14 New Social Articles on Business 2 Community

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• Social Media Analytics: Facebook Insights
• Local SEO: The Most Important Online Marketing Strategy for Most Small Businesses
• Facebook Offers: Facebook’s Golden Child Product For Businesses
• Ask An SEO Expert – SEO & Email Newsletters
• Why Some LinkedIn Groups Fail Miserably
• How to Build on the Momentum of a Blogathon
• Benelave Bathroom Singer Contest Rocks On Facebook
• 5 Indian Social Media Articles Worth Reading This Weekend
• Social Media Strategy: Research to Boost Your Social Marketing ROI
• 10 Tips for Non-Profit Social Media Success
• Ultimate Social Media Party Foul List – 70 Party Fouls of the Social Foolish
• The Painful Reality Of Social Spam
• 12 Twitter Users to Follow for Tech Trends and Tips
• Content Happy Hour: When Do Readers Dial Into Your Content?

Social Media Analytics: Facebook Insights Posted: 30 Sep 2012 03:00 PM PDT I posted some comments from the Facebook Marketing Conference on using Facebook Insights to manage your social media marketing campaign. Today, I want to expand on that post to discuss other issues that impact your success on Facebook. To the right, you'll see an example of what Facebook Insights looks like. Metrics from Facebook Insights Total Likes: This number really doesn't have much meaning except that is shows your potential — the greater number of fans, the greater the potential reach for your message. But, unless you're able to engage your fans, this number is meaningless. That's because you only reach the Friends of Friends (which you'll notice is a HUGE number) if you engage your fans. Algorithm Behind Facebook Insights That's because few fans EVER go back to your page — so they don't see anything you post there. The only way Fans see your posts is when you show up in their newsfeed. And, to show up in their newsfeed, you have to engage your fans through sharing, liking, and commenting. These types of engagement allow your post through the Facebook algorithm that screens a user's newsfeed to ensure only posts likely to be interesting show up. Otherwise, users would have to wade through screen after screen of spam before finding anything interesting. And, they'd likely stop using Facebook. The more users who engage with a brand, the more likely their posts are to show up in the newsfeeds of their fans. Fans then have the opportunity to like, share or comment on the item, which, of course, now means the message might show up in all their friends' newsfeeds. Using Facebook Insights So, now that you understand a little about how Facebook Insights demonstrate what's going on with users, let's take a look at how you use Facebook Insights. Notice, below the graph, Facebook lists recent posts. In columns across from the posts, we see how users respond to the post in terms of engagement with users and users talking about the post (sharing). Then, Facebook calculates some estimate of the virality of the message — much like measures of eyeballs seeing a print or broadcast ad also called reach in traditional advertising. You'll notice, some messages do better than others in terms of engagement, talking about, and reach. Obviously, you want to understand what makes these messages more effective than other messages. Here are some metrics you might look for to figure this out: Maybe it's the time of day the post went up — because Facebook newsefeeds scroll endlessly, earlier posts are quickly replaced by later posts. The more friends you have and the more they post, the faster your newsfeed scrolls. Posting when your audience is reading their newsfeed means you'll gain more eyeballs. Maybe, it the topic. Some topics likely resonate with your audience better than others. Check to see if you posted on a trending topic in posts that received more exposure, for instance. Studies show Facebook users respond better to images than text, but that's not necessarily true for your network. The point is: spend some time getting to know your network and monitor them in case they change. What Else Can You Learn From Facebook Insights? One of the things I like to track is conversion from Facebook. Facebook Insights also tells you how many people saw each post, which also helps you optimize your Facebook strategy by creating more posts that resonate with your network. But, I like to track the percentage of the audience who saw my post to conversion — whether that's visiting the website, buying the brand, or requesting more information. While you can't DIRECTLY connect conversion with your Facebook posts, you can get a good idea, especially if you set up special pages for Facebook responses (on your website pages, including landing pages, you can also looks at Google Analytics to see where traffic is coming from). Social Media and Metrics As I've said many times on this blog, social media (like Marketing itself) is becoming more analytical and more metrics driving. This is just one example of how analytics helps optimize your strategy. Otherwise, you're likely stumbling around hoping for success, rather than seeing it show up on your Income Statement. Let Hausman and Associates help you achieve your social media marketing goals. Visit our product page to learn more about how we've helped other businesses, see a sample of the types of products we run, or request a proposal to show you how we can make your marketing SIZZLE. Be sure to subscribe to our email newsletter, where you’ll get even more insights to make your marketing SIZZLE Hausman Marketing Letter

