Masterful Marketing » Social Media Marketing

Content Strategy: Helping Your Small Business Blog Stay Visible

Debra — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 03:03:00 +0000

A consistent flow of content is critical to developing a community of followers that will support your brand and most likely become a customer or client. But one of the most common challenges small business owners face is how to create that compelling and relevant content on a regular basis in order to remain visible to their ideal clients.

Let me be clear that blogging is not for every small business owner. Be honest with yourself before you get started on why you want to blog. If you can’t answer that question, you may wish to try other social media activities that are more aligned with what you are trying to accomplish.

How to create a content strategy

A content strategy helps you determine what content you will provide, why you want to provide it, where the content will be distributed and to what target market. To develop your content strategy, consider the following:

Define your goals – Knowing what you are trying to achieve before you start writing will help you focus your efforts. For most small businesses, blogging helps you create visibility, generate traffic to your website and establish an expert reputation making your business stand out from the rest. Ultimately being visible as an expert will generate inbound leads.
Understand your client’s challenges – One of the reasons I encourage small business owners to develop a brief marketing plan is to understand the wants and needs of their target market. By knowing the types of challenges their prospects face, you can develop a list of topics that will attract and retain an audience that is interested in what you have to say.
List your content categories – Determine the areas where you will focus your content development efforts. WordPress and other blogging platforms enable you to categorize your posts, so knowing before you start writing what your categories are will make it easier to develop ideas that fit within these topics.
Define your frequency – Writing requires creative thinking. Some people can create a blog post in minutes. For others (like myself), writing takes more time. Some write short daily posts, others writer longer posts less often. Know which type you are and schedule your writing time accordingly. Commit to no more than one to three posts per week, again depending on how quickly you can write. To stay on track, try some of the following tips:
- Schedule time in your calendar to write
- Note ideas and topics that you want to write about and start a draft post
- Use your categories to organize topics to write
- Subscribe to blogs that may help generate ideas
Define your content type – content is not just words. It can be video, audio, images and text. Use what is comfortable for you and develop a good mix that makes your content interesting and easy to read.
Determine your distribution strategy – Besides your blog and its RSS feed, where else will your content be distributed? Consider posting a link to your content on Twitter, your Facebook Business Page and LinkedIn, depending on where it makes the most sense. Consider having your content feed syndicated to other reputable sites. In order to drive people to your Website, you need to cast a wider presence by getting your content out to where your target audience is spending time.

Don’t make this a complicated exercise. Spend an hour or two putting the strategy in place, making an agreement with yourself to implement the strategy as a key marketing activity that will benefit your business. The next post will discuss how to write for your blog.

If you don’t have a content strategy today, will you be creating one for your small business?

Lead Generation: What Works Today

Debra — Mon, 03 May 2010 19:15:02 +0000

I recently presented a workshop at the New England Business Brokers Association meeting about how to integrate online and social media marketing for lead generation. As professional service business owners, we build our credibility by demonstrating our expertise and knowledge of our discipline and the use of social media makes building your reputation much simpler than before.

As a small business owner, how you approach online marketing can make the difference between a successful campaign and an overwhelming exercise. Learning how to use online marketing to drive visitors to your Website and generate leads is going to impact your marketing and ultimately the success of your business.

Here is a summary of the slides:

Slide 3: Small Business Marketing – What has changed?

Social media and the Internet channel has opened up opportunities to reach more potential customers that were unavailable to most small businesses not too long ago. What has changed in the market is the ability for the customer to:

Research service providers long before engaging in the sales process
Obtain reviews about the service provider that may influence the purchase decision
Acquire a perception about the business based on what they do and don’t find about you
Engage with the business through social networks to learn more about you

Slide 4: Small Business Marketing – What has not changed?

What has not changed, however, is the need to develop a brief, but focused marketing plan to help you effectively reach your prospects.

Slide 5: Benefits of Online Marketing

Levels the playing field
Positions you as the expert in your industry
Increases online exposure
Develops relationships / grows contact list
Encourages online WOM
Influences purchase decisions
Increases your reach
Drives visitors / generate leads

Slide 6: Challenges of Online Marketing

Not understanding what you are trying to accomplish with online and social media marketing can lead to activities that are disjointed, inconsistent and totally ineffective. Online marketing requires:

A strategy on how to approach it for your business
A marketing system to ensure consistency
A definition of what makes you different to stand out from the crowd
A valuable offer (content, information) to get attention
Understanding how to sell without selling
A plan for how to prioritize time, energy and money for best results

Slide 7: Online Lead Generation

Acquiring leads is accomplished by doing something that gets a person to take some action, such as:

Fills out a form on your website
Signs up for your mailing list
Calls you to initiate the relationship
Likes your Facebook Business Page
Connects with you on LinkedIn
Takes an action based on something you do online

Slide 8: Online Lead Generation

As with all marketing activities, if you establish a goal, the strategies and tactics will be more apparent and cohesive.

