SMBs Rarely Post to LinkedIn and Twitter But Still Claim Social Media Success

For the small business owner, social media is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, it’s a relatively inexpensive form of online advertising but on the other hand it can take up a lot of time to deliver only minimal results.

When Constant Contact asked 1,000 small business owners which social media network was tops. . . well, I’ll bet you know which one they named most often.

Facebook. It was Facebook, of course but it makes me wonder if that’s really the truth or just a knee jerk response. The real news is the number two slot. Check out this graph:

At a glance, you can see the impact social media is having on small business. In just a few short months, the bars from one side to the other have more than quadrupled. Remember, the question wasn’t “which platforms are you using” but “which platforms are most effective.” So, true or not, marketers feel like they’re getting through.

What’s amazing is the growth in both LinkedIn and Twitter. LinkedIn goes from 10% to 29%; Twitter from 7% to 25%. That’s some boost in confidence. YouTube comes in third, but look at the gain in just eight months. 15% of small business owners are seeing results using video or video advertising. Google+ even rose a few notches but they should look away in shame at being beat out by Pinterest and Yelp.

Now, here’s why I say the results are about perception and not necessarily the truth:



This chart shows the number of businesses who regularly post to social media. The darker gold is daily posting, the lighter color is weekly.

Only 13% of SMB’s are posting daily Twitter Tweets. Under 10% are posting to LinkedIn on a regular basis. And yet, more than 25% of owners say these are effective strategies. How can that be? Can you really make a splash on Twitter by only Tweeting now and then?

In the social media world, messages fly off the front page at a furious rate. Posting only once a day will only get you seen by a tiny portion of your audience, so what happens when you only Tweet once a week?

Maybe slowing down is the new trend. I’ve seen several pro-bloggers talk about how it’s insane to put up a new blog post every day. That it makes more sense to write one good post a week (or a month) and spend the rest of the time driving more traffic to that piece. The quote was, “why write more when only 100 people saw what you wrote the first time.”

This is the complete opposite of what we’ve all been taught, but it does make sense.
What if we apply this logic to Facebook. When a brand posts to their Facebook Page, there’s only a small chance it’s going to be seen by his followers.

TechCrunch explains it in this post:

Facebook told me in February that the average Page reaches 16 percent of its fans with each post. That’s because some fans aren’t online when the post is published, a specific post hasn’t gotten much engagement from the people Facebook already showed it to, and because if you don’t interact with that Page when you do see its posts, Facebook will only show you them every once in awhile.

You don’t reach all your followers on Twitter with each tweet either. You could, except most people follow so many people that they only read parts of their stream.

That being true, does it matter if you post ten times a day or once a day? Do you have just as much chance of reaching the same number of people with one really good post as you do with ten not so interesting posts?

I have no idea. What do you think? Could slowing down on social media posting be the key to success or is social media marketing like throwing spaghetti at the wall – the more you throw, the better chance one piece will stick?

http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2013/03/smbs-rarely-post-to-linkedin-and-twitter-but-still-claim-social-media-success.html

Are You Missing The Point About Online Business?

Starting an online business can be an exciting prospect.

 

However, there are many components to consider and it is all too easy to stray off-target.

Even with a well prepared business strategy mistakes or oversights can be made. The most dogmatic of online business developers are fallible to the odd slip here and there.

 

With this in mind, here are 5 things beginning online business owners should be aware of as they embark on a maiden voyage to carving out their own profitable online niche.

 

Have you forgotten..?

 

1. A Business Plan: No one should even consider creating a new business without some form of business strategy in mind. It is not enough to simply have some idea of what action will be taken or what sort of steps should be followed in order to achieve a potential goal. A business plan should have a clear mission statement, actionable steps, achievable timelines, checkpoints, and a one-year target. All these aspects should be clearly documented and combined into an actual physical plan, not some sketchy idea in the back of one's mind.

 

2. Branding: All successful businesses have a name or logo everyone remembers. These businesses did not achieve this by pure luck. The brand establishment was a direct result of planning, working on progressive awareness and skillful advertising. New business developers must have a brand in mind before they start their online journey. Establishing this brand is a priority from the very beginning and website development, search engine optimization, online and off-line advertising, plus consumer interaction should all be undertaken with brand establishment in mind.

