Is your social campaign being ignored? Here are 6 ways to draw attention to it

Most of the social media gurus and experts will tell you that social media is all about setting up monitoring processes for your brand, and to be responsive to the questions and needs of your target market. It’s very rare that they will tell you what to do when you have no audience at all when you start with your campaign.
What do you do if you have no audience and no one is talking about your business or brand at all on the social web? What strategies can you implement to get the ball rolling with your campaign? Do you feel lost? Fear not because there are a couple of things you can do to start sparking the conversation on social media.
1. Get involved
One of the most common reasons anyone struggles with conversation on social media is simply that they are not present. It’s a fact that social media rewards consistent and regular content. If you are not present and consistent on the social web, you are not adding any value to anyone and no one will talk to you. The first step to generate some conversation and buzz around what you do is to be on the social web on a regular basis and to provide value to the people who might be interested in what you do.
2. Start the conversation
Social media is really not just about monitoring the conversation busy happening online. How are you going to become part of the talk? There are thousands of conversations happening every minute on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and the blogosphere that you can become part of. Make a point to regularly add insightful comments and thoughts to these conversations. Jump in and get involved. The more you contribute, the more conversations can be created.
3. Ask questions
A great way to start a conversation online is to start your conversations by sharing interesting topics and asking questions that will encourage discussion. Once your network consists of a couple of followers, it won’t be difficult to get some responses if the questions you ask are on-topic. In many cases, no one is talking because they don’t have anything to talk about. Change your approach and use a conversation starter to get the ball rolling.
4. Content is king, but so is conversation
Another great way to get the conversation going is to create and curate valuable and insightful content that your audience would like to share with their own networks. If these people are your clients, you will most likely have a pretty good idea on what interests them. Create a free digital download such as a whitepaper and ask them to share it with other people who might find it useful. Creating magnetic content is of the best methods to draw people into your campaign and to start a buzz.
5. Create a list of your network
Create a list of your network consisting of people who you would like to talk to on a regular basis. A very easy way to do this is to create a list on Twitter and regularly follow the stream of that list to see what is happening. You can also create a simple spreadsheet with the names and social media profiles of the people you want to engage with on a regular basis. Either way, be sure to make it a point to build relationships with key individuals and influencers online.
6. Reward your network
No matter who you are or what business you are in, I bet you there will be someone who will be willing to talk about you online. When this happens, reward them. A simple thank you goes a long way and can be done directly by acknowledging them on Twitter or Facebook. We are in this social boat together and people value recognition.
By now you most likely know that creating your network and generating conversations plays a key role with social media, but getting the ball rolling can take up quite a lot of effort in the beginning. Be sure to stay consistent with the conversations you are part of on the social web. If you are regularly talking and it has become a part of your daily routine, the rest of the pieces will all fall into place.

http://memeburn.com/2013/04/is-your-social-campaign-being-ignored-here-a-6-ways-to-draw-attention-to-it/

10 big lessons for anyone looking to market themselves on YouTube

I was recently fortunate enough to attend two really cool Google events: Engage and YouTube All Stars. Getting the chance to interact with some of the intriguing innovations and latest news to do with Google is pretty cool. Getting the chance to do so with products developed solely to help any business out there succeed on and off-line is even cooler.
Engage was divided into three segments — Pitch Perfect, AdWords Bootcamp and Above & Beyond — meaning that you could tailor your experience according to your interests.
The presentation that stood out for me surrounded building and maintaining client relations, where Google’s Craig Wing made it clear that “when selling your business, you are not just selling your business, but you are in fact also selling yourself”. This is so true! Avinesh Pillay backed this up, saying: “even if you fail the pitch and you do not get the deal, do not fail selling yourself as you as a person will always be remembered”.
Those lessons are applicable to any business but are also clearly ones that the success stories at the YouTube All Stars event had taken to heart.
YouTube All Stars Event

