Mar
31

Don’t Party Without Social Media!

This is an excellent guest blog post by Sonja Fridell, Social Media & Marketing Manager, BrainSell, Ipswich, MA, www.brainsell.net/blog, @brainsell. You can follow Sonja on Twitter @sfridell too! I invited her to guest blog on my site after meeting her in person at the event she describes below. To learn more about the great content included in the event, you can reference back to the post I wrote to recap.

Social media and public events go hand in hand. Actually, without social media, events these days can be ominous, empty dealings.

I recently took on the task of putting on a large event for my company, BrainSell, a software reseller. We put on the event with a partner, SugarCRM. CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, can be a dull topic. We knew that a selling, non-educational event would NOT fill the ballroom with eager potential customers. However, remarkable content would.

The President of our company, Jim Ward and I had just read Dharmesh Shah’s book, Inbound Marketing, and it had quickly become our bible. Jim is a big dreamer and insisted that Dharmesh would speak at our event. With persistence and tact, Shah agreed. Our remarkable content was secured. We dubbed it: Accelerate Sales with Social Media and CRM.

Now I had to recruit.

We learned a few things from all of the planning and marketing.

1. Inbound marketing WORKS!
Over 75 percent of our registrants found out about the event through social media outlets. That would be re tweeting, messages and discussions on LinkedIn and Facebook, and a few Facebook and LinkedIn advertisements. People spread the word for us!

2. Social Media Sign-Ups = Qualified Attendees (usually)
Since people found out about the event through social media, they were immediately more qualified to attend. Maybe a friend retweeted it and their circle of tech savvy friends saw it. Those people sought out the content and WANTED to learn. Our audience was super engaged! One thing we did notice was the amount of job seekers. In this economy, it’s hard to avoid, but those people can still circle back and bring you business in the future.

3. Build Your Virtual Network
We started a Twitter hash tag for the event, #crmaccbos. Attendees tweeted live from the room. Not all people gave their Twitter name during the formal registration process, so finding those people was easy with a hash tag to follow. We increased our Twitter following by a few dozen in just a few hours!

4. Keep traffic up
People notice your brand after you treat them to a valuable event. Our web traffic was up 200 percent in the weeks surrounding the event. Even the days and weeks after, our traffic was up. We video recorded the entire seminar and we’re currently posting segments on our blog and YouTube. That way, even people who didn’t attend get to take something away. And the hits keep coming.

We could have never predicted the positive outcome from this event and my mission is to replicate it all over the country. I will never again party without social media.

Mar
30

Using the Internet of 2020 to Innovate Your Business Today

76%: The number of experts that believe that by 2020, “people’s use of the Internet has enhanced human intelligence; as people are allowed unprecedented access to more information, they become smarter and make better choices. Nicholas Carr was wrong: Google does not make us stupid.”

I don’t think Google will make us stupid either. With the immense amount of data at our finger tips, I think we will become more motivated to find information now instead of having to thumb through a book or wait to hear back from a co-worker or professor about a piece of information.

So how can a business benefit?

Start putting your product/service information on the web today. This will allow your customers to surf the web and find your product. This is referred to as pull, not push, marketing. Consumers are searching for information, you provide it, so you both win.

Many businesses are just getting onto the web and creating websites, social media sites, video channels, ning communities, etc. Get on there now and get your presence known by your consumers, so that years from now people will know how and where to reach you for information. Be seen as a thought leader and expert in your field or industry so that people will come back for more and share the word. If Google only will make us smarter, then it will help people find more and more info, meaning more competition. Therefore, get on there now while people are still just realizing this, so you get a head start.

I do not see writing and grammar skills enhancing too much due to the Internet, but 65% say that “By 2020, it will be clear that the Internet has enhanced and improved reading, writing, and the rendering of knowledge.”

I do think that shorter forms of writing, such as SMS, tweets, and other social updates will increase since we will be so used to sending out real-time, quick messages to employers, colleagues, friends, family, etc. However, I think longer writing and reading may suffer. Writing will suffer because we are used to writing small blurbs of info quickly, so when it comes to writing a long article or e-mail, we may get bored, sloppy, or careless. Reading longer length articles will lose the attention of the reader faster since we have become so accustomed to reading small, instant messages to get our information. We do not want to read your 1,000 word blog post or four page article anymore, we’d rather the intro and conclusion, or an executive summary.