 

3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO): As every experienced online business owner knows, gaining and maintaining a good search engine ranking is a long-term strategy. However, SEO is a tactic that needs to be considered from the very beginning. SEO should begin when designing a website and preparing content. Initially, there are many things to consider, such as:

 

The correct use of meta tags

Using anchor text within images

Search engine friendly navigational architecture

Use of keywords in headings

Correctly placing keywords and synonyms in content

 

Making sure SEO is correct from the very beginning is far easier than having to redesign a website and re-edit content at a later date. Any additional content, added to the site at a later date, should continue to follow the same SEO principles used when the site was created. This also applies to using keyword anchors when creating links to and from the site.

 

4. Advertising: Promoting the site will normally happen once the website has been created and products/services have been finalized. There are many forms of advertising techniques available i.e. textual search engine ads, banner advertising, off-line advertising, and reciprocal link exchanges. Remember that advertising is not purely about sales lead generation. It is also about building brand awareness. How a business chooses to advertise depends on the size of the business and its market/target audience. The business should already have chosen relevant keywords when working on SEO and these keywords should be used in advertising/links whenever possible.

 

5. Quality and Integrity: It is said that any business is only as good as his reputation and a business hoping to achieve long-term success should begin by offering quality products/services and treating customers with respect and honesty. It is always good practice, once the website is built and advertising is in place, to take a step back and see what the business is saying. Is the website believable? Are adverts fair and honest? Would you buy from your own site? A great benchmark of quality and integrity is to ask friends or family, who are not connected with the business, for impartial feedback and opinions. Do they consider your site reputable? If the answer is yes, you're heading on the right track.

 

The above 5 points can help to keep an online business heading in the right direction, but they should not be seen as the only factors to consider. It could be said that points 2, 3, and 4 would fit into the business plan mentioned in point number 1.

 

While this may be true, a good business plan will incorporate all factors of business strategy both present and future and it is easy to forget key factors.

 

Therefore, all the points in the above check list are worthy of mention in their own right. Remember to create a sound business plan, and keep the plan in mind as you progress and continue to perform regular quality checks once your business strategies are in play.

 

http://ezinearticles.com/?Are-You-Missing-The-Point-About-Online-Business?&id=7553480

13 Hot Internet Marketing Trends in 2013

 Internet marketing is now a critical piece of just about any company’s marketing mix. There are few marketing options with the speed, efficiency and reach as internet marketing. And so you should take the time to ensure you are focusing sufficiently on your internet marketing to maximize your revenue and growth.   


The year 2013 will prove to be another year in which the array of internet marketing vehicles, tools and techniques will continue to increase. To help you capitalize on the opportunities, here are 13 hot internet marketing trends for 2013 that you should consider when planning your marketing initiatives throughout the year:  

13 Hot Internet Marketing Trends in 2013

1. Design Matters

Design matters, because design sells. Just look at the success of Apple, Pinterest, Desk.com or Nike. All four websites are stunning, and that’s no coincidence. Apple is the most valuable company of all time. It actually carries very few products, though. It’s the design that powers Apple’s value. Nike is a shoe and apparel company, yet pays just as much attention to the design of its website, videos and ads as much as to anything else. Focus on great design for all of your internet marketing in 2013.

2. Marketing Goes Visual

Similarly, communication through visual means is hot, and only getting hotter. Whether the explosion in infographics, or the dramatic rise in the popularity of Pinterest, or the redesigns of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, we are going through a visual revolution. Start figuring out how to make more of your marketing visual in 2013.

3. Parallax Design

Parallax website design incorporates special scrolling techniques whereby background images on the screen move slower than foreground images, creating an illusion of depth on the screen. You can see examples at the following websites: Volkswagon Beetle and Activate (be sure to scroll down the page!). If you are planning a website redesign in 2013, consider incorporating elements of parallax design.

