Black Friday has come and gone. Even Cyber Monday is over. And now look at you. Are you having “Regret Tuesday” or are you happy with what you have been implementing since we started talking about online marketing for the holidays one month before Halloween??? You see, most small business owners (SBOs) have a calendar and they look at the past and they regret what they didn’t do. Most large companies have a marketing calendar, a marketing budget, a marketing plan, and they implement like clockwork. And the companies in the middle struggle with where they stand. So the question really is, do you lean towards being a small company and think “small,” or BIG company and think BIG?

Macy’s created the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade for a reason. They didn’t want to “give back” to the community; they wanted to sell more of their merchandise. Of course they get the benefit of “giving back” because the parade has evolved into a fun family treat for everyone in America. If I don’t take my kids to the parade, we usually watch it on TV. And there is the Macy’s logo, ingrained on my mind, on every float, every TV and every second of the hours it takes for all of the floats to be transported to the Upper West Side, get blown up, get handled, and then walked downtown. When I was younger I used to go to the balloons the night before Thanksgiving and watch them blow up the balloons. People have parties and it has become an event in and of itself. Then I got an office on Broadway and it over looked the parade. I used to host parties there until I moved. And then in 2005 Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s entourage pulled up down my block and I got a picture of him and my son (I still regret not taking off my son’s hat for the photo op but what’re you gonna do… http://www.raphisalem.com/mayor-michael-bloomberg-and-isaac)

So let’s be realistic. You aren’t going to throw a parade on the streets of New York City… But what you CAN do is throw a VIRTUAL parade on your and your friend’s computers. Meaning: using social media and creating a buzz amongst your friends and family. In the past few weeks we have talked about pay per click advertising, contests and emails. Now its time for you to rev up your social media engines and get everyone you know, multiplied by everyone THEY know, and start to spread the word.

On Facebook, this feature is called “becoming a fan.” In LinkedIn, this feature is creating a group and letting your network know it exists. Did you know that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of social networks? Though Facebook is my favorite personal one and LinkedIn is my favorite professional one, there is also Twitter, Ryze, MySpace, Ning and much much more. Sign up for as many social media sites as you can. First let them know you exist. Then let them know you are having a sale. After all, there are only 10 more days till Hanukkah and 24 days left till Christmas.

If you want to know more about Social Media, social networks or short terms strategies for the holidays, please give us a call at 212-993-5828, send me an email at raphis@salemglobal.com or visit www.SalemGlobal.com. You’ll be glad you did.

Next week we will talk about getting ready for the New Year and planting the seeds for your long term online marketing strategy.