25 New Social Articles on Business 2 Community |
- A Blog is Like a Fine Bottle of Wine
- Are You Utilizing All of Facebook Timeline’s Changes?
- On Social Media Internships
- Top NHL Teams in Social Media
- What is Social Media Marketing? 5 Things Social Media Marketing IS!
- FAQ Your Way Through a Social Media Crisis
- Don’t Worry So Much About the SEO Inner Circle
- Dang. It Looks Like Social Media Killed Advertising. Again.
- SEO Marketing Made Easy: How to Set Up an Editorial Calendar
- 4 Ways to Find Hosts for Guest Blog Posts
- Not So Smart Anymore
- Twitter Mentions DO Affect Google Rankings
- SEO and Social Marketing Resources to Grow Your Small Business Quickly
- The 4 Pillars of Social Media Marketing
- Tumblr Gets Bold With Advertising Rates
- Understanding and Leveraging External and Internal Influence for Increased Sales
- Is the New Facebook Timeline a Failure in Design?
- Use Broad Keywords to Start Your Keyword Research – SEO Video Tip
- 20 Ways To Write Kick-Butt Titles for Your Blog
- Twitter 101 – How Do I Use Twitter?
- 5 Basic SEO Tips to Implement Today
- Social Media Groupies Should Face Up to Facts
- How to Measure Brand Perception on Social Media
- The Wrong Place for a Twitter Feed
- Using Google+ Hangouts
| A Blog is Like a Fine Bottle of Wine Posted: 03 May 2012 03:30 PM PDT
Wine, however, is perennial. There are a wide variety of wine-producing countries in the world, from the traditional offerings from France, Spain, and Italy to the new-world productions from the United States and Australia. Wine is also produced in the country of Georgia (actually, the Balkans lay claim to the oldest-known evidence of wine production), Uzbekistan, Morocco, and many, many more places. I was sitting around with a glass of my favorite red and thinking about writing (which is what I'm normally doing) and figured, why not combine two of my favorite things? Thus, this post on why a blog is like fine wine. Yes, it is. Trust me. Get Intoxicated with the Power of WordsOne of the great things about wine is that it's not a particularly complicated drink, at the heart of things. Now, I'm sure that some of the world's most renown wine producers might disagree with me – but hear me out. Wine is fermented grape juice, at the end of the day. Wine is not a Long Island iced tea with many different ingredients. It's not a super-skim low-fat latte with vanilla shot that takes a half-hour to make at the coffee shop. (The person who orders the aforementioned drink is always in front of me at the coffee shop when I'm trying to get a cup of plain black joe. It's practically cosmic law.) In the same vein, blogs are simple creations. There are a lot of whys and wherefores that come with writing a blog for business conversion, but this doesn't mean you need to start up the espresso machine and create a blog so complicated it would make Starbucks blush. Even Content Marketing Institute agrees with me: Anna Ritchie's Ultimate Guide to Blogging points out why it's more simple than you think. You don't have to get incredibly complex to have a fine blog – just as the ingredients in fine wine are anything but complex. In fact, if you put too many additives in wine, it turns to vinegar. Just like with wine, keep your blogging simple. All blogs have easy base components; make building your blogs the same way a vineyard would produce fine wine: with a recipe. Try this one for inspiration: Get started with your headline first. Starting with the topic helps you narrow down the focus of the blog – for example, when you read the title of this blog, it's likely that you were expecting me to talk about blogging and wine. If I touched on neither one of those things, you'd feel a bit betrayed, wouldn't you? This is a great way to start off your blog strong and stay on track. Read more at Copyblogger with the post Why You Should Always Write Your Headline First. Start off your blog content with a bang. Hooking the reader in is essential. Need to get started? Check out this post at Copyblogger: 5 Simple Ways to Open Your Blog Post With a Bang. Use keywords sparingly for flavor. Keyword use is essential in blogs, but you want to make sure not to overdo it, or it will overwhelm your writing. If you need help getting started with the right keywords, check out Copyblogger's Keyword Research for Web Writers and Content Producers. It's a long read, but a good one! With these tips in mind, you're ready to get your blog brewing! But Where's the Struggle?But if writing blogs is simple, why do so many companies struggle? Kuno Creative has a lengthy (but information-packed!) post about what happens when companies actually stop blogging: How Much Does it Cost a Company to Stop Blogging shows that a company that blogs for 12 months straight will make $60,000 in gross profit as compared to $32,500 for a company that blogs for 6 months and then stops. While the ingredients for wine are simple, it's true that not everybody who likes wine has a vineyard on their property. (I definitely don't – I think the neighbors in my condo might complain a bit.) This is where working with a content writing service can come in handy. Even if you're completely capable of making your own wine or writing your own content, this doesn't mean that your time couldn't be used doing other things. I'm reasonably sure that the vast majority of people reading this buy wine from the local store when they've got an urge for a tipple, rather than go out back and start pounding grapes. Heading to the wine shop is just that much simpler. Perhaps for your business, outsourcing your blogs would be the better choice for you. No matter what you do, don't let your blog go idle. There's nothing worse than an idle blog – think about what happens when you uncork a bottle of wine and let it sit on the table. Again, you get vinegar. If you have to choose between starting a blog and letting it drop versus not blogging at all, it's better to go with no blog. Virtually everybody in the business will tell you so – like Linda Dessau personally tells you in this YouTube video. On the other side of the coin, everybody in the business will tell you that you should blog. Like Susan Ward from About.com. Like Doug Rice from 12 Most. Like James DeBono. And, finally, I also, unsurprisingly, recommend that you have a blog. Blogs are a classic component of content strategy. Just like wine is a classic component of a romantic dinner. And, hey, the ultimate purpose of content marketing is to woo the customer, right? Smoothing the way with a bottle of fine blog goes a long way. Blogs are like wine: simple ingredients can come together to make incredible, intoxicating things.   |
| Are You Utilizing All of Facebook Timeline’s Changes? Posted: 03 May 2012 03:00 PM PDT We all grumble each time Facebook initiates a new layout, updating our own statuses with complaints. But it’s almost been a month since Facebook implemented the new Timeline layout for business pages, and some companies haven't taken advantage of the new changes yet. If you use Timeline for Business pages the correct way, it's easy to see that it truly is better than the older version, not to mention more user-friendly for both the page manager and those that "Like" the page. Tips for making the most of Timeline for Business:
This photo doesn't need to be overdesigned; it can be a simple photo you took at an event, a tradeshow or even of your product. The only rule is that photos must not center around a current promotion, giveaway or call to action. Tip: The exact size of the cover photo is 851px x 315px. However, Facebook will allow you to upload a photo that is at least 720px wide.
