Posted by Rosemary Sorg on Tue, Jun 29, 2010
Now that you are active on the Social Marketing platforms and are creating remarkable content that is spreadable, what are you doing to monitor your brand? Where are those important conversations taking place that pertain to your niche? If you aren't monitoring or using social media tools to observe and listen, then you can't engage your targeted audience that are already talking about you and your brand. Isn't that what all businesses look for?
People talking about your brand and spreading that post/tweet to their network of friends is exactly where every company desires to be. Here are some valuable tools to use to see what they are saying about your company:
- Google Alerts is one of the most valuable tools for website owners offered by Google. It is a free service that allows you to keep track of any topic on the Internet. Google Alerts notifies you by email about the latest web and news information of your choice. Emails are automatically sent to you when there are new Google results for the search terms that you have identified. You can follow an important news story or read about the latest industry information. You can keep track of what people are saying about you or your business.
- Samepoint is the Conversation Search Engine. See what people are talking about. Samepoint is geared towards following the conversation around a particular subject. When you search, your results appear in a stream of content that provides snippets of the conversation, along with the symbol of the social site where the conversation is taking place. You can sort the results multiple ways by selecting from the options at the top of the screen. Some of these include real-time, bookmarks, wikis, networks, groups, microblogs and news.
- Twitter Search is an incredible tool that allows you to find virtually anything and anyone by adding the ability to search for key words, locations, phrases, people, dates and even attitudes! You type in any word and you are guaranteed to get real time results!Conversation Search Engine. See what people are talking about.
- Backtype is an incredible tool that offers a window into comments across the entire Internet. You can search for keywords and names specifically in the comments sections of blogs.
If you use different tools that you find useful and I neglected to mention them above, feel free to share with us in the comments below. Let's share "remarkable" content and provide value for one another!
Posted by Tom Allinder on Thu, Mar 11, 2010
Short video on using news releases to build your offsite Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and move your website up in search engine results.
Posted by Rosemary Sorg on Tue, Mar 02, 2010
To say that times are changing is an understatement in todays advertising world. Thanks to the internet, growth in social media is exponential and the traditional ways of advertising your brand have been turned upside down. Once, outbound marketing ruled the world. You could send email and print campaigns and have them be very effective. To have a company ad in the front pages of your local newspaper would have guaranteed more awareness for your business. Those days are long gone, outbound marketing is ineffective and useless.
In todays PR world, inbound marketing is the gold medal! Inbound marketing is the electrically charged particles that energize your websites visibility. Just how do you achieve this golden status you may ask? Here are 8(eight) quick ways to start winning that inbound marketing gold medal!
- Use keywords in link text
- Earn links with great content
- Promote on social networks and share that great content
- Link up with business/marketing partners
- Cross link internally to landing pages, other content
- Embed links in news releases
- Encourage others to social bookmark your content
- Syndicate content via RSS
So why is link building so important? Link building is important because it will drive traffic to
your website! Remember text used within the links is very important because it infers meaning! Variety in link building sources is important but always be relevant and on topic.
Internal links are also important and a tool that sometimes gets overlooked. And last but not least, inbound links from relevant, authoritative websites are key!
Do you have any other methods of inbound marketing that you could share with us? If so, your feedback is always appreciated and sharing this knowledge with each other will only help us all to learn and grow!
Posted by Rosemary Sorg on Thu, Feb 25, 2010
Social Media is growing at an enormous rate. The amount of time people spend on social media sites has increased by 82%! That's growth at an exponential rate. If you read this data correctly you can see why social media is such a formidable marketing tool.
The question begging to be asked is, "What are business owners who are not in tune with social media and web 2.0 asking?" What are their main concerns?"
I've compiled 5 questions that you, as a business owner, should be asking your PR Agency. Dear PR Agency, be prepared to answer these questions for your clients to set yourself above your competition!
Experience: How much experience do you and your agency have with social media? Anyone can attend a webinar or two or have created a twitter profile and/or Facebook page. Ask specific questions like who is in charge of clients social media campaigns? Which social media platforms do you use to establish a brand for the clients? They should be able to give you data of the top platforms and why.
Social Media Strategy: What is your social media strategy? You have to know your audience and that requires research. Agencies must drill down and get keywords right for your company/brand. They must establish a community and connect with that community. They must create content that will be informative and valuable to that community of followers. They must engage their audience to keep them coming back for more.
Online Real Estate: Ask if they have a website and go check it out. Ask if they have a social media presence and where? Check and see how they do social media on their own property. See if they are actually practicing what they preach onto themselves. Many people claim to be experts or gurus at something and when you do research on their website it turns out not to be the case.
Case Studies: Ask them for case studies. Check out what they have done for other clients. How did they come up with the idea/plan/strategy. Have them provide some data to you and interpret it for you.
ROI: The golden question that drives social media. Can you measure my return on investment? What tools do you use to measure ROI? There are many tools out there that measure ROI. What is important to you is that not only should they be able to provide this data to you but they should also be able to translate it to you in a clear, measurable insight! Did it meet the objectives you set out with?
Beware of agencies that promise the skies. Agencies should operate under the motto, "Under promise and over deliver." Remember, like everything else, social media takes time. Campaigns take time to develop a voice, a presence in these communities and anyone promising you quick results is lying. Some campaigns take anywhere from 6 months to a year.
I heard this from an innovative man, Todd Defren, and think it's appropriate for this blog. "PR is not just about hits, it's frequency, distribution, relevant-content via the right channels, to boost credibility and find-ability!"
