social media marketing

February 26, 2015

Five SEO Strategies that Will Work in 2015

It seems that everytime Google announces an algorithm update, every site owner and SEO marketer would clasp their hands together and hope that all the time and hard work spent at ranking their sites up wouldn’t go up in smoke overnight. And before the year 2014 ended, that very same search engine provider gave everyone a Christmas present, in the form of one of its famous algo updates.

So, as Google continues to enforce their hold in search engine superiority, the site owners should also try to do their best to make sure they don’t get on its bad side. That’s why with the dawn of the new year, it’s time to make some new SEO adaptations as well.

These are the things you should look out for in your SEO strategies for 2015.

Broad Keywords Don’t Cut It Anymore

Using general one-word keywords have resulted in great traffics for sites that have successfully opted for them, however, the strategy of using them is slowly getting unconventional. They rank slow and take a lot of time, effort and money to do so. Now, long-tail keyword phrases are becoming the favored ones as they get the attention of the right traffic for one’s site. Ranking up these keywords will be much easier as they will obviously have lesser competition compared to short-tailed keywords.

Doing your research for the best keyword phrase before picking one will always be the optimal marketing strategy. Plan your moves ahead and try to determine which keywords will your consumers likely use when searching for your business niche.

ROI Metrics > Keyword Rankings

While showing up on the top of the rankings for relevant search queries does sound nice for your business, it won’t do anything good unless you get some cash flowing in. Focusing your efforts solely on strengthening your keyword rankings is a foolhardy move – instead, you should avert your efforts to determining how your return on investments are going. If anything else, knowing how many inbound links, leads and sales you’ve gained on your latest marketing efforts would definitely be better than hearing a report on how you’re doing on your keyword rankings.

Trying Out Other Search Engines

When it comes to search engine providers, Google is King. However, that doesn’t mean the others should just be tossed aside. There’s Yahoo and Bing to name a few major players in this game as well. The decision of Firefox to use Yahoo instead of Google as their default search engine speaks volumes of how the search engine industry might be undergoing an upheaval – this is further followed by the expiration of Google’s contract with Safari as well.

So while Google should remain as your main search engine focus, making sure your site is also visible on other search engines would also be very beneficial for you.

Organic Link Building

One truth that remained unchanged ever since SEO was introduced was the importance of links. On the first stages, a lot marketers and site owners alike managed to exploit these links to put their sites to the top of Google’s SERPs, but that only made Google pissed. When they released Panda, these unethical and downright spammy linkbuilding strategies also made their exit. Blackhat SEO still utilize the use of this, but if you’re discovered by Google, consider your site ranking gone.

What one needs to do is to build links naturally. Create posts and post them on popular sites or create great content for your viewers to link back to you. There are a lot of methods out there that you can use to those links honestly without having to get on Google’s bad side

Social Media Application

Facebook and Twitter aren’t simply sites where people interact with one another. These platforms have also become quite efficient tools when it comes to marketing. However, most of these netizens have finally wised up to various marketing strategies in social media. What you need to do this time is to make your approaches up close and personal.

Try to get to know your viewers and readers and interact with them. Don’t just shoot up some random post from your site and expect them to read all about it. Your social media outlets aren’t just a means to share your content easily – it’s an effective tool to get to know your clients better by interacting with them.

Google will continue to apply the necessary changes it sees fit in order to provide the best experience for their users so that they, in turn, will continue using them. And along with those changes, how we see and apply SEO will constantly change as well.

About the author:

Ruben Licera Jr is a new media enthusiast and has written several articles on internet marketing specifically web design, search engine optimization and social media management. You can follow him via Google+ and Twitter .

February 5, 2015

How Governments are Winning The War on Social Media and Content Marketing

When it comes to having an enormous amount of content online, local, State and US Federal Governments must rank high in the vast amount of information available on the world wide web. They even offer a website where you can assure yourself that social media sites advertising that they are from our government, are in fact, actually a part of the .gov family.

But these government agencies often struggle with social networking, similar to the medical and financial industries, they are bound by a completely different set of rules and regulations than the average business. Yet still, there are some notable successes when developing smart strategies for content marketing success.

Here are some examples of how our local, State and Federal governments are teaming up to keep us informed and well-educated, from sea to shining sea, during some very difficult times:

Major Construction Ordeal in San Francisco

Many years after repairs were made to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge following the devastating damage from the Loma Prieta Earthquake, a massive project was launched to replace a huge, unsafe section of the bridge. The eastern span replacement was the largest public works project in California history, with an estimated cost at over $6.4 billion dollars, it took over eleven years to complete, eventually making it the widest bridge in the world.

