Social Media Training: Creating Quality Content

April 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Having accounts for social media networks is just the beginning of your road to success with social media marketing.   Next is creating a plan that focuses on the content.  What is it that you want to post? What message do you want to give to people? Creating good content will help generate a broad fan base and help with your search engine optimization.

Cut to the Chase

Content does not have to be elaborate.  Be direct and short with your message.  On average, the typical Internet user has an attention span of 10 seconds when surfing the web.  Therefore, structure your message to gain your audience’s attention within that 10-second time frame.  If they are interested, they will click to read more where you can then direct them to your blog that can have more in depth posts.  Twitter only allows for 140 characters for each tweet so you have no choice but to be concise.

Be Useful

If I have a problem and I’m trying to figure out how to fix it, the first place I look is the Internet.  With this in mind, your content should address a problem and offer possible solutions.  This is your chance to show that you are an expert in your field.  Provide tips and advice about your area of interest.  When people see that you know what you’re talking about, they will trust your advice and use your again as a resource.

Keyword Rich

Including keywords in your posts is important. This is the way that your audience is going to find you in the first place. However, be strategic with your keyword placement. Don’t go overboard or it may take away from the actual content of your site. Use them, but use them appropriately. Using keywords in our titles will carry more weight for search engine optimization. Put yourself in the shoes of your audience. What would they to search for that would make your site come up?

Entertaining

Set yourself apart from the others. Your brand or company should have a personality and this should show through your content. Be entertaining. Be personable. Make connections. Presenting real life scenarios or examples is also a good way to get people hooked.

Filed Under: Internet Marketing Strategy, social media marketing, Social Media Strategy, Social Media Training Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Social Media: More Powerful Than You Think!

March 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I challenged myself to give up Facebook for 40 days and have found it to me the most difficult challenge in terms of staying informed.  Facebook is one of my bookmarks of sites that I visit on a daily basis, as it is for many Facebook users.  Without Facebook, I immediately tuned in to other social media networks that I am subscribed to such as Twitter and LinkedIn.  Ultimately, I have failed this challenge of eliminating Facebook from my everyday tasks but have come to understand the significant influence that Facebook and social media has made globally.

    “Twitter Revolution”

In regards to the current events and the revolutions in Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia, they are often described as “Twitter Revolutions.” The defining characteristic in comparison to the Revolutions of the past, like the Russian revolution, is the means of communication.  I have read a number of articles that claim that the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions were set off my social media activity.  Wael Ghonin, Google’s Middle East and North African Marketing Director and leader in the Egyptian uprising, told CNN that the Egyptian protestors had the Internet to thank for their victory with President Hosni Mubarak stepping down from power after 14 days of protest.  “I want to meet Mark Zuckerberg and thank him personally.  I’m talking on behalf of Egypt.  This revolution started on Facebook,” said Ghonim.  In regards to the Libyan affairs, researchers found that the main way for protesters to communicate inside and outside Libya was through social media.  Considering the power of social media in igniting an entire revolution, imagine the impact these networking tools can have on your business.

    Where is the world are you?

With the recent Tsunami in Japan, many students were witness to the terrible tragedy overseas as they were spending the semester studying abroad.  Three NKU students were reportedly studying in Japan during the Tsunami and made contact with the University and friends and family back at home through Facebook and letting them know he was safe.  Without Facebook, we would not have been in contact with these students for several days.  Facebook is a way to stay connected.  In times of disaster, Facebook allows just that.  This can be important for your business as well – many people have global networks and knowing where your assets are is important.  Social networks allow for these connections to prevail.

    Special Events

Moments ago, I found out I missed an event on campus because I missed the Facebook invitation.  I haven’t been on Facebook in two weeks.  JUST TWO WEEKS!  Events are being promoted through Facebook more often than they are through e-mail, and when you’re not on campus that often to see the paper promotions, Facebook is the primary medium.  Facebook is where every college student looks to see what’s going on.  Businesses are now doing the same.  Facebook has over 500 million active users, meaning that most of your audience, more likely than not, is on Facebook.  Promote where your people are instead of just your traditional mediums.

If social media can inspire an entire country to revolt, imagine what social media can do for your business!  It almost seems unreal the tremendous impact that social media can have on such a global scale.  It is crazy the amount of information I’ve missed from being detached from Facebook for just two weeks.  Social media marketing has certainly come a long way from where it first began – utilize these Internet marketing tools and, when properly implemented, you can watch your business grow.

How powerful is your social media strategy?

