4 Quick Steps to Creating Your Social Media Marketing Plan
With social media marketing gaining rapid speed in the world of business, both big and small, you want to be prepared to use it, and do so correctly. Social media marketing can make a significant difference within a small business that has minimal budget funds.
Before signing up for every social network on the market, you should have a plan in place. You’ve written your business plan, now it’s time to create your social media marketing plan.
1. Decide Where To Become Involved
Most companies assume that they should be relevant on every social media platform out there. This is a wrong assumption, and one that can hurt your business, rather than help. You should be choosing a platform that works best with your business model and targets your audience.
If experience is an issue, using a platform you are familiar with is recommended. Regardless of what social media sites you are affiliated with, it’s most important to be current, fresh and relevant. However, you do have a number of options.
- Facebook- The most popular social networking site, with over 800 billion users world-wide, you can be sure that you’ll reach customers. With Facebook, you can reach your customers on a level that is familiar to them.
- Twitter- Many may consider this the second most popular social networking site. Twitter has been the site of many breaking news stories, some that have damaged the reputation of popular companies. When you are able to be a part of the conversation, you have the opportunity to guide a negative conversation in a positive direction, instead of watching it spin out of control.
- Pinterest- While this site is just recently coming into the limelight, its popularity is finding its way into the business world. Pinterest explicitly states that businesses are not allowed to use their accounts for direct advertising. Though you may immediately think otherwise, this can be a positive stipulation for you. This gives you an opportunity to reach your customers on the level of the average user, as opposed to looming, un-relatable, marketing machine.
2. Make a Time Commitment
While 59% of businesses only spend about 1-5 hours per week on social media efforts, according to the Social Media Marketing Report 2011, it is becoming increasingly more evident that this may be due to a lack of knowledge or skills. It was reported that long time users dedicate 6-16 hours a week.
- If you don’t have the skills or knowledge, build a learning curve into your plan. It is critical that you use your social media outlets correctly. As a small business you can reach out to a variety of resources to learn from, such as tutorials or friends.
- If you have extra spending in your budget, consider hiring a social media consultant. With a social media consultant you can be sure that you’re getting quality work, catered to your business.
3. Make It Worth Your While
If you’ve decided to dedicate a significant amount of hours in the workweek to creating your online presence, you want to see results. Simply signing up will not bring you traffic, new customers, or more business. To make an impact there are a variety of suggestions you should bear in mind.
- Stay current: Customers don’t want to search out your Facebook page to find stagnant information from last year. With more than 60 million status updates happening every day, you need to keep up.
- Be Exclusive: Users want exclusivity. They expect to be compensated for their loyalty. You should be providing breaking news about the company, offers for your Facebook fans or Twitter followers, and frequent deals or coupons.
- Engage: Being on social networks is about interacting with your customers in a way that is familiar and comfortable. According to Facebook, more than 250 million photos are uploaded every day. Offering deals for those who pin or upload pictures of themselves using or buying your products is a strategic way for them to connect with your page and product.
4. Plan To Measure Your Results
Once you’ve put in the hard work, you want to see your results. There are a variety of ways to assess your ROI, effectiveness of customer engagement, etc. Social media monitoring allows you to assess how your customers see your brand, how they are finding you, and what they are searching for. Programs like Radian6 and Google Analytics offer you extensive monitoring services, which will give you an accurate picture of how your efforts are paying off.
Social media marketing can have a profitable impact on your business. By creating a social media marketing plan, you are setting in motion an important aspect of your marketing efforts. While many companies have an online presence, not very many are able to use it to their advantage. If you make the time investment, it is likely you’ll see significant results.
About the Author: Jessica Sanders is an avid small business writer touching on topics ranging from social media to merchant services. She writes for an online resource that gives advice on topics including credit card processing for b2b lead generation resource, Resource Nation.
Photo Credit: Watt_Dabney
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5 Ways Social Media Can Make your Business Look Bigger
Big businesses have always had an advantage when it comes to reaching customers. This was because of their big marketing budgets and their ability to utilise large long-term contracts. Whilst these advantages have not disappeared, they do not matter as much anymore and there is a simple reason for this: Social Media. Social Media has enabled the smallest of companies to compete with the largest of companies and it is all free. This article will consider how you can make your business look bigger and more prosperous than it actually is through the use of clever network management and free social media.
1. Become a Trusted Field Expert
Blogging will allow you to establish yourself as an expert in your field. By providing free and accurate advice you will create an ideal relationship with your customers and trigger an increase in email opt-in communications. This method will help to generate leads for your sales team and demonstrate that you are capable in your field.
Additional benefits come through the promotion of your site through Search Engine Optimisation. Google and other search engines provide great website ranking benefits to those who write blogs.
2. Build a Custom Facebook Page
Facebook provides a huge potential market but it is important that you approach this area correctly. Your Facebook page will need to offer the customer something which will make them want to return to it. Include interesting discussions, engaging materials and relevant information about your business. By including an email communications opt-in on the page, you will be able to generate a greater customer contact list.
3. Professional Videos
Video marketing is easy. What was once out of reach for most small businesses is something which can be produced at a very low cost now. The advent of Youtube allows you to present your business to the world through the medium of video. Video hosting is free, so all that you need to do is create the material to place online. Website visitors who watch an online product video are 85% more likely to make a purchase than those who don’t, so it is wise to seriously consider this option.
4. Give It Up For Free
By providing e-books, tips, guides, and other methods of free help, you will be able to demonstrate your expertise and convince potential customers that your business is the right place to go. Customers are far more likely to utilise a business which has offered them a high quality free trial than they are to trust in an unknown and untrusted source. Providing free services is a great way to generate custom.
5. Dominate the Search Engines
Part of your business’ IT service should focus heavily on Search Engine Optimisation. Social media channels will enable you to optimise your SEO ranking. The number of times that a link or video that you have created has been shared will directly impact on the prominence of your company in search engines. If you can make it so that your business is the first result for your industry keywords then you will be able to easily and effectively get a step ahead of the competition.
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Three cost-effective ways to market your start-up in 2012
Friends sneered at you when you said that you are going the entrepreneurial way. You quit your job in that MNC to build this dream product. Now the product is finally out in the open but how do you find takers for your product.
