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?
How to Create a 140-Character, One-of-a-Kind Business Description (Play #1)
June 15, 2012 by admin · 2 Comments
In the blog post “A B2B Marketing Playbook” we acknowledged how having more marketing options is actually very stressful for many small businesses. In face of this stress, our objective is for you to craft your very own modern marketing plan with a clear sense of direction for winning more B2B customer relationships.
Let’s get started on your modern online marketing plan.
There are six foundational plays to help you create your modern marketing plan. Through a series of blog posts, we’ll outline the fundamentals of each play and provide exercises that will add up to your own customized plan.
The six plays are:
1. Create a 140-character, one-of-a-kind business description.
2. Build compelling business profiles for business networks right for you.
3. Uncover your customers’ buying process.
4. Invest in a network of high-impact advocates.
5. Act and react.
6. Track results and maximize your ROI.
A B2B Marketing Playbook
Does my business need a blog? Am I doing search engine optimization (SEO) right? How should I use Twitter and Facebook?
If thoughts like these are keeping you up at night, read on.
Over the past year, John Kim and I (@SmokeJumper) set out to answer these and related questions on behalf of small businesses.
The world is changing right before our eyes (and webcams).
From a technological perspective, 2011 was a watershed year:
- In the U.S., smart phone penetration reached 51 percent by the end of last year, according to Nielsen.
- Time spent by users on social media sites as a percentage of overall time online reached 30 percent.
- Time spent on social media as a percentage of online mobile time reached 60 percent.
Think you already feel the impact of this on-the-go, always-connected society? Hang on to your hat, because that impact is going to get even larger. We will see a steady rise of more people on more powerful devices participating in ever more social experiences to discover and share information that shapes their personal and professional decision-making. Read more
Journey to SEO Nirvana | Baseline (step 1 of 5)
December 10, 2010 by admin · 2 Comments
This high-tech cobbler is committed to making shoes for his children this holiday season. Let me explain.
The clients I help with SEO, SEM and social media strategy often tell me that they imagine my website must be “super well optimized” for search engines. As embarrassing as it is to admit, I have to tell them, “No, it is not.”
The truth is that as a busy consultant and owner of several small independent businesses, I rarely get to focus on the online marketing efforts of my own web-based consultancy, SmokeJumper Strategy.
Therefore, much like the cobbler who is so busy making shoes for paying customers that his own children run around barefoot, my website runs around the Internet without any SEO-optimized shoes on at all!
Well, hopefully that will all change soon. Read more