25 New Social Articles on Business 2 Community |
- Context Switching is Evil
- 10 Ways to Optimize your LinkedIn Experience
- Three Little Known Ways to Get Traffic From Facebook
- This is the ‘Tablet Holiday’ + Other Trends Marketers Can’t Ignore
- Some Quick Social Media Tips
- 3 Ways Search Retargeting Can Boost Your Business
- How Social Media can Foster Brand Loyalty
- The Art of the Digital Profile: Unleashing New Opportunities with LinkedIn
- Social Employers Prefer Freelance Writing Professionals
- 3 Decisions That Will Set Your Private Online Community Up for Success
- California Wines Infographic
- Why You Don’t Want to Be An Average Blogger
- How The Indian Auto Sector Is Performing On Social Media [Infographic]
- What IS Facebook, Exactly?
- How Do You Get More Traffic for Marketing Automation? Start Blogging
- Palghar Teenager Detained For Facebook Post Against Raj Thackeray
- So You Think You Can Blog? 3 Common Content Don’ts
- SEO Jobs Salary Guide (Infographic)
- The Imperceptible Impact of Social Media on Our Everyday Lives
- Online Customer Communities: 5 Ways to Increase Customer Lifetime Value
- The Art of Social Intelligence
- KLM India Wants You To Check In Passengers And Win Prizes
- 5 Ways to Bring Down Personal and Business Barriers Using Social Media
- Instatown, See The World Through Filters
- The Consultant Price is Right
| Posted: 28 Nov 2012 02:35 PM PST Context switching is bad. Imagine you are sitting down to write your blog post. After you write your title, you write your first line – 'Context switching is bad'. Now, you want an image to go along with your blog, so you open Google Images, type in 'context switching' to get a little inspiration, and see this. 'Hey, that looks COOL', you think to yourself, and click through to the website. You see that the page is nearly blank, but think, 'what the hell', and click the link back to homepage. This is what you get. Now, I don't know about you, but I can spend the next 30 minutes wandering around on that site, looking at various designs. I then remember that I started off writing a blog post (about contest switching, of course, what else), and go back to staring at my blank Google Doc, which has 'context switching is bad for you' written on it, and nothing else. It takes me 5 minutes to remember what I wanted to write about, 10 minutes to get my creative juices flowing again, and…. wait a second, I need a coffee. Right, where was I? And THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is what it feels like when you go to a meeting where three of the four people in the meeting are constantly answering their phones, or just helping out the sales guy, or quickly doing something, it won't take two seconds. Even when you do manage to get a serious discussion going, you just know that in two minutes you'll have to stop talking about the new site launch, and wait for two people to finish a proposal, because you said 'what about the 'Pricing' tab', and they suddenly remembered they had to get them done. When they do get back into the discussion, it's 5 minutes at best (and 15 minutes at worst) until you get back to the original discussion, and remembering what you all wanted to say about it. When you start working on something, finish it. (that's why you should break tasks into smaller, more manageable chunks, but that's a different post). And if you are in a meeting – talk about the agenda. Discuss matters that bring the goal closer. Don't suddenly start doing something else. Just don't context switch. |
| 10 Ways to Optimize your LinkedIn Experience Posted: 28 Nov 2012 02:05 PM PST LinkedIn is the professional's networking site. It's a place where people connect to share information, discuss relative topics, seek opportunities, and enhance business relationships. While it's a heaven for recruiters, LinkedIn offers value for all walks of life. Let's discuss how you can optimize your LinkedIn experience. If you're working for IBM and in every social network your byline reads, "the views represented here are my own and not those of my employer" just be careful about your activity. This is something you need to feel out with your employer. LinkedIn (LNKD) went public in May 2011, and currently trades ($107.59) above its opening day high. It's IPO and run has been smooth and 1. Keep your profile updated – This may sound simple, but so many users can't manage to complete their profile. Having a LI profile without a photo is inexcusable. Period. If you don't have a photo displayed, you lose credibility. Upload a professional headshot photo if you haven't already. A headshot is more personal than a logo. Arguably worse than no photo is a picture of a celebrity. Come on. Take the time to complete your profile. It's to your benefit to go in and complete 100%. 2. Customize your website links – Under the Contact info tab you should put your business website info. You can have two additional site listed in this space. Add your personal blog and a charity site that you support. Now something a lot of users miss is personalizing the title of the sites. Using the default "Company Website" is bland. Charge it up a bit.
3. Join Groups and Engage - Groups are arguably the most important part of LinkedIn. This is where you meet people and build rapport. This is where connections are made. There's no build rapport in 15 minutes plan. This takes time. While you can join up to 50 groups, start with 1-2 where you have an interest and will be active. Anymore than that and you won't be able to keep up. 4. The new "one-click" endorsement – This has been all the buzz of late. The critics have lined up. LinkedIn is worthless now because it's too easy give an endorsement. Come back down to earth. Think of it as a little nugget, a show of appreciation to someone else.
5. Recommendations – Unlike the "one-click" immediate gratification endorsements, recommendations are a more thorough representation of a business relationship. A couple things. Even if you've amassed 50-60 recommendations, you should only show 7-8 on your profile. Anything more is too much, and will probably include some poorly written versions. You want to highlight the marquee recommendations. I've been asked multiple times to write recommendations, and while I've done some, they can be a time consuming operation. Learn to say "No". You have to pick your spots. People will ask, and feel like I should have it done by the end of the day. If you do say yes, set expectations so it doesn't get messy. Another idea is to have the requester write up something themselves and you can tweak and edit accordingly. This takes the onus of you create this from scratch. If I was asking for a recommendation today, I would proactively write it up myself to get the ball rolling. 6. Content Curation – Finding solid relative content is an ongoing challenge for both individuals and businesses. LinkedIn provides an area that consistently delivers good quality content that can be easily shared. LinkedIn Today captures the day's top new, and is tailored specifically for you. LinkedIn Today can be found under News in your profile. 7. Post, Comment, and Like – This ties in with #3. People post on Facebook, but many forget about LinkedIn. This article will be posted on LinkedIn. If you have something interesting to share, either of your own or something you uncovered, go ahead and post it. Likes are always appreciated for others that post, and commenting allows you to share your voice and participate in some great conversations. 8. Tight Connections or Loose Connections – So you have two ways to go with your account. Keep it tight with only people you know personally, or open the flood gates and accept every invitation that comes your way. There are arguments for both sides. You'll see LION a lot on LinkedIn. LION stands for LinkedIn Open Networker. If you want to go this route, I'd suggest joining TopLinked. It runs $10/mo and adds you to an invite me list. If you do join, make sure to turn off your notifications. They come in fast and furious. I went this route because at the time I was a Sales Manager and wanted to build a huge database for my team. You need to decide what's best for you situation. 9. Premium Account – I've upgraded to premium a few times on LinkedIn over the last five years. For certain occupations it makes sense and it's worth the $24.95/mo. The Executive turbo plan actually runs $99.95/mo. If you're in Sales, HR, and/or Recruiting, it's worth a closer look. The premium upgrade allows you to see more. 10. LinkedIn Advertising – Oh yes, LinkedIn offers Ads. I've used this a handful of times with another business and had mild success with 1-2 warm leads for each $25 spend. It works similar to Google Ads in search. You have 25 characters for the Title and 75 characters over 2 lines for the description. You can also and can add an image. LinkedIn Ads really allow you to pinpoint who sees your advertisement. You can target your campaign by location, company, job title, and many more. They offer Pay per Click (CPC) and Pay per 1,000 Impressions (CPM). Go with the CPC as you want people clicking through to your landing page. The minimum budget is $10.00. As is the case with most Social Networks, you get what you put into it. Yes, let's not split hairs, LinkedIn is a social network. If you don't stay active and participate consistently you will not get results from LinkedIn. If you're looking learn more about LinkedIn, I highly suggest two books from Neal Schaffer. He takes it to another level, and both books provide a ton of value. You can actually download a free sample from each book. Neal has no idea I'm putting this information here, so say Hi for me if you go over to his site. If you found the article useful, please share it with others using the social network buttons above. |
| Three Little Known Ways to Get Traffic From Facebook Posted: 28 Nov 2012 01:55 PM PST I find that even though Facebook is the most used social network there is at the moment, it can be a hit and miss where getting traffic for your website is concerned. As we are well aware (and we may even do it ourselves), people click 'like' on interesting headings, article titles and pictures without actually clicking on the original page they came from. I do this quite often, as I limit myself to only 20 minutes of Facebook time each day. I scroll through my friend's profile updates in a sweep and 'like' the things that catch my eye. This said, there are still obvious ways to get traffic for your site via Facebook. You just have to use them to your advantage. Do photo editing and include with your link This may sound complicated, but it really isn't. There are lots of free photo editing sites, the most accessible being, Google+ images. Just upload your original image, and you'd be surprised to see the hundreds of things you can do with them: add text, zoom in and out, add a Polaroid (and other) effects etc. How does this bring traffic to your blog? If you've written a post, add a couple of pictures that are pertinent to your topic. Edit them to reflect what you've said in your post. Add your link to Facebook along with one of the edited pictures. Mention that your link has another equally fantastic picture to further explain your post. The more you do this, the better you'll get at it. As Facebook users are more likely to 'like' pictures than text, they'll be more likely to click on your link to see additional pictures. Remember that pictures can be just text set out in an attractive way, or text saying something profound, which relates to your topic. Use your existing Facebook platform to set a trend We all know how difficult it is to get self-promotion off the ground. What better way to start your promotion of your new e-book, the launch of your new product, site etc, by making use of the platform you already have! Remember that you don't have to have access to the friends of your contacts in order for them to be exposed in your promotion. Start your 'public' event. Make sure you set it up so that friends can also invite their friends. When your friends 'like' your event, their contacts will see this link on their page. Your event has the capacity to go viral without you spending a penny. So make use of the platform you already have on Facebook for your event to get traffic to your site. If it's worthwhile enough, people you've never heard of will soon be getting involved and clicking through to your site – and it all starts with your friends. Large groups and pages can send you traffic Some of the very large groups on Facebook have hundreds of thousands of people. Imagine if you can get just one percent of these people to your site. Search for your site's keywords on Facebook and join a couple (two or three will be fine) of large groups within your niche. Become active in the group answering questions and helping people find information. Look up the topics that are popular and answer a question raised there in a blog post. Because this is directly related to the question at hand, you can share your link on the page. This won't be considered spamming (you have to be careful not to spam). Within seconds you can have a flood of traffic to your site. |