Needless to say, being a startup you always have this financial question mark staring blankly at your face. Keeping in mind the limitations, startups can easily use these three tools to market their product. It is working for us and if you do it right, it will work for you too.
Social Networking might be passé but networking is not :
Start by using your own personal contacts and their contacts. Ask your friends to try and use your product. Talk about your product when you meet each other during social gatherings. You somehow have to ensure that the optimism you have for your product, gets communicated around. And all said and done, Facebook and Twitter are still one of the best ways to talk about your brand online.
Data Visualizations:
A picture is worth a thousand words. People might not be interested in your 1000 words article but they would love to see a nice graphic communicating the same idea. Try exploring infographics to market what your product stands for, what problem it seeks to solve, industry trends in your market, etc.
Blogging:
This is an effective way to make yourself heard online. Post articles that you think your target market would be interested in. Try and establish yourself as the thought leader in your industry. Encourage the idea of blogging within your organization. Ask employees to contribute their own take on things.
All the best and have a rocking year!
About the Author: Shilpi Choudhury is an Inbound Marketing Specialist and Business Blogger based out of Bangalore, India. She is currently working for DiscountPandit, Bangalore, which is a deal search engine that provides users a faster, simpler and a comprehensive deal search experience.
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What New Tools Does the Twitter Redesign Bring to Social Marketers?
Twitter has a new look, and some observers are calling it the single biggest overhaul the site has received at once in its five year history. The update is one that aims to unify both the presentation and functionality of the microblogging service across all platforms, essentially simplifying the experience for the user. This latest move has kept the internet community busy discussing the implications, so lets take a look at the new tools the redesign offers social marketers.??
Enhanced Toolbar
The change you will probably notice first lies in the toolbar. You will now see the following section categories at the top of the interface:??Home – Shows you the tweets posted by the people you follow on Twitter. This category keeps you up to date with the information that matters most to you.??Connect – This new section keeps you connected with the conversation. Through Connect, you can see who is following or mentioning your brand, endorsing your posts, or retweeting and sharing with friends.??Discover – Hence the name, the Discover section helps you find relevant and useful information via Twitter. The results you see are tailored to your location, network, and other areas that match your interests.??Me – This section the “Profile” section found in the old Twitter design. Here you can introduce yourself to the world of Twitter and even communicate with others through tweets and direct messages.??
Embedded Tweets??
One of the most interesting tools to accompany the Twitter redesign is the embedded tweets feature. This option can be accessed directly from the new interface. The actual process is pretty much like embedding a YouTube clip, meaning you copy a snippet of HTML code and paste it into the web page where you want the tweet displayed. Perhaps the best thing about embedded tweets is its seamless integration with Twitter’s new partners Posterous and WordPress. If you use either of these services, you can have your tweets automatically embedded by simply copying the code and dropping it into your web page – no cut and paste required. ??
Brand Pages??
Following in the footsteps of rivals Facebook and Google, Twitter has decided to introduce its very own brand pages. Similar to the feature offered by other networks, these pages will give social marketers the ability to promote their brand on the platform. You can have a promotional tweet on display at the top of your page, and even choose which tweets the user sees upon visiting your page. This is one of the most exciting new tools to accompany the redesign for obvious reasons. Twitter is currently testing the new brand pages with a select few brands, including Chevrolet and Coca Cola.??The redesigned Twitter is slowly being rolled out to the user base. For now, the update is only available to mobile users, though the company says all users will be able to experience the new and improved service over the coming weeks. Adapting to change can often be difficult, but in the case of Twitter, this looks like change both users and social marketers will come to embrace.
About the Author: Aidan Hijleh is a freelance copywriter and serves as the Non-Profit Partnership Liaison for Benchmark Email. Aidan advocates free email marketing services to assist with the flourishing of grassroots organizations.
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Reach Success: 5 Easy Ways to Increase Your Clientele
Establishing a solid customer-base is crucial for any start up or small business owner—after all, without any customers/clients, you make no money and without any money your small business will crash and burn. While hiring a strong marketing team can help you acquire a good number of costumers, this route can be pretty expensive. And naturally with any small business owner, funds are tight. But there are few things you can do on your own to help build your number of customers that is relatively cheap or even better, free. To learn how you can increase your clientele and help ensure the success of your business, continue reading below.
1. Do Research
First and foremost you need to get in touch with the needs of your target audience. You could be selling the most innovative product or service known to man but if you don’t know how to appeal and relate to your target audience’s wants and needs, your campaign may fall flat. For example, could your audience be hesitant about taking a chance on you because they are hard up for cash? If this is the case you need to directly state how your product or service is beneficial to your customer despite their economic hardship, which leads us to out next tip—
2. Offer Exclusive Deals
The truth of the matter is that consumers are always looking for a good bargain, especially now (during the holidays). To appeal to the masses, offer some discounts and exclusive deals to new customers or offer a promotional limited time-only offer to people already on your email list serve for example. You can offer an immediate discount or a next-purchase discount, you can offer a 2-for-1 deal, offer free shipping and handling, or even offer a free consultation or an introductory class. The goal is to find a way to persuade new costumers to try your product or service because the deal is irresistible (and of course superior than your competitors.)
3. Get on the Social Media Map
This is crucial. If you do not know how to use popular social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google+ to self-market your business it’s time you learn now. Right now. The power of social medial isn’t going to dwindle anytime soon and these free tools are a great way to reach your target audience and establish your brand free of cost. In fact, even those that refused to give-in to social media in the past will be jumping on the bandwagon come the New Year. According to statistics, 40 % of surveyed small business owners said they finally plan on using social media in 2012.
4. Be Mobile and Tablet Compatible
If you’ve created a website or blog to get your name out there that’s a great start but it isn’t enough—it’s the age of the smartphone and the tablet and consumers must be able to access your website/blog through these devices. Your site has to be compatible. While some platforms will automatically convert, others do not and you may need to download a special plug-in like WpTap to make your blog compatible. And you’re going to want to make your site convert. After all, some experts predict smartphones and tablets will replace the laptop one day and since the latest figures say one-third of the U.S. population owns a smartphone and uses it for its remote mobile access, you don’t want to risk missing out on a pool of smartphone/tablet- using costumers.
