Facebook Still Top Social Marketing Venue for SMBs

An excerpt from a recent, interesting eMarketer.com article...

"Many small businesses have adopted social media marketing, and it’s typically an easy choice for them to use Facebook—with its 750 million members and counting, not to mention easy self-serve ad sales system—when they do so.

According to October 2011 research from email marketing software firm Constant Contact, Facebook was the most commonly used social media tactic for small businesses to connect one-on-one with their customers or prospects. Among all online methods, it was second only to email.

Facebook’s popularity goes along with its perceived effectiveness. Among small businesses that said social media marketing in general was effective, 83% said that Facebook was at least moderately so. By comparison, 46% said the same of Twitter, the second-ranked social channel."

"Why Content Marketing is King"

This interesting article was copied from Entrepreneur.com and written by Mikal E. Belicove on Octber 20, 2011. A link to the actual article is included at the end...

"When it comes to marketing strategies, content marketing has just been crowned king, far surpassing search engine marketing, public relations and even print, television and radio advertising as the preferred marketing tool for today's business-to-business entrepreneur.

Late this summer, HiveFire, a Cambridge, Mass.-based internet marketing software solutions company, surveyed nearly 400 marketing professionals about the state of the business-to-business, or B2B, market, and discovered that marketers are retreating from traditional marketing tactics such as search marketing and have made content marketing the most-used tactic in their brand-enhancing tool box. Fact is, according to HiveFire's B2B Marketing Trends Survey Report, twice as many B2B marketers now employ content marketing as they do print, TV and radio advertising, according to the survey.

So what exactly is content marketing? It's the creation and publication of original content -- including blog posts, case studies, white papers, videos and photos -- for the purpose of generating leads, enhancing a brand's visibility, and putting the company's subject matter expertise on display. HiveFire's researchers found that an impressive 82 percent of B2B marketers now employ content marketing as a strategy in their marketing programs. Coming in at a distant second place is search engine marketing at 70 percent, followed by events at 68 percent, public relations at 64 percent and print/TV/radio advertising at 32 percent.

Seventy-eight percent of respondents said driving sales and leads was the top marketing goal of their organization, followed by boosting brand awareness and establishing or maintaining thought leadership (both at 35 percent). Another 28 percent said their primary goal was to increase web traffic and 24 percent said it was to improve search results.

Part of the popularity of content marketing is its ability to generate qualified leads while engaging prospects in a branded environment without busting the budget. Nearly half of the content marketers interviewed said they dedicate less than a third of their budgets to such marketing expenditures. In addition to frugality, B2B marketers also believe most of their customers and prospects are online, which is why they're focusing their marketing efforts on the Internet.

Finally, the survey shows that "content curation" -- which is defined as the process of finding, organizing and sharing content -- continues to gain strength as a top marketing strategy, up 17 percent from six months ago. Seen as a way for marketers to fuel their marketing programs, content curation does have its problems. Nearly 70 percent of content curators say lack of time hinders their efforts, with 66 percent saying a lack of original and quality content is a major drawback. Another 38 percent say difficulty in measuring results is the stumbling block and 37 percent say lack of staff to do the work is the hindrance.

Despite these issues, the survey makes clear that content marketing is only going to become more important going forward, whether you market to other businesses or to the public at large."

Photo: Thomas Pajot/Shutterstock

To view the actual article as published please go to: http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/220587

Highlights from a Blog Content Checklist (by Michael Gass)

1. Identify your audience. This will help to make your writing easier and more focused.
2. State the purpose of your blog. Create a descriptor statement in the blog’s Header. A one sentence summation of the purpose for your blog. Expand upon the descriptor statement in a “Welcome” section in your blog’s sidebar.
3. Make sure that your blog’s benefit to your visitors is crystal clear.
4. Reading fuels your writing. You need a good strategic reading program with a clear focus that is centered upon your audience’s interest and needs.
5. Have calls-to-action that are clear. What do you want your audience to do? They can subscribe to your newsletter, inquire about your services, download a white-paper or eBook, email you their questions, etc.
6. Create each post title with the keywords you want to dominate through search (i.e. “ad agency new business”). It is also helpful to flag a targeted audience through Twitter and let them know the content is specific to their needs.
7. The first sentence of your post should be the “takeaway or benefit statement”. Just simply answer the question, what will be my takeaway or benefit if I commit to read this post? Lead with the conclusion.
8. Have a distinct point-of-differentiation.
9. Remember that online readers prefer writing that is concise, easy to scan, and objective (rather than promotional) in style.
10. Focus on providing quality information over the quantity of posts being generated.
11. Build relationships with your readers by integrating your blog with Facebook, Google +, Twitter and LinkedIn.
12. Your blog should become a repository of valued information for your audience. This means that it’s not all original content. I recommend writing 1 original post for every 4 or 5 resource posts.
13. Use bulleted or numbered lists often. Readers love them.
14. Highlighted keywords (hypertext links serve as one form of highlighting; typeface variations and color are others).
15. Publish on a regular schedule.
16. Build credibility and authority for your niche.
17. Provide links to additional resources. I almost always provide “Additional articles that may be of interest” at the end of most of my post, linking to similar content from my blog and other sources. It also will keep your visitors on your site longer and improve their experience.
18. Half the word count (or less) than conventional writing. Usually 350 to 450 words.
19. Demonstrate how you stand out in your niche. Provide testimonials, comments, featured articles, endorsements, and statistics—in text, audio, and video format through additional linked blog pages or specialty pages.
20. Provide one call-to-action with clear instructions above the fold.
21. Avoid jargon and agency speak.
22. Provide captions (where appropriate) on photos that are keyword rich and benefit-driven.
23. Have a clean, simple, banner at the top of your blog that creates the right feeling on your site. A personal rather than corporate feel.
24. Break-up long text with sub-headings, bullet points, italics, indention, photos and graphics.
25. Provide an incentive for visitors to give you their name and email.
26. Don’t adhere to the belief that if you “build it and they will come”.
27. Test, monitor and fine tune your blog regularly.
28. Use offline-to-online marketing to further promote your blog.
29. Collect blog stats on results weekly, or per campaign.
30. In promoting your blog, consider paid traffic, Facebook PPC and banner ads.
31. Submit your blog post to online directories.
32. Facilitate referral opportunities through your blog.
33. Interact regularly through social media—Facebook, Google +, Twitter and LinkedIn.
34. Run competitions. I’ve generated a lot of traffic to my blog through an “Agency Blog of the Month” contest that culminated into an “Agency Blog of the Year”.
35. Conduct online surveys and polls through your blog

To see Michael's full checklist (70 tips) please visit http://fuelingnewbusiness.com/2011/09/29/a-70-point-checklist-for-jump-starting-or-tuning-up-your-blog-for-new-business/

What Do Facebook Users Expect from Brands?

After "liking" a company on Facebook, users expect certain perks, such as exclusive content, discounts and more.

Many US Facebook users have certain expectations of perks they should get after following a company’s Facebook page.
An ExactTarget study found that 58% of US Facebook users expect to gain access to exclusive content, events or sales after “liking” a company, while 58% also expect to receive discounts or promotions. Additionally 47% expect to see updates about the company, person or organization they “liked” in their newsfeed, which bodes well for brands as they work to have their content always show up for their followers.

Additionally, younger consumers, ExactTarget found, have fewer expectations and generally “like” brands as a form of expression, not to get certain perks. Meanwhile, older consumers want something of value for “liking” a brand. By listening to what their target fanbase wants out of the Facebook relationship, marketers can get more interaction on their page and encourage more people to “like” rather than avoid brands on Facebook.

Source = eMarketer Daily October 7th 2011

Steve Jobs philosophy of death (and life!)

“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” – Steve Jobs

An emerging blogging platform.

An excerpt from a recent eMarketer publication as to an emerging blogging platform called Tumblr (www.tumblr.com)...



"Who’s Using Tumblr?

 Unique visitors to Tumblr have skyrocketed since May 2010

Tumblr, the social blogging site, has seen solid growth since its launch in 2007. More users are publishing on the site and viewing others’ posts, while brands, media outlets and marketers are experimenting with how best to leverage this growing community.



In its “State of the Media: Social Media Report Q3, 2011,” The Nielsen Company tracked Tumblr unique US visitors from May 2010 to May 2011 and found 183% growth in a single year. In May 2011, the site had 11.9 million unique visitors, up from 4.2 million one year earlier, and averaged 21,280 messages and links posted per day.



In June 2011, Tumblr surpassed more established blogging site WordPress in number of blogs hosted, according to Mashable, and as of September 2011, the site reports hosting more than 29 million blogs."

Going Mobile?

I went to a BMA (Business Marketing Association) meeting a while back and left (as per usual) with some interesting thoughts. The timely subject (as BMA frequently delivers) was “Marketing Goes Mobile”.

When it comes to mobile branding and communication opportunities, there are a wide-range of alternatives and many important things to think about before jumping in (or not!). These include completely ignoring the medium and dismissing it as irrelevant, to simply being sure your primary site is mobile friendly, to having a fully mobile (alternative) version of your site.

As always should be the case, most critical in determining what’s right for you are the characteristics of your business and offering, your audiences, and, especially your objectives. These strategic considerations are key before undertaking any tactical initiative of course.

Back to the subject at hand, “mobile marketing”, the degree of attention it merits and the appropriate level of tactical execution need be strategically driven and aligned at the outset. Mobile marketing is not right for everyone, nor is any other tactic for that matter. Exceptional branding is inherently custom in my mind at least, never “one-size-fits-all”. On the flip side, mobile marketing may present you with a huge opportunity.

The answer as with many things in life is “it depends”. Whether it’s right for you or not mobile marketing certainly merits your consideration at this point in time, with “consideration” being the operative word. The medium is not only here to stay, but has been here for a while and continues moving forward at lightning speed.

All said, if you do feel the medium and time are right, the following are a few things to keep in mind when designing your “user-experience”:

• “A mobile device may be a small computer, but it’s not a mini-PC.”
• Keep the experience and content simple. Mobile device usage is location specific and often driven by an immediate, basic informational need (“users are task oriented”)
• Mobile devices are time and location dependent with users frequently having little time and often not being in great viewing locations
• Mobil device screens are small - a critical variable to keep in mind while designing a mobile site
• Mobil device users often have limited connectivity
• Mobile users are often transitioning between settings, alternatively, tablet users are most often in a setting/state conducive to more of a time-based experience
• App’s are another tool to think about potentially incorporating into a mobile strategy
• Envisioning your objectives and “what success looks like” (outcomes) will enable you to decide whether a mobile version of your website is a communication tool worth investing in or not

Next time you find yourself in-between meetings, waiting at the bus stop, or anywhere else enabling a little time to think, instead of mindlessly grabbing your mobile device, challenge and enlighten yourself a bit by trying to answer the question “What, if anything, could this (device) do for our customers?”

How to gain a customer for life.

A few weeks ago my family and I were at Disney World where I had a moving “Disney Experience”. How will this help you better your branding, you may ask? Read on to find out.

After waiting in line at Splash Mountain for what seemed like an eternity we finally reached the front and got to ride. The wait was worth every second. The only problem was the flash on the Disney stationed camera didn’t go off, so we couldn’t appropriately freeze in time our special family moment – plummeting over the waterfall and down through Brer Rabbit’s briar patch.

We visited the viewing counter just after, of course, but were apologetically told by the person working that the picture would be dark. Without looking, we turned away a bit disappointed.

Suddenly, another employee who had been watching from a distance motioned us over quietly but enthusiastically. “Come here. Come here.” She said.

We moved to her register, which she leaned across then whispered, “I’ll get you on right away again. Usually it’s a case of the camera flash not working from overheating and it’s fine the next time. Just come back to me before you pay.”

We thanked her profusely as we were ecstatic just to be going again. We decided we’d definitely by a picture no matter how it turned out.

The ride, of course, again was awesome. This time though it was immortalized on disc and captured in perfect light. We came through the shop and went right to the viewing counter. The picture was great.

Glancing over at the other counter and not seeing anyone, I handed the person my credit card and they rang us up. I felt badly as I was sure the employee who had helped us ride again wanted credit for the sale – and, deserved it.

Unfortunately we were in a hurry to get to the next ride, so we paid and prepared to move on. I figured and rationalized that employee would have other sales anyway, and our time was more important.

“Come here” a voice sounded out as we were almost to the door. There she was! My heart sank and I was instantly overcome by a terrible feeling of guilt. As I was quickly thinking of what to say, my wife preempted me. “They rang us up over there”. She said politely while pointing toward the other counter.

The employee looked disappointed and dismayed. “Can I have your receipt?” she asked. Then she requested we wait.

She returned a couple minutes later with a beautiful 8x10 of our family, not quite as well lit, but fantastic none-the-less.

Each of us was screaming a little differently - which was certainly fun to see. “No charge” she said. “Enjoy your time at Disney”.

Suffice it to say relative to both expert branding and life in general, there are many lessons to be learned from my story. So as not to infringe on the thoughts in your head though, I will leave you with just one.

Albeit human nature and my being only human, I clearly made the mistake of negatively assuming as per the employee’s intentions.

I’m hoping after your investment of valuable reading time you can learn from my example and think differently next time similar circumstances arise.

As per branding, you may not only positively effect a perception, but gain a customer for life. Disney did!

Where does a "Green" strategy fit?

The following is an interesting ADWEEK article given the many company's out there hanging there hats on being "Green" as a justification for higher prices. Whether it's an "added value" or not is a different positioning relative question. Have a look at http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/americans-are-tightwads-when-it-comes-green-brands-133247

What are "Paraprosdokian's"?

If you don't know you're not alone. However, you are missing out! Hopefully this will enlighten you (alongside providing quite a few laugh's!)...

A good friend recently sent me a list of "Paraprosdokian's - a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected;" As you can never laugh in life enough I will pass along some periodically. Please enjoy and here's the first...

"Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience."

PS - As per sources I have bee unable to find any, but want to make it clear and credit whomever may have come up with these. Very funny!

Business Benefits of Social Media

Although Social Media benefits are still emerging the following are a number I have seen clients successfully apply to their advantage so far (in no particular order):
1. Generating exposure and awareness
2. Increasing website and other interactive (Facebook, Twitter, Blog, etc.) traffic and participation
3. Increasing subscription bases (Contact info being provided and requests for ongoing communication)
4. Improving search engine rankings (optimizing)
5. Facilitating new business and relationships (esp. amongst unique audience niches)
6. Generating leads
7. Reducing expenses
8. Enhancing relationships
9. Building credibility and trust
10. Creating and sustaining a “buzz”
11. Increasing sales

A Two-Sided Coin (Tapping the full potential of online branding - and life!)

We’re living in an amazing time and the world of branding and communication is no exception. Online mediums enable measurement like never before, yet at the same time, building trust and authentic relationships is more important than ever before.

As you know there are two sides to every coin, which is a blessing not a curse. What’s really exciting is you can leverage both.

On one (side), we can now quickly and easily (using a wide-variety of online metrics and resources) garner extremely useful information that sheds meaningful light on the effect of our online branding campaigns (offline I would argue too by the way).

“Click-throughs”, “Conversion rates”, “Page views” and a wide-variety of other measurements and statistics are all readily available – enabling “smart marketing” to say the least (not to mention directly driving sales).

On the flip side, online advertising provides a huge creative branding opportunity - one that unfortunately many are missing, or, perhaps don’t fully understand. In all the excitement about measurability and metrics amazing “branding” potential frequently is getting lost.

Tangible metrics are certainly exciting, provide valuable insight, and are extremely costly to ignore. A huge value of branding though – namely visibility, connecting with lifelong customers, and building trust – is ready and waiting for those who realize there is more.

While direct response and driving immediate behaviors (both online and off) will always be important - engaging invaluable, lifelong customers and building meaningful, trust based relationships is where the greatest opportunity ultimately lies.

Fortunately, as the true beauty of our world can’t be extracted through “either/or” equations, neither can effective online branding. One must think “holistically” to yield the greatest reward.

Please keep this in mind moving forward there for. Thought of and approached correctly it provides extreme upside and “real” (both tangible and intangible) value and results.

Have No Fear

I keep being reminded as per the importance of "having no fear" when it comes to social media.

"Having no fear" is not an excuse for ignorance of course. So do your homework, learn, think strategically (or have someone qualified help you), and jump in.

Pick one tool (a la Blogger, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or whatever) to focus on that seems to best fit your objective and try it for a while. Take the time to participate (doesn't have to be an inordinate amount of time by the way) and watch/listen for the results.

Remember, results (as people) come in many shapes and sizes. In your strategic thinking, there for, be sure to map out/consider the actions you'd like to see. Both emotional and behavioral are important considerations.

This exercise will take a bit of thinking and time, but I promise you'll feel good about the valuable learning.

E-mail ROI

I recently came across some E-mail survey research I found interesting that I‘d like to share. There really are two key takeaways.

First, when asked which digital channel delivers the greatest ROI, 38% of respondents answered “E-mail”, 21% “Web site/Blog” and 16% Facebook. Multiple other answers garnered either 5 or 6%.

Second, when questioned as per the main benefit of E-mail (different survey), 78% answered “Increasing sales revenue” was “very important”, 72% “Customer retention and improving customer relations” (“very important”), 67% Increasing lead generation” (“very important”), and, 61% increasing website traffic (“very important”).

As you can see, when used correctly and for the right reasons E-mail is an extremely effective medium and usually a viable opportunity.