The value of social media lies not in what your brand in saying, but in what
other people aresaying about your brand
No one really cares about your brand’s last status update. Your followers
probably didn’t read your Tweet.
At least, they weren’t that bothered until one of their friends
‘liked’ your status update and it appeared in their newsfeed. Or retweeted it
and sent it to their own followers’ streams. In other words, what you have to
say about your brand is often more valuable coming from someone else than from
you.
Mark Zuckerberg was quoted this week as saying that a trusted
referral is the ‘holy grail’ of advertising. It comes in the wake of a $10m
settlement for a lawsuit against Facebook’s right to feature user’s names to
endorse a brand you may have once liked or shared.
Despite a vociferous privacy backlash, these ‘sponsored
stories’ are up to three times more effective than a standard Facebook ad,
according to Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg.
Once, word-of-mouth meant a casual mention over a coffee or an
impassioned blog post. These days it’s an inadvertent affiliation of a name with
a brand – achieved via a simple click of a ‘like’ button, a comment, or a
re-Tweet.
As the Facebook settlement has shown, social media users have
proved that they can’t be duped into having their name exploited for commercial
purposes. They want – and deserve – the right to control how their name is used.
So, how do you get people naturally talking about your brand
and sharing on your behalf?
It’s all about content. If you’re posting about a great offer
or something funny that happened at your office summer party, chances are you’re
not going to get much engagement from fans. Nor is social media a sales channel
purely for pushing products.
Instead, find and create content that your audience will find
interesting, novel or funny (depending on your brand’s values) and are therefore
more like to share. Innocent Drinks is a pro at this, posting frivolous and
occasionally outlandish content that is novel enough to disrupt the banality of
their fans’ newsfeeds. (Recently they ran a sequence of comic-book style posts
in which the next frame of a story was determined by comments on the previous.
Fans were even working Innocent products into their answers.) It works, because
that’s who Innocent is: frivolous and occasionally outlandish.
Social media 101 presumes you already know what people are
saying about your brand from a customer service perspective. But to gain your
audience’s trust and to make them more likely to talk about your brand in
general, you need to know what they’re saying about everything else. What does
your audience like? What are they doing when they’re not ‘liking’ your status
update? Join conversations that people are already having.
This does not mean you should jump on every bandwagon and
start hijacking hashtags. Be selective, be appropriate. If you’re in travel, are
you watching and commenting throughout the right travel shows? If you have an
affiliation with sport, are you Tweeting throughout a game?
Social media, like friendship, is a two-way deal. Half a
social media manager’s job is listening: your home feed is one of your most
important tools. And if people feel like you get them, they will vocalise
that.
Another way to encourage people to share is to start
conversations that people want to be involved in. Create conversations that
people want to contribute to and it’s likely that their friends want to join in
too. Ask questions, elicit opinions.
‘How is everybody doing today?’ is not a conversation starter.
‘Marmite crepes?’ is.
Not only is this a great way to build your brand’s visibility,
but it’s also a tool to get to know your audience. Never before have marketers
had such an open forum of opinions and questions. Take advantage of this; you’ll
get more honest answers than any focus group. And you don’t even need to provide
sandwiches.
Lastly, it’s important to remember that your audience is
likely to be more socially savvy than you are – they have the power to control
conversations and express their thoughts – good and bad – to an unquantifiable
crowd. And they have a secret weapon – they’re probably in bed with your
competitors too.
In this sense, you need to exercise respect. Social media has
changed the brand-customer dynamic: remember, they’re no longer your customers.
They’re your friends.
