Marketing

Favor Facts over Frills in B2B Copywriting

June 10, 2012 by basilpuglisi@aol.com Leave a Comment

Platitudes and empty promises go over like lead balloons in the B2B world, where people expect results. While emotion can often play a key role in turning prospects into leads – after all, the customer has to like you – B2B customers are visiting your site with an objective. Too much fluff can end up burying the sale. Effective copywriting delivers a message that lets customers know exactly how to meet their goals and compels them to take action.

Here are tips for persuasive B2B copywriting without the frills.
Know Your Audience
The tone, style, language and vocabulary you use depend heavily on the people who are using your site. You may have a typical clientele, but you must still narrow your audience down to the actual person who is making the online search, ending up at your website and taking action. This person could be a business owner, a product manager, a VP of marketing, a buyer, a salesperson or an assistant. Identify your users and write content that speaks to them. Using the word “you” helps you further communicate directly to your readers.
Headlines, Bullets and Menus
These areas of text may have the smallest amount of content, but they play an important role and require powerful language. Strong headlines are brief and to the point – don’t waste space with language that leaves readers wondering what the page is about. Use bullets to outline the benefits of your products or services, making it easier for users to find what they’re looking for without having to comb through heavy text. The content on your site’s menu bars must navigate users to where they should be on the site; if they get lost, they’re likely to give up and move on.
Ask Questions
Asking your users questions helps them identify their needs and even discover challenges they weren’t aware of. Just be sure to provide solutions. For example, a marketing agency that provides digital display advertising services might ask “What Makes an Ad Effective?” in its headline. This gets readers wondering if their current advertising campaign is as effective as it could be, and compels them to read on for the answer.
Call to Actions

One of the main goals of a B2B website is to convert leads into sales. A successful call to action creates a sense of urgency and value that triggers an immediate response from the user. Vague call to actions, such as “Buy now” or “Click here” lack the detail required for an appropriate response – buy what now? Click here for what? Write call to actions that have a clear, concise message: “Sign up now for a 30-day free trial!” or “Contact us today to make an appointment!”
Case Studies and Testimonials
Rather than make promises and guarantees that aren’t for certain, tell your readers about true success stories. Testimonials help to build your company’s credibility. With case studies, you can highlight specific challenges and how you worked to meet them – proving to your readers that you have the resources and expertise to walk the walk.
Do you have any other tips for B2B copywriting that really works?
Author:
Jacqui MacKenzie is a writer for Straight North, one of the leading Web development companies in Chicago that specializes in Internet marketing, social media and SEO. She writes for a wide range of clients, including audiologist website providers and companies that help book a tee time online. Check out the Straight North blog! @ straightnorth
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Facebook Declares Sponsored Stories Their Primary Ad Unit

June 3, 2012 by basilpuglisi@aol.com Leave a Comment

Traditionally, Facebook has been reluctant to fill up its social content feeds and streams with ads. However, they have rolled out Sponsored Stories for ad units. This new option will open up a viable new ad inventory that can include placements on the home page.

Facebook’s Platform for Marketers

Although Facebook is just past it’s 8 year mark since launch, it is still a rather new platform on which marketers can share their message, products or services. Until recently, the method for spreading that message was the same as usual, create your message and share it with your most targeted audience. This seems to have left the medium and the message itself, out of sync. Expected results ensued. Most folks do not sign onto Facebook to be advertised to, or to look for places to purchase items of interests. Those who used conversion tracking were given a clear picture, the standard Facebook ads did not work. Shortly afterwards, social metrics were introduced in place of conversion tracking.

Many believe that if marketers can learn how to leverage the unique opportunity offered by Sponsored Stories, that they can thrive on Facebook.

Facebook’s Social Content Streams

While Facebook has traditionally be averse to filling their social content stream with ads, they recently began offering their Sponsored Stories ad units in the fully site wide ticker that includes real-time social activities and stories. The thoughts behind the benefits are that this will open up a valuable new ad inventory that includes placements on the users home page. So while they do remain as paid ads, the Sponsored Stories actually display your ad in a friends or your page users’ “Likes” which avoids the less invasive and annoying standard ads.

