Are you harnessing the full power of video to extend your business-to-business brand? Ironically, many B2B marketers are huge consumers of online video while missing the boat for their own corporate branding. If you don’t want to be left high and dry, it’s time to step up and start incorporating video into your B2B brand strategy. Why? Because video – when done right – is eminently sharable. It’s cost effective, easy (yes, easy) to produce and vividly showcases your brand. New social video services like Vine (6-second looping videos from our friends at Twitter) and Spreecast (sharable video chats/conversations), supplement …
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If there’s one thing I’ve noticed about successful recruiters, it’s that they tend to be super organised. Disciplined too. Much of what I’ve written about social recruiting has focused on raising your profile with your candidate audience, learning to engage with them more effectively, becoming perceived as someone knowledgeable in your sector – without it being a total drain on your working week! Getting these things right is particularly valuable when you come to post your next job openings. If candidates in your niche have got used to monitoring your streams for quality content and insights, they’ll also come to …
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It’s been a year since I wrote my original content marketing lies post. There was no shortage of dubious ‘expert’ advice available then, and the flood has continued unabated over the past year. That said, there have been many great blog posts, articles, e-books, and presentations. There has also been an enormous volume of hype, exaggeration and outright B.S. thrown around. I love the enthusiasm, but sometimes the flood gets frothy, and even well intentioned advice can spawn inaccuracies, half-truths or worse. I think that part of this relates to confusion about its definition, and the fact that some conflate …
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The amount of confidence brand managers and marketing executives have placed in Twitter has always perplexed me. We know that Twitter is a “shouting platform” rather than a conversational platform. Whether you’re a brand or a pissed off, grounded airline customer, you’re using Twitter as a cry for attention or help. As such, Twitter has attracted personas of all types — many of which are illegitimate marketers, shameless self promoters, altogether fake people, and the like — all infecting your stream with messages you more than likely want to ignore. It therefore stands to reason that Twitter has such a …
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Because even the top bloggers rarely get enough income from their blog to thrive, successful blogger outreach entails catering to a blogger’s niche and recognizing the hard work they put in to their craft. Here are 5 ways that you can go beyond the pitch and perk the interest of influential bloggers. Good luck! Send Them a Steak Omaha Steaks sends foodie bloggers steaks! Leaping from this example of blogger outreach done well, what free swag, product or service can you send to bloggers in your niche? From an e-gift card to a fashion item, sending bloggers something free is …
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Once you’ve composed your blog post, your next step is to prepare it to get as much as visibility as possible. Your biggest sources of traffic in the long run is likely to be Google. In this post, we’re going to look at how you can optimize your blog posts for search engines for sustainable, long-term traffic and rankings. Keyword Research The first thing you need to do is decide on the best keyword phrase for your blog post. You may have already chosen this before you started writing, but if you didn’t, now is the time to do it. …
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When done correctly, a Facebook contest can bring many benefits to businesses. With an array of contest-types to choose from, including voting contest, photo contest and sweepstakes, businesses can utilize contests to use it to increase sales, increase loyalty, increase fans and many more. But did you know that Facebook has set strict guidelines that you need to follow? According to the Facebook Promotion guideline: Promotions on Facebook must be administered within a third party app Promotions on Facebook must include the following A complete release of Facebook by each entrant or participant. Acknowledgment that the promotion is in no …
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Social media sweepstakes and contests appeal to consumers’ sense of fun, drive to compete, and impulses to share their experiences. Brands love them because they are inexpensive to implement since brand influencers, loyalists, and evangelists doing the lion’s share of the publicity work. Some prize promotions have a low level of consumer engagement (e.g. “like” us on Facebook for a chance to win), focusing on spreading awareness of the brand. If a brand wants to deepen the connection with its followers, it may launch a promotion that requires a few steps to enter, such as Twitter trivia contests or favorite …
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Does every employee in your organisation have a voice? Is it encouraged or discouraged via social media and how do you react and respond to the thoughts of your workforce? In this my final column for Windmill Networking, I’m going to look at employee voice and the role social media can play to build communities inside organisations. You will still be able to read articles by me via my own blog, All Things IC and I’d like to thank Neal for the opportunity to contribute here. When thinking about employee voice I recommend reading the book Exploring Internal Communication: Towards Informed …
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I have no idea if this show is even on the air anymore in any kind of format but, if it isn’t, for those of you who are old enough to remember … doesn’t “Let’s Make A Deal” remind you a lot about selling and I am not talking about the game show title? Each contestant was forced to choose between what was behind door #1 or door #2 or door #3 and the kicker was … you had no idea of what was behind any of these doors. One might have a luxury European Vacation and the other might …
