Personal Accounts

What is your Scream Emotion?

I love Tracy Gold's blogs.  Topical and timely.  You may have seen pictures of frightened haunted house patrons that have gone from Flicker to network news.   Timely so close to Halloween and a study in sociology.  Particularly of interest when you see men hiding behind girlfriends and mothers.  As marketers our wheels start spinning, wondering how/if we can also make the same sort of impact.  Tracy helps break down the elements for us to try in our own organizations.

Good luck and Happy Halloween.

How to Be a Frighteningly Brilliant Content Marketer

Content marketers should shiver with jealousy for Nightmares Fear Factory’s recent marketing success. If you missed this, basically, Nightmares Fear Factory is a haunted house in Niagara Falls Canada, and recently, their brilliant marketing strategy paid off big time when their Flickr feed was picked up by new and traditional media and sent around the web—I found out about it thanks to a friend who posted it on Google Buzz.

What’s the trick?
Instead of showing pictures of the haunted house, which without the context of the whole experience would probably look cheesy, Nightmares shows their customers. When they’re really, really scared. These are from their Flickr page:

My first reaction to this was “This can’t be real,” but look at the Flickr feed and that doubt quickly dissipates. These are not cookie cutter models—they’re plain, normal people being scared senseless.

So how do I do this?

“Great,” you might be thinking, “that’s all well and good for a haunted house. But how could that ever work for my business? Terrified customers are the last thing we want!”

It’s true, you might not get content quite like this, but you can certainly learn from this idea. Here’s how:

1. Find your “scream” emotion. Shock and horror might not be your game, but you probably have an equivalent emotion. For example, Will Davis tells a story about our client Reclamere. They specialize in data recovery, data destruction, and computer forensics. Sounds pretty technical and emotionless, right? Think again. Will mentioned Reclamere to a new client and was met with a gasping “They saved us!”

This client’s company had a big computer crash, and Reclamere rescued their data.  Maybe the client didn’t go running around screaming in glee, but they surely shared their happiness.

To pin this down, talk to your salespeople, your client services people, and, most importantly, your clients and customers. Your business may not create an emotion that’s easily photographed, but I’ll bet there’s something that makes your customers or clients want to talk about you. Identifying that moment is the first step in mimicking Nightmares Fear Factory’s content marketing success.

2. Identify how to showcase that emotion. For Nightmares Fear Factory, a quick snap shot in a scary place easily did the trick. Your “scream” emotion may not be easy to photograph, and in fact, it might be slightly different most of the time. Here are some different ways to capture this emotion:

• Testimonials
• Webinars featuring a client
• Case studies
• Visual portfolio
• Videos
• Reviews
• Surveys
• Thank you notes

Many people think of content as blog posts, written by your company, talking about things your company is doing. But telling stories about what your clients or customers are doing is just as important. If you can work those stories into your blog without seeming like you’re bragging, great. If not, set up a section on your website that talks about more than just who your clients and customers are—but how your company makes them feel.

3. Promote and engage. If Nightmare’s Fear Factory had simply sold these photos to customers, or even printed these photographs on a brochure and mailed them out, they never would have caught fire on the large scale they did. Through posting these photographs on Flickr—an entire community based around photographs—Nightmare’s Fear Factory reached an active audience (make sure you read the comments on the photos, they’re pretty hilarious), and made their awesome content extremely easy to share.

There’s a lesson for all content marketers in Nightmare’s Fear Factory’s decision to post their photos on Flickr instead of the company website or Facebook page. Rather than keeping content on your own properties, go out and find other places to spread it around where there’s a ready audience waiting for you. This might be somewhere like Flickr, but it could also be a forum you participate in, or a guest post on a blog you comment on. When you’ve got something great, find a way to get it out to a bigger audience. You’d be amazed at what just asking can get you.

Last, I’ll turn the tables to ask what’s your organization’s scream emotion? Think this Flickr feed is an awful idea? Comment with your thoughts—I’m always glad to continue the conversation.

Photos posted with permission from Nightmare’s Fear Factory

This post originally appeared on the Marketing Trenches Blog. 

8 free social media listening tools everyone should use

Anyone who knows me or have seen my blogs, my tweets, Linkedin discussions, knows that I love advice and particularly free stuff!  When someone takes the time to provide new tools to keep in your marketing tool kit, that is a great thing for all of us.  Way to pay it forward, Gini.

