Are you engaging your customers or are your competitors?

Your customers are online interacting with each other as well as with businesses and brands. That's a fact. The question is, WHO is engaging them, you or your competitors?

According to Forrester Research
37% of US online adults are "critics" who post product reviews, comment on blogs or contribute to online forums.
21% are "creators" who post original content in blogs or Web pages
69% are "spectators" who read blogs, forums and review sites.

There's no doubt that customers are spending time on the social networking sites. The dilemma is not whether to get involved or not, but how to use social media most effectively. Discover some of the ways your company can leverage off this channel by seeing how other companies use social media.

What ROI can I expect from this?

How do you measure the ROI of your other branding efforts? How did you measure the ROI of your last sports or public event sponsorship? Brand awareness and customer loyalty are long term investments in your brand equity that are often difficult to measure in the short term. See how companies use social media for branding purposes

Is involvement in social media expected from a brand/company?

It seems that today social media is where websites were almost a decade ago when they became a necessity. If you didn't have one, you had no credibility.

Social media must be treated with the same level of seriousness as all other marketing efforts. Just because social media tools seem 'simple enough', the strategic direction should still be left to the social media consultants. Learn more about the processes and methodology we apply to deliver clients' social media campaigns.

Just like you wouldn't dream letting your marketing assistant write a press release (even though he/she can type), you should not let him/her handle your social media campaign (even though he/she knows how to Tweet). Due to the viral nature of the beast, mistakes can be very detrimental to your brand.

Hundreds of applications...where do you start?

Web 2.0 consists of hundreds of popular and literally thousands of somewhat less popular sites. It can be overwhelming to even attempt to figure out all of them. The good news is that most businesses will end up focusing on half a dozen to dozen of these. Our job is to help you identify the best applications to deliver your particular goals. Here are some of the most popular social media tools

The Fast Forward team is dedicated to delivering you the Social Media Blueprint that'll maximize your campaign efforts. We will generate a clear strategy and direction for your campaign which you'll be able to implement immediately.