Social Media Calendar and Planning for SMBs – Business Objectives? – www.InternetMarketingBestPractices.net
Social-media success is all about being organic and responsive — but you can still benefit by planning ahead. Using an editorial calendar can help ensure you keep hitting your core messages, and help you coordinate your efforts across a range of social-media platforms. "You shouldn't be tweeting and updating entirely in a vacuum" "Organic conversation doesn't work for companies that are trying to achieve specific business objectives."
When I hear about the processes companies are using to engage in social media-based conversations and communities, I’m a bit surprised that many lack any kind of strategy or written plan. While I’m a firm believer in the need for both spontaneity and frequency in social media-enabled communications, I also believe that whenever a company decides to adopt new communications tools, they need to start with the basics of Marketing and Communications 101:- What are your business objectives?
- Who is your audience (target market)?
- What do you hope this communication will help your company achieve?
- How will you measure your efforts?
Once you think through the business basics, the next steps are identifying the right tools to reach the right audience(s) in the right ways, and then determining what your company is going to do once you stick start participating in social networks, on blogs, and in other online communities.
Editorial Calendars for Blogs
My company uses what we refer to as “editorial calendars” for social media engagement, but that term is a bit of a misnomer. The term “editorial calendar” implies that social media communications is then based solely around “editorial” content like magazine articles. Social media editorial calendars are not about planning all of your tweets, status updates on Facebook, etc., but you do need to create some kind of framework that fits into an overall plan for engagement.
For blogs, we always develop an actual editorial calendar that is similar to a magazine editorial calendar. That calendar, however, should never lock the blogger or bloggers into publishing specific posts on specific dates without any flexibility. Blog editorial calendars should be considered strategic planning tools as well as resources for content ideas when there isn’t something topical or time-sensitive that needs to be posted.
Social Media Calendars
You shouldn’t be tweeting and updating entirely in a vacuum. For my company, our social media calendars start with a blog editorial calendar as a starting point. From those specific topics and post references, we then branch out, looking for other people’s tweets or posts that we can reference that are relevant to our client’s focus, objectives, and brand.
To utilize social media tools effectively and properly, you must absolutely generate spontaneous communications in direct response to what others are saying or to what is happening in that moment. Be yourself. Be conversational. Be engaged.
Then, at regular intervals, circle back to your objectives; the audience you want to attract and connect with; and the actions you’d like to drive through your outreach. Are you on track? If you are using social media to encourage others to give you feedback, to take a poll, to refer a friend to your site, to hire you, to purchase a product, whatever your goal or goals may be — is it working? If not, what are you doing wrong?
Social Media Planning
Maybe this sounds a little too formulaic to you. Maybe you see social media as being all about organic conversation. Well, yes, that is exactly what it is, but organic conversation doesn’t work for companies that are trying to achieve specific business objectives. That doesn’t mean that companies shouldn’t be in social networks and online communities if they do things in appropriate, valuable and thoughtful ways.
So be smart about it. Don’t deny that you are a business with business objectives. Be transparent about it. There’s a place for everyone in the playground as long as everyone places nicely. And if you stick to a plan — with a lot of common sense, generosity and kindness thrown in — your company can foster new levels of consumer loyalty from genuine engagement, while still achieving measurable business goals. by Aliza Sherman
How do you plan out your company communications through social media?
Nick Nicholls
my blog >>> www.NickNicholls.commy biz >>> www.InternetMarketingBestPractices.net
my wave >>> nickspace@GoogleWave.com
my email >>> Nick@NickNicholls.net
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5 PR Resolutions for 2010 – PR for Internet Marketing – www.InternetMarketingBestPractices.net
5 PR Resolutions for 2010
This is the week when we all promise to lose weight, spend less, save more and get organized.
So as long as we're making resolutions, how about resolving to make 2010 your best PR year ever?
Here are 5 ways you can take your publicity efforts to the next level without spending a dime:
1) Do Your Homework
Who is most likely to tell your story? Google around and find a reporter who gets you.
If you're a Realtor and want to be quoted as an expert in the paper about home sales, find out who wrote the last article.