With the new Facebook Timeline, you have to view your page as prime real estate. Really think about what is the most important information for your customer to see. And don't forget what the purpose of the Timeline is to make it easier for you to share information and engage with your Facebook visitors! Learn How to Make Facebook an Important Part of Your Inbound Marketing Mix  |
| Posted: 03 May 2012 02:30 PM PDT
Instantly there were hundreds of listings. Unfortunately, the vast majority of them had titles like this: MARKETING/SOCIAL MEDIA INTERNSHIP COMMUNICATIONS/SOCIAL MEDIA INTERNSHIP SOCIAL MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST INTERN and, one of my favorites: SOCIAL MEDIA INTERN – SUPER BOWL Clearly, company after NPO is looking to beef up their Social Media presence and the quickest, easiest and cheapest way to do that is by hiring a bunch of interns to do the job. Why not? This is the generation that was weaned on AIM, nurtured by texting and lives with a permanent USB port in the back of their head. They live and breathe Social Media and since most of the people in charge of these companies neither tweet nor pin, it makes sense to turn this part of their marketing strategy over to someone with the technical chops to handle it. Now, before you go accusing me of ageism, here are some of the responsibilities that are being entrusted to interns: Cultivate contacts at news organizations…Nothing journalists like better than a cold call from an intern. Evaluate the current social media strategy…and have that report on my desk in the morning. Utilizing and coordinating creative assets…plug in the projector for the Power Point presentation, please. Tweet live during events…OMG…we're sitting here and listening to this guy talk and its really interesting #eventname Wait…what? Do you really want a 20-year-old college junior who has never worked for your company or NPO to be the face of your organization in Social Media? Do they really understand the subtle nuances of your brand or mission enough to be able to make critical judgments on what is or is not appropriate to say? Do not think that I am against internships. I think it is our responsibility to train people in our industries. We have all had mentors at some point in our careers and that kind of coaching is invaluable. Unfortunately, it seems like the internship "experience" is being applied in two ways. One, we are turning over our Social Media strategy to Sara from UVA for the three months she will be here. She has a Facebook page, tweets, has her own Tumblr blog and is even working with this new thing called Pintrest. She is just the person to lead us out of the dark and set this company on the right path to being really cool in Social Media. And, when she leaves we'll just get another intern to replace her! Two, we are going to use interns in their traditional role – grunt work. Since they know how to handle the interwebs they can gather data, search articles, find You Tube videos we can use and go grab snacks for the afternoon staff meeting. Somewhere in the middle is an appropriate use of an intern. Look, I worked in radio for a long time and we used and abused interns on a regular basis. And, maybe, one out of ten of them showed the passion, drive, ambition and aptitude to do something beyond basic grunt work. Those people we took under our wing and actually trained them. But, we never, ever put them in a front line position where they represented our brand. Why? Because it isn't fair to them. Whatever your industry, there are young people out there with the passion and desire to work with you. Internships provide them with invaluable experience and can often lead to that first "foot in the door". Yes, their primary role is to do menial tasks and soak up knowledge. However, they can also be a source of fresh ideas and an innocent perspective not tainted by the day-to-day of the work environment. But, should you turn over your Social Media strategy and execution to them? Absolutely not! Would you bring in a marketing intern to run your direct mail campaign or write and produce your television ads? Would HR bring in an accounting intern and have them do the payroll? Then, why would you turn what is becoming an increasingly important part of any marketing strategy over to a rookie? I have this sneaking suspicion that too many organizations see Social Media internships as a way of putting a toe in the water. Rather than commit real resources, they can get started for "free". (And why not, Facebook, Twitter, etc – they're all free…) Forget about accountability. forget about sustainability. Forget about consistency. It seems these companies and non-profits think it is more important to have a Social Media presence without any thought to how it will look or function. It just astounds me. I am a 100% advocate for internships. Bring 'em in by the bus load. Get them involved. Train them and listen to them. But – do not give them the keys to the executive washroom (obtuse Mad Men reference…)   |
| Posted: 03 May 2012 12:57 PM PDT
Using the Track Social platform we have analyzed NHL teams' performance in the four essential categories – the Social Pillars – of social medial success: Presence, Audience, Engagement, and Buzz. Here's a look at the top 10 overall performers as of April 30, 2012 on the Track Social NHL Leaderboard with a special focus on how the top 5 are beating out the competition: #5 Detroit Red Wings Round 1 wasn't kind to Detroit; their 4-1 loss to Nashville was a disappointing season-ender for Red Wings fans. And with almost 1.25 million Facebook Fans and over 166,000 Twitter Followers, that turns out to be quite a lot of disappointment. In fact, Detroit claims first place in the Audience category and comes in at number 5 in our Overall rankings. The Audience category measures the total number of ongoing relationships a brand has formed through Likes and Follows. Founded as the Detroit Cougars in 1926, its proud history and deep roots have made it a Detroit institution with a fan base that's now spread well beyond its region. In fact, the Red Wings make a point of showing off just how far-flung Red Wing Nation really is. Their Facebook Fan of the Day post, highlights Red Wing pride all over the world – including this recent winner stationed in Afghanistan. The Red Wings have also boosted audience numbers by giving away free T-shirts for new Twitter followers, and by hosting game day viewing parties where they sign up new fans – a great way to merge online and offline interaction. #4 Vancouver Canucks The Canucks rank number 4 in Overall Social Media success and number 2 in the Social Media Presence category. Social Media Presence measures a team's visibility online, how well established and active it is on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Establishing a dynamic online presence is the first step in capturing a social media audience. Despite their Round 1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings, Vancouver's solid performance across Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, accounts for its high ranking in the Presence category. This is a testament both to the team's social media strategy and Canucks' fans' loyalty. Social Media success is never just a one-sided initiative – it's a collaboration between the brand and the audience. Social media gives teams an unprecedented opportunity to channel fans' goodwill into positive franchise growth. That's why connecting teams to fans through creative content, posts and updates across multiple platforms spurs engagement, which perpetuates audience interaction and sustains growth. A simple Canucks' Tweet from April 22nd sums up the collaborative spirit of successful social media engagement: "Watching the game outside of #Vancouver? Let us know where you're at (restaurant? diner? bar?) with #canucksnation." #3 New Jersey Devils With an Overall ranking of number 3, the Devils also score high in the all-important Engagement category. Engagement is about how successful a team's social media interactions are with consumers. In other words, when a team posts or tweets, does anybody care? Do Fans respond with comments, likes, and retweets, or are there crickets? It's possible for a brand to rack up big numbers of Facebook Fans and still not capitalize on that audience if their online interactions fail to keep fans engaged. Contests have always been a go-to strategy for drumming up consumer interest. But it's increasingly important for contests to offer Fans more than just a worthwhile prize: some of the best engagement strategies give audiences a creative challenge as well. The Devils Doodle Contest, invited fans to submit a drawing celebrating the Devils in the Playoffs. Fans could then vote on their favorites with the top ten finalists getting free tickets to the Fan Appreciation Game. (The Grand Prize winner gets season tickets next year and his or her design printed on Red Rally Towels.) #2 St. Louis Blues Having bested the Sharks in Round 1, the St. Louis Blues are exploiting their performance in the Playoffs to increase online engagement. Though they have a ways to go in terms of overall audience numbers (about 240,000 Facebook fans), their performance in the Engagement category elevates them to the number two spot in the overall rankings. St. Louis loads both their Facebook page and Twitter feed with video links to player interviews, highlights and analysis, establishing their social media presence as the go-to spot for Blues news. St. Louis also gets a big engagement bump from posting Community Photos showcasing Blues pride all over St. Louis. These photo albums are big draws for LIKEs and help connect fans to the excitement of the playoffs. #1 Pittsburgh Penguins Despite their 5-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers, when it comes to social media, the Pittsburgh Penguins are far and away the league champions. The Penguins take the number one spot in both the Engagement as well as the Buzz category. Buzz is a measure of how much people are talking with, at, and about a brand in the Social Media Universe. Audience numbers and engagement scores definitely play into a brand's Buzz, but so does the general level of chatter about all things related to a brand. Pittsburgh maintains its number one spot by actively engaging its loyal fan base and continually recruiting new Fans and Followers: "If you aren't following @pghpenguins on Twitter, you should fix that. We're giving away THREE pairs of tickets today, an autographed Brooks Orpik jersey and a $500 gift card to Dick's Sporting Goods. (We also have to point out that Pittsburgh's Twitter logo is the absolute best.) A recent Look-alike contest, a Fan of Day drawing and resolutely positive posts (a recent Happy Birthday post for Craig Adams racked up almost 7,000 LIKES) create a consistent message that perfectly supports the Penguins' upbeat brand: "It's a great day for Hockey." This is in direct contrast to another kind of social media branding currently embraced by the team that just knocked Pittsburgh out of the Playoffs… The Philadelphia Flyers come in at number 6 on our Leaderboard, but they're also noteworthy for turning their Facebook wall into a locker-room wall. With posts that range from the sophomoric to the crude, the Flyers seem determined to prove that the "city of brotherly love" thing is meant to be ironic. Though the off-color posts are usually fan generated and are not "official" Flyers updates, the Flyers have the ability to sanction or remove posts as they see fit. But hey, they don't call it Filth-adelphia for nothing. Rounding out our top 10 list as of April 30 after #6 Philadelphia are: #7 New York Rangers Some notable absences from our top 10** include four teams currently battling it out in Round 2 of the Playoffs: the Los Angeles Kings, the Nashville Predators, the Phoenix Coyotes, and the Washington Capitals. Will these teams be able to spin playoff success into social media gold? Keep up to date on how all these teams are performing with Track Social's NHL Leaderboard. **This article was based on the Leaderboard as of Monday, April 30, 2012. Actual Leaderboard changes on an ongoing basis.   |
| What is Social Media Marketing? 5 Things Social Media Marketing IS! Posted: 03 May 2012 12:10 PM PDT
What is Social Media Marketing?While social media marketing is different things to different people, for organizational success with social media marketing some social media elements are critical. So, what IS social media marketing? 1. Social media marketing is community.First and foremost, social media marketing is community. So, building your social media marketing strategy requires you build something that looks more like a friendship than a commercial relationship. In our study on commercial relationships, we found common elements of a commercial "friendship" were : self disclosure, trust, reciprocity, empathy, and collaboration. Notice, these elements look entirely different from traditional advertising. Let your hair down and be a REAL person in social media. Don't automate posts and don't only share content about the organization. Share something about yourself. 2. Social media marketing is about creating value.Traditional advertising is about creating awareness, interest, desire, and action (AIDA). Done right, traditional advertising also creates positive sentiment about the brand. Social media is about creating value to consumers. But, how do you create value beyond solving customer problems with your products? Relieve their pain in other ways. For instance, you can share discounts and deals that reduce the cost of your products. But, you can go beyond this simple marketing device to create even greater value. Delta listens to Tweets from customers and provides customer service to displaced passengers. Best Buy funnels installation queries to idle employees. Dove creates a campaign to help women feel good about themselves even if they don't look like a supermodel. The keys here are knowing your customers and listening to them — something entirely different from traditional media. 3. Social Media marketing is testing and tweaking.Social media marketing is a whole lot more than just fooling around on Facebook or Twitter. Successful social media marketing strategies rely heavily on analytics, research, testing, and algorithms. Sure, creating great content is IMPORTANT, but there's so much more involved in creating great content — it's not like journalism where the ENTIRE focus is on good investigation and writing. This is the hard side of social media marketing — researching topics, competitors, and target markets; A/B testing various copy; monitoring analytics like edgerank (for Facebook) to see how your market responds to your content; and understanding algorithms that determine whether anyone can FIND your content. The hard side of social media marketing is REALLY the heart and soul of social media marketing. 4. Social media marketing is more about listening and less about TALKING.Listening and responding to folks in social media, especially influencers, is MUCH more important than talking. And, if someone mentions something negative about the brand — let them. Don't try to shut them up or drown them out. Admit your mistakes and share steps you've taken to correct them and your critics will become your FANS. 5. Social media marketing is about giving, not selling.
