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Seven Tips to Generate Leads from Your Social Media Accounts in 2012

January 17th, 2012 | Author: admin

There’s a lot of talk about growing a strong social media presence for your business, but in the end there’s no point if you can’t convert your reading audience into a buying one. To make 2012 your biggest year ever, here are seven tips for turning followers into customers.

1. Focus on retweets. Your message will a much bigger reach if you can get others talking about it. The key to this is simple: give what you want to get. If you’re generous about retweeting others in your community, they are more likely to retweet you in turn.

2. Get a reputation for responsiveness. People want a company that won’t ignore them. Get in the habit of responding to every question and comment on your social media accounts, always be prompt, and you’ll get that ever-important reputation for good customer service.

3. Participate in discussions. Get in the habit of searching Twitter frequently, looking for people who are asking questions your business can answer. Being the one who helps someone out can put you in a very good light when they’re ready to buy.

4. Use LinkedIn Answers for B2B leads. Linked in is a great place for businesses to connect with other businesses, so if this is something that would be helpful for you, get involved with the Answers forum and show your expertise.

5. Create a study with a survey. Host a survey on your blog, publish the results along with your thoughts, and advertise your findings on your social network accounts. This also opens the door for you to contact other relevant blogs about sharing your study with a wider circle.

6. If you’re not making videos, you should. You can get a pretty decent little camcorder for very little money these days, and there are plenty of online tutorials to teach you some video production skills. Making videos will help your audience get to know the real you, and what your company does and stands for. This connection is important.

7. Concentrate on the networks that matter. Not everyone has accounts everywhere – have you done your market research to find out where your potential customers are? If they’re mostly on Facebook, then most of your social media effort should be there. If they’re more likely on Twitter, get to tweeting! It’s more productive in terms of leads to give a more concentrated effort in fewer places, than to try to spread yourself evenly everywhere.

Posted in Facebook, Google+, social media, Social Policy, twitter | No Comments »

Internet Marketing: More than a Numbers Game

October 25th, 2011 | Author: admin

Sometimes in the world of social media, it’s easy to get caught up in the idea that a greater following equals greater success for your business. So many people focus on “getting the numbers up” – increasing Twitter follower numbers, Facebook fans, YouTube channel subscribers, and so forth. However, there may be a sobering wake-up call if you manage to get your following to snowball somewhat, but aren’t managing to convert those followers into customers. As so many social media marketers can tell you, just getting the following isn’t enough – those numbers don’t mean anything unless you can also engage with your audience in an effective way.

If you have reached this realization after having already built up your follower numbers, there may be some backtracking involved if your method of growing a following has been somewhat indiscriminate. These days, getting people to become fans on Facebook or Twitter isn’t that hard, if the numbers are all you’re concerned about. But will those people necessarily be interested in what you have to offer? Will they tell their friends, or more importantly, their own social media followers?

When you seek people out on social networks, put some effort into ascertaining whether you are looking in the right places. Not all followers are equal – it’s better to have ten followers who really get your message and want to share it and engage with you, than a thousand followers who couldn’t care less about your company or what you have to say. There is a common misconception that having a high follower or fan count on a social network will in itself drive more business to you, because people will see the fan count and be impressed by it. But these days, so many people have a high fan count, it’s impossible to judge quality on that criterion alone, and your potential customers are smart enough to realize that.

Also, even if you were able to impress anyone simply by having a high follower count, getting them to come see your social networking profiles in the first place requires a driving force. This is where that follower count comes in handy, if you’ve played your cards right. A small army of people who believe in you and are willing to speak and retweet on your behalf is worth so much more than a large army of people who don’t even notice you’re there. Engage with your following, no matter how large or small. Otherwise, there’s no real point in having them.

