To be honest with you, in light of all of the recent blog posts and Twitter conversations about the subject, I never intended to write this blog post about Klout. But as I pointed out earlier in defense of Klout, it is one barometer of how active someone is in social media. Klout is in a never-ending battle to measure activity and display those that have actual influence with a higher number, and that is not an easy task as you can imagine. I’m not a fan of the debate among those in social media as to whether or not …
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I wrote a post earlier this year about why companies shouldn’t outsource their social media and why I didn’t want to “do” social media on their behalf. If you remember that post, you’re probably already taken aback by the title of this blog post, but over the last several months, the landscape for how businesses use social media has drastically changed. 90% of Marketers View Social Media as Integral to Their Business Brands Have No Time to Invest Resources in Time-Intensive Social Media Social Media Management Doesn’t Scale Creativity and Experimentation are an Integral Part of Social Media Companies Need …
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I don’t blog much about music, but I did have an experience some time ago with a then independent alternative rock band from Wales in the United Kingdom called The Joy Formidable. A good friend of mine had downloaded their CD (more details on that below) and convinced me to go see them live; in other words, I made a buying decision based on a friend’s recommendation and the ability to also “try out” their product, which in this case was listening to their music. A small, independent band trying to sell their music is very similar to a small …
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Social media websites are filled with communities and large numbers of people, and most businesses decide to strategically market to the largest websites that exist: Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. There are many more social networks outside of the “Big Three,” so for some companies it might make sense to look into targeting up-and-coming networks such as Google+ (although it is limited until Google releases Business Profiles) or, if you were a restaurant, to look into Foursquare marketing. The central doctrine of social media marketing is that you need to be where your customers are, and sometimes these customers are spending …
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Social media is an important medium that every small business should be embracing to help develop new business, understand what others are saying about them and/or their competitors, engage with and increase the loyalty of their customers and fans, and potentially even provide another avenue for customer support over social channels. There are many choices of sites in which companies can invest money and time in building a presence on, with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube being the most popular. At the end of the day, however, one of your primary objectives for your small business in engaging in social …
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LinkedIn just announced their earnings last week for the first time since going public, and it was good to see that their membership (now at 115 million members) and website traffic (#11 in the U.S., #13 in the world) continue to grow. When I wrote my first LinkedIn book back in early 2009, LI was at 40 million users and had not yet established itself as the default social networking platform for professionals that it has become. Beyond mere networking, however, in 2011 there is now a compelling case to be made for us to rethink how we view LinkedIn …
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When I recently presented in Japan on how the agricultural industry could best utilize social media in a country where Twitter usage is more widespread than the United States yet Facebook was only beginning to grow, I was reminded by my Japanese friend Katsuyo Nakao of something very important that affected my view on how businesses can create and leverage a social media strategy: PDCA. Although I did not use that terminology per se in my speech, she correctly interpreted my advice as aligning social media activities with the PDCA cycle. Let me explain further. I started my career in …
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I’ve worked with a great number of small businesses that I admire, both as social media consulting clients as well as potential customers. I am happy that I have helped several companies get to their next level with regards to their social media marketing, but I also find that many companies that seek my services are looking for social business expertise with a budget that does not place sufficient value on the experience they need. Social marketers have a complex yet unique combination of traits that make them true artists in their field. Are small businesses ready to appreciate the …
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I get a laugh when I read online conversations about people spending hours tweeting and chatting about how to measure “social media influence” as well as the “return on investment” (ROI) from social media. It’s almost as if these people are either 1) having a hard time convincing their clients of why they need to pay for their social marketing services and/or 2) they themselves are trying to figure out a way to “dupe” the system and be seen as more “influential” in the social arena, thinking that there are potential benefits in doing so. I’ve already covered my views …
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Social media marketing (SMM), also sometimes called social network marketing (SNM), is a strategy that helps you build a network of customers and potential customers, stay in touch with those who are interested in your products and services, and ultimately build your bottom line in the form of additional sales. However, many businesses do not know how to build a sound SMM strategy, or they make many mistakes along the way that actually do more harm than good. Here is a look at 6 mistakes you should avoid:
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