This “Bay” bridge carries one-third of traffic from all the California state owned bridges combined and the resulting gridlock, traffic jams, temporary closures and detours were challenging to say the least. Although the bridge re-opened in 2013, during the decade long construction and transition, the City of San Francisco teamed up with CalTrans, Bay Area Toll Authority, California Transportation Commission, local news services and social media to keep the public informed during this harrowing process. Although minor repairs continue, it is a beautiful site on the SF Bay, comparable to many other great bridges in our nation.

The First Lady’s Nationwide Campaign

Mrs. Michelle Obama has been very busy promoting her “Let’s Move” campaign against childhood obesity and endorsing her platform for a more active, health-conscious, future for our nation’s children. Initially, upon launch back in 2010, she was quoted as saying, “The physical and emotional health of an entire generation and the economic health and security of our nation is at stake.”

The First Lady has been effectively utilizing Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to promote a healthier, more active lifestyle for our children. Posting recipes, videos and pictures from her campaign across multiple channels, Mrs. Obama has also gained celebrity endorsements from famous chefs, comedians and actors across the nation.

Federal Assistance

Our federal government is often there to lend a helping hand, especially during times of tragedy, but there are also over 120 agencies listed on the fed’s website that show their connection to social media, everything from agriculture to The White House. Here our nation’s citizens and small businesses can get assistance from a variety of different branches of our government and see which social media platforms they are utilizing:

Consumer Financial Protection
Consumer Product Safety
Energy Efficiency
Federal Housing Financing
Medicare and Medicaid
Minority Business Development
Securities and Exchange Commission
Small Business Administration
Veterans Health and Benefits

While awards are commonly given for big government contracts, perhaps the City by the Bay and our First Lady are worthy of consideration for their achievements with a different kind of recognition. They have both overcome tremendous challenges using content marketing and social media to reach their important audience and ultimately their goals.

Authors Bio:

Megan Ritter is a proud graduate of Marketing from The University of California. Since then she has been working at various Marketing agencies while always submitting informative articles on websites, drawing from her research and experience. Get in touch with Megan on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter.

September 11, 2012

Grocery Stores discover Social Media as Communication and Marketing Channel

Increasingly consumers shift from traditional to the digital media. They research about products on search engines, forums, and blogs and in social media to get the best products for their money!

To get found online when future customers are looking for products is one of the major challenges businesses are facing today.

Millions of businesses competing for paying customers and it have become a difficult task for most of them to stand out of the crowd and to make future customers aware about their offers.

A recent research from media and marketing services firm Valassis shows that 12% of the surveyed grocery retail executives go from usage of 12% social media in 2012 to a 65% usage in the next five years. They also plan to increasing investments in online marketing in general. The have understood the advantages of facebook for business and other networks to build customer loyalty.

An increasing number of B2C marketers are faced with the challenge to attract buyers to their offers.

This problem can be solved with Content marketing which has established as a powerful way to engage customers in social media.

Also an increasing number of B2C marketers are faced with the challenge produce and publish buyer persona oriented interesting and remarkable content to attract customers on the web and in social media to their products.

The most popular channel to share content is social media, the advantages of facebook for business and to win customer loyalty are known. About 76% of marketers say they used a social network as the main channel for content distribution.

Successful companies use every possible communication channel to get in touch with their target audience. They are interested in what their recent and future customers are thinking and communicating about them.

Infographic: How Brands Listen in the Digital Age

This communication ability helps them to better understand and to serve their audience, which sets them apart from their competition and gives them wide advantages in their business field.

Businesses which are willing to communicate with their audience in blogs and social media show that they care about the people who spend their money with them.

May 23, 2012

9 Easy Steps How to Generate Business Leads on Google+

There’s major buzz in the marketing space regarding Google’s addition to the social media madness, “Google Plus (+)”.

“If Facebook and Twitter had a baby, they’d call it Google+” – Olaf Wempe

Some believe Google Plus will quickly replace Twitter, as it provides an easier way to manage and communicate with friends.

Others believe that Google Plus will be a valuable addition to their personal connections, and for marketers, it offers a whole new way of reaching out and networking with other entrepreneurs in your niche market.

In just a few weeks of beta launch, Google+ has amassed more than 12 million users, with over a billion pieces of content being posted throughout Google+ every single day.

While Google+ has rolled out its services to focus on the average user and individual, they have created extensions within Google+ primarily for businesses.

