by tradesmeninsights | Aug 31, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
If you’re reading this, chances are you are somewhat active with social media. At least you’re testing the waters to see what’s out there. I find it laughable the excuses I hear for not wanting to participate from our customers, i.e. they don’t use it thinking social media is for young people.
If you’re still one of those that aren’t sure, please consider this:
- Social media is here to stay. Facebook, for example, has added 100 million users in 9 months.
- Social media can be measured. Marketing folks have got to love that.
- Social media is relatively inexpensive. The biggest investment will be in time.
So here’s a challenge for those who might still be on the fence:
- Step out of your comfort zone.
- You need to try it – it won’t break!
- If you make a mistake, the audience for the most part is understanding.
- If you need help, there is plenty of it out there.
by tradesmeninsights | Aug 30, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
Google optimization is based on the premise that the more people like your site, the more credible it is and therefore it gets a higher ranking.
Right, wrong or indifferent…that’s how the game is played. So what are you doing to make sure other sites are linking back to you?
I recently read a guest post on http://www.convinceandconvert.com/ by Nicole Sorochan that outlined 14 Easy Ways to Build Backlinks. Nicole stresses that if you’re going to go to the trouble of doing backlinks to make sure to make them complete.
The more info you give the engines, the better chances you have of getting their attention. I thought I’d share five ways that hit home with me.
- Google profiles – Create for key employeees. Add a custom link with anchor text (words that make up the link).
- LinkedIn – Build a company profile as well as individual profiles on key people.
- Digg – Great place to put articles you want to promote.
- Stumbleupon – Another popular article discovery site.
- YouTube – Create a custom YouTube channel for your company.
So what are you doing to capitalize on backlinks?
by tradesmeninsights | Aug 25, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
Listening to customers is not a new strategy, but today we have more options to connect and listen, especially online. Social media and digital marketing is making it easier to monitor customers to see what they are saying about you and your competitors.
Smart companies are taking advantage of every possible opportunity and making it a part of their online strategy.
A recent article in emarketer.com highlighted results of a recent study by Forrester Consulting measuring the success of listening and engagement initiatives.
The key here is if you listen carefully, it will help you identify issues and ultimately start engaging the customer.
What are you doing to listen to your customer base?
by tradesmeninsights | Aug 24, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
For those of you who read this column regularly, you know LinkedIn is one of my best sources for links to my blog. With 100-million-plus on LinkedIn, how many potential customers are out there waiting to be connected?
In a recent post on emarketer.com there were highlights from a recent study from Lab42 that reinforces the notion that users are highly engaged. Here are some highlights:
- 35% check their site daily
- 32% check it several times a week
- 42% of users update their profiles regularly
- 81% are interacting with the site
Among the top reasons why professionals use the site… for industry networking and promoting their brand.
So if you haven’t taken LinkedIn seriously, I’d suggest you spend 15 minutes searching in the upper right hand of the site groups. Type in key words/phrases and you may be surprised on the number of existing groups that share your same interests. Wouldn’t you want to be connected with them?
by tradesmeninsights | Aug 23, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
I recently read an article by Harrison Kratz that talked about communities and how most people are missing the boat when it comes to capitalizing on them and it made me start to think.
He made the point that we’re all so wrapped up in doing the mechanics of social media that we don’t allow time for the next step, and that’s an actual conversation with another human being either on the phone or in person. Let’s face it, isn’t that why we’re doing this?
I never understood the online dating thing, but if you look at that as an example, I would hope your end goal wouldn’t be just to continue the relationship online. I would hope you would want to talk to the person and eventually meet to further discuss things you have in common.
Social media is no different if you think about it, but how many of us are guilty of keeping people at arm’s length and only communicating with them online. Seems like a waste of time to me. The opportunities are limitless and so are our excuses for not participating. I know in my case, I’ve been invited to several cocktail parties or meet and greets from several of my local LinkedIn groups and really haven’t taken advantage of them, yet I go back and forth with them with emails.
From a business standpoint, we all belong to some sort of national group that probably has a LinkedIn group or maybe you follow a work-related forum. Why not initiate a gathering at the next national meeting or trade show? Don’t wait to be invited, do the inviting and take the leadership role. You may be surprised at the response.
For those folks who want to continue to be wallflowers, we can’t change that, but I would encourage you to at least try one local event. People may not remember who they tweeted with, but most people will remember who they had coffee or a drink with.
Social media is only the first step in the process of developing relationships. Social helps you identify like-minded folks and then it’s your turn to see if you can turn some of them into actual face-to-face relationships.
So what are you waiting for?
by tradesmeninsights | Aug 18, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
Let’s face it, one of the reasons you have a blog is to get your message out to as many people you can who share the same interests. Doesn’t it make sense then to use other social media tools to drive people to your site and increase engagement?
I recently read a guest post in ProBlogger by David Cowling, that outlines some great ways to capitalize on other social media outlets. Here are some highlights:
- Promote your RSS feed – increases visitors and can result in back-links to your blog which result in better search engine rankings.
- SEO your social media profiles – This is a fairly new idea, but one that intrigues me. Facebook – about box is seen by search engines so make products specific if you’re selling something. If you have several Fan pages, link them together.Twitter profile – your user name becomes the title tag on your page. LinkedIn – your name, headline, current location and industry are placed in a meta description tag.
- Use social groups to promote your topics – Create groups and discussions on both LinkedIn and Facebook. If you belong to groups, promote them there as well as create your own group.
Other questions you should be asking yourself:
- What networks send you the most traffic as a blogger?
- What percentage of your traffic comes from these networks?
- What’s been your most shared article and what can you learn form this?
