Leap Forward Marketing

FINALLY AN UPDATE

I'm not a Twitter-quitter and I'm not a blogging-quitter. And although I haven't posted here in a while, there's a good excuse for that. Or rather a few good excuses. First of all, since my last post my husband Peter got laid off, and, as a result, we started our own family company called My Little Jules.

My Little Jules, or www.mylittlejules.com, is an online kids' clothing store where you'll find cute baby clothes and fun toddler outfits your little ones will love to wear! We search through many brands to find the ones that truly reflect the essence of childhood. So, I've been crazy-busy promoting our company and managing all aspects of this business (together with my beloved hubby, of course).  If you'd like to connect with My Little Jules, here are a few links:

My Little Jules Facebook page - personally, my favourite

My Little Jules Twitter account

Jules Got Style blog

Second, I went back to school to get my M.S. in Marketing! I'm really excited about that, although it's been pretty tough to balance family, work and school life... and squeeze a little bit of "me" time somewhere in there too. So, for the next few months, I'll be using this blog to post writing assignment for one of my classes, Strategic Media Communication, which, hopefully, will get me back into the habit of writing about social media and social media marketing!

TWITTER AS A LEAD GENERATION TOOL

Despite being so hot these days, Twitter often poses a real challenge for those who use it as a business tool. How do you get people to follow you? What should you tweet about? How do you convert 140 characters into a real buyer? 

How to Get Tweeple* to Follow You? 

This is a two step process. First, you identify people who will want you buy your product. This is done using Twitter search and other search tools available online. Then, you broadcast information that delivers real value to people you follow. 

What Should You Tweet About? 

As a rule of thumb, 50 - 70% of your tweets should be ‘educational material.’ Most often it’s third party information that presents value to your followers but is not directly related to your company. So, if your are a food retail chain, you ca talk about the latest research in healthy eating, give out recipes and more. The rest of the tweets should be company related: your blog posts, news coverage, research, special offers and such. 

How to Use Twitter as a Lead-Generation Tool? 

For B2C marketing, promotions, coupons and special offers are great. If you are a B2B company, using Twitter to generate leads might be a little more challenging. 

For B2B users, Twitter presents an opportunity to establish themselves as though-leaders and build meaningful relationships that might later translate into sales. You can also use Twitter to tie together all your other social media activities like blogging, video sharing and social networking. However, if you are looking for a ‘quick fix,’ you can use Twitter to promote a white paper or a webinar. Ask people to register to download/participate and you get your B2B leads!

*Tweeple - people who use twitter.com If you have more ideas on how to use Twitter as a lead generation tool, please share your wisdom with others.

GO SMALL TO GET BIG

The world of social media offers marketers an incredible opportunity to reach a very specific buyer. The infinite number of niche sites and communities makes it fairly easy to locate and connect with people who want to buy your product. It’s unfortunate that many companies are still missing out on this opportunity because their marketing teams are doing Facebook ads and pitching Chris Brogan. Not to say that such ‘high-level’ marketing (as I call it) shouldn’t be done. But sometimes to get big on social media sites you should go to the very niche communities and plant your ideas there first.

Those communities might be very small. There might be an overwhelming amount to choose from which will make it very time consuming to pick the right ones. You will have to dedicate your time and resources to becoming a true member of those communities. But the benefits outweigh the challenges. Besides saving you some cash and waited efforts, social media niche marketing builds relationships based on trust. You are reaching your buyers on their turf where they feel warm, cozy and… safe. This makes them more open to new ideas, especially when they come from a trusted member of their community and are supported by others.

Here are a few questions you should answer before ‘going small’:

• What can you provide that's new and compelling to met your market’s unique needs?
• Do you know your market’s “hot buttons” and communicate as a member of the niche, not an outsider?
• Who are the direct competitors and how will you position against them?

Check out this article on Entrepreneur.com for a more detailed strategy for niche marketing.

INTERESTED IN SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING? LEARN TO FLY A HELICOPTER FIRST

This past Christmas, my husband Peter wished for one thing and one thing only – an RC Helicopter. He lived and breathed RC helis - he watched hours of YouTube videos, read how-to guides and reviews, he even figured out a strategy to learn how to fly one. And so Santa, i. e. myself, had no other choice but to give Peter a 2.4Ghz Walkera HM 60B Brushless ready to fly RC Helicopter.

