25 New Social Articles on Business 2 Community |
- Monetizing Your Blog – The First Steps
- Seduced by the Numbers? The Honeymoon is Over. The Value of a Facebook Like {Case study}
- Optimal Publishing Time for Bloggers
- A Cure for “Social Media” Allergy
- Bloggers Being Social
- Why Guest Blogging Almost Always Trumps Your Own Blog
- How to Get Your Professional Practice or Small Business Into Social
- The Six Most Texted-About Moments Of The 2012 London Olympics (Infographic)
- If Klout Is Fixed, Why Are They Profiling An 11-Year Old Kid?
- How to Integrate Social Media and Inbound Marketing
- Twitter B2B Adoption: Your Results May Vary
- 6 Killer Reasons to Become a Full-Time Blogger
- 3 Tricks to Gather Good Content for Social Media Marketing
- Social Media Needs a Strategy Like a Navigator Needs a Destination
- How Much Should You Plan To Pay Your Social Media Community Manager?
- What Is Your Pinterest?
- Top 6 Tips For Using Twitter During Events
- Advice For New Graduates: How To Use Social Media While Looking For Work, And For Your Job
- Achieving Social Media Lead Generation By Increasing Your Reach
- FTSE100 Recognise The Value of Social Media
- What Is Good SEO? The Debate Continues
- What is Pinterestcamp and 5 Ways to Use It in Email Marketing
- Develop Website Trust Signals That Drives Conversion for Your Business
- Emergency Preparedness on your Social Intranet
- Why a 23-Year-Old SHOULD Run Your Social Media
| Monetizing Your Blog – The First Steps Posted: 16 Aug 2012 02:35 PM PDT A big trend these days is to build a website where you can blog on a topic you love regularly and hopefully, in time earn either a portion, or perhaps even the entire income for yourself and your family. Sounds great where do I sign up? The truth is while it is very possible to make a living with a blog it is no easier than making a living with a more traditional offline job. In fact it's likely much harder because you've already got all the skills you need from working there in the first place, and chances are good you've been doing it for a while. Blogging is a lot more than writing down your thoughts and ideas and then hoping to cash in, there are so many different components to blogging full time and each one could easily take years to learn thoroughly inside and out. A single day in the life of many bloggers will include these and many other skills:
Ok, if you're still not dismayed and are looking to start blogging, and you've got your determination in one hand, and strategy or business plan in the other let's talk about monetization. I'm not talking about all the avenues that can be explored to deliver small streams of cash once the traffic starts pouring in, I'm talking about a planned and consistent approach that is in line with both your goals, and your values. Too often people just jump in and hope to start making some money (and they usually do make some) but if you're going to treat this like a business then you'd better have a clear plan outlined so you know not only the road you're taking to get there, but also where that road leads. Every business needs one thing (ok, so they need a lot of things, but bear with me anyway), they need a business model. At the end of the day it won't matter how many Twitter followers you have, or how pretty your new website is if there is no cash flow, and no sustainable way to keep that cash flow moving. With so many choices when it comes to monetization, it's no wonder people get confused and start shooting at every single one of them. Choose two that appeal to you the most, and then pour all your concerted effort into growing those two. Once you've mastered them, or at least started some positive (and consistent) cash flow coming in, you can then turn around and invest a portion of that cash flow (20% – 25%) toward the next method in your list. Some methods you might consider are:Selling Products:Selling products is hugely popular online, especially when they come in the form of an information package. A digital product such as an e-book, or video training course, or even software won't require any more effort to sell ten thousand than it will to sell ten! Creating a product takes time and if you're hoping to make a good, no great impression with your audience you'll want to over deliver and under-price it to make sure that happens. There is nothing that says "I'm serious" like having a list of your own products to sell to your market, and this is definitely one to consider. Selling Services:Most likely if there is something you do on a day to day basis that you absolutely hate, there is someone else out there doing it for money! The trick here is to flip that coin and find those services that you love to do, and would gladly do for free if you had to. Then go out and find those people on the other side of that coin who hate doing it, and you've got yourself some potential customers. We all have our different skills and areas in life that we're good at. Often we don't even realize these skills are marketable and that there are plenty of people who would gladly pay to have you do them. I'll give you an example: Bookmarking, I hate it! I hate having to visit all those bookmarking sites, setting up profiles, and bookmarking mine (and others) content in the hopes that the backlinks and traffic will pay off in the end for my many websites and online properties. So rather than spend my time doing something I dislike, I found someone who loves it, and has some awesome software that facilitates speeding up the process, and then charges me a few cents each one he does. (I have the software too, I still hate it) LOL Selling AdvertisingAdvertising can be a great method to earn while you focus on more enjoyable tasks (like actually writing on your blog), but don't think you won't have to work at building that cash flow up. Creating an enticing and compelling "Advertise" page is only the first step, next you'll have to focus on bringing those numbers up. Visitors, RSS subscribers, social media reach, Alexa, PageRank, are just a few of the things potential advertisers might be looking at when considering your site as a possibility. Once your numbers are up, you can then choose to either locate and sign your own advertisers (competitive research comes in handy here) or go with an established ad network that already has access to them, but take a fee for their efforts. (Generally these fees are between 25 and 50 percent). Affiliate MarketingAffiliate marketing is a great way to make money online, and there are so many people rocking this industry and making millions of dollars. You might want to keep in mind that for many of these people, this is all they do. They didn't choose to blog, or sell ad space, or even create products, these guys (and girls) focused all their efforts on becoming the best affiliate marketers they possibly could and then started to branch out. But what if you don't want to be Zac Johnson – Super Affiliate? It's still a great way to make some money when you don't have your own products to sell, and can easily be incorporated into your business model to bring in some decent money. There are products and services out there for almost any niche you can think of, and usually it isn't a case of finding some, but choosing the best ones to promote both from your standpoint, and from your readers. Membership sitesMembership sites are another great source of revenue, and the part that makes them stand out above the rest is the fact that the income is so consistent, and growth is fairly easy to track. Most run on a monthly cycle so you can be sure of that all-important cash flow as long as you've got the members. Membership sites require a ton of work though, and aren't "set it and forget it" type sites! You need to keep providing value each month for your members or they won't be inclined to stick around. Remember if you're helping your members solve their problems on a regular basis they'll likely see value in the service you're providing and keep forking over those dues each month without hesitation! These are just a few methods, and there are plenty of others out there as well. Whichever model you chose for your own blog and business, make sure you start out with just a couple and focus on those until you've perfected them. Being good at a bunch of stuff isn't as rewarding as being awesome at just one or two! What's your favorite monetizing method when it comes to blogging? Let us know in the comment area below! |
| Seduced by the Numbers? The Honeymoon is Over. The Value of a Facebook Like {Case study} Posted: 16 Aug 2012 02:30 PM PDT The biggest challenge faced by social media professionals entering an organization who is at the onset of social media integration will be confronting the popular misconception that "likes" on Facebook & followers on Twitter is the measure of social media success. When social media first started to gain attention as a new business opportunity, it stands to reason that in absence of true measurement tools, the only number a business or organization could understand easily, and "measure" would be the number of followers, or fans. Many organizations, due to lack of familiarity or understanding of social, are convinced that there is success in the numbers; that "likes" or followers equal reach, and that if they attain high subscription – whether it be on Twitter, Google Plus, or Facebook – that this will equal success. The Wrong Numbers.Social business is still in the early stages, as new technology and strategy intertwine to find stronger measures of success on various levels – depending on the needs or focus of a campaign or brand – organizations have to either hire social media professionals that they will trust to use their expertise to guide a strategy beyond flat figures like "numbers of likes" OR invest in learning about social media themselves. To measure or judge success based on "likes" is simply indulging in ignorance at the cost of your organization. The idea is about as sound as corralling 500 or 1000 people into a warehouse full of sealed boxes with your logo on them and thinking all of a sudden your sales are going to soar. Yes, you have 1000 people in a warehouse, but none of them know what they are doing there, none of them know why they are there, and they certainly aren't going to become your greatest supporters if you just leave them there with nothing to do. They've seen your logo, but they can't even understand the product or what you are selling. What will they do? They will walk in (read: click like) poke around a little, wait to see if anything else is happening (read: "what's in it for me") and if they don't get some interaction, stimulation or feedback, well, they will then say goodbye. Opportunity LostWhat's left behind is the trace of a lost prospect. In the social media world, that's a "Like" or a "Follow" with nothing else connected to it. If you hire someone whose success is measured by the number of fans they can "corral" onto your fan page and nothing else, what you will essentially be doing is throwing your money out the window. I can not begin to tell you how many senior management people at well established reputable organizations have told me the story of how well they are doing in social media. When I ask them about it, they always cite the number of fans or followers they have. They are glowing with pride. Their limited knowledge on the subject has led them to believe that this is the measure of success. It's time for an awakening: This number means nothing. Unless you find a way to marry it with some engagement. A Question for You.How many pages do you "like"? If I asked you right now to share with me the last page in your "Likes" that you actually visited, would you even be able to tell me? A "Like" on its own is useless – you need to keep that "fan" to coming back. In fact, if you know whats good for your organization you want to make things so interesting that your "fan" is going to come back again and again because you've given them something they value. Not only will they come back, but they will want to share, thereby growing your number of followers or fans for the right reasons. The Numbers In ActionAt the #140 Conference Montreal, Stephanie Baron of Jezam Interactive, formerly of Leucan (An organization for children with cancer) shares two excellent examples that really demonstrate just how insignificant the number of likes becomes when you need action. In the video below, Stephanie covers two cases, one of which is the French Presidential Election of 2012, the other from The Aviva Community Fund Competition when she tried to move 15,000 fans into action to help children with cancer. What do you think were the results?