Posted in Email Markeitng, Facebook, mobile marketing, social media, twitter | No Comments »

Handling Social Media Mishaps

October 21st, 2011 | Author: admin

It happens even to the best of us from time to time – something thoughtless, inappropriate, or downright dumb gets said on a social network, people react, and next thing you know you’ve got a big scandal on your hands. In the context of a small or medium-sized business, even a minor uproar on a social network can spell big problems for you in terms of unhappy customers and a dip in sales. Just like in every other aspect of business, mistakes will be made from time to time on social media. Even if you’re extremely diligent with your social media policy, there’s not really anything you can do about the fact that people are human, and sometimes they say damaging or offensive things.

What you can do, however, is make sure you have a plan in place to deal with issues as and when they come up, so that you can handle any mistakes quickly and efficiently, with the minimum amount of damage. As is often said, the best cure is prevention, so having a clear and concise social media policy in the workplace is essential. The more people you have working with you, the more comprehensive and specific the policy has to be, as you are dealing with a variety of personalities, all of whom may have different interpretations of what “inappropriate” or “offensive” means.

Even if you’re a sole proprietor, though, sometimes you might be your own worst enemy. I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen people posting on Twitter or Facebook who were clearly drunk, angry, upset, or a combination of the three. It’s one thing if you want to do that on your personal accounts, though I still wouldn’t recommend it. On your business accounts, it’s absolutely unacceptable.

If you do wake up one morning and find that you (or an employee) did the unthinkable and said something inappropriate on a social network, don’t just sit there and hope no one noticed. Delete the offending post immediately, and issue a public and very sincere apology. Trying to talk your way out of it or accusing your audience of not being able to take a joke is not a smart move. The sooner you can apologize and make amends, the better. Most of all, use the experience to learn how not to play the social media field, and do your best to be a model social network citizen in the future.

Posted in Facebook, social media, Social Policy, twitter | No Comments »

Adopting an Internet Marketing Strategy

October 20th, 2011 | Author: admin

Ten years ago, internet marketing was much simpler than it is now. You had a website to promote your business, and that’s exactly what it did. It was basically an online brochure that told your potential customers what you would provide for them, and gave them all the contact details to reach if if they wanted to do business with you.

These days, a successful internet marketing strategy is about so much more than just having a website, and indeed your website needs to be so much more than just a glorified business card. Internet marketing involves things like search engine optimization, social media networking, pay-per-click, and article submissions.

If all these aspects of internet marketing make your head spin, never fear, you can certainly hire a consultant or marketing assistant to help show you how to do things. Nevertheless, it doesn’t hurt to become familiar with what’s going on so that you can usefully analyze the results of your marketing strategy and learn what works and what doesn’t for your business.

Probably the most hands-on aspect of internet marketing is social media. As the name implies, you will have to spend time connecting with your audience, which means more than just a one-time effort. Social media is used not only to seek your target market, but also to be there for your customers so that they feel they have a relationship with your business. This means you will have to be on hand, preferably on a daily basis, to answer questions and provide guidance.

Search engine optimization means streamlining your website so that popular search engines like Google rank your site higher than others in the same niche, thereby increasing your site’s traffic. SEO is a delicate balance of quality content and keyword usage, as well as integrating your social networking accounts.

Pay-per-click is like traditional advertising in that you pay for ad space, but the fee scale is set up on a per-click basis. In other words, the more people that click on your ad, the more you pay.

Article submissions work by putting information about your site and your business in as many places as possible. You can list articles about your business in articles directories all over the web, increasing your overall exposure to the people who are looking for the service or product you provide.

Combining all these aspects of internet marketing can be complicated, but you’re likely to see positive results that will encourage you to learn and try even more ways to get your message out there and bring customers your way.

Posted in Email Markeitng, social media, Social Policy, twitter | No Comments »

Building up Your Twitter Influence

October 13th, 2011 | Author: admin

By now you already know that social media is one of the big marketing tools at your disposal. Sometimes social media experts make it sound like all you need to do is open up a Twitter account, and suddenly you’ll be interacting with thousands of people and watching your content go viral. If you’ve been using social media and have had trouble getting any momentum going, you’ll know it’s not really as easy as that. There are, however, a few things you can do to start getting the ball rolling in terms of engaging your target audience and getting them interested in passing on your message.