| This is the ‘Tablet Holiday’ + Other Trends Marketers Can’t Ignore Posted: 28 Nov 2012 01:45 PM PST Holiday spending habits are a fun thing for the consumer to find out about, but absolutely crucial for your average marketer to understand. This is the time of year where retailers might earn nearly 40% of their yearly revenue in just a few short festive weeks. MDG Advertising has constructed an Infographic that tells the story of several holiday trends that marketers should be avidly aware of. Noteworthy elements include last year’s Top 3 most successful Holiday marketing tactics, including:
Also worth mentioning is the idea of 2012 being the Year of the Tablet. While the iPad and Kindle have been around for years, respectively, this is the first year where a slew of worthy adversaries will be entering the marketplace making shopping decisions even that much more interesting. The graphic cites sources that note more than half of all consumers this holiday will want a tablet, and a 2012 TechBargains survey says that the top two deciding factors for prospective tablet buyers will lie in consumer product reviews and the availability of free shipping on the tablet they’re eyeing. Here’s a full look at 2012 Holiday Shopping trends:
Infographic by MDG Advertising |
| Posted: 28 Nov 2012 01:40 PM PST Do you want results from your social media efforts? Try these QUICK tips to see FAST results. I have been using these tips for the past 2-3 years. Check them out – you will see results in a very short period of time. Leave an update every day because… it gets you noticed professionally and keeps you on people's radar Update your profile once a week because… every update to your profile is communicated to the people that follow you in an email. It helps you stay connected. Try posting information different times of the day because.. it shows people you are real and have a life outside of Twitter. Spend one day just listening and replying back to others because.. it will show you the value in engaging others and putting others ahead of yourself. Google+ Try adding more text to the links you share including your blog posts because.. it will gain you more awareness among people on Google+ Stop spending so much time on Facebook because.. there are better social media platforms for marketing your business YouTube Align your company with a professional videographer because… you will be amazed at the professional HD quality Summary There really isn't anything new or earth-shaking with these tips. The great thing is these tips work quite well and I continue to use them each day as a part of my social media processes. If you are looking for some quick returns with a small investment of time, you came to the right place! The only thing stopping you is your own fear and disbelief. I know, I used to be there myself. Get going…Start today…The only investment is your time! photo credit: bizbuzzmedia via photopin cc |
| 3 Ways Search Retargeting Can Boost Your Business Posted: 28 Nov 2012 01:40 PM PST
Getting people to discover you on a search engine depends on a variety of factors, but chances are only a small percentage of searchers will actually click on your organic or paid search result and visit your site. With search retargeting, a type of display advertising, you can put your business back in front of those same people to encourage site visits and conversions. Here are three ways search retargeting works to boost your business online. 1. It's a Second Chance to Make a First Impression Even if you're already investing in search advertising or search engine optimization, you may not be getting the clickthroughs or conversions you want from people searching for your types of products or services. So, by putting your display ad in front of those searchers, you help these prospects discover your business for the first time. And, because your display ad is shown to these prospects as they surf the Web, you are no longer competing with other businesses that are bidding on the same keywords and vying for the exact same click as you were on the search results page. Instead, your business has an opportunity to grab that prospect's attention with an eye-catching design, prominent business name or logo, and direct call to action that helps your ad stand out from the crowd. 2. It Builds Awareness With People Who Are Interested in Your Business Unlike some forms of display advertising, search retargeting specifically targets people who have already expressed interest in your types of products and services. This means they may be more receptive to your brand message or call to action. And, if they see your message at the right time, they may be more likely to click your display ad, conduct a search for your business name, or remember you when they are ready to buy. 3. It Lifts the Results of Your Search Advertising There's no denying that there's a relationship between display advertising and search marketing; research shows display advertising has a positive impact on the results of a search advertising campaign, lifting search conversions by up to 59%. So, how does display advertising increase your search advertising results? It generates recognition and interest. For instance, seeing a display ad could trigger a search for a specific business, product, or service; in fact, 27% of consumers conduct a search after seeing a display ad. In addition, recalling a brand from their display advertising could encourage a prospect to click on the business' text ad. ReachLocal combines search retargeting with site retargeting in one powerful solution called ReachRetargeting. To learn more about this unique solution, visit the ReachRetargeting web page or check out our video. How does search retargeting fit into your online marketing strategy? What other benefits have you seen from this display advertising tactic? Let us know in the comments. |
| How Social Media can Foster Brand Loyalty Posted: 28 Nov 2012 01:35 PM PST OK so we can all agree to some extent that "yes, social media is a great way to foster brand loyalty." I'm not going to pretend that this is anything new. There are tons of articles that have been published on the power of social media and how it can help increase brand loyalty. Every company wants to have dedicated customers who not only love their products, but also share positive comments and reviews with others. Social media platforms are just the key to help companies achieve this goal. But how? Well, here are a few brand loyalty tips you can easily implement courtesy of Caitlin Zucal from her recent Social Media Today post. Listen Continuously"Your business is not just an online brand; it is also a continuous listener," writes Zucal. People who are on social media are there because they want their opinion and voice to be heard. This translates into two important takeaways for your brand:
Quality InteractionSocial media opens the door and connects brands and consumers because it provides the ideal platform for interaction. "With this open door comes the importance of brand perception and engagement. It's not only what your brand says that matters, but also what customers are sharing about you to the social universe," writes Zucal. This two-way conversation begs the question: what is the best way to foster these relationships between customers and your brand? What some brands fail to realize is that when it comes to building a strong Facebook or Twitter following, it really all boils down to the quality of your posts. "Consumers want to be involved, interacting with someone who not only understands them, but also someone they can relate to," says Zucal. So, before you start posting status updates and Tweets, take some time and listen to your audience, research their behavior and try to get an understanding of what excites them. By conducting this initial research, your business will be on its way to turning social media engagement into customer and brand loyalty. Help outMore and more often customers are turning to a company's social media account instead of calling a customer service line to say what's on their mind. "Your job as a brand is to keep an open ear and be ready to respond," says Zucal. Today's followers and fans won't hesitate to pose a question directly on your company's social media sites. So, be prepared to provide helpful content, everything from how-to guides to simple customer service answers about your products and services. By going out of you way a little to respond to someone's question, it instantly creates a closer connection making your customer feel appreciated and important. Become a Customer Service MasterWhen you receive a negative comment, try to provide a speedy solution. Let those who are having issues know that you appreciate their business, as well as their patience while the problem is corrected. "Target audiences will respect your brand if you take the time to keep the conversation going, instead of ignoring what they have to say because you have a thousand other satisfied customers," points out Zucal. But it's not only about responding to the negative comments, at the same time you want to respond to the praise that you receive. Let those know that you appreciate them – it's a surefire way help build brand advocacy. Highlight CustomersAn easy and fun way to create a lasting relationship between your customers and your brand is to allow your fans and followers to share some of the spotlight every once and awhile. "As much as people want to be heard on social media, they want to enjoy themselves just as much," writes Zucal. Celebrating what fans and followers share online is a great way to show they are important to you and your business. For example, here at Mindjet, we try to showcase some of our awesome users in out "User Spotlights". No matter how you choose to do this, it's important to take some time and let your fans take center stage every so often. While there's no one magic bullet to turn all your customers into brand advocates, by trying some of these simple brand loyalty tips outlined above you'll be sure that you are off to a good start. |
| The Art of the Digital Profile: Unleashing New Opportunities with LinkedIn Posted: 28 Nov 2012 01:30 PM PST Just about every brand seems to be active on Facebook, but there are exceptions. Some people would rather direct their efforts to other social channels like Twitter and LinkedIn. Twitter has established itself as a top-tier social network, but you might be wondering why some people put so much effort into LinkedIn. Well, because it's the best place for personal branding and making connections with some of the more than 187 million members worldwide. And as your network scales, so do your potential opportunities. Here are some great tactics for discovering new opportunities with LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is full of customizable features that allow you to show your individuality and specific skill set. Use the "Add Sections" feature to customize your profile with sections like Courses, Languages and Patents that can help distinguish you from the herd. Recruiters and numerous other companies are using LinkedIn more than ever to find high performers in every industry, so continue to customize your profile as you add more connections. Visit Daily, Post Often Start treating LinkedIn like you might already treat Facebook, logging in at least once daily. Think about getting more aggressive in sending out connection invites, and accept all invites from people you know. It usually doesn't take more than 10 minutes to send connection invites, tweak your profile or share an update such as a Slingshot blog post. It's also easy to click the Twitter box to send it out as a Tweet, although you might not want to do that if it's something you've already tweeted. In any case, think about your respective audiences: Is this a piece of content you want to share simultaneously with both Twitter and LinkedIn, or post separately? Download the App If you don't feel you have time to visit the LinkedIn site daily, download the app for your mobile device. The iPhone app is easy to use and I typically spend time in the "People You May Know" tab under "Groups & More." You can scroll down through the list of profiles and send connection invites with a single touch. Follow Companies LinkedIn allows you to follow companies like Slingshot SEO and learn more about their brand, job openings, products/services and more. Especially if you're a job seeker, start following specific companies to stay updated on employment opportunities.
