LinkedIn Marketing for B2C Companies – The Audiences on LinkedIn That Will Double Your Sales Guaranteed
During a presentation that I was giving at a small business owner’s boot camp, I was asked a very interesting question by one of the attendees:
“I am a real estate agent and I am not sure how LinkedIn can help me since it is a business to business platform and I am targeting consumers and homeowners. Should I be focusing just on Facebook which is more consumer oriented? And, if I should be on LinkedIn, how can I best utilize it to help me obtain more business and clients?”
My Answer to How Business to Consumer (B2C) Companies Can Use LinkedIn Marketing
One of the biggest advantages of using LinkedIn if you are a B2B business is being able to access targeted prospects. Now, it’s quite difficult to do that if you are a B2C company as business professionals are there for these purposes:
¨ Build and cultivate profitable relationships
¨ Get the information they need to develop.
However, that doesn’t mean you should not be using LinkedIn marketing and just stick to Facebook and Twitter. Use Facebook and Twitter to build your community of prospects – but use LinkedIn marketing to attract these three audiences that can double your sales guaranteed:
Media Professionals – A recent study showed that 92% of all journalists are on LinkedIn which is more than any other social networking site. This means that you have more access to individuals who are looking to quote experts like you or publish articles regarding your industry and how you can help your prospective clients. By reaching out to these journalists you can develop meaningful and valuable relationships as they will come to think of you as the expert in your field and ask for your information when they are putting together their next piece. This extra publicity will give you more exposure to even more prospects and enhance your credibility so prospects will want to buy from you.
Referral Sources – Through LinkedIn you can build and enhance relationships with key influencers who can provide you with access to prospects you would otherwise not have known, met or done business with. A referral source is a valuable tool because it is a third party endorsement and they can act as your sales agent as they want to give their customers and clients more value.
Larger companies that offer products or services that are supplementary to yours – Smart companies are always looking to increase their revenues by giving their clients and customers more value. Think of the different companies and organizations that can add your products or services to their own at a premium price – and use LinkedIn to build relationships with the different company’s executives.
Your Next Steps…
Figure out who would be the best referral sources, key influences, types of media and companies for you to connect with. For example, one of my newest LinkedIn Profile Makeover clients is a real estate agent who is an expert on short sells, foreclosures and troubled properties. Before we completed her profile, we had her brainstorm who would be the best referral sources which include:
¨ Divorce attorneys – In a divorce couples often have a house to sell. Couples also have other traditional real estate assets that often have to be sold in a divorce. Plus, at least one of the parties in a divorce will need to relocate – meaning they’ll need to buy a new house.
¨ Local bankruptcy attorneys who have clients who have no other choice
but to either short sell or go into foreclosure
¨ Florida attorneys that represent HOA’s s so my client can help them with the rental of the property, property managementt and eventual short sell
¨ Accountants who can refer clients to sell their residential or commercial properties to avoid further liability and eventual foreclosure
¨ Financial planners, estate attorneys and probate attorneys who want to give homeowners relief from their unexpected financial burdens
¨ Banks who want to sell their foreclosed properties in the shortest amount of time with the highest net to them
Create a LinkedIn profile that is written for the referral sources and media you want to attract starting with your headline. In the headline, identify the audiences you want to connect with – and why they should want to connect with you. In your summary, explain to referral sources how you can be of value to their clients and customers and how your relationship will help them. Also, if you are trying to attract publicity, show the media that you are an expert. Use any media mentions to your advantage in your summary sections as well as having a complete media kit on your profile using the Box.net, Slideshare and Google Presentations applications. To help you create the copy you need for your LinkedIn profile, check out my Instant LinkedIn Marketing Templates at http://www.InstantLinkedInMarketingTemplates.com
Stay on top of your referral sources’ and media professionals’ minds – Once you figure out who your best key influencers, referral sources and media types, start doing your research on LinkedIn and make connections. When you make a new connection, invite the referral source or media professional to your LinkedIn group where you provide tips, tools and articles. Every time you are published, featured or quoted in the media you should be announcing it to your connections and group members. This will show them that you are a valuable resource and keep you on top of their minds. So when a referral source has a client needing your expertise, they’ll think of you. And, when the media needs an expert to quote- they’ll come to you.
So create a strong LinkedIn profile using my Instant LinkedIn Marketing Templates, figure out who would be the best referral sources and media types and start making connections that can double your sales guaranteed.
About the Author: LinkedIn Expert Kristina Jaramillo creates online marketplace opportunities for B2C companies and marketing executives that want to get more publicity, build relationships with key influencers and double their website traffic and sales. Now, with her free special report, you can uncover easy ways to gain more connections fast by avoiding the top 14 mistakes. Get this information for free at: http://www.Free14LinkedInMistakes.com
Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…
How to Survey on LinkedIn
LinkedIn has surpassed simply being a site for aspirant unemployed guys to linger waiting for the next big break. It’s a way for business experts to hang out and interact with like-minded others and find the folks out there who show expertise in their niches on a daily basis.