Reporters have beats. Chances are, the last journalist to write a story about home sales is the real estate reporter. Search the newspaper's archives online. How often do they write about the housing market? What was their angle? What did they miss? What's new since the last time they wrote about real estate? Have interest rates changed? Are homes in a certain price range moving?
2) Don't be Afraid to Use the Phone
I run into PR professionals all the time who have a fear of the phone. They do all their story pitching to journalists by email.
The problem is, when a journalist ignores your emails, you never get an answer. Was it a bad story idea? Did you pitch the wrong angle? Did the journalist even see your email?
When you're on the phone with a reporter, you get an answer. It may not always be the answer you want, but at least you know whether the journalist is going to do the story or not.
3) Don't Wait for Tomorrow
If you're driving in your car listening to the news and they begin talking about something that you're an expert in, don't wait.
Lawyers know a lot more about the law than the talk show host who's blabbering on and on and urging people to call in with their opinion. Stop talking to yourself and call in. Tell the phone screener that you're a lawyer and that the host is missing the point. I promise you, you'll be moved to the front of the line and the next thing you know, you're on the air getting free publicity for your practice.
4) Start a Facebook and Twitter Page
Even if you're one of those people who still believes that social media is a waste of time, start a page.
Your next generation of customer is Tweeting and posting pictures on Facebook. If you don't join the revolution, you'll look like a dinosaur when those 20-somethings come to your website.
The radio was once center stage, it was replaced by TV. Now the Internet is pushing TV out of the spotlight. Social media isn't a faze people are going through. It's the way people communicate. Get a page. Period.
5) Take Some Chances
Stop spending all your time in the safe zone. Take a chance. Do something to get noticed by the media. You don't have to become a carnival barker. Just pick up the phone and call a reporter.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said "Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door." Well, I'm sorry, Ralphie, that may have been true in the 1800s. But today there are millions of amazing mousetraps that no one will ever know about because the inventor never had the courage to tell anyone. Stop waiting to get discovered.
In fact, in 2010, simply tooting your own horn may not be enough to get noticed anymore, you may just have to start an orchestra! by Jeff Crilley
Nick Nicholls
my blog >>> www.NickNicholls.commy biz >>> www.InternetMarketingBestPractices.net
my wave >>> nickspace@GoogleWave.com
Create a Word-of-Mouth Movement with Social Media – www.InternetMarketingBestPractices.net
You – Me – Us… Keys to Word-of-Mouth Movements in Social Media Marketing
Building great word of mouth means understanding why people talk in the first place, writes Andy Sernovitz. By doing something exceptional, helping people feel good about themselves, or allowing them to feel part of a movement, you can motivate your audience and build momentum for your marketing efforts.
Being great at word of mouth requires knowing what really drives people to talk, and an important lesson is that word of mouth is much more emotional than most marketers realize.
Behind all the opinions, the recommendations, and the reviews are a few core personal motivators that — once you understand them — can start to build your topics around.
Why people talk:
- The “you” reason. This is first and foremost. People talk because you’re creating or doing something worth talking about. Word of mouth only works for great products and great services sold by great people — don’t worry about anything else until you’ve taken care of this.
- The “me” reason. People talk when it makes them feel smart, important, or helpful. When we share recommendations about brands and products, there’s a lot of emotion behind it.
- The “us” reason. This one is all about feeling connected. It’s one of the most powerful human emotions, and whenever you can help your fans better organize themselves, you’re rewarded with real, sustainable word of mouth.
Nick Nicholls
my blog >>> www.NickNicholls.commy biz >>> www.InternetMarketingBestPractices.net
my wave >>> nickspace@GoogleWave.com
2010 Social Network Ad Spending – the Go-To for Marketers – www.InternetMarketingBestPractices.net
Facebook is the go-to destination for marketers
2009 will end with major shifts in social network advertising spending. Facebook, at 350 million users worldwide, is the premier destination for marketers in the US and many worldwide markets. It will surpass its former rival, MySpace, in ad revenues in 2010, when marketers worldwide will spend $605 million on Facebook versus $385 million on MySpace.