Friday, 29 June 2012
Thursday, 21 June 2012
B2B Social Marketing Mistakes You're Probably Making
Well, the good news is that businesses have finally come around to the idea that social media is a ripe playing field for their B2B marketing goals. Don’t feel bad if you were late to the party; any place with such an over-abundance of cat videos and Justin Bieber fans would confuse anyone as to whether or not it was the proper arena to conduct business. But the diversity of content and audience is all part of the charm and potential of social media, and when navigated properly, the potential ROI for almost any industry is huge.Unfortunately, the whole B2B/social media relationship isn’t without its own set of growing pains as well. Which is, naturally, to be expected; as exemplified by the aforementioned cat videos and pop stars, figuring out exactly how your business ought to engage on these platforms isn’t perfectly intuitive, nor have these channels been around quite long enough for their to be a widespread, well-established protocol. As a result, a great many businesses are not only failing to maximize the benefit of being present on social media, but they might also be hurting themselves.Here are a few common mistakes in B2B social marketing and how you can avoid them:
Problem: Treating social media like other marketing campaigns – Probably one of the biggest mistakes B2B companies make in their social media efforts is following their usual route of one-way communication. You take your product, and your message, and put it out there for public consumption, and call it a day. In social media, no matter how well-developed or well-styled that message is, if there is no true engagement with your audience, you’re essentially spamming them. And nothing turns off a social media crowd like spamming.
Solution: Talk to people – Obviously, you still want to get your message out there, but in the social media world, there is more to successfully doing so than standing on a soapbox and shouting into the open air. Instead, engage with your followers. Ask them questions, and respond to theirs. Follow other businesses whose success on social media you would like to emulate and pay attention to the language they’re using, and the structure of their outreach.
Problem: Being impatient – Building up social media audience takes time. Seeing a real return from that audience takes even more time. A lot of businesses dive into the social media fray with gusto, only to become quickly disheartened by a lack of response.
Solution: Be patient…and consistent – Just because your Twitter account has only 50 followers right now doesn’t mean that A) those 50 people aren’t worth continuing to offer engaging, diverse, great content to; or B) that you won’t one day have more followers who will benefit from seeing a well-established history of activity on your end. When producing social media content, don’t just think of it as offering something right now to your existing followers. Think of it as developing a back catalog of material for future followers to peruse. Building up a real social media personality and presence will always take time. Be patient – it can be worth it!
Problem: Not knowing your audience…or yourself – Two important points to consider. First, knowing your audience is key to social media success. If you are trying to sell them something they don’t need or don’t want, nothing you say or do is going to change that, or make you seem anything but annoying. It’s always better to play to people who are actually your audience than to waste energy alienating people who never were your audience to begin with. Second, you must know yourself. The word “social” cannot be ignored in social media, so if you are not a social person – meaning you don’t want to engage and talk to and respond to your followers on these channels – then either hire someone who is strong and enthusiastic in their interpersonal communication, or don’t waste your time with social media at all.
Solution: Be aware of what social media really is – and how you’re supposed to use it. If you want to see a considerable return on the effort you’re putting in, then you have to put in considerable (and well-timed, and researched, and strategic) effort. The bottom line: you have to be willing to not just put your same old marketing campaigns into a 140 character format, but completely embark on a whole new, multi-layered way of communicating with your target audience. And just because that doesn’t mean expecting social media channels to conform toyour marketing strategy, it also doesn’t mean completely changing your company, your voice and your message to fit the medium. At the end of the day, it really just means being present and conscious of the forum you’re now functioning within, and learning how to find a happy balance between what will garner attention without losing your message. Hey, no one said it was easy!
Problem: Treating social media like other marketing campaigns – Probably one of the biggest mistakes B2B companies make in their social media efforts is following their usual route of one-way communication. You take your product, and your message, and put it out there for public consumption, and call it a day. In social media, no matter how well-developed or well-styled that message is, if there is no true engagement with your audience, you’re essentially spamming them. And nothing turns off a social media crowd like spamming.
Solution: Talk to people – Obviously, you still want to get your message out there, but in the social media world, there is more to successfully doing so than standing on a soapbox and shouting into the open air. Instead, engage with your followers. Ask them questions, and respond to theirs. Follow other businesses whose success on social media you would like to emulate and pay attention to the language they’re using, and the structure of their outreach.
Problem: Being impatient – Building up social media audience takes time. Seeing a real return from that audience takes even more time. A lot of businesses dive into the social media fray with gusto, only to become quickly disheartened by a lack of response.
Solution: Be patient…and consistent – Just because your Twitter account has only 50 followers right now doesn’t mean that A) those 50 people aren’t worth continuing to offer engaging, diverse, great content to; or B) that you won’t one day have more followers who will benefit from seeing a well-established history of activity on your end. When producing social media content, don’t just think of it as offering something right now to your existing followers. Think of it as developing a back catalog of material for future followers to peruse. Building up a real social media personality and presence will always take time. Be patient – it can be worth it!