Local SEO: The Most Important Online Marketing Strategy for Most Small Businesses Posted: 30 Sep 2012 02:30 PM PDT The Question Depending on your resources, market, and goals, there are countless internet marketing tools and strategies available to you and your small business. However, if you are still on the sidelines, have just started marketing online, or are limited by budget, time, or experience, you may still be trying to decide on the most efficient marketing strategy. The Answer If your small business relies even partially on local internet or foot traffic for clientele, your first priority has to be "Local" SEO. What is "Local" SEO No, I'm not suggesting you hire the self proclaimed SEO Guru that lives down the street from you, in this context "Local" SEO is a strategy to optimize your web presence for locally based search queries, otherwise known as "local search". A 2011 survey from Harris Interactive (sponsored by CityGrid Media) revealed that 59% of those surveyed (83% of those under the age of 35) indicated that the search engines are the first place that they go when searching for local businesses. Slightly fewer than 10% actually visit the merchant's site directly. The major search engines, recognizing that search is the predominant way that people look for information about local businesses online, have developed a mechanism to ensure that "local" businesses appear on the Search Engine Results Pages for highly competitive, high volume search terms. A portion of the Search Engine Results Page for those terms is reserved for local businesses that have registered with the search engines, and have been verified as having an address in that geographic region. Identifying the "Local" Search Results A typical Search Engine Results page will have up to 3 paid ads at the top of the page. These ads are the results of a Pay Per Click campaign by those companies, in which they bid for position on the search engine results pages . The PPC ads can be identified by their position at the top of the page, and the pink box that highlights them. The PPC ads are usually followed by 0-3 organic listings. The organic, or natural listings are free, and represent companies that have web pages that are well optimized for that keyword or phrase. The "local" ads appear after the 0-3 organic ads. The ads themselves are narrower than the organic listings and consist of the business name but lack the description that follows the organic listing. You will also see an image of the Google "Pin", and an address and phone number to the right of the ad. Generally, seven local ads will be displayed with a link to "see more" at the bottom of the list. Setting Up for "Local" SEO Registering with the search engines as a "local" business is free and relatively painless. Simply go to the registration site for Google, Bing, and Yahoo, fill out the information, follow the verification directions and you're business could appear in the "local" search results! Google Places Bing Local Yahoo Local Listings Local Search Optimization Registering for local search qualifies your website to appear in the "local" listings. However, with only 7 spots available, not all businesses that register can appear on the first page. Where your business appears in the "local" listings display depends on 3 factors: On-Page Optimization Citations and Links Reviews and Recommendations I will be covering these factors, plus "local" registration in future articles. Check back again tomorrow, or simply subscribe to have them delivered to your Reader. Thanks for reading. As always comments and questions are welcomed and appreciated! Have you registered your business for local search yet?

Facebook Offers: Facebook’s Golden Child Product For Businesses Posted: 30 Sep 2012 02:00 PM PDT I first came across Facebook Offers, Facebook's latest and coolest feature, on September 6th. Although I'm not a fan of the cupcake bakery Sprinkles on Facebook–partly because there isn't one in my city– I saw Sprinkle's offer in my News Feed and out of curiosity claimed it. It wasn't until September 20th that I ran across Facebook Offers again. This time it was when I logged into Facebook as a ShortStack Page admin. Here's what I saw: After checking out the feature further and reading a few blog post (here's some I recommend you read, too: Jon Loomer, Reuters, TechCrunch ) I came to a few conclusions: 1. Facebook Offers are really, really cool. Not only because they're not limited to just brick and mortar businesses, but because they're giving brands a real chance to flex their creative muscles. 2. The Facebook Offers rollout is coming at no better time. With the holiday season right around the corner, businesses will be able to integrate Offers into their holiday marketing strategy flawlessly. 3. There's been talk that redemption codes, and even bar codes, may be attached to each Facebook Offer in the future. This will make tracking ROI on a Facebook effort super simple and easy. 4. It's a slight bummer Facebook Offers are no longer free (usage fee starts at $5), but I get it. Facebook has to make money and this is one way of doing so. So, are you excited about Facebook Offers yet? Or are you bummed because you don't yet have access to the feature? If the latter is the case, don't fret. Here's a resource to request Facebook Offers for you business today (thanks for the tip, Jon!) Do you plan on using Facebook Offers? If so, share your ideas and thoughts with us by tweeting @shortstacklab!

Ask An SEO Expert – SEO & Email Newsletters Posted: 30 Sep 2012 01:30 PM PDT One of the biggest challenges in marketing is bridging the gaps between separate activities so they all become cohesive and support the same goal. The same goes with SEO. It is important for marketers and webmasters to identify those gaps and actively work to integrate all those efforts. One example of two seemingly separate activities that are actually highly related is email and SEO. If you're wondering how to bridge that gap and form a cohesive relationship, you are not alone. There are many interactions from email that can affect SEO and vice versa. Email helps SEO and SEO helps email. In the Ask An SEO Expert video below, Jesse Laffen identifies the four synergies between email and SEO and how you can implement those four synergies into your overall SEO strategies. Do you have an SEO question that you would like to have answered? Simply submit your question on our website or via Twitter by using the hashtag #AskAnSEOExpert. Transcript: This question comes from somebody asking about email newsletters and SEO, and maybe what are some synergies in between those things. There are many actually, just between email, in general, your email marketing efforts, and SEO. So, we wanted to kind of highlight some of those synergies today. The first one relates to the browsing history. This is a way that email kind of helps SEO. Google and Bing both store certain amounts of data about users. So, if I visit a website and Google or Bing knows that, they might be a little more likely – in Google they say that they are actually more likely – to return that website to my search results in the future. So, for the next six months if I'm looking for a product or something that you've sold – and I've gotten to your site and landed on your domain while I was logged in to a Google account from my Gmail, maybe – it's pretty probable that your website is going to return up in my results. Maybe a little bit higher or maybe even at all, versus another one of your competitors. So, that's one really, really good way. Another really good way is A/B copy testing. On your website there are lots of great ways to kind of test certain things. Like, "Oh, does this orange button work better? Does this purple button work better?" Among those things that you can test are copy. Email is another great test bed to see what your users responding to. Do they like this word versus that one? Is this value proposition stronger than another one? Email is a fantastic way to kind of test some of those things and gain even more data faster, as far as things like "what are people clicking on?" Another thing that we really, really like to test, kind of along the same lines as A/B copy testing, are the user signals, right? When I make a certain value prop and I give people a certain conversion funnel, right? Did they bail three steps down? Using a different piece of copy, can I get them further down in the funnel? Or does this even convert better? There's lots of things with graphics, copy, certain headlines that work really, really well in email that do translate into the web. Just be a little careful because not everything works perfectly, but this is a great way to get a broad data set about what your clients, or your customers, your visitors like to see in here. So, those are all kind of ways that email helps SEO, but there is one way that SEO can help email, too. That's list growth. When you are setting up a website, there are multiple ways that a person might show interest. Maybe they don't want to buy today, but maybe they will leave an email address. Maybe they will sign up for a newsletter. Figuring out how much that is worth to you and your website and then valuing that and attributing those actions back to SEO or whatever other lead source it came from – it could be PPC, could be display, whatever – is a really, really mature, good way to actually value kind of where your SEO or your PPC, or whatever other efforts are going towards. It's not always just about the final click transaction. There are some of these things along the way that people do that are still worth something to you and your website. So, I hope that kind of shows a few of the synergies between email and SEO.