“As more marketers incorporate social networks in their business, they will no longer look at them as siloed destinations. Instead, they will look to increase the impact of their social network presence by linking it to other marketing initiatives, both online and offline,” said Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, “Social Network Ad Spending: 2010 Outlook.”
Earned media will be a key theme of social network marketing. Combining social with mobile as well as with local will also yield more advertising opportunities. eMarketer also expects social ad networks to increase in importance.
Overall, eMarketer predicts US online social network ad spending will reach more than $1.21 billion in 2009, an increase of 3.9% over last year. 2010 will see stronger growth of 7.1%.
With total US online ad spending falling this year, the increase in social network spending also means the sites will account for a greater share of the total, at 5.4%.
However, those figures only include paid advertising efforts, which represent just a fraction of all spending.
“When companies budget for social media marketing in 2010 and beyond, a substantial portion of their expenses will go toward creating and maintaining a fan page, managing promotions or public relations outreach within a social network, and measuring the impact of a social network presence on brand health and sales,” noted Ms. Williamson. eMarketing Report
Nick Nicholls
my blog >>> www.NickNicholls.commy biz >>> www.InternetMarketingBestPractices.net
my wave >>> nickspace@GoogleWave.com
Waving Goodbye to 2009 – Google Wave Look Back – www.InternetMarketingBestPractices.net
While there will be a number of decade/year-end wrap-up media, I thought you would enjoy one using Google Wave…
Enjoy! Waving Goodbye to 2009 Nick Nicholls my blog >>> Nick@NickNicholls.commy biz >>> www.InternetMarketingBestPractices.net
my wave >>> nickspace@GoogleWave.com
2010 Social Media Marketing Moves Strategically to Objectives & Metrics – www.InternetMarketingBestPractices.net
Transitioning Social Media Marketing Tactics beyond Trial
As marketers become more comfortable and more experienced using social media, they move from the trial phase of their marketing efforts toward strategic use of the channel. While the largest group of marketers is still somewhere in between, according to the “2010 Social Media Marketing Benchmark Report” from MarketingSherpa, about one-quarter of social media marketers have made it to the strategic phase of their efforts.
Gaining maturity means improving the ability to tie objectives to specific metrics. Marketers in the strategic phase are significantly more likely than those in earlier phases of the process to measure their success across all objectives. An increase in Website traffic was the No. 1 objective targeted and measured by all marketers.
“Defining specific objectives for a social marketing initiative is only half the battle. The other half is aligning those objectives with corresponding metrics,” according to the report. “This alignment is important because it enables an organization to measure its progress in achieving the objectives and proving ROI.”
MarketingSherpa found that retail and e-commerce marketers were more likely than any other industry to be increasing their social media marketing budgets next year, followed by publishing and media. Education and Healthcare lagged, with less than one-half of marketers in the industry planning to up social media spending in 2010.
Most social marketing dollars (60%) next year will go toward staff salaries for activities such as blogging, content development and monitoring of social channels. Another two-fifths will be spent on outside help from agencies, consultancies and service providers.
Nick Nicholls
my blog >>> Nick@NickNicholls.commy biz >>> www.InternetMarketingBestPractices.net
my wave >>> nickspace@GoogleWave.com
Optimize Local Search for Your Business – Local SEO Made Simple – www.InternetMarketingBestPractices.net
Customers are online and using major search engines to find local businesses. Local merchants are online to supplement their advertising strategy. While it used to be enough to take out an ad in the local phone book, now local merchants also have to consider search engine optimization – SEO – and Internet Marketing Best Practices.
Although this seems like an overly complicated strategy for the average mom-and-pop, it’s not. First of all, you don’t even need a website to rank locally (which cuts costs considerably). Secondly, ranking locally is much different than ranking nationally/internationally, meaning that it can be much less competitive and, therefore, much more cost-effective.
The 10 Pack
The most important part of localized search result is “the 10 Pack.” This is the first set of results that appear alongside a Google map whenever you search for a certain kind of local business. Since the 10 Pack can include anywhere form 3-10 results, it monopolizes much of the SERP real-estate above the fold, making it considerably more impactful than the second and third results. You need to get into the 10 Pack. There are both onsite and offsite elements that your business can leverage to rank in the 10 Pack.
