Top 5 Posts
I can’t believe the year is already half over. Where does the time go? I thought I’d share the top read posts so for the second quarter of 2011 just in case you may have missed them. Enjoy.
The Power of Social Media is in Being Human
Social media gives all of us the opportunity to reach out to a wider circle of folks that share the same interests as we do. It’s up to us to decide how and when to pursue those contacts and hopefully turn them into relationships.
Heidi Cohen wrote an interesting post recently, 10 Social Media Lessons in Being Human that I think sums up very well some lessons we all can take to heart and hopefully make a difference in the real world we live in. Here are some highlights:
- Share your passion with people
- Each of us are our own brand
- We all have the power to change the world
- Persuade those that are already listening to you
- Don’t forget to say thank you
Powerful stuff! What would you add to the list?
Event Planning: 5 Tips on How to Get the Most out of Twitter
If you’re in charge of an event, whether it’s a presentation, seminar, webinar, virtual meeting, trade show or sales meeting, if you want to shake it up a little, try using Twitter as an interactive part of the program.
What a great way to engage people, see what people are thinking and you can even field questions. Here are some tips on how to use Twitter successfully for events:
- Create a hashtag – These will identify your specific activity. That way anyone posting or following the hashtag will see what everyone else is commenting.
- Promote the hashtag – Depending on how large the event is, there are various ways to let people know how to follow the event. If you’re putting on an association meeting or a global conference, you may be able to get someone to sponsor the promotions and signage.
- Inform the presenters that live tweeting will be going on. Most folks that do this have a screen on stage so the audience can participate.
- If there are multiple presenters, make sure that the audience knows their Twitter handles.
- Make sure wifi is available – you can’t tweet if you can’t get on the net. I know I’ve been in ballrooms listening to speakers where there is no access. This is not good.
Those are some of my suggestions. Care to share yours?
Opt-in Lists: Key to Email Success
Contrary to what people might say, email marketing is still a very effective marketing tool. The key to a successful program lies in the list. If you’ve ever done any email marketing, you know you can rent lists or have publications send out a message on your behalf.
But the best lists are the home-grown ones that you nuture from within. These can come from exisiting customers, potentials for trade shows or ad campaigns, but the key in the cases other than your current customers is having them give up their email address and opt-in to all the great things you want to send them. That’s where a good opt-in page comes in.
I recently read a post in CopyBlogger, 7 Steps to an Email Opt-in Page That Works that made several good points. Here are a few highlights that may seem obvious, but aren’t always followed:
- Determine who you want – this will determine the message you create.
- What do you want from them – you want them to sign up, so get to the point – one point.
- What should it include – a headline, benefits (what’s in it for me), call-to-action and actual opt-in form.
- How much info should you ask for – the more you ask for, the less will sign up.
Don’t overcomplicate an opt-in page. Use my old standby- KISS.
Why Guest Posts are Important to Your Blog
If you do a blog, you know what kind of time commitment you have in order to keep those posts coming out on a regular basis.
There’s no reason you have to be the originator of all the content. Beyond having other associates within your firm write about their areas of expertise, you should consider getting some outside perspectives. As long as you set the parameters and let them know your objectives and target audiences, there should be no problems. Here are some reasons why you should consider them:
- Areas of expertise – Let’s face it, we al know something about everything, but it’s impossible to be an expert in everything. So why not ask the experts to contribute their thoughts.
- Different perspective – Even if you are an expert in the field, it’s good to get another point of view for your readers.
- Attract new readers – Guest bloggers have their own audiences, and by making sure you use their names in the keyword tags, they will attract new eyes to your site. Hopefully the guest blogger will promote it to their current followers.
- Reduces your content creation – Let’s face it, we all could use a break from the daily grind, so it’s a win-win for everyone.
Those are some reasons why I ask experts on the field to contribute. What are your reasons?
Why is Social Media Different than Traditional Marketing?
In the B-to-B space and especially when it comes to the more traditional manufacturing sector, lots of marketers treat social the same as their other marketing efforts and wonder why it’s not working for them.
The truth is social is a long-term tactic while many of the traditional marketing efforts are focused on a stimulus/response model.
Here are some tips on how social media can be an effective marketing tool for you:
- Make your message conversational – I’m sure you can remember possibly a family member who was a great story teller. When they spoke, you hung on every word, got excited, laughed, but more importantly, you connected with that person and interacted with them. Most importantly, you remembered the story. Socia,l to be successful, needs to follow the storytelling path as opposed to the feature/benefit bullet points from a sales sheet. Let’s face it, there’s not much emotional response in sales sheet copy. Instead, tell a story of how this new left-handed widget made my life easier on a jobsite.
- Engaging your audience – You need great content, but you don’t want a one-way conversation. Be active on Twitter or make comments on forums or Facebook pages. Social is a two-way street.
- Networking – You need to build online networks again using LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. These are all good ways to spread the message. Every connection helps you reach out to new potentials.
- Keyword Search – One of the big benefits for social is that it’s trackable and indexable using keywords. You need to make sure they are in your titles and photo captions to insure pick up.
Those are some points from my view; what elements of social are you using to maximize your B-to-B efforts?