 

4. Mobile Mobile Mobile

Wordwide, there are over 5 billion mobile users and 1.1 billion smartphone subscribers specifically. The iPad was the fastest growing technology product EVER! Wow, if you need further convincing that you should start planning how to connect with your audience via mobile channels for your business, you’re nuts!

5. Video Video Video

More than 4 billion online videos are watched every day. Sixty-eight percent of video watchers share video links. So it’s clear your audience likes video. On top of this, consider that after 72 hours, a typical person can retain about 10% of text that they’ve read, 65% of an image they’ve seen, or 95% of a video they watched. Think that video might be helpful with communicating your message to your audience? Just a bit, huh?!?

6. Cloud-Based Tools

To be uber-efficient with your internet marketing efforts, you should be using cloud-based tools. For email marketing, you might be using MailChimp. For SEO, you might be using SEOmoz. For landing page testing, you might be using Unbounce. For heat map analysis, you might be using CrazyEgg. For website analysis, you might be using BoostSuite. Check out all the unbelievably useful options available to you.

7. The Multi-Screen World

With 86% of mobile internet users actually using their devices while watching TV, and with more than 10,901 Tweets PER SECOND being issued as TV viewers watched Adele win Record of the Year at The Grammy’s, it’s clear that we all live in a multi-screen world. Make sure that your internet marketing accounts for not just desktops, but ALL screens.

8. Social Media Gets Smarter

Facebook has more than 1 billion users, and Twitter has more than 500 million. Social media is an opportunity for your business, but it’s been difficult for many businesses to make sense of it all and to gain solid business value out of it. With a growing number of marketing platforms such as Wildfire by Google and ShortStack, and with more granular social media analytics as provided by tools such as SproutSocial, Followerwonk and PageLever, extracting clear meaning from your social marketing will get easier over time.

9. Retargeting Goes Mainstream

Retargeting is a means of placing your advertisements in front of your audience after they have left your website without converting. What many marketers fail to realize is that retargeting is one of the most effective internet marketing techniques available. If you are already investing in your site and your marketing campaigns for more site traffic, then it typically pays big dividends to remind the people who left your website without a conversion of your value in solving their needs. Your options for retargeting include Google Remarketing, AdRoll, Retargeter and also Bizo (for exceptional B2B retargeting).

10. Email Remarketing

In lead generation campaigns or retailer email marketing, there are always going to be occurrences of form or cart abandonment. However, it’s a waste to just let the prospect go without reaching out and finding out if you might indeed offer exactly what they want or need. After the abandonment of a registration form or online shopping cart, through email remarketing you can send out an automated email to give your brand another chance at winning the heart and mind of the prospect. According to SeeWhy, 26% of those who abandoned an online shopping cart will return to complete the purchase in the case they receive a remarketing email.

11. Search, Social & PR Collide

Organic search has been incorporating social signals for some time, and the integration of search and social has accelerated with the introduction of Google+ and the Google Knowledge Graph. With Google’s Panda and Penguin search algorithm updates, it’s become extremely clear that quality and value matter. That means high quality content, combined with sincere, transparent social marketing, combined with targeted PR is going to be a triad that’s hard to beat.

12. Attribution Measurement

If you run multiple forms of internet marketing, such as paid search, SEO, email marketing, display advertising, and retargeting, then it can be difficult to assess the value of each piece of your marketing puzzle. If someone encounters your brand five times in a given week through the different marketing vehicles, who’s to say how much credit to give to each of the different pieces. That’s where attribution measurement services come in, whether Google, ClearSaleing or VisualIQ.

13. The Hispanic Market

Hispanics are the fastest-growing segment of the US population. And as they represent approximately 25% of new births, expect them to have an impact on your future business. Research points to Hispanics spending more time online than non-Hispanics and being more active online than non-Hispanics. If you have been ignoring the Hispanic market, perhaps 2013 is the time to start providing the market with the attention and customization that it deserves.

http://www.startupnation.com/business-articles/9850/1/internet-marketing-trends-2013.htm#

 

Top CEOs in Social, Facebook to Solve Attribution Problem with Atlas

Oprah, Rupert Murdoch Most Influential CEOs in Social Media (or Infographics: This Is How You Do It)

In a brilliant display of content marketing prowess, TopManagementDegrees.com has released a caricature infographic illustrating the 40 CEOs most influential in social media. Oprah tops the list with a Klout score of 92, followed closely by Rupert Murdoch at 91, which just goes to show that social influence is not a popularity contest.

