Our Social Media Services

Overwhelmed by the world of social media? Don’t quite understand the hype? Not sure if the staffer you put in charge of your social media is helping or hurting? It’s time to have these questions answered so you and your business can get in the game.

Social media is here to stay (check out our Social Media FAQs). It’s not a fad. It’s a fun (yes, fun) and effective way to build relationships with your current customers while attracting new ones. The most exciting aspect of social media is that it’s not difficult to utilize once you “get it”. We are here to open your mind and create the shift necessary so yours is a brain that thinks in terms of social media.

Social Media Training

We will provide you and/or your staff with our social media training. You will leave with an understanding of how to leverage the power of social media, the tools necessary to monitor your brand (tap into conversations), Facebook and Twitter skills that will impress even your 15 year old (including knowledge of how to run a Facebook Ad campaign), and the ability to get your product and/or your business in front of your friends, and their friends, and their friends…

Cost of one-on-one training: $100/hour (est. 2 -5 hours)
Cost of staff training: Please contact us for estimate.

Social Media and Web 2.0 Implementation

Do you have a blog? If so, does it talk to your Facebook page? Does your Facebook page talk to Twitter? The power of social media is, well, being social. That goes for the applications that you’re using, too.

Our Social Media and Web 2.0 services range from setting up your social media outlets (initialization, application installation, cross platform interaction), to creating blogs and message boards for your site. What’s more, we’ll make sure that all of these outlets are talking to each other, meaning that you only have to update one to broadcast it to the others. Now that’s efficiency!

Cost of Social Media implementation: $100/hour

Social Media Marketing Plan Customization

We will meet with you, listen carefully to what you want to accomplish, and ask incisive questions to learn more about your business and its goals. We will then use our unique skill set to craft a customized social media marketing plan which will utilize those services that we think will best help your business. We will also define goals and metrics so that you can better measure success. Finally, we will draft a detailed step-by-step action plan so that you can implement the strategy in-house.

If you’d like us to implement the plan for you, well, you’re in luck because we do that, too (see below).

Cost of Social Media Marketing Plan: Varies. Please contact us for estimate.

Campaign Management – We’ll Facebook and Twitter for You

If you’re a business that knows you need fans and followers but don’t have the knowledge, time, or staff to pull it off, we’ll do it for you. We can customize a plan for you that it fits into your budget.

This service is most often offered as an add-on to our Customized Social Media Marketing Plan. That is, we’ll do the Facebooking and Tweeting for you for an agreed amount of time at which point you can decide to have us continue or take it over from us. However, if you have a strategy of your own that you want us to implement, we’d be happy to determine if we can help.

Cost of Campaign Management: $100/hour (time est. varies per contract)

Social Media Analysis

Are you tweeting without success? Having a hard time finding Facebook fans? Blogging your heart out without comments (or even reads)? Just aren’t having any fun?

We will analyze your current social media strategies, tell you what you are doing wrong, and put you on a path that will get you the online attention you deserve.

Cost of Social Media Analysis: $100/hour (est. 2 -4 hours)

Web Coaching

We like to explain web coaching using the analogy of a personal trainer. Anybody can exercise on their own. They may run a little, do some yoga, and hit the weights at the gym. However, if they’re not getting the results they want, they hire a personal trainer who has the knowledge and expertise to focus their efforts on what’s important to them (your arms look great, btw), resulting in a more fit body that is firing on all cylinders.

Think of us as your personal web trainers. Many of our clients have basic web skills. They have their social media accounts set up. They have blogs. They have e-mail newsletters. They have everything from Zing-Dings to photo streams, but they don’t know how to focus their efforts. In other words, they are all over the place, a bit overwhelmed, and feel like they’re spinning their wheels.

We will analyze your online tactics and tell you where to best focus your energy in order to obtain your desired results. We can meet once for a general assessment, or we can meet regularly, so we’re sure you’re staying on the right track. Protein shakes are extra.

Cost of Web Coaching: $100/hour

Other Web Services

Social Media FAQs

What is social media?

Social media is the distribution of information via online social interaction. That social interaction can occur on your own website (blogs, product reviews, message boards, etc.), or on external sites (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc.).

Social media involving your brand occurs with or without your active participation.

Why use social media?

Here’s the deal. We could go into the multitude of reasons as to why your business should be using social media, but, the truth is, there’s only one reason that really translates. Your business should be using social media because your competition already is. What’s more, if your competition is using social media effectively, they are not only stealing your potential customers, but they’re quietly collecting your current ones.

Is social media a trend that I can ignore until it goes away?

