Archive for the ‘LinkedIn’ Category

Newer Entries »

Integrating Social Media with Mobile Marketing

August 11th, 2010

By Shelly Lipton, Chief GrownUp at GrownUp Marketing

Traditional advertising channels—including print, broadcast, and online display ads—are perfect places for prompting users to text a keyword to an advertiser’s code in order to enter a sweepstakes or receive a discount coupon. This has been the foundation of mobile marketing since its infancy, but today’s savvy marketers are beginning to realize that social networking via channels like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube can spread the word even faster and more effectively.

Mobile marketing—interactive, real-time messages sent to consumers via their mobile devices—has taken its place as the advertising world’s “third screen” (in addition to television and computer monitors), and the promotional potential is unlimited. With mobile’s appealing “act now” incentives, consumers can do most of the legwork by sharing the information with their friends via their social media networks to enable an advertiser’s mobile campaign to go viral.

Here’s a sample scenario of how it might work: A national pizza chain launches a mobile marketing campaign to offer a “buy one, get one free” coupon. The company is already running TV spots and targeted online display ads to drive awareness and interest in the promotion. With the help of its ad agency, a message will be added to the TV spot that says, “Text TWOPIZZAS to code 74642 to receive a two-for-one coupon for a large pizza!” Consumers who see these ads will text the keyword and receive, via their cell phones, a digital coupon that can be redeemed at the local pizza store in their area.

Here’s where social media comes into the mix. If it’s a strong enough offer, a consumer will tell his or her friends on Facebook and Twitter that the local pizza place is offering a great deal. Those friends will tell their friends, and so on. They’ll all end up on the pizza place’s Facebook page, where they can find other share-worthy discount coupons.

According to a March 2010 article in Mobile Marketer, access to Facebook via mobile browsers grew 112 percent in the past year, while Twitter experienced a 347 percent jump, according to research by comScore. In the same article, comScore’s Director of Industry Analysis Andrew Lipsman was quoted as saying, “I think the key finding is that there appears to be a natural synergy between social media and the mobile platform. That we’ve seen such dramatic growth on Facebook and Twitter via mobile browsers is testament to this fact.”

It’s clear to both experts and observers that mobile marketing and social media are growing up together. Millennial Media’s S.M.A.R.T. Report for April 2010 revealed that social media represents 11 percent of all campaign actions on its network. And according to eMarketer in March 2010, 650 million people globally are using their smartphones for tasks such as e-mail and social networking.

With purchases of goods and services via mobile devices expected to reach $200 billion in 2012 (double what it is today), the linking of mobile marketing and social media is a marriage made on Madison Avenue.

Posted in Advertising, Coupons, Facebook, LinkedIn, Marketing, Mobile Marketing, MySpace, Research, Shelly Lipton, SMS, Twitter, YouTube | No Comments »

Is Farming Out Selling Out?

August 4th, 2010

By Phyllis Neill, President & CEO of WeMentor Social Media Marketing

The more we learn about social media marketing and management, we realize that the devil is in the details. We now know it’s not enough to simply be in social media, but we need lots of relevant, compelling content, frequent updates, and ongoing efforts to find followers. Most importantly, we need to inject our authentic brand voice, which cannot be outsourced. Or can it?

The good news is, there can be a happy medium. The secret to success is knowing what to farm out, what to keep in-house, and having a strategic plan that helps you do both.

What You Should Farm Out

You could feasibly farm out the creation and posting of 70 percent of the educational content you need to be providing:

  • Make a list of the top 10 to 15 sites where your target and current customers spend time, such as blogs, online news sites, niche social media sites, etc.
  • Engage someone to do a weekly “listening” campaign, where they select the top two to three articles or blog entries from each of the sites you identified.
  • From the list of top articles and blog entries gathered, engage someone to turn them into educational tweets, and have them post these three to four a day throughout the week for you.

