Help send our CEO to Explore and Engage 2011

Posted on January 7, 2011 in JuggleMedia Wichita, Social Media in Wichita Kansas by JuggleMedia

#eeict, Engage and Explore, Start-Thinking, Wichita Social Media, YouTube

As a social marketing company in Wichita, it’s important to constantly learn what the larger, national brands are up to and see how to incorporate their success (and avoid their failures) into small businesses. On January 19th, Brian Solis, author of “Engage or die!” and Jason Falls runs popular blog Social Media Explorer. Two great minds to learn from, no doubt.

So here’s the deal, we would love your help sending Ryan E Cole, our Chief Engagement Officer to the conference so he can freshen up a bit, learn from these two brainiacs as well as the other folks in the room. In return, he will share the knowledge that specifically applies to smaller businesses right here in Wichita with a series of blog posts and action-steps for clients.

Here’s the steps to help.

1. Head over to Start-Thinking’s Facebook Page and look for Ryan’s video. (Click Here)

2. Click “like” below his and HIS ONLY . The one with the most “likes” wins.

Thank you so much!

JuggleMedia helps build YuleFinder.com to spread Christmas Cheer

Posted on December 10, 2010 in JuggleMedia Wichita, Social Media in Wichita Kansas by JuggleMedia

christmas lights, collaboration, one-up interactive, social media wichita, thrive solutions, vale, wichita lights, Wichita Social Media

YuleFinder.com

JuggleMedia teamed up with One-Up Interactive, Thrive Solutions and Vale to create YuleFinder.com.

We build the site with the premise in mind that it’s the only site to “Find the Twinkle” around Wichita. While we have grand ideas for this site, this year it was an opportunity for all of our companies to concept, create, design, code, tweak, perfect and post in as little as seven days.

So what? Why is that important? Three things. First, in the world of web and coding, that’s fast. You can’t see how complex yulefinder.com is, but I assure you it’s a very difficult piece to create in that amount of time. An awesome testate to One-Up Interactive and their skills.

Second, there’s a hole bunch of news about local businesses collaborating on projects. Here is an honest-to-God collaborating project to prove to the local business community it can be done and done fast, efficiently and it works well! Oh, by the way, it’s not the first time these companies have collaborated and it sure won’t be the last.

Finally, there’s the ability for our companies to give back. What we can use our collective awesomeness to connect people to causes and generate more buzz around them. Thus, why you see Lights on St. Paul and Lights on the Lake on the homepage. Feel free to donate. Using social media channels around Wichita, we now have the ability to spread this message quickly, inexpensively and drive traffic to the site. I’d tell you how many page views our site has had, but you wouldn’t believe it. We couldn’t either.

So try out YuleFinder.com. Tell us what you think. We’d love your feedback to make the site better for you. We have an on-going list of perfect “wants” in the site and would love for you to add to it. Zip us an email to hohoho@yulefinder.com and we’ll incorporate your idea!

Merry Christmas and God Bless!

3 Free Tools to Monitor your Brand

Posted on November 1, 2010 in JuggleMedia Wichita, Social Media in Wichita Kansas by JuggleMedia

Google Alerts, monitor social media, socialmention, twitterfall, Wichita Social Media

Last week, we were thrilled to have the Wichita Business Journal as us some simple questions about monitoring your brand online and in the social space. They were following up on a Weber Shandwick Report that 34% of Global Chief Communications Officers say that their brand has been under some sort of attack in the social space over the past 12-month period.

Here are hundreds of tools that you and your business can use to monitor your brand online ranging from free to super-expensive. Here are three simple-to-use, and FREE tools that we at JuggleMedia enact for each of our clients to monitor their brands.

socialmention.com

What it does: Monitors all traffic online like blogs, micro-blogs, networks, bookmarks, comments, events, images, news, video, audio and questions. Essentially socialmention.com looks at Facebook Posts, Twitter, Blog and even the comments on those blogs.

Why it rocks: Want to be alerted when somebody says anything about your business? Want a daily email of everything said about you online? Done. Socialmention.com allow you to set-up an alert to notify you whenever something is said online.

What is costs? FREE! YES!

Google Alerts

What it does: Google Alerts allows you to really focus on all web traffic mentioning your brand. From the things your wholesalers may be saying about your products to their customers to the things left in comments, Google Alerts covers the non-social aspects of your brand really well.

Why it rocks: Google Alerts is one of those tools that you’ll start to get in your inbox and sometimes want to ignore. Think of it was one of those things that you need to check to make sure everything online is perfect. You can opt to have an alert when it happens or once per day. I recommend the once-per-day option. Always a good bet.

Cost: Free

TwitterFall

What it does: TwitterFall allows you to monitor the traffic said within a certain geographic area, either about your business, your brand, yourself or any specific keyword you need it to monitor.

Why it rocks: Twitterfall is a great tool because it allows you to look at your Twitter lists, upload a new search, add your location and even exclude specific words you don’t want.

