznet.

WOMEN Unlimited, Inc. is a nationally recognized organization that cultivates leadership in high-potential women through programs that companies sponsor for their noteworthy female employees.

For more info about using social media in the job hunt, visit www.jumpstartsocialmedia.com or www.digitalbrandexpressions.com.