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Monthly Archives: March 2014

LinkedIn is Retiring the Products and Services tab from Company Pages:

31 Monday Mar 2014

Posted by leonidesignoryblog in LInkedIn

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Changes

What does this mean to you and your clients?

download

What’s changing and what you should expect

We’re constantly evaluating how features are being used and exploring new ways to enhance the content experience on LinkedIn. We do this to ensure that we’re creating a platform where companies can deliver timely, engaging content to our members. Sometimes, this means we need to remove a feature to focus on areas of the product that most benefit both companies and our members.

That’s why, on April 14th, we’ll be removing the Products & Services tab from all Company Pages. In the meantime, you can edit your Products & Services content, but you won’t be able to add new items.

If you have recommendations you would like to keep, you can ask Customer Service to give you a hand.

Where you can share content about your products and services now

You have two alternatives for sharing products and services content that many companies are already using and benefitting from: your company’s updates and Showcase Pages.

Company updates

Here are three reasons to use your company updates for your products and/or services content:

  1. Updates appear on your Company Page and in your followers’ feeds on every device – plus, when followers interact with your updates, your content is shared with their connections, helping your message spread further, faster.
  2. Company updates let you share compelling visual content, including videos that play directly in the feed, and direct members to customized landing pages rather than a one-size-fits-all destination.
  3. The real-time nature of updates makes them perfect for sharing news about your offerings, so your content feels relevant and timely.

Learn more about using company updates >

Showcase Pages

Here are three reasons to use a Showcase Page for your product and/or service content:

  1. Showcase Pages were built for exactly this purpose – to let you highlight a particular brand or product line.
  2. They make it easy to build a dedicated community on LinkedIn and start an ongoing conversation about that product or brand.
  3. Showcase Page followers know to expect news about your product or service – in fact, they’re looking forward to it! And since Showcase Page updates work just like company updates, they offer all of the benefits detailed above.

Plus, members can easily find your Showcase Page through search and your Company Page.

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The social media manager is (almost) dead: 5 tips on how to evolve as a marketer – #MyIndustry

28 Friday Mar 2014

Posted by leonidesignoryblog in Bloging, Facebook, Google+, LInkedIn, Marketing, Multi Channel Marketing, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube

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Best Practices, Community Management, MOBILE SOCIAL NETWORKING, Strategy, Trending

This is an amazingly insightful article about a subject that it near and dear to my heart (for obvious reasons) and some not so obvious reason. I love to learn new thing, I always have. In fact I have had to practice quite a bit of restraint, and condition myself to not chase after every new trend and tool. Having said that I do agree, completely with Kelvin’s assessment of the Social Media Marketers landscape.  In a nut shell, evolve or die.

social-media-confusion1

Almost three years ago, right after university, I talked to an awesome HR professional about my career prospects. While she gave me a lot of great info that day, one thing that stuck to me was her advice not to pursue positions that are only about social media. Her reasoning was that more and more marketing and business professionals were learning social—meaning, the need for professionals who specialized in this space was about to decrease.

Persuaded by this reasoning, I avoided roles such as “Social Media Manager” and even “Community Manager.” I ended up with a position in PR, which had some elements of social but mostly included media relations.

Fast forward to last year and I’ve decided to leave the world of PR to take on a social media role. The thing is, I liked PR—and quite frankly, I excelled at it—but it wasn’t my number one passion.

Last year, Hootsuite’s Ryan Holmes proclaimed the role of social media manager dead. He cited a study that found that the growth in positions with the title “social media manager” has slowed down by 50% between 2012 and 2013.

Reading Ryan’s blog post—and now that I’m fully entrenched in social media management—I can’t help but re-visit that HR person’s advice. What if she was right and my current role becomes obsolete soon? What can I do now as a social media manager to make sure that I’m still in demand in the future?

After thinking about this, I’ve come to a simple conclusion: To remain relevant and employable, I have to evolve from a social media specialist to a marketing leader.

I brainstormed a few ways social media managers can make the transition successfully. If you work in social media and want to thrive in your career in marketing, here are some tips to keep in mind:

1. Acquire new (but related) marketing skills.

Content marketing has been hot for a couple of years now—and for good reason. Many marketers are learning that providing true value through content is a great way of increasing brand awareness and turning prospects into leads. Influencer marketing is another trend that will likely grow in the next year or so.

The point is, there will always be something new in marketing. Learn these trends because some of them will stick.

You also want to acquire older—but still very essential—marketing stills. The lessons I’ve learned in PR in my previous role are applicable to influencer marketing, for example. My basic SEO knowledge helps me drive organic traffic to our company blog. Email is still very hot, and learning MailChimp and other similar systems is a good skill to have.

Keep learning. Take some time everyday to peruse blog posts, to try new apps and networks, and to get your hands on new technology. Embrace your inner geek. Readinsights from creative and successful business leaders.

We have a lot of opportunity to keep on building on our hard skills. If numbers isn’t your thing, something like Analytics Academy, a program provided by Google Analytics, is a good option

By diversifying our skills and acquiring new ones, we can ensure that our marketing skills are up-to-date and relevant.