You undoubtedly work with someone who routinely goes above and beyond, so reward them with a LinkedIn recommendation. It doesn't take long to write one and they might even reciprocate. Regardless, it's never a bad idea to spend time describing the awesome work done by those around you. Now you also have a point and click option. LinkedIn recently added a feature where we can endorse the individual skills of our contacts. That way, when a recruiter visits a profile they can get an immediate sense of whether a person's colleagues are affirming their specific skills. (For example, if someone has been endorsed by 24 people for SEO, it's a good bet they're a thought leader.) Emphasize Transferable Skills New technologies will continue to create entire new industries, so it's important to not think solely of your current skills and experiences, but also the new skills you're developing and the types of problems you're capable of solving. There's always going to be a market for people who can find creative ways to solve problems and more efficient ways of accomplishing tasks. Upgrade Your Account? LinkedIn offers premium features for job seekers, recruiters and others willing to upgrade their accounts. One thing to be careful about if you're in the job market is your Profile's Contact Settings. If you're currently employed, it might not sit well with your boss if you indicate you're looking for new career options. If you're not proactively looking at new employment opportunities, you can set your contact opportunities to just "Reference Requests" and "Getting Back in Touch." Don't Oversell Just like on a traditional paper resume, you don't want to oversell your skills. While you want to present yourself in the best possible light, it's unethical to fudge the dates you worked somewhere, add work skills you don't really have or otherwise present yourself in a false light. So what LinkedIn tactics have worked for you? Leave us a comment below. |
| Social Employers Prefer Freelance Writing Professionals Posted: 28 Nov 2012 01:20 PM PST There are many reasons that people wish to become freelance writing professionals, and they will never be the same in any fashion. Some people make the conscious choice and effort to become a writer of this caliber because they have the artistic talents to writer for anyone, yet would rather be home all day and night. Some others decide they want to pursue a freelance writing job because they need a secondary source of income, while others tend to apply for writer jobs because they just want to increase their wages by a larger percentage. So if you have mulled over taking your skills to the internet front, there are plenty of things to know ahead of time. Gathering Experience If you do want to be a member of a freelance writers group one day, it is a huge bonus to come into the field with experience on your side. How does one gather this? Well, even if they are not paid positions, you can still find little writer jobs to do for people on a consistent basis both online and offline to build rapport as a good writer. Most of the freelance writer jobs nowadays tend to only hire you if you can provide a quick sample of your work, or have an online portfolio in the form of a resume or blog, therefore, it is an equally great idea to blog at least once a day on topics that you are familiar with, and performing research to write articles that you may not know about. There also has to be some level of cross-checking because copywriting is not copy my writing by any means, which is what plagues millions of newcomers today. This kind of dedication and willingness to perform these writer jobs for yourself and others is a great way to showcase talents for perspective employers. Journey Through Other Forums Another great way to begin the journey to landing a freelance writing job is to participate in forums that relate to these topics, and gain some insight into what you can expect in the field of freelance writers. Once you feel that you have it licked, it is time to find a source of freelance writing job employment, and this is when you will find that you have your work cut out for you. First and foremost, the best freelance writers know that they can find unlimited amounts of work, free of charge. This is simply the best starting point for your freelance writing jobs endeavors. Search the internet for freelance writers and narrow the results down by those that offer to hire you without a dime. Then, further reduce the list to those that have excellent customer service and on-time payments. Finally, with what you have left, it is a good idea to further reduce your employer candidates to those who have the most influx of available assignments. Once you have narrowed the list down far enough, now it is time to set out and find the ones with the highest pay, the ones who pay the most frequently, and so on. Many people understand one major factual point when searching for work in freelancing: the new career aspiration of college grads is much more lucrative than any other journeyman’s employment choice, especially fresh out of school. When You Found The Perfect Platform Once the perfect match for your freelancing writing jobs has been found, you need to read their entire terms and conditions before applying to their firm. Be complete, honest, and thorough in the application process to ultimately guarantee approval. Once you have that coveted ‘yes’ fly into your email, it is time to show what you got. But remember: you need to start small and prove your worth, so it is a great idea to build rapport with a company by taking the small jobs, and do them like they were going to the Academy Awards so as to really grasp the joys of freelancing for a living. Once you have your foot firmly in the door, you can incrementally gain higher profile assignments until you hit the pinnacle of your career. Do you want to be a freelance writer one day? If so, this article has firmly laid the groundwork in how to become the best possible freelance writing aficionado possible. |
| 3 Decisions That Will Set Your Private Online Community Up for Success Posted: 28 Nov 2012 01:00 PM PST Of the hundreds of decisions that your organization will make in planning, launching, and managing your private online customer or member community, it is important to understand that they are not all equal. All of the decisions do not have equal bearing on the success or failure of your private social network's ability to help you achieve your company's goals. In a recent webinar entitled, 9 Secrets of Successful Private Online Communities, we discussed strategy, community management, and logistical tips used by the most successful online communities. Though the webinar was targeted toward membership organizations, these points apply to businesses that are planning online customer communities as well. During the online community planning process, it is easy to get sidetracked by an enthusiastic social media professional or a less-informed executive. However, it is critical to stay focused on the areas that can make or break your online community. Here are three online community strategy decisions that can set your private customer or member community up for long-term success. Decision #1) Will Your Organization Treat Your Private Community as a Tool or Part of Your Member Benefit or Product Strategy?While private social networks are both a technology play and a communication tool, it is important to first treat your private community like an extension of product strategy or member benefit portfolio. The differences in approach are apparent from the outset. Technology and communication tools are more reactive. They are used as needed or when a customer or member interacts with them. Creating an environment where your business or membership organization sees your private online community as a differentiator and benefit of doing business with you, keep constant pressure on increasing the value of the community for your customers or members. This way you never lose sight of the things that are going to get people to value, use, and return to your private online community. Decision #2) Which Organizational Goals Will Your Private Online Community Address?It is worth repeating that customer or member engagement is not a goal for your private online community. Member engagement is only the fuel that powers you toward reaching business-level goals, like increasing retention, boosting revenue, or creating more profitable products or services. Organizations that insert usage metrics into their ultimate community goals end up with an online community that gets cut from the budget since it does not directly impact the results that everyone else in the organization is working to achieve. While granular metrics are important to test, measure, and adjust your community to get people to take specific actions (i.e. return to the community, register for an event, help one another), companies must identify which organizational goals their online community will help them meet. The good news is that the flexibility that comes with online community software enables it to drive toward a wide variety of outcomes. Decisions #3) How Centrally Can You Position Your Online Community?One of the biggest concerns that businesses and membership organizations have is 'what if no one uses our online community?' There are many horror stories floating around about online communities that are now ghost towns or communities that can gain sustainable traction with their members after several years. Many organizations are zapping their resources while still living those nightmares. The best private online communities are not thriving due to luck. There are things that companies can to get customers or members to use their private online community. One of the upfront decisions you can make is to position your online community at the center of your customer or member communication universe. Using a customer community platform that includes a broad range of engagement tools, such as content, email, events, and social networking, allows your organization to funnel all of your customer communication through your community. Centrally positioning your online community builds awareness of the value you're providing, rather than your community being an afterthought hanging off the side of your website. As the exposure to your community grows, so will the comfort that customers have with the features and interface. It also makes all of your communication social so that customers, employees, and partners can discuss your messages as they consume them.
