Archive for the ‘Social Media’ Category:
Written on July 7th, 2010 by mmitchellno shouts
Many of my clients are starting to blog, but are overwhelmed with “What should I write?” and “How do I begin?”. ColoradoBiz Magazine had a recent article by Scott Esmond that has some great tips:
…With effective content strategies, companies large and small can be rewarded with increased customer loyalty, increased brand equity and a perception of leadership in their market. So when launching a content strategy for your online presence, make sure that you follow these seven steps to make sure your story is both heard and appreciated.
Do a content audit of the business. Every company has a voice – whether they work at it or not -and managing it starts from the inside. Identify what type of content is available and what should be updated. Look beyond just your website and include any off-site content (user reviews, organic search listings, social profiles and posts) as well as marketing, sales and PR content. Begin gathering opinions from your own staff, then reach out to the public to reveal any discrepancies between perception and reality.
Designate a content strategy leader. Put one central person in charge of managing the process. This individual is responsible for keeping the content up-to-date, managing editorial calendars and delegating tasks. It’s essential that a skilled, trusted employee is the point person for company information every day. If your leader is not already an expert, some good learning sources include Junta42.com and copyblogger.com.
Be timely and relevant. I recently heard a great quote that sums up the importance of timeliness; “Good content capitalizes on an opportunity in the life of the content’s consumer.” Such information is fed by what’s going on with a company’s brand, what’s going on with the media and what’s relevant to the customer. Try and gain information from the audience, ask them directly what type of content they want, and then follow through and provide what’s applicable to their lifestyle. Much like a relationship, it’s important not to just talk about the company all the time.
Assign contributors. Once the state of environment, audience, and content has been identified, it’s time to write. This is when companies task their most talented and creative staff to help deliver the consumer what they want. Ask that good storyteller to be the voice of the brand.
Make it easy for customers to share. The quickest way companies can allow their customers to share content is putting links to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Foursquare and other social media channels on their own website. Consider content your most important design element. It’s imperative for companies to pay attention to content placement and ensure its consumable, not hidden or lost to a lot of scrolling. Also identify the piece as yours, for example, a title card with your company name before a video gets set to go viral on the web.
Study, Study, Study. When it comes to content strategy, businesses should spend a good portion of time in the virtual “library.” Now companies can see where visitors went before and after coming to their website and referral URLs, where people share your content. This information is readily available through Google Analytics, Facebook metrics for fan pages, and social media monitoring tools including (from free to far from free) SocialMention, PeopleBrowsr, Radian 6, and TNS Cymfony. It’s also fairly easy to set up on-site surveys.
Let go of the fear. Conversations about the company’s content are going to happen regardless. That’s why it’s helpful to provide consumers a conversational platform and engage them on your space. Should they be more active on review sites like Yelp, you should still engage and learn. Leading review sites also provide statistics that can help inform your strategy.
There are certainly a handful of companies that are grasping the concept of content strategy. REI incorporated an “expert advice” section for customers interested in rock climbing and provides them with a list of important items to pack for their trips. Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty has done an exceptional job reaching out to teen girls, presenting content that’s relevant and not simply trying to sell their products.
Lastly, Vail Resorts mobilized their loyal skiers and riders to produce user generated content in their Snow Squad competition to become part of next year’s on mountain social media team. The takeaway is effective content strategy leads to effective storytelling in the digital age.
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Written on April 27th, 2010 by mmitchellno shouts
For those of you who have websites that suggest visitors “become a fan” of your Facebook page, you need to update your sites. Facebook has changed “Fans” to “Liking” a page. At their annual f8 Developer Conference, Facebook announced platform updates that work to integrate their platform with sites across the web.
Now with more than 400 million people using Facebook and $100 million of them using Facebook from their mobile phones, Facebook wants to continue this growing trend and develop social applications that integrate web sites with their new tools.
Facebook’s New Social Plugins
- Like Plugin- This is the upgraded “Fan” plugin. This plugin is simple and requires no login. It will show visitors to your site, which of their Facebook friends have engaged with your site recently. If a user likes something on your site with this button it automatically appears in their Facebook profile as well.
- Activity Stream Plugin – This displays a filtered view of the Facebook News Feed containing updates from only your site.
- Facebook Login Plugin- It works like the existing Facebook Connect login button, and it adds photos of your Facebook friends who have already joined the site.
- Social Bar Plugin- A toolbar that is added to the bottom of your site. The Social Bar includes a Like button, friends who like the site, as well as Facebook chat.
- Recommendations Plugin – A plugin that shows recommendations of items or content that visitors to your site may be interested in, based on recommendations from Facebook connections.
So, Why Should Your Business Care About Facebook?
While you should always consider your audience when deciding on any marketing channel, if you are trying to attract people between the ages of 18 and 54, then you should look into Facebook. In addition, if you are using a blog, all of the social plugins mentioned previously in this post help business bloggers achieve the important goal of getting more people reading their content.
As an example, let’s say that you click a link in an e-mail or on Twitter. After clicking, you then go read the blog post as you normally would. If a site is using the Like Plugin, then upon arriving at the blog you could see that some of your Facebook friends have recently read other articles on this blog. As a result, it more likely that you will read more content on the blog and possibly share it with your connections on Facebook or other social networks. As a marketer this is a big deal. It creates stickiness while increasing the reach of your content.