There may be the unintentional side effect that some viewers and users are not expecting advertisements to escape the confines of the lowly right sidebar, but in general, so far, the ads have proven to be quite effective for social advertising. Current ad units allow brands to purchase additional exposure, however, beginning in August, Facebook began blending the Sponsored Stories in with things like the game apps friends are using, or specific content they are following using other canvas apps.

How Do I Use Sponsored Ads to My Advantage?

There are several ways that marketers can take advantage of the ad units offered in Sponsored Stories. This includes several ad types where marketers or small business owners with Facebook pages can select from the type of ad that works best for their product or services.

Marketers will now be able to customize Facebook ads to their specific needs with only a few basic restrictions. The ad content must still complete with Facebook guidelines. Any images must be properly sized and formatted, and ad text must be 90 characters or fewer.

The marketer will get to target the perimeters that will determine the overall reach of the standard ad. With zero perimeters set that would mean that all of Facebook’s almost 1 billion users could see it. However, that would also be a phenomenal waste of money when highly detained perimeters can be set to target the exact demographics that are relevant to your product. The ad can be targeted so specifically that marketers can choose settings that will enable their ad to reach anywhere from 1 user to the over 850 million now on Facebook.

The 6 Types of Facebook Sponsored Stories

There are six different types of Sponsored Story ads to choose from.

Page Like Story

Page like ads are those where a user has “Liked” your page directly from the box on your website or from Facebook.

Page Post Like Story

This is where one of your fans has “Liked” one of your post in the past seven days.

App Used and Game Played Story

This means someone has played your game or used your app at least twice for a minimum of ten minutes in the past month.

App Share Story

This means that someone has shared a story from your app in the past seven days.

Check-In Story

A check-in story is where a user checked-in or claimed a deal in the last seven days at one of the Facebook claimed places.

Domain Story

A domain story means that a user shared a piece of content from your website using the Share button, shared a piece of your content using the “Like” button, or pasted a link to your site in their status window, in the last seven days.

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.

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Commun.it Launches Their Relationship Management Service for Twitter

May 30, 2012 by basilpuglisi@aol.com Leave a Comment

Weeks ago, Communi.it extended a few initial pre-launch accounts for some social media educational business’s, such as DBMEi, they have announced their official roll out date for their Twitter management service. On June 5th, at the BlogWorld & New Media Expo in NYC, they will officially release the tool to the public. From an initial testing phase point-of-view, the Commun.it tool is a smooth running and user-friendly option for Twitter management that can definitely help private users or marketers alike more fluidly aggregate their most highly desired content. Sharel Omar, CEO and Co-Founder of Commun.it shares that,

“Social media has become instrumental in maintaining all kinds of business relationships; with customers, prospects, partners, and more.”

Most social media marketers can attest to the validity of Omar’s statement. So what do you use to manage all of the most vital information coming in and going out of your Twitter account every day, week, month? Well, there is certainly no shortage of helpful tools, so what does Commun.it bring to the table?

Commun.it Focus

Commun.it developers wanted to focus directly on turning the stream-oriented feed of Twitter into your own personal relationship-oriented dashboard.

Commun.it can help you achieve stress-free social productivity. While many other Twitter feed tools and services provide you with an endless stream of messages, Commun.it helps to analyze your relationships with your followers and allows you to focus on the most relevant people to your interests, not their statuses.
Focus more on high value members and influencers that can help your staunchest supporters spread your message, drive awareness to top influencers, engage member, and create potential leads.
Create actionable insights to help build more meaningful relationships with your Twitter community including a full-engagement history as well as yours and your networks most used hashtags, as well as suggestions on who to follow or who to re-engage with.

With Commun.it users can read over the feeds of the recent activities of top influencers and supporters and even prioritized engagements.

Commun.it provides a complete relationship context with all of your engagements with any member in one smooth thread.
Users have the chance to and the suggestions to discover new leads and quickly make them new Twitter followers. Users can see some of the top engagers of their followers list as well, allowing them to branch out a bit more than many other Twitter management programs currently provide.
Easier management via Commun.it may give some of those small business marketers some of their valuable time back with the ability to star followers for quick access, find members by names or bios, hide those you are not interested in, or even unfollow extremely inactive members.

All in all, the Commun.it tool is a well-rounded, well-oiled machine by managing and prioritizing incoming engagements, providing users with relationship context in a quick glance, and recording and archiving valuable relationship history with each and every one of your followers.