So what is a business to do?

Keep your info quick, to the point, and very interesting. This will keep the writer engaged in the content for a shorter but more important time period, and the reader will get the information that they need and in the short time that they have to receive it. This is not to say that readers and writers will become dumbed down, but with the amount of information shared on the web daily, we need short, to the point messages. By starting to write these types of blogs, emails, articles, etc. you will be better received by the public as a whole as they become accustomed to this habit.

Will security be breached with the explosion of information sharing?

55% say that “By 2020, Internet users can do a lot of normal online activities anonymously even though the identification systems used on the Internet have been applied to a wider range of activities. It is still relatively easy for Internet users to create content, communicate, and browse without publicly disclosing who they are.”

Many do worry that with the emergence of social media, location-based applications, extreme content sharing, and viral videos, people are now more unsafe on the Internet. However, it is how you send out and protect your information and identity that will determine how safe you are. Systems are not becoming less safe, people are. To be a smart business, protect your identity when it needs to be protected, but don’t shy away from sharing and communicating via the Internet, as that will lose you significant business and relationships.

So what is a business to do?

You should verify your identity and those of your clients/customers online (this will add value in the transaction process online). Continue to converse with people, make sales, and share incredible content, but make sure it is protected, you are not giving out too much personal, location-based, or financial information, and engage intelligently with people.

Takeaway…

It’s not what you use, but how you use it. Realize the major changes going on in the Internet environment today and capitalize on them so you are best prepared when the time comes. Don’t be a follower, get the first mover advantage by planning today. You can never go wrong by looking to the future for opportunities and innovative capabilities.

One of the most inspirational business quotes I have read to close this post is, “The great successful men of the world have used their imagination… they think ahead and create their mental picture in all it details, filling in here, adding a little there, altering this a bit and that a bit, but steadily building – steadily building.” (Robert Collier).

Mar
26

My Library Card Expired, Why I am Okay With It

This is an opinion-based guest post by Mike Danielczyk. Mike is a college business graduate, creative writer, sports enthusiast, entrepreneur at heart, and a fun-loving guy who writes on various trending topics of interest. You can follow him on Twitter @Dzick508.

Big, small, quiet or smelly, every town has one; and you more than likely owe them money. I’m talking about libraries. With ‘est. 1789’ signs posted at the entrance, quiet signs lining the hallways and confused faces at the Dewey decimal system station, libraries are quite unremarkable establishments today. As a Generation Y member I did frequent libraries as a child. I remember getting my library card, the endless searching of the shelves, the struggle to stay awake trying to complete my book report and the nickel it costs to make a copy ( I heard copies cost $0.25 now!). Today my library card is at the bottom of some junk drawer and it would not surprise me if libraries were on the verge of extinction.

Library, meet 2010 and this thing called a computer, be envious

Adios Dewey Decimal thing, bonjour silence, hello information highway and konnichiwa iTunes. Today we have something I like to call a ‘desktop library’ at our fingertips. A desktop library has infinite pages of information, search optimization tools, it’s quick, it’s easy and portable; some refer to it as the Internet. Grab a drink, a bag of chips, turn on Aerosmith’s greatest hits and do some research, even glance back at Judge Judy if you so choose. Want to research the production process of Almonds? Well Google, Wikipedia, Wikianswers, Yahoo, and countless other search engines will bring this information to you, and very quickly. In a traditional library I would suggest you ask the secretary and begin what would turn into a wild goose chase of shelf navigating, book searching and page flipping. 

In middle school we were given 3 weeks to do a 3 page book report on a subject of our choosing, and this workload seemed immense. This entailed trips to the library, creating outlines, referencing countless books and undoubtably having late fees. Today we can get assigned these same projects and conduct an information search within minutes, even seconds with a plethora of data on the Internet.

Translation: people in the library business are in trouble.

I cannot guarantee this, but I will say it anyways: As computer sales rose and Google’s visits increased, I guarantee foot traffic in libraries declined. With fewer visitors, less books being check out, and inflation of printing prices, libraries today cannot compete with our ‘desktop libraries’; It is a grim realization for those still attached to that industry.