Why Some LinkedIn Groups Fail Miserably Posted: 30 Sep 2012 01:07 PM PDT I was invited to join a LinkedIn group the other day. Well actually I probably get invited to join a LinkedIn group every day but this one stood out. I am not going to name the group or the recruitment company that started it, I'll simply mention what lessons we can all learn here. In a world with 1.3 million LinkedIn groups you can't afford to waste time on doing things wrong. Here's how NOT to run a LinkedIn group: The name of the group was the same as the recruitment agency. Unless you are Apple or Google it's going to be hard to build a community around your brand on LinkedIn, very few people will want to join a group that carries a name like Mickey Mouse Recruitment. Ideally you'd want to build the group around a topic, such as HR, Marketing or Healthcare. This is going to interest professionals in that field, 'Joe Bloggs Staffing' is not. There were 4 posts in the group, all by the group manager and all about current vacancies that the recruitment agency are working on. So no content about the market, people or news. No real discussions between peers. Not even a question for anyone – just a direct sales channel in other words. A soon as I saw this I knew this would be another tumbleweed LinkedIn group set up by a recruiter. I saw no reason to join this group unless you are an active jobseeker. If it's all about jobs and recruitment, it won't attract the 80% of LinkedIn users who are happy in their jobs – big mistake when we know that passive candidates are typically the best ones. Even when a jobseeker does join this group, as soon as they find a new job what will they do? Leave the group as soon as they find something. My invite was sent way too early. Why send invites to a group that has less than 5 members? It's a fact that people want to go where other people are, just think of that swanky night club with long queues outside. The better way of doing it would be to reach a critical mass, say 50 or 100 people before blasting it out to un-initiated users. So start with the team, then friends and family (if they oblige that is), then candidates and clients that already know you and then go public with the group. I didn't stick around long enough to gauge the group rules, moderation, any welcome emails – so don't know if they actually did these things right. I for one won't be going back to find out. Any other thoughts on how not to run a LinkedIn group? Please let me know! Related: Why Your LinkedIn Group is Dull as Dishwater [Video]. photo by: mugley

How to Build on the Momentum of a Blogathon Posted: 30 Sep 2012 10:00 AM PDT Have you ever returned from a conference, class, seminar or other event, all gung-ho to apply your learning, but then find yourself quickly enveloped back into your busy life, with your new goals left behind? It’s certainly happened to me, but I didn’t want it to happen to my Barrie Business Blogathon participants. So I put together these simple tips that will help you build on your momentum, so that you can keep building your blog and growing your business. Celebrate your successes in all forms – At the Blogathon, some people published new blog posts, while others wrote as many as three posts to publish later. Everyone took away a three-month blogging plan, customized for their own business. Some people got their technical questions answered, while others got new insights into the concept of attracting new clients with a blog. All experienced the camaraderie and driving energy of working in a room full of people with a similar goal. Now those are some blogging successes! Summarize your learning – I’ll be reaching out to my Blogathon participants this week to ask questions about their experience and collect their feedback. Yes, their answers will help me to develop and market future events, but the process will also help them pull out the things they learned and highlight the key actions they want to take. Integrate your new practices – I hope the Blogathon participants will take the blogging calendars I created and plug them in to their own calendars and/or time planning systems. For new habits to take hold, it helps to piggyback on the existing systems that are working for you. Put on your lab coat and be willing to experiment. If something doesn’t work for you, tweak it until it does – instead of abandoning it altogether. Enlist ongoing support - I have always found it helpful to surround myself with people who see the positive qualities in me that I don’t always see. Think about who could help build your confidence as a blogger and a business owner, and keep their phone numbers and email addresses handy. Even better, schedule regular times to connect. I would be happy to help with your blogging. Restart your momentum at regular intervals – All of the above strategies will help, but it’s also important to re-energize your efforts. Sign up for another event, re-connect with your peers from the last event, re-read your notes or find other ways to light that spark. If you’d like to re-ignite your spark at one of my upcoming Business Blogathon events, check out this new page for all the ways you can participate. Then stay tuned to the weekly Content Mastery Guide email for dates and details. You can subscribe on the top right-hand side of this page.

