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How to Use Content Marketing on LinkedIn

July 22nd, 2011 :: Monika Jansen

This entry is part 1 of 4 in the series Using content to market with social media

In the final installment of this four-part series on using content to market and generate leads via social media, we’ll take a look at LinkedIn, which is, unfortunately, the most underutilized social media platform of the Big Three (Twitter and Facebook are the other two).

Sharing useful, interesting content on LinkedIn is just as important as elsewhere, but few people actually do so. Too bad, because LinkedIn is one of the best ways to generate leads, especially if you’re in B2B or B2G.

The reason: It’s so easy to find out who your target audience is, as they (hopefully) filled out detailed profiles when they joined. You know where they work, where they used to work, if you have any shared connections, and so on.

Plus, the people you are connected with on LinkedIn are people you have met personally via work, trade shows, conferences or networking events. They expressed interest in keeping in touch with you because they like you, think you could work together down the road, think you can refer business to each other, or just want access to your connections.

Some of your connections are potential customers, but everyone is a potential referral source if you are active enough. Share anything that positions you as a thought leader (company news is OK to share every once in a while).

What to share:

Blog posts
White papers
Articles
Press releases
Ebooks
Guides

Two more things to do:

Answer Questions

If you click on More in the top navigation bar on LinkeIn, the drop-down menu includes Answers. Answer questions about your industry on a regular basis, and you’ll develop a reputation as an expert and great source of information.

Get Recommendations

It is so easy to forget to do this, but routinely ask for recommendations, which lend credibility and authority. It’s a great way for everyone to see (in their weekly LinkedIn update) how awesome your clients think you are.

Image Courtesy: Flickr user crazyoctopus (Creative Commons)

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Tags: content, content marketing, LinkedIn, Marketing, social media, writing
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »

How to Use Content Marketing on Twitter

July 19th, 2011 :: Monika Jansen

This entry is part 3 of 4 in the series Using content to market with social media

In the third installment of this four-part series on using content to market and generate leads via social media, we’ll take a look at Twitter, which, due to its viral nature, is the best way to spread your messages like wildfire (of the Big Three, that is: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn).

But first, a little review about content from the first post:

When are you marketing yourself online, content is king. The only way you can connect with your target market online and convince them that you are the person they need to do business with is by producing and sharing useful, interesting content on a consistent basis.

So who’s following you on Twitter? In order to tweet the content they’re interested in reading and retweeting, and maybe even DMing you about, you need to know who your audience is.

Your Twitter followers are most likely complete strangers whose locations span the globe. Depending on your business model, they are not likely to be the best potential customers. Maybe they’re interested in your company, but they are most likely interested in your industry. Therefore, this is the place to share non-company-focused information to gain thought leadership.

Basically, Twitter is an information-dissemination platform more than an engagement tool just due to the vast amounts of tweets being generated 24/7. If you mention or DM an individual or a company, they’ll get an alert via email, a cool new feature I really appreciate that makes it easier to engage on Twitter.

Just be sure that in your 160-character blurb that appears under your name and Twitter handle, you include your blog and website URL so people can learn more about you if they are so inclined.

Here’s what to tweet:

Blog posts that are not company-focused but rather industry-focused
Industry-focused articles, videos, and blog posts
Articles, videos, and blog posts others have tweeted

That’s it. Short list.

One other thing to keep in mind: Do not automate replies to people who follow you. If you want to connect with them, write a personal message. Automated replies smack of laziness and prove you have no clue what you are doing.

Next up: Content marketing on LinkedIn.

Image Courtesy: Flickr user crazyoctopus (Creative Commons)

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Tags: content, content marketing, Marketing, social media, Twitter, writing
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »

How to Use Content Marketing on Facebook

July 15th, 2011 :: Monika Jansen

This entry is part 4 of 4 in the series Using content to market with social media

In the second installment of this four-part series on using content to market and generate leads via social media, we’ll take a look at Facebook, which is the most fun, engaging and customizable social media platform out of the Big Three (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn).