Libraries, like Eureka’s Castle, are another piece of the Generation Y childhood that is disappearing. Library cards are going to end up on Ebay and Pawn Stars 50 years from now, and our grandchildren will probably question us about their very existence. It is not a ‘story book’ ending for such a traditional information outlet, however barring they knock on my door collecting late fees, I am completely okay with this chapter of my childhood ending.

Mar
24

CRM Acceleration Boston Recap

Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend the CRM Acceleration event at the Hilton Woburn, sponsored by BrainSell and SugarCRM. Speakers included Dharmesh Shah of HubSpot, Mitch Lieberman of SugarCRM, Umberto Milletti of InsideView, Martin Schneider of Sugar CRM, and Chip Meyers of Insource, followed by a panel discussion.

I always like to take opportunities such as this one to act as a sponge by absorbing as much of the information, atmosphere, and contacts as I can. The speakers provided great information that is crucial for businesses to understand today, whether they are implementing or considering any inbound marketing techniques or not, as it is becoming ever so important in the business world.

Below are the great takeaways from the event:

Get Found Using Inbound Marketing:

First, know that Google LOVES blogs, so naturally the searchability of your company’s blog will not be hard to obtain. If you update the information on your blog on a consistent basis, Google rewards you by listing your blog even higher for particular search queries since it is able to crawl your site more often. If you update once a year, Google deems it less important, thus does not crawl as often, and searchability can dramatically decrease.

If your company does not have the bandwith to keep up with a blog on a consistent basis, Dharmesh suggested to at least write two blogs: one on why you are in business and what differentiates you from all the other fish in the sea. The second should cover a great customer success story to demonstrate physical benefits of your service to a real client. Even if this is all your company has time to write about, it can be a great platform for potential clients (leads) to read what you are about and how you help businesses succeed.

While blogging, remember to talk in ‘human’ talk as Dharmesh stated. Don’t write in that marketing gobbledygook that people try to write in to sound fancy and smart. Although it does look nice, people go to blogs for a simple, straightforward read that does not further confuse them, so save your gobbledygook for your direct mail pieces.

Now, some may say, “Well I work in a boring industry, why would people want to read a blog about this industry?”.

The answer to that is simple: If people are willing to buy in your industry, they will be willing and ready to read your blogs. Don’t ever assume that people will not do something, because you are in fact in business due to your customers and they care about what they can get from your company. If you can provide something extra to them even in a boring industry, you have begun to differentiate yourself.

If your company does have the bandwidth to blog on a more consistent basis (at least once weekly, preferably), read on…

When blogging, talk about the industry’s problems, not your solution. You may wonder why you can’t sell your product in your blogs since the CEO or CFO wants to see some ROI on your marketing efforts. I am not saying you cannot sell your product, you just shouldn’t do it right away. You must first build up credibility in your blog by not talking about yourself, but by talking about issues that your customers/prospects care about. Once that is strongly established, then you can begin talking about your solutions to those issues. People can see through the purpose of your blogs if you put a call to action on your early blogs.

Make sure that in your blog content, you stand for something. This means that you choose one side of the fence or another on a particular issue, and not somewhere in the middle. The reasoning behind this is that people will either love you or hate you for this, but those that love you will REALLY love you. It also shows that you have the capability to take a firm stance and back it up, demonstrating expertise and credibility in a particular industry or topic.

Next, make it very, very easy to share your content. Have easily accessible links to share on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, email, etc. on each blog post.

What is a ‘Social Business’?

A social business is involved with building mutually beneficial relationships with customers. Social CRM is essentially the company’s response to the customer’s control of a situation. In this new business ecosystem, customers produce the content, and businesses must decide whether to get involved with the conversations.

In a social business…

1. People are the platform

2. Information is co-created. This means that information flows from the outside in, instead of the inside out. The customer defines the product or service and the value it will provide, and the business must respond. (Think of how Apple operates).

3. Power is distributed physically and virtually.

4. You must be transparent with information, people involved, and expected goals.

5. You must be interdependent; trust is crucial!

Who is the ‘Social Customer’?

1. They are demanding because they now have a voice.

2. They are mobile. Don’t discard mobile, as it can be a viable communication platform because mobile usage and mobile Internet has increased dramatically (a simple Google search will show this).

3. They trust their peers. For B2B, 59% engaged with their peers who helped address their challenge to find a solution.

4. They are knowledgeable. For B2B, 78% started with an informal information gathering process, such as a Google search. This demonstrates how critical being visible through search engines is to helping a customer begin their purchase decision with you.