But while the heli was ready to fly, Peter wasn’t. As it turned out, it’s not as easy to fly an RC helicopter as it might seem. It took Peter about a month - and few hundred bucks for replacement parts - to get the thing off the ground. Today, he can keep the helicopter in the air for a minute or so. You get the idea.

Here’s what my beloved husband, has to say about why it is so difficult to fly an RC heli: “Well, one would think that you have only a limited number of controls to handle when flying a heli. In reality, you do… Seven of them, which need to be manipulated at the same time in order to fly successfully.” In addition, “all parts need to be put on correctly so they don't fly off or cause unwanted vibrations. And all the parts need to be configured as a whole in order for the heli to be balanced properly.”

Why am I telling you this? Because, the same is true for your social media marketing efforts.

There’s a lot at play here. Blogging, commenting, social networking, online video, social bookmarking, microblogging, search engine optimization - all the components of your social media marketing mix need to be tuned individually AND working in harmony, for your ‘helicopter’ to fly. And don’t forget all the ‘controls’ of your social media marketing like benchmarking, monitoring, participating, developing content and much-much more, which need to be handled simultaneously.

So, don’t get discouraged if your social media strategy doesn’t take off the ground right away. Practice makes perfect. It’s just the matter of time for your efforts to pay off!

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING BEST PRACTICES

Getting started in social media marketing? Check out this video with @jhabra as a speaker.

Social Media - Best Practices to effective social media marketing and business strategy from SB Click on Vimeo.

THE VALUE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN B2B MARKETING

Today, it’s hard to argue that social media marketing is critical for effective B2C communications. But in B2B marketing, the value of social media is often overlooked. Today, via Jeff Bullas’ blog (@jeffbullas), I came across a study that looks at the impact of social media on the decision-making process among CEOs, Directors and Managers.

According to this study, the convergence of the Internet, Web 2.0 and emerging mobile technologies, has brought us to the era of B2P (Business-to-Person) communications. In this era, control over your company’s reputation belongs to your audience. That’s why all companies, big and small, must reach out to their audiences via social media.

What’s often overlooked in B2B marketing is the fact that it’s a person, a decision-maker, on the other side of the communication channel. As more and more people use social media for professional purposes, the role of social media in the decision-making process is rapidly increasing. In fact, today 82 percent of decision-makers say they conduct research online. “Through the use of professional networks and online communities, decision-makers are connecting and collaborating with peers, experts, and colleagues far and wide in an on- demand environment, about the issues that keep them up at night.”

Questions like:

• Is this company experienced?
• Is this company knowledgeable?
• Is this company trustworthy?

play an important role during the decision-making process. And, guess what? To answer these questions, the decision-makers and their supporters read your blog, google your company’s name and ask their social networking peers for opinion. How many people are talking about you and what they say, shows how credible and experienced you are. What YOU say indicates your knowledge and builds trust.

Today, social media marketing is necessary for successful B2B communications. As the research paper concludes, “[l]aggards who do not understand the value of social networking and its appeal to the emotional side of customer relationship management will lose competitiveness and, ultimately, market share.”

IS your company leveraging the power of social media marketing? And what are some of the ways you use social media for B2B communications? Please, share your comments and ideas in the Comments section!

Image credit: Noah Sussman me on delicious network explorer

HOW TO INCREASE YOUR VISIBILITY ONLINE - PART 2

If you’ve read Part 1 of this blog post, you already know how to increase your online visibility and expand social network through blogging and tweeting. If not, please see HOW TO INCREASE YOUR VISIBILITY ONLINE. Today, I’d like to talk about expanding your social network on LinkedIn and Facebook. I will also give a few tips on how to turn you ‘friends’ and followers into prospects.

LinkedIn:

• Join Groups. The one most important step you can take to expand your social network on LinkedIn, in to join groups. You ca find groups you’d like to join using LinkedIn group search. You can join groups that fit your professional background or groups where your target audience is more likely to hang out. Check out 30 Top LinkedIn Groups for Entrepreneurs, eMarketers, and Social Media Enthusiasts by @WebStudio13. If you’d like to start your own group, read 8 Tips for Managing a LinkedIn Group by @mashable.
• Participate in discussions. Once you’ve joined groups, start participating right away. Find discussions that interest you or relate to your products/services. Like with blog comments, speak up only when you have something valuable to add to the conversation. If someone replies, continue the conversation. When you feel comfortable, start your own discussions.
• Always look for networking opportunities. Once in a while, you’ll come across open networking discussions where people, who are looking for social networking opportunities, leave links to their LinkedIn profiles, Twitter accounts, etc. Take these opportunities to connect with more people! You can also try staring a discussion in which you introduce yourself to the group and invite fellow group members to connect.

