Trust Agents | inBlurbs Inbound Marketing Agency

August 16, 2011October 7, 2011

The sense and nonsense of Social Media Groups

Groups can be a great place to get In touch with your audience. But which groups make sense and which are a simple waste of time?

Most social networks offer groups where you can become a part of the conversation. But do you need to be a part of every conversation and every group?

Today I got some updates from my LinkedIn Groups I am participating and one group is about venture capital.

Especially in venture capital groups are many people who offer financing and in the past I often have posted the question “does anybody get any investment for their business” there?

The people who answered stated that they even did not get any response from those “Business Angels” when trying to reach them. Seems not to be a vlauble source for anything.

How do you find Social Media Groups which are usable for your business?

First of all, potential clients can be everywhere! And the best way to attract attention for your business is to be part of the conversation and to publish share worthy content!

Take your time to go through potential Social Media Groups to find out which one offers the best interaction and in which one interesting conversations are happen.

If you are a member of a group where not much conversation is happen than look further and leave this group.

There is a simple rule: The more people are in a group and the more interaction is happen the better are your chances to participate and to get seen!

Check how many members are in a group. The more the better. Look out for groups of about 300+ participants.

Register with this group and listen to the conversation. If you have something valuable to contribute than do your statement.

If the group you are member of is not very active, than look out for more active groups, where you can increase your visibility and leave this one.

During the time you will learn which social media groups are valuable for your business and which are not. Simply invest your valuable time there where you get the most out of it.

What are your experiences with social media groups? How do you choose your groups?

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July 25, 2011October 7, 2011

USA Today reports: Social Media Future is NOW don’t get left behind

USA Today reported in the article “Social media finds place in classroom” that New Milford (N.J.) High School is encouraging social media Facebook, Twitter and YouTube use for educational purposes in his classrooms to communicate with students and parents. Furthermore the teachers encourage students to communicate with their cell phones mobile learning devices.

What does this mean for businesses today and in the future?

There is a generation coming which is mostly communicating over social media like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. They are savvy with blogs, mobile devices and video. This generation is growing up with these tools and businesses who want to stay visible to those potential customers and job candidates need to be there where they are and communicate on those platforms and devices to reach them.

Businesses should rethink their social media mind set and allow the use of these tools on their workplaces for business purposes. Otherwise the chances are good that they lose relation to their target audience and their associates.

Some facts from recent studies for your business to consider before your think of prohibiting the use in your company:

• 79% of adults are using the internet.
• People are about three hours on social media from their mobile devices, compared with one hour from their PC.
• 78% of buyers are researching products and services online before they buy.
• About one third of consumers are online for three hours or more daily.
• People spent three times more time on social media and blogs then on email!
• Companies who blog get 55% more visitors to their websites!
• 57% of companies who blog have acquired new customers through their blog.
• 67% of the B2C and 41% of the B2B companies reported that they got new customers through Facebook.
• 42% of companies reported to customers through Twitter.

Companies like Coca Cola, Dell, Zappos and thousands of small business show every day how to utilize social media to stay in touch with their customers.

Sociel media is no fad. Companies report success stories and provable profit of social media every day.

Those companies who utilize social media are more successful on average than companies who do not. Companies like Groupon, who depend very strong on social media for their coupon business and Zappos actually evolved with social media. Dell was one of the first Top Companies which reported a profit from their Twitter marketing!

For Companies listed on the stock exchange this can also reflect in a better share price. There are studies who show a correlation between the capability of communicate in social media and the share price.

To prohibit the use of social media on workplaces means prohibit to communicate where 700 million people are communication on Facebook and on Twitter (100 million+) makes the same sense as to prohibit the use of the telephone in the office.

Businesses should carefully study this evolution of communication and take their part to not get left behind and vanish in the dust of all naysayers!

Businesses should embrace social media and allow use on workplace. Your associates use social media on their workplaces from their mobile devices anyway.

Marketing Takeaway Tip: Start to engage with your audience on Facebook and Twitter. Show your associates that you trust them and figure out how to be on social media to profit from it. Integrate your associates to formulate a strategy ask them for advice to profit together from social media.

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July 6, 2011October 7, 2011

Facebook Video Calling for Real Time marketing with social media

With its new Video Calling feature powered by Skype Facebook opens another opportunity for companies to do marketing with social media.

With Facebook Video Calling businesses have the opportunity to meet their customers face to face in real time and to chat and to interact with them instantly!