5. Hire Ambassadors
Lastly you can hire someone to utilize the traditional “word-of-mouth” marketing technique by hiring someone closely related to your target audience. For example, if you created a product that is specifically tailored to college-aged students, then you can hire a few students at the campus nearest to you and get them to tell their friends and other students how great your products or service is. You wouldn’t have to pay them much (or you could offer free merchandise instead for example), but it’s a great way to dig in deeper and go straight to the source.
Of course these aren’t the only things you can do to expand your costumer-base, but it’s a start. Do some research and investigate all of the other resources that are available to you to ensure that you find costumers and keep them coming back.
About the Author: This guest post is contributed by Katheryn Rivas, who writes for online universities blog. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: katherynrivas87@gmail.com.
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8 Video Marketing Strategies for Small Business
There are umpteen ways to use video for business, ranging from stylish, high-priced ad campaign commercials to complex landing page pieces fashioned to pull someone into a sale. What are the best types of video for Small Business owners that can be created cost-effectively and published rapidly and produce leads? Here are the Top Eight.
Intro Advert
Well-known and regularly underused, the video Intro to the Business is a short, 5 minute or less (2-3 works well) homepage introduction that tells who you are, what you do and why customers should care. This can be done using a description in a commercial packed with lots of movement shots of the shop floor, the office, and products; a talking head of the CEO to a blank camera; or use the 3rd party point of view of a genuine Video interview (see below) Business FAQ. Development fees can vary from FREE (CEO riffing into a webcam) through a few hundred dollars to thousands for a videographer shot commercial. Google doesn’t care; either will index well given the suitable keyword tags. The question you have to answer is, what is going to be quickly informational, interesting, and referable (as in Re-tweeted).
The Demo
Specific to demonstrable merchandise, especially ones that move, like machines, toys, electronic devices, and, considering the medium, software. These again should not run on too long but can be lengthier than an introductory commercial. A software-based demonstration may take up to 8 minutes, but you should be able to say it in less time than that. When it comes to demos, in some cases less is more. Most often either a narrative led demo showing only products or a spokesperson paced demo (think QVC or Home Shopping Channel) works the best. Just be sure to show the BEST features of your product and lay out consistently (3x) how this solves an issue for your customers.
Professional Abilities
This is very similar to a product demonstration and works best for suppliers, especially those in developed countries, trying to demonstrate their remarkable technology will in reality cost less money or offer better quality product for a customer engaging them with a contract for recurring services. Machine shops and laser houses prefer this stuff, showing automated machinery cutting steel while a dude with a hardhat and safety goggles oversees the process. This can run 5-10 minutes max. The key here is, make sure that your capability really is something special (as in a True Competitive Advantage that others don’t have) and that your video captures its uniqueness.
Company Spotlights
This is more of a tug on the heartstrings video that features either what your company has achieved that is remarkable or what your employees have done for your company. If it’s about the company, it MUST be validated by 3rd party reference, as in an accolade won from a prominent registrar (Best in Class, Malcolm Baldridge quality), a status attained (ISO 9001 certification, etc.) or a cat saved from a tree on the news. When talking about employees, the old Employee of the Month style headline adds a nice human factor and speaks to what your company values in its people, and that can make a big difference to customers with the same value system. For these types of videos, keep them short (2-4 minutes) and keep them current, specifically for the employee notoriety videos. An Employee of the Month presupposes that next month, we’ll see another.
Video Landing Page Combo
I could write pages on this and to be truthful, I’m not a professional at it, but I am sure you’ve experienced pages that have these videos. These are designed to be hands-free on the part of the vendor of a product or service, meaning, don’t call me, take the steps explained on the video. That means enter your email address to get something for FREE in exchange for authorization to advertise to you, or register for the thing (whatever it is) right now! Just like text-only sales landing pages, these are long-form videos, with Squeeze Pages (get the email address) videos varying from 3-7 minutes, and Sales Pages running all the way up to 30 minutes (that is too long in my opinion, with 10-12 being adequate). The most important stuff here: curb options to only this with no other on-page interferences and make multiple calls to action to the viewer.
Vlogs
All about providing information this one is. It comes in the form of a training video, which is easily done for things like software applications using screen capture software, or talking head explaining something she knows, and typically is the Expert Interview (I’ve done a bunch of these in my blog, see sample). The objective is expert positioning for your company while giving real value for the view. These videos can run from 5-30 minutes or longer (think of a book author interview), but I prefer to keep them between 7 and 15 minutes (Youtube has a 15 minute max until you are a recurring video poster). Keys to success are to set the subject matter to avoid rambling, don’t provide fluff with a sales pitch to get more, and include some written text fore and aft of the video to set it up and summarize.
Testimonies and Personal Examples
Very self-explanatory here, this is 3rd party Reliability Building 101. Take the same things that marketers value about written examples and testimonials and put them on steroids. This definitely MUST be a person unrelated to the business telling about what the company did for him or her, and it can NOT be anonymous (just like those absurd made up reviews you see, “JL from Tampa says …”). Use discretion if the person doing the talking is not good on camera. It shouldn’t make a difference but it does. He doesn’t need to be Ben Affleck, but he can’t be a stiff either. These run no more than 3 minutes in length and follow my rules for great reviews. Quality can’t be second-rate, but a webcam with acceptable quality can be used properly, as the subject matter of the person’s referral is the crucial piece.
Video Interview
I saved this one for last and, as you surely know by now, Smart Company Growth does these in bundles for the right type of clients. Video dialogues work well for any business that wants to put a human face on its product, so consider if that is you. They work incredibly well when your organization has these three qualities:
- No physical merchandise– That’s right consultants, lawyers, accountants, financial advisors, IT people and anyone else offering professional services, I’m talking to you. You sell intellectual property and that is hard to show by showing a video shot of your report (although you can show results charts, but the people who can use this method the most, financial advisors, usually have rules preventing it).
- Trust is the key to business– Same group, right? If you’re an attorney, how can you start to break the trust hurdle down without ever meeting someone? Show some face time with the 3rd party credibility that comes from being interviewed.