I'm sure I've missed a few and welcome additions to my list. So, what is social media marketing to you?   |
| FAQ Your Way Through a Social Media Crisis Posted: 03 May 2012 12:00 PM PDT
Are you ready? Let's go! Why an FAQ is so crucially important within your social media crisis planIn a crisis, people have questions. And when I say people I mean your customers, your fans, your followers, your advocates, the media, bloggers and everyone else! They all have questions regarding both your organization and the crisis, and it's extremely important that YOU be the one to provide them with honest answers to these questions. It plays a major role within your mission to regain control of the situation. When should you release your FAQ?Your detailed and targeted FAQ goes hand in hand with your official response. It should be published once all facts about the crisis have been fully assessed and understood by your organization, and once you've set in motion the actions for which you will respond to, resolve and correct the situation. I can't stress enough how important it is within your social media crisis plan. What to include within your FAQBasically, it's important that your FAQ include as much detail about both the current crisis and the history of your organization. Remember that customers, fans and the media will be looking to it for answers, and it's your job to predict their questions before they even ask them – plus getting it right the fist time will save you loads of time in an already stressful and time consuming situation. Within your social media crisis FAQ you should:
How to optimize your FAQ for maximum viewing and reachFirst and foremost, the best place to publish your FAQ is on your organization's already existing blog. Seeing as this is one of the first places people will turn to for information regarding the crisis, it only makes sense. Side tip: Enable comments on your FAQ to encourage a two-way conversation that will allow you to continue to build the relationship you share with your audience. Secondly, optimize the title of your FAQ to be found by those looking for your organization's response, as well as those who might be looking for the offending content that started the crisis in the first place. A great trick to accomplishing this is to make sure you include both the name of the crisis (or offending content) and your organization's name within the title. A couple examples you may feel free to use:
Last but not least, make sure that you leave your FAQ published, wherever you decide to publish it, for the long-term. The crisis will end, but that doesn't mean that people won't continue to search for information on it once it's over. Make sure that they always find your brand's response to the crisis for as long as they may be searching. (As an example, the Domino's Pizza crisis that took place back in 2009 still gets an average of over 300 global searches per month, 3 years later.) Prepare your organization in advanceA social media crisis is a stressful time for everyone. Do yourself a favor and prepare the basics of your FAQ as part of your social media crisis plan. Obviously you can't include the details of a crisis that has not yet happened, but you can include all the necessary details of your organization that will be included within your FAQ, the strategies of where you will publish it, it's title strategy and an outline of important details to include and potential crisis-related questions to address and answer. Your social media crisis FAQ plays a major role within your social media crisis plan. It's not something you want to forget, and it is most definitely in your best interest to have a template and FAQ strategy prepared before a crisis strikes. What are you waiting for?!My homework to you is to take 15 minutes at some point today and do a quick outline of what your social media crisis FAQ strategy will be. Then come back here and let me know how it went and if you have any questions. I have faith in you! Take this small action today and begin to protect and prepare your brand for a social media crisis! photo by: Horia Varlan   |
| Don’t Worry So Much About the SEO Inner Circle Posted: 03 May 2012 11:30 AM PDT I came across this post on Shoemoney.com the other day that talked about the kind of behaviors that would get an SEO professional ousted from the SEO inner circle (or banned for life from ever joining). It got me thinking, why are we all so concerned with being in the "in crowd?" Whether it's our personal or professional life, we all want to belong to these almost mythical groups of "cool" people. I think it all started way back in Junior High when no one wanted to sit alone at lunch, but this mentality that we have to be in the inner circle in order to make it has carried over into our professional careers. This is a post for any newcomers to SEO that are worried that because they aren't part of the mysterious SEO inner circle they will never be able to make it as an SEO professional. While being part of (or at least recognized by) that SEO inner circle can help establish your reputation in the industry as an authority figure, not being included with the cool kids does not mean that you should give up on your SEO plans! I have never been a huge fan of SEO industry conferences. I think they are a great resource for someone that needs to learn a lot of information in a short amount of time, and speaking at a conference can help promote your company brand and build authority, but my end goal is not to network with other SEO professionals—it's to land a new client. Very rarely are potential SEO clients attending these industry conferences and tradeshows. More often than not it's other SEO professionals looking to connect with members of the SEO inner circle. And while networking is important, it's not my favorite activity. I'd rather take the couple grand it would cost to attend a conference (once you factor in airfare, hotel, car rental, food, etc) and spend a little extra on my content marketing or test out a few new banner ads—things that might help get my company a new client. Many new SEO professionals are operating on a shoestring budget as is. I remember when I first started my business that I would take any client I could find, no matter how little or how crummy of a job it was, because I didn't have any other options. Going to an industry conference to network and schmooze and try to work my way into the SEO inner circle wasn't a financial possibility, even if I had wanted to attend every SEO conference possible to learn from the SEO masters. I know a lot of new SEO professionals are looking to connect with the SEO inner circle because they have a wealth of information and years of knowledge to dispense. These guys have their fingers on the pulse of the SEO industry and always seem to know what's coming down the pipeline. But here's the thing, almost all of these guys have blogs, personal websites and social media accounts where I can learn everything I could ever want and more from them! I don't have to fight my way into the SEO inner circle to learn, it's all just a quick search away. Today's online world is so transparent that you don't need to be in the in crowd to know what the in crowd knows. Having a piece of your content catch the eye of the SEO inner circle is great. A retweet from Danny Sullivan or Rand Fishkin is going to do wonders for your reputation among the rest of us SEO folk—but do your clients really know who Danny Sullivan and Rand Fishkin are? While being "in" with the SEO inner circle makes you look great to other SEO professionals, unless your clients are involved in the world of SEO (in which case, why are they looking to hire an outside SEO professional?), chances are it won't do you much good in landing that client. Now I am not suggesting that you completely forgo any attempts to make members of the SEO inner circle respect you and your work. The SEO industry is has enough rude, ruthless and disrespectful members; we don't need any more. What I'm saying is that you don't have to be so focused on getting into that inner circle right from the start. Focus on doing great work for your clients, building your business and developing your own voice as an authority figure. The respect of the industry will be earned in time.   |
| Dang. It Looks Like Social Media Killed Advertising. Again. Posted: 03 May 2012 10:06 AM PDT
Gawd. Once again a Social Media Guru (or are they ninjas…I forget…) is pontificating about how EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED!! You can read this article here. But, in summary the author exclaims that traditional advertising is dead. The cute days of Mad Men where companies bought advertising to tell people about their products is gone. Over. Kaput. For example, he says: Speaking to an audience, and selling to them, is largely an exercise in having the wisdom to enter a conversation that's already happening in the prospect's mind. It's using the language the audience is already using. So, we no longer advertise – we read minds! Wow, this Social Media thing is better than I thought. Seriously? You mean consumers are already thinking about us and we just have to figure out what language they are using and start a conversation about these thoughts in that language. Cool. Oh, where do we start that conversation? Telepathically? Perhaps a solid radio commercial or a billboard might get their attention. Just a thought… He goes on… If you're throwing brand advertising at the masses and hoping something will stick, you're playing a game that's already over. Consumers have taken their ball and gone home. Yes, they've gone home and are watching television. Last time I checked that was about four hours a day! Oh, and if you are just throwing ad campaigns against the wall then you need a new ad agency or a better plan. Not done yet… The equation used to be: money x media = business. The new equation is: time x media = business. In other words, every company is a media company. So, my plumber is now a media company? Cool. Wonder if he offers HBO. Oh, wait, I get it. This is about the fact that every company has a story to tell and we are supposed to develop those stories and present them to interested consumers who will start a conversation with us leading to better engagement and a long-lasting relationship. Silly me, I just need a damn plumber to unclog my drains. Frankly, the last thing I really want to do is engage in a relationship with him… I really hate to burst anyone's bubble here but if you have a product or service you want to get in the hands of consumers, you will actually have to spend some money at some point. Yes, word-of-mouth marketing is great and Social Media is word-of-mouth on steroids. But it doesn't…just…happen. You need to do something to start that fire. you will actually – at some point – interrupt someone's train of thought and present your message to them in a very obvious way. A tweet ain't going to cut it. But wait, there's more… What does this look like in the real world? Here are three steps to creating a "campaign" that will last:
This is a very simple strategy that can be very difficult to execute. But it's absolutely worth it. Where to begin? Build a minimum viable audience? How do I do that without MARKETING TO THEM? I can create all the useful, educational, entertaining content about plumbing I want but if no one sees it what does it matter? Listen carefully…now that is actually great advice and one of the true benefits of being active in Social Media. This is especially true when it comes to reviews. Comments on Yelp, Foursquare, Google Places, etc. can have a powerful impact on the image of your business. These conversations happen whether or not you are paying attention so it is vitally important that you listen to the marketplace. Create and adapt? Consumer feedback is very important. But, if you're a plumber there is only so much creating and adapting you can do. Sure, you can improve your customer service, response time or create a "customer care" program. In the end – you're still just offering plumbing services and you want to book as many jobs as you can. Finally – a "simple strategy that is very difficult to execute." Wait, I need to look up the definition of oxymoron…..yep, it fits. There is nothing "simple" about this strategy. Creating "useful, educational & entertaining" content is damn hard. It takes creativity and ability. An understanding of what people who are looking for your product or service will find interesting. The author scoffs at both being creative and the creative process yet minimizes the necessity of creativity in order to execute his "simple" strategy. See definition above. And finally… If you had enough money, the good old days of brand advertising were truly good, like shooting fish in a barrel. Dang, I wish I lived during the time of Mad Men. Apparently, all they had to do was sell something and people would flock like lemmings to the store to buy it. People believed what they were told and did what they were told. Now, this pesky Social Media thing has come along and caused us to think. Damn you Mark Zuckerberg! Traditional advertising is not dead. Yes, there are more ways to reach a potential audience than ever before. However, in the end marketing is about creating awareness. There are many ways to do that – of which Social Media is just a small part. Beware the bullshit. If you own a small or medium business or run a small non-profit you know how difficult it is to attract customers or donors. And, you balance the marketing aspects of this process with all the day-to-day stuff that keeps your doors open. Do not fall into the trap of believing that Social Media is a marketing panacea. Social Media is here to stay. It is a great way to expand your marketing efforts. But, no amount of "useful, educational & entertaining" stories will replace old-fash- , uh, traditional marketing efforts. Your thoughts?   |
| SEO Marketing Made Easy: How to Set Up an Editorial Calendar Posted: 03 May 2012 10:05 AM PDT
This also works the other way around. In other words, it is very likely that people are going to want to guest post on your site the minute your site begins to gain some exposure. This makes creating an editorial calendar for your website very important. An editorial calendar is simply just a content schedule. The calendar will help show if you have an opening for a guest post and help give you a space to write down ideas about future content. Most editors schedule in their own content as well so that they can always remember when they have an article going live. A content schedule is also great for lesser-known reasons:
Although you may have been able to get away without having a calendar for a while, there will likely come a time when you need something to stay organized. Speaking from experience, I know that when guest posts really start coming in it becomes overwhelming. You want to make sure that you are still posting content for SEO marketing purposes, yet you want to allow for guest posts in order to gain publicity for your blog. If you start feeling so overwhelmed that you've hired someone to help, you'll likely find that you're constantly stepping on each other's toes and scheduling posts on the same day (also something I've experienced). Top 3 Ways to Create an Editorial Calendar OnlineThe majority of editors create a calendar online for the sake of convenience; however the old-fashioned way still works. If you're considering going digital with your content schedule, consider some of the different routes you can take: 1. Google Calendars – This is the tool that I use and I find that it works great. If you're using Gmail, it will actually send you an email to remind you when you are supposed to be publishing content or when your content has gone live (whichever you prefer). This can also be shared by multiple people if need-be. You can find Google calendars by visiting the Google docs Template Gallery. Simply click on "calendars and schedules" and you should be set to go. 2. WordPress – I have also used this avenue when working with editors online and found it to work well. Overall, this seems to be the most popular option for editors. All you need to do is install a calendar plugin to WordPress and you can move posts around whenever you see fit. You can download this plugin here at the WordPress Plugin Directory. 3. Excel – I am not nearly as comfortable with excel as the other two methods, but many editors find that this does the trick. You can create different tabs for different aspects of your blog such as articles that have already been published or articles that are pending. This works best for someone who is working on his/her own. Although a calendar for organization is a pretty basic idea, many editors still are not taking advantage. It is not something that costs any money and it only takes a few minutes to set up, so give it a try and see if it's right for you. Do you run an editor calendar? What program do you use, and do you find it helpful? Photo Credit: worksmartmompreneurs.com   |
| 4 Ways to Find Hosts for Guest Blog Posts Posted: 03 May 2012 09:30 AM PDT Guest blogging can be a great marketing method. I've mentioned it before here on Growth University and it merits a second post with some more info to help you. By leveraging the potential of guest posting, you can benefit from getting backlinks to your website (valuable for search engine optimization purposes) and you'll attract new people who may visit your website, too. Getting new streams of traffic to your website can help you with prospecting activities as well as online branding. Want some tips about finding great places to host your guest blog posts? Here are some ideas: 1. Google Blog SearchGoogle's blog search engine is a place that you can use to do a keyword search for blog sites. This could be a good way to find other blogs relevant to your niche. Another plus here is that Google is crawling these sites already so the results offer you sites that Google is paying attention to. 2. Twitter SearchThis is where you can go to search Twitter for info about what's happening right now. You can search Twitter for phrases specific to your niche and you'll find relevant tweets. Not only will you find sites you could offer to guest post on, but you'll also figure out which bloggers are active on social media. Once you follow a blog or blogger on Twitter you can either direct message them or simply click to their Twitter profile for their contact information. You can also post a public tweet on your Twitter account, occasionally, offering a guest post out. A tweet might include the title of your post (Tip: Make it a catchy one to attract more potential posters!) and directions to contact you to discuss further. 3. LinkedInDo you belong to any industry groups on LinkedIn? Consider posting on a group that you've got a blog post available for guest posting or you could say you are looking to do a blog post exchange. Don't forget to post your live blog posts to your LinkedIn profile and to relevant groups for extra exposure and networking opportunities. 4. My Blog GuestMy Blog Guest is a website where you can find material to post on your blog or where you can make your own blog posts available for others to publish. The system is unique in that you can pick and choose among other members who say they want to publish your blog post. You can choose based on many factors, such as Google page rank to make sure your posts get great exposure. There are free and premium memberships available with varying features. You can also search Google for the keyword phrases you want your website to rank for. The results can reveal non-competitor sites in your industry that are already ranking for those types of phrases. Contact the blog owner and ask if they accept guest posts. What if Your Post Gets Kicked Back?Guest posting is effective, but it's not always easy. Some blog owners are very discerning about the type of content they will or will not publish. (You can appreciate this, of course, as you'd only want high quality content for your readers, too) Take the time to write a high quality post of substance that will benefit the blog's readers. If your post is too generic or too promotional, this won't likely get you the results you're hoping for. Take feedback seriously when a blogger declines your offer of a post so you can improve your blogging skills and placement rate. Be sure to read my post at How Guest Blogging is a Great Marketing Tool for additional tips for success with guest blogging.   |
| Posted: 03 May 2012 09:15 AM PDT For the last eight months, social media has been a significant part of my daily routine, but not having it over the last couple of days has made me feel a little less intelligent. Being an educator has its perks, and one is the fact that my school system has not been known to “block” social media sites, but because we are entering the realm of testing, my links to social media have been put to a halt. The biggest reason seems to be because of our server capacity, which kind of make sense, but understanding that aspect of technology has not been a strong point of mine.