Still, thousands of Internet Marketers and entrepreneurs have already started using Google+ to further their outreach, connect with their target audience and develop relationships with new partners and networking opportunities.

Since November 2011 brands are able to create company pages on Google+.

Recent numbers show that brand engagement on Google+ is increasing but is still far away behind players like Facebook and Twitter.

A recent report from Simply Measured which was released on May and shows results of Top 100 companies of which 64 of them have verified Google+ pages.

An increasing number of consumers are adding these companies to their Circles. At least 5,000 people had added 35% of these Top 100 brands to their Circles until May. This is a 21% increase from February. About 22% of brands Google+ pages had been added to Circles by more than 100,000 Google+ users. This is an increase from of 13% in February to May.

The 15 best performing industries on Google+ are:

1. Automotive
2. Electronics
3. Luxury
4. Internet Services
5. Beverages
6. Apparel
7. Restaurants
8. Sporting Goods
9. Business Services
10. Computer Software
11. Media
12. FMCG
13. Financial Services
14. Diversified
15. Transportation

Infographic: Who Is Usig Google+

How can you profit from Google+?

1. If do not have a Google account, go an register one
2. Go to Google+ and complete all necessary information for a personal profile
3. Create a Google+ Page and complete the businesses profile regarding your business, like a logo, address, phone number, address, link to your website and blog, etc.
4. Search for business partners on Google+ and add them to your circles for your Google+ Page
5. Link from your website to your Google+ Page
6. Start the interaction by +1 posts of your circles and by republishing your blog articles or other content on your Google+ Page
7. Listen and learn what your audience is interested in
8. Craft a how to on base of the information you have collected on Google+ and offer it for download on a landing page
9. Setup landing pages which specially are dedicated to Google+ so you will know for sure that these leads are from your Google+ Page

March 8, 2012March 9, 2012

Facebook CPC Rates could be an Indicator of Trust Level

Today on eMarketer an article captured my attention:

An analysis of AdParlor and SocialBakers found out that industry such as electronics, travel and entertainment are more social marketing friendly than others.

It found out also that Merchant / Banking services, Health/ Fitness and Tourism have higher CPC rates than for example Promotions and Beauty/ Cosmetics. See graphic below.

What does it mean, when an industry needs to pay more than another to get attention and does not get the click trough rates on the end of the day too?

Infographic: Small Business Social Media

Social media is about conversation and about trust. Companies who handle social media authentically and communicate this way with their audience get the most social media juice out and are also well recognized when they do paid campaigns on places like facebook.

Every business who engages in social media needs to understand that trust can’t be bought there. They need to earn it step by step, day by day and year by year.

How can a business earn trust and decrease their ad spending in social media?

1. Listen to your audience and contribute to the conversation if you have something valuable to say.
2. Develop buyer persona oriented and remarkable content and publish it online and share it in social media. Ask your audience for their opinion about the published content and listen carefully.
3. Us the unfiltered social media feedback to improve your service, support your product and your communication.
4. Develop your products and services tailored for your audience.
5. Measure all what you do and improve your doings.

These above points can earn you trust reputation and respect from your audience. Moreover it can improve your revenue significantly.

Let me know what you think. Do you have similar experiences?

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February 8, 2012February 8, 2012

Why you should avoid Social Media Marketing

Social media is a great way to step into two way conversation with recent and future customers.

In these times it seems that everybody wants to step into social media.

In my opinion social Media is not for everybody! Why you will ask? And I will tell you from my point of view:

Social media marketing for small businesses can increase their brand awareness and reach massively. Everywhere in the net small businesses are trying to get a piece of the social media marketing pie and acting nervously to not get left behind.

My experiences are that most of them should better look to have a clear and good in time working email response first. Yep. I know that’s not nice of me.

But this is the simple painful truth. Most of them who are looking to step into social media conversation simply do not have their email conversation under control.

So how can they think to be successful in social media where they are required to answer in real time to profit from it, when they are not able to answer email requests within business hours?

Most online shops I have contacted need more than three hours to respond, some much longer and some do not answer anyway. But most of them are in social media. What a waste of time!

Imagine this, there is a future customer who has a question about a product he wants to buy, but he does not get any response in the worst case!

Social media success lives of real time communication, like in the real world. When you are on cocktail party and somebody asks you a question, than you can’t wait until tomorrow to answer. The same with social media!

Businesses which do not have their email communication under control and are not able to respond very quick, or better in real time, do not need to think about social media marketing yet. They better improve their email communication and when this is working well, in real time, than they can step into social media.

