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In response to my post defining social selling, I realized that I needed to take a step back and define “What is a social business?” There is a lot of talk about the social business and too often it involves a discussion of social tools and channels. In this article I’ll offer my own definition as well as plenty of links to other resources you can check out for more ideas on how to help your organization transform into a social business. A social business is not a business that sends a lot of Tweets or has a ton of Facebook FB -2.01% likes. A social business is one that realizes that it operates in a more transparent and social world. And so it makes customers and employees equally as important as its shareholders and profits. tools and channels....
Computer scientist and author Jaron Lanier has turned his back on the “information wants to free” meme to which he once subscribed, and he thinks advertising as a business model for media is doomed. It’s not just that Craigslist and other Internet businesses have snatched ads away from traditional media, he reckons; it’s that in this digital era, when Google and Facebook increasingly own most of the inventory, not to mention the ad servers and distribution channels, relying on advertising to prop up your media company just doesn’t make sense. Lanier, the guy credited with coming up with the term “virtual reality,” outlines this thesis in his new book “Who Owns the Future?” which examines the effects network technologies have had on our economy. In an interview with Nieman Journalism Lab, Lanier builds on that case, stating flatly that advertising isn’t a viable business plan for media businesses in the long term. He tells the publication...
The buzz around startup culture lately is all about “minimum viable product.” It’s the idea of creating a product as quickly as possible — in its most minimum viable form — so you can then make it better by adapting it to what your customers really... What if we could pinpoint the metrics that provide the biggest bang for our buck in terms of telling us whether our efforts are paying off while taking the least amount of time to measure? Focusing only on what matters (and nothing more) could satisfy the ROI demons, keep bosses and clients happy, and give social media marketers more time to do what we’re supposed to be doing: engaging and connecting with our communities. So, whether you’re still struggling to measure social media effectiveness or simply want to declutter your measurement efforts, here’s your minimalist guide to social media metrics....
Your digital footprint is huge. Okay, well, truthfully, I don’t know what size it is. But here’s what I do know: your digital footprint has a huge effect on your online marketing. But seriously ladies and gentlemen, we have one humdinger of a topic, which in my biased opinion, has yet to inspire a truly helpful online article. So, here and now, I set out to offer you the ultimate list of easy and effective ways to enlarge your digital footprint, increase your findability factor (otherwise known as search results), and drive traffic to your website. We begin with the easy ones. The following four ideas—and the ideas within the ideas—are absolute musts....
Twitter’s latest ad product provides a call to action right inside a tweet — showing the company is finally creating marketing tools closer to the “bottom of the funnel.” Even as Twitter has grown into a media and marketing giant, not everyone is persuaded that the social media site is useful for selling things. As one marketer recently lamented to me, the platform’s effectiveness is hard to measure — and justify to clients — because “no one’s going to buy a car off Twitter.” [Update: Twitter says "au contraire" and sent this research] The perception, then, is that Twitter is useful for what the ad types call “top of the funnel” marketing — building brand awareness and so on — but that it has yet to deliver paying customers in the way that GoogleAdwords can. Today, though, it appears Twitter has responded with a new ad product that will make it easier for brands to assess what they get for their marketing bucks. The product, called a “Lead Generation Card,” lets marketers post expanded tweets that invite users to sign up for stuff right inside Twitter. The company showed what this might look in a blog post describing the product...
No longer marketing’s shiny new object, social media has become an indispensable tool to achieve key business goals since prospects and customers spend at least one out of five online minutes using these platforms. This makes social media too big to ignore. The challenge is leveraging the power of social media to achieve your organization’s key objectives in a measurable way. “Whether you work for a big business or small one, one thing is clear from this research. Social media marketing is here to stay.” – Mike Stelzner, Founder and CEO of Social Media Examiner Social Media Examiner’s 2013 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, a survey of a cross section of businesses using social media as part of their marketing mix, highlights nine benefits of social media marketing....
Nutella scrambles to fix bad PR and reputation hit.. As you’re aware, since 2007, Sara Rosso—arguably your most passionate superfan—has hosted World Nutella Day. She love(d) your product so much that she wanted the world to dedicate a single day—February 5—to embracing it. What she did was nothing less than astounding. On the World Nutella Day website, Rosso has gathered more than 700 recipes, tweeted and shared on Facebook the favorite sayings, stories and links of Nutella fans and, most important, encouraged everyone to try Nutella just once. But on May 25, all her hard work will have been in vain. That’s because you inexplicably shut down her tremendous efforts, sending a cease-and-desist letter to her mailbox—the sort of action a brand might take against a brand hijacker, hacker or activist....
From 140-character tweets to 14,000-word print books, most content marketers now understand the value of producing content of varying lengths and format. But those that try to churn out equally high volumes of content at every length will soon find themselves collapsing from sheer exhaustion. Enter the Content Marketing Pyramid, a framework which I first blogged about in 2010. Some have compared this content model to the old model of the food pyramid, and there are a few similarities. Both pyramids stress the importance of creating a strong foundation and building on that foundation with segments that are consumed (or created) at increasingly smaller intervals....