When you first start out on Twitter, it often feels like you’re talking to yourself, and that’s because you probably are. People are hesitant to follow accounts that look like they were just created five minutes ago, so the first step is to make sure you’re regularly filling up your stream with content. That doesn’t mean you should just spam the world, as it were – fewer messages of value is better than a constant stream of filler.

Start building a following by adding people who you think are relevant in your niche, people who themselves already have a strong following, and then engage them in real conversation. People like to be spoken to like humans, and having some actual conversation in your tweet stream will convince potential followers that you’re not just a business bot.

The next step is to get people to help you share your content. The people you converse with on a regular basis are the ones who are most likely to help you by retweeting your links, so nurture as many of those relationships as you can.

Growing your retweet rate in your Twitter circle requires content that is consistently interesting. That doesn’t mean it has to be spontaneous, though, and in fact one of the best ways to ensure compelling content is to plan out a tweet schedule, perhaps utilizing themes for the week or even running a contest. People love to win things, and if you advertise a giveaway and ask your followers to retweet, you might get some decent results within the first few tries.

Repetition is also important. Not everyone spends all day looking at your tweet stream, and with most accounts these days following thousands of people, if you tweet something only once it’s very likely to get buried quickly. Don’t give up if you say something once and no one seems to notice. Rephrase the information and tweet it again later in the day. You’ll start to get a feel for how many times you need to say things before people catch on, and you’ll start seeing a greater response to your tweets over time.

Posted in social media, Social Policy, twitter | No Comments »

Lead Generation: Using Social Media to Help

September 13th, 2011 | Author: admin

Okay, so you’ve got a Facebook page for your business, you’ve started a Twitter account, and you’re all hooked up on YouTube. Now what? How is all this social networking going to help you get what you ultimately need – sales leads? While having a social media presence is essential for modern businesses, creating accounts is only the beginning of what you need to do. Your social media visitors need to get a sense of your brand, of what kind of company they’re dealing with, and of how your product or service can enrich their lives.

It may sound like a tall order for a little social media account, but as with most things, appearance matters. You never get a second chance to make a first impression, and if the first thing a potential customer sees is your Facebook landing page or your Twitter page, you’d better make sure it looks as good as it can. Page design is important, as is brand consistency – you want something that people can recognize no matter where they see your company online. In addition to looking good, you have to walk the walk, as well. This means engaging with your audience and giving them reason to trust you.

Content development is the first step. Make sure that your accounts are updated daily with information that is both interesting and relevant to potential customers. This can cross over into interacting with customers while you are online. Aside from being available to answer questions about your company, you can also do fun things like running contests or asking your audience for their opinion on matters relating to what your company provides.

You can also use your social media as a platform to link to content that your audience might not otherwise find. If you are an expert in your field, for example, you can use your social media accounts to link to articles you have written on the topic, as well as blog posts from your company’s web site. If you have a YouTube account, informative or instructional videos can help connect you with pople who are seeking the information, products, or services you provide.

Keep in mind this is not just about straight-up marketing – it’s about giving your audience valuable content that in turn will help them decide to turn to you when it’s time to make a purchase. Treat your potential customers with that respect, and many will become actual customers before you know it. How have you used good content marketing and a social media presence to engage your users or garner potential customers?

Posted in Facebook, social media, twitter | No Comments »

The Importance of a Social Media Policy

August 31st, 2011 | Author: admin

If you are working with partners, associates, or employees in your business, there’s no point in trying to pretend that the use of social media won’t get complicated at some point. It’s one thing when someone in the organization says something unacceptable in the office and it is dealt with internally, but when someone in your company says something unacceptable on the internet, the implications are much greater. Not only does it have the potential of being seen by millions of people, but it can have long-lasting consequences. Once an ill-advised tweet or Facebook update is out there, it’s out there, and even if it gets deleted, often by that time it’s too late and the damage is done.

