Archive for the 'how-to' Category

20
Oct
10

LinkedIn Myth Buster – Growing Business with LinkedIn

By Mark Plumb 1 Comment
Categories: Advertising, Business Strategies, Communications, how-to, Jobs, Linked In, LinkedIn, Marketing, Social Media, Social Networking, Twitter and Uncategorized
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Job Hunting! The single biggest myth about LinkedIn is that the only people using it are looking for a job. While it is a valuable job hunting resource, this myth is driving away the people that will derive quite a lot of value from the site.

Generating sales leads, expanding your influence and sharing your expertise are three ways that businesses should focus on LinkedIn.

Generating sales leads – Running an advanced search for contacts in your target market is a great way to mine for sales leads. In the advanced search, you can search by keyword, company, industry, title, etc.  How many times have you said, ‘if I could only get in front of the CEO at my target prospect, the sale would be in the bag’. Well advanced search gives you the tools and access you need.  Then, think Back to Bacon…the six degrees of separation concept is shortened down to three.  Somebody, knows somebody, who knows the right somebody.  Best of all, there are many LinkedIn groups that deliver valuable content and those high-end decision makers belong to many of these groups.  You can join the group as well, then you can almost taste the bacon.

Expanding your influence – Using LinkedIn, I invited my Denver-area connections to a city-wide networking event, Summertoast. At the event, I connected with 10 people in my network who introduced me to more people and I secured a lunch meeting to discuss our agency working on a project for that company.  This chain of events occurred from a simple LinkedIn invitation to an event that I wasn’t even hosting.

Sharing your expertise – I’ve connected the Side Note Blog and my twitter feed @Mark_at_Weise, to my LinkedIn profile.  If we are connected on LinkedIn, you’ll see an entry on my newsfeed whenever a new Side Note entry is posted.  Also, I have found that tweeting relevant, interesting content has convinced some of my contacts that I have some valuable insight.  Sourcing interesting content is important, be sure to keep it relevant and business related.

In order to keep LinkedIn THE professional networking site, it is incumbent on regular users to maintain integrity in their groups and push group administrators to remove content that is not directly related to the group. Most importantly, shut down spammers, and restrict job posters from cluttering your group.


If you have other ways of using LinkedIn to grow your business, please share them with us.  Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn, search or click the Mark Plumb LinkedIn tattoo. You can find Weise Communications on Facebook and follow @Weise on Twitter.

 

23
Jul
10

Ready to Start a Blog – 7 free blog websites

By Mark Plumb Leave a Comment
Categories: Advertising, Blogger, Blogs, Business growth, Business Strategies, Communications, how-to, Marketing and Top Web sites
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For many, starting a blog is a daunting proposition; so today we’ll ease the task by sharing some blog basics.  Below are some of the most popular FREE blog hosting/posting websites.  When evaluating a new blog and these sites, be sure to understand how flexible the sites are in terms of images, content and scalability. Most importantly, determine the goals for the blog.

Blogr – Provides space to store and share photos, videos, audios and blog entries.

Blogger – Includes hundreds of background images, flexible layouts and widget arranging through a drag and drop interface.

Blogster – Part blog service and part online community of people who share interests and activities.

LiveJournal – Blogging platform focused on personal publishing, community involvement, and individual expression, blurring the lines between blogging and social networking.

Tumblr – Focuses on media-rich blogs, as the average user creates 14 original posts monthly. Half of those posts are photos. The rest are split between text, links, quotes, music and video.

WindowsLive – Free blog site, however must have an MSN account to another MSN service such as hotmail or messenger.

WordPress – Easy and intuitive platform that is the hosted version of the open source package. In the spirit of full disclosure, The Side Note is hosted on WordPress.

Another consideration when determining a blog website must be the additional features that can increase the blog scope/following and ability to monetize the site.  These considerations include:

  • Providing an RSS feed which is a text-based headline with a link, that is sent out to your subscribers as soon as it leaves your website.
  • A sync function to cross post with your other social media sites, such as your personal Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts.
  • Paypal shopping cart to allow customers to purchase multiple items with a single payment, browse entire selection and view a consolidated list of items before purchasing.
  • Adding Adsense to incorporate advertising from Google (pay per click and pay per impression).
  • Plug in to help people  your posts on other social media services, such as Digg, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace and Del.icio.us.

If you know of another free blog website that should be on this list or if there is another integral added feature that improves the ability to grow the site, please add it in a comment below.

19
Jul
10

3 social media measurements every company needs

By Mark Plumb Leave a Comment
Categories: Business Strategies, Facebook, how-to, LinkedIn, Marketing, New Media, ROI, Social Media, Social Networking and Twitter
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Building a relationship is not easy; explaining the value of a social media relationship is virtually impossible without tracking and measuring specific variables.  There are three things you must measure in order to validate the time spent on social media activities: Endeavors, Connections and Results (ECR).

Endeavors – This refers to the efforts your company undertakes: how much, how often and how frequently you post, blog and tweet.

Connections – This refers to the reactions from your audience: your comments, followers, views and retweets.

Results – This refers to your financial measures: revenue generation, cost reduction, leads and sales.

Before beginning a social media marketing effort, it is important to establish the success levels of your ECR components. Since these vary from company to company, there isn’t a general rule to follow.

Ideally, developing your ECR score will determine your overall level of customer engagement.  With the prevalence of social media, customer engagement is key to improving satisfaction, loyalty rates and revenue. By actively listening to customers and engaging them in discussion, you can improve your business, products and service levels. EConsultancy, a social media research firm released Customer Engagement Report 2010. Key findings include:

  • The proportion of company respondents who regard customer engagement as “essential” has increased to 55 percent.
  • The tactics that have come to the forefront for driving customer engagement are email newsletters, social networking and Twitter activity.

Ultimately, the research shows that an engaged customer will recommend your brand, convert more readily and purchase more often.

What do you use when measuring social media activity? What indicators work for you when measuring social media? Let us know and connect with Weise Communications on Facebook for future updates.

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
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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
Jun
10

Healthcare: Social Media Marketing in Practice

By Heather Horsey 2 Comments
Categories: healthcare, healthcare marketing, how-to, internet marketing, Marketing and Social Media
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Contributed by Vern Singleton, CEO, Eating Disorder Center of Denver

Vern Singleton, CEO, Eating Disorder Center of Denver

Eating Disorder Center of Denver is one of the nation’s foremost centers for the diagnosis and treatment of the full range of eating disorders, including anorexia, bulimia, binge eating and diabulimia. Based on an individual’s particular clinical needs, EDC-D offers a variety of treatment options, including a partial hospitalization program, intensive outpatient programs, nutritional counseling, outpatient therapy and an evening treatment program.

Full disclosure to our readers: While we typically do not write about our own work, we feel it’s only fair for you to know EDCD is a client of Weise Communications.

How have your marketing initiatives changed in the last 18 months?
We have overhauled our marketing efforts, and online marketing is currently a big part of our media mix. This is quite a change for EDC-D compared to previous years.

How have your public relations initiatives changed in the last 18 months?
Our proactive public relations initiatives have stayed consistent in the traditional outreach we do. But in the last 18 months, we have added a complete social media plan to compliment and enhance our traditional public relations. We are also highly focused on using PR to drive people to our website. It has been a successful endeavor with site visits increasing month over month.

What is your current opinion of social media and its ability to drive business opportunities?
Social media and Internet marketing in general is a measurable way to drive new business – you can see such a return on investment here. Social media can directly drive business opportunities and can increase general exposure when the right tracking methods are in place. Plus, the campaign can be easily tweaked when needed.

What social media outlets is your company actively using? Why?
Facebook, Twitter.

The main goal of social media is to engage others, share information and learn from your network. With people talking about EDC-D, our staff, their experiences at the center, and/or the eating disorder industry, we wanted to “get in the room” – the social media site — and be part of the conversation.

Our Facebook page enables EDC-D to connect with target audiences and build relationships. It also provides one more way for search engines to find EDC-D – social networks rank high on Google searches. Facebook allows us to interact with those who are involved with us on a more personal basis. We also use a Facebook group to help build relationships and support for our network.

Our Twitter campaign increases exposure to our brand and helps us push out important information to those who may be interested in EDC-D. We have used a Twitter account to provide updates and news and direct readers to the website for more information. We also use Twitter to ask questions of our peers and receive the relevant information and/or feedback on where we can go to get that information. Overall Twitter is another helpful branding tool for EDC-D. The Twitter account has also supported our media relations outreach.

What are your corporate goals with social media?
Our corporate goals are to drive business, to increase patient referrals and increase census. We also hope to increase our reach in the eating disorder community in general. By using social media we can hope to make a difference for those who are suffering but not quite ready to seek treatment.

Do you believe social media outlets are here to stay? Why or Why not?
With the mass-penetration into our culture, I think social media is smart for business and a part of our culture that is here to stay.

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.

10
May
10

Facebook, Foursquare for customer appreciation

By Heather Horsey Leave a Comment
Categories: Communications, Facebook, Flikr, Foursquare, how-to, Marketing, Social Media and Twitter
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Facebook is beta testing a new small business marketing effort in California designed to get businesses more “likes” on the social networking site. The California-based company sent out window decals to a variety of small businesses with specific instructions for users on how to “like” the establishment. The decals include phone numbers and details on how to text the “like” straight from your mobile phone.

This initiative sounds to me much like Foursquare. Foursquare, the social utility that allows users to check in at establishments they visit, earn points and discounts or other incentives from the businesses they visit.

Both the Facebook beta test and Foursquare offer a great marketing and customer appreciation opportunity for storefronts around the country. Case and point, my boyfriend recently “liked” Wahoo’s Fish Tacos on Facebook. Wahoo’s then sent him a coupon for a free enchilada. So, instead of eating at home that night, we headed to the local Wahoo’s with our coupon in tow. I have also seen several salons that post last-minute cancelations on Facebook in order to fill these slots. It is also become more common for businesses to check Foursquare and invite the current “mayor” to a free drink or other discount.

