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 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 | Oct 7, 2010 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
I’m totally amazed when talking to people that they complain that they’re not getting anything out of LinkedIn. LinkedIn, like anything else, responds to someone who is active. In other words, you need to participate and engage people in order for the network to be effective. For those of you who follow me know that I personally think LinkedIn is one of the most useful business tools out there.
I recently read a post by Stephanie Sammons on Social Media Examiner entitled, 5 Ways to Develop a Meaningful LinkedIn Connection where she’s highlighted and given examples of how to take the connection phase to the relationship phase. Here are some highlights of her 5 suggestions:
- Timing is everything – Once you make a new connection, then it’s the time to try to engage them. Ask a question or give a compliment.
- Leverage events – If you see that a connection of yours is going to an event that you’re planning on attending, send them a message and let them know you’re going and see if you can’t meet face to face.
- Sync Geography with travel – Using the “my connections” tab, you can find where people live and if you’re planning say a trip to Dallas on business, you could let your connection know you’ll be in town and see if you might be able to meet for coffee or breakfast.
- Ask for advice – What a great way to engage people. Most people love to give their opinions.
- Be a resource – It’s better to give then to take. If you can offer real value, you’ll become a resource for people which will help you move from online networking to offline conversations.
The biggest issue facing us all is to challenge yourself to participate. LinkedIn works for those who work at it.
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by tradesmeninsights | Sep 8, 2010 | Marketing Tools, Social Marketing
Content Marketing is an overarching term that involves the creation and sharing of content for the purpose of engaging your prospects. Manufacturers who are trying to reach the professional tradesmen would benefit by building your brand, increasing your recognition and having you become a thought leader in your industry.
Relevant and valuable content will attract a clearly defined and understood target audience.
Here are 5 ways to use content marketing:
- Define your target audience.
- Identify their pain points – what keeps them up at night, and develop a way to address them.
- Make a blog the center of your communications efforts – make it the one-stop shop concept where professional tradesmen can come and get valuable info and insights.
- Continually measure your response and make adjustments if necessary.
- Jump start your blog traffic – repurpose content through other social media channels like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook using third-party tools to make the process easy and efficient to manage.
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by tradesmeninsights | Jun 2, 2010 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Social Marketing
If you’re reading this blog, then it would be safe to say that you aren’t asking the “why” or “should” we be using social media. What you’re looking for are ways to answer the “where” and “how.”
Companies should follow, not lead their customers in the social media arena. I read a post recently from Jay Baer, one of social media’s thought leaders, Four Ways to Find Out if Your Customers are Active With Social Media, and I thought I’d share some of the highlights:
- Hire a Spy – There are companies out there that track down your customers and see what they are on and to what level (scary thought). Flowtown and Rapleaf are two of the leaders.
- Ask – It’s too obvious, isn’t it? In your regular business conversations, ask if they are active. If you have an online lead generation form, add data fields for LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
- E-mail Behavior – Add links to your social outposts in your e-mails.
- Gmail Stalking – Twitter, Facebook and other outposts have incorporated a function that allows you to see if they are using their services and invite them to connect with you.
If you like this post, you might like:
How B-to-B Marketers Can Make Good Use Out of Facebook Fan Pages.
Follow Companies on Twitter: Keep Tabs on Your Competition or Customers.