If you feel you have what it takes to step into social media marketing than here are several question for you to clear before you start:

– Ensure that your email communication is working and you do not produce angry prospects
– Is your email response time under one hour or better, than you can step into social media
– Who is responsible for email communication and social media conversation? You should have a minimum one person in charge of each one
– Do you have social media policy in place?
– What kind of content does your business publishes on regular basis on the web?
– Do you have goals set for lead generation through social media?
– What will be your activities to generate leads, do you have landing pages in place and how about a lead nurturing process to make paying customers out of your leads?
– Do you have set revenue goals for your social media marketing? If it does not bring in dollars than it makes no sense!

Alterian Annual Survey Infographic

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February 1, 2012February 1, 2012

How to use Social Media for Customer Acquisition

Social media has become a significant part of serious marketers lead generation strategy.

Companies who engage in social media increase their reach massively. And there is no matter if they are B2C or B2B.

Social media is public communications channel where companies can get great unfiltered feedback.

Companies need to understand that social media is not for “pushing your messages out “.

To be successful and to reach a positive ROI with social media, companies need to communicate and to listen to their audience.

It is simply untrue when someone claims that his customers are not active in social media. They are active in B2C and B2B and they research online for products and services.

The only question is: What will they find when they research for products and services you also have to offer, will they find you or your competitor?

Studies prove that B2C and B2B profit likewise from social media engagement.

A study from Wildfire Interactive shows that social media helps grow brand awareness, increase sales and partnerships and helped to reduce marketing costs.

Engaging in dialogue with customers via social media has become an important part of successful companies.

Smart marketers measure the value of social media channels as well. They want to know which one has the best results for their business. One of the most popular channels is Facebook. About 44% of surveyed marketers say that “Facebook is valuable because they help with new customer recruitment”.

Moreover they have stated that Facebook fans have higher conversion rates and they make more frequent purchases.

How can you measure the ROI of your social media marketing?

• At first you can do this by increase of your revenue
• As a second way you can measure are “Likes”
• You can measure social media mentions of your brand

A great way is to add lead capture pages to your in social published articles and to track the traffic, leads, lead to customer rate and revenue per generated lead. So you get a good picture of your cost per lead and adjust activities to increase your profits.

Studies show that companies which relying on online lead generation are two times more profitable than those who do not. Those companies achieve an up to 62% lower cost per lead.

Infographic: Brand Messaging

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January 17, 2012January 18, 2012

Get social to get found from your future customers

Google, Yahoo and Bing increasingly include results from social media discussions in their search results. Especially Google+ results are likely more visible on Google results pages. Bing favors Facebook and also search results on Facebook are also from Bing too.

But how to get into those results the smartest way?

The easiest way to get better found on search engines is content marketing. As content marketing has become the most powerful marketing strategy to increase brand awareness, trust and credibility with the audience.

As content is only a part of an integral marketing strategy there is more part of the marketing puzzle important to be used.

The most powerful internet marketing strategy which also has proven to be successful and to bring guaranteed results for businesses is Inbound Marketing.

Inbound marketing consist of content creation like Blogging, Social Media Marketing, Lead Conversion, Lead Nurturing and Closed-Loop Analysis.

Inbound Marketing has proven to:

• Save up to 62% of a businesses marketing budget.

• Make a business stand out of their competition.

• Help to generate a massive amount of leads with up to 55% higher lead conversion rates

• Increase customers, sales and revenue.

Content creation

Content Marketing has become a significant part of online marketing strategy. Content marketing has proven to be the best and most cost effective way to drive traffic to a company website and convert this traffic to leads and customers.

The most popular ways of content marketing are blogging, social media and video. Studies show that 57% of companies which operate a corporate blog get customers through their blogging effort!

Social Media Marketing has become a powerful tool to spread remarkable content to reach a wide audience.

For companies who engage in social media and show presence in these channels can open wide opportunities to get in touch with their audience. This leads to an increase of credibility and unfiltered feedback of the target audience and can lead to an improvement of products and services.

New studies show that up to 65 percent of today’s consumers expect a brand to listen and to respond on questions, comments and complaints in social media. Studies also show that companies which use social media actively to communicate with their audience are more successful than companies who do not.

Lead Generation

Inbound marketing has a 62% lower cost per lead than traditional marketing strategies. Inbound marketing way generated leads have a 55% higher lead conversion rate than lead generated through traditional marketing strategies.

