Category: Online Marketing

A Review of 2010 Enhancements

Does your business have a traveling marketing and sales team, communicating with their office staff via a fragmented collection of online and offline tools? Do they often need changes to their documents or presentations at the last minute – harried late night hours or frantic last minutes at FedEx Office?

Web-Based Solution: Google Docs

For those of you not yet familiar with Google Docs, Wikipedia offers this concise definition: “Google Docs is a free, Web-based word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, form, and data storage service offered by Google. It allows users to create and edit documents online while collaborating in real-time with other users.”

Simply, it allows you to upload and save documents from your desktop, edit them online from any computer, and invite others to read or edit your documents. Files are stored in Google’s secure servers.

100% Web-Based Docs

Google offers a collection that is not meant to compete with or replace Microsoft Office. Instead, their strategy is to be the #1 go-to site that lets users edit the same file at the same time, so you always have the latest version.

Google has worked hard to make it possible for you to work, communicate and collaborate entirely in the cloud. A few of the most exciting enhancements from 2010 make it easier for us to go “100% web-based.

2010 Google Docs Enhancements

According to Jonathan Rochelle, Director, Google Product Management, “In addition to some of the most requested favorite features like mobile editing, OCR, advanced sorting rules and a more consistent look, here are more of our team’s favorite things from this last year:

• A new Google Docs built from the ground up for real-time collaboration
• The new Google drawings editor for making flowcharts, diagrams and more
• Upload and store your files in the cloud and stop worrying about losing files
• Simplified sharing with new features like “Private”
• New charts editor and chart types because pictures are worth 1000 words
• New revision history UI in documents and spreadsheets make it easier to see what has changed
• Horizontal navigation in Sites gives you more options when building your sites
• More fonts in documents provide you with more ways to express yourself
• Formula highlighting in spreadsheets makes it easier to understand your formulas
• Google Docs demo makes it easier for anyone to try Google Docs”

Are you a fan of Google Docs? If not, WHY?

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman: With offices in Nashville Tennessee, but working virtually with international clients, Lisa M. Chapman serves her clients as a business and marketing coach, business planning consultant and social media consultant. As a Founder of iBrand Masters, a social media consulting firm, Lisa Chapman helps clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa @ LisaChapman.com

A Case Study in Organic SEO

I’ve never met Tony Zelinko, CEO of Bonte’ Medical Products Inc. But his post in a LinkedIn group caught my eye; “In roughly 90 days I’ve gone from obscurity with some of my products to a number of 1st place positions on Google and other search engines.”

According to Tony, “I hired experts and they couldn’t meet my expectations.” So he took the reins and gave organic SEO a try.

Social Network Organic SEO Strategy

Tony knew that links to his site (“backlinks”) from highly rated sites are important components of organic SEO. He began to post meaningful comments in group discussions (with links, of course).

Here’s a sampling of what he achieved:

Term: “forearm crutches for sale” – First position Google out of 17,600 search results.

Term: “crutches for sale” – First page Google out of 608,000 search results.

Conclusions:

“I didn’t spend one dime on pay per click. So the takeaway is: use social networks often, post good content, respond to blog posts and comment. These actions will improve your presence on the web.” – Tony Zelinko

About Bonte Medical:

Bonte’ is a French word which means “Loving and Caring” and is pronounced (Bon Tay). Being true to Anthony’s science and quality control background, the Bonte’ business focus is on the distribution of premium medical and home health care products of the highest quality, and have the most modern and ergonomic designs. Bonte Medical Products, Inc.’s headquarters, is located in Gladwin, Michigan. Tony Zelinko’s Blog: http://www.bontemedical.com/blog

Thank you, Tony!

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman: With offices in Nashville Tennessee, but working virtually with international clients, Lisa M. Chapman serves her clients as a business and marketing coach, business planning consultant and social media consultant. As a Founder of iBrand Masters, a social media consulting firm, Lisa Chapman helps clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa @ LisaChapman.com

Can they catch up?

Some companies and industries are just naturally late adopters. Take Banking, for example. As a whole, they are conservative, and less likely to devote their marketing attention to social media.

Some banks have jumped on the innovation train. Take Wells Fargo Bank, for example. One of my previous posts mentioned their early adopter stance on social media as an important part of their overall marketing strategy.