Problem: Not knowing your audience…or yourself – Two important points to consider. First, knowing your audience is key to social media success. If you are trying to sell them something they don’t need or don’t want, nothing you say or do is going to change that, or make you seem anything but annoying. It’s always better to play to people who are actually your audience than to waste energy alienating people who never were your audience to begin with. Second, you must know yourself. The word “social” cannot be ignored in social media, so if you are not a social person – meaning you don’t want to engage and talk to and respond to your followers on these channels – then either hire someone who is strong and enthusiastic in their interpersonal communication, or don’t waste your time with social media at all.
Solution: Be aware of what social media really is – and how you’re supposed to use it. If you want to see a considerable return on the effort you’re putting in, then you have to put in considerable (and well-timed, and researched, and strategic) effort. The bottom line: you have to be willing to not just put your same old marketing campaigns into a 140 character format, but completely embark on a whole new, multi-layered way of communicating with your target audience. And just because that doesn’t mean expecting social media channels to conform toyour marketing strategy, it also doesn’t mean completely changing your company, your voice and your message to fit the medium. At the end of the day, it really just means being present and conscious of the forum you’re now functioning within, and learning how to find a happy balance between what will garner attention without losing your message. Hey, no one said it was easy!
Saturday, 16 June 2012
Using Free Web Tools To Make Money On The Internet
When you decide to take the plunge and use free online website tools to help you make money on the internet, which ones do you choose? How do you know which sites are worth investing your time on?Just like you should research and investigate before spending money on something that claims to help you make money online, it’s also a good idea to decide which free tools are worth your time. After all, if you’re investing your time without money, you’ll have to spend more of it on your internet marketing efforts and time is valuable enough to warrant portioning it wisely.
You might have several questions to ask about the free internet tools you intend to use such as:-
Which blog platform is the best. Is WordPress or Blogger better?
Which social bookmarking tools will bring me the best traffic?
Which keyword research tool should I use?-What SEO tools will bring me the best results?
Which online article directory will bring me the best search engine results?
Which tools will help me make money without actually costing me money?
You probably already know that organic SEO is more useful than sponsored advertising but you also know that getting good organic results will require a lot of effort on your part so finding out which tools can shave time and effort off the process is helpful.How do you find out which free online website tools are the most useful?
Visiting forums in your niche are a good idea. If you’re a webmaster or an article
marketer you can find out what tools other people are using and how they’re getting success from free online tools. If you’re a newbie, you can also use forums to ask questions, get ideas and find out how other people are making money.
Read blogs and product reviews as well. A lot of people are out there talking about the topic of making money on the net and are more than willing to share their story with anyone who wants to listen. Some of these people want to sell you something but for the most part, you’ll find a lot of free valuable information about what’s hot and what’s not. You can find a lot of free reports online as well which will tell you information about making money on the internet through various methods. Many of these reports require you opt in to a newsletter but you have the ability to read the report and if you no longer want information from that person you can simply
unsubscribe from their mailing list. There’s a wealth of information available for helping people make money online via blogging, online stores, freelancing, affiliate marketing and other methods as well. Not all of it will be relevant to your circumstances and goals but looking at free website tools is a great idea because it enables you to get started without any investment. Once
you get going you can decide if you want to invest more time, effort or invest some money into this.
You might have several questions to ask about the free internet tools you intend to use such as:-
Which blog platform is the best. Is WordPress or Blogger better?
Which social bookmarking tools will bring me the best traffic?
Which keyword research tool should I use?-What SEO tools will bring me the best results?
Which online article directory will bring me the best search engine results?
Which tools will help me make money without actually costing me money?
You probably already know that organic SEO is more useful than sponsored advertising but you also know that getting good organic results will require a lot of effort on your part so finding out which tools can shave time and effort off the process is helpful.How do you find out which free online website tools are the most useful?
Visiting forums in your niche are a good idea. If you’re a webmaster or an article
marketer you can find out what tools other people are using and how they’re getting success from free online tools. If you’re a newbie, you can also use forums to ask questions, get ideas and find out how other people are making money.