2. Become the customer advocate in the marketing team.

In an IBM C-suite study, 55% of CEOs said that customers have influence on a company’s strategic vision and business strategy. Executives are waking up to the fact that they need to involve their customers in every business process.

So how does this relate to you? Social media managers fundamentally understand the value of listening to and engaging customers. Together with the folks at customer insights, we’re in a good position now to be the customer experts in the marketing team.

Use social media to capture trends that will affect your company’s future. Trends like the Internet of Things, wearable tech, the collaborative or sharing economy, and big data have the potential to disrupt many industries. Listen on social to determine how these trends might affect your industry, and then share what you know to your CMO and the rest of your marketing team.

By becoming customer-centric, we do not only demonstrate the true ROI of social media—we’re also positioning ourselves as experts in the organization, which might help when we make career moves in the future.

3. Write—and then write some more.

Marketers require great writing skills, and they will continue to do so in the future. If you’d like to stay in the marketing field, learn how to organize your thoughts and to write well. From blog posts to emails, from landing pages to ebooks, writing has a lot of practical marketing applications.

Whatever is the next hot trend in marketing, you can bet that your writing skills will be required. So if you’re already blogging, keep on doing that, and find a way to improve your craft.

If you’re not blogging yet, now’s the time to do so. I have some tips in the embedded Slideshare. Get writing!

How to rock blogging: The beginner's guide from Kelvin (KC) Claveria

4. Learn how to market to the entire sales funnel.

Let’s face it: most (if not all) social media efforts help with top-of-the-funnel stuff. But many CMOs are looking for people who understand the entire sales process. Those who can drive prospects from awareness to information and evaluation are a lot more valuable to brands. You can provide more business value if you know how your skills can contribute to the entire funnel.

5. Build your online reputation.

Here’s the thing: The more real influence you have—and the stronger relationships you have with people—the less likely you’ll ever be unemployed. As social media nerds, we are experts at building communities for brands. The same marketing skills that allow us to build brands can also help us build our own personal brand.

Don’t wait until you’re in need of a job to start enhancing your online presence. Use LinkedIn to its full advantage. (Some tips in the embedded presentation.) Build your Twitter following (and always keep your eye out for possible future employers). Maintain a credible blog that provides real value and that communicates your expertise.

The social media manager will not die quickly

As long as people use social networks, it’s unlikely that social media managers will completely go away. Yes, social is “part of everyone’s job, or soon will be,” but businesses (particularly enterprises) will need specialists who will keep up with the ever-evolving social media landscape.

Given that social media is still expanding and continues to evolve, it will probably take years before our position becomes 100% obsolete. But just like any other roles, social media managers like myself need to evolve—and the time to evolve is now.

Brands need us: after all, most of us understand the value of engaging customers, and we know how to communicate with people using digital technologies. To prepare for the future—and to bring even more value to our employers and/or clients—let’s also make sure that we’re acquiring the skills that businesses need tomorrow.

P.S. I wrote this article as part of the LinkedIn’s #MyIndustry campaign. For more social media rants, I invite you to read my marketing blog. If you have any comments on this post, please tweet me @kcclaveria.

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11 Indispensable Google Terms Every Advertiser Should Know

12 Wednesday Mar 2014

Posted by leonidesignoryblog in Uncategorized

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Social Media

Google Search Glossary

Google Product Listing Ads

Product Listing Ads (PLAs): Product Listing Adsare paid display ads within Google search. These ads are managed within AdWords and charge a CPC rate. Following Google’s recent Shopping Campaigns PLA update, you may also hear PLAs referred to as Google Shopping campaigns.

More on PLAs– Learn more about what product Listing Ads are, and how to manage them here.

More on Shopping Campaigns– For details on Google Shopping Campaigns, check out this PLA tutorial.

Google Shopping: Google Shopping is a comparison shopping site within the Google network. PLAs are the display ads on Google Shopping, but can also be referred to as Google Shopping ads or simply Google Shopping.

*Google Shopping, PLA, and Product Listing Ads will be often be referred to interchangeably.

Google Paid Ads: Google ads are ads Ads which merchants pay a cost per click (CPC) for each time they are click on in search.

Ad Group: Google ad groups are  one or more products that you have segmented into an ad through AdWords. You can have an ad group with one SKU, or an ad group which contains all of your products. Merchants create ad groups for PLAs based on product information.

Product group: A product group is just another way to say ad group, and is a term associated with the new PLA campaign structure.

AdWords Ads: Product Listing Ads are managed within the AdWords login, but there is a different type of Google ad which you also manage there, and appears on Google search. AdWords ads are text ads which are PPC, use the Google data feed and managed through AdWords, but do not feature images or appear in Google Shopping page major results.

Display Ad: Ads which feature a product or merchant image.

Paid Ad: Ads which merchants are charged for.

Google Trusted Stores: Google Trusted Stores is a review system on Google search, which allows merchants to develop trust ratings and display a trust badge to increase conversions.

Google Organic Search Results- These are the unpaid search results on Google Shopping. Organic results appear below paid ads, and are determined by Google’s relevancy algorithm. Fewer of these results are appearing over time as they get crowded out by PLAs and other sponsored ads.

