by Miriam Hara | Sep 3, 2013 | Business Success, Latest, Social Media
Blogging for business has exploded onto the marketing landscape. Many businesses utilize blogs to promote their services and expertise, others to engage potential and existing client base, and yet other to generate sales leads. Regardless of the objective, launching a blog in the business arena is no small feat. Many businesses have jumped on the social media bandwagon and in the last few years, many have created Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, LinkedIn Business Profile Pages, Pinterest….. and now their very own Blog.
If you’re thinking about creating a blog for your business here’s a few of the hurdles you’ll need to overcome before engaging the blogging arena:
1) Make sure your website can perform accordingly. Many business launch a blog as a separate entity not realizing it’s very beneficial to link their business blog to their website. Blogging can only help the overall traffic your site generates, especially when your posts are featured on your home page, providing Google for a reason to visit your site more frequently. Google looks for fresh and new content. And that traffic can be an opportunity to accumulate leads or at the very least provide information that enables good analysis.
2) Create a strong Blog Persona. Make sure that your blog is an extension of your business and what it represents. Just because it’s social, it doesn’t mean it can’t be branded. It’s part of your brand, so it needs to resonate with your target audience. It also needs to propel your brand forward. It’s a marketing initiative.
3) Be consistent. Be relevant. If you don’t use it, you’ll lose! Many businesses believe that they can do this in-house, and that is certainly doable, but it is a substantial time commitment. Create a social media calendar to ensure that you always have topics in the pipeline that speak to your business. We all get writer’s block or rather, blogging block… but consistency is a must.
4) Write smart. Do your homework. It’s not good enough to just write. It’s important to do your homework. Yes. Homework. Research your topic, and research it with keywords traffic analytics. Make sure your post is SEO enriched. If you write for the pleasure of writing, then you’re just posting and hoping for the best. That’s just not marketing.
5) Spread the word. What’s the point of expending all this energy and time and not sharing your post in the social media properties? You need to tweet about it, post it on Facebook, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Google+1, Digg…only to name a few.
After you do it for a while, having a blog for your business can be fun. You start developing a community and a network of like-minded people that speak their minds and provide insight on topics that are relevant to your business. Creating a blog for your business and posting relevant material can elevate your business status and provide you with a strong foundation for developing business. After all, blogging is serious business and done properly should be an integral part of your business marketing program.
What key learning have you found in launching your business blog? I’d like to hear about the different challenges you have been facing with your business blog?
by Miriam Hara | Aug 21, 2013 | Business Success, Latest, Management, Social Media
The echo generation is not a new story. We’ve heard about them for years. Those born in the eighties and nineties, they’re called the echo generation because they are the demographic echo of their parents: the infamous baby boomers.
We knew by their sheer volume the echo generation would transform our lives. And why wouldn’t they? They are a fast, quick thinking group with information at their fingertips. With mobile phones and unlimited access, no question goes unanswered for more than a few minutes. Arguments about facts are settled within a google second… there is no dispute over who is right or wrong. The ultimate multi-tasker. They are involved with everything. They talk, text, download music, post to social media accounts, take photos… sometimes simultaneously!. And they do it at all hours of the day. Their social circle reaches to all corners of the world. They can as easily talk, Facetime or Skype to Singapore at any hour of the day on a whim, at less than a moment’s notice!
The echo generation is plugged in
Like in the Matrix they are the totally plugged-in citizens of a worldwide community. The only difference is the plug is wireless and it’s not in their head. And with this connection comes the transformations that has changed the way we do business…. and the speed in which we do it in.
The echo generation extended our work day
You may not have noticed. It’s been a slow, insidious process. But the extended work day has seeped into our work culture and personal world. It’s not overtime that’s a few extra hours here and there at the end of the day. It’s a work day that starts you get up and ends when you go to sleep… if you go to sleep! Now that the echo generation is part of the work force they are keeping us up at night. I call it the No Place, No Time Rule. It doesn’t matter where you are or what time it is, as long as there is access, your work day is not over. I keep my phone by the side of the bed and listen for the tell-tale tone that informs me I need to respond. Think about it… when planning a holiday in whatever part of the world… one of the check marks about a place is whether it has WiFi… and if it’s free!
Did the echo generation create the new work order?
Who created this business landscape? Many say it’s the echo generation. I tend to give credit where credit is due… to those that have created the foundation of the technology and gave the echo generation the tools. Suffice to say neither Bill Gates nor Steve Jobs are from the echo generation! But, did the echo generation seize the technology and make it work the way they wanted? Regardless of who created this, the echo generation have paved the way to a work week without borders. No longer are weekends true weekends. It’s 24/7. Better get used to it.
by Craig Robinson | Aug 15, 2013 | Advertising, Latest, Social Media
Most Facebook marketers quickly realize that things aren’t as easy as some of these web articles make them seem. There is a lot of nuance to every different type of engagement method. So when you read about leveraging something in your favor, you need more than the gist – you need to get to the meat of the matter. Below, you will read about a few different ways to find leverage on Facebook, along with practical applications you can implement immediately into your campaign.