- Sameness in Brand– If you look at your rivals’ websites and they look like yours does– competent yet non-distinguishable– you’re a good candidate for a video interview to set yourself apart. Again, this is why professional service firms fall so nicely into video interview candidates.
For advertising purposes the longest video interview (we call them SmartVu) we do is about 12 minutes. That’s pretty thorough. The shortest you can reasonably do with any bona fide dialog is about 2-3 minutes. The crucial success variables here are that the interviewer is good and that the structure of the content is planned beforehand. An unconvincing interviewer will lead to a lame interview and weak video. A sound interviewer with planned content will create genuine questions that represent you in the very best light. Although I cannot convince all of my clients of this, DO NOT READ FROM A SCRIPT! If you’re a subject matter specialist on your product or topic, a good interviewer’s questions will lead to natural responses with you looking right into the camera. Script readers have their eyes averted to wherever the script is located and come across as wooden, with only the skilled few able to fool people into believing they are responding ad hoc.
There is a time and place to use any of the 8 best types of video promotion for your small business video. The information here should serve to generate ideas on what type of video you can produce for your own video marketing and video SEO crusade to turnout excellent results.
About the Author: Karl Walinskas is the CEO of Smart Company Growth, a business development firm that helps small to mid-size professional service firms build competitive advantage in an online world of sameness. He is author of numerous articles and the Smart Blog on leadership, business communication, sales & service, public speaking and virtual business, and Getting Connected Through Exceptional Leadership, available in the SmartShop. Get your FREE LinkedIn Profile Optimization eBook & Video Course, Video Marketing video and course, or Mastermind Groups e-course & video now.
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Photo Credit: Denim Dave
How to Create Fans from Scratch
You know your business should leverage social networks, but its daunting when you have zero followers, zero fans, zero members, zero connections. The good news about social networks is we all start at zero, so even those businesses with thousands of followers now, sat and stared at those big zeros too. The key to getting fans is to get your business “out there.” Where ever you are, you just have to start and here is a list of 30 strategies that get impressive results when you need to create fans from scratch.
Attract
- Craft a contagious profile. In 160 characters, people decide if they want to follow you or not. Make it wow!
- Post pictures, tag them and ask for comments or captions. Pictures highly like-able and share-able.
- Post videos and ask for comments and shares. Videos are compelling!
Integrate
- Create a twitter background that gets opt ins. Add your web address and blog url in the left panel so people know other places to find you.
- Include a link to your website in you Facebook About box.
- Add hot links to your website and blog in your Twitter profile.
- Use links on email blasts that take readers to your social networks.
- Incorporate your Twitter handle and Facebook page in your email signature
Give
- Guest post on bigger blogs. Use twitter to help build buzz. Tag the blog in your original post so their followers see it. The day that it goes live, be sure to search it on twitter and respond to every person who replied or retweeted it.
- Guest post on teleseminars and webinars.
- Comment on blogs where your customers are spending their time.
- Reply to every comment you receive.
- Reply to @mentions.
- Write a testimonial for someone else.
- Do a vendor case study.
- Say yes to every interview or writing request.
- Profile other people on your site and make them look fab. They’ll be sharing that link for sure!
Partner/Collaborate
- Look for ways to partner with competitors and pitch it. What else does your target customer want? What do you offer that your competitor doesn’t?
- Look for ways to partner with big shots and pitch it. What can you add to their offerings?
Promote
- Have a pay-what-you-can-day. Post it everywhere and ask that people share your link.
- Hold a contest. Offer your product or service in exchange for testimonials. Tell people they get bonus points for sharing your contest on their social networks.
Engage
- Start commenting on other blogs.
- Build relationships instead of self promoting. Try these conversation starters.
- Ask questions with simple answers. What’s one word to describe (your industry)?
Encourage
- Tell people you’re up to something new and encourage them to tell others. Give links and make it easy.
- Call in favors. Ask your friends to share what you are working on. Again, give links and make it easy.
- Do live speaking engagements. Ask people to tweet and post in real time about the event and include your twitter handle or tag your business..
- Put calls to action on everything.
- Ask for testimonials. Follow these 7 power questions.
- Keep posting. You’ll simply remind people you are there.
Social Networks give incredible opportunity to get your business “out-there.” Incorporate a few of these strategies when and where you can.
*Comment here and let us know what you are trying. You never know who might find you!
About the Author: For more actionable ways to create communities of fans who love what you do and happily share it with their friends, visit www.katrinapadron.com
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6 Quick Tips to Optimize your Website Using Social Media
Social media, a social instrument of communication is a phrase which is very popular nowadays in search engine marketing world. It changes the way of communication between individuals, organization and communities. Social media unlike the regular media is a two way street which allows you to communicate in response to the content in the media. Using social media determines the level of your website reach to people. In this blog let us look at those different types of social media which will aid you in optimizing your website for maximum results.
Social Networking Sites
Social networking websites help companies on a long term basis as they find the opportunity of getting a fan, follower or subscriber on a social media platform. On Twitter you get someone to follow you or connect with you in LinkedIn or subscribe to your YouTube channel- all these help to keep lines of communication open for a long time even after they are away form your website. To achieve maximum communication, make sure you set up an interactive profile page. You need to have a strong social media profile which shows in the top results for your name, website and blog. This will increase your brand’s visibility and yours too. If you intend to create a fan page in Facebook, let it be unique and content fresh. Add the social media buttons or the plugins (as we call them) in the home page of your website. These will help you interact, comment and build relationship. Also, you need to plan much ahead for the logo to be added in the Facebook page for a power brand.
Include the Facebook Like Box
Facebook Like Box is a social plugin through which you can attract a lot of visitors and get likes for your website from them. By adding a like box you create a page for your website and invite likes. People tend to believe when their friends like, support or promote something. Your visitors can “Like” your website with just one click and from the Like Box you’ll get to see how many people liked your website.
Add Facebook Like Button to Share
You can add the Facebook Like button or the Retweet button of Twitter in your website to help your visitors share the content in other networks easily.
Link Your Blog With Your Website
You can integrate your blog into your website and pull the recent posts as links to your Home page. Many businesses choose to build their website on a blogging platform like WordPress. By doing this you can improve the interactivity of your website by pulling your blog posts from your Home page.