8 free social media listening tools everyone should use

There are five steps in social media we always recommend to clients who are just beginning to branch out online.

They are: listen, assess, engage, measure, and refine/improve.

Though each step is important, the foundation to any online effort is listening; it’s the one step you can do without any of the others.

Before you begin, think about the historically great communicators. They ask a lot of questions. They really listen to what you have to say. They get you talking about yourself. They inquire deeply into the answers you provide. And then they provide advice, counsel, and coaching — but only after they fully understand your needs.

These master communicators are better at listening than they are at talking.

Social media is no different. It’s another way to communicate through listening and engaging in conversation — online. To be a master at social media communication, you must have a strong foundation of listening.

First things first. If you don’t have Google alerts set up, do that now.

If you don’t know how to do that, this blog post will teach you how to set them up and which terms to use.

Now let’s discuss eight free tools to enhance what Google is sending you.

1. Reputation management. Twendz is a reputation management tool that looks at how people feel about a brand or a topic. It measures Twitter, specifically, on positive, neutral, or negative tweets. Use this tool to measure people’s sentiments in order to set benchmark goals. Pay attention to how people are talking about the company, your leadership, key employees, your products or services, your customers, and even your competition.

2. Blog tracking. The media landscape has changed, and print journalists are no longer the only ones with influence. Some bloggers have immense influence, and you cannot afford to ignore them. Learn which bloggers care about you, your products or services, and your customers. Use tools such as Technorati or Google Blog Search to determine which bloggers already are aware of you, and develop a plan to target them.

3. Social bookmarking. Collect case studies of social media success in your industry, in your category, and from companies and people you admire. Use Delicious or Diigo to bookmark the case studies in one location so you can refer to them while you develop goals and plan your next steps.

4. Twitter search. There is nothing better for real-time search than Twitter. Even if you don’t have a Twitter account, you can still use its search application to find conversations. Although we believe everyone should have a Twitter account in order to fully understand and take advantage of its wide range of services, you can subscribe to the RSS feed without an account.

5. Website optimization. Right now, go to Website grader and bookmark the page. Now type in your URL. What’s your grade? Is it 100 percent? No? It tells you exactly what you need to do to fix the site so the search engines are crawling it and you are competing on the Web.

6. Blog optimization. Do the same thing for your blog, if you have one, but visit Blog Grader instead.

7. Competitive analysis. Now go to Compete. Enter your URL and the URLs of two of your competitors. This site then creates a graph, comparing you against your competition. Though not flawless (it only tracks U.S. traffic, for instance), it gives you a good baseline of understanding where your competition is beating you (or vice versa).

8. Web analytics. Do you look at your Web analytics at least weekly? If not, this is a must. It will help you track where people are visiting from and which accounts are home, corporate websites, or blogs. If you find visitors coming from blogs, add those sites to your RSS feeds, comment on the blog posts, and develop relationships with the bloggers.

Having an insider understanding of your visitor demographics will enable you to easily identify your demographic.

As you listen, monitor, and get smart about your Web properties, as compared with those of competitors, you’ll begin to understand how to create your goals.

Gini Dietrich is founder and CEO of Arment Dietrich. A version of this post originally ran on Spin Sucks.

A Framework for Social Media Analytics

Brian Solis has got his finger on the pulse of how to measure the effect of social media and how it can impact the bottom line. More importantly how marketers can get social media in their budgets by being able to demonstrate to the CEO why investment will result in bottom line results.  A good read.

What’s the R.O.I.? A Framework for Social Analytics

briansolis.com

“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”
- Albert Einstein

Say hello to my little friends, R.O. & I.

Yes. Return on investment have become the bane of an entire new media industry. However, avoidance is not the answer.

While the question of “what’s the R.O.I. of social media” is difficult to answer, it is necessary as it forces us to dig deeper. The result is maturity.

This conversation is important as you are expected to answer it not just today, but and also over time.  The source of the question though, may also impede innovation and experimentation. Why?  The answer in of itself is as elusive as the question asked. As much as the previous sentence sounds like a riddle, it is a very real observation. Often it is asked without a clear understanding as to whether or not the answer will actually change the company vision or the current course of business. Sometimes it is genuinely asked to do just that, change the vision and the course of business toward relevance. Either way, this is an opportunity to show how new media enables desired business outcomes.