Sales and customer support can profit greatly from this feature as sales can interact directly and personally with a potential customer no matter where on the planet this potential customer is located.

For support we have a good situation as well as the support staff can show a personal and human company picture when they chat directly on Facebook to their customer to help them to solve their problems.

Yes, sure there are GTalk and Skype, but when your audience is on Facebook at this moment when they want to buy, have a question or need your help to solve a problem than you can catch this opportunity of the Facebook Video Calling feature to get in touch with them instantly!

How do you go to use the Facebook Video Calling feature to interact with your target audience on Facebook is up on you!

Further important sources:

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June 20, 2011October 8, 2011

Inbound Marketing to gain the trust and respect of your buyer personas

Trust and respect are important in real life and much more important in today’s anonymous times of internet and internet business.

Trust and respect comes before the sale.

When people trust and respect you they are more willing to listen what you have to say. This makes it easier to publish remarkable content to them which leads them to optimized landing pages where they can register as a lead to later follow up and to business with them!

Remarkable, helpful, interesting and problem solving content is also the magnet to attract your buyer personas to achieve those above goals, trust and respect!

Here are some points you should take care and to cultivate and to improve to gain trust and respect from your audience:

Be communicative – Don’t pitch your audience and be more communicative. Be helpful and try to assist where ever you can.

This does not mean you should give away your services for free, but you could do a corporate blog where you can publish tips and tricks with helpful insights for your audience. Ask for comments and encourage your buyer personas to give you their honest opinion. So you start a two way conversation and you get the attention of the right prospects.

Respect your buyer personas – If your buyer personas do not know so much about the topics you cover, this does not mean they are dump!

More over it means you have the chance to educate them and to show the possible solutions for their problems. To get popularity as a problem solver is half the way to gain more business. So don’t be arrogant and push away people who might have silly questions. Because there are no silly questions at all, but there are dump answers. Take the chance to show you self fro you best side and be resource not a critic!

When you are open minded, helpful and show respect to your audience you will get this back from the people you deal with. You will gain a valuable position as a trustworthy and competent source within your industry.

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May 19, 2011October 8, 2011

7 Facebook Fan Page features to get more customers

Facebook has 600 million users worldwide and about 1.7 million fan pages. Facebook is growing about 700,000 users daily.

67% of B2B and 41% of the B2C companies say, that the get new customers through facebook.

The companies who say that Facebook is important to critical to their business have increased up to 83% within the last two years.

1. Facebook Fan Page

Do you have one already, to show your business and to communicate with your audience?

On your Facebook Fan Page you can introduce your business to your audience, show your products and services post events and do promotions to attract new customers and to stay in touch with your recent customers.

2. Facebook iFrames

With iFrames you can design your own very custom pages (Landing Pages for lead generation) which you can administer from your content management system. So you can update or change them as you need.

3. Facebook Video

Video is a great way to show your products in action. Also you can upload videos of customer testimonials, interviews and events.

4. Facebook Photos

Upload your company photos of products, events and your company offices. Photos are a great way to give your audience a little view into your company this increases trust.

5. Connect your Twitter with your Facebook Fan Page

When you have a Twitter account you should connect it to Facebook, so your tweets will be visible on your Facebook Fan Page.

6. Connect your Blog with your Facebook Fan Page

When you connect your blog to Facebook, your blog posts will be visible on your Facebook Fan Page too.

7. Connect your Slideshare with your Facebook Fan Page

Slideshare is a document hosting and sharing platform where you can upload documents, presentations and videos as well. You can connect your Slideshare account to show your documents on your Facebook Fan Page.

All of these features can help you to get the attention from your target audience. Use them and increase your chances to get more customers.

How do you use Facebook for your business? I am looking forward to your comments below.

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May 13, 2011October 8, 2011

How to Increase Your Revenue by identifying your target audience

Most marketing budget is wasted because they target all and everybody. Most marketers simply do not take the effort to identify their target audience, their buyer personas.

For example, during the 2008 elections Barack Obama’s’ team has done “Buyer Personas” analysis for each possible target audience of voters. This deeply shows how important it is to know your audience and how to approach them the right way.

To build buyer personas is an easy and quick task. You can achieve this in thirty minutes.

You need to have the important information to put your buyer persona sheets together.

Here is some information you should include in a buyer persona sheet.