Working with a small group of people may allow you to have a more relaxed approach to social media policy, depending on how responsible people in your company demonstrate themselves to be. Many smaller companies prefer to create their policy dynamically, dealing with particular situations only as they arise. This can work well if you’re fairly confident of everyone’s ability to handle themselves sensibly, but if you have any doubts at all, then it makes better sense to have at least a few guidelines set in stone from the outset.

There are no absolute rules for making a social media policy, but for most companies it comes down to wanting to avoid situations in which an employee says something that could be misconstrued as the company’s viewpoint. Although individuals certainly have the right to express themselves online when it comes to political opinions, religion, or any number of other potentially controversial topics, you’ll want to make sure that they specify that these opinions are theirs alone, and that nothing they say on their blogs or social media accounts should be taken as an endorsement by the company of those opinions.

It’s worth mentioning to workers that nothing on the internet happens in isolation, and that even though they speak for themselves, they need to be clear and transparent about the things they say online. Often employees don’t realize that others see them as representing the company, even in their off time, and that can be a dangerous situation that can put your business at risk. If you’re at all worried about loose cannons in your office, having at least a basic social media policy in place can help inform employees of your expectations, and give you a framework from which to rein in any unacceptable activity.

Posted in blogging, social media, Social Policy, twitter, Using Social Media for Business | No Comments »

How Your Business Social Media Presence Should Differ from Your Personal Presence

August 26th, 2011 | Author: admin

If you spend any of your free time on the internet, chances are you have a personal Facebook account, Twitter account, and maybe a few other accounts here and there. If you’re also using social media for marketing your business, then you probably have separate accounts set up under your company’s name, as well. Regardless of whether you’re a sole proprietor or have an office full of employees, someone has to be running your social media accounts, updating and responding to activity. That someone may be you, or it may be an associate.

One of the things you want to ensure in your business social media presence is consistency. Whereas with your personal accounts, it doesn’t matter so much if you slack off for a while or don’t update very often, not keeping your business accounts updated can be tremendously detrimental. You don’t want visitors to think that your business is collecting cobwebs, or that you’re not available on a regular basis. Having a schedule to remind yourself to update can help you appear responsive and attentive.

You also need to decide how much of your personality to inject into your business social media presence. You certainly don’t want your tweets and Facebook updates to seem robotic – nobody wants to read that. At the same time, people who are visiting your business pages probably don’t want to read an endless stream of updates about what you had on your burger at lunch or how much you hate sitting in traffic. While an update on your life here and there can help make your business seem more human, save the majority of personal information for your personal profiles.

Of course, you may also need to be careful about what you say on your personal accounts if your connection to your business is widely known or easily searchable. People do research companies on Google, and if it’s easily discovered that you are the proprietor of a certain business, potential customers may very well have a look at your personal Twitter or Facebook accounts before deciding whether to do business with you. There are ways to adjust your privacy settings on most social networks so that you can have some control over who sees what, and you don’t necessarily need to be paranoid about every word you say. Just make sure that when you make public updates on your personal accounts, you ask yourself how it would reflect on your business if a potential customer were to run across those updates.

Posted in social media, twitter, Using Social Media for Business | No Comments »

10 Twitter Tools That Rock

June 20th, 2010 | Author: Peg

Over the last several months, I have heard many colleagues and clients trumpet the same theme: What is Twitter and why should I care? Twitter is a microblogging tool and one of the fastest growing web brands on the Internet. Businesses are now getting smarter and using Twitter for marketing reach and brand awareness. If you haven’t already started using Twitter, now is the time to start using this powerful social network to build your followers. The tools below, compiled by Pierre Zarokian of Submit Express, will help you to use Twitter more effectively.

If you would like more support using Twitter, visit us at http://www.cogoresults.com and we can show you how to use Twitter as part of an overall social media plan.

