But is it really an either/or question? When it comes to social media marketing, why wouldn’t you use both?

Trendstream, which publishes the Global Web Index, released its fourth quarter data showing the number of active Google+ users has grown to 343 million, making it the second-largest social media network after Facebook, which leads all with more than 700 million active users and more than 1 billion accounts.

Coming in 3rd was YouTube, also owned by Google. Twitter ranked 4th, but it had the fastest growth, exploding by more than 40%, to 288 millions active users, from the fourth quarter of 2011 to the 4th quarter of 2012.

Now, some of the numbers are debatable because few of the statistical surveys look at the same things. The Global Web Index looks at active users, while other studies look at raw account numbers.

While there are critics on both sides, they seemed to overlook the fact that both Twitter and Google+ have strengths that should be part of any comprehensive social media marketing plan. It should never be a question of which to use, rather how can both be used to produce better results.

Notable benefits of Twitter

Market research

Twitter is a great way to keep tabs on what your customers and others are saying about your company and your product. Whether it’s direct interaction or search, Twitter can help keep you in the know and find ideas that may help your business in the future.

Real time newswire

Twitter can be a great way to share your news without delay. When you have something newsworthy, start sending tweets. Not only does this immediately notify your prospects and followers, but you can directly answer questions your followers have about the news.

Customer satisfaction

This is often an overlooked function of Twitter – as a customer satisfaction tool. You can engage directly with customers to answer questions, and you can find customers by searching mentions of your business and remedy problems early on. Companies active on Twitter are able to save customer relationships and look better – all in less than 140 characters.

Notable benefits of Google+

If you haven’t considered Google+ as part of your social media marketing strategy in the past, you really should in 2013. We wrote that before the latest usage and growth stats were published, and that data only strengthens our position.

The strengths of Google+ include:

Search results

Let’s remember: Google+ is a Google product. Content shared on Google+ is going to be indexed more quickly and show up on search returns faster than any other social media platform. It only makes sense that using it will send the social sharing signals that will benefit your performance in search.

Group Hangouts

A Google+ Hangout is a group video chat, in which up to 9 people—plus a host—take part. Hangouts certainly have some great internal uses – staff meetings and training come to mind – but you could also conduct webinars or product training.

Google+ Communities

Recently, Google+ added its Communities function, which are places for people with common interests to chat, ask questions, and share information. Google+ Communities can be a great tool for showcasing your company’s expertise.

Conclusion

When you look at their strengths, the question shifts away from which one to use, to how can you use each to maximize your social media marketing efforts. Why rely on just one when you can use both and reach an even broader audience?

Of course, to get the most out of all of your social media accounts, you need to make sure they’re properly optimized. Check out our Social Media Optimization Playbook for tips to make sure your accounts are working as hard as they can for you.

But don’t mourn too much. If Answers was a feature you successfully mined on a regular basis, there are alternatives available for you to continue your success. The Internet provides plenty of fertile ground for you if you’re ready and willing to move on.

Here are 3 alternatives where you can quickly adapt to your needs:

1. Quora

One of the well known rivals to Answers, Quora, was already seeing strong growth even before LinkedIn made its announcement. The site has grown more than 350% since 2011 and now boasts 150 million visitors. You can ask questions, answer questions and follow particular topics and question threads.

For example, if your expertise is email marketing, you can search and follow feeds on the topic as a whole or individual question threads. You can seek out unanswered questions to demonstrate your expertise or search for answered questions that relate to a problem you’re trying to solve.

Quora has a Facebook feel to it, which isn’t surprising, since it was developed by two former Facebook executives. It’s simple to navigate and easy to use.

2. Google+ Communities

We wrote just a few weeks ago that a dedicated plan to use Google+ should be on your resolution list for 2013. The demise of Answers gives you yet another reason to go there and take advantage of Google+ Communities, a promising replacement.

Many Google+ Communities function as professional forums—places where you can go to ask or answer specific questions of your peers. There are hundreds of Communities to follow, from very specific niche groups to broad-based Communities with thousands of members. Chances are there is a group for your industry. If not, you can start one.

Google+ Communities don’t have the same number of active members as LinkedIn. But given the specific nature of some of the groups, this is a great option.

3. Twitter Chats

Twitter often gets overlooked when it comes to its value as a research tool. But if you’re looking for an alternative to LinkedIn Answers, staking out related Twitter Chats are a great alternative to find people and ideas related to your area of interest.

In a Twitter Chat, users join on Twitter at a regular time to discuss an area of interest. All participating users can speak, identifying their remarks with a unifying hashtag. For example, a group of B2B marketers meets at 8 p.m. ET every Thursday using the hashtag #B2Bchat, which you can monitor in your Twitter feed and ask and answer questions.

Unlike Answers, the chats are in real time and can move quickly, though most chats are archived on a related website so you can search for topics of particular interest.

In its official announcement about the retirement of Answers, LinkedIn said it would continue to develop “new and engaging ways to share and discuss professional topics across LinkedIn.” The company also encouraged users to use LinkedIn Groups or Status Updates to continue their conversations. That doesn’t offer much consolation for those who found success using the Q&A format.

While the list above is not exhaustive by any means, it will give you a good start to finding an alternative to LinkedIn Answers. Try them out and tell us what you think. If you know of another good Q&A site, let us know.

To learn more about using LinkedIn for research and to attract relevant leads, download our Ultimate LinkedIn Guidebook.

The online news release is an often-overlooked tool businesses can use to reach their prospects. Unfortunately, many still think in terms of a press release that only goes to the media. They don’t think about making that press release an online news release to reach prospects.

The press release was – and still is – an important document for communicating to the media about potential stories. But the same trends that make Inbound Marketing so effective have also changed the function of the press release. Your prospects are using the Internet to find information on products and services they need. An online news release, properly optimized, can help them find you.

There’s no reason your news shouldn’t be seen by a larger audience. A properly prepared online news release can speak directly to all of your relevant targets, whether that’s the media, consumers or other businesses.

In other words, a news release is content.

When properly optimized for online search, an online press release can deliver 3 important benefits for your company:

1. Improved search results

Search engines value new content, especially content that is considered “news” related. A topical press release can improve where you rank when prospects search. The higher you are, the greater your chances of being found.

2. Added inbound links

If people find your release valuable, they’ll link to it and share it. This can be particularly beneficial when the media creates content based on your release and includes the link in their coverage. Given the perpetual nature of the Internet, this can have long-term benefits for your company.

3. Improved engagement

Online news releases can include a range of features their traditional predecessors could not, such as social media sharing and video embedding. Online news releases can be easily promoted via social media, further spreading your message.

In addition to these immediate benefits, regularly creating and posting online news releases will help with long-term brand building, creating a solid online presence beyond just your website as the content is shared via blogs and social media.

It doesn’t take a lot to get started. In the past, we’ve highlighted several simple topics you can use to create online news releases, which include ideas such as the hiring of a new employee or highlighting your staff’s involvement in an important community project.

Make sure you apply the same SEO techniques to your press releases as you would your other content, which means using relevant keywords and links, as well as promoting your releases via social media to increase their reach.

To learn more about the role of PR and Inbound Marketing to help to attract prospects to your website, check out our FREE guide “Turn Your Website Into a Sales Magnet.”

Creating that content is a challenge that takes resources and dedication, yet the rewards are great: more prospects finding your site, converting as leads and giving you the chance to win them as customers.

But what content should you publish? That’s one of the challenges many new Inbound Marketers struggle with as they begin publishing content. We’ve heard more than once that “What we do isn’t very interesting – our content is going to bore them.”

No matter what your industry, you can keep your content from being boring by remembering who you’re creating it for – and it’s not the general Internet user.

Here are 4 tips that can help you keep content from being boring:

1. Write for your target

Remember that what you’re after here is relevancy. You’re not looking to attract everyone who uses the Internet to your website; rather you’re looking to attract the attention of prospects who would have an interest in using your product or service to solve a challenge. For example, we recently featured the blogging efforts of Baghouse, a California company that specializes in industrial dust collection systems. They initially doubted a blog would be effective , but by focusing on their targets, they now rank #1 for five of the best keywords in the industry when it comes to search results, and Baghouse has seen an overall increase in traffic, qualified leads and conversions.