1. Age
2. Gender
3. Job Title
4. Their experience
5. Education
6. Location
7. Skills
8. Reputation
9. Are the part or affiliated with any associations
10. Business challenges
11. Business Tasks
12. Communication tendency, what makes them respond.
13. Their hobbies
14. Social Networks and forums they are in
15. Do they publish content online?
16. Which publications do they read, blogs, magazines, and newspapers?

Give each of your Buyer Personas their own ‘Marketing Name’.

Download your buyer persona template here for free.

In blurbs buyer personas analysis sheet

When you know your audience – your buyer personas, than you become able to engage them laser targeted. So you get sure that your message has been reached, heard, read and understood from the right people you want to reach by investing marketing dollars!

This will save you a lot of time and cash in the future and help you to increase your revenue!

How do you identify your buyer persons to increase your revenue. I am looking forward to your comments in the comments section below.

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April 25, 2011March 24, 2014

Small Businesses Victimized by ‘Complaint Removal’ Scam

Not long ago, it was rare for a retail or service business to be publicly criticized. If businesses appeared in the news at all, it was usually because they had applied for zoning variances, sponsored a softball team or opened a new outlet.

Then the Internet came along and consumers were suddenly free to share their opinions about the service they had received from their auto mechanic, the quality of their new flat-screen TV or the trustworthiness of their lawn service.

In the early days of the Internet, companies thought they could sue consumers into silence by filing lawsuits against sites like ours. This not only doesn’t work, it produces even more bad press when, invariably, consumers’ right to free expression is upheld in court. More recently, small businesses have been falling for pitches like that from Done! SEO, a search engine optimization company that claims it can make consumer complaints disappear from sites like ConsumerAffairs.com.

Retailers and service providers sometimes pay thousands of dollars a month for these “removal” services before they realize their money has been wasted.

Despite what some SEO firms claim, they are not able to somehow obliterate complaint pages on our site. They can generate tens of thousands of pages of fraudulent content claiming to be from real consumers but this is a) illegal and subject to civil and criminal prosecution and b) ineffective, as all of the major search engines are quick to detect attempts to spam their results with bogus postings.

Taking all of this into account, ConsumerAffairs.com has recently instituted new programs that make it easier for companies to engage constructively with their customers.

Specifically, our “Accedited Business” program requires local retailers and service providers to subscribe to a Code of Good Practices and to respond promptly and proactively to customer complaints. And, our “Reputation Management” program for larger businesses establishes a direct, public communications channel that facilitates fast, efficient exchanges with aggrieved customers.

Our founder and editor likes to say that “a good reputation can’t be bought, but it can be earned.” Can’t say it much better than that.

How are your experiences with SEO scam? I am looking forward to your comments below!

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About the author:

Ryan Eslicker is head the Consumer Affairs small business outreach department. Ryan interacts with consumers and small businesses to understand obstacles they currently face. He generates and manages content that educates all of our consumers about these complaints. Ryan has an Undergraduate degree from Oklahoma State University in Finance Masters in Business Administration from University of Tulsa. He also has experience in managing and marketing websites.

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April 12, 2011October 8, 2011

Triple leads, double conversions with revamped web content

To get found and to get leads you need to have a website and structure made this way that your website becomes a “magnet like marketing hub” which pulls your visitors in and acts like a funnel for leads.

The most effective way to attract interested visitors is to publish interesting content through a corporate blog, social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

The more interesting and remarkable your published content is, the more it will be viewed and shared, which also increases your visibility. Also you need to do SEO for your content and include long tail keywords to take advantage of these niche keywords.

Studies show that companies who blog and publish their content through social media, get up to 55% more website traffic.

There is a strict correlation between published blog articles, Backlinks and traffic. Businesses which have 500+ blog articles published have a massive increase in traffic and Backlinks.

Also the published content can be reworked and re-published in document sharing sites like slideshare.net. Here you can reach additional audience and attract them to your website or blog.

The more you publish the more people you will reach. Be creative by finding new ways to publish your content. Build as many outposts online as you can. Each article, blog comment and guest post is an additional chance to get found and to get leads!

Here are some potential outposts for you:

To get further creative ways to publish content online, just look what and how other industries do content publishing.

Your content is a trust builder and shows your competencies and build credibility with your audience. So your web content becomes your most valuable asset to triple leads and double conversions.

How do you pln to revamp your web content to increase your lead rate? I am looking forward to your comments below!