Benelave Bathroom Singer Contest Rocks On Facebook Posted: 30 Sep 2012 08:26 AM PDT Benelave is on the hunt for bathroom singers through a Facebook contest and promises to reward the top three winners with a cash award of 100,000, 75,000 & 50,000 respectively. Benelave, which means 'Happy Bathing', is a range of premium bathroom fittings and accessories from HSIL Limited, India's premier sanitaryware company. The brand has launched the 'Benelave Bathroom Singer Contest' through Facebook as the digital platform and radio for spreading the word. Contestants will be judged on highest votes received on Facebook as well as the jury score, of which 10 will be shortlisted to the final round of a live show at Delhi. The top prize winners will be based on public votes through SMSes About the Benelave Bathroom Singer contest The hunt for the best bathroom singer is being implemented through an app on Facebook and is open exclusively to fans alone. You have to 'like' the page before you can begin with the bathroom singing. When you 'click here to get started', you are welcomed by a neat and adorable app, well categorised into five tabs – My entry, Invite friends, Gallery, FAQs and T&C. You land on 'My entry' which is where you can submit your entry to the contest along with the contact details. The smart thing I noticed here is that you do not have to upload your audio or video files on the app, but just have to provide links to them. So go ahead and upload your video on YouTube or the audio on Sound Cloud right after you have sung the winning number and then provide links here. Once 'My entry' is populated, you can see your creation along with all the people who have voted for it. The 'Invite friends' tab is cool as you can invite your friends not only from Facebook but also from Twitter, Gmail and LinkedIn. But do ensure that your browser allows you to view pop-ups. 'Gallery' showcases the entries by highest voted, your friends and 'recently added'. There is a button to vote for the entries here. FAQs and T&Cs are extensive tabs with everything you would need to know about the contest and the applicable rules. Is this good for Benelave? Absolutely! It is a wonderful move for the bathroom accessories brand to associate themselves with bathroom singing, a relatable habit for most people. That apart, it sits well with the 'Be Inspired' tagline by Benelave. I'm quite impressed with the concept, design and execution of the campaign; it has no doubt spent a good amount of time on the drawing boards. A well conceived and tested 'like' campaign that is sure to give a boost to the Facebook community, which is at less than 3K fans at the moment. And with the 'big' prize money, it is surely going to rock. I found quite a few noteworthy features that we can learn from this campaign: Method of judgement: Although it is a talent-based contest where entries with higher votes would be selected, the formula of weightage of 30% for votes and 70% for jury scores is a required move, especially in this age of rampant vote rigging. This would ensure only deserving entries are shortlisted for Round 2. Design in the details: Beautiful, soothing colour and neat layout sets up the initial mood of a user. Clear set of guidelines and T&Cs leave no room for confusion. The little but very significant tips that have been provided in each of the tabs, really adds for an overall smooth user experience. Moreover, the bathroom quotes, jokes and anecdotes at the bottom of each tab form the icing on the cake! Moderation of submissions: I've seen just about anything gets uploaded in a talent based contest on Facebook, hence moderation is a pressing need and Benelave has ensured that. Only songs that have been screened for explicit content and moderated will be put up for public voting. So have you given a shot to some serious bathroom singing? Who knows you might just win fame and big money!

5 Indian Social Media Articles Worth Reading This Weekend Posted: 30 Sep 2012 07:55 AM PDT The week finally saw Facebook jumping into the social gifting business after opening up the doors for Offers. Back at home the week was marked with the spectacular event Ad:Tech and also the ongoing #WT20. ICC, this year, has banked heavily on social media and along with that brands have not left this occasion slip off from their hands. In addition to this, we had an insightful guest post on how the Indian e-Commerce sites are performing on social media. As always, we also came across some interesting articles that we have curated for your weekend reading. 1. 10 Myths About Enterprise Social Collaboration: Vipin Thomas in his guest post at YourStory, thinks that just as social networks have changed with time, same has been the story with enterprise networks. However, he also shares that a lot of companies are yet to adopt it with open hands due to a bunch of myths. Vipin provides 10 such myths and goes to explain each of them. An interesting read to understand the existing myths in this space. 2. FB Offers can be a game-changer: Sanjeev Singhai in a guest post at Exchange4media.com, considers that FB Offers can be the game changer since the biggest challenge he had found earlier with other deal business was to share and make people download a mobile app for the deals. This simple innovation from Facebook would lead the users to walk more into physical stores and it will give brands a chance to drive trials of new products and sales. Interesting thoughts from a person who has spent the last two years in the deal/product promotion space. 3. Why Facebook's advertising is getting it wrong: Sangeet Paul Choudary shares his deep thoughts on how Facebook is still targeting eyeballs rather than targeting interactions. He thinks that this model worked in traditional media since users were in silos but not in the social media world. He does bring up the comparison of Facebook with LinkedIn and Google too in this post. I am sure that this will ring some bells in your head if you are interested in such discussions that Sangeet has started. 4. What bloggers & brands should learn from the recent Samsung scandal: The Samsung blogger goof up is not that old but Mani Karthik shares his thoughts on some very crucial aspects such as what does it mean when a blogger is approached by a brand and what is the reality too. Mani also shares some clear tips with bloggers on how they should be more professional in dealing with such outreach programs. If you are a professional blogger then bookmark this post, it is going to help you. 5. Sam proposes, Twitter disposes: The internet and the Twitter world has already spoken a lot about how amateurish was the GOI's first press conference on Twitter (should have been Twitter chat). Rajyasree Sen joins the party and I am sure that might have given some tear drops to the silver-haired Pitroda after reading this post. Read to relive the goof up and crack up your Sunday morning. By the way, I hope you are keeping a tab on our Lightoons if not then this was the last one we had from our budding cartoonist Vijay. We hope that you enjoy our curated list for this week and do let us know if you would like to add some more articles to the list. You can always leave them as a comment or tweet us at @LHInsights. Happy Weekend!