Getting Started with Online Marketing

Slide 10: Do you have a Web presence?

Evaluate your presence on the Internet by conducting a “vanity search” – search your name and business name. What is your first impression of what you find?
Do a review your brand – name, logo, color scheme – to ensure that it is aligned with who you really are and that it is consistent across all your web properties.
Review your website for brand consistency, fresh and relevant content and whether it is developed so that you can easily update it.
Review your existing profiles on social networks – are they consistent and project your value?

Slide 11: Define your Internet Marketing Strategy

The hub of your online marketing strategy is a professional website and/or blog where the goal of all marketing activities is to drive visitors to your website. Do your keyword research and ensure you have a list that you use consistently.

Slide 12: Establish Your Home Base

Spend some time on ensuring your Website has been appropriately optimized. Then develop a content strategy: Know what you want to achieve and the content that will attract your ideal prospect. Take an inventory of the content you have and re-purpose for different uses. Create new when needed.

Develop a comment strategy to become visible. Develop a list building strategy that you can use to market your information products. Syndicate your content via the RSS Feeds or through Article marketing sites

Slide 13: Social Media Strategy

Research your target audience and listen to what they have to say.
Find out where your target hangs out online.
Determine how you can help, educate and gain visibility.
Identify the tactics for engaging your target audience and attract them to you.
Create your complete and keyword rich profile that sets you apart and projects your human side.
Integrate your valuable content – blog posts, eBook, presentations, audio, video posts, advice – to attract your target market
Upload a quality picture that projects YOU!

Slide 14 – 21: Social Media Tools

Google Profile – Shows up when people search for your name. Provides a portal to your online identity.

Facebook Business Page – Profiles your business and enables your clients / prospects to get to know you through your content. To grow your supporters:

Add Like Box to your blog / website
Invite your opt-in email list to like your Facebook Page
Start a discussion so fans can interact with each other
Acknowledge fans when they write on your Page Wall
Create and promote events to your fans and friends
Incorporate your Blog posts
Welcome new fans with a welcome tab
Update your Page status with tips, advice and other useful information

Twitter for Business – Connect and network with people who share your industry, share your views or share quality information and ideas. Get instant access to what’s being said about you or your industry. Extend the reach of your thought leadership by communicating your blog posts and other content

LinkedIn Profile – Create a compelling, keyword rich profile. Make the full view public enabling Google, Yahoo and Bing to index. Get your vanity URL. Claim and update your company page. Marketing using LinkedIn:

Get and give recommendations
Join or create groups of interest, participate in discussions and display your expertise whenever possible
Update your status with content relevant to your connections
Participate in Questions & Answers to attract a targeted audience and make new connections.
Share your expertise and help people
Create & promote events
Incorporate your blog, presentations or e-books on your profile

Slide 22: Integrating it All

Connect LinkedIn to Twitter, Facebook to Twitter
Use Friendfeed for integrating other networks
Use HootSuite for a single dashboard

Slide 23: Internet Marketing System to ensure a Consistent Flow of Information

Daily:

Update Facebook page
Update status messages across networks
Scan Google Reader subscriptions and share content that would be valuable to your followers (add to Friendfeed to ensure it goes out to all social networks)
Check Google Alerts for mentions of your name and business name
Respond to new Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook connection requests

Weekly:

Blog once a week at a minimum
Scan LinkedIn Q&A and answer a few questions
Review content for new uses (presentations, videos, screencams, articles, ebooks, etc)

Monthly:

Tweak profiles
Check Webmaster tools
Check Google analytics for information on traffic
Write a recommendation for a contact in LinkedIn, request one in return
Review Facebook Business Page, update and add new features

Slide 24: Get Connected, Get Found™

Schedule time to work on your marketing and make social media part of it. Don’t overlook any content you create that can be useful to your followers. Set your system up and work it – the value of social media on your marketing will become evident. Be realistic on what you can do with the resources you have available.