Fix a Video
Add a video which tells about your products or services explaining how customers felt after using your products. You may also add a “How to” which would give instructions on how to use your products and the source to get assistance if required.
Social Bookmarking
Make use of the bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon, Digg and Delicious to add your new content and bookmark them. These websites have the potential to drive a lot of traffic to your website in a short time.
About the Author: Linda has been writing on latest technlogy for quite sometime. Her interests include mobiles, gaming seo and more. She has written many articles on airbnb clone, etsy clone, yipit clone and many more.
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Is Your Marketing Department Faced With Reality?
According to a recent study from MarketTools, nearly one-fourth (23 percent) of companies provide customer service and assistance to clients via Facebook, while 12 percent turn to Twitter for such activities.
The study goes on to note that while 34 percent of the executives polled reported they were aware of customers utilizing social media to discuss their business and its products and services, fewer than 25 percent of these executives claimed that their businesses “always” get back to these customers.
According to a spokesperson for the company, “Companies are increasingly embracing social media as a way to interact with their customers, though they are missing an opportunity to incorporate this feedback into a voice of the customer program. Organizations that use enterprise feedback management solutions are able to analyze feedback gathered through social media channels, along with feedback gathered through more traditional channels, to uncover insights to help improve business processes that lead to higher overall customer satisfaction.”
Some other numbers from the study note:
- Thirty-three percent of executives report that their businesses have a better focus on utilizing social media as a channel to obtain customer feedback when compared to the same time a year ago;
- As for what parts of their company are using social media, 44 percent cited public relations, 42 percent noted corporate marketing, while 34 percent stated product marketing and customer service/support;
- For the nearly 70 percent of companies sporting an active presence through social media, 48 percent are active on Facebook, 24 percent on Twitter, and 17 percent through their own business blog;
- Twenty-two percent reported that their company’s CEO oftentimes participates in social media on behalf of the business. Facebook is the social media channel of choice, used by 68 percent of the CEO’s, followed by 44 percent that participate through the company blog, and 35 percent who are active via Twitter.
If your company has been slow to the switch when it comes to using social media through your marketing efforts to interact with customers, keep a few things in mind:
- Active usage of social media allows you to interact with customers and potential customers in real-time. Whether it is a product/service question, a concern, or even a complaint, there is no replacing the immediacy by which social media venues provide;
- More and more consumers are using social media to obtain information on products and services, purchase items online and talk about their experiences. It only makes sense to have a social media presence so that your business can stay one step ahead of the competition;
- While some business leaders feel that social media is a fad, all signs point to it being around for the foreseeable future. To disregard SM now is only allowing your company the opportunity to fall further behind the competition, competition that in many cases are using social media on a daily basis to reach out for more business.
Whether it is to promote products and/or services online, respond to questions and concerns about your business or just follow the industry tides to see where you need to be, using social media in your company’s marketing efforts is more important than ever.
Are you a social or anti-social marketer?
About the Author: Dave Thomas, who covers among other subjects’ background checks, writes extensively for Business.com, an online resource destination for businesses of all sizes to research, find, and compare the products and services they need to run their businesses.
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3 Tools to Actively Control Your Online Reputation
There is not much in contemporary business that deals on more equity than your business reputation. Stock prices rise and fall because it, and the media boiling point is reached at surprising speed for either good and bad praise or hostility about businesses worldwide. The first step to managing your online business reputation is to be able to keep track of what is being said about you, by whom and how often. If it’s all great, it’s all good friends. Business worldwide both large and small duel every day using the double-edged, sword of Internet power. You need to know about the negative comments too, and naturally, if nothing is being said about your business online, well, that is a problem all in itself.
Buzz or Sting?
From a marketing perspective, we have the ability to reach more people in remote corners of the world than ever before, making use of the remarkable reach of the Internet to connect with our blogs, videos, and shopping carts that have no physical limitations. The flip side of that coin is that we now inhabit a world where anonymous people can go for their 15 minutes of fame as impromptu authors, video producers and critics, and that can spell trouble for your company.
Google, Yahoo and other search engines give tremendous validity to sites like Wikipedia and RipOffReport.com in the spirit of full disclosure, especially on big business. Trouble is, fact checking ain’t what it used to be if indeed it happens at all. Loud online voices providing great buzz on your goods and services can give a fantastic bump albeit unjustified by reality. Bully for you! The sting of acrimonious haters can cost you prospects, customers and dollars to an incredible extent also.
THE Keyword for Small Businesses
What do you think is the most often used keyword today in business? This isn’t a trick question or a trick. It is in fact the word, “keyword”. Think about it. There is so much instruction about SEO and online marketing that revolves around how people browse the web, particularly, Google. That means regulating what keywords you use to advertise your webpage and be found, trying to mirror what people are searching for and in a unique enough way to minimize competition. Consequently we have long tail keywords which are phrases like “How to winterize your boat” so that when someone does ultimately look for that, our page or Adwords ad is right there to be discovered.
To keep track of your online reputation, keywords are also what you use to determine who and what is being said about you. The easy way to do this to begin with is obviously to Google your company name. You’re going to find your web pages surely, but if there’s bad stuff out there you’re going to see that too. If it falls on page 1 of Google returns, you have a developing situation.
Remembering to do that weekly or every few days is something that just isn’t top of mind. Here are three devices you can use to effortlessly check out the real-time chatter.
Google Alerts
Google alerts enable you to select keywords relative to, in this case, your business name and Google will email you instances when they come up online as indexed by the Google browser. Go to www.google.com/alerts to set this up. Depending on the size and online notoriety of your organization, you can adjust the frequency of these email alerts from daily to weekly. There are a couple of refining options. Picking type = ‘Everything’ will monitor all the buzz about whatever keywords you type in, comma delimited. For most small businesses, a weekly notification should be sufficient.
Here are some points for what you might want to monitor to see what your customers might find:
- Your business name, including any divisions or alternative names as it applies
- Your competition
- Frequent misspellings of your organization name
- Your flagship product names, part numbers and trade names
- Your key executive names– bad juju on your top people will reflect badly on your company
Social Oomph
Google Alerts monitors the Google database. Social Oomph (www.socialoomph.com) allows you to track tweets. You should create a free account and then go to Monitors\/Keyword Alert Emails on the left hand menu. You are allowed to set up to 50 keywords or phrases to rake the tweet-o-sphere for and email you summaries either daily or every twelve hours.
