Helping the Customer Find YOU – Small Business

I got an email from Small Business America a little while back talking about the 5 components of a marketing plan that will help more customers find you.

Their 5 key things to focus on are:

1. Establish Your Brand: Distinguish yourself from your competitors and build a strong brand that attracts prospects and promotes loyalty among customers.

2. Physical Location: Effectively utilize promotions to drive customers through your doors. Promotion can be used to create awareness of your location and increase visibility, which helps your business grow locally.

3. Advertising: Speaking to customers about product or service requires the right mix of traditional advertising, and also the ability to track the effectiveness of your campaign.

4. Online Presence: More than just offering a website, build a strong online presence includes optimizing your website for search engines and smart phones, as well as reaching your target customers through relevant paid search and online advertising.

5. Reputation and Community: Through social gatherings, blogs, sponsorships or memberships, you can manage your company’s reputation and interaction with your online and local communities.

They even offer a free assessment for you to take to see where your business ranks!  What are you waiting for?  Begin your analysis today!

What did you do today?

Hubspot’s Marketing Predictions for 2013

Hubspot has once again outdone itself and has put together a list of 20 marketing trends and overall predictions for 2013.  I won’t go over all of them but I do urge you to download the white paper.  Here are my 5 favorite predictions and tips:

1. Campaigns Fade Out…: “The notion of campaigns have been around since the golden age of advertising. Campaigns are a defined series of activities, tactics and channels that often revolve around a common theme. And yes, campaigns have been good to us. But here’s the problem; their structure is often times rigid and can’t keep up with changing customer behaviors and rapidly changing technology. Campaigns are generally short-lived and not triggered based upon real-time actions or data, which can put the marketer at a disadvantage.”

2. Marketing Becomes More Accountable for Revenue Generation: “A recent Fournaise Marketing Group study found that 73% of executives don’t believe that marketing drives demand and revenue. Ouch.  In 2013, that will start to change. Marketing will play a more critical role in contributing to revenue generation. Marketing activities will not only be measured on traffic and lead generation, but will further optimize processes that directly impact sales growth. And to do that, key performance indicators (KPIs) under the marketing department will change.”

3. Be Mobile or Fall Behind: “In 2013, marketers will finally list mobile as a major line item on their marketing strategy. Not only will there be continued investment in mobile optimized websites and email, but we’ll see mobile take a more important role when integrating with marketing campaigns. By the end of the year, mobile will become a more strategic and must-have channel for many businesses.”

4. Social and Content Impact SEO Even More: “Over the years, good search engine optimization (SEO) was all about knowing the tricks of the trade. The SEO of  tomorrow will be less about having the right H1 tag or the right keywords on the page and more about creating really good, original content that is socially consumed and shared.”

5. Inbound, Not Automation, Becomes Priority: “Just a few, short years ago, marketing automation was the ‘must-have’ on every marketers wish list. Unfortunately, the ‘set-it and forget-it’ mentality of automation, while nice sounding, resulted in an unhealthy process of churning a database of email through a set “nurturing” process until they were spammed to death. The promise of marketing automation starts to fail because it is not supported by a solid inbound marketing foundation. Essentially, not enough leads enter the funnel to keep the automated machine running…In 2013, CMOs and senior executives will allocate more resources to creating a strong inbound engine – generating interest, traffic, leads, and conversions – to support the demand generation engine.”

BONUS PREDICTIONS: Content Curation & the Importance of Context

“Content is king, whether you like it or not. Creating more and more content will be among the top priorities for marketing teams in 2013. In addition to the increase in allocating budget to content creation, we’ll find increasingly more curation services and “content marketplaces” that will help marketers deliver more in a content-heavy world.”

“To do marketing better in 2013, marketers will need to go beyond simply creating content to creating a personalized experience for their target customer that’s seamless across multiple interactions. These experiences will leverage context to make a company’s marketing jive with the searcher’s proclivities – the things you’ve learned about your leads over months and years of talking with them. The things they do, the things they say, the sites they like, the products they purchase, their happiness level with your company – all to have deeper and more meaningful relationships and better results.”

Thank you Hubspot for driving home the importance of Inbound Marketing!

