Tag: Marketing and Advertising

From Side Project to Sustainable Business Using Social Media

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Over the last 18 months I’ve built two profitable businesses with the help of social media. One business was a sure thing; the other was a side project. My side project was a blog: womeninbusiness.com.au. All of the important numbers (subscribers, page views and profits) are growing monthly and I’ve never paid a cent to promote it.

When I decided to drop out of corporate life, my first move was to open a consultancy. I had been working online since 2001 and by 2008 was confident I’d accumulated enough skills and experience that finding work wouldn’t be a problem.

Around about this time, Twitter was the next big thing. I realized if I wanted to offer my clients the best service I could, I’d better get to know what Twitter was, and work out it was going to be any good for business.

Little did I know that the answer would be a resounding ‘yes’—and that it would help me take my side project from an idea to a sustainable business in less than two years.

via problogger.net

You can follow the ‘via’ link above to go to the source and read the rest of the article if you’d like to know more…

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Answered: 10 Questions About Website Redesign

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Website redesign can be lethal or liberating for your business. Know what you are getting into before you sign the contract.

Most recently, we covered the website redesign topic in a webinar with HubSpot’s VP of Marketing, Mike Volpe. We received nearly 400 questions during the live session and wanted to address the most frequent ones here, offering a platform for discussion.

via blog.hubspot.com

If you’re interested in redesigning your site, you’ll want to follow the ‘via’ link and read these 10 answers. HubSpot is also offering a free guide if you’ll provide your info. Comment, call or use the contact form to connect so we can talk about how these 10 answers apply to your business…

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Has business social media hit the mainstream?

“SmartPulse — our regular reader poll in SmartBrief on Social Media — tracks feedback from leading marketers about social-media practices and issues. Our most recent poll question: Which statement best describes your business’ current approach to social media?

  • We are experimenting — 41.88%
  • We have a documented social-media marketing plan and metrics to track performance – 24.79%
  • We have analysis paralysis. (In other words, we are all talk and no action) — 11.97%
  • We are well on our way to becoming a social business (i.e. implementing social technologies across the organization) — 11.11%
  • My subscription to this newsletter is the extent of my company’s social-media activity — 10.26%

The genesis of this poll question came after reading a recent article by Geoff Livingston, “The End of the Social Media Adoption Road,” that references Rogers’ Innovation Adoption Curve. Livingston states his belief that: “We’re rapidly approaching the end of the technology adoption curve for social media. … We’re likely moving into the laggard stage currently.”” Source: Has social media for business hit the mainstream? | SmartBlog on Social Media

What do you think? Is social media ready for prime time at your organization?

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Social Media for Farmers…

Bringing in the Harvest
Image by barockschloss via Flickr

Social media is not just for the kids, the young, hip and aware. It’s also for ag producers. I’m David Sparks and I’ll be right back to tell you why. My kids can’t wait to get on Facebook to tell everybody, that has committed to being their “friend”, everything they want them to know. It’s like a cyber self-promotion. Now all of a sudden, this phenomenon is catching on big time in the ag world. Why not? Doesn’t it make sense to promote good ideas, like cost savings, new technology, communicating with the public, otherwise known as the consumer? So social media is definitely catching on in the agriculture industry. AGCO Corporation started its social media initiative at the 2009 Farm Progress Show. Today – nearly 18-thousand Facebook users like the AGCO page and about a thousand more are following AGCO on Twitter. The company also blogs several times each week.

Sue Otten is Director of Corporate Marketing and Brand Communications Worldwide for AGCO and heads up the company’s social media efforts. “It’s a nice blend between our own original content and talking about our products and technologies which is something our audiences are interested in as well as interesting ag news from around the world. It’s good for farmers in one part of the world to know what’s going on in other parts of the world. Ag is getting a bad rap these days and this is a way for the farming community to tell their story.

