In my day job, I’ve been reviewing a list of sample internship projects that were recommended in the area of communications and marketing. One, in particular, stumped me and cried out to be revised or deleted altogether. It read:
Utilize social networks to develop strategies for creating communities around [our office's key areas].
The problem lies with the thought that social networks should be used to develop strategies, when in fact, people develop strategies. Some of those strategies may involve using social networks to connect with and engage people.
The truth is that…at the heart of any marketing strategy–no matter what the vehicle–is solid content that speaks directly to your customers’, clients’ or partners’ problems, needs and questions.
Social media and networks are merely a way to share that content and engage your customers, clients and partners. Before you can share and engage, you must have something to say. And remember…that something isn’t just anything. It’s valuable, relevant and compelling content that establishes you as a thought leader and trusted resource.
Before you go jumping into the social media sphere, realize that it’s not a one time deal. Engagement is ongoing. You must continue to regularly provide your target audience with this content.
The reality is that although social media is appealing and can definitely be an effective tool to communicate directly with your market and develop a community around important issues, it is not right for every business or organization right now.
I always recommend that before someone decides to use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, SlideShare, Flickr or any of the other social media tools for business, that they first use them personally. Get your feet wet, look around, read, observe, join…gain an understanding of the culture.
With any aspect of technology, you can read about it and talk to people about it for days, but you won’t have a chance of really “getting it” until you jump in it.
There’s no danger lurking after you join. You won’t break anything. You don’t have to commit to being there for the rest of your life. Just take the time to try it out and see what it’s all about–for yourself.
I hope this is helpful as you develop your website marketing strategy and if you have been reading my newsletters and blog and already “get” these concepts, please share this with others who may not.
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]]>Check out this handout that I developed for a presentation, How Non-Profits and Government organizations are using Flickr. I compiled information from a webinar I attended and resources on the web.
I’m sure you’ll see ways that you can apply Flickr to your business or organization.
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Who are your customers…really?
I’ve been reading a truly eye-opening book, The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott, which I highly recommend.
In the book, he introduces the concept of buyer personas. This is the second time I’ve heard about this idea and realized, I need to pay close attention.
David says that a buyer persona, “is essentially a representative of a type of buyer that you have identified as having a specific interest in your organization or product or having a market problem that your product or service solves.”
He strongly advises making developing this profile the first step in your marketing and PR plan. In fact, he says that it is the most important thing that you will ever do as you plan.
Think about it…your product or service probably serves more than one population. For example, if you own a financial services business, you probably have clients who are just starting out in their careers, clients who are middle age and clients who are ready to retire or who are already retired. Each of these groups of people have different needs and what’s just as important…each of these groups speaks a different language. They describe their problems and their understanding of your service differently.
One size fits all doesn’t work when developing messages and website content. David recommends creating a specific page for each of your buyer personas. Using the same example, that means having links that may look like this…
- Just starting Your career? It’s never too early to start planning for your future.
- Need to make sure you’re financially on course? Leave the planning to us.
- Uneasy about retirement? Let us help you create a plan that will help you relax and enjoy the work-free years to come.
The actual links on the navigation may even say…
- Right Out of College
- Looking forward to retirement
These are just examples to get you thinking differently. The idea is to provide content on your website that immediately speaks to your target audiences by helping them to quickly see that your company can meet their needs and answer their questions.
David gives an example of colleges, who do this exceptionally well. Inevitably, when you visit a college website, you see links for:
- Prospective Students
- Current Students
- Alumni
- Faculty and Staff
- Parents and Family
Colleges and universities know that each of those groups has different questions and is at a different decision-making phase.
Check out the book! It’s a great read. And while you’re waiting for your book to arrive, start developing your customer personas by considering these questions:
- What are their goals and aspirations?
- What are their problems?
- What media do they rely on for answers to problems?
- How can you reach them?
- What words and phrases do they use?
- What sort of images and multimedia appeal to each?
I’ll be writing along with you, so let me know how it goes in the comments.
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]]>And if you’ve already been through my course, you’re ahead of the class anyway.
Here are the questions:
- I have a website, but I don’t think anyone’s visiting it. How do I find out?
- How can I market my business online?
- How should I market my website offline…in the real world?
- What is Twitter and how can it help my business?
- I have a Facebook account. Can’t I just post links about my business there?
- I have a LinkedIn account. How can I use it to market my business?
- I’ve never heard of SlideShare. What is it and how can it help my business?
- Should I start a blog?
- How do I get people to come back to my website over and over again?
- How do I get my site to rank #1 in Google?
Have I left off any? If so, let me know and I’ll add them ASAP!
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]]>Keywords (also referred to as keyword phrases and keyphrases) are the short, descriptive phrases that you want to be found with on the search engines.
The authors of Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day provide excellent strategies for choosing the right keywords.
Here are some of their tips…
Use these triggers and questions to create your list:
- What is your business or organization’s name?
- Imagine you are a member of your target audience, what do you type in the search box?
- What are your products or services? What information do you offer?
- What need do you fill for your target audience?
- Think seasonal. Does your product or service vary from season to season? Do you offer special services for special events?
- Are there common misspellings, alternate spellings and regional variations on your keywords?
- Where is your business located? What variations could you include (for example, include OH and Ohio)?
Expand the list by checking…
…with your coworkers who can provide new perspectives and ideas
…your website for terms you are currently using
…industry media for terminology and hot phrases
…website statistics for terms people are already using to find your site
…with your customers. Salespeople are great resources and can tell you what terms customers use to describe your services.
…with friends and neighbors. Businesses are often blinded by insider terminology they use to describe themselves.