What lead generation activities do you use? How do they work?

I am available to present this and other marketing topics for your organization. Please contact me if you are interested in discussing your presentation needs.

6 Ways to Promote Your Facebook Page

Debra — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 15:29:22 +0000

Creating a Facebook Page for your business is one of the more valuable exercises you can do as a small business owner. But once you have the page set up and you are providing valuable, relative content, how do you get people to like your page?

Invite your Facebook friends that fit your target market profile

To invite connections you think would be interested in your Facebook Page, use the Suggest to Friends link.

If you have connected with clients via Facebook, invite them first as your clients should already be supportive of you. Next invite other connections that fit your target market that may be interested in finding out more about what you offer. If you have done a good job of organizing your professional colleagues, customers and prospects into Friend Lists, you can invite these lists as groups to your Facebook fan page instead of sending individual invites.

Be selective in who you invite and as a courtesy, invite them once only. Don’t annoy people with Facebook Page invitations that aren’t interested in your business or know nothing about you. If a person rejects the request, be careful not to send them another invitation.

Invite your email newsletter subscribers

When you are ready to send out your next email newsletter, include an incentive to get your subscribers to visit your Facebook Page and become a fan. Put a free download on your landing page tab for non-fans that will appeal to your subscribers.

To set up your landing tab, use the Facebook Static FBML application. FBML is similar to HTML and can be used to enhance a user’s Facebook experience on your Page. Then edit the Wall settings for your page and select that tab as the landing page for “everyone else”.

Include your Facebook Page URL in your marketing materials

Once you reach 25 people who have liked your Page, create your vanity URL that makes it easy for you to promote the Page and for people to recognize your brand.

Now it will be easier to promote your Facebook Page by including your vanity URL in all your sales tools, such as business cards, brochures, email signature or other marketing and promotion tools you use to help you drive more visitors to your Business Page and connect with them. All of these tools can be used to cross connect you with your communities and make you more visible to those who are interested in what you have to say.

Place a Facebook Like Box Widget on your Website / Blog

The Facebook Like Box is a social plugin that helps you promote your Page to your website visitors. To create your Like Box, fill in the Facebook Page ID for your Page, the height and width of the box, whether you want your stream included and the number of fans to show.

Facebook Like Box Generator (Click to enlarge)

To get your Facebook Page ID, hover over the picture on your Page and the link contains the number. It should look like: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?profile=1&id=12345678912 (the 11 digit number is the id). When you are done, the form will generate the code you need to paste into your Website.

Use Facebook Social Ads

Depending on your business, Facebook Advertising can be beneficial to building your base of prospects because it enables you to tightly target your best prospect based on a number of variables, including geography, age, gender, education, relationship status, workplace and keywords. With this type of pinpoint targeting, you can create and deliver advertising to only those who you feel would benefit from what you have to offer.

A local retail business like a spa, hairdresser or restaurant could run an ad that has an incentive for fans to come in to your store and try your services or purchase your products.
A local service business like a plumber, landscaper or electrician could run an ad that contained an incentive only for new fans (and customers) such as a discount on a maintenance agreement.

Rather than placing ads in the local papers, Facebook advertising can be much more cost-effective in generating leads and growing your business.

Promote your Page on other Social Sites

Most social sites give you the opportunity to promote multiple websites. LinkedIn allows three links and Google profiles are unlimited. Use these opportunities to promote your Facebook Page as one of your key web properties. Don’t forget to use the “Other” feature when editing your additional information in LinkedIn to name the link appropriately.

In addition, integrate Twitter with your Facebook Page to communicate what you have posted to your Twitter followers.

So how will you promote your Facebook Business Page? Let us know what you have tried and how it works for you.

Google Social Circle

Debra — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 01:13:11 +0000

I spent a lot of time this weekend writing a marketing plan for a client. In doing so, I was searching for various resources and spending some quality time with Google. After a while, I noticed some search results at the bottom of the first page that said:

Results from people in your social circle for search term – BETA – My social circle – My social content

What appeared in those results were blog posts from people I follow on Twitter. When I clicked on the link for My social circle I was given a page that described my network of connections that Google used to identify relevant social search results.

What is Google Social Search?

In early January, Google went beta to English searchers with social search. It uses your Google Profile to establish your online social circle and display publicly-available content from these folks to provide a more personalized experience in your search results.

When I did a Google search for Google Social Search, I got two results: a blog post from Jason Falls and a tweet from Paul Chaney. Both were recent and relevant to my search and because I “know” these guys from their blogs and Twitter, the content and their perspectives on this topic will carry more weight than someone who I haven’t met through my social networks.

Matt Cutts from Google explains “How Google Social Search works” in a 4 minute video. It’s worth the watch.

Why You Should Care

With Google is placing relevance on search results based on people you are connected with, embracing and encouraging the use of social media within your business is critical. It is now more important that you:

Create a quality Google Profile and include all your important links.
Stop worrying about personal vs professional connections being mixed together. Connecting with your customers and clients is critical.
Participate in social networks, engaging people and staying visible.
Embrace social media – it’s here to stay. Include your social media links in your email signatures and on your marketing materials.
Consider blogging now! Establish an Internet presence that builds your company’s expert reputation.
Don’t fall for SEO companies claiming they will get you first page results – the game has changed and first page search results will be different based on who you are, where you are and who you are connected with.

Those businesses who ignore social media will soon be at a competitive disadvantage. My advice: Get involved with social media now and take it seriously. Do you still think social media is not for you?

Traditional vs. New Media Channels

Debra — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 03:50:26 +0000

Is One More Successful than the Other?

I consistently get asked by small business owners if they should be doing social media marketing to help them grow their business. Before I answer their question, I usually ask them if they understand who their ideal client is and where they hang out. Of course I get that “doe in the headlights” look followed by “no but I should be doing social media marketing”.

If you assume you need a Facebook Business Page because you’ve “heard” that you should have one to market your business, you need to step back and understand some marketing fundamentals so that you make the right choices for your business.

For a business to develop a quality marketing communications plan, you need to understand:

The goal of your campaign (i.e. brand awareness, leads, sales);
Your target market;
The message you want to send them;
The communication channel (the media) that makes the most sense for your particular target audience.

Successful marketing happens when you achieve your goal by sending the right message and reaching the right market using the their communication channel (medium) of choice. Picking the right communication channel for your message will contribute significantly to the success of your message reaching your market and therefore, it is important to understand the various communication channels available.

What is a channel?

The following diagram from Dream Systems Media Blog provides a visual look at the history of marketing communications channels.

A Look at the History of Marketing Channels

Marketing channels, also known as media, are the delivery vehicle for your message. These traditionally have included:

Publications – newspapers, magazines, journals
Radio and television
Billboards
Telephones
US Postal Service
Face to face

New media channels are Internet communication vehicles including:

Websites / Blogs
Social media – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube (See Social Media is not (Just) a Marketing Channel)
Email (See Less is the new more: E-mail marketing is social and Integrating Social and E-mail Marketing: Where to Begin)
Mobile (See Maximize your Digital-Marketing Mix: 10 Ways to integrate Social, Mobile and Email)
Search (See Search still a powerhouse marketing channel)
Videoconferencing

What are your marketing strategies?

Marketing strategies are the types of communication you do to get your message in front of your target market using the most appropriate channel. These include:

Advertising
Direct marketing
Word of mouth
Events
Public relations

Each of these strategies can use either the traditional or new media and the choice you make is based on which would better reach your market.

Advertising in newspapers still works well for some industries and others, not so much. Advertising using pay-per-click in the search engines works extremely well for others. Banner advertising on Websites depends on the message, the website and the audience it reaches.
A quality public relations person can get you coverage across both traditional and new media channels.
Events can be held in person, via a teleconference or the Internet using conferencing software, depending on the needs of your market.
Most businesses benefit from a word of mouth strategy, using in-person networking events and social media.
The success of direct marketing using postcards, letters, telephone or email will vary from business to business, but controlled postcards and letter campaigns do work for many of my clients to reach homeowners for services that the may forget they need. Email campaigns definitely work for those businesses who take time to build their in-house lists.

Keep in mind that successful marketing campaigns will usually employ multiple strategies across multiple channels to ensure the message reaches your ideal client.

Why is this important to understand?

Knowing where your target market “hangs out” is important to ensuring your message is delivered to them using the appropriate marketing strategies and their preferred communications vehicle. If your target market isn’t on Facebook, then how will a Facebook Business Page help your marketing effort?

Which communication vehicles do you use to successfully to reach your ideal client?

9 Ways to Nurture and Engage Your Communities

Debra — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 22:47:25 +0000

You’ve developed your social media marketing plan, created your profiles, provided quality, relevant content and attracted followers, friends, fans and connections. Now that you have your growing communities, how do you keep them as raving fans and ultimately turn them into clients or customers?