SERP (Search Engine Result Page)- SERP is a common abbreviation for a Google result page.

Google-PLAs

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The Ultimate Prize: Better Leads from your Facebook Sweepstakes [Guest Post]

12 Wednesday Mar 2014

Posted by leonidesignoryblog in Facebook

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Facebook, facebook page insights bug, Marketing, Social Media Marketing, social media tools

facebook

To design and structure a Facebook sweepstakes that actually captures high quality leads, while generating positive sentiment and customer goodwill, you’ll need to advertise to the right audience, collect sufficient data on your entry form and give away a relevant prize. There are two main things to keep in mind:

1. Be Strategic About the Prize

If you want to qualify leads, you can pretty much forget prizes such as iPads and big screen televisions. In fact, if you think the prize you’ve chosen could make the sweepstakes go viral to a mass audience, avoid it!

What’s the matter with those prizes? It’s truly the fact that everyone wants them.

Even when you diligently target your sweepstakes ads to your ideal customer, people may share the sweepstakes with their friends which can introduce a lot of random entries in the sweepstakes. Then, when the sweepstakes is over, you have names, email addresses and other data but you still don’t know who wants your specific products and services. At that point, the audience you started advertising to may be more relevant than the audience you finish with. Who doesn’t want a free iPad or television?

For example, consider a spa that hires SalesBlend to run a sweepstakes and give away an iPad. We establish with the owner that we’ll advertise exclusively on Facebook to women 18+ in the interest category “Beauty” who live within 50 miles of San Diego where the spa is located. We use a fan-gated ShortStack app to get Likes and collect all the necessary data. When the sweepstakes is over, we tally 3,000 Likes and 500 email addresses in 30 days. The spa owner says “Wow!”

The numbers look good. But what should we name the new email list of sweepstakes entrants? Perhaps, “Anyone who wants to win an iPad enough to Like the spa’s Page and give up their email address.”

Is there really any reason to prefer marketing to the entrants than the women who didn’t enter the sweepstakes?

What if this list includes some of the women who didn’t enter?

• Women who spend $500 per month on spa treatment who already have an iPad

• Women who have some type of tablet already

• Women who can easily afford an iPad but are satisfied with their iPhone and laptop

• Women with lots of money but not a lot of time for sweepstakes

• Women who were reached but didn’t really see the ads or pay enough attention to them

• Women who were possibly biased against entering sweepstakes

• Women who didn’t properly estimate the chance of winning

• Women who didn’t recognize how attractive the prize was or the impact it could make in their lives

• Women who saw the ad but got distracted before entering the sweepstakes

Now let’s say that the prize is a sea salt exfoliating spa package which includes 30 guaranteed minutes of peace where a foot massage combines with cucumber slices on each eye and rainforest music. It’s a high margin offer that people already love and recommend consistently on Facebook and Yelp. It gives the winner a chance to experience the best the spa has to offer. In general, the spa has found that people who try the sea salt exfoliating spa package return to the spa 38 percent of the time within the following month.

I’m not saying everyone valuable will enter, but can you see how the act of someone entering a sweepstakes with this prize allows for the creation of a valuable business segment? Let’s title this segment “People who want the sea salt exfoliating spa package, have the means to get to the spa and the time to enjoy it.”

2. Collect Sufficient Data with Your Sweepstakes Entry Form

What can the specific behavior–entry into the sweepstakes—tell you about the sweepstakes entrant?

When people enter a sweepstakes, they know they will need to provide accurate contact information so they can be contacted if they win the prize. Adding one or more additional fields on your entry form can provide you with information that would otherwise be expensive to collect through traditional market research. Want to send all entrants a 20 percent off coupon for the exact same spa package on their next birthday? Ask for their date of birth on the entry form now.

Entering a sweepstakes is like clicking a “WANT” button

With careful prize selection, ad targeting and form structure, after the sweepstakes is over, you’ll know who in your target market wants your product. But remember, so far they’ve only said they wanted it when you were offering it for free to a lucky winner. Now you need to figure out what everyone’s actually willing to pay for it. It’s time to get strategic with your Facebook ads, email marketing and other promotions.

Sweepstakes help qualify leads because they can let you know who wants the specific product being offered as the prize. Therefore, entry in a sweepstakes can be a buying signal. It can also suggest there may be interest in purchasing similar products or each component in the prize.

In the case of the spa, we could try offering the past sweepstakes entrants other spa packages, stand-alone foot massages and stand-alone cucumber eye treatments. Possibly, they could even see a surge of rainforest music CD sales at the counter.

Every time SalesBlend has used ShortStack’s fan-gated apps, our clients have seen significant increases in Likes, engagement, email addresses and—they’ve received the ultimate prize: behavioral information that improves lead quality.

When you host Facebook contests how do you collect leads? Anything you’d add to this list?

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11 Tips To Double Your Twitter Followers

12 Wednesday Mar 2014

Posted by leonidesignoryblog in Twitter

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MOBILE SOCIAL NETWORKING, Social Media, Trending, Twitter

Twitter plays by its own rules.