The Proof: The Value of Active Support vs. Crowds of ZombiesCase #1: The French Election. In the 2012 presidential election, Nicolas Sarkozy had approx. 40,000 Likes going into the election. Francois Hollande had approx. 7,000. Did the number of "Likes" on Facebook indicate the true popularity of the candidates? It is clear that if the number of likes on Facebook indicated popularity, acceptance, or true fans, the French election would have surely turned out differently. Case #2: The Aviva Community Fund Competition – Leucan's Participation based on 15,000 Fans. With 15,000 Fans, the organization chose to focus on increasing likes rather than engagement. When the opportunity presented itself to participate in the Aviva Community Fund Competition, which awards help to community organizations based on the support generated via social media, Leucan was not able to move the 15000 fans to come up with the votes necessary to have a chance at the award. All they needed was a click a day from just a few hundred of their fans over two weeks, yet it was impossible for them to attain. The organizations that won the money from the competition had significantly less likes, but had fans who were willing to take action, rather than just "Like" and run. The cost of focusing on numbers of likes, vs. quality of engagement was high in this case, they lost a chance to provide children with Cancer a summer camp. The Honeymoon is Over It is not in the numbers that you find success, but rather in the quality of the fans or followers and their level of engagement. Mindless fans – the Zombies – are good for show, but they aren't going to "show you the money". The cases above give simple but pretty clear examples. The honeymoon is over and it's time to stop swooning over how many people "Like" you, and start thinking about what that means and how active they are with your organization. If you want numbers to track, look into some real ROI metrics. There is no easy way to measure Social Media, but in the cases above – it really came down to something simple: Were the people moved to take action beyond the "Like"?
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| Optimal Publishing Time for Bloggers Posted: 16 Aug 2012 01:35 PM PDT When it comes to getting the most mileage out of your content choosing the right time to hit that publish button can mean a difference of up to 50%. Ideally we'd like it to be possible for as many individuals and web visitors to get the opportunity to see, enjoy, and of course share that informative article we wrote on "the top five enterprise social media platforms", or perhaps the "Optimal Publishing Time for Bloggers". We all have days of the week, and even times of the day when our websites or blogs are likely to receive more visitors than at any other time. Mondays do much better than Fridays typically and 8:00am and 1:00pm are also generally busy times for many webmasters. (You'd think the lunch hour would be busier, but I guess It's when we go back to work that we start surfing in earnest!) So when should we hit that publish, or schedule button? The goal remember, is to reach the maximum number of people possible so perhaps instead of jumping in at a busy time (Let's use 8:00am as an example) perhaps a better time would be 12:01am, a short 1 minute into the day? This gives your post a full 24 hours (Ok, 23:59 minutes) in the front spot, and is accessible to people who may live in an entirely different geographic location from you. The post will have had an opportunity to be shared for several hours prior to the 8:00 am possible post time and will likely have been shared across countless networks by that time. It's ultimately going to be up to you to develop the habit of publishing at a set time in order to train teach your readers when they can expect the days post from you. Publishing at the same time daily (if you blog daily) will increase the likelihood that people will start coming to expect something fresh from you for that day. After all if you show up at your favorite blog and there is nothing new to read, what do you do? Do a search online for "optimal time to publish a blog post" and you'll come across all sorts of theories and practices, and some of them even have some data behind them. But just because the data shows us that the busiest time of day is rush hour does that necessarily mean we should jump in our cars and join them? Now who am I to argue with the expertise of people like Dan Zarrella from Hubspot (don't worry, Dan is a brilliant guy, and I'm not picking on him) who's telling you the best time to publish is in the early morning? I am not denying that the share potential is much greater at certain times of the day, but I am telling you that if it's not up, they're not sharing it! By jumping into an already busy pool of published articles and blog posts you're more likely to get lost in the noise, but by being a front leader, and having that post already up, dressed, and spread all over the internet you're chances are much higher that you'll attract the engagement and interaction of readers that might otherwise be lost in the shuffle. At the end of the day it's going to be up to you to try several variations, and test which perform at peak potential for your site and then stick with it. It's your life, your blog, and your traffic! |
| A Cure for “Social Media” Allergy Posted: 16 Aug 2012 01:10 PM PDT It still happens…managers who do not want "Social Media" in their organization, since they think this means "wasting valuable working time". Sometimes it is Communications who resist, because they think Social Media will remove the focus from their Corporate News items. Or it could be HR or Legal, because they are afraid that people will say inappropriate things. Are you convinced that a social intranet is a good thing for your organization, but you feel that senior management blocks it because they do not like the word and therefore refuse to understand the concept and the benefits? Why not use a better word for it? Here are some examples. 1. Give your complete Social Media suite a fancy name. You could call it "The Hub" or "the Water Cooler". Or as Philips does, "Connect Us". Barb Sawyers gives some more suggestions here. 2. Focus on the aspect that is most relevant for your organization. Another option is to zoom in on the actual way this will help you in your organization. Social tools are pretty versatile and can be used for a variety of business purposes. The best name is depending on your specific purpose and your specific organization, but what about these:
3. Do not talk about it. "We do not give it a special name, it is just part of our set of Collaboration tools", an intranet manager told me once. I really like this approach. If this does not sound like "work" then I do not know what does! What I like most about it is the natural and seamless assimilation of this new work tool into your existing established tool set. With all the hype around social media, giving it no emphasis is a refreshing idea. What is the name that you use to describe your organization's social tools? |
| Posted: 16 Aug 2012 12:35 PM PDT When it comes to exposing yourself (talking about your blog here) to as many people as possible in order to generate the traction most of us are looking for when it comes to seeing our wonderfully witty posts go viral, it's important that you've actually done the legwork for your readers so that they can easily share the content if they feel it's worthy and of some benefit to their audiences. Install the social buttonsSo often I come across great content during my web travels, and it always amazes me when there is no way for me to share it with my readers other than manually trying to do it myself (which rarely happens). It takes just a few minutes to get your site setup with a plugin or small piece of code, but the resulting payoff in traffic will be well worth it. Multiple InstancesDon't be afraid to use more than one setup when it comes to social buttons. A floating share button on the side, tied in with a "like", and Retweet button within the post will increase the likelihood of someone seeing it and clicking on it. Another popular spot is at the end of the post, but don't go crazy and offer your reader's ten different networks or you'll end up with zip! Test the process yourselfBecause we spend so much time on our sites, we don't really see it the way other visitors do. We always use the same browser, set to the same monitor size, and generally travel the same routes within our blog and navigation system. Check out the process from a friend or colleague's computer to see that everything is working the way you think it is. It's surprising how many people discover glaring mistakes on their websites or within part of the system only to realize it's been that way for months or even years. If you have a community built up, you could ask them to help out. Chances are you'll get some great feedback from people using everything from a laptop to an IPhone and you'll be able to use that data to refine, and enhance the visitor experience even further. Share the wealthYou're hoping to entice your readers to click and share your content but are you sharing theirs? If I see someone making a point of sharing my posts you better believe that I'm going to head over and return the favor. Its reader's like that that makes the difference between an OK blog, and a great one. Join Tribes or CommunitiesRetweet groups are quickly becoming a thing of the past now that places like Triberr exist. Make it a point to track down and join some tribes that fit in well with your niche. The members within these places are quite friendly and are usually more than willing to help a fellow blogger to grow. Raise your standard of writingWe all have those posts we simply can't believe we wrote ourselves. They seem to have that something extra that just makes them "pop" and traffic, and comments just seem to go through the roof on those posts. It likely isn't a "real" mystery here, but simply a case of you getting some stellar content out there for your audience to see and share. By raising the standards with which you hold yourself accountable and by expecting more from yourself that anyone else could ever demand you'll start to see something amazing happening. People will take notice. The better the content, the more likely it is to be shared, and if you're lucky enough to have someone truly influential hit that Retweet button you'll see what true engagement really means. End with a call to actionIt's a good idea to end each of your blog posts with a call to action. I don't recommend trying for more than one, so if you're focus is to get your content shared with as wide an audience as possible don't be afraid to ask for it! The reason I say don't ask for more than one thing (comment, share, opt in, etc.) is because in actuality you'll end up with the reader taking no action at all. Please be kind, rewind er.. hit one of the share buttons! |
| Why Guest Blogging Almost Always Trumps Your Own Blog Posted: 16 Aug 2012 12:30 PM PDT
Danny Iny says it's OK—it's recommended even—that if your own blog isn't attracting at least 300 visitors a day, you can post only a few times a month and spend the rest of your time pitching and writing guest blog posts for other high-traffic blogs. That's what he did, and he grew his own traffic by 100 times. A blog post he had published on Forbes.com last month, about Small Business + Small Marketing = Really Big Losses has been viewed more than 19,000 times, and more than 1,000 people have shared it on LinkedIn. When he mentioned during the webinar I hosted with him this week that writing guest posts is often more valuable than writing for your own blog, I was relieved because posting three times a week is a chore, even for a professional writer like me. You can watch to the entire two-hour replay here and get his step-by-step directions, and then hear his answers to dozens of questions about blogging at the end of the program. Danny says the reason guest posting is so powerful is because:
You can guest blog even if you haven't created your own blog yet. But if you follow Danny's formula, you'll want to eventually have your own blog and create a community that your loyal fans can keep revisiting, and perhaps participating in, again and again. After you watch the webinar replay, share your comments below. |
| How to Get Your Professional Practice or Small Business Into Social Posted: 16 Aug 2012 12:25 PM PDT Effective social media engagement is becoming table stakes for many businesses, even more so for business leaders themselves. Unlike other tools, technologies and strategies, social is not just a tactic that is employed to market and promote and, ultimately, sell products and services. In order to be effective, social media demands to engagement and participation in relationships with your markets. After all, markets are conversations — and you need to be participating in them to be relevant.