Before we tackle the question, let me share a quote with you. After hundreds of executive discussions, I’ve stitched together a recurring theme that I believe will help you…

“If you come to me with a request for budget and resources for social media, to make it a priority for our business, you will lose every time…If you tie social media to our business priorities and objectives and demonstrate how engagement will enable progress, you will win every time. Social media must be an enabler to our business, just show me how.”

- Your CEO

Your job is to connect the dots between the value of new media, the expectations of your customers, and the business roadmap the company is operating against.

So, when it comes to R.O.I. in social media, perhaps we’re asking the wrong question.

Again, the answer is difficult, but not impossible to answer. If I ask you, “how are you?” you will probably respond with “fine,” “ok,” “good,” or “great.” But if you take a moment to think about it, each of those answers begs a follow-up question to deepen the conversation, “why?” Or, “why do you say that?” Otherwise the question serves no real purpose other than to casually acknowledge another person or to run through the traditional ritual of easing into a conversation. The same is true for R.O.I.

If we are indeed to discover the “Return,” we need to tie it to more than the “Investment,” we need to understand the circumstances, intentions, and potential impact and outcomes business leaders need to see in order to understand new or foreign opportunities. Said another way, we need to define the “R” that defines tangible success and work out a formula that allows us to find the answers. Therefore, R.O.I is specific to an outcome or a goal, which means that there is no one answer.

To help, Susan Etlinger (@setlinger), my colleague at Altimeter Group, recently published an open research report, “A Framework for Social Analytics.”

The report opens puts ROI in context to help you focus on business value in your social media efforts:

“What is the ROI of social media?” This is one of the most frequently asked questions related to social strategy. While 48% of social strategists reported earlier this year that their primary internal focus is to develop ROI measurements,2 ROI is just one metric in the social business toolkit. Rather than focusing on social media as a monolithic entity, businesses should evaluate it based on its contribution to a range of business goals. Says Richard Binhammer, Strategic Corporate Communications, Social Media. and Corporate Reputation Management, Dell Inc., ‘There is no single ROI for social media.’”

As we see in the executive quote earlier in the post, tying social media to business objectives and metrics helps them see a clearer picture. We have to remember that executives most likely do not use social networks personally. It’s impossible for them to see what you see, therefore taking the extra time to connect the dots helps you make the case and in doing so, brings the R.O.I. answer into focus.

Susan also does a wonderful job of not only showing us how businesses should view R.O.I, but she also helps businesses identify how to develop analytics frameworks that define the “R” or the return for specific business objectives.

Prep work: Assess how your business is measuring R.O.I. on other fronts today

Step 1: Align your strategy with business objectives

Step 2: Determine how you will measure success and also define critical milestones

Step 3: Evaluate your organization’s readiness to measure social media and bridge the gaps

Step 4: Choose the right tools to measure progress and outcomes

Remember, there is no one way to measure R.O.I. There are many business pillars that stand on a solid foundation for growth. Susan introduces the Social Media Measurement Compass to guide businesses as they’re planning social media programs. Remember, social media doesn’t just belong in the marketing department, a social business is customer-centric and social media enables more effective engagement, learning, and adaptation. Therefore, it is the responsibility of other critical business functions to engage.

1. Innovation: Collaborating with customers to drive future products and services

2. Brand Health: A measure of attitudes, conversation ad behavior toward your brand

3. Marketing Optimization: Improving the effectiveness of marketing programs

4. Revenue Generation: Where and how your company generates revenue

5. Operational Efficiency: Where and how your company reduces expenses

6. Customer Experience: Improving your relationship with customers, and their experience with your brand

The three tenets of social business, Connected, Engaged, Adaptive create a transparent relationship with customers that opens the door to meaningful metrics to measure success and improve everything in between. In the end, understanding the relationship between business objectives and social media tactics will create a series of relevant strategies and critical links that in of themselves serve as opportunities for measurement and the establishment of R.O.I.

We cannot measure, what it is we do not know to value…

You can download Susan’s report here and also follow her on Twitter for more insights into metrics and analytics.

7 Guaranteed Ways to Lose Twitter Followers

I work in the B2B world where social media is still a new medium to explore and certainly a challenge to understand how it fits with our need to connect programs to the bottom line.  The good news is that our colleagues in the B2C world have already been learning what works and what doesn't.  Data now can reveal what doesn't work, so before investing considerable time and resources, and social media does take time and resources to do properly and effectively consider the following words of advice.  There are some great companies which can help with B2B social media campaigns, including www.Base22,  now in Toronto.  You can follow at @edwardbase22.  You won't be bored!

p.s.   I also liked this article for the  accompanying illustration, which I believe most likely came from www.despair.com.  I have a number of their products.