Click here to go to the source and get the podcast; aginfo.net

AGCO rocks! Nice work, Sue…

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Stop Phoning It In

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Image via CrunchBase

If you’re responsible for your company’s newsletter [‘or blog or any other outward facing communication’ ed. note], stop looking at it as a burden. Ask yourself this question: “What would be MOST useful to the people getting this newsletter?” And then ask yourself this question: “What else besides my company’s pitch can I put into this newsletter?” Then ask yourself this question: “Would I share this with someone in my family or with my friends?” That’s one way to figure out how to fix newsletters.

If you’re looking for new buyers, don’t just lamely ask people. Figure out how to find them. Use social tools. Use old fashioned search tools. Create interesting content that would appeal to the kinds of people you need, and figure out ways to promote that. Look OFFLINE. It’s amazing how few people do that last one, by the way, if they’re getting deep into the online world.

If you’re responsible for improving coverage for your company as a public relations professional, put more time into building your relationships with your network before you have a new story. Connect with them about their own things. Ask them about their own passions. Get to know them outside of the article. Ask them how you can help them, or much better still, just figure out a way to be helpful and do it, gratis.

via chrisbrogan.com
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Your First Moves in Social Media

Chris Brogan's in disguise
Image by acnatta via Flickr

Okay, so you’ve decided I’m not crazy, and you’re going to try out some of this social media stuff. Where should you start? I’ve got some advice.

via blog.success.com

If you’re intrigued by the idea of applying social media to your business, you’ll want to follow the ‘via’ link to this article by Chris Brogan who nets out the basics for you…

I apply Chris’ wisdom in what I call the ‘e1evation workflow’; a system and process of ‘consume, create, communicate‘ that makes Chris’ ideas easy to implement on a daily basis. Comment, call or use the contact form to connect so we can talk about how this applies to your business…

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B2B Social Media And Lead Generation

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With a business blog, there are many different ways to get people to become a “lead” from a visitor.  For example: including buttons in the sidebar to talk to a representative, or text links within content to whitepaper landing pages or to download content.  HubSpot has found it successful to add calls to action at the end of content.

We have found that a majority of posts generating leads haven’t been published recently.  Older content is generating  leads.

It’s important to remember that your customers are more important than you are.  For example, HubSpot has a customer in Virginia that installs pools and spas.  All he does is share what someone might want to know when installing a pool.  He doesn’t directly sell his products, but that’s okay.  Even if people aren’t ready to buy, publishing value added content adds them into that consideration section.

Getting all team members involved in the business blog is vital.  People want content from people, not necessarily just companies.  Getting different people from different departments – i.e., research or product, allows marketers to expand the relevant information covered on a given blog to appeal to a larger subset of customers.

Business blogging drives leads and serves as a hub for search and social media visitors.  It doesn’t feel like they are visiting a website that hasn’t been updated in years.  A blog provides much better context for a business.

via toprankblog.com
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What do the latest social media stats mean for your business?

Social Media Life - Workstation
Image by the tartanpodcast via Flickr

A global business I’m working with is run by a very successful woman who is rarely in her office–or in her home state, for that matter.  She spends a large percentage of her time developing relationships with her clients in other parts of the world and making them wildly successful.

She’s right where she needs to be. And because she is, she trusts her online media presence to others like me who can launch timely social feeds that generate buzz.

Most of my clients dabble in social media, but don’t have the time to stop running their businesses to manage their online marketing and media presence.

But the latest trends show us that someone at your company absolutely must be keeping an eye on what your customers are seeing, hearing and feeling from your brand.

via spreemancommunications.com

You can follow the ‘via’ link above to go to the source and read the rest of the article if you’d like to dig a little deeper. Favorite quote from this post? “Imagine not tapping into that enormous potential! Gone are the days when we can dismiss social media as a fad or something that only the younger generation is into.”…

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How Businesses Are Unleashing Their Employees’ Social Media Potential

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Image via CrunchBase

We know it’s a brave new world for consumers and brands. If United breaks your guitar, or your Maytag doesn’t work properly, you can take on the company that messed with you via social media — and you may well win.

But technology empowerment works both ways. Consumers can take a stand against poor business practices, and brands can empower their customers like never before.