So how does a small or medium-sized businesses get into social media if they've been sitting on the sidelines for a while? Mark Schaefer addresses this question in his excellent piece: How does a small business move into social media marketing? I've used Mark's basic responses as a framework and tailored them to the specific situation of professional practices in financial services. 1. Do my clients even want to engage in social channels?Ask them. Conduct a simple survey to determine how many of your clients use social media and for what purposes. Or just ask them yourself. In your regular meetings with clients, ask if they are on LinkedIn and how they use it. Do they get value from their social media use and, if so, how do they describe that value. Listen carefully to what they tell you. Don't just assume that your clients don't use social because of their age — or because YOU are projecting your own discomfort using these tools. Let your clients tell you how they want to interact with you. 2. Improve your own social media skills and understanding.You don't need to become an expert or guru of social media, but you do need to pay attention to what is happening in social and how it's affecting interpersonal communication. Especially if you are in the relationship business. Know enough to be able to ask the right questions and steer clear of strategies and tactics that don't support your brand values. Everything you ever wanted to know about social media is available at your fingertips online. Make it a priority to learn about it. 3. Align social media efforts with real goals of your business.Success in the social space can be defined many ways, but to be meaningful social needs to be tied to your business goals and objectives. Define key performance indicators that make sense in your business: new leads, closer relationships with key clients, more interaction with clients, more referrals, etc. At the same time, allow for realistic inputs of time, effort and money in order to achieve your goals. Don't expect to move the social needle overnight.
4. Get professional help.Know what you don't know. Leverage external experience and knowledge to get started. Schaefer says it best: "It's like strapping yourself to an instructor the first time you skydive. After a couple trips, you're ready to go it alone." But don't expect an external professional to do it all for you. The point is to use external resources to expedite your learning process and increase your capacity — not to replace your need to invest time and energy. 5. Don't view social as an "add-on".You are probably doing a variety of things to market your business and promote your brand, as well as inform and service your current clients. Look closely at your expenditures and the returns you are getting. Similarly, look at your investments of time — both yours and your staff's — and measure that against returns. Chances are, there is room for improvement and reallocation of resources to social strategies and engagement. Don't just dump social on someone who already has a full role. Not prioritizing your marketing activities and not making strategic decisions because you're overloaded and too busy IS a decision with implications for your business. 6. Reframing the social opportunity.Social media affords small businesses and professional practices with many opportunities to move the yardsticks — to differentiate from competitors, to add value to clients and to punch above their weight in the marketplace. In the old days, marketing and branding initiatives were launched and then you and your team sat back and waited for the business to come in. Today, smart social strategies should be focusing your efforts on building and strengthening your networks and priming them to be lead generation engines. Social is not going away because it's driven by people's need to communicate. And that isn't about to change. |
| The Six Most Texted-About Moments Of The 2012 London Olympics (Infographic) Posted: 16 Aug 2012 11:58 AM PDT 2012 should henceforth be known as The Mobile Games, as tablets, apps and SMS all made a huge impact on athletes and spectators alike. For competitors, apps and tablets were instrumental during both training and the actual competitions. Many gold medal winners openly credited their iPads for their success. For spectators worldwide, mobile was a hugely popular channel for viewing and keeping track of the two week games. 12 million people watched the Olympics on the BBC via smartphone or tablet. At American broadcaster NBC, 10 million people watched the Olympics via its mobile site, while 11.2 million and 3.7 people used its two Olympics apps, Live Extra and NBC Olympics.
 With London 2012 proving to be the Mobile Games, these phones were just for show.
According to Google, 50% of the searches for the Olympics came from mobile devices. Finally, texting by Olympic spectators, tourists and United Kingdom residents spiked during key moments at the games. Indeed, text and tweet traffic was so heavy that early on it temporarily overloaded at least one data network. (It should be noted that official 2012 Olympic communications services provider BT, Vodafone and O2, owned by Spain’s Telefonica, told Reuters they did not experience any network problems.) So what were the most texted-about events? According to Sybase 365, an SAP subsidiary which helps deliver more than 1.4 billion SMS and MMS messages daily (and has helped deliver more than 2 trillion messages altogether), there were six moments:
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| If Klout Is Fixed, Why Are They Profiling An 11-Year Old Kid? Posted: 16 Aug 2012 11:55 AM PDT
Two days ago, social influence tool Klout published a blog post on how they had updated their algorithms to answer critics of their service. From the post:
As part of the update, Klout promises "increased accuracy". Which is great, as this is one of the core complaints about the service. They also promise more transparency, more data, real-world influence. And a shiny new site design… However, one glaring omission from the post is the question of Klout and privacy. There have been numerous posts written about Klout's policy of creating profiles without the explicit permission of users, and the fact you have to opt out of the service if you don't want profiled. Worse still, though, was the discovery that minors under the age of 18 were being profiled by Klout, from something as innocuous as being connected to their parent on Facebook. Due to the backlash against this practice from numerous bloggers, Klout CEO Joe Fernandez came out and stated "Klout has no interest in profiling minors". So, why does the Klout website have a profile for an 11 year old kid (click to expand)?
This is the son of a friend of mine, Jennifer, who brought it to my attention that both her kids were being profiled by Klout. Her son is the 11 year old pictured here, and her daughter is 14 later this year. Both profiles are clearly there for all to see. Not only that, but her daughter's profile on Klout shows who she influences. One is her brother, the other is her friend – also 14.
Jennifer spoke with both her kids, and neither of them even know what Klout is, never mind that they have a profile on there. So, despite all the questions about privacy and minors, and despite Klout's statements that this would be fixed, it's clear the company is still adding profiles of children that fall under Klout's own privacy terms.
These terms have actually been updated, since it was previously under-18′s that weren't "allowed" on Klout. Even so, is it really fair for any company to take a kid's details and parade them on a site where numbers attract advertisers? And while Klout advises parents to monitor their kids' online activities, it's hard to do this when you have to be logged into Klout to see your kids (if you opt out, you get redirected to a Facebook or Twitter sign-in page). Now, it could be said that the kid shouldn't be on Twitter (and thus, Klout) in the first place, since he's under 13 years old. But as we move towards a more online world, kids are going to go online anyway – the best approach for many parents, and one that they're taking, is to help guide them on the way. With that in mind, isn't it about time Klout quit adding profiles on an opt-out basis, and only has people on there who have voluntarily opted in? Maybe then parents wouldn't have to worry about their kids being taken advantage of in this way. Heck, there's already enough online pitfalls to try and keep our kids safe from without a social score to worry about… Update. Both accounts are also on Klout competitor Kred, despite their Terms of Service stating it's for 13 years and older. |
| How to Integrate Social Media and Inbound Marketing Posted: 16 Aug 2012 11:50 AM PDT For as much discussion as there is about engagement with fans, the main reason for businesses to be involved in social media is to increase sales. Connecting with social network users is a great way to do so but it is really an ends to a mean. By creating and distributing interesting and relevant content for fans and followers, businesses will be able to attract more customers to buy from their brand. This is the process behind the concept of inbound marketing, and is why the two work so well together. As explained by Hubspot, "Inbound marketing is a set of marketing strategies and techniques focused on pulling relevant prospects and customers towards a business and its products. Inbound marketing is becoming widely accepted because it complements the way buyers make purchasing decisions today – they are using the Internet to learn about the products and services that best meet their needs."