At the event, YouTube showed how the likes of Caspar Lee, Rob Vamplew (Rob The Ranger) and energy expert Martin Lorton, make a substantial monthly income through Google AdSense and how people like acapella singing group The Soil achieved international fame after showcasing their talent on YouTube.
Peter Cilliers is another of these success stories. Cilliers started the channel Six Pack Factory as a way of chronicling his weight loss. It’s since become a serious money spinner for him. In one month, he made R80 000 from Adsense ads alone. He shared some tips and advice when to achieve success while earning revenue through your own channel on YouTube:
1.Take action and get started
Create an account and start uploading videos, no matter what camera or phone you are using. Just start and keep going.
2. Continuity is key
Do not be demotivated after uploading one or two videos with little interaction, sharing or no views at all. Sometimes it can take anywhere from six to 14 months before getting noticed and going viral. Tell people in your video to share, take action or when your next video is due to be uploaded.
3. Have a clear goal for your channel and videos
Before you start make sure every video you upload is towards your main goal for your channel and videos.
4. Be unique and different
If you are competing in a niche where someone else is already established (or not), you have to make sure that what you are presenting or at least the way you are presenting it, is done in a unique and different matter to ensure engagement and growth of your subscribers. Target a really microscopic, detailed, refined niche.
5. Interact with your fans
No matter how big you grow or small you still are, remember to interact with your fans and at the same time listen to them in order to make sure you give them what they want. Reply to comments, ask them questions, give away prizes, feature them in videos or Do Google Hangouts.
6. Customize / brand your channel
From the start you can brand your channel making sure the background is relevant and standing out. Also make sure your avatar is universal stays the same all over each and every social network. When you reach partner status ensure the added features compliment your branding.
7. CTA: Call to action
Ensure you use annotation features of YouTube and visual design and recorded movie effects to bring forth your call to actions. People will then tend to respond, as it is more user-friendly.
8. Never leave your videos open-ended
At the end of your video you can add annotations over nice CTA images to ensure the viewer does not end there but continues to other videos or engages more with your channel.
9. Use annotations
This function gets repeated a lot as there is so much one can do with it. For example, create a video with images which link to all your other videos via annotations over these images that form or look like navigation buttons.

10. SEO your videos correctly
Make sure you use the right title, description and tags relevant to your video and its content. Also make sure your custom thumbnail is relevant and attracts attention.

http://memeburn.com/2013/03/10-big-lessons-for-anyone-looking-to-market-themselves-on-youtube/

Using Twitter for Sales and Marketing

image credit: theglobepress.com

 

Businesses are discovering that Twitter is a very effective tool for marketing, sales, technical support, and customer support. Your prospects and customers are talking about you and your competitors on Twitter, so you need to be listening to what they say and adapting your Twitter strategy to respond to their conversations. You can also use Twitter to proactively promote your brand, generate leads, promote company events and engage with your customers and prospects in real time.
Here are some ideas for using Twitter as a marketing channel:
Promote your brand by optimizing your Twitter profile.
Be sure to:

Use your logo as your profile picture.

• Use your brand name as your Twitter handle and your Twitter username.
• Use your brand name in your Twitter bio, and add a link to a white paper in your bio.
• Add your website's URL to your profile.
• Use your brand name as your hashtag and include it in all Tweets.

Generate leads by offering white papers, instructional videos, e-books and product samples if appropriate.
Write a compelling Tweet with a link to the lead generation asset. Always send visitors to a separate landing page with an opt-in form for each asset you Tweeted about. After visitors opt in to receive the asset, follow up with a series of emails that introduce them to your products and to additional white papers, videos and e-books. Track your results so you know which assets are most popular and which Tweets generate the best response. Tweets are like subject lines in your emails, so track your Tweets in a spreadsheet so you know which work best.
Promote webinars, conferences, training classes, and other events sponsored by your company.
Write Tweets that promote the events, and include a link to a landing page where customers can sign up for the events. Again, use a separate landing page for each event and track your results.
Display the Twitter logo prominently on your website and encourage people to follow you on Twitter.
Also add links to your Twitter page in your email footer, on your blogs and in your email newsletters. Constantly ask people to follow you in all your marketing materials.

If appropriate, offer discount codes in your Tweets.
Twitter has also become a very effective sales tool for both B2B and B2C businesses. In B2B sales, Twitter helps you keep your name in front of prospects when you have a long sales cycle. In B2C sales, you can Tweet promotions and coupon codes and create contests to generate sales. Here are some ideas for using Twitter for sales:
Listen!
Monitor your competitors' brand names and hashtags to see what people are saying about them on Twitter. When you see negative Tweets about their products or service, use it as a competitive selling point. Listen for positive and negative comments about your products and services as well. Engage unsatisfied customers or prospects immediately to defuse the situation. The key is to address their concerns quickly so you can turn the negative sentiment into positive sentiment publicly.
Use Twitter Search to find people using your target keywords in their Twitter profiles, hashtags, and Tweets.
They may be dissatisfied with your competitor's product and are looking for a solution to their problem. These people are potential prospects, so you should check out their profiles and follow them. After you follow them, see who they're following and keep following more potential prospects as you find them. Add your prospects to a Twitter list so it's easier for you to monitor and communicate with them.
When you have a prospect in your sales funnel, engage them in conversation publicly on Twitter.
Send them links to new white papers or videos to introduce them to new features in your products.
Hold contests to generate sales.
You could have people Tweet a picture of themselves using your product, with the winner receiving a discount on their next purchase.
Tweet coupon codes.
One of the most popular searches on Twitter Search is for "coupon codes" for specific brands or products.