As an educator, I have always considered myself to have strong connections to my students and their needs, and because of this my activities and interactions with students tend to be based on the needs of these individuals. The needs of students must extend from the school building, the teacher, and their peers if we want all students to find success in school, as well as in life. So, my feelings of “not so smart anymore” have only lasted a few days, but the fact is that our society is moving quicker than ever because of social media and the internet, and if we, as a whole, are going to survive and thrive in this environment, there needs to be access at all times beyond the “little bubble” we call ours. My ability to grow as an individual is a direct effect of my surroundings, which happen to be across many boundaries because of social media. Now, I am glad my school system created preventive measure to ensure the best testing environment for all students, but hopefully there will be a better solution next year to ensure my learning continues. Until then, I will have to use alternative ways to get my “fix” on social media, which didn’t take long!   |
| Twitter Mentions DO Affect Google Rankings Posted: 03 May 2012 09:08 AM PDT
We've assumed that this has been the case for quite a while but it's always nice to have some facts and figures to back it up. In fact, the statistics are pretty impressive! The key findings were:
Another win for content marketingResearch results like these reinforce just how powerful content marketing – done properly – can be. So, how do you get people to mention you and re-tweet your content? You publish content that ticks these boxes:
Think news…Let's take news content marketing as an example – that's industry news, not company news. It's educational, thought-leading, often entertaining, commercially-neutral and, as it's usually written by journalists, it's high quality and original. That's why news is the most shared form of content on social mediaPeople love sharing news, they like to be the first to discover it and the first to share it, so much so that 47% of tweets are news related. If you're the one publishing it, it's YOUR brand that travels with it, it's YOUR website they click through to read it on and it's YOUR website that does better in the search rankings.   |
| SEO and Social Marketing Resources to Grow Your Small Business Quickly Posted: 03 May 2012 08:00 AM PDT Small businesses need to grow quickly, and an effective SEO and social marketing policy can make it happen. The ROI (Return on Investment) for both SEO and social media can be fantastic, but only if done correctly. Many startups, entrepreneurs, and small businesses experience no small amount of frustration following the same advice handed down to them by more successful marketers and bloggers. “Create content. Make it interesting. Traffic and revenue will follow.” Only, it doesn’t only work like that. This article will discuss how to makes the most of SEO and social marketing, and what it actually takes in order for them to start paying dividends. Going after SEO and social marketing separatelyThe term SEO has been co-opted into meaning pretty much anything to do with marketing, analytics, performance, content, social media, HTML, page structure, and so on. In fact, it helps to distinguish the two, so that you know what you are dealing with and what to expect. How to use SEOSEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a set of techniques used to increase the chances of appearing high up in SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). The focus of SEO is to increase traffic volumes through organic search – basically, appear on the top page of Google so that more people click through to your site or blog. The following articles and resources teach you more about SEO, and help you to implement it professionally:
SEO is important from the perspective that it helps you to implement “best practices” and give you the best chance of appearing high up in search results. More than that, and you are “cheating the system“, and Google’ Panda updates will find you out and penalize you. How to use socialSocial marketing focuses on driving traffic and business through any of the social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, and so on. Social marketing is about building human relationships. Finding allies. Making mutually beneficial connections. Sharing and discussing ideas. Most people focus on driving server crashing spikes in traffic from a tweet or mention by one of the top influencers. However, the benefits you derive from making real connections are far greater and long lasting. The following articles and resources will help you to understand and implement awesome social media marketing:
How to view SEO and socialGood SEO is like soil to a seedling. Your business or blog needs a good platform from which to grow. Your website’s content should be well organized and structured, images should have ALT tags, and so on. Social marketing is like water for a seedling. The relationships you nurture help to drive streams of engaged traffic – like water from a watering can – to your business or blog. The more relationships you build, the more traffic you generate. Is SEO or Social more important?By some measure, the relationships you build in the course of your social marketing campaign are far more valuable. Meaningful human relationships in business will trump search traffic any time. Look at it this way. If you are SEO’d to the hilt (bearing in mind that Panda may penalize you), your content may drive a steady stream of organic search traffic to your business blog or website. A certain percentage of this traffic will convert, giving you some ROI. On the other hand, if you have made a real connection with some top influencers in your industry. You could pass your content on to them, and have hundreds of thousands of their followers come to you by recommendation from someone they trust. In this instance, these people are far more likely to convert because your business has trust and credibility by association. SEO is important to a point. After which, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know… and very often who people think you know. What to expect from SEO and social marketing in the long runSEO is something you can work hard on to get it right, and then it’s done. The new content you create will adhere to the best practice guidelines for SEO, your blog or site will be properly designed to support SEO, and so on. The more content you create, the more content the search engines can index and the more traffic and revenue you will generate. Social marketing is different because it focuses on human relationships. Unlike SEO, it’s not sufficient to get it right (by making connections) and then assume it will always be there. Social marketing requires a persistent effort. However, the more connections you nurture, the more likely you are to be talked about and referenced, the more people are exposed to your message, the more fans, followers, customers and revenue you can generate.   |
| The 4 Pillars of Social Media Marketing Posted: 03 May 2012 07:40 AM PDT Social media marketing isn't rocket science, but it's pretty close. Any small business owner — online or otherwise — knows that to be successful it takes a well-developed presence on not just one but as many social media platforms as possible. Even for the experienced marketer, it can all be a little dizzying keeping track of different strategies for different platforms. Those who are just beginning often feel like they don't even know where to start when it comes to the different platforms, and would though they may have accounts in all the right places, they aren't using them in a way that produces the best results. This brief guide is for those business owners who have their efforts in some of the right places, but not all, or who may just not be executing their marketing strategies the right way. While Facebook wasn't the original social media giant, it certainly has risen to that status today. With over 300 million users to date, Facebook provides great marketing opportunities to a wide range of potential customers, and at a price that is so cheap it's sometimes hard to believe. The Imperative: You absolutely need a Facebook account for your business, whether you're an online store or a blog, Facebook is too great of an opportunity to let slide by. So, if you don't have a Facebook account, create one. Some businesses choose to reserve their company name for their personal accounts, but a better strategy is to build a personal profile and then create a Business Fan Page that is attached. These pages allow users to "Like" your business and register as fans. All your fans will receive any updates you post directly on their feeds. As you are setting up your Facebook account, make sure to explore some of your competitors' pages and see how they are setting up their pages. You don't want to exactly duplicate their strategy, but if notice common elements in all of them, it's probably because they have all determined that it works. Especially over the past few years, Twitter has proven to be one of the most successful and important social media platforms on the internet. Ways to use Twitter for your business are innumerable, and a simple search will provide many specific strategies — for now we are just going to cover the basics to get you started. The Imperative: Set up a Twitter account under your business's name. Unlike Facebook, you aren't limited by reserving an account with your company's name. After you've created your account, search around on Twitter to get an understanding of how keyword searches work and what kind of results are possible from a search. Again, searching for competitors is important, both to see what kinds of keywords they are employing, and to see what kind of information they are tweeting. Get comfortable with the basics of Twitter, and then look around for desktop clients that will expand the control you have over your account, as well as over the data you record about it. Some great Twitter add-on tools are TweetDeck, HootSuite, and Seesmic. BloggingOf course, if your business is a blog, you can skip this section, but for any readers whose business isn't blogging, it can be an extremely useful marketing tool to pick up. The Imperative: Set up a company blog, no matter what platform you use. Posterous is free blogging platform that, along with Google Blogger, looks pretty good and is very easy to use and update. For more experienced bloggers or for those with some technical knowledge, WordPress is also a great platform for blogging that offers more customization than Posterous or Blogger. Content is of paramount importance, so be sure to publish material that your readers and followers will want to share — ultimately that is how you will increase your presence online. Guest Blogging & BeyondGuest blogging is simply writing posts for other blogs and networking with other webmasters to establish mutually beneficial marketing relationships. If there is a blog that is related to your business, read a few posts on the site and see if it's something you could contribute to. If it is, contact the webmaster and pitch your idea. If your post is popular, the host's site will get some traffic, and you will get some links from his new traffic. The Imperative: Search for guest posting opportunities, but don't stop there. There are new social media platforms, such as Pinterest, that are generating a lot of buzz, and you should be scanning the web for new opportunities to get the word about your company out. Author Bio: This is a guest post by Susan Wells. Susan is from free insurance quotes, she writes on topics including health/car/life insurance, mortgage, real estate.   |
