How many hours have you spent adding buttons, gadgets and widgets to your new blog or website? You research the right tools, share buttons, share bars, analytic tracking tools and more. You install them with a hope and a prayer that someone somewhere is going to use them. However, unfortunately many business leaders find they don’t get used. The share buttons sit on their site with the lonely zero or default +1. Chances are your pocket book or wallet might be feeling a little lonely too.
Can you name three reasons why someone should like your Facebook business page? You are not required to answer it now. I want you to think about it, and come back and answer it within the next week. If you can not clearly articulate three reasons someone should like your page, then I can guarantee the chances of you seeing any real business benefit from Facebook short or long term is minimal.
It’s easy to get side tracked by all the geekdom in social. From looks (impressions) to likes, follows, retweets, influence scores, views, demographics, insights, conversions and the list goes on.
Underneath all of the bits, bytes, and likes we can’t forget why we like social media in the first place. Social networks connect human beings. They provide a way for us to better communicate, share information, learn, grow, and help others do the same.
Tweet this, retweet this, check out this blog post, click here, act now, subscribe for free updates, watch this, share this, like me, follow me, act now. Whoa! There sure isn’t a shortage of folks telling us what to do in the social world.
From bloggers, internet marketing experts, social media gurus, social rockstars, twitterati, to a-listers someone has something that is going to rock your world with a click, like, follow and tweet.
Anybody who blogs can remember your first post, second post and the empowerment you experienced. The empowerment I felt after leaving behind a career of fifteen years in the corporate world to pursue my dreams as an entrepreneur and being free to write about what I wanted to write about was beyond words. I remember getting those little butterflies as I hit send and would wait to see if anyone read those early posts. I still remember the first nice man who commented on my blog.
A word that has been on my mind the past few weeks is relevancy. It is a word we all talk about yet many don’t understand.
I have also received several comments asking me “relevant to who?” on posts that include discussions of relevancy.
Why are they asking me “who” their brand should be relevant to? I think often times people get to the bottom of a blog post and become frustrated they weren’t provided all of the answers to complete their business and integrated social marketing plan.
Just because I trust you with my email or as a LinkedIn connection doesn’t mean you should spam me. As I enjoyed my Friday afternoon I couldn’t help but notice how my iPhone was consistently buzzing and beeping. I was receiving message after message from business leaders and entrepreneurs whom I have entrusted my email address to. The messages were coming from email and LinkedIn.
There were a few in particular that grabbed my attention more than others. Unfortunately it wasn’t because they were good. It was because they were complete spam.
So you’re finally starting to get the basics of online marketing. You have a website and a blog. You might have a Facebook account with some engaged fans. You may or may not have a Twitter account but you’re definitely on LinkedIn!
You keep hearing about mobile marketing and how you can leverage it to grow your business yet you aren’t sure where to start. Here are some tips to get you started with a zoom!
It’s easy to get lost in never never circle, like, follow and link land. I recently wrote a post on this topic “I Google+ circled, followed, liked, linked, bookmarked you, now what?” I have a suggestion for the “what”! Get focused on your business and your audience my friends!
It’s important we don’t forget the reasons we are doing social media. How about the reasons you are in business? Remember those goals and objectives you set a short seven months ago for 2011? Well, guess what… you only have 5 more months to execute and achieve them.
So you hear the stories of the broke realtors. I have heard many state they can’t sell or rent the homes. I know the economy stinks, there is a surplus of foreclosures. However, there are still some people buying and renting homes, townhomes, apartments, condos and office space.
The question is are realtors really doing all they can to help sell the homes? I think overall the answer is no. Read on to learn why.
How many times have you heard these remarks? “Yes, we are on Twitter. We hired an intern. He/she tweets links to our blog” or “yes, we are on Facebook. We have a website with the Facebook logo on it that links to our Facebook business page.”
At the core everything about social media is about the people.
Let’s quit bantering over the semantics & get real with people. Authenticity is a word being over used in social circles. Does it begin to lose meaning to some? Absolutely. However, just because we may be tired of the word “authenticity” does it change the importance and ability to embrace, desire and appreciate real relationships both online and offline? Absolutely not.
We all know there is no shortage of websites. For years business leaders have been building them. They spend loads of money. They put a task force in place to ensure the website rocks and can impress shareholders. The executives and marketing team dream of their beautiful website that will bring them lots of customers. You know, “that website, the one everyone will love”. They dream of email opt-ins, increased hits on their website and fancy reports they can show off to any and all stakeholders who will lend an ear.
Social media to me is about sharing. It’s about giving your best goods. It’s about collaboration. It’s where friends, partners, clients and even competition come together for the good of the whole. Today I had something strange happen in the world of social media. Something I had never really thought of or dealt with before. [...]
What do you have on deck this week? Update the website? Fix your online shopping cart? Write a new blog post about your new services? Blast an email to your list so they will visit your updated website, read your blog about your services, use your no longer broken shopping cart and hopefully buy something [...]
“Social media is free. Social media is easy. Just hop on twitter and start tweetin’!” Hmmm… how many times have we heard that? I have honestly heard social media consultants at networking events state during their 60 second pitch “social media is free, come talk to me if you want to do free marketing!” Ouch, not the case folks.
I wanted to provide some helpful tips when hiring a consultant. Consultants, just as mentors and coaches should be selected based on personal fit with your business goals, life cycle, and culture. The most important thing is that you do your research and talk to a few. Don’t go with the first one you meet.
As folks jump on social platforms by the millions the noise is getting louder. The content is growing in masses. The crap is getting thicker. Thank goodness people are getting smarter.
What use to work six months ago doesn’t work today. People are starting to question why they are doing what they do in social media. For good reason they’re questioning what a conversation really is. What is a real friend?
When folks ask me what the secret is, I always answer that there isn’t one. The best advice I can give is to simply go for it and be yourself. Either they like you or they don’t! So here are a few words of advice from a marketing nut who has been living within the DNA of social media for almost a year. Take em’ or leave em. Let me know what you think. Be honest. Be real. Help others if you have the guts.
Ask 1 million people what brand they think of when they see or think of the color WHITE, the majority would say APPLE! People find the brand enjoyable simply because it is.
It’s easy to focus on the near term, the now, the next dollar. The troubled economy doesn’t make it any better. However, even in difficult times you can’t lose focus of your long term objectives. For 2010 I believe the key word is FOCUS! Without focus what do you have? A bunch of noise that [...]
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