What did you do today?  Did you read Hubspot’s white paper?

P.S. This post got mentioned in Hubspot’s list of mentions.

No Paper Resumes Please. The new social norm?

A friend forwarded me and a number of her girlfriends an interesting job opportunity in New Hampshire.  Now, I’m not looking for a job but I couldn’t resist writing this blog post about it.  As the company website for Enterasys states, they were named as one of the best places to work as well as one of the top ten coolest companies to work for. 

Jump on this opportunity my pretties, but remember, they will not accept a paper resume, all applications must come in via Twitter!

Here are some guidelines to follow:

1. Recruitment for this job is between February 18th and March 18th.

2. All interested candidates should apply via Twitter to @ValaAfshar and use the hashtag #socialCV.  You can also DM and provide your LinkedIn url.

3. A minimum klout score above 60 is required.

4. A minimum Kred influence score of 725 and outreach of 8 or more is also required.

5. Applicants must have more than 1,000 active Twitter followers.

6. Enterasys will use Google and/or other available public profiles to search for publicly available data.

7. Marketing experience must be demonstrated via web content – i.e. blogs, community involvement, news articles and other searchable publications.

8. IT and enterprise technology background preferred but not required.

9. This is a Boston based position, working out of our headquarters location in Salem, NH.

10. The salary range for this position is $70,000 to $100,000+ depending on the skills and experience of the candidate.

So I ask you, is this going to become the new norm for Social Media job postings?

What did you do today?

Read more about the job and then go to Enterasys’ careers page to find out even more.  Hiring a Social Marketer – Enterasys

Build It and They Will Come, the Importance of Marketers

There are a lot of companies and business owners out there who think that if they build the next coolest thing, then people will come out of the woodwork to buy it.  Well, let me throw this out to you.  Even Mark Zuckerberg marketed his Facebook site to his classmates. It may not have been traditional marketing but marketing none the less.

In this day and age, marketing is everything, it kind of always has been.  But, with brands being on social networks and interacting with their customers 24/7 it’s growing much harder to poach a brands customers simply by building a new widget.  If you don’t have some marketing dollars behind you then you have no strategy to build out this thing that you have built.  You have no way of figuring out what the best way is to toot your own horn and not come off as conceited.  And most importantly, you don’t develop the network of loyal customers that other brands have.

So, with that, I encourage every business owner and customer to really think hard before they cut any marketing budget.  You may think that you are just cutting pay roll, but what you are really doing is cutting your life line to the consumer.

What did you do today?

Social Media Plan

This is a MUST share for everyone who is looking for a better way to manage a social media calendar. We all have our own way but if we don’t at least explore other options then we will never learn.

So in my attempt to learn I sampled upon a great article about the 9 social media tips to help small business and I plan on implementing tip number four in my future social media post planning. I truly think that having an idea of what your general plan will be will make creating a post for each day of the week much easier.

Now, are you ready for the best part? At the end of the article you may notice three links, don’t overlook them. It’s true that the best is left for last because the last link leads you to an Excel spreadsheet that will help you with your social media plan!  Now let’s all thank the Inbound Marketing Company.

What did you do today?

SEO to the Next Level

This week one of our webinars was led by our moderator, Bob Tripathi.  He was going to lead a webinar titled SEO for Social Media Professionals.  I had an idea of where this might go but was very surprised and really learned quite a bit.

For those of you that may be LinkedIn to me may have seen that I linked to an article titled, For Social Media Marketers SEO is Must More Popular than PPC.  I linked to it because I agree with its title.  I am much further into the SEO camp and always try to think about how things are optimized for search.  The reason behind my not being behind PPC, Pay Per Click, marketing is because in my personal life I never ever click on the paid google links along the right hand side.  Maybe it’s a pre conceived notion from years past when those links would always be spammy.  Whatever the reason, I like SEO, Search Engine Optimization.