Lead Nurturing – Lead Conversion

Effective lead nurturing increases lead conversion by up to 55%. Which does not mean that lead nurturing consist of sales pitches. Moreover effective lead nurturing is also a communication process with the future client in which the lead receives helpful and valuable information too. This grows the trust and increases the chances that a lead buys when he is ready to do so, because he knows the source as a trusted and reputable one.

Closed-Loop Analysis

All marketing tasks need to be measured to ensure you are walking the right way. During this closed loop analysis you increase successful tasks measure, improve and repeat. This ensures a step by step quality increase and a gradually decrease of marketing costs up to 62%.

Infographic: Content creation

Keep your inbound marketing flexible to react on real-time news! Always keep the news in focus. As news appears they can offer a tremendous opportunity for you to jump on this bandwagon to use it as your own marketing push the piggy pack way! But you must react quickly, in real-time!

Simply be the first who tweets, shares or likes the story and also take into account to write a blog article from your point of view ASAP! This can help to increase your brand awareness.

Did I missed something, what do you think?

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December 30, 2011December 30, 2011

Why you should carefully listen to social media

Did you sometimes think about how would it be to increase revenue and profits by being much quicker with product and services development than your competition?

When was the last time you and your business have been ahead of the trend curve?

What would you do to have such a tremendous competitive advantage which enables you to produce products and to create services your buyers demand and want to buy, always and repeat this again and again?

Yes, you would appreciate this advantage and do all the best you can to profit from it. Who wouldn’t?

But the fact is that most businesses are not willing to go the extra mile to achieve this kind of long term success. They simple stay in their comfortable zone and think if they do not take advantage of any new opportunities or technologies than they lower their risks. But the opposite is the sad fact.

I know it, because these are information I have discovered from many conversations of which I had with businesses. These businesses will fail in the long term there is no question!

A small percentage of businesses are willing to go the extra mile and use new technologies and opportunities when they appear. These businesses will be the winner in the future for sure!

One important part of success is the ability to listen and learn!

If you are able to listen than you are able to learn and you will develop yourself and your business to the next higher profitable level.

When you listen to conversation you become aware of new information, technologies and what your recent and future customers think about you and your business.

1. Do you know and do you listen what recent and future customers think about you and your business?
2. Where do you listen?
3. Did you improved your support, developed products and services to solve the target audience demand yet?

If not than I give you some good reasons why you should do:

• In social media people discuss open about their needs and are willing to give more personal information [develop buyer personas to better identify your audience].

In blurbs buyer personas analysis sheet

View more presentations from inBlurbs

• They complain open and want to be taken serious and you can show them that you care
• They give you suggestions for product and services improvements
• You can see upcoming trends, the potential volume and tailor your products and services to fit these trends and to reach those customers who are in demand for such products and services

Infographic: Social Media in Small Business

This is like you personal crystal ball which shows you the future. All this is simply done by listening and engagement in social media.

You decide about your business success for 2012 and nobody else, not your competition, not the economy and not your forefathers! No excuses take action and step into conversations on social media.

This is your extra mile which you have to walk!

I wish you good luck and best of success for 2012.

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December 22, 2011December 22, 2011

How B2B Marketers can Embrace Social Media

An increasing number of companies like Intuit, Sysco, Cisco, GE Healthcare and AT&T are using social media for effective business lead generation.

A recent study from Sagefrog Marketing Group shows how companies have learned to leverage social media. Leveraging social media for branding and building awareness helps B2B companies.

4 Ways how companies can leverage social media:

• Increase brand awareness
• Humanize B2B companies
• Establish as thought leader
• Connecting with customers and prospects

What sites, tactics and strategies are B2B marketers including in their social media outreach?

To do their social media outreach B2B marketers include professional networking sites like LinkedIn which have proven to be an effective way to generate business leads. Furthermore they utilize social networks like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube also which are helping them to reach customers in new ways.

“67% of B2C and 47% of B2B companies report to have acquired new customers through Facebook.” “47% of companies who use Twitter report to have acquired new customer through it.”

Online Marketing strategies like banner ads have been replaced through proven buyer persona oriented content creation which also brings better ROI than pay per click marketing (PPC).

A corporate blog has become the number one content marketing tool for companies. The importance of blogging is growing and people are adding nearly 3 million blogs per month. [Technorati 2011 State of the Blogosphere Report]

In this report, Technorati shows that 8% of the corporate bloggers which responded to blog full-time as part of their job or are contracted to blog full-time for a company and that 13% of entrepreneurs responded to blog for a company or organization they own.

