How to Build Compelling Business Profiles on Social Networks (Play #2)
August 20, 2012 by admin · Leave a Comment
Now that you’re armed with a short, clear description of your business and its advantages (see blog post “Play #1: How to Create a 140-Character, One-of-a-Kind Business Description”), it’s time to start building or re-building your presence on various networks.
There are a number to consider, including:
- Social networks: Facebook, Google +1, LinkedIn, Quora, Tumblr, Twitter, and your own blog.
- Business matching services: Alibaba, Ariba, eLance, Global Sources.
Determine which networks your business should use. Refer back to the map you created in Play #1. Which of the online networks are relevant in your potential customers’ buying process? Here are some tips: Read more
Social Marketing Best Practices | A Planning Checklist (Updated 2012)
August 13, 2012 by admin · Leave a Comment
Last year I drafted a set of best practices to help assess a client’s social marketing efforts. See “Social Marketing Best Practices | A Planning Checklist.”
Recently, we revisited that client’s progress to date and updated their social marketing strategy. As their efforts have progressed and evolved, so too has our perspective on the best practices needed for the next phase of their social marketing journey.
The result is this new and improved checklist:
Social Marketing Best Practices Planning Checklist (Updated 2012).
1) Establish clear goals for social marketing.
- Early on, it may be simply establishing a presence on key social media sites.
- Later, it could evolve to high levels of engagement, referrals and conversions.
2) Define your targets clearly.
- Be specific. Are they prospective employees? Current employees? Current customers? Influencers such as analysts, bloggers and media? Prospective customers?
Facebook Fan Page Best Practices
June 20, 2011 by admin · 2 Comments
I have been managing a couple of brand’s fan pages directly for some time – Savvy Cellar Wines (which I’m a Co-Owner of) for over two years and Organic Wine Review (which was video blog launched last year). My consulting practice SmokeJumper Strategy is increasing being called upon to assist software and Internet companies with their social media and marketing strategy, which inevitably includes Facebook. I was also recently asked by Facebook to become an Advisor to their Local product and marketing efforts.
During this time, I’ve experimented with many aspects of managing a fan page for a small & local businesses: from times to post, different media types and observing and measuring what types of posts seem to drive social interaction. Along the way, we’ve managed to grow our fan base (now at 2,100), hopefully engage them in a positive way and taken advantage of the advances Facebook has engineered into their tools and apps for fan pages, their advertising platform and their analytics to measure audiences and responses to actions.
Social Marketing Best Practices | A Planning Checklist
April 29, 2011 by admin · Leave a Comment
One of my clients, Marketo, a leader in B2B marketing automation, recently published a practical guide to social media marketing called The Definitive Guide to B2B Social Media.
This excellent guide includes a checklist outlining the steps a company should take to use social media effectively. Using Marketo’s list as a starting point, I added some steps and extended others to develop a new “best practices” tool:
Social Marketing Best Practices Planning Checklist:
1) Establish clear goals for social marketing.
- Keep objectives in mind for every initiative executed.
2) Commit people to social marketing.
- Social media is about real-time response and frequently updated information – both of which require commitment and dedication.
How SEO Can Drive Non-SEO Marketing
April 4, 2011 by admin · Leave a Comment
A year ago I was asked by a friend and former colleague of mine, who is now a Partner at a prominent Silicon Valley Venture Capital firm, to come be the lead speaker at a “Marketing Meetup” they were hosting. It seems that many of the companies that the firm had invested in were struggling with (or at least hesitating) to take advantage of online marketing (e.g. search engine optimization, search engine marketing, email marketing, blogging, social media, etc.).
How Marketing Changed in the 2000’s
I was recently reflecting on that session and thought it would be interesting to go back and see what, if anything had changed in my perspective. When I gave the talk, I did my best to provide some context of how marketing had changed during the last decade (or at least back to when my former colleague was pushing product out the door for Netscape Communications).
- Access to media, thought leaders and influencers was somewhat limited and pre-defined by the traditional bounds of print (and even early online) publications and the relationships that Public Relations (PR) professionals had with the media whose coverage they sought. Read more