Facebook:

• Leverage your existing network. Facebook is a little trickier than LinkedIn because it’s been used primarily to stay in touch with personal contacts. You can invite people you are connected to or already follow to become friends on Facebook. Once you’ve done that, look through your friends’ friends to see if there’s someone you might have missed or have met (on- or offline) before.
• Join Facebook groups. Similar to LinkedIn groups, groups on Facebook are meant for people with similar backgrounds or interests. Join groups where your target audience hangs out. Participate in discussions and invite people to connect.
• Create a Facebook page. You can think of a Facebook page as a Facebook profile for a company/brand. Update your page with interesting articles, new blog posts and tweets. Add pictures and video. Make it as interactive and informative as possible. Here’s a great video on how to create a Facebook page (via @johnhaydon).

Now, here are a few ways to turn your ‘friends’ and followers into prospects:

• Lead, don’t sell. Social media marketing is all about carefully leading your audience into the buying process. Don’t use hard-sell techniques. Nurture your audience. Build relationships by offering valuable content, listening and responding.
• Use call to action. Tell your audience what is he next thing you want them to do: read a blog post, join a group, participate in a discussion, answer a question, leave feedback, listen to a podcast, etc. It’s OK to ask your audience to contact you, check out your products or leave their info. Just make sure that you offer something valuable in return.
• Maintain contact. In addition to your voicemail and email, check your social networking profiles and discussions often. Let people know what is the best way to reach you, but be prepared to communicate in many different ways.

Do YOU have ideas on how to increase visibility online and turn social networks into prospects? Please, share your comments and ideas in the Comments section!

HOW TO INCREASE YOUR VISIBILITY ONLINE

So, you’ve done your homework. You’ve started a blog and regularly post content to it. You’ve completed your LinkedIn and Facebook profiles. You’ve registered a Twitter account and posted a few tweets. But what now? How do you expand your network and turn ‘friends’ and ‘followers’ into prospects? Here are a few ideas:

Blog:

• Read other blogs. Using Google blog search, Technorati or any other blog search engine, find blogs that interest you and your potential clients. Once you’ve identified the first group of blogs, look through their blog rolls to find even more. Start reading blogs regularly. This will help you understand what’s relevant and help you come up with topics for your own blog.
• Comment. When you get a chance, leave a comment. Link back to your own blog or individual posts, when appropriate. However, only comment when you have something valuable to add to the discussion. Here’s a great post from @problogger on leaving comments on other blogs.
• Encourage conversation. Always ask for comments and encourage discussions on your own blog. Once in a while, write about something controversial. Contact other bloggers asking for their comments. If you get a comment – reply, check out commenter’s blog (if there’s one) and return a favor.

Twitter

• Follow. Find people to follow using Twitter search. Look for key phrases that your target audience might use. These would be the same key phrases you’ve identified when optimizing your website for search engines. Using people search, check out if any of the bloggers you’ve identified earlier are on Twitter. When you come across an interesting article, see if the author is on Twitter. Always look for a “Follow me on Twitter” button on relevant websites.
• Interact. Reply to people’s tweets or when someone is addressing you (@YOURtwittername), retweet other people or mention their names (@THEIRtwittername) in your tweets.
• Make it even more social. Find Twitter lists and groups to follow/join or create your own lists and groups. Here are two great articles from Mashable (@mashable) on why and how to create Twitter lists and groups.

In my next posts I will talk about how to increase your visibility using social networking platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook. In will also discuss a few steps your need to take to turn your ‘friends’ and ‘followers’ into prospects.

In the meanwhile, I would love to hear how YOU use social media to expand your network. Please, share your comments and ideas in the Comments section!

A Collection of Videos on Social Media, Technology & Marketing

Watch these videos to stay up to date with social media trends, learn the basics of blogging, social networking, bookmarking and more and  find out what experts have to say about marketing via social media. Hover mouse over the playback window to view the playlist.