5. They are resourceful: 41% of customers follow online discussions to find out information, and 37% post questions about topics to get results from peers.

The new era of sales:

1. Sell your brand in the way that your customers want to buy.

2. Create buyers, don’t sell your product.

3. Recognize that prospects want to receive information that is relevant to their current initiatives or business challenges, they don’t care about you or your product right away.

4. Discover key events to create the perfect sales opening; prospects will be more receptive.

5. Listen to the social buzz to learn what is not necessarily in the news but is important to prospects.

6. Focus on synchronizing the buying and selling cycles. Fact: Only 20% of sales reps are prepared for sales calls. Give reps the tools and technology to be prepared for the selling pitch when they deem the prospect is ready to receive it.

In summary, social CRM involves engagement, being adaptive, listening, being open, building different communities around your product, and enabling others to share and promote your brand.

Social business with social customers involves using technology to solve a problem for the customer. You as a business must make the lead feel comfortable, valued and enabled in order for them to trust you and feel motivated to learn more from you.

Always keep in mind that your customers just may know more about your products/services than you do, but embrace that! Make those people your brand experts and evangelists and recognize them in your brand community(ies).

Mar
24

How Twitter Can Help with Lead Generation

Below is an excellent guest blog post by Affnet of Orange, CA, a company that provides performance-based services to online advertisers and publishers.

Twitter is certainly mainstream today. It’s almost impossible now to turn on a news show, sports broadcast, or other media based outlet without seeing some sort of Twitter message, follow request, or live updates coming from a Twitter stream. With so much attention and promotions going on for Twitter, many businesses and owners are trying to figure out how they can use Twitter to build their own business and generate more leads from it. The following information will share some ideas on how to use Twitter to help with lead generation.

To start, let’s take a look at why businesses get on Twitter to begin with. Typically, businesses will get on Twitter to create a brand experience, communicate with their audience or customers, build stronger brand reputation and better branding, engage in industry and market news and topics, and of course to promote their products or services. All of these things are done daily and can be the sole focal point, or a collaboration of all the elements to maximize the efforts put forth on Twitter.

Now, lets look at what the typical user is doing on Twitter so that we can understand how to effectively market to them to generate more leads. Users like to be informed about products and services that are relevant to them, share useful information with others in their circle, find things they think are either funny, helpful, or topical, as well as to stay current on trending topics.

In addition to why people are on Twitter, let’s take a look at who is on Twitter and what a business can hope to find in terms of new leads. According to PEW Research Center, nearly 55% of all Twitter users are between the ages of 18 – 49, which means that the majority of people on Twitter are adults. Over 40% of all Twitters have some sort of college education and over 60% of Twitter users make over 30k per year. The average age of a Twitter user is 31. This means that a large portion of people using Twitter are educated and have a stable job with a decent salary range, which makes Twitter a great network for generating new leads.

With these numbers in mind, Twitter is in a good position to generate leads and the following are some ways Twitter can help produce more leads for you businesses.

1. Branding and Reputation: Twitter can help establish a business with the right impression by having a branded experience on Twitter and link that to the company’s main site. This gives the impression that a business is supporting the efforts that they are making online and gives people a place to voice their opinions, share information, and to communicate directly with the company. In addition, it’s good to build a custom brand background and page look to give people the impression that they get when they visit the company’s main site. It also gives the impression that the company understands and values their brand.

2. Bio and Links: It’s important to give people a sense of what they will expect from the Tweets by adding some info to the bio as well as a link to the company’s website. This will give people a chance to learn more about the company by providing them with a snippet of what the business does as well as a way to get them to the website via a link on the profile page.

3. Contacts and Followers: The next important thing to consider is who the business is following and who should follow them. There are some tools that can help find relevant Tweeters in a certain market and it’s good to use them to help find those people and start following them. Another way to do this is to go to Twitter and start doing keyword search and see who is tweeting them. There may be some relevant followers that would be helpful to engage with and could be a good source for new leads. By finding the right followers, tweets and other info will go out faster and to more relevant people, which in turn would generate better leads.