Special bonus to DBMEi Subscribers:

Although the service is launching publicly in a week, we will be metering access for the first month or so. DBMEi subscribers can get in now, however, using this unique invite link: http://commun.it/?t=2b0d35 (for the first 100 only).

The early-bird price of Commun.it Pro tier – only $4.99 a month – will continue to apply to any user who registers and upgrades to Pro before the public launch at BlogWorld & New Media Expo NYC. After the public launch, the price will go up to $9.99 a month. So DBMEi subscribers can benefit from registering early!

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How to Budget for Marketing

May 27, 2012 by basilpuglisi@aol.com 2 Comments

Whatever it is, the budget you put in place for your marketing for the year ahead will shape the results you achieve. Now is the ideal time to define your marketing approach and the budget that will support it. In a recent Toluna survey of businesses, 40% of businesses surveyed stated that they did not feel that their marketing budget met all their marketing needs.
In tougher times, the marketing budget is often the first thing that is cut. Yet it is commonly known that companies which consistently market themselves in a recession perform better than those that don’t. So:

How can companies budget better to create the results they want?
What can companies do to budget effectively for the year ahead?

Fit your strategy around your target market

Strategy is everything in marketing. But a separate strategy for your marketing and your sales approach will not deliver the best Return On Investment (ROI). Now is the best time to review your marketing approach in 2011 and identify what worked – and what didn’t. Then, apply this important data to your overall sales and marketing strategy. Which markets are you trying to reach? Which audiences do you want to grow in the coming year? Match this with your marketing approach and plan your marketing spends in careful stages, so that each part of the plan flows from one stage to another. Use inbound marketing technology to track the behaviour of your target markets and ensure that you are using the most appropriate marketing channels to reach them. This will help you get more from your budget in 2012.

Track your ROI on marketing spend

Your marketing data from the past year will provide a valuable insight into what will work over the next 12 months. So carefully track the ROI you’ve gained this year and identify the activities that have created the best results.

Be ruthless in assessing what is paying you back and what is proving to be a drain on your resources

Would these areas work better with a different approach, perhaps using inbound marketing to accelerate results and make them more profitable? You can also use inbound marketing technology to closely assess and analyse the exact payback from each area of your marketing plan – and feed this knowledge into the year ahead. Put a plan in place for tracking your ROI. Inbound marketing allows you to do this continuously and consistently, letting you to adapt and refresh your marketing activities accordingly.

Create a cross-channel marketing budget

Are you currently using all the appropriate marketing channels? Did your approaches in 2011 feed across the different channels to maximise results – or did you only focus on a couple of areas?
Recent research suggests that companies using social media or “collaborative Web 2.0 technologies” are achieving higher profits. (Source: McKinsey)
Are you one of the companies missing out on a better marketing ROI by neglecting or misusing social media and other technologies?
By using inbound marketing you can connect up all your marketing channels much more effectively, making it easier to retain any potential customers – whatever stage of buying cycle they are at. You can create a cross-channel presence that reduces the cost of building a receptive and responsive brand profile. This approach also makes it much easier to budget for the year ahead. It gives you a core strategy which then feeds out across all the channels – bringing you a better ROI for 2012.

Adapt and update

While it is important to develop a clear strategy to get the best from your marketing budget, it is also important to continuously review and analyse your results. More conventional marketing approaches have traditionally made it quite hard to view the results as you go along. But new inbound marketing technology allows you to view the impact of every single aspect of your marketing approach – as it’s happening. Use this invaluable and on-going insight to adapt your strategy and ensure you make the most of your budget throughout 2012.

What is the secret to budgeting right for marketing in the year ahead?

