by tradesmeninsights | Sep 29, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
I must confess that when it comes to promoting our Facebook page, we don’t do a good job. I guess in my case for the targeted audience we’re going after, I don’t know if this is the most effective place to do it. LinkedIn, Twitter and even Google+ probably are better venues for us.
But for those of you who are focusing on building your fan page, I came across a great article by Justin Wise in a recent post on Social Media Examiner that highlighted 20 ways to spread the word on your Facebook fan page by educating your readers. Here are the ones that stood out to me:
- Put the fan page URL in your email signature – imagine that with the number of emails you send on a daily basis what kind of potential reach you would have.
- Ask others in your company to do the same – put it in their email signature.
- Ask your Twitter followers to join your fan page.
- Put a widget on you website and blog – don’t assume that people know you have a fan page.
- Ask fans to post a link – if they are truly fans, they will post a link on their personal profile.
- Put a tag on your YouTube videos – great idea and a way to get people more engaged.
What are you doing to promote your fan page?
If you liked this post you might like:
How to get the most out of your B to B faceboook page
Tips on using Facebook as a good B to B marketing tool
by tradesmeninsights | Sep 28, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
For those of you who have blogs, this will be of interest to you. We all (sometimes) are pressed for time and after writing and spell checking a post, we put it up there with the appropriate key words and let it fly.
I was reminded recently by a post by Heidi Cohen that we may be overlooking some ways to get that little extra out of each post. Her post, Does Your Content Marketing Contain These 12 Must-Have Components? had some good points we all should be using. Here are highlights of the top points that got my attention:
- Share this button – Makes sense to give your readers easy access to share your info. I normally add them at the end, but she suggests addding them up front. Good idea.
- Join email list – Seems like a “no brainer,” but if readers like what they see, they probably will want more. Give them a reason to sign up.
- RSS feed – Just another option for readers to follow you easily. It’s easy to install .
- Contact us functionality – If someone has the need to get a hold of you, give them an email address or phone number to call.
- Provide search on your site – Since your content may cause readers to want to find out more or may not answer all of their questions, allow them to seek more information.
- Supply links to related content – This is often not done. If you’ve written other posts that are relevant, why not have them at the bottom of the post for people to link to? Makes sense and it helps to keep them on your site while building your thought leadership.
These are just a few tips along with a good call to action that will help you get extra mileage out of each post. What are some things you’re doing to bolster readership?
If you liked this post you might like:
Is Your Brand Disconnecting on Social Media?
Manufacturers: 5 Reasons Content is King
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by tradesmeninsights | Sep 27, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
QR codes in the world of marketing are relatively new and as such a novelty. The problem is, if you don’t use them correctly, they can do more harm than good, and if you turn off your target audiences by a simple thing like not using a QR code correctly, what might it do to the rest of your relationship with them?
For those who might be interested, we have a Trends in Mobile Media white paper that can be downloaded that will give you a pretty good overview of what’s currently available.
I recently read an interesting post in Social Media Examiner by Jeff Korhan titled, 5 Steps to a Successful QR Code Marketing campaign. Here are some highlights:
- Plan a strategy – You need to understand your target audience, have clear objectives and offer useful and valuable incentives.
- Create quality codes and test them – You only get one chance to make a first impression. There are many QR codes out there, the most popular being QR codes and Microsoft (MS) Tags. Do your homework when choosing one and then make sure to test it several times before making it live for the rest of the world to see.
- Link your codes to mobile friendly or mobile optimized sites – One of the biggest mistakes is linking to a traditional size page that you want to be read on a mobile device. Make sure where you link is optimized for mobile.
- Track performance with management tools – QR codes and MS tags have reporting sytems built in. They currently don’t go very deep, but I think it’s just a matter of time until they do. There are several other developers showing up, but it’s too early in the game to rate or recommend any.
- Deliver value and a favorable experience – That’s what the user who clicks on the code will remember. Did you WOW them with a video, did you give them a discount on the product?
I’d love to hear how you’re using QR codes and how successful you’ve been.
by tradesmeninsights | Sep 22, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
I sat down with Matt Nelson of Building X last week to talk about social media in the HVAC industry. You can listen to the interview here (or download it from iTunes).
by tradesmeninsights | Sep 20, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
Social media, if used correctly, can be an untapped treasure for marketers. All too often though, marketing departments treat social media just like any other channel they use to PUSH their marketing message. What they don’t seem to understand about social is that it’s about engagement and interacting with real people!
I recently read a post by Heidi Cohen, titled How Marketers Miss the Boat with Social Media Relationships that outlined 7 things not to do if you want to succeed with social media. Here are some highlights:
- Don’t talk about you – Talk with them, not to them. Be social and listen. Ask them questions and engage them in a conversation.
- Don’t speak in “marketese”– Marketing lingo is selling lingo and it turns people off big time. Talk like a human being. Pretend you’re at a cocktail party. Be funny, inquisitive, be human.
- Don’t force YOUR point of view – Listen to what people are saying through brand monitoring and respond accordingly.
- Don’t think you can buy customer trust – In the social arena, trust is earned. Pay attention to what customers are saying and if something needs fixed, fix it. There’s no better way of building credibility.
- Don’t knock your competion – It doesn’t work in the real world and it certainly isn’t going to work in this one. Focus instead on ways you can help your customer.
- Don’t think a social media relationship will result in a sale – Social prospects are not unlike a regular prospect. Not all folks you meet are ready to buy right now. You need to identify where they are in the selling cycle and give them the type of info they need to go to the next step.
- Don’t assume that social media relationships are limited to social media networks – Appreciate the fact that people have a life outside social media and have real life relationships. In those relationships, what they’ve learned in social media circles may come out in conversations. Wouldn’t you like it if they were telling their business associates about this great product they found or a solution to a problem they had and they were talking about your brand?
The bottom line is the marketing team needs to be on the same page and treat social media differently.
Do you have any other suggestions on what not to do?
by tradesmeninsights | Sep 15, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
We all like to know what our competitors are doing, and more importantly, what customers are saying about them. Until the advent of social media, it was hard to track conversations from customers. There are several platforms, tools and tactics that you can implement to help you keep ahead of the competition.
Adam Holden-Bache in a recent article in Social Media B2B outlines 6 Ways to Beat Your Competition Using Social Media. Here are some highlights:
- Do your research – Set up tools and key words/phrases to monitor both the competition as well as the industry.
- Identify opportunities – If you see a topic or trend gaining traction, promote your capabilities.
- Produce more educational content – Decision makers are doing more research online. The more relevant content you can provide, the better the chances of you being considered.
- Showcase your service and support – B2B companies that excel in providing prompt customer service should promote it as it will influence a purchasing decision.
- Ask for feedback, then use it – Customers can be a good resource for honest feedback.
- Engage your customers – If your customers like you, they will tell their friends and business associates. They are what we call brand advocates and they turn out to be one of your best resources.
Free Monitoring Tools to Track Your Competition (or Yourself)
www.Topsy.com is a real-time social search that lets you see what people are saying about a topic across social platforms which provides qualitative feedback.
www.socialmention.com is another real-time search that analyzes strength, sentiment, passion and reach, as well as provides averages, keywords, top users and other metrics that all show impact and reach of social activity.
www.google.com/trends analyzes search and news reference volumes for topics and produces the top regions and cities allowing you to see how popular a topic or brand is as well as where it is popular.
www.howsociable.com measures social visibility of brands allowing you to see how active brands are on 20 different platforms.
These are some ideas on how to monitor the competition. What are you doing using social media?