Read blogs and product reviews as well. A lot of people are out there talking about the topic of making money on the net and are more than willing to share their story with anyone who wants to listen. Some of these people want to sell you something but for the most part, you’ll find a lot of free valuable information about what’s hot and what’s not. You can find a lot of free reports online as well which will tell you information about making money on the internet through various methods. Many of these reports require you opt in to a newsletter but you have the ability to read the report and if you no longer want information from that person you can simply
unsubscribe from their mailing list. There’s a wealth of information available for helping people make money online via blogging, online stores, freelancing, affiliate marketing and other methods as well. Not all of it will be relevant to your circumstances and goals but looking at free website tools is a great idea because it enables you to get started without any investment. Once
you get going you can decide if you want to invest more time, effort or invest some money into this.
Monday, 11 June 2012
3 Crucial Keys To Considering Pinterest For Business
Pinterest is the latest social media craze. With high traffic and loud buzz, the social media platform has risen to position 3 in the rankings, just behind Facebook and Twitter. It is no wonder, therefore, that marketers are scrambling to put their creative talents to the test creating ways to use Pinterest for Business.
Pinterest is a great source of traffic, especially for people selling things women, largely, look on the internet to buy. If you are not on the number 3 social network, chances are your competition is and you are losing ground if you don't jump in. Whether you get a high authority backlink from the site is yet to be determined. However, the traffic for those making money selling crafts and design services have already been able to prove demonstrates the value of Pinterest for any skeptic.There's a mind shift you have to adopt when considering taking your business onto Pinterest.
1. Visual Pinterest is all pictures. There are ways to pin articles but they don't attract attention. The more dramatic, funny, curious, lushly colored pictures the better. You will see an explosion of info-graphics on the network - which is simply a way to tell a statistical and factual story in a visual, pinnable way. Because pinners, the community that uses Pinterst, are scanning for things that catch their eye. So, you have two choices: go ugly and loud or beautiful and arresting. Both are effective.
2. "Like-able" vs. "Comment-able" Usually on a social network, we encourage folks to jump into a conversation already in progress. Then listen, and comment where helpful. On Pinterest, discussion is less likely. People are grazing, and fast. If someone likes a pin it rises on the front screen just as effectively as if it were commented on... or so it seems so far. We do not have real analytical data open and obvious to the public, yet.
3. 80-20 Still In Play You can promote your own sales items on Pinterest, but only 20% of the time if you want to keep a band of loyal followers. Any more is considered spam. (As is the use of the price tag/snipe.) And, your "sale" has to be presented in the context of "sharing an opportunity", a "did you know that I offer" and "you may find this helpful." The rest of the 80% is you demonstrating your expertise by curating great content from other people. This is why a 3rd party endorsement from a colleague achieves a sale, with an inbuilt recommendation, and is an effective way to promote your own material, and theirs, when you reciprocate.
Pinterest is a social community, but that doesn't mean there isn't a lot of business going on there. It's like those big conferences where JV deals are going in on the sofas outside the main ballroom. It's like a cocktail where girls are sharing where they bought the necklace, or where the dads are saying is the best place to buy...you can imagine!
Pinterest is a great source of traffic, especially for people selling things women, largely, look on the internet to buy. If you are not on the number 3 social network, chances are your competition is and you are losing ground if you don't jump in. Whether you get a high authority backlink from the site is yet to be determined. However, the traffic for those making money selling crafts and design services have already been able to prove demonstrates the value of Pinterest for any skeptic.There's a mind shift you have to adopt when considering taking your business onto Pinterest.
1. Visual Pinterest is all pictures. There are ways to pin articles but they don't attract attention. The more dramatic, funny, curious, lushly colored pictures the better. You will see an explosion of info-graphics on the network - which is simply a way to tell a statistical and factual story in a visual, pinnable way. Because pinners, the community that uses Pinterst, are scanning for things that catch their eye. So, you have two choices: go ugly and loud or beautiful and arresting. Both are effective.