Private Online Community TakeawayRegarding the upfront decisions that you can make to create a successful online community, the big takeaway is that you have control. There are things that you can do at the beginning of the process that will set your organization up for success…and vice versa. Making the wrong decisions or ignoring important decisions at the beginning of the process can set your organization up for slow growth, reworks, or damage to your brand. Treating your private customer or member community as part of your product strategy, aligning your online community's goals with organizational goals, and position your private social network at the center of your customer communication plan are vital steps in creating a valuable and sustainable private online community.
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| Posted: 28 Nov 2012 12:55 PM PST The only thing that makes me happier than an amazing glass of wine, is drinking an amazing glass of wine while knowing that I am helping someone in need (simultaneously!). That is the premise behind OneHope wines, a company that gives 50% of all profits to charity. Check out this infographic to learn about the development of the prestigious California wine market. Best when read with a glass of Pinot in hand.
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| Why You Don’t Want to Be An Average Blogger Posted: 28 Nov 2012 12:15 PM PST
Lately, I've seen a lot of posts across the web that say having an opinion when blogging is bad. Maybe not so much having an opinion, as having a very forceful opinion, and then blogging about it. This is where bloggers are making a big mistake (according to some of the posts I've been reading). The thinking is, by being opinionated, you're potentially driving away readers, subscribers and – worse still – advertisers for your blog. But I don't agree with that – and here's why. You Don't Want to be InvisibleDepending on who you listen to, there are around 200 million blogs online, with more being added daily. Now, I'm no mathematician whiz, but that's a shitload of blogs to compete with! Let's say of these 200 million, 10% are in the niche you want to blog in. That's 20 million blogs. Now, let's say out of these 20 million, 50% are generic and write safe content. You know – top lists this and that, fifty ways to do such and such, yadda yadda yadda. There's nothing wrong with this approach, and it can drive traffic – but it usually yields little more than this afterward. No sign ups, no leads, no new readers, etc – or at least, not the ones that stick around. If you stand apart from the generic blogging approach, you've immediately stood apart from 50% of the other blogs in your niche. However, you've still got another 10 million blogs to worry about. This is where your strong opinion comes into play. Forcing Your Way Past InvisibilityNow that you're into the part of the audience you really want to reach, it's time to stand out from the other bloggers around you too. This isn't going to be easy, especially if they have a dedicated audience and a longer lead time on their blog than you do. But here's the thing – you don't need to "steal" an audience – just encourage it to read more than one or two blogs. To do this, you need to be strong in your viewpoint and really believe in what you're saying – and don't waver from that intensity and belief. Take a look at social media blogs. There are literally millions of blogs about social media, many saying the exact same thing as each other. So how would you break into that niche? Simple – you stand up to the popular view and offer alternative and more questioning takes on social media. When you're sharing these views (and you can be contrarian professionally), make sure to link back to the original posts you're debating. Or, if you have established a rapport with the blogger in question, email them your link and ask for their take. Oftentimes, good bloggers will be happy to share your take with their audience, and you can enjoy new eyeballs from their. The trick is, if you're going this route, you really need to be sure about the topic you're countering and come backed with facts to complement your opinion. But get that right, and start to build a reputation as a blogger who cares enough to question? That's an audience builder right there. Get the audience and, if you're looking to monetize your blog, the advertisers will come too – and they'll be the ones that agree with your take, which will make them an even better fit for your audience. It's a win-win all round – and that's never a bad thing. image: quinn.anya |
| How The Indian Auto Sector Is Performing On Social Media [Infographic] Posted: 28 Nov 2012 11:00 AM PST Unmetric Inc, the social media benchmarking company located in North America and India has shared an exclusive study with us on "How the Indian Auto Sector is Performing on Social Media." The study takes into account the 16 car manufacturers in India for their Q3 performance on Facebook. Audi and Tata Motors lead the sector whereas brands like Chevrolet and Toyota are yet to make a mark. The study has been shared as an appealing infograph.
1. Which manufacturers are driving engagement online?One of the very interesting insights that Unmetric has derived in this report. The product has calculated the ratio percentage between total number of fans on Facebook along with the growth percentage of fans on the platform in Q3 and the total annual sales of the selected brand. For example, we can clearly see that even with less numbers Tata has done well in comparison with Mahindra. However, both the brands have multiple pages on Facebook so in that respect international brands such as Audi, BMW, Renault have done a great job in driving better engagement when compared to all others. However, the biggest disappointment has been Maruti Suzuki even though the brand has more than three official pages running on Facebook. 2. Which manufacturer is leading social media performance?In this section, Unmetric has listed the 16 brands based on Unmetric Score that the product calculates on the basis of various qualitative and quantitative social media metrics, weighted and balanced to produce a single benchmarkable number. Audi India tops the list with an Unmetric score of 53 followed by Tata, BMW, Hyundai, Mahindra, etc. Brands like Chevrolet, Toyota, etc. will have to seriously rethink on their Facebook strategies. In addition to these numbers, Unmetric also observed that the top 5 engaging brands have been international auto brands. However, the Indian brigade was cheer leaded by Tata and the credit goes to it's Tata Nano Facebook page that has been the driving factor. 3. Which manufacturer is driving customer service?Of late we have seen that brands have used Facebook to resolve customer queries. So, Average Response Time (ART) is one of the critical metrics to measure the customer service provided by brands on Facebook. Tata Nano is the only page that takes customer service via Facebook seriously and responds to queries in 3 hours. Surprisingly, brands like Chevrolet, Mercedes, etc. take more than 10 hours to reply. In addition to this, BMW India goes one step further of being labelled as anti social since the brand prefers to have a closed Facebook wall i.e. as a fan you are not allowed to communicate with the brand on Facebook. 4. Content strategy of manufacturersBesides this, the report also highlights on the different content strategies adopted by the brands. According to Unmetric, the auto makers missed out in creating the required buzz during new launches and failed to capitalize on it but focused on pushing brand news most of the time which was not at all appreciated by the fans. A big take away for brands from this report is that fans prefer content that focus more on "New Vehicle Launch", "Events", etc. instead of "Brand News", "Contest", "Ad Campaigns", etc. Along with the performances of brands on Facebook, the report highlights some data points on demographics. 92% of the fans are under the age of 30 and 52% of them are in the age group of 21. It is clear that they may not be the possible buyers right away but then the 18-24 age group, which is the largest age group on Facebook, can aspire to own one in the near future. But then, should it be the largest group that auto manufacturers should be targeting on Facebook is a debatable question. I have tried to answer this in an earlier post. Nevertheless, a comprehensive report from Unmetric and lots of takeaways specially for national and international auto makers and also for brands in general. Do have a look and let us know what were your takeaways from the infograph. |
| Posted: 28 Nov 2012 10:50 AM PST Facebook announced its social jobs partnership this In the strictest sense of the term, Facebook is a social network. Fundamentally, I understand this, but because it grows and expands and seems to be constantly changing – something that is not altogether unwarranted or undesirable, especially from Facebook's standpoint – it becomes kind of murky. Facebook was first about connecting with other students on your college campus. Then Facebook was about connecting with students across college campuses in general. From that came a slightly new purpose: re-connecting with people from your past (who were also on college campuses). As those students became working adults who stayed connected to each other through Facebook, the next natural step was to open it up to everyone so that people around the globe could all be one big happy connected family. And it worked. Facebook soared past its competition and never looked back. According to Alexa, it's the number two site on the entire web right now, coming in behind Google – a telling bit of information in and of itself when you consider Facebook's future in search. Since then, Facebook has become a number of other things, and what it is seems to depend upon who you are. For some, it's a site to play games. For many, it's a place to do business, whether directly (as through the Marketplace app), through lead generation, or by way of networking within a community. It's a place to bond over common interests and connect with your favorite celebrities, musicians, writers, and public figures. It's a place to rally groups of people for a common cause, a la the Occupy movement. Forget to buy someone a birthday gift? No worries. You'll soon be able to buy gifts on Facebook to celebrate just about any occasion. A few months ago, at TechCrunch Disrupt, Mark Zuckerberg referred to Facebook as a mobile company, though they were drawing the line at actually creating a phone. He also alluded to the fact that search could be in Facebook's future as well, so add "potential Google competitor" to that list. It's a photo-sharing site. It's a hub for apps. It's a place for personal branding (though it should be argued that many, particularly the college students for whom the site was created, do a terrible job of it). With recent changes to the amount of characters allowed per status update – a move almost surely made to keep up with Google+ – it's even becoming something of a microblogging platform. And now it's a place to find a job. Facebook's versatility is really quite impressive. It seems that it can be all things to all people. Or can it? This gives me some pause. You've heard the saying, "Jack of all trades, master of none." While