1. Social Oopmh (http://www.socialoomph.com/) (Previously called TweetLater) Social Oopmh, which was previously called TweetLater, is my top pick in Twitter Tools. There are many tools that do just one or two of the features this tool provides, but Social Oopmh has many features in one app. The top features of Social Oopmh are: - Create and schedule tweets - Track keywords on Twitter
- Send automatic welcome DM’s to new followers - Uses bit.ly for shortening URL’s which in turn tracks your clicks - Follow those who follow you automatically - Unfollow those who unfollow you All of the above features plus a few more are offered in the free version of Social Oopmh. However, there is a fee-based version that has even more features.

2. Tweet Spinner (http://tweetspinner.com/) The top features of Tweet Spinner are:

Create and schedule tweets Schedule rotation of profiles and designs Follower management Location filtering
The free version of this tool allows you to perform some of the basic functions, while the fee-based version will give you much more functionality. The most useful part of this tool is the follower management. It allows you to follow users based on keywords they tweet about. You can also drop users that do not follow you and it will drop the oldest ones fi rst.
Location filtering available on the fee-based edition allows you to limit following to only those users whose locations match any of the criteria you specify.

3. Twitter Feed (http://twitterfeed.com/)
Twitter Feed allows you to use RSS feeds or ATOM feeds to post on your Twitter automatically. For example, you can automatically post Google news on a certain keyword to your Twitter account using Google RSS feeds. You can also specify how many posts you would like per 30 minutes or hourly basis.

4. FlashTweet (http://www.flashtweet.com/)
Flashtweet lets you mass follow the followers of other users that you specify. You can simply pick someone that tweets about similar subjects to you and follow their followers. However one limitation we have seen with this tool is that if you have over 2000 followers then the tool will not work. The creators of the tool told us this is because when you have too many followers, the tool will crash. Therefore, this tool is best for those just starting out that would like to quickly increase their followers.
This tool also allows you to mass unfollow your followers.

5. TwittGeek (http://twittgeek.com/)
TwittGeek is a Twitter application that allows you to automatically follow up to 200 people based on keywords you specify! It is a simple app that you should not use more than once a day or Twitter may think you are spamming. Too bad the app does not allow you to schedule the auto follows, so it would do it for you daily.

6.   TwitterMass (http://twittermass.com/) This is mainly a fee-based application starting at $24/month that lets you do the following:
-   Follow by Keyword Use this tool to follow people based on keyword or hashtag.
-   Local Follow by Keyword Use this tool to follow people locally by keyword or hashtag.
-   Remove Unwanted Guests Use this tool to unfollow anyone who is not following you back.
-   Clone Any Account Use this tool to clone anyone’s followers.
-   Manual Follow Use this tool to find the perfect candidates to add to your network.
-   Follow Friday

Use this tool to automatically tweet your top Follow Friday friends every week.
The free version of the tool shows you a nice statistic graph of your followers. Even if you don’t buy this tool, it is worth logging in to view your followers graph.

7. Bit.ly (http://bit.ly/)
Bit.ly is a URL shortening service that offers tracking and stats. By using this service to shorten your URL’s you can see how many clicks your link is getting and even see some other stats such as location and referrers.

8. TwittLocal (http://www.twitterlocal.net/) TwittLocal allows you to find posts by location. For example, specify a city name and a radius distance and you get a list of all recent tweets based on your criteria. You could
then follow those twitters if you like and hopefully they will follow you back, so you can build a local following, if that is something you are looking for.

9. Twitbbacks (http://www.twitbacks.com/) Twitbacks allows you to create a customized background for your Twitter account for free. If you are not savvy in graphic design or photoshop, then this is the app for you.

10. Tweet Pro by Soxialize (http://www.soxialize.com/tweet-pro/)
Tweet Pro is an auto follow tool that is desktop based. It allows you to find followers based on keywords and follow up to 50 people at once. You can use the app for several twitter accounts. It is a fee-based app that costs $10 for first 30 days and $47 for each month after. The only benefit this provides over TwittGeek which we recommended earlier is that you can pick and choose which of the 50 people you actually want to follow, while TwittGeek will automatically follow everyone.

Posted in twitter | No Comments »