What You Should Keep Within Your Company

Even if your business is trying to establish itself as an expert in a specific field, you will need to do more than have highly relevant article link tweets to get you there. Part of the appeal of social media is the intimacy factor; the ability to really get to know a company and its people like never before. Therefore, it is critical that you are able to inject your brand personality into your social media efforts, or people simply will not continue to follow you:

  • Create mini-blog entries. Have your social media marketing company create an editorial calendar that maps out suggested blog topics for each month, giving you the ability to give out guest blog assignments way in advance with a topic already suggested.
  • Post company events on Facebook. If you had a summer picnic, a charity fundraiser, or a trip for your top salespeople, post pictures of these events with personal captions under each picture. Nothing gives a customer or prospect a better feel for the company brand and culture than getting a peek inside how the company celebrates.
  • Develop a relationship with Twitter followers by commenting on other tweets and retweeting interesting articles.
  • Create real-world interactions out of social media meetings. Plan once-a-week LinkedIn lunches to stay top of mind with your LinkedIn contacts. Or write a handwritten note to someone you’ve met through your social media efforts.

The Importance of Strategy and Relationships

The bottom line is that it is possible to outsource a lot of the legwork involved in your social media strategy and still remain highly involved in the messaging. Just make sure to stay strategically involved in the relationship-building piece of the program, and your social media program will be a success.

Posted in Blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, Listening, Marketing, Outsourcing, Phyllis Neill, Strategy, Twitter | No Comments »

Social Media Strategy Unclear to Marketers

July 28th, 2010

By Diane Meyer, Owner of Marketing by DM

We’re hearing it over and over again from marketers. They’re saying, “I’ve sat down through so many Webinars on social media, and they’re all telling us to develop a strategy, but what is that strategy?” Well, we’ve heard you, but now we’re listening.

There have been several leaders who have addressed this recently, such as a story by @eMarketer entitled, “What Makes Up a Social Marketing Strategy?” Quality content here. Definitely save this as a favorite. I would like to take a different approach, however, to help those that seem to struggle with integrating social media in their marketing mix.

Let’s focus in on Twitter. If you don’t understand Twitter, you cannot possibly develop a strategy. As an example, I don’t know how to play chess, so how would I be able to strategize a move that is beneficial to me? Going nowhere is not an option and quite boring. In fact, I wouldn’t hold my own attention, much less anyone else’s.

Some of you may relate better to football. First, you have to really understand the game. I actually do and certainly get it when Penn State wins. Then your coach (Twitter) can guide you (football) toward your goal (whatever you decide that to be). Setting a goal may be to connect to like-minded business executives, marketers, and/or owners so that you can stay abreast of what is happening in your industry.

You must engage everyone on your team (those you follow) in order to reach your goal. Just throwing out the football (your tweets) will leave everyone cold, bored, and unengaged. They may even quit your team (unfollow you). Know what others are doing, saying, and care about, and be courteous as though you were having a discussion in person. Choose your words wisely. This is even more important than in person.

Your goal may become very different than what it was months ago. Last August, my objective was only to learn everything I could about Twitter through the sharing of links and information from SEOs, CEOs, and marketing leaders I was following. Starting with just 30 people to follow was a choice I made so that I could keep up. I didn’t even start contributing to the communication stream until after one month. More than a year later, I’m now ready to develop a strategy that is best for me.

Depending on your goals, type of business, and who you wish to reach, you will have to decide in which social media service you invest most of your time. My recommendation would be to have a presence on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, but not necessarily in equal parts. Hopefully, your marketing mix already includes advertising, publicity, public relations, promotions, and sales. You will now add social media.

It is unfortunate if we view ROI only as dollars in return. For example, I like to think that my investment of time in Twitter results in ROE (return on energy). The energy I put into it comes right back to me ten-fold or a hundred-fold from some of the best of the best in the social media community. How do you attach a number that?

Have you reached a stumbling block on the strategy for your social media presence? Have you integrated Twitter or some other social media service into your marketing mix? Are you still confused? Should the goal always be dollars and cents?

Posted in Diane Meyer, Facebook, LinkedIn, Marketing, Public Relations, Strategy, Twitter | No Comments »

Size Matters: How a Large Online Network Can Transform You, Your Marketing, and Your Business

July 21st, 2010

By Ken Herron, Chief Marketing Officer at SocialGrow

Investment portfolios, airline seats, and chocolate fudge cakes. What do these three things have in common with the size of your online network? Big is good, bigger is better, and biggest is where you want to be.