But first, a little review from the first post in case you missed it:

Content is king. Whether we’re talking about your website or your Facebook page, the only way you can connect with your target market online and convince them that you are the person they need to do business with is by producing and sharing useful, interesting content on a consistent basis.

Before you start sharing content on Facebook, though, you need to know who is on there.

In general, Facebook fans are interested in your product, service, and or company. All of your customers are hopefully fans already (ask them to like you!). Everyone else obviously likes your brand and wants to interact with you. This means they are potential clients and referral sources, which leads to what to share: content that focuses on both your company and industry.

As a platform, Facebook is very community-oriented with a heavy focus on engagement. I like to think of it as a website where your target audience can talk back to you.

Here’s what to share:

Blog posts
White papers
Published articles
Video blogs
Company news
Games
Surveys or quizzes (fun, “test your knowledge” quizzes)
Ebooks

Always ask for feedback on what you are sharing to get discussions going, as it’s a great way to gauge interest in the content you are publishing. Adjust your content marketing strategy accordingly.

One tip that most people don’t think of: Check out what your competitors are doing on Facebook. What can you do differently or better? What about your favorite brands you like on Facebook? What do they do that you can replicate?

Next up: Content Marketing on Twitter.

Image Courtesy: Flickr user marcopako (Creative Commons)

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Tags: content, content marketing, Facebook, Marketing, social media, writing
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »

How to be Likeable on Facebook

June 27th, 2011 :: Monika Jansen

Aquent and the AMA recently hosted a webinar on how to be likeable on Facebook. Dave Kerpen, CEO of Likeable Media, gave some great tips on how to effectively use Facebook for marketing. Always nice to learn from an expert, so here are the takeaways:

Focus on your customers

Dave stressed that the key to marketing success on Facebook is to talk about your customers. Yes, it’s OK to talk about your company and brand, but only once in a while. Your messaging should focus almost exclusively on your customers.

Work to create conversations with fans, especially the ones that post good things because they are your ambassadors and will spread word about your company to all of their friends and colleagues.

Use the tabs

Swap out your company logo on your page for a profile photo of a specific product or of fans, which you can frequently update. Then make sure you completely fill out information in the tabs and add photos and links to your website. Use the welcome tab like a landing page and include promos and calls-to-action. (Only 10% of Facebook fan pages do this, so chances are your competitors don’t.)

Content is king

Share great content every single day so you’ll show up in the news feed. The five most engaging status updates are photos, video, links, questions and interactive apps (polls, quizzes and virtual gifts), while the best way to attract new fans and comments is to ask questions and actively solicit Likes. You can also use a Like button for individual products or objects, something I had never thought of before.

To ensure you are publishing great content that your fans will appreciate, put together an editorial calendar so you can plan ahead and stay organized.

Advertise on Facebook

Thanks to detailed demographic information and volume of users, Facebook is the best advertising platform ever. Hundreds of millions of users have identified their likes, interests, affiliations, job titles, and so on, making it easy to target your ideal customers.

It’s not that expensive, either. Your ad campaign can be as low as five dollars a day and can be based on a price per impression or per click (Dave recommended per click).

***

What other tactics have you used successfully on Facebook? Leave a comment below!

Image Courtesy Facebook

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Tags: advertising, content, customer engagement, Facebook, Facebook tabs, Marketing, news feed, social media
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »

Want to Really Increase Your Website Traffic? Try SocialToaster

June 3rd, 2011 :: Monika Jansen

If you’re a small business, one of the goals of your marketing strategy is to drive more traffic to your website, where you can convert those visitors into leads.

To generate traffic, you need to publish great content that is interesting and useful to your target market. You can write a blog, newsletter, white papers, press releases, articles, how-to guides, whatever, and then you’ll push out all of that content to your audience via email or social media.

Well, how about tapping into an audience on social media that goes way beyond your followers?

