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5th
MAR

5 Ways to Weave LinkedIn Into Your Marketing Mix

Posted by BlogPostman under Pay-Per-Click

From Facebook to Twitter to You Tube, there’s no limit to the number of social networking sites that can be leveraged to interact with customers and prospects, and build positive brand awareness. LinkedIn , however, stands apart from the crowd. The roots of popular sites like YouTube and Facebook are founded on the entertainment side of things. But since its creation, LinkedIn has been geared toward the professional business crowd. If you haven’t already incorporated LinkedIn into your online marketing mix, consider the latest statistics: LinkedIn has more than 60 million members A new member joins LinkedIn approximately every second Executives from all Fortune 500 companies are LinkedIn members Get started with a LinkedIn marketing strategy today with these five tips: 1. Build a Network, Then Start a Group Getting started with a LinkedIn marketing strategy involves two important steps, the second of which is dependent on the first: Create a personal account and build a network of contacts. Reach out to customers with whom your business has a solid relationship – those who truly know your company and its products or services. Ask them to write recommendations for your company, which will appear in your profile. And don’t forget to ensure all employees are part of the network as well. Once your personal account is setup, create a group for the brand. By creating a group for your brand, you’ll be able to maximize reach beyond your network. Within the brand group, you can start discussions, share news, post jobs and create subgroups. 2. Make the Most of Your Profile For the LinkedIn community, your profile will be this first item they see, so treat it as you would any landing page. To make the most of your profile: Hyperlink using keywords. Include relevant URLs in your profile, and use links with anchor text. For example, instead of “My Blog,” use a keyword to describe it such as “SEO and Online Marketing Blog.” (see image below) Use keywords in descriptions. That includes the summary, specialties, experience and all other description categories. Include an image in your profile. LinkedIn, after all, is a social networking channel. So add as many personal touches as possible to maximize engagement and put a face to the brand. Caption: Include blog or website links in your profile using anchor text. Include links in your LinkedIn profile using anchor text. 3. Leverage Third-Party Applications Today, there are a host of third-party applications available to help you make the most of your LinkedIn activity. For example: Box.net : Add links to files like resumes and marketing kits Slideshare : Share business presentations and demos with your network Company Buzz : Monitor messages sent out on Twitter about your brand or other subjects TripIt : See where members of your network will be travelling to and when you’ll be in the same city For an upcoming trip to Dallas, my contacts that will also be there are identified. 4. Update and Engage Frequently Think of LinkedIn marketing efforts as you would blog, Twitter or Facebook marketing efforts: The more activity and interaction, the better the results. To consistently engage with your network: Sync blog posts to your profile with tools like Blog Link or WordPress LinkedIn Application Frequently update your profile with the LinkedIn status feature, much like Facebook status updates Leverage the LinkedIn Question and Answer function – participate in others’ questions and ask your own 5. Promote Your Profile In order to expand your network, LinkedIn marketing efforts – like anything else – must be promoted in other channels. Include a link to your profile on your website and blog, in individual blog posts, in email signatures and even on business cards. Be sure to optimize your profile for important and relevant keywords. Allow enough of your profile to be public so search engines can rank that content accordingly. These tips, of course, are just the tips of the iceberg when it comes to LinkedIn marketing tactics. What specific tactics have you found successful for marketing on LinkedIn?