Read more: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/226149#ixzz2R0ACiSRZ

10 big lessons for anyone looking to market themselves on YouTube

I was recently fortunate enough to attend two really cool Google events: Engage and YouTube All Stars. Getting the chance to interact with some of the intriguing innovations and latest news to do with Google is pretty cool. Getting the chance to do so with products developed solely to help any business out there succeed on and off-line is even cooler.
Engage was divided into three segments — Pitch Perfect, AdWords Bootcamp and Above & Beyond — meaning that you could tailor your experience according to your interests.
The presentation that stood out for me surrounded building and maintaining client relations, where Google’s Craig Wing made it clear that “when selling your business, you are not just selling your business, but you are in fact also selling yourself”. This is so true! Avinesh Pillay backed this up, saying: “even if you fail the pitch and you do not get the deal, do not fail selling yourself as you as a person will always be remembered”.
Those lessons are applicable to any business but are also clearly ones that the success stories at the YouTube All Stars event had taken to heart.
YouTube All Stars Event

At the event, YouTube showed how the likes of Caspar Lee, Rob Vamplew (Rob The Ranger) and energy expert Martin Lorton, make a substantial monthly income through Google AdSense and how people like acapella singing group The Soil achieved international fame after showcasing their talent on YouTube.
Peter Cilliers is another of these success stories. Cilliers started the channel Six Pack Factory as a way of chronicling his weight loss. It’s since become a serious money spinner for him. In one month, he made R80 000 from Adsense ads alone. He shared some tips and advice when to achieve success while earning revenue through your own channel on YouTube:
1.Take action and get started
Create an account and start uploading videos, no matter what camera or phone you are using. Just start and keep going.
2. Continuity is key
Do not be demotivated after uploading one or two videos with little interaction, sharing or no views at all. Sometimes it can take anywhere from six to 14 months before getting noticed and going viral. Tell people in your video to share, take action or when your next video is due to be uploaded.
3. Have a clear goal for your channel and videos
Before you start make sure every video you upload is towards your main goal for your channel and videos.
4. Be unique and different
If you are competing in a niche where someone else is already established (or not), you have to make sure that what you are presenting or at least the way you are presenting it, is done in a unique and different matter to ensure engagement and growth of your subscribers. Target a really microscopic, detailed, refined niche.
5. Interact with your fans
No matter how big you grow or small you still are, remember to interact with your fans and at the same time listen to them in order to make sure you give them what they want. Reply to comments, ask them questions, give away prizes, feature them in videos or Do Google Hangouts.
6. Customize / brand your channel
From the start you can brand your channel making sure the background is relevant and standing out. Also make sure your avatar is universal stays the same all over each and every social network. When you reach partner status ensure the added features compliment your branding.
7. CTA: Call to action
Ensure you use annotation features of YouTube and visual design and recorded movie effects to bring forth your call to actions. People will then tend to respond, as it is more user-friendly.
8. Never leave your videos open-ended
At the end of your video you can add annotations over nice CTA images to ensure the viewer does not end there but continues to other videos or engages more with your channel.
9. Use annotations
This function gets repeated a lot as there is so much one can do with it. For example, create a video with images which link to all your other videos via annotations over these images that form or look like navigation buttons.

10. SEO your videos correctly
Make sure you use the right title, description and tags relevant to your video and its content. Also make sure your custom thumbnail is relevant and attracts attention.

http://memeburn.com/2013/03/10-big-lessons-for-anyone-looking-to-market-themselves-on-youtube/