Twitter

It has kept it’s 140 character limit despite the jokes , the pressure to change by many of its followers and the demands to be more like Facebook or Google+.

It is is misunderstood by many people who throw stones at it from the sidelines. Despite the knockers it has kept true to its initial design and constraints that don’t seem to fit it into an online world that is about bigger being better.

This succinct reporting has made it the channel of choice for breaking news. Twitter is now often seen popping up on the television screen as viewers interact with a show. The character limitation demands means it lends itself to one liners that are often humorous, pithy and sharp.

11 Tips To Double Your Twitter Followers image How to double your twitter followers

Twitter has enhanced the art of comedy and the throw away quip.

Why should you bother increasing your Twitter followers?

Increasing your Twitter followers does have some distinct benefits for business and brands. Here are three worth mentioning

  1. It increases brand awareness. What business doesn’t want that.
  2. Distributes your content wider and faster. This can improve link building to your website and hence improving your organic SEO
  3. Drive traffic to tyour blog or website. This can lead to more leads generation and sales.

So how do you double your Twitter followers?

The average Twitter account has a 126 followers and has tweeted 307 times. Doubling that number isn’t hard if you implement some of the following tips. And you can do much better than that if you apply a little focus and discipline.

  • Make sure your profile and “Bio” (which is limited to 160 characters) is to the point and attracts followers in your niche. Check out Hilary Clinton’s Twitter Bio in the infographic below.
  • Tweet more often. Those with 15,000 plus tweets have between 100,000 to 1 million followers
  • Use hashtags. This will expand your tweet visibility
  • Schedule and automate tweets with tools like Hootsuite and Socialoomph.com
  • Follow people in your niche or industry. Especially those with substantial numbers of followers on Twitter.
  • Retweet the content of influencers and let them know with the @mention
  • Join in Twitter chats or start one of your own a regular basis
  • Find new followers that share your interests by using tools like Tweepi
  • Twitter is not an inbox but a stream so you need to keep your followers engaged by tweeting valuable content for your target audience
  • Learn from the best. Check out Anton Perlkvist does it with @Fun and @Googlefacts
  • Promote your Twitter account “everywhere

For some more tips check out the infographic.

11 Tips To Double Your Twitter Followers image double your twitter followers in just 5 minutes per day 52fb0fb6ca464 w600

Source: WhoIsHostingThis? on Visually

What about you?

How do you use Twitter? Is it still an enigma? What have you found to be an effective tactic to gain more Twitter followers?

Look forward to your insights and stories in the comments below. Want to learn how to make your blog and content contagious and increase your Twitter followers?

My book – “Blogging the Smart Way – How to Create and Market a Killer Blog with Social Media” – will show you how.

It is now available to download. I show you how to create and build a blog that rocks and grow tribes, fans and followers on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It also includes dozens of tips to create contagious content that begs to be shared and tempts people to link to your website and blog.

I also reveal the tactics I used to grow my Twitter followers to over 223,000.

Download and read it now.

Author:Jeff Bullas     Jeff Bullas RSS Feed View full profile This article originally appeared on Jeffbullas’s Blog and has been republished with permission.

Find out how to syndicate your content with Business 2 Community.Read more at http://www.business2community.com/twitter/11-tips-double-twitter-followers-0803260#ir7KjIsha6x2z2iT.99

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Why Social Signals Will Shape The Future

10 Monday Mar 2014

Posted by leonidesignoryblog in Uncategorized

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Best Practices, Blogging, Marketing, MOBILE SOCIAL NETWORKING

You don’t have to look far to find articles extolling the virtues of social signals and their growing importance. Why should you be interested and what benefits can social signals deliver for your SEO and marketing?

Dustin Stout recently defined a social signal as:

“visible activity or actions taken by other people”

Typically on the internet social signals mean the amount of shares, likes or plus ones content receives or the number of followers a person has.

Why the interest in social signals?

Growth in social networks has led to a new form of content sharing. Previously people had to share links on their website or in forums. Now people can share easily by using share buttons and through social networks such as Twitter. They can effectively share content by simply liking it or giving it a plus one.

The interest in social signals is increasing because they can deliver SEO benefits; enhance brand awareness; and build trust and credibility.

SEO benefits

Eric Enge has pointed out that with the new Hummingbird algorithm:

“Google now has the infrastructure to better process social signals.”

Eric argues that Google previously had technical issues which limited the use of social signals as a ranking factor. However, he believes that while Google may not use social signals now they do intend to use them in the future. Even if they are not ranking factors at the current time social shares create inbound links and can deliver SEO benefits.

There is a debate about how much weight or impact social sharing should carry in SEO terms. A social share such as a Facebook like doesn’t require as much commitment as say placing a link on a website and hence there is a case to say it should carry less weight. There is also an argument that a share by someone who is an acknowledged expert in a topic area should count for more than a share by someone who is not an expert or has not authority in a topic area. There is evidence that Google is interested in the quality of authors and author rank which would allow it to give weight to social signals in the future.

