Lately I’ve noticed that some of my favorite blogs embed links withinthe posts to tweet. For example: How to make your blog more sharable [tweet this]
Go ahead. Click the hyperlink above and see what happens.
Pretty cool, eh?
So I looked at the code and figured out how to do it. I’ve been testing it out on other blogs I write for, and people actually do tweet from inside the posts more frequently. (Don’t even get me started on why I was doing this for other people’s blogs and not my own).
I was very proud of myself.
And then I discovered Click to Tweet. It’s a free service, online, that creates the tweet for you. So all my code busting was for nothing.
Here’s how Click to Tweet works. Go to their website and…
Write the message you want tweeted in the box. Be sure to include a link back to your blog post (with shortened hyperlink, please)
Click the “Generate” button to create a custom link.
Type the text wherever you want it to appear in your blog. Then insert the custom link generated by Click to Tweet into the “tweet this” text.
Then, when someone clicks on the link, the message will be automatically added to their Twitter status box.
And if that’s clear as mud, just go to their website and you’ll figure it out. Seriously. It’s that easy.
Check out the section on how Fortune 500 companies use social media! The most energy seems to go into blogs, which makes sense because blogging gives you something to Tweet about, and it can drive traffic to the website.
A nice, neat visualization of ways to market your website. In my experience, SEO and blogging are best for driving traffic, while e-mail marketing kicks @$$ at generating leads. I enjoy social media and have definitely benefited from it, but if I had to pick three out of the four things to do, I’d drop the social media. Fortunately, I’m not in that position and can do all of the above!
Interesting infographic here on Pinterest, which tracks with my own personal experience. I see a lot of pinning going on of stuff people want to buy, or dream of buying, which jives with the concept that there’s more brand interaction going on here than on Facebook. That said, I don’t think Pinterest is for every brand. If you sell computer services, well, good luck posting images people want to re-pin. I.e., Pinterest appears much strong at B2C than B2B.
Putting your best foot forward online is now expected, and for B2B, LinkedIn has become a critical social network. But writing your profile can be tough. It’s easy to fall into laundry lists of accomplishments (boring) or reiterating your resume (even more boring). There are lots of ways to approach your online bio, but I like to start with “why.” Why do you believe what you do? What’s brought you to that belief? Tell us!
And if you’re looking for information, check out this TED video.
Recently, my modest little blog has been hit by a wave of spammers leaving bogus comments. They do this in an attempt to build links back to their clients’ websites, “improving” the website’s SEO.
I know the game.
And the only joy I get out of it is the knowledge it doesn’t work. Thanks to Google’s new algorithms, that sort of dishonest link building doesn’t have much impact on SEO anymore. It just wastes my time.
So to all those businesses that are paying people to sneak links onto other people’s blogs, you’re wasting your money. And pissing me off. Which strikes me as a sort of lose-lose proposition. Not that my being annoyed is going to affect a spammer’s life in any way, but why annoy people you don’t even know? It’s just bad karma.
So where is SEO going? For 2013, it looks like content is king and social networking is rising in importance.
The statistics have spoken. Doing just one thing well isn’t enough, at least when it comes to getting your marketing message out to the consumer.
This infographic makes sense to me. You’ve probably heard the old saw that some people learn by hearing and some by reading and some by watching, but put all those elements together and you can increase the speed and effectiveness of a lesson. Why wouldn’t the same be true with marketing messages?
Today PR Squared posted a good blog on how our online attention span is now equivalent to that of a goldfish’s – 9 seconds. Actually, I’m surprised goldfish have an attention span that long. But more to the point, this short attention span means if we’re to get our marketing message out, we have to be quick about it.
As a writer, this wounds me, especially since shorter doesn’t necessarily translate into less work. It’s hard to be pithy in 140 characters or less! On the other hand, this gives new impetus to my New Year’s resolution to learn how to take pictures well.