2. Make it useful

Don’t spend pages explaining every detail of your product or service – that’s a surefire way to bore a prospect into leaving your website. Instead, talk about your prospects’ challenges and how your product or service can solve them. Be a resource that your prospect can rely on. Check out our previous post of content ideas for a fictional home building company to see just how easily this can be done. If your prospects enjoy your content and spend time on your website, you’ve already started to build the relationship that will make acquiring them as a customer that much easier.

3. Be entertaining

It doesn’t always have to be so serious. Yes, there’s a time a place for that, but if you have some fun with your content, your passion is going to show, and your prospects will find your content memorable. Use humor, or find relatable analogies. Greg likes to use the one comparing Inbound Marketing to a gym membership – it only works if you use it regularly.

4. Make it easy to read

Don’t overwhelm your prospect with text-heavy content. Make use of bullets, numbered lists, and images to help your content look less cumbersome for readers.

Compelling content is the fuel that will make your Inbound Marketing successful. These tips can help you get past the challenge of “boring” content and help you create content that’s meaningful to prospects.

If you still need help creating content, check our our Inbound Marketing Content Creation Templates.

• Using search, 81%
• Looking for peer recommendations, 59%
• Reading content from thought leaders, 41%

What those simple numbers really show is just how effective Inbound Marketing has become for the B2B space.

In a nutshell, Inbound Marketing is about creating an online presence that a prospective customer will find when they search to resolve a problem or need. That’s accomplished by producing great content, optimizing it for your prospects and making sure it can be seen in the places they’ll look. That will attract them to your website where they can convert leads by completing a simple conversion form in exchange for your content.

Interesting, though perhaps not surprising, those three core components of Inbound Marketing correspond almost exactly to the activities B2B buyers take when they’re making a purchase.

Let’s go through them one at a time:

1. Using search. This corresponds directly to the Search Engine Optimization of your website and your content. The reality is that buyers rely on search to get them started in their buying process and to find the companies offering products or solutions they’re looking for. If you’re using Inbound Marketing, then you’re going to be found before a business that doesn’t.

2. Looking for peer recommendations. This is why it’s so important to be engaged on social media. Not only does it help you to distribute your content to a wide audience, but social media is also the modern water cooler. This is where people congregate and share information about your company and your solutions. As an active participant, you can engage with prospects and shape the way your company is perceived.

3. Reading thought leaders. More than likely, that means reading blogs or other content such as white papers and eBooks. By regularly writing a credible and educational blog, you will establish your company as a thought leader providing relevant information to prospects about solutions to their challenges. Credible, downloadable content such as white papers and eBooks will further enhance your reputation and draw the attention of others. (New content also signals the search engine crawlers to visit your site, improving your rankings in search results).

We may say this a lot, but it’s worth repeating: Internet search has changed how businesses research and buy products. That’s what really made that line of statistics stand out. This is how buyers find companies to buy from. Inbound Marketing is specifically designed to take advantage of that change and position your company to be found first.

Since 75% of users never scroll past the first page of search results, being found first is important to your company’s long-term success.

If you have not yet adopted Inbound Marketing for your business, you’re letting opportunities pass you by and falling behind your competition. These days, who wants to let that happen?

Learn more about how Inbound Marketing can help your business be found when B2B buyers go searching for products and solutions by downloading our guide Turn Your Website Into a Sales Magnet

Now, we’ve never kept it a secret here at Weidert Group that we were not big Google+ fans when it first debuted. While we’ve had a business page and most of us have personal pages, we’ve not given Google+ the love and attention we’ve dedicated to other platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter and even Facebook.

But as we’ve watched the growth in features and effectiveness, relegating this social media channel to a second-tier status just doesn’t seem to be a good strategy anymore. Successful Inbound Marketing is predicated on being found when relevant prospects conduct an Internet search. Why not dedicate some time to a social media tool that will improve your chances?

We know it’s going to take some convincing, but here are 4 reasons you should add Google+ to your social media marketing resolutions for 2013:

It’s Google.

OK, maybe that doesn’t ring like a great reason right off the bat, but think about it. Despite some valiant efforts by others, Google is still the #1 search engine out there, and Google+ is its social media tool. Content shared on Google+ is going to be indexed more quickly and show up on search returns faster than any other social media channel.

Critics are quick to point out that Google+ still lacks the engagement of other social media channels, with users averaging about 3.3 minutes compared to 7+ hours for Facebook. But remember this equation: Google+=Google. Using Google+ to share content and engage prospects will enhance your SEO efforts. It’s why we added authorship tags linking our Google+ accounts to all of our blog posts.

Weidert Team member Frank Isca detailed those benefits earlier this year in his post Why Now is The Time to Reevaluate Google+ for Enhanced SEO.

Prospect Segmentation

When Google+ debuted, the concept of Google Circles did not go over well. But if you think about it, the concept is really quite brilliant. Given how noisy the social media universe has become, it can be a challenge to get your message to prospects and followers. Google Circles is really nothing more than a segmentation tool that allows you to target your messages to relevant prospects. In Google+, you are performing that segmentation on the front end, rather than at the time of sending your message.

New Tools

Goolge+ is rapidly closing the gap with its competitors when it comes to improved tools marketers can use to engage with prospects and followers. When Google+ first introduced business pages, it only allowed direct interaction with users who had already added the page to their circles. That meant business pages weren’t able to +1, share, or comment on posts from users who had not added the page to a circle. That’s about to change, and now business pages will be able to interact with any user. The Next Web published a blog Dec. 28 about the changes, which have subsequently been confirmed by Google.

The Next Web blog also detailed a dedicated Google+ analytics tool, though the search engine giant has backed off any specifics. When launched, the tool will provide specific data regarding which users are interacting with a page, how they interact, detailed demographics and information about users’ social activities including +1′s, shares, and comments.

That’s a treasure trove of information for marketers looking to determine what content leads to greater engagement.

When it comes to improved engagement, Google+ also introduced Communities in December, a feature similar to Facebook and LinkedIn Groups, but with greater flexibility in filtering and finding relevant conversations. Google+ Communities can be a great tool for showcasing your company’s expertise.

Ease of Use

Things can get cluttered when working in social media, but Google+ does a lot to keep things simple. First of all, posts appear in your feed with the newest one on top and you don’t have to sort through a stream of app requests to view them.

The navigation is simple, and makes sense. Another big plus? No ads!

Google+ has taken a functional approach to its design, making it easy to post and engage.

With all the improvements Google+ has undergone in 2012, along with its growth to 500 millions registered users, it seems to have finally positioned itself a a top-tier social media channel. That’s not to say you should abandon or relegate your other social media profiles. Google+ should be seen as an additional opportunity.

The name of the game is increasing the opportunities for relevant prospects to find and engage with your great content. Google+ has matured to the point where it is an effective tool for sharing your content, engaging prospects and sending important social media signals to the search engines for improved rankings.

We’ll be working both collectively and individually to maximize our presence there in 2013. What do you think? Is 2013 the year you actively use Google+ for your social media marketing? We’d love the hear your thoughts on why or why not?

One other item for your 2013 resolution list: make sure all of your social media profiles are fully optimized for the new year. Learn how with our Social Media Optimization Playbook!

If you’re at all serious about Inbound Marketing, you know that social media – including twitter – are an essential part of your strategy. Research from Social Media Examiner on the 2012 State of Social Media Marketing showed that just 6 hours a week can help drive sales.

In many ways, Twitter serves as a real time news feed that people follow throughout the day, looking for the latest conversations regarding their industry or content that might help solve a problem. By engaging in conversations and sharing quality content, you can use Twitter to strengthen brand awareness and drive prospects to your website for lead conversions and sales opportunities.

It can also be used to engage with existing customers and to provide improved customer service.

Given its benefits, it’s important that your company’s Twitter account makes a positive impression in the social media universe. The following are 10 steps you can take to build a credible presence that your prospects will want to follow.

Look the part!

1. Use quality pictures and graphics for your avatar, header and background to dress up your profile. Nothing says spammer quite like the default egg that shows on Twitter profiles missing a picture. Simple backgrounds work best. Avoid clutter.

2. Complete your profile bio using complete language and specific keywords so that people will find you when conducting a search. Space is tight here, so really focus on the essentials.

3. Include your website and other contact information. If you show up in search, you want prospects to be able to jump directly to your site. Make sure you include your location to take advantage of local SEO.

Tweet clearly and consistently

4. Don’t stuff your tweets with #Hashtags. Depending on the platform people are using, hashtags can break up the tweet, making it hard to read. Use plain English. Avoid jargon unless you’re looking to attract a particular market.

5. Avoid personal comments that don’t have a connection to your business. Most of your followers don’t care that you’re at the coffee shop. They’re looking for useful information that helps them solve a problem. Don’t be afraid to ask your followers questions.

Tweet useful content

6. Share your links. Make sure your links have been shortened and are placed in the middle of the Tweet followed by any additional content. If using #hashtags place them at the end.

7. Share links to good content related to your industry that your followers would have an interest in. Be useful by providing help.

Followers and following

8. Connect with the people who have a connection to your business. Avoid the numbers game and look for connections that are relevant to your industry.

Listening and talking

9. Twitter is a two-way conversation, so respond to what others tweet about your company and the content you’ve shared. Join, or start, Twitter Chats that are relevant to your business.

10. Track your keywords and monitor what people say. Join conversations when it’s relevant and make sure you’re aware when people are talking about you so you can respond.

A final thought

Consider this the bonus and an obvious but important rule to follow: be generous and say thanks!

If someone takes the time to retweet your content, thank them. Every person they share it with is a potential prospect; forget to thank them and they might not do it again. The same for your own retweets: By retweeting relevant content from others, you encourage them to do the same with yours.

Need help getting started with Twitter for your business? Check out our Twitter for Business Tip Sheet for a quick start guide that will get you going.

It’s definitely an art, and there are folks who have built an entire career in media because they are able to distill a story down to those key 7 or 8 words that grab a readers attention and won’t let go. They make it look easy, and perhaps, for them, it is. But for the rest of us, it can be hard work.

So what makes a headline successful?

In general, a successful headline is one that is not only attention grabbing – think tabloid – but also delivers on a promise or need for the prospect. Combining the two is not always easy, but there are some headline types, or templates, that can guide you. Some starting ideas include:

The Know it All – Offers practical tips and advice

The Teacher – The educational approach – something the reader doesn’t know

The Instigator – Think tabloids! A bold statement that may or may not be true, but it gets people reading

The Threat – What do your personas worry about? Speak to that

The Promise – Delivering ways that make a prospect’s life easier

The How-to – They will learn how to solve a problem

The List – Self-explanatory and people love them

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but if you are struggling to write attention-grabbing headlines for content, these are some time tested styles that can help. (For a fun guide to these and other styles, check out Jon Morrow’s 52 Headline Hacks, an irreverent guide to the art of headline writing.)

With a good handle on your target persona’s needs, you can follow these style templates to  write headlines that speak directly to them, making it more likely they will read your content. Need a little proof? Let’s take a look at the top 10 most-viewed blogs we’ve written here at Weidert Group:

1. Top 10 LinkedIn Etiquette Tips to Connect Like a Pro
2. How 6 Hours of Social Media Marketing Can Increase Your Sales
3. Social Media Optimization 101: How To Optimize Your Profiles
4. Top 10 Most Effective Marketing Strategies
5. Social Media Marketing: A 30 Minute Plan
6. A Smart LinkedIn Strategy Can Help Generate Leads
7. 6 Ways To Use Pinterest To Promote Your Business
8. Inbound Marketing: 50 Awesome Content Ideas
9. 11 Mistakes That Will Doom Your Content
10. Pinterest Image Optimization: 5 Tips to Increase Visibility in Search

Looking through our top 10, there are lists, how-tos and even a few “Know It Alls” featured in the titles of our most read blogs. The blogs on this list continue to generate new views each month as they are found in search or shared on social media.

It’s more than just blogs. We see the same pattern when looking at our top performing weekly e-mail newsletters for our Whole Brain Marketing Week In Review. The subject lines that produced the most clicks tend to follow the styles mentioned above:

Of course, you still need to have good content to convince your prospect to convert as a lead, but great content needs a good headline to lure them in.

Still struggling? The Content Marketing Institute recently published a blog by Roger C. Parker, that included his Title Evaluation Scorecard, a 10-point guide to creating better headlines, titles and subjects lines for your content. It’s a good guide, worth downloading and keeping readily available for reference.

Our best advice: Test it. Find a couple of styles you think would work well with your target personas and write your headlines that way. Monitor what happens. If you start to see views of your content increase – blogs, tip sheets, e-mails – then you know you have a good combination.

The better your content performs, the more prospects you will attract to your website where you can convert them to leads and create opportunities to win new customers.

Well, we may not be able to help you with all of your day-to-day tasks, but when it comes to successfully running your Inbound Marketing, we can help you develop a checklist of daily activities that you can manage to achieve Inbound success. The exact protocol you follow will depend on your specific marketing goals, but this checklist will provide some guidelines that can maximize the time you devote to your Inbound Marketing and help make the time you can commit more successful.

Your daily Inbound Marketing activities should include:

1. Website

• Check your traffic. Is it up? If you aren’t seeing increases in traffic, you need to check the rank of your keywords, increase your blogging frequency, create some fresh content offers and promote it better via social media to attract more traffic to your site
• Check your traffic sources to see where your traffic is coming from. Is it organic? Referral? Direct? The answers will help to dictate your other Inbound Marketing activities. If your organic traffic is falling off, you may want to check your SEO analytics or make sure you are using the right keywords in blogs and content, for example

2. Blog

• Check you blog analytics to see if you are reaching your blogging goals. If you’re struggling, review you’re your posts to make they have been fully optimized and that you used appropriate keywords based on the targeted prospect persona
• Respond to comments that have been left on previous posts
• Post new content according to your editorial schedule. Anytime you can post additional content relevant to your target personas, you create additional opportunities to attract visitors and convert them to leads

3. Leads

• Review your new lead conversions. Make sure you track what content they converted on and how they got to your website. This can help you plan future content offerings or give you ideas of existing content you should promote
• Make sure your new leads are in a lead nurturing campaign. If it’s not an automated campaign, decide how you are going to manually nurture them. For those in automated nurturing campaigns, check to see if they are clicking on the links in the emails you are sending
• Determine if any of your leads are ready for direct follow-up. If they give any indication they are ready, don’t hesitate

4. Prospects

• Review your analytics to determine who is visiting your website. Can you tell the company they are coming from? That could help you shape future content or a specific campaign
• What pages are these prospects looking at? Do you have related calls-to-actions on those pages? Use this information to create new lead conversion opportunities
• Determine whether or not there are other offers that you could create based on the information these prospects are looking for to increase your conversion rates

5. Social Media

• Check the terms you’re tracking via your social media accounts to see if there are any prospects you should engage directly
• See if there are any conversations you can participate in or questions you can answer
• Make sure to share new content or blog posts you’ve created. Social media is a great tool for increasing your reach
• Schedule updates and tweets for the day on relevant industry topics. Make sure to mix in your own content as well. Try for a mix of 6 updates that are third party content, 3 of your own content and 1 landing page with a specific offer

By performing these daily tasks, you will be able to effectively manage your Inbound Marketing efforts and gain a greater understanding of what is working and what may need adjusting – which is information you can use to better target future content and campaigns. Better content and campaigns will lead to more relevant prospects, more chances to convert them to leads and increased opportunities to win them as customers.

To learn more about successfully managing your Inbound Marketing strategy, download our free Step-by-Step Guide to Inbound Marketing.

Sometimes.

We all love it when we get a red hot lead that wants to immediately close a deal for your services or product. Those leads will send you plenty of signs to tell you they’re ready. One of our personal favorites was the prospect who wrote “Call ASAP to talk” in our contact form. Our president, Greg Linnemanstons, may have set a new dialing record making that call!

More often than not, though, your lead will not be ready to buy when they first convert on your site. Research suggests 50% of all qualified leads aren’t ready to make a purchase when they first convert. Often, they’re doing preliminary research or just exploring solutions to a particular problem.

A heavy sales pitch here and they’re gone for good.

So how do you keep these leads warm until they’re ready to buy? Lead nurturing. Simply described, lead nurturing is a (preferably automated) system where you send additional, relevant content to your leads, pulling them further down you sales funnel toward a purchase.

By the time you call them, they’ll be more than warm. They’ll be red hot!

Of course, there’s more to it than that. You don’t want to blast just any content out; that will turn them off just as quick as an ill-timed sales call. There are important elements your nurturing campaign must have in order to be successful. Once you have these elements in place, you can efficiently and effectively keep your leads warming up until they are sales ready.

Those 5 critical components of nurturing campaigns are:

1. A campaign goal

What are you trying to accomplish with this campaign? Are you trying to breathe new life into contacts that have been on your lists for a while? Are you after new leads and customers by building a campaign on content that addresses a new solution your prospects would be interested in?

Finally, what actions signal the lead is ready? There can be a great difference in readiness between downloading an eBook or requesting a demo.

With these questions answered, you can set your goal and design a campaign that will deliver relevant information to keep your lead moving down the sales funnel while also providing you important signals of their readiness to buy.

2. A target persona

Knowing as much as you can about your prospects, their pain points and problems will help you decide what content to create or re-purpose for your campaign, and it will also help you with the timing and how you present it.

3. Related content

Resist the temptation to hit them right away with a sales piece. Offer value. Educate them. Include content in your campaign that’s related to the original download. Use existing content where you can. If you have particular videos, eBooks or whitepapers with high conversion rates, include them where appropriate to help drive further conversions.

You don’t have to create new content for your lead nurturing emails. If you have a backlog
of content, utilize those assets. If they’ve been successful at converting leads in the past, put them to work again!

4. A timeline

You know your sales cycle and your target persona behavior. Use those two elements to craft a timeline for the delivery of new content to the leads you’re nurturing. You want it to be frequent enough to keep your service or product top-of-mind, but not so frequent that you become a nuisance and they tune you out.

5. Measurement and improvement

This is an essential element not only of nurturing campaigns, but of all Inbound Marketing. You need to consistently measure the effectiveness of your content and your campaigns. Does the content and timeline result in the conversion of qualified sales leads? If not, what’s not working and how can you adjust?

Lead nurturing is an important part of your Inbound Marketing strategy. It helps you to keep leads warm until they’re ready to buy, freeing you up to work on the hotter leads. By building your campaigns around these 5 essential elements, you’ll be able to effectively keep your sales funnel full.

To learn more about Inbound Marketing and how it can help your business, check out our FREE guide How to Turn Your Website Into a Sales Magnet.

How do we know what marketing works? The question is probably as old as marketing itself, and one that all marketers – Including Inbound Marketers – should be asking themselves regularly.

Fortunately, the answer is in your analytics.

Analytics, sometimes referred to as metrics, are simply measures that tell us how well the activities we are engaged in are working. They can range from the simple – how many people follow you on social media – to the more complex, such as the ratio of website visitors who convert as leads.

Knowing your analytics and regularly monitoring them will help you in at least four ways when the question of performance comes up:

1. Identifying what’s working
2. Identifying what’s not working
3. Identifying ways to improve
4. Implementing more of the tactics that work to improve marketing performance

It’s hard to justify the time and effort spent on Inbound Marketing is working if you don’t use your analytics. Regularly measuring and analyzing the results of your activities takes the guesswork out of determining what you should do next. It gives you insights to make marketing decisions intelligently, rather than floundering with tactics and channels that may not be effective for your business.

There are dozens of data points for measuring your Inbound Marketing sales funnel. Yes, you should analyze them all regularly. Since your website is the hub of our Inbound Marketing activity, this post will focus on 5 metrics about your website performance you should be regularly monitoring.

1. Visitors

Basic but critical. If the number of visitors is increasing, then the potential audience for your content is increasing, creating more opportunities to convert leads and win customers. You should also pay attention to whether your visitors are new visitors or repeat visitors. Both are good, though you will want to have a steady stream of new visitors to continually grow your audience.

2. Traffic Source

Traffic source tells you where your visitors are coming from and is a good indicator of how your search engine optimization efforts are performing. There are three primary streams to watch and measure here:

• Direct Traffic comes from people who have typed your website’s URL directly into their browser, visited your web pages via a bookmark, or clicked on an untagged link from an email or document you produced

• Organic Traffic comes from a link found on a search engine results page, a good indicator of your SEO efforts and how easily people are finding your content

• Referral Traffic comes from link on another website that sends visitors to a page on your website. Referral traffic represents inbound links that help boost your sites performance in search engine rankings

3. Indexed Pages

Indexed pages represent the number of pages that search engines have found and catalogued as a component of your website, and that have received at least one organic visit. As your indexed pages grow – a blog is a great way to grow this measure – it will help improve your site’s performance in search results since it’s expanding the net you’re casting online.

4. Landing Page Conversions

Landing page conversions measure the percentage of prospects who take a desired action when they reach your website. This metric tells you how well you are doing with traffic coming to your site. It tells you how well your sales funnel is working, and where it may be under performing. Like website traffic, there are different forms of this metric you will want to track:

• Visitor-to-Lead Conversion Rate: the percentage of visitors who become leads
• Lead-to-Customer Conversion Rate: the percentage of leads who become customers
• Visitor-to-Customer Conversion Rate: the percentage of visitors who become customers

5. Inbound Links

Inbound links measure the number of websites that link back to your website. It may be to a landing page, the home page or a blog posting, but these links help increase your sites creditability with search engines. It’s a good measure that not only is your content being found, but its considered valuable by others.

These are some basics that can get you started, and there are similar analytics you should monitor for social media, your blog, etc.

Now that you know what to measure, you need to make sure you have appropriate tools to measure with. There is a universe of analytics packages available, both free and paid. A good starting point is Google Analytics. Also, many content management systems now come with analytics tools.

Of course, we recommend HubSpot, which not only has a complete set of analytics tools, but is an all-in-one solution for Inbound Marketing that includes a CMS, blog, social media management, e-mail, etc.

By regularly monitoring your metrics, you can make your Inbound Marketing more effective, and channel resources into the tactics you know work best. The end results are more leads, more customers and a greater understanding of how you got them.

Considering adopting Inbound Marketing for your 2013 plan? Learn more about it from our FREE download Turn Your Website Into a Sales Magnet, which explains the pillars of Inbound Marketing and how it can help your business reach its goals.

Just as important as knowing what you can create is having an understanding of what your content should say to make sure your marketing is reaching the right people. You want content that’s relevant to the prospect most likely to buy your product or service, encouraging them to convert as a lead and giving you the opportunity to close them as a customer.

It’s time to create a prospect persona.

Creating a persona for your ideal customers is a critical component of your editorial strategy. Targeting your message to that persona will make your marketing more effective by helping you create content that’s relative to your prospect, while also determining its form and where best to share it.

The exercise of developing your prospect personas starts with some simple – yet important – questions:

1. Who uses your product or service? Is there a particular industry or occupation that uses your product or would have an interest in it? If so, you can start to shape your content to speak directly to people in that industry and occupation. There will be more than one answer, and it’s okay to have more than one persona. As you learn who the most likely buyers are, your content will be more effective and should begin to generate higher quality leads.
2. Why do people buy your product or service? Spend some time in your customers’ heads. What need does your product or service address for them? What problem does it solve? Are there challenges or obstacles it helps them resolve? As you distill those answers, you’ll have a much clearer picture of the challenges your prospects are trying to address and how you can create content that speaks directly to them.
3. Where does your prospect live? This doesn’t mean their physical address, but where on the Internet do they spend time looking for information? If you can refine their prime locations, it gets a lot easier to reach them with the right message. If your prospects primarily use LinkedIn or YouTube, then it doesn’t make sense to spend a lot of time creating content for Facebook.
4. Who influences their decisions? This can help you determine if you need additional content that speaks to the challenges of getting others to buy into the solution. You can give them the ammunition they need to sell your production or solution for you, even before the first person-to-person contact.

As you begin to better understand who your prospects are, the question of what content to create becomes a lot easier to answer. You’ll be able to more effectively shape your message and content offers to provide relevant content your prospects can immediately use.

In additional to building credibility and trust by providing relevant conent, those insights into your potential customers will make further nurturing more efficient while also giving insights to your sales staff that will increase their effectiveness at closing them as a customer.

The hardest part of the exercise is often just getting started. Our friends at HubSpot have some great advice on building personas that can help you quickly move ahead.

Learn more about creating great content to attract relevant prospects in our FREE “Step-by-Step Guide to Inbound Marketing.”

It’s particularly important since recent research has shown the average time spent using social media is increasing. According to research from HubSpot, more than 85% of Internet users have Facebook accounts and 49% are on Twitter. In other words, your prospects are using social media.

Since social media has a 100% higher lead-to-close rate than outbound marketing, it’s important to eliminate the stumbles.

Here are 5 simple tips that will help you reach your prospects more effectively using social media:

Don’t be an egghead. The first impression a prospect forms is often based on your profile picture. Unfortunately, a lot of people haven’t taken the time to add an image to their profile, leaving the Twitter egg or a grayed out silhouette on LinkedIn. To social media users, that signals either a dead account or, worse, a spammer. That’s not the impression you want to leave a prospect. You don’t necessarily need a professional head shot, but a clear photo, used across all profiles, will show prospects you’re real and credible.

Back off the Sales Pitch. It can be real easy to fall into the habit of making your sales pitch when using social media. Resist that urge. Build relationships by sharing relevant, informational content, both your own and content from others your prospects would find helpful. Become a resource and the sales will come.

Know Your Schedule. Consistent posting is critical for success in social media marketing, but timing is everything. Twitter followers tend to want more frequent postings, but while fans on Facebook and LinkedIn connections will consider one or two posts sufficient. Find what works and create a regular routine. Your prospects will know when to look for information from you and begin to count on it.

Say Thank You. If social media is about relationship building, don’t forget your best manners when someone shares your content, tweets or Facebook posts. Make sure to respond and thank them for taking the time.

Use Your Blog. Your blog is your content engine. Not only does it help your website by adding new indexed pages and signaling the web crawlers with each new post, it also serves as a platform to share information and provide help to your prospects. Share it via social media in order to increase your reach and expose your content to a broader audience.

Don’t Post in a Vacuum. Make sure you integrate your social media with your other marketing efforts. Include your icons on all of your printed materials, add the links to your e-mail and make sure you have your social media accounts included on your website. To build a community, you have to tell people where to find you.

These simple tips can correct some of the common missteps and make your social media marketing more effective. With an effective social media presence, your company will be seen as a resource, attracting relevant prospects and generating the opportunity to convert them to leads and customers.

For additional help maximizing your social media performance, check out our Social Media Optimization Playbook.

The work has its rewards: Companies that create great blogs get 55% more visits and 70% more leads than companies that don’t. But there’s a catch to that. If you’re not seeing those kind of results, it could be that while you are doing a great job creating a must read blog, you need a little help promoting it.

A great blog is a pointless exercise if you don’t tell people it’s there.

The promotion of your blog content should have already started when you wrote it by making sure it included a consistent tone and voice representing your company, features content relevant to your company’s product or service by speaking to prospect pain points and that you have use the right keywords and on-page SEO tactics to appear so that your blog will appear in search engine result pages.

Even with all of that, your blog can always use a little boost.

It’s one of the early lessons we learned here at Weidert Group when we made the commitment to blog every business day. If we were going to make that effort, we wanted to make sure that people would know where to find the blog to read it.

We put together a tip sheet that included both online and offline ways to promote your blog. We’ve also learned a lot by trial and error since then, and as voracious readers of other blogs, we have come across some pretty interesting promotion ideas from a variety of other authors.

5 New Ideas For Sharing Your Blog

Building a blog board on Pinterest

Pinterest has exploded in popularity and use in the past year to 18 months. While primarily a visual means of sharing content, if you including images and graphics in you blogs – and you should – why not use a Pinterest board dedicated to your blog to share.

Comment on other blogs

A regular part of our Inbound Marketing routine should include commenting on relevant blog posts where you can share your expertise. But here is an interesting twist to that: When you make those comments, why not include the URLs of relevant blog posts you have written that further make your point?

Make your e-mail signature more interesting

You probably already have an e-mail signature setup that includes your social media accounts such as LinkedIn or Twitter. Why not include your latest blog post? You probably write dozens of e-mails each day, if not more, and it’s a very simple way to share. You can do it manually, or use a tool such as wisestamp.com to automate the process.

Share with a bookmarking site

There are millions of people using bookmarking sites such a StumbleUpon or Reddit to find relevant content based on subject areas of interest or keywords. You might even be using one yourself. No reason you could not be publishing your own blogs there, potentially exposing them to millions of additional prospects.

Syndicate your blog

Having your blog published regularly on other blog sites can do wonders for attracting new prospects, especially if it is a site that aggregates content related to your industry. For example, the blogs written by the Weidert team are regularly published by the site Business2Community. We can always tell when we have hit a hot button issue with a blog they picked up because views will spike immediately.

You’re already producing a great blog, why not share it with a broader audience and increase the number of prospects who see it?

Make sure you have a great blog to promote! Check out tip sheet on 13 Ways to Keep Your Blog Stocked With Great Content.

With the ability to search millions of sources of information in a few seconds, the Internet has drastically changed how people interact with information, and health care is no different. Increasingly, the Internet is where people turn to arm themselves with information before they consult with their health care professional.

The Facts On The Use Of Search

In a recent survey of adult Internet users, the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project found that:

• 80% have looked online for information related to specific conditions and treatments
• 34% have read about someone else’s health experience through online commentary such as a blog
• 25% have watched an online video about health or medical issues
• 24% have consulted online reviews of a particular drug or procedure
• 16% have consulted online rankings of doctors and other providers

Simply put, health care consumers crave the latest and best information they can find about health care, from information about procedures to support articles that help to keep them on track with their exercise or weight loss program.

This is a huge opportunity for health care providers to use Inbound Marketing to make sure those consumers are getting the information they need by producing and promoting informative content that will help consumers educate themselves about their health concerns. It’s also an opportunity to make sure they are getting the right information, which will make conversations with health care providers a lot easier and more productive.

How To Get Started

It starts with creating great content that meets the information needs of consumers who are searching for health care information. Maybe it’s a tip sheet on “A Parent’s Guide to Having a Child Infected With Chickenpox”, or a blog that focuses on the challenges of eating gluten-free or perhaps an app that can help manage a weight loss program.

Most health care providers are already producing – have produced – this information for brochures and fliers in the past, so repurposing to get it online is the most likely order of the day. There are dozens of great content opportunities for health care providers.

Once that great content is in place, the next step is promotion so consumers know the answers to their questions are out there and can find it. This is where social media comes into play. Recent studies have shown that 42% of consumers have used social media to access health-related consumer reviews, and 20% percent have joined a health forum or community.

Social media is particularly popular among younger consumers, who tend to trust it more as a credible source of information. Studies also show nearly 90 percent of young adults 18-24 would trust health information from social media.

What would this look like? The Content Marketing Institute featured a couple of great examples in a recent blog that are great examples and inspiration. The first example they featured was the Cleveland Clinic’s Health Hub, a online portal for health tips and news, videos, physician blogs, etc. Launched in May, the site is drawing more than 100,000 visitors per month.

Another great example, the MyWay app from Children’s Hospital in Boston, which combines great content with an online tool help visiting families manage their visit. It helps patients navigate the hospital and satellite locations, find local restaurants and hotels, and even locate activities to entertain siblings during a child’s hospital stay. The hospital also has a powerful Facebook presence, boasting a primary page with more than 700,000 “likes,” as well as  disease- and disorder-specific pages and online support groups.

By instituting Inbound Marketing, health care providers will not only be helping consumers, but they will be helping themselves through:

1. Better informed patients who have access to correct information they can use to help themselves and better understand basic health issues
2. More constructive patient-provider conversations because of that greater understanding
3. Greater trust developed between the patient and the provider, an important plus for providers who are building and maintaining a patient base

Conclusion

Given consumer demand for health care information, and the vast amounts of information health care providers already produce, Inbound Marketing seems a natural fit and a great opportunity for health care providers to better engage and attract prospective patients.

Want to know more? Check out our free guide “Turn Your Website Into a Sales Magnet“ for an overview that explains how you can get started.

(Image Credit: smartcardalliance.org)

Your first thought is probably one we had: it doesn’t just disappear. If there’s a computer or service problem, we can usually get everything back in a phone call or two. It’s the Internet – things just don’t disappear.

Unfortunately, sometimes they do. Just ask the Minnesota Lynx.

The Lynx were the defending WNBA champions. They have a thriving social media base and built a fan following on Google+ of more than 30,000 followers. They were early adopters of Google+ and worked hard to build a true online community.

The excitement was building when the Lynx made the WNBA finals again this year. But on the day they qualified, there was a different kind of excitement gripping the teams’s social media crew – the team’s Google+ page and its 30,000 contacts were gone. As the social media team investigated, they learned that while the page had several registered administrators, the Google+ user who created the page had left the organization and their e-mail was no longer in the Lynx system.

Not only was the page gone, but since the Lynx had no ownerhsip, they couldn’t get it back. The advice from Google+ just made the situation worse: the Lynx were initially told they’d have to start over.

Lessons Learned For Any Social Media Manager

After a few tense days, the Lynx eventually had their Google+ page restored with all of its content and contacts. As the dust settled, two important lessons emerged that all social media managers should take care to learn:

1. Know who owns your social media accounts. The accounts are tied to e-mail addresses which, if changed or deleted, can have disastrous results, especially if they’re tied to personal e-mail accounts.
2. If there’s a change to the e-mail account, check on the ability to transfer ownership. In the case of the Lynx, when the account was deleted there should have been an option to transfer ownership to one of the other page administrators so the contents were not lost.

It can be easy to overlook the ownership of your social media accounts as the focus shifts from creating the account to using it to generate leads. It can get further confused as you add other employees as page administrators. But the troubles of the Minnesota Lynx are not what you want to experience firsthand.

We recommend a regular review of your accounts to make sure they’re fully optimized. Why not add an ownership check to that routine? When you conduct your regular review, in addition to checking your content, graphics, keywords and for the latest service updates, also check to see which e-mail address owns the account. Make sure there have been no changes and double-check to see who’s listed as a page administrator.

A few minutes of review could prevent days or weeks of stress trying to recover the contacts and content of a lost account.

To learn more about regularly reviewing and optimizing your accounts, check out our FREE Social Media Optimization Playbook. It provides specific pointers to help you get the most from your social media accounts.

When we talk with clients, we like to use the most recent statistics from the 2012 State of SEO and Internet Marketing report, that show 75 percent of all clicks in search engine results pages are organic vs. paid links.

As powerful as that is, a recent study by Compete.com brings a sharper focus to the importance of a properly executed and regularly revisited SEO strategy by not only looking at organic vs paid, but where on the page those links appeared. Highlighted in a post published last week, the study reviewed “10s of millions” of search clicks and found not only were 85 percent of the listings were organic, but that:

• 53% of clicks went to the link in the first position
• 15% to the link in second
• 9% to the link in third
• 6% to the link in fourth
• 4% to the link in fifth

You can quickly see why it’s important, then, to not only be on the first page, but the difference between ranking first in a search vs. second is huge. In their conclusions, the authors of the Compete.com study wrote “since the vast majority of listings on a SERP (search engine results page) are organic, and the majority of clicks are on the first listing, it’s imperative that an ongoing search strategy includes constant monitoring of results due to the ongoing evolution of search engine algorithms.”

This latest study comes on the heels of similar findings released by eConsultancy earlier this year that showed organic links outperform paid links on Google and Bing by 94% to 6%.

That study also found similar results for ranking at the top, but showed there was opportunity to being in spots 4-10, noting that 39 percent of clicks in its study went to those spots.

The bottom line: SEO is a vital component of success for online marketers that should include regular checkups to ensure success. The value of those top spots on the search engine results page are just too important.

So what should your SEO strategy include to help you get to the top of the page?

1. Well-executed on-page SEO tactics: page titles, compelling meta descriptions, image alt text, URLs and keyword rich content – that are also regularly reviewed
2. Optimized, quality content that speaks to your prospect pain points
3. A regular blog
4. Use of social media to share and promote your content. Social signals are playing a greater role in the search engine rankings of your website

A good SEO strategy will involve ongoing content creation and other activities to help your website steadily move up in search rankings. The stakes are just too high not to.

The good news is that more small and medium business are adopting social media marketing to increase their reach and attract relevant prospects they just could not reach in the past. As good as those numbers are, that still leaves a sizable number of businesses that are not using social media to support their marketing efforts.

Experience tells us there are usually two hurdles that prevent greater use of social media marketing: time and cost.

Time is always a tough challenge. There are plenty of things to do when it comes to running a small business, and the idea of adding another responsibility is a pretty tough sell. What we do know, though, is that as little as 6 hours a week can result in increased sales. Over the course of the workweek, that’s just more than an hour a day. We’ve come up with a 30-minute plan that can help you manage that time so you still have time to manage your business.

When it comes to cost, one of the great things about social media is that you can get most of the tools you want for free. Yes, you can buy some great integrated social media management tools, and they are great. But many of the best tools are free.

We’ve written about some of our favorites before – HootSuite, Buffer, Social Bro – great tools that can get you going at no-cost other than the time it takes to learn them. Always on the lookout for more great free resources, here are some of our latest finds:

1. TweetReach – Want to know whose reading your tweets or how often they are being shared? TweetReach gives you a simple analytics tool that helps you capture this information. You can search on keywords, URLs, Tweet text or Twitter handle to see the reach of your efforts.
2. Twitalyzer – Another tool for measuring Twitter effectiveness. There are paid versions of this service that provide a lot of details, but you can use three of the most popular reports they offer for free just by connecting your Twitter account.
3. Facebook Insights – If you already have a Facebook page, you already have access to this dashboard, which gives you some great data for tracking growth and impact. Use the Insights to better understand your followers and reach the right audience.
4. HowSociable – Measure your brand’s impact online with this tool that provides you with a magnitude score. The score analyzes your level of activity online so that you can determine whether you have enough of a presence. The free version will analyze your presence across 6 social media networks. The paid version will unlock additional networks should you desire it. 
5. Google Analytics Social Reports – If you are using Google Analytics, you have Social Reports, which helps measure how social traffic is directly impacting your conversions. Using an overview of your social networks, this tool allows you to visualize your social traffic so that you know where your time is best spent in the social world.
6. Topsy – This is a real-time social search engine. Sort through the latest social activity related to your industry, brand, or community and apply that knowledge to future business decisions. We discovered this one while doing a long-term social media monitoring project for a client. We provided Topsy the link we wanted monitored and asked for a regular e-mail update. It was that simple.

There are a lot more of these tools out there. While they might not be as slick as some of the social media suites with integrated dashboards that you can purchase, the price is right and most are very easy to use. If cost is an issue, these are great alternatives.

In the end, regardless of your toolbox, the important thing is to make the most of your limited social media time and resources so you can reach relevant prospects. Learn more about the importance of social media marketing and how it supports your Inbound Marketing strategy with our FREE guide “Turn Your Website Into a Sales Magnet.”

The LinkedIn company page is getting a major upate and you have until Nov. 30 to prepare your business for the change.

News of the impending change was published on the LinkedIn company blog recently, though no timetable for the changes were announced, other than the Nov. 30 deadline when the company will automatically switch pages over to the new format if they have not already been updated. As for when most folks would be able to get into their page, LinkedIn said selected companies such as Dell or Citi would have early access to the redesign, and the changes would be filtering out from there.

The new look will no doubt be welcome aesthetically, as the current design, while functional, isn’t much to look at. LinkedIn is promising the new pages will make it easier for users to access the information they want about the companies they care about. For companies, the new look promises a more powerful way to build relationships with your target audience on LinkedIn.

While the when of access to the new design has not been nailed down, the what of the new features has been circulating for a few days. New additions include:

• A larger banner image for your company (now 974 x 240 pixels), and you can now make it a link to your company’s website or other destination
• A company headline and tagline
• A shorter company description – 500 characters instead of 3,000. However, you can now add pictures, video and social media links to this section to drive traffic to your website and other social media profiles
• The ability to add employee testimonials
• The ability to add images, video and additional links to your custom module

In other words, it’s a thorough refresh with the chance to add a lot of new elements that can further drive traffic to your company website. If you have been following our blog for any length of time, you know we are big advocates of LinkedIn for attracting prospects and leads, and these tools should make it even more effective.

Here is an example of a recently converted page:

To see if your page is ready for an upgrade, go to your company page and check your administrative tools. If you see the phrase “Upgrade to New Version,” you can begin to upgrade your page. Check often so you don’t miss the opportunity.

According to LinkedIn, the benefits of the new design include:

• Easier navigation to find exactly what you are looking for, whether it’s company news and information, career opportunities, products and services, or insights
• Easier sharing of comments, likes, and other relevant company updates with your professional network
• Improved targeting of status updates and job opportunities to the right targets on LinkedIn
• Improved ability to showcase company’s products, services and career opportunities to members visiting a Company Page

LinkedIn was already an important social media tool for lead generation and the redesign seems to have improved its use as an Inbound Marketing tool. To learn more about using social media to attract relevant prospects to your business, check out our Step-by-Step Guide to Inbound Marketing.

The first item that caught my eye was the recent survey of 600 small businesses by Manta that found nearly 90% of them were dedicating time to social media, and 74% of those were finding it just as valuable as traditional methods.

Clearly, the effectiveness of social media is catching on. Research highlighted earlier this year showed that many businesses can increase sales by investing just 6 hours a week in social media. It’s great to see that business owners are starting to see those benefits.

Some other key findings:

• Nearly 50% of small business owners said the most valuable benefit of networking online is gaining and targeting prospective customers.
• About 78% said they gained at least a quarter of their new customers through online or social media channels this year.

But there’s still a lot of work to be done.

Manta also found that many small businesses were overwhelmed by the multitude of social media channels available. With Facebook, for example, 58% of small businesses surveyed said they struggle to find value in having a Facebook page.

It’s an important reminder that not every social media channel is right for a businesses. The key to successfully using social media is to find our where your customers are and use those channels to reach them. If you have a B2B company, Facebook may not be right avenue, but LinkedIn probably is.

Social media marketing – along with a robust website – are critical components of online marketing.

“As 97% of consumers use the Internet to research products or services in their local area, and those searches regularly include company name, product or service, or business owner, it is critical small businesses build awareness of themselves and their company online,”  said Jed Williams, BIA/Kelsey Program Director, in a press release Manta issued with the survey findings.

The second study that showed great benefits for small business was conducted in Chicago and looked at how more than 300 websites interconnected with each other in the local web ecosystem. In essence, it was a look at the local benefits of using the web and linking to other local sites to business.

What that study found was that social media, particularly for small business, played a critical role in driving traffic to a businesses website. According to the study, Facebook and Twitter drove more than half of all referred visits for small business sites, three times the percentage of larger sites.

The authors of the study said it best when they wrote:

“If you’re a small business owner still weighing whether or not you should get involved in social media, that’s huge. Again, it’s also a testament to the power of getting involved in your local community, online and off. If you’re taking the time to engage people on Facebook and to create content that is valuable and relevant to their needs, you have a great opportunity to significantly increase the traffic to your Web site, even more than a site much larger than you.”

“As a SMB, if you’ve ever taken a look at your Web analytics, you’ve probably already noticed that social sites like Facebook, Twitter and Yelp are your top referrers. That’s not an accident.”

Key takeaways for small business:

• Create and share great local content
• Make social media a point of emphasis of your online marketing
• Send traffic and links to others in your online community, they will link back

It sounds a lot like Inbound Marketing, doesn’t it? It should. Using social media to share content and attract prospects and leads is one of the pillars of any Inbound Marketing strategy.

To learn more about using social media for your business, check out our FREE e-book Enhance Your Internet Presence With Social Media. To better integrate social media into your Inbound Marketing activities, download our Step-by-Step Guide to Inbound Marketing.

Twitter rolled out changes this week that you can use to give your social media marketing efforts a new look. As part of a redesign announced earlier this week, Twitter now makes it possible to add some personality to a profile page. It’s not just for individuals, as the changes create more real estate for marketers to showcase their brand.

Built around the premise that mobile will play a much greater role going forward, user profile pictures have been moved away from the top left corner of the page to the center, where they now appear against a header graphic similar to the cover photos used on Facebook and Google+. Existing profile pictures are embedded in the center of the header.

Additionally, there is an opportunity to float a 160-word bio in front of the graphic, a great opportunity to marry the two together for a great branded look that can encourage engagement and interaction.

Some of the other design changes you will want to explore:

• Favorite Pins. Now you can pin content that’s important to you or you brand by “pinning” it to the top to draw attention to it.
• Mobile Visibility. Users can see a stream of photos below recent tweets on iPhone, iPad, and Android. You can swipe through them and tap any picture to enlarge it. This makes the way people consume content on Twitter more visual, which in turn can motivate actions and interactions.
• Improved Design. Additionally, the new design gives users more control over their background images, which can now be visible on both the left and right side.

Not only is this an opportunity to update the look of your Twitter profile, but since you are going under the hood anyway, it’s a good time to make sure that bio – which will now be much more prominent – and other information is up-to-date.

Adding a header graphic takes just a few steps, and starts with having a background image ready to go. This image can not exceed 1252 pixels in width or 626 pixels in height. Once you have your image, go to your Twitter profile page, then:

1. Click on the “Me” menu in the navigation

2. Select Edit Profile from the settings menu

3. Select Design from the left-hand menu

4. Select Change Header and load your header graphic photo

Before you save your changes, this is a good time to adjust your themes and background colors to match your new header graphic. Using the options in that left-hand menu, you can make other changes to your profile such as editing the bio, changing the profile picture, updating the web link, etc.

Make sure you save your changes on each screen before moving on. In just a few minutes, you can have an updated and refreshed Twitter profile that can give your social media marketing a new look.

Not sure how you want to change your profile, the folks at Mashable have already put together a gallery of Twitter Headers Done Right you can use for inspiration.

To learn more about optimizing your social media for peak performance, check out our FREE Social Media Optimization Playbook.

Yet, for all the evidence and our unwavering enthusiasm, we still have a lot of conversations with prospects who are reluctant to pull the trigger and adopt Inbound Marketing for their business. A lot of them acknowledge “Inbound looks to be the way to go,” but they just can’t seem to take the final step.

We realize the economic jitters has lead to extra caution – though Inbound Marketing is more cost effective – and change is never easy. Inbound is not a magic bullet, and it does require a commitment to the disciplines.

The rewards are more than worth it, though.

Still not convinced? Here are 7 additional reasons your company should adopt Inbound Marketing today:

1. 85 percent of consumers are looking for a local business when they search online. Yet 25 percent of businesses have no web presence and cannot be found. Without an optimized web presence, how can you attract new prospects and leads?
2. 88 percent of adults in the US use the Internet, spending about 38.8 hours a month engaged in online activities. Don’t you want your marketing efforts aimed at the place you are most likely to find your audience?
3. 71 percent of adults spend their time online purchasing products for themselves or for their business
4. 93 percent of Internet users conduct an Internet search with a search engine to find information about the products they are considering purchasing. They are relying on search, but can they find your business?
5. 75 percent of searchers report they never scroll past the first page of results. What are doing to get your business there?
6. 69 percent of consumers are posting social media messages at least once a week or more. Social media offers an opportunity to share your content and interact with prospects. It’s also playing a more prevalent role in shaping search results
7. 85 percent of mobile users use their device for Internet searches and social media interaction, and are spending nearly two hours a day doing so. How are you reaching them?

The trends are pretty clear: consumers – both B2B and B2C – are relying more on the web to find information about products and services before they buy. Inbound Marketing gives you the tools and best practices to capitalize on these trends and attract the right prospects to your business, giving you the opportunity to convert them to leads and customers.

Ready to learn more? Check our out Step-by-Step Guide to Inbound Marketing to learn more about the disciplines of Inbound Marketing and how you can use them to help your business today.

Here is a quick sampling of whose converted in the past 48 hours:

• Intel
• Cisco Systems
• Bimbo Bakery USA
• Navistar Defense
• Disney

Those are certainly some great conversions, and a testament to the demand for information and guidance on content creation. It also demonstrates the valuable links that good content can build for your website.

But what was it about this post and this topic that caught fire? Perhaps the person most surprised by the results was the author of the post. When Ragan.com approached her about posting her blog, Tami confessed she was surprised because the concept behind it was so simple.

Maybe that was the point.

After seeing how the blog took off, I began to wonder if I could find some common threads between this post and some of our other popular posts. Important plug for setting up and regularly viewing your analytics here, this is something you should be checking regularly.

My first look was at our posts for August. We had a good August in terms of page visitors and lead conversions. Was there a trend? Here are the top 10 blogs for the month:

Article Page Views Inbound Marketing: 50 Awesome Content Ideas 327 3 Tricks to Gather Good Content for Social Media Marketing 235 10 Quick Hits to Create Content for Your Blog 212 Our Partnership with HubSpot: What A Difference A Year Makes! 199 The Top 13 Quotes from Inbound 2012 189 9 Inspiring And Effective Call-to-Action Graphics 172 7 Most Effective Forms of Content 163 Top 10 Most Effective Marketing Strategies 137 LinkedIn Update: Time for a Profile Tuneup 136 The State of SEO in 2012 and Why Inbound Marketing Is Winning133

Sure enough, as you look at the chart, 8 of those top 10 posts for the month are basically lists, which we often recommend as a great tool for blog development. It makes sense, our blog provides top-of-the-funnel, educational content for prospects. Lists are easy to digest and don’t require the reader to invest a lot of time to get some good nuggets of usable information.

I also looked at our top 10 blogs of all time, since we established version 2.0 of the Whole Brain Marketing Blog back in spring of 2011. Since our blog has evolved tremendously this past year, I was curious if that same pattern would emerge.

Article Page Views How 6 Hours of Social Media Marketing Can Increase Your Sales                1416 Top 10 LinkedIn Etiquette Tips to Connect Like a Pro 1291 Social Media Optimization 101: How To Optimize Your Profiles 1112 Social Media Marketing: A 30 Minute Plan 776 6 Ways To Use Pinterest To Promote Your Business 758 A Smart LinkedIn Strategy Can Help Generate Leads 690 Turn Your LinkedIn Company Page Into A Sales Magnet 584 5 Twitter Tips When Asking Yourself: What To Tweet? 574 Pinterest offers small businesses untapped inbound marketing potential 514 Pinterest Image Optimization: 5 Tips to Increase Visibility in Search 512

The results were not quite as clear-cut, but lists are still a big part of the mix, comprising 4 of our top 10 blog posts of all time. The other blog type featured heavily in the results is the how-to post, which gives our followers specific instructions on how to accomplish a task, in most cases its something social media related.

What all this data really shows, though, is that our followers are looking for easily digestable information – lists if possible – that provide them guidance in resolving a challenge they face. This past year, the challenge for many was clearly how to take advantage of social media for their business. And by using our analytics, we can stay on top of any changes.

Interestingly enough, Tami’s post fits right in, providing guidance for content a business could share and promote using social media.

The bottom line: now that we know what our prospects want, we need to do more blog posts that fit that profile. If something is working well, do more of it!

It won’t be every post, because not all the information we have to share fits the model. But when we can present a list, or a how-to, we should. It’s what our prospects want.

To learn more about the role that blogging and social media play within the discipline of Inbound Marketing, check out our Step-by-Step Guide to Inbound Marketing.

To say we are pretty excited about HubSpot3 does not nearly do it justice. In the preview webinars we have attended the past month, as a strategic HubSpot partner, the capabilities presented were jaw-dropping. We’ve also been fortunate to be involved in testing some of the new tools, and while there have been a few hiccups along the way, we have seen just how powerful they can be.

Greg Linnemanstons and Frank Isca were in attendance when HubSpot3 was formally introduced during the keynote presentation at Inbound 2012 earlier this morning.

“I’m absolutely blown away by the capabilities rolled out today,” Linnemanstons said. “HubSpot is taking a dramatic leap forward into the future of Inbound Marketing. It’s clear they’re serious about achieving their goal of creating marketing people love!”

“The playbook of traditional marketing is broken, and HubSpot3 makes it easier to create marketing people love. It’s all for the love of marketing!” said Brian Halligan, CEO and co-founder of HubSpot.

“This moment as it’s happening right now is one of my personal magical moments in life.” said Dharmesh, CTO and co-founder of HubSpot. “Success is making those who believe in you look brilliant.”

HubSpot has been working on HubSpot3 for most of the past year, either revamping some of it’s existing tools, or adding new ones based on the experience of more than 6,500 HubSpot users. In all, there will be 10 new or rebuilt components incorporated into the new product.

Based on what we have seen so far, some of our early favorites for the new tools include:

• Contacts Database:  Contacts is an ever-evolving information portal on a company’s audience (Prospects, Leads and Customers). Contacts is really the brain of the new platform with lead and customer profiles automatically adapting based on changing preferences and interactions with the company. It learns, and helps you tailor your information and delivery to that prospect
• Email: The email system is closely integrated with the contacts database, workflows, social media, dynamic content and a company’s CRM system. It enables greater personalization and deliverability than ever before, plus offers more flexible templates and options for sending
• Workflows: Workflows leverage the enormous amount of data in the Contacts database and a series of rules set by the marketer to create dynamically evolving segments and automate marketing actions. That’s a mouthful, for sure, but what it boils down to is that workflows helps you deliver the information your lead wants, how they want it, based on their previous interactions with your content
• Landing Pages: Landing pages have been rebuilt to be closely integrated with the Contacts database, CRM systems, email, dynamic components and social media. Using the new landing pages, marketers can build, implement and measure a full multichannel campaign in one place
• Smart CTAs: Built off the Contacts database, HubSpot3 enables you to show images and CTAs that adapt to reflect the interests and stored qualities of the person viewing them
• Social Media: With a new integration directly into Contacts, HubSpot’s Social Media tools now enable you to view a lead’s social activity and create dynamic segments based on your most engaged social media followers. In addition to that functionality, called “Social Contacts,” HubSpot social media now has an in-app view of all your Twitter and Facebook interactions and enables you to respond or follow. Since the social information is part of the new Contacts Database, you can trigger nurturing messages based on social behavior, making it a true engagement tool for Inbound Marketing

Why are we so excited? Let’s look at the possibilities created by the Smart CTA tool. In the past, you created a CTA, or call to action, that asked the prospect or lead to take an action. For example, one of our most successful is our Step by Step Guide to Inbound Marketing, that also has associated CTA graphics. Nice looking, but the only differentiation was in the wording such as ‘Download Now’ or ‘Free Guide’ on the graphic.

The most noticeable change is the thumbnail that viewers first see when they view a profile. The picture is more pronounced, and many of the links to current and past jobs or previous education are no longer available. In the old design (shown here), multiple links for current and previous positions were visible, along with a full eduction history from this thumbnail.

The old design also displayed featured websites and blogs in this area, providing an opportunity to promote them.

In the new profile design (shown below), only one current job, one past job and one education entry are listed in the thumbnail box. Website listings and other contact information are not visible until a viewer clicks the Contact Info icon at the bottom right of the box.

Proponents say the new design is cleaner and more pleasing to the eye.

LinkedIn confirmed the design changes in a statement to the Los Angeles Times.

“We are focused on making it easier for LinkedIn members to get more value out of the services we offer by creating simpler, more relevant, more social experiences,” a company spokeswoman said in an email. “This new look and feel to the profile is the first step of many more exciting changes to come to the LinkedIn profile later this year.”

While the changes appear subtle, they could have an impact on the ability of searchers to find your profile on the service, or to quickly glean information about you.

Wayne Breitbarth, author of Power Formula for LinkedIn Success, shared his concerns how the changes could hamper folks who have come to rely on the way Linkedin worked prior to Monday, and that have fully optimized their profiles to take advantage the social media channel.

“Everything is still there, but it has moved around,” Breitbarth said. “It’s going to take some research to see what strategy changes are in order.”

One of Breitbarth’s primary criticisms of the redesign is the elimination of the job history, education and web information from the thumbnail. While some have described the changes as elegant, Breitbarth says end users have lost the ability to quickly gain an understanding of who a person is by looking at the thumbnail. Without the multiple current and past job entries, a searcher doesn’t readily see information such as involvement with charities or service on non-profit boards.

“I can see less of what you are involved with. I have to scroll down the profile now to get a feel for who you are,” he said.

Breitbarth also raised a red flag over the pronounced importance of the summary section of the profile. The biggest problem here, he said, is that 50 percent of LinkedIn users have never completed the summary section of their profile. Those people may now be much harder to find and could be missing out on opportunities.

Many of those who do use the summary use it primarily as a listing of skills or specialties. Now would be a good time to revise that content into story form, making sure to keep your keywords prominent.

Other redesign concerns:

• The website and e-mail information being hidden until the contact icon is clicked – what if people don’t take the time to click
• Loss of LinkedIn contact opportunities in the upper right corner of the page to advertising

LinkedIn is still a powerful business tool and lead generator, Breitbarth said. He is currently working on a second edition to Power Formula for LinkedIn Success. He will certainly be keeping an eye on the effect these recent changes have on user profiles so he can include the latest strategies when the new edition goes to print.

Until then, he suggests that LinkedIn users use the redesign as an opportunity to check their profiles and make sure they are up-to-date. Priorities include:

• Making sure the summary section is complete, tells the users’ story and contains relevant keywords
• Checking for job titles and descriptions, making sure that relevant keywords are used whenever possible
• Taking advantage – even though it’s hidden – of the opportunities to promote websites, blogs and Twitter feeds in the contact section

In addition to his book, Breitbarth has some great tools at his website that can help you determine keywords for your profile. Even with the changes, one of LinkedIn’s core functions is as a search tool for business professionals, which means making sure you take advantage of opportunities to use relevant keywords for your profession or business.

Frequent checks of your LinkedIn profile should be part of your regular social media routine. For additional guidance to fully optimize your social media marketing profiles, download a FREE copy of our Social Media Optimization Playbook.