Social Media Strategy: Research to Boost Your Social Marketing ROI Posted: 30 Sep 2012 07:50 AM PDT The Latest Social Media Strategy Hardly a week goes by that we’re not shocked by a new development in the realm of social media marketing. Last week’s big news was the fact that we’re now able to create and upload cover photos on Twitter. A few weeks before that, we learned that the Twitter founders were cooking up an all-new social media network dedicated to quality content curation. What is inbound marketing other than a lifestyle of learning, anyway? We’ve compiled a few of the most mind-boggling stats from Awareness Social Marketing Software’s all-new whitepaper 6 Mind-Blowing Social Media Facts. From ignoring clients on Facebook to Twitter’s brand-new status as a major search engine, we’d be lying if we said we weren’t a little surprised at some of these developments: 1. Your Competitors Aren’t Social Enough Almost all companies ignore their clients attempts to offer feedback and build relationships? Well, that’s a pretty serious problem for their brand image and a big opportunity for your company to pull ahead! Consumers now view opinions posted online as the second most trustworthy form of marketing and brand research. Your leads and clients are watching what’s posted on your Facebook page, and it’s imperative you respond. Here’s another secret: you don’t have to reinvent the wheel each and every time you receive a wall post. While your responses to clients questions, compliments and complaints shouldn’t be overly formulaic, establishing criteria for how to respond can streamline your social media monitoring. 2. Pinterest Drives Purchases Pinterest is a B2C marketer’s dream come true. It also appeals to consumers in a world where peer recommendations influence purchase decisions and appealing images out-perform sales calls. What’s most interesting about the latest data is that Pinterest drives really qualified traffic; people who are ready to make larger purchases. Referrals purchases from Pinterest tend to be almost double the final price of other social media networks, indicating that users view it as a place to discover product solutions. Keep in mind that images of products with prices listed have a tendency to perform 36% better than priceless pins. 3. Facebook is Addicting Facebook, even though your IPO was a little disappointing, it looks like you’re still getting some serious love from your members. Consumers spend more time on Facebook than other major social media networks – Twitter time tends to be around 13 minutes and the average length of a LinkedIn session clocks in at just 8 minutes. Once a day isn’t always enough, either – 23% of Facebook users check their accounts at least 5 times daily! Unlike Twitter, research has indicated that posting frequently on Facebook can actually decrease engagement and fans, so make each post count. Awareness, Inc. recommends that marketers make a habit of including a photo or a video with each post, which have been shown to increase engagement by 16% and 9% respectively. 4. Quality Content Counts The latest research indicates that consumers are still primarily motivated to follow brands on social media by the possibility of scoring sales, deals and discounts. Quality content comes in a close 4th, however, and the strong social media following of consistently humorous brands like Old Spice and Taco Bell supports this theory. Create marketing people love by experimenting with humor or posting content worthy of shares. 5. Search and Discovery is Social I shouldn’t be so shocked that Twitter iss becoming a major search engine, considering that personal recommendations are now nearly twice as effective as television advertising. There’s no better time than now to add targeted keyword listening to your social media strategy. By searching terms that are related to your industry, you can position yourself as an expert by answering real questions from real people. Wine marketing mastermind Gary Vee has been offering wine recommendations in response to random queries for years. Chicago-based small business Foiled Cupcakes takes their strategy a step further by doing keyword-specific searches on terms like shoes or chocolates that are relevant to their buyer personas and then striking up a dialogue. Regardless of whether your inbound marketing strategy requires social media monitoring in 16 minutes a day or whether you can adopt targeted keyword listening, it’s time to graduate from Social Media 101 by mastering topics like How to Use Hashtags on Twitter and moving towards advanced inbound marketing strategy like optimal link placement. How Will These Social Media Discoveries Affect Your Inbound Marketing Strategy?

10 Tips for Non-Profit Social Media Success Posted: 30 Sep 2012 07:34 AM PDT I had the pleasure of speaking at PodCamp East today. My talk was on "Cultivating Zombies or Activating communities". We covered quite a bit of ground, so, I thought I would highlight some of the tips we talked about in strategies for non-profits to consider when evaluating a social media presence. Want to know more about the Zombies- don't worry, I'll cover that in the next post! I will be putting up the complete slide share and additional notes and resources shortly! This might be a good time to sign up for my newsletter by email on the right, or download my mobile app this way you will get notified whenever something is posted ! To those who came to the presentation today, thank you! It was amazing to have the opportunity to share ideas into changing the world by getting more people involved! Here are your 10 tips: (Notice getting more followers and likes on Facebook is not on here – that's for the Zombie post! ) 1. Start blogging OR create a blog type site: This allows you to tell deeper stories, a critical aspect of building relationships Also an important tool for reaching others who will be looking for your services online or looking for causes to support in their local area. If you're not showing up when they try to find you, how will you get the support? Blogging provides a platform for you to use as a home base. Anything you post elsewhere, can be brought onto your blog. ***Tip: If writing a blog is overwhelming and your primary social media activities will be focused on other platforms like Twitter, Instagram or YouTube, you can always get resourceful and use a service like Overblog to pull it all together for you and display it in a blog format. It is very easy to set up and a very interesting option for non-profits. It will also allow for you to write blog posts when the need arises or you are ready to start. Blogs also allow you to address concerns or frequently asked questions that you encounter daily in the public eye. It serves as a resource not only to support your projects but to reassure people about things they would otherwise be concerned about, for example, allocation of funding – how much of what they donate goes to helping – just one small example that can help bring more donors in! 2. Activate a Twitter Account Your Twitter account can be used to reach new people, identify others who you might be able to collaborate with and find influencers and supporters to help you in your cause. You can also use Twitter to have brainstorming sessions with others who share similar interests, or promote events through hashtag chat. 3. Sign up for a social media helper tool like Commun.it or Nimble -both have free versions. These will help you manage communication with your community. Nimble is neat because it pulls all your social accounts into one place – in an "email style" interface. For people trying to make sense of the flow of messages from social sites, it pulls it together so you can read and manage all in one place just like email. I also like the feature of creating follow up actions and scheduling events around your online contacts. It helps keep track of the relationships you are building and future plans and actions. Commun.it shows engagement opportunities, reminds you to respond to "mentions" and also monitors who us talking about you, and identifies potential new relationships to pursue. It's very user friendly, definitely a tool to check out! For documenting events that receive online attention, you can also check out Storify, I covered it in a previous post here. 4. Tell your story The most important aspect of gaining support in a non profit using social media is getting people and organizations to connect with you so they feel that they want to support you. Take the time to dig into your "raison d'être" (reason of being) and share this. Make sure to always connect your story back to your community, your sponsors – they need to understand why they should care and why supporting you is important to them. Draw the connections. 5. Start using video – YouTube, Google hang outs, or and easy mobile app like Tout give lots of opportunities to share moments, conversations, presentations and brainstorming sessions. 6. Activate an email campaign – like Mail Chimp. Email is still important. Use this instead of traditional direct mail. It will not only provide you with an easy way to keep in touch, it will provide stats on who has seen it, clicked through on your links, etc. 7. Get out into your community and let people know about all this in person! You have to supplement online activity with real life contact and events. Find people who are interested in your cause, and then share your message. Plan talks or events to raise awareness. Let people know how they can stay in touch and help online! 8. Send a media release about what you're doing – whenever you have news, or something new to say – contact the local media. People still watch tv and read newspapers. Don't forget this as part of our strategy and direct them to your social sites for more information. 9. Use pictures – people do not have a lot of time. Sharing photos is a quick easy way to communicate messages and feelings. Use photos to recognize partners, volunteers, show results of people's contributions. A great way to give results to the community that supports you and to entertain and recognize them! 10. Follow other bloggers and organizations that provide content focusing on the same goals as yours – fundraising and sharing the story of their missions – these will be your teachers. These are 10 quick tips to make sure you're moving in the right direction. In my next post, I will include the slides. Stay tuned and thank you for a great event today! What tricks or tips do you use to keep community engaged? Are you cultivating zombies, or activating community?

