@BasilPuglisi

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Customer Engagement for Small Business

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Telling business owners that they need to have some plans for customer engagement is easy. However, once they have absorbed that tidbit of helpful information, many may be lost as to what customer engagement can actually entail. Most likely, there is nothing that you in particular are selling, that can’t be found somewhere else. So what can the small business owner do to show that their product is the right choice for the consumer?

Be a Customer for a Day

Spend a day emulating the actions that your prospective consumers do.

  1. Call your customer service number.
  2. Go through the motions of purchasing your own product.
  3. Fill out your contact forms.

Make sure that your customer experience matches your outlook and ideas.

Build Communication Options

Not everyone uses Facebook and Twitter believe it or not. Make sure you have traditional methods of communication as well as digital ones. List phone numbers and a physical address for your business, even if it is online based.

Exercise and Act on Your Listening Skills

c/o www.retailshakennotstirred.com

It isn’t enough to reply to customers questions or request with generic terms. When prospective consumers ask for discounts or other beneficial options, show them you are listening by enacting them. You will get no better word of mouth advertising then having a consumer who can say “I asked for a discount, and they gave me one!” This doesn’t mean you have to offer that discount to everyone who asks, but you should never outright ignore those request.

Show Your Integrity

Since bad news can travel with light speed on the internet, you may need to go out of your way to show your customers that not only are you expert at what you do, but that you back that professionalism with personal integrity. Show your customers that the people behind the brand care.

Let Your Customers Advertise for You

Anything that you can do to get your consumers to share their product or service experiences with the public will provide you with two benefits. Obviously it will give you the valuable advertising you are seeking, but it will also provide you with media that you can post to help build top-notch links for your site. Don’t expect your customers to do this for no reward though. Their time is valuable too. Try to run contest for the best written or video reviews of your project. Reward the winners appropriately for their time spent talking about your products and services.

Above all it is important that any consumers approaching you for your products or services walk away with the sense that you are a brand they can trust and rely on.

Author:

@BasilPuglisi is the Executive Director and Publisher for Digital Brand Marketing Education (dbmei.com). Basil C. Puglisi is also the President of Puglisi Consulting Group, Inc. A Digital Brand Marketing Consultancy that manages professional and personal branding for Fortune 500 CEOs, Hedge Fund Managers and Small Business Owners.

Sources:

New Facebook Ads Platform Goes Live on February 29th

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Image representing Facebook as depicted in Cru...
Image via CrunchBase

Facebook plans to release a new ad platform on February 29th that may profoundly change the way business is done on this social media network. Peter Corbett of iStrategyLabs, a social media marketing firm, recently said the following,

“The company expects the new ads to perform 40 to 8o percent better than its previous product”

That is a serious and significant increase in ad performance. Peter also posted a helpful PDF and Slideshow that seem to have come from Facebook that introduces the new ad platform.

Facebook Premium Ads Overview

[scribd id=82289675 key=key-1labfziiyerffsz1rkus mode=slideshow]

Facebook Premium Ad Guide

[scribd id=82289681 key=key-ml1e2c124st5qe456l0 mode=list]

Expected to be released at the fMC Marketing Conference, both documents reveal that Facebook’s plans to provide advertisers the opportunity to take any type of content and turn it into an ad. The new system will replace many of the classic premium options as well.

  • Premium Events
  • Premium Likes
  • Premium Polls
  • Video Comments

However, Marketplace Ads and Premium Ads will still be available.

The new Premium Ad platform will make content that is posted viewable to your Fan pages fans and subscribers, as well as adding the ability to target any Facebook user, even non-fans.

The slide above shows us that Facebook is directly sharing with advertisers that they can expect at least a 40% increase in user engagement, while gaining 80% in branding, with 16% in fan rate increase from the soon-to-be released Premium Ad platform.

Ways to Use the New Ads

Advertisers will be able to do a few more vital tweaks on the new ad platform.

  • Event Advertisement – Advertisers will now be able to create hype around their upcoming business events.
  • Update Engagement – Any update will be capable of conversion to an ad. Questions, polls, and other media updates can be very engaging ways to improve your ad campaign.
  • YouTube Love – Video ads can have very positive results. Send extra traffic to videos by building a comment base.
  • 90 Characters – Only the first 90 characters of the new ads will be visible to browsers. You will need to optimize on those as much as possible. Find a skilled copywriter if you are not sure how to do this.
  • Strategic Updates – Fashioning a fan page that helps to encourage followers to leave positive reviews on your products or services will enable advertisers to use those updates as ads. This provides a level of social proof in advertising.