As marketers, we have stuff to do, and failing to reach our objectives is not an option. Our brands and businesses require us to make things happen. Customers, sales, revenues… it’s up to us. Having large online social networks gives us the juice we need to make things happen.

Over the past few months, I have seen a surprising number of articles attempting to convince me that whether I’m a B2B or a B2C marketer, the focus for my portfolio of friend, follower, and connection-based online networks should be “engagement.” Hogwash.

Size matters. Size gives you power. Size gives you control. Size gives you leverage.

Everyone is an expert in something, but no one is an expert in everything. One of the reasons to be active on social media is to learn how to use cutting-edge and proven marketing strategies and tactics. If you follow one marketing professor on Twitter, you learn his/her approaches. How much better if you follow all of the top marketing professors on Twitter in the areas of B2B marketing, B2C marketing, public relations, corporate branding, and marketing research? The larger your network, the smarter you can be.

In the concept of six degrees of separation, all of us are, at most, six steps away from any other person. This is the heart of LinkedIn’s business model. If I have one connection on LinkedIn, I’m two degrees away from everyone my connection knows. Whether I need to buy or sell, I have a personal introduction to everyone in my connection’s network. As a marketer whose livelihood depends on your ability to get things done, would you rather have one connection on LinkedIn or 1,000?

What if you had a large mailing list of people who want to receive your communications because they’re interested in what you have to say? Each of your messages can reach more target customers. The larger your online network, the more people you can sell, real-time, 24x7x365.

As marketers, part of our value is to persuade our target audience to take action. If you’re Ashton Kutcher and develop the largest online network, you’re not just in the media, you are the media. You can directly broadcast to your five million-plus member audience anytime. That’s marketing. You want each and every one of your communications to command a level of credibility so high that other media outlets are forced to report on them.

As my boss likes to say, “Your message can only go as far as the size of your network.” Besides, as any five year old will loudly and unashamedly tell you when you’re standing in line with him at the bakery, “Who wouldn’t want the biggest chocolate fudge cake?”

Posted in B2B, B2C, Branding, Ken Herron, LinkedIn, Marketing, Public Relations, Research | No Comments »

LinkedIn: How to Properly Plant It into Your Social Media Marketing Landscape

June 30th, 2010

By Kent Huffman, Chief Marketing Officer at BearCom Wireless and Co-Publisher of Social Media Marketing Magazine

LinkedIn is just one of a myriad of popular tools available in today’s rapidly growing and evolving social media world. So how do you justify the effort required to sow and nurture your presence on LinkedIn, especially the time and resources that could be invested elsewhere?

Lewis Howes (LinkedIn and Twitter) is a noted social media speaker and entrepreneur and co-author of the book, LinkedIn Working: Generating Success on the World’s Largest Professional Networking Web Site. Lewis thinks there a number of good reasons for putting down some of your social media marketing roots around LinkedIn. “With more than $109,000 as the average household income per user on LinkedIn (a far greater average than Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, or the other popular social networking sites) and close to 45% of its members being business decision makers (versus 25-29% on Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace), LinkedIn really is the place to be,” says Lewis. “It’s a great tool that can help you generate more leads and sales, drive traffic to your Web site, attract investors, control your personal brand, find your dream job or freelancing gigs, locate the right employees, build your database, get free PR, and position yourself or your company as a thought leader.”

But even if you agree that LinkedIn needs to be a focus for you or your company, how do you create a successful, impactful profile that will attract the right people and help accomplish your social media marketing goals?

Viveka von Rosen (LinkedIn and Twitter) is a successful entrepreneur, nationally renowned IA-certified LinkedIn trainer, and popular social media speaker. She is also the principal at Linked Into Business. Viveka teaches her clients and audiences that success on LinkedIn depends on several key actions. “Treat your LinkedIn profile like a Web site, and make sure it’s formatted, clean, and most importantly, filled with search engine-friendly keywords,” Viveka suggests. “Join strategically selected LinkedIn groups, and then invite members of those groups to join your network. You might even consider creating your own group. Then fill it with interesting and relevant information.”

