Social Marketing in 2014

We speak to so many businesses that are noticing how Facebook’s changes in 12/2013 have impacted their post reach. Many businesses have grown to rely on Facebook as one their biggest customer communication channels. After all, it is free and everyone seems to have a Facebook account.

So, will these changes force your business to spend more money with Facebook in order to maintain your Facebook presence? Will you instead look for social media alternatives ? I think people will be doing both in the coming months.

Many businesses are still reluctant to spend the same amount of time on Twitter, Google+ and others as they do with Facebook. Even Jersey Shore InMotion was guilty of underutilizing Twitter when we started. Our lack of Twitter interaction was due to the fact that our personal Twitter accounts were not all that exciting. For one, I do not have a lot of friends who Tweet. Twitter seemed to be the place where celebrities verbally battled followers and sometimes made career ending snafus. With text limitations and strange looking links, it just wasn’t easy on my eyes. Perhaps this is a sign of my aging, but it was not as visually appealing as Facebook.

After 90 days of showing Twitter some love, we are happy. We went from 75 fans to over 1300. This is organic growth too, we paid nothing.  We have been able to interact with customers and made many new fans of our shop local service. Using tools like HootSuite, we can see that our Twitter fan base is growing  and they are interacting with us on our web service. It is my opinion that Twitter really is deserving of some of our advertising dollars to see what we can further shake out of the platform.

Left unchanged, I think Facebook’s push for revenue will do wonders for competitors like Twitter,Google+ and others. A business owner should keep a pulse on this marketplace. Talk to the younger crowds and see what they are using. Like Apps, many young adults and teens view Facebook as a fad that has passed. This may mean change is on the horizon. Will Facebook go away any time soon? Definitely not. As business owners will we have to maintain a multitude of ever changing social widgets ? Yes. How prominent Facebook is 1,2, or 3 years from now is a hotly contested subject

Facebook’s bread and butter is advertising. Their December 2013 changes will surely generate substantial ad revenues for them well into 2014. At the same time, many of us will start exploring other social tools that are still less costly(even free) and see what shakes out. It is going to be interesting.

#ShopLocal

2014- A new year with new functionality

Happy New Year to all,

We just wanted to send our best wishes for 2014 and a big thank you to all of our fans and businesses that have been with us since 2013. We now have over 10,300 fans across our social media channels. Our website traffic is also seeing double digit growth as more people are turning to us for local deals and events throughout our service area. We are grateful for your support and we will work hard for you in 2014.

Towards the end of 2013, we planted our flag in Atlantic County-Atlantic City to be exact. This was a great milestone and we look forward to showcasing more of what Atlantic City has to offer in the coming year.  As 2014 takes shape, we will open up all shore points to Jersey Shore InMotion. We will also be “flipping the switch” on New Jersey InMotion which will serve the Garden State as a whole.

Before we open up these new areas of the state to our service, we are going to turn on functionality that will better connect our shoppers to the businesses. By the end of the month, you will see this functionality live and operational.

Thanks for staying tuned and we look forward to working with you this year. ShopLocal.

Your Towns.Your Businesses.Your Deals™

The power of “Small” Businesses working together and the Grinch who stole my Dishwasher

This Christmas Eve the Grinch visited our kitchen and ended our dishwasher’s life. It quit cleaning and stuck its nose up at us one last time by coating the last load with a horrific smelling goo. It was disgusting! Like most of your kitchen appliances, dishwashers are getting sophisticated and their costs are going up. We were’nt planning on this holiday expense, but we use a lot of dishes between kids, company and life in general.

We shot over to Community Appliance in Middletown, NJ. Most people don’t know that these “small” guys buy BIG using Co-Ops. For example, the Co-Op for Community Appliance purchases more appliances than the two big-box guys COMBINED. To me, that was impressive.

The other part of the buying experience that we enjoyed is that we didnt have to wait around for someone who knew these machines. It was December 26th and the last place we wanted to be with our kids was an appliance store. How many times have you gone into a big box and just wandered around waiting for the RIGHT person who knows the product and could answer ALL your questions? We have all been there. Within 15 minutes of arriving at Community, we had  all our questions answered, our needs analyzed and and a deal was done on a machine.

