Elucid Marketing has celebrated their 1 year anniversary in the business world. The year went fast, but the tech world moved at the same speed, so a wild ride ensued for Elucid, yet fun and rewarding.
Elucid consist of the creative strategies of CEO Kres Thomas, a graphic designer, a news junkie, trendy nerd, kinda guy. Kres has proven to give a new meanings to social media marketing, as each social media project’s results are better than the last. From artwork to creating a logo or brand, then target marketing users within a related field, and lastly, engaging these users to supply valuable resources; this what makes him special. The Elucid team embraces this center point, to build supporting strategies and eye the future of social media and web technologies. In plain English, Kres & the Elucid team is like a basketball team, like a new harlem globetrotters, lol, loves to entertain with tricks of the trade, draw massive crowds, & win the game!
Let’s discuss some of the tricks in social media, since Facebook is becoming the dominating online activity beyond search, and Twitter has become a household term, connecting anyone to friends, family, or even ur favorite celeb’s life. The Reality TV shows were a precursor to this social media boom, as we all love being nosey & compare our life. Websites consist of uploaded photos/videos and include text that is frequently updated. This user-generated, social content is the “meat” of most websites today & tommorrow. From old school forums and comment boxes, to new age chatrooms, texting, tweets, and status updates, we use technology more frequently to communicate. Elucid aims to use this for business marketing functions and create a private project that includes the favorites of social networking, media, and entertaining news sites today!
Elucid enjoyed the “real-time” updates, so much in May 2009, we dedicated this to our future research and planning. Our investment was into social media and it’s impact on businesses. We learned it was a new platform for friends & family, like a new phone invention, making a new “channel” to communicate and fast! The growth rate of Twitter was remarkable, so we customized an @Elucid profile and started to reach out to others in social media. We documented what we found and shared this to others, hoping to spur the growth of Twitter and social media interests. Each month we would get someone interested in helping or getting help for their own projects. We noticed Bloggers liked how social media increased website traffic. Some small business owners wanted to find customers, like real estate agents for leads, contractors, or small service providers. The funny part was news companies were skeptical and some still are, as most printed items are read online. Most are scared of the change as only the most innovative will survive. The rug was swept under these news corporation’s feet… and the rug was the advertising industry which Google revolutionized. Follow that car!
Newspaper companies also fear the “free”, digital age that is killing their printing revenues. The have always incorporated a business model to pay for the hardwork of journalist & photographers, selling advertising slots and a lousy 50 cents – a dollar and change, newspaper. There needs to be a business model; there is not one developed secure or great enough to save the industry. Maybe the industry will shape itself, but there’s risk in someone loosing out bigtime! (probably not the tech guys) That bring’s us back to Elucid, where innovation and strategy is key to survival in modern business. It’s competitive and flooded in most industries, compared to years ago. Anything can happen in a changing world, from economic structure to social and behavior aspects with new technology. Anything can happen in business, so traditions & policies must be molded around how flexible a company is, like instant competitive strategies, rather than long-term expectation from yesteryear. Measuring how fast they can adapt to a competitor’s new product is a good indicator of how profitable they will be. Can they develop the next revolutionary feature or product or know what the other guys are inventing?! A good tech company is made from this clever character, such as Adobe. Apple iPads have cut out Adobe’s hardwork (by eliminating Flash Player) even though Abobe is a longtime champion of web software ( from FLASH/acrobat reader/photoshop/even tweetdeck!). Adobe took this in stride, amazingly so. They must have something creative up their sleeve and can manage to think out the box to stay afloat. We’ll see if they can actually do this. (many developers are not ready for this great leap started by Apple)
Innovation for the newspaper company must happen soon! More and more people are reporting news better than the journalist. Regular users post updates and messages, in “real-time” (like right now, and now!). This is done in the heart of action, during or after hurricanes, earthquakes, acts of violence, or other “caught-on-tape” footage, making everyone a reporter! Social media is part of our life and if it grows further, it can change many more industries and fields as it already has. If our households and lifestyle includes this technology, slowing the use of print, TV, or even reality! Last year, doctors tweeted surgeries and lawsuits have included tweets as evidence. Today we can’t resist posting our lives in a reality show-like way and more people are becoming addicted faster than research can prove it. We have every long lost friends at our fingertips and our favorite family members to share photos with. We like it so much, we occasionally accept our favorite businesses & celebrities, too! Elucid aims to make everyone a celebrity who is talented at their work. This is by design and strategy, creating a viral approach to launching brands!