Cost: Free. Which is good, but each time you revisit the site, you have to re-do your search criteria. Kind of a bummer, but a good tool.

All of these things can be implemented for free and for your business right here in Wichita, Kansas. If you need anymore help, please feel free to call us at 316.747.9266. We’d be more than happy to help you figure out all your social media right here. Right now!

We’re heading to #140conf and you should too!

Posted on October 22, 2010 in JuggleMedia Wichita, Social Media in Wichita Kansas by JuggleMedia

#140conf, hutchinson kansas, Wichita Social Media

More People Join Social Networks if Brand Asks

Posted on October 18, 2010 in JuggleMedia Wichita, Social Media in Wichita Kansas by JuggleMedia

brands, Facebook, social media wichita, Social Strategy, Wichita Social Media

In a recent article, eMarker.com found that more people become fans of a Facebook Page if a brand asks more than a friend’s recommendation.

“Most commonly, that outreach comes from the brand itself. Three-quarters of Facebook users worldwide who had “liked” a brand told DDB Worldwide and Opinionway Research in September 2010 that they had been spurred to do so by an invitation or advertising from the brand they followed.” (eMaketer.com)

So what does this mean for you and your business here in Wichita Kansas trying to reach more customers via social media?

Simply put, encouraging people to join the page in other manners than “Suggest to Friends” on a Facebook Page are crucial to increasing brand outreach. In a post by Mari Smith, she noted this tactic should be used sparingly, if at all. She goes on to list some of her top suggestions here. The research above shows that only 59% of people join pages by this form.

So how do you get people to connect? Easy. Take it off-line. When you started your website, you had to promote it. Facebook is just like another website, it’s just that we can now see how many people get to your information and actually stick around to enjoy it time and time again.

At JuggleMedia, one of the first steps we encourage you to do is to contact your current customers. Think of this as a way to get everybody together on one site and communicate effectively with them. (We’ll help you with that step too!)

Have a good one!

Facebook Automatically Hiding Page Comments

Posted on October 5, 2010 in Social Media in Wichita Kansas by JuggleMedia

Facebook, social media wichita, Wichita Social Media

I noticed while on Facebook today that there are changes to the way we see comments people leave on Facebook Pages.

Look at the graphic to the left. See where there are 4 comments and 15 likes? It used to be that individuals would see a comment stream with the most recent comments showing. It now appears that Facebook has limited to size of each post.

It is interesting to note that individual comments on friends posts are still expanded. There is a large Facebook Announcement tomorrow that we will let you know about. Usually, they roll out a few small features before a launch. Maybe this is an attempt to streamline the news feed to make it more user-friendly.

Is Social Media Really a Risk?

Posted on October 5, 2010 in Social Media in Wichita Kansas by JuggleMedia

risky business, wichita kansas social media, Wichita Social Media

This post was inspired by a friend of mine who works for a rather large, yet social media conservative company here in Wichita, Kansas. As frustrated as he is about the lack of social media presence by his company, (which, is rather large and when they do take a dip, they’ll be in for a lot of work) I appreciate his willingness to create an open communication platform with its customers. There in lies the problem. One simple word. Open.

You see, social media isn’t a risk, it’s natural and already happening. If you do business with one person, that’s all it takes, chances are you are involved in social media. What people are really afraid of is an open communications environment. True story.

You see, if you create social channels, like, say a Facebook Page, now you have to think about stuff to say, post, do all the time. You have to be constantly communicating with people and answering questions, comments and concerns. You have to monitor what your competitors are up to and how and who is talking to them. What people are really afraid of are three simple things: time, knowledge and openness.

1. Time

A properly monitored Facebook Page isn’t something that can be posted upon once per week and then forgotten. Social media is a tool to
communicate with people, not an objective. You don’t just “get on” Facebook and then you’re done, you start the page and learn to
connect.

2. Knowledge

Simply stated, many people around Wichita are not seeing the right way to connect to people using social channels. I’m constantly seeing a
business, for example, use a Facebook Profile instead of a Facebook Fan Page. A huge no-no in both Facebook’s Terms-of-Service and also
the interaction between the business and the individual. The problem isn’t that businesses are being “vindictive” or “doing it wrong” they
just don’t know. Furthermore, once they find out, it’s hard to switch because they have a large following. It’s a bummer, but has to happen.

3. Openness

Yes, if you post something on Facebook, your competitors can see it, I get that. We are actually working throughout this problem with a
client in that some of the types of post that they are posting are being copied by a competitor’s page. Now this strategy is always a
little behind and the audience can figure it out, but more than anything business owners are scared to divulge too much to the
competition. Creating an open business culture doesn’t mean you tell everybody everything. It’s actually quite the opposite. Creating an
open communication environment means that you are open to discussing your business with customers. It’s no different than receiving
feedback on a survey ro talking to a customer in a store. It’s real-time and super important.

