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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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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Is marketing dead? No, but it’s definitely changing! Modern marketing is less about convincing and more about educating, and self-employed professionals are best suited to capitalize on the trend. Whether you’re talking about modern marketing in general, online branding or the evolving world of social media, the key to success boils down to your story and how you tell it. Below, you’ll find the top five questions to craft an unfair marketing advantage for your business:
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Wow. It’s hard to believe it’s been 5 weeks since my last blog post. This is the first time in many months that I haven’t blogged for such a long period of time. It isn’t that I didn’t want to blog, as I am always thinking of things to say, but I really needed to use all of my creative time to finish my 2nd social media book, which I hope to be formally announcing next week. Not blogging for such a long time gave me some time to think about what blogging means to me and why I feel …
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I believe that many businesses in 2011 are as confused as ever about how to maximize their social media presence. There are some that are finally looking to take social media seriously this year, while many have had a presence for a year or two but are still trying to determine the ROI of their efforts. Some businesses have been implementing social media for several years, but even they are still trying to figure out how to get more engagement from their followers or perhaps plan new campaigns to try to leverage their social media fan base. The net result …
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Over the last few years blogging has become a recognized marketing tool as a component of a social media strategy. While businesses used to scratch their head as to why they should be fiddling with something that was originally created for individuals, B2B marketing professionals should now realize that a blog can and should play a central role in their content marketing efforts as well as provide the foundation for their social media engagement. B2B blogs are not only showing up within the websites of more companies, they are providing real and measurable success for those that are doing it …
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As we head into 2011, it’s best to take a look back at the top 25 social media marketing blog posts of 2010 and see what we can glean to help us in the new year. Social media is fascinating in that the way we utilize these sites, and the functionality of these sites, is always changing. Therefore, as social media marketers, we always need to be staying ahead of the curve of not only the latest changes in the world of social media, but also what the thought leaders are saying about social media marketing. The algorithm I used …
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February 18, 2011 | Hartford Business Journal e-Marketing and Technology Summit | Hartford, CT – I look forward to presenting at the e-Marketing & Technolgy Summit keynote, hosted by the prestigious Hartford Business Journal, on Social Media Strategy for Business. Those consulting clients of mine, attendees from my previous social media speaking events, as well as blog readers know that I am all about educating and inspiring businesses and professionals on how to leverage social media strategically for a variety of objectives. I will be presenting solely on the topic of Social Media Strategy for Business: Why social media represents …
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I had a chance this week to speak at an event in front of several different local Orange County nonprofit organizations. While nonprofits are beginning to understand the potential for social media engagement, my sense during the meeting was that efforts seemed to be centered around Facebook for the objective of merely gaining awareness for their organization in the community. While utilizing Facebook to help in raising awareness for a nonprofit and its cause is a necessity to any social media strategy for nonprofits, there are many other things that nonprofits can be using social media for. Similarly, there are …
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Yesterday I wrote about how to sell social media to your marketing department, and as a follow-up to that question, I received another email from the same person indicating a big reason why internally their marketing department still doesn’t want to move forward: “After more in-depth discussions it became apparent that the real concern of our marketing department is protecting our “brand name” while employee’s use social media to, essentially further their own careers and successes. I hadn’t looked at it from that perspective but it does present some challenges.” The fear of how one’s employees will use sites such …
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