by tradesmeninsights | Dec 6, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
Twitter isn’t about you, it’s about sharing relevant information with those that follow you.
The more relevant the content, the better chance of you building your base of loyal followers. I use Twitter strictly for business, so everything I put out has something to do with issues that I think affect my followers. In turn, my hope is that they will agree that the info is useful and RT to their followers. Twitter, along with LinkedIn, are my two biggest sources of page views to my blog.
So if you use it for business, then you should have some ground rules to help you make the most out of Twitter. I recently read a post by Heidi Cohen that outlines 11 Tips to Get Your Best Results with Twitter. Among them, here are my favorites:
- Do your research – see what people are saying about you and your brands.
- Thanking people – for those that follow and especially for those who retweet your messages, it’s a great way to build loyalty.
- Be that “go to” person – with the content you supply, you should be considered a thought leader and thus an “expert” in your field.
- Integrate Twitter with your content marketing strategy – not only use Twitter to distribute your content, use Twitter slurp to augment it on your website and blog.
What are you doing to make sure you’re getting the most out of Twitter?
I recently did a post on how to How Do You Thank Someone For a Retweet and it was one of my most popular posts this year. This post also may be of interest to you.
by tradesmeninsights | Nov 29, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Social Marketing
No Bullshit Social Media by Jason Falls and Erik Deckers is true to its title.
They take the mystery out of it and explain in a no-nonsense way how to get the most out of Social if indeed you jump in. And it’s about the ultimate goal – driving business.
This easy-to-read book highlights if you should be in social and how you should approach it if you are. Since they both come from the marketing side, they not only show practical examples of both BtoB and BtoC users, and how you can integrate social media into your overall strategy. Highlights include how to plan, implement and monitor.
by tradesmeninsights | Nov 23, 2011 | Social Marketing, Uncategorized
Yes, there are rules (even though some should be self-evident) on the do’s and don’ts on Twitter. Heidi Cohen does a great job identifying them in a recent post giving you 24 guidelines. Here are just a few:
- Use a recognizable Twitter handle – keep it short and align it so it can go across several platforms.
- Brand your page – make sure your Twitter page has the same look and feel as the rest of your branding efforts.
- Twitter bio – should be there to help others figure out what you’re all about.
- Let followers know if you’re going to be increasing your tweets – an example would be going to a conference or trade show.
- Give credit where it’s due – acknowledge the originator.
- Beware of TMI (too much info) – tell what time it is, not how to build a watch.
- Pay-it-forward – contribute helpful info and re-tweet and support others without expecting anything in return.
What can you add to the list?
by tradesmeninsights | Nov 17, 2011 | Marketing Trends, Social Marketing
I can’t believe it’s budget time already. Now that you’ve put your foot in the water on social (hopefully), what are you going to do in 2012?
According to a recent report in eMarketer.com, companies are looking to invest more in social in 2012. According to a study completed this summer by Booz&Co and Buddy Media, social media will become a higher percentage of their total digital spend in the next three years.
Although social media made up less than 5% of their spend currently, they expect that number to double that the next 3 years. Where are they anticipating spending the increase? People, outside resources and creating content. What’s even more exciting is that they plan on integrating it into the marketing plans overall.
All this is good news. Evidently someone must be seeing some value in integrating social media.
The question is, what are your plans for 2012? Do they include social media as a line item in your marketing budget?
by tradesmeninsights | Nov 3, 2011 | Marketing Trends, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
“The Road to Hell is paved with good intentions.”
I don’t know who said it but it’s a timeless truth. With the soft economy over the past few years and downsizing of staffs, the overall business climate has changed. Marketing departments are being asked to do more with less. In the B2B field where we operate, social media wasn’t even on the radar screen a few years ago, but now it’s at the forefront. While social media doesn’t have much outside costs, it does take its toll on inside time and talent.
A recent study by Marketing Sherpa, the 2012 B2B marketing benchmark report, brought up some disturbing facts. The biggest was that 62% of marketers biggest challenge was lack of resources!
How are marketing departments supposed to be putting out class A stuff when there isn’t enough time in the day? Companies need to recognize that a good sales plan starts with a good marketing plan. Find help for your department whether it’s freelance or competent agencies that know your market. As business gets better, if you don’t speak out, they will try to put even more things on your plate.
Those are my thoughts; any comments?
by tradesmeninsights | Nov 1, 2011 | Marketing Trends, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
As CMOs struggle, there is a window of opportunity for ad agency new business.
A new IBM study of more than 1,700 chief marketing officers reveals that most CMOs are well aware of the changing marketing landscape and the need to make fundamental changes to traditional marketing methods of brand and product marketing. But they are struggling to respond.
I recently read a great summary of these findings from one of my mentors, Michael Gass. Here are the highlights:
The study’s findings point to four key challenges that CMOs everywhere are confronting:
- The explosion of data – 90% of the world’s data today has been created in the last two years alone.
- The rise of social media – 56% of CMOs view social media as a key engagement channel.
- Channel and device choices – The growing number of new marketing channels and devices, from smartphones to tablets, is quickly becoming a priority for CMOs.
- Shifting demographics – New global markets and the influx of younger generations with different patterns of information access and consumption are changing the face of the marketplace.
The Importance of Social Media
This study reiterates the importance of social media and the need for agencies to be better positioned as leaders in this evolving consumer engagement channel. Carolyn Heller Baird, CRM research lead for the IBM Institute for Business Value and the global director of the study likens marketers who underestimate the impact of social media to those who were slow to view the Internet as a new and powerful platform for commerce.
“The inflection point created by social media represents a permanent change in the nature of customer relationships… Like the rise of e-business more than a decade ago, the radical embrace of social media by all customer demographic categories represents an opportunity for marketers to drive increased revenue, brand value and to reinvent the nature of the relationship between enterprises and the buyers of their offerings.”
CMOs identify customer relationships as one of their top priorities, and recognize the impact of real-time data and social media supplementing traditional methods of marketing and gathering market feedback, but they remain stuck in traditional approaches.
“Marketers who are receptive to social media and the insight it provides will be far better prepared to anticipate future shifts in markets and technology.”
Additional insights from this study:
- 78% of CMOs expect more complexity over the next five years, but only 48% are prepared to deal with more complexity.
- 82% of CMOs say they plan to increase their use of social media over the next three to five years, only 26% are currently tracking blogs, 42% are tracking third-party reviews and 48% are tracking consumer reviews to help shape their marketing strategies.
- 63% of CMOs believe return on investment (ROI) on marketing spend will be the most important measure of their success by 2015. However, only 44% feel fully prepared to be held accountable for marketing ROI.
- Less than half of the CMOs surveyed have much sway over key parts of the pricing process, and less than half have much impact on new product development or channel selection.
- 56% of CMOs viewing social media as a key engagement channel – but they still struggle with capturing valuable customer insight from the unstructured data that customers and potential customers produce.
- CMOs still focus primarily on traditional sources of information such as market research and competitive benchmarking, and 68% rely on sales campaign analysis to make strategic decisions.
- Four-fifths of respondents plan to use customer analytics, customer relationship management (CRM), social media and mobile applications more extensively over the next three to five years.
- Nearly two-thirds of CMOs think return on marketing investment will be the primary measure of the marketing function’s effectiveness by 2015. But only half of all CMOs feel insufficiently prepared to provide hard numbers for ROI.
- 75% of CMOs believe marketing must manage brand reputation within and beyond the enterprise.
Click here for the IBM 2011 CMO Study Video News Release.
To access the full 2011 IBM Global CMO Study, visit http://ibm.com/cmostudy