2. "Like-able" vs. "Comment-able" Usually on a social network, we encourage folks to jump into a conversation already in progress. Then listen, and comment where helpful. On Pinterest, discussion is less likely. People are grazing, and fast. If someone likes a pin it rises on the front screen just as effectively as if it were commented on... or so it seems so far. We do not have real analytical data open and obvious to the public, yet.
3. 80-20 Still In Play You can promote your own sales items on Pinterest, but only 20% of the time if you want to keep a band of loyal followers. Any more is considered spam. (As is the use of the price tag/snipe.) And, your "sale" has to be presented in the context of "sharing an opportunity", a "did you know that I offer" and "you may find this helpful." The rest of the 80% is you demonstrating your expertise by curating great content from other people. This is why a 3rd party endorsement from a colleague achieves a sale, with an inbuilt recommendation, and is an effective way to promote your own material, and theirs, when you reciprocate.
Pinterest is a social community, but that doesn't mean there isn't a lot of business going on there. It's like those big conferences where JV deals are going in on the sofas outside the main ballroom. It's like a cocktail where girls are sharing where they bought the necklace, or where the dads are saying is the best place to buy...you can imagine!
Wednesday, 6 June 2012
Linkedin Masterclass: Maximising Your Linkedin Profile
Maximising Your Linkedin Profile
Your Linkedin profile IS one of the most powerful tools available to any individual or business trying to network, market and do business online.
Here are the Top 10 Rules for maximising the potential of your profile:
1. 100% Completion:- Profiles that are 100% complete are more easily indexed by not only the Linkedin search engine but by all search engines.
2. Upload a good photo:- Uploading a Logo is a bad move. There are company pages and groups for you to add your logo so don't be shy and add a nice picture.
3. Have recommendations:- below are our top 5 Tips for this section
4. Personalise your Website and blog links:
"my company"
"my blog"
"my lack of imagination"
Yes, by naming the links "my company" etc you are telling the search engines what there links are BUT by selecting the drop down then "Other" you can have a bigger SEO impact and tell your profile visitors what they will find at the end of these links.
Summary":- Pack your Summary with "Keyword Rich" information to assist with your SEO. Another tip is to actually tell people who you want to connect with and who you want to do business with. Say something like "We are looking to connect with..." "We are ideally looking to assist..."
6. Integrate your Twitter account with your LinkedIn Profile. You can feed to your tweets to your LinkedIn account so that every time you tweet it updates your LinkedIn page. Believe me this is huge! According to LinkedIn:
" LinkedIn works with Twitter� to make your Twitter account visible on your Profile. To add your Twitter account(s) to your LinkedIn Profile take the following steps:
1. Click on 'Edit Profile' under 'Profile' from your home page.
2. Click on the 'Add your Twitter profile' link in the blue box of your LinkedIn Profile. This will take you to a Twitter page.
3. Enter your Twitter credentials and then click on 'Allow'. This process confirms your Twitter ID. If successful, you will receive a confirmation message that the Twitter ID was added to your LinkedIn account and then you'll be taken to your LinkedIn Twitter Settings.
4. Select the 'Twitter Settings' (affects visibility) of this Twitter ID on your Profile.
5.Click 'Save Changes'. You should receive a success message saying that your settings were saved.
7. Applications:- This section is one of the most powerful areas of your Linkedin Profile. It has the power to save you time in running your profile, showcasing your company skills, providing content and much more.
8. Don't use a work email as the primary linkedin address:- A client had signed up for Linkedin a year or so before using his work email account. the account lay dormant for a while and the client moved on to another employer. worse, he forgot his password for the account. Linkedin offers the following helpful tip for those who no longer have access to the primary email account " Well we did tell you to use more than one email when you set up" Basically its Game Over. You have to start all over again. You have lost that profie, the recommendations and all the content that goes with it.
9. Personalize your LinkedIn account by claiming your name in the URL, e.g. http://linkedin.com/in/itsrichardmoore
Here's how (via LinkedIn)
Click on "Edit Profile" from the "Profile" dropdown menu found in the top navigation bar of the home page.
Click on "Edit" next to the "Public Profile" area.
Click on "Edit" next to the "Your Public Profile URL" area at the top of the page.