There does appear to be a consensus that social signals will play a more important role in SEO in the future. Jayson DeMers recently posted an article about social signals and SEO on the MOZ blog where he stated:

“I do believe that direct and indirect impacts of social signals will eventually surpass links as the most valuable ranking factor.”

Brand awareness

The social sharing of content brings brand awareness benefits regardless of any SEO benefit. The original content gets amplified by sharing and will reach a much larger audience. This extended reach will in itself be beneficial.

Trust and credibility

Social signals are a human intervention which can act as an endorsement or recommendation. A social share may be accompanied by positive comments. Even though these recommendations may be from strangers, there is evidence that people trust such recommendations more than they do search engine results or ads.

The latest Neilson survey data on trust in various sources of buyer information found that the top three most trusted sources of information (% completely or somewhat trusting) were as follows:

Why Social Signals Will Shape The Future image KjkbbfAp0Ao40xwH3ZSllNwOzlcEX7bV9zmUtuAmpDX3j8fJmcx 6unN7a1 rkCS6EhYvQt DF2vyaVAemos0F10e D5IXmHOZqYh0dw8uZdmjCA36cM8DSpdQ

Thus people trust social signals even though they may be from strangers. Dustin Stout sums up the trust issue as follows:

“Higher social signals illicit a higher level of authority, trust, and shareability. People trust what other people have trusted, and are more likely to share something that other people have shared. Period.”

Check and improve your social signals

At BuzzSumo we recognise that social signals will be increasingly important in the future.

You can use the BuzzSumo app to gain insights into the social signals in your area and improve your performance. You can:

  • search for the most shared content in your topic area
  • enter your domain to see what content on your site is being shared the most
  • see how your social signals compare to your competitors
  • see which influencers amplify social sharing
 

Author:Steve Rayson     Steve Rayson RSS Feed View full profile This article originally appeared on BuzzSumo Blog and has been republished with permission.Find out how to syndicate your content with Business 2 Community.Read more at http://www.business2community.com/social-data/social-signals-will-shape-future-0808378#z3fBaYpVb8tQdqDb.99

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How Much Does Marketing Cost?

09 Sunday Mar 2014

Posted by leonidesignoryblog in Content Marketing, Multi Channel Marketing, Uncategorized

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Advertising, Marketing, Marketing Cost, Marketing Plans, Metrics, Online Marketing

This is a question that stumps those who are just going into business for themselves more often then not. I know that this does not directly relate to Social Media Marketing, however I thought it was a subject important enough to cover anyway…

I just reviewed an RFP for marketing services. It was a very detailed, well written RFP. And the client was asking for everything. Which is not a problem. Unless you have a limited budget.

Do you know how much marketing costs? How much should it cost? What should you pay for good advice when it comes to your marketing strategy?

I’ll try to unpack the answers to this complex question below. My answers lead to a few more questions, which I’ll have to address in future posts. Read on, and let me know what you think…

How much is a marketing plan?

Just the term “marketing plan” can mean a lot of things to a lot of different people. Are you looking for a complete, strategic marketing plan, or do you just need a tactical plan or roadmap to guide your marketing programs for the next few months?

I know an independent consultant (not me) who charged a start-up $25,000 for a full-blown marketing plan. Did they pay too much? Maybe. That all depends on the results.

If you’re shopping for a marketing plan, consider this before opening your checkbook:

What do you hope to achieve with the plan?

Do you need help identifying the right customers, streamlining your product plans and developing competitive strategies? If so, you need someone who specializes in marketing strategy. Look for a consultant who has executive-level marketing experience that relates to your market or industry.

Expect to pay a few thousand dollars ($2,500-$15,000) for a project that will take several weeks or a few months. Plan to be actively involved, providing access to company and customer information and your business strategy. This effort may include customer research, competitive analysis and exploration of things like your sales process, customer relationships and technical capabilities.

Did you have something more basic in mind? Maybe you need help promoting an upcoming seminar, or launching a new service offering. In that case, a tactical plan is more in line with your needs. In fact, you may not even need a formal, plan document. Instead, a solid project plan with budget, timelines and deliverables may be enough.

You can engage a professional marketing consultant for this work,  hire a freelance marketer or call on your agency for assistance. Depending on the scope of your project, an actionable marketing plan like this may run from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars ($750 – $5,000), excluding implementation.

You want me to pay for that?

Don’t be surprised when the consultant or freelancer includes things like a marketing assessment, brand audit or competitive research in their proposal. Understanding the market environment you’re working in is critical to providing sound advice. Scrimp on the foundation, and your strategy will be shaky.

It pays to invest up front so your marketing partners have a strong base of knowledge about your business. This will actually save you money in the long run. A consultant that knows your business will be able to quickly spot trouble areas you might miss, helping you find solutions before you even realize there’s a problem brewing.

Other things that are worth paying for? Professional copywriting, skilled design, SEO analysis and customer feedback, to name a few.

What does a website cost?

This is a common question. I remember paying upwards of $50,000 for web work back in the mid-’90s, knowing I was getting a good deal. Thankfully, technology has become much more accessible, and the availability of exceptional web designers has expanded. (Of course, so has the number if not-so-qualified resources, so be careful.)

