In marketing, the critical question is: How do I ensure that every dollar I spend is being maximized to benefit my company? Two key components to that equation are Branding and Social Media.
SOCIAL MEDIA
What do we mean by social media? Ask that question to 20 different people and you will get 20 different answers. The crux of it is that the internet has completely changed the #1 factor that influences purchase decisions, which used to be word-of-mouth. The Online Publisher’s Association conducted a study of the top purchase influencers on all stages of the buying process and found the internet to be the top purchase influencer by a factor of more than 2:1 over traditional word-of-mouth.
Social media often refers to blogs, podcasts, wikis, communities, video portals and hundreds of sites that aggregate user content. The internet has not only put individual voices online, but created an environment that is both participatory and collaborative. It has spawned a whole new movement, conversational marketing. This is word-of-mouth on steroids.
Tip #1
If you aren't using Yelp for your business, then you are missing a big opportunity. It is the largest online customer review and rating site on the net. Aggregating reviews from your most loyal customers or clients takes no money, but adds tons of 3rd party credibilty. It also gains valuable rankings in Google. When somebody types in my company name, StudioHDV, into Google, Yelp reviews show up right after my website. And over two thirds of people search for companies by typing their names into the search engines. Any prospect is going to go online and check the company out, and I can't sell the company better than that kind of word of mouth. See example here.
Tip #2
Start blogging. There are free blogging sites available by going to WordPress or Blogger.com. Then you can re-purpose your blog on Biznik and also have it automatically feed into your Facebook account. You can also start to engage with other bloggers, customers and prospects by being part of the conversation in your industry. Not to mention that it helps on your Google rankings!
TIP #3
Set up your own automated content on your website or blog. Keeping content refreshed is hard enough on it's own without any help. I use FeedRinse to aggregate content from over 30 different blogs for my designer jeans business. Now I have celebrity, industry and fashion news automatically coming to my blog every day. How great is that! I'd have to have a slew of reporters and working on my behalf. But for free, I have the best designer jeans content available on the web from the top denim blogs, People Magazine, InStyle, Glamour and more.
I had lunch recently with a friend that decided, as a hobby, to start blogging about restaurants that he frequents with his wife in the Phoenix area (www.ericeatsout.com). After just a month or two, he now has more than 400 unique visitors a day. This is a great example of the power of social media and conversational marketing.
Tip #4
Twitter is one more way to meet people that you never would have before. I just tweeted today for my designer jeans business with a women that owns a fashion accessory called IsABelt (www.isabelit.com). I tweeted about her, blogged about the product and she is introducing me to some of the folks that she knows at places where she has gotten great reviews (The Today Show, People, Us, etc.) When you get out and start using it, and look past all the non-sense, then it can be a great marketing tool. Plus, sign up for Brightkit too. You can schedule tweets, create condensed URLs to put into your tweets, do autoreplies to followers and most importantly see how many people are clicking through on the urls that you place in your tweets.
My only suggestion is to twitter for business about things that add value to your niche. Also, get followers by following others. A large percentage of people that you follow will follow you back, especially if you are adding value. To find followers, find a company or person in your industry, click onto their twitter home page and click on the “view all” followers link below the thumbnail images and start hitting the “follow” button for their best followers. They are great people that have an interest in what you do, because they are following somebody else that is respected in your same industry. I am following people following InStyle Magazine on Twitter for my designer jeans business (http://twitter.com/designerjeanco), and then a lot are following me back in return. You can go to http://search.twitter.com and type in keywords to see who is tweeting about industry related keywords.
Tip #5
Social media provides the opportunity for marketers to not only participate in these online conversations, but to create some of your own. Any piece of content, from articles to press releases, videos, podcasts or white papers, along with many others, can be placed online, optimized to come up as individual search engine results and therefore be found by consumers online through keyword searches. Go to The 7 Day Google Challenge for a great course in how to do this. It costs $39, but an amazing way to find out how to use content to generate really high Google rankings.