How are you going to tighten up your marketing messages? Or do you believe we really even need to? Some copywriters argue that the key is to catch and hold people’s attention with strong writing, rather than keep it short. What do you think?
My cousin works in the design department at the Atlanta Zoo. Last March, she started up and now manages the zoo’s Google+ page. The page now has over 180,000 followers. Yes, in eight months, the Atlanta Zoo got over 180,000 followers on their Google+ page. Granted, they have cute pictures of animals to post. But animal photos alone do not explain this success.
So I asked her how she did it and she gave me some rocking tips, which I’ll share in a moment.
But first, a caveat: I’ve been slow to come around to Google+. There are only so many social networks my brain can take, and Google+ came late to the party. So I figured Google+ had better be pretty damn awesome to drag my time away from other social networks. It is. And linked to the Google search engine, you can bet being on Google+ creates some serious SEO advantages.
Onward.
Here are the quick takeaways:
Hangouts: This is possibly one of the coolest features of Google+. Hangouts are video conference calls, much like Skype. But unlike Skype, at the end of the Hangout, Google uploads the video to YouTube and produces a video that you can then repost, reuse, recycle. Check it out:
If content is king, social is queen: Like any other social media, success comes from both talking to people and listening to them. It also means being out and about online. For example, the zoo has been following Steven Colbert’s Google+ page and making bear jokes. Their dream is to get some sort of cross promotion going with him. But in the meantime, people see the jokes, and go to check out the zoo’s page.
You can get your message across: Google+ gives you more space to write because posts can be expanded if you need to explain more.
Have a strategy: The zoo’s Google+ page is oriented toward education about their conservation and research work, and its followers are global. By contrast, the zoo’s Facebook page focuses more on local mom’s, promoting zoo events.
And now for a few technical tips:
Photos shine on Google+, but landscape format works best.
Use hashtags to promote your own topics and to find people who might be interested in those topics.
The zoo has gotten a strong response from the Google+ album feature. Then again, they’ve got awesome photos to promote.
Hangouts: Check the hangout rules, test your audio, and do utilize the Google+ events feature to promote it. Yes, you can create a special page just for your hangout!
Check out the ripples feature, which enables you to see where your influences are.
The secret sauce:
One thing my cousin didn’t mention (likely because she didn’t realize it) was that her posts are funny and authentic. We talk about authenticity a lot in social media, but it’s a nebulous concept. The best I can do is give an example.
While she was showing me the page, a post with a photo came to her that she needed to repost. Her reaction when she opened it up was to laugh and declare, “That’s one big baby tapir!” And the title of the post she came up with: One Big Baby Tapir.
Okay, maybe that’s still nebulous. Just be yourself!
One of the biggest push-backs I get from small business owners when it comes to social media is time. They don’t have any. And this is a real issue, because to do social media well – i.e. engage in conversations, track what customers are talking about, develop content, etc., does take time. Sure, you can hire someone else to do it, but can a third party really engage with clients as well as someone who works at your company?
Still, social media can drive traffic to your website and drive sales leads. It can add value. So I’m starting to think that for small businesses, a light footprint can still be effective, as long as it’s strategic.
For example, imagine a small firm with a staff of seven salespeople. They’ve all got smart phones, about half have Twitter accounts. The business could open Twitter and LinkedIn accounts, follow clients, and post about content. The salespeople, in turn, can follow the company account and their clients, retweet company posts, and engage with their clients. I.e., the salespeople handle the engagement end, the company manager/owner/whoever handles the content creation side.
What else is strategic?
Defining your social media goals. Are you going to develop relationships? Drive leads? How many?
Figuring out where your clients are online and focusing on those social platforms, rather than trying to be everywhere. How do you know where your customers are? Check their e-mail signatures, their websites, their business cards. Or just ask them.
Following clients. It’s the first step in engagement and social market research.
Measuring results.
I’m sure I’ve missed something – what else belongs here?
Social Media Marketing 