Social media is an excellent tool in an inbound marketing strategy. As opposed to traditional methods that focused on crafting a single message and pushing that message onto the mass audience, social media derives its value from the collective and individual placing the focus on the user. When used effectively to this degree, social media and inbound marketing have the ability to cut costs per lead for business. According to a 2012 State of Inbound Marketing study conducted by Hubspot, "Inbound marketing-dominated organizations experience a 61% lower cost per lead than outbound marketing dominated organizations." This trend has been maintained through 2012 as well as 2011. Blogs and social media are the least expensive forms of lead generation for businesses. It cannot be ignored that both of these tactics require time and commitment in order to be successful. Publishing a blog once a month or sending out a few product pushing tweets every now and then will not deliver results. Despite the time commitment that is necessary, blogs are the best way to add new pages of fresh content to a site about a variety of keywords. By keeping a regular blog blog posts will be indexed by search engies quicker and more frequently and businesses can establish themselves as thought leaders within the industry. Diligently updating your social media platforms and engaging with fans requires time but in the end is extremely rewarding. This success is why so many businesses are expanding their inbound marketing budgets with a large focus on blogs and social media. Furthermore, studies have shown that leads from inbound links are more likely to become customers than outbound leads. Social media and blogs has become increasingly important platforms to reach out to potential customers as part of an inbound marketing strategy. Whether a company is business-to-business or business to consumer, there is a social network that will result in quality leads that are more likely to convert to customers. An active social media presence and a regular blogging schedule as part of an inbound marketing strategy can establish a business as a thought leader with potential customers and by taking the time to nurture these relationships, businesses will be able to decrease their costs while increasing sales. |
| Twitter B2B Adoption: Your Results May Vary Posted: 16 Aug 2012 11:45 AM PDT Twitter adoption rates appear to vary between various segments within the B2B categories, but if the GENERAL industrial sector is an indicator of adoption, then it is outpacing the general population’s adoption much more quickly than other sectors. Way back on March 21, 2011 Twitter celebrated it’s 5th birthday: “200 million users and 1 billion tweets per week”. Had it hit the mainstream audience and what was the adoption rate in the industrial sector? In November 2010 Pew Internet & American Life Project surveyed more than 2,200 US adult web users and asked, "Do you use Twitter?" Their findings: 8% of all respondents said yes. But quite a lot has changed since those days. However, it’s important within the context of what adoption rates really mean. So let’s first explore that first and then review some of the historical data now that their is actually some historical data available. What’s an Early Adopter?
Manufacturing Sector Twitter adoption In early 2010, GlobalSpec released “Social Media Trends in the Industrial Sector.” The 2010 study found that “At this point, only 9% are using Twitter.” On Feb 22, 2011, GlobalSpec released “Update: Social Media Trends in the Industrial Sector” as a follow-up to their 2010 study. The 2011 study was quite revealing. It indicated “Currently, only 15 percent have a Twitter account” GlobalSpec’s recommendations for using Twitter where, to say the least, in the “not recommended” category. By early 2012 marketing adoption, according a new updated report, ”Social Media Usage in the Industrial Sector” was released from GlobalSpec. According to that report, Twitter usage had now increased to 22% amongst respondents to the survey. Population Twitter adoption At the same time that GlobalSpec was doing their niche surveys regarding industrial adoption, Pew continued to complete their more general adoption rate studies for Twitter as well. To review:
Comparing the Statistics
Let’s just summarize for a moment what the data tells us:
At first glance this would seem to indicate that the industrial sector is adopting Twitter at a much more advanced rate than the general population: That may not be the case within certain vertical markets. First, there are some some obvious caveats with the last chart:
What that means
What we have observed. There are three very large industry trade shows coming up in North America. The International Woodworking Machinery & Supply Fair (IWF) in Atlanta, The International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) in Chicago and the FABTECH show in Las Vegas. The IWF show serves the woodworking vertical industry, IMTS serves the metalcutting market and FABTECH serves the welding and fabrication markets. All are within the ‘industrial’ sector. However, based upon our observation (because segmented analytics are near impossible to obtain or analyze) these industry silo’s vary in adoption. Of course both have a significant involvement in Twitter at the equipment manufacturer level but from there the segments begin to vary. Whereas the ‘woodworking’ sector has a good many woodworking (end user) shops with a Twitter presence the metalcutting and fabricating sector has little participation at the ‘end user” level, comparatively speaking. Why Twitter adoption may vary In the 1950′s Soloman Asch completed a study which is often called “Asch’s Paradigm” He concluded that within groups of people there was evidence that the power of conformity was a factor in adoption of ideas. Basically, it comes down to peer pressure. Certain industry segmented vertical silo’s have been affected by the social influence of their peers sooner than other silo’s. Conclusion So what that means is that “Your results may vary” and you should take that into consideration as you begin to develop your Twitter Strategy moving forward. It is almost certain that more and more adoption will begin to happen at a faster pace moving forward because we have “crossed the chasm”. And don’t forget to leave some room in your tactical plan to account for additional adoption within your vertical silo segments. |
| 6 Killer Reasons to Become a Full-Time Blogger Posted: 16 Aug 2012 11:40 AM PDT In today's uncertain economic times there more and more of us looking for something more, something with stability, a solid business model, growth potential, and more importantly something that actually belongs to us. Building a business, online or otherwise is never an easy feat. It takes a lot of hard work, dedication and love for what you do, and there's likely going to be more than a few long days or nights but you'll find that life is now filled with the progress and accomplishment of smaller goals that take place almost daily! Reason number one – SatisfactionThere is a certain sense of satisfaction that comes with owning a business of your own, nobody knows better than you or your peers what went into building that high traffic, popular and more importantly profitable blog. Whenever I stumble on a new and obviously successful blog, I don't think "man I wish I had that" instead I look the various components that I can relate to and think "wow! Nice job there." There is a sense of camaraderie online, and it's quite common for us to share in each other's successes, and even failures! I think it's because when we see the successes we realize how possible it is and that we're on our way. When we see the failures we realize that they could also be ours, and could show up in our own blogging future, and that we'd better have a plan to get around it. (This is likely why the person who failed shared it with us in the first place, to help others!) Reason number two – you own itI spent five years working for Canada's oldest company (even after it was sold twice) and while I enjoyed it, and thoroughly enjoyed my job, and was able to meet so many wonderful people, at the end of the five years I had nothing more than the shirts and ties I had been required to wear on a daily basis. Building your own business is no more difficult than working for someone else, in fact if you love what you're doing, and you're not in love with the job you work at, it can be a much easier. It's important to love what you do. "Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life." ~ Confucius Reason number three –You get to work from home (Yay!)Now this one can be a double-edged sword for some, working from home gives you so much freedom that you might not otherwise have. Wake up when you want, take the kids to school, no need to pack a lunch, no commute, and let's not forget the dress code. (I just looked down, and I'm wearing shorts and a tee) On the other hand there is no one responsible for your actions other than you, nobody to hold you accountable, and your workspace is filled with distractions. You can get past these, I'm sure you'll find there are a lot more benefits versus setbacks. Reason number four – The community (Yours and ours)The blogosphere is filled with such a wide and diverse culture of people who will challenge the way you think, and even what is possible. The majority of bloggers are always willing to help others to succeed along the way. It's important that you keep this tradition alive as well. There is also the community that you'll be building around your blog, the people who visit, take the time to comment, and even subscribe to your list so that you can keep in further contact with them, whether it be to provide them with more valuable information let them know about deals that are taking place online, that they may have missed, or yes, even to tell them about your new product or service that you're about to launch. Reason number five – The money $Bloggers are some of the most overworked and underpaid individuals on the planet, but (yes there is a but) there are also plenty of bloggers absolutely killing it online. Individuals like John Chow, Pat Flynn, and Darren Rowse, to name a few. These guys have built something amazing that will continue to provide a very real and very solid income for them and their families for many years to come. Now I know you hear the message "never blog for money alone" because without a passion for your subject matter, it's unlikely that you'll succeed. I would have to agree, but at the end of the day you should still be treating your blog like a business. Reason number six – It will confuse the heck out of everybodyOne of my favorite questions is "what you do for a living". When I tell them I'm a full-time blogger, and I make my living online the looks range from the raised eyebrows and "ahh", to the full on scowls and "huh"? Your parents will hate it, your friends will be envious, and only your peers will understand. Fortunately since you love what you're doing you'll be able to survive the early stages that may see you barely making hosting and Aweber fees, to the point where you're actually depositing checks from companies like Amazon, Google, and Clickbank! This list could easily have been "100 killer reasons to become a full-time blogger" but instead of being a 1000 word post, this would have ended up being a 100,000 word e-book. There are likely as many reasons to love blogging as there are bloggers out there. In fact, why not share with us just one of your favorite reasons to blog in the comments section below? F or for those of you just starting out, name one of the reason's you're looking forward to starting a blog, and business. Knowing why you're doing what you are will help carry you through the tough times and into the great ones! |
| 3 Tricks to Gather Good Content for Social Media Marketing Posted: 16 Aug 2012 11:35 AM PDT
When it comes to social media marketing, a key component of any Inbound Marketing Strategy, third-party content is an important part of what you share with your followers. For social media channels such as Twitter, third-party content should make up nearly 60 percent of what you share. Here at Weidert Group, we follow a 6-3-1 rule for our daily social media sharing: 6 third-party links, 3 Weidert Group created links and one unique content offer. So where do you get that third-party content? There are a lot of sources you can use to obtain these important third-party links, from industry newsletters to e-mail to your company twitter stream. But the real trick is to be able to gather all these links without it taking up the majority of the day. But we’ve learned some tricks, using tools we already use, that can shorten that process to under 30-minutes a day. 1. Use LinkedIn NewsLinkedIn does a lot of great things. How many of you are aware it’s a great content aggregator? Hundreds of publications and specialty sites feed their news to LinkedIn, making it a great place to find and share third-party content.
