This topic might be a good idea to think of, especially for small business. Even though the product is good, but with weak marketing strategies, the brand will eventually starts decline.

Before choosing  the best social networks, we need to examine few things such as our products, budget, and demographic of targeted customer.

Through the statistics of network worldwide, here's the top leading sites which can be used to market your business.

1. Facebook

With the highest number of active users 1,415 million around the world. Facebook is a good platform to build a community and reach a broad network. Even though younger generation start leaving/rarely use Facebook, but majority of adults are still active participating in Facebook. The primary reason of Facebook is to engage with friends and family, but they start to offer various features for business. Few examples are the paid advertising options. Business can choose their budget to promote their brand (through post or photos) and finally people (who might interested) are able to see the ads.

However, for small business it might not be a best option, because it's really hard to market if you don't choose paid options. The chance for people to see our posts are very small, since paid promotion business ads or post will be prioritized.

2. LinkedIn

This platform usually used by people in B2B industry. Most people use it for making business connections or looking for a new job. Average of LinkedIn users are people with high income and education levels. This platform might be a good media for middle to huge business to market their brand, but not a good thing to use for small businesses.

3. Instagram

This platform is one of the rising social networking sites, especially for young generations. Its feature that focus on visual aspect made people interested with this app. It might be a good choice for all types of business. Their options to market are not as much as Facebook, so even small business still able to market their product without struggling with their budget to use the app.

In order to getting popularities and followers on instagram, you can see my previous post HERE. Further, there are several example of brands (which are pretty popular) use Instagram as a tool to market their business. You can read the post HERE.

4. Twitter

With a good amount of active users (almost same as Instagram), Twitter can be a great choice, especially for business which appeal "Information Junkies".  Additionally, it's a good way to build a positive relationship with customer, by respond and engage with them.

5. Tumblr

Another platform which focus on its visual aspect is Tumblr. This platform can be considered as a mixture of Instagram and blog. Therefore, people could post pictures and write long text inside the post.

Finally, business should use various social media to promote their business. Even though marketers should consider various things that suits their business model, I would say that the best social media is Facebook (because of its highest active users). However, for smaller business it's better to start with Instagram.

Reference:

http://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/

Few weeks ago, I created a VIDEO about Cassey Ho, which is popularly known as Blogilates from her Youtube video. If you like to do fitness and usually watch Youtube, you should've heard about her. She's one of an inspiration to many people, because of her bubbly personality and her motivation to appreciate body image. Mostly it's woman that watch her Youtube channel.

It's not easy to reach the achievement she received now and you can view her video that tells about her journey HERE. 

Today, she is considered as successful social media marketer. Further, she has appeared as an example of a successful social-media fitness entrepreneur in book Social media marketing all in one for dummies.

In marketing perspective, she creates value to her followers/viewers though her Social Media. All of her post, whether image or video are always informative and attractive.

Further, she always updated her Youtube weekly, and other social media (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook) few times in a week.

Check out the video I create to hear the explanations on how Cassey delivers value. I must say that she's an awesome person!
(see my video HERE)

As a summary from the video I made, Cassey delivers value using:

1.Youtube

Through her videos she's giving awareness on healthy body image, informative, and entertaining.

2. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter

She gives regular informative updates and engage with fans.

3. Website (blog)

Her blog features a good navigation ( so people can see easily on the content they want to search) and keeps consumer up to date by joining her mailing list.

If you want to know more about Cassey and her fitness videos, you can check her CHANNEL.

Have you ever heard or maybe watch Blogilates channel? What do you think about her? Share your opinion on the comment below :)

If you are active in social media since long time ago, you must have heard of Friendster.

In 2002, Friendster was launched, before Myspace, Facebook, and other social networking sites. Just after its release, this site was a top social media and was adopted by 3 million users within the first few months. However, few years later most people left Friendster and move to Facebook.

Back in 2003, Google wanted to buy Friendster for $30 million. However, MOL (Malaysian company) bought Friendster for $39.5 million, which later Facebook bought Friendster's patent on 2010.

After that, on 2006 it was pretty much dead in the U.S. Finally, on 2011 the company crushed the website and redesign it to a gaming website. Their new focus would be for entertainment and fun, and not competing with Facebook.