9 social marketing mistakes you should really try to avoid making

College kids, company employees, soccer moms, and stay-at-home moms do one thing when they turn on their computers (or smartphones) — log into their Facebook account and start liking and sharing everything their friends have published. This has sort of become a routine for most of us. It has in turn changed the world of marketing altogether.
While a few years ago everyone was focusing on targeted ads through advertising networks as Google Adsense, they are now turning to social media.
Facebook’s advertising platform is now so popular due to its capability to better target the users. A user base of one billion from all over the world doesn’t hurt either. If done properly and intelligently, Facebook can transform any business. Still, a few are using the social network in the wrong way, causing more bad than good. Let’s look at a few social media mistakes that you could avoid pretty easily.
1. Targeting the wrong network
Look at the top social networks: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google Plus, etc. Each of these social networks has its own specific use. Company HRs looking for professional resumes should probably be more focused on LinkedIn rather than Pinterest. There has even been a recent recruitment for a six-figure job from Twitter. An online shop selling stuff for ladies can get better business by targeting a Facebook interest group.
Google Plus is Google’s social network and it has come up with a specific target group consisting of online bloggers and freelance writers. Hence, if you are looking for good authors for your company, you can probably find them through Google Plus’s authorship program.
Hence, it has to be understood that each social network has its own use and you have to target the one that is most important for your cause.
2. Not branding properly
Social media is perfect for your branding needs. A very important aspect of social media is its capability to go viral. Share a really fascinating and funny image on Facebook or Instagram and you can see it making rounds gathering likes in a crazy fashion. When you are starting a strategy on your choice of social media, develop a page that really emphasizes your brand insignia.
Imagine for instance that you are marketing a movie production company through YouTube. You build up a basic YouTube channel and put up some videos and trailers of your movies. What if you use a generic image instead of your brand’s logo? Or if you come up with a mashup that blends your insignia on an uninspiring background? That kind of marketing is bound to fail. Make sure your visitors know your brand and make them respect it.
3. Sharing unrelated stuff just to get likes
If you are trying to develop your Facebook page by sharing a lot of stuff that you think people would be interested in, then you should really know how to do that. As an analogy, think about a publication like the BBC. The BBC has gone into our lives as a source of high-quality news about things that matter. Now, think about another source like TMZ.com or the Daily Mail. These publications are targeting a different kind of audience altogether. If the BBC lowers its standards and starts sharing pictures of celebrities’ famous bums for a few viral shares and likes, then it simply loses its value and respect.
This is so with all kinds of companies and services. If you are marketing something, stick with it, and do not stray to some other unrelated stuff that you think may gather you some likes.
4. Wrong timing
If you are into breaking news, then the timing has to be almost perfect. Only a person really well versed with the industry can publish news at appropriate times. If you are reviewing an event that happened a month back, you should have something new to add to it, or don’t attempt it at all.
5. Retweeting without anything new
One thing that you can find quite often is people tweeting links from popular news sites and publications. All they are doing is giving something to their followers to think about. Most of the people simply tweet a link or make a retweet to keep their Twitter accounts active and alive. Here is one example:
“Samsung released galaxy S 4 in New York :.”
Most of the tweets are in this fashion. If a person wants to know what is happening, they can gather that information from a professional news site rather than from your lame tweet. Instead of doing this, make the tweet interesting, with something unique that you add to it. Such as:
“Samsung released Galaxy S 4 and it doesn’t have an 8-core processor as many people believe.”
If you cannot insert a link, don’t do it. Just speak what others will find unique and interesting.
6. Personal tweets
This particular thing has been mentioned over and over again. Do not tweet your personal things if you are not a celebrity, someone like Justin Bieber. And if you are a celebrity, you don’t have to tweet your personal stuff; others will do it for you! In short, you would never have to tweet about your personal things. Imagine nobody knows about you, and all your tweets are about when you go to bed, what you had for lunch, and who you met today, then people will soon get bored and stop following you.
7. Don’t attack the competition
Attacking your competition through social media is another important thing to avoid. If you believe your competition is getting ahead of you, just ignore it and simply concentrate on improving your side of the business. By putting up strategies like this Microsoft attack on Google, you are misrepresenting yourself to the consumers.
One thing: you are letting your customers know that you are desperate, frustrated, clueless, and weak. That sends a really bad message to your customers, a really bad one. An important thing that builds a company’s reputation is the respect the customers have toward the company. Many customers stick with companies like Microsoft and Apple because they love the personality of these companies. They like how steady and dependable their products are. By launching hate campaigns, they can easily destroy this trust.
8. Not connecting properly
If you have a Facebook page going on and you have people messaging and commenting on it, be active and reply to those messages. A huge part of your customer service has to be taken online via social media. There are major advantages to this. With social media, word-of-mouth marketing is big, much bigger than the real world. If you share a solution to an issue via your Facebook profile, that solution can be immediately shared by the people viewing it with their friends, and it could go viral. After a while, this kind of interactions can change the way your customer service works.
Several companies still do their customer service through product forums. Social sharing of solutions can be built into these forums to enable better resolution of issues.
9. Not tracking statistics
All social media sites can give you the statistics of what is happening on your profiles. Within Facebook, you can learn about who is sharing your stuff and what draws attention through the Page Insights. Within Twitter, you can get important information about retweets, mentions, direct messages, etc. You can even track a page’s success by looking at how many tweets or Facebook likes it gets. Not giving attention to these statistics is a very wrong thing to do. Only by knowing what works, you can continue to provide what works.
Social media can work wonders if you care about it and do it the right way. If not done properly, you will simply waste a little while of your valuable time. What I have given here are only a few tips, and there are many other important things that can go wrong. Take care of your social profiles and make them stand out.