4. Engage and Promote: Create useful tweets and post them regularly. It’s important to not only promote products and services from the business, but share other stories and ideas that are relevant to the industry. Making a tweet about an industry topic is a good way to engage people and get them talking. In addition, by creating tweets that are helpful in a certain market, it makes the business look like an authority within the space and gives them an advantage over people that are not as active. Getting familiar with certain Twitter options like retweets, followfriday, and other useful tools is another way to engage people and be able to generate leads. There are some helpful blogs and tools that can make this process a little easier, but it is certainly one of the most crucial parts to effectively generate leads from Twitter.

Twitter is certainly a new tool for businesses to use to generate leads and will be an effective part of business marketing for the next couple of years. The best part about this tool is that it’s free to use and only requires the time and effort needed to make it work efficiently.

Affnet is a leading, performance based marketing group that exclusively works with advertisers and publishers for effective lead generation.

Mar
23

Generation Y Entrepreneurial Mindset

This is a guest post by Brant Choate. Brant currently runs the GYJoe blog which is a community for Gen Y and other generations to battle out their differences on topics of education, business, marketing, advertising, and general life principles.

Entrepreneurs used to be one in a million. Times have changed. It’s almost impossible to go throughout a week without brushing up against an “anti 9-5er” who’s looking to make their mark on the world.

We have reached the point where those who are not willing to be entrepreneurial in some way or another are falling behind the curve. While a large corporation wants your full attention and certainly doesn’t want you distracted with a side business, nobody is complaining about the valuable experience that Gen-Yers are developing all on their own.

As a Gen Y entrepreneur I come across all different types of entrepreneurial people. Here’s the categories:

1. The Idea Makers

These people can’t even sit down for lunch without covering their napkin in scribbled out ideas of how they’re going to make their first million. I have a couple of friends who carry around massive notebooks full of all of their ideas. No offense to this bunch, but they normally aren’t the ones that have many skills to carry out their ideas.

2. The Stealthy Nerds

Locked away in their parents’ basements…we’ve all heard the stories. Programming skills are their main assets. Don’t be misled by the lack of social skills and all night World of Warcraft marathons. Ever heard of Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg?

3. The Mommy Blogger

Every time I go to a business conference I always end up sitting down next to one of these nice people. There’s a lot of misconceptions about this group. Among the top is that they don’t make any money. Last time I checked, business is all about eyeballs. The more you have, the more potential you have for money. Networking skills are this groups greatest asset.

4. The Social Mediaite

Inspired by the likes of Darren Rowse, Gary Vaynerchuk, and Chris Brogan. You’ll frequently hear things like “I gotta get 100 more friends on Facebook” or “I’m almost up to 20,000 followers on Twitter!”. This group will use their quick connections to make business magic.

5. Starry-Eyed Future Millionaires

You’re gonna hear things like, “This idea has $100 billion in potential sales within the first year and the sky’s the limit after that!” Money is the main motivation for this group.

6. The Lifestyle Designer / 4 Hour Work Week Followers

Tim Ferris has inspired a whole new brand of entrepreneur. If you’re not familiar with the 4-Hour Work Week, Google it. The goal of this group is to create an automated business that will allow them to travel the world with no strings attached.

7. The Corporate Haters

Disenchanted with the old-school corporate lifestyle, this group is out on a mission to “stick it to the man”.

Mar
19

15 Tips to Get More Retweets on Twitter

On Friday I tuned into Hubspot’s Dan Zarrella talking about the ‘Science of Retweets.’ He has compiled some great information and reserach on how and why people retweet. For those of you who were unable to tune in, below are my favorite take-aways from the webinar that can help you receive more retweets on Twitter:

Cool Stat: 100,000,000 retweets have been recorded thus far!

1. Keep your tweets to 100-120 characters long to allow for people to RT and add in their comments.

2. About 65% of retweets contain links because people naturally like to share information, and Twitter is a main broadcast medium for sharing and creating conversations around the links.

3. If you want more retweets, find great content on the web that people will want to share.

4. bit.ly is the most popular and most common URL shortener, so try to shorten your links to bit.ly. Avoid tinyurl; it is the largest URL shortener character-wise, thus less popular.

5. If you want to increase your chances of being retweeted, use the most popular words: you (people like when you talk to or about them, naturally), Twitter, please, retweet, post, blog, social, free (people like free stuff!), media, help (“help me spread the word”), please retweet, great, social media, 10, follow, How To, top, blog post, check out (calls to action are always great), and new blog post.