These consumers are what I call “hand raisers.” They have physically taken an action to search for content that is relevant to what you offer, meaning that they are not only self-qualified, but in the mind-set to be open to your marketing messages at that particular point in time. Most traditional marketing simply casts big nets out over demographic or psychographic groups in hopes of finding people that are in the purchase process. If these people are not in the mindset to buy, or simply not interested, you still pay to reach them as readers, listeners or viewers. In social media, the cost to optimize content is extremely low, but incredibly powerful.
But remember, this new conversational marketing/social media trend is all about attracting people to your company. Once they arrive at your website, come into a store, or call on the phone, it is the brand that will reinforce your company’s relevant differentiation. This happens through living the brand promise at every customer touch point in order to connect on both rational and emotional levels. Neither side of the marketing equation (branding or social media) will work well without the other.
Branding
Brands guide every decision and action in a company whether that is around marketing, product development, customer service or hiring. Think of it this way. Your brand’s promise to customers is the answer to one simple question, “What’s in it for me?” Thus, how you deliver products, what you say in marketing, who you hire to represent your business, how customers are treated, etc. are all critical factors in delivering against that promise. The brand is the rudder for your company that ensures that you aren’t just working hard at your company, but your company, your marketing, and your employees are all working hard for you.
Tip #6
Managing your expert reputation is critical to your business success. By participating in Biznik (writing articles, hosting events, re-purposing your blog, commenting, sharing compliments will all give you something else other than greater awareness...an expert reputation. When I hand out my business card now, I tell people that it contains my contact info, but if they want to learn more about me, type in "Steven MacDonald StudioHDV" into Google. Four pages of my website, others blogging about the company, events i've hosted, highly rated articles, places I have spoken, Yelp reviews, etc. all come up. That is the best press that you could imagine. Start today, and in a short time, you will be on your way.
Brands help to attract higher quality leads, justify pricing premiums and close more sales. This is why Business Week advises to not spend a dime on marketing without a strong brand strategy. But brands are no good unless they are fully infused into everything your company does. In marketing, the brand encapsulates the reasons to buy, not the means to communicate that message. Marketing has always been seen as complex and costly, and usually results in some degree of frustration because you have no idea if it is really working. There is a saying, “I know that half my advertising is working for me, I just don’t know what half.” Without the right marketing, there is no way to get your brand message out to prospects in any scalable way.
Conclusion
This is the essence of why brands and social media work so well together. And you can bet this very article has been placed online, optimized for search engines, and is being found by numerous people that have yet to come to know my company and what I offer. Now is the time to put this power to work for you.
Learn more about the author, Steve MacDonald.
Great tips, Steve, especially about feed rinse. I have a client who can start using this right away. Very powerful way to harness RSS to help build a continual stream of new content, which in turn raises your SE rankings.
All the other tips are solid advice. Love the way you weave your own personal examples into the article.
Good luck with the designer jeans online store.
Wow, Steve ...
That's a lot of great information. I'm going to have to print this out and digest it in smaller bites! You've given me a lot to think about and some new tools to check out as well.
The 7 Day Google Challenge is a great value at $39.95 and I highly recommend it to each business person who wants to learn how to quickly navigate getting your content to attract high ratings from Google.
Thanks for an outstanding article!
Great article Steve! Thanks for the tips and I look forward to trying out BrightKit...
Thanks, Steve! This is a great way for me to look at my social marketing strategies more holistically. And, some courage to delve into Twitter!
Steve This information is extremely helpful to all of us in business. Great tips. Great article.
Steve, you rock for sharing all of this!
You've just given me three concrete things I can do (Yelp, Feedrinse, that 7-day Google course) to improve my business.
Thanks!
Thanks, Steve. Very nice summary of social media marketing. One follow-up question - have you explored Facebook as a marketing medium? I'm seeing more and more fan pages being promoted there but I don't have a good sense yet of best practices in that milieu.
Larry, my own take is that increasingly, the distance between business networking and social networking is narrowing. In the future, there may be no difference whatsoever. But I think we're a long way off from that reality. A lot of people today want to keep their social life private, and put forward a different side of themselves for business.
Having said that, I've found FB very useful for business already. In fact, it's likely that we'll be using Facebook Connect to share activities such as rsvp'ing for an event and writing an article from Biznik to Facebook, because that's where the population is.