some might argue that Facebook has mastered social, I'd argue that social is ever-changing, and therefore perhaps difficult to truly master. But the sentiment still has some validity. If Facebook spreads itself too thin while trying to meet everyone's needs, it's not unreasonable to think that something would be lost – perhaps even some quality. We already hear the "cries of the anguished" every time changes are made, purportedly with our best interests in mind (so it's really not a surprise to learn that Facebook is not, in fact, a democracy after all). At what point will we see the "Walmartification" of Facebook? It becomes a social one-stop shop – okay, but at what cost? There are over a million jobs posted to Facebook already, and yet what we're seeing there isn't really a place to find a career. It's a place to find an after-school job for an hourly wage. Will the target user change there? And if it does, what does that mean for LinkedIn in the future? After all, it's much easier to have one social profile to end them all than it is to create one specifically for professional purposes (or so say the Millennials). What really strikes me about the jobs board is how it stands in contrast to what seemed to be Facebook's vision for itself not all that long ago. If you recall, it wasn't long ago at all that Facebook had made some pretty significant changes to its privacy settings and capabilities. In doing so, Zuck and company encouraged us to allow certain parts of our profiles to be opened up for maximum sharing potential. It was, after all, about being social. Then they implemented Friends+ onto pictures, making it incredibly difficult to not share beyond our privacy settings. During this time (and even since that time), Facebook was pretty widely criticized for encouraging its users to share more than they were comfortable with sharing. If we're to use our Facebook profiles to apply for jobs, what does that do to the "open up and share, share, share" mentality that was thrust upon us not so long ago? Furthermore, if we're now being encouraged to really clean up and tone down our profiles in order to apply for jobs, what does that do to the authenticity of our "social selves?" Sure, we all hopefully know to keep it clean and put our best faces forward on Facebook, even if we think we're only sharing with our friends. We know that nothing is ever totally private (again, hopefully). But many of us like Facebook because we can relax a little bit there. To the people who value that ability, using Facebook to find a job may not be worth it. Especially not for $7.25 an hour. Interestingly enough, many of the jobs posted are geared toward the population of users that would most need to tone things down and stop oversharing: high school and college-aged kids looking for temporary or part-time work. Even those who are recent college grads might need to think about this. It's certainly interesting to see how Facebook is growing by leaps and bounds. But all of these growth spurts deserve a critical eye before jumping right in. I'm not completely sure how I feel about the Facebook job board, to be honest. But I do wonder if, even though Mark Zuckerberg is a strong leader, having a hand in so many projects will ultimately lead the site to a distorted vision of itself and what it wants to be. If Facebook's vision of itself gets lost along the way, what becomes of our vision of it? Got a comment? I'd love to hear your thoughts below! photo credit: wired magazine |
| How Do You Get More Traffic for Marketing Automation? Start Blogging Posted: 28 Nov 2012 10:50 AM PST Developing a marketing automation system without a constant flow of active leads is like building a ski resort and not having any skiers on the slopes. You need those individuals in order to make your investment worthwhile. There are many different ways to generate traffic that converts to leads: sending emails to a list of established contacts, pay-per-click advertising, or importing and emailing new offline contacts. But one of the most cost-effective ways to generate the necessary traffic that converts to leads for marketing automation is to blog. How Does Blogging Affect Website TrafficGoogle and other search engines continue to favor sites that produce informative or entertaining content on a regular basis. And search is changing frequently, as you can see in this timeline of Google algorithm updates. The best way to take advantage of these changes? Create content that attracts people’s attention. Here a few charts (with incomplete November traffic) from companies that post regularly and frequently: Kuno
B2B Consulting
Manufacturer
Healthcare Facility
Each graph above shows an increase in search traffic starting in August 2012. The all-time high for search traffic on all accounts was in October 2012. These businesses show that when you provide helpful, informative blog posts on a regular basis you can improve your search traffic tremendously. When your website is optimized for lead capture, then that blog traffic can be one of your top sources for new contacts for marketing automation. What Should You Write About?The key to gaining search traffic from blogs is to provide content that is valuable to your audience. By reviewing popular content, surveying existing customers and investigating what people are talking about on social networks, it’s easy to get an initial idea of what blogs should be created. Google also has a Trends service, which provides information about what is popular and where it’s popular based on a specific search term or brand name. All of these tools will help inform the process. Here are a few blog post ideas:
These blog posts will be used to bring traffic to a website through search and social. And they will be one of the main ways to promote the offers that create new contacts and kick-off marketing automation processes. On the blog and within each post, there should be a call-to-action graphic promoting an offer. If a user clicks on the graphic and converts, he or she goes from website visitor to lead. This is where marketing automation and lead nurturing take over. Blogging Isn’t Just for SearchBeyond generating traffic via search engines, your blog provides shareable content for your social networks. You can also encourage website visitors to subscribe to receive your new blog posts in their inboxes with an email subscription. All of these provide additional sources of website traffic outside of the search world. And the more traffic, the more opportunity you have to capture leads and nurture them using marketing automation. How has the frequency (or infrequency) of your blog posts affected your traffic? Tell us in the comments below.
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| Palghar Teenager Detained For Facebook Post Against Raj Thackeray Posted: 28 Nov 2012 10:39 AM PST
According to the latest news, Palghar is once again in media and this time it is not about girls, it is about a teenage guy insulting a political figure of Maharashtra. 19-year-old Palghar resident, Sunil Vishwakarma was arrested for posting 'abusive' comments against Raj Thackeray on his Facebook page, according to this Indian Express report. However, the content posted by him on Facebook as well as who complained about the post is not clear. But the police has been cautious in handling this case unlike the case of Shaheen Dhada and Rinu Srinivasan. Both the girls were arrested earlier for posting a comment on Facebook that Mumbai should not have shut down on account of Bal Thackeray's death. The entire episode turned out murky since the police under political pressure took the girls in custody under section 66-A, a law that is being highly criticized in the way it is being used. So it remains to be watched what happens with the teenager and under what charges is he detained. The future is about social media but how adapted are our officials and governments? Image courtesy: economictimes.indiatimes.com |
| So You Think You Can Blog? 3 Common Content Don’ts Posted: 28 Nov 2012 10:21 AM PST Has anyone ever told you they know the secret to writing a killer blog post? Every content marketing site claims to know the recipe for creating the most delicious posts imaginable. But they're probably wrong.
While there is no ultimate secret to viral content, here are a few don'ts to help you increase traffic and engagement. Too Many Links Links, links, links. From blogging to SEO, links are a hot topic. But as Google evolves and users consume more media each day, links are losing their SEO advantage. Google hasn't forgotten about links, but the relevancy of a link is now of utmost importance. Google can recognize spam, so make sure you are only including the most relevant links. When considering adding links to a post, think like your readers. Is that link going to take them somewhere useful? Also, blog posts weighed down with 20 links appear cluttered. Over-linking loses readers' trust. Remember, human beings are emotional and intuitive; so if Google reads links as spam, it's because people do too. Too Much Text Today, Americans spend nearly 12 hours each day consuming media. With so many images, videos and text flying at us each day, what's going to make us slow down and read your post? Well, many things contribute to this answer – a humorous meme, a controversial title or a viral video. One notable missing item: an abundance of text. With the popularity of Twitter and video sharing channels, our minds are being programmed to hold attention for shorter periods of time. A thousand words of plain text can be intimidating to our ever-shifting minds. Think of yourself as long-winded? Don't worry, a few quick fixes exist to solve the "too long; didn't read" problem – and they don't all involve cutting words. Try these the next time you find yourself staring into a sans serif abyss on your screen:
Too Much Soapboxing Addressing public concerns, offering solutions to problems, and bringing up little-known issues often result in successful blog posts. Taking on the negative shows a writer's opinion and passion. It also gives users the answers they're looking for. Unfortunately, many writers have gone too far. Constant soapboxing drags readers down. It can even cause you to lose readers. Instead of whining your way through 500 words, address an issue and move on to solution. Remember: It's always better to be a Positive Polly than a Negative Nancy (unless, of course, you're using humor). The next time you venture to your keyboard, avoid these three recurring missteps. Preventing bad habits and developing an effective writing style will get you on the road to cyber stardom. For more content marketing tips check out our free guide: The 5 Ws of Content Creation. |
| SEO Jobs Salary Guide (Infographic) Posted: 28 Nov 2012 09:53 AM PST Recent research has shown that demand for professionals with SEO skills and experience has never been greater. SEO job postings on job board indeed.com have increased by 1900% in the last year and people with 'SEO' in their LinkedIn profile has increased by 112% over the last year. With this substantial growth in mind, we aggregated more than 1,500 SEO job postings on job boards indeed.com and payscale.com and analyzed the top cities for SEO jobs, SEO job titles and salary ranges. Be sure to download the full salary information so you can find out the salaries in your city!