| Tumblr Gets Bold With Advertising Rates Posted: 03 May 2012 07:35 AM PDT Timid Tumblr? I think not. The social media company's first real foray into advertising (its 'highlighted post' product really doesn't count) is a bold one: the starting point is $25,000, according to Business Insider. The ads will appear on Tumblr Spotlight and Tumblr Radar, the latter of which is good for 120 mn daily impressions. To get started with Twitter advertising (not self-service), the commitment is $15,000, and it's $25,000 for Facebook. Click here for FREE email alerts from Inside IPO >> Source: Business Insider Photo: Tumblr   |
| Understanding and Leveraging External and Internal Influence for Increased Sales Posted: 03 May 2012 07:16 AM PDT As marketers, our ultimate goal is to influence others – to develop affinity for our products, to act in support of our values, and to choose our brand over those of our competitors. Leveraging influence is the single most effective and enduring asset we have in our marketing arsenal. In our new e-book, 3 Keys to Influence: Understanding and Leveraging Social Capital, we explore the ways to harness influence to grow a brand's social capital and positively impact critical business drivers such as sales. If there was any question that influence fuels word-of-mouth (WOM) and drives support for brands in social media marketing, consider the following:
We define Influence as a brand's ability to affect or prompt action among its key constituents. We believe influence is comprised of four distinct elements. These are:
To harness influence, brands should turn to brand advocates – those who support, endorse or would personally recommend your brand to their network. Brand advocates can come from external sources, like domain experts, or internal sources, such as your top buyers. You'll want to weigh your business goals before defining exactly how you want to include internal and external influencers in your campaigns. Take a new product launch, for example, you'll want both domain experts and loyal brand users to spread the word about it. For example, when Springpad, a free app built to help people stay organized, re-launched in April of 2012, the effort was bolstered by leveraging both internal and external brand advocates. People who had previously used and loved the product used WOM and social channels to tell their world how much more they loved Springpad after the updates. For a step-by-step guide to identifying and leveraging both internal and external influencers, plus how to run a successful advocacy campaign, download our free e-book, , 3 Keys to Influence: Understanding and Leveraging Social Capital. We want to hear from you, marketers! How do you identify and engage influencers to drive business results? Share your thoughts and best practices with our community on Twitter (use#AwarenessTips).   |
| Is the New Facebook Timeline a Failure in Design? Posted: 03 May 2012 06:25 AM PDT Generally people don't like change! The majority of us like routine and familiarity. Mess with someone's habitual routine and watch them start to sweat, stress and squirm. They also say that a change is as good as a holiday but is all change good? Facebook's new timeline is now live on both the personal profiles and pages and it has taken the known and familiar and replaced it with a very new design. Steve Jobs said in an interview with Wired magazine in 1997 "People think that design is how it looks, but it goes much deeper than that, it is actually how it works" So does the new Facebook timeline design "work"? The impact for business is that it needs to evaluate the implications of these changes to ensure that they maintain their engagement and utilise the stronger visual format that the brand "pages" now have. So the changes are in place and the dust has settled, what are the implications for the managers, administrators and users of the "new"Facebook timeline "page". Is Facebook's Timeline User Friendly?Is it a failure from a usability and design perspective? One study by Simple Usability looked at how viewers scanned and interacted with the new Facebook timeline and by recording eye movements and actions while users browsed online, they could see exactly what elements each user was drawn to, distracted by and engaged with. Here are their key findings. 1. Cover images aren't as important as you may thinkWe all love great photos but the usability study that looked at how people interact with the Facebook page showed that other than to orientate themselves with what Brand page they were on users paid little attention to both the cover and profile images. "I think timeline like that works much better for a personal than a product page, I just think because it is a banner with a main picture, it just looks like advertising." 2. Your company and its history is interestingThere are 2 key elements here that tell your company story. The "About" section and the Dynamic "Timeline" which can go back to when the company started and this new feature of the Facebook timeline is that you can post updates that are dated such as when your company or brand was established. The research showed that users were very interested in this "About" section on Facebook but usually found it difficult find on a company's official "website" Feedback from one the users in the test group "Just the general information, I like to know a little bit about their background… I liked the bits where it said founded and a little bit of information on when they started and what year, I thought that was interesting. The websites, it's not obvious on there but I liked seeing it on here." Scroll down to the beginning of Ben and Jerry's Facebook page and you will see photos and information that reveal a great story about their humble beginnings at a renovated gas station in 1978. (thanks to Jacinta from the digital agency "Croagh INK" for pointing out this great story timeline to me) It is certainly worth considering placing the important dates in your organisations history on the timeline. This will make the brand authentic and real. 3. The Timeline needs to remain currentRegular updates keep the sequence of the Facebook page connected and tell a story over time. The study showed though that no users scrolled back more than a month. Users appeared to be put off by the breaks in the "Timeline" as the new sections loaded and stopped scrolling. Users feedback -"When it started loading February..I thought it had finished, because you know with timelines, it stops at a certain bit… so I thought that's it… because there is a big gap and the big gap is quite misleading because there is more stuff later on." 4. Users take notice of friend interactions with a brandThe research also showed that seeing which of their friends already liked particular page split user opinion on whether they themselves would also like the page. A status update or a comment from a user's friend was more likely to create motivation to interact withe page especially if it was recent. 5. Pinned posts aren't obviously different to usersThe study also showed that the layout doesn't differentiate the posts. Few of the pages were utilising the pinned posts at the time of testing. Those pages that did had little effect; no users realised the pinned post was intended to be highlighted. Clearer definition of pinned post as a feature would help or a unique use of content that works with other elements of 6. Users aren't interacting with appsAccording to the study un-expanded app positions are the most important real estate. Other than to click through and see photo albums, the majority of users failed to interact with the row of apps. More importantly, nearly all didn't spot the arrow which makes all of the available apps visible. Participant in the research said "I never even noticed that arrow, maybe it should be set out slightly differently." TakeawaysThe study suggests that much in the new "Timeline" layout is flawed. Even following Facebook's guidelines for creativity and opportunity isn't enough as users are navigating as if using established design formats. According to the study, here are the major takeaways: 1. Brands should also make full use of new functionality – such as the Timeline and cover Image – to engage users, being aware that the latter has to be used imaginatively and not just considered to be a Facebook 'billboard.' 2. Page managers should consider how promotions, competitions and themed content can be contained within a specific timeframe that doesn't require excessive scrolling. 3. There is also no longer the opportunity to set a default landing tab or application, so brand managers should think about how the cover Image and pinned post functionality can support and reinforce competitions and campaigns. 4. The relationships and interactions a user's friends have with a brand are now more prevalent than ever before, as such brands should focus on nurturing positive brand mentions wherever they may be on Facebook. SimpleUsability MD Guy Redwood said: "But is clear that the average user doesn't fully understand the new layout, or interact with it in the way intended. The mechanics of obtaining 'Likes' has become more difficult for brands, they now need to drive engagement more than ever. Page editors no longer have the ability to set targeted landing tabs or applications for non-fans. In the past you could direct people onto a particular tab to encourage likes or interaction with a promotion". How About You?What do you think about the new timeline for Facebook? Do you find it confusing? How do generate "likes" now with the new page? How are you using apps and which ones are you making visible? Do you think it is a user friendly design? Look forward to hearing your stories. Image by vincos   This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Use Broad Keywords to Start Your Keyword Research – SEO Video Tip Posted: 03 May 2012 06:10 AM PDT It's important when you start your keyword research that your first few keyword lists are created using a broad keyword as the seed. If you start with too long tail or niche of a keyword, you won't be able to come up with enough viable (and actually searched for!) variations. It's also important to not let company ego get in the way when conducting keyword research and only use keywords the management likes. Watch this week's SEO video lesson here! For more keyword research lessons from Nick Stamoulis, check out the Brick Marketing keyword research video lesson archive.   |
| 20 Ways To Write Kick-Butt Titles for Your Blog Posted: 03 May 2012 06:00 AM PDT