The keyword tips are the same as for Google Alerts. The cool thing about monitoring Twitter chatter is that it has a very real-time element to it. If hostility is being spread, you may have the capability to join the current conversation and correct the record or counter the conversation when it is at its most harmful and influential to your business reputation.
LinkedIn Signal
Signal is a tool currently under development by LinkedIn in conjunction with Twitter, using a similar search on discussions groups, shares and posted answers. Access it by logging into LinkedIn and going to www.linkedin.com/signal. This is a bit cumbersome with the filters and for most results, search for your name and company without the filters box checked. This is specifically useful for product launches or branding efforts you might have to see if there is a buzz on LinkedIn among professionals. Unfortunately the search box appears to have no Boolean capability to add multiple search terms separated by commas or expressions like’ +’ or ‘OR’.
If you’re in the consulting or professional services field this may be one where you save your searches and check routinely back, as these are folks who traffic LinkedIn. This is still in beta and isn’t particularly advertised by LinkedIn, and has a limited universe of professionals (those in LinkedIn who allow public view of their conversations) and will tell you more about trending topics than give you an overall analysis about what is being said relating to your business. I’d recommend playing with it to see if it is useful to you, but use the alerts in Google and Social Oomph to monitor the bulk of chatter.
Now that you’ve set up ways to more simply keep track of the online discussion about your business, you need to develop a strategy to displace and counter inaccurate dialogue and tell your company story. More on that next time. In the meantime, post the tools you use to take the online pulse about your company.
Author Bio
A hate page, Ripoffreport or Wikipedia lie can sink your business reputation. If your company needs strategies to fix yours, check out business reputation management services. Karl Walinskas owns Smart Company Growth, a firm that helps businesses grow through sparking sales and controlling expenses and cash flow. He’s been published for years on better leadership, communication, and marketing practices for small business and authored the book, “Getting Connected Through Exceptional Leadership”. You can read the Smart Blog for small business growth to learn more tips you can use today.
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Online Marketing for Small Businesses – a Social Media Primer
Small businesses that use online marketing have a number of tools at their disposal, including blogs, search engine optimization, review websites and other inbound marketing techniques. However, what may end up being the Internet’s most important contribution to advertising and brand awareness is social media networking platforms. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and even Yelp! are wonderful devices that make reaching out to customers simple and, most importantly, cheap.
Unfortunately, not every small business owner is internet-savvy enough to instantly capture a broad and deep customer base. This can make engaging with users on these services intimidating. With a little bit of practice and some clear guidelines, such efforts can actually be quite successful. Here are some of the most important lessons for using these social platforms to garner leads and additional business.
Establish a Policy
No two companies use social media in exactly the same way. For instance, some may choose to simply make Facebook posts and tweets messaging tools that inform customers about the latest promotions and discounts that an organization is running. Others may choose to use these services to actually contact customers and offer them deals and savings. Either way, be sure to set up some guidelines that will keep an organization’s tone consistent throughout a campaign.
Designate Users
In keeping with a consistent feel, it is a good idea to establish which employees will actually generate content for a social media website. The importance of these services is making it so that some organizations choose to hire full-time networkers to maintain their various profiles. However, this may not be necessary, depending on a business’ intent. Either way, choose an employee who is somewhat tech-savvy, grammatically sound and can maintain a level of professionalism that won’t sully a company’s good name.
Coordinate With Other Efforts
The odds are good that a business using social networking websites will have at least some other efforts ongoing in the online world. If this is the case, coordinate social media messages and profiles with them. Blogs and Facebook posts can link to one another, while promotions being held should be advertised as much as possible on these platforms. Even something as simple as the images and fonts used in traditional advertising should match those used on Twitter feeds and blogs.
About the Author: Guest Post by Myron Corp. Located in Maywood, New Jersey, Myron is a global provider of imprinted promotional products and works closely with businesses to integrate these products into their marketing mix. Myron manufactures quality items such as promotional calendars, personalized pens and other giveaways and corporate customized gifts designed to build brand awareness and customer loyalty.
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LinkedIn Publicity: How Online Press Release Distribution Can Help You with Your LinkedIn Marketing Efforts
Online press release distribution has not lost its power to create buzz and brand awareness. In fact, in speaking with many business professionals who have used our distribution partner’s press release services, we’ve been told:
- Their press releases were picked up by 40+ online sites and media news stations.
- Their press release placement brought additional credibility to the launch of their new books, products and services.
- They started to dominate the search engines – and “own” their keywords as search engines love optimized press releases
- They doubled and tripled their website traffic
- Multiple reporters and media professionals contacted them for additional interviews and media opportunities that give them more exposure.
- Their website now ranks higher on Google – because online press release distribution is a powerful link building too.
Here’s an additional benefit of online press release distribution that no one else is talking about…Online press release distribution will help you with your overall LinkedIn marketing efforts.
6 Ways Online Press Release Distribution Can Help You With Your LinkedIn Marketing Efforts
1) The press release generated publicity can provide you with instant credibility with your LinkedIn profile visitors.
For example my client Sara LaForest’s headline reads like this: “Top Management Consultant Featured in Business Week, Fast Company & WomenEntrepreneur.com – Connect and Find Out Why”. This shows readers immediately why they should trust her and why they should trust what she has to say.
Here are some of the other ways you can highlight your publicity on your LinkedIn profile:
- Create a quoted media positions
- Showcase your media mentions within your summary
- Add the publications section to your LinkedIn profile
- Create a media kit on your LinkedIn profile using Box.net
2) Showcasing your press release generated publicity will prove to journalists that you are media worthy.
On LinkedIn you should be looking to connect with journalists, editors, online radio show hosts and other media professionals. Now for those media professionals to accept your invitation, you have to prove you are credible and newsworthy. When your press release is published by a top publication, you have completed half the battle because you have given yourself expert status. Now, you just have to build a relationship with the media professionals you connect with and show them that your information is relevant to their audience.
3) Use press releases to promote your LinkedIn group and community.