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| The Imperceptible Impact of Social Media on Our Everyday Lives Posted: 28 Nov 2012 09:45 AM PST
There have been a increasing number of studies recently looking at the impact our friends can have on our decisions through social media and I wanted to follow up with my own thoughts on the subject. While I think it's interesting to explore how the potential to share more experiences with more friends is an evolutionary step in word-of-mouth marketing, I remain convinced that the biggest impact social media has is on our own behaviour, not our friends or followers. The potential to document our lives online means that a status update on Facebook, Tweet or Instagrammed photo doesn't just become a record or reflection of our behaviour but a direct cause of it. Whether it's purposefully reading articles to find quotes we think our Twitter followers will find interesting, or making choices about our weekend activities to share on Facebook in the hope they will make us appear cultured or popular, we're not only increasingly documenting our lives online but are making decisions with the knowledge that we will subsequently share them through social media. It's why the idea that social media is frivolous and independent of the 'real world' is not only short-sighted but, when more than half of the US population is on Facebook, anthropologically ignorant too. The medium is the message I’ve written for Social Media Today before about how the motivation to share our thoughts on social media is subtly shaped by the sites we use and it's those social networks that quantify our success with statistical feedback (such as the number of re-tweets, likes or comments) that, by appealing to our ego (and exploiting our free time), are most successful. The consistently excellent Cyborgology blog recently speculated how different Facebook would be if you removed likes, comments and friend counts. In other words, taking away the motivating metrics that spur us to use the site and lure our friends back each day. The Machine Starts also wrote an insightful post on Facebook last year in which he highlighted how the site's developers had built "many functions to encourage the narcissist, but no tools to dismantle him". It's precisely because of the addictive nature of the statistical feedback these sites provide that we keep coming back to share our thoughts and experiences. It's also how and why they shape, not only the decisions we take about what to share but, crucially, the plans we undertake because of the intention to subsequently share them. Or, as social media theorist Nathan Jurgenson describes it: “Our brains [are] always looking for moments where the ephemeral blur of lived experience might best be translated into a Facebook post; one that will draw the most comments and "likes”." Social media and influence "To understand the influence of social media you need to go beyond mentions and take two more steps – ascertain how those mentions translate into reach and figure out how the impact in the social media world leads to changes in perception and behaviour in the real world" - Stephen Shakespeare, YouGov The more we use social media, the more it creeps into our consciousness and unwittingly impacts the decisions we make. It's why it's important to not only think of a post on social media merely in terms of how many people it has reached, and what evidence we can find as to how it has impacted others, but to see it as a direct record of an experience that has been influenced by the medium on which it has been shared on, prior to the event itself. (also published on the Precise Brand Insight blog) |
| Online Customer Communities: 5 Ways to Increase Customer Lifetime Value Posted: 28 Nov 2012 09:10 AM PST Are you missing opportunities to increase profitability? When you hear about the ways that companies grow, the usual suspects get most of the press – more new sales, cutting expensive and reinvesting the difference in marketing, expanding into new markets, etc. However, one of the most effective ways to grow your business is less hyped – improving customer lifetime value. Most organizations spend their finite resources on tuning their marketing and sales funnels and putting out customer fires, rather than seeking ways to increase the profit they get from customers once they make a purchase. The customer lifetime value measurement refers to the net profit that comes from a customer over the span of their relationship with your business. It can be measured along individual customers, as well as averaged across all customers or a specific segment. Tracking customer lifetime value (CLV) helps build a business culture around treating your customer relationships like an asset.
Most companies that track CLV use it to identify the levers that they can pull to improve their performance. For instance, are your costs of acquisition (sales and marketing expenses) too high and causing your CLV to be negative? Here is an example using the basic model above: $2,000 (Lifetime Revenue) - $200 (Operating Expenses) - $700 (Cost of Acquisition) - $500 (Implementation & Delivery Costs) ——————————————— $600 (Customer Lifetime Value) In this case, if senior management is not satisfied with a customer lifetime value of $600 per customer, the have options:
The most attractive option for a specific company will depend on which lever is most easily moved at that organization at the lowest cost. Side note: The components of customer lifetime value are also interconnected. For instance, you can decrease your customer service investment, but you risk also decreasing the lifetime revenue is customer satisfaction goes down as well. Companies measure their average customer lifetime value over time to determine the overall health of the company. Is your CLV steady, rising, or falling? While many businesses with reoccurring revenue, such as SaaS technology companies, rely heavily on CLV to drive the valuation of the company, any business can benefit from tracking and finding ways to improve their average customer lifetime value. Private online communities have emerged as the Swiss army knife of improving customer lifetime value. Your online customer community can impact a wide variety of performance metric tied to the lifetime value of a customer. Here are 5 ways to use your online customer community platform to improve CLV: Way #1) Know Where Your Customers Are in Their LifecycleWhat would happen if you communicated with a new customer like you do to a customer who has had a relationship with your organization for 10 years? Your messages would make assumptions that could lead to missed engagement opportunities and potentially damage the relationship with the new customer. Use community profile data, security groups, and the built-in email engine to segment your customers' experiences in your online community. This provide the information, experts, and engagement opportunities each customer needs at their given stage in their lifecycle. Way #2) Know What Your Customers NeedIt is difficult to maintain a relationship that is productive and valuable in the eyes of your customers without knowing what you customers want out of the relationship. It is also hard to keep busy customers engaged in your community without having an understanding of the problems that are most important to solve. Create an ongoing dialog with your customers using the discussion groups in your online customer community to collect data about your customers' problems. In addition to discussion forums, utilize the polls and surveys in your online community to confirm and prioritize customers' needs. Bonus Tip: Be ProactiveAs I mentioned in the introductions, online customer communities give organizations a unique opportunity that very few other strategies can deliver. By combining behavioral, demographic, and transactional data in your CRM system, you can derive who your customers are, what they are looking for, and how they feel about specific topics or products. You can then use this knowledge to proactively address concerns, capitalize on opportunities, and solve problems for your customers before they even need to reach out to your organization. All of these combined will highlight the importance of the company behind your product or service. Using your online customer community in this way makes that relationship just as much of a vital part of doing business with you as your product or service. Way #3) Increase the Value of Each CustomerIn a recent episode of Socious' social business web series, ProCommunity, customer relationship expert, Barton Goldenberg, spoke about how organizations use private customer communities to couple existing customers' activities with their purchase profiles to identify additional sales opportunities. A social CRM strategy that includes private online customer communities enables companies to monitor customers' social behavior for buying signals such as participating in discussions about product add-ons, browsing options for training and other services, and accessing files or videos about solutions that they don't yet have. That data can be used by your sales, marketing, and customer care teams to have discussions with your customers about additional needs. These data-driven conversations have a higher likelihood of resulting in additional sales than messages build on basic demographic segmentation. Way #4) Extend the Length of the RelationshipCustomers continue to do business with you company because you solve an important problem, that they are willing to pay to have solved, in a unique way. While your products and services deserve the bulk of the credit, your online customer community plays a significant role in providing exclusive value to your customers. Finding answers quickly, being able to turn to an active user community for support, and helpful content that customers won't be able to find anywhere else is a major part of customer loyalty, as well as building a vibrant community. The exclusive value that is at the center of your customer community strategy lengthens the time that your customers do business with you and increases customer lifetime value. Bonus Tip: Offer Advanced Engagement OpportunitiesJust because certain customers love you doesn't mean that opportunities don't exist to strengthen the relationship and improve customer lifetime value. Further ingrain your best customer in your community by turning them into customer advocates. Use the tools in your online customer community to provide additional engagement opportunities. Examples include asking a customer to help lead a product advisory group for a period of time or recruiting them into your customer reference program where they can answer questions from potential customers in the prospects-only groups in your online customer community. This will both expand your relationship with certain segments of customers, as well as leverage existing customer relationships to bring in new business. Way #5) Decrease CostsDue to the wide range of features and flexible configuration options that come with enterprise online customer communities, your business has a host of ways to decrease costs associated with managing and servicing your customers. Online customer communities can significantly lower the costs of onboarding and supporting customers by promoting peer-to-peer support, building segmented new customer areas into the community, and enabling partners to answer customer questions. Keep in mind that you can only decrease support, implementation, and customer acquisition costs if you first build an active and sustainable online community. Online Customer Community TakeawayYou'd be hard pressed to find a way to impact as many CLV levers as your online community strategy. From extending customers' relationships to finding opportunities for additional sales to controlling costs, there is a direct correlation between the way that your online customer community can monitor and strengthen customer relationships and the activities that will move the dial on the components that make up the customer lifetime value metric. Take a hard look at the costs of strategies and technologies that your company is using today to increase customer lifetime value. Then, evaluate whether your organization would realize a higher ROI using a unified customer community platform that can impact multiple components of CLV, rather than managing and supporting initiatives that hit on only one or two levers.