This same example could also be used for landing pages. If you are releasing a new whitepaper and using a form to collect leads, think about the improved lead conversion you could see, if prospects could see that friends had already liked the report on Facebook. In this case a social plugin provides “social proof” for the credibility of your whitepaper. While the likes may have happened on your Facebook fan page, with the new social plugins it is displayed on your own site and landing pages.
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Written on March 11th, 2010 by mmitchellone shout
In speaking to various groups and business owners, I get a the most questions about Facebook. What is the difference between a Facebook profile and a page?
How can I use it to promote my business? First of all, realize that your personal Facebook profile is not the place to promote your business. It is like sending a Christmas card to someone with your business card in it…not socially appropriate.
Instead, set up a Facebook Page to promote your business.
So, how effective are Facebook Fan Pages? Are they actually generating customers and leads for your business?
Hubspot’s Inbound Marketing Blog recently highlighted how one business is using Facebook fan pages to help their business:
Dessert Gallery, a popular Houston-based bakery and café chain, experimented with a Facebook Fan Page to measure how helpful the popular social media site really is. They set up a “sweet” Fan Page and updated it regularly with pictures, contests, reviews and other items designed to interact with their customers. Three months later, they surveyed over 13,000 customers on shopping behavior and store evaluations and received a significantly higher and more positive response from those customers who became Facebook fans.
In fact, the study found that compared with typical Dessert Gallery (DG) customers, the company’s Facebook fans:
- Made 36% more visits to DG’s stores each month
- Spent 45% more of their eating-out dollars at DG
- Spent 33% more at DG’s stores
- Had 14% higher emotional attachment to the DG brand
- Had 41% greater psychological loyalty toward DG
Creating a Facebook Business Page helped the bakery chain reach a wider range of people and connect with them on a more personal level. More people felt inclined to visit and spend more money, and a large portion of customers felt increased loyalty to the brand.
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Written on March 4th, 2010 by mmitchellno shouts
Feeling bad about your search engine optimization ranking? Don’t worry…Google just released a SEO report card on their own site and it shows they have a lot of areas to improve.
View the Report Here
This extensive report shows all the things you need to consider when doing SEO on a website.
Recently, I just got a new client who has been paying thousands every year on SEO from a “large firm”. What amazed me was that this large firm didn’t even do the small basics, such as having unique title tags and description tags on every page nor did they have any “alt” image tags, yet they were charging them every year.
If your web site firm or SEO firm is not spending time explaining what they are doing and equipping you along the way, then you may need to take a second look. Also, make sure your web firm and/or Internet marketing firm gives you a Google analytics login so that you can check results yourself. So many times firms keep charging you without providing continual value.
I have clients that I have equipped along the way so they no longer need my monthly services. It doesn’t bother me since I can proudly say that their web sites continue to give them business long after I am done. They feel great about the “value” I provided and in turn, recommend me to other clients.They also use me still upon occasion when they truly need my expertise.
If marketing firms want to continue to survive over the next decade, they need to learn the importance of empowerment. Otherwise, their reputations will suffer and they will go by the wayside. Marketing firms need to explain how all of these new social media and Internet tools will help companies bottom line as well as listen to the needs of the company or business. If a firm has an owner or staff member who can tweet, blog and post, it is better for them to do it in-house.
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Written on February 23rd, 2010 by mmitchellone shout
Need help figuring out how to use Linked-In for business? Then download the free ebook from Hubspot:
When it comes to using social media for business, many marketers put LinkedIn at the top of the list of business social networks. Create a profile, connect with colleagues, have conversations with customers, sure. But is that it? No.
LinkedIn has great tools for connecting you to customers, prospects, and industry thought leaders alike, and many marketers are under-utilizing the functionality available to them due to simple lack of awareness. Which brings us to the new How to Use LinkedIn for Business ebook!
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Written on December 14th, 2009 by mmitchellno shouts
With Facebook users topping 350 million people and Twitter increasing by 1700% in 2009, social media is no longer a “phase”, but a new way of doing business that will stay. The majority of large companies and executives are now embracing these tools as mainstream, but only about 20% of small businesses are incorporating them into their current business practices.
Why? Because these new tools not only require a learning curve, but they also require staff and/or consultants who can help set everything up. With tight budgets and small staff, how do small businesses adopt these new tools? Here are just 5 simple ways to get started:
1. If you have a local college near you, call the Marketing department and find out if they have any “interns” available. Most college students are already using these tools, so it is a simple switch.
2. Contact your local SBDC or Chamber and find out if they are offering any classes or seminars on these subjects. MTECH has spoken at a number of Chamber and SBDC sessions in Pagosa Springs, Durango and Cortez and these sessions break down “next steps” into small pieces for the individual business owner.
3. Start with One Social Media Channel. Create a WordPress blog. Set up a Facebook page for business. Upload a video in YouTube. Don’t feel you need to master the entire world…just start small and get comfortable with it.
4. Survey your staff and find out if anyone is interested in pursuing this as an extra job. You might be surprised by the talent you already have on staff!
5. Talk with your web designer and find out what he/she knows about social media and how to integrate it into your overall web strategy.
These are just a few first steps that can get you started. Break them down into baby steps, take a breath and just move a little forward!
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