6. Retweets in general are composed of longer words and more syllables.

7. Retweets are smarter, using higher levels of words and content, so you don’t need to dumb down your tweets for them to get retweeted.

8. Retweets are more novel, meaning the words and information in them tend to occur less frequently. In general, talk about stuff that is less common and more unique so that people will find it interesting, eye-catching, and thus will retweet it.

9. Retweets are noun-heavy and also use adverbs and proper nouns.

10. Retweets are more emotional, conceptual and social.

11. Do NOT reference to yourself a lot; people don’t want to know what YOU are doing- that is boring to us!

12. Retweet content types by popularity: 1. News, 2. Instructional (How-To guides), 3. Entertainment, 4. Opinion, 5. Products, 6. Small Talk

13. Know who your main Twitter audience is. In general women tend to retweet entertainment-based information, whereas men tend to retweet opinion-based content.

14. Timing: It is BEST to tweet between 1 pm and 10 pm (4-5 pm is the prime time). It is WORST to tweet between 3 am and 12 pm (people are either sleeping or catching up on morning tasks).

Friday is the BEST day for retweets, then Wednesday, Monday and Thursday.
Saturdays, Sundays and Tuesdays are the WORST days for retweets, so avoid putting great content out there on these days; save it for Fridays.

15. It is important to thank your retweeters, but don’t overdo it. For example, if thirty people RT your message, either only thank the loyal retweeters, DM everyone, or mention a few people in a thank you tweet so you don’t overload their Twitter feed with individual thank you’s, and it is annoying for you to have to do that as well.

REMEMBER: Retweeting other people’s links is just as important, and can be good karma, if you believe in that. Recognize those that retweet your information a lot, and do the same for them; they will always appreciate it.

So, lets conduct an experiment. To see if the power of retweets that Zarrella talks about is really true, lets see how many retweets we can get this article to have. Lets use #KristinD as the hashtag so you all can track the effectiveness of this. I’ll tweet this article out throughout this week and you all can check in on the hashtag #KristinD and see how our little experiment goes!

Mar
19

Top 7 Favorite Twitter Bloggers of 2010

I find that the best way to succeed is by learning from those that are doing what I want to do and are very successful.

I am a big Twitter fan and blog reader, thus the reason for my Twitter list “Influential Bloggers.” I have been blogging for a few months and feel that I am becoming very proficient at it, but am always looking for ways to get better. I learn something every day from the 19 people I follow on this list, but seven of them in particular are the most inspirational and informative to me.

1. Chris Brogan was one of the first Twitter bloggers I started following. His immense knowledge on all facets of the Internet world, as well as his proficiency in video blogging is very inspiring. You can visit his site here or follow him on Twitter.

2. Problogger is a wonderful resource for blogging tips of all kinds. As his Twitter bio says, “I blog about twitter and tweet about blogging. Sometimes I blog about tweeting about blogging and tweet about blogging about twitter.” This site is my go-to site on my RSS feed every day when I am looking for inspiration, new WordPress plug-ins to use, ways to further engage my readers, etc. If you are a current blogger or looking to start blogging, definitely subscribe to this site or follow him on Twitter.

3. Steve Garfield is a nationally recognized video blogger on stevegarfield.com and has a strong presence on Twitter. I find myself very inspired by Steve’s natural way of speaking to the camera and presenting his ideas very fluidly and consistently. I have recently started reading his book Get Seen which gives excellent tips and tricks to gaining business through video blogs.

4. Brian Solis is a great blogger on social media engagement, branding, CRM, social capital and many other topics backed by great industry research. I find a lot of my blogging inspiration comes from Solis since he writes about a plethora of social media and Internet trends and utilizes great charts and statistics to back up his posts. You can subscribe to his site here or follow him on Twitter.

5. Chris Dixon is another great Twitter blogger who writes on topics including start-ups, technology, Google trends, and VC’s. As I am entrepreneurial in spirit and talk with several start-ups on a daily basis myself, I find this information very useful for me to share with others. I also find his research on Google to be very interesting since I frequently read about Google, determining what their next move (good or bad) will be. You can subscribe to his site here or follow Dixon on Twitter.

