The From Line

Marketing Trend:

Social media sharing has given marketers a treasure chest of insight into customer opinions and discussions. But tools that measure social media sentiment have their limits. The human element, such as the use of slang, can throw off reports.

This week's trend discusses better ways to be engaging while gaining feedback and valuable marketing data.

TREND
Marketers who take advantage of niche social media (primarily in the B2C space) are a step ahead of the competition. Rather than sticking with a blanket approach on popular-yet-general Facebook or Twitter, socially-savvy businesses are developing relationships with very specific market segments. By posting content, asking questions, creating public lists and rewarding followers who share a common interest, they’re helping to develop a brand and generate product interest.

Niche social media sites are attractive to hobbyists and fans who enjoy sharing and discovery. Their users are passionate about particular topics such as investing, fashion, art, cars and sports. Like Facebook, niche sites allow people to build a group of followers and find other like-minded users.

TAKEAWAY
For marketers, niche social sites like Polyvore for fashion-minded women and GoodReads for bookworms open doors to specific target audiences. They are growing communities of individuals looking to benefit in some way – either through meeting new people, learning new ideas or finding great discounts. Niche social media participants are receptive to marketers who add content, provided it is presented in the right way. The key goal is to remain conversational and fun, and to respect the community itself. Promotions that lack interactivity are unwelcome, and it takes time to build trust.

HOW TO
Many industry-specific niche social networks haven’t yet been tapped by marketers. Some sites award points to the most useful content, so it’s important to collaborate and add value while remaining transparent. Posting is usually a manual process, and it takes time to build a solid following based on trust. Get to know your followers and invite them to know you.

Here are a few niche social media sites of note. A longer list is available after the jump.

Fashiolista - Fashion photo, blog and link-sharing site with sponsors, rankings and followers
Feed the Bull – Message boards and education on investing topics
Yard Barker – Sports blog network with quizzes and news
DesignBump – Arts link-sharing with news, trends and discounts ranked by popularity
Fark – A link-sharing site where users thrive on sarcasm and create viral activity
Dine.com – User-submitted restaurant reviews, ratings and recommendations.

Click "Continue Reading" for a list of over 30 growing niche social media sites.

Marketing Trend

Our trendwatchers are seeing a growing need for even the savviest of marketers to educate themselves on workflow improvements. The concept of how to mass-produce automated marketing campaigns (without reliance on excessive human interaction) is not difficult to implement, yet many businesses aren’t aware of the right strategies. Furthermore, while the cost of marketing mediums has decreased due to the rapid growth of online advertising opportunities, production costs have skyrocketed. This leaves marketing budgets vulnerable to what our experts call The 21st Century Marketing Paradox – a cost shift from channel to production. 

Bacon of the Month Club for Valentine's Day? Or Panties of the Month?

Regardless of what you sell, your company may just have a big opportunity gift right under your noses. Continue reading for more on what the publishing industry did right and what we can learn from subscription-based business models...

Trend: The Return of Subscription-Based Business Models

Established by the publishing industry with magazines and Book of the Month Club, many retailers looking to break into an already-competitive market are turning to the subscription model. Rather than selling a single product and hoping for the customer to return for more, ecommerce sites such as Panty by Post, Men are Useless and Blue Bottle Coffee Company are hoping larger single receipts through subscription packages are the answer to bigger returns.

About a week ago, we posted a query in our GLJive Client Community for our clients to come up with 10 uses for our RSS to Email feature.  If you aren't familiar with this feature, here are a few of the sticky points:

* Automate your Email Campaigns based on your RSS feed(s)
* Customize messages and templates easily to include RSS feed(s)
* Control which feed(s) are included in which campaign including multiple feeds per campaign
* Control the times that the campaigns go out (daily, weekly, or monthly)
* The ability to choose the launch of the campaign only when RSS feed(s) are updated (validation)

There are so many uses for this feature in pretty much every industry.  If you don't believe that this saves time and creates a huge efficiency, ask Gary Smith of Fox's Bull's and Bears and owner of  The Chart Man Website.  With the help of Gold Lasso, he saved countless hours for him and his staff by automating his daily email campaigns using the RSS to Email feature. Our group came up with some great uses, so here they are in no particular order.

Usage #1 - Deal of the Day

Post exclusive deals for those who follow your RSS feed. Let the RSS to Email feature do the rest for you.

Usage #2 - Internal Communications

Aggregate RSS feeds of competitor information: tweets, news releases, Facebook updates, etc. Automate a campaign that’s internal to your company and sales team. Not many subscribers, but it could be quite useful!

Usage #3 – Automatic Photo Updates via Email

For a website constantly uploaded with photos, pull an RSS feed of new photos into scheduled campaigns. Several applications: Dating Site, Real Estate, News, etc.

Usage #4 - Deal Roundup

Similar to Usage #1, a website that posts MULTIPLE sales/deals can send a weekly or daily email that pulls all deals into an email.

Usage #5 – Candidate Recruitment

Insert feed of resumes titles, even by category, into an email to HR and recruiting managers. Use campaign categories for highly targeted approach.

Usage  #6 - Job Listings

Insert feed of job listings, either by zip code or by category, into email for job-seekers. Schedule weekly or daily campaigns.

Usage #7 – Automate message assembly

Instead of designing new messages and campaigns, create a message template with space for your private feed. Update the feed and your campaign is sent automatically.
Usage #8 - Live Event Coverage

A lot of bloggers and tweeters constantly update from live events.  You could sum up all of the posts from the event in an easy to read re-cap.  

Usage #9 - Writers/Authors

Authors could send teaser chapters from an upcoming book to get readers excited.

Usage #10 - Public Postings

Public postings could be used by colleges and other higher education, regulatory, state run groups, government, etc.