The basics of it for a website are that you want to make sure that your title tag and meta description are optimized for your key words.  What that means is if you are a bread company in the title tag, the tag at the top of the browser window, might say something like “Artisan bread company – fresh bread M-F – also gluten free”  You would then also want to make sure that your meta description, the description that shows up in searches below your title.  You might write something like “Artisan bread company is your source for the freshest bread in the Providence area.  Choose from a variety of 15 different types of bread.”  Lastly, you want to make sure that the photos on your website are also optimized.  Instead of just uploading a photo and leaving the name of it as dsc1506.jpg, why not name it “Artisan bakery-rye bread?”  This way, if anyone is looking for images of rye bread on google you actually have a chance of popping up in the search!

This way, someone knows what they are clicking on and why.  There is no ambiguity.  Now, you want to do this on every page of your website and alter the title and meta tags as they relate to each page. There is much more information and many more steps that you can take this and I encourage you to peruse SEO Moz’s Free Beginners Guide to SEO.

Now the last thing that Bob covered was LinkedIn.  For those that rea this blog, you are probably tired of me drumming into you the importance of it and making sure that you have your keywords in the top five spots (the headline, current and past job titles, summary, skills). However, I had never once thought about naming my photo.  What a silly oversight!  I immediately made sure to go on and give my profile picture a name, my name to be exact.  This is your personal brand page, you need to do everything right in order to get found! 

Now go out there and optimize your company pages!

What did you do today?
P.S. Happy Easter!

The 4P’s of Marketing Aren’t What They Used to Be

Last week we had a fantastic speaker, Sima Dahl, dial in to the social media webinar.  Her topic for discussion was about social media for business.  But, what really got me listening was her take on the 4P’s of marketing.  We should all know that they are Price, Product, Place and Promotion…don’t worry, I needed a refresher too.  Now that things have become more social the 4P’s have changed to the 4C’s!  These would be Community, Content, Conversation and Conversion.  Do we have your undivided attention?

Sima went on to share her three strategies for social media in general.  So here we go, straight from the presentation and as her website claims…”Sima says…”

Strategy 1: Get cozy with your customer
*Outline your social media objective
**Start with your target customer…find out what social media platform this kind of customer is using.
*Tune into online chatter

Strategy 2: Contribute to the social stream
*Select a social media channel and consider your comfort zone…how chatty are you?
*Assess your content and don’t just give off noise, i.e. self promotional info 24/7
*Start a conversation but clearly set expectations.  You won’t answer all of the time and you may not answer all questions, make that clear from the beginning.
*Be creative and let your personality shine through.  How do you want the brand to sound?

Strategy 3: Fail early, learn fast
* Monitor things closely and respond to issues quickly. Silence can be deafening at times, especially if you usually post often.
* Measure conversion. What were your initial goals? Are you meeting them?
* Practice continuous learning and watch others.

But, most important of all, HAVE A PLAN!

Let’s all thank Sima for all of these great tips!

What did you do today?

Siloing Your Social Media

So in the last two posts I shared with you Lee Odden’s opinion on the first two issues that people face with social media.  To recap, those two are, not relating your social media KPI’s to your business KPI’s and talking about the five “sins” of social media, failure to plan, only talking about yourself/your company and the other three .

His last take on this topic is that often times marketing folks silo social media from other functions. These companies need to become more of a social business in general.  What he means is that marketing, PR, and sales shouldn’t be the only ones out there creating buy in from current and potential customers.  Every function of a business should be truly customer facing, even customer service and HR.  All five of these functions within a company should help build a community and a true brand.  The marketers of the company shouldn’t be the only ones creating interesting editorial pieces highlighting how great the product and brand is, we should all be recruiters for our company.  Help your business become more social!

What did you do today?

P.S. There are so many great things that I am learning from this social media seminar.  If you’re curious what these presenters are presenting on, you can follow #IETraining on Twitter on Wednesday’s and Friday’s between the hours of noon and two, eastern time.
P.P.S Read this article about the online training!

Social Media’s Essential Elements

I am still taking the Instant E-Learning social media for business classes on line, and last week one of the webinars we all listened in on revolved around the seven essential elements to a successful social media strategy.  You can follow Christopher Barger, who shared these elements with our class, on Twitter, @cbarger, and expect to learn a lot more from him.  As I stated in an earlier post, I want to share what I learn with you so that even though you may not be able to pay to take these social media for business webinars you will still learn something through me and my notes.

