Current Pedorthics | September-October 2014 | Vol.46, Issue 5 | Page 34

FALL INTO MARKETING AND SPRING INTO SUCCESS: CHANGING TIMES REQUIRE CHANGING STRATEGIES The most important thing to do when investing in traditional promotional options is to monitor success rates and feedback. Success rates can be measured as simply as the number of coupons redeemed or free gifts dispersed. Flexibility is key in making sure the investment is paying off or identifying changes needed. Research and monitoring is the key to effectiveness. What are my most cost effective approaches? The beauty of the innovation of the smart phone, social media offers not only an immediate form of communication, but also an incredibly cost effective form! Social media allows your firm to develop accounts, pages and send out messages to any and all. Of course, the more targeted your account is, the better results you will yield. Social media options include Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Vine, Snapchat and Google+. Each has unique benefits, but all offer the opportunity to communicate by simply investing some time and energy into setting up the account and developing a strategy of what goals this technique will support. The cost of social media marketing is bound by your budget and desire to add additional options such as advertising, purchase, and research reports generated on your site and advertisements. Twitter Twitter has 255 million active users and over a billion total users. Twitter reports over 500 million tweets are sent per day, yet 4 Hو