It definitely looks like Facebook ads are going to undergo some improvements. DBMEi will stay current on the successes or failures that advertisers will experience once the new ads go live.

Author:

@BasilPuglisi is the Executive Director and Publisher for Digital Brand Marketing Education (dbmei.com). Basil C. Puglisi is also the President of Puglisi Consulting Group, Inc. A Digital Brand Marketing Consultancy that manages professional and personal branding for Fortune 500 CEOs, Hedge Fund Managers and Small Business Owners.

Sources:

Snaptag Versus QR Codes

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QR codes have been a new and unique source of executing mobile marketing campaigns in recent times. Many seem to not only enjoy participating by using them, but have actually begun to look for offers from those with QR codes and may even have begun to ignore those that do not have them at all.

What is a QR Code?

QR is short for quick response and that is exactly the purpose of the QR code. These codes take an element of data from transitory media and sends it to your mobile device. The code will give you details about that business, item, or even discount information on products and services.

QR Codes are more useful than a standard barcode in that they can store a more data and a wider variety of it. QR codes commonly include URL links, text, coordinates and more.

How Does This Benefit Businesses?

Most marketers are well aware that mobile marketing is becoming increasingly more important, almost by the day. No method of advertising could be easier than one that consumers reach out for, instead of being asked to look. QR codes allows those consumers who prefer not to be barraged with overt marketing tactics to choose where they will show interest in a product or service.

There is really no limit to the options that can be embedded in a QR code.

  • Running a restaurant? – Embed a great recipe, a buy a meal get one free discount, a special on this evenings dessert.
  • Authors – Add a QR code to the back of your book that enables a consumer to get extra features or hidden endings to your script.
  • Good health practices – Doctors, or other medically related practices can add good tips and tricks for healthy living to their QR codes, update them every month for innovative creativity in the medical field.

Vital Aesthetics Arrive to QR Coding

Traditionally, QR codes have retained a Rorschach look to them, leaving the responsibility on the advertiser to make sure consumers know whose QR code they are scanning. However, with Snaptags, QR codes and increasing brand awareness have meshed nicely. Snaptags have traded out that whole inkblot look for a code ring that serves the same functional purpose.

Who is Using Snaptags?

Because of the applied branding ability on Snaptags not previously available on QR’s, we can now see who is actively using them.

Picture c/o http://www.socialsnaptags.com/

Snaptags Cons?

Although Snaptags no doubt win out in the aesthetic element, there are other issues that can make Snaptags less beneficial than they appear. Many venture because of the supporting copy, Snaptags are not as easily accessible as QR codes. Snaptag stands by the fact that all advertisers would need to do is determine the required supporting copy, but this does lend itself to the inaccessible accusation.

Many current QR code advertisers agree that if a mobile marketing campaign is managed correctly, the aesthetic element of the Snaptags versus traditional QR’s is hardly advantageous.

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What’s the key to a successful digital media strategy?

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Websites, especially for Search Engine Optimization should defiantly be doing this. A successful Social Media campaign has this as a crucial characteristic. This one defining element or practice is an absolute must for anyone who wants clients and customers whorepeat business and develop long-term relationships. In fact you probably find this to be as true for personal relationships as you would for any aspect of a business before and during the digital age.

Be Genuine!

Websites that develop a structure that take user experience and align it with their purpose find higher conversions. Don’t build a site for a plumber that looks like iTunes. Let that sites experience be what mirrors the genuine experience that is that service or product.

SEO success is defined by the genuine nature of the sites target and content. Search Engines are in the business of helping people find what they are looking for, build the content and keyword targeting around your clients, services and or product.

Social Media is all about the culture that your organization has, what’s your social media personality? Social Media isn’t about hard sales, its about relationships, find ways to develop social media strategies that support who or what you really are beyond what you sell or do.

Jump on Match.com, eHarmony, or have a friend set you up on a blind date, it’s just like business. You’ll get someone new in front of you, but if you want to get beyond the first introduction you better be who you are, pretending to be what your not will scare away your valuable long term relationships and leave you with a short sighted one night stand. Remember, 20% of your customers may provide you with 80% of your business, but if you find a way to build long-term relationships that develop from your genuine culture and services you’ll find value in every interaction.

If you want “world of mouth” opportunities, find a brand perception that matches you or your organization. Don’t try to control it, facilitate it by being genuine.

Sources:

Customer Engagement for Small Business

by Leave a Comment

Telling business owners that they need to have some plans for customer engagement is easy. However, once they have absorbed that tidbit of helpful information, many may be lost as to what customer engagement can actually entail. Most likely, there is nothing that you in particular are selling, that can’t be found somewhere else. So what can the small business owner do to show that their product is the right choice for the consumer?

