Social Media Marketing Questions For Neil Patel
We are really excited that social media leader Neil Patel has agreed to be the interviewed in our social media optimization series.
Neil Patel is the founder of Advantage Consulting Services which was started in 2002. He has lead Internet marketing strategies for small and medium sized businesses as well as top companies such as Hewlett Packard and Wal-Mart.
In the interview Neil talks about his thoughts on social media as well as what SMO strategies he is advising clients to use, and which ones to avoid.
Neil you are one of the co-founders of ACS. Can you tell me about your decision to launch a Social Media Marketing company?
When we first launched ACS 4 years ago we had no idea that we would do a lot of social media marketing. It just so happened that we became good at it and started helping others with social media marketing.
You launched your company blog under Pronet Advertising. Why did you create a separate brand for Pronet?
Pronet originally started as my blog and then turned into the “company” blog. If I had to do it over again I would make the blog part of ACS that way the branding wouldn’t be confusing.
How has your blog helped you generate new business?
Helping others through content has showed people that we know our stuff. Because of this people end up contacting us and inquiring about our services.
Social media marketing has really taken off over the last 12 months. What has been the biggest surprise to you about the growth of social media?
The biggest surprise is how much money people are making off of social media. Sites like the muscly jerk made over 1 million dollars because of social media and probably didn’t even spend 1000 dollars to make that million.
What do you see as the biggest opportunity in social media over the next 12 months?
Social media can help build a strong brand or crush a brand. One of the biggest opportunities I see is leveraging social media as a PR move.
ACS has an impressive customer base. Are your clients asking you for an SMO strategy? What social media tools or tactics are you seeing them use? What works?
Our clients are asking for SMO strategies. Most of them are using MySpace profiles or creating Facebook Apps which seem to work as long as they are targeting correctly. Think of social media as banner ads, although many people don’t think they are effective it actually is if they are targeted correctly.
What are some of the opportunities in social media that you see that marketers are not taking advantage of?
Marketers seem to be ignoring the smaller social media sites like Netscape. The long tail of social media can drive a lot of traffic as long as you can provide value to them.
Social retailing is one of the hot buzzwords in 2007. How are your clients using it?
Our clients are trying to get bloggers and social network users to recommend products to their friends. If you can do this it is effective because you are more likely to buy something your friend recommends.
Which SMO techniques that you think are wastes of time?
To be honest I am not sure because, but one of the best techniques is to add friends with common interests.
Tell me about the biggest blunder you’ve seen in SMO?
Companies like Comcast ignore social media and their brand starts going down the toilet (or at least in my mind). Not sure if it is affecting their revenue, but I personally am all about brand management.
Filed under Brand Marketing, Interviews, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Optimization, Social Retailing : Comments (4) : Aug 13th, 2007
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