We recently created and distributed a press release that promoted Skip Weisman’s Workplace Communication Strategies group – and it was published on CNBC.com. This helped him:
- Increase his LinkedIn group membership by making more people aware of his group.
- Give him a reason to re-announce his group again to his email list as well as any LinkedIn connection that were not already members of his group. Any time you have a success, you should be letting your connections know.
- Give new connections a reason to join his LinkedIn group when we sent out group invites.
4) Your press release placements can position you as a thought leader in your LinkedIn group – and those other groups you belong to.
I like to create discussions around a topic and link the discussion to a press release or article I’ve written that gives more information on the topic and is featured on a top website. This automatically gives me a third party endorsement which offers more credibility than if the information was just placed on my own website or blog.
5) Use your press release placement as a springboard for discussions.
For example, I distributed a press release titled “More Journalist on LinkedIn Than Any Other Social Network, Study Shows”. I then created this discussion within LinkedIn group: “How are you using LinkedIn to get you more publicity?
In the LinkedIn discussion summary I put “In the press release below, I reveal that 82% of journalist are on LinkedIn and that is more than any other social network. So now I am asking you, how are using LinkedIn to build and maintain relationships with media professionals to get you more publicity?”
I then linked the discussion to my press release on Yahoo News.
This helped me:
- Get more exposure for my press release
- Create a discussion among publicity professionals as they provided their insights. I then responded to their feedback with other ideas and explained to them how I can help them with their LinkedIn publicity efforts
- Start a discussion among small business owners and other business professionals who wanted to learn how to get more publicity by using LinkedIn
6) Getting published or featured all over the Web on top websites and blogs will give you access to more people who will want to connect with you on LinkedIn.
You will have people coming to you seeking your advice. They will see your press release and then look you up on LinkedIn wanting to connect with you. For example, as I was writing this article, I received an invitation to connect that said, “Hi Kristina, I just read your tips in Canadian Advisor’s Edge Magazine – I’d like to connect with you and learn more.”
Your Next Steps
Now that I have shown you how online press release distribution can help you with your LinkedIn marketing efforts, it’s time you take action and start writing your press releases. If you need help, check our my Instant Press Release Templates at http://www.40InstantPressReleaseTemplates.com
About the Author: LinkedIn marketing expert Kristina Jaramillo helps small businesses and organizations get more publicity, prospects and profits using effective LinkedIn. Now, at http://www.HowtoGetMorePublicitywithLinkedIn.com, you can gain full access to her FREE 14-Day LinkedIn Publicity E-course that shows you how to create an expert LinkedIn profile the media will love, how to build relationships with the media plus sneaky ways to get more PR using LinkedIn.
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Crowdfunding Your Startup [INFOGRAPHIC]
In a down economy, it’s difficult for entrepreneurs to access the capital needed to build their venture from the ground up. Luckily, projects can now be funded by a powerful combination of the social Internet and generous networks of friends, colleagues, and communities. This model is called “crowdfunding” and is sweeping the startup nation by storm. It seem s to be an entrepreneurs dream,. bit are there problems in the way?
Check out the below infographic on how to navigate the new crowdfunding landscape (click image for larger view).
Click for Larger View
infographic source: drawing a crowd
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Internet Video Formats: Which is best for your Video Marketing?
OK, so you’ve decided that getting some web video on your site and social media profiles is a great idea to make you more eye-catching to customers and put your SEO (search engine optimization) on HGH. You understand that video marketing is a fundamental part of your overall search engine marketing and social media strategy. Bully for you! Now on to the tech stuff. Video formats can be overwhelming and vary depending on the equipment the video was shot with, the kind of computer you use, and the final destination where you want to host and serve up your on-demand video as part of your video marketing plan.
So which is best for you?
Lorraine Grula offers these tips from her years of experience as a top shelf video photographer and producer in ReelSEO.
Web Video Guidelines
Depending on whether you are doing research to get started with web video or if you are making use of existing equipment and software, you may be limited to formats as follows:
- Raw Video Format — As determined by your camera or, currently, your recording software. For instance, the software I record SmartVu Video Interviews with processes raw video optimally when stored as Windows Movie (. wmv). I have a PC based application. Your camera or software may have a different standard, particularly if you are using a MAC.
- Editing Basics — Your editing software may also have a limitation on formats of video it will accept and types that it works the best with. My videos are substance related, not glitz and glamour, so I use programs like Corel Video Studio and Windows Live Movie Maker. Most video editors will accept almost all the standard raw video formats, but you’ll want to confirm.
- Video Platform– What type video format works best with your online video platform that will work as your host? Will you host it on your site? Take into account Adobe Flash for speed reasons of loading without buffering. YouTube? They convert your incoming video to Flash (.flv) for display. If you’re using a 3rd party, ask about their preferred video format.
Obviously if you have a mismatch in your video camera output and your editor, for example, you’re up a creek without a paddle and will need to convert your raw video to be accepted by the editor. Avoid this, as every conversion results in quality loss for the video. Limit too many conversions.
High Quality or File Size?
Look, with internet video marketing, you are looking at a tradeoff between two things when recording, editing and finishing videos: resolution and file size. Lorraine talks about compatibility too in the ReelSEO piece, and we talked about that already. The greater the quality, the larger the file size (usually), and that means the longer the buffer when loading the video on your player upon demand (particularly if uploaded straight from your site server). If you want super-clear quality, the first thing you need is a work-horse computer loaded up with RAM and an uber-fast processor. I am a PC guy and I had to get an I-7 Dell to accommodate recording Hi-Def video. My old PC (5 years old) could not manage the large files without Japanese Monster Movie style mis-tracking between voice and image and I was forced to record at lower resolutions until upgrading.
The Main Video Formats for Web Video
If you ‘re trying to find the best of both worlds and your hardware can handle the recording and editing, see this brief (did I say brief?) summary of web video formats you’ll be utilizing:
Windows Media Video (. wmv)
This is the basic PC video file format that comes with Windows set up for Windows Media Player. It is well-known, delivers acceptable quality and a fairly small file size. Want higher quality? Record or finish-edit at a higher resolution and the file size increases accordingly. The advantage of .wmv is that it’s standard with all Windows PCs and, if shot in low enough resolution, can actually be small enough to share via email. I use this format for SmartVu Video Interviews and then stream them on Youtube, and they convert without much issue with good finish quality.