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3rd
MAR

5 Twitter Management Tools You Can’t Live Without

Posted by under Pay-Per-Click

Without a doubt, one of the most popular shiny new objects of many social media marketing programs is Twitter. There are Twitter books, Twitter conferences, Twitter blogs and numerous articles devoted to Twitter marketing .  Unfortunately, there’s not enough time left over after reading all the promises of marketing nirvana from using Twitter to actually implement recommendations. Fortunately, social media masterminds at companies like Seesmic, TweetDeck and HootSuite — to name a few — have developed tools to make our Tweeting lives easier. Or at least more efficient.  We use such tools here at @toprank to grow own Twitter presence as well as for clients on a daily basis and have learned quite a bit about Twitter best practices and which tools work best. Here are five Twitter account management tools to help you keep your Twitter activity in check – whether you tweet for one account or many. 1. HootSuite.com HootSuite is a great – and free – tool for managing multiple Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Ping.fm accounts. The Twitter and social media management tool allows you to personalize columns, so you can view multiple feeds from the same social networking account or multiple feeds from different social networking accounts. For example, with my personalized Twitter tab (shown above), I can view my Twitter home feed, Twitter mentions, sent Tweets and a saved search for “online marketing” – all from one screen. Plus, HootSuite allows you to create a message and choose which social accounts you want the message to be automatically posted to. 2. CoTweet Like HootSuite, CoTweet is a free and easy tool for managing multiple Twitter accounts – up to five – with a single login. It also allows brand and keyword monitoring through Twitter search. This Twitter management tool’s true distinguishing feature is its workflow management capabilities (shown above). When an @ reply comes in to an account, you can assign it to a person on your CoTweet task to respond to.  They’ll be notified via email and on their own CoTweet page. Plus, the tool allows you to take notes on Twitter users for your co-users to see. 3. EasyTweets EasyTweets is a low-cost Twitter management tool for managing multiple Twitter accounts – the more you pay, the more continuous searches, feeds and accounts you can track. With this tool, you can automatically post RSS feed content and track RSS traffic in Google Analytics. That way, you can easily track traffic from Twitter and understand what users do when they get to your site. Another useful feature, the Twitter management tool lets you set up continuous searches for brand mentions (shown above), and auto follow some or all users who mention your brand. Plus, you can be set up to send SMS or email alerts when people mention your brand. So wherever you are, you won’t miss your chance to respond to a prospect. 4. TweetDeck This free desktop browser helps you keep track of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace activities from multiple accounts. Like the other tools mentioned here, you can update your accounts, follow topics with saved searches, and manage conversations with @ replies and direct messages from within TweetDeck. But the social media management tool offers some more advanced features as well. TweetDeck allows you to record, share or watch video clips, and view YouTube videos, from within the tool (shown above). Plus, you can share and view photos, as TweetDeck now supports Flickr, Twitgo and mobypicture. 5. PeopleBrowsr This Twitter and social media management tool, currently in Beta version, offers a very simple, visual browser-based dashboard view of social activity. PeopleBrowsr uses an interface similar to email, with the Twitter or other social feed appearing as a list in the center of the screen, and additional options in the left nav (see above). PeopleBrowsr allows you to create and manage groups by adding public or private tags to any users from any of your different social sites. Then you can view everyone in a group in a widget of their own. Whatever time you dedicate each day for Twitter – whether its hours or minutes a day – there’s a tool available to help you better manage activities. Try out some of our suggestions, and let us know what you think. Of course there are more Twitter management tools than what we’ve mentioned here including:  Seesmic ,  Tweetvisor , Splitweet and others. What’s your favorite Twitter management tool?

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3rd

15 Social Media Answers From OMS10

Posted by BlogPostman under Internet Marketing, Pay-Per-Click

Online Marketing Summit 2010 in San Diego is host to a smorgasboard of internet marketing topics and this afternoon I am priveledged to participate on a panel about Social Media. Panelists include: Chris Baggott, CEO, Compendium Blogware Lee Odden, CEO, TopRank Online Marketing Michael Senger, CEO & Founder, StoneMass Caitlin McCabe, Founder, WhiteLabel Marketing Ben Hanna, VP Marketing, Business.com That’s a lot of people for a panel, so moderator Jason Baer decided that in the spirit of Twitter, we’d keep bios, questions and answers succinct and at 140 characters or less. For those that can’t be here I thought I’d share the prep questions and my short answers with you. If you’re at OMS and you live blog this Social Media Leaders Forum, please leave a link in the comments. What’s your advice for individuals just getting started using Twitter? Have some idea of what you want out of Twitter. Connect with people of similar interests and goals and engage with them. What’s your advice for individuals just get started using Twitter? Have some idea of what you want out of Twitter. Connect with people of similar interests and goals and engage with them. What’s the #1 myth preventing companies from embracing social media? To start when you’re ready. You’ll never be ready. But you need to do it anyway because it’s the only way towards progress. What’s the best way to integrate social media with other marketing efforts like email, direct mail, etc? Strategically. Learn what customers want and leverage social technologies across channels to make it easier for them to get it. What are the main differences between B2B and B2C social media programs? More romancing in B2B & emphasis on qualitative interactions. Mass appeal of B2C provides large audience engagement opportunities. Is social media best used for customer acquisition, or for customer retention? Both. Social media is essentially word of mouth and once you start facilitating that and customer conversations, you create a cycle of acquisition & retention. How do social media and SEO work together? Yin & Yang. Social network channels of distribution promote content & attract links. Optimized social content grows networks via search discovery. What’s the biggest mistake most companies are making in social media? Outsourcing customer engagement. Companies know their own business and customers best and lose opportunity by not participating themselves. What’s the most overrated social media site or tactic today? Google. LOL. Actually, the one your customers are not using. When is it okay for companies to not engage with their customers in social media? That’s like saying when should you not answer the phone at your business? For severe dissenters invite offline discussion. Does it make sense to make a Facebook fan page at the core of your social media initiative? If the audience to reach is all about Facebook, then why not? Only caveat is that you don’t “own” 3rd party web sites. How can agencies work best with their clients in social media? Be a guide, partner, educator, trainer and source of ongoing support and innovation. Help them help themselves. What’s the one social media skill set that you wish more potential employees had? Honesty about skills. Social media user & expert are very different. Passion, curiosity and ability to really listen, learn and create value using social technology. How important (really) are geo-location services like Foursquare and Gowalla? If you were a brand, how interested would you be to know all the most active people visiting your stores? Many Advertising & social networking tie-in opportunities. With so many companies now using social media, what’s the best way for a brand to stand out? Find remarkable people to curate & tell your brand’s story. Listen to, engage with & empower customers. How can you measure the effectiveness of social media efforts? Start with goals, outline a strategy and how to best reach audiences. Then pick the right tools and metrics aligned with those goals. There you go. I think this exercise proves that shorter is not always better. There’s so much more that’s meaningful to say about each of these questions. I may come back and add to this post after the session or we might just use them as inspiration for a series of blog posts.  Until then, be sure to read this roundup of 25 social media marketing tips . What are some of your most pressing questions about social media? About integrating social media with other channels?