Did you know you can become a fan of Biznik on Facebook? We had fun creating that one...
Thanks, Dan.
You would have loved the presentation I saw at Town Hall last night. Dalton Conley, the author of "Elsewhere U.S.A.," spoke. He had a lot to say about the blurring of social boundaries. Here's the subtitle of the book: "How We Got from the Company Man, Family Dinners, and the Affluent Society to the Home Office, Blackberry Moms, and Economic Anxiety." Let me know if you'd like to read it when I've finished it.
I just became a BizNik fan at Facebook, and of course I'd love more fans of The Office Rat.
Great suggestions! I had never heard about Yelp. Spent a few minutes there registering and found one of my clients is already a member. I planned her honeymoon in Santorini and asked her to post a review.
Next up - figuring out how to use twitter more effectively, get my blog started and become a BizNik fan on Facebook. Whew! Then I'll be ready to take a nap. Social networking is exhausting!
Great information. Thanks. My problem is TIME. Experimenting with various social media and venues takes a lot of it, but I don't know any other way other than hiring someone to do it (which I can't afford), to get it done.
Wow, I am ready to go. Thanks for adding even more "know how" to my growing experience using social media.
Sounds like a good read, Larry. If you liked that, you'd probably LOVE Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom, which so far explains better than any book I've read what exactly is going on with the Web 2.0 Revolution, placing it into a historical contact that goes back to the Middle Ages.
However, I can't currently return the favor of loaning you my copy, since I've already promised it to someone else. We're having a Biznik Book Club meet Feb. 12 week to discuss the book, and it's also fully booked.
Lynn, If you're strapped for time, why not dedicate just 10 minutes a day to social networking? You can do a lot in that much time. For example, you can read an article like this one, learning something new, in about 5 minutes. Then, in another 5 minutes, you can post a comment to the article that:
Comments that do any of the above three things will make you stand out in the mind of anyone who reads them. And, you'll be building your reputation. Which takes you a long way toward the goal of all this: growing your business faster and making it more profitable.
Steve - What a great article! You've provided many ways of marketing my services that I was completely unaware of.
This article is a succint review of your presentatin last night, "How to use Customer Reviews and Ratings to Grow Your Business". When you present this event again I HIGHLY recommend it for anyone who wants to leverage their marketing efforts effectively.
Thank you!
Great stuff there, Steve! I have to say managing all of that does sounds like a full time job. I'm just dipping my toes in with a newsletter. Feedrinse sounds like a huge time saver, and Yelp, and TeachStreet - which is another review-based engine like Yelp for people searching for classes - sound like a must for me.
TeachStreet is an awesome Seattle startup, founded by Biznik member Dave Schappell. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for local classes.
Dan, Fabulous tips! Written in a manner that's easy to get the concept of the recommended resource and then go implement it.
Perfect for a quick start style like mine!
Thanks Steve, for writing more than just a great commentary by posting processes, directives & links. Looking forward to discussing our video newsletters with you!
Steve, awesome article and oodles of good tidbits..I look forward to taking action on many of your ideas! Good tips on FeedRinse and the 7 Day Google Challenge...
Cheers!
Steve, Wow all this info., and for free. Thank you thank you thank you for everything that you shared with all of us. I am going to look into that Google 7 day challenge like Zita suggested. Again, Thank you!
Steve,
Thank you for the article. You referenced the Business Week article on brand strategy. I tried looking for it and couldn't find it. Do you know where we could find it?
Steve, thank you for an interesting and jam-packed-full-of-information article. I was introduced to social networking only last October, so am a relative "newbie" to the process. It is time consuming and overwhelming at first, but the learning curve seems short, and the benefits worthwhile.
Steve, I thought I knew a lot about social networks. This is a terrific piece. Thank you. I'm giving a LinkedIn presentation tonight to an executive group and will point them to this post.
Steve, Thanks for the valuable information. Social networking can seem overwhelming - so it is nice to have someone break it down into more digestible steps. I still think Twitter is the most annoying of social networking tools out there - but perhaps I just don't know how to use it to our advantage yet.