The whole experience was fast, convenient and LOCAL. We even bought a dishwasher that was engineered and manufactured in the USA for less money than a comparable unit made in Asia. When the deal was done,we paid  $100 less than the box stores advertised price. We know box stores often price match, but why bother? These guys knew it all and had it all and we were on our way to cleaner dishes.

We encourage you to go out and see what these local stores have to offer. You will be pleasantly surprised at how these “little guys” can go above and beyond their largest competitors.

Facebook’s 2014 changes will increase costs for businesses that rely on social

Good morning Business Owners and Social Marketers,

If you haven’t heard (or noticed already), in early December Facebook “tweaked”some of their algorithms. The changes were related to what posts are seen in news feeds of the Facebook community-your customers. Since the change, you may have noticed that your free post reach on Facebook has started to tank.

This “little” change will probably cost you big in the New Year if you want to keep up that reach and engagement with your fans. If you are a small business, this hurts the bottom line. More likely than not, your free posts are not going to be reaching your fan base, especially when your post is promoting something for your business.

So what does this mean for your business’ social push in 2014? It means that your social marketing costs are going to rise unless you find some OTHER way to engage an audience. It also means that if you’ve paid a social media firm for advertising, they are probably going to be commanding more money to maintain the SAME market penetration they said they would deliver in 2013.

It will be interesting to see how this all pans out. The backlash seems to be mounting, particularly from the small business community. Entire advertising agencies have been built across the country because of Facebook promotions and branding. This could spell disaster for so many jobs that have grown in number over the last few years.

Contacts In Motion built the JerseyShoreInMotion service from the ground up so we wouldn’t be reliant on ANY of the social networks to grow your business. Granted, Facebook has helped us just like it has helped you. However, it isn’t a deal breaker. With our mobile site, app, and  additional functionality in the works, we want to be the most sensible advertising partner for a small business in NJ. We are going to be just fine and want to do our part to steer small business brands to the most effective advertising channels with us.

We cannot wait to see what 2014 will bring despite ending 2013 with a little bit of uncertainty from the big blue goliath’s changes.

Business  Insider Article:

Facebook’s 2014 changes will increase costs for businesses that rely on social

Hi Jersey Shore,

For this weekend we wanted to share some of these deals and events that are about to expire.

December 14,2013- Pollak Theatre/Monmouth University-Met Opera: Falstaff:

http://jerseyshoreinmotion.com/Event/MonmouthUniversityCenterfortheArts/45

Expires 12/13/2013-ThinZONE Weight Loss Center- Two Week Trial. No contract. Lose up to 10lbs. the first week:

ThinZone Deal: http://jerseyshoreinmotion.com/Deal/ThinZoneWeightLossCenter/102

Expires 12/15/2013- Schneider’s German Restaurant- FREE Potato Pancake Appetizer with purchase of Entree:

Schneider’s Deal: http://jerseyshoreinmotion.com/Deal/SchneidersRestaurant/104

Jaspan Hardware of Manasquan has 3 deals expiring-SAVE BIG with any of these deals:

Jaspan Hardware Deals: http://jerseyshoreinmotion.com/Deal/JaspanHardware/107

 

 

What will 2014 bring the Jersey Shore?

This week we started sharing deals for the Summer of 2014. The biggest local brand to be represented in these deal and event announcements was Jenkinon’s Boardwalk. “Jenks” is promoting their Sea of Lights event at the aquarium and the sale of 2014 Summer Boardwalk Bounce Booklet. Growing up, our team spent a lot of time on this boardwalk and it was a feel good moment for us to see this longstanding shore destination embracing what we do.

As 2013 draws to a close, we will continue to improve on the JerseyShoreInMotion experience and bring you more local shops from the area. Our fan support has been fantastic we now share deals,news and events with approximately 10,000 people who work,live and play down the shore. We’re humbled and enjoy being a driver of the #shopLocal movement where we grew up. We also want to send a huge thank you to over 150 businesses from Monmouth, Ocean and Middlesex County who are sharing deals and events with us throughout the year.