Virgin’s Richard Branson, HDNet’s Mark Cuban, and Jack Dorsey of Square round out the top 5. The top 40 is rife with the usual suspects; tech and marketing CEOs from Twitter, Salesforce, Foursquare, Dell, LinkedIn, etc. One surprising find: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg failed to break the top 50.

The infographic is based on information offered in a November 2012 roundup entitled The Most Influential Execs on the Web, by Klout and Reuters. Even so, the more visual representation of this data is getting a lot of play and subsequent link love from around the web; News.com.au, Visual.ly, Social News Daily, TechJournal.org and yours truly have all picked it up. Why? Content Marketing 101: Original, top quality content is a winner every time.

In this case, it’s incredibly well done and the graphics are killer, though it is confusing that there are no ads, affiliate links or even some kind of call to action on the site itself. Content Marketing Lesson #2: let people know what it is you want them to do as a result of engaging with your awesome content. I want to click something… please give me something to sign up for. Maybe they made this out of the goodness of their hearts?

http://www.toprankblog.com/2013/03/online-marketing-news-march12013/

The Only Essential Skill You Need To Be Successful Online

So many people think that creating a successful business on the Internet is some big mystery.

The reality is that it’s easier than you might think, because online success boils down to one key skill.

No, you don’t need to be a genius coder or have an excellent eye for design. You don’t need high-powered connections, or even a website of your own (at first). It’s much more simple than that.

If you want to be successful online, the only essential skill is being a good copywriter.

What is copywriting, specifically? It’s the art of writing persuasively in order to market a product, service, person, or idea. If you haven’t looked around lately, the vast majority of the Internet comes in text form. Along with that, nearly all the writing you see is persuasive. News articles, sales pages, status updates — they’re all trying to sell something, even if it doesn’t always seem like it.

So why is this so important to success online?

For the same reason sales is so crucial to traditional business. If you can convince someone to see things your way, there’s nothing you can’t do — the options are limitless.

 

You could make a living writing sales pages for others. You could be the person who markets the apps other people spend months building. You could specialize in pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, or make a killer social media manager.

Now, how do you learn these skills? Chances are, you’re already ahead of the game. If you have the basics of writing down, then it’s just a matter of making a switch in mindset.

When you recognize that you’re being persuasive with every piece of content you put on the internet, you can make your messages even more effective. That being said, here are some of the best ways to quickly increase your skill and confidence in persuasive copywriting:

1. Read Copyblogger (among others).

Copyblogger is my go-to resource for anything copywriting-related. The articles are easy to digest, and well written. Pay specific attention to what the author is trying to make you think; remember every article has a purpose. The more aware you are of that purpose, the better you’ll be at your craft.

If you want to take things more seriously, check out Copyhour. A reasonably priced eight-week bootcamp for learning copywriting. The idea is you copy down one classic sales letter a day — by hand. After two months of doing this, I was amazed how many of the strategies and techniques I’d internalized.

2. Write 1,000 words/day.

They say practice makes perfect, right? Well, how can you get better at writing, if you don’t do it on a regular basis? I’ve written at least 1,000 words almost every single day this past year. It doesn’t matter what you’re writing — just going through the exercise helps to internalize some of the basic psychological elements of persuasive writing.

Simply put? The more you write, the better you get.

3. Find something to sell.

Yes, you’re always selling something. But if you really want to get better, you’ll need a way to track your progress — so come up with an offer. Maybe you have an affiliate relationship with one of your favorite products; or perhaps you should rewrite your product or services page for your own offerings.

 

There’s nothing more telling than hard sales to let you know if you’re doing a good job.

If you’re serious about building a business online, stop focusing on the technical side of things. Build up your skills as a copywriter first, and I promise you’ll never be short of ways to make a buck online.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2013/03/11/the-only-essential-skill-you-need-to-be-successful-online/