Social Media Delivered, one of the largest and most respected social media optimization companies worldwide, is led by CEO Eve Orsburn (LinkedIn and Twitter). Eve believes that LinkedIn is a necessary component of any successful social media marketing strategy, especially in the business-to-business realm. “LinkedIn is the largest professional networking Web site in the world, with more than 65 million members,” Eve notes. “It’s also the most affluent social media tool and is ideal for reaching prospects in the B2B world, finding a job, obtaining venture capital, forming business partnerships, and growing your business.”

In the final analysis, it’s all about results. With the right strategy, tactics, and mindset, LinkedIn will quickly become an important part of your social media marketing landscape and will grow stronger and stronger over time, delivering measurable, repeatable results. This is especially true if you keep in mind the primary rules of social media: listen and learn first, share your knowledge, add value, always be authentic, and help others before you ask for help. On a related note, Viveka adds, “Remember to ‘give to’ more than you try and ‘get from’ other LinkedIn members. That’s the most important key to success.”

Posted in B2B, Channels, Eve Orsburn, Facebook, Kent Huffman, Lewis Howes, LinkedIn, Marketing, MySpace, Strategy, Tools, Twitter, Viveka von Rosen | No Comments »

The Power in Your Profile: How LinkedIn Can Be Leveraged to Lead a Fruitful Job Hunt

June 2nd, 2010

By Eve Orsburn, CEO of Social Media Delivered

If you have a profile on LinkedIn, you are already aware of the strength in what I find to be the most powerful social media tool available for career searches.

LinkedIn networks more than 60 million professionals with more than half of them located outside the United States. According to a TechCrunch study, a new LinkedIn user joins every second. Chances of being noticed by a company improve when you have a connection. LinkedIn excels at leveraging connections by creating relationships.

On LinkedIn, click the “Jobs” tab at the top. And check out the LinkedIn job search tutorial. In addition, here are a few secrets for using Groups on LinkedIn to give your job search superiority:

Find a Group

Click “Search Groups” in the drop-down section on the top right of LinkedIn and enter a keyword. For example, if you are an accounting professional and enter “accounting” in the groups search, 900+ groups pop up. Let’s assume you want to work in Dallas. Add the keyword “Dallas,” and the search narrows. Read group descriptions and check the number of members. If there are only a few members, it won’t give you a great opportunity to build your network. Once you find a group that looks like a good target, click “Join this Group.” Some immediately accept requests. Others check your profile to make sure you are a good match.

Join a Group

Repeat the process with groups that may expose you to targeted prospects. Consider joining groups with your interests. You may find companies you’re interested in working for that have their own groups. You can join up to 50 groups, but it’s a good idea to limit yourself to 10 or 20, so you’ll have time to participate and bring value.

Exclusive Job Listings

After being accepted into a LinkedIn group, take time to explore it. The first place you will want to click is the tab labeled “Jobs.” This is where members post jobs pertaining to specialties of the group. Because these listings are free, this may be the only place this job is posted. You can post under jobs within a group you are looking for a position in. Keep this listing short, and post experience and talents in a catchy fashion.

Direct Connect

In LinkedIn, you can usually only directly contact people in your network. When you join a group, you have the ability to communicate directly with almost all members, unless they have stipulated that group members are not be able to contact them (which is rare). Use this opportunity to reach out to people you want to meet. Explain what help you would like and what you can do for them.

Get Noticed

Offer value to group members. Comment on discussions with valuable information and post discussions and news articles. I advise posting or commenting in each group once a week to keep visibility up without being overzealous. Read the guidelines to posting on each group (usually at the top of the discussion section).

Get Work While Searching for a Job

Often, someone within a group is looking for help or offering temporary employment for an individual with specific knowledge in the area being discussed. Comment to respond or reply privately. These positions can turn into full-time gigs.

Posted in Eve Orsburn, LinkedIn, Marketing | No Comments »

Newer Entries »