Source

What are the factors which caused this downturn?

1. competition

Even though this challenge always faced by every business, but according to Abrams (founder of friendster), when friendster almost reached two years old, there were some copycat site of Friendster. Further, few social networking sites were developed, such as Myspace (late 2003). However, the main problem is that the firm's inability to grow as fast as the competitors.

2. Technology problems

It was one of the biggest problem in the downturn. There were times when users can't log into their account, so they started to search and move on other social network, such as MySpace. Since there were problems with users' account, and Friendster were having difficulty in solving this problem quickly, many users were leaving the platform.

3. Low level of social influence

On 2009, it was recorded that the registered users were 10 million. However, the users were not connected to their friends. Therefore, it affect Friendster to think of new solution in engaging more people using their website. It is because, strong networks are mode from strongly linked people.

References:

http://mashable.com/2014/02/03/jonathan-abrams-friendster-facebook/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendster

http://www.wired.com/2013/02/friendster-autopsy/

http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/26/social-network-pioneer-friendster-to-erase-all-user-photos-blogs-and-more-on-may-31/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/limyunghui/2012/02/03/friendster-on-facebook-ipo-bandwagon-too/

Xiaomi Corp., a private company that sells smarphones in China, has been a popular topic nowadays. Starting to grow from its original country (China), they slowly gain popularity in Asian country (such as Indonesia and Singapore).

A most popular question is "why the price is so cheap while the quality is good?".

Mi phone, could be compared with other popular brand name phones, such as Samsung or Apple. Even, Xiaomi has ranked third after Samsung and Apple, followed by Lenovo and LG.

Mi phone sometimes often called by people as China's iPhone, due to similar design on some Xiaomi's features. The company was accused of copying Apple's philosophy and mindset. However, Xiaomi argues that they maintained different set of principles. Further, their phone are using Google's Android operating system and this sets Xiaomi apart.

Some of you might now wondering about its design and price comparison with other phones. A picture below shows the comparison between Xiaomi Mi4 and Samsung Galaxy note 3 neo.

Source

The price for Samsung galaxy note 3 neo is about AUD 480, while Xiami Mi 4 is approximately AUD 350. Considering the quality and price of Mi 4, most people (especially with tight budget) would prefer Mi4. Additionally, compared to Apple's iPhone 6, the price of Mi4 is only half. 

Back to the question I mentioned on first paragraph (why the price is so cheap while the quality is good?), a quick answer is:

The company choose to keep down both costs and margins, instead to concentrate on the product.

Xiaomi Corp. heavily relied their marketing through marketing buzz and social networking services. A unique thing is Xiaomi does not own a single physical store. Therefore, they sell all their products through its Website. Sometimes, limited availability flash sales were made to ensure supply does not exceeds demand and create a free marketing buzz on its product.

Further, Xiaomi also listening closely to customer feedback. Therefore, they create company user forums. Once a suggestion from the forum is picked up by the product managers, they quickly transferred it to engineers. Finally. their quality could be improved in terms of software or hardware. This process is often called by Xiaomi as "design as you build".

Another positive thing of Xiao mi Corp. is that they are transparent, the company listed the manufacturers and model numbers in spec sheet. This additional information made their customer happy about its service and also let them know about its material (so they could know whether the item is good).

What do you think of Xiaomi phone? Have you heard about this phone or considered to buy one?

Reference:

Amadeo, R. (2014). Xiaomi Mi4 review: China's iPhone killer is unoriginal but amazing. Retrieved on May 14, 2015, from http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/08/xiaomi-mi4-review-chinas-iphone-killer-is-unoriginal-but-amazing/

Bershidsky, L. (2014). Xiaomi's Killer App? Its Business Model. Retrieved on May 14, 2015, from http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-11-06/xiaomi-s-killer-app-its-business-model

Spence, E. (2015). Apple iPhone 6 vs Xiaomi Mi4 Review: Tim Cook's clone wars. Retrieved on May 13, 2015, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2015/02/26/apple-iphone-6-vs-xiaomi-mi-4-review/.

