Masterful Marketing » Social Media Marketing

10 Ways to Drive Qualified Visitors to Your Website

Debra Murphy — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 20:00:29 +0000

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.

2. Blog regularly

When you first start to blog, you feel as if you are talking to yourself. However, the search engines do hear you and in time, your content will make its way into the hands of those interested in what you have to say. Good content attracts the right audience and if you know what they care about, what pain they are in or what challenge they need help with, the combination of your content and the search engines will lead them to you.

3. Syndicate your content

Syndicate your blog content to your Facebook Business Page, LinkedIn profile and out through Twitter, making your content visible to your friends, connections and followers. Also use legitimate sites like the 8 communities created by Social Media Today such as MyVenturePad, Social Media Today and Sustainable Cities Collective (the list of the 8 communities is on each of these sites) to distribute your content to a much larger audience, making you visible to their readers and providing inbound links.

4. Build quality inbound links

This is not an easy task that can be done quickly. Don’t believe those who solicit your business by saying they can build thousands of inbound links in a couple of weeks. What they do is connect your website to link farms that hurt more than help. The best way for you to get inbound links is to connect with reputable websites through reciprocal efforts and to implement a blog comment and syndication strategy.

5. Develop a blog comment strategy

Adding to the conversation by commenting on blogs can help you develop your expertise, build natural inbound links, and help others find you. If someone reads your comment and likes what you have to say, they will click through your link to see other written, visual or audio works you may have done.

6. Create a powerful web presence

Your web presence does not end with your website. You need to take control of other online properties that list your business. Google Places, Yahoo Local and Bing Local are a good start, creating credible listings for your business and providing inbound links. Depending on your industry, InsiderPages, Merchant Circle and Yelp are others. Both directories and review sites are valuable properties in building a strong web presence because the number of citations are now taken into consideration for rankings.

7. Engage in social media

Actively participating in social media makes you visible and helps people find you. Your Facebook Business Page and LinkedIn profile include your website link, again helping those who find you via these networks make their way back to your hub. Even if your target market does not use Facebook, create a powerful personal presence to help people find you when they are searching. If your audience is on these networks, develop your business profile and attract your target market, giving them a reason to learn more about you.

8. Add article and email marketing to the mix

Distributing your content via article marketing or email marketing can also drive visitors to your website. Sites such as IdeaMarketers and eZineArticles create more visibility for you and direct traffic back to your website. A quality eNewsletter can be easily forwarded to others, encouraging them to visit your website. Both build your expert reputation which naturally attracts people to your website.

9. Create compelling free offers

Create offers that are valuable to your ideal client to help them find you. Offer a useful white paper, ebook or template that will be found when someone is searching on that topic. If the offer is valuable to them, they will sign up for your mailing list to receive the offer. You not only attract more visitors but you are building your email list that will build a community around your products and services.

10. Sales Tools

Prominently display your website address on your business card and include a QR code with your website address in it so those with smart phones can easily scan your contact information. Include your website address in your email signature, along with your social media links, so people know where to find information on what you have to offer. All paths lead to your website and it doesn’t matter where they start, as long as they get to the proper destination.

What other cost-effective ideas do you have to drive people to your website?

10 Ways to Drive Qualified Visitors to Your Website is an original post from Debra Murphy, Small Business Marketing Coach: Masterful Marketing - Marketing in the New Media World. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Debra on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.

Lead Generation: What Works Today

Debra Murphy — Mon, 03 May 2010 18:15:02 +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.

Lead Generation: What Works Today is an original post from Debra Murphy, Small Business Marketing Coach: Masterful Marketing - Marketing in the New Media World. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Debra on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.

Google Social Circle

Debra Murphy — 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.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlpTjP6h6Ms

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?

Google Social Circle is an original post from Debra Murphy, Small Business Marketing Coach: Masterful Marketing - Marketing in the New Media World. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Debra on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.

Traditional vs. New Media Channels

Debra Murphy — 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?

Traditional vs. New Media Channels is an original post from Debra Murphy, Small Business Marketing Coach: Masterful Marketing - Marketing in the New Media World. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Debra on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.

9 Ways to Nurture and Engage Your Communities

Debra Murphy — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:47:25 +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?

9 Ways to Nurture and Engage Your Communities is an original post from Debra Murphy, Small Business Marketing Coach: Masterful Marketing - Marketing in the New Media World. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Debra on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.

Facebook Profiles and Pages

Debra Murphy — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 23:29:06 +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.

Facebook Profiles and Pages is an original post from Debra Murphy, Small Business Marketing Coach: Masterful Marketing - Marketing in the New Media World. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Debra on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.

Seek Quality not Quantity in Your Social Networks

Debra Murphy — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 18:41:40 +0000

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.

In addition to my blog and email list subscribers, I am building the following social communities:

I have 293 connections in my network on LinkedIn made up of people I have met in a professional setting, including previous employers, clients and prospects and those I’ve met at both live and online events. I am very comfortable inviting the people I’ve met to connect with me on LinkedIn. I know I have value to offer and want to remain in touch, even with prospects that never become clients. I always include a personal message to them and hope that they value connecting with me as well.

If someone invites me to connect that I have never met, I review their profile, looking at their picture (absolute must have), basic info and profile summary for common interests or business synergies. I view all people as potential business partners, future clients or someone who can open the door to an opportunity that is important to my business.

Facebook

I have 174 Facebook friends made up of life long friends and golf buddies, business contacts and social media contacts. Facebook is a wonderful place to meet people and interact with them. I love getting invitations from people from all over the world to become a friend. The stream of activity on your wall can help you learn a lot about someone. You can be more casual while staying professional in your conversation. I connect with all types of people on Facebook, including friends, colleagues and folks I meet networking because Facebook enables me to build Friend Lists, private groupings of friends based on my personal preferences, so I can organize my conversations and privacy settings.

Facebook Business Page

Every business should have a Facebook Business Page where you can make connections in a business casual atmosphere. Facebook provides many capabilities to enhance your Business Page to make it more interactive and interesting. Provide a steady stream useful and relevant information and those who are interested will become fans. Although some people send out requests for fans, I prefer to let the list build organically. I am thrilled when I see someone new become a fan. I currently have 66 fans and I am thankful to you all!

Twitter

With 914 followers and 742 friends (those I follow), Twitter is like going to an event and talking with everyone around you. The open conversation is very casual, but a lot of useful information can be found. My criteria is simple: I follow interesting people – not robots, spammers, automated accounts or adult content. A real picture of you will more likely get me to check your profile to see if there is a connection. Use a custom background image on your Twitter page to add important information about you and your value. If I don’t know who you are or what you have to offer, I probably won’t follow.

Bottom line is I’m very open to connecting, friending and following interesting people. I look forward to connecting with you.

What is your criteria for building your social media network? Share your strategy with us.

Seek Quality not Quantity in Your Social Networks is an original post from Debra Murphy, Small Business Marketing Coach: Masterful Marketing - Marketing in the New Media World. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Debra on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.

USGA Tribute to Arnold Palmer

Debra Murphy — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:00:34 +0000

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.

The site allows users to share their personal memories of Arnie, telling stories via pictures, video or text. Stories range from professional golfers sharing their memories to sports fans reminiscing of their 30 seconds of fame. I shared my memory of Arnie during that tournament in 1982 when we were called off the course due to thunderstorms. While we were waiting out the storm in a neighbor’s basement, he was sitting next to me and, well the picture tells a thousand words. At the time, I didn’t know that this picture was taken until they gave it to me.

I have kept that memory of Arnold Palmer tucked away for years and am thrilled to be able to share it not only with Arnie through his social media birthday card, but also with everyone who has interest and cares about someone as special as him.

Given my involvement in social media and my love of sports, it is nice to see pro sports using all types of social media to engage fans, increase viewership of events and provide a means for us common, everyday athletes to participate in major events.

USGA Tribute to Arnold Palmer is an original post from Debra Murphy, Small Business Marketing Coach: Masterful Marketing - Marketing in the New Media World. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Debra on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.

Social Media Marketing – Myths or Reality?

Debra Murphy — Tue, 26 May 2009 19:41:25 +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?

Social Media Marketing – Myths or Reality? is an original post from Debra Murphy, Small Business Marketing Coach: Masterful Marketing - Marketing in the New Media World. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Debra on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.