Check out this Baltimore-based startup, SocialToaster. I first wrote about them for Tech Cocktail back in March. I have zero affiliation with them, but their idea – and the technology behind it – is really interesting and super useful for small businesses, so sharing them here at GrowSmartBiz has been on my to-do list for a while.

So, here’s how they work: Ask customers, employees, Facebook fans, and anyone else you’d like to be your ambassador (their term, not mine). You’ll share content with them, and they will spread the content on their social networks (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and/or LinkedIn). Naturally, there are built-in analytics so you can track website visitors to see which ambassador sent them.

SocialToaster is a great way to gain brand exposure and build up your sales funnel, but it is dependent on you producing content on a regular basis. You don’t need to go crazy writing new stuff all the time, though. If you already blog, you can ask your ambassadors to share your posts. If you publish a newsletter, ask them to share that. Each SocialToaster post contains a unique URL and appears to come from the ambassador themselves, so your clickthrough rates will be higher than traditional online advertising.

So, what’s in it for your ambassadors? Rewards, at least for the people that drive sales leads to you, furnished by sponsors. Recruiting them is up to you. You can send an email to employees, newsletters to customers, post something on Facebook, blog about it, or tweet it – or anything else you can think of.

The SocialToaster software can be integrated with your existing content management and CRM systems including Drupal, WordPress, SugarCRM and SalesForce. As for pricing, you pay a flat monthly subscription fee based on the number of SocialToaster posts you want to push out. Their most basic plan is free.

Image Courtesy: SocialToaster

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Tags: Branding, content, Email marketing, Facebook, LinkedIn, Marketing, MySpace, social media, Social networking, SocialToaster, Startup, Twitter
Posted in Branding, Business Development, Email Marketing, Marketing, Social Media, social media | 1 Comment »

4 Reasons Why I Shut Down my Company Blog – And What You Can Learn

May 20th, 2011 :: Monika Jansen

I made the decision last week to pull the plug on my company’s blog. This pretty much contradicts what I am always saying (“Don’t give up!”), so here’s why I did it and what you can learn from my experience:

I already blog prolifically…for others

When I thought about it, I realized that I already had a great online presence. I blog for two of Network Solutions’ blogs, this one and Solutions are Power; Tech Cocktail, where I am also the lead editor; and the Web 2.0 blog, where, again, I am also the editor.

Writing yet another blog that focused on a variation of marketing, content and social media was just adding more noise to an already-crowded space. Plus, the reach I have on the other blogs is pretty wide and deep.

Lesson: If you can write about your area of expertise for an already established blog with an established audience on a regular basis, do it.

I used my best material elsewhere

It’s true, I did not save my best ideas for my own blog. Instead, I used it for the blogs I get paid to write, which makes sense. But I was constantly shortchanging myself, leaving me struggling for topics to cover in fresh ways or new topics altogether. The busier I have gotten, the harder it was to find the time to brainstorm exciting new blog posts.

Lesson: If you can land a paid blogging gig, give them their money’s worth, even if you end up doing this…

…Only half of what I published on my company blog was original

Repurposing blog content is a wonderful idea – after all, you already wrote your brilliant idea and insights down, why waste them? But when you start repurposing huge chunks of content from one blog for another on a regular basis, it’s a sign that you are spread too thin. Plus, search engines only reward new content, so a lot of my blog posts were basically invisible.

Lesson: If you already write and edit an average of 20 blog posts a week, creativity will hit a wall and your reach will suffer.

The blog wasn’t attracting an audience

I have to admit, I did not do a great job promoting my blog; I was too busy promoting the other blogs I write for. As a result, I was not attracting an audience, and without an audience, my blog didn’t have the comments, likes, and other signs of engagement that are core to a fun blog that an audience is attracted to. If you visit a blog with zero comments, likes or tweets, do you want to stick around?

Lesson: If no one is reading your blog, what’s the point in writing it? Go out there and promote it!