Different Ways to Find Leverage on Facebook
Facebook Ads
There are many different paid categories of ads on Facebook for a reason: They work! Of course, using Facebook ads can be difficult for beginners and even for individuals who don’t quite understand how to target their intended market. While it is true that paying more money can help increase your reach, it’s also true that ads won’t work all on their own – as in, they don’t simply fall into the pockets of your audience without some guidance. So it becomes a game of leverage here. How can you use Facebook’s ad options to leverage your campaign? Out of the multiple types of ad formats Facebook offers, let’s speak quickly about Page Post ads. These ads come in six different varieties: Photos, videos, questions, status updates, events, and links. A picture ad, for example, can take up much more real estate on a person’s News Feed than other ads, and they appear on both the mobile and desktop version of Facebook. They also earn a 14% higher ROI than normal domain ads, according to a Nanigans study based on 975 million impressions, and you can target this ad to its intended audience through a variety of Facebook tools. There are three things to keep in mind when using Page Post ads:
- Always be engaging: Engagement is paramount here. You want to ensure that you’re releasing eye-popping, interesting photos (charts, memes, infographics, specific product images, etc) that really capture a user’s attentions.
- Always use concise messaging: Think of text on your Page Post ad like text on a mobile ad. You want to get to the point as quickly as possible. Say what you need to within the first 90 characters of the ad. Use hot-button words that are niche-appropriate; list dollar amounts, guarantees, or other compelling messages to draw attention without being vague. Get right to the point.
- Always test multiple ads: Using a third-party application will allow you to test multiple ad formats. Even though you’re going to change ads consistently, you still need to test how ads perform before you launch them on a wider basis. Run multiple versions of an ad with variations (demographics like age range, location, different keywords, etc) to see which works best for you.
Embedded Posts Embedded Posts is a relatively new feature launched by Facebook which will allow page posts to actually be embedded on other websites. These third-party embedding features are very similar to other sites like Twitter and Instagram. CNN was one of the first to jump on this, conducting a poll about Bradley Manning on Facebook and posting the results on their main website. This type of embedding feature has huge implications for marketers in terms of leveraging the feature. How can this work out in your favor as a marketer? Well, a good example of this is taking a Facebook review you’ve received and embedding it on your website. If you have an informative post that’s very popular and engaging, or a Facebook post that has perhaps earned a lot of likes and shares that has more of a social context, you can spread out well beyond putting a Facebook button on your site and meld two sites together. This drives traffic back to Facebook and also allows Facebook participating from another site. Embedded posts obviously aren’t all the rage yet. But this is a free feature that you can easily use to your benefit. Facebook Hashtags Using Facebook for business is usually a low-cost and even fun way of conducting your business affairs. With Facebook hashtags, marketers on this site can now use the system made famous by Twitter and used by other social sites like Google+ to help categorize keywords and ultimately boost their presence. These hashtags (#) are basically like a DD system at the library, for lack of a better analogy. By having the # symbol in front of a word, it then gets categorized and becomes available in a search. So what was a simple “Hey, what’s up” post can now contain a hashtag keyword/phrase and become searchable. When you’re planning on using hashtags for your Facebook content, be careful here not to get into Kobe Bryant territory, where every other word has a hashtag in front of it. Hashtags can be valuable weapons for you to use for your organic reach, or potentially even to add keywords and phrases to paid advertising. So make sure that you’re putting the hashtag on popular terms and words that are related to your market. You still have to exercise a marketer’s a approach here; it’s not all about using the most popular or unique hashtags to draw attention to yourself in an unrelated market. That’s just a wasted effort. EdgeRank To put it in simple terms, EdgeRank is Facebook’s algorithm that it uses for rating and sorting and displaying material. This is a very cutting-edge algorithm compared to others used by similar social sites. According to the main EdgeRank site, the algorithm can be understood as “the sum of edges,” and is made up of three separate aspects of content: Affinity, Weight, and Time Decay. To leverage EdgeRank while using Facebook, one has to play to the way the algorithm sorts material in order to increase visibility. For instance, Facebook has stated that 88% of all its engagement on-site happens via the News Feed. Leveraging EdgeRank can put you in more people’s News Feeds and ultimately boost your engagement. Sound simple enough? Well, it’s not as simple as using better keywords or posting better-quality, more interesting content that your audience will appreciate. Yes, you should definitely do that! But the fact of the matter is that your content may need to change dramatically. The idea here is to increase the number of likes and shares your material is receiving to boost its affinity and weight, which should stave off immediate decay. To increase the affinity and weight of any particular piece of content, you have to really amp up the content. You have to do certain things, such as:
- Amazing people with content they love
- Solving a specific problem
- Offering tips and other useful information
- Providing humor for people