The price you pay for a website will depend on a number of factors. You can make your own for free if you’re really stretched, or have a small shop create a simple site based on WordPress to get you going. In fact, WordPress is a pretty powerful CMS (content management system) and many companies are moving to the platform as a viable option for easy to use, highly manageable websites.

Pricing for a basic site will start as low as $1995 and may reach $25,000 depending on size, design and functionality. Add more complexity, and you could be up to $30,000 or more.

What makes the price go up? Adding capabilities like these will cost extra:

  • An ecommerce shopping cart so you can sell merchandise or digital downloads online. From freeware like Zen Cart to more sophisticated solutions, getting the right people to work on your ecommerce capabilities can save a lot of headaches.
  • User interface design, UI or UX (user experience), focuses on the usability of your site and the ability of visitors to complete desired actions. If the objective of your site is to provide shopping, search or membership features, an investment in UX work can pay huge dividends in higher conversion rates and more engaged users.
  • Custom coding, like a specialized database application, image galleries, or recommendation engine. Thankfully, lots of these items have been packaged up as plug-in or third-party solutions that can be added to your site. However, there is a cost for integrating things like live chat, customer reviews and video capabilities.
  • Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – While you might think that web designers are experts at SEO, the fact is that most are not (just as many are not well versed in UX). You may need a separate SEO expert to work on your site, ideally partnering with your web team to build in search-friendly structure from the start. Ongoing SEO support starts about $2500/month and goes up, depending on the size and complexity of your site.

Isn’t social media free?

Sure, you can sign up for Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and hundreds of other social media sites for free. But what is your time worth? As a business professional, you can easily step into social media quicksand if you are not careful about how you manage your time and social media presence.

Here are a few areas where you may want to hire social media help:

  • Social Media Strategy – What are your goals? Where will you invest your time on social media? What is your message? How can you monetize your social media efforts? Are you looking for a hard or soft return on investment (ROI)? A social media strategist can work with you to address these questions and formulate a plan that works for your business. The cost? Usually $500 and up.
  • Social Media Policies – Once you have a plan in place, you need to establish social media policies. These are guidelines for your staff that cover appropriate use, showing employees where they are empowered in social channels, and where they need to exercise caution. Well written policies can be priceless, so its worth investing $250 or more to have your own custom policy created.
  • Social Communications Calendar – When do you post on your bog? What goes on Facebook? How often should you tweet? What do you say? A communications calendar can help you plan social media content that aligns with your strategy, enabling staff to express your messages in the right way at the right time. Monthly management of your social communications plan may run $500/month or more.
  • Outsourced Engagement – Hiring someone to tweet and post on your behalf may sound good, but this is one area I advise clients to be cautious about. There are many risks if you outsource the voice of your business, and the cost to your reputation can be high when things go wrong. With that in mind, if you choose to outsource your tweeting, posting and blogging, hire someone you can work closely with to collaborate on plans and create content. You’ll pay upwards of $50/hour or $500+ a month.

Should I bring it in house?

Based on the prices listed above, you might be thinking that it’s smarter to hire staff to handle your marketing. This is a “yes and no” answer. For things like social engagement (tweeting, Facebook, blogging) I do recommend in house resources. No one knows your business like an employee and this is an area where tight control over content can be essential.

On the other hand, for things like strategy you are probably better off with an experienced consultant. Even if you have a marketing VP or CMO, the insight provided by an expert who brings a broader perspective can help alleviate what I call “marketing myopia.” You might just be too close to the situation to see everything you need to consider.

In these cases, a consultant can help you assess the market environment and plan strategies for success that your team can implement. If you need some additional assistance, hiring a virtual CMO or a contract marketer for a few months can provide the jump-start you need to accelerate your growth.

It’s cheaper to do it myself

DIY is a terrible malady. It can be a chronic disease for entrepreneurs. I know, I suffer from it myself. Whether you’re just starting a business or you’re simply trying to squeeze the most from every penny, it’s easy to think, “that’s easy, I can do it.” And you can. But will the results really be what your business deserves?

Do It Yourself marketing is often slow and slightly off target. It may be good, but usually it’s not great. And it comes with a huge opportunity cost. What would you be doing if you weren’t trying to figure out how to get your site to the top of the search engine rankings? Maybe you’d be closing new business or working on a new product idea.

Instead, there you are pulling your hair out, trying to do something you know you can do, but probably shouldn’t. Think about it…

If you loved writing copy, you would have been a copywriter.

If you were passionate about market research, you would have chosen that field.

And you would have been damn good, I’m sure.

But you didn’t.

So hire someone that did and reap the rewards of their passion and expertise. Then get back to running your business, which is what you do best, right?

Still stuck on the cost? Think about the value of your business. What will it take to realize the ROI of that project? Often, it’s as little as one new customer. Keep your perspective and spend strategically.