6. David Meerman Scott is a very influential writer who is the author of the New Rules of Marketing and PR (which I first read in a senior marketing class in college). He also blogs at Web Ink Now on topics including social businesses, mobile apps, new marketing trends, PR tips, and many other Internet marketing topics. He is also an avid Twitterati who is very willing to interact with followers (including me). Follow him here.

7. Hubspot is a company dedicated to providing customers and readers with the latest research topics including the State of the Twittersphere, the State of Inbound Marketing, the latest and greatest inbound marketing trends that they are using for their clients, and humorous videos and cartoons. I have been reading their blog since before I started blogging, and learned many great tips from them about blogging and how to best use Twitter. You can view their blog here or follow them on Twitter.

Because of these seven amazing bloggers, I have enhanced my blogging techniques, increased my visibility online, engaged readers, and increased traffic to my site. The best way to learn from them is by subscribing to their blog on your RSS and following them on Twitter.

What bloggers do you find inspiration from?

Mar
18

How to Create a KILLER Company Blog

Are you blogging but not sure why?

Not seeing business impact from creating blog posts?

Wondering how and why to blog for your company?

With a few quick yet critical fixes, you can turn your not-so-hot blog into a killer blog that will generate tons of traffic.

First, some considerations:

1. Decide on a two-column or a three-column layout. Two-column layouts are the best and most functional since they are clean and easily organized. With three columns, it can easily get cluttered with information overload. However, if organized right, it can be highly effective (Dell does a good job of this).

2. Decide how many bloggers you will appoint for your company. The more bloggers there are, the less time each has to spend writing, you can have an eclectic set of posts, and the voice of the company can be spelled out from various people, not just a singular blogger.

3. Decide if you are comfortable editing the blog’s template, or if you need to involve the IT department of your company in the blog management.

4. Decide if you want to host the blog on your own website or on a separate site. Either way is fine; this is more of a personal choice of what platform you feel most comfortable using.

5. Ensure that your company has the appropriate amount of time and staff to make an effective blog. Blogging does involve a good amount of time and creativity, so ensure you have those readily available before starting.

6. Consider employing brand evangelists from outside of your company to blog for you. Coach them on your blog’s tools and the style of your blog posts, and have them write from an outsider’s viewpoint to vary the opinions and give more credibility by having evangelists support the brand.

7. Set up comment moderations on your blog and put the commenting policy on the site so readers know how their comments will be managed.

Now onto the blog details…

1. Create captivating, eye-catching titles. Making some of your blog posts ‘guides to doing something’, using numbers (1-10), or even putting an interesting fact in the title will capture attention quickly.

2. Unique, interesting pictures or videos: Once someone clicks on your blog link, a creative picture or video will immediately capture the reader’s attention and invite them to find out the story behind the picture. For example, a past post of mine “A Guide to Getting Seen Online Using SEO” has a picture of a large eye. Readers may wonder what the eye has to do with the post, and read on.

3. Incredible content. If you can create value to customers, write about new information, captivate them with your writing style, and be seen as an expert in your field, you can almost guarantee your blog will become popular and revisited. The only reason a person will share or come back to your site is if they find great value in reading what you have to say, so ensure you are proving readers with relevant and very informative posts.

4. Blog on a consistent basis so readers come to expect your posts. If they subscribe to you on their RSS and hardly see any new posts from you, they will likely unsubscribe. However, if you give them a reason to come back (one being consistent posts) they will be more likely to visit and read.

5. Keep your blog focused on a particular niche industry or topic so users know what to come to your blog for. If you write about random topics not focused around anything in particular, they may not know when or why to go to your blog. However, if you focus on ‘how-to guides’, industry trends, or on particular product markets, people will know exactly why they should read your blog.

6. Don’t just sell your product/service/brand in all your posts. Instead, focus on valuable information that the customers and prospects could use when making a purchase decision (i.e. if selling security software, blog about issues or advancements in the software industry, or top fraud schemes to watch out for).

7. Invite comments and comment back. By leaving your posts open-ended, unfinished, or with a question at the end, readers are encouraged to process your information and comment. If you receive a negative comment, don’t just delete it. In fact, deleting it may be one of the worst things you can do. Instead, take the time to address the issue in the appropriate manner; this will leave a positive impression on others. Also, when commenting back to comments, address the person by their name (if they post with their name), as this adds for personalization.

