SMB’s are not finding ROI in “Social Media” Now What?

Social media management services have taken a nose dive. Why has SMB'S demand for these services dropped off a cliff? The social media hype bubble has burst, and most SMB’s have not realized their return on investment in social media alone. They’re not willing to pay companies hundreds of dollars a month to market their company exclusively on Facebook or Twitter; instead they are diverting those dollars to pay per click options, SEO, optimizing their websites for conversion and mobile, or targeted local media advertising like online display, IYP sites and even the original search engine “The Phonebook”.
Many SMB’s market primarily to a middle aged customer base (35 up to 75 years of age) this demographic alone makes social media marketing a difficult fit.
Social media marketers will disagree, “You’re doing it wrong”. All businesses need social media marketing, which if done correctly for a long enough time, will pay for itself.” But, to them, the SMB’s of America respond, “I’ve forked out thousands of marketing dollars; There's no ROI in sight”
Like so many new Internet marketing concepts, social media has been overhyped to the point where local small businesses, contractors and even larger companies thought it would make their cash registers ring. These types of business owners went out and looked for companies to manage their social media for them, a flurry of social media marketing companies were born; many traditional newspapers began offering digital agency services to fill the void of declining revenues. These news agencies not knowing a thing about local search or generating leads for SMB’s fueled the fire by creating their own Hype “Social Marketing the next big thing”
Now  that the smoke has cleared, here’s what these new agencies have learned: In a perfect Social Media world, your clients will loyally send their promotions and industry news each week, you write the copy, post photos, track the engagement, and their phone rings off the hook.
In reality, where we all live, this is not the case, the business owners are too busy, and (wearing many different hats) they don’t have time to send the material necessary to get the social media campaign off the ground.  As for the client’s cash register? It’s not ringing… No ROI
The type of business most likely to realize a social media return on investment are B2C businesses whose customers are younger than 35 and that focus on entertainment, retail, personal services, or tourism. B2B or home services, or businesses catering to middle age & older people, do not fare nearly as well.
Burst bubbles aside, here are the top three reasons for nearly all SMB’s to invest a small amount of time on social media:
1.  It’s free or near nothing, if you don’t count your time as money.
2.  It is an important way to reach customers younger than 35 years old, and an essential way to reach those under 30. Have an event to promote? Combine sponsored posts with a contest or other creative marketing, and you’ll get tangible performance results.
3.  Social media is important for SEO, but as far as knowing how social works in search results, this is where the professionals can help.
What SMB’s should know about social Internet marketing?
 SMB’s need to allocate a portion of their marketing budgets to social media management: Start building a foundation on channels like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube & G+.
1.   You don’t own your social media presence: Facebook and Twitter do. You can invest large amounts of time and money in obtaining likes and developing custom tabs and functionality, and then Facebook can pull the rug out from underneath you by converting to another format (like Timeline) overnight.
2. Half of all Americans are not on Facebook, and some experts think Facebook penetration in the U.S. market has maxed out. This means half of all potential customers (or higher, if your target customer is older than 35) have a slim chance of ever seeing your message.
3.  People do not use Facebook, and especially Twitter, with a purchasing intent. When they want to buy a product or service, they use search (Google, Yahoo, Bing IYP’s & Yes, Phonebooks). This is why it makes more sense to invest in integrated marketing programs, which offer products like professional websites, optimized for conversions and mobile access, and drive traffic to it through using SEO, pay per click, and targeted display advertising strategies.

At the end of the day business owners want results, once the preverbal internet “HYPECLOUD” has cleared, business owners want and need to invest in products and marketing programs that have tractable data – Transparency.  SMB’s have now realized the smart choice is a well rounded marketing program that can target their customer base & demographics. As for the new media agencies, the bottom line is quality customer service, with ROI being the new social priority.

Bob Musilek Digital Strategist Joins Hibu Omaha

Bob Musilek heads to Omaha Ne, with the announcement of Hibu's comprehensive programme to transform the business from being a leading supplier of print and online advertising for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to being a leader in the emerging local eMarketplace for consumers and SMEs. The strategy was debuted following a rigorous six month strategic review led by Mike Pocock, hibu’s Chief Executive Officer, and his management team. The review included extensive customer research and thorough assessments of market opportunities.
Our strategy calls for an intense, multi-year programme of activity that will facilitate the transformation with the following aspirations and initiatives:

• To become the leading digital services provider to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), offering them social, e-commerce and mobile web capabilities, among other value added services
• To pioneer the creation of the local eMarketplace, comprising an innovative platform and digital portal where consumers and SMEs can connect and transact
• To achieve leading share of attractive customer segments such as new and existing Latin markets and US Hispanic markets
• To extend the life of the established print business to fund digital growth
• To deliver a best-in-class customer experience, including self-serve and simplified offerings

Musilek stated, "brining this programme to Hibu Omaha leverages our strong presence in the local market, providing a broad range of digital services that address the converging SME need to grow, to transact and to be efficient in the digital world and the consumer’s need to be connected locally to the goods and services they want, to save time and money, and to move their lives forward".
Strategic partnerships form an important part of the strategy that will help drive forward the execution of each initiative. As a consequence, we have rapidly built a strong portfolio of business partners focused on further enhancing our SME and consumer offerings and contributing to the creation of the local eMarketplace platform. Since announcing the strategy in July 2011, relationships have been announced with:

• Znode, acquired by hibu in July 2011 to provide the eCommerce platform that underpins the Group's new digital service offerings
• Microsoft, with whom hibu has established a global strategic alliance, enabling the Group to offer a broad range of Microsoft Advertising solutions and software to its over million strong SME customer base
• The UK Government, who selected hibu to help UK SMEs export their products
• Bazaarvoice, a global leader in transforming customer conversations into long-term business value, enabling eMarketplace participants to engage and converse with their customers online
• Netbiscuits, the leading platform for developing, publishing and monetising sites and apps across all mobile and connected devices, allowing eMarketplace participants to quickly move their products into the mobile environment
• Shopkick, an innovative leader in local loyalty, allowing US businesses to use smartphone technology to reward customers for visiting their premises
• Moonfruit, acquired by hibu in June 2012, to complement the website building capabilities of Znode, by offering merchants the facility to build their own web presence together with the ability to transact online, on mobile and in social media

Bob Musilek will lead the charge, as Hibu Omaha begins to implement its strategy in the Heartland.