So, now that I no longer have a blog, how will I be promoting my company online? Glad you asked! I will be focusing my attention on building a community on Facebook and sharing my expertise there through a monthly marketing series that will focus on a different topic each month. We are starting it in June, and I am very excited about it!

Have you ever shut down a company blog? If so, why’d you do it, and what did you do to fill that void so you could continue to share your expertise? Leave a comment below!

Image by Flickr user Lenore Edman (Creative Commons)

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Tags: blogging, company blogs, content, Facebook, Marketing, Search Marketing, social media
Posted in Marketing, Search Marketing, Small Business, Social Media | No Comments »

5 Really Easy Ways to Increase Sales with Social Media

April 18th, 2011 :: Monika Jansen

Using social media to engage with potential and current customers is all you hear about anymore. Doing it properly is not that hard—really! Just follow these five common-sense guidelines, and you can turn your social media networks into sales channels.

1. Treat everyone like an individual

Not everyone who follows you on Twitter or likes your page on Facebook is a guaranteed potential customer. Some of them might be ready to buy now, some might just be looking, some might admire your brand but can’t afford you, some might just view you as a source of industry information and want to “keep in touch” via social media.

If you end up treating everyone the same on social media, you are missing out on valuable branding, marketing, and sales opportunities. Respond to each new follower as you would a person you just met at a party—with an open mind, ready to chat and see where the conversation goes.

2. Send personal messages

I hate getting automated tweets from the people who I just followed on Twitter. I’m seeing less and less of this, but people are still doing it, which amazes me. You don’t need to respond to every new follower! If you do, make it personal. Yes, this means you need to do it manually, but the social interaction is what social media was built around.

3. Engage instead of broadcast

When I get an alert that someone is following me on Twitter, I always check out their stream first to see if they are engaging with their followers. I look for retweets, mentions of other users, replies to other users, etc. If a person or company is just using Twitter as a broadcasting tool—especially to promote themselves, their product or their service—then forget it. I don’t follow them back! If I wanted to have commercials forced on me, I would watch live television.

4. Nurture, don’t push, the sale

Back in my hometown of Poughkeepsie, New York, there was a fabulous, locally owned clothing boutique that was super popular when I was growing up. My mom avoided it like the plague because the saleswomen would descend on you like vultures as soon as you walked in the door. Even if you said you were just browsing, they would proceed to follow you around the store. It was awful.

Don’t do the same thing to your social media followers. Ask them what you can help them with, if you can answer any questions, if they found what they are looking for, and so on. You don’t want to end up like the above-mentioned store: closed for business.

5. Give customers a reason to say “yes”

Obviously, you want to close the sale with potential customers, but you don’t want to be rude or pushy. So, in addition to chatting with your followers, you should also give them lots and lots of reasons to buy from you.

The best way to do this is to provide your followers with educational content that clearly demonstrates the benefits of working with you. Use social media to offer ebooks, white papers, case studies, testimonials, blog posts, articles and anything else that demonstrates how your superior product or service alleviates your customers’ pain points and delivers fabulous results.

Image Courtesy Flickr user epSos. de (Creative Commons)

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Tags: automation, content, lead generation, lead nurturing, Marketing, sales, social media, social media engagement
Posted in Marketing, Small Business, Social Media | 3 Comments »

5 Quick Tips to Attract More Blog Readers

April 7th, 2011 :: Monika Jansen

If you are struggling to attract and retain readers to your blog, the problem could be easily fixable. Check out these five quick tips, and if you’re not already using them on your blog, time to start!

1. Provide relevant information

The number one rule when creating content for marketing purposes is to write and distribute relevant, useful information your readers want.

If you don’t know what your readers might be interested in reading, worry not. It’s actually very easy to find out what information your readers are hungry for: You can either ask them by creating a quick survey, or do a little online research. Take a look around Quora and LinkedIn Answers to see what questions are being asked, or use Google and Twitter to learn what topics are hot.