Peoples’ viewpoints make for good content. If you read my eBook LinkedIn Profile Optimization for Maximum Exposure, you know that in the chapter on Applications I touch on polls on LinkedIn but didn’t have a lot of detail to accompany it. Here is a bit more on LinkedIn polls and how to utilize them.
My First Poll Experience
To more completely research market demand for a product I was developing on Executive Video Interviews for business leaders, I posted the following poll on LinkedIn.
So what did I uncover? Well, obviously I learned more people like using web video for product demonstrations, something not all together surprising given the ease of filming something in action and throwing it on YouTube.
But did I truly find that out?
With only 16 responses, I’m no statistician but I’d say this lacks statistical significance. I had wanted a lot more to answer the poll. I mean, I placed a link to it on about twenty LinkedIn groups. There really should have been thousands of replies right?
Learning My Lessons
Here are some things I learned about using this poll to engage the business community:
- There is a ton of noise online at LinkedIn. Readers won’t see or even care about your poll saving you MARKET THE EVERLIVING HELL OUT OF IT. That means posting in the Groups, tweeting several times, and using Facebook and other social media to the max leverage you can.
- This is an inkling, but I believe that my Executive Video Interview responses don’t tell me that much about acceptance to my product. Why? Because people haven’t seen it it yet! Two of the three responders to this survey on that item were customers of mine who had them done. Since there is no one else I know who does this like I do, that insider information slants the polls results. Which way I am still debating. Since I took this poll down, market experience is advising me that my sample portfolio of client interviews is mustering up a lot more interest than a survey with a product not universally known. LESSON: All obliged choice replies need to be commonly known. For product acceptance (like this one), survey based upon product outcomes, not the brand of the item.
- Often the most interesting facts are the feedback left by people who take the poll, describing what they have done for their firm (in this case). Don’t overlook that gold mine.
- Marketing the survey in interest groups only slightly related generates no results. Because I use web video to assist small businesses, I got more LinkedIn Group outcomes from a group on Web Video with only a couple hundred, dedicated specialists. The complication here was that some of these folks, being enthusiasts in web video, may have been informing me what they focused on, not what small business wanted.
Connecting with LinkedIn Polls
LinkedIn creates a fantastic survey and it’s easy to put together and put on their site, but it has 2 issues:
- LinkedIn only keeps each poll around for a month or so. You have to be capable to promote it and market it fast because you don’t have forever to accumulate your results. Fact is, in most surveying circumstances, they’ve run their course in just a two or three days, so LinkedIn has a point.
- You can’t post the poll on your LinkedIn profile; you can only put it in your status update and submit to Groups. If you’re optimizing your profile you know you are posting updates every few days at the very least. Unless you want to become an aggravating spammer on LinkedIn Groups, you won’t advertise your survey there more than once or twice every few weeks. This implies that on LinkedIn itself, your poll has little staying power other than in a generic Polls page, and typically speaking, people aren’t surfing that searching for something to do.
Not a big deal. Here are a couple ways to influence surveys in LinkedIn:
- Embed on your Site
- Tweet out to your favorite hash-tag trends and followers
- Facebook post it for your fans
What about types of questions for surveys? Well, if the poll is something you are just looking to get replies to, appeal to low common denominators like pop culture or politics. Everyone has an opinion on them. If, on the other hand, you are hoping to find specific niche advice about your business or market, as I was in this case, do anything you can to reach the audience to the niche so that they are interested in it enough to want to find out the outcomes themselves, or just deal with a small response rate indicative of your target reader size.
One way to do this targeting is to upload your survey in a blog post or article and send to search engines. Through SEO your article will be checked out by those who discovered it who were trying to find it, and odds are better they vote on the poll. In the next few days I’ll be doing this with one more LinkedIn poll on marketing techniques for business. Get statistically substantial results, particularly if they are unpredicted, and you have developed a news item that you can now leverage with, you guessed it, another blog post, a press release to news outlets, or placed as an item of interest on your website.
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 builds 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.
Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…
Photo Credit: nan palmero
5 Ways to Make Pinterest the Newest Asset To Your Company
Link Pinterest to the Facebook account of the person with the most friends in your office
Does this sound petty? It’s not. People who are your ‘friends’ on Facebook (usually) have more of a connection to you than your company. They will check you out because they are interested in expanding their own Pinterest network. You are easier to find than your company (that they may or may not be able to recall). Once friends find your artful curation, it will not matter whose name it represents.
Build your Boards before you go on a follower rampage
Whether you are an individual or a company, people will not be interested in your account until you have something to show them. Even if you acquire a few loyal followers (your CTO and best friend from college) with no content, to gain an engaging set of followers you must produce something of value. Invest in finding images that mean something you. Humor is always a plus, but do not underestimate the power of a beautifully composed photograph.