Trevor Jonas, Access Communications

   

Recent research provides some interesting insights into why consumers fall out of love with a brand on social media. In a newly released report, ‘The Social Breakup,’ the team set out to “understand consumers’ motivations and actions as they terminate their relationships with brands through Email, Facebook, and Twitter.”

 Based on the research, here are seven reasons consumers unlike or unfollow brands on   Facebook and Twitter, along with tips for  avoiding each.

1. You struggle to keep content engaging and fresh

Check out these stats. 52% of consumers unfollowed a brand on Twitter because the content became “repetitive or boring.” On Facebook, 38% unliked a brand for the same reason. This speaks to the fact that social media, particularly for business purposes, is simply not easy. It requires investments of time, money and intellectual capital that most organizations are unwilling to put forth.

Rather than think like a media outlet that’s fighting and scrapping for subscribers, eyeballs or ratings, brands tend to get lazy and default to almost exclusively pushing out press releases or media coverage via Facebook and Twitter. Most consumers aren’t willing to put up with that over the long haul. Companies have to start building content exclusively for their social networks, or at a minimum better tailoring things for them.

2. You turn on the fire-hose and walk away

Related to pumping out “boring” information is having a solid understanding of consumer expectations related to frequency of updates. A full 44% of consumers said they unliked a brand on Facebook because the brand posted “too frequently” and 39% gave the same reason for unfollowing a brand on Twitter. Just because technology allows you to auto-publish content from one place out through several others with one click of a mouse doesn’t mean you should do it!

There may be instances that warrant a higher frequency of updates (major announcement, event, etc.). In that case let your Fans or Followers know ahead of time and give them a timetable for when normal update frequency will resume. It’s all about setting expectations.

3. You don’t know what the deal is

Speaking of expectations, like it or not, consumers have been trained to expect deals on social networks. In fact, 27% of consumers said they’ve unfollowed a brand on Twitter because “they didn’t offer enough deals” and 24% said the same for Facebook. Here, the solution is simpler.

Sure, a one-time only deal offered via a social media channel can get you an influx of Fans or Followers, but it most likely won’t lead to a long-term relationship (which should be the goal). As a brand, you have to make the choice–either offer regular ‘deals’ via social channels or don’t offer any, there is no in-between.

4. You only speak marketing

We’ve heard it over and over, marketers often struggle to break free from marketing speak and that often spells doom on social media channels. In fact, 43% of consumers have unliked a brand on Facebook due to being inundated with ‘marketing posts’ and 41% said the same goes on Twitter.

Social networks are about people and relationships, so even if you’re operating a brand presence, you’ve got to make it personable. The key is to take off your marketer hat and be a real person – just be you align with key brand attributes if at all possible.

5. You overly self-promote

Nobody likes someone who is constantly self-promoting, and the same goes for brands on social networks. 24% of consumers unfollowed a brand on Facebook because its posts were “too promotional” and 21% said the same for Twitter. As counter-intuitive as it may be, brands that promote others more-so than they promote themselves tend to fare the best. Bottom line: it’s not all about you.

6. You don’t add ‘real’ value

The numbers: 17% on Twitter, 20% on Facebook. That’s how many people cited brand posts that didn’t focus on “real value” as the reason for unfollowing or unliking. While reason #4 above is about ensuring your brand presence on social networks has a personality, the notion of adding value refers to when that personality goes too far.

You might be willing to put up with mindless updates (“I’m about to watch Avatar on Netflix”) from close friends, but when it comes to brand channels, sharing such information too often won’t cut it. Limit the silly or mindless updates to once or twice a week at most–your fan and follower count will thank you for it.

7. It’s not you, it’s me

Just like in life, sometimes things change and your content may not be relevant to someone any more. 12% of people on Facebook and an equal percentage on Twitter cited changed circumstances as a reason for breaking up with a brand on social media.

 Trevor Jonas is Director of Social Media for Access Communications, a full service public relations agency with offices in San Francisco and New York City. He oversees social media strategy and execution for two of the agency’s largest accounts and serves in an advisory role across the client base.  An avid blogger since late 2004 and early adopter of social media tools and technologies,Trevor has coached and trained countless C-level executives, customer service agents and corporate communications professionals on the ins-and-outs of effectively engaging in social media. He has contributed to Global PR Blog Week, WebProNews, Social Media Today and has been quoted on social media topics by Read/WriteWeb, Webbiquity, Wired and other outlets. Trevor currently runs two blogs – TrevR’s Takes, which focuses on social media, and The Cork Board, which focuses on his hometown the Napa Valley.