Ultimate Social Media Party Foul List – 70 Party Fouls of the Social Foolish Posted: 30 Sep 2012 07:27 AM PDT We have all seen them or done them. The social media party fouls. We may want to think everyone is following a standard norm for social media engagement interaction and building of relationships. Bottom line, people are people. Social media is filled with people. The social media party foul is simply a fact of life on the social networks. Will they ever go away? Chances are high they won't. So what can we do about them? I say have fun with them. Here is a short list of 70 party fouls. Now the big question is… can you admit you have done or still do at least a few of these? Using the egg as your permanent avatar / profile photo on Twitter. Using a cat photo as your permanent avatar on Facebook but expecting strangers to accept your friend request. Using a cat photo as your permanent avatar combined with a similar shot of cat as your cover photo and still expecting strangers to accept your friend request. Beg for Facebook likes on Twitter (or anywhere). Beg for Twitter follows on Facebook. Auto tweet every Facebook post to Twitter. Auto post every Twitter tweet to Facebook. Thank every new "liker" on Facebook via a tweet on Twitter. Twitter auto direct messages (DM.) SEO companies begging to guest blog on your top ranked site linking to their low ranked site after Google's Panda update. SEO companies begging for paid placement on your social business blog of links and ads to their own blog or that of their client drug addiction site. Startup tech companies begging via your web form to be their new "partner" to test their new product. However, first step is you must purchase the Gold subscription. Using your personal Facebook page as a business page and spam haven. Asking to be my friend from both your Facebook business page setup as a personal profile and your real Facebook profile. Asking to by my friend from any personal Facebook profile with a business logo as the avatar/ photo. Purchasing Twitter followers and Facebook likes and then thinking you have real "social proof." Helping others purchase Twitter followers and Facebook likes to help them get "social proof" so they can sell their awesome social media consulting services. Complaining about your clients on Twitter and Facebook constantly. Ruining your child's reputation for getting a job before they are even 15 because of how bad you talk about them on Facebook. I'm tired of seeing the messy pictures of their room already. Posting photos of cats 24/7. Posting the same photos of your feet on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and tweeting them several times throughout the day. Tweeting drunk and bragging about tweeting drunk on Twitter. QRC code as your avatar photo on Facebook or Twitter (or any network for that matter.) Logo as your avatar on your personal Facebook page being used for business (in violation of Facebook terms.) Not having a clue that there are Facebook terms clearly stating you can not use a personal Facebook profile as a business profile. Sharing status updates complaining of your broken relationships constantly. Constantly telling us on Facebook how much you hate your significant other one day but then telling us about how stable your relationship is the next. Using foul language constantly. Having blatant multiple personas and Twitter profiles such as professional business persona, crazy party guy or girl persona, and half naked rated XX persona all while tweeting daily tips for how to have integrity, character and be successful in business. Sharing every single check-in on Foursquare to Twitter and Facebook. Sharing every +k you give and receive. Thanking every person who tweets you via a single tweet to get your Klout score up. Only conversing with people with high influence scores. Thinking there is only one way to do social media, which is your way or the highway. #Using a #hashtag #for #anything #and #everything #on #every #social #network. Spamming me with a link to your blog when we have first met on Twitter or Facebook. Spamming me on LinkedIn with your product or service immediately after I accept your connection. Spamming me about your product or service on LinkedIn but not even taking the time to tell me what your product or service is. Expecting me to retweet your video, blog just because you ask with no respect for my community or business. Being a city, state or county government agency and spamming your Twitter stream begging for people to share a video or blog link about your city. Completely missing the point of the need to build relationships via social media. Ignoring the fact that it is good content people like to read and share with their friends and colleagues. Ignoring every norm there is on the social networks. Expecting more than you give. Begging me to like your Facebook page immediately after I follow you on Twitter. Broken buttons and links all over your website. Neon website flashes and screams loud music on front page. Facebook button on your website that links to Facebook.com. Blog filled with only tweets. Virus warnings constantly appear when visiting your website. Being out with friends, going to the restroom for 15 minutes and then tweeting & conversing them from the toilet. Arguing about a blog post or title via Twitter without ever reading the blog post. Acting like a jerk or troll on Twitter, Facebook or any other social network just because you can. Spamming links to your fundraiser 24/7. Spamming LinkedIn groups daily. Using a photo of yourself in a bikini in 12th grade as your avatar / profile photo on all social networks. Constantly posting photos of yourself in a bikini in 12th grade to remind everyone how beautiful you are and use to be. Playing games on Facebook and sharing your wins, treasures, and medals on purpose 24/7. Inviting me to play poker or any other game on Facebook daily. Being a negative Nelly or Debby downer 24/7. We know your life sucks because you tell us such 24/7. Spare us the constant complaining please. Tagging a gazillion people in photos on Facebook constantly so you can get "likes" and raise your Klout and other influence scores. Tweeting into tweet chats the last 2 minutes with canned quotes just so you can get retweets and show up on the transcripts. Tweeting into tweet chats and getting mad within 2 minutes that you are not the center of attention. Spamming the same tweet over and over and over all day, every day. Setting your grandma, grandpa, mom and 2 yr old son up on Facebook so you can get some more Facebook likes. Logging in as your granny, son and mom and liking all your own posts daily. Tweeting this to your friends and not admitting you have done at least 5 of these during your social media life time. Not retweeting this to your friends. Tweeting this post and telling me I had too many tips. Come on, it's just for fun and took literally 15 minutes too write. Having only 69 party fouls but stating the list has 70. Hmmm… maybe this counts as a foul so we really have 70? What party fouls did I miss? Please add your own! Ultimate Social Media Tip of the Day: Remember, there is only ONE way to do social media and that is the way that works for YOU and YOUR business, period!