Since you can follow news both by subject matter, and specific publication, it’s really easy to setup a news stream that provides information your followers and prospects would be interested in. While we wouldn’t recommend it as your only source of information, LinkedIn News can aggregate the majority of your content for sharing. 2. Use a scheduling app like BufferIf you’re a regular reader of our blog, you know we are fans of Buffer. What makes Buffer so useful is the ability to share content from any website with the click of an icon, rather than having to copy and past links into Twitter or any other app.
This comes in handy while working with LinkedIn News because we can open multiple in our web browser for content we want to share, then click on the buffer icon, write any comments and hit Add to Buffer. Buffer sends the links out at predetermined times. We can also select from multiple accounts as well. (We have a similar tool in the HubSpot CMS that we use for content from Weidert Group.) 3. Keep your queue full with EvernoteWe are always looking for content our followers and prospects would be interested in, even when our outgoing queue is full. If we find something good, we want to make sure we save it – or curate it – so that we can share it in the future. Given the content demands of an effective social media marketing effort, what you need is a tool that allows you to save these content links without taking the time to copy and paste them somewhere else. Evernote gives you a one-click solution.
By using Evernote, we can save the the URLs of interesting links and retrieve them when we are ready to send them out. We can also make notations – remind yourself why you saved it – or save entire web pages for future use. Clearly, it has applications well beyond social media, but it is a great way to curate content for future use. Once installed, it’s a simple one-click solution to save pages right from your browser. By using these tools, we are able to greatly reduce the time spent collecting links to relevant content for social media sharing. These tools and tricks are by no means definitive, but are some of the ways we have found to do more in less time and still be effective. Make sure you get the most from your social media accounts. Optimize your social media profiles with our Social Media Optimization Playbook.
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| Social Media Needs a Strategy Like a Navigator Needs a Destination Posted: 16 Aug 2012 11:25 AM PDT  Social media needs a strategy, like a navigator needs a destination In regulated industries such as financial services, it's only a matter of time (usually minutes) before conversations about social media turn to compliance. These conversations, however, often miss the most important factor contributing to social media success: having an effective strategy. As many investment and wealth management firms begin to dip their toes into social media, they are typically focused on two main activities. First, they draft social media policies to provide guidelines as to what is acceptable and compliant behaviour for financial professionals in social networks. Think of these policies the "thou shalt nots." And second, firms deploy some kind of compliance monitoring software to ensure they can fulfill their regulatory obligations as their employees begin blogging, friending, connecting, following and tweeting with clients and prospects. This software becomes part of the social media "plumbling". There is no question that clear social media policies and effective compliance monitoring software are required aspects of any financial firm's foray into the social media space. But these rule-setting and policing efforts are primarily motivated to mitigate the perceived risks associated with a firm's representatives engaging in online settings. They don't prescribe to an advisor or other financial professional within a firm what actions they should take online in order to succeed — in order to position their personal brand and firm's brand effectively online and grow the business. Advisors need more than training on the "thou shalt nots" to succeed. They also need to receive instruction and coaching on what actions they CAN and SHOULD take in social media networks to build their credibility and trust online and engage clients and prospects effectively. And financial professionals need more than just the social media compliance plumbing to succeed. They need great content — some internally produced, lots externally sourced and shared – to fill their social media pipelines and strengthen their networks. Social media without a strategy is like having a map and compass with no destination.
My anecdotal observations suggests that an even larger proportion, perhaps the majority, of firms in the financial services and wealth management industry do not have a coherent strategy to guide their social media efforts — and this includes firms with social media policies and compliance software in place. Even the purveyors of compliance software are prodding the industry to move the conversation from rules and regulations to how to support business goals, objectives and strategy in social media. Part of the problem, when discussing "strategy" in a business setting, is that the term itself is widely misunderstood. Perhaps, it is easier to start with what it is not. It is not a plan, a timeline, a goal or the tactics you will use to achieve a goal. Instead, your strategy should describe how you will win and succeed in the marketplace. It's a kind of if-then hypothesis: if we do this, then we expect to achieve that. So what are the key strategic considerations for successful use of social media in the financial services and wealth management industry? Here are some suggestions:
The social media strategy transit map shows various intersecting lines of social activity that feed a successful strategy.
Effective use of social media in financial services firms needs to be built on a solid understanding of compliance issues, as well as a wide range of other strategic considerations and customer data that emerges from engagement. |
| How Much Should You Plan To Pay Your Social Media Community Manager? Posted: 16 Aug 2012 10:35 AM PDT Thinking About Hiring Social Media? (Updated from original Spring 2012 blog post on Social Sparkle & Shine) What can a Social Media Community Manager do for your business?
It's a bit of a wild ride these days if you're trying to make a living as a social media professional. New apps and startups are launching weekly and qualified social media professionals are creating and accepting social media positions with small businesses, large companies and ad agencies every day. Many social media experts and professionals charge $10,000+/month for social media and Internet marketing consulting packages, while many business owners feel like paying $50/hour to a social media contractor is too much. Most employers and hiring managers I speak with are looking to hire a Social Media Community Manager for the first time, and they’re often unsure of how traditional employee/contractor expectations translate to social media. Just writing this post, spawned another “Are Your #CMGR Hiring Expectations Realistic?” People often email me asking for information on how much I charge for various social media services, which obviously I can't provide without knowing a lot more about what results the client is looking for, why they need social media help now, and how much time & money resources they are going to budget/invest in a consulting solution. That being said, I've applied for so many social media jobs, contracts and spoken with employers, HR managers and recruiters in Canada and the United States and feel like these could be the minimum budget you should expect to invest for ongoing social media community management services. Please let me know in the comments if you think these are high, low or right on the mark. Again, these are not my rates, which vary by clients, they are just the average rate I think you should expect to invest if you are a) a serious business looking for a professional social media solution, and b) want to experience minimum acceptable results from your investment. $60,000+/year
> Look for: Candidates with a college/university degree in Internet marketing, marketing, PR/communications or writing, professional community management experience they can show you and blogging/content development experience preferably in your business category. $1,500/month > Daily updates from your pre-populated blog to all your social channels including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+, etc. > Additional meetings and event attendance or product review blogging is usually available for $40-$70/hour. $750/month > Daily updates from your pre-populated blog to Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or Pinterest (a mix) > Additional meetings and event attendance or product review blogging is often available for $50-$75/hour. $250/month Want to confirm the above rates are really the least you can reasonably expect to find with quality results? Read these posts from working social media professionals:
What are the key traits that will make a community manager successful in their role? Wikibrands author Sean Moffitt at his book launch party at Social Media Week Toronto 2011 Darius Bashar Here's what Lauren O'Nizzle, one of Canada's most popular community managers has to say about selecting a community manager who is an appropriate demographic fit for your community |