Mobile is a hotbed of innovation in this department. Point your phone at a restaurant and see if it’s worth an evening out. With the addition of cloud services, you get stuff like the iPhone app from UK car dealer Auto Trader, which can tell you the make, model and the price of used cars just from snapping a license plate photo.

To take it one step further, companies that invest in technology and innovation can not only sell more products with digital tools, but empower their own employees. Below, we’ve highlighted some examples of businesses that are using technology creatively to solve customer issues and spur innovation.

via mashable.com

You can follow the ‘via’ link above to go to the source and read the rest of the article if you’d like to dig a little deeper…

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Warmth, Competence and the Value of Social Media

Open bottles of Extra Strength Tylenol and Ext...
Image via Wikipedia

Pop Quiz: How would customers rate your organization on characteristics like “honesty and trustworthiness” and “acts in the customer’s best interests?” While those may seem like far from relevant concerns in the realm of social media, I assure you that they should be among the first things you think about.

Yet another national study has proven that consumers instinctively judge brands in much the same way they judge other people. (It’s called the “warmth and competence model”) And what’s one of the key reasons that brands get into social media? To inject a level of humanity and dialogue not seen in most marketing efforts, of course! In other words…to make their brands more like people…to attract more people.

Yet, it’s not that easy. In the same study, they looked at why Tylenol, who had a large recall in 2010 fared so much better (leagues apart) than BP in the court of public opinion. It’s simple – Tylenol exhibited humanity across their communication channels – which developed trust in their brand. That said, the underlying reason that Tylenol (Johnson & Johnson) was able to do that in the first place stemmed from the selfless servant-marketing attitude that they have toward their customers and that’s ingrained in their corporate culture.

See, social media “value” isn’t really about ROI in many cases. Rather it’s a question of how it fits with your culture and brand attitude. If yours is a brand that could score well on characteristics like “honest and trustworthy” and “acts in the customer’s best interests”, then you’ll likely derive a great deal of value from social media. If not, it may not be the perceived effectiveness of social media but rather your culture that’s holding you back.

via marketingsavant.com

Who’s your favorite social media gooroo? Mine’s Dana VanDen Heuvel and I’m thrilled to be on a panel with him this Thursday to discuss Thought Leadership marketing. I’ll put up a link to the event a little later but in the meantime, follow the ‘via’ link and head over to MarketingSavant.com where you can learn more about Dana and his craft…

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Why We All Hate Consultants (and Why It’s Okay)

When my company is stuck, I’m just as inclined to hire an outside advisor as other leaders are. But I hate it. Hiring a consultant means something needs to be fixed, or grown, or that I don’t know what to do next. I’m not talking about contractors whom I hire to do what I need and they are supplemental labor. I’m talking the consultants where I hire them to advise me. Hiring them usually means we’ve already failed in our first effort. It mostly means we are vulnerable. We need. So I believe we should all hate consultants. You probably already do. It’s okay. I give you permission.

via nilofer.posterous.com

I love Nilofer Merchant’s perspective on things — it’s so different from what I hear day to day, and yet so wise. Follow the ‘via’ link for the rest of this article and follow Nilofer Merchant in social media — just try to keep up!

Posted via web from e1evation, llc

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AGCO wins with social media

AGCO continues to rock the ag world with social media — this time taking a ‘best of’ award at NAMA…

Because social media is just getting started in the ag world, there was no category for social media per se. Instead, AGCO dominated in the ‘broadcast news’ category demonstrating again the value of social media and the pressure it’s putting on traditional media…

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Study Shows Time Pays With Social Media Marketing

Have you asked this question: Is the time I invest with social media really worth it?  Whether you’re new or an old hat with social media, chances are you’ve wondered if the time commitment is really worth the return on investment (ROI).

Make no mistake about it:  a true investment of time and resources is necessary to see significant social media marketing success.

But the real question is, “Just HOW MUCH time is needed to see solid success?”