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11th
FEB

5 B2B Social Media Winners

Posted by BlogPostman under Blog Marketing, Pay-Per-Click

Take a moment to think about, and count, the number of B2C social media success stories that pop into your head. I’ll venture to guess that you could immediately name five to 10, if not many more. From Ford to Dell to Zappos to Best Buy , B2C social media winners – those organizations that caught on early and created a cult following of brand cheerleaders via the social web – are hard to miss. But how about the B2B social media winners? I’m guessing these weren’t as easy to name. And yet, there are just as many B2B organizations successfully conquering social media. While their stories might not be as well-known, we think these 5 B2B social media winners are doing a pretty doggone good job. Tell us if you agree. 1. American Express OPEN American Express OPEN is the company’s division dedicated to helping small business owners succeed. It has based its marketing strategy around the social web, realizing that social media has become a priority for small business owners. Since 2007, AMEX OPEN has relied on its OPEN Forum to provide business advice and insight. The social site includes a blog with frequently updated content, and a large collection of videos that users can rate and share via other social networking channels. In the site’s “Idea Hub,” forum members can network with one another and with industry experts, as well as customize topics to their specific interests. The social site has been extremely successful, increasing unique visitors 525% over the past year – from 160,000 in December 2008 to nearly 1 million in December 2009. 2. HSBC To target business entrepreneurs and provide them with an active forum to share and gain knowledge, HSBC has created The HSBC Business Network for both customers and non-customers. It’s evident that the HSBC Business Network truly thrives on its members. The site includes a network of blogs, and invites members to create their own blog to share their personal experiences with other entrepreneurs. Currently, the network is made up of 148 blogs from members. The site’s homepage is populated with content from users: the most popular recent blog post, forum post and user profile. 3. Microsoft Advertising Microsoft Advertising has been using social media as a vehicle to listen to, educate, support and market to their customers and potential customers since 2006. However, the past year has seen a distinct effort from Microsoft to reach customers through social web participation. An adCenter Community site as well as blogs, Twitter accounts, Facebook presence, videos, photos and social media coverage of industry events along with proactive listening and community manager participation have been instrumental for growing the adCenter community and providing customers with an opportunity to be involved with how Microsoft does business with them. Here’s a white paper (pdf) by Mel Carson of Microsoft Advertising that documents their foray into social media as a B2B company. Great insights. 4. Archer The social media strategy for Archer Technologies, provider of risk and compliance solutions, and a 2009 Forrester Groundswell Award winner for B2B social media, revolves around two components. First, the Archer Community is an online social network that gives customers a forum to interact, share best practices and provide feedback to help drive Archer product development. The second component is the Archer Exchange (pictured above), an online marketplace that enables clients to download applications developed by other clients or by Archer. The two social sites have been successful at driving website traffic and attracting new members: The Archer Community receives 20 new members, 4,000 unique visits and 400+ downloads every week, while the Archer Exchange boasts 17,000 unique visits, 90,000 page views and 1,200 downloads. But the real benefit has been enhanced product development as a result of user feedback and sharing. Archer tells Forrester that its Archer Community directly helped form its Business Continuity Management, Mobile GRC and Data Feed Manager applications. 5. Cree LED Manufacturer Cree is embracing social media to build awareness and promote the benefits of LED technology, rather than directly sell products. At the center of its latest campaign, “ LED Revolution ,” is an interactive social website. On the site, visitors can submit their bad lighting photos (think bad 1980s office fluorescent lighting) to win LED recessed downlights. The site’s blog is posted to almost daily, and humorous videos encourage visitors to, “Break Your Fluorescent Shackles!” Cree also leverages Facebook and Twitter in a push/pull approach for the website. Hear from Ginny Skalski, Cree social media specialist — who happens to have a background in journalism and community management rather than marketing – in this video on the Social Media B2B blog. Of course, these five B2B social media winners are only part of a much longer list of companies that are successfully interacting with customers, building brand awareness and driving traffic to their websites through the social web. What are your favorite B2B social media success stories?

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