– See more at: http://www.joeysargent.com/2011/06/how-much-does-marketing-cost/#sthash.t63YhEi1.dpuf

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How to reach your customers through a mobile app

06 Thursday Mar 2014

Posted by leonidesignoryblog in Best Practices, Content Marketing, Marketing, mobile app marketing, Mobile Web

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Best Practices, mobile marketing, MOBILE SOCIAL NETWORKING, Social Media, social media tools

Spreading your business in a tough economic environment is never easy. Being a business owner one has to deal with multiple tasks like keeping up with products, services, and competition, besides maintaining a two-way communication with customers. Current trends indicate that users are increasingly going mobile and one of the best ways to connect with them is through mobile apps.

mobile apps

A report by Flurry suggests that consumers are spending more time on mobile apps than on the web. Flurry found that in June, consumers spent 81 minutes per day using mobile apps, compared to 74 minutes of web surfing. The shift comes because of a large number of users purchasing smartphones and tablets. Similarly, a February 2012 Forrester research entitled, “Mobile Marketing: Three Principles for Success,” said the number of consumers researching products for purchase using their mobile device has nearly doubled from last year. This indeed makes a mobile marketing strategy crucial for any interactive marketer.

Organizations of all sizes and nature are now embracing the revolution called mobile apps. A clear and intuitive app, designed intelligently, can do wonders for a company if the approach is correct. Here are some ways that you need to keep in mind while delivering a powerful app experience that could be a game changer for your business.

Connect your customers to remarkable content and mobile experience

Today, no consumer business can ignore the potential of reaching out to customers through mobile applications for customer service, marketing and now payments. But before you start, you need to remember that great user experiences doesn’t just happen overnight. It takes a conscious effort throughout every stage of the design and development process to get it right.

Guidelines 

• Prioritize and present core features of your app. For a pizza chain like Domino’s, which already has apps on both iOS and Android, it could be convenience and delivery. The Domino’s Pizza app allows you to place an order for delivery or carry-out. You can also choose to select from its specialty pizzas or build your own. A striking feature of the app is the pizza tracker, which allows users to check whether your order is in the delivery process or not.

• You can opt for geo-location feature. The feature provides a rich experience to a user since it gives relevant data based on your location. One such example is Shopkick, an advanced geo-location social shopping application. A recent survey of 5,000 Android and iPhone users conducted by consumer insight group Nielsen, placed Shopkick at top of the list in the category that engages shoppers the longest, being used by consumers for three hours on average. Shopkick is a free location-based rewards application that offers its users “kickbucks” (rewards) when they check-in at participating businesses, and when they scan the barcodes on specific products. These kickbucks can be redeemed for restaurant vouchers, retail gift cards, movie tickets, and more.

• Make sure that your app contains all the features relevant to your category (retail, shopping, productivity, location-planning, paperless ticketing, music, games, etc.)

• Besides functionality, you also have to focus on providing the right type of content to your users. Apple’s own User Interface Guidelines suggest that to make an app that people will care about, one need to focus on content. For this you need to first draft a statement of intent for your content. Identify how will your content promote your business objectives and meet the customer needs. Remember the objective of this exercise is to demonstrate to your audience why you matter.

(Read: 7 pre-launch tips to deliver a successful mobile app)

 Integrate your app seamlessly with social networks 

Social media Integration on your mobile app is a good way to help users interact with social networks. Besides Facebook and Twitter, there are other options too like Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram and Flickr, that can improve engagement with your existing and potential customers. Here’s how social media can help you in increasing brand loyalty:

– Identify customer needs and engage them through social media marketing contests, surveys, and opinion polls

– Use feedback to gain insight and improve performance

– Encourage customers to share their experience on the company website

Grilling app, iGrill, is a good example of winning combination of mobile apps and social media. The app recently rose to limelight when Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, praised the app on his Facebook page saying, “I updated my grilling app, iGrill, today and it now has Facebook integration that lets you see what other people are grilling right now around the world. Awesome. I’m making a Fred’s steak.”

Also, if you want to run a social media contest to promote your app, make sure you market your campaign or contest across multiple platforms like: social media accounts, your website, your partners, all of your e-mail list, related forums, etc.

(Read: Learn more about how to launch your app effectively here)

Build buzz around your new product or event 

A mobile app is probably one of the best ways to inform your customers about new products and services that you have already launched or about to launch in the market. In this era of cut-throat competition, a key element of an effective marketing strategy is to create the buzz around your product. Offering users discounts and offers will prompt them to visit you more often and spread the good word as well.

Make sure you customers can find your app easily 

No doubt an app is a wonderful way to connect with your customers, but the idea won’t work unless it is visible to masses. The usual trend is that developers only submit their app to their respective marketplace. To make it more visible you can create a dedicated website, build a splash page, Facebook fan page, Twitter account, get a blog, do a sneak peak, or create teaser videos. For further assistance on mobile app marketing, you can contact us.