Everybody wants to make their marketing budget work harder. So how can you ensure you do this in the months to come? Focus on your target market and what they’re doing. By using inbound marketing technology you can get closer to buyer behaviour and demand. You can use this insight to create more meaningful connections by building relationships across all the different marketing channels. This enables you to accelerate the relationships you build with your prospects. Instead of waiting for months to view the results, you can see who’s responding – and adapt your strategy to meet the demand there and then. This ensures that your marketing spend is continuously matched with where it is most effective and that it feeds right back into your company’s sales and marketing strategy. Create your strategy, use advanced inbound marketing approaches to maximise your marketing impact and assess its impact while it’s live. Keep it consistent and targeted and you can look forward to a better ROI on your marketing budget in 2012.
Author: Sookie Shuen is the community manager at Tomorrow People, a leading UK inbound marketing consultancy. You can read more of Sookie’s content on inbound marketing by subscribing to the Zoober Inbound Marketing blog here. You can also find her on Google+ and Twitter.
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The Hard Truth about Facebook: Why the Facebook IPO looks like a Bad Investment

May 17, 2012 by basilpuglisi@aol.com Leave a Comment

Facebook Does Not Produce any Content
Facebook May be Maxed Out!
Facebook Lacks Innovation
Facebook Does Not Replace a Conversation!

Facebook DOES NOT Produce Any Content!

We have been told time and time again, “Content is King”. As an avid digital user, I have found this to be absolutely true. You may be hard pressed to find many who disagree. If this holds true, then Facebook is the biggest flakey investment you can make, in fact, it shouldn’t even survive much longer.

Facebook capitalized on technology – it was a place for people to come to connect and learn. This was at a time when content was still struggling to make its way to digital avenues. In fact, iTunes was in its infancy and did not even hit the top spot until 2008. This gave Facebook the edge as The Place to interact and learn. Think about content producers like the NY Times, they too, were late to the digital era.

What is Facebook and how does it generate revenue?

Users that create content! Every time you participate in Facebook you give them content. This was a fair tradeoff in 2008, perhaps even in 2011, but times are changing. If 2012 is the year of content, then Facebook may be in trouble. While there is likely not going to be a wild withdraw from Facebook at this moment, trust me when I say content providers are starting to see the value in limiting their content and perhaps even withdrawing future content from social sites like Facebook.

If the NY Times stops posting on Facebook, the NY Times will still have increases in readers and perhaps an increase in viewers. It’s arguable about whether or not the NY Times has made a terrible error in posting anything to Facebook. If I know that I count on the NY Times for my “content” but also know that I have the NY Times in my Newsfeed on Facebook, than I am much less likely to visit the NY Times app, website or open the email because I am counting on seeing the NY Times content on my stream. In fact, I even get a small preview that will likely let me know what the “content” is about and so there is no reason to visit the NYTimes.com or their app on my iPad. This is arguably a terrible business model for the NY Times!

The same can be said about entertainment – TV shows, Movies and Artists (i.e. musicians) that get little or nothing for producing “content” for Facebook. Why should Britney Spears keep placing “content” on Facebook? It’s not like Britney Spears needs 910 Million people to be introduced to her, does she? In fact even if only half of her “likes” turned into paid subscriptions at $1, she would have a entirely new revenue stream just based on the “content” already being produced.

Facebook May be Maxed Out!

We all know there is a peak in every business and venture but at 900 million how much further can you really grow? In fact, by recent number indications, Facebook may already be slowing down. Getting 900 million to pay attention to you is one thing, getting them to stay is another. As a Facebook user I admit I already spend a massive amount of time on Twitter and LinkedIn in comparison to Facebook. When Pinterest came out I gave up more of my Facebook time, not the other two!

Why are other Social Sites stronger then Facebook? They have a niche! Facebook has tried to be all things to all users and that’s gotten them lost! LinkedIn is where we go to do business and professional networking, Twitter is the top choice for news and chatting – after all you’ve never heard of a FacebookUp have you? Ever attended a virtual conversation on Facebook? In fact, Facebook completely dropped the ball when GooglePlus captured the world’s attention with Hangout! When you try to be everything to everybody you end up being no use to anyone, that’s Facebook’s grim future right now.

Note: Google may be the exception (Search and Social Come Together)

Facebook Lacks innovation

Let’s face it, when you fail to innovate you tend to open the door and show yourself out, Facebook showed early signs of that when Twitter was released. That was arguably the start of Facebook’s Why didn’t we think of that? Well lets copy it or better yet buy it!

The list goes on and on, Facebook got its status updates from Twitters innovation, Facebook Places developed from FourSquare and GoWalla, which was such a failure that later they bought GoWalla. Google Plus quickly trumped them with Video Chat and so Facebook tried to copy it. Once Facebook realized that Google was way too big and they could never compete with the inbound marketing of the search Giant, we then had a short lived Bing/Facebook Social Search integration. You love Google Video Ads, well Facebook copied that too. Fan of being able to Pin It! so is Facebook. If you really love the fact that a picture is worth a thousand words, then that’s the equivalent of a billion dollars as that’s what Instagram was acquired for, by Facebook!