Studies show that companies who operate and update a corporate blog frequently have 55% more website visitors. From those companies 57% which operate a corporate blog report to have acquired new customers through their blog.

There is no question content marketing, corporate blogging, is definitely a revenue driver for B2B companies.

To learn how to jumpstart your content marketing read this article: Get up to 25 times more business leads with Content Marketing

Infographic: Business To Business – Social Media

—How do you use Social Media for your B2B?

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December 2, 2011December 2, 2011

How to attract 55 percent more customers with proven inbound marketing system

Today customers no matter if the are B2C or B2B are overwhelmed with information and offers. This makes it very hard for a business to stand out and to get found online for their future customers.

The increasing competition and the decreasing marketing budget make the recent situation and the future outlook more difficult.

Businesses who want to be and to stay successful need to rethink and to reposition their strategies.

It is not enough anymore to be there. Moreover when you are there, but not where your target audience is around than you are nowhere!

What makes a business to stand out of the crowd and secure their share of the market in the long term?

Like anything humans do there are several ways to achieve goals. One thing is try and error. This takes time and can consume a lot of budget. The other thing is to do it like you have done in the past, because it worked “in the past”. But what worked in the past is not necessarily working in the future. Or you use a proven system which has demonstrated thousands of times that it works and is able to bring in positive ROI.

Such proven marketing system is inbound marketing.

What’s inbound marketing?

Inbound marketing is the marketing strategy that focuses on getting found by customers when they research online for products and services your business also has to offer.

What’s does inbound marketing help me to do?

With inbound marketing businesses earn their way to the customer, by publishing helpful information on a blog, in social media and forums.

What does inbound marketing consists of?

Inbound marketing includes Blogging, Social Media, Lead Conversion, Lead Nurturing and Closed-Loop Analysis.

The MIT Sloan Institute found out that businesses which use inbound marketing are more successful than businesses which do not.

Additional studies have proven that inbound marketing:

A. Saves up to 62% of your marketing budget
B. Makes a business stand out of their competition
C. Helps to generate a massive amount of business leads
D. Helps to get up to 55% higher lead conversion rates
E. Helps to increase customers and sales

To jumpstart your own inbound marketing system just starts with a corporate blog and publish remarkable and share worthy content. Distribute this published content on the internet and in social media. Measure your results, improve your doings and you are on your track to success.

Infographic: Inbound Marketing

Just to do it smarter you can save a lot of time and money when you use HubSpot to make you an inbound marketing rock star. They helped over 4000 companies to improve their revenue through HubSpot inbound marketing software.

Video: HubSpot

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How to Use Social Media For Better Customer Acquisition

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October 27, 2011October 27, 2011

Studies: 65 percent of customers expect companies to be active on social media

New studies show that up to 65 percent of today’s consumers expect a brand to listen and to respond on questions, comments and complaints in social media.

With the massive increase of social media brands have also discovered these communication channels to get in touch with their audience. They communicate with existing and future customers, respond to questions and complaints and solve support requests in social media like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other sites.

Studies show that companies can increase brand value and customer satisfaction by up to 35% when they are actively engage and communicate with their audience on social media.

Sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn cumulate a total of more than one billion users! It seems that any person on the globe is active in one or more social networks. As the numbers of internet usage increase the numbers of social media use increase as well.

Customers appreciate when brands take time to listen and to respond to them in social media.

Seven business advantages of social media engagement:

1. Increase customer perception in the marketplace.
2. Build long term relationship with customers and partners.
3. Can respond to customers in real-time.
4. Taylor products and marketing campaigns based on customer preferences.
5. React and resolve on negative buzz in real-time.
6. Decreasing costs of marketing.
7. Improved time to market for products and services.

By being active in social media company’s show that they care about their customers and that they are interested in their opinion. By taking this opportunity of interaction companies can be a massive step ahead of their competition.

Companies who hesitate or simply do not care to step into social media conversation simply show one thing, that they do not care about their customers.

As we are in times where information is under your fingertips any business can use social media to get in touch with their audience. And if companies hesitate to start alone and by them self there is a ton of skilled help out there to help them to get their social media marketing up and running, training their staff and implement working process to profit from social media marketing.

Companies which use social media actively to communicate with their audience are more successful than companies who do not.

David Meerman Scott made an analysis for his new book “Real-Time Marketing & PR” and discovered that companies which utilize social media actively in their business have on average 5% higher share prices on the stock exchange. Companies who do not use social media for business have on average 3% lower share prices.