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April 7, 2011October 8, 2011

What’s the best way to sell with social media?

It’s very simple: The best way to sell with social media is NOT to sell! Think different!

Why does a customer buy? A customer buys when he trusts you and your business and when he is sure you understand his needs.

There we are. You only can sell to somebody who trusts you.

How to gain trust? Not through sales pitches in social media that’s for sure!

You can gain the trust and credibility of your audience when you are a helpful source and they get the feeling you want to educate them and to solve their problems.

You can gain trust and credibility when you engage with your audience by publishing helpful and share worthy content online.

To better understand this process you should also read Chris Brogans’ and Julian Smiths’ book “Trust Agents”. They describe how and why it is important to earn the trust of your audience before you make an offer.

In simple words: Be there before the sale!

The best way to move from content publishing in social media to real revenue is to convert interested visitors to leads and to paying customers by a lead nurturing process which also consist of the distribution of valuable content and NOT sales pitches!

When you engage in social media and your only goal is to sell as quickly as you can, than you miss some important and more powerful benefits which social media has offer to your business.

With the help of social media you can build brand awareness and loyalty. Brand awareness and loyalty lasts longer than dump sales pitches! Think about it!

To get people engaged you need to educate and to entertain them. The more you are able to engage your audience, the more attractive you will become and the more leads and business you will get out of social media.

Your social media profit depends mostly of your creativity, communication skills and the ability to try out new ways.

How do you do yoursociel media marketing? I am looking forward to your comments below!

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March 4, 2011October 8, 2011

How to loose in social media? Just talk about yourself!

If you like many other out there talk about yourself in social media than you miss a great opportunity to be recognized as an interesting source of information.

Imagine you are on a cocktail party! And one guy stands with a group of people and start involve in the conversation. Then you understand that this person is only talking about himself. What would you think?

Yeah, you are right!

You would think this guy has no social behavior and this guy is doing shameless self promotion. Instead of sharing something his community cares about!

If you don’t have anything of value to add to the conversation, than you should keep your thoughts for yourself!

If you want to be accepted by a community and earn their trust, become something like an Trust Agent, like Chris Brogan has described in his homonymous book, you have to listen first and then, and only then if you have come up with some fresh angle, you can do a smart review to the conversation.

You can make or break the communities trust! Shameless self promotion is no marketing!

Social media is there to connect on a more personal basis. Be personal and share advice, promote other people, and ultimately learn from others. To gain authority shares your personal perspectives to your communities.

Just be yourself instead of only talking about yourself!

First you have to earn the communities trust, than you can carefully start promoting because people will be curious about you.

The more personality, restraint and expertise you show, the less you talk about yourself, the more authority and trust you will gain with your communities!

How do you promote and do you think self promotion woks? I am curious to read your opinion. Your comment is appreciated!

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March 3, 2011October 8, 2011

Why you should not try to sell with your email marketing

When people subscribe to your email list they expect valuable information.

They expect information which can help them to solve their problems for free.

They do not expect and they do not want be bombarded with sales pitches.

An email list is a very valuable asset for a business and I am sure you do not want to damage or even to destroy this valuable asset.

Now you could ask how I can profit from this asset. When I can’t profit from it is only a liability which costs me time and money to maintain, without having any profit from it!

Sure you can make profit with your email list you have invest time and money to build it.

And guess what, the same way you have attracted those subscribers to subscribe to your email list. Through publishing great content, which is helping your email subscribers solve their problems.

That’s why they are willing to invest their valuable time to read your newsletter.

And if you send sales pitches you could abuse their trust and make them unsubscribe from you list. So your efforts to generate those leads would be wasted.

The better way is to proceed with your strategies of publishing great content and make them feel that you care about them and that you are willing to offer solutions to their problems.

And if you make your email newsletter content exclusive to your subscribers, for example you offer videos which only they can see first, special whitepapers they get much time before it’s been published to the masses, the get the chance to ask questions which will be featured and answered in this exclusive circle, etc. then you will gain the credibility and the trust which make you free to ask for a sale.

Your audience will ask you if they can buy from you, because you have gained trust and credibility with your subscribers. And this is a much wiser and in the long term profitable way to do lead nurturing.

Marketing takeaway tip: You should not try to sell to your subscribers. Instead of provide great problem solving exclusive content. Show that you care about them. Then they will care about you too.

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