Wikipedia. (2015). Xiaomi. Retrieved on May 13, 2015, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiaomi.

Have you ever heard about some people who can earn few thousand dollars just from social media?
Today, I will talk and explain further about it..

Firstly,
Wendy Cheng (known as Xiaxue) is one of the famous blogger in Asia and lived at Singapore. She started blogging since 2003, and mostly talk about her lifestyle. Later, she creates few social media such as instagram, twitter, Facebook and youtube, so people would know more about her. She receive 40,000 daily page view and about 14,000 followers on her blog. Moreover, youtube has been creating a partnership with this blogger.

She claimed, blogging is the only thing she do to get her income. However, her income is not stable because it's based on ads and it ranges about few thousand SGD a month. Below is the price list for ads on her social media.

 Other than her income, she also receive various products, such as beauty products, fashion, and electronics. She even receive cars as one of her sponsored products.

Source: Xiaxue

Secondly,
Michelle Phan, a famous beauty guru  who become famous from her youtube videos. Her career as a blogger started on 2005, but she started to make videos on 2007. She creates various makeup tutorials on her channel, from western to asian makeup. Through her videos, she achieved more than 7 million subsribers, 1 billion views, and officially become a youtube partner.

Other than receiving income from sponsorship like Wendy, Michelle also has a cosmetic line called Em-Cosmetics.

Being a popular vlogger/blogger would absolutely bring various positive aspects to the business, especially on marketing. This also happens to Michelle's online shop. People knows about this brand because of Michelle's popularity and they want to purchase it because of trust. When Michelle introducing her line, people believe that the cosmetics that she sell is a good quality, so they won't think too much to purchase it.

We can see many people around us have instagram. From children to adult, they will have or know this social media. As people attracted to see visual (such as pictures or video), this app is getting more attention and users.

credit: justinjackson

From the statistic above, the growth of instagram users boost from 2011 to 2014. Of course, this attracts marketers to sell and market their items, since social media have a great impact on sales. As an instagram user, Jeremy take advantage from this app and finally his sales is nearly doubled from November to December 2012.

The example I provided happened on 2012, can you imagine what will happen in 2015? The result might be higher!

However, what are the elements to create a successful marketing on instagram? 

Here's the answer…

1.   Capture and post high quality photos

People will absolutely love higher quality photos. However, this doesn't mean all marketers only need to post pictures using SLR camera. Capturing good quality photos could also created by iPhone camera with some filter/editing app.

credit: eatandtreats

Additionally, a brand which use similar photography style (e.g. vintage/dreamy/Black and white) will attracts more people to follow their account. As an impact, more followers on instagram will result in higher potential customer.

2. Post pictures everyday, but not too much

To attract customer, post some photos in a day on different time and it should be done everyday. It is done to remind people with our brand, but not annoying them cause of too many pictures are posted on the same time (this might result in losing followers).

3. Use relevant and unique hashtag

Posting a relevant hashtag will increase chance for people to see and like the photo. However, sometimes the hashtag must be unique so the picture is still visible on the top of search engine.

Also, by creating a unique hashtag, people could easily search the catalogue or pictures. For example, topshop creates a hashtag #topshopjewellery, so people who want to shop jewelry could easily search the photos on instagram.

4. Promote and engage with consumer

Some example for promoting the brand are: 

- Create a giveaway event

- Endorse a celebrity to promote our brand

Both choices could significantly increase followers and engage people to interact/give comments.

On the other side, to engage with customer, you can also post people pictures when using the brand's product and it would creates trust to customers.

5. Incorporate with third party

Connect a brand with selling tools such as Inselly and Hashbag might be a good idea if a business does not have an online selling website. These application, facilitates users to search instagram listing (using hashtags) and purchase the items with paypal.

Other useful apps are Curalate and Blitzmetrics. These apps will help you check the post performance, monitor their performance compared to competitors. All the data will help you on decision making about the type of Instagram photos and content that you post.

In order to be successful in marketing business through instagram, remember to capture high quality photos, consistent on posting pictures, use relevant & unique hashtag, promote and engage with consumer, and incorporate with third party.

Have you tried those tips above or any experience on business on instagram? Share it below (on the comment section). :)