This question was recently answered in the new study, 2010 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, authored by Michael Stelzner.  Based on the report findings, ROI is top of mind for most marketers using social media.

via socialmediaexaminer.com

Follow the ‘via’ link to read more…

Posted via web from e1evation, llc

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[Lifestyles of the] Lazy and ‘low-bandwidth’ed

Almost every advancement in simplifying my social media toolkit comes from the simple fact that I do most of my news consumption and production with a 1Mb/s connection from a hundred year old farmhome in rural Wisconsin over a cellular modem. I simply have to be effective in order to be productive! My ‘low-bandwith’ lifestyle is actually a blessing in disquise…

Oh, that and I’m lazy so my toolkit is very efficient as well!

:-D

Posted via web from e1evation, llc

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Everyone’s an expert

This is the start of a new series on how to use “good, fast, and cheap” social media technology to become a thought leader on the internet. The first step to becoming at thought leader is to realize you are an expert — no one gets to this point in their life without being great at something! Your area of expertise my only interest .0000001% of the population but if you multiply that percentage by the current world population of 6,817,500,000 I guarantee you it is interesting to someone else somewhere in world.

If you live in a small town like Algoma, WI with a population of 3,500 it’s quite possible that your area of expertise does not interest anyone else in your town or even your county. However, if you use the “good, fast, and cheap” publishing tools we have at our fingertips today, you could become a globally recognized thought leader. Let’s face it — if it weren’t for the internet you probably wouldn’t know I exist! imho, effective blogging combined with social media usage is the key to finding your audience…

So let me guide you as you take your first steps toward thought leadership on the internet. Your first assignment is to read Seth Godin’s free ebook called ‘Everyone’s an Expert’ [just click this link if you can’t see the book below]. It won’t take long — it’s only 32 pages — but the most important part of becoming a thought leader is actually believing you have thoughts that are worth sharing. May I suggest you click the ‘fullscreen’ button? Read it now. Think about it. Stay tuned for part 2 in the series…

http://d1.scribdassets.com/ScribdViewer.swf?document_id=30698025&access_key=key-aogjwa7hc2h4ffszmsh&page=1&viewMode=slideshow

Now, did this help you or just confuse the issue?

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It’s not easy being social

THE Jay Baer and Zena Weist
Image by tysongoodridge via Flickr

Better said “It’s easy, but not simple”. Jay Baer’s got some great thoughts on adding social media to your mix…

“Social media isn’t inexpensive, it’s different expensive.

In the QA portion of recent speeches, I’ve frequently been asked this is great, but doesn’t it seem like it will take a lot of time?

Yes. It. Will.

Succeeding on the social Web requires daily participation. Whether it’s brand reputation management, PR and influencer outreach, customer service and social CRM, interacting with fans on a brand community, or just creating content that builds thought leadership — it all takes time.

Fundamentally, there are no shortcuts in social media, because the entire premise is that you’re interacting with customers one on one (or one on few). That is of course more time consuming than reaching hundreds, thousands, or millions of customers at one time with a paid advertisement. How could it not be so?

The only way America is even keeping its head above the global water line is by squeezing every last drop of productivity out of all of us. Please raise your hand if you’re working fewer hours these days than you did five or ten years ago. Exactly. Unless you’re somehow on Justin Bieber’s management team, you’re probably busting your hump like never before, tethered to the world by the iWhatever. So, I recognize that you probably don’t have the time to really commit to social media, and neither does anyone on your team.” Source: Nobody Said Social Media Was Easy Continue reading “It’s not easy being social” →

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The answer is ‘both/and’

I’m always fond of saying that the answer is rarely either/or but both/and. Mitch Joel says the same thing here but in a slightly different way…

“Digital Marketing is not the silver bullet. Digital Marketing is not the only marketing a brand should be doing.

Branding works. Traditional mass media advertising words. Direct Marketing works. PR works. And every other niche of Marketing, Advertising and Communications still works too. It’s a matter of understanding the strategy of the brand, the marketplace of your consumer and then implementing a healthy strategy that will help you achieve your business goals and ROI. Yes, for some brands, that will mean a heavier focus on the Digital Marketing component, but it might also mean looking at your market from a different perspective. And yes, because of the growth of Internet usage and the multitude of new opportunities, Digital Marketing definitely deserves a seat at the adult table of a proper marketing mix.