Say you have a business that relies on a local customer base, you want to rank high in search engines for local users, right? SEO is going to be integral to making that happen and, by implementing the following steps, you will be well on your way to being more visible to your local customers. Local SEO isn’t about gaming the system; it’s more about convincing a robot (a search engine) that your site is the most relevant for users in a certain location who may want your products or services. Local SEO is a series of signposts that allow the robots to understand where you are in the world and what you're providing. It allows them to better rank your site according to the search terms the user enters. In designing your site, you will still want to follow general SEO practices, for example, conducting keyword research into the most relevant search terms. On a technical level, your site will still need to meet best practices for crawls. But, to target a local audience, you will need to go even further....
My last column about the role and duties of public relations agencies generated more response, mostly positive but quite a few negative, than any other posting during the past five years. As consumers become more familiar with digital technology, businesses are evolving their marketing strategies to meet expectations. Websites and applications are now considered an essential part of a brand’s presence.
... Customers are accessing their social networks via smartphones, making the presence of retail brands on these social outlets even more important. Approximately 80% of smartphone users access social networks on their devices, and 55% of those users visit social networks on their devices once per day, according to Monetate.com. Shoppers are using their mobile phones to shop, as well. According to Digby.com, 40% of shoppers in 2012 checked three or more channels before a purchase, compared to just 10% a decade earlier. And Monetate reports that 96% of smart phone users have researched a product or service on their phone. This very real combination of social interaction and product research is a one-two punch that retailers need to stay alert to. It is increasingly imperative to make sure brands fully optimize their customer retail mobile and social experience.
The unfortunate reality is that the majority of businesses, particular small and medium localized ones, are completely missing out on the potential benefits of their Facebook page. It’s not all about the page, but that’s a good place to start and the best venue through which to have control over your own destiny. Here are some signs that your social media strategy has your page operating at a low level. Don’t be discouraged – the vast majority of pages out there are feeling the same types of pains you are. The good news is that with a little help, businesses can make a swift turnaround and find success. It just takes understanding the realities of Facebook marketing....
Valuable measurement perspectives and advice. The influential economist Albert O. Hirschman argues that customers can have a disciplining effect on companies and markets through their exit and voice behaviors. Instead of simply “quitting” a product, Hirschman urged customers to voice their complaints so companies could improve and learn. Hirschman would be a happy camper these days because social media puts a megaphone on the voice of the customer. Results from The CMO Survey® show that companies, in turn, are also starting to see the value of emphasizing voice-based metrics. The CMO Survey® investigated which metrics companies are using to measure the impact of social media investments. In August 2010 and then again in February 2013, top marketers were asked to share which metrics they use to evaluate social media. Looking across the results, we can see which metrics companies most often use. The survey did not, however, ask respondents to rank or rate each metric in terms of importance....
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Marketing podcast with Mitch Joel: I've been sensing a change these days. Actually, like most change, it happens in a way that is imperceptible, until you step back and look at something like a six month window.... The change we are undergoing right now will dwarf what we’ve seen over the past five years. Every bit of data and information we share and consume is headed towards a single source or, as Joel calls it, a single pipe. We are moving beyond customer service and marketing messages to a era where businesses must be built to interface directly with the customer at every level. The customer and the direct relationship with the customer is an organization’s greatest asset and greatest risk. An organization’s ability to respond directly and in real time will determine success and failure. Proactively leveraging opportunities in real time is the new landscape. One of my favorite lines from the book sums this up – “Instead of asking people to like us Facebook – why not trying liking them first.”-...
In preparing a presentation for last week’s Interactivity Digital conference in Miami, I was struck by a realization: I’ve been working with landing pages for seven years now.... Seven years ago, my company launched its first prototype of a landing page management platform. At the time, landing pages were extremely nascent, only used by a handful of pioneering digital marketers. So many times I had to answer the question, “What’s a landing page?” Now, they’re nearly ubiquitous. The disciplines of conversion rate optimization and post-click marketing have matured into a rich subfield within digital marketing. It’s been inspiring to see how much what-happens-after-the-click has improved in this time. So, on this occasion of my seventh anniversary of “converting” to this line of work, I thought I would step back and share the seven biggest lessons that I’ve learned over the years....
Online marketing has grown in leaps and bounds. Today, there is a vast number of tools and resources that can help you jumpstart your online marketing campaign. I would wish to cover each and every useful tool and technique. But for the sake of time, I will delve straight into some powerful internet marketing tactics that you can use to grow your business in 2013. Top 10 Online Marketing Tactics...