Tell a story
Let the Pinterest audience know who you are before you throw at them what you sell or provide. The point of Pinterest is not to gather an immediate, lucrative following that will tote your brand like Abercrombie & Fitch in the late 1990’s. You want the people, yes people, on Pinterest to get to know you (as a representative of your company). Images in general have the power to evoke powerful emotions; just look at all of the Boards titled ‘Motivation,’ ‘Imagination,’ ‘Love.’ Using images to evoke true feeling is not exploitation. It is an opportunity to connect with individuals who are looking to be touched in a way they are not yet aware. Surprise users with how thoughtful, tasteful, creative, intelligent and witty you are.
Don’t over do it
There is nothing more agitating on a social media site than someone who thinks they are a world-class hoot. If you set out to impress, you are sure to disappoint – both your viewers and yourself. Be genuine in your approach, with image selection/captions, and stick to it. People will see through your obvious innuendos and over-eager “wit.” Take the advice of your elementary school teachers and just be yourself.
Interact with people who share similar interests
Does this sound obvious? It should. However, many companies are eager to follow anyone and everyone in the hopes they will return the favor. Besides flooding your homepage with images you are unimpressed with, it will take longer to sort through to find those with whom you actually share a visual bond. Connecting with people whose pins relate to yours inspires an actual “Pinterest” relationship of mutual (and frequent) repinning. It also leads you to other pins, and people, who are more likely to be interested in the images you have chosen to represent your company ethos.
About the Author: Erin Nelson is the Communication & Marketing Manager for the Berlin-based startup, exploreB2B. The new social, business platform, exploreB2B, allows individuals the opportunity to connect and collaborate with other professionals through reading and writing self-published articles.
Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…
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.
Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…
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.
Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…
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.
Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…
How to Build a Platform
We have entered a new age—the Age of the Platform. Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google (aka the Gang of Four) have done nothing less than introduce a fundamentally new way of doing business. Think about it. Odds are that you use at least one of these platforms on a daily basis—and millions of people use each of them regularly.
So, how can you build a platform for your business?
Defining Our Terms
Before answering that lofty question, let’s get two key terms straight. The word platform has become a buzzword, often misused by pundits, thought leaders, and media types. In the book, I define planks as integrated features, services, or offerings of a platform. A platform, then, is merely a series of integrated planks. For instance, the iPad isn’t a platform; it’s a merely a plank in Apple’s platform—and a really profitable one. The Google platform is comprised of Gmail, Maps, search, Docs, search, and a bevy of other planks.
What’s more, in this new age, the following hold true:
- Every business stands to benefit from developing its own platform, planks, and ecosystem.
- Benefit from utilizing existing platforms and ecosystems. In fact, you should use them as planks in your own platform.
- All else being equal, companies that have embraced platforms and planks will fare far better than those that have not.
Now that we have defined our terms, let’s move on.
Don’t Reinvent the Wheel: Use Existing Platforms as Planks in Your Own
Thinking of launching a new product or writing a book? Sites like Kickstarter allow would-be entrepreneurs and authors to test their ideas in advance. Think collaborative commerce. In a very short period of time, you can create a multimedia webpage and attract contributors.
The same principle holds true with launching your own social network. To be sure, you can use Ning or another private network—and there certainly are benefits to doing so. But these days its downright silly to ignore the 800-lb gorillas: Facebook, Google+, Linkedin, and Twitter. These sites can be effective ways to build your platform since millions of potential customers and users frequent them.
Ditch that 90s Site
In my last book, The New Small, I wrote about small businesses with primitive, text-based, downright ugly websites. I refer to them as 90s sites because, well, they look like they were built in the 1990s—and not updated since.
Content management systems (CMSs) like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, and others are more platform-friendly. This means several things. First, you can more easily add planks such as blogs, plugins, widgets, integrated social networks, podcasts, videos, and the like.
What’s more, these CMSs scale exceptionally well. I run a bunch of WordPress sites and there’s no practical limit on the number of pages and blog posts I can add. I can blog five times per day if I want. And these CMSs are incredibly user-friendly. That is, you need not be a proper developer to create a robust, modern, inexpensive, compelling, and interactive website.
Be Patient
In the book, I contend that anyone can build a platform; they are not the sole purview of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google. And I should know. I build my own over the past three years. While I won’t be selling more books than Amazon anytime soon (dare to dream, right?), I am doing better than I would if I had no platform—and no planks.
Because anyone can create a platform, don’t expect yours to explode overnight. Onlyi Charlie Sheen can open a Twitter account and sign up 4 million followers. (And for many reasons, you don’t want to be him, right?)
There’s saying about poker that’s apropos to building a platform: you can learn to play in five minutes but it takes a lifetime to master. Keep adding planks. You’ll get there.
Feedback
What say you?
About the Author: Phil Simon is the author of four management books. His fourth, The Age of the Platform: How Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google Have Redefined Business, is his most ambitious yet.
A recognized technology expert, he advises companies on how to optimize their use of technology.
=
=
=
=
=
Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…
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
Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…
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.
Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…
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.
Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…
