Blog

Last week we talked about why you should implement social media marketing into your SEO plan, this week we’ll talk about how.

Social media marketing can be a huge undertaking.  There are hundreds of social media sites and if you don’t have a clear plan you can waste away countless hours without seeing your desired results.  Follow these steps to get your social media marketing plan off the ground.

Define your audience. Think about who you want to reach, the best way to reach them, and what messages you want to convey about your company.  It’s important to understand your target demographic and then to utilize the types of social media that are most likely to reach them.

Get a crash course in the most popular social media channels. Once you know who you want to reach, you need to know which channels will provide the best way to reach them.  For instance, many people see Facebook as being something for kids to keep in touch.  While 18-24 year olds still make up the lion’s share of Facebook users, the fastest growing age demographic on the site is the 35-54.  Most likely you’ll end up using a variety of channels to reach your target demographic, but this will still keep you from aimlessly creating social networking accounts with no clear objectives.

Think about content development. Social media allows you to use blogs, videos and social networking sites to create content about your company and its products.  However, if you have a product that’s quirky, shocking, or solves a commonplace problem then it’s possible to have consumers themselves generate a good amount of online content for you.  The makers of Vibram Five Finger shoes understand this concept.  If you Google them you’ll see results for their website, blog posts reviewing the shoes by independent consumers, a link to their Wikipedia page, and links to retailers selling the product – all on the first page of search results.  You’ll get similar results with the keywords “five finger shoes,” “individual toe shoes,” and “finger shoes”.

Keep track of your progress. Companies like Context Optional provide solutions that allow you to keep track of your social media campaigns and measure their effectiveness.

Get going. The best way to sink your social media marketing plan is to not get started at all.  Follow these steps to create a comprehensive plan and then get in the conversation.

Social media marketing is one of those things that sounds complicated and high tech.  The truth is that, while there are several things to consider when developing a social media campaign, getting started is actually fairly simple.  As a matter of fact, the best way to fail at social media marketing is to not try it all.

In this week’s post we’ll talk about what social media is and why you should be doing it.  Next week we’ll address the steps you should take to implement social media into your SEO campaign.

One of the best definitions for social media can be found on Wikipedia where they define it like this: “Social media is media designed to be disseminated through social interaction.”  Things like blogs, Facebook, Twitter, podcasts, bookmarking sites and even wikis are all forms of social media.  Each of these provides an opportunity for anyone to publish and/or promote their ideas online.  In a sense, social media platforms provide a way for everyone to participate in water cooler chatter from the comfort of their own laptop.

Why include social media in your SEO plan?  When businesses participate in social media, they’re joining a conversation that is loose, relaxed, and far less direct than traditional advertisements.  Is your blog going to be the next dooce?  Probably not.  But your social media accounts may be the perfect space for you to connect to those prospects who like to remain on the fringe.  The ones that don’t want to get your newsletter, won’t sign up for an RSS feed, but every now and then they may check out your blog or even follow you on Facebook because they have the power to turn that off.

Not only is social media marketing something you can get started yourself, it’s free.  It costs your business nothing to set up accounts on social media sites.

If you’re still not convinced, consider that these social media sites are considered to be highly reliable by Google.  So, if you use your keywords in your social media site and in your profile, then when people search using those keywords they may find your Facebook or LinkedIn page listed on the results page long before they’d see your actual company website.

Tune in next week for a detailed description of how to get your social media marketing campaign off the ground.

The world of sales and marketing has changed radically over the last several years.  Today’s consumers are now being asked for permission to advertise to them.  Small business owners are in a unique position to benefit from this shift in marketing, and the email newsletter is one of their most effective tools.

What is email marketing? Email marketing is a form of direct marketing.  Most email marketers utilize a service like Constant Contact to create HTML emails that have the look and feel of their organization’s website.

The goal of email marketing is to build trust and to educate. When people get to your website by clicking an online advertisement they’re in new territory and their guard is up.  They don’t know you and they don’t know your company.  Email marketing provides you with an opportunity to nurture these leads, to build the relationship and to turn them into paying customers.

Be sure that you’re attracting the right prospects. In your keyword research you’ll find that some keywords don’t necessarily lead to sales.  These are the keywords used by people who are still in the research phase; they aren’t ready to buy but they’re eager to learn.  This is your target audience for an email newsletter.

Don’t waste the sign-up page. Your sign-up page should include a sampling of the type of quality material that consumers can expect to receive in your newsletter.  Many newsletter sign-up pages contain a promise of what the newsletter will deliver, a box to enter an email address, and nothing more.  Use your sign-up page to showcase some of your best blog entries, include links to guides, charts, and more.  Use it to convince consumers that your newsletter is one that’s really worth signing up for.  Always be sure to offer a freebie to seal the deal.  A free guide, a consultation, and a sample of your product are all good possibilities.

Deliver a high quality newsletter. Email marketing is not about smoke and mirrors.  It’s about delivering interesting and useful content.  Consider the keywords that these people originally used to find your company.  Tap into what interests them and use your email newsletter to answer their questions.  Don’t push your own products too soon.  They’re expecting high quality, free information.  Give it to them.  This will build trust.  After the first 4-5 emails, then start subtly pointing them back to your products.  Let them know how one of your products provides a solution to a common problem in your industry.