We could talk about the business model, but after all the news about retailers flocking to Facebook pages and then running away clearly it’s not a primary place for business, no matter how many times they try to tell you it is.

Facebook is clearly over extended and in complete chaos with its inability to innovate beyond its checkbook. This doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have value in marketing and advertising, after all 900 million emails is a safe list, just one that might not be quite as valuable as we have been lead to believe.

Facebook Does Not Replace a Conversation!

It is possible that in the near future society will hinder Facebook forever, a status update is not a conversation. Networking, Learning and Communications are greatly hindered by the existence of Facebook and its just a matter of time before our nation and communities around the globe shun Facebook as a major contributor to health issues and conflict. Facebook has little if any reality in it, it is a place for people to share what they choose, trying to showcase themselves, their family and their lives in the best light possible even if it is the furthest thing from the truth.

One might enjoy the idea that grandparents can see their grandchildren through the curation of an edited and extremely biased feed, the truth however could range from basic struggles to life threatening abuse that fails to get discovered from a lack of real world contact.

If you’re a friend, family member or loved one, I hope you don’t mistake the value of real life contact with the purpose of a feed. I most especially hope it’s not at the cost of a future or a life.

The Balanced Truth

While I spent most of the time looking at a few of the issues that will impact Facebook’s survival, I don’t want to be unfair. Facebook is a great tool, but it’s just that, a tool! Facebook has connected people like never before, contributed to the free dissemination of information and pioneered Social Media into the revolution of digital communications. However, it’s just software.

Facebook cannot replace real life communications or the desperate need we have for them as part of our existence. No child will be born because of Facebook, no war will be stopped, no product will be manufactured by it, and no business will grow simply because they were on Facebook.

Children come from physical contact, wars are averted through communication that requires we hear, see, touch and smell each other. Facebook is not going to get on the assembly line and build your Ford, stove or Mobile Phone. Facebook will not report the news, and ask the tough questions. Facebook will not repair your roof or rescue you during an emergency. Facebook will not raise a child, nurture them, inspire them and provide for them. No business will be successful because they got on Facebook, that’s up to the entrepreneur, their vision, passion and hard work.

I am taken in awe by Facebook’s Innovation to come to existence and serve a purpose, it has changed lives, some for better some for worse. Facebook has value and can be used as an effective tool, just not one that a reasonably educated and experienced person can see growing much further. Facebook has been a consumer of great ideas and innovative content, but that’s the problem, it consumes, it doesn’t create.

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***Disclaimer, The article is meant to share the opinion of the author based on availble informations and data, it is not an investment tool.***

What Can Business Owners Expect from Email Marketing?

May 3, 2012 by basilpuglisi@aol.com Leave a Comment

If used effectively, Email marketing is never spam. It can be invaluable for small business owners by helping them attract new customers and generate sales quicker. It is also more affordable than other forms of direct marketing campaigns.

The success of a business’s email marketing campaign lies in a handful of factors. Among them, what you are offering, the quality of your email lists, your audience, your message, and more. Response to any efforts can also vary by industry. Get familiar with your own industries data and success rates but also understand that individual results may vary as well. As with other forms of marketing, it has its benefits in immediate as well as longer term effects.

Email Marketing Statistics

MarketingSherpa‘s recent email marketing benchmark guide reported some interesting statistics.

Business-to-Consumer emails achieve an average open rate of 20% and a click-through rate of 8%.
Business-to-Business had a slightly better response with average open rate of 20% and a click-through of 12%.

It is helpful to track your opens and click-throughs on each campaign individually and from month to month. Once you have gained a better understanding of the trends in your email responses, you can begin to establish more measurable results and goals, as well as exercising the ability to begin testing different subjects and content.

The common goal of course, is to persuade email recipients to open the email and check out your products and services. Some great ways to encourage your recipients to click into those emails are:

Get Your Brand Name in Your From Line

Make sure your brand name will be in the From line. This will help to ensure that recipients will recognize the source of the email. 64% of email respondents describe the From line as the most important factor motivating them to open the permission-based emails.