There are some great new features coming soon so stay tuned, stay warm and #ShopLocal at the #JerseyShore. 

Our growing family of local businesses

We came into the Thanksgiving holiday with some exciting happening at Jersey Shore InMotion. This week we added four great companies to our growing roster of local businesses. Our new additions include Jenkinson’s Aquarium who will join us for December to share the Sea of Lights Event with our fans. This event will be happening on select days and times throughout December and offers families a truly unique way of soaking up some holiday happenings. Please check it out: http://jerseyshoreinmotion.com/Event/JenkinsonsAquarium/93

As we cruise towards the final days of 2013, the site’s traffic is steadily climbing and our fan base growing. We now have over 10,000 followers amongst our social networks, most NJ residents. We’re happy you are enjoying http://www.jerseyshoreinmotion.com and we will keep working to bring you a better user experience, more businesses and more events from around the region.

Thanks again to Jenkinson’s Aquarium, Marron Wellness Center, D’s Latin and Ballroom Dance Studio and ICAT Triple Threat Fitness for heading into 2014 with us!#ShopLocal

November 30th is #ShopSmall Day

Today is a Small Business Saturday. We’re reminded to shop locally and support small businesses in our towns. For weeks, the social networks and TV stations have been abuzz with commercials and hashtags on how important today’s shopping habits are.

Jersey Shore InMotion will continue to share news,events and deals with you from local businesses. When you visit businesses on our site, you’re shopping local every time. Our service for the rest of New Jersey will be coming soon. For now, please stay tuned with http://www.jerseyshoreinmotion.com and our social networks. We will be adding enhancements into the New Year to make your experience with us better!

Shopping Local and the dark side of Daily Deals…

 

When we came up with our idea for Jersey Shore InMotion people asked if we were going to be a daily deal site like well…you know their names. On the surface, there were some similarities, but the buck stopped there. Most of the big daily deal companies have a similar business model that works like this. As a shopper, I purchases a deeply discounted deal from an app or website. I then redeem those services at the business. Behind the scenes, the Daily Deal company typically receives commission for the deal- as high as 50%!

Since we began speaking to business owners in early 2013, we’ve heard a little good, some bad and a lot of ugly regarding the daily deal space. 4 out of 10 companies that we speak to indicate a loss, or zero profitability on each daily deal transaction. Some business owners say that daily deals give their brand exposure. Is discounting your brand to the brink good exposure? How many of the daily deal customers ever come back for regular services? We’ve discussed metrics like this with customers and the numbers are flat out ugly.

November 30th is a National #ShopLocal Day. These daily deals may sound great, but sometimes the only ones profiting are the national daily deal providers. If you enjoy the thrill of the deal hunt, rest assured that you will often find comparable bargains if not better deals with these local businesses directly. Happy Hunting, Happy Thanksgiving and #ShopLocal.

http://www.jerseyshoreinmotion.com

#ShopLocal and the blog…

We launched Jersey Shore InMotion this fall. If you’ve ever “flipped the switch” on a service or launched a product before-you know this feeling all to well. There is relief, a sense pride and the worrying about the experience your customers, family and friends will have on your new service. It really is an emotional roller coaster ride. We were so happy to see our bouncing baby alive and kicking after 15 months of development. She is growing so fast too! We now have over 125 businesses rotating deals and events throughout the month, a fan base of over 10,000 people and ever increasing traffic to the website.

In our upcoming blogs we will cover a lot of ground. We want to speak to our customer’s about their business and what they enjoy most about their business and their customers. Local proprietors  are so passionate about their shops and we want to capture and share some of that with our fans.

We’re also going to talk about social marketplaces, small business advertising and why we are here. There is so much going on in the advertising world today. Advertising your small business in today’s technology based world can be a little overwhelming. Throwing money into this world of apps, search engine optimization, daily-deals sites and social networks can quickly damage your bank account. We’ve spent the last couple years completely analyzing the marketplace and how we could help change some of this.

We will check in soon and we look forward to sharing our thoughts, ideas and how we can all do better in a ShopLocal world.