Offsite Factors for Local SEO
Because you don’t even need a website to rank in 10 Pack, offsite factors carry a lot of weight in local SEO. These include: verified local business listings, citations and offsite references, local directory listings, customer reviews, and backlinks with the right anchor text.
Search Engine Business Listings: the first thing to do for local SEO is make sure that you have a map listing with the Google Local Business Center. Not only is it free, but anyone can create one. So if you haven’t created one already, check if someone else has. If one already exists, revise it to include the terms you want to rank for. If one does not exist, create one that includes all those key terms.
Citations: it’s also important to have as many offsite references as possible. this includes getting mentioned on community blogs and other local business sites. If there aren’t any offsite references to your business, reach out to the webmaster and find out how to get mentioned. And if you have a site, see if they will link to you. If you don’t have a site, see if they’ll link to your Google Local Business Center.
Local Directory Listings: just because directories like the Yellow Pages aren’t the only game in town anymore, that doesn’t mean that they’re not important. By having a listing in the online editions of these directories, you can increase the odds of ranking in the 10 Pack. Just make sure to place your listing in the right category, otherwise you can end up ranking for terms that aren’t relevant to your services.
Other Verified Listings: although the 3 major search engines all have their own business listings, they also get data from sites such as Acxiom, infoUSA, and Localeze. So you want to get your business info listed with third party sites, as well. Just make sure that your business info is consistent across all sites, because Google can interpret inconsistent listings as different businesses. Some of the more reputable online local directories include:
- DMOZ
- Merchant Circle
- SuperPages
- CitySearch
- Yelp
- InsiderPages
- BizJournals
- AreaConnect
- MagicYellow
- and SwitchBoard
Customer Reviews: once you have a Google Local Business Center listing, you’re going to need reviews. The more reviews you have, the more that Google will see your business as relevant for the keywords you’ve targeted in that review. So reach out to colleagues and customers about leaving such a review. But do not try to write 20 reviews yourself. If Google flags you as spam, there’s a good chance that it’ll hurt your rankings. Google will also pull local business reveiws from all over the web, so reach out to local bloggers and communities about getting reviews there, as well.
Because of the importance of reviews in local search optimization, you should use your site to build trust. First, devise a way to encourage happy customers to generated positive reviews. Second, link to your map listings so that Google has some indication that that listing is relevant to your business. And then, get links from local trust sites, such as the Better Business Bureau and any local chambers of commerce.
Backlinks: finally, whether you’re building links back to your site or your business listing, you want to pay attention to the anchor text of those links. While traditional SEO dictates that you want keyword sensitive anchor text, in local SEO, you want that anchor text to actually be the name of your business.
Onsite Optimization for Local SEO
If you do have a company website, there are also a number of things you can do to help enhance your local SEO efforts. First, make sure that your business name is in all your title tags. Second, having a domain name that includes your business name will also enhance your local ranking.
Finally, have a page that includes the address and telephone number of your business. The info on this page should also be consistent with your other listings on the web. For example, if you have separate phone numbers for tracking purposes, that can hurt your local rankings. So if you can’t avoid having different tracking numbers, try to keep them restricted to pages that you can tell Google not to index, such as PPC landing pages.
Think Global, Act Local
As Google continues to personalize search results, localized data is going to become more and more important. The web is evolving from local users getting worldwide answers to global users getting local answers. This is why local SEO is more about optimizing for locations, and less about optimizing for keywords.
What you should be focusing on to get included in the 10 Pack, then, is having your business info appear in multiple locations, and making sure that that info is consistent. And when building links back to your site or reviews, those backlinks need to have a strong geographic scent. Finally, because local search is about people searching for local answers, customer reviews are very important. So if you have a site, use it to build trust and encourage users to leave reviews.
Many local businesses are still unaware of local SEO. So by optimizing now, you can put yourself in a position to dominate the 10 Pack for years to come. After all, if your site is super relevant today, it’s easier to convince Google that it’s still relevant in several years when it’s still in business, and still serving its community.
Nick Nicholls
www.InternetMarketingBestPractices.net
YouTube Shares to Facebook – Google’s March to Rule Social Media Videos – www.InternetMarketingBestPratices.net
YouTube–which has long encouraged users to blast its videos across other sites–has launched a feature to gather that activity back up.