…competitors websites
This list will help you to begin creating your list. The next step is to assess the search popularity, relevance and competition level to develop a manageable list of 10 target keywords.
I’ll provide you with some tips to do that in coming weeks, but if you don’t want to wait, pick up the book. You won’t regret it, Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day by Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Cou7zin.
Enjoy brainstorming!
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]]>Here are a few great take-a-ways:
“Guerilla Tweetfare” by Dan Nickers
Once you’ve set up your Twitter account, use Twitter’s search tool (http://search.twitter.com) and search for people who are discussing your particular niche or product.
Then, join the discussion and provide useful information and value. Dan suggests being funny, not spammy. He says, ”When you reply with value, the person will most likely follow you, reply to you and thank you.”
When someone replies to you on Twitter, all of their followers become aware of the conversation and may see you as a good person to follow as well.
Dan sums up his article with this, “The obvious goal here is to create buzz. The more value, humor and legitimate feedback you provide, the more followers and attention you will receive.”
“Sweeten Up Your Social Networking” by Carrie Wilkerson
She shares Dan’s perspective and suggests…
- Guard your character. Twitter is a very large fishbowl. People are listening and watching at all times.
- Be conversational. Interact with people, show interest in them and see how you can be of value in their space.
- Be consistent and engaged. If you only go on Twitter when you’re bored, have a promotion, have a blog post or are seeking input, everyone will see right through you.
Carrie ends with…”When your audience knows you, likes you, and trusts you, they will want to know more about who you are, who you know, and what you have to offer.”
I believe Dan and Carrie did an excellent job of really drilling down to the core of how to best use Twitter as a marketing tool.
I admit I haven’t kept up with Twitter much in a few months. Effectively using social networking requires a commitment to spending some time on a regular basis socializing with the members. Remember, it’s all about the people and the community.
Happy Tweeting!
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- Check the incoming links for your competitors and see if any of the urls are directories that you may want to be listed in as well.
- Think about offline publications in your industry. Is there an online equivalent? See if they have a directory or if your company is listed on their companion website.
- Search for your target keywords. Are there any directory pages among the top search results. If so, you can benefit from their rank by getting listed in their directory.
- Search the search engines for relevant niche directories by entering “pet store directory” and “Richmond Directory.”
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]]>As you develop your marketing plan, develop informal focus groups. Many people often view focus groups as an organized, select group of people that you gather and ask a specific set of questions.
Well, as long as a focus group achieves the goals you set and answers the questions you have, it can take many forms. It doesn’t have to be a group of people in a room.
It can be a group of people on a conference call. You can conduct individual phone interviews. You can also use Survey Monkey, Zoomerang or many of the other free online survey tools. Social media sites can also be vehicles by which you can gather the thoughts and ideas of your target market or any group of people. Twitter, a Facebook Group or even a LinkedIn group can serve this purpose.
As you brainstorm and develop ideas, run them past a group of people to get real, live feedback.
These examples are easy, free ways to develop informal focus groups that can be as effective as formal focus groups.
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]]>Here are a few highlights:
1. Twitter is about sharing value in a fairly narrow band. For me that band includes ideas about marketing, selling, and succeeding as an Independent Professional. So when I tweet, that’s mostly what you’ll be hearing about.
2. My focus will be on sharing value with you, not talking about me. This will include links to blogs and other web content, ideas, tips, strategies, information and inspiration. If I share anything about me, it will be about insights that I think you’ll find useful.
7. I’ll ask questions and use my followers as a resource, if that’s OK with you. There’s still a lot I need to learn and with Twitter I can tap into this amazing network.
Yes, Twitter is an amazing network and one reason that I like it so much is that it’s okay to “do business” on Twitter. Unlike other social networks, promoting your business (from my observation) is understood, accepted and even expected at times. Tomorrow I’ll give you a few key ways that you can specifically use Twitter, that I learned at a workshop last week.
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]]>1. Brevity is underrated. This is true for anything you write, but it’s especially true for a website. Studies show that internet readers don’t read, they scan. One study said that they only read 28% of the words on the average page. Tip: Write what you need to write as succinctly as you know how.
2. Use short words and short sentences. A website is not the place to impress others with your multi-syllabic vocabulary and your ability to wite compound sentences. They tend to confuse many readers, and when readers get confused, they often feel inferior and move to a site that is easier to read.
3. Use simple words. Avoid jargon that is specific to your business or industry. Call a spade a spade, not a digging implement. Better yet, call it a shovel. Why? Besides the fact that simple words are more widely known, they will make it easier for internet users to find your site when they search.
4. Bullets are your friends. Sentences that begin with bullets tend to pop off the page. That’s why job seekers use them on resumes.They grab your attention and that’s something you want your website to do.
5. Don’t forget Q&A. Speaking of grabbing your attention, readers love the question-and-answer format because they can skip around and read only what interests them. Using this format is a conversational way to tell readers about your company. Just don’t overdo it. One Q&A per site is probably enough.
6. Rewrite often. After you write the first draft of your website, rewrite it. Then rewrite it again and again. Spend as much time rewriting as you can because rewriting usually goes hand in hand with improving.
7. Ask for help. When you feel as though you are no longer making improvements to yoru website, ask a smart person you know to read what you wrote and offer suggestions. Think twice before you dismiss his suggestions because he is the first of what you hope will be millions of visitors to your website. If he finds something boring or confusing or wordy, chances are others will too.
Here are a few more resources for you:
- Valerie Haboush, copywriter – If you just don’t want to be bothered with writing or rewriting your website content, visit her website and email or call her. She’s great!
- Writing Content that is Reader Friendly
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