- Providing inspiration for people
- Posting high-quality, unique content that’s not simple recycled
Graph Search As someone in the tech “know” and they may tell you that Graph Search not only has the potential to revolutionize Facebook, but also the entire ‘net in general. Now, whether this eventually becomes reality is beside the point. The important thing to focus on is leveraging Facebook’s Graph Search in order to boost your marketing – your engagement and ultimately your bottom line. Graph Search is different from typical SEO in that the former uses objects rather than keywords. Facebook’s unique searching method focuses on entities and relationships and how things fit together in a wider context, rather than just keyword X pointing to content Y. One of the best ways to leverage this searching potential is to provide objects – in this case, a node. Graph Search returns nodes, and if you have an on-location business, for example, its location should have a place node. Each one should. Nodes also pick up popularity through engagement on Facebook, so this is yet another instance where focusing on engagement can help you out tremendously in your marketing. Nodes that are connected directly and indirectly with users are more relevant, so this plays into your audience and also friends of your audience. Try optimizing your brand’s presence via the entire Internet via other sites, as well as offering incentives to customers in exchange for some type of engagement. What could work well here are contests and promotions, interesting status updates and other posts, discounts, solving a problem, etc. There are many ways to increase the effectiveness of your marketing campaign when advertising with Facebook. Use the examples listed above in order to boost your engagement and to bolster your campaign.
by Miriam Hara | Aug 6, 2013 | Business Success, Design, Latest, Marketing, Social Media
In today’s corporate environment the vertical integration of all marketing facets is fast becoming the norm. The adage of “wearing many hats” that was once synonymous only with entrepreneurship, is no longer. Corporate marketing is increasingly becoming, in their own corporate space, a marketing hub for their brands, services or products.
If you’ve been following our blog 3H hoopla, you know that I have posted many times about the changes in technology and what that has meant to the advertising and creative field. Today I’m going to focus my perspective on what those changes have meant to corporations. Technological advancements, in terms of today’s computer and software systems, have allowed corporations to get “a handle” on their creative. Desktop publishing has given way to more sophisticated marketing and creative departments. Many corporate businesses have full internal marketing and creative departments, staffed with art directors, creative directors and graphic designers. Needless to say, this also means there is a greater need for full internet connectivity and monitoring of the way the corporation presents themselves to their target audience online, requiring a merging of the IT department with the evolved marketing department.
Over two decades after the launch of desktop publishing and the worldwide web, the business world is “a buzz” with social media.
Today’s corporate marketing departments are now finding themselves having to contend with all the social media platforms: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram, to name just a few! Although the social media channel is nothing new, its platforms are relatively unchartered territory for corporate marketing. Many don’t know how to use them effectively, or evaluate and monitor their use.
As a result, many corporate marketing departments are becoming entrepreneurial adding yet another hat, social media to the number of hats they are currently wearing. Unlike entrepreneurs however, budgets are the not the motivating factor in initially taking on social media as a DIY (“do it yourself”) initiative. What ever the motivation is, it isn’t too long before corporate marketing is faced with the fact that to really run and maintain any social media property effectively, it takes a lot of time, focus, energy and knowledge.
Corporations are vertically integrating their creative needs and now, their social media needs.
On a theoretical level it all makes sense. At the surface, staffing for social media simply involves a good command of the English language with a strong understanding of social media properties. Right? Corporate businesses can now “own” all the layers of marketing, from product development, brand management, creative development, design and execution and now social media. The motivation of control and “owning” the brand voice is a real concern, but there are creative professionals and agencies that can be outsourced to provide this service seamlessly.
All this to say, social media isn’t a layer of marketing to be taken lightly. Social media entails strategy, investigation, monitoring, writing and engagement on a continuous (24-7) basis. At this point of the life cycle of Social Media, does it make sense for corporations to spread their resources too thin by including social media into their marketing layers? What are your thoughts on this, I’d like to hear about them.
by Miriam Hara | Aug 3, 2013 | Business Success, Latest, Marketing, Social Media
At the risk of stating the obvious, social Media is social. It’s social and because it needs to be interactive it’s high maintenance. It’s a new way of networking….for brands and businesses. As such, there should be a considerable amount of investment earmarked to be successful in this arena. The definition of social media differs from every business’ perspective. For some it’s Facebook and Twitter, others it’s LinkedIn or Google+, or YouTube and Pinterest…. to name only a few. Regardless of perspective, social media impact on brands and business is building significant momentum. It has grown and there’s no sign of that momentum capping any time soon.