| Posted: 16 Aug 2012 10:30 AM PDT On July 11, 2012, Rachel [Thompson, of Bad Redhead Media] had tweeted some astonishing figures. Pinterest had out rated ALL its competition social media outlets, except Facebook, in usage. Granted it was for only one month, but could this be an increasing trend? One thing we know for sure is that Pinterest is another avenue for authors to market their books, which costs NO MONEY! As a person who frequently is approached by authors as someone who they can bounce ideas off of, I am shocked by the number of authors who are unaware of how to use Pinterest to develop their novel's brand and get some free marketing to boot! So, my question is "How do you Pinterest?" In regard to Pinterest, one has to be very careful in "spamming;" unlike other outlets, Pinterest frowns deeply on self-promotion and it violates their TOS! I think a good jumping off point is describing what a brand is. The easiest way to think of a brand is "Who is your book?" and "What are some key descriptions of your book?" Think of your book as a person. What would be some adjectives you would use to describe it? So, with those questions in mind, you are ready to move to the next steps in your Pinterest profile! 1. Develop word/words that describe the answers to the questions above. Make a list of those words. For example, does your book have a cooking theme in it? Boards focusing on cooking are a must! How about a Southern setting? Then, focus on Southern themes cooking, scenery/photography, etc. One of the best examples I have seen of this is the writing duo of Cecilia Aubrey (http://pinterest.com/ceciliaaubrey/) and Chris Almeida (http://pinterest.com/calmeidaauthor/) These ladies write romances together and one of Cecelia's key boards focuses on, well, let's just say "the romance dance!" But it works for her board and she currently has 230 followers. What I love most about these ladies' boards is that they have really figured out excellent key words to describe who they are and have found wonderful pictures to meet those . 2. Develop boards based on your key words. Next, to give variety and not look like you are spamming, what are some words that describe you? What are your hobbies? Make sure to develop boards for "your characteristics" as well! 3. Don't forget to do a board for your book! 4. Be creative with the names of your boards! Have fun coming up with them. People are drawn to the unusual. Use your creative genius in the marketing of your book…not just in the writing! 5. Have a blog; the same concepts apply with your blog! Here are two examples of authors who also have blogs ad have made their Pinterest profiles work for them. First, Terri G. Long, author of "In Leah's Wake" and author of the blog Terri Guiliano Long (http://tglong.com/site/) and, of course, our host, Rachel! (Ed. note: aw, thank you.) While marketing her blog and companies, she lets followers have an insight into her processes. One thing I love most about Pinterest that I see with no other social media outlet with a "funness" for creativity. I have only been on it for a couple of months but I LOVE IT! Have fun with it and go crazy, but do it in a controlled craziness that will introduce Pinners to your book(s) and/or blog. What is YOUR experience with Pinterest and what are your thoughts on my tips? We welcome your comments below! |
| Top 6 Tips For Using Twitter During Events Posted: 16 Aug 2012 10:25 AM PDT
Following a long chat with a client this week about using Twitter to promote and enhance their upcoming business event, we realised that we've accumulated a lot of knowledge on the subject – some of it earned the painful way! So, if you're organising an event, whether it's "in person" or a virtual-event webinar, here's what you should be thinking about. Why use Twitter for an event?Done right, there are so many reasons why Twitter can make your event so much more successful. Firstly, reach. If you're running a webinar, promoting it and live tweeting (essentially, reporting and commenting on the presentations in real time) will help put you in touch with interested parties globally. If the event is "real-world", this is even more true – having a Twitter element to it means that participation is no longer limited to those within an hour or two's travelling distance. Secondly, encouraging discussion on Twitter during the event can seriously power up the conversation. How many times have you sat in a presentation, wanting to ask a question but then finding that the Q&A was over before they got to you? Or wondered what the other attendees were *really* thinking, but were too polite to bring up in the formal sessions? Good use of Twitter can fix both those challenges. Then, a Twitter discussion gives your event a longer lifespan. There's nothing to stop attendees continuing the debate before or after the session, for as long as they want to. As well as being great for the attendees and speakers, this adds a whole extra dimension of visibility to your event and that can only be good for future attendance! Finally, Twitter can provide a big value add for delegates. That's partly because of the increased discussion opportunity, but also for networking – they're no longer limited to chatting with whoever they wound up next to in the coffee queue. Practical tips for Twitter at an eventUsing Twitter for events isn't rocket science, but we've seen it go VERY wrong on occasion. You need to 1) Ensure that there will be WiFi or a decent 3G signal available in the venue. And… 2) Make sure the Wifi connection details and password are very prominently displayed. Yes, that seems obvious and it seems simple, but we've seen big social media agencies fall foul of this one – exhorting everyone to join in via Twitter, whilst not noticing that the event is in a basement and they've not provided the WiFi password. It results in everyone fiddling with their phones getting frustrated rather than focusing on the presentation. 3) Think about who your audience are, and if they're reasonably likely to be familiar with Twitter. I once had to "host" a twitter chat at a local government event about four years ago – it was painful, as the results were up on a projector screen and there was only one other twitter user in the room. Turned out he wasn't feeling chatty! 4) Choose a hashtag and start promoting it early and often – ideally with some suggestions of how people can use it on the day 5) Unless you trust your audience with your (professional) life, DO NOT project live-tweets on a screen near or, worse, behind the presenter. It's really not fair on the speakers, for one thing – can you imagine anything more distracting than a real-time critique just out of your line of sight?! Live screening also often proves too tempting for even the most professional of audiences to resist tempting the profanity filters, or making jokes about the presenter's tie. Put screens in breakout areas, or switch them off during presentations and back on for the Q&A. 6) Ideally, have someone on the staff who can "compere" the discussion – summarising the presentation, making some comments etc. Oftentimes people won't start a conversation but will join in. On a related note, if you're using Twitter to take questions for the Q&A, have someone collate them and relay them to the speaker – it's awkward for them to be checking Twitter or a screen themselves, even assuming they're usually Twitter users. Those are our Top Tips – if you have any others, or juicy stories of live-tweet-based disaster to share, please feel free below… |
| Advice For New Graduates: How To Use Social Media While Looking For Work, And For Your Job Posted: 16 Aug 2012 10:10 AM PDT
Social media is a wonderful thing – from a personal standpoint it allows you to connect with old friends, spy on ex-boyfriends, keep in touch with family and stay updated with friends who don't live nearby. From a professional standpoint, it can be great as well – a way to find new opportunities, network and stay up to date on your industry – but there can certainly be some pitfalls. It's important to approach social media with purpose: When you are looking for a job: I have interviewed tons of folks for positions at my firm, and the first thing I (and lots of those in my position) do when I receive a promising looking resume is to Google that person's name. It's amazing what you find out about someone through the Internet – I'll often have full access to their Facebook photos, Instagram account, Pinterest page, Tweets (and Twitter photo), past/current blogs, YouTube videos, awards in high school, mentions in the school paper, etc. You've probably heard this before, but the best advice is: clean it up. Untag yourself from compromising photos and check to make sure all of your public profile settings are appropriate. Make everything private that you can but make sure that anything you have online is ok for recruiters to see. There are many ways to get around privacy settings. The good news is, this search is available to you as well. Before you go to an interview, Google who you will be meeting with. Check out their LinkedIn page, Facebook, blog posts, Tweets. Have they been quoted in the news? Don't just check out the company's homepage and stop there – dig deep. For instance, if you Google my name, this blog and others will come up in the search, yet few candidates mention that they've read anything I've written. This is an easy win for a candidate. Show you've done your due diligence on who you are meeting with by dropping in some fact you know about them (trust me, it feels creepy but is flattering to those who you are meeting with). Something like – I noticed that you got your MBA at Wharton, how did you end up at this firm? Or, I saw your quote in the Wall Street Journal on upcoming legislation, how do you think that will change the industry? This makes you look smart and interested in the job – two major pluses for candidates. And once you have a job: Social media is an absolutely fantastic way to stay up to date on things happening in your chosen field, even if you just want to sit back and soak it in without participating:
In the end, social media has a lot to offer those starting out in careers. Good luck! This post was originally published as a guest post by Katherine Kilpatrick on Washington & Lee's Alumni Perspective blog.