8. Make it easily accessible to subscribe via an RSS feed.

9. Optimize your SEO.

10. Promote on social media sites in a friendly way. This will allow friends, fans, and followers to read about what you are thinking and doing, and they can converse with you on social sites about it. They may even share your links on social media, which is a huge plus. Keep track of your blog’s analytics to see where the most visits to your site are coming from to determine which areas to focus on.

Takeaways…

Search engines love blogs, so you should not have a problem getting your blog seen. However, even though it may be highly searchable, you still need to create incredible content, blog on a consistent basis, and make it interesting and captivating to keep readers coming back.

Do you have any other tips and tricks to enhance a company blog? Please leave your comments below.

Mar
16

A Guide to Using a Full Set of Conversation Tools to Reach Customers

Kristin Dziadul a guide to business communication

Engage. Converse. Sell! These are three terms that a marketer and salesperson alike know all too well. However, they are easier said than done. Yes, you can develop great website content and blogs, but are you managing public relations? You can develop a great product, but are you promoting it in the appropriate communities?

There are many sales, marketing and PR activities that must be done to ensure you engage, converse, and sell correctly in order to be a successful company, but your business truly needs the full set of communication tools in order to be effective.

There are eight (you may add more) conversation tools I find very important for almost any business to employ today:

1. Product Development: The product communicates what the brand stands for and what kind of value the company will provide to its customers. This is a non-verbal aspect of a business that cannot be understated. Ensure that your mission translates into the finished product so consumers see a mirror image of the stated mission layed out in the final product. Developing the right product at the right time for the right price is critical to any business’ success, and it communicates a lot about a company’s business model and potential for success.

2. Developer Relations: Good relationships with those in your supply chain is also crucial for implementing a successful brand. If the developer and you are aligned with both mission and layout of the actual product, there is a much higher chance of success. Also, the more reputable you are with companies in the supply chain, the higher chance you will have of being a respected member of the business community.

3. Ambassador: Be a true ambassador of your product. If you cannot 110% back up your product claim and speak fluently and expertly on all of its benefits and customer values, then you are not a true brand ambassador. Potential clients and customers can see if you do not fully understand or believe in the product, so ensure that you are marketing the right product and can back it up, be enthusiastic about it, and transfer that enthusiasm to your prospects and leads!

4. Marketing: Marketing conveys the brand image and values to the public. This is the main communication tool on a mass level that will let everyone and anyone know what you stand for. Ensure that you tailor the perfect message to fit the product image, reach the appropriate target market, and convince them that your product is THE one for them.

5. Public Relations: With the emergence of social media, the lines between PR and marketing have been blurred, but the pure essence of PR cannot be forgotten. Interact with the media, talk to other businesses, deal with any issues professionally and appropriately, respond to negative feedback in a timely manner, and always keep in mind that the customer is right and the reason that the company is in business is for the customer, so keep them happy and solve their problems.

6. Customer Service: Social media can be used as a form of customer service, but ensure that you are still employing the general principles of customer service. Always try to calm them down if upset, apologize, try your best to fix their problem, emphasize the business’ 100% care for customer satisfaction, and do what you can to keep them a loyal customer. Remember, even if they had a bad experience with your product or service, you can still turn it around by giving INCREDIBLE customer service that will make them talk about your great response.

7. Community Relations: Developing a community around your product and nurturing it is critical today for enabling engagement and brand loyalty. If you can develop a ning community or place on your website or social media site where people feel like a valued member, you will dramatically increase loyalty and retention rates. Employ a community manager to execute these exact tasks by reaching out to the right people, giving them a space to talk to your company, and respond to them as a valued customer.

8. Blogger Relations: If you are in the Internet or technology industry, this is a MUST. If your customers share information a lot and there are many bloggers covering different industry topics, you must be watching those blogs and developing a positive rapport with them. This means commenting on their site, reaching out to them via social media to develop relationships, and even asking to guest blog, and vice versa. This will increase your chances of having them speak well about you on their blog or to their blog’s readers.

This list may be daunting to a small start-up or a company with limited PR, sales or marketing capabilities, but implementing them on a small scale may only take a few hours maximum a day and will be more than worth it. Making your customers feel valued and confident that their voice is heard will go miles to driving positive business and customer relations.

Please add a ninth, tenth, or even eleventh element of communication that businesses should employ if you have found one to be very effective for you.

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