It pays out to be active in social media!

Start today to make social media marketing your catalyst for growth.

–How are your experiences with social media marketing for your business?

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September 20, 2011October 7, 2011

Social Media Marketing Daily Tasks or How to eat an Elephant?

Most people who are interested to market their business on the web and especially in social media become overwhelmed of the necessary tasks which need to be done to achieve any serious results.

They feel that they need to handle an avalanche of information and requirements to get the necessary steps done.

And I fully agree with this. Inbound marketing which also includes, content creation as blogging and marketing this content through social media channels is a very time consuming business!

As any other marketing activity you cannot expect to do all the necessary tasks at once. You also need a strategic plan where you set timeframes to do your necessary inbound marketing tasks and which you can stick to. Discipline is a key factor!

Above in the title I ask how to eat an elephant? This is very simple, bit by bit!

As any other work you need to split your inbound marketing in daily tasks. You have five working days you can use. You need to determine how much time you can invest daily and from this point you can start.

Inbound marketing includes Blogging, Social Media, Lead Conversion, Lead Nurturing and Closed-Loop Analysis.

Content creation – blogging

As blogging is a key factor for lead generation we suggest to blog no matter which kind of other content you have or want to publish!

Which kind of content is the best fit for your target audience, your buyer personas?

Can you reach your audience with video, eBooks, reports, whitepapers, and pictures, blog commenting or any other piece of content?

Find out which kind of content has the best opportunities in your industry, and this does not mean it must be the same old way like your competitors do it! Be creative. When you competitor does eBook, than you can do video! When they do video than you can do eBooks! To get ideas and inspiration just look through other industries how and what kind of other content thy produce.

Social Media / Forums

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and industry related forums are great place to get seen from your future clients. These places are also great to improve your of page SEO. When you are active there, means when you get into the conversation and share your content there than you increase your chances to found in the search engines!

Lead Generation / Conversion

Content creation and social media marketing are great tools to drive interested visitors to SEO optimized landing pages (lead capture pages) to get them into you database to follow up and to make them paying customers through the time.

Lead Nurturing

As you generate leads you should stay in touch with them. But avoid sales pitches. Instead of do the same which whom you have generated your leads. Inform them with interesting and share worthy content, solve problems, answer questions and simply stay in touch with them, stay visible!

Closed-Loop Analysis

Analyze your doings to determine where your lead and revenue coming from measure refine and improve your content creation, social media marketing, lead nurturing and analysis.

Repeat this process above!

Example: The daily inbound marketing tasks!

Monday

Facebook 15 minutes
Twitter 15 minutes
LinkedIn 15 minutes
Forums 15 minutes

Check email / Leads 30 minutes

Blog commenting 30 minutes

Draft blog article 30 minutes

Tuesday

Facebook 15 minutes
Twitter 15 minutes
LinkedIn 15 minutes
Forums 15 minutes

Check email / Leads 30 minutes

Blog commenting 30 minutes

Draft blog article 30 minutes

Publish blog article 30 minutes

Market blog article in social media

Wednesday

Facebook 15 minutes
Twitter 15 minutes
LinkedIn 15 minutes
Forums 15 minutes

Check email / Leads 30 minutes

Blog commenting 30 minutes

Draft blog article 30 minutes

Thursday

Facebook 15 minutes
Twitter 15 minutes
LinkedIn 15 minutes
Forums 15 minutes

Check email / Leads 30 minutes

Blog commenting 30 minutes

Draft blog article 30 minutes

Publish blog article 30 minutes

Market blog article in social media

Friday

Facebook 15 minutes
Twitter 15 minutes
LinkedIn 15 minutes
Forums 15 minutes

Check email / Leads 30 minutes

Blog commenting 30 minutes

Draft blog article 30 minutes

Check analytics 15 minutes

Refine tasks 30 minutes

———

To effectively profit from your web marketing efforts you should plan to invest about 2.5 hrs. daily and more, this depends on your business goals.

You also can split this work to different persons in your company.

— What do you think and how get you the daily web marketing tasks done?

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August 19, 2011October 7, 2011

Social Media puts your business at risk! Are you prepared?

The marketing technology company Alterian found out that 80% of companies struggle to analyze their social media data.

As social media marketing is estimated to increase in the next twelve months by up to 25% companies should have clear how the online – social media conversation can impact their brand. Not taking the effort to monitor social media conversation can result in the risk of failing to engage with potential new and existing customers on the web!

How about your business?