The Painful Reality Of Social Spam Posted: 30 Sep 2012 07:25 AM PDT I’ve been writing a series of posts lately trying to dispel B2B Marketing Buzzwords. This isn’t exactly a buzzword, but it’s becoming a problem and should be a source of embarassment for those who do it. Yes, this is a rant. You’ve been forewarned… You know who I’m talking about? People who are abusing the InMail feature of LinkedIn to spam their contacts. I don’t know about you, but I’m receiving lots of InMail promotions every week from contacts who should know better – and as you’ll see below, people who aren’t contacts but have learned to “game” the system. Just this week, in addition to valid personal exchanges, I’ve received: A blanket invitation to a webinar A couple of conference announcements A handful of straight-on, blasted-out sales pitches And six invitations that were direct sales pitches from people I’m not connected to The first thing I’d like to say to these misguided individuals is that LinkedIn is not your ESP or your sales database. What surprises me the most about this is that LinkedIn is supposed to be a professional networking system where you can develop relationships with people you know, or would like to get to know better – hopefully with mutual benefits as a result. In other words, it’s a relationship opportunity. Many companies still buy lists and spam people who have never opted in to their databases, but this is even worse. This has your name on it. You. Your personal brand is now labeled with the equivalent of “desperate spammer.” Have you thought about that? I received an email from a new connection and fairly new user of LinkedIn this week who asked me if the primary purpose of LinkedIn was to gain as many connections as possible without ever having any meaningful interactions via InMail. He said that he only hears from people via InMail when they want something. That set me back. I had to really think about it. I probably have a handful of dialogues with contacts each week via InMail – but soon we move to email as it’s easier to correspond directly. My response to my contact was to point him toward discussion groups. That’s where I think most of the conversations happen on LinkedIn that are useful. Good group moderators are trying their best to manage the spammy promotional junk and maintain the integrity of the conversations taking place. And many of the groups are valuable exchanges of information. The difference to me with spam in discussion groups and spam via InMail is that the discussion group spam can be easily ignored. The InMail spam is more of a personal violation, in my book. Even though both methods are those of the unimaginative and self-focused. And BTW – for those of you who preface your InMail abuse with “if you don’t want to be bothered with this information, just ignore it” that is NOT an acceptable mea culpa. A couple of things to think about: LinkedIn (as in all other forms of digital communications) will be as valuable as the level of trust and credibility you create with your participation. What can you do to have a meaningful interaction with a prospect or contact via LinkedIn? One that isn’t focused only on what you want? A meaningful dialogue must be relevant to both sides. If you want to open the lines of communication, here are some steps you should take. Warning, they take a bit of work. But, for the love of puppies, get hold of some initiative! Take the time to do a bit of research for each communication you want to initiate. Make it relevant to the person you’re sending it to. Heck, their profile is a click away. How hard can it be? Don’t make it all about what you want. You can have your turn later – once someone decides they think it might be worth their time to talk to you. Think about what you’re putting your name on. Is it worth it? Spam doesn’t work. It never has and it certainly won’t on a professional networking platform. Although I’m irritated, it hurts you much more than it hurts me. There are so many ways to communicate and engage people that this shouldn’t even be a feasible option. Okay – I feel better now. You?