It depends. Do you think the internet is a trend you can ignore until it goes away? Since you’re reading this online, I’d have to guess your answer to this question is “no”.

Social media has been around as long as the internet has been in our homes. Back then it came in the form of newsgroups, message boards, chat, etc. What we’re witnessing right now is the evolution of social media, or Web 2.0. Social media is how people choose to communicate with each other online. While something will eventually come along and replace Facebook and Twitter, it’s important that you understand what social media is and how to effectively participate in it, because social media is now and will continue to be a key player in nearly every company’s successful marketing strategy.

Oh, and if that’s not enough to convince you, here’s a nice little video from the kids over at Socialnomics:

How much time and money will social media cost my business?

It depends. At minimum, you should dedicate five minutes a day to social media. The tools are free, so the cost is dependent on what five minutes of your time is worth. When you begin to see results, you can dedicate more time. And, because you’ll be seeing results, you won’t see social media as something that takes away from your business, but something that brings you business and adds to your company’s overall worth.

When it comes to social media, a little bit goes a long way.

A kid who works for me knows Facebook, should I let him run my social media campaign?

Believe it or not, we see this one a lot. Because one of our specialties is social media for wineries, we’ve found that many a winery simply lets a member of their tasting room staff take charge of their social media campaign. While it’s fantastic that winery has someone ready and willing to take on this task, it is dangerous to let anyone take control of your company’s online reputation without a social media plan, or without social media rules. The solution to this problem is easy. Train that person in your tasting room, and they could be your biggest asset. If you don’t (and we see this happening quite often), that person could be unknowingly and unintentionally damaging your brand.

Testimonials

International Pinot Noir Celebration (IPNC)

Services Performed Site Design eCommerce (Miva Merchant) SEO Google Analytics Ongoing Consulting

Testimonial

We have had the pleasure of working with Lunabean Media for nearly a decade. Over the years, they have helped us develop our website into the great resource it is today, most recently consulting on and installing our online store as well as assisting us in utilizing website analytics. They have helped us navigate our way through all of the current technologies, keeping our website up-to-date and relevant, while continuously optimizing our online protocol and strategies. Words like friendly, available, instructional, and professional only begin to describe Lunabean Media’s level of top-notch customer service.

-Katie Kamilos, Assistant Director, IPNC
ipnc.org

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EKP Media

Services Performed A variety of consulting for EKP Media’s clients Social Media Training Ongoing Consulting

Testimonial

I have been practicing PR for over 15 years. In the last few years it is clear social media has exploded and the need for businesses to keep up is imperitive. No longer can businesses rely solely on mere magazine or newspaper exposure. My clients are seeing that there are deep implications for the way businesses adapt to technology innovations.

That said, Lunabean Media has a vast knowledge of the internet and web marketing that has proven to be invaluable to many of my clients. Time and time again Lunabean Media has identified and fixed problems with my clients’ websites that my clients didn’t even know they had. These fixes have increased both traffic and profitability, making their sites more powerful tools in their marketing endeavors.

-Emily Petterson, CEO
ekpmedia.com

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Ron Kaplan Photography

Services Performed Site Design Photo Gallery Social Media Training Movable Type Blog eCommerce (PayPal) SEO Google Analytics Ongoing Consulting

Testimonial

I’ve been working with Lunabean Media for a number of years on a number of projects. Most recently, they installed blogging software, added a PayPal store, and created a newsletter campaign to promote my site. Perhaps more importantly, they optimized my site and taught me how to blog effectively for search engine recognition, producing significant results. Lunabean has consistently provided exceptional services at very reasonable prices.

-Ron Kaplan
ronkaplanphotography.com

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Panther Creek Cellars

Services Performed Site Design Navigation Suggestions eCommerce (Miva Merchant) Marketing SEO Google Analytics Ongoing Consulting

Testimonial

Testimonial coming soon.

10 best practices in social media for nonprofits

Notes from Big Duck’s keynote at the NeighborWorks Social Media Symposium. While the focus is for nonprofits, the tips are good ones for all organizations.

1. Take a deep breath, and let go. You’re not in control anymore.
2. Stop, look, and listen. Tie your goals to what people need, and meet your audiences where they are.
3. Build your strategy around reality. Select the tools based on their purpose, your audience, and what you can manage in terms of staff time and costs.
4. Remember what you learned in kindergarten: be nice, share, and say thank you.