The changing techniques of Marketing is interesting: from the design, the call for action, the benefit announced, but most importantly the communication between the consumer and company. Social media is perfect for this, as a business can be personified and informative, 24/7 accessible! The communication channel is open, we have the power to broadcast media! Elucid encourages small biz to announce weekly sales ads, occasional promos, contest, or updates. Social media marketing is becoming the cheapest way to communicate as well as advertise. This is more necessary in this hurting US economy. Why isn’t everyone or businesses doing it? They don’t understand it, would be our guess, not to be judgemental, they may see more liability from not knowing how to control or manage it. But the benefits are too great NOT do it, so we say learn it ASAP. Some fear they would hurt their brand by not knowing how to run a marketing campaign or interact with the users … it may be more liability if your moderator says the wrong thing, gives a quacky opinion, or defends your brand wrong on a thread. There are social media companies that manage accounts, but few trust them with their brand’s image. Elucid Marketing creates trust with clients by providing an outline and research of their market. This can be done by existing reports or launch of new marketing materials (surveys, questionaires, coupons) that could track progress of marketing efforts. We like describing the psychology of their consumers, and then targeting ways to supply benefit through added value services. “Technology is pretty cheap, you just have to learn how to use it!” was our 2009 quote that pops up often. People want more & free. Consumers are spoiled, yet it makes a biz work hard to impress them (lower prices or more features) The best things in life are free, so added with Elucid’s innovation, we keep a small biz or their customers satisfied. Try updating you social network with a free inspirational quote or something of value that cost nothing. If you find a deal, sale, clearance, share it! Everyone will follow you like you dropped money and they scooping it up! Elucid encourages adding benefits in all kinds of ways (we love to hold contests)
Kres Thomas has described “online branding” in meetings as, “An ongoing commercial, a sitcom of your brand, entertaining with your charisma”. He directs Elucid’s vision in helping “new eyes” remember “your secret sauce” by brand image, identity, awareness, and inclusion. Kres still feels he can dominate a whole town or small city with one color, shape/object, or catchy jingle. Other have tamed his energy and gave him insight on how some brands are built from the inside out ( a collection of what consumers like or accustomed of knowing). Elucid loves discussing trendy news, online buzz, and even search related keywords. We find out what people cling to and make that clinch tighter! People love trends (news to celebs) or they love self-empowerment (learning, experience, creating). Elucid uses this as their bread & butter, but is working on a full course meal after studying how to combine this (And more stuff, but we cant give away all the intellectual property, lol) . The power of organizing people and communicating to a group is extraordinary and the way to do it is social media. The team that knows how and can help is Elucid Marketing Group.
Elucid has took more notice to how people are affected by social media & this new technology, rather than just business alone. Business is changing and it’s a rough ride until technology sorts our the mess, chosing teams & beginning a new era in our lives. Kres Thomas is very engaged into sociology, psychology, anthropology and ways to help communities become stable or economically grow. This bring a more humanitarian side to Elucid, and currently our strategies are to organize online communities for positive changes through information sharing, social support groups, to business development. Elucid Marketing has based several projects in their headquarters in Fayetteville, NC which includes the website FayToday.com which includes social media content about the area. Its services include Youtube, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, & Google. These are linked together in a menu toolbar at the bottom of the page, where collections of Fayetteville media content is available as well as a “LIKE” button & “Tweet from site” formbox. This social network has been based on Facebook and currently hosts 2,250 users (Fayetteville population <200,ooo, so we’re proud and hope to grow, yet stay effective). The FayToday profile also host two fan pages, one for Fayetteville news (aggregated web links) and another for Fayetteville Business News (gives biz info on city programs, education, & startup advice).
These profiles have actively engaged other businesses, city leaders, politicians, students, and military families. Elucid Supports FayToday’s efforts in impacting the community in a positive way, by info sharing and economic development via tech and web services. We feel all residents should have the power to know… to know of free resources, their lifestyle options, the business changes that are possible & available in Fayetteville, NC. FayToday’s drive may later create an organization into a non-profit or community event planning group. Social media could impact social change and FayToday has a positive and informative network. Fayetteville is sometimes judged as a high crime and small isolated town, but actually it has great investments brewing from increased military to construction projects in 2010. Obama’s ReInvestement Act Monies (sry, 4got name) will help out as well as the new 30,000 troops that are becoming stationed in the city soon. FayToday could help these positive changes to amplify success of a growing southern community. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for updates!
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