12 Twitter Users to Follow for Tech Trends and Tips Posted: 30 Sep 2012 07:00 AM PDT Question: Who is one tech-focused Twitterer (individual person, not publication like Mashable) that you follow in order to keep up with small business tech trends? Why are they so great? Question by: Michael @ericaswallow “Erica Swallow is one of the most interesting tech tweeps out there, sharing tons of great tech news and personal musings. Plus, as the Director of Community of Contently, she’s someone that knows small business inside and out.” - Danny Wong | Co-Founder, Blank Label Group, Inc. @bhalligan “Brian Halligan, the CEO of HubSpot, understands inbound and outbound marketing better than anyone else out there.” - Josh Weiss | Founder and President, Bluegala @missrogue “Tara “Miss Rogue” Hunt is a force to be reckoned with. As a bestselling author, startup CEO of Buyosphere, and speaker, she is one of the most influential women in the world of technology—and perhaps one of the most edgy as well! I love following her because she always seems to have something interesting to say!” - Natalie MacNeil | Emmy Award Winning Producer & Entrepreneur, She Takes on the World @AskAaronLee “Social media consultant and small business owner Aaron Lee constantly shares useful articles and tips on tech trends. As it says on his Twitter profile, he’s just an “Average Joe who loves social media” and enjoys chatting with anyone on Twitter.” - Ben Lang | Founder, EpicLaunch @SarahJaneMorris “As the Head of Developer Relations at Context.IO, Sarah-Jane Morris has her finger on the pulse of all things tech and startup.” - Amanda Aitken | Founder and CEO, The Girl’s Guide to Web Design @Dharmesh “Dharmesh Shah is the CTO and Founder of HubSpot, a company that sits in the intersection of technology and small business. Dharmesh not only has his finger on the pulse of technology trends, but also tweets regularly on small business marketing best practices, strategy, startups and more. He’s an active tweeter and always has great links and ideas to share with his followers.” - Doreen Bloch | CEO / Founder, Poshly Inc. @AmberMac “The thing about Amber Mac is that she’s real and upfront about everything she says. Even if it’s a simple review about a product or service, she states the truth, which is what small business owners want to hear. She also takes the time to get back with you with any questions you have unlike those who share and never interact.” - Ashley Bodi | co-founder, Business Beware @davewiner “Dave Winer is an early tech pioneer and is famous for inventing RSS among other things. He has a very unique perspective about technology and where it is going. He keeps a very active blog and Twitter, and talks about things that many mainstream publications like Mashable aren’t talking about.” - Nathan Lustig | cofounder, Entrustet @AndrewWarner “Andrew Warner is the founder of Mixergy, where entrepreneurs teach how they built their companies. He is incredibly dialed in to the small business tech world and regularly shares helpful articles, interviews and quality growth-oriented resources that all founders will benefit from.” - Evan Kirkpatrick | CEO, Wendell Charles Financial @hnshah “Hiten Shah is a founder of KISSmetrics, an amazing analytics startup. He is a consummate student of entrepreneurship, and his Twitter feed is a repository of thought leadership from many great entrepreneurs and investors. If it has to do with tech, testing, analytics, investments or entrepreneurship, Hiten has probably found it for you.” - Aaron Schwartz | Founder and CEO, Modify Watches @bfeld “Based in Boulder, Colorado, Brad Feld of The Foundry Group gives an unbiased view of both Silicon Valley and Silicon Alley. He is a founder of TechStars and has written some great books including ‘Do More Faster.’ Feld tweets his opinions and some great blog posts that are very tech focused.” - Matt Wilson | Co-founder, Under30CEO.com @ramonray “Ramon Ray is literally the guy to talk to when it comes to small business technology. He’s the editor of SmallBizTechnology.com, operates tech events and definitely knows everything about small business tech.” - Thursday Bram | Consultant, Hyper Modern Consulting The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only nonprofit organization comprised of the world's most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons.

Content Happy Hour: When Do Readers Dial Into Your Content? Posted: 30 Sep 2012 05:10 AM PDT Is your high-quality content getting to the people it needs to reach? If not, you may have timing or delivery challenges to address. In this week's digest of content marketing news, you'll see stories about the times of day when people consume content on particular devices, new e-mail metrics that may provide more insight into open behavior, and ways to get the attention of mobile audiences. You'll also find tips from the brick-and-mortar world about how to capture the attention — and pocketbooks — of people who delay purchasing decisions. So before you clock out for the weekend, take a look at the top content marketing headlines that may not have reached you this week. When People Use Mobile Devices By Jay Yarow at Business Insider When is your audience likely to be on a particular device — and hopefully consuming your content? This chart provides an overview of data from 15,000 publishers and illustrates when people are using their PCs versus iPhones, Android phones, and tablets. Three New Email Metrics You Will be Using in 2013 By George Bilbrey at MediaPost Recent Forrester research suggests that some of the best marketing ROI can still be found in e-mail campaigns — particularly when the programs are used in conjunction with other channels, such as social media. But to get the most leads out of e-mail, Bilbrey suggests, marketers should consider three new deep-dive metrics. 3 Most Important Mobile Marketing Channels By Aaron Aders at Inc. As Aders notes, "Estimates from eMarketer indicate that the population of mobile social network users will reach 79 million by 2015, which would result in mobile adoption rates that crush other technological adoption rates of the past." But how can you take advantage of this revolution? Aders lists best practices covering mobile organic search, mobile content marketing, and mobile app stores. Are you reaching the 'buy later' crowd? Staff report at eMedia|Vitals In the brick-and-mortar world, savvy retailers know that up to 70 percent of shoppers who come into a store to purchase a specific item will leave the store without having made that purchase — but 67 percent of these folks end up buying that product later. This short piece describes how online marketers can capture the "buy later" crowd.

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