This expansion of marketing is an exciting and fast-growing media outlet and the limits are really only what you can imagine.

Facebook decided to gift beta testers of its small business marketing effort with $25 in ad credits to help drive home the utility of the service and propel businesses to participate in on-site advertising as well.

This first step toward serving local businesses is an extremely smart maneuver very much like Google’s Place Pages offering. Now, the marketing depicted in “Minority Report” when Tom Cruise entered a Gap, he received recommendations of products and discounts based on past purchases doesn’t seem that far off.

07
May
10

5 Keys to Successful Fusion Marketing

By Mark Plumb Leave a Comment
Categories: Advertising, BtoB, Business growth, Business Strategies, business to business, business to consumer, Communications, Guerilla Marketing, Guerrilla Marketing, Guerrilla PR, how-to, internet marketing, lead generation, Marketing, promotions, trends and Uncategorized
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During challenging economic times, businesses are always looking for low-cost ways to market products and services.  Today’s idea is not only inexpensive; it is also a reliable and effective method of marketing products and services.

In its most simplistic form, fusion marketing is partnering with other businesses for the purpose of marketing for one each other’s business.  Here is an example, my neighborhood dry cleaners is located next to a sub sandwich restaurant.  When I dropped off some dry cleaning, I found a 20 percent coupon for the sandwich shop.  I thought I would grab some lunch and when I was paying for my discounted sandwich, I found a 20% percent coupon for the dry cleaners.

These two businesses were sending customers to each other. They had formed a strategic alliance and in marketing lingo, this is called fusion marketing.

The most critical component to successful fusion marketing is to identify the businesses with which to create strategic alliances; identifying these “Power Partners” is the foundation for success. A Power Partner is a business that has a similar target market as your business but doesn’t really compete with the products and services your business offers. Imagination is the only limiting factor when identifying Power Partners.

A powerful fusion marketing combination could be a wedding planner, a florist, a photographer, a baker, a mobile DJ and a bridal shop. How powerful would it be to have a ‘preferred partner’ link on each business website? How about having marketing materials at each business location, so when a prospective bride asks the florist, “Do you know a good photographer?”, the florist has a handy recommendation.

Here are the five keys to setting up a successful fusion marketing alliance:

Key 1: Identify your Power Partners.

Key 2: Determine the offer for each Power Partner.  The offers don’t necessarily have to be the same as in the coupon example above.

Key 3: Communicate with each other. Set up a regular meeting time to ensure that everyone agrees how to market each other’s businesses and refer customers.

Key 4: Share prospects and lead generation lists.  It may be possible to combine offers in the next customer sales pitch.

Key 5: Responsiveness and follow-up. Respond to customer inquiries and leads from Power Partners. Share lead conversions with Power Partners for future follow-up.

Tell us if you have any fusion marketing success, we are really interested in the combination of Power Partners and your best customer conversion story.

Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Weise_Ideas

19
Apr
10

A case for social media in healthcare communication

By Heather Horsey 1 Comment
Categories: Brand Loyalty, Communications, Facebook, healthcare, healthcare marketing, how-to, Social Media and Twitter
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Organizations that go looking for reasons not to engage in social media are going to find some, especially those in the healthcare arena. With an uncertain regulatory landscape combined with the loss of control of messaging, taking the social media plunge can be a scary step. Despite the lack of direction from regulators, many healthcare organizations have taken the step into the unknown with great results.

Johnson & Johnson’s social media campaign to promote the Acuvue disposable contact lens is a smart one. With a Facebook page dedicated to the brand and more than 25,000 followers, the corporation can speak directly to people who wear the contact lens as well as provide them with product updates and health information. To add to this Johnson & Johnson uses a Facebook application to remind wearers they need to change their lenses on a regular basis. By setting up these auto-reminders, wearers will not only have a better product experience, but they will have to re-order more often. Building the relationship with current clients will help Acuvue build its client base and expand it.

Glaxo Smith Kline’s product Alli, a FDA-approved weight-loss drug, uses an integrated social media approach with Twitter, Facebook and YouTube working together to provide health information to potential customers. Here Alli is really using their customers for consumer insight. By providing a space for feedback, offering surveys and encouraging users to share their stories, Alli gains understanding of its customers and their interests. This information helps Alli target its outreach. By creating messaging to address client concerns and posting information directly related to these concerns, the pharmaceutical company shows customers it cares about them. This leads to increased sales for Alli.

Another example of the healthcare industry using social media to its benefit is the Eating Disorder Center of Denver. By promoting better body images and using its patients’ self-affirmations, the Eating Disorder Center of Denver has been able to speak directly to those in need of its services and offer them a solution to their problem.

The bottom line of social media, and communication in general, is that you need to be active where your customers are engaged. And the best way to find out where they are online is to ask them. If your customers are on Facebook, than you need to engage them on Facebook. You need to find ways to create genuine connections and whether it’s helping them through a tough day or reminding them to change their contacts, you are creating something greater – brand loyalty.

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