How to Write Irresistible Subject Lines - RainToday

I have spent years in my career as a B2B marketer fussing over subject lines.  Not only are they important for your direct mail campaigns, but I also needed to make ssure my bosses and staff got a clear picture of what was being communicated, as well as any call to action. 

We recently lost a great political leader in our country by the name of Jack Layton. I was intrigued to learn that he and his wife, who is also a political figure, played a nightly game to see who could come up with the best news worthy quotes that they would give in the next day.  Best idea in the least number of words won.  In their world  there is so much competition for being heard above the noise in the news media.   I like to think headlines are like that as well when you consider how many emails are received each day.  How are you going to capture the receiver's attention. 

There are some great practical tips in this article from Rain Today to help get a prospect's  or potential employer's attention.  And don't forget to followup with a phone call if you need to.

 By Jill Konrath, Contributing Editor, Rain Today

If you're like most sellers, you don't pay a lot of attention to the subject lines you put on emails to prospects. They're an afterthought. No big deal, right?

Totally wrong. Your subject line is the most important part of your message. If it isn't a good one, your email gets trashed in a nanosecond. In fact, research by ExactTarget (my email newsletter service) shows that the average person spends only 2.7 seconds on a message before deciding if they'll delete it, forward it, or read it.

Just 2.7 seconds. That's all the time you have to capture a reader's attention. That's why your subject line is so darn critical.

What You Shouldn't Put in a Subject Line

To avoid auto-deletes, it's imperative for you to avoid:

• "Salesy" verbiage. Get rid of words like excited, hot new product, free offer, or special pricing.
• Information about your company. No one is interested in your new service announcements or company updates except you.
• Capital letters. Just the first word should be capped. Otherwise it seems like a headline, not a personal message.

What Works in Subject Lines

Email Best Practices 5 Ways to Improve Your Email Response Rate Email Strategies to Break the Delete Barrier

Here are several options that have proven effective with today's crazy-busy prospects.

• Use a referral. If someone has referred you to this person, put that in your subject line. They'll want to know why. For example, you might write: Terry Jones said to get in touch.
• Ask a quick question. If your prospect feels it's simple and relevant, they'll take a look. Your subject line might read: Quick question re: new client acquisition challenges.
• Tempt with ideas or information. My prospects are always interested in subject lines like these:
  • Idea to reduce your sales cycle time
  • How XYZ company increased sales to Fortune 500 companies by 127%
• Mention a trigger event. If something is happening within the company or in their greater business environment that's relevant to your offering, bring that up. For example, if you read about a recent merger, you might write: Impact of XYZ merger on (insert relevant business issue you address).

Get the picture? To work, your subject lines must focus on something your prospect cares about. If you do that, they'll keep reading.

Here's a major caveat, though. When they start reading your message, it needs to deliver exactly what you promised in your subject line.

If you move into salesy mode or talk about your company, you'll trigger your prospect's auto-delete reaction. They can't control it. And you will lose the opportunity to open the conversation.

Hopefully by now you understand just how critical those simple little subject lines are to your sales success. I suggest you sit down right now and create 10 new subject lines you can use in the upcoming weeks.

Finally, start your experiment. See if you can tell which subject lines are most effective with your prospects. Then create variations of the same theme. You'll immediately see the difference in your sale success.

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Easy Advice to Take: Five Things to Do Every Day for Success

I came across some sage advice which is easy to digest, easy to execute and easily applies to almost everyone looking to make positive changes to their business.  Me, I am going to post it above my computer and try it out...now time to set my alarm.

5 Things To Do Every Day For Success

BY FC Expert Blogger Dayna SteeleTue Mar 1, 2011

This blog is written by a member of our expert blogging community and expresses that expert's views alone.

"You get up at what time?"

I hear that a lot, along with "You are so lucky." So, I'm going to help out here and let you in on the secrets of my success. Well, not all of them--but enough to show you the foundation I build on every day.

1. Wake up early. For the next week, get up a half an hour earlier that you normally do--and get going. If you get a few more things done, then get up even earlier the next week. Early in the morning is a great time to get work done because most of your associates have not started emailing, tweeting, IMing, or posting yet.

2. Read the headlines and watch the news. Not only should you know what is going on in the world, you will also be the first to recognize opportunities (if you followed #1) for you and your business--long before the competition has even had their first cup of coffee.

3. Send something to one person who can hire you or buy your product--something you promised to follow-up with, a quick email with a link to something relevant or a "Hey, just checking in to see how thing are going" email.

4. Touch base with an old friend or associate you haven't talked to in ages. Ask how they are, what are they working on and ask or suggest how you might help. You'll make their day.

5. Write a handwritten note to someone. Seriously. It is a lost art and makes quite an impression. There is always someone you can send a thank you note to--or you aren't doing things correctly.

A simple yet highly effective list. Try all five every weekday for a month. Then, tell me I'm right. If I'm wrong, I'll buy you a cup of coffee. When you finally wake up ...

Easy Advice to Take: Five Things to Do Every Day for Success

I came across some sage advice which is easy to digest, easy to execute and easily applies to almost everyone looking to make positive changes to their business.  Me, I am going to post it above my computer and try it out...now time to set my alarm.

5 Things To Do Every Day For Success

BY FC Expert Blogger Dayna SteeleTue Mar 1, 2011

This blog is written by a member of our expert blogging community and expresses that expert's views alone.

"You get up at what time?"

I hear that a lot, along with "You are so lucky." So, I'm going to help out here and let you in on the secrets of my success. Well, not all of them--but enough to show you the foundation I build on every day.

1. Wake up early. For the next week, get up a half an hour earlier that you normally do--and get going. If you get a few more things done, then get up even earlier the next week. Early in the morning is a great time to get work done because most of your associates have not started emailing, tweeting, IMing, or posting yet.

2. Read the headlines and watch the news. Not only should you know what is going on in the world, you will also be the first to recognize opportunities (if you followed #1) for you and your business--long before the competition has even had their first cup of coffee.

3. Send something to one person who can hire you or buy your product--something you promised to follow-up with, a quick email with a link to something relevant or a "Hey, just checking in to see how thing are going" email.

4. Touch base with an old friend or associate you haven't talked to in ages. Ask how they are, what are they working on and ask or suggest how you might help. You'll make their day.

5. Write a handwritten note to someone. Seriously. It is a lost art and makes quite an impression. There is always someone you can send a thank you note to--or you aren't doing things correctly.

A simple yet highly effective list. Try all five every weekday for a month. Then, tell me I'm right. If I'm wrong, I'll buy you a cup of coffee. When you finally wake up ...

The Top Five Social Media Mistakes

This is a good check to ensure you are on the right track with your social media program.

The Top Five Social Media Mistakes

Sure you're marketing with Twitter and Facebook, but are you doing it well? Here are the most common traps you might be falling into.

By Starr Hall   |   August 2, 2011   |

No matter how you slice it, reaching out, connecting and having conversations with customer online costs a business owner time and money. Could your social-media efforts be yielding better results?

Here's a list of the biggest mistakes I've seen business owners make with social media and how to avoid them.

1. Talking One-Way: Many business owners start posting status updates because they think that is all they need to do to grow their company online. But the way they do it cuts off any chance of having a two-way conversation. In today's messaging marketplace, consumers want to be heard. If you are just talking to customers but not letting them to talk back and engage with you, then you are wasting considerable time and effort online.

When you go online and post in a status update area, do not just talk at or to people; speak with them. Tag people in a post and ask them a question. Tagging simple means that you write directly to a person on their facebook wall or on their Twitter feed. On Facebook you put the "@" sign in front of their profile name, for Twitter this sign would go in front of their username.

Related: 20 Ways to Make the Most of Your Social Media Marketing

Also, take a few minutes to stop by the "neighborhood" of each social site that you frequent and say hello, find out what your neighbors are up to, and post a quick reply. By actively engaging in these spheres, you keep your business top of mind.

2. Not Knowing When to Ask for Business: Many online businesses have conducted conversations with their connections for quite some time now, without translating this dialogue into any sales. Some companies fail to ask for business online or they ask too soon. You need to build some rapport first; people will buy from you only as much as they trust you. Set up a rule to convert conversation into clients or customers.

I follow the 3/3 rule, whereby I talk to someone no more than three times, for not more than three minutes on each occasion, freely offering tips, exploring another company's branding or directly helping them, before I ask that person for some business. When I do the asking, I send the prospective customer a closing script or a post to indicate how I can help further.