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| The Art of Social Intelligence Posted: 28 Nov 2012 08:05 AM PST Thatcher MCS has recently begun recruiting for Social Intelligence Consulting and as it is a relatively new area, we have noticed there is not a lot of information out there on the subject. We know it is very important for businesses to get involved with Social Intelligence and the market is going to amplify – we are so excited about Social Intelligence. Social MediaSocial media is an exceptionally powerful tool for companies, with most companies now having a social media presence, they now need to measure the data and use the results to implement relevant and effective business strategies. The speed in which technology is growing and improving can be daunting and increases pressure within the business, but look at it from the other perspective – it creates many opportunities. Social media can provide businesses with new insights into the way consumers, markets and competitors behave, you just need to use the data from Social media to your advantage. What is social intelligence?So, what exactly is Social Intelligence? Social Intelligence offers a vast amount of social consulting through the data analysis of social media, presenting businesses with strategies for moving forward and gaining commercial advantage within their market. Social Intelligence is a relatively straight-forward concept but one that is not currently being used by many companies. The three main steps to Social Intelligence are:
The need for social intelligenceWhy should we be sitting up and taking note of Social Intelligence? Well, we all know that the way our businesses are perceived through social media is highly important but what many businesses still have not caught onto is that the way we are perceived by our social audience can be tracked, reported and then implemented into commercial and strategic decisions, helping our businesses to move forward and improve. Using this type of information is nothing new, for years businesses have been presented this information and data through market research, surveys and their own data, but now, with such a heavy reliance on social media, this is changing and Social Intelligence has the ability to provide the answers more accurately and more efficiently. The activity analysed through social media can help businesses to better understand what is happening in their marketplace – this is not as easy as it sounds. Due to the high volume of interaction through social media platforms and the vast amount of data, it is difficult – wading through all this data and reporting on the most significant parts needs to be done by an expert. How does Social Intelligence help your business?The use of social media in order to help business strategies is invaluable. In this day and age customers openly share information through several social media platforms, this is essentially free market research for a business's products or services, competitor analysis and customer feedback – it is a goldmine for businesses. Social Intelligence allows businesses to:
Social Intelligence can also provide companies with early insight into market trends which they can then use to develop a strategic approach. For example, Social Intelligence could be used to notify companies to an emerging trend among their competitors allowing them time to implement a pricing advantage. A business can use the results provided by Social Intelligence to enforce smarter marketing decisions and develop a better understanding of how to respond to their customers and prospects. In turn, these results can be used for their business forecasting, helping the business to predict future requirements which will save them money and also to assess current or prospective future requirements. By analysing the conversations through social media and finding out exactly what customers and clients are saying about the company and/or its brand, it can help to form a better understanding of likely future service they could provide. Companies may be worried about this but they can use Social Intelligence to analyse negative comments from customers – things they didn't deliver, and turn this negativity into an opportunity to plan new services and offers to increase sales. Hypothetical Example
To sum up the advantages that Social Intelligence can bring to a company let's look at a hypothetical example. Take a big toothpaste brand – for the purpose of this exercise this is a fictitious example and brand name, purely to relay how great Social Intelligence is. Imagine the toothpaste is a household brand named Sparkle! The toothpaste market is a very competitive place and brands must work very hard on their marketing and advertising to stay on top of the game. Sparkle has been the nation's favourite toothpaste brand for generations but has seen a drop in sales over the last few years. They are at a loss of what to do but have a rough idea that they want to use their social media platforms to help drive sales. They bring in a Social Intelligence consultant to help them; the consultant monitors their brand, collecting data of the trends in the market place, what customers are saying about the Sparkle brand – positive and negative, and what people are saying about the competitors. Once all the data has been collected the consultant presents his/her findings to Sparkle and puts forward a strategic plan for boosting sales. Market trends: It was found that in the past year sales of toothpaste for sensitive teeth have tripled. Competitor Analysis: Sparkles main competitor brought out a sensitive range which customers loved, however felt it was overpriced in comparison to the original range. Sparkles brand reputation: The main comment which came back was that their toothpaste was fantastic and adored by many, but customers wanted to see a new sensitive range. Through these findings a strategic plan was put in place to develop a new sensitive range, with a lower retail cost than what their competitors were offering. This example is quite a simple concept but provides you with an idea of how successful Social Intelligence can be to implementing strategic business plans. Listening to the needs and feedback from customers and clients through Social Media has really taken off with many businesses. We predict that many more businesses will begin implementing Social Intelligence into their strategies and look forward to this concept flourishing and making a difference too many market places. |
| KLM India Wants You To Check In Passengers And Win Prizes Posted: 28 Nov 2012 07:50 AM PST KLM India, the Indian arm of the Netherlands-based KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, has introduced a Facebook contest 'Check-in Frenzy' where you are required to check in virtual passengers as quickly as possible to win a number of prizes. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is one of the largest and the 'oldest operational airline' in the world. And not just that, it is probably the most distinguished airline when it comes to making a connect with its audience on social media. One campaign that really caught the imagination of the world was KLM Surprise where they hunted down passengers who had checked in at the Schipol airport in Amsterdam using Foursquare or had tweeted about travelling on a KLM flight to and from Amsterdam and presented them with goodies. Other notable campaigns include Live Reply where their employees responded to tweets and posts with giant letters live on YouTube within one hour of receiving the particular query, Tile & Inspire where 4000 Delft blue images of their Facebook fans were pasted on one of their aircraft and Meet & Seat where people could link their Facebook or LinkedIn profile and see who else is travelling on the same flight (provided that they have also linked their profiles) and choose a seat next to them. In short, KLM Airlines takes social media very seriously and uses it effectively to wow its passengers and fans alike. So when I came to know about their Facebook contest on the KLM India page I was intrigued. Well, given their track record anyone would. And here's what it is all about. Check-in Frenzy
KLM India is running a contest on Facebook by the name 'Check-in Frenzy'. There is no fan gate. Click on the start button and you will be taken to the app. However, I would suggest you read the instructions. Just before the start you get a list of your Facebook friends at the top that you have to check in. Different friends belong to different classes and have to be checked in at different counters, namely Economy Class, Sky Priority and Self-Service check-in counters.
How cool is it?To begin with the app worked fine the number of times I played the game. It has a clean look to it throughout, the characters are well-designed and the colour scheme of KLM blue and white gives it a pleasing feel. The background sounds go well with the game as well. However, there is only one concern as to how well the game could be played on the smaller screen of a laptop/netbook. Within the app, there is no clear mention about what the prizes on offer are. Going by one of the posts on the timeline one of the prizes include "flights to Europe" while there is no hint of what other prizes are. Also, if KLM is giving away aforementioned big prizes it would have made sense to have a terms and conditions page. There is none whatsoever. And though the app works smoothly according to the posts by fans on KLM India's timeline who played the game, it looks like the highest scores achieved by them do not get updated on the dashboard immediately or perhaps take a longer time. To sum it up, it is an engaging game that also educates fans about KLM's way of working and services. No doubt there is effort put in for its creation. The game itself lives up to the social reputation of KLM but it would have been fantastic if there was some clarity about the prizes and the mention of terms and conditions. By the way the game doesn't seem to have been exclusively made for or by KLM India. The same contest is being or has been run on the respective KLM pages of some of the other Asian countries. So how did you find the contest? Did it get you hooked to it? Or did something else catch your eye? Do let me know in the comments below. |
| 5 Ways to Bring Down Personal and Business Barriers Using Social Media Posted: 28 Nov 2012 07:30 AM PST Did you know that the best way to get new clients is by getting a personal referral? That's right. It isn't some giant billboard on Madison Avenue, a Super Bowl commercial, or even being the top-ranked business for a particular search term on Google – it's having someone say, "Hey, I know a great _____." But how do you get those personal referrals? Word of mouth used to literally be that – friends would tell each other about good experiences over dinner or while talking on the phone and this would lead to an increase in business for companies that really impressed people. Obviously, that kind of thing still happens, but more and more "word of mouth" is referring to what people are "Liking," "Friending," "Following," and posting about on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. If you're not a tech-savvy person, hearing that might scare you a little bit, but it really shouldn't. Social media sites are an opportunity to reach more people and tear down barriers between customers and companies that can get people more invested in your business and your success. How? Read on! Expertise. In the past, much of the written interaction between businesses and customers has been fairly overtly salesy, but that's the exact wrong way to go on with social media. Instead, the medium gives you the opportunity to set yourself up as an expert who can provide your followers with valuable information that helps them with their questions and maybe ever so slightly points them in the direction of your company and your products. But you should never forget that your goal is to provide information so that people will want to keep listening to you and come to trust you. Personalization. Twitter and Facebook are not sales tools – or at least they weren't initially – so the vast majority of users have no interest in following an account that's just a way to get people to buy things. The good thing about this is that it allows you to be incredibly creative and throw in some personality on your tweets. People are interested in feeling like their dealing with a human being with real thoughts and opinions, not a company mouthpiece. Get recommended. Coming back full circle, the ultimate breakdown between the personal and professional on social media as far as businesses are concerned is that it allows people to recommend you and even specific products and services of yours by telling their friends about them. The difference is that instead of two people talking about vacuums over coffee, it's one person telling 500 friends that your vacuum is the best. Even if only two or three people decide to buy based on that recommendation, that's a great way to build out your business – especially if those people each recommend you to 500 of their friends. |
| Instatown, See The World Through Filters Posted: 28 Nov 2012 07:25 AM PST I know it would sound cliché but indeed 'A photo is worth a thousand words' and few technologists know this very well. Just look at the success of photo sharing apps and sites like Instagram and Pinterest. I remember my first camera was a Kodak, not the digital one, but the one where you need to load the film (a great task in itself) and in those times, it was the only point and shoot available. I still treasure those photos and love showing them around. And now I don't even carry my P&S digital camera, because it's the phone camera which does all the trick and I still show them around, but now it's using the power of social media. Instagram took it a little further, allowing me to add various filters to the photo that made them look better than they actually were! Now that I was latched to taking photos and using Instagram, I still desired to use it's search and tagging feature and that took me to Instatown.in, a great site by folks from Graffiti Collaborative. What is Instatown?I would say it's a very small, niche site lying out there and waiting to be found out by others. Why I say niche is because they cater to a very unique perspective of Instagram, which is searching photos based on locations and hash tags. Though there are very few places that they support as yet, it's an app that deserves worthy attention. For me, it's one of the site which has leveraged some of the powerful features – geo tagging, hash tag of Instagram to present you with an amazing collection of photos in real-time.
It has one of the best landing page I have seen for a while. All the pages have been divided in 2 parts – the left part shows your options and right side shows you the collection of photos or a full size view of the photo. Simple and intuitive to say the least. Features of InstatownInstatown presents the information in 4 creative ways: 1) Gallery, 2) Map, 3) Contests and 4) Tag.
2. Map - The map feature leverages geo-tagging element to the core and a click leads to the map of the country showing places from where the images are getting uploaded based on Instatown tags. The thumbnails are tied to the places where they were tagged from. 3. Contests - Yes, they have 'contests', but don't be mistaken, they do not organise any contests, but instead list down all the Instagram contests happening around in India. This is a great idea, since you can participate in those directly from Instatown. 4. Tag - Instatown Tags as they call it, leverages the power of hash tags. While they list down the hash-tag they are currently getting feeds for, you can also submit the one of your choice and enjoy related photos. What is cool about Instatown?For a change, it was nice to see an app that is not either Facebook or Twitter dependant. It was a refreshing experience to review Instatown since they captured the essence of photographs through Instagram. Firstly, kudos for thinking differently! 1. Simple Interface - I personally like to see a minimalist interface as it's the only way I can easily locate content that I was searching for and Instatown has nailed it. 2. 'Contest' Feature - Loved the feature. While I say that, the disclaimer is I was unable to test it since no contests were found. Hopefully it's not a bug! 3. Live Uploads - A small live stream that shows some recent uploads. How can it improve?Tough, but there were some niggles and I assume they will soon address those. 1. Home Page – The moment you view the homepage, you see there are 3 features. Aha! Move the mouse over to the features and you see the space grow and reveal the 4th feature. Why hide it guys? I would have loved to see all of them on the page and not require me to do a mouse-over to reveal the last one. 2. Tag Feature – On the Tag page, it's written that users can submit their own tags, but then you never know how? A tool-tip or a link would have made it much easier for the user to find that place. 3. Contests – Didn't I just 'like' that feature! Indeed, but what I missed is probably a message saying there are no 'active' contests. I just stare at a blank space which would really scare off someone. 4. Live Updates – Again, while I loved the feature, it the location of the feature that matters. I, for one, would have surely missed it if not for a closer look. 5. Social Sharing – Folks, if you're listening, your social sharing buttons are too small and hard to locate. And you know, they are not visible when I expand the 'Features' area on the homepage. Maybe a little bigger and at a place where everyone can notice should make it easier to share (because I want to). While I am sure they are looking to add few more cities to the maps, it wouldn't bother a user unless he's living in a non-metro city. Overall, it was a nice experience reviewing Instatown and wouldn't mind recommending the readers to utilize this pretty little site. |
| Posted: 28 Nov 2012 07:15 AM PST A consultant is a professional who provides professional or expert advice in a particular field or job. Right now, the consulting business is booming! Global consulting industry revenues will be about $391 billion by the end of 2012, which represents reasonable growth from $366 billion in 2011. But, what really goes into becoming a consultant? The average start up for a business consultant is anywhere from $100-$20,000. There are many different fields of consulting and depending on which area of expertise you decide to enroll will help determine the costs to consider. Marketing consultants spend an average of $7,462 a year on marketing. About 22% of consultants spend the most time on networking while 38% of consultants say that referrals make them the most money. Other consulting occupations to consider are transportation, office supplies and insurance. The average monthly insurance premium for individual coverage in 2011 was $183 a month. These costs included the setup fee, franchise tax, annual report and registration fee, and income and stock tax. Another thing to consider is whether to be an individual consultant or a full time employee. Choosing to be a consultant over a full time employee has its benefits, but it can also be risky. If you choose to be a consultant, you get to choose your own hours, take vacations when you want, set your own fees, pick clients, refuse assignments, and work on a variety of projects. However, the risks of not working full time is the scare of not having a steady and regular paycheck, no administrative help, no benefits or health care, no tech support, and other things employees take for granted. To set your fees when becoming a consultant you’ll need to consider how you want to get paid. Majority of consultants do it one way or the other – by the hour or by the project. Strategy consultants usually command the steepest fees. Followed by operations management, human resources, and IT gurus. To set your rates you can either base them on the market and what the market is prepared to pay for by the opportunity and how much you would make if you did something else. The top fields in consulting currently are computer and information systems, human resources, management, environmental and conservation, accounting, and sales marketing and PR. So, do you think a career in consulting is in your future? Where do you fit in? |
profitable, much better than the ballyhooed and disastrous Facebook IPO. With a 187 million users and growing it would behoove you not to participate. LinkedIn offers a lot of opportunity to connect with others and build relationships.
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week, and it's left me trying to figure Facebook out all over again. I feel like this is becoming a regular event for me.
Parents in Palghar must be terrorized by the new headache that Facebook has created for them. Poor fellows must have issued a strict warning to their young blood that no more socializing on Facebook. But the youth of India seem to have found a wider platform on Facebook to express their views. However, not everyone seems to understand the platform.
There isn't a sure-fire formula to creating a viral article. There are too many variables – from audience to timeliness, popular posts can't be predicted. Creating quality content doesn't result from hitting every box on a writing checklist; it's more than that. It takes practice. For example, have you ever watched old reruns of Growing Pains, and suddenly you notice a young Leo DiCaprio that you never noticed before he was famous? Writing viral content is similar. You have to keep trying, even if no one notices at first. You might just need some Titanic tips to get you there.
"The essence of ultimate decision remains impenetrable to the observer – often, indeed, to the decider himself" – John F. Kennedy
Once the game starts, you need to drag and drop the person being flashed to the counter he/she belongs to and drag his/her passport and luggage to their rightful places as mentioned in the instructions. The objective is to check in a bunch of passengers correctly and quickly and get a stamp by scoring 1200 points in a single attempt of 60 seconds. You need to collect 4 stamps to be eligible to win prizes.
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