Let me know what you think. Sometimes it helps if the people actually understand social media technologies. Show nay-sayers how by reading here.

We at JuggleMedia are really excited to help the businesses around the Wichita, Kansas area with social media technologies. We mainly focus
on building an audience and connecting your business to your customers. Give us a call at 316.747.9266 or shoot me an email at
rcole@jugglemedia.com and we’ll get the ball rolling your way.

Helping Them “Get” Social Media

Posted on October 1, 2010 in Social Media in Wichita Kansas by JuggleMedia

Cox Communications, JuggleMedia, social media wichita, Social Strategy, Wichita Kansas, Wichita Social Media

There are those in business that simply do not understand the powerful connections social media campaigns can create. To help you help them, I’ve created three simple little points.

1.  Simply explain what it is.

Many folks just don’t understand what the fuss is all about. Sometimes I ask “Have you ever seen it in action?” Many time the answer is no. The first step to getting nay-sayers towards the light is to simply sit down an show them all the connectivity. Ask them if you can show them how powerful it is. It shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes.  Let me know when you get to Twitter. I’ll help you there.

2. You have to show them the value

Sometimes it is a difficult and scientific task to prove social media value. Take this for example: What’s the value of a fan? Let’s say we run an ad on Facebook with a cost-per-click of $.10 (low, but doable). If the ad is engaging enough it can lead to a person connecting to the business page. Now that the person is connected to the business page, it’s only a matter of time (or a matter of the right promotion) that the person now is activated into a customer. $.10 for a new customer. Pretty inexpensive if you ask me.

3. Sign them in and “Wow!” them

One of my clients found me through Facebook because he set up a page as a way to track his daughter’s activity. Then this individual noticed the power of connecting with people in this personal matter. As we have spent time exploring the different social media technologies for his business, the light-bulb came on and now we are working to connect his business to the customers he serves as a customer relations tool.

One of the things that makes social media hard for people to understand is scale. How can I as a small business in Wichita, Kansas be effective and gain new customers using social media when most of the case studies are of national humongus companies?

What local company is using social media effectively to actually reach people?

Great question. Let’s see. On a personal level, when my wife and I moved, I set up my entire Cox Communications service over Twitter via @Cox_Will. I’ve seen a client’s  page increase by 1,000 fans in under 3 months and an incredible increase in sales (after the page sat dormant for 9 months). I’ve purchased heavily discounted tickets to try different attractions in and around Wichita. I’ve even changed the way I get all of my news. I haven’t picked up a newspaper or magazine in at least a year. Furthermore, if I were to have a problem with a story that a reporter wrote, all I would have to do is tweet them.

The opportunity to be successful is out there for EVERY (yes, I said EVERY) business in Wichita. Just because you competition, neighbor or favorite restaurant is on Facebook doesn’t mean you should be too. Social media is all about strategy and connecting people in the most appropriate places for your CUSTOMERS. All you have to do is ask yourself: Where are they online?

Let us help you find them. At JuggleMedia, we help you make more out of your time online right here in Wichita, Kansas with social media and other web-based technologies. Give us a buzz at 316.747.9266 or send me an email to rcole@jugglemedia.com and we’ll see when we can connect you to your customers better.

Vail Resorts Connects Skiers with Amazing Social Network

Posted on September 28, 2010 in Social Media in Wichita Kansas by JuggleMedia

Facebook, social media, Twitter, Vail Resorts Awesomeness, Wichita Social Media, YouTube

All you have to do it watch this:

Makes me miss Colorado all over again. This is truly amazing. I wish I was a part of it. This social network/application/awesomeness/altimeter/lift ticket will allow skiers (okay and you boarders too, blech) to stay connected on and off the mountain while monitoring a bunch of important info.

All I have to do now is pack.

Advertising Humor for Monday…

Posted on September 20, 2010 in Social Media in Wichita Kansas by JuggleMedia

advertising, humor, Wichita Social Media

A great friend of mine forwarded this email communication to me. I thought it was priceless. A little long, but funny if you have a few minutes.

Enjoy!

Hi
I opened the screen door yesterday and my cat got out and has been missing since then so I was wondering if you are not to busy you could make a poster for me. It has to be A4 and I will photocopy it and put it around my suburb this afternoon.

This is the only photo of her I have she answers to the name Missy and is black and white and about 8 months old. missing on Harper street and my phone number.
Thanks Shan.

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: David
Date: Monday 21 June 2010 9.26am
To: Shannon
Subject: Re: Poster

Dear Shannon,
That is shocking news. Luckily I was sitting down when I read your email and not half way up a ladder or tree. How are you holding up? I am surprised you managed to attend work at all what with thinking about Missy out there cold, frightened and alone… possibly lying on the side of the road, her back legs squashed by a vehicle, calling out “Shannon, where are you?”
Although I have two clients expecting completed work this afternoon, I will, of course, drop everything and do whatever it takes to facilitate the speedy return of Missy.
Regards, David. Read More