Everything is “with” not “instead of.”

Some of the brands understand this so well. I’ve been in meetings where a CMO has shown me how their 30-second spot drives sales (and when they stop the TV advertising, the sales plummet) and how their Social Media activity keeps the interest and loyalty in-between and during campaigns. It’s that healthy balance that we all too often forget about. Just the other day (March 24th, 2010, to be exact), eMarketer had a news item titled, Combining the Strengths of Social and E-Mail, which stated:

“‘Even though people are spending more time using social media, they are not abandoning e-mail,’ said Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, Maximizing the E-Mail/Social Media Connection. ‘The two channels can help each other, offering the opportunity for marketers to create deeper connections.’ More than four in 10 business executives surveyed by StrongMail said integrating e-mail and social was one of their most important initiatives for 2010, just after improving e-mail performance and targeting and growing opt-in lists.”” Source: Everything Is “With” Not “Instead Of” | Six Pixels of Separation – Marketing and Communications Blog – By Mitch Joel at Twist Image

When I spoke last week at the Ashwaubenon Business Association, I was chatting with a direct mail marketer afterward and I wanted to be sure that he understood — as I hope that you understand — that I don’t advocate stopping ANY traditional marketing methods that are working for you. Just add the social media ones that make sense!

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Practical, tactical social media

Tomorrow I’ll be speaking on ‘Practical, tactical social media’ at the monthly luncheon of the Ashwaubenon Business Association. Lunch starts at noon at the Ramada Plaza, 2750 Ramada Way, Green Bay, WI 54304 (920) 499-0631. The cost of lunch is free to members and $11.00 for non-members. It might be a nice idea to give them a call if you plan on attending…

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Want to beta test my new course?

A couple of weeks ago, I announced that my “Social Media Academy” course would be available April 5. I’m looking for three to five beta testers to help me perfect the content. The course is very much still in it’s infancy stages, but I am looking for a few people who would like to participate in testing the course as I build it…

This course is mean to address what I feel is a huge gap in the social media space — there seems to be no shortage of strategists who are generating demand by describing the social media ‘promised land’ but they leave seminar attendees wondering how do they take the next step. My focus will be on the practical tactics and tools outlined in my series ‘Top 10 Tactics and Tools for Tightening your Tribe’. It is meant for solopreneurs, small business owners, organizational leaders or marketing professionals who want to add social media to their mix but still want to get home for supper. You know what I mean? No one has more time in their days — “how can I add social media and without adding hours”? is the thrust of the course.

In exchange for helping me beta test the course, the participants will of course get free access to the course materials as I create and publish them, as well as semi-private coaching and the opportunity to potentially earn some money by promoting the course as affiliates when I launch it. Questions? Feedback? Comment, call or contact me to get more details…

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Small business and social media

Brian Solis
Image via Wikipedia

Just because you’re a small business, doesn’t mean you can’t leverage social media — in fact, it’s quite the opposite…

“Social Media impacts every business, every brand, and in doing so, connects a network of distributed communities of influence, making the world a much smaller place in the process. Small businesses are in fact at an advantage in Social Media Marketing as they can focus on hyper-local activity that can offer immediate rewards or at the very least, the real-time feedback or lack thereof says everything about next steps.

A recent survey conducted by Citibank offers a contrary point of view, citing small business executives who believe social networks offer no benefit or promise to expanding their business. This isn’t all that uncommon however. The truth is that without knowledge or direct experience, it’s virtually impossible to envision the potential of something where they’re most likely absent as a consumer themselves.” Source: The Socialization of Small Business | Brian Solis

The article goes on to say…

“Ad-ology published its “Small Business Marketing Forecast 2010″ report that revealed that among the other benefits of social media, lead generation is the biggest benefit of online networking. Other benefits ranked as follows…” Source: The Socialization of Small Business | Brian Solis

You’ll have to go to the source to get the complete ranked list. Comment, call or contact me to discuss how this applies to your business!

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Social web involvement around the world…

Hmmm. Interesting…

http://viewer.docstoc.com/v2/

Global Map of Social Media – December 2009 –

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