Be a Customer for a Day

Spend a day emulating the actions that your prospective consumers do.

  1. Call your customer service number.
  2. Go through the motions of purchasing your own product.
  3. Fill out your contact forms.

Make sure that your customer experience matches your outlook and ideas.

Build Communication Options

Not everyone uses Facebook and Twitter believe it or not. Make sure you have traditional methods of communication as well as digital ones. List phone numbers and a physical address for your business, even if it is online based.

Exercise and Act on Your Listening Skills

It isn’t enough to reply to customers questions or request with generic terms. When prospective consumers ask for discounts or other beneficial options, show them you are listening by enacting them. You will get no better word of mouth advertising then having a consumer who can say “I asked for a discount, and they gave me one!” This doesn’t mean you have to offer that discount to everyone who asks, but you should never outright ignore those request.

Show Your Integrity

Since bad news can travel with light speed on the internet, you may need to go out of your way to show your customers that not only are you expert at what you do, but that you back that professionalism with personal integrity. Show your customers that the people behind the brand care.

Let Your Customers Advertise for You

Anything that you can do to get your consumers to share their product or service experiences with the public will provide you with two benefits. Obviously it will give you the valuable advertising you are seeking, but it will also provide you with media that you can post to help build top-notch links for your site. Don’t expect your customers to do this for no reward though. Their time is valuable too. Try to run contest for the best written or video reviews of your project. Reward the winners appropriately for their time spent talking about your products and services.

Above all it is important that any consumers approaching you for your products or services walk away with the sense that you are a brand they can trust and rely on.

Sources:

Twitter Tools: twithawk, a lead generation tool

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Another arrow in the quiver of the savvy internet marketer is Twithawk, a lead generation tool.

Founded in 2009, Twitterhawk, as it was called back then, had to do a name change because Twitter felt it is too close to their name. It didn’t deter Chris Duell, the Australian founder and developer, to fine tune his product and make it available to the World Wide Web. He just changed it to Twithawk.

Twithawk is a real time marketing tool which enables a marketer to find new people to connect with and increase his base. At the same time he is advertising his product.

Based on keywords and location, Twithawk will pull all the Twitter conversations mentioning the key-words or the location, and deliver them in real time. It enables the marketer to answer those tweets and interject into the conversation. Or he can have an autoresponder answer those selected tweet immediately.

Here are some examples: A radio station wanted to increase its base. They set up Twithawk, and chose as keywords names of rock bands they were playing.

Every time a tweet talking about one of the bands went into the Ethernet, it was pulled by Twithawk and the autorepsonder sent a message: “If you like this kind of music, why not listen to radio xxxx? They play what you like”.

Or, when talking about location, a coffee shop owner in Springfield Illinois can set the keyword to “coffee” and the location to Springfield. When someone tweets about having coffee in this town, he can immediately send a reply saying “Why not give Buck’s coffee a try? We have special deals for tweeters…”

Twithawk is pro-active. Instead of placing an ad on a site and waiting for clicks, the marketer sends a reply to a person who is already talking about what the marketer has to offer. If you can start a relationship, says the going wisdom, you can turn this person into a customer.

To prevent this tool from becoming a spam machine, something that worried most experts, the program sends only one tweet per day to the same person, and the number of tweets is sold in packages of 1000. Twithawk charges $0.05 for each tweet sent, and the marketer can monitor the marketing true CPC with link tracking and integrate it with Google Analytics. The site’s average CPC is $0.02, which is much cheaper than any other marketing method.

Sources:

Ways to Build Up Your Email List Using Facebook

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Internet marketing is not what it used to be, experts like Guy Kawasaki say. If you were dealing with internet marketing before Facebook, you know it was all about emails. Obtaining prospects, finding the leads and hoping for conversions.

Email marketing, when done right, is personal and not stuffed with ads and commercial. It does help build followers and stay in touch with them. The White House, Barack Obama and Michele Obama, separately are using this method. It works not only in commerce.

But Internet Marketing is changing fast, as do our habits and ways we connect with friends, family and business associates. Today we are building groups – extended families, tribes if you will. And we are doing it on social media.

And it goes without saying that the most popular place to do so is Facebook. As of the end of 2011, Facebook has over 800 million active users with more than 50% of them logging on to Facebook every given day. The question is how to use this resource to build a great marketing campaign?

It can take a lot of time and money to build a big following (100,000+). It is not as easy as it sounds and even when you do manage to build a huge base, it will not necessarily increase your profits.

A savvy social media marketer knows how to transform his following into a very responsive email list.