Read more…

10 Free iTunes Songs to Facebook fans of iTunes

Don’t think Facebook is that important?  Tell that to Apple, who is
currently offering its “Spring into Summer” iTunes mix to all of its
Facebook fans.  That’s 10 songs, or $10 of product, free to each person
who agrees to be updated by iTunes via their Facebook home page any
time iTunes has some new information (exclusive offers, featured downloads, and helpful hints) to share.

As someone who finds great enjoyment in seeing the power of Facebook in action, this promotion has been a blast for me track.  Here’s what I’ve seen.

Before crawling up to bed last night, I checked in on my Facebook home page, as I do every night.  Sitting there was a message to me from one of my favorite bands, the Decemberists (yes, the message was also sent to the band’s 29,000 other fans, but I prefer to think they’re talking directly to me).  The band informed me of this iTunes promotion, as one of their songs (the disturbingly awesome “The Rake’s Song”) is part of the mix.

Immediately, I became a “fan” of iTunes, was provided with a coupon code, and downloaded my 10 songs.  Because it was such a great promotion, I updated my status to let my friends know they, too, could take part.  Minutes later, I saw two of my Facebook friends do the same  thing (download the album and update their statuses).  By the time I woke up this morning, a dozen of my friends had informed all of their friends, and the number of iTunes fans had grown from 900,000 to 1 million.

In a matter of just a few hours, iTunes gained a direct line to over 100,000 people.  They know the importance of Facebook.  They know that millions of people are just like me, and check Facebook a few times a day.  What’s more, they understand Facebook marketing is currently the most powerful form of marketing online.    So, yes, they’ll give away $1,000,000 of product for 100,000 fans, and they’ll do so happily.  After all, they’ve already earned back my $10…the Elizabeth and the Catapult track on the iTunes mix inspired me to purchase the entire album, and I leave happy.

Why your business should create a Facebook fan page

When we discuss Facebook with our clients, the most common question we are asked is, “Should my business be a profile, a fan page, or a group?”. The answer is, “fan page”.

Hi Facebook Pages Admin,

Facebook Ads for your Page will now get you even more Fans.

You are now able to create ads that will allow users to become a Fan of your Page directly from the ad. Users can also click anywhere on your ad to access your Page, get more information and become further engaged.

Benefits of using Ads for Pages:

1. Without leaving the page they are viewing, users can become a Fan directly from the ad
2. When a user becomes a Fan of your Page from the ad, a story is published in the user’s Wall.
3. This story is eligible to show in Highlights- creating free distribution in the social graph

In addition, users will see friends who have become a Fan of your Page in their version of the ad – increasing the relevancy of your ad.

Even if you don’t understand how incredibly awesome these new features are (and they are), you should note that they are only available to those who have created fan pages for their business. Those with business profiles or groups are left out to dry.

So, do yourself a favor and get your business a Facebook fan page. All you have to do is go to Facebook.com – Create a Page, and follow the instructions.

How your WordPress site looks on an iPhone

While looking for an application and/or video to show clients what their Flash websites look like on the iPhone, I stumbled upon this video, which, instead, reminded me what WordPress (free blogging software) sites can look like on the iPhone.  While Flash is a no, no, WordPress is a yes, yes!

WordPress for iPhone
WordPress – Blog Tool and Publishing Platform

Top 10 Reasons to Use Facebook for Business

In case you are still on the fence in regard to using social media, and specifically Facebook, for your business, here is a great article (granted from August of ‘08) on why you should:

Top 10 Reasons to Use Facebook for Business

Here’s a sampling.

1. Meet your peers.Facebook is not just for college kids anymore. Members are typically older and more mature than on other sites, and there are more affluent and more educated white collar users.
2. Find business contacts.With more than 100 million active users, and predicted to be 500
   million by 2011, not only are your friends on Facebook, so are your
   prospects, your customers, your JV partners… and, of course, your
   competitors. You need to be on too. Related post: What’s Your Friending Policy?
3. Instant gate opener.Facebook members are open to connecting. You can easily begin a
   dialog with highly successful–even famous–people who were previously
   otherwise unreachable.

More…

Learn from Gary Vaynerchuk’s Blogging

Here’s a good article about how wine video blogger, Gary Vaynerchuk, built a multi-million dollar business around his video blogging.

There are some great tips here, like blog your passion and don’t be afraid to be seen as different (that’s kind of the point!).

Hat Tip

New Local Results in Google Searches

Here’s an interesting video pointing out a new feature of Google searches, namely that if not signed in to a Google account, Google will look at your IP to shove in some local search results.

This is great for local businesses and points out the importance of making sure your site’s code and content has a good number of references to the city that you are in.

Hat Tip