So here goes.  The top 7 essential elements to a successful social media strategy are:

1. You need an executive champion: this person has credible authority, can moderate disputes, can sell the importance of social media up the corporate ladder, can liason between the social media and overall strategy, can provide or raise a budget and has a strong relationship with the social media evangelist.

2. You need clear lines of authority: social media should not be executed independently from any other strategy, you must be in constant contact and collaborate regularly with all involved parties, don’t get stuck in a “box checking” mentality and not think of new/effective things that can help your overall marketing strategy.

3. The social media evangelist: this person is not just a “social media rock star,” this person should be more than just a community manager and instead be a strategist with a business focus.

4. Metrics and measurements are a must! However, success must be defined and you need to decide what results you want to see before you even begin.  Have a “point of zero” from which to start.  Not all tools will fit in your toolbox, select the measurement tools that apply to your goals and your business.
Great stats:
* Up to 47% of Twitter accounts are abandoned
* 57% of Facebook users hide brand content in their news feeds. (stats from eMarketer via Chris Barger’s presentation for instant etraining)

5. You must have some kind of partnership with legal: At the end of the day, your goals are similar, to have the company’s best interests in mind.  Sometimes it must be realized that the “right thing” in social media doesn’t always line up with the best interests of the company, i.e. posting during a crisis or sensitive time.  Find someone in legal who is interested in social media and groom this interested party to become a social media expert.  This will help you explain certain situations to someone who actually understands.

6. You need a solid social media policy!  It protects the organization and its employees.  You should make sure that all functions of a business that affect or are affected by social media adhere to the policy.  The policy will be easier follow if it is line with business guidelines.  Keep in mind that a usage guide and an overall policy are not the same thing.  You can “use” social media at your digression, if it is for corporate purposes, but even when you do you have to do so according to policy and not share confidential information.

7.  Educate! There are three tiers of employees you need to educate on social media.  There are those in tier one who need just the basics, such as an etiquette guide, resources for learning, and most importantly a review of the social media policy.  Those in tier two need to be brought up on the advanced info, such as how to represent the brand, some case studies, and scenario planning.  Lastly, tier three employees are your every day reps.  These folks are your outside speakers and should know the ins and outs of the social media policy, etiquette when representing the brand, and know what to do in a crisis situation.

Thank you again for Chris Barger for an amazing webinar and now it is your turn to teach and implement the social media strategy in your corporation!

What did you do today?

Stats to Work With

I am currently enrolled in a six week web conference entitled, Social Media for Business.  Yesterday we had our first two sessions on Creating Digital Leadership in a Social World, moderated by Erik Qualman, and Building Your Social Media Strategy in 8 Simple Steps, moderated by Krista Neher who dialed in from SXSW.  Just as I shared what I was learning during my Inbound Marketing classes through Hubspot I also plan on sharing tips and stats that I think are truly interesting from these 19 sessions.  So brace yourselves, this is going to be a long and sometimes deep dive into social media for business but I’ll keep it light and share the most interesting factoids with you.

So, here are the incredibly interesting facts I learned from Erik:

* 92% of people under the age of 2 have a digital shadow!!!–>That is insane!  All those baby photos parents post are creating a digital shadow for their kids!
* 91% of pre interview research is done online by recruiters
* 35% of people who were initially going to be brought in for an interview are told not to come in due to something that was found out about them online!
* Multitasking decreases your IQ by 10 points–>don’t text and drive or talk on the phone and type an e-mail!
* We are interrupted every 11 minutes at work and it takes us 25 minutes from that interruption to get back to what we were doing
* Write down TWO things that you must accomplish in a day. This will make you feel like you really accomplished something and didn’t just spend the day in meetings and answering e-mails

Finally, think about writing your life compass in 140 characters. Erik encouraged us to think about what we want our life to mean and summarize it in 140 characters!

Krista focused on creating a social media strategy and went through the 8 steps to do it successfully.  There really is no point for me to rephrase Krista’s words when she has a very eloquently written article titled 8 Steps to Building Your Social Media Strategy.

What did you do today?