Enter your new custom URL. Most custom URLs must start with http://www.linkedin.com/in/ and must contain 5-30 alphanumeric characters.
Click on "Set Address".
Once you've completed your custom URL it's important to publicize it in your other online accounts such as your website, blog, or Facebook Page, as well as on your business card and in your email signature.
10. Improve your connectability.
Most new users put only their current company in their profile. By doing so, they severely limit their ability to connect with people. You should fill out your profile like it's an executive bio, so include past companies, education, affiliations, and activities.
You can also include a link to your profile as part of an email signature. The added benefit is that the link enables people to see all your credentials, which would be awkward if not downright strange, as an attachment.
Your Linkedin profile IS one of the most powerful tools available to any individual or business trying to network, market and do business online.
Here are the Top 10 Rules for maximising the potential of your profile:
1. 100% Completion:- Profiles that are 100% complete are more easily indexed by not only the Linkedin search engine but by all search engines.
2. Upload a good photo:- Uploading a Logo is a bad move. There are company pages and groups for you to add your logo so don't be shy and add a nice picture.
3. Have recommendations:- below are our top 5 Tips for this section
4. Personalise your Website and blog links:
"my company"
"my blog"
"my lack of imagination"
Yes, by naming the links "my company" etc you are telling the search engines what there links are BUT by selecting the drop down then "Other" you can have a bigger SEO impact and tell your profile visitors what they will find at the end of these links.
Summary":- Pack your Summary with "Keyword Rich" information to assist with your SEO. Another tip is to actually tell people who you want to connect with and who you want to do business with. Say something like "We are looking to connect with..." "We are ideally looking to assist..."
6. Integrate your Twitter account with your LinkedIn Profile. You can feed to your tweets to your LinkedIn account so that every time you tweet it updates your LinkedIn page. Believe me this is huge! According to LinkedIn:
" LinkedIn works with Twitter� to make your Twitter account visible on your Profile. To add your Twitter account(s) to your LinkedIn Profile take the following steps:
1. Click on 'Edit Profile' under 'Profile' from your home page.
2. Click on the 'Add your Twitter profile' link in the blue box of your LinkedIn Profile. This will take you to a Twitter page.
3. Enter your Twitter credentials and then click on 'Allow'. This process confirms your Twitter ID. If successful, you will receive a confirmation message that the Twitter ID was added to your LinkedIn account and then you'll be taken to your LinkedIn Twitter Settings.
4. Select the 'Twitter Settings' (affects visibility) of this Twitter ID on your Profile.
5.Click 'Save Changes'. You should receive a success message saying that your settings were saved.
7. Applications:- This section is one of the most powerful areas of your Linkedin Profile. It has the power to save you time in running your profile, showcasing your company skills, providing content and much more.
8. Don't use a work email as the primary linkedin address:- A client had signed up for Linkedin a year or so before using his work email account. the account lay dormant for a while and the client moved on to another employer. worse, he forgot his password for the account. Linkedin offers the following helpful tip for those who no longer have access to the primary email account " Well we did tell you to use more than one email when you set up" Basically its Game Over. You have to start all over again. You have lost that profie, the recommendations and all the content that goes with it.
9. Personalize your LinkedIn account by claiming your name in the URL, e.g. http://linkedin.com/in/itsrichardmoore
Here's how (via LinkedIn)
Click on "Edit Profile" from the "Profile" dropdown menu found in the top navigation bar of the home page.
Click on "Edit" next to the "Public Profile" area.
Click on "Edit" next to the "Your Public Profile URL" area at the top of the page.
Enter your new custom URL. Most custom URLs must start with http://www.linkedin.com/in/ and must contain 5-30 alphanumeric characters.
Click on "Set Address".
Once you've completed your custom URL it's important to publicize it in your other online accounts such as your website, blog, or Facebook Page, as well as on your business card and in your email signature.
10. Improve your connectability.
Most new users put only their current company in their profile. By doing so, they severely limit their ability to connect with people. You should fill out your profile like it's an executive bio, so include past companies, education, affiliations, and activities.
You can also include a link to your profile as part of an email signature. The added benefit is that the link enables people to see all your credentials, which would be awkward if not downright strange, as an attachment.
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