Do you agree? If not, what other questions would you include? Do you agree Mr/Mrs Business owner? Your input is always appreciated.
Posted by Rosemary Sorg on Wed, Jan 13, 2010
I belong to a twittering group on LinkedIn and was very inspired when I joined a discussion thread about Twitter. I was inspired because a good amount of people were new to twitter and asking for help in navigating it. "I'm new to twitter so I'm not twittering a lot yet as I'm still trying to figure it all out."
I remember February 2009, when I first joined the conversation on twitter. Lke many, I didn't get it and/or understand it. But I quickly got the hang of it and haven't looked back,
RMSorg. Here are some quick helpful tips that will assist you in navigating your way thru twitter.
1)
Define Your Purpose For Using Twitter! I love this tutorial
video by
Chad Heffelfinger, he hits on many valid points that people tend to oversee. Twitter is used for building relationships, I can personally tell that I've met wonderful, intelligent, genuine, helpful people that have enriched my live in less than 1 year. I have made some incredible and valuable connections, make no mistake, you will too if you work on building relationships on a daily basis! He touches on driving traffic which is very important if you are a blogger or have a business website etc, twitter has millions of people who are interacting on a daily basis. The possibilities are mind-boggling.
2)
Start Following People! Very important; you need an audience to interact with and converse with. Be leery of those spammy tweets offering to put your twitter account on auto pilot and get you 1000 followers a day. First of all, twitter only allows you to follow 300 people a day. If you follow more, you will get your account suspended! Remember, its really not about quantity but about
quality. Some simple tools to find people that have common interest are:
twitter search and one I like to use is
twendz.
3)
Start Tweeting Right Away! Start a conversation, ask a question, RT (retweet) something you find inspiring, interesting or you might just want to comment on. Don't be discouraged if you don't get interaction right away, tweeples have to get to know you. Remember, if you are a business or have a business, you are building a brand and what you tweet about is being viewed by millions! Here's a great article about
Building Your Brand.
4) Do Not send "Spammy" Tweets! People do not like to receive spam. They follow you for enriching content that will inspire them or teach them something new. The key is to add "value" to peoples streams.
5) Upload an avatar! Most people don't realize how important it is for you to upload a picture that defines you or your business. More will be inclined to follow you if you have a picture or logo they can relate to, remember and connect to.
6)
Customize your background! Here are some tools I use to customize my twitter,
twitterbackgrounds and
twitrounds. If you have a business you can also customize with business logo. Go to settings, click on design and customize to your taste.
7) Look out for Trending Topics & Hashtags! Get involved in the conversations taking place on the "trending topics." Trending topics are a really good way for you to stay up to date, in real time, on what is "hot" on twitter. Joining those conversations and posting relevant tweets is a great way to make connections, get more followers, meet new people and start branding yourself as a thought leader. If you want to follow what is being said about a conference, news event or category, tag tweets with #keyword. These can also be searched so you can either join a conversation, start a conversation topic or see who is saying what about that specific topic.
8)
Use Your Time Efficiently! Use twitters open API to your advantage and use time managment tools. One tool I love to use which is indispensable to me is
twitter karma. This tool helps you filter your follower/following list in several ways: only friends or only followers, all friends or all followers, and mutual friends. Excellent time saving tool, enjoy taking advantage of it!
10) Have Fun On Twitter! Talk to people, @reply people, thank them when they RT your content and look at your DM for connections that will change the way you look at twitter. You will quickly begin to decipher the people who are there to truly connect from the spammers!
I wish you all the best in making wonderful connections. I have met wonderful people globally that I would not have connected with if it wasn't for twitter.
Posted by Tom Allinder on Sat, Nov 14, 2009
I attended a basketball clinic at our local YMCA this weekend and as I was watching the coaches (Y employees) and the children interacting I had a wonder thought. I thought about Community! In today’s viral world, everyone is talking about social media, branding your company and building communities. Sitting here wondering how many people have come and gone through the same doors that I came in through today? Feeling, in an overwhelming sort of way, that these staff members like many other’s before them, are making such a powerful difference in some child’s life. As I see children incapable of standing still, wiggly and restless, I know in my heart, this place is a Community. And this community is very much needed by every child here.
That “community” reminded me of a recent HubSpot webinar I attend which spoke of this same thing. It was an exceptional webinar titled “How to Use Social Media to Build Your Brand.” The webinar brought many wonderful points to light and one of many that stayed with me was “Brands are defined by what people are saying about your brand.” Many companies have operated under the out dated mindset “Our brand is defined by what we say our brand is.” Sooner than later these companies are discovering that this mindset is outdated and obsolete!
Branding and building Communities takes time and you have to cultivate in order to come out ahead lest you fall behind. By building communities around content you create more opportunites for your company. By participating with people on the web, sharing pertinent information and relevant news you create a deeper sense of trust and a sense of community. Keep in mind that the people you meet and take time to interact with can one day turn out to be clients, friends and colleagues.
By this point in the webinar I was asking myself How? How do I build communities with people via Social Media? Well, it’s very simple! First, start out by Listening, then you listen some more and then based on what you are hearing Build Relationships and share your content!! Listening is the hardest thing to do for many, trust me I know! But, if you want to hear what people are saying about your particular brand you must Listen! If you want to build a community around your brand you must Listen! So where do I go to Listen you might ask? Here are some create sites that were shared with us:
Twitter Search
The Google Blog Search
Technorati
Industry Twitterers – (I follow Chris Brogan) http://twitter.com/chrisbrogan
If this blog helps just one person, I would say I have Listened and my job is done and feel free to share as you see fit!