I spend a lot of time teaching job seekers how to make new connections on LinkedIn. Constantly meeting new people and growing your professional network is crucial to uncovering job leads and building a successful and lasting career. But today we’re going to talk about another important piece of networking that is often neglected: maintaining your connections once you have them. As the old song says, “Make new friends, but keep the old….” You can’t build up a new network every time you look for a job or have a career need; think of your longer-term connections as a deep bench of teammates that – as long as you stay connected – will be your supporters for years to come....
How many times in the past six months have you read or heard someone reference the phrase “paid, owned, and earned”? I’d venture to say that the answer is more than you can count on your hands (and maybe even your feet as well!). In this post, I’ll explore the evolution of social media marketing that eventually led us to the paid, owned, earned trifecta, and I’ll dive into a few brands that have found success employing it. As brands first began experimenting with social media, they were focused on the acquisition of fans, followers, and advocates. Number of “likes”, hashtag use/trends, and fan increase, these metrics of social success were easy to track and quantify. Soon after, as social media platforms designed solutions for brands, companies began formulating social and digital teams who understood and realized the value and speed of online word of mouth. Through industry and analyst research, they learned that consumers are more likely to engage and transact business with brands that integrate social media, and so they began cultivating content that inspired engagement. From this new interaction, they began seeing actual, authentic expressions – opinions, stories, photos, Tweets – earned out of engagement with their consumers. Wanting more and more of this valuable direct contact, brands began finding ways to generate this compelling content and drive people to sites that contained other authentic content. In doing this, converged media was born.....
Content curation services, which had been one of the choice tools of marketing experts for some time now. Content curation is evolving from not being only a professional tool but a tool that saves web surfers time as personal service. It is important to note that the actual popularity of the phrase “content curation” has not decreased. On the contrary, GoogleTrends clearly show that the popularity of the keyword query and its various forms is growing. What does this mean? It means that more and more people are interested in content curation; it is no longer just for marketing professionals.. Why is this happening? Everybody knows that the amount of information exchanged through social networks and feeds is growing exponentially, following the well-known Moore‘sLaw. According to LikeHack’s research based on 3 million user accounts, people spend approximately one hour every day looking through unnecessary information. There are several services available today which solve this problem, and they are growing in popularity: Likehack, Storify, Pearltrees, Getprismatic and others....
Without curators, the internet is quicksand. I have huge confidence in the future of curation. That's because we have so much information coming at us in this digital era. The more “stuff” the internet and all the shiny new social media channels throw at us, the more we need brilliant curators. Without curators, we run the risk of information overload.
Here are some telltale signs you've been in the PR rat race a bit long.... It's tough being a public relations pro these days. Reporters don’t respond to your daily pitches; clients want more media hits. You’re tasked with creating content for social media only to find out your client can’t tell the difference between a like and a tweet. Digiday spoke with several public relations execs about how they know they’ve been in PR too long. Here are 20 reasons it’s time to hang up the PR spikes....
While many bloggers think that blogging is about lovingly crafting each post, the reality is that you need to promote your content to ensure each post reaches its widest possible audience. To this end, think outside the blog. Since social media feeds on a never-ending stream of content, it’s ideal for accomplishing this goal. Here are thirty-three tips for using social media to expand your blog’s readership by driving traffic from an array of platforms....
While digital gives you the opportunity to reach out to millions with a single click, it also poses a problem: if not monitored properly, it will not be as effective as face-to-face communication. As consumers become more familiar with digital technology, businesses are evolving their marketing strategies to meet expectations. Websites and applications are now considered an essential part of a brand’s presence. The digital age is making it possible for brands to connect with their clients all over the world and reach out effectively to their specific target audiences. However, with so much reach, it is easy to get befuddled and make mistakes while communicating to your audiences digitally. Here’s our list of top six rules that your marketing team should know about....
For a recent presentation at a corporate communications and PR conference, I polled my network of digital marketing and PR pros working client-side about the most pressing questions they’re dealing with when it comes to integrating Marketing and Public Relations. Since we’ve been working in the digital marketing and PR space at TopRank Marketing for well over 10 years, it was interesting to see the diverse feedback from companies of various sizes and industries. But several themes revealed themselves that I think our readers will relate to. Thanks to feedback from Digital and Integrated Marketing Communications professionals like Corinne Kovalsky of Ratheon, Susan Beatty of Bremer Financial Corporation, Frank Strong of LexisNexis, Lesly Cardec from Randstad US, Sarah Skerik from PRNewswire and Pam Didner of Intel, it became clear that one of the key questions organizations are facing is the need to break down silos between marketing and PR....
We all need to acquire new customers to make our products and businesses work. Whether there are a few users paying big bucks or thousands visiting your platform for free, how you get and retain customers is what is important. But ask yourself: are you really ready for more customers? Is your team set up to handle an influx of users? What’s your promotion strategy – inbound marketing or traditional PR? This extensive guide will walk you through what user acquisition is and how to execute a plan....
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This is a very "thoughtful" look at thought leadership.