Digital Media Specialist Relocates to Omaha Ne.

   Bob Musilek is moving to Omaha,
Bringing 10 years+ experience in digital marketing, and a passion for Social Media. While in Omaha Nebraska, Bob will lead by conducting local Training of all types of search, LBS /Mobile, SEO, SEM, and all forms of Social Media Optimization.
 Bob has an extensive background in sales, leadership and marketing, his focus will be on the development of new media & online product selling strategies, new customer acquisition, same store growth, customer retention in the Omaha area.
 Bob has a Strong understanding of social media strategies and social media protocol with a solid grasp of New media trends and industry topics. Musilek stated: "Omaha Council Bluff's Business environment is embracing new technology and building a very strong digital landscape,  just look at all the growth from companies like, Google, Yahoo, Pay Pal, TD Ameritrade it's an amazing time to be hear in the heartland!"
Bob’s goal while in Omaha, is to ensure he positions his customers, team members, and local Omaha companies to succeed in today's ever changing digital landscape.


Bob Musilek's  Specialties are: Online Product Strategies, Helping Business with Sales Execution,
Marketing, Communications, Branding, Advertising, Interactive, Creative Design, Public Relations, Social Media, Brand Strategy, Account Planning, Mobile Media,
  A leader of SEM  / SEO/ Online Display and mobile products.
A proven track record of implementing and delivering key initiatives. Build and manage Websites. e-commerce solutions, New Sales Channel Development, Assist brick-and- mortar business get ahead of the new media curve.

Bob Musilek 2010 Presidents Club Award Winner...

Yellowbook 360 just announced it's 2010 Presidents Club Award Winners Tuesday. This is the 4th win for Bob Musilek in the past 6 years, with back to back win's in 2009 & 2010.  Mr. Musilek attributes much of his success to the new direction and product lines Yellowbook 360 has released over the past few years. "Yellowbook 360 is a great company with tremendous vision and dedication to helping small business grow" say's Musilek. "I truly feel that our products and service are second to none in the local search industry " Musilek went on to say; " The product that is the real game changer in local search is Yellowbook's metrics reports" A small business owner now has complete visibility to all aspects of their marketing investment with Yellowbook. These reports take all the guess work & mystery out of advertising and marketing. "It's a true and honest look at return on investment for SMB's" ROI, has become one of the most important advertising factors for business owners today.  When asked about the future of local search Musilek had this to say: "Local search is evolving, location based products such as Yellowbook's FindMe, Facebook check-ins and Google Latitude have very interesting applications for small business, now blend in group buying products like Weforia and things get very exciting." In addition, Musilek is very excited about the direction of mobile search at Yellowbook. "Having a top ranked app on products like the Droid, I phone & I pad also open the door to a wide range of new and exciting opportunities for us in the very near future." No matter where or how people are searching today, we have products that fit a business owners needs, wants & goals.
In conclusion, Bob is very grateful to all his co-work for their help and support. "None of this would be possible without all of the tremendous caring people at Yellowbook 360."
"They are the true winners!"

I have had my new HTC Droid Incredible for a week now...
It is very fast, thanks to a 3G network.
My HTC features Android 2.1, a  8-megapixel camera and 8GB of internal memory. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and 3G are all included.
I have not been able to figure out if you can use voice and data at the same time? I will update you later on that issue. Battery life does seem to be an issue, I use the App Killer frequently, but still drains fast!?!
The multimedia experience is adequate but I am wondering how it compares to the new Apple I phone?
The bottom line: Great design and user interface with outstanding speeds, the HTC Droid Incredible seems like the new device to beat.

What is Google Buzz?

Google Buzz is a new way to start conversations about the things you find interesting. It's built right into Gmail, so you don't have to peck out an entirely new set of friends from scratch — it just works. If you think about it, there's always been a big social network underlying Gmail. Buzz brings this network to the surface by automatically setting you up to follow the people you email and chat with the most. We focused on building an easy-to-use sharing experience that richly integrates photos, videos and links, and makes it easy to share publicly or privately (so you don't have to use different tools to share with different audiences). Plus, Buzz integrates tightly with your existing Gmail inbox, so you're sure to see the stuff that matters most as it happens in real time.

Google "WAVE" Update

"WAVE" Combines instant messaging, e-mail, and real-time collaboration, Wave is an early form of so-called real-time communication designed to make it easier for people to work together or interact socially over the Internet. Google started letting developers tinker with Wave at midyear and then introduced the tool on a trial basis to about 100,000 invited users starting on Sept. 30. Invitations were such a hot commodity that they were being sold on eBay (EBAY). For Google the hope is that Wave, once it's more widely available, will replace competing communications services such as e-mail, instant messaging, and possibly even social networks such as Facebook.

If Wave takes off, applications created by outside developers could make it more useful, and an app store would give those programmers and their financial backers a share in Wave's success. Already, independent software developers have built and tested Wave applications that handle such tasks as teleconferencing, videoconferencing, and multiplayer gaming.