2. “You,” not “I”

Another content rule that is frequently broken is the emphasis on you and not your audience. While it is oh-so-tempting to write about yourself, resist the urge. In all honesty, we don’t care about you, we only care about ourselves. Frame your blog posts so the emphasis is on your audience and their experience.

Now, there is a slight exception to this rule. It is perfectly OK to use yourself or your company as an example in a blog post. Say you are writing about cloud computing and are comparing several different backup solutions. Your experience using those different solutions is really helpful to your audience, as you will be providing them a service with your critiques and recommendations.

3. Solve problems

Any marketing content you create should also address a problem your reader is having, from trying to figure out how to choose a florist for their wedding to creating the most attention-grabbing Facebook landing page possible. What it really comes down to is education: the more educational your blog content, the better.

4. Stick to one idea per post

This tip is really more common sense than anything else. If you write about multiple topics in one post, chances are no one will read it all the way through. That’s due to the simple fact that you cannot possibly cover each topic thoroughly without making the post super long. If it’s too long, readers will bail on you (or at least your blog post). If no one finishes reading it, no one will share it, either, which isn’t good.

5. Style counts

With blog posts, both your writing and visual styles count for a lot.

For your writing style, focus on short paragraphs, one-sentence paragraphs, bulleted items and mini-headlines—all of these elements make the post quicker to read or skim. Speaking of quick-to-read, leave out the SAT words and complicated sentences—you want to make your audience’s reading experience as pain-free as possible.

Visually, your blog posts should include a great graphic and have a neat and clean layout—lots of white space makes it easier to focus on the words. Too much stuff in the sidebar(s), from ads to blog plug-ins, can be distracting.

Image by Flickr user m kasahara (Creative Commons)

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Tags: blog writing, blogs, content, Marketing, small business
Posted in Marketing, Small Business | 1 Comment »

3 Lead Generation Case Studies: How Content, SEO, Social Media, and Lead Nurturing Can Increase Sales

March 30th, 2011 :: Monika Jansen

One of the hardest things for most small business owners to do is generate leads. Doing so effectively and efficiently is key, but of course that’s easier said than done. However, if you don’t do something, your sales will growth might plummet, just like it did for the Legos at left. Because it is best to learn from others than to make mistakes that can be avoided, here are three case studies, courtesy of an eBook co-written by HubSpot and Marketing Sherpa, that illustrate B2B lead generation problems and their solutions. The results are outstanding!

Makana Solutions

What they do: Subscription‐based software that helps organizations perform sales compensation planning.

Problem: The software is a new concept (this task is normally done manually) and their target market is composed of companies with 50 or fewer sales reps. Because prospects don’t know this software exists, they are not actively looking for it; therefore, creating demand and awareness are key to generating leads.

Solution: Makana transformed their website into an online destination for sales compensation planning best practices and practical advice. To do so, they added educational content, such as sample plans and webinars, they optimized their website for search using high-value keywords, and they used paid search to generate additional leads. They also added all Web leads to a customer relationship management program for follow-up.

Result: After three months, website traffic increased 200 percent, lead generation rates tripled, and lead conversion rates doubled.

BreakingPoint

What they do: Provide cyber-security solutions

Problem: They are a startup with limited funds and a target audience of security and quality assurance professionals in R&D laboratories who hate marketing.

Solution: A social media strategy that would create strong relationships with hard‐to‐find prospects and turn them into leads. BreakingPoint took a multi-pronged approach that included:

Starting a blog
Scanning social media for relevant conversations to follow
Using Twitter to share info, post fun stuff and conduct informal polls
Creating a LinkedIn group that focused on the industry, not the company
Tweaking their press releases by adding links to their website and distributing them via Qeb-based services more frequently
Promoting their social media channels on their website and in e-signatures
Measuring everything

Result: After six months, leads from the Web shot up to 55 percent of all leads.