Wells Fargo Bank adopts social media

According to SocialMediaToday.com: Wells Fargo Bank was the first US bank to launch a corporate blog in early 2006. Since then, they’ve taken the reins and created innovative role-playing games to attract the younger generation. Brilliant!

“Hundreds of Wells Fargo Bank employees are now using blogs to brainstorm with one another and interact with customers. ‘We’ve built tools in the past to share information inside the company, but they were always these very structured things,’ says Steve Ellis, EVP of Wells Fargo’s wholesale solutions group. ‘A blog is informal–a great way to get away from the corporate thing and let people inside our heads.’ “

The company’s blogs have become the most-read non-banking pages on Wells Fargo’s site.

Can competitors make up ground?

Since the internet is based on organic search, Wells Fargo has had a HUGE advantage online. Their activities have ‘seasoned’ and their ranking is well-grounded in laser-targeted SEO content.

So, the big question remains, not only for banks, but for ALL companies that are late adopters:

ARE WE CREATING A ‘GREAT DIVIDE’? (Those who are establishing their SEO brand online and those who aren’t.)

Will they lose permanent ground because they’re late adopters? Can they make it up, or because the early adopters are so grounded in their organic SEO content, is their advantage so strong that it can’t be challenged?

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

.. _____ ..

ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman:

Ms. Chapman’s new book, How to Make Money Online With Social Media: A Step-by-Step Guide for Entrepreneurs will be available very soon. With offices in Nashville Tennessee, but working virtually with international clients, Lisa M. Chapman serves her clients as a business and marketing coach, business planning consultant and social media consultant. As a Founder of iBrand Masters, a social media consulting firm, Lisa Chapman helps clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa @ LisaChapman.com

What do you want to achieve?

Hundreds of millions of organizations, entrepreneurs and individuals have created social networking profiles. They’ve populated their pages with detailed history, specific product and service descriptions, and even custom brand design.

They’ve spent countless man hours seeking friends, fans and group members to accept their invitations or like their page, posting new content and writing their status updates.

TO WHAT END? Nearly every time I ask, I get a deer-in-the-headlights reaction.

Above all else, clearly defined social media goals should drive your strategy and execution plan.

Example social media marketing goals

Every single entity is different – and so is their marketing strategy and tactics, both offline and online. No “one size fits all” approach to social media marketing works (very well).

Sure, you can have a Facebook presence and get some sort of result, but if you set goals and determine effective online tactics, your results can become dynamic.

So, what do you want to achieve? Examples could include:

• Increase awareness – Brand recognition
• Social Authority – recognition as a subject matter expert (SME)
• Increased traffic – Bring your visitors up a learning curve about your offerings
• Attract influencers in your niche
• Gain allegiance and build your own brand ambassadors
• Convert traffic via your call to action – what do you want them to do?

For instance, banks regularly use Facebook to increase both their deposit balances and small business loans.

How does your target audience use each platform?

As you set out your strategy to achieve your goals, consider: What are the inherent benefits and limitations of the platform? Of the tactics? Of the tools?

How can you interact on that platform to best engage your target audience? Again, no one-size-fits-all message works for all social media marketing. Each platform or tool must be utilized specifically as it was intended, which takes a bit of research and listening on your part to get a feel for the culture of the community there.

Monitor and measure

When you launch your social media marketing campaign, be sure to have monitoring tools in place to quantify results AND give subjective results. The quality of your traffic’s engagement is enormously important, as well as the quantity.

How will you integrate your social media initiatives into your current master marketing plan?

How does YOUR social media marketing strategy help you achieve your goals? Share an example with us.

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

.. _____ ..

ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman: With offices in Nashville Tennessee, but working virtually with international clients, Lisa M. Chapman serves her clients as a business and marketing coach, business planning consultant and social media consultant. As a Founder of iBrand Masters, a social media consulting firm, Lisa Chapman helps clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa @ LisaChapman.com

Behavioral targeting and the next wave of advertising

What’s the Social Graph? According to Wikipedia, “The social graph is a term coined by Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, which originally referred to the social network of relationships between users of the social networking service provided by Facebook. It has been described as ‘the global mapping of everybody and how they’re related’”. WOW.

The social graph is digital, versus a social network, which is human relationship. “It’s a small world” applies to these concepts. In social networks, we are all connected to each other, as in the Six Degrees of Separation wherein we can reach anyone via six connections, because dense clusters create shortcuts.