Impressive Subject Line

Just as important as the From line, the Subject line must convince the viewer to become a respondent. Be honest and avoid anything misleading in your subject line. Keep it short and simple.

Send Emails at the Correct Time

How will you know what time is best for you to send out your email campaigns? Test it. Do not assume you have some data that tells you the optimal time. Check for yourself by sending them out at different time periods and monitoring the results.

How Do I Improve Click-Through Rates?

Use a simple message. You only have a few short seconds to get a viewers attention. The best way to do this is with a short, powerful message that explains exactly what you have to offer and a short list of great benefits.

A great deal can also be very compelling. Are you offering a good coupon deal? A 2-for-1 rate? Add something to your email offer that will trigger a purchase now. Feel free to use free trial offers as long as you are aware of the expenditure and how it could affect your budget.

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What is in Our Mobile Future?

April 12, 2012 by basilpuglisi@aol.com Leave a Comment

In 2011, the number of Smartphone’s sold exceeded the number of personal computers. At its current projection, the number of mobile devices will significantly outnumber the PC’s in just a few years.

The Past and Future of Mobile

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bvIIIVfLYA]

As mobile use increases in the future, AI may also have a large impact on the users mobile experience. Many online services will play a large part in helping us to organize and go about our daily lives. AI combined with vital algorithms will:

Organize and handle personal information
Alert us about important events
Help us decide which products to buy
Monitor everything from calendars to health care
Help us manage services with consideration for our personalized consumer needs

With a realistic projection on the evolution of mobile devices, it also indicates that we are likely to move away from typing all of our days jargon into tiny keyboards on Smartphones and more towards touch screen options, device ‘bumping’ or ’tilting’, sensory triggers, voice activation and other types of communications that mimic ‘human’ gestures and fluidity.

To Smart App Infinity and Beyond

Although apps will continue to play a huge role in the manner it does now, there will likely be more options for consumers in helpful virtual

programs that enhance what we have now for messaging systems, virtual shopping options, entertainment, news and more. We are currently seeing this type of forward progression in apps that offer a more personalized experience. They tend to learn the behavior of the user, continuously get smarter, and stay updated on you over a period of time. As our technology for mobile devices and apps continues to grow, so does our opportunity for new developments.

Be Prepared

Once you have decided to utilize mobile platforms for your business, there are many determining factors to consider when creating the most effective business plan for your personal business needs. If you plan to bypass desktop devices and putt full focus on mobile or just implementing it slowly into your businesses marketing campaign plans, you will need to have an idea of projected requirements to meet the same standards as time goes by. One of the best ways to ensure you are giving it the proper focus is to stay on top of trending industry news and be ready to implement new and helpful interactive programs, assistance, and mobile products in very short periods of time.

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Inbound Marketing Summit NYC 2012 – 3 Important Tips to Take Home

March 12, 2012 by basilpuglisi@aol.com Leave a Comment

new-home-feature-111 — Image c/o http://inboundmarketingsummit.com/event/new-york/

If you had the opportunity to sit in on the panels at the Inbound Marketing Summit in New York this year, you likely took away a few vital lessons that you can carry to your business. The conference itself has evolved over the last few years. It has held a focus on social marketing strategies, but has also begun a swift evolution to cover other vital elements such as social TV, touch screen devices, and mobile marketing, as well as defining what these technological shifts really mean for professionals utilizing engagement skills and strategies.

While many interesting points were made, there were absolutely three great highlights that every small business owner should consider when focusing on social media and fan engagement.

Social Media Advertising

Most social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and even LinkedIn have opportunities for advertising at relatively affordable prices. While businesses are building and managing their content in order to break through valuable channels to achieve better engagement, they are finding that advertising can be easy when it is placed where people are hanging around the most. With the many Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn stats we are familiar with when it comes to time spent on social networks these days, there is no doubt that although more affordable than many other types of digital or traditional advertising, they are still highly effective. The IMS panels recommended trying this out on your Facebook Fan page since it is significantly easier to build an audience there.

