Archive for the 'Businesses' Category

24
Nov
10

Gain Mayorship, Earn Perks: Retailers Give Incentives to Foursquare Users

By Heather Horsey 1 Comment
Categories: Advertising, Business growth, Businesses, Foursquare, Franchise, Marketing and Social Media
Tags: , ,

With the advent of Foursquare, social media has become competitive. Bragging rights of being a mayor is the big prize you win.

Being an active Foursquare user, I have caught the competitive social media bug. My friends and I compete to see who can unlock the most badges, check-in first at each establishment and earn mayoral rights. Since Foursquare users have become so competitive, my friends and I included, we all want to hold the mayorship of our favorite establishments; so it encourages us to drop in more often.

At some establishments it can payoff to become the mayor. Recently, Arby’s kicked off a Foursquare promotion in which mayors of 37 locations from Evansville, Ind., to Huntsville, Ala., gets reserved seats at a “Mayor’s tables” and 50 percent off meals. So not only are customers benefiting from being the mayor of Arby’s, but also the fast food establishment has the chance to run a loyalty program and test new products on valued customers.

Senior Vice President at Arby’s Restaurant Group Inc. Bob Kraut believes, “This [Foursquare] represents the intersection of the social media conversation we want to be a part of and the real world target ability that larger retail operations desire.”

Arby’s is not the only establishment giving its social media followers perks. The MarketFair Mall in Princeton, N.J., has designated one prime parking spot as Foursquare Mayor Parking and on the first Wednesday of the month. Mayor of the W Montreal hotel gets valet parking, a spa treatment or a night’s stay at no charge. In addition to mayoral prizes, companies can also sponsor badges. For example, those who follow Mazda and check-in at participating nightlife venues can earn the Mazda badge and enter to win a new car. Mazda chose nightlife venues to promote the Mazda badge in order to reach its tech savvy target audience.

Although marketers are questioning the function of Foursquare, it seems with the competitive nature of humans, there is ample opportunity if marketers choose to seize it.

Tell us if you think Foursquare will significantly change marketing and social media or if you think it’s just a fad. Share your ideas with us on Facebook at Weise Communications and follow @Weise_Ideas on Twitter.

09
Jul
10

6 Twitter Killers that Businesses Must Avoid

By Mark Plumb Leave a Comment
Categories: Advertising, B2B, BtoB, Business Strategies, business to business, Businesses, Communications, how-to, Marketing, Social Media, Social Networking and Twitter
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What is a Twitter Killer? Engaging in activities that virtually ensure your followers will unfollow you. If you are making the effort to engage customers, clients, peers, influencers and prospects on Twitter – you must keep your followers.  On Wednesday, The Side Note Blog delivered Six Twitter Fundamentals. Today, we look at six Twitter actions you must avoid.

1. Tweeting Irrelevant Information – This intuitively makes sense, but here is a rule of thumb to help you focus on providing good compelling content and ensure that you are engaging in the conversation:

  • One third of your tweets should be a direct broadcast of information.  Take a stand, have an opinion and get the conversation started.
  • One third of your tweets should be retweets of valuable content you have found. Don’t simply rely on the headline, be sure to read the content of what you retweet. Once you retweet, you are taking responsibility for bringing the information to the table.
  • One third of your tweets should be replies to other tweets. This is the clearest way to participate in the conversation. Be sure to keep an eye out for people responding to you and reply.

2. Constant Tweeting – You may be reporting on a live event and in a short period of time you have a barrage of tweets, or you may have found the cure to cancer. In either case, you can be excused for constant tweeting.  According to Dan Zarrella of Hubspot the average user tweets 4.4 times per day.  Zarrella says, “Users who tweet between 10 and 50 times per day have more followers on average than those that tweet more or less frequently. The ‘peak’ of the curve is at 22 tweets per day.”

3. Repeat the Tweet – If you consistently repeat the same tweet, you risk your followers tuning you out.  On one side of the argument, you could say not everyone is looking at their Twitter stream all time, so repeating the tweet just increases your chance to get noticed. However, those managing Twitter disagree, as repeat tweets or repeat links do not show up in Twitter search results. Regardless, you gain credibility by delivering unique, valuable content.

4. Selling not Engaging – If your broadcast message tweets consist of the following shameless self promotion, you are not engaging:

  • Sign up for my RSS feed
  • Check out my blog
  • Today only: 20 percent discount on my product

Instead, follow this plan; tweets will do one of the four following things:

  • Deliver compelling content
  • Share valuable information
  • Participate in the conversation
  • Give away something beneficial

5. Automatic Welcome Messages – If you want to thank someone for following you, you should do so personally. The disadvantage of the automatic welcome message is that you are sending a generic message that is likely to be perceived as spam.  There is a level of insincerity with an automatic message and skilled Twitter users are inundated with them.  Nobody likes insincerity and that makes you an easy target to unfollow.

6. Not Getting to Know Your Followers – You can make an impact on your followers if you pay attention to what they are interested in learning.  The best way to accomplish this is by reading their tweets, blogs, RSS feeds etc.  By placing your focus on your audience, you will develop an engaging Twitter persona.

Of course, there are other etiquette rules to follow like don’t spam, give credit for retweets, don’t type in ALL CAPS and steer clear of overusing hashtags. If you avoid the six actions identified here, you’ll be well on your way to engaging people, building trust and developing relationships – which is what Twitter is designed to do after all.

If you agree or have another Twitter Killer that we missed, please comment here. Be sure to follow us on Twitter for future updates.

07
Jul
10

6 Twitter Fundamentals for Business

By Mark Plumb Leave a Comment
Categories: Advertising, BtoB, Business Strategies, business to business, Businesses, Communications, how-to, Marketing, Social Media, Social Networking and Twitter
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Twitter is a tool meant for engaging people, building trust and developing relationships.  Some of the most successful Twitter personalities built their large audience through previously established popularity.  Even though they didn’t start from ground zero, they continue to accumulate followers through the strength of their reputation/brand. Many of the early adopters of Twitter were entertainers, musicians, athletes and politicians. They used Twitter to stay relevant and give fans unprecedented access.

After journalists started using Twitter as the platform to break news stories, businesses began exploring how to use Twitter as an inbound marketing tool.

There are some fundamental tools that enable your company to develop a strong Twitter following.

  1. News and Information Sharing – Twitter provides quick and easy access to news and information. Using Twitter to engage people can be accomplished most effectively by sharing useful news, live coverage, event updates, link/articles and notifications.  It is especially powerful as a direct mobile link at events and conferences.
  2. Building a Reputation/Branding – One of the attractions of Twitter is the ability to develop and establish a social personality that is connected and approachable.  As your network of connections expands their base of followers, users will be attracted to well established Twitter personas.
  3. Enhanced Networking – Retweeting interesting posts from friends will deepen relationships for future benefits. Also, Twitter has the function to easily track messages from other users. This is a great way to connect with people outside of your sphere of influence. Adding relevant and active users to your circle offers the opportunity to interact with like-minded people or industry peers.
  4. Receive Feedback/Opinions – The opportunities to obtain feedback for business purposes are limitless. For example, need a recommendation for a vacant position, tweet a request. Need a different perspective on an issue, tweet a question. Reciprocation when asked these questions by others can establish your position as an expert and a valued source.
  5. Direct Traffic for More Information – There is a fine line between participating in a discussion and pushing products.  While it is important to raise the visibility of your company website, resist the temptation to simply direct people to your website – you may be viewed as a spammer. Instead, create tweets that address customer issues and concerns with a website location for more information. In the Twitter world, these tweets are more valued than blatant advertising pitches.
  6. Unselfishly Create the Conversation – Starting conversations about areas of interest is a great way to contribute to Twitter, but they can’t be self-serving. One way to show how unselfish you are: contribute to topics of interest to you by replying to tweets on that subject. Just replying isn’t necessarily enough to show that you care about the topic. Be prepared to define your views, thereby building your brand.

If you agree with our Twitter fundamentals, or think we should add another one, please comment here.  Be on the lookout for the ‘6 Twitter Killers that Businesses Must Avoid’ on the SideNoteBlog this Friday, follow us on Twitter for future updates.

21
May
10

Top Six Secrets to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Revealed

By Mark Plumb Leave a Comment
Categories: B2B, Blogs, BtoB, Business Strategies, business to business, business to consumer, Businesses, Communications, Digital Media, Facebook, Google, how-to, internet marketing, lead generation, LinkedIn, Marketing, Optimize, SEO, Social Media, Social Networking, Twitter, Uncategorized and Web sites
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I participated in a webinar conducted by HubSpot, the Cambridge-based Internet marketing company, focused on tips and tricks to organically optimize a company search engine rankings.

The biggest takeaway was the creating of a ranking algorithm as a combination of context, authority and social graph.  HubSpot identified six SEO tips for companies.
1.    Optimize Your Content – The content you create must be a combination of what ‘searchers’ are looking to find and the keywords that search engines require.
2.    Attract Links to Your Content – Links are on-line recommendations from trusted websites. The most often shared items are new data and insightful blog posts. On the other hand, discount offers and product information are the least shared items.
3.    Publish Relevant Content Frequently – Internal HubSpot research showed that 61 percent of blogs are updated once a week or less.  Also, if you commit to a daily blog, you’ll be in the Top 10 percent of businesses.
4.    Be Active in Social Media – With the explosion of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, del.icio.us and Digg, interesting content is shared by trusted sources. Sharing content you find interesting will also help others consider sharing your content.
5.    Build Large Social Media Networks – Lisa Barone of SocialNetDaily gives 8 Ways To Find Relevant Followers On Twitter – see how easy it is to share relevant content.
6.    Use Call to Action on Landing Pages to Convert Leads – Once you have increased traffic to your website, you need to capitalize on the increased interest in what your company is saying. In the same HubSpot research, 41 percent of businesses acquired a customer through Twitter and LinkedIn, 46 percent through their company blog.
Tell us if you have any success implementing these tips, if your search engine ranking increases and if you are able to convert a lead generated by your social media efforts.
Follow Weise on Twitter and check out Weise Communications on Facebook and “Like” it for future updates.

09
Dec
09

The evolution of inner space

By Jay Weise Leave a Comment
Categories: Advertising, Business Strategies, business to business, business to consumer, Businesses, Creative, Media and Uncategorized
Tags: , ,
The Jaz Drive. Solid State Storage.

The Jaz Drive. Solid State Memory.

After recently purchasing a new external hard drive and being amazed by the advances in technology with respect to cost, I ran across the following infographic and it immediately caught my attention. This infographic shows the evolution of storage media, from the original record players to the latest flash drives and hard drives.

The old rule of thumb has been that every six months technology will double in size or speed and half in price. Well, that may not always be true, but if you haven’t been shopping lately for technology, you’ll be amazed by the current prices.

29
Sep
09

what is your blog serving today?

By Joshua Woolery Leave a Comment
Categories: B2B, Best of, Blogger, Blogs, Business Strategies, business to business, Businesses and Communications

HubSpot, an Internet marketing software company, has a great Webinar available to B2B professionals looking to step up their blogging game. The Webinar focuses on three topics; why your business should blog; the five keys to a successful blog and how to measure your blog. I’d like to focus on one of their five keys to a successful blog, creating a mix of posts.

Create a Mix of Posts:

I really liked how HubSpot broke this section up using food to represent different types of posts. Who doesn’t love food?!

Raison Bran – How-to posts. These are rich in keywords and require minimum time commitment to create.

Spinach – Healthy posts you put time into. These posts are designed to establish your blog as an industry thought leader.

Roasts – Just like making a roast during a cold Minnesota winter takes all day, these posts will require a lot of time. They will be extremely “meaty” and have immense amounts of content. Because these posts require ample amounts of time, choose your “roast” carefully.

Tabasco – This one is pretty self-explanatory. These posts are ones that will spark heated discussions due to bold statements.

Chocolate cake – My favorite! Chocolate cake posts are synonymous for fun-loving posts heavily laden with videos, pictures and links.

I was thoroughly impressed with HubSpot’s Webinar, and I encourage you to visit their site and watch the full presentation.

The full list of the five keys to a successful blog are as follows:

1. Pick Your Target Personas

2. Create a Mix of Posts

3. Write Great Posts

4. Sustain It

5. Spread It

18
Aug
09

b2b wants leads. who knew?

By Joshua Woolery Leave a Comment
Categories: B2B, business to business, Businesses, lead generation and stats

GlobalSpec, a specialized vertical search, information services and e-publishing company, recently surveyed 555 marketers to better understand their wants and needs.

The survey yielded many interesting statistics, including:

  • 73 percent of marketers place lead generation as their primary goal.
  • 13 percent cited customer retention as their primary goal.
  • 11 percent said that brand awareness is their primary goal.

Additionally, the marketers surveyed said that they value lead quality more than quantity.

So where are marketers planning on reaching these leads?

According to the results:

  • 72 percent cited Web sites.
  • 71 percent planned on using e-mail marketing campaigns.
  • 65 percent will use SEO.

Surprisingly, only 30 percent of marketers planned on using Webinars as a preferred online channel. I would have thought this number would be higher due to the interactive nature of Webinars.

Overall, I enjoyed learning these statistics. It’s always beneficial to have an idea of what is important to marketers on the client side. Especially, considering the competitiveness of the business-to-business segment.

What channels does your business plan to use over the next year?

Has your marketing budget been cut?

If so, how do you plan to reach your customers and prospects using limited resources?

03
Jun
09

Ten Key Principles of Franchise Marketing For Any Business

By Marne Brase Leave a Comment
Categories: Advertising, Branding, Businesses, Franchising, Marketing, PR and Social Media
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

One of the benefits of being a franchise owner is inheriting an established brand and receiving immediate brand recognition in the marketplace. Owners can leverage the strategy and creative developed by the corporate office and capitalize on its proven direction that is executed consistently across the state, region or global market.

An article posted on AllBusiness.com highlights the key principles of franchise marketing, all of which apply to business owners in any industry. Below is a summary, or click here for the complete article.

TOP TEN MARKETING PRINCIPLES

  1. Know your market
  2. Differentiate your product or service from the competition
  3. Promote through PR, internet advertising, and traditional media such as radio
  4. Position yourself as an expert
  5. Keep past customers coming back with loyalty campaigns and special offers
  6. Create your Web site or utilize what your franchise package provides
  7. Develop marketing collateral (needs depend on the type of franchise – this is important for B2B franchises and less for fast food)
  8. Develop a database and track your campaigns
  9. Establish a referral system
  10. Be innovative and try new ways to reach customers

I think the most valuable ones to focus on today, if you are not already doing them, are No. 5 and No. 10.

It is always more costly to find new customers. I recommend finding ways to keep your base and grow organically. We talk a lot about social media. These networks allow you to communicate with your audience providing you with an opportunity to send messages with offers or important information through Twitter and Facebook – something to consider if you are not already doing it.

I always find it interesting when franchise owners buy into the company vision and offering and then don’t use the provided campaigns or Web site system. Most often they are already paying for these tools. Some say they want to have their own program or campaign. Some don’t know what is available to them. I’ve had conversations with prospects and clients alike on this very subject.

In the article “10 Signs of a Great Franchise Opportunity”, No. 5 talks about marketing and advertising; stating the importance of knowing what is in place and what you will get for your money. So if you are looking to buy, I recommend finding out more beforehand, so you are better equipped when times are tough in order weather the storm and even grow your business.

As the economy slowly improves, consider what your franchise offers or try new ways to reach out to your market.

What new campaigns or new ideas have you implemented? What were your results?

28
May
09

Twitter is much more than social

By Beth Hardy Leave a Comment
Categories: Businesses, Denver Post, Marketing, Social Media and Twitter

Picture 21Last week, The Denver Post ran an AP story titled “Twitter or Facebook? It’s a generational thing”. Part of the story features a Los Angeles Times columnist who “disdains” Twitter and seems to believe that people only tweet about mundane, meaningless things, such as “when you get up in the morning” and “when you go to bed at night”. Reading this section of the article got me really fired up, because his idea of Twitter can’t be further from what the social media tool really offers.

I first have to acknowledge that some people do indeed tweet about when they get up in the morning and what they have for breakfast. But not everyone chooses to share that type of information, and you – as a businessperson – probably wouldn’t be interested in following them anyway.

As we’ve said many times before on The Side Note, Twitter is a great learning and marketing tool for businesses. It can be used to broadcast information about your company, read what people are saying about you, communicate with your customers, learn about the latest trends within your industry, converse and network with other industry professionals…the list goes on. Twitter may have started out as an electronic tool to connect socially, but it’s evolved into a valuable avenue for business marketing and researching.

I think the LA columnist is missing the boat by not thinking broadly enough. He seems to only consider Twitter for social uses, not professional uses. As a writer, I bet he would find Twitter extremely valuable. Imagine the editors and other writers he could connect with on a daily basis, as well as the story ideas and sources he could find.

Alas, I feel the writer’s understanding and view of Twitter is shared by the vast majority of people. However, Twitter has great momentum – approximately 6 million users thus far – and is continuing to pick up speed. If the Twitter trend remains at this pace, the possibilities are abundant, and those not on the bandwagon may get left behind.

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