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| Achieving Social Media Lead Generation By Increasing Your Reach Posted: 16 Aug 2012 10:05 AM PDT
There are many proven ways to dazzle potential fans and followers. The following are methods that have been successful for my company: Generously promoting your social presence Buttons for my company’s social media platforms are embedded within each of the employees' Outlook signatures. This provides a great opportunity for the people receiving our emails to easily see and then click on the buttons which will instantly connect them to our Twitter, Facebook and/or LinkedIn sites. The more the email is forwarded, the greater chance of exposure, resulting in higher numbers of viewers, visitors, and potential leads. We have also made our social media links visible and easily accessible as buttons on our company’s website. These buttons make it easy for visitors to our websites to "Follow," "Like," and "Connect" with us there. Gladly sharing your content – as well as the content of others I enjoy blogging and absorb a lot of good information from others as I research content for what I will write each week. I also hope that the people who visit our websites enjoy reading our posts as much as we do writing them. I personally like to create a new blog post at least once a week, and will then push it out into the social media world as quickly and feasibly as possible. As well, I like to share the content of others through our various social media platforms. The beauty of sharing is that it is often a reciprocated process. I find that when we share pertinent links from others within our industry then they often will return the favor. It's a win-win situation since our content is gaining even more exposure to a greater number of followers. It has also helped us to gain more followers – and our reach – as a result. In return, I am able to enjoy and become better educated through following the blog posts and content of others. Creating and maintaining social media relationships Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn make it extremely easy to find people within your industry or people who have interests that are similar to your own. Getting the hang of finding and following people within each platform then allows you to interact and engage with them. The more activity you have, the higher the probability of increasing your company's reach and exposure. One of the most important things to remember is that successfully increasing your reach doesn't happen overnight — nor will you become a social media superstar in 24 hours. With time, patience, and perseverance you should see your social media reach and lead generation grow over time. It is really no different than the “real world” interactions with decision-makers and influencers that marketers have on a daily basis. What tactics has your company been using to increase its social media reach? I would enjoy hearing your success stories. Image Credit: By Paola peralta (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons |
| FTSE100 Recognise The Value of Social Media Posted: 16 Aug 2012 09:55 AM PDT More and more British companies are moving quickly to put their brands mark on social media and increase their presence and audience online. The question is, why? Is social media marketing really that effective? The Good The social media profiles of the FTSE100 companies were recently analysed showing an astounding 25 million social media connections. The report shows the largest companies in the UK have now up to 1.9m followers on LinkedIn linked in alone; 1.7m on Twitter and a staggering 19m Facebook fans. Further to these findings, statistics for the use of corporate videos within this same group of companies showed high numbers of viewers with growth of 79% in comparison to the previous period and up to 62.1m views in the last six months. The Bad What stood out? While as many as 86% of the top 100 UK firms have LinkedIn profiles, only 12 of top the 100 companies are present on Google+. The Ugly The bad news is that the number of businesses with blogs was only 16 out of 100, with the amount of blog posts also falling by almost a half – 46% decrease in the last six month period. Cathal Smyth, managing director at The Group said, "Companies really are missing a prospect by neglecting this route, as it gives the FTSE100 a genuine opportunity to build relationships with stakeholders, demonstrate transparency and lead on issues," Which networks and why? British businesses seem to be finding their feet with the core social media platforms, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Most companies exploiting Facebook for its huge pool of users, easy to engage environment and the peer to peer influence power it offers. We're seeing more and more brands getting smart with their use of the Timeline, recommendations and smart apps. The uptake on twitter has been a little slower, partly due to its lower user numbers and lack of functionality in comparison to Facebook. However, Twitter offers businesses and brands a different type of network, one that, if engaged in the right way can be just as, if not more powerful than Facebook. This is something that is becoming more obvious to the marketing strategists currently missing out on a powerful set of users. LinkedIn, although the platform with the fewest user numbers of the FTSE100 companies, (highest being 1.9m followers compared to 19m Facebook fans) it is still a very powerful network in its own right. In terms of marketing power, this platform is fairly limited, but is a real niche zone bursting with industry specialists looking for content to keep them on the edge or using the smart profile set-up to position themselves for that dream move. LinkedIn gives companies the platform to project the right image which, if executed effectively, can dramatically increase the quality of new business leads, business connections and employment leads for future positions. Figures from The Group research revealed that the professional networking site has become the most popular social media channel for FTSE 100 companies, perhaps unsurprising as LinkedIn is the most business specific space of all the leading social networks. From December 2011 to June 2012, the number of FTSE 100 companies with a LinkedIn profile grew by 35%. ”LinkedIn is clearly becoming an indispensable channel for businesses wanting to interact with important audiences and in particular it has become an important aspect of corporate recruitment," added Smyth. But it doesn't stop there. Social media platforms have now become integral to any brands content strategy, with the ability to distribute multiple formats of content to mass user numbers so easily. Content distributed using social media monitoring software such as Radian6, Sysomos and Meltwater also gives marketers the ability to track and process user behaviours on the back of broadcasting the content. With such powerful numbers at our fingertips, in terms of users, it's understandable that brands in Britain are turning to social media platforms not only to foster a community, but to generate leads and improve quality of future recruitment opportunities. |
| What Is Good SEO? The Debate Continues Posted: 16 Aug 2012 09:55 AM PDT Larry stirred up quite a controversy last week with two posts that made some bold claims. First, he said that SEOs suck at PPC because they don't approach it with the right mindset. (Later, he amended the post to say that SEOs sometimes suck at PPC – he also told me he was mainly thinking about himself.) Then he said that the idea that SEO has more long-term value than PPC is a myth. This didn't sit too well with some of our readers (many of whom are advocates for and practitioners of SEO – as, frankly, we have always been in the past). We had some vehement disagreement in the comments from people who thought Larry was over-generalizing or conflating "SEO" with webspam and unsustainable black-hat tactics. For example, Matt Bennett said, "you’ve taken your own experiences of SEOs and applied them to the industry as a whole, and as a result you’ve inadvertently made yourself look naïve." And here's Kieran Flanagan: "I actually think you make some good points in this post but it’s packaged up in some really poor misinformation. You are comparing images of sites who have been hit by Google's updates to combat spam and using it to make a kind of self serving point about SEO vs PPC." Unfortunately, what could have been a really interesting debate about the relative merits – and costs – of paid search and organic search got a bit ugly because the posts, in their original form, did overstate their claims, and key terms (like "SEO"!) were poorly defined. The posts have since been edited to reflect the fact that we both (Larry, as the author, and me, as the blog manager) agree the posts were potentially misleading. But, shitshow aside, there was some really interesting debate in the comments! There were also a couple of related posts this week that I want to bring to your attention, in case you missed them. Undebunking (Rebunking?) the Myth of the Long-Term Value of SEOMichael Martinez of SEO Theory directly addresses some of Larry's points in a (characteristically) long and detailed post about "low-maintenance, long-term SEO." Michael says that he agrees "whole-heartedly" with the claim that what qualifies as "good SEO" changes over time. However, he totally disagrees with the idea that "SEO costs more and more to maintain over time." And his point here is really important I think: Well, frankly, the way I look at things (and I am only expressing an opinion), if your costs are rising and your return on investment isn't rising correspondingly then you're hardly optimizing for search — so whatever you're doing really isn't SEO. The fact is, two things are true about our SEO costs at WordStream:
What Larry's post should have said (in my humble opinion) is that the actual dollar amount you spend on search marketing doesn't really matter, as long as you are getting ROI on that spend. That's true for SEO or PPC. About that Whole "Good SEO" Question…As I mentioned above, Michael Martinez didn't quibble with Larry's point that the definition of good, clean, Google-approved SEO has shifted over the years, but a lot of people did. For example, Nick Ker said "it really is not hard to tell where the line is. Just read Google’s Webmaster Quality Guidelines and SEO Startup Guide … It really isn’t a big mystery." Personally I think it's a little more complicated than that. There are specific techniques that Matt Cutts used to talk about (e.g. PageRank sculpting and the use of rel=canonical tags on multi-page documents) that Google now says are overdoing it. The basic best practices may stay the same, but most people in the SEO industry have played around – sometimes extensively – with more advanced techniques that go beyond the basic stuff in Google's webmaster guidelines. And that's where you run into gray zones: What's light gray today might be dark gray next year. Aaron Wall at SEO Book released an infographic that addresses this question – what's the difference between good SEO and SEO spam? It lists out a bunch of tactics that are a no-no according to Google's guidelines, but that Google freely engages in itself. The lesson for webmasters? As ever, do as they say, not as they do.
Search Infographic by SEO Book More Web Marketing HighlightsGoogle continues on its vertical acquisition streak with the announcement that it will buy Frommer's travel guides for an undisclosed amount. Cyrus Shepard did some testing and found that changing his Google+ profile picture (the one that appears in the SERPs if you're using authorship markup) had a notable effect on click-through rate. Here's an interesting thread on Quora about its practice of hiding answers from search engine visitors. Is that Google-nay or Google-OK? Filmmaker Errol Morris writes in the NYT's Opinionator column about how font choice affects the believability of your claims. (Do NOT use Comic Sans in your board presentations!) Later, gators. “Good versus Evil” image via Helico |
| What is Pinterestcamp and 5 Ways to Use It in Email Marketing Posted: 16 Aug 2012 08:35 AM PDT Pinterest is the fastest growing social network today. We think Pinterest email marketers should be interested! Although it's an image-based social networking, you can also use it in content marketing. Because words are pinnable too! For most of 2012, we've seen news reports of how Pinterest is quickly gaining fans. In April 2012, Experian Hitwise research claimed Pinterest the third most popular social networking site in US behind Facebook and Twitter. And in May 2012, comScore study showed that Pinterest is the leader when it comes to purchasing an item seen in social network, surpassing Facebook.
Pinterest is not meant to be an affiliate link site, it is designed to share your content and ideas in vision boards, similar to the way interior designers pull together ideas for a kitchen make over. Vision boards are a collection of your ideas, things you like and inspiration all in one topical board. You can scan your friends boards too and see what interests them. However, the platform is evolving into a sales tool. Like something you see? Click through to the website where the image is hosted and make a purchase. Many email marketers discovered Pinterest at the very moment it appeared, so you have probably already heard numerous tips and tricks on how to use Pinterest in email marketing. But in this blog post, I'd like to talk about integrated marketing campaigns where Pinterest is included or so-called pinterestcamps. Are you [P]interested? 1. Promote signing up for emails via PinterestYou've worked hard to build a large and qualitative email list, it's one of your greatest treasures. Marketers talk a lot about how to grow email lists offline and online, how to get subscribers via QR codes and build email lists via social media like Facebook and Twitter. Now you can include Pinterest in the mix. Of course, don't expect much just by uploading and repinning your sign-up form. Create interesting and eye-catching pinterestcamps.
 Example how email sign up forms are displayed in Pinterest. Source: Pinterest 2. Display materials in Pinterest and promote via emailPinterest is more than social networking. More and more companies find it an excellent place to display presentations, videos and other materials. For this kind of pinterestcamp, you must create boards with full-fledged information and then promote it via newsletters.
3. Put email designs in PinterestWhen inviting people to sign up for newsletters, engagement will be much higher if you show people what exactly they are going to receive. If you often change email templates and create custom design templates, bring it all together in Pinterest boards. And then create campaigns in Pinterest or pinterestcamps to promote sign up for beautiful newsletters:
 Mailigen email template designs in Pinterest. Source: Mailigen account in Pinterest 4. Promote your Pinterest account via emailHave you created a corporate Pinterest account and pinned a lot of interesting resources? Great! But how about promoting all this beauty? Email will be your greatest help. Of course you can and you should include the Pinterest icon in the header or footer of your email template, as well as add a short phrase announcing it, but why not think also about special campaign.