Responding and Engaging

IMS2012 — Image c/o http://socialmarketingfella.com/

You have heard it before here at DBMEI, it is not enough to simply create formats for your consumers to interact with, you actually have to be responsive, and in a relatively short period of time for maximum engagement opportunities. Business owners can either use a team to ensure engagement in a timely manner, or they can use alerts and other monitoring programs to ensure their consumers or prospective customers are given responses before too much time has passed. They should also not wait until there is an issue to engage, even if a visitor just stops by to post or praise your products and services, give them a swift thanks a Like, and a special coupon code when at all possible. Make interactivity on your social media platforms a source of mutual positive reinforcement when at all possible.

Have a Plan

Business owners need to have a plan. You shouldn’t be rolling over, firing up the computer, and tapping your fingers until the content idea comes to you. You need a lot more of a forecasted plan than that. Using a social media editorial calendar can be a helpful way to pre-plan and map out topics so that they are optimized for distribution, coverage, and of course engagement. You should know ahead of time, aside from breaking or important trending news, what type of content will be created and when it will be set for distribution. Knowing your audience and what type of content they can appreciate, combined with a social media editorial calendar will help business owners to better manage engagement with current or potential consumers.

Many other vital points arose that are also swiftly becoming crucial elements in business marketing such as tablets and social TV and their respective places in a full-bodied marketing campaign. Since Americans still watch around 35 hours of TV per week, many now on touch screen devices and tablets, marketing professionals now need to begin to consider how to capture an audience’s attention across multiple devices simultaneously.

However, it is also important to recall that another lesson from IMS included understanding user behavior over in-depth knowledge about emerging technologies.

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Did you try? A Look at the data from #SMWsmac [InfoGraphic]

February 29, 2012 by basilpuglisi@aol.com Leave a Comment

What can you do in 16 days? Try!

With just under a month before Social Media Week 2012, it came to our attention that NYC did not have a daylong event that was tailored to teach the small business owners and professionals how Social Media is and can be used. On Feb 1st, 2012 dbmei authors decided to launch Social Media Action Camp! The event which a few days later became an official part of Social Media Week was set for Feb 16th 2012 at the Roger Smith Hotel in NYC.

Data provided by Synthesio , and a few other sources .

The event tag #smwsmac generated over 1,000 tweets! Which represents about 5% of the social media activity in New York City. The Social Influencers reached over 116,000 followers and generated tweets in 15 countries globally!

In addition to the info from Synthesio, we also know that:

102 people attended throughout the day
128 viewers at one time on LiveStream
976 views on the Live Stream Channel
1484 tweets to date #smwsmac
71 check-ins on foursquare to the Roger Smith Hotel

The Official Social Media Week event page hosted on SocialMediaWeek.org generated 177 Facebook “Likes”, 250 “shares” on LinkedIn and 834 tweets that did not feature #smwsmac as a tag. Making the event the most socially shared event for ALL Social Media Week 2012 globally!

The Social@Olgivy Movers & Shakers platform supported by Kred featured organizer @BasilPuglisi as the top influencer for Feb 16th and both @BasilPuglisi and @dbmei as the top 5 influencers for the following day Feb 17th 2012.

The event was a mix of speakers featuring some of the digital names like Google, Klout, Synthesio, StumbleUpon, EmpireAvenue & Constant Contact. The event featured digital media professionals like David Meerman Scott, Amy Vernon, Mardy Sitzer, and Lujure’s Nathan Latka. Lisa A Burns, representing Corning Inc., spoke about the wonder of how a Fortune 500 Company used YouTube to capture more than 17 million views. Then the dbmei authors Bill Corbett Jr., Jeff Ogden, Craig Yaris and Basil C. Puglisi contributed their take on using social media to generate action!

The real success resulted from the response that the attendees reported. The mix of content and style presented, generated useful information in many areas with actionable advice and solutions.

“The diverse group of presenters offered extremely valuable best practices and actionable advice. It was also nice attending a social media event that didn’t cater to newbie’s or skeptics” said David Gise

The event exemplified the point that “you don’t know till you try”, and while we have a long list of things we can do to make the next event even better, it’s an important point for dbmei as well as the individuals involved to say not only did we try, but we succeeded. If you take nothing else away from the article, we hope that when a opportunity presents itself, you be so bold as to try and make it happen.

Snaptag Versus QR Codes

January 17, 2012 by basilpuglisi@aol.com Leave a Comment

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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