Social Media Marketing
Top 10 Facebook Marketing Questions
Small business owners ask me a lot of Facebook marketing questions, so I decided to compile the 10 most often asked questions and answer them in an eBook specifically for small business owners.
These most popular questions include:
- Should my business be on Facebook?
- What does it mean to market my business using Facebook?
- What’s the difference between a Personal Profile, a Business Page and a Business Account?
- Why do I need a Facebook Page for my business?
- What is the best way to drive traffic to my Page?
- Why do I need an email list when I have a community of Facebook fans?
- When and how often should I post on our Page?
- What content should I post?
- When is the best time to use a Facebook Group rather than a Page?
- What is a Facebook Places Page?
Read more on Top 10 Facebook Marketing Questions…
10 Ways to Drive Qualified Visitors to Your Website
Just Because You’ve Built It, Doesn’t Mean They Will Come
You finally have a powerful website and blog that you are proud to show off, with messages that clearly explain how you help your clients and the value you provide. Now, how do you drive your target audience to your site and generate qualified leads? The following 10 tips create an inbound marketing plan that will drive traffic to and turn your website into a powerful hub for your web presence.
1. Optimize your site around your top keywords
Understanding how people search for your products or services enables you to develop a keyword list that you use for all of your marketing activities. Then optimize each page of your website around one keyword phrase, making sure you use it in your web page title, the meta description tag and appropriately throughout your content. Read more on 10 Ways to Drive Qualified Visitors to Your Website…
Tags: article marketing, content syndication, search engine optimization, SEO, web presence
Lead Generation: What Works Today
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.
Read more on Lead Generation: What Works Today…
Tags: internet marketing system, online lead generation, online marketing
Google Social Circle
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. Read more on Google Social Circle…
Tags: google profiles, google search results, search engine marketing, search engine optimization
Traditional vs. New Media Channels
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. Read more on Traditional vs. New Media Channels…
Tags: communications channels, marketing communications
9 Ways to Nurture and Engage Your Communities
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.
Read more on 9 Ways to Nurture and Engage Your Communities…
Tags: community engagement, community marketing, engaging online communities
Facebook Profiles and Pages
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
Read more on Facebook Profiles and Pages…
Tags: community marketing, facebook fan page, facebook personal profiles
Seek Quality not Quantity in Your Social Networks
I have always been about quality. I know a lot of people, but value my few close friends. When it comes to clothes, I would rather have one quality, custom outfit than a dozen that were just ok. And when it comes to social media, I want to build a quality network of people rather than a massive list of names.
The first step in building a community is to develop relationships with people who have similar interests to yours and then engage in conversations, offering something of value and interest to them.
My goal is to build my networks strategically. I don’t add followers, friends or connections just because I can. I add quality people that have some personal or professional connection to me. To many, my networks may appear to be rather small, but they are enormous in their value to me.
Read more on Seek Quality not Quantity in Your Social Networks…
Tags: conversations, relationship building, social network communities
USGA Tribute to Arnold Palmer
Arnold Palmer Memory Book (click to enlarge)
The United States Golf Association (USGA), of which I have been a member for years, launched a tribute to Arnold Palmer for his 80th birthday. It seems like just yesterday that I kept score for Arnie when one of the first PGA Senior Tour event was held at my home course of Marlborough Country Club. In honor of his birthday, the USGA is creating the Arnold Palmer Memory Book. According to an article on Mashable, the site is powered by private label social network provider KickApps.
Read more on USGA Tribute to Arnold Palmer…
Social Media Marketing – Myths or Reality?
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. Read more on Social Media Marketing — Myths or Reality?…