On Wednesday, the video site started rolling out a feature that shows users videos that their friends have shared on Facebook while they are on YouTube.com in an area called Recent Activity. Previously, the area, visible only to users who log in, displayed videos recommended by a user’s YouTube friends. That meant that for the many users who don’t connect their accounts to the accounts of other YouTube users, it was empty.
Now, users who opt in to the new feature, will see it flooded with YouTube videos being shared by their friends on Facebook, where YouTube says 46 years of YouTube video are being watched a day.
It’s a first step in YouTube’s effort to consolidate all the social sharing of its video back on its site, says Hunter Walk, YouTube’s director of product management. He says he wants YouTube to eventually consolidate YouTube videos being shared on Twitter or through Google’s feed-reading service Google Reader, as well.
Walk says YouTube still wants users to share its videos on other sites and that that activity is good for business. “Our model is to monetize the playback,” he said. “We have always been interested in YouTube playbacks wherever people are.”
But now YouTube was to aggregate all that activity as part of its effort to become “the TV network of the social Web,” he said. “We want to be the best place to answer the question: what should I watch?”
Whether users will come to YouTube to watch videos being shared by their friends on Facebook, rather than just watching them on Facebook, remains to be seen. Walk says they will because YouTube can make it easier to find these videos and show more of them. On Facebook, videos are blended in with the stream of other content users are sharing and Facebook’s algorithms pick what to show users.
Brian Glick, the YouTube product manager in charge of its social features, says helping users discover videos based on their social connections has been a big priority for the company this year. In August, YouTube launched a feature that allows users to share actions they take on YouTube, like commenting or uploading a video, to Twitter, Facebook and Google Reader. Glick says the feature been used by more than a million people. The new service “closes the loop,” he said, by pulling the videos from users’ Facebook feed back to YouTube. by Wallstreet Journal Blogs
Nick Nicholls
www.InternetMarketingBestPractices.net
Is Social Media Right for Your Company? What is the Best Fit? www.InternetMarketingBestPractices.net
How else can I say it… Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably heard of Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn as tools to promote your services and products online. According to a recent survey of 148 private companies by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research, 43% say social media is "very important" to their business and marketing strategy, 52% are tweeting and 45% are blogging.
But don't feel pressured to jump in quickly and create a profile on every site. First, decide if it's right for your company. "Are you a social organization?" says Simon Salt, CEO of integrated marketing communications agency IncSlingers. "Everyone seems to know to have a Facebook page or a Twitter [account]. Is that what your business is about?"
For instance, a Facebook fan page probably doesn't make sense for a business-to-business outfit, says Neal Schaffer, author of "Windmill Networking: Understanding, Leveraging & Maximizing LinkedIn." And companies that target older or retired customers might benefit more from direct-mail campaigns, or even knocks on doors. "Don't believe the hype," Schaffer says. "Understand what fits your business."
If you've decided to incorporate social media, remember that YouTube videos, blog posts and status updates are just a part of your entire marketing arsenal. Here are three best ways to use social media.
![[300twitter]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-FC567_300twi_D_20091216142021.jpg)
1.Stand out by trying less-crowded or up-and-coming social-media sites. Everyone knows about Facebook fan pages. But if you're a neighborhood business that relies on local clientele, you might want to consider Foursquare or Gowalla, which combine elements of other social-networking sites (Twitter, Facebook or Yelp) to help spread word of establishments and provide rewards to encourage customer loyalty. John Jantsch, author of "Duct Tape Marketing," suggests trying underutilized networks that cater to business owners, such as Biznik and BizSugar. If you're strapped for time, at least maintain a blog that provides good content and answers consumer questions, he says. Or create quick, educational YouTube videos that – along with a blog – are more likely to come up higher in keyword searches. Samir Balwani, contributor to social-media news blog Mashable, suggests creating your own social network at Elgg.org.