First impressions matter, as Rich Matheson from Rich Blogs tells us in his post Blog Titles: How to Write Good Ones. Brian Clark from Copyblogger has said that 8 out of 10 readers will read the headline copy of a blog, but only 2 of those 8 will read the blog itself. These are… not impressive odds. While kindergarten tried to teach us otherwise, readers do judge books by their covers. Since the internet doesn't have a cover, this means that the first thing that a reader will see about your blog post is going to be the title. It's all about getting out there and snagging the reader. You don't have long when it comes to snagging the reader. How does one go about such an arduous task? With a title that kicks butt. Of course, you shouldn't apply all of these tips to every title you craft (you'd end up with a title longer than the blog post if you did, likely), but read up and get inspired. Here's how to give your blogs the ability to bend it like Beckham: 1. Take your time. Brew a cup of coffee, sit down, and give yourself some time to think. Mistakes are made when your rush – and you never know what sorts of creative bits and bobs you've got simmering in your grey matter. Don't leave your blog writing to the last minute – give yourself time to plan your title and content. 2. Indicate a benefit. When you read the title of this post, you immediately knew that the benefit would be getting twenty tips about crafting blog titles. Ostensibly, this is something you're interested in, so you clicked. "Blog Titles Are Important" would also be a reasonable title to the post, but it conveys no benefits. Tell your reader the benefits of reading! 3. Start an argument. Your kindergarten teacher might disagree, but a well-crafted post that starts debate is a wonderful way to get traffic. However, don't just stir the pot. If you're going to debate, do it well; otherwise, you'll likely end up getting a lot of negative attention. 4. Ask questions. A question is a great way to get a reader – it indicates that you're going to be getting into the nitty gritty of a subject. My dear business partner Amie uses this technique in her post April Fools – Was The Joke On You? What joke, you might ask? Well, you'll have to click to find out! 5. Tell 'em how. How-to posts are perennially popular, since, well, anybody who wants to know how to do something will immediately pay attention to a how-to post that seems relevant. If you wanted to learn how to plumb a sink, wouldn't a blog entitled "How to Plumb a Sink" get your attention? 6. Lists, lists, lists. Readers love lists. This is a tactic I used for this post – not only did it tell you that I was giving away tips, but I was giving away twenty of them! Who wouldn't want twenty free things? Your readers do! 7. Make pronouns work for you. Blogs are supposed to be personal at the end of the day – it's a way of communicating with your audience that is less formal than other content marketing mediums. Using the word "you" in a blog post immediately makes it sound more cozy and personal – and your readers will be more likely to snuggle up to it. 8. Use keywords sparingly. Having SEO keywords in your title helps boost you up the Google charts. It will also help readers who are looking for information on particular subjects zero in on your content easier. Warning: don't overdo it. If you're a widget company and every single blog title contains the word "widget," you'll want to mix it up a bit. Don't get repetitive. 9. Action words save the day. Just like with writing a resume, you want your blog titles to be strong in vocabulary. There are certain words that will certainly grab attention – "free" is one of them, as is "easy," or "secrets." However, if you're using powerful words, make sure your content is powerful as well! 10. Promises work, but don't break them. If you have an amazing blog post that you are sure is going to revolutionize the world, feel free to use words like "guarantee." An example would be "20 Blog Tips Guaranteed to Make You a Million Dollars." This would definitely get the attention of a reader – just make sure that you have the content to back it up! 11. Be funny. Making puns and clever quips in your titles can make a reader smile – and more likely to click. Just make sure to stay far away from anything shady or controversial – unless you're going for that sort of audience, of course. 12. Tips. This goes hand in hand with the "how-tos," but readers eat up tips like candy. 13. Keep it short. A long blog title will look awkward on the page, and probably won't impress the reader. Keep it short and snappy for best results. 14. Put the important things first. Google pays more attention to the words at the beginning of your titles: SEOmoz says so. And we believe them. 15. Be accurate. Don't dupe your reader. If the title says "How to Fix a Boat" and the blog is actually just promoting a certain kind of hammer, your reader is not going to be pleased. Be honest, and provide actual value to your reader, as suggested by Wired Impact. 16. Be unique. A title that makes your reader curious will increase clickthroughs. For example, doesn't my colleague Renee's post What Content Marketing Can Learn From The Mall pique your interest a bit, just because the title is unique? 17. Breaking news brings readers. If you include topical references in your blog titles, you'll draw readers who are on the cutting edge. Everybody wants to stay in the loop, and if your title will help keep a reader linked in – they'll likely click. 18. Consider targeting a group. Everybody is part of a group to a certain extent. For example, if a blog were titled "100 Reasons Why Content Writers Rock My Socks," you'd probably get the interest of a lot of content writers. (Hey, I'd read it.) "Widget Tips for Teachers" and "Widget Tips for Underwater Basket Weavers" also target groups, and this can be a good way to get attention from a certain segment of the web-surfing population. 19. Consider brand association. "Why Content Writing is Better than the Backstreet Boys" would get attention due to the association with a famous name. Referencing brands or celebrities can be a great tactic. 20. Be a know-it-all. A title I considered for this post was "What Everybody Should Know About Writing Blog Titles." If everybody should know it, a reader who is looking for information about the particular subject that you're writing about will be very interested! Writing an attention-grabbing title might seem challenging, but with these resources in your pocket, you'll have your blogs kicking-butt in no time. And that's a guarantee.   |
| Twitter 101 – How Do I Use Twitter? Posted: 03 May 2012 05:50 AM PDT We're going back to the basics with this post. With 140 Million active users and growing,Twitter continues to show it's here to stay. Yet I know so many that should be using it as a tool that haven't stepped up to the plate. Hopefully this info will help those individuals on the sidelines to jump in and join the platform. Twitter Name (Handle) – Depending if this account is personal or business will determine what you choose. There is a max of 15 characters for your handle. Keep it as tight as possible. A shorter handle will give you more flexibility with tweets. So think @rjones instead of @randyjones Avatar/Picture – Do not succumb to the dreaded Egg default avatar. Have a avatar/picture ready to go when you're first registering. If you been on Twitter for a while and still show the Egg, shame on you. Go into Settings – Profile – Picture and upload an image immediately. There is absolutely nothing positive about the Egg. Most see it as laziness and inexperience. Get something up immediately, you can change in the future if needed. The maximum size is 700K, JPG, GIF, and PNG. Biography – You have 160 characters to tell the Twitter world about yourself or your company. Put your interests, objectives, and/or description of product/services. This is another area of your Twitter profile which should not be neglected. You really want to get your message across to other users, and let them know who you are and what you do. Twitter Lingo: Tweet – A message containing up to 140 characters Tweep – A user on Twitter Mentions – This is whenever someone uses your handle (i.e. @sbhsbh) in their tweet. @reply – An update posted by clicking the "reply" button on a tweet. The reply will begin with @username #Hashtags – Categorize Tweets by Keyword. Pick your spots using #hashtags. Don't over do it… Retweet – Hitting the Retweet button will share that tweet with your followers without adding a comment Retweet (RT) – The act of copying a tweet and sharing your comments as Retweet. This has become an extremely popular way to retweet. Direct Messages (DM) – This is your private Twitter Mailbox. Many send automated messages as soon as you follow them. Most people ignore the existence of the messages and the mailbox. It's up to you. Twitter Interface and Best Practices: Profile: Tweets – A tally of the messages that you've sent. This is the heart of Twitter. Following – The number of Tweeps (users) that you follow. When you first start, look to follow people you know and/or Tweeps that are of interest to you. So business and personal friends is a good place to start. Follow companies and celebrities if you would like, just keep your expectations low for replies to your tweets, especially with celebrities. Following Best Practice Tip – Follow users that are active and have a following/followers ratio close to 100%. Generally these balanced users are more apt to follow you back. Followers – The number of tweeps (get use to it) that are following you. This number is perceived in many circles as the "important" number. Just keep in mind that there are a lot of tools out there to inflate that number. Follower Best Practice Tip – Try to make a handshake every time someone follows you with a tweet back to them. While this can be as simple as a "Thank You", you can also ask a question bases on their topics, where they work, or where they are located. Lists – A very important part of managing your Twitter account, especially as your following/follower numbers grow. Lists help you group users by topic, interests, or location just to name a few. You may have a list of everyone that tweets about politics, or a list of people from DC. It's wide open on how you want to group users for your lists. You can create 20 lists with 500 users each. List Best Practice Tip – Utilize lists from the beginning. It will make your experience on Twitter efficient and fruitful. Going back and creating lists after you are following a few thousands users is a headache. Lists can also be viewed easily through a Social Media Management Dashboard such as Hootsuite. @Connect Interactions – Here you will see all your mentions, Retweets from others retweeting your tweet , and tweeps that just followed you Mentions – Is a filter of interactions, only including mentions (view from Interactions) #Discover Stories – Headlines that are breaking on Twitter Activity – Highlights the latest retweets and follows from people you follow Who to Follow – Twitter suggests users to follow based on the users you currently follow Find Friends – Allows you to search contacts from your e-mail clients (Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, and AOL) that are currently on Twitter Browse Categories – Shows a wealth of categories and suggested people to follow Some thoughts and suggestions to kickstart your Twitter experience: Should I follow everyone? No, but you should follow just about all that follow you. Most often celebrities don't follow you back. Why? Well they could care less about what you're tweeting. Justin Bieber has 21 Million followers and actually makes an attempt by following back 122K, but most don't follow back many at all. Are you a celebrity? Do you want to come off as elitist? Twitter is much more about two way communication than other social platforms. Twitter invites the community to share and discuss with people you don't know, and yes you can build relationships online. Ted Coine, with 125K followers wrote a great post, "Ted's Twitter Follow-Back Policy" which should be embraced by more. Suggested not to follow: - Eggs (no profile picture or avatar) - Blank Profiles (always suspect) - Tweetless Tweeps (you'll see they have thousands of followers with zero or little tweet activity) - Use Explicit Language (you'll see in their profile or Tweets) - Low and inconsistent activity (You don't want to follow back air) 8 Rules of Thumb:
I hope this helps you get off to a great start with Twitter. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below. I'm happy to help you get started.   |
| 5 Basic SEO Tips to Implement Today Posted: 03 May 2012 04:40 AM PDT Here are five easy SEO (search engine optimization) tips to instantly boost your site's performance in the search engines. Of course, there are hundreds of tips on how to optimize your site, but these are the SEO basics to begin with. 1. Verify your Google and Bing listings Taking control of your Google Places and Bing listings allows you to ensure the correct information about your company is provided to the user. Many times, an unverified local listing contains the wrong address, website, phone number or pin, which can frustrate users enough to stop searching for your business. 2. Review your referring traffic Can you establish connections with the appropriate people? Let's say a personal or professional blog refers a ton of traffic to your site. Perhaps you can reach out to that person and offer to write a blog post (or a few if you have the time). These inbound links are great for SEO as they give your site authority. If much of your referring traffic comes from Pinterest or Facebook, it's time to optimize your business profiles on these pages so that these social media users can find information about your business on the platform they use most. 3. Check your title tags If your homepage says "Homepage," it's time to contact an SEO expert. The search engines like pages to be as descriptive as possible so users know exactly where they are going when they click a link. 4. Check your meta descriptions If there is duplicate content in your descriptions, it is possible the search engines punish your site by taking it down in the rankings. Duplicate content is just as bad as not having an appropriate title. 5. Use the Google Keyword tool Check out your competition and search volume for the keywords you're targeting using the Google Keyword tool. What keywords have good volume with low competition? How can you optimize your pages around these keywords? Let us know if you have any other easy SEO tips to share. We'd love to hear from you!   |
| Social Media Groupies Should Face Up to Facts Posted: 03 May 2012 04:35 AM PDT
Authors Ed Keller and Brad Fay argue that social media marketing simply represents another gold rush, as temporary and thoughtless as tulip mania. And while credulous marketers go on a fool’s errand, the authors contend, “the largest social gold mine is literally right beneath our noses.” They’re referring, of course, to word-of-mouth conversations. In the book, Keller and Fay present research showing that over 90 percent of “true interpersonal influence” results from face-to-face. “Social media is big and growing, but it is still dwarfed by the analog world in which people live and interact,” they write. Marketers who place their bets on social media “to chase a dream” will wind up big losers. The authors offer Pepsi as an example. In early 2010, PepsiCo slashed its traditional media spend to place its bet on social media. But the company’s wager “did not come close to achieving the pay dirt it intended.” Twelve months later, Diet Coke surpassed Pepsi as the Number Two soft drink (Coke is Number One) and PepsiCo returned to spending big on traditional media. PepsiCo bought the social media hype at its own expense. “Pepsi does in fact sell soft drinks because of social interactions, but not necessarily because of online interactions,” the authors write. ”In virtually every decision we make, every one of us is influenced by other people, mostly the people we spend time with in the ‘real world.’”   |
| How to Measure Brand Perception on Social Media Posted: 03 May 2012 04:30 AM PDT Earlier this week, I blogged about measuring the ROI of social media and one of the points I stressed was that, in order to do this, you firstly need to be able to monitor the metrics of your particular objective. So, given that it's such a cloudy area for many businesses, I thought I'd run a series of mini posts over the next few weeks where I will take a certain social media objective and run through some of the metrics you could use. I'll keep each one short and sweet but by the end of the series you should have a decent resource to refer to. So, today's social media objective is: improve brand perceptionBrand perception is often mistaken for brand awareness but the two are different. Brand perception is the values consumers attach to a brand whereas brand awareness (which we'll cover later in the series) is how many people know about your brand. Social media is a highly effective tool when it comes to discovering what people think about your brand – never before have we been able to gain such valuable insight. Questions to ask
One way you can improve people's perception of your brand is by providing them with valuable social media content which educates and helps to re-align your brand with your desired values. Next in the series….increase brand awareness  |
| The Wrong Place for a Twitter Feed Posted: 03 May 2012 04:00 AM PDT I would guess at least 50 percent of the websites and blogs I come across feature a widget displaying a real-time Twitter feed. I think this is a mistake and I strongly caution my clients against doing it. Here's why. Done correctly, Twitter is lively, personal and human. If you display your Twitter feed on your website, you're displaying one side of a two-sided conversation. It's conversation out of context. Why would you do this? What possible value could this create? A couple years ago, a friend asked me to review his website. When I went to his landing page the thing that hit you right in the face was the word "PORNOGRAPHY" in the Twitter stream. In context, he was making a funny comment in response to a friend. On a website it sends the wrong message. Everything communicates. Everything you say, and everything you don't say, reflects on your brand. "LOL!!!! You rock Tony!" and "Delayed in Dallas for the second time this week" are appropriate for a Twitter stream but is that the right business communications you want to display on your company website? Of course if your Twitter stream is simply company links and press releases you're safe. But you're also probably not too successful on Twitter. The only possible value there could be is some symbol of social validation, like "Hey everybody, look at us! We're on Twitter." That just seems kind of desperate. If you provide value on your blog or website, why wouldn't a person want to follow your social stream any way? Meanwhile, this widget is taking up valuable real estate that could be better used to create a call to action, promote a product or service, or offer something legitimately helpful. I know there are a lot of Twitter-on-the-webpage-lovers out there that are going to tee-off on me today so hit me with your best shot! WHat do you think? Illustration courtesy of www.toothpastefordinner.com Mark Schaefer is a marketing consultant, author and college educator who blogs at {grow}. You can also follow him on Twitter: @markwschaefer.   |
| Posted: 02 May 2012 05:15 PM PDT Hangouts are a really cool feature of Google+ that you should really consider making use of in your marketing. You've probably heard of webinars, right? They're seminars that are held online via chat rooms and web cams instead of live in person. They can be remarkably effective tools for marketing products and services, but in the past they've been expensive or tricky to set up. Google+ changes all that! Hangouts are live, multi-person video chats between Google+ users. You can set up a Hangout and Google+ users can connect, offering you the opportunity to have live, videoconferencing webinars free! There's no incredibly complex software to set up. It's all very easy to use. A great way to use Hangouts is to hold free training sessions or question-and-answer sessions via the system. During the sessions, you can promote your product or service, especially at the end. By providing this training free of charge, you'll be increasing your goodwill in your niche community as well as solidifying your expertise on the subject. Another great way to make use of Hangouts is to show something you wouldn't be able to show without video. For example, it might be difficult to explain how to build a wooden birdhouse using solely words, or even words and pictures. However, you could easily use Hangouts to demonstrate the entire thing live via video. Once you've set up a Hangout, you'll want to publicize it. Obviously, you'll want to announce it at least a day or two prior to your Google+ contacts, as well as on Facebook, Twitter, and to your email list. You can also add it to a service like http://www.gphangouts.com. GpHangouts lists upcoming Hangout sessions, open channels, and available Hangouts. This could get you new users if you create an interesting premise for your Hangout session.   |
Like many writers, I have a strong love for the vino. I've traveled the world in my day, and have sampled the local brew at every stop along the way. Kumyz in Kyrgyzstan, sho-chu in Japan, Fenny in India, soju in South Korea, Sakkara in Egypt… and the list (somewhat embarrassingly) goes on. But I figure if you're going to travel, you might as well travel with your favorite libations in tow.
One way to find out how interested companies are in adding to their Social Media acumen is to see what types of people they are looking to hire. So, I was trolling several employment websites the other day and I plugged "social media" into the job search field.
With the NHL Playoffs in progress we take a look at how the teams are performing in social media.
Earlier, we posted on 
I talk often about your targeted FAQ and it's importance within a social media crisis, so I thought I would take the time today to detail everything required within your strategic FAQ and to give you a little homework in order to advance and strengthen your social media crisis plan!
It is becoming increasingly obvious that Social Media is not just changing the way we do 
Before this point, the realization of how much information I retrieved from social media wasn’t a reality, but by not having full access to it between classes, during lunch, and after school hours has created a lull in my activities. This frustration of not have the ability to reach others outside the four walls of a building is unnerving to me because I truly feel ignorant about a variety of information taken for granted only last week.
I read with interest earlier this week that 
First of all, I'd be willing to wager that the title of this blog got your attention. Or at least, I would hope – as the subject of this blog post is how to write titles that stand up to your audience and shout, "Look! Look! Look at me!"
All those overeager riders on the social media bandwagon are bozos on a bus, according to 
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