Here are a few tricks of the trade:

Facebook Connect – Using it on a Squeeze Page is worth a test against traditional Squeeze Page. It’ll show you if Facebook is a faster and cheaper way to build your community. Most of the traffic you’ll get will be from social media sources or paid ad on Facebook. It might be easier to get personal information through Facebook and have more people you can email and your articles, blog posts, podcasts, videos or webinars.

Like Button – Put a “Like” button on your Facebook ads, and the ‘call for action’ would be to press that button. This way, when they click on the picture in your new ad, you already have the Like.

One Time Offer – Drive people to your website page by posting a link to it instead of posting the video directly on Facebook. Give them a one-time offer that is really worth their while. Why? Because this way you have the “Like” and you have their name and email address. The deal you gave will pay for itself with the new customers you just got. Apply it to any special report or newsletter. After they opt in, explain they will be receiving an email very shortly and subsequent email with links to new videos or special reports.

Ads for followers – Making an ad to your Facebook ‘friends’ is very cheap. You should do it often. You’ll get more info very inexpensively compared with other systems.

The Blurred Method – Create something entertaining for your fans, a special – just for them for joining your Facebook page. Create a fan page for this purpose only. Blur out parts of the video, unless they input their information. Put a Like button with the content and a direct responder. When they press the Like button it will reveal a way to get access to the content, with an opt-in. That is how you get their contact info. After that, show them your content. Use Facebook to post information about what you have created. You can also create a Facebook ad for this purpose.

Autoresponder – You have to have a built-in auto responder for at least 30 days. Find out what you are most interested in; videos, blog posts, other Facebook groups or other created content. Be consistent. Write emails every day for 30 days and drop that into the autoresponder sequence. Add p.s. to your emails with your site’s address for services or products.

Direct Response Blog – Create a loop between social media, email, and Facebook. Your social activity will grow your email, the emails will drive revenue. But if you have a blog to tie it all in, you give them a whole new aspect of the business – it’s all about you. If you prove to be a source they like, a leader in your field, they will bring others into the group. More email addresses, more leads to turn into buyers.

Sources:

Google+ Pages Open the Doors for Brands and Businesses

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This past June, immediately after Google launched it’s highly anticipated Google+ social network, internet savvy businesses like Ford, Dell and Mashable.com rushed to create pages for their brands. Only to have them removed a few days later. Google’s announcement soon followed: “In the meantime, we ask you not to create a business profile using regular profiles on Google+. The platform at the moment is not built for the business use case, and we want to help you build long-term relationships with your customers. Doing it right is worth the wait. We will continue to disable business profiles using regular profiles. (Christian Oestlien Ads project manager on Google+)

One hundred days later Google delivered on its promise. On November 7, 2011 Google+ announced the grand opening of Google+ Pages worldwide.

Google+ Pages allows businesses, brands, and organizations create their own page and establish a circle of like-minded people who enjoy the brand and want to talk about it. Not only does the page allow having a conversation with brand representatives in a way of personalized customer service, it also allows the group of followers to have a conversation with each other.

As Google+ puts it, when it talks about the customers: “…we want to make sure you can build relationships with all the things you care about—from local businesses to global brands… this means we can now hang out live with the local bike shop, or discuss our wardrobe with a favorite clothing line, or follow a band on tour. Google+ pages give life to everything we find in the real world. And by adding them to circles, we can create lasting bonds with the pages (and people) that matter most.” (Google’s blog)

Not only brands and businesses are involved. Google+ wants to enlarge the circle of users to local business, products, corporations, institutions, organizations, arts and entertainment, sports teams and more. They have been working with businesses since the launch in June to understand the needs and requirements of brand names. You can see the pages of these businesses already active:

  • Dallas Cowboys
  • Macy’s
  • Pepsi
  • Toyota
  • Anderson Copper 360
  • X games
  • Zen Bikes
  • The Muppets

Having pages for brands and businesses is nothing new, but Google+ has a few advantages over the competition:

  • People can recommend the brand easily by pressing the +1 button, and start sharing immediately.
  • A brand can have more than one page. A car manufacturer, for example, can have a page for each of its models.
  • Although Facebook has over 500 million users, and Google+ has, so far, about 50 million, the biggest advantage of Google+ has to do with the billions of queries made every day on the search engine, most of them looking for businesses or services. Google will include Google+ pages in its search results.
  • Direct connect – The easiest way to find a band you like to follow or a product has been amended as well. Typing the sign + before the query will take the searcher straight to the brand page. (Try it with + Angry Birds)

The official announcement on Google’s blog ends with these words: “With Google+, we strive to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to software. Today’s initial launch of Google+ Pages brings us a little bit closer, but we’ve still got lots of improvements planned, and miles to go before we sleep. So stay tuned.