Audio-Video Interlaced (. avi)
This is the original video format from Microsoft and has a tendency to create very large files unsuitable for sharing, but of good quality for master files. For sharing, most videographers finish-edit the file in another format to lower file size. According to Grula there is some inconsistency with the codecs (tech video term here) depending on the recording device, making. avi not a great choice for small business video and novice producers.
Motion Picture Experts Group MPEG-4 (. mp4)
Increasing numbers of video producers online are loving .mp4 as the format of choice. It has the H-264 compression codec which is considered top drawer, and is quickly becoming the basic output of camcorders and video cameras. For online sharing the .mp4 format is moving toward the universal preference and in fact is recommended by Youtube, the big fish in the platform market.
Apple Quick Time (. mov)
This format has been around a while and is standard from Apple Quick Time, but is not restricted to Macs. File sizes are big and quality is high. If super-tight quality is your concern, this may be your format.
Flash Video (. flv)
This is the most popular file format on the web today, usable in the Adobe Flash Player which is standard on 99 % of all computers. Video sharing websites like Youtube, Vimeo, etc. take your existing videos and convert to flash for streaming to watchers of the site. File sizes are small, it streams fast, and the flash player can start playing the videos while they are still loading which is fantastic for longer videos (5 min or more). If you host video on your own server, converting to. flv is almost a requirement for user experience. I have used the Riva converter to convert some. wmv files to flash and noticed quality degradation in exchange for the file size and speed issue; nevertheless, Youtube conversions seem to be very clear.
Tips
Here is my recommendation to small business owners and entrepreneurs looking to get into video marketing on their websites and social media profiles.
Record raw footage in the best possible format for your device. If that is .mp4, you’re one step ahead of the game.
When editing, finish the video in. mp4. Test to see if your quality is acceptable with no degradation. MPEG-4 is much simpler to upload and move around. If you see a quality reduction, save finish edits to the same file format as your raw footage.
Upload your videos to a video sharing platform. I recommend Youtube. It is the most popular, gets the most traffic by far, and let’s face it. Google now owns Youtube. If you’re streaming video on your site from Youtube or another site, which one do you think will get the greatest SEO results and page 1 positioning? Youtube will convert to either .mp4 or .flv and do a fine job with it, taking that off your plate.
Now you just need to learn how to use Youtube without providing 100 options for people to leave your video and go view something else. I’ll tell you more on that in a later article.
About the Author: Want better results from Video Marketing? Smart Company Growth helps business SEO by Video Interview Marketing to generate site traffic and build trust with prospects to spike inbound leads. President Karl Walinskas works with companies on Growth Strategy and LinkedIn Marketing for brand building, and has authored Getting Connected Through Exceptional Leadership and been published in AOL, SiteProNews, Selling Power and a million more.
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Hatch’d: A Idea-based Social Network for Improving Business
Allow me to introduce you to Hatch’d: a recently born social network with a drastically different purpose than the social media we’ve become accustomed to. Instead of supporting interpersonal, social conversation like Twitter and Facebook, Hatch’d was conceived as a way to simply and efficiently share ideas. Hatch’d is a new take on outsourcing that aggregates product development ideas into one location for the creation and improvement of better products and services.
Easily Communicate Your Ideas
Have you ever had an idea that would allow a company to improve their product or service, but you could not find an effective communication channel that allowed you to be heard? For example, emailing customer service always seemed so distant and ineffective; and posting on Facebook, writing on a company’s Wall, or Tweeting at the business seemed just as hopeless. Now, Hatch’d is working to be the location for you to share and businesses to hear ideas.
Hatch’d works much in the same way as Twitter. A user can share an idea in 140 characters and can utilize the familiar @Username to directly target a business. For example, Brad H. shared his idea “@McDonalds serve breakfast all day.” Users can then vote ideas up or down and can comment on ideas to generate discussion. Through these social aspects, business owners can gain better insight into the minds of their customers and the rationale behind their ideas.
Standard social networking features have also been built into the site. For example, visible on a user’s profile page is a portfolio that displays your posted ideas, picture, and short biography. Users also have the ability to follow other users and businesses to track what is being discussed.
Crowdsourcing What Hatchd Will Become
Admittedly, due to how new the service is, the creators of Hatch’d still do not know what exactly the social network could be. On the About section of the site they ask users to “help figure that out” by sharing an idea @Hatchd.
The largest opportunity for Hatch’d and where I predict the service will find the most success, is for businesses to read ideas that will allow them to better serve their customers. Because voices are often lost in the crowd on sites such as Facebook and Twitter, Hatch’d is a promising tool for its narrow, yet distinct purpose as an ‘idea-network.’ Furthermore, due to this purpose, if a business creates an account on Hatch’d users can trust that their opinions are read and considered.
But Not Perfect, Yet
One aspect of Hatch’d that seems to stray from this well-defined intent is Groups. The About section describes this as a place to “brainstorm ideas with your friends. Plan a vacation with college friends or your family! [Hatch’d wants] to make it as easy for you to toss around ideas here as it is for you to do with your friends over lunch or hanging out at your apartment.”
While the ability and support to discuss ideas with your friends is nice to have, it seems more appropriate for Facebook, where interpersonal conversation is the norm, and even more effective “over lunch or hanging out at your apartment.” To me, Hatch’d needs to be about communicating ideas solely with businesses. Discussion with friends, like I previously said, is sort of played out at this point. Trying to be too many things could lead to its downfall.
Hatch’d is still in beta mode, but it seems solid and bug-free. Expect new features and improvements to roll out regularly. Hatch’d is also competing in Advertising Age’s contest for a reward of a $25,000 partnership to work with respected brand marketers to help launch its product.
Check out Hatch’d and start sharing your ideas!
What do you think Hatch’d’s strengths are? Where could it improve?
About the author: August Drilling works in the marketing department at CliqStudios.com, the online supplier of quality oak kitchen cabinetsand is a blogger, social media enthusiast, and Apple aficionado. You can follow him on Twitter @ardrilling and read insight and odd musings.
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