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Successful real estate professionals know that social media is a portal to connect home buyers and sellers with the information they seek. They also know that social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus offer a rich media experience, allowing potential clients to enjoy videos, articles, photos and other digital files from the comfort of their own home. Along with that, social media is a conduit to a conversation; opening the door to deeper, more meaningful discussions that extend beyond limitations formerly placed on traditional marketing. Successful real estate pro’s know that a diverse online presence is key their overall …
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This is part of my series 15 Social Media Concepts to Make you a More Marketable Social Media Professional: Concepts 6 & 7 I recently Tweeted about how much I liked the new Kmart “Big Gas Savings” advertising and subsequent social media presence, and what do you know Kmart tweeted back. Not only did they know I tweeted about them, but they also engaged with me. My post had no customer service request or action needed, I just wanted to share the advertisement and my thoughts with my followers and Social Media MBA students. In the past, I have posted …
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Last month, I wrote about some social media issues employees and employers face concerning non-solicitation agreements when an employee leaves one company and joins another. In those situations, the departing employee is typically excited about his or her new job, and is very eager to update social media profiles, and otherwise let clients, customers, contacts, and friends know about the career move. My post provided several tips for employees and employers to handle such situations in light of the ubiquitous non-solicitation provisions many employers require employees to agree to. This post, however, will focus on the other common situation – …
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Regular readers of this column will be familiar with my statements on the importance of using two-factor authentication for social media properties like Facebook. You also are likely familiar with the recent Burger King Twitter hack in February where I said that Twitter lacks two-factor authentication and advised some steps you can take to better protect your Twitter handle until two-factor authentication is available for Twitter. Today, I’m happy to write that Twitter has (finally) provided a Two-Factor Authentication mechanism. So today I’ll briefly advise you on what to do with this and help you understand some of the ramifications. …
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Can you believe that 2013 is half over? Online video continues to march forward as a great tool for companies. YouTube now has 100 hours of video uploaded every minute. YouTube now has 1 billion unique visits each month and over 4 billion hours of video are being watched each month on YouTube alone. What this all means is that companies will have to work harder to get noticed. YouTube has made a lot of changes: improvements to the way you upload videos, sending you emails to keep you updated on the video upload process, and channel design. Here are …
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I’ve said this before. It bears repeating. You are stuck. Yes, you. You may have been the best major gift officer on the planet five years ago. But that was then. This is now. The buying/giving market has fundamentally changed. Why it’s the end of business as usual: Donors have unlimited access to information. Yup. That’s what the digital revolution hath wrought. You can’t hide anything from folks. And they don’t need you to spoon feed it to them. So, what do they want from you? Transparency and successful outcomes from your organization. Connection and authenticity from you. Your success …
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In mid-May 2013 we woke up one morning to find the biggest Google Plus redesign since the social network was introduced in June of 2011. Let’s review the major changes to the interface, and then we’ll talk about their ramifications for business and marketing users of Google+. 1. New Google+ Homepage Layout The first and most striking change is to the layout of the default home page, the place where most Google+ users view the content shared by others. The former single column for content with a narrow info-sidebar has been replaced with two columns of content “cards” and a …
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“Character is like a tree; and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.” —Abraham Lincoln ♦♦♦ Establishing character and reputation as a (social) business You may opt to experience the words and imagery of the two-minute IBM on Brand video first. A few columns back I provided a definition for social PR for business—relating the inside out—including a quote about a critically important, intangible asset: It has been estimated that reputation accounts for as much as 30 to 70 per cent of the gap between the book value and market capitalization …
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“Creating a social media strategy is still a major concern for marketers.” Social Media Examiner recently published their 5th annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report, where they surveyed more than 3,000 marketers from around the world on a variety of social media issues. The report is free until May 30 (THAT’S TODAY!) and should be downloaded by everyone as there are very few insightful reports like it that exist on the state of the social media union. Among the 43 pages of data, which provided many a takeaway, the most interesting data for me was page 6, in which the report …
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Summary: Online readers cherry pick information from content, so in order to increase your social reach, make your posts easy to share and understand. Using summaries, scannable chunks of content and shareable quotes can make this easier. I hate to admit it – but I’m reading less. As a card carrying book geek, it pains me to say it. But at least I’m not alone. We’re all reading less, and it’s not for lack of opportunity. There are more opportunities than ever before to get information that we need, and as a result we’re running through it like a kid …
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