2.Don't expect instant sales, but make sure to get actual results. Social media is more about brand outreach. Make sure you have a reasonable goal and a well-thought out strategy to achieve that end. First, listen to what is being said about your business and competitors on Google alerts, RSS queries, Twitter, Yelp and BackType. Make sure you have your profile account names on all print communications you distribute, such as flyers and menus. Identify your biggest fans, and figure out how to organize them or point them out in some way. For example: On Twitter, if you know a person is a loyal customer, mention them in a post or announce a free service or product they've won for loyalty. Or reach out to other bloggers in your industry. Sarah Endline, founder of dark chocolate treat maker Sweetriot in New York, said she connected with blog site Hungry Girl and that lead to getting her company's name out and sales.
3. Don't forget social media is a tool to strengthen offline relationships. Many small businesses already have personal ties to customers in their communities, and these tools are designed to enhance those relationships, not replace them. For instance, you can use social-media tools such as YouTube to give customers a behind-the-scenes glimpse of your company, or display more of your personality than you can through an ad. "It also allows you to show your culture," Endline says. "They're not just there to [see] a static promotion from you. They want value." And remember, a social network is "really a big room of people," author Schaffer says. Use it to "meet" potential clients or business partners, but make sure you follow up with an in-person meeting or phone conversation. by Willa Plank
Nick Nicholls
www.InternetMarketingBestPractices.net
Brainstorming Cost-Effective Sales Strategies using Social Media – www.InternetMarketingBestPractices.net
SMBs often have more limited resources, both personnel and budgets, than large companies, so they're looking to build more cost-effective sales streams. With the goals of raising awareness, expanding market share, and improving customer loyalty, it's critical to be creative in how your business engages and participates in the social media arena.
9 Questions to Ask When Developing a Social Media Marketing Strategy
Small and medium-sized businesses tend to be so focused on keeping their businesses going that it can be difficult to brainstorm on ways to leverage the dynamic social media environment. Here are nine questions to help you think about your business in ways that enable you to maximize your social media marketing efforts.
- Does your business tap into people's passions and/or hobbies? With hobbies and special interests, customers may make different spending tradeoffs, particularly with "staycations," where customers look for local activities. From a social media marketing perspective, this translates to ways that people can share their hobbies and special interests using photographs, videos, and blogs. For example, I suggested that a tea purveyor in the SES audience create a Flickr account to show off unusual teapots people collect, and invite the public to participate in this community.
- Can your business show off its work? While this tends to focus on visual portrayals, like photographs and video, it can also include audio and text. Sharing photographs and videos helps businesses where prospects perceive there are high risks. For example, beauty salons and tailors can show before and after photographs. Remember to get patrons' permission or offer a free bonus to incent customers to participate. Flickr contains many bakeries showing off their finished product's visual beauty.
- Can you give prospects information they find useful? Think broadly to help customers use your product. For example, a food specialty shop's blog may describe new foods with recipes and menus to use them. A resale shop can use a blog to show how to make wardrobes and living areas snazzy using its current product.
- Can you extend your expertise to a broader audience? This can work very well for professionals like lawyers and accountants. Leverage videos, presentations, and Webinars giving how-to tips to explain wills or budgeting.
- Does your business provide reasons for people to gather? In a virtually connected world, give people a reason to congregate in person. This may drive additional revenues. Examples include wine tastings for local wine shops and cooking classes for food specialty shops and/or restaurants. Use Meetup.com to organize the community and post comments. Where appropriate, add a Flickr page to gather related photographs.
- Can your business disseminate fun or related information via social media? Think in terms of bite size chunks of content. This information doesn't need to be your business's main focus. For example, a massage therapist can create a Twitter stream and blog for meditations to put people in a more serene state of mind.
- Are there targeted or niche communities where your prospects and customers naturally congregate? If so, set up a group in this social media site. For example, yarn shops participate and socialize on Ravelry, a knitting community.
- Do major blogs cover your business's area of expertise? If so, actively comment and add to the conversation. Offer to create guest posts to share your knowledge and broaden your audience. This means adding real value to the conversation.
- Does your offering lend itself to creating a small online community and/or bulletin board? For example, many religious organizations leverage Yahoo Groups to communicate with members. These interactions can move online and offline. Heidi Cohen
Nick Nicholls
www.InternetMarketingBestPractices.net