IBM Cognos

What they do: Business intelligence software

Problem: Longer sales cycles and buying committees composed of more people were making traditional tactics less effective at driving sales. Email marketing, for instance, saw click-through rates (CTR) plummet.

Solution: IBM Cognos put lead nurturing processes in place that positioned the company as a thought leader, generated demand, and supported the sales team. To read these goals, they overhauled their website to provide useful content, such as white papers and demos, and they organized all the content and information by product line and industry. They also created a lead‐nurturing program based on the prospect’s profile, and they analyzed and tested the program to ensure they were getting results.

Result: Open rates increased from 13.2 percent to 33.3 percent, CTR increased from 0.09 percent to 15.5 percent, response rate increased from 0.05 percent to 17.5 percent, and costs‐per‐lead decreased by 30 percent to 40 percent. Better alignment between sales and marketing goals allowed the marketing team to generate 30 percent of all leads per quarter.

Image by Flickr user Mark Anderson (Creative Commons)

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Tags: BreakingPoint, content, CRM, CTR, educational content, Email marketing, Hubspot, IBM Cognos, lead generation, lead generation case studies, lead nurturing, LinkedIn, Makana Solutions, Marketing Sherpa, paid search, press releases, seo, social media, social media strategy, Thought Leadership, Twitter, webinars
Posted in Marketing, Search Marketing, Small Business, Social Media, Thought Leadership | 4 Comments »

Market Your B2C Business With Bizzy

March 16th, 2011 :: Monika Jansen

If you haven’t heard, there’s a new geolocation site in town. Bizzy’s service is really very cool, so look them up for your own personal use. But if you own a taste-based B2C company, like a restaurant, bakery, coffee shop, bar, club, clothing boutique, or home furnishings or accessories store, you have a potential new marketing tool at your disposal. Bizzy provides personalized business recommendations based on user preferences, not on professional reviewers, bloggers, or, as they say, generic people.

Here’s how it works: Users answer a set of 10 questions to get them thinking about their favorite places. Then the Bizzy algorithm analyzes their answers, which are matched up with people in their area who have similar tastes. Bizzy’s recommendations are based on the similar users’ recommendations and vice versa. They use a really great example: a steak-loving executive on an expense account and a vegan college student are probably not going to love the same restaurants.

Because Bizzy is data-driven, the more people who use Bizzy, the better. More data = more answers = better recommendations. With their new Check Out mobile app for iPhone and Android, data should increase dramatically as users instantly register their thoughts on a business. Users also have the ability to share those thoughts with their friends via Twitter and Facebook, which is great for you!

Bizzy is such a cool company, they even have a guide for businesses that starts out with this:

If you have ever printed a sale flyer and tacked it to the wall of your shop, your business should be on Bizzy.

Here’s how they’ll help you:

Word-of-Mouth

As people tag you as a favorite on Bizzy, you’ll get a nice little word-of-mouth campaign going. You’ll reach more people, get recommended more, get tagged as a favorite more, and so on.

Content Sharing

You can even push out new content via Bizzy to the people who tagged you as a favorite. It could be news, tips, special offers or events. The better the content, the better for you, because it’s also shown to people who don’t know you, but should know you based on their other favorites.

Social Media

The great content you share (you know, news, events and offers, that kind of thing) can be shared by Bizzy users on Facebook, Twitter, and by email.

Cutting Through Noise

We all get too much email, more tweets than we can read, and Facebook updates galore. Bizzy will help you cut through the noise, since they are “a dedicated space where people come for the express purpose of finding their favorite local businesses and discovering new ones.”

Free

Bizzy is free. Enough said.

So, start telling your customers about Bizzy! You can even register your business on Bizzy at the bottom of the Bizzy for Business page.

Image courtesy: Bizzy.com

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Tags: Bizzy, content, Facebook, geolocation social networking, mobile app, social media, Twitter, word of mouth marketing
Posted in Branding, Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »