YouTube is the most famous online source for video, allowing users to watch billions of clips each day.  Since being bought by Google in 2006 the video site has grown consistantly gaining more traffic and more video uploads. In the UK the site has become the third most visited website, overtaking Hotmail at the end of 2010. It has also established itself as the 2^nd most popular social network with 20.03% of the UK’s social traffic.

YouTube’s aim is to become the world’s main source of video content, period. The company now allows users to watch hollywood films legally through the site, see the latest TV shows and view live events such as the Royal Wedding. For advertisers this means a change in focus, with less money being spent on TV ads and greater time and effort being placed online. Even primetime TV spots such as the US Super bowl had companies creating YouTube competitions to decide which video they were going to air during the commercial break.

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Linkedin was one of the earliest business social networks. The website was launched on May 2003, nearly a year before Facebook and had humble beginnings gradually gaining a group of loyal users.The website in recent years has seen great increases in its user base and has now  reached the pivotal 100 million user mark.

Linkedin has been a great place for people to recruit and find work, with many members using the site as their main source for employment. 79 million job changes have been listed on the site and 100% of the Fortune 500 companies have executives on Linkedin.

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GQ Magazine (Gentleman’s Quarterly) is one of Britain’s oldest and most famous men’s magazines. The multinational publication was established in 1988 and currently has a total UK circulation of 240,000 copies per annum.

Social Media LTD were kindly asked by GQ to give our expert thoughts on how politicians are interacting through social media.
The magazine wanted to know how the political leaders (or their PR teams) performed on Twitter and what we would suggest for them to change. The article was included within the October issue of the publication, which focuses on the new Prime Minister David Cameron.

Our Head of Social media marketing, Robert Custons and Social Media Ltd Managing Director Kostas Alekoglu gave views on David Cameron, Barack Obama, Hugo Chavez and other heads of state. Rating the leaders on how well they interacted, the quality of their tweets and their overall grasp of the network.

The full article can be found on page 62 under the title “Follow the Leaders” in the October issue of GQ, available now.

Internet marketing works across many industries but it is particularly successful for health care sites, including doctors practices, cosmetic surgery centres, beauty treatments and many more. The reason is simple, when there is demand, there is a market.

If you belong to the sector and have not had any success yet, you need to ask yourself:

1. Am I covering the right marketing channels?
2. Do I have internal knowledge or proven third party expertise?
3. Do I know my company and my service?
4. Have I placed myself in the correct competitive environment?
5. Do I have the right tools in place to track results & return of investment?

More often than not, many of these questions remain unanswered and too many times, it is not clear if a campaign is profitable, successful or optimised. The Health Care sector has its own rules and sensitivities, so running a campaign requires knowledge and market insight. Social Media has a range of marketing services for healthcare companies. Our in-depth industry knowledge gives us an advantage over competition.

Thought of posting some of my social media profiles and new personal website (under construction):

Kostas Alekoglu on Spoke

SocialMan on SU

SocialMan on Digg

Kostas Alekoglu Viadeo

Kostas Alekoglu profile

Social media marketing is a lot more complicated than any other form of online promotion and few companies have recognised this. Partly because it deals with multi-facet areas, such as vertical search (based on algorithms), viral and conversational marketing, content generation and sharing, as well as brand association and reputation management. There is a need to engage, interact, blend in, create rapport and then sell the targeted idea, the feeling, the thought. Participation marketing. Community interaction requires several professional skills: Read more

There has been much talk about social marketing and ROI. How do you measure return on investment when advertising in social media networks. How do you track sales or enquiries through them?

You can, of course, track direct referrals to your site, like you would do with any other source and measure direct online sales or inquiries. More often than not however, this is the wrong mindset when approaching this new channel. In the early stages of social media and similarly to those early days of SEO it is all about information being shared and passed around. Not much commercial value to that you might think. Does that information influence buying decisions? Are brands being empowered by positive communications, transparency and visibility? Is the viral element of word of mouth (or word-of-click as some call it) being nurtured in those networks?

The answer to all the above questions is yes. The impact of social marketing on your brand would be similar to that of a great PR campaign. Publicity, brand awareness, positive image and a familiarity that people only gained via TV ads previously.

So stop asking ‘why’ and start asking yourself ‘how’.

See you online.

With YouTube in the top 5 UK sites, Facebook, the most searched for brand in the UK and Twitter, 38th most popular site in UK after entering the top 100 in , it is enough to calculate how much business you are missing out on. HitWise reported that in April 2009 we had the first signs of retailers receiving less traffic from paid search and more from social media sites.

Most companies are rushing into the bandwagon of Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and Facebook, exposing themselves in front of an audience, without strategic decisions about the message, the user profile, or the community rules. Product, price, place, promotion, the good old 4P’s.

Setting up a profile, uploading video or some pictures, posting something on Twitter, all don’t require much skill. Like print publishing, a one-way communication channel with low level interaction. The first sign would be limited direct visits back to your site.

This is because social media are a highly interactive two-way medium. Success depends and is measured by the level of user engagement. To achieve this, you need the right tone, an appropriate message, added value element as well as strong content. Add Terms and Conditions to the list, with many companies getting banned on various channels by accidentally violating the rules and it is starting to get a little more complicated. Read more

If you are still thinking about whether to run a social media campaign or not, think again. Companies that dared over 6 months ago are now rethinking their positioning and refining methods. We are helping a number of companies with their social marketing so here are 5 basic points:

1. Communicate. Be sincere and informative but don’t forget you are there to sell.
2. Integrate. If you are going to run successful campaigns then merge activity across channels. Have a central strategy to all your social media interaction.
3. Source content. Social networks are content hungry. Find clever and cheap ways to source valuable content. Work with people that can get you cheap content.
4. Use an agency. Why do all the rookie mistakes when you can have experienced help at hand. Some tasks are too time-consuming so free up resources.
5. Rethink your pitch. Don’t just scream, add value. Think about the user and why would they absorb your message. Be fun and be clever in your marketing to a sensitive crowd with a voice.

Happy social marketing!

The savoir vivre guide to Facebook: