posted on October 3, 2015 by
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Should You Focus on Social Media or Content Marketing?

Social networks are crucial to the success of content marketing efforts. Twitter, Facebook, SlideShare, YouTube and other platforms are used primarily as a distributor of links back to the content on the company’s, brand’s or organization’s website — not as containers of the content.

Social media can be effectively used for increasing brand awareness — generating discussions around the brand. Secondly, it is used for customer retention and satisfaction. Social channels can serve as an open forum for dialogues with customers, often around issues that they have.

The context of websites allows longer forms of content. Brands can publish blog posts, podcasts, infographics, videos, checklists and eBooks, etc.

The effectiveness of content marketing increases as the organization’s content marketing grows in maturity. Based on the B2B content marketing research, 64% percent in the sophisticated/mature phase state they are effective at content marketing, 23% in the adolescent phase say they are effective at content marketing, and 6% in the young phase say they are effective at content marketing. More information is provided on the Content Marketing Institute website.

Filed Under: marketing, small business, social media, Twitter
posted on April 19, 2014 by
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Event Marketing 101

Two recent emails in my Inbox included questions about event marketing. In this blog post I’ll share some basic digital marketing tips. Hopefully your event website is up and running. If not, you could use Eventbrite to set up your website and sell tickets. You may also need an active PayPal account to accept payments. In addition, social media channels will help you amplify your message and engage with potential participants.

If for some reason you, your organization or business is still not active on social media, establish your:

Twitter presence (sample: https://twitter.com/accessibledaisy)
Facebook presence (sample: https://www.facebook.com/DAISYConsortium)

Write a press release or an article about your upcoming event. Describe how this event is different from any other events and why people should pay attention / attend. Use descriptive images if you can. (Suggested platform: PRWeb)

Create a SlideShare channel for your organization or event – you can post PowerPoint presentations, and other documents (Sample).

Share links to your press release, articles and presentations on social media (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook) – engage with your followers. Create a tweet schedule – you could post tweets about different speakers and presentations.

Take and share photographs at your event (Eventsagram).

Filed Under: blogging, marketing, social media Tagged With: ,
posted on April 18, 2014 by
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Social Media: Why Am I Here? What Are My Goals?

I had a chance to share my thoughts on social media and meaningful participation in social networking with some University of Montana students yesterday. It warmed my heart today to read the following Guest Speaker feedback:

“I felt our guest speaker really helped me understand how passion and
listening is the basis of social media. Her commentary on
understanding your personal social media strategy – why am I here?,
what am I planning?, what are my goals? – gave me a good basis for how
to start any project. Also, I felt like her advice to “listen!” was so
helpful. Although listening seems like an obvious part of the social
media world, I think it is often overshadowed by the “doing!” aspect.
We want our ideas to be heard, so there are so many people talking. By
stepping out of that and listening, you can better choose your message
to acknowledge the things people talk most about. Furthermore, I
learned a lot from her discussion on getting news to the masses.
Starting with a press release, then working your way down the social
media platform list, each time revising your message for the audience.
I had never looked at spreading the word in that way before. I really
enjoyed listening to her speak, thank you for giving us that
opportunity!”

Thank you, Brittany!

Filed Under: marketing, social marketing, social media Tagged With: ,
posted on January 7, 2013 by
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13 Tips for Building a Total Online Presence

Now as you are focused on your new year’s resolutions, here’s one more list:

1.   Use Quora to find questions people in your industry are asking.
2.   Create a listening station – read blogs and listen to podcasts to find great content ideas.
3.   Create landing pages and capture leads.
4.   Write good content that includes keyword phrases to improve SEO and network to get relevant sites linking back to your site.
5.   Email isn’t dead. Lead capture plays a big part in your email marketing efforts.
6.   Build a full Google+ profile and claim your +Local (Place) page. Focus on small circles in Google+. Promote with +1 button.
7.   Use online advertising and face-to-face networking to drive people to your website.
8.   Your audience will tell you if you are oversharing on social media. Make adjustments.
9.   Always use analytics (data) as a checkpoint for everything you do.
10. Use your e-newsletter to promote quality content.
11.  Schedule tweets to share them throughout the day (Buffer).
12.  Create Twitter lists of customers and add their social profiles to your CRM tool.
13.  Optimize your website for mobile devices.

Total Online Presence = Your Online Identity.

 

Filed Under: marketing, small business, social marketing, social media, Twitter, word of mouth
posted on December 12, 2012 by
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Twitter Strategies for Small Business

It may seem that a lot is being said and written about Twitter, but it may be good to revisit the basics.

  1. Make Twitter a part of your marketing strategy – Social Media Marketing System. Do your research and determine whether your business could use free social networking tools such as Twitter and Facebook for market research, customer service and/or reaching your target market.
  2. Improve your professional skills, products and services by paying attention to what your competitors, potential clients  and current customers are raving or complaining about.
  3. Learn how to educate and inform your target audience,  share information about the articles, products and opportunities that your followers/fans may find useful.
  4. Person handling tweets/posts/fan pages for your organization should be familiar with the web and web-based tools.
  5. Make it your goal to become an “informer” who has the potential to be a “trust agent” – someone who is an expert and has an ability to influence other people.
  6. You only have 140 characters for one tweet, use them wisely.
  7. Avoid words and phrases that may attract unwanted followers/fans.
  8. 100 loyal followers/fans/subscribers who look forward to reading your tweets/posts may be worth more than 1,000 random followers.
  9. Learn to use Twitter/Facebook/Blogs as your company’s online reputation management tool.
  10. Don’t waste your time if you don’t have a social networking strategy.
Filed Under: social media, Twitter