Leverage the Social Graph

LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner recently claimed that leveraging the social graph is the key to the future success of online marketing.

In the last few years, advertisers learned to use information on an individual’s web-browsing and search behavior as the basis for selecting ads to display to that individual. That concept also extended to profile information on social networks. For example, have you noticed that on Facebook, display ads incorporating your age regularly show up on the right side of your wall? They’ve used your birth date to more narrowly target you, the consumer.

The social graph is the next wave of data and behavior mining. And display advertising will leverage the greater depth of social graph information.

Marketers’ target audiences grow exponentially

Word-of-mouth advertising is now on steroids. Social data tells us quite complex stories about consumers’ preferences. Now marketers have the power to reach the extended pool of an individual’s like-minded network.

If display advertisers use techniques effectively – offering highly relevant, interactive, and informative ads that engage a consumer – they will tell their social network, click through, and build relationship.

Display advertising projections

According to Google, “By 2015, the online display market will be a $50 billion dollar business. Half of online ads will feature video, and 75 percent will contain some sort of social element.”

Have you considered highly-targeted online display ads in your marketing plan? Tell us how.

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

.. _____ ..

ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman:

Ms. Chapman’s new book, How to Make Money Online With Social Media: A Step-by-Step Guide for Entrepreneurs will be available very soon. With offices in Nashville Tennessee, but working virtually with international clients, Lisa M. Chapman serves her clients as a business and marketing coach, business planning consultant and social media consultant. As a Founder of iBrand Masters, a social media consulting firm, Lisa Chapman helps clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa @ LisaChapman.com

From Zero to 23,000 in 18 Months – A Case Study

LinkedIn is considered a highly professional, discerning business (social) network. Their model originally required introductions from your current network members in order to meet someone ‘new’. It was certainly inconvenient, and intentionally so.

Why is LinkedIn Important?

From their website; “Your professional network of trusted contacts gives you an advantage in your career, and is one of your most valuable assets. LinkedIn exists to help you make better use of your professional network and help the people you trust in return.”

LinkedIn Professional Network Growth is a Real Accomplishment

They intentionally make it hard to add people you don’t know.

So, when I learned that Lance Latham, of Metrilogics LLC had amassed a LinkedIn network of 23,000 DIRECT contacts (with outreach to 23 million 3^rd degree contacts!), I wanted to know how. Lance was very receptive, and generously shared his strategy with me for this post.

Significant Growth in Two Steps

Lance started by asking his friends and business contacts, just like we all do. Then he devised two strategies to grow his network, spending about an hour every day for 18 months:

1.) Metrilogics developed 2 valuable APP tools to catch the interest of his target professional audience:

• Task Rate Calculator for the iPhone and iPod touch – is specifically designed to enable management consultants and operations managers to quickly and easily derive capacity rates for any task, anywhere, any time.
• Staffing Model Calculator for the iPhone and iPod touch – enables management consultants and operations managers to quickly and easily derive optimal direct production team sizes for any work environment – whether manufacturing, warehouse, financial services, or IT.

He then used the comments portion of the Tools page to promote these APPs. He introduced himself to interested responders, and linked via this dialogue. (You might consider offering valuable FREE information products instead of APPs.)

2.) Lance also joined LinkedIn GROUPS in his professional arena, sending INVITATIONS to connect to 30-40 group members each day. He simply told the members who he is and what he does. Since the groups he chose were synergistic to Metrilogics’ business, he experienced a high rate of connection!

Lance now has connections in business sectors all over the world. Congratulations, Lance, for your savvy use of an important social networking tool to enhance your business promotion.

About Metrilogics

According to Metrilogics’ website and LinkedIn profile; “Metrilogics helps management teams achieve dramatic operational savings quickly. Through the Metrilogics process improvement approach, companies have achieved significant bottom-line cost savings, ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars per year — the larger the organization, the greater the savings!” You may contact Lance by phone: 317-441-6844 or email: Lance @ Metrilogics.com (no spaces).

Have you used unique strategies to grow your social network? Tell us about them.

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

.. _____ ..

ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman:

Ms. Chapman’s new book, How to Make Money Online With Social Media: A Step-by-Step Guide for Entrepreneurs will be available very soon. With offices in Nashville Tennessee, but working virtually with international clients, Lisa M. Chapman serves her clients as a business and marketing coach, business planning consultant and social media consultant. As a Founder of iBrand Masters, a social media consulting firm, Lisa Chapman helps clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa @ LisaChapman.com

Set Up a Social Media Listening Alert System

In the last post, we discussed the importance of listening to the online conversations about your company, brand, products and service(s).

This post will walk you through the set up of a completely free social media monitoring system that is fully automated and customizable for your unique needs.

Start With the End in Mind

Decide what information is most important to receive. Decide on keywords most commonly used to relate to different aspects of you and your business. Examples of keywords to monitor include:

• Your company name
• Your brand name(s)
• Your product and/or service name(s)
• Your domain name(s)
• Names of competitors
• Keywords specific to your industry and/or niche

When you read the results, you can determine if you chose the right keywords. If you receive information that isn’t helping you, giving you news, or up-to-date insights, consider adding or changing keywords for awhile. It may take a few weeks or months to hone the list, but it’s well worth it, to keep you informed.

Basic Free Monitoring Tools

Set up these tools in the order below, and you’ll have a fully automated social listening, tracking and reporting system. In order to make them all work together, you’ll first need to set up a Google Account. Then feed the rest of the tools into Google Reader:

1. Google Reader – Set this up first. It will collect the links found in the keyword searches and feed them to you. Google Reader is an RSS Feed Reader, sending updates as they occur.
2. Google Alerts – This is a fundamental tool, and without it, you won’t have a full reporting system. Select ‘comprehensive search’, and choose to receive alerts by RSS Feed. For each keyword, click ‘create alert’ and ‘view in Google Reader”.
3. Google Blog Search – Very important, since many opinions, rants, and even raves appear in blogs. “subscribe” and select RSS.
4. Social Mention – Searches include social networks, such as Facebook, You Tube, LinkedIn, etc.
5. Google News – Stay informed about your industry, niche and competition.
6. Twitter Search – Searches Twitters’ massive content. Choose to add this to your Google Reader account.

After you have these set up with feeds going to your Google Reader account, you can organize Google Reader into folders and maintain an easily-accessed archive.

Now you’re set up to listen, monitor the social media conversation daily. Soon it will become a regular part of your day.

What type of listening has been most helpful to you and your company? What have you done to counteract the negative mentions?

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

.. _____ ..

ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman:

Ms. Chapman’s new book, How to Make Money Online With Social Media: A Step-by-Step Guide for Entrepreneurs will be available very soon. With offices in Nashville Tennessee, but working virtually with international clients, Lisa M. Chapman serves her clients as a business and marketing coach, business planning consultant and social media consultant. As a Founder of iBrand Masters, a social media consulting firm, Lisa Chapman helps clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa @ LisaChapman.com

You Need to Know What People Are Saying About Your Company

People are talking about you. Word-of-mouth. It happens in person and online. Before the internet it was much harder to find out what they were saying. But now that everything is posted – and permanent – it’s relatively easy to find out what people say about you, if you know how.

Did you know that you can set up a fully automated system to let you know anytime anyone says something online about:

• you,
• your company,
• your brand,
• your products, or
• your competitors?

Social Media Conversation Monitoring

You can’t control the conversation, but you can listen and be alerted immediately when people write about you on:

• Blogs
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Articles
• Comments
• Ratings, and
• Anywhere people post content.

You can’t control it, and you don’t really want to control the conversation. By really listening to what people say, you can learn an awful lot about what you’re doing right (so you can keep doing it, or do it even better), and especially what you’re doing WRONG. This is perhaps the most valuable information, although often the hardest to hear.

Do You Live Up to Your Marketing Messages?

Your audience will point out, for the entire world to see, anytime your promises (marketing messages) don’t match your service (operations). If you know what you’re doing wrong, you can FIX IT.

If you want to make a splash online, listening is essential. In the next post, I will show you how to set up a fully automated system for getting immediate alerts on the topics of your choice – absolutely FREE.

Have you found negative information about your company online? If so, what did you do about it?

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

.. _____ ..

ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman: With offices in Nashville Tennessee, but working virtually with international clients, Lisa M. Chapman serves her clients as a business and marketing coach, business planning consultant and social media consultant. As a Founder of iBrand Masters, a social media consulting firm, Lisa Chapman helps clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa @ LisaChapman.com

Start With Your Company’s Goals

In the last post, we discussed the importance of defining and articulating your company’s offline marketing goals and your social media marketing goals. Together, they serve as the target by which you measure success.

If a social media marketing firm doesn’t first seek to understand certain core fundamentals about your business and competitive environment, they are likely not a good fit for you. You’re looking for a firm that understands savvy, successful business as well as social media technicalities and online campaign execution. That’s a tall order. So it’s important to take time, interview several firms, and find the right fit for you. If you don’t put in this effort upfront, you may waste a lot of time, energy and money.

Example Interview Questions

Keep in mind that YOU are the hiring authority. Even though you may not know a lot about how social media campaigns are run, it is still the social media marketing firm that must pass YOUR scrutiny. So drill the questions at them and hold their feet to the fire.

Gather your management team together for each interview session. Many ears with different areas of expertise will hear the firm’s answers in different ways. Ask these questions:

• How will you incorporate our company goals into online strategies and social media campaigns?
• Do you have actual client campaign examples that got measurable results from your social media campaigns?
• How did you measure results in those campaigns?
• How did you determine success?
• Have you had experiences in which clients did NOT achieve their goals, or were unhappy with their social media campaigns? Why? What would you do differently?
• Do you establish baseline metrics to measure progress? Give me an example from a client campaign.
• What has been your biggest client challenge or problem, and how did you solve it?
• What methods have you used: To identify a niche audience and grow it? To engage that audience? To convert them into customers?
• How will you go about determining the right social media campaign to reach OUR goals?
• How do you price your services?
• What if we’re not satisfied?

I highly recommend interviewing THREE firms. Ask all these questions verbatim. With your management team at each interview, have each person write down all the answers. After all the interviews are over, have your team pow wow to compare notes and discuss preferences. A clear winner will probably emerge during your discussion.

After all this, you will have gone up a very steep learning curve in a relatively short time period. It’s well worth the investment, because social media will continue to grow in importance for all companies around the globe.

What other aspects of a social media marketing firm interview have you found helpful?

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

.. _____ ..

ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman:

Ms. Chapman’s new book, How to Make Money Online With Social Media: A Step-by-Step Guide for Entrepreneurs will be available very soon. With offices in Nashville Tennessee, but working virtually with international clients, Lisa M. Chapman serves her clients as a business and marketing coach, business planning consultant and social media consultant. As a Founder of iBrand Masters, a social media consulting firm, Lisa Chapman helps clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa @ LisaChapman.com

Tips for the Beginner

I’ve heard it at least a bazillion times … You’re starting to feel like your marketing strategy is falling behind the times. You know you should at least create a Facebook page and use Twitter, but you don’t really know how to use them. (Is it worth the time?) And, even more frustrating, you don’t know what you don’t know.

Where do you begin?

Can you learn how to do all this social media stuff, or should you find a social media marketing firm to launch you online? (Yikes, how much will THAT cost??) And, if you DO engage a firm, how do you find a good one? A good one could be defined as a team that ‘gets’ your business, with the objective of attracting new customers.

Define Your Offline and Online Goals

Before you start the hunt for the right social media marketing firm, gather your management team together and focus on articulating your offline marketing and sales goals FIRST. The result of any social media marketing firm’s work is only as good as the goals they work toward, and those come from your company. No management strategy and/or targets – no bullseye.

Once you have the offline marketing and sales goals articulated and prioritized, you’re ready to define your social media business goals. The offline and online goals work together hand-in-hand. Each supports and supplements the other. Good social media goals should at least include:

• Identifying your online target market
• Finding the places that they congregate online
• Establishing your brand in these online communities (social networks)
• Listening, listening, listening
• After listening, easing into engagement with the target audience
• Giving value
• Offering solutions and converting the audience into customers
• Monitoring, measuring, and continual improvement

You might also spend some time searching online and reading blogs about how other businesses establish their social media campaigns. They may or may not apply to you, but you will learn an awful lot, and give you more confidence before approaching a social media marketing firm.

What social media marketing goals have been successful for business?

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

.. _____ ..

ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman:

Ms. Chapman’s new book, How to Make Money Online With Social Media: A Step-by-Step Guide for Entrepreneurs will be available very soon. With offices in Nashville Tennessee, but working virtually with international clients, Lisa M. Chapman serves her clients as a business and marketing coach, business planning consultant and social media consultant. As a Founder of iBrand Masters, a social media consulting firm, Lisa Chapman helps clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa @ LisaChapman.com