Hi Steve, This is a really practical overview of the social media space - I loved your examples. Thanks for taking time to share all of this info.
Thank you Steve! What a great and informative article. I have been reading about social media and planning my strategy to get started. I've discovered the hard way that planning ahead will prevent me from jumping in, getting overwhelmed, and bailing out! This article gives me some great tips to add to my strategy. Biznik is the greatest! I can't believe how much valuable advice I've gotten here and how many great connections I've already made!
Steve, I really appreciate the knowledge that you shared. Time for me to get in gear and follow some of your advise!
That is great. I am making a cup of tea and sitting down with your article point by point ... watch out world!
Briana, as much as I'm a proponent of social media, lately I've begun to share your annoyance with Twitter users who think they can use the platform to market to me before they've earned the right. I don't blame Twitter, though - that would be like blaming the telephone when someone calls with bad news. If you're annoyed with the content, the "stop following" button is right there. Don't hesitate to use it!
Thanks so much for sharing so generously. I'll be checking out Yelp immediately, and trying to figure out how to help all my followers on Twitter!
Great article! Thank you for putting this together!
Thank you Steve. I think you hit a cord for a lot of people! You are a role model for collaboration for sure. It is difficult to keep up with all the changes around marketing, social media, branding, blogging, the Web in general, and it is invaluable when we share with each other what we have learned.
Well written!
Laura
Thank you for the article Steve. I'm trying to use Twitter but it's not easy to know what's appropriate. I'm still trying to figure that out. This article was fascinating and it will help me plan out my social marketing efforts for this year.
This article is extremely helpful as I negotiate my way out in the world of social networking. I find that dedicating a portion of everyday to reading and planning your strategy helps to create a very precise marketing plan and strategy moving forward. Thanks for the tips!
Incredible article! I've already started implementing the tools.
Thank you Steve. You have provided a very informative article.
I find the whole social media scene to be so overwhelming and hard to digest, it is refreshing to read a well thought and organized article from someone whom I've met, got to know, and learned to trust solely through social media networking.
You are a great example of one who "walks his talk".
I especially feel that your "living the brand promise" is the most important point, because the extra word of mouth buzz is useless and maybe even detrimental otherwise.
I hope you don't mind if I reference you and your article in my workshops?
Thank you. ...Howard
Steve,
I love it when and article like this comes my way when I least expect it but need it the most. I am already using a couple of the sites you list but I now understand how they can link and work together. You have given solid, easy, and free marketing tips during a time when I think that's what a lot of us need. I'd like to add that I use FB everyday for my social marketing and find that I can spend an hour or more on it without realizing it. So why cant we spend 10 or 15 on our business marketing every day?! Also, once you get comfortable and familiar with FB you will be able to jump over to other sites to promote your business. If you look closely business networking is already happening on FB. There are opportunities everywhere!
Renea Roberts Glacier Lily Event Design
Trying to figure out how you are using FeedRince to automate posting on your blog. Is there a pluging that is pulling a rinced feed?
I'd recommend Wordpress over other blogs because it allows unlimited tags (great for SEO) and has great features. Also, there are so many ways to network online so if you are focusing on a certain market I would highly advise searching specific groups within Facebook, Twitter, etc and joining forums of associations that have members you want to connect with. Online social networking can be a black hole for time if you don't keep objectives in mind.
Hello Steve, Well written and informative. I had someone ask me about twitter this morning. I could spend the day doing nothing but social networking it it only paid the bills. As it is I am trying to allocate a couple hours each day. I figure after a few months it should really pay off with all the new contacts.
Excellent article- useful information. Just emailed article to assistant and asked what fits for our business. Would like to contact you for a quote on using social media for my book Sorry I missed your biznik event but will watch for your next one. Those jeans look great! Jan D'Arcy
Very powerful material, Steve. Content we can use. Thanks for putting it into easy to use form.
Joe
Hi Steve,
I'm with the overwhelmed short of time folks when it comes to social media, but I can latch on to a few simple things and get started. Now I understand what Yelp is and can use it - big thanks for that! Also thanks to Dan for the tip on TeachStreet - that's right up my alley.
