Be Prepared

Take a cue from the Boy Scouts on this one.  Make a plan. Don’t just jump into marketing without doing some research first. Look into what avenues of advertising typically work well in your industry, and then cater your approach to that. It is also extremely important to tailor your marketing plan to accommodate changes at any time. Pay attention to what’s going on around you, and be ready to respond to anything. Take real-time marketing as an example. Social media has made it possible to respond to an event as soon as it happens. Oreo took advantage of real-time media in a brilliant way during this year’s Super Bowl, when it tweeted and created the hashtag “dunk in the dark” after the power failure in the Superdome. This is a prime example of staying on your toes when it comes to marketing. Change comes about quickly these days, and if you’re not paying attention, your competition will pass you by.

Don’t Forget Your Compass

Just as a hiker needs a compass to find his or her way in the woods, you need a navigator to guide you through changes in marketing. Your guide might be a simple map of goals that help you steer your business along the right path. These will act as a benchmark to look toward while you traverse unfamiliar territory. If you find yourself floundering, stop, take a look at your end goal, and make a new plan. Another good compass to have is a social media manager. Even if you think you know everything there is to know about social media networking, you might not have time to use it as effectively as possible. Consider hiring someone who specializes in social media and can help you get the most from each platform. Besides knowing how to use Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn effectively, this person also has an ear to the ground and can keep you informed of changes in marketing as they’re happening.

Organize a “First-Aid Kit”

Your business will take a hit at some point. To counteract any marketing disasters that occur, you need to have a damage control plan in place. Technological changes in marketing have made it possible for companies to get information out to their clients and customers immediately, no matter the time of day. The benefit of things like social media, blogs, and email is that you’ll be able to implement damage control from anywhere.

Gather Supplies

In this case, your supplies are the tools you arm yourself with to help you face changes in marketing. Some of these tools are much easier to come by through technological advances in marketing. Communication is the most important tool you need. The customer has never been easier to reach than they are now, especially with the advent of social media. Instead of simply posting to social media networks, however, make sure you are interacting with your clients and customers. Communication is now a two-way street in the marketing world, and keeping a close eye on what customers are saying could actually help you start to adapt before changes take place. Knowledge about your target audience is another extremely important tool, and it’s one that is now easily obtainable through your social media network. It’s also important to keep up to date on the next big thing. One of the best ways to do this is to subscribe to websites, forums, and blogs that talk about what’s happening in technology and online media.

Make Sure You Have Sustenance

No, we’re not talking about food and beverages for the office party. Here, sustenance means fuel, and the fuel that energizes you is your current marketing plan. When change comes about, you have to roll with it, but things will be easier if your existing marketing plan is strong yet flexible. Keeping up with your plan, modifying it often to suit your and your customers’ needs, will ensure that you won’t be completely left out in the cold when something new comes along. Your existing plan should be kept as current as possible, so it can keep you going while you try out new strategies. While you may be targeting new customers with advertising, know that you should also concentrate on nurturing leads you already have. Customers who are loyal to your brand will help you keep business going while you’re working to adapt.  If you’ve worked hard to build your brand and you have a strong online presence, you might be able to adapt to marketing changes quickly.

The world has become incredibly fast-paced, and it’s not going to slow down anytime soon. It seems that new technology is released every week that allows consumers to get information and products they need within mere seconds. The faster you can reach your customers, the better, and the only way to keep ahead of the game is to learn to adapt to changes in the marketing world.

Image credit: freedigitalphotos.net/arztsamui

If you’ve found yourself stressed out and lacking focus lately, your email inbox could be to blame. That happy little chime that alerts you to a new email might be causing you more anxiety than you think. A full inbox can be more stressful for some than a desk littered with paper memos. If this is the case, then it’s time to think about putting a new system to work to lessen your email load. Take control of your inbox with these tips on creating an organized email strategy.

Gain A Fresh Perspective

First, you have to face the fact that your current method of dealing with email could be causing you more harm than good. Opening an inbox to find over 100 emails begging for your attention is an immediate stressor. In fact, a recent study concluded that reducing the amount time you spend dealing with email can help lower stress levels by actually lowering your heart rate. Taking time initially to set up an organized email strategy will enable you to spend less time in your inbox later. Instead of letting emails pile up, take the time to consider each one. Is it something that needs to be taken care of right away? If so, complete the task or answer the email and delete or move the message. If it’s a task that has to be completed at a later date, consider transferring the information to a calendar and then deleting the email. This will help you prevent messages from piling up and taking over.

Start at the Beginning

Take a deep breath and take it one step at a time.  Choose how you want to sort your messages before dealing with them. A good way to start is to sort them by date, but depending on your email program, you might also be able to arrange them according to subject, sender, recipient, size, or flags. Work in order from the top, deciding what to do with each email as you go. For each message, ask yourself whether it’s something that can be deleted or filed. If the answer is yes, do so immediately. If the email contains a task that can be assigned to someone else, delegate and delete it.

Divide and Conquer

Leaving messages to linger in your inbox until you have time to deal with them only serves to add to the clutter. Instead of letting emails pile up, take the time to consider each one. Is it something that needs to be taken care of right away? If so, complete the task or answer the email and delete or move the message. If it’s a task that has to be completed at a later date, consider transferring the information to a calendar and then deleting the email. This will prevent messages from piling up and taking over.

For emails that are not critical but cannot be deleted immediately, create separate folders where you can deposit them until they are needed. When you do need them, they’ll be easy to find. A good rule of thumb is to have folders labeled To Do, To Read, In Progress, and Personal. In addition, create folders where emails about specific projects are clients can be filed. Not only will this help you shrink the size of your inbox, but it will also keep you from accidentally deleting something you might need in the future.

Deliver Communications Personally

A good way to cut down on the number of emails you receive is to try to communicate with coworkers in person. If you need to send an interoffice message, try delivering it personally. Physical movement and face-to-face interaction can help lower anxiety and stress levels. If this isn’t possible, use the phone or consider setting up an interoffice chat system. This will enable you and your coworkers to ask quick questions of one another without sending emails or memos.

Enlist Outside Help

If creating an organized email strategy seems overwhelming at first, consider installing a program that will help you prioritize your email. These will automatically categorize incoming emails, depositing low-priority messages like newsletters into a separate folder for future reading. Only the most important emails are allowed to reach your inbox. There are pros and cons to this, as there is the off chance that you could miss something important from a source that the program doesn’t consider high priority. However, if you truly lack the time to tackle your inbox by yourself, a program like this can be very helpful.

Decide What Emails You Really Want to Receive

Junk mail is a major contributor to an unorganized inbox. Sometimes we subscribe to mail lists and alerts that we decide we don’t need later on down the road. Instead of being forced to delete each of these messages as they come in, take the time to scroll to the bottom of the email and click on the unsubscribe link. Stopping unwanted emails from showing up in the first place will make a huge difference in the amount of time it takes you to get organized.

Now that you’ve implemented your organized email strategy and have de-cluttered your inbox, make sure it stays that way! Don’t let yourself fall back into the habits that allowed the mess to accumulate in the first place. Be consistent in following the steps you’ve set up for yourself. Set alerts for priority emails so you don’t waste time checking your email multiple times a day to find that nothing exists that requires immediate attention. You can also set alerts to remind you to check your inbox at specific times in order to organize the contents. Putting these strategies into effect will help ease anxiety and stress while also boosting time management.

Image credit: freedigitalphotos.net/Ambro

Few things will cause consumers to click the back button on a website faster than bad copywriting. Long-winded history and purpose statements, bland paragraphs on product description, and boring lists of statistics are just some of the culprits that fail to inspire interest in potential customers and clients.  The good news is that there is a slew of sites out there that know exactly how to draw attention from the customer’s first glimpse of their home page. They know that people who visit their sites want to see engaging, creative language. They know that customers want to see their comments and suggestions taken to heart in a personable way.  Companies who struggle with web copy can learn a lot from these geniuses of copywriting. Here are seven companies who win customers’ hearts and business through clever web copy.

ModCloth

Visiting ModCloth.com feels like stepping into a fashionable, witty friend’s downtown loft. ModCloth knows exactly what their buyers want, and they’re familiar with the type of customer they attract. Their products feature creative names often based on puns. A pair of heels isn’t just described as a sparkly gold shoe. It’s named the “Sparkle an Interest Heel.” A breezy, lemony-colored dress isn’t just a yellow frock. It’s the “Zest is More Dress.” Accompanying the cleverly named products are fun stories that speak directly to the customer. They not only talk about specs, but also tell customers, using fun language, exactly why they need this product.

GrubHub

One area where company websites sometimes fail is the About Us page. It’s completely understandable that a business wants people to know where it came from and what its purpose/mission statement is. The best way to do that is to humanize the brand. GrubHub does a great job with this. “Like all good things, it began in a bar…” This eye-grabbing statement is highlighted at the top of GrubHub’s About Us page, and it does its job well. The company knows its target user and creates web copy that speaks to that potential customer. The casual language and laid-back vibe of the site’s history and mission statement give the brand a unique personality.

37Signals

The beauty behind 37Signals’s approach is simplicity. As number 5 says on their list of things that set them apart from other companies, “The Basics are Beautiful.” Having clever and creative copy doesn’t mean that every page has to be filled with witty explanations and trendy graphics. Here, minimalism reigns. Details are organized in lists and short excerpts, and there’s plenty of white space to keep things clean. The key to this successful minimalism is that 37Signals is able to explain aspects of their business in a concise yet still interesting way.

MailChimp

MailChimp, a company that helps users create, send, and track newsletters, is another brand that does a great job at giving their content personality. One way they do this is by showing the actual faces of who’s running the company and who’s writing the content. More importantly, the copy gets straight to the point and is easy to understand. Creating an email newsletter campaign might sound like a daunting task to people who describe themselves as technologically challenged. Clicking through MailChimp’s site eases the anxiety that some users feel when they consider taking on a project like this. The site’s blog provides useful information and updates on services and gives examples of how products and services are used. The writers succeed at explaining those services and products in an easy-to-understand way.

Zendesk

Zendesk is a company that provides web-based customer support for companies. The site excels at integrating clever web copy with eye-catching graphics and photos. They also know how to keep their copy consistent. Zendesk manages to show through their copy that every client, from the customer to the manager, is just as important as the next. Another important aspect in copy is to remind the potential customer of who you are and why they are visiting the site in the first place. Under the Why Zendesk tab, the copy reads: “Much like the art of Zen, the path to customer service excellence is a continuous journey that involves product, people, practice.” In this simple sentence, Zendesk ties in their brand name and stresses that customer service is important to both their client and their client’s customers.

UrbanDaddy

This website screams exclusivity from the very first glance. Delving deeper into the site’s content reveals some extremely witty writing. UrbanDaddy is an email-based online magazine that is “devoted to keeping you in the know.” Click on one of the ten major cities or three other categories on the home menu, and be drawn into a world of sleek and chic design and sharp copywriting. Features on the site cover everything from where to travel, what to eat, where to have drinks, and what the hottest new trends are. Copywriters use terms like “Coffee Narnia” and “Tweedy Magnificence” to describe products and places. It offers discounts on products like “the best damn umbrellas on the planet.” UrbanDaddy nails smart humor.

Dollar Shave Club

Dollar Shave Club is something of an of-the-month club for both the bearded and baby-faced, and they make their product very appealing through names and humorous description. “Be bold. A mighty razor will come to your aid,” boasts a headline that plays on a Goethe quote. Their economical products have names like The Humble Twin, The 4X (aka The Lover’s Blade), and The Executive. Product descriptions do more than just give dry specifics. Case in point: Dollar Shave Club claims that The Executive is “The final frontier; it’s like a personal assistant for your face.”