– See more at: http://blog.kiwitech.com/?p=1800#sthash.QL7onImF.dpuf

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How To Market A Social Media Contest:

06 Thursday Mar 2014

Posted by leonidesignoryblog in Best Practices, Facebook, Google+, LInkedIn, Marketing, Multi Channel Marketing, Online Marketing, Pinterest, Twitter

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Best Practices, contests, Facebook, Marketing, MOBILE SOCIAL NETWORKING, Online Marketing, sweepstakes

Social media contests are a great way to connect with consumers in the ever evolving web. Social networks are natural venues for users to share information quickly. Since I am a big fan of giving real world examples whenever I explain a specific tactic, I wanted to highlight a contest I found recently. I’ll walk you through how I would go about promoting it and how I might actually do it differently.

I would like to point out a few things here about this contest – first of all, they are not a client of Ignite Social Media and secondly, I don’t know what they’ve done to promote it so far.

Beneful Most Incredible Small Dog YouTube Video Contest

Before I get into promotion tactics I have to point out something that is extremely important, but that a lot of companies don’t do well.

Put Appropriate Keywords In Your Contest Name

If you implement a contest properly, people will be linking to your site. 9/10 times people will use your contest title as the anchor text, so make sure you take advantage of a well-thought-out contest title before you even start thinking about promotion.

In this example I would have used the following contest title:  Beneful Dog Food YouTube Video Contest. Ranking for “Incredible Small Dog” is probably not going to amount to many sales of the Beneful dog food product line.

Host The Contest On Your Site

 

For the Small Dog Video Contest  we are dealing with YouTube as the means for entry. As someone who understands the power of search, I am never a fan of hosting linkable assets off of my main site. It is also worth pointing that hosting a custom channel like they have rolled out on Youtube is not cheap.  More often than not contests are very linkable. As I will outline later on it is relatively easy to drum up some press for your contest, and more than likely they will link to the destination of the contest, where it is hosted on your site.

I suggest hosting the contest on your site, and leveraging tags to aggregate YouTube videos.

That way, contestants are still using YouTube, which is widely established as the de facto video hosting source, and people are familiar with the interface.

Find People To Enter The Contest

Now that I have those two main issues out of the way, let’s explore how one might actually promote the contest. This can be the toughest aspect of contest marketing in my opinion, especially because videos have a high barrier of entry. That’s because videos are not easy to make and share when compared to other forms of online content creation.

Using the example above, we can utilize custom search queries inside of Google to help us identify dog owners who have channels on YouTube. This will help us target individuals who we know have created dog videos in the past. Then through some additional social searching we can identify some form of outreach, whether that is via email or other means, to let them know about the contest.

Submit Your Contest To Social Media Contest Sites

There are several well-known and emerging sources in the giveaway and contest market that are worth submitting your contest to. These sites will help you get additional coverage and should help drive entries into your contest, which is very important, after all. Below is a list in no particular order:

  • ContestHound
  • ContestPad
  • OnlineSweepstakes
  • Contestformoms
  • ContestBlogger
  • About.comBlogContests
  • About.comContestsandSweepstakesForum

Summary

Contests are being widely adopted by many big brands currently and are the sort of tactic that even small to mid-sized businesses can implement with success. Since there is an influx of so many contests in the market, however, it can be difficult to cut through the similarities. Approaching contest marketing from the angles outlined above will help ensure success for your campaign. Do you have any additional tips to add? Have you run a successful social media contest?

 

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Facebook tweaks News Feed to show Page posts tagged with other Pages you like or follow, just like for friends

06 Thursday Mar 2014

Posted by leonidesignoryblog in Facebook

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

algorithm

Well those busy little beavers over at Facebook are at it again…

Facebook today announced a change to the News Feed algorithm that will treat Pages even more like people. If one Page tags a second Page you like or follow, you may see that post in your News Feed even if you don’t like or follow the first Page.

Facebook offers an example: this post below by the Bleacher Report might be shown in the News Feed to people who follow or like Dwight Howard, in addition to people who follow or like the Bleacher Report.

4 Facebook tweaks News Feed to show Page posts tagged with other Pages you like or follow, just like for friends

As you can see, Dwight Horward and James Harden are both tagged in the above post. If you haven’t liked or followed either, and you also don’t like or follow the Bleacher Report, the algorithm won’t consider showing you this Page post. This is exactly how updates from friends work: if a friend tags you in a photo, your friends may see the photo in their News Feed even if they’re not friends with the person who tagged you. If you’re not tagged, your friends won’t see it unless they are friends with the person who posted the photo in the first place.

Unlike on social networks like Twitter, where you see every update, there is still no guarantee you will see all such posts in your News Feed. Facebook still uses an algorithm that attempts to show you the best posts:

We look at many factors to make sure the most relevant stories appear in News Feed, including which posts are getting the most engagement (such as likes, comments, shares and clicks) across all of Facebook. We also consider which posts are getting the most engagement from people who like both the Page that posted and the Page that was tagged.

For example, if many people who like Dwight Howard also like the Bleacher Report, it suggests that these two Pages are connected. If we see that people who like both the Bleacher Report and Dwight Howard are liking the post above, that’s an indication that it may be relevant for people who only like Dwight Howard.

Facebook says it tested this feature for Pages and found that people liked seeing this type of content in their News Feeds. The company ran surveys and found these stories received “high scores.” Now the social network will undoubtedly be looking to see how the rest of its 1.23 billion users react.

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