ROI.....Return On Influence

It Ain't Always Good

Business owners should not allow the fear of receiving "negative comments/feedback" from sites such as Yelp stop us from adding user-generated content to our sites. Instead, all feedback/conversation - complimentary or not, should serve as an opportunity for owners to hear 'the voice' of our customers. There are some key points that we need to keep in mind when responding to 'the voice' of our customers::

{1} : Feedback builds authenticity

Posting the comments received from our customers- positive or negative- shows that our customer's thoughts are meaningful and important to our businesses/companies.

{2} : Negative Feedback helps our business identify areas that may need improvement,

change and or more attention.

Although difficult to hear, soliciting feedback from our customers affords businesses owners immediate insight into the thoughts of our customers/community and their responses/feelings about our products/services.  Immediate response from our market/community saves our businesses valuable time, money and research.  Customer/community review can impact management decisions.

{3} : NEGATIVE FEEDBACK ALLOWS FOR IMMEDIATE DAMAGE CONTROL

Negaive feedback from our customers/community allows business owners to address and remedy concerns and issues about our product/service IN REAL TIME. 

 We are always seeking to meet the needs of our community and target market. Adding user-generated content to our sites helps us embrace 'the voice' of our customers. To benefit most from 'the voice' of our customers, be certain to relate content to company mission and/or vision. Sam Decker, Chief Marketing Officer of Bazaar Voice Blog - "You simply cannot hide. Social networks are making it easy for people to share their opinions – and they’re doing it in real time. Ignore customer opinions at your own peril".

Does your site allow feedback from your community?  Have you received 'less than stellar' reviews/feedbacl from your community?  If so, how have you handled the 'negative' feedback? 

What are your thoughts?

{Facebook} + {Eventbrite} = Publish Your Event on Facebook

[pic via here::special thanx]

Eventbrite is a wonderful online event site that allows event planners to, among other things, create, schedule and publish their planned events at a cost that leaves a (giant) smile on their faces.  There are lots of other valuable tasks that this service offers, one of which is, the ability to publish your events directly from the Eventbrite site onto your Facebook Fan page.  No cutting/pasting needed!  You have, in the past, been able to publish your Eventbrite events to your Facebook wall...which means that eventually your event information will scroll right off of the page. 

Do you have an upcoming event that you want to let your Facebook community know about?  Create, schedule and publish it on Facebook, with a few (very few) points and clicks of your mouse.  What? You're familiar with this affordable service?  Check it out.  I love it!

What social media communities do you use to publicize your events?  Have your efforts on this/these site(s) been successful?  Are you already using Eventbrite to create, schedule and publish your events?

Lets Talk....

Strategy:: Content Marketing

#5    

Make it easy for your audience to transition from learning from you to buying from you.

Information is key.

Thoughts?

If I Tweet in My Blog... Does that make it a Twog?

Have you been dying to learn how to incorporate your tweets into your blog posts?  Well, I certainly have been flapping my wings pondering the process.  Email to the rescue!  Yesterday, this great tutorial landed in my E-mail - Embedding your favorite tweets into your blog.  Can I say that it's arrival was right on time?  The process seems a little daunting, so it will be a minute before I take on the task. 

So, here is my initial question - "If I tweet in my blog....does that make it a Twog?"

What's your thoughts?  Are you presently including tweets on your on blog? 

Let's talk....

Cultivate an Active Social Network in Five Steps

[infographic via here::special thanks]

Pingdom on Facebook

[like it]

Pingdom's describes itself as "Pingdom is a website monitoring service. In short, we monitor sites and servers on the Internet, alerting the site owners if we detect a problem".  The best of all the service is FREE, and we like FREE!  The sign up is effortless.  Account upgrades can be had for smaller fees. 

Link Sharing

I follow quite an amazingly well-educated, well-rounded, intelligent group of social media gurus.  These experts have their finger on the pulse of the latest trends, issues, best practices and resources that make their way down the social media pike.  And, although many of them have made the topic of social media their 'way of life', they never hesistate to pass on many of their pearls of wisdom.  Such is the case of Colin Welch over at Silicon Beach Training.  He has made available a pretty comprehensive link list of  "social media tips, guides, plugins, platforms, analytics, tools, apps and other great resources.  This list was original meant only for attendees of his Social Network Training and SEO Training course.  But by his own admission, "... but it would be mean of us not to make it available to everyone. Enjoy…"

And without further ado... THE LIST .... thanks, Colin

Twetiquette

Twitter provides the perfect forum for your customers to offer up an opinion about your company.  One of the fastest growing microblogging communities, Twitter has proven to be a successful means of communication for, both, consumers and businesses.  Whether you want to introduce a new product/service, give a shout out about a special offer or provide customer service, Twitter is the place where your brand can interact on a personal level with consumers. 

So what rules of engagement will provide the best possible experience and outcome when on this social medium?  Let's count the ways....

Have a proactive presence 

      

Keep your profile updated and active.  This way, you don't miss out on all of the important conversations.  Inactivity may be interpreted by your followers/clients as a snub.  And a snubbed client could result in negative tweets... a social media catastroph!

Social media = Public media   

          Once it's twittered, you can't take it back!  Warning! - proceed cautiously with your tweets.  If it's confidential, don't tweet it.  There's no need to be that transparent.

Make new friends and keep the old

Watching your list of followers grow is very exciting.  There's something ego boosting (not to mention revenue producing) in having believers who you have not personally met.  But then, that's the beauty of social media!  However - remember to be a follower of those businesses that you believe in and support.  

Be Yourself.... Everyone Else is Taken

Other than breaking every rule in every book of etiquette, it's illegal.  Can you say identity theft?  Enough said.

Be Interesting

Make your tweets relevant to your business...or someone elses. You'd be hard pressed to find many followers who really care about the meal that you had last night. But the restaurant owner would be overwhelmed with joy with a positive tweet about the amazing menu selection and the unbelievable custom service.  Twitter is a great place to toot your horn, announce a special promotion or break industry news. 

These types of tweets will more often get retweeted by your in your community.

These days it seems that everyone is "tweeting"  on this microblogging platform that allows your business to stay connected - in real time. These are just of few rules of engagement to help while you are there.

What rules dictate how you interact with your audience when you are "tweeting"?

Let's Talk....

Search Engine Optimization:: Three Do's

[photo via here::special thanks]

Web marketing - Oh what a tangled web we weave!  The road to mastering the strategies that drive traffic (read-clients) to your site can be a seemingly endless trek.  Each strategy, has its own unique elements that create its own set of challenges.  This can definitely be said about Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  SEO requires that you think about the signals that the content and the structure of your site sends to your audience.  For most of us, this a different way of thinking.  In order to get human searchers to your site, your site must speak the language that search engines value and understand.

In an attempt to have your site found by 'the humans', here are three SEO Do's::

DO Speak Your Audience's Language
Make certain that the 'tags' that you use, are in the language of the human searching for your site.  Your site has a brand that you are marketing.  Your brand represents the style, or way of talking about your product/service.  The language of your audience should be mimicked in the tags that you use on your site(s).  The closer that you match the language of your site(s) with your audience, the easier you will be found by them.

Do Remember that Google can 'See' You
Because search engines have access to a infinite amount of information.  From URL's, registration and hosting information.  Search engines can see every domain, especially when they are linked to one another.  That being said, steer clear of attempts to use CSS code to hide keyword-rich SEO content.


          

                                                                                                                                                         

Do Design 'Crawable' Navigation

Search engines can not 'see' site content that appear on your site as images, video and/or flash.  What they do 'see' is plain text and HTML.  Javascript, cookies, filtering drop-downs, forms or CSS are unrecognizable. If the search engine can not understand the information on your site's page(s) and/or how to navigate through the site the pages do not 'crawl'.  Inability to 'crawl' ultimately results in no traffic to your site.

The tags that you choose to use to brand your site(s) send strong signals to the search engines.  The closer that your tags mimick the language of your audience, the easier it will be for them to find you.  Give your site/page the best chance of being found by remember that language is key.

What SEO strategies are you using?  What has worked?  What has not?
Share your successes and challenges.  
Let's talk...

Social Media Success Summit 2010

[More Info & Registration Here]

 If you're like me, you're looking to choose your social media activities wisely, without getting consumed by all the options. You simply want to know what works best.

Announcing an online event designed to help marketers and business owners quickly achieve social media success—Social Media Success Summit 2010. Twenty-four of the world's most respected social media experts have come together to share their strategies (see the great line-up on the right). They'll reveal all the latest techniques and proven business-building tactics you need to know to immediately benefit from social media.

WHERE:

At your home or office! You attend this live event using your computer

WHEN:

Starting May 4, 2010 (spread over a month)

Smart Quotes...

"Before you can pick a social-media strategy, you have to think of your customer and what the value proposition is for them. Social media is a way to engage customers, not to give your business a 'shout out.'"

         --Carol Roth, author of the Unsolicited Business Advice blog, 

                                                                 writing at SmartBlogs 

Baseball Goes Viral

[link here][original video here::special thanx]

What's Your Thoughts about Spam?

[click to enlarge][infographic via here::special thanx]

Where's My Audience?

After finishing this recent post, one of my colleagues in the Event industry,  sent me an E-mail that consisted of two things: a great compliment on the article and a very thought provoking question that resulted from this same post.  It seems that her efforts in actively participated in social media communities had been quite successful in netting her an audience of other like-minded business owners.  Although understanding the importance of  the B2B relationship, her question was:  "Where do I find my consumer audience"? 

My first response to this was an introspective - "... hummm.  What a great question!  And, what a even greater blog post this will make!"  The reality of it is that the answer to this question maked for great fodder for many blog posts.  I will attempt to give a shortened version - touching on just a few tactics...

The process and strategy for finding your audience on social media sites is much like the research that goes into target marketing.  To effectively locate (and market) to your audience, you must put in the time/research required to be able to succinctly discribe 'who your customer is'.  The ability to successfully locate your audience in the world of social media, goes far beyond understanding the usual demographic and geographic description.  It is imperative that you understand what psychographic and generographic characteristics motivate your audience.  That is to say, what is their communication style ?,  what devices do they utilize to access their platforms of choice? and what sites warrant the attention?  In general, what are their interests?

 

You can start your search in a number of ways.  You may want to start your search by asking trusted industry colleagues, who share your target audience, the above questions.  By soliciting the assistance of a colleague who does not share your same geographical territory should decrease the competitive factor.

A second source of locating your audience can be found in your industry publications.  Industry publications are invaluable resources for ascertaining, not only general information about your audience, but also, providing statistical profiles of  factors that influence their buying motivation, convey their concerns and interests, how they spend their time, what issues they are facing, with whom do they associate and what their aspirations are. 

Once you have created a general outline of your audience, you can more easily select the social media channels to target. 

What tools and/or strategies have you successfully used to locate your audience?  Let's talk about what has worked for you?

Got Weddings?

Are you an Event Specialist that specializes in Weddings?

Tunheim Partners, a strategic communications company, has put together this informative slideshow, illustrating the importance of your business brand being present and act ive in social media communities.

Why & How To Use Social Media To Market Your Wedding Business

What social media communities have you been successful in finding your Bridal audience?

How important is it for your company's business brand to be present on social media communities?

Let's talk

If You Want to Understand the Future...

....don’t pay attention to how technology is changing, pay attention to how childhood is changing.

video via here::special thanx via here

Is Your Social Media Campaign Segmented?

photo via here::special thanx

Most companies would not implement the same marketing campaign to a 25-year old as they would to a 70 year old.  So why aren't companies exercising the same diligence when implementing a social media marketing campaign?

It can be said that one reason most company's marketing campaigns fail is because they segment customers by the age demographic instead of generation. Have you ever purchased media by the demo age 25-54 or 50 plus? Both of these demographics consist of three distinct generations ( Boomer, Generation X and the Echo Boomer) all of whom like different products and services and who are motivated to purchase for very different reasons.

Just like all of your company's marketing strategies, your social media marketing strategies should  provide a generational breakdown of your customer database as well as an analysis of your overall target markets. This process yields a solid plan of action by defining who your market is, how best to reach them, and how to craft a message specifically designed to increase conversions for each specific generation.  Understanding how generations, not just demographics, respond will assist you in successfully market the same product or service simultaneously to different generations (without alienating any one generation), by appealing to their mindset.


How to make it happen?  Get involved with your community.  Be transparent about your business/brand.  Learn all that you can about their business/brand. Learn what makes their generations unique, study their mindsets, and the influence they have on each other.

 Rock solid target market research has always proven to yield the information needed to effectively target generational mindsets and get you on the road to a successful social media campaign.

How much does generational research play into your company's marketing/advertising campaign?
Let's talk.

McDonald's Names First Social-Media Chief

photo via here::special thanx

McDonald's names Rick Wion as its first director of social media.  A founding member of the McDonald's Digital Task Force, Wion is no stranger to social media. He has been handling projects for McDonalds since 2006. 

Reporting to director-external communications/public relations, Heather Oldani- Mr Wion's immediate social media goals are threefold:: manage customer issues, build the business and to extend outreach to target groups.  After a year of devising a dedicated social -media strategy, establishing a method of determining ROI in social media communities and assessing opportunities, the decision was made to have someone one hundred percent dedicated to their social media marketing plan.

Does your company have a dedicated social media department? 
What are your social media goals?
Let's talk.

Information as a Commodity

The power of the internet is turning information into a commodity. Because of this, it’s becoming more about your ability to use information to solve your target audience's challenges.  Providing relevent and insightful information helps to increases your business' value and brand equity. 

As the infographic demonstrates,  the ability to useyour insight and information to solve the issues of your target audience is key to setting your business apart from your competitors.  Engaging your audience through transparency and accessibility is key to building a strong brand.  

What are your thoughts?

Let's talk....

Twitter Ads?

It's been four years since the launch of Twitter and the inevitable has finally happened.  Due to roll out Tuesday - Advertising on Twitter.    Tagged as  "Promo Tweets", ads will appear first in search results, soon to be followed by appearances in use feeds.  Leaving no Twitter corner unturned, the ads will eventually be seen, not only on Twitter (dot) com, but also on TweetDeck, Twhirl, TwitterBerry and Tweetie. 

According to Michael Learnmonth over at Advertising Age - "initially, Twitter's version of keyword ads will appear only on searches conducted on its website; users will start seeing those Tuesday afternoon. A single ad will appear at the top of a search. That ad is itself a tweet, and users can "re-tweet" the ad to pass it around, make the ad a favorite or reply to it". 

"Twitter has been testing promoted tweets internally for months, and once they're released to the public, Twitter will closely watch how they perform. Initially, advertisers will bid on keywords on a cost-per-thousand basis, but Twitter is developing a performance model that could be the basis for pricing based on a metric called "resonance" -- impact judged on how much a tweet is passed around, marked as a favorite or how often a user clicks through a posted link. Ads that perform well will stay in the system; ads that don't rise above the resonance score of a typical tweet from a marketer will fall out. Ultimately, Mr. Costolo wants marketers to pay for ads based on the lift in resonance over a standard tweet".

Twitter is rolling out promoted tweets slowly over the course of the year; initially on Twitter.com, and then to Twitter clients, which can include the ads and get a cut of the revenue. Ultimately, Twitter could syndicate results to Google or Bing, though no deal is close to making that happen.  The promoted tweet is one of three streams of revenue Twitter will have available, including a data fee from search engines indexing Twitter in real time, such as Google, Yahoo and Bing, and the coming "professional accounts." Professional accounts will include the ability to have multiple users on one account -- much like some of the clients such as CoTweet do today -- plus a dashboard that shows what's happening with a brand on Twitter and integration with promoted tweets".

What's your thoughts?  Do you think that you will be 'Promo Tweeting'?

Let's talk

Google Acquires Problogger

photo via here::special thanx

The web’s #1 Blog Tips site, ProBlogger, announced yesterday that, as a part of Googles extension of the 'Blogger' brand and as a prelude to their new professional blogging suite of applications, ProBlogger has been acquired by Google.

Read founder, Darren Rowse's explanation in this original press release...

BAM! ... Your on the Internet...Now What?

[original video here::special thanx]

Measure It...

You've LinkedIn, mastered Twitter, have your fair share of Blog followers and finally set up your Facebook Business Page - now how do you know if it's working for you?

Download this free video to learn how to measure your effectiveness.

How have you been measuring your effectiveness?

Still Think that Social Media is a Trend?

[click to enlarge][infographic via here::special thanx]

Nobody's Ever Heard of You...

[original video via here::special thanx]