5. Make your email Pinterest friendlyIf you have become a real fan of Pinterest, go further and make your emails Pinterest friendly. That is to say, integrate Pinterest in your email campaigns.
To Sum UpAt the beginning of 2012, Pinterest was a rising star among social networks and now it's still climbing. It's becoming more important in our social media habits, in our marketing plans and in our creative ideas. Pinterest is not going to be just an ordinary social site. Since its origins, Pinterest was designed to interact with Facebook and Twitter. Little by little, it's entering different marketing strategies, „make friends" with other Internet marketing channels and highlight today's communication trend: visual and interactive. You can be sure Pinterest will perfectly enrich your integrated marketing mix and especially your email marketing plan. |
| Develop Website Trust Signals That Drives Conversion for Your Business Posted: 16 Aug 2012 08:20 AM PDT Taking part in a business is much like building a relationship. It is a two-way link where both parties are expected to give and take according to their means. The idea that creates and maintains that link is trust. A potential customer will not start patronizing the products and/or services of a business if he or she does not trust the business to deliver its promises upon payment. Likewise, a business will not cooperate with another business that it does not trust. Harboring Trust in a BusinessIn brick and mortar businesses, human interaction is the key to gaining the trust of a customer. Warm smiles, clean uniforms and accommodating staff can help people entering a store have a satisfactory experience. If that experience is achieved and the value of the product and/or service offered is good, it is more likely that the visiting person will keep coming back. In the realm of cyberspace, an online business will have to resort to other ways to gain trust. The first thing it should work on is its website, since it is the first—and for a lot of businesses—the only thing that interested people will get their impressions from. Trust Signals and Why They are Important for WebsitesIn most websites, there is a lack of direct human interaction. Even so, customers will have to entrust an online business with things as important as personal data, credit card information and contact details, among others. Afterwards, they have to wait for a certain amount of days before they get the product/service. They will have to believe that a product will come in perfect condition without actual inspection or trial prior to purchase. With all these considered, people have every right to be wary. So what can online businesses do to allay those reasonable doubts? They can use a variety of links, signs and badges on a website that convey credibility. These are called "trust signals". Building Trust SignalsA trust signal can take on many forms, and these are usually seen immediately on a homepage to keep visitors on the website. In this age of information, people's attention constantly shifts from one thing to another, so even a cursory glance on a website must already and immediately portray an image of trustworthiness. Here are the most important website elements that must build trust: 1. Domain Name The domain name, the main URL of the business, must state what the business is about. People who enter a website must be able to get exactly what they are looking for. Make your domain name sound professional, and, if possible, as short as it can be while still being clear. It is also important that your domain name is easy to remember and to associate with the business. 2. Website Loading Speed It is not advisable to try the patience of Internet users, as they expect everything now to move at a high speed. Having a website that loads quickly can help in conversion, especially for those with multimedia content. You can use Google's PageSpeed Insights, which can analyze a webpage and show its loading time, as well as what can be improved to make it load faster. 3. Calls to Action Another way of gaining the trust of customers is by allowing them to have their say about a product or service. Encourage your viewers to share their feedback or comments on products, services or website posts. Allow them to support your product or service through social media shares or endorsements (i.e. Facebook Likes and Shares, Tweets, etc.) Keep in mind, though, that bombarding your audience with calls to Like or Share can be annoying to some. Thus, it is important to avoid stuffing your website with social media buttons and asking people to repeatedly Follow you on Twitter, Like your Page on Facebook, Circle you, etc., especially if you haven't delivered the product or service yet. People would likely see this as desperate solicitation, not unlike suspicious websites that constantly tell visitors to buy their products. 4. Content As mentioned in the beginning of this article, a business must provide what a customer wants. For websites, the content must match the expectations of the visitor. Exceeding them by offering extra relevant content is better. Among the main trust signals of content are:
Making these pieces of information visible makes a website exude professionalism and security. You can also include product or service reviews, customer testimonials, news or latest updates, helpful articles such as tips and how-to's, downloads, and forums and discussions. These trust signals add a layer of reliability through customer interaction, expert endorsements and other relevant information. 5. Social Proof This is a psychological phenomenon that makes people interested in something if plenty of other people have already shown interest in it. Taking advantage of this can be done by showing social media badges such as the number of RSS subscribers or Google+ circles where they can be immediately seen. 6. Trust Seals Aside from customer testimonials, displaying commendations or seals of approval from established companies have a major effect on people's opinion. A direct retailing website that has the approval of Amazon or eBay will gain the trust of visitors more easily. Business owners or would-be entrepreneurs looking for success should invest time and money in building a website, especially in this digital era where people are slowly but surely moving their entire lives online. What these ambitious men and women must remember before taking on this endeavour is to build trust. Trust is the foundation of all businesses. Without it, there is no business. |
| Emergency Preparedness on your Social Intranet Posted: 16 Aug 2012 07:00 AM PDT I had a call from one of our healthcare customers and we worked together on ways they could inform employees about hospital emergencies. We acknowledged that it's difficult to predict when a workplace crisis will occur, but you always want to be prepared in the event of one. If your company has mapped out safe zones, prepared emergency protocols, and printed safety guides then you are on your way to being able to manage an unexpected pressing situation. Here are 3 ways to use your social intranet in the event of a workplace emergency: Use message walls to send instant updates about the situation at hand Hospitals can post waiting room and injury headcounts or share how many patients are in the operating room at any given time. Nurses can then send up-to-the-minute updates about the OR situation using the share feature on message walls. Start an emergency preparedness blog Write posts about what to do in all plausible emergency scenarios. If a crisis occurs, have the first responder write a quick post about the situation. Provide updates in the comments section directly below the post. Tag the event with the type of emergency that is taking place, be it an evacuation, power outage or dangerous weather conditions. Create a workplace Health & Safety department page Introduce the workplace safety team and explain exactly what their job entails. Share educational videos explaining how to do the Heimlich maneuver, offer a rotating widget with first aid tips, and bookmark links to incident reporting forms, fire safety and security procedure documentation. A safe workplace is a productive one. Use your intranet to give employees the tools and resources they need to feel protected in the case of an unexpected emergency. |
| Why a 23-Year-Old SHOULD Run Your Social Media Posted: 16 Aug 2012 06:45 AM PDT
Thank you for writing your thought provoking article Viewpoint: 11 Reasons a 23-Year-Old Shouldn't Run Your Social Media. It was inspiring enough for me to offer some counterpoints on why a 23 year old should run your social media. Firstly, if you start an article by apologizing for offending a subset of the general population, you will likely, by default, offend them. Just an FYI for future (potentially offensive) articles. Secondly, many of your points focused on maturity, etiquette, and experience. Perhaps we should start by focusing on CEO’s behaving badly as opposed to line employees. Ultimately, the C-suite within an organization should set the culture and serve as an example for the rest of the company on a variety of fronts. If your company leader is arrested for driving drunk and claiming Taylor Swift is his girlfriend, you have bigger problems than worrying about errant Tweets from your 23-year-old social media community manager. Thirdly, it’s important to realize that the buck stops with you. ‘You’ could be the CMO or the CEO, and ‘you’ could be 20 or 50. If your 23-year-old social media expert falters, don’t blame him. Look in the mirror. Was your hiring process flawed? Were your corporate training programs lacking? Were appropriate social media guidelines not in place or not made clear? Don’t blame the person - identify the systemic failure. What internal processes that you, a corporate leader, are ultimately responsible for were not in place? A 23-year-old is a digital native and understands the context of a digital world and has technical and social media skills a 40 or 50-year-old likely doesn’t have or doesn’t want to learn. Your job as a CMO is to provide an effective infrastructure within which a digital native can work and grow and serve as an asset to your corporate brand. Oh, and as Columbo would say, just one more thing. There’s this guy, a young guy – he’s 28, I think. A true digital native of sorts. He built a social media platform. It’s gaining steam, growing in users – could bring in a lot of advertisers. You should check his platform out sometime. Just a thought.
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Stop feeling guilty if you aren't posting to your own blog at least three times a week.
Various articles, both here on the B2C Community site and other websites have been, on one hand, big advocates of Twitter, and on the other, have had a rather antagonistic view of Twitter. It would seem that both views have merit: It all depends on which vertical silo the anecdotal observations are being made.
We knew it wouldn’t take long for Meg Hoppe’s most recent blog, sharing 
An informal survey done by SmartBrief on Social Media reveals that as many as 
We’re really here for the presentations, honest!
One of the most important – and basic – steps for social media lead generation is to increase your company's reach. You may have the best content ever, but what good is it if there is no one to ever see it? For most companies the ultimate goal of creating and maintaining a web presence is to attract visitors and prospective leads.
Dear Hollis Thomases -
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