A World Cup lesson for your business

For most Americans it was a disappointing finish to the Women's World Cup; it's never easy when the "hometown team" loses in the finals of anything. But it is hard not to feel good for Japan. In a year of earthquakes, a tsunami and a nuclear catastrophe, having something like a World Cup soccer championship to cheer about must be a welcome respite for the Japanese. And our girls were very gracious in a narrow defeat -- makes you proud.

Twitter seemed to capture a lot of attention during the tournament. Barack Obama offered some pre-game encouragement via the social media platform (signs his tweets as "BO" -- a PR quandary). Notables like Lebron James and many others also tweeted their excitement and encouragement to our team during the event. I opened a Twitter account in its early days. I had one follower, a great lesson in humility. I don't do enough interesting, exciting things to make anyone want to follow me. But maybe you do.

When people are in the midst of a transaction with you or your business, make them aware of your Twitter account and your Facebook page...use the logos in your ads like the old days when print ads included the little Visa and MasterCard logos. Link the social media pages to your web presence (if your business doesn't have a web presence yet, Facebook offers a cheap and easy starting point). Sending messages about specials and coupons using these platforms is certainly easy, inexpensive and a vital part of today's media mix. A World Cup happens once every four years -- you can tweet your business excitement daily. But be careful about overdoing it -- sending a lot of messages -- especially ones that may not offer honest, exciting value -- can turn your followers and customers off in a hurry.

Need help with your social media and other marketing needs? Give us a holler at 315-472-7825, e-mail at mailto:info@scotsmanmediagroup.com  or online at www.scotsmanonline.com . Thanks!