I kept reading down through all the posts hoping you would respond to some of the questions. There isn't quite enough information in the article for me to really understand the how and why I would use Twitter or FeedRinse - I think I need something with more of the basic information. If anyone can point me to an article that covers the very basics on those, I would very much appreciate it.
Miriam,
Here's a list of top-rated articles on how to use Twitter for business:
Using Twitter to Promote Your Business by Zeke Camusio
Twitter for Beginners: The Basics by Charlene Kingston
Online Marketing: Everyone's All A-Twitter by Christian Messer
Thank you Steve for writing this in terms everyone can understand. These are all great suggestions!
Sorry to have not posted back all day, but I am just now getting back in front of my computer. And I must say...Wow! Thank you for your generous comments and feedback. I have just one question, and it is around a new business idea I have been brewing, and I think you all have just validated.
Would you be interested in a subscription based newsletter (about $15/month) that was full of practical social media ideas for small businesses. The kind of tips that are easy to understand, even if you aren't a techie. Just taking the world of social media, and turning it into digestible, bite sized golden nuggets of information for the small business community.
How many of you would be up for that?
And thanks again for all your wonderful comments!
Steve
Steve,
Great info, and spot-on with regard to branding. Thanks for spreading the word!
Steve, I really can't add anything, since everyone has already said it. But this is a great article and well written. It will take me a little bit to digest it all, since it is so rich with information. I do have a blog, so I am on my way. Thanks again. Veronica
Super tips, Steve. Nice to see so much info in one place.
It seems applying it all could actually displace the time spent performing the actual service one is marketing. Maybe an article on balancing it all would be helpful next.
Joe -- boy would I second your suggestion! All these ideas are so great, and it's hard to find a good balance. I'm a counselor and a teacher - I don't want to spend all my time on the computer. It does seem to work to get a gut feeling about a particular social medium. that's how I decided to join Biznik - it just felt right (and still does!).
Dan -- thanks so much for the tips on basic articles. I'll follow up.
So, by the very fact that I am commenting on your article at Biznik, I am following Tip #6.
Steve, great job putting all this info in one spot.
For those of you out there that just skimmed the article, for those of you that tend to "wait for the movie to come out", Steve does a great job presenting all this in his Biznik events. Don't miss it.
thanx steve!! thats exactly what i've been looking for. a clear direction and actions steps that brings it all together.
Steve - this is great info - thank you for sharing. I have a question about Yelp (which has been on my list of places to create a profile). I have several great testimonials for my relatively new business, and would love to get them posted on Yelp. Do you (or any other readers out there) recommend me asking my former clients to go onto Yelp and add a review? Other ideas?
Great article! I'm going to follow your lead using Twitter and Yelp. The Concierge Level LLC in Chattanooga, TN is hosting our first Jelly on Friday, Feb. 6. We are using Twitter and Facebook to promote this free coworking event. Follow us on Twitter and become a fan of Coworking Chattanooga on Facebook. If you would like to come to our Jelly, call us at 423.266.6388 or email to info@theconciergelevel.com.
Great article I will be refferring back to it for tactics later. And will definitely by signing my health insurance site up for yelp.com today
Chad Levin
Steve, Great article! I am a newbie and will definetly follow up on your tips to search.twitter.com, Teachsheet and The 7 day Google challenge. I, too, have been feeling time pressured but as you recommended I will devote 10 minutes a day to social media.
Steve -- loved your article. I'm going to try the Google challenge. It's easy to get overwhelmed with all of the possibilities; thanks for making it more clear.
I really appreciated this article. I am totally lost in this vast sea called Web 2.0. There seem to be new sites launched all the time. But reading your article has helped me to whittle out the ones that will help me make the biggest impact.
The timing of the article rocks too because I am in the midst of rebuilding my brand and my marketing materials. Biznik and its participants has given me a free and invaluable education in the business of marketing.
Thanks for this article. I asked several patients to Yelp me and got responses already. I'm looking into implementing more of your suggestions.