Sources:

Facebook Ad Campaigns – Are They Working?

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A World Obsessed with Facebook

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJXOavGwAW8]

With so many potential customers on Facebook, Facebook ads should be a profitable and beneficial to your business. With over 850 million users, and 225 million of those in the United States, there is quite an audience to target through the use of Facebook ads.

How Facebook Ads Work

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yhn0-MrDR18]

The Facebook Ad Marketplace

Like other online advertising options, Facebook ads are a type of marketplace where the user bids on how much they are willing to pay to reach their prospective consumers and how much they will pay if those consumers take action.

Facebook has become a common place for businesses who are using customized Facebook Fan pages to increase the amount of fans on their page, thereby increasing their consumer base. Fans are simply customers waiting to happen. So how do you make sure you are getting a good ROI from the investment on the ads?

Basic Marketing 101 – ROI

To determine your ROI you should take your gross profit, subtract the capital spent on your Facebook ad campaign, then divide by the expense. This should give you a good comparative measure in which to determine which of your marketing expenditures are most effective for your business.

Has Anyone Had Real Results from Facebook Ads?

If you watched the video above, you heard from Bob Ford, a representative for Papa John’s Pizza. He describes how an ad placed on Facebook increased their Facebook fans by 130,000 fans overnight with a one day engagement ad.

Starbucks ran their own event on Facebook ads for World Aids Day and had an overwhelming 950,000 people who agreed to attend the event. Alex Wheeler, a Starbucks PR rep shares, “I think it (Facebook) is really effective because its part as the content experience that people have on Facebook. They can interact with it. They can actually participate. We can have these shared ideals with our customers.”

The Value in a Facebook Ad as Part of Your Marketing Campaign

The ultimate benefit, just as the Facebook developer in the video states, is that Facebook itself provides not only the venue to advertise to direct demographics, but that its very nature encourages other Facebook users to share the content with their network. This means that with an effective Facebook ad campaign, many of your connections could be made for ‘free’ in the form of users who willingly share your content with others. This digital version of ‘word-of-mouth’ advertising has proven to be highly effective for some.

“The conversations are happening, with, or without the brands participation.”

Do you want to be a part of the conversation?

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Increase Your Facebook Friends and Fans?

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Just as with Twitter followers there are two approaches you can consider. You can add those who are willing to Fan you in exchange for you fan’ing them regardless of their niche or industry, or you can utilize tools and services that offer more targeted fans and friends for Facebook. This means you can either cultivate them organically, or use paid services who will do so for you.

Paid Facebook Friends and Fans

Increase Your Fans offers a great many social media network increasing options. For Facebook Fans they have a larger variety of options than most similar sites. Although this may be the more expensive in options, one centralized site can take care of most of your social networking needs, while supplying you with two important elements in Facebook fans, live users, and niche targeted ones.

Fans Galore is a similar paid Fan site. This site accommodates custom orders and while also in the pricey range, are also worth the extra funds to cultivate a useful Facebook Fan page following.

Fan Page Hookup offers a much more affordable, and a significantly less targeted crowd to be added to your Fan Page.

Free Facebook Friends and Followers Exchanges

Let Us Follow provides an open community of many different industries and interest with users on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and more. Site users simply follow members to receive auto-follow backs, effectively growing your network with real users and not clones you may sometimes get with paid accounts.

Hey Gorgeous may have an odd name for a Friends and Followers service, but they have an effective method worth signing up for so that you can gain:

  • 250 Free YouTube Views
  • 50 Free Facebook Fans
  • 50 Free Twitter Followers

Hey Gorgeous does require that you show them where you shared their links on your social networks. Easy work for such a great benefit.

Increasr also offers similar exchange options as users sign in with their Facebook page and “Like” other pages. This generates reciprocal “Likes” for their sites.

Unique Alternative

Wildfire App allows users to create Fan generating content such as sweepstakes, contest, and more interactive events that can bring you natural followers who are already investing some interest in your industry.

There are tons of ways to increase your Friends, Followers, and Fans quickly and efficiently, or slowly and organically. The options here are truly great places to begin.

About Like and Fan Methods  

There are different schools of thought about this, some believe that paying for fans has perceived, others believe that generating real fans is the only value, then there is the middle ground and likely the best alternative. Find ways to target fans using paid services so that part of the likes or following is creating a unique exposure that is similar to advertising and may generate value, while also making the page seem more likable as the quality user does not feel like they are ting an interest into a site with only 30 likes, reducing the perceived value.

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