April 25, 2013

In praise of social media perseverence

With social marketing, showing up is half the battle

My advice for blogging and social media marketing alike is as follows: 20 minutes a day — and one hour once a week. If you spend any less time than that, you’re really not a content marketer. However, spending this amount of time on social media brand promotion and protection is really just barely enough time to keep things moving forward.

It’s yeoman’s work and you’ll never win any awards for doing the bare minimum, but if you can keep showing up every work day and then spend an extra hour once a week, and you can do that persistently and consistently over time, you’ll start seeing some impressive results.

Social media rewards consistency, persistence, and attention, even if it isn’t super-service or if you take a full 24 hours to respond to a customer’s query or constituent’s concern.

Come on, you’re not @AmericanAir, and you don’t need to be. My flight was grounded en route to SXSW, I tweeted complaint, and AA got back to me on Twitter by the time I deplaned — you probably don’t need to offer that much service, do you? Continue reading →

March 12, 2013

5 apps that do the marketing work for you

Photo courtesy of noeliamarejo via Creative Commons

Reach a broader audience with the help of these marketing apps

Guest post by Megan Totka

Developing and executing strong marketing campaigns takes a lot of work. In large corporations, entire departments are devoted to this task. For small businesses and sole proprietors, marketing tasks often fall on employees or business owners that wear other hats, too. There is literally not enough time in the workday to accomplish all the promotional tasks that large and small companies wish they could achieve, especially considering the vast outreach opportunities the Internet age presents.

What if I told you that there is a way to do less work but actually reach more people with your company news, products and services? Interested? While I can’t advise you on the best ways to find more money in your budget, I can offer some suggestions developed by others that will give your business a smart marketing advantage. Continue reading →

March 5, 2013

What’s the value of a Facebook like?

Increase your fan base with an SEO approach to social media marketing

Target audience: Marketing professionals, SEO specialists, businesses, nonprofits, Facebook administrators, anyone with a Facebook page.

Guest post by Rowan Casey

Everybody with a Facebook Page wants to have millions of likes, but unless you are a celebrity or the owner of a famous business, you’re probably still working on increasing your fan base.

However, even if you are among the least famous of people, your chances of having thousands — or even tens of thousands — of likes is still within reach. For many Facebook Pages, this is because there are a variety of methods of buying likes or obtaining Facebook fans through paid advertising and promotional methods. Still working on upping your ‘like’ count? Keep reading. Continue reading →

February 8, 2013

Brand wins and fails in social media (infographic)

Nike, Sephora, Honda win, McDonald’s not so much

Guest post by MBA in Marketing

The past year has seen some big moments in social media marketing — both wins by brands as well as some major stumbles. As the worldwide social media audience grows, the impact of wins and fails is amplified. Win, and your victory is that much sweeter; fail, and your disgrace will be played out on an extremely large public stage.

Here are the past year’s biggest moments in social media marketing for brands — the good as well as the bad (click on the infographic to see it full size): Continue reading →

January 15, 2013

‘Optimize’: A discussion with marketing expert Lee Odden

Lee Odden on stage (Courtesy of ionSearch via Creative Commons)

How to achieve an ‘optimized state of mind’

Idon’t do a lot of book reviews because I don’t like to skim books. I really read them, and that takes time.

However, one book I couldn’t put down was Lee Odden‘s Optimize, which he graciously sent me earlier this year (disclosure: I received a free copy of the book but was not even asked to write a review). I was so excited when it arrived that I immediately started thumbing through it.

Yup, that’s a photo of my copy of the book, with all those little flags, and sticky thingummies.

It’s just a terrific book – not just about SEO (search engine optimization) but much more about getting into an “optimized state of mind.” That is “where you integrate social principles and a community element into content marketing – and to which you naturally apply good SEO principles – to grow a business that flourishes through attraction and engagement.”

And if you’re going to stay competitive in today’s marketplace – forget about excelling, it takes so much to just stay abreast – you have to be able to do this. Ideally, you’ll start to do it better and better. Continue reading →