Re blogging, I did this for many months. While I didn't get a single patient from it, I know it was helpful to some already-established patients. And eventually I was offered to write a chapter in a book focused in my specialty: Homeopathy.
There is a lot of comments about how much time all this social media can take. And it is true! It can be overwhelming. But some of it you do once and it stays forever. Yelp is a great example. Once you start getting your glowing reviews from your most loyal customers up on Yelp, they are there forever. Then put a link on your home page and this new tool will always be there working on your behalf. Also, once you right an article, it becomes a part of your brand and overall reputation. Now when people go to my profiles, they see a number of really great articles. And I didn't spend hours every week, just a few here and there. You will find that putting some time into it will create a lasting presence and reputation.
And there was a comment earlier about asking for reviews on Yelp. I would absolutely ask and even make suggested content that has your keywords that you want to come under in the search engines embedded. Make sure that the reviews are working their hardest for you. Just make sure that the loyal customers that you are reaching out to know that it is just suggested content, and that you want them to tweak or re-edit to reflect their true feeling.
Keep the comments coming.
Steve
Steve this is an excellent article and Dan's links here in the comments make it even more meaty.
I just posed a question over in Biz QandA about social bookmarking, I wonder if you can comment on it?
Sounds to me like Yelp would be the way for me to get started in that arena.
I will be linking to this article in an upcoming post on my blog. I know a lot of people who could use this info. Thank you!
Thank you for the excellent article Steve. I need a roadmap to navigate my way through Social Media Networking.
I will definitely take the "The Google 7 Day Challenge.
Well that was just superb, Steve. Just when I thought my checklist for getting started in Social Media was complete, your article presented some wonderful new content I hadn't read before (FeedRinse & BrightKit). Can't wait to check them out. Thanks so much!
Steve, I'm going to play the annoying kid in the back of the class for a moment and ask two nagging questions that no one seems to be able to answer:
I can see how Yelping and articles and linking and all the rest directly and indirectly exposes you to more people, and how it makes you look somewhat more impressive to the people to whom you are now exposed (although if everyone does it, there will surely be an article three months from now about the 10 NEW things you need to do to keep ahead of everyone else, yes?).
What I don't see spelled out explicitly is how you know you're exposing yourself (pardon the pun) to people who will actually buy your products in the near term, and how this exposure convinces them to contact you and make a purchase. How specifically does that happen?
Now, if I haven't annoyed you enough, here's my follow-up question:
Please know I'm not slamming this method. I'm simply not yet convinced it's in my interest as a small business owner to pursue it. I look forward to being convinced!
I've been wondering about some of those things Andy mentioned as well. I also wonder if Yelp may be better for certain types of businesses (maybe brick and mortar stores or local-oriented types like real estate agents, for example) than say, a home-based freelancer who can work for clients anywhere.
Anyone have thoughts or experiences to offer on these issues?
I really do want it all to work, just not sure we all require the same steps or sequence.
Personally, my advertising blimp sets sail over Manhattan tomorrow ...
Hi Steve, Your article is helpful and has solid practical tips. At the same time, I would encourage anyone who is thinking about any marketing strategy to follow their intuition, not the crowd, to ascertain what works best for them. All of this is shiny and new and so tempting, and at the same time, without clarity and intention, wouldn't we rather be spending our time engaged in our passions, in the physical company of our friends and family or helping others?
Great information and well written, too. I appreciate the simplicity of the information you shared, along with all the comments that further support your suggestions. Thanks, Steve.
Great stuff Steve. I'll be implementing what you outlined, and will followup with personal contact.
Aloha & Mahalo! Ken Ng
You need to be real careful w/social media, as most of the time it can become an epic time waster and not do anything for your business or its seo. (Twitter is no-follow as is most other sites)
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I have the same questions as Andy and Joe. I enjoy Twitter and don't get Facebook, but I don't see what either one of them is/isn't doing for my business. Twitter does seem to be great viral publicity for blogs and websites, if that's the business you want to promote. I'm not sure what it does for other kinds of businesses, and I never hear any actual success stories except for online and consulting businesses that are not tied down to a specific time and place. Would love to hear some of those.
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