You already know that if you are managing a brand, a business, local or international, you must find and exercise your voice within this channel. Now that you have your space in the social media environment, you can now exercise social media influence. Building a solid community is a must. It’s important that you create a community that is relevant for your brand and business.
Here’s a short list of what you should consider when establishing a social media presence for your brand or business:
1) Determine the why. Understand why your brand or business needs to be in the social media space. And no, you guessed it, “because everyone else is there” isn’t enough of a good reason. It’ll help if you write the pros and cons of participating in this channel. Note, I did say participate. Social Media isn’t complacent.
2) Establish goals. Don’t just go at it! Is it important to build a 10,000 strong community? If s,o understand why it’s important. Establishing how your brand or business will define success in this channel is important to get future support and budget allocation towards this channel.
3) Be strategic. Don’t go for broke! If you can’t do all the properties, then just do 1 or 2 very well. Social Media demands time… and each property you engage in, needs attention and initiatives to build a community. Investigate the different properties (ie: Facebook, Pinterest, podcast, blogging), and understand how each of them can or can not benefit your brand and business. Like with every advertising budget, understanding the efficiencies of a property and its associated costs will offer direction on what to do and not do .
4) Engage Regularly! There’s a rhythm to any social media property you choose to take part in. You must walk the talk. Too many brands and businesses have a Facebook Page and don’t post regularly (and that is the key). That’s why you must not only intend to post consistently… you must plan it. If you don’t, then save yours business money; don’t be on Facebook! Same goes with having a Business Page on LinkedIn and not leveraging it. If you decide to create a forum, or blog, of newsletter, but don’t regularly post… then what’s the point? Social Media isn’t about observing, it’s about engaging!
5) Set Initiatives and Budgets. Have a realistic plan… and stick to it. It’s important to earmark funds to build momentum to set up a worthwhile community for your brand or business. It takes effort, time and dollars to build “critical mass” in order for your brand to get social!
Marketers know that social media is a staple in the new media subset and should be considered as much an advertising channel as billboards, TV, print, radio and direct mail– with the distinctive advantage of enabling a continuous dialogue flow with a brand’s market… providing information, insights and influence. To my point of view, high maintenance or not, social media for brands and business is no longer a nice to have, but a need to have.
by Justin James | Jul 15, 2013 | Advertising, Business Success, Creative, Interactive, Latest, Social Media
In my past blog posts, I stated the reasons why companies should rethink making their YouTube commercial stream before popular videos can be viewed. I believe that video marketing can be a very effective tool. However, like other social media, it can also backfire when done incorrectly. In order to avoid the ‘hard sell’ on viewers’ ‘me time’, there are some guidelines you should follow:
Four tips on how to have a not-so-awful YouTube commercial:
1) Make the ad enjoyable. If you are going to try to bring business into the social space, then avoid the hard sell. You want to make sure that the video is, at least, mildly entertaining. Humor can turn your video from a sales pitch to entertainment, making it something people may actually watch. If you can’t make the ad funny, at least be creative with it.
2) Allow your audience to skip the ad after the first few seconds. If you’re spending money on the ad, you don’t want people to leave halfway through—you want people to watch it! But the longer you keep the viewer waiting to see their intended video, the more intolerant they will become of your ad and message. Give them the option to skip the ad should your product or service be of no interest to them. If your product or service is relevant and they are willing to watch the full ad the first time it plays, they would already know what you have to say, and would not want to watch it again.
The optimal time your ad should run before you give them the choice to stop watching is five seconds. By then, you should have already established who you are and what you offer. If they aren’t interested in that time, you’ve already lost them. Alternatively, you can give the viewer the option to skip your ad as soon as it pops up. However, most viewers will not mind a few seconds and you have a better chance of getting your message across if you set the skip option at 5 seconds.
3) Keep it concise. YouTube is not a place for long-winded infomercials, unless you put them on your own channel. As I mentioned in #2, if someone isn’t interested in your YouTube commercial within the first five seconds, they won’t change their minds after thirty. To be successful, your ad must immediately grip the viewer and make them curious. Keeping your YouTube commercial short will ensure you don’t annoy those who are not presently interested in your message.
To get a viewer hooked, bring your message across quickly and clearly. Have a call to action – to visit your YouTube channel, your Facebook, your twitter, your website – whichever space you are promoting. If they are interested in your message, they will click through for more information. Once they are on your turf, you can offer the longer commercials.
4) Choose your music carefully. Remember that your ad could be viewed several times by the same viewer. If your video begins to play and you have a song that sounds unprofessional or unpleasant, it will become increasingly annoying the more they are forced to listen to it. Choose a popular song or an instrumental version in the music genre that best suits your target demographic, or keep the soundtrack neutral. After all, no one’s ever complained about elevator music.
With these tips, you can advertise to YouTube audiences more effectively—without driving potential customers away.