http://memeburn.com/2013/03/9-social-marketing-mistakes-you-should-really-try-and-avoid/

How to Increase Your Twitter Traffic

In a few short years, Twitter has become extremely popular around the world. People tweet about many different topics. Many talk about their personal interests while others use Twitter as a way to promote their business, website or artwork. Twitter is one of the most effective ways to increase traffic to your website.
With increased traffic, you’ll likely make more sales. But, how can you increase your Twitter traffic? Here are some effective ways to do that.
A good place to begin is by letting others know that you are on Twitter. You can include a link to your Twitter profile in emails, blog posts, and your website.
Tweeting regularly also helps to drive traffic to your site. This will help you to gain followers who may visit your site through links in your tweets. Also be sure to have a link to your site on your profile.
Find quality accounts in your niche to follow and retweet some of their best content. Many of them will follow you back.
You will want to build good relationships with your followers. Don’t inundate your followers with promotions or too many links. Concentrate on posting helpful information and interacting with your followers.
Using Twitter can be a lot of fun, but it also takes hard work to use it effectively to promote your business. Don’t expect results overnight. It takes time to build up a respectable following of people who trust you enough to further investigate your business. If you concentrate on quality instead of taking shortcuts, you will no doubt find Twitter to be a very effective tool for reaching out to your customers.

http://newmarketspace.com/how-to-increase-your-twitter-traffic/

5 Underutilized LinkedIn Marketing Tools

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When it comes to nurturing professional relationships and developing a community, LinkedIn is one of the best resources. But while entrepreneurs might already be aware of important features such as its custom groups or the Question and Answer section, there are a number of tools and features that the professional networking site offers that have gone mostly unnoticed.
I recently connected with Fenot Tekle,senior communications manager from LinkedIn's Marketing Solutions team. Here's what she had to say about how small-business owners can use LinkedIn to help take their ventures to the next level:
Entrepreneur: What LinkedIn tools are underutilized by small-business owners?
Tekle: We offer a number of tools that small-business owners should be aware of when considering how best to engage with professionals on the platform, including:

 

Partner Messages: Small-business owners can utilize LinkedIn's InMail messaging platform to deliver relevant messages to specific audience segments.
Polls: This allows users to easily find answers to their business and market research questions. You can share a poll through LinkedIn's Facebook or Twitter integrations, or embed the voting module on your own website or blog.
Display Ads: Yes, businesses can advertise on LinkedIn. The display ads service allows advertisers to target specific groups of professionals through display ads on the LinkedIn platform.
Recommendation Ads: These ads display the number of recommendations that a small-business owner's product or service has generated on their LinkedIn Company Page.
Targeted Status Updates: Users can tailor the content in their status updates to specific types of company followers. Make sure the right people are seeing the right content.

Entrepreneur: What's the best application for an entrepreneur to promote their business?
Tekle: The targeted status updates, a feature that increases the relevance of conversations between companies and members. Accessible from a LinkedIn Company Page, the targeted status update allows an entrepreneur to tailor relevant messages to professionals who follow their company.
Entrepreneur: For business owners, what's the most important metric to measure?
Tekle: Key metrics will vary from one company to the next, but, in general, business owners are interested in seeing an increase in engagement.
An increase in engagement is the beginning of turning followers into advocates for the business. Engagement analytics are accessible on any established Company Page, so it's convenient for business owners to track their progress.
Entrepreneur: What does an entrepreneur need to know to get the most out of LinkedIn advertising?
Tekle: Have a clear understanding of the target audience. There are many tools available to marketers to attract desirable targets, but campaigns will likely be most effective if business owners reach the right audience, with the most the appropriate content in the right context.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/224337