Are you monitoring social media to know what conversation is going on about your company?

How do you monitor the web to know in real time what’s talked about your company, your products and your competition online?

No matter if you want to be a part of the conversation or not, conversation about your brand is happening on the web with or without your participation. But when you decide to become a part of the conversation this can offer tremendous opportunities to gain trust and credibility with your audience.

In social media people are talking and an average Facebook user has about 130 friends and they have an average of 130 friends and so on. Good news can spread fast in social media and reach new potential customers. Bad news spread faster.

You need to have a plan how to interact with you audience in good and bad times. You also need to listen and to know what is talked about your brand on the web.

To know what people are talking about gives you the opportunity to jump in to the discussion and explain your point of view. Another underestimated opportunity of listening online is, you get deep insides of your target audiences needs.

In other words they tell you what and which kind of product they deserve and what they are willing to pay for. So you can offer special tailored solutions to your audience and increase business and revenue, only by listening – monitoring.

The customer honors companies which show that they care about their needs and which are willing to communicate.

The ability to know what’s going on and to communicate in real time with the target audience is a powerful credibility builder and supports your branding online.

By knowing what your target audience is thinking and deserving from you sets you in a powerful competitive position. You save time and money for research and you can bring custom tailored products and services to your audience much faster than your competition!

What do you think? Are these above good reasons to start listening – monitoring social media and the web?

To start monitor what’s been talked about your business you can use some free tools:

SocialMention

Like Google Alerts but for social media.

Receive free daily email alerts of your brand, company, CEO, marketing campaign, or on a developing news story, a competitor, or the latest on a celebrity.

Google Alerts

Monitor the Web for interesting new content

Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.

Build your dashboard with Google Reader

Effective social media monitoring starts with a dashboard.

A good way to build a dashboard is Google Reader. The only thing you need is to subscribe to the RSS feeds of blogs and news sites related to your business and industry, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and you got all at one place. If something comes up which mention your brand or any other interesting news than it appears on your dashboard.

How do you monitor the web and social media? How are your experiences in social media conversation with your customers?

Further important resource: Social media monitoring stumps most businesses: Report

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August 9, 2011October 7, 2011

Is your health care institution prepared to communicate in social media?

A study done by National Research, a health care research firm discovered that 96% of their respondents use Facebook, 28% of their respondents use YouTube and 22% of their respondents use Twitter to research on information about health care.

The study shows that people which are more likely to use social media for health care information research have an average age of 42 and live in households $75,000 annual earnings or more available.

National Research found out that the most Americans still rely on professional -hospital websites as their main source for research on information about health care but also combine information from social media websites which 11.5% of respondents gather with mobile devices like smart phones and apps.

What does it mean for hospitals, local doctors and other health care related businesses to engage in social media in real time?

When people are looking for products and services on the web they go to Google first to do their research.

When they research about services you also have to offer what will they find?
Will they find your Health care organizations to give the answers to their questions?
What will they find about you? W
ill they find helpful information which benefit there health, if yes how much information is online accessible from your source?
Do you know what’s talked about your health care organization in social media right now?
Do you respond in real time?

Social media is conversation!

Conversation is happen with o without your participation. The point is if you do not participate you lose your chance to explain your point of view. You also lose the chances to show your professional competence and the opportunity to gain trust and credibility in the health care sector.

Health care organizations which miss this opportunity to engage their audience who is actively researching for health care information will be left behind after the smart organizations which embrace social media and understand the necessity of conversation to show their professional competence and to gain trust and credibility at the moment when their opinion is requested and needed.

Open and honest conversation earns health care organizations a lot of credibility and can result in an increase in wide exposure for their organization.

Open and honest conversation can also increase business for a health care organizations by simply being there when potential help is needed and to offer professional competence and information in real time when it is needed!

What should you do to secure your share of health care conversation in social media?

Your first step should be to establish a presence in social media sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

As the next step you should set alerts through Google Alerts to stay on track what’s talked about you and your health care organization. This gives you the opportunity to react in real time and you should use this opportunity to do so!

The strategy to go to different influential groups and listen to the conversation should be your third step. Listen and if you have something beneficial to contribute, than do it otherwise listen further.

By contributing to discussions in a professional manor you attract attention of your target audience and the level of quality of your contribution decides how you will be seen from your audience and your influence.

Marketing Takeaway Tipp: Get on social media, there where your audience is. Participate in conversation in a professional and beneficial way and increase your chances to and get seen, to gain trust and credibility when your audience is researching on Google for services you also have to offer.