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 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