Building a community requires you to both nurture the members so they remain in your community and engage them so they participate. People who participate in a community find their experience more satisfying and rewarding.

Here are 9 ideas that you can put into play to keep your community alive and well.

Focus – When people joined your community, they did so because you provided specific information that interests them. Deviating occasionally from your standard topic is OK, but going astray too often can send people to go elsewhere.
Make it about them – When you write, choose topics that you think may interest them and encourage discussion.
Ask them what they need – Rather than guess what topics your community wants to discuss, poll your community members about what challenges they face and what type of information they need. Their answers just may lead you down a path paved in gold.
Be respectful – In face to face networking settings, we usually mind our manners and treat people professionally. Call people by their first names and carry on a conversation. When someone posts a comment, writes on your wall or re-tweets your message, acknowledge them. Developing these relationships are important to the future of your community.
Surprise them – If you want to get your community’s attention, give your members something unexpected such as a free event that is an hour of group coaching without the sales pitch.
Listen and ask questions – If you do all the talking, people don’t feel they can voice their opinions and add to the conversation. Gently encourage people to participate by asking them what they think. A good question can transform your community from fringe participants to active conversationalists.
Make it fun – Depending on your business, a weekly contest can increase activity and get people talking. Make sure the prize is something that your community would value.
Ask how you can help – At the end of the day, your community cares about themselves first, you second. The best way to get your community to care about you is to show them that you care about their success and well-being. Follow the 80/20 rule and make it about the community 80% of the time and about you only 20%.
Be present, active and consistent – If left unattended or activity is inconsistent, your community will dissolve. Set realistic expectations for yourself and follow through.

How do you nurture and engage your communities? What have I forgotten that has worked for you?

No related posts.

Facebook Profiles and Pages

Debra — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 03:29:06 +0000

There is wide-spread confusion about the difference between a Facebook Profile and a Facebook Page and how to effectively use them. I’ve recently had a few friend invitations from profiles using business names. Creating a profile in a business name is frowned upon by Facebook and you run the risk of having your account warned or disabled.

A Facebook Profile is not a Facebook Page

Facebook Personal Profiles

The name should tell it all. Your Personal Profile is the regular user account that you log into when you sign in to Facebook. It contains your friends and your interactions on the site. Profiles can only be used to represent an individual and must be held under an individual name. Plus you can only have one Personal Profile account.

Facebook Pages

Facebook Page is for businesses, public profiles or organizations. These pages are used to share information, interact with their fans and create a presence that engages those interested in what these entities have to offer. Pages represent a business and are separate from user profiles. Creating a Page does not attach it to your Personal Profile, however you are an admin of the page. You can create multiple Pages and Pages can have multiple admins.

According to Facebook’s terms of service, you may only create Facebook Pages to represent real organizations of which you are an authorized representative. In other words, I can create my client’s Facebook Page and then make them an admin of the page. The Page is what is visible to fans and the admin’s personal profile is kept private.

Facebook Fan Pages offer several benefits to a business, one of which is in their search engine ranking. According to Mari Smith, Relationship and Buzz Marketing Specialist, Pages are the only feature inside Facebook to be fully indexed by Google.

How Do You Set Up a Facebook Page?

In order for your business to establish a Facebook presence, you need to set up a personal Profile and then you set up a Facebook Business Page. Every Page must have one or more Facebook user named as its administrator.

There is another option: you can set up a business account. A business account allows you to manage Facebook advertising campaigns and Facebook Pages without having to set up a personal account. I personally believe that businesses should empower employees to create the Business Facebook presence from their personal accounts. But if for some reason your business is uncomfortable with that option, just make sure that you select a person that knows something about how to navigate Facebook to manage your Facebook interactions.

To set up a business account, create a Facebook Ad or create a Facebook Page. After you’ve created the page or ad, Facebook will ask you to enter your login information or the option to select “I do not have a Facebook account”. At that point all you need to do is enter your business email address and date of birth.

Be warned: If you already have a personal account, you cannot create a separate business account. If you have a personal account and go through this process, there is a very good chance Facebook will shut down both accounts.

What Does All This Mean to Your Business?

Depending on your preference and your business, you can intertwine your personal and professional life or you can keep them completely separate. That’s the beauty of Facebook. What you can’t do according to Facebook’s terms of service, is to:

Use your personal profile for your own commercial gain (such as selling your status update to an advertiser).

That does not mean you can’t discuss business, promote a business function or network with your Personal Profile friends! What it does mean is you are prohibited from profiting by selling your status updates to advertisers. Facebook is preventing advertisers from creating an ad network out of users willing to spam their followers for money. Amen sistah!

How to Carve Out Your Space

For me, Facebook is a social networking site where I have connected with a lot of new people and formed relationships I would never have otherwise. I like the fact that Facebook enables me to be a bit more personal and friendly with my business peers, while staying connected with my friends. My Profile is about me and my Page is about my Marketing Coaching business. However, I choose to keep them closely related. Facebook gives me the ability to project all that I am via my Personal Profile: business owner, golfer, sports enthusiast, Red Sox / Patriots / Celtics / Bruins fan, U2 fanatic and all else that makes me, well me, while displaying my brand on my Facebook Page in a slightly more business-like fashion. But keep in mind that I am my business so this works well.

For businesses that are larger with more employees, creating your Business Page enables you to engage your customers in different ways. You can have discussions, contests, feature coupons, encourage comments and ideas, and if you have a retail store, attract customers to come in and see you in person.

How are you planning to use your Facebook Page for your business? Let us know.

Full Posts or Excerpts?

Debra — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 23:33:48 +0000

Are there benefits to having only excerpts on your blog home page or should you have the full post (or maybe a combination of both)?

I started thinking about this question from a marketing perspective (of course) and decided to do a little bit of research to find out if there were benefits to exerpts on the home page and if there were any serious disadvantages.

From all that I read, the only disadvantage I found was the user had to click to read more. But, if the post is interesting, clicking on the link is really not a deterent because if the user isn’t interested, they won’t read past the first paragraph anyway.

However, if you are like me and write posts that are around 600 words or more, this may be an option you may wish to consider.

Why?

Eliminates duplicate content. Since blogs contain the main index, single post page and archives (both by category and by date), you may want to limit how many full posts are available to the search engines since search engines don’t think highly of duplicate content.
Increases page views. Right now my analytics tell me that my bounce rate is pretty high (i.e. people come to the site and leave without viewing another page). I suspect that is because people are reading what they want and leaving without purusing other pages. By giving visitors only a taste of the post, you may get visitors to read more pages while they are on the site.
Encourages comments. If the visitor is interested in the post, they need to click to the single post page, making the comment area very visible. I have found that people who find posts and view their single post page are more likely to comment than those who read the full post on the home page and depart when they are done because the comment area is not “in their face”.
Enables scanning and offers more content in a smaller space. Fitting more headlines and first paragraphs on your blog homepage helps visitors determine if you have what they are interested in and whether they want to read more or not. Today’s readers prefer scanning content for gems rather than reading everything presented. Give your visitors more gems.

But, one of the drawbacks that kept me from using excerpts on the main index page is the fact that standard excerpts tend to be, well ugly. You can’t control the formatting to stay within your brand, they break at points you don’t necessarily want them to and formatting and images are stripped from the excerpt. There are plugins that make the excerpt more managable. I use one called Custom Excerpts by Sean Bluestone which allows me to set the length in words, change the excerpt link text and add html tags to format the excerpts more consistently with the rest of the site. But that still doesn’t solve the problem as most still require a set number of words or characters to function. And on the home page, you want control of what your visitors see.

Best of Both Worlds

In WordPress, you can create extended excerpts on your home page using the quick tag. You get to control where the excerpt breaks so that you can decide how much or how little you want on the main index page. And if your post is rather short, you don’t need to break it at all. Your choice!

To easily insert the tag:

Position your cursor where you want the tag to be and click on the little icon in the top row of buttons in the WordPress visual editor that looks like the image to the right. If you hover over the button, “Insert More tag (Alt+Shift+T)” smart tag appears.
If you use the HTML editor, position your cursor where you want the tag to be and click on the “more” quick tag button above your text.

This capability gives me the control I need to ensure the visitor gets enough varying content to ensure they stick around and read more.

So what do you think? Full posts or extended excerpts for your main index page of your blog?

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Social Media Marketing – Myths or Reality?

Debra — Wed, 27 May 2009 00:41:25 +0000

In a recent Business Week Viewpoint article called “Beware Social Media Marketing Myths“, Gene Marks highlights what he feels are 5 myths of social media marketing that small business owners should be aware of. Although all 5 of these statements as he describes are myths, I believe this article is misleading to readers on the value of using social media as a channel to build visibility and awareness for your business and personal brand. So let me weigh in on these 5 myths of social media marketing.

Myth 1. Social media sites are free

Reality: This statement is not a myth but a gross understatement of the value of social media. There is a significant cost in time which is an issue if small business owners do not know how to use these tools to market your business as you will spend a lot of time and get nothing in return. But, nothing of value in this world comes for free and you need to invest some type of resource – time or money – to get the most out of them. Think of social media as a channel in which you are able to communicate your value to your ideal client. You must spend time meeting people in these social media sites, building relationships and hearing what they have to say. As Gary Vaynerchuk (@GaryVee) pointed out in his keynote presentation for the Social Media Success Summit, it takes sweat equity to be successful using social media.

Myth 2. Social media sites are a great place to find new customers

Reality: Social media sites are a great place to meet new people and build strong relationships. Will these people ever become customers? Not necessarily, but the reputation you develop on social media sites goes a long way to building a brand that attracts your ideal client. Establishing quality, compelling profiles on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter help you get found more easily by those who are looking to acquire the products and services that you offer.

Myth 3. You need to be on all the big sites

Reality: To make the most of your time, you should select the social media sites that make the most sense for your business. For most business owners, LinkedIn is a must. Some of the niche social networking sites mentioned in the article that are targeted at business owners such as Intuit’s Small Business Community may make more sense now if you are catering to a demographic that for the most part is not on the more “cool and trendy” sites. But I would highly recommend you establish your personal identity on the major social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr now and take control your online identity and reputation rather than letting it develop through what others say.

Myth 4. Social networking sites are for marketing

Reality: Saying social communities are not for marketing is like saying networking and word of mouth will never get you business. Unless you are one of the many who think marketing equals pushing your message into the face of everyone which is frowned upon in both online and offline networking venues, social communities are great for networking and developing relationships and ultimately creating visibility for your expertise. And remember, great customer service increases the value of your brand in the eyes of your customers which helps strengthen your credibility. The key to networking (both online and offline) is utilizing the VCP model: visibility + credibility = profitability. You can easily educate your prospects and customers on the value you offer by the value you provide those you interact with on social networking sites.

Myth 5. Social networking is the future

Reality: Social networking sites are a means to an end, not the end game. Although the platforms will shake out technologically (as does every technology), getting comfortable with social networking sites to develop your personal brand will not go away, even if the platform changes. Believing that social networking is a vanishing trend is dangerous and there are many business owners utilizing these channels to market their businesses successfully.

Marketing using social media should be part of your marketing plan and not a replacement for other more traditional marketing efforts. Newsletters, seminars, partnering, and yes, the telephone, are all ways to have a conversation with your customer. But ignoring social media is not a strategy for success. The best way for most small business owners to market their business is to get involved in social media now as it is a process and not getting the process started is basically suicide. Why give your competitors an edge, making your business anonymous and relinquishing control of your future?

What do you think: Myth or Reality?

Eliminate Social Media Email Clutter

Debra — Tue, 19 May 2009 00:38:24 +0000

As you get more active in social media, one of the things you will notice is the increase in email notifications from the various tools. Having these emails flood your inbox is both distracting and cumbersome to manage.

The first thing you learn about being involved in a social media community is that you don’t need to respond immediately, but you do need to respond in a timely manner. A few months ago, I wrote a post on setting up your social media system, so that you can make time for marketing using social media.

So what I recommend is you take advantage of one of the most useful features of an email client – the ability to set up filters – so you can make your social media system more productive. If you haven’t found that feature in your particular client, look for it and then set up filters to move these notification emails into the appropriate folders. In Microsoft Outlook, you can find this feature under “Tools / Rules and Alerts …”. In Gmail, you’ll find the filters under “More actions / Filter messages like these”.

My preference is to have separate folders set up for Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn as I have also set a priority on how I manage these emails coming from these three social media networks. You may find that filtering all social media emails into one social media folder is sufficient, especially if you are just getting involved in social media. Once again, the choice is yours based on how you work and what type of time you have to dedicate to vetting Twitter followers, answering Friend requests on Facebook or accepting connections on LinkedIn.

Once you set these up, you then can set up specific times in your day to puruse these folders and take action. You will find you are much more productive this way rather than being reactive to every email that comes in.