3. Shiny Object Syndrome: With all the flashy new websites and with social networking capabilities changing by the minute, no wonder you are swept up in checking out a new site or a fresh feature when you go online. Instead of spending countless hours exploring new dazzlers, devote only a set amount of time each day or week to review the new happenings online. Otherwise you will be sucked into a vortex of shiny objects and before you know it your week is over and you have not converted any online relationships into profits. Flag interesting sites or novel capabilities in a folder or on your calendar to revisit later for research and development.

4. Poor Messaging: A consumer can become overwhelmed by dealing with all the wrong messages that are crowding the Internet lately. Company owners are projecting the wrong image through what they say online. In some cases, their posts have absolutely nothing to do with their company, brand, or personality.

Too many entrepreneurs do what I call panic posting -- just posting for the sake of posting and sharing ideas that do not highlight their overall brand image. If you have a serious company, don't post jokes and funny videos; instead post statistics and updates about your company's team members. If your business has a relaxed image, inject humor into your posts; a funny YouTube video can go a long way.

Related: 10 Laws of Social Media Marketing

5. Sales Faux Pas: Writing how much your product or services cost in a status update or post is not only a time waste; it is plain wrong. Would you walk up to someone before you have even introduced yourself and say that your latest product is now available at a certain price for a limited time? If so, you would probably end up not only talking to yourself (the person would walk away), but also you likely would lose the entire room of people as customers just from their overhearing your sales introduction.

Instead, try sharing the pros and cons about your industry or product category and ask people to provide feedback and participate. This is a great way to bridge the distance between you and your prospects and get them involved with your company's brand. Ultimately newfound fans will promote you without being asked because they feel included; the fact that you asked and listened goes a long way.

Whether yours is a one-person business or it has 150 employees, take time every month or quarter to examine your social media practices. You could save thousands of dollars and hours -- and have more to show for it.

Ye Old Rules of Marketing

The more things change, the more they stay the same. While technology has enabled us to connect with clients and prospects in new ways, human behavior hasn't evolved much, if at all. Here is a link to a great blogger who brings us back to the basics. Enjoy.

http://sherpablog.marketingsherpa.com/marketing/old-rules/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MarketingSherpaBlog+%28MarketingSherpa+Blog%29

 

Three Tips for Using Linkedin for your B2B Business Networking

I have slowly become a huge fan of Linkedin , using this business networking site for the majority of my lead nuturing.  I now work in a new market where my existing contacts aren't particularly helpful, other than for possible referrals.  Linkedin now has  become an invaluable tool for me to reveal the decision makers I need to connect with within national organizations.  It has also helped teach me what roles beneath the C level are influencers in decision making. 

I thought I would share this observation from a fellow B2B marketer on the subject.  I am glad I am not the only one who obsessively follows the same procedures, looking for that next big lead!

3 Quick Tips – Using LinkedIn for Sales and Inbound Marketing

Roman Kniahynyckyj

If you view LinkedIn as only a business networking tool rather than a lead research and nurturing tool, you might be missing out on some sales opportunities. Here are three things I do on a regular basis to make sure my LinkedIn profile is fresh and “sales ready.”

 

1. Update your LinkedIn status daily – you can do this either manually or through an automated feed to a blog you write or follow. I do a little of both. I use dlvr.it to publish each new Kuno blog post to my LinkedIn profile. I also use Hootsuite to manually publish article links that I find relevant or interesting.
2. Ask to be part of someone’s network (not the other way around) – The standard connection verbiage LinkedIn uses is “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.” That seems a little backward to me. When I connect with folks on LinkedIn, I always ask to be part of their network. I always view the potential value of someone else network as greater than the value of mine. If someone makes me a part of their network, I see it as a privilege.
3. Who’s looking at you – From your LinkedIn home page, you can click on a link to see who’s viewed your profile (left hand side, middle of the page). Check this regularly – you may see the sales prospect you have been nurturing has reviewed your profile – and it may be a good trigger for a follow up call. Moreover, be sure to consider LinkedIn profiles in their entire context. Why is your potential client in a particular industry or position? Was it a conscious career choice or an unplanned trajectory? What is the overall theme of their career? I’ve recently been working with someone who is passionate about sustainability and water policy and, upon reading her LinkedIn profile, I saw how she successfully aligned her passions with her career growth.

What LinkedIn tips can you share? Looking for more LinkedIn help? Check out our other LinkedIn resources.