With all of these websites, the bottom line is that the copy doesn’t take itself too seriously. Call it business casual. It appeals to the customer on a personal level, giving the brand a face, a unique identity. From inviting email subject lines to witty product names descriptions, your web copy should be engaging while representing the exact personality of your brand.

Image credit: © Kitsen | Dreamstime Stock Photos & Stock Free Images

As a smart, savvy business owner, you’ve probably been using LinkedIn to market your business for quite some time. You’re on the right track to increasing leads. You might even be among the 43% of marketers who have acquired new customers through LinkedIn this year. If you’re not using LinkedIn’s Groups feature, however, you could be missing out on some big leads. Here are some LinkedIn tips on using the Groups feature to increase traffic and leads to your Company Page.

Getting Started with LinkedIn Groups

There are over one million groups on LinkedIn, covering just about any topic you can think of. Start by joining groups that contain useful information that is applicable to your business. As a group member, you will be able to contribute to discussions or start your own topics within the group. An even better way to generate traffic to your Company Page is to start your own LinkedIn group. Think of a topic that is relevant to your business, and base a group on that. There are over 200 million users in 200 countries on LinkedIn, and 81% of those users are members of at least one group. On top of that, two new users join LinkedIn every second. This means there are plenty of people out there to whom you can appeal. A creative, well-defined theme will attract more members to your group.

Don’t Use Groups for Self-Promotion

Yes, your presence in Groups is meant to help you gain leads, but the feature wasn’t created for the purpose of self-promotion. No one is going to want to join a group that’s full of nothing but advertisement for your company. Instead, the purpose is to post information that group members will find helpful and informative. What you can do is use the information from your Group to promote your business elsewhere. For example, you could distribute press releases when you hit milestones like gaining a certain number of group members on LinkedIn.

Feature Groups on Your Company Page

Featuring groups on your LinkedIn Company Page can be beneficial in several ways. First, it will alert new visitors to the fact that you have a Group with information that might be helpful to them. You don’t have to own a group to feature it on your page, though. A Group member can feature any community that is significant to his or her brand on their Company Page. Featuring groups also allows you to cross-promote your content and draw more followers to your Company Page. Specifically, you can post your status updates directly to your featured Group by sharing it as a new discussion.

Don’t Spam Your Group Members

Be selective about what you post within your Group. Your goal is to inform your Group members and start discussion, not spam them with content that amounts to annoying advertising. The best way to ensure that members stick around and actually read what you provide is to limit posting to a few times a week. However, if you’re posting solid content that really adds value to your Group, feel free to post as many times a week as you want. Keeping up with conversations among Group members is a better way to stay involved than constantly posting new updates. A good way to generate interesting conversation among Group members is to share a piece of news or ask a question you know will garner a lot of views and opinions.

Build Relationships Within Your Group

To really get something out of their discussion, your Group members need to know that they’re interacting with a real person who cares about their contributions. When a new user joins your Group, consider sending them a message welcoming them personally and inviting them to connect to your personal LinkedIn network. Let them know that you are there for them if they require assistance or have any questions or concerns. Once you have some key participants in your LinkedIn Group, invite them to brainstorm with you for new ideas about content. Including your top contributing members makes them feel valued and will hopefully inspire them to stay active in the Group. Also think about doing regular features on members who frequently contribute valuable information to the Group.

Cross-Promote Your Content

A good way to drive more traffic to your Company Page, your website, and your LinkedIn Group is to cross-promote. Post information about and links to your LinkedIn Group on your company’s website. You can also promote your LinkedIn activity on other social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Consider sharing content across your platforms. For instance, create a blog post about specific activity or discussion happening in your LinkedIn Group. Conversely, you can post your blog content in a new Group discussion.

Maintenance is Key

Remaining active within your Group is the number one most important thing you can do to maintain and increase traffic. Make sure you participate in the discussions you start. Don’t post a topic for the day and think you’re finished. If you find that you don’t have the time for maintenance, assign Group upkeep to another person within your company.

If you follow the advice in these seven LinkedIn tips, your Group could potentially grow into one that fellow LinkedIn users look to for advice and guidance. Long-term business relationships can be built through the Groups feature. Once participants see how great you are at what you do, chances are they’ll turn to you when they need the service and or product your business offers.

Image credit: freedigitalphotos.net/emptyglass

Over half of the American population is on Facebook – are you? Whether you’re unhappy with your current level of Facebook success or simply have no idea where to begin the process of developing a page, it’s high time that you learned how to reap the benefits of social media. The good news is that creating and maintaining a winning Facebook account is not nearly as difficult as you might imagine. By following this simple, six-step guide and working closely with your trusted social media agency, you can attract more leads and develop deeper relationships with your customers than ever before.

1. Fill in the blanks

The first step in creating your business Facebook account involves completely filling in all of the requested data fields. These days, many customers tend to reference company Facebook pages when seeking out business hours, phone numbers, locations, parking information, etc. The more information you are able to provide to your consumer base, the more likely you’ll be to receive their business. If your company’s profile does not include your hours of operation but your nearby competitor’s page does, which business is your prospective customer more likely to visit? Most of the time, they’ll choose the facility with clearly posted open and close times. After all, no one wants to drive all the way to the store only to find out that it’s closed.

In addition to providing your customers with valuable information, a properly completed profile simply looks more professional. If you can’t be bothered to spend the time to provide your clients with the most basic information about your business, how can you expect them to bother with you? Famous Dave’sin Louisville, KY has the right idea. In addition to a detailed description of their restaurant, their contact information, and business hours, the eatery informs Facebookers of their payment options, names the general manager, and gives other specifics of the franchise.

2. Cover Your Personality

You can’t judge a book by its cover, but you can judge a Facebook page by one. Any good social media agency will tell you that without a cover picture, your Facebook account will look naked, unappealing, and unprofessional. Although a company profile picture is a representation of your business side (typically a professional logo), your cover photo is a way for you to express the personality of your company. A good cover picture should by eye-catching and a strong representation of what your business stands for.

A good example of this can be found on Pepsi’s Facebook page. The cover picture is clean, visually interesting, and brings Pepsi’s personality to life. The company’s current logo, “Live for Now,” is clearly printed in bold, eye-catching letters that surround the Pepsi logo and a very inviting looking can of cold soda. This ideology is reinforced by the display of Pepsi drinkers celebrating life. Don’t be afraid to get creative as you work to develop a cover photo with your social media agency.

3. Update and Bait

The only way to gain business opportunities from your business Facebook page is to engage your customers through frequent updates. But don’t just update your status with fluff. The key is to post often, to post at regular intervals, and to post high-quality information. When your customers know you will post a weekly special or a daily coupon like clockwork, they will not only remember to check your page, but they will be excited about it. If you post infrequently or sporadically, you can’t be too surprised if your clients forget to look at your page. It’s also smart to use your updates to “bait” your customers into communicating with you, sharing their thoughts, sharing your page, and liking your posts.

Take a lesson from Olive Garden. The well-known chain interacts with its fans on a daily basis by posting pictures of their dishes and asking users if they’ve ever tried it. Other ways they engage include introducing new menu items, polling their customers on what their favorite dishes are, and many others. These are the types of posts that compel readers to take further action, which is exactly what you want. The more people who “like,” “share,” or comment on a post, the more popular it will become. This means that it will show up on more of your customers’ Facebook news feeds and prompt them to take action as well. As your followers interact with your updates, their every move will be posted on all of their friends’ Facebook tickers, and that means FREE advertising for you. Brainstorming with your staff and your social media agency about how to generate high-quality, engaging posts can make a huge difference in the success of your page.

4. Keep Tabs on Your Guests

Don’t ignore the various tabs you can utilize to make your business Facebook page even better. Standard tabs include your page’s photos, how many people “like” you, where you are on the map, etc. But did you know that you can create your own? This is what makes you stand apart from the crowd. By customizing your page’s tabs, you can prompt your customers to dive deeper into the world of your business, becoming more interested, and more likely to make some type of buying decision. Take a look at the Facebook page for Cinemark Theaters. Visitors are easily able to check out the great deals that they can score under the weekly coupons tab, find out show times for the theaters in their area, and see which movies are trending on the Cinemark Pinterest board.  Working with your social media agency to create tabs linking to your specials or your blog is a great way to boost sales.

5. Holler Back!

If you want your Facebook followers to keep talking to you, you’ve got to talk back. If a customer leaves a comment raving about your business, take the time to thank them. If a client has a suggestion, acknowledge it and consider implementing a change to your business. And when your page’s visitors ask you a question, make sure you answer. Today’s consumers are looking to forge relationships with their favorite brands, and the key to those relationships is communications. If a customer feels that you are not responsive to their inquiries or needs, they may turn to a competitor. A small business in Helen, GA takes this to heart. Cool River Tubing Company not only posts about what’s going on with their business, but also takes the time to read customer comments and questions and responds to them in a timely manner. Ultimately, it’s small gestures like these that make all the difference in customer loyalty.

6. Listen Carefully

The last step involves working closely with your social media agency to “listen” to your audience’s responses to your Facebook page through careful observation and web analytics. By observing certain trends, you can see what’s working and what’s not so you can better invest your time in profitable posts and activities.

Taking your Facebook page from “zero” to “hero” doesn’t have to be a challenge. By working with a professional social media agency and following these six steps, you’ll find yourself on the fast track to social media success.

Image credit: freedigitalphotos.net/basketman

User-generated content is so hot right now. Researchers have found that today’s consumer is less swayed by owned media, and more influenced by real people. In fact, 92% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family and 70% trust online reviews, while the vast majority view paid online advertising with deep suspicion. The solution for marketing your brand with all the believability of a real person is simple: Actively collect and utilize user-generated content.

What is User-Generated Content?

In the most technical sense of the term, user-generated content consists of original words, thoughts, and images that users voluntarily submit to an online entity. That poll you just answered on Starbuck’s Facebook page about your favorite iced drink for summer is user-generated content. So is the instagram image you snapped of your salad last night and tagged the restaurant in.

From a marketer’s perspective, customer-submitted content is something of a silver bullet. It’s free, and it carries much more clout than if you raved about your products and services. Great user-generated content carries social proof, and it can extend your exposure in content creators’ networks. You want lots of it, to share on your company website, blog, and social media channels. Here are some ways to actively solicit and implement your fans’ work:

1. Ask And Ye Shall Receive

Sometimes, all the motivation people need to send you a glowing quotation or photo of themselves with your product is an invitation. Large segments of the population love being in the spotlight, and reusing someone’s content can result in a certain degree of celebrity.

2. Offer Incentives

Whether you’re simply hoping for a few quick photos, or a much longer interview with your customers in order to write a case study, recognize that everyone’s time is valuable. The incentive you offer doesn’t need to be huge or costly, but it may pay to demonstrate that you appreciate their submission with a discount, or feature their brand on your company blog.

3. Run a Contest

There are several types of Facebook contests permitted by the network, and they essentially boil down into two categories: sweepstakes and content contests. In the case of the latter, Facebook can be an ideal place to hold the contest. Given that you’re required to run contests through a third-party app, you generate permission to utilize the content at the time of submission. People love the thrill of competition, and if you throw in a great prize, your likes and store of user-generated images or essays will soar.

4. Reuse and Recycle

Just because you decided to publish a fan’s Instagram photo on your Facebook, it doesn’t mean you can never use it again. In fact, with full permission from the content creator, it’s a brilliant idea to get the most mileage possible from user-generated content. One of the sharpest ideas we’ve ever heard of comes from HuHot Mongolian Grill, who sponsored a Facebook contest for new recipes. The leading submissions were reposted to Pinterest, where the restaurant’s social media staff had created a board specifically for promoting the contest.

5. Use it Throughout Your Sales Funnel

There’s really never a time where user-generated content is inappropriate. Traditional marketing thought dictates that in order for a consumer to make a purchase, they must pass through a series of stages known as the buyer readiness cycle. When you start thinking about buying a new car, you’re aware you have a need and start to Google local car dealerships. You perform more research, narrow down a few makes, models, and dealers, and eventually develop a conviction that you’ve picked the right vehicle.

Whether you’re creating social media posts to draw leads into the top of your sales funnel, or writing a case study to close new revenue, user-generated content can probably say it better than you can. Use images and quotes as social proof to make your brand trustworthy, and testimonials and case studies to convert leads into customers.

Consumer trust is a critical factor in marketing. If an individual doesn’t believe your brand can deliver on its promises, or provide something better than its competition, they probably won’t ever make a purchase. Leveraging the thoughts, words, and images of real human beings – with their permission, of course – can make your brand über-trustworthy.

*cartoon used with permission via Tom Fishburne.

As social signals continue to play a more integral part in SEO, it’s clear that the best time to get started on Google+ is yesterday. We were lucky to catch a few moments with Louisville, Kentucky-based Interactive Marketing Consultant Jonathan Payne. For more on his thoughts on why businesses can’t neglect a Google+ presence, check out his IMA guest post The Huge Misconception Plaguing Google+.

Why did you decide to develop a strong presence on Google+?

I know Google has been down this route before and they’ve seen more than enough failures when it comes to social networks.  A lot of people still continue to toss Google+ aside because of Google’s history with social networks.  But as I read more and more about the structure, functionality, and purpose of Google+ as a social layer connecting all things Google, I became more confident this network was here to stay.  Combining that with the overall landscape of social media today, Google+ has found itself in the right place at the right time, in my opinion.

In my capstone marketing course, my group chose Google+ for our final research project.  Needless to say, conducting a marketing research study and analyzing the social media industry and Google+ enough to write a 30-page research paper only solidified my opinions of the social network.  The overall connectedness of Google+ is something no other social network has, the privacy settings are top-notch, there is no better parent company than Google, and the list goes on and on.

Apart from all that, the SEO impacts of authorship are only going to be more important in the future and, as a content marketer in some respects, I think being on the ground floor of Google+ is going to be a big deal in the future.

How often do you post?

I can’t say I have a set posting schedule for Google+.  I treat it a lot like my Facebook fan page and email list – if I don’t have something meaningful to say, I say nothing.  I rarely make updates for the sake of making an update.  On average, though, I would say I post anywhere from 5-7 times per week.

What are your tips for not being spammy on G+?

Google+ has some great features and, unfortunately, they’re being abused.  As Gary Vaynerchuk said, “Marketers ruin everything.”  That’s a bit tongue-in-cheek, of course, but it does seem to be “marketers” spamming the most.  And I put the word marketers in quotes for a reason!

The two most common ways I’ve seen people spam on Google+ are sending random community invites and directly sharing posts with people (even worse when that includes sending an email).  I’m honestly not sure why people continue to do that, as they’re much more likely to get their profile suspended or banned.

Can you think of any examples of brands using G+ correctly?

Well, I’m no authority to determine the correct way of using Google+, but I think the auto industry as a whole (Ferrari in particular) has done an exceptional job adopting Google+.  Apart from that, I haven’t been incredibly impressed by the brand presence on the network, though there are a few companies and organizations that have stood out to me.

Google+ is prime real estate for a company like ESPN, since the Google+ demographic is so male-dominated.  They’ve had hangouts with athletes and analysts in the past, which is pretty cool.  Sony has done a fairly good job with Playstation as well and I think Samsung also has a strong presence.

How can companies motivate a disengaged user base to interact with their content?

Unfortunately for us social media marketers, you can’t force people to talk.  I think the best way is to personalize the brand and make the best use of personal profiles as possible.

In my experiences, it’s much more difficult to get people interacting with my Google+ page compared to my personal profile.  So, I tend to use my personal profile to closely tie things in with my brand and most of the connections for my Google+ page are actually driven from my connections on my personal profile.

The openness between personal profiles and company pages is something Facebook doesn’t really have, so I think companies would be wise taking advantage of that on Google+.

This is a difficult task for huge companies, since it’s probably not wise to let your employees run wild representing the brand (unless you’ve got it down like IBM does!).  However, I think this is where it becomes crucial to have your CEO and other top level management personnel active on social media – the face of your company is there for a reason and, as they say, people do business with people.

Jonathan Payne (@SocialGamePlan) is the Interactive Marketing Specialist at Strategexe Consulting Group. He is also the founder of the digital marketing blog, My Social Game Plan.

image credit: kittasak/freedigitalphotos.net

Social media has become an important part of marketing for businesses of all sizes. If you’re still not sure about dipping your toe into the Twitter world, you could probably use some tips for beginners. We’ve got 25 great ways to start your Twitter strategy off on the right foot:

1. Claim your Twitter handle for business

Choosing a Twitter handle may be as easy as your company name or as difficult and determining how to best shorten your words. Make sure your company is still identifiable, however you must name your Twitter account.

2. Open a personal account

A personal account gives you the chance to really humanize your brand. Make sure you include your company logo and slogan on your personal Twitter page.

3. Register any other Twitter handles that might be associated with your company in the future

If you aren’t quick to reserve any name that might identify your business, you could find yourself a victim of faux tweets. It costs nothing but a new email address each time you open another account. Protect your business and take the time.

4. Create a social media policy and stick to it

Before you post your first tweet, make sure you have a distinct and understandable social media policy. This includes posts per day, directives on language, and rules about images.

5. Incorporate logos and slogans on accounts

Even your accounts reserved solely to take the handles off the market should have your branding. Don’t leave anyone wondering who you are.

6. Add faces to logos when possible for a personal touch

Your company Twitter page may not be appropriate for employee photos on included with the logos, but your personal page should certainly include a photo of you as well as your company logo.

7. Mutual branding with personal account and employee accounts

If your employees are on Twitter, ask them to include your brand on their accounts, too. Remind them they must uphold your personal brand, which could mean the need for a private personal account for each employee, too.

8. Develop your brand’s voice

Your brand’s voice should be focused on your target audience. If you’re tweeting for older women but use the language of a young man, your customers will only be confused.

9. Determine your audience

Your products and services may be desired by all ages, races, and sexes, but your target audience is the one doing most of the buying. That’s who you should tailor your social media brand to.

10. Conduct searches for target customers in your area

Don’t be afraid to conduct Twitter searches for potential customers in your area. Even a geographic search could yield more results than you ever dreamed.

11. Connect your Twitter account to your website, blog, and Facebook accounts

While you certainly don’t want to rely on your Facebook account and blog to provide all of your Twitter content, it’s a great idea to share everything across the board to reach as many customers as possible.

12. Include your Twitter handle in all correspondence

Once you’re prepared to launch your Twitter account, let everyone know how to find you. You can include your Twitter handle in the signatures of emails and in company newsletters to start getting the word out.

13. Add your Twitter handle to your business card

Don’t forget your Twitter account is yet another way for your customers to reach you. Always include the information on your business cards, and then pass those cards out generously.

14. Provide information on Twitter faster than your RSS feed can

If you’re letting your RSS feed break the news for you, you’re letting your buyers down. Always be sure to send out a tweet to followers about news so they feel they’re getting it right from the source.

15. Follow generously

Don’t expect people to come to you. You’ll need to seek out your potential customers to let them know where you are. People are much more likely to communicate if you’re willing to make the first move.

16. Post content at least four times per day

If you rely on only one or two posts, you’ll miss the majority of your audience. Four posts at strategic points in the day—morning, noon, afternoon, and evening—will be more likely to reach infrequent social media users.

17. Incorporate various media in your Tweets

While your words will most certainly be interesting—we have no doubt—you should also make sure to keep things fresh and exciting with video and photo content when possible.

18. Ensure content matches your brand and voice

You will want to let your own personality shine through, but if it doesn’t match that of your company, you should abstain. Also, avoid sarcasm unless it is a part of your particular brand.

19. Ask interactive questions

Customers love when you give them a chance to talk back. Your questions don’t have to be about your particular product. In fact, you’re more likely to get responses if you don’t. You’ll learn more about your target audience than you thought possible.

20. Tell stories

Keep readers coming back for more with narrative posts. Tell stories about your products, services, and employees. People want to be a part of the in-crowd, and your stories will help them feel that way.

21. Be responsive

It’s very important to respond to any tweets sent your way. If you’re only talking at people, they’ll quickly stop listening. Also, the point of social media is to be social.

22. Practice selfless tweeting

As much as your social media accounts should be about your business, there’s nothing wrong with promoting other companies that have similar values. If you’re lucky, you’ll receive some good will and some cross-promotion.

23. Study your numbers

Your Twitter is no good to you as a marketing tool if you don’t know how your methods are working. Track your tweets and your followers’ tweets with Intwition, Twitterverse, Tweet Clouds, and TweetStats.

24. Host Twitter chats

Asking questions for engagement is great, but it might not give you a chance to really show your company off. Choose a hashtag and a subject, and then launch a Twitter chat to put your company in the spotlight.

25. Think ahead

You can use many of the same branding tips other companies are using, but it’s important to think ahead, too. If you’re only doing what everyone else is doing instead of what everyone will be doing, you’ll never get ahead.

Don’t be afraid to try new things, as long as they fit with your social media strategy and policies. It won’t be long before you see excellent results.

image credit: Phaitoon/freedigitalphotos.net

An effective social media strategy injects human blood into a brand and creates an opportunity for businesses to develop deep relationships with consumers. When done right, social media helps tell a story that consumers are happy to escape into. But when you don’t adhere to social media ethics, customers may see your brand as something to escape from.

Because social media is still in its Wild West days, brands are trying everything under the sun to stake their claim on the digital frontier and attract attention from consumers. The problem is that some brands can’t distinguish between “edgy” and “out of line.”

In his article “Ethics and the 5 Deadly Sins of Social Media,” Forbes contributor David Vinjamuri writes, “As trust is the prized currency of social media, ethical lapses or oversights can be deadly for the brand.”

Take, for example, UK-based CelebBoutique’s newsjacking-gone-wrongin which they used the #Aurora Twitter hashtag to promote a “Kim Kardashian-inspired Aurora dress” when the hashtag was meant for content regarding the Aurora, Colorado shootings in July 2012 that left 12 people lifeless. In this situation, the backlash was more than just lost followers — consumers boycotted the brand for the insensitive treatment of a serious issue.

It is possible for brands to engage and entertain while remaining ethical, and here’s how.

1. Avoid controversial subjects like religion and politics.

Businesses should leverage social media as a tool to humanize their brand and put a personal stamp on it with which people can connect. However, loaded subjects like religion and politics may offend some people, polarize customers and create the wrong kind of spotlight on your brand. It’s good to stir the pot sometimes, but choose your topics carefully.

2. Avoid libelous or defamatory comments.

You are legally responsible for any statement made by you or your business, so be careful not to say anything intended to damage someone’s reputation because you will be held accountable. Because you’re now able to be a media outlet, you must operate under the same rules, and libel is a big no-no for journalists. Plus, it won’t do any good for your company to develop a reputation for bashing the reputations of others.

There’s one exception, however, as outlined in NPR’s social media ethics guide for journalists: “Section 230 of the Communications Act…protects news organizations from defamation liability for content that’s created by a third party. Many experts believe this protection would extend to retweets. Citizen Media Law Project co-founder David Ardia [said]: ‘So if a journalist or news organization were to retweet a defamatory statement, they would not be held accountable. If, however, they added a defamatory remark as part of the retweet, they could be.’”

3. Understand and follow each network’s terms of service.

As NPR’s guide says, it’s crucial to keep in mind the that a social media site’s terms of service apply to what information is posted and gathered from it. Did you know that Facebook’s terms of service regarding cover photos says, “Covers may not include images with more than 20% text,” or that Pinterest’s terms of service say that by using Pinterest, you grant Pinterest and its users a “non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable, sublicensable, worldwide license to use, store, display, reproduce, re-pin, modify, create derivative works, perform, and distribute your User Content on Pinterest solely for the purposes of operating, developing, providing, and using the Pinterest Products”? Not only does it go against social media ethics to break the networks’ rules, it’s also bad for business if you get caught and shut down.

4. Tell the truth.

This might sound like common sense, but how often do you encounter advertisements that make gross exaggerations about a company? In 1911, the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World produced the “Ten Commandments of Ethical Advertising.” The first commandment? “Thou shalt have no other gods in advertising but truth.” If you use deceptive content to get people to your website, they’ll find out pretty quickly and it won’t benefit your business.

Your business won’t benefit from deceptive content because people will see through the lies, perhaps after being dissatisfied by their purchase, and spread negative word-of-mouth. According to Forrester Research, 70% of consumers trust brand recommendations from friends.

5. Be professional.

Following those two words will help you stay within ethical boundaries on social media. An easy way to guide the content you share is by asking yourself, “Would I say this during a client meeting or networking event?” Ultimately, it comes down to putting yourself in the consumer’s shoes by understanding his or her buyer personas.

Social media ethics is a complex subject that deserves deeper discussion, so please share your thoughts on the topic in the comments below!

image credit: mrpuen/freedigitalphotos.net

The list below is based on my personal experience as an entrepreneur over the last 22 years. I have been fortunate enough to bootstrap 19 startups in this time period, and have made my share of mistakes when it comes to being an innovative boss.

1. Change is Good

In a startup change comes with the territory and can help you innovate as long as you keep your employees involved. The key is to really allow your employees to be a part of the solution and help shape the plan for upcoming changes. You are the boss and understand that a startup business plan can change quickly, but your employees might not be comfortable with a lot of change unless they are involved and understand the benefits of each change.

2. Hire Right

Hiring great people and giving them responsibility is the first step. Don’t fall into the financial trap of hiring employees that are cheap. Hire qualified employees that fit into your company culture and will be able to thrive. We know this is your business and your money, but you need to pick people that are experienced and you can trust with vital projects. They may just surprise you with how creative they are and help your business grow with new ideas.

3. Keep One Hand on the Wheel

Now that you have hired your first great employee or a team of new staff members, take one hand off the wheel and let them produce. It doesn’t matter if you own a bakery or a software development company – micromanaging will slow your growth and lead to slower innovation.

4. Empower

Innovation starts with allowing your staff to make choices. You must allow this to happen, and celebrate the small victories and avoid overreacting to the failures. If your business is innovating you will have more failures then successes. When you don’t empower your employees, they will not put themselves out on a limb with new ideas, which leads to a lack of innovation.

5. Exposure

One key to becoming a innovative start-up leader is to expose yourself and your team to constant learning. A thirst for knowledge is a key trait we look for when we hire new team members. We take this one step farther by having group and individual learning times scheduled for all of our staff members, and we meet regularly to discuss concepts in a think tank to spawn new ideas.

6. Workflow Collaboration

Promote and create an environment for an open workflow. If you hire the right team, and create a collaborative work environment where you trust your staff, they will thrive. If your employees feel like they have your trust and the freedom to innovate they will. We have created an “All Hands” session that is 4 hours each week where our entire staff (with the exception of me, the CEO) meet and collaborate. Throw in a free lunch and you will be pleasantly surprised with the results.

7. Embrace Failure

This is tough, and I know I have said this previously in this post, but you have to embrace failure for your employees. I saved this for last to drive home a point. Failure leads to success. Without allowing your team to fail. innovation is nowhere to be found in the future and your good employee’s will eventually leave.

Remember, employees quit people, not the company.

I have learned these lessons the hard way over the years and would love to hear your thoughts on how you have become, or are working on becoming, an innovative boss in the comments below.

image credit: kromkrathog/freedigitalphotos.net

Sometimes, Google algorithm updates and changes enter with a bang, as was the case with the Panda update of early 2011 that affected around 12% of search results. Usually, it’s just another day in the life of the world’s biggest search engine that puts out over 500 algorithm updates annually. You’re not alone if you’ve experienced a dramatic decrease in your blog referral traffic from Google images over the past month. The image search changes have hurt website analytics all around the web.

Google Images Redesigned

The change we’re referring to is the new redesign of Google Images, which rolled out in increments starting January 23, 2013. Previously, when you typed in a query, you received a page of results that resembled the following image:

image credit: Danny Sullivan

If you were intrigued enough to want a better view of the image, you could click through directly to the hosting website, which provided a view of the image file over the page. Even if you were just there for the picture, this counted as a website view in the site’s inbound marketing analytics:

 image credit: Danny Sullivan

New Google Images Affects Referral Traffic

In essence, Google has completely redesigned its image search results. The new layout may be optimized for user experience, but not your company’s total pageviews. Web searchers are now able to view a large version of the image without ever actually clicking through to the website:

 image credit: Danny Sullivan

The result? Web searchers on the hunt for images can save around 3 seconds, and your website’s total pageviews may have plummeted since the final week of January. It’s no secret that many SEO experts and small business owners were a little steamed about how this change affected their analytics. Google released an official blog post stating that the redesign would “provide a better search experience” for web browsers and that the update would effect website owners in the following way:

“The domain name is now clickable, and we also added a new button to visit the page the image is hosted on…In our tests, we’ve seen a net increase in the average click-through rate to the hosting website.”

If the 300+ comments on the blog post can be taken as an indicator about whether the Internet believes they’ll see an increase in click-through rates, most webmasters are righteously dubious. People are particularly angry that Google is using their servers’ bandwidth to host images without automatically providing pageviews as an associated bonus. Some have even gone as far as blocking Google’s search spiders from indexing their images, claiming the new search makes them feel like their visual content is being scraped from the website without any benefit.  If you’re interested in doing the same, information on how to block the search engine’s bots from indexing select aspects of your content can be found in Google’s Webmaster Tools here.

The Bright Side

Is there a bright side to any of this? There’s a good chance that your website’s traffic is significantly down since January, but there’s also some good news. The people who are still visiting your website are more qualified to convert to leads and share your content on social media channels than someone who just clicked through because they were intrigued by your image. In fact, Google’s team of engineers believe they made the right move for just that reason.

Website visitors who solely land on your website to view images are known to some SEO experts as “phantom visitors,” and Google webmaster trends analyst Pierre Far believes the issue is now solved. He even went as far as to describe the image search redesign as a “net win” for webmasters. Whether or not your inbound marketing analytics seem to agree with Far, it’s certainly just another piece of evidence that indicates that inbound marketers need to be among the most nimble and flexible professionals on the planet.

header image credit: andy pandy

Turns out, there really are millions of viewers who tune into the Super Bowl for the ad’s. Blame it on Steve Job’s wildly famous 1984 advertisement, but the commercial messages in between power plays have developed a cult following. Even Gary Vaynerchuk has stated that the Super Bowl ads hardly count as interruption marketing. You won’t lose a bit of inbound marketing cred if you tune in just to see how big brands are outdoing each other this year.

Forbes estimates that the average cost of a 30-second spot this year will run companies like Samsung, Old Spice and Taco Bell around $4 million. Fortunately, we’ve rounded up the key points so you can power up your inbound marketing strategy at a tiny percentage of that cost-per-lead:

Oreo: Whisper Fight

Why it’s Awesome:

I don’t know about you, but my Facebook news feed exploded with statuses and links to the Oreo commercial on YouTube as soon as it aired. It’s just plain funny in a way that appeals to almost everyone. Oreo has previously gained a reputation as a brand that’s not afraid of controversy in marketing, but one of this ad’s most-redeeming qualities is the fact that it’s humorous without being a bit offensive. Humor is notoriously tough for brands to hack, but Nabisco managed with their whispery library brawl. It was one of the few ads that wasn’t released in advance of the big game, but it turns out that it was well-worth the wait.

Taco Bell: Viva Young

Why it’s Great Marketing:

Taco Bell wins instant points for taking a very inbound marketing approach to their Super Bowl advertising. It wasn’t kept in the dark, and the brand released it on YouTube 6 days before the Super Bowl, racking up nearly 600,000 views before kickoff. There’s undisputable YouTube SEO benefits to this decision, especially considering the weight their search engine’s latest algorithm places on both number and length of view. We’ll see how search results for “Super Bowl 2013 Commercial” shake out in the days to come, but I suspect Taco Bell will benefit in the long run. Additionally, it meant Taco Bell’s efforts were discussed in-detail in pre-game newsjacking of Super Bowl advertising.

Finally, it’s a sharp effort on this brand’s part to portray their brand how they want to. According to Charles R. Taylor, Professor of Business at Villanova University, it’s a not-so-subtle progression of Taco Bell’s mission to reach people that aren’t the stereotypical fast food consumer. If 87 year-old Bernie Goldblatt and his pals can “live mas,” why can’t you?

Old Spice: Irresistible

Why We Love It:

Does Old Spice ever do terrible marketing? The brand has found what really works for them and their audience, which is over-the-top vignettes of manliness and women who just can’t resist an Old Spice man. Their Super Bowl ad is no exception, and the image of a gorgeous, classic car driving through a glass window is just plain hilarious. Old Spice also hit on some very inbound marketing brilliance by releasing this spot several days in advance to YouTube, though the ad is only scheduled to air in Juneau, Alaska. From what we can tell, it seems like they did a pretty effective job of building hype and generating hundreds of thousands of views at a much lower cost. Old Spice scored a major touch down for this Bond-esque effort, and even more points for making their new line of products seem so irresistible.

We’ve got to hear your feedback! What do you think are the best ads of Super Bowl XLVII?

image credit: this paris review

Since Facebook announced the launch of their social search functionality, known as graph search, inbound marketers everywhere have been curious about the implications behind it. Stated Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg at the press conference, “Graph search is the kind of product we love to build at Facebook — we’re really proud of it.” If the product works as promised, consumers could find themselves able to receive word-of-mouth recommendations straight from their laptops. Curious where your friends in San Francisco like to purchase their lattes? Graph search can answer that question.

Available only in beta mode to a select group of English speakers, the goal is to combine the who, what and where of search. While we’re still waiting for our own invites to start exploring the platform, we’ve developed some predictions on just how graph search could impact your inbound marketing strategy:

1. Social Search Can Be Geo-Targeted

Prior to social search, geo-targeted social media marketing was a bit tougher. Marketers had to focus on localized promotions and geo-targeted Twitter tools to find the right followers and fans in their area. The fact that consumers will now be able to discover brands by geo-targeting graph search queries could make life a great deal easier for hyper-local marketers.

2. Your Persona and Market Research Will Be Streamlined

Whether you’re working on a buyer persona profile or doing research on the kinds of customers you want to attract, graph search offers a lot of insight into consumer preferences and habits. Searching “Chinese Restaurants liked by Harvard Students” can provide insight within seconds to a restaurant owner on how his or her Facebook presence and reputation are stacking up against the competition.

3. Brand Partnerships Could Change

If you’re hoping to develop brand partnerships, graph search offers the potential for business owners to gain consumer insight. Inbound Marketer Lauren Barraco explains that social search queries like “handbags liked by BMW owners” can be strong starting places for discovering targets for strategic partnerships.

4. Fan Numbers Matter More

Ultimately, your total number of Facebook fans will matter much more if graph search gains popularity and becomes a means for discovering brands, products, and services. According to Dr. Robin Grant of We Are Social, for a company to appear in graph search at all, the individual doing the search will need to have a friend who likes the page. Not only does graph search effectively drive the value of fake likes down even further, the search increases incentive for companies to increase their network through contests.

5. Disengaged Fans Gain Value

Disengaged Facebook fans are the bane of social brands. While a large segment of your fans may like your page, they don’t interact with the content through likes, comments, or shares. It’s more common than many of us realize—research by marketing thinktank Ehrenberg-Bass Institute reveals that 99% of Facebook fans don’t interact with a brand in a given month. Graph search could significantly increase the value of these quieter, less visible fans. Even if a given Facebook user has never liked a single post, their friends could gain exposure to your products and services through graph search query.

The truth is, no one really knows how Facebook’s steps towards making search social will affect the way consumers connect with brands. It’s a fact that people are influenced by friends in their purchase decisions. If the social search functionality proves effective, it could overtake Google in the years to come. While little is crystal-clear, it is apparent that if your brand has been putting off an active Facebook presence, the time is right to start engaging and increasing your likes.

How do you think graph search will affect inbound marketers?

image credit: blogging food for thought

Traditional marketing methods are no longer an effective way of driving revenue. Your average modern consumer has options for product research and the ability to block out marketing messages. They can skip television commercials by watching shows through a Hulu subscription. iTunes removes the need to listen to radio commercials. And why would they deal with the heavy sales pitch in print catalogs when they can listen to brands or people they trust in social media? In the words of Seth Godin, “ Permission is like dating. You don’t start by asking for the sale at first impression. You earn the right, over time, bit by bit.”

CEOs are Over It

Even the world’s smartest analysts are convinced that marketing is undergoing a rapid revolution, and there’s no going back. Harvard Business Review is convinced, too. In an August article that went viral, Bill Lee highlighted the fact that CEOs are sick and tired of pouring money into marketing efforts that just don’t yield ROI: 77% have had it with talk of brand equity that doesn’t yield noticeable returns in revenue. 73% believe CMOs lack business credibility or the ability to generate growth.

The point is, traditional marketing methods are ineffective and decision-makers are tired of it. Here’s what Lee has noticed is driving sales:

• Community-Based Marketing: Companies that are thriving today are emulating the community-based experience of their products. Instead of interrupting their client’s drives to work with eye-catching bill boards, they’re positioning themselves on social media. People want to gain information from peers, not pushy brands. Being social is key to building trust in marketing.
• Identify Your MVPs: The savviest companies aren’t just examining their clients in terms of customer lifetime value (CLV), an age-old marketing metric that’s based solely on dollars and cents. Look at their respect and network – do they have 30,000 Twitter followers who will notice when they give you a glowing review on social media?
• Get Customer Advocates Involved: Ask your MVPs for help. Involve your brand’s biggest and most influential advocates in helping you grow, from crowd-sourcing feedback on new products to determining the topics that are driving discussions among the people with digital influence.

Don’t just take it from us, though. Check out these 15 fresh and shareable statistics on just why disruptive marketing is still on the way down:

1. 2/3 of US Citizens are on the Federal Trade Commission’s Do Not Call List. (via the FTC) //

2. 44% of Direct Mail is Never Opened. (via the EPA) //

3. 86% of People Don’t Watch Television Ads. (via The Guardian) //

4. 59% of B2B marketers find email is the most effective channel for generating revenue. (via BtoB Magazine) //

5. Usage of Marketing Automation Technology is Expected to Rise 50% by 2015. (via Sirius Decisions) //

6. Failing to respond to social media complaints can lead to a 15% increase in churn for existing customers. (via Gartner) //

7. 84% of B2B marketers use some form of social media. (via the Aberdeen Group) //

8. The average Marketer spends 4-6 hours each week on social media. (via the Social Media Examiner) //

9. Marketers allocate 7.6% of budgets to social media. This should reach 18.8% by 2017. (via the CMO Survey) //

10. 79% of online shoppers spend 50% of their time researching products. (via Power Reviews) //

11. 89% of marketers are maintaining or increasing their inbound marketing budgets. (via HubSpot) //

12. 53% of B2B Marketers Have Acquired a Customer through Facebook, and 44% through Twitter. (via HubSpot) //

13. 35% of Consumers Are Influenced by Brands on Social  Media. (via eMarketer) //

14. Blog Reading Peaks at 10am and 11pm. (via HubSpot) //

15. Inbound Marketing Costs 61% Per Lead than Disruptive Marketing. (via HubSpot) //

In case you hadn’t noticed, people really like to poke fun at social media-types. And why not? Social media is effective, but even the world’s smartest marketers struggle to measure ROI. There’s a dearth of trustworthy certification programs and college courses that actually produce people who can drive results. Anyone can brand themselves as a “Social Media Ninja” in their Twitter bio, and why shouldn’t you believe them? After all, Google gives me over 43 million results when I search “social media guru.” Does that mean that we’re all experts?

Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update recently debuted a new character, a social media expert named Kourtney Barnes who cheerfully argued that all opinions in social media were of equal valuable. The Onion jumped into the conversation yesterday with a humorous parody of Ted Talks; a social media expert stating there’s no need for originality in the era of Twitter and Facebook:

“Using your brains to think of an idea and your skills to implement it? That’s the old model.”

Here’s the issue: the parody is based on real people on the internet. There’s just no way that all of those 43 million search results for “social media guru” were written by a recognized expert. Is your company paying someone who’s not driving results or even worse – believes buying 870,00 followers is a win? Here are 7 reasons why many self-proclaimed “gurus” are almost as bad as the guy in the video:

1.  No Value.

“Social media eliminates the need to provide value to anyone…people liked cheetos even though they had no reason to.”

Poppycock. Just having a page isn’t enough. If your social media guru thinks you don’t need to post or share content with more depth than a kitten meme (unless your business is kitten humor), they’re not aware of the fact that providing value increases your bottom line.

Social media moves really fast, and your content will be buried quickly. Optimal frequency can vary widely even within the same industry, so HubSpot recommends you start by posting every two hours and increase gradually until you find what works best for your brand.

2.  No Incentive.

What do your prospects get out of being your fan on Facebook? If your answer is “vacation pictures of the boss,” it’s time to go fire your guru. It’s crucial to differentiate your brand from competitors by standing out on social media. There’s not a single right way to do that – you can post humorous content, the world’s best links or run awesome contests – but you should be concerned if you’re not providing something in return for your fan’s time.

3. No Skills.

“Any teenager could have done what we did. For no money. And much faster.” 

I’m way over the internet’s ongoing argument about how old your social media manager should be. I honestly don’t care if they’re 103 or 18, as long as they’ve got the skills to manage your campaign. True social media experts have mad skills- they can seamlessly transition from customer service representative to data analyst in a matter of minutes. Not only do they get your business, they understand how to talk to your buyer personas. If your personal guru thinks that social media is nothing more than maintaining pretty pin boards, be very afraid.

4. No Effort.

“Like, anything that’s old and requires effort? It’s inefficient.”

One of the few human beings on this planet who could be called a social media guru is Gary Vaynerchuk. He had over 958,000 Twitter followers at the time of writing, and he built his wine company by providing effort. He spent hours and hours a day putting in the effort to engage Twitter users who were talking about wine. What’s his take on the situation? “99.5 percent of social media experts are clowns.” Because they’re not willing to provide effort.

5. Purchased Followers.

“We were able to increase their followers from 300 to 900,00 in less than a week. And the best part is, all of these accounts were robots – so we didn’t have to tweet anything, because nobody was reading it.”

There are inbound marketing metrics that matter, and there are vanity metrics – figures of very limited worth. Facebook likes and Twitter followers are a vanity measure, because they’re not a reliable measure of your reach. The best social media managers understand that genuinely engaging with real prospects will drive a whole lot more revenue than buying a few thousand fake followers to look legit.

6. No Client Love.

“Ideally, real human users will leave social networking altogether, and all that will be left will be thousands of robots, talking to each other, who we can then advertise to.”

Anyone who thinks social media management is all sunshine and peaches isn’t very experienced. The job entails some serious front-line customer service, and you’re going to be dealing with people who aren’t happy. The best managers aren’t scared of conflict or conversations. They’re experts at advertising crisis.

7. No ROI.

“You just have to keep looking like you’re doing work, and people will pay for it.”

When it comes to measuring social media ROI, you should be wary of anyone who’s either afraid of numbers or proclaims they’ve figured out how to track revenue. Because it’s really tough, which is partially why 53% of social media managers aren’t currently using analytics. Do your social media guru’s eyes start to glaze when you use terms like “referral traffic,” “click-through rate” or “share of voice?” We’re not saying they need to be the world’s most effective analyst, but they should have at least a little love for numbers.

Oh, by the way – we’re hiring a social media manager. Are you awesome? Send us a Tweet.

The idea of searching for information is really nothing new. For most of history, we’d just ask our tribemates or neighbors for advice on solutions. More recently, we started flipping through the almanac or yellow pages. Now Google, Bing and Yahoo are our avenues for connecting with products and services. It’s no secret that SEO has changed dramatically over time, to provide consumers what they want and to prevent marketers from gaming the system.

Inspired by HubSpot’s recent eBook, Learning SEO from the Experts, we’ve compiled a few of our favorite, Tweetable stats on the state of search:

1. Your On-Page SEO is only 25% of How Your Search Ranking is Determined (via HubSpot) //

The Takeaway: It’s still important to use a variety of long-tail keywords and SEO techniques, like meta tags, alt text and an internal linking strategy to ensure your web page jives well with search engines and readers. Writing valuable content matters, too and it’s going to help a lot more than getting your tags just right. Your blog content needs to generate social media shares and inbound links to achieve and maintain a high rank..

2. 95% of the US Online Population Uses a Search Engine Once a Month or More.(via Compete) //

3. The Average Online American Uses Search 37 Times Monthly. (via Compete) //

4. SEO is not about optimizing for search engines, it’s about optimizing for humans. (via HubSpot founder Dharmesh Shah) //

The Takeaway: You could find the most magical long-tail keyword in the world of search and fail to rank well if your content doesn’t matter to humans. You need to generate Tweets, Facebook shares and inbound links from relevant sources in order to rise to the top of Google. Ask not what the keywords can do for you. Ask yourself why your buyer personas are searching that term in the first place, and how you can develop content that answers their real-life FAQ.

5. Facebook handles close to 1 billion search queries per day.(via Facebook)

6. 92% of consumers worldwide trust recommendations from friends more than any advertising.(via Nielson)//

7. 18% fewer consumers trust advertising over friends and family than in 2007.(via Nielson)

The Takeaway: At the end of the day, consumers come to view Google with suspicion if the top search result for an Italian restaurant in their neighborhood turns out to be pretty darn bad. Google isn’t a tool for serving businesses, it’s a tool for serving people. People don’t want to buy from the companies that had the best internal linking strategy and keyword research habits, they just want the best. Recommendations from their real-life friends and family on Facebook are easier to believe than pure Google ranking.

8. Bing accounted for 30% of all searches in spring of 2012. (via HubSpot)//

9. Ranking #1 Only Results in 20% of Traffic for That Search Query. (via SEOMoz)//

While 75% of search users will never click through to the second page, the eye isn’t automatically driven to the top spot in search. It’s drawn towards the most eye-catching and fancy search result above the fold. Eye-candy, like a Google+ photo if you’ve earned Google authorship and video content can be much more eye-catching than plain text. Providing content that’s visually appealing and search optimized could be your sharpest move in the world of new SEO.

image courtesy of SEO Our Site and infographic courtesy of HubSpot

Are you sick and tired of hearing about how important blogging is for your inbound marketing strategy? It seems like all I hear is “Blog, Blog, Blog.” I have been hearing this same speech for the last four years from HubSpot, and now I have to listen to incessant  “Blogging is like jogging” speeches from our new Chief Marketing Officer, Sam Mallikarjunan who has only been with us for a week.

Sam has already used his catch phrase multiple times in the last week and HubSpot (Sam’s former employer) has beaten the power of blogging into over 7,000 of their customers’ heads since 2006. How can they sleep at night? I know I can’t, because I wake up in cold sweats thinking about my next topic or the long tail keywords I need to start optimizing for.

Turns Out, They’re Dead Right.

Here’s the deal. They’re right!  You may be tired of listening to inbound marketers talk about blogging and the benefits that come along with it, but they are dead right. The title and opening paragraph was just to get you to start reading the article.  Would you have started reading with a run-of-the-mill title like The Benefits of Blogging?  Probably not.

I started drinking the HubSpot Kool-Aid close to five years ago as a basic customer and I will never forget my first call with my first Inbound Marketing Consultant.  His name is not important to this article (@Redbord), but this dude was insane.  He wanted me to write three blog articles per week and I had never written an article in my life.  If you know me, then you know that I had a few choice words in response that I can print here, but he convinced me to get started.

The Story of My First Blog Post

Following that kick off call I wrote my first article.  Believe me, I didn’t like it, but something happened over the next couple of weeks as I got into it. I actually saw an increase in my website traffic.  After all that’s all I wanted – more traffic, leads and revenue.  I didn’t know any better at the time.  Once I saw this increase I was hooked and started to kick up a notch.  I got one of my friends to help me write a couple of articles and I doubled my output so we were blogging everyday and guess what?  Our traffic doubled within the first 30 days of becoming a HubSpot customer and starting to blog.

The Benefits of Business Blogging

What I didn’t think about when I started blogging was all of the other benefits that come along with your blog articles. I now had content to post to my Facebook and Twitter accounts.  I could insert a CTA into an article and link it to a landing page to capture lead data.  How about the SEO benefits?  Our organic search rankings went through the roof within 120 days, especially for long-tailed keyword phrases I never thought people would search for.  The opportunities for business growth and revenue were endless.

Many days I sit back and think about what would have happened to my business if I hadn’t started blogging, found HubSpot, or had a great mentor to help get me started.  I truly believe that I most likely would have gone out of business in 2009 after the recession started to take a toll on our economy.

Did I tell you how much I love blogging and inbound marketing? Don’t just take it from my experience, though.. Check  out this simple infographic from Cognition Sales and HubSpot on the benefits of business blogging in 2012:

Thank you to HubSpot and Michael Redbord for converting me from a traditonal marketer to an inbound marketing specialist five years ago and welcome to our new CMO and former Head of Experimental Marketing at HubSpot, Sam Mallikarjunan.

Blog, Blog, Blog!

Did you know that the average Twitter user is a 28 year-old female who speaks English, owns an iPhone and has a fondness for the color purple? Is that statistic likely to change your life? I certainly hope not. However, it could have a real influence over the way you approach content creation and curation on the network, given that many of your personas could be 20-something women. The best marketers never stop learning and researching, which is why I’ve compiled 31 of the most recent, shocking and fascinating statistics on social media usage and behavior patterns among American consumers.

The best inbound marketers realize their social media strategy can’t be stagnant. What earned shares and likes on Facebook a year ago won’t fly anymore since the adoption of Facebook time line. While it might have been wisest to focus your efforts towards Twitter and Facebook a few months ago, the rising prevalence of Pinterest is a leading source of referral traffic for many B2C businesses.

From a purely selfish standpoint, if you’re hoping to gain exposure and followers on Twitter, Tweeting stats can be a wise maneuver. HubSpot’s social media scientist Dan Zarella has found that the less you talk about yourself, the more like you are to gain followers and engagement. Whether you’re in it to gain a few dozen social media followers or adjust your inbound marketing strategy, we’ve compiled the most shocking and recent research from sources we trust. Read it and Tweet:

Social Behavior

1. The average time spent using social media is increasing, while email is largely decreasing.(via ComScore) //

2. 85% of Internet users have Facebook accounts and 49% are on Twitter. (via HubSpot)

3. Over 50% of Consumers consider Facebook friends a trusted source of information. (via Technorati) //

4. 80% of people prefer to get coupons, promos, and discounts from brands in social media.(via HubSpot) //

5. Social Media Networks Reach Over 50% of Americans. (via We Are Social) //

6. Social networking accounts for 19% of all time spent online. (via ComScore) //

7. 55 percent of Americans ages 45-54 have a social media profile. (via Edison Research)

Social Media for Business

8. The Number of Americans Following a Brand in Social Media Has Doubled Since 2010.(via Edison Research) //

9. Social Media Has a 100% Higher Lead-to-Close Rate than Outbound Marketing. (via HubSpot) //

Pinterest

10. The best time to pin during the day is between 2 PM and 4 PM EST. (via Pinerly) //

11. Pinterest retains and engages 2-3 times more efficiently than Twitter at a similar time in their history. (via RJ Metrics) //

12. 80% of Pinterest’s users are female. (via Comscore) //

13. Unique Visitors to Pinterest Increased by 155% in January 2012.(via Compete) //

14. Pinterest Users Spend Just 0.6% of Their Time On the Network Commenting. (via Repinly) //

15. Food and Drink is the Most Popular Category on Pinterest at 11.9% of all pins. (via Repinly) //

Facebook

16. Over 90% of Retail Companies Have Acquired a Customer Through Facebook.(via HubSpot)

17. Brands are acquiring Facebook fans at an average rate of 9% per month.(viaeFrontier)

18. 77% of B2C Companies Have Acquired a Customer Through Facebook. (via HubSpot)

19. Auto-Posting to Facebook Decreases Likes and Comments by 70%.(via Digital Buzz Blog)

20. 80% of US Social Media Users Prefer to Connect With Brands Through Facebook. (via HubSpot) //

21. 23% of Facebook users check their account five or more times each day. (via Socialnomics) //

22. 20% of Facebook users have purchased something because of ads or comments they saw there. (via Ipsos) //

23. The US has over 157 million Facebook users.(via Fortunecate It)

24. 19% of Facebook Users Registered in the Last 12 Months. (via Socialnomics)

25. Facebook accounts for 1 in 7 minutes spent online. (via Comscore) //

26. Brands Have Seen a 46% Increase in Engagement Since Timeline for Business.(via Simply Measured) //

27. 47%  say Facebook has the greatest impact on purchase behavior, compared to just 24 percent in 2011. (via Edison Research) //

Twitter

28. The typical Twitter user is a 28 year-old English-speaking woman with 208 followers and an iPhone. (via Beevolve) //

29. 34% of marketers have generated leads using Twitter, and 20% have closed deals. (via Mindjumpers)

30. 76%  of Twitter users now post status updates, compared to just 47% in 2010. (via Edison Research)//

31. 67% of Twitter users are more likely to buy brands that they follow. (via iModerate) //

Are you hoping to kick your company’s lead generation into high gear without tripling your marketing budget? If you’re employing inbound marketing practices that include business blogging, social media and valuable content offers, you’re certainly on the right track. In 2012, leads gained through inbound methods cost 60% less on average than outbound leads gained through telemarketing, print advertising, direct mail and commercials.

If you’re already putting the time into the most effective marketing channels, how can you generate even more leads from your company website? We’ve compiled the latest research for marketers who have put their energy into social media and business blogging and are ready to take their inbound marketing strategy up a notch:

1. Increase Your Landing Pages

Did you know that simply boosting your total number of landing pages can dramatically increase lead generation, your website’s SEO and expand the number of buyer personas your products and services are reaching? It’s true. According to the latest research by HubSpot, you probably need more pages than you realize. By analyzing data from over 7,000 companies, their team found this is little benefit from increasing your total landing page count from 1 to 9. Once you page count is between 10-15, your lead generation will increase by an average of 55%:

Image Courtesy of HubSpot

Why is that, anyway? Turns out, the benefits of adding more landing pages are varied:

Awesome SEO. Each additional landing page you add to your website means another page indexed by Google and other major search engines. The chances of real consumers stumbling upon your product through search increases, and you’ll be able to include relevant and varied call-to-action buttons at the bottom of your blog content. While there’s little-to-no SEO benefit of building landing pages for slight variations of the same keyword (such as kid’s hats and kids hats), add a page for each of your unique product or service offerings.

More Interesting Content Offers. Have you ever decided against downloading a TOFU eBook or white paper because you just weren’t convinced it would be helpful? You’ll likely see your conversion rate soar as you’re able to add more CTAs to your website that appeal to a broader group.

Your Precision Soars. If you just have a single landing page dedicated to a group of products, your future leads might have trouble understanding the relevance. By adding more landing pages, you can tailor your content offers to best fit your segments. What demographics and stage of the sales cycle are you trying to target? Consumers want relevant information, and adding landing pages will allow you to provide this.

2. Repurpose Blogs into Offers

All of the best content offers have one thing in common: they answer customer FAQ. Creating quality content takes time, and even though exceptional eBooks are often around 3000-6000 words, it’s an enormous time commitment to whip up a batch of TOFU from scratch. If you’re hoping to kick your lead generation into high gear, you’re going to need to add some irresistible content offers. It’s never wise to sacrifice quality for quantity, but there is a way you can streamline the content creation process.

The smartest marketers are discovering that eBooks can often be repurposed from your own best blog content. Compiled tutorials and frequently-asked questions into a guide. It’s not plagiarism if you own the material! Develop a concept, draft out an outline and pull relevant blog content to fill out the body of the book. Add and remove content to make your eBook flow and edit carefully.

3. Step Up Your Content Calendar

You’ve probably noticed by now that most of the latest research on how to effectively boost your lead generation is centered around creating more, high-quality content. Adding more weekly blog posts to your company’s content calendar and committing to delivering could yield big results:

image courtesy of HubSpot.

Companies that blog more 15 times a month have 5 times more traffic than companies without a blog. Are you unsure whether you can commit to blogging every other day or on a daily basis? Companies that increase their frequency from 3-5 times monthly to 6 to 8 double their leads, on average. While committing to a schedule is essential to avoid letting your subscribers and readers down, just adding a few more posts a month could yield significant returns.

4. Automatically Publish On Your Social Media Networks

Setting your blog content to automatically publish to Twitter and Facebook is among the easiest ways to boost your lead generation. Research has indicated that companies who automatically post links to their latest content generate 50% more leads. Here are some tips on maximizing the impact and traffic from each new piece of shared content:

• Optimize your Blog Post Titles With Powerful Language and Eye-Catching Keywords.
• Ensure Your Tweets are Optimized for Social Sharing with shortened links and titles.
• Publish When Your Click-Through Rates are Highest.

What tactics have you found are effective at boosting your brand’s lead generation?

Don’t Be a Social Media Stereotype

As we approach the election, we’re sure you’ve haven’t been irritated by anything in your Facebook feed recently, right? More like yeah, right. Social media can be a powerful tool for connecting with old friends, but it can also be the prime range for heated political debates and arguments. Even worse, political statements aren’t the only way members of our networks tend to misuse the publish button. From TMI to Vaguebooking, there’s a number of ways to lose Facebook friends, fast.

Here’s the thing: people aren’t the only offenders on Facebook. Brands can be annoying, too. Inspired by Mashable’s compilation of the most annoying habits of private Facebook users, we’ve compiled the worst mistakes your business could be making:

1. TMI

We probably don’t need to come up with any specific examples of how many personal Facebook users tend to over-share. From posting details of their break-ups in real time to even more sordid status updates, you can probably remember at least a dozen updates that were better suited for their private journal. In the world of social media for business, the line between humanizing your brand and TMI is much, much thinner. If you’re a small business, your clients definitely want to know about your people and what they bring to the table. They might want to see vacation pictures of your President, but not if the images are numerous or he’s dressed in a speedo.

2. Overt Marketing

It may come as a surprise, but overt marketing efforts also top the list of the most annoying habits of private Facebook users. Needless to say, hard sells aren’t going to be any more welcome on your business page. This could come as a surprise, but Facebook’s track record of driving referral traffic that leads to purchases isn’t especially good. It’s even worse when examined in conjunction with pretty, retail-driven Pinterest. Trying to use Facebook like a network television shopping channel isn’t going to be an effective tactic because people aren’t there to spend money. Build awareness, strengthen relationships and answer questions but don’t act like a salesman.

3 Vaguebooking

Urban dictionary defines vaguebooking as “an intentionally vague Facebook status update that prompts friends to ask what’s going on.” We know you’ve likely encountered these in your personal Facebook feed before. “Wondering whether it was worth it.” “Too late to take any of it back, now.” Vaguebooking isn’t necessarily taboo or even a poor tactic for brands, unless you’re incessant.

The concept of mystery and buzz are actually a pretty effective marketing tactic when correctly approached. Gmail is a prime example – back in 2004, the Beta launch was only extended to 1,000 prominent individuals and their friends and family. Gmail email addresses quickly became a hot commodity, and reports have it that people would pay as much as $150 for rights to the (free) email service via eBay.

Use your Facebook to generate buzz around upcoming products and services. Maintain an aura of mystery – it’s far better than TMI. Just please don’t make a weekly habit of posting a tiny, over-cropped image of a product and asking fan’s to guess what’s in the photo.

4. Politics

Call me old-fashioned, but I really don’t think many small business brands can afford the PR risk associated with posting political content. News-jacking is a smart move. Taking a hard-and-fast stance on political issues is entirely another. There are definitely examples of brands who’ve benefited from a company-wide social media statement about a hot-button issue. Oreo is one example who gained a number of social media fans and some life-long advocates through a hard stance back in June. Can the average small business afford that same risk? Unlikely.

5. Redundant Links

Without a doubt, your brand can and should avoid this rookie mistake at all costs. Redundant links look like the following:

Once you’ve copied and pasted your link into the status update, be sure and erase the extra link from the text to avoid looking completely inexperienced at Facebook.

What are Your Social Media Pet Peeves?

What was the last piece of marketing you really loved? Chances are, it’s probably not something you saw during a commercial break or driving down the road on a billboard. We’ve gotten so effective at tuning out traditional marketing methods that content that goes viral – like Old Spice’s famous commercials – gains a lot more views on YouTube than in between commercial breaks on ABC’s Nashville.

Unfortunately, being funny enough to go viral is tougher than you think. Not convinced? In theater festivals, comedies are typically outnumbered by dramas, in numbers as high as 1 to 20. Why? It’s because being funny enough to make hundreds of people laugh – without offending anyone – is actually really tough.

Chances are, it’s easy to make your best friend or wife laugh, because you know them well. You understand a fair amount about their personal history, tastes in movies and politics. You understand their politics well enough to avoid stepping on any toes. Using humor in your content marketing is really about becoming BFFs with your buyer personas and optimizing the content for maximum laughs. Here are some reasons why it’s essential to use humor, even if it’s not the easiest way to get started:

• Humor Builds Connections Even though people use Google to research products and services, they’re not going to buy from a company they don’t trust. Humor is essentially a shared experience. Even if you personally hate the meme you posted on your Facebook page, your prospects don’t need to know that. They’ll come to associate your brand with the positive feelings of laughing and the trust associated with that shared experience.
• Humor is Memorable Marketing is really about creating “aha!” moments in your prospects’ minds. If you can be memorable, they’ll be more likely to open your lead nurturing campaigns and head back to your website when they’re ready to make the buy. Chances are, you can remember your favorite joke from Freshman year of college better than a news article you read a month ago. Humor sticks with people.

It’s not easy to be funny, and we’ve compiled 6 nearly fool-proof ways to make people laugh and love you without hurting anyone’s feelings:

1. Optimize for Buyer Personas

Are your clients creative 20-somethings or straight-laced, middle-aged men? It’s no secret that what’s going to work for one group just won’t fly with another. Use social media stalking to see what’s driving laughs among your fans in social media, based on their content and retweets. Are their jokes typically fueled by references to popular films? Are they current events junkies? The best way to really make them laugh is to see what’s already driving their social media content.

2 Be Creative

Few good marketers would dare use a Big Bird meme in the light of recent current events. Not only does it run the risk of offending a huge segment of the population, most people would agree that it’s just plain tired at this point. Try for relevance but maintain an element of surprise and originality. You’ll come across as much more clever that way.

3. Be Pithy

Unless your buyer personas are humor writers or essayists, keep your humor short. Your clients don’t want to have to work to crack a smile. If you can combine a visual element with less text than a Tweet, you’ve likely struck gold. Captioned photos, tongue-in-cheek infographics and memes are likely to do extremely well on Facebook and your company blog. Consider humorous quotations as a means for adding variety to your Tweets.

4. Pick Targets Carefully

You can poke fun at yourself. You can poke fun at the weather, though it’s not likely to be very funny. You can technically poke fun at your competition, but it’s hard to stay classy while doing that. It’s always best to entirely avoid any demographic groups, even if your buyer personas don’t overlap. You might get some laughs out of your millennial followers by poking fun at senior citizens or vice versa, but the risk of damaging your brand far outweighs the benefits.

5. Approach Sarcasm with Caution

Sarcasm is one of the most likely forms of humor to backfire entirely. The marketing community is still discussing a PR disaster involving FedEx and PR Firm Ketchum back in 2009. A PR employee flying into town for a huge corporate meeting tweeted “True Confession but I’m in one of those towns where I scratch my head and say – I would die if I had to live here.” The Tweet was read by Fed-Ex executives, who issued a strongly-worded response by email which went public. The lessons are clear: while strong statements might be fine for your private conversations, not everyone will see the humor. As Seth Godin responded, “you are judged almost entirely by your actions, usually based on your fingers…online interactions are largely expected to be intentional.”

The lesson is clear: be funny, but be careful about how you approach it. Humorous marketing is about meeting your prospects on common ground. If they’re still laughing about the movie The Hangover, go for it. Just make sure your words are clear and no one else is harmed in the process!

Social media for brand awareness. Social media for buzz. There’s a lot fewer conversations about social media for customer service, but it’s a topic that deserves coverage. Resolving customer complaints and queries via Twitter and Facebook is cheap, for one. According to Forrester Research, the average cost on an incoming call to a customer service representative is $33. Working with a disgruntled or confused client electronically is likely to cost your brand a lot less.

The tool is so effective that big brands have caught on. Ford Motor Company has some pretty well-established protocol for working with their clients. Eight full-time staff members are dedicated to monitoring conversations on major social media network. According to their global manager of communications, Scott Monty, “We are looking to engage with someone…(in) under four hours.” Ford’s agents are trained in moving these complaints from the public realm into more private, emailed conversations or direct messages to speed up conversations and provide privacy surrounding the exchange of personal contact information.

According to research by DMG Consulting, 67% of enterprises are using social media for customer service. The top aspect of customer service is crisis-management: responding to complaints on Twitter quickly can prevent them from getting out of hand. Sharper brands have started monitoring conversations with the help of keyword searches to gain insight into exactly what’s driving their clients’ conversations.

Adopt Query-Jacking

There’s a good chance that if clients first learned of your brand on Facebook or Twitter, they’ll return to your business page for help in the future. If you’re smart, you won’t just help these clients reach resolution. You’ll “query-jack” these questions and use them as a starting place for creating Top-of-the-funnel (TOFU) content, which could include blog posts and offers. Both B2B and B2C companies could even take this query-jacking a step further and use it as a tool for spotlighting their loyal clients. You can feature the business or client who originally asked the question in your content as a tool for humanizing your brand, perhaps even sweetening the deal by offering them an incentive of a gift certificate or discount.

Establish an Engaged Reputation

By developing a reputation as a brand that actively engages with their clients and prospects, your buzz-factor could easily sky-rocket. There’s an ancient saying that “there’s no such thing as bad publicity.” While it holds limited truth, actively working to establish your company’s social media profiles as somewhere your fans can come to hold dialogue will  increase your visibility within their networks, too. Here are some tips for moving your customer service presence off your phone lines and into social media networks:

1. Consider a Second Twitter Account

There’s a number of high-profile brands who’ve made their commitment to social media customer service well-known by creating a Twitter account just for resolving issues. Virgin Mobile is one well-known example. If your inquiries are high enough to clutter your company’s feed, it could be wise to separate your Twitter accounts. Respond to initial inquiries to let them know that @YourBrandCustomerService will be contacting them.

2. Be Expedient

The majority of consumers in both the US and International markets expect responses to their questions and queries the same day, no exceptions. 30% expect a response within a matter of hours. We understand you need to sleep, but the current climate of customer service dictates responding really quickly on social media. Make a goal of replying within an hour whenever possible.

3. Be a Human

Despite the fact that the Internet has become a major channel for communications, people still want to talk to people, especially if they’re upset. Signing your responses to customer service queries with at least a first name has been adopted by many social media all-stars, including Zappos and Portland-based natural foods chain New Seasons Market. Being empathetic is always a tenant of great customer service, and it’s going to come across a lot more sincere if you attach a name.

4. Be Nice

There’s always going to be trolls who contact your company on social media with the sole intention of agitating your customer service and social media managers. While it’s best to disregard or delete these contacts, make a point of being nice the rest of the time. You’re not just going to salvage a single relationship, you could earn the attention and respect of that person’s networks.

5. Use Analytics

In the world of inbound marketing strategy and social media, it all comes back to analytics. Keep tabs on how you’re company is doing overall. How many interactions were resolved and how many escalated? Is there anything you can do in the future to salvage a higher percentage of clients?  Learn, improve and grow.

Is Your Brand Using Social Media for Customer Service?

Let’s not kid ourselves. Community and relationships are great, but wouldn’t it be nice to generate some serious revenue from Facebook and Twitter? We’re not suggesting you start using Facebook posts as a forum for a hard sell. How do you write and distribute content that stands out in a busy social feed? Is there any magic formula for really developing a great connection with your leads on Twitter? We’ve compiled the latest research to help you use social media to generate a serious ROI:

1. Post the Right Content

Before your sales person picks up the phone and calls a lead or drops them a personalized email, 60% of the sales cycle is over. Customers have already made more than half a decision that they’ll be purchasing your product. That’s one of the best arguments we’ve ever encountered for an inbound marketing strategy. How do you ensure the first 60% of the sales cycle is exceptional? Social media outreach isn’t just a great way to build community, it’s a real way to sway your future clients towards your brand. Here’s how to ensure that no one is driven over to your competitors’ website during the early stages:

• Sharpen Your Buyer Personas: How old is your average customer? What’s their average income? Are they more concerned about cost, convenience, packaging or image? You may think that your company’s commitment to keeping costs down is king, but if your clients are mostly interested in your return policy and customer service, you should rethink your content calendar and inbound marketing strategy!
• Create Content to Answer Real Persona FAQs: No one knows better than your sales representatives the questions they have to answer day in and day out before a lead becomes a client. Are clients concerned about how to use your software or the nutritional content of your trail mix? Address these questions in content. Not only will you attract clients who failed to get their questions answered over at your competitors blog, your sales team will thank you!
• Act Like a Publisher: Curate videos, memes, news items and infographics that will hit a home run with your buyer personas. Remember, over 73% of engagement on Twitter takes place within the first hour after you hit “Tweet.” Marketers and small businesses have traditionally been constrained by the cost of advertising space. Space is not the issue, it’s getting noticed and keeping people’s attention!

2. Generate Shares

Think back to the summer’s pervasive piece of viral content. We’re talking about Call Me Maybe, the very bubble gum pop hit by a 26 year-old runner up on Canadian Idol. Say what you will about the song, you can’t deny the fact that Carly Rae Jepsen’s 260 million YouTube views and counting are downright enviable. How did the formerly unknown folk singer do it? Justin Bieber. The teen idol made his own parody version of the song which launched Jepsen into instant fame.

While few of us can dream of earning the attention of Bieber’s 29 million Twitter followers, it’s really a lesson in networking. Follow influential blogs and build real relationships with the Biebers of your industry. All it might take is one well-followed retweet to achieve viral status. While the exact formula of content that generates hundreds of thousands of views is a mystery to even the most experienced marketing experts, Hubspot Scientist Dan Zarella’s research on generating social media shares could give you some insight on how to create and distribute the right content:

• Audience Relevance (18.6%)
• Increasing Reputation (8.8%)
• Furthering a Message or Cause (8.6%)

If you want your Facebook and Twitter followers to share within their networks, make sure you’re answering your buyer personas, writing intelligent information and taking a strong stance.

3. Be Sincere. No, Really Sincere.

Marketing research has indicated it takes seven points of contact before you can yield enough influence over a person to make a sale. If you approach the situation correctly, you can rack up these seven points of influence right on your latest Facebook post. Internet Marketing blogger Ryan Stewman recently illustrated just how quickly, easily and cheaply you can rack up these seven touches on social media:

1. Prospect Sees Your Facebook Post, Tweet or Pin.
2. They Hit “Retweet” Leave a Comment or Share.
3. You Author a Sincere Response and Tag Their Name
4. They Receive an Email Notification They Were Mentioned
5. Prospect Sees Their Name Mentioned on Social Media

According to Stewman, steps #6 and 7 are entirely up to you, but keeping an engaging dialogue running in the comments can easily bring your future client from “like” to “love and trust” territory!

As a blogger, I’ve recently put a ban on my tendency to respond to retweets and shares with a simple “Thanks for the share!” It’s just impolite and impersonal. The Twitter user might feel a little appreciated, but they’re probably not going to keep the dialogue going. When someone takes the time to open dialogue with your brand on social media, don’t even think about letting the door shut with a simple “thanks.” Make a joke, be sincere and most importantly, end your response with a question to invite them to keep the conversation going.

How Do You Generate Shares and New Clients on Social Media?

I recently watched the Rumble in the Jungle, arguably among the most famous boxing matches of all time. I was familiar with some of the basics of the 1974 Heavyweight belt title in Zaire, but the rerun was even better than I expected. Long before Muhammed Ali defeated George Foreman in the eighth round, winning his 2nd championship, I realized something phenomenal. We can all learn a lot about inbound marketing strategy from Ali’s infamous technique in the match, known as the “rope-a-dope.”

History Lesson

I’ll give a little background for the sake of any millennials reading. Though Ali was the crowds’ favorite, sports analysts favored Foreman to win. At 25 years old to Ali’s 32, the younger fighter was known for throwing some seriously hard hits. Ali decided to employ an edgy technique that ultimately won the match, which was to do very little. He backed up towards the ropes and spent the majority of the game blocking Foreman with his arms. Foreman grew exhausted by the fifth round and Ali eventually jumped off the ropes and knocked him out. While accounts vary, it’s generally accepted that the term “rope-a-dope” arose because it seems so incredibly stupid to lay back and take punches for eight rounds.

Is your business fighting like Foreman or Ali? Are you chasing down business or letting qualified leads come directly to your website? We’ll examine several ways in which a great inbound marketing strategy is more like boxing than you may realize:

1. It’s All About Positioning

From the moment the first bell rang at the Rumble in the Jungle, Foreman began to throw hits. Ali focused on getting his positioning right before he started to block. Is your company website taking advantage of effective web design techniques? While SEO and content marketing require ongoing effort, if you’re you’re missing ways to convert leads, focus on making sure you have your position right before you start trying to push leads through the sales funnel.

Positioning is also critical in the arena of social media. Optimize before you email your segments asking them to follow you on Twitter or run the risk of looking pretty unprofessional. One of our Agents recently shared that his dentist’s Facebook page still lacks a profile picture. Don’t start fighting before you’re grounded!

2. Work Harder, Not Smarter

I’m no boxing expert, but if Ali hadn’t made the edgy choice to do very little for most of the match, the belt could have gone to Foreman. There’s no question that Foreman expended much more energy, but he just couldn’t compete with Ali’s strategy. The success of a marketing campaign isn’t entirely determined by the size of your budget. It’s also influenced by whether or not you get your channels right.

Do you remember the last time you sat down and chatted with a telemarketer at length, sat down to watch television commercials or listened carefully to advertisements in between songs on the radio? Chances are, you’re on the FTC Do Not Call list and use Pandora and Hulu as a way to avoid disruptive marketing efforts! Inbound leads cost on average 61% less than leads from disruptive channels such as telemarketing, direct mail or billboards. Don’t blow your budget with an aggressive strategy but inferior positioning like Foreman.

3. Think Funnel

Even though Foreman was showing signs of exhaustion in the fifth round, Ali waited 3 more rounds to make the hits. By that point, Foreman was so tired he looked like a “bee harassing a bear.” Are you trying to close sales from the first moment someone follows you on Twitter or hits your website home page? A great inbound marketing strategy employs the concept of a funnel to ensure you’re in the perfect position throughout the entire sales process. Through brilliant content marketing, you attract people to your website where they’re converted into leads with TOFU (top of the funnel) offers like informational eBooks. They’re nurtured into full-fledged clients, but they’re not faced with a pitch a moment before they’re ready.

Estimates vary, but Kissmetrics research has indicated around 90% of first-time visitors to your web site aren’t ready to make a purchase. Google and other major search engines are now the primary channel for prelimary research on product and service solutions. Getting your position right and realizing the first-time visitors are probably just going to enter the funnel can be the difference between winning the title of Inbound Marketing Strategy Heavyweight or being knocked-out.

TOFU (Top of the Funnel Offer)

Inbound marketing offers in general can be defined as content provided to a visitor once they have filled out a landing page form on your site. A “Top of the Funnel Offer” is specific to someone who is in the top of your sales funnel. In other words this person is aware of your product/service and is looking for more information. The primary objective of TOFU offers is to educate that person and answer their questions. There are also MOFU (Middle of the Funnel) and BOFU (Bottom of the Funnel) offers which are focused on customers in the evaluation and purchase stages of the sales funnel.

Customer Lifecycle

Customer Lifecycle is the multi-step process that includes, research, inquiry, purchase and usage. By improving the customer’s experience during every stage of this process marketers can build healthy customer relationships. The customer lifecycle also directly correlates to the types of offers you are providing in your sales funnel.

Remarketing Campaign

Remarketing is a technology used by Google that allows you to display banner ads to previous visitors of your website while they are browsing other sites. This strategy continues to build brand/offering awareness even when a user is not directly engaged with your site. There are an abundance of segmentation and customization options available when utilizing a remarketing campaign. For more information on remarketing campaigns see here.

Segmentation

Segmentation is the process of separating your target audience into personas with different needs and preferences. These segments will allow you to provide different marketing strategies, offers, and lead nurturing messages. Segmentation can be done in email lists, on page CTAs, and even in submission forms.

Buyer Persona

Inbound marketers have widely adopted the practice of creating personas to represent the types of people who buy and use their products/services. Personas are short descriptions of a representative customer type. A persona definition provides clarity and direction for your marketing campaigns and offers.

Lead Nurturing Campaign

A series of emails that can be triggered by the completion of a contact or conversion form on your site. This process is designed to keep you “top of mind” to your lead while also providing additional resources or avenues for engagement.

Long-Tail Keyword

A Long-Tail Keyword in uncommon or rarely used keyword. The benefit to targeting long-tail keywords is that they are easier to rank for and when targeted correctly will match specific customer search queries.

An example of this would be to target “What can I do to improve my google search ranking” instead of targeting “SEO”.

Above the fold

The “fold” is an invisible line on your web page which generally designates what a user will be able to see without scrolling down. This is terminology borrowed from the newspaper industry as they are typically folded in half with the top half being much more important than the bottom.

SERP (Search Engine Ranking Page)

It is the search engine page that your site will appear on for any given query. This is a great way to examine the effectiveness of your SEO strategy and also understand what is placing above you and why.

Meta Tags

This consists of a variety of data that tells search engines what your website is about. This includes the following:

• Meta Descriptions – A short description (160 characters or less) of the content on a particular page or post that uses your target keywords to invite a person to visit your site.
• Meta Keywords – Historically used to describe the content of a site, but due to an abundance of misleading/inaccurate keywords that led to spammy sites most search engines no longer place much weight on these.
• Meta Titles – The page title that displays in the bar at the top of your web browser when each page loads. This text also displays in search results.

Alt Text

Alt text is a short description of an image on your site. When possible it is necessary to include alt text on your images so that search engines also read what the images on your site are about.

Open Rate

Stands for the percentage of emails opened from your email marketing campaign. This is a great way to gage the effectiveness of your subject line or validity of your list.

CTR (Click Through Rate)

CTR is the percentage of recipients that both opened and clicked on a specific URL in your email campaign. This is used to gauge the effectiveness of your email’s offer and call to action.

Conversion Rate

This is the percentage of people who actually respond to your call-to-action. This can be measured in form submissions, sales, phone calls, appointments, etc. This is the ultimate gage as to the effectiveness of any conversion-based marketing campaign.

What Terms Do You Feel Are Critical to an Inbound Marketing Strategy?