Filed Under: Internet Marketing Strategy, social media marketing, Social Media Strategy, Social Media Tools, Social Networks, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Social Media Training: Setting Goals for your Social Media Strategy

February 1, 2011 By 2 Comments

Have you set goals for your company’s social media strategy plan for 2011?  The year has just begun and it’s not too late to map out your strategy goals.  What is it that you want to accomplish using social media?  How will you measure your accomplishments?  In my training courses, we discuss how to implement social media into a business plan and it’s important to define the goals of your plan.  Here are a few tips and suggestions on what to aim for this year!

1. Identify Your Goals

First, you want to identify what it is you want to accomplish.  You should make a list of each social media networking site you use and decide what it is you want to accomplish using each network.

For Twitter, maybe your goal is to attract a certain number of followers or increase your follower by a certain percentage.  Another possible goal would be for your 140 character Tweets to be so valuable that you get a certain number of ReTweets. Make sure you Tweet regularly and Tweet interesting comments/articles/facts.  You don’t want to be the ‘spammy’ Tweeter.

For your Facebook account, similar to your Twitter goals, you want to up your fan count by 50%, or whatever you think is an appropriate bar to set.  Facebook also has great features that allows you to track the activity on your page – this way you can see if the content your posting is engaging your market.

On your YouTube channel, you could set a goal of uploading a certain number of videos per month.  Or you could set a goal of how many views you want for each of your videos. Identify what kinds of content you want to post and try to increase your followers with your engaging content. YouTube videos can also be integrated into your other social network accounts as well.

For your LinkedIn profile, set a goal for how many connections you make per month.  Contributing to conversations on LinkedIn is also a valuable feature for this network so make a point of getting involved in the buzz.  Finding connections in groups is another aspect of LinkedIn that you could include in your social media goals.

Whatever your goals might be, make them challenging, yet attainable.  Be as specific as possible so you know exactly what your looking for in your results. You can always adjust this list along the way!

2. Plan of Action

What are you going to do that will make you achieve these goals?  Decide how often you want to post on each site and where. Spending a few hours a week on your social networking sites will help build your social media presence and more activity will drive more traffic to your pages. Brainstorm a list of topics you think people would be interested in that you can talk about on your sites.  Also, make a point of checking in on discussion groups on Facebook and LinkedIn.  In giving valuable input, you are presenting yourself as a qualified and knowledgable contributor that could ultimately drive traffic to your page. Just remember to avoid being too ‘spammy’ and blatantly promote yourself- no one likes a spammer.

3. Ready, Aim, FIRE!

Put your plans into action. And stick to your plan! Keep yourself on schedule with your plan and you will see results!  Decide on how often you are going to check in on your social media sites and what results you are looking for – new fans, followers, active conversation or views. The great thing about social media networks is that they provide you with immediate feedback so you know whether or not your plan is working.  If not, adjust your tactics and try again!

What are your goals for 2011?

Filed Under: Internet Marketing Strategy, social media marketing, Social Media Strategy Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Social Media Revolutionized State of the Union Address

January 26, 2011 By 1 Comment

Last night, President Obama delivered his annual State of the Union address to the United States population where an estimated 48 million people tuned into the event.  With social media being the new phenomenon of social interaction, it’s no surprise that the White House took advantage of this opportunity to connect with the over 85,000,000 social media users in the United States alone.

State of the Union isn’t just on TV

The State of the Union is no longer an annual event where Americans sit on their couch and watch the speech on their new flat screen, hi-definition television.  The State of the Union address has now gone viral through the Internet, social media and even mobile mediums.  The White House estimated that an estimated 1.3 million people tuned into the live streaming video made available on the White House website during the time of the speech.  There is also a White House app available on the iPhone where users can follow the latest news, blogs and videos streaming live from their phone.

Twitter Play-by-Play

From the start of the president’s annual speech, the White House Twitter account was on rapid fire with a play-by-play rundown of President Obama’s address to the country.  This method of following the speech allowed for users to replay with questions and comments that were sent to a panel of White House officials (@whitehouse) for LIVE answers during the speech.  To watch this Twitter account explode with tweets from its nearly 2 million followers, I assume, would be like watching live stock market charts at Nasdaq.  Tweets were probably rolling in by the second!

Facebook Action

The White House Facebook account also posted a play-by-play of the president’s speech that attracted more than 50,000 participants with questions for White House officials.  This direct interaction with the country’s government is an unbelievably difficult task to take on with over 800,000 fans and 50,000 comments within an hour!  However, it does show how much involvement the government works to have in this direct communication with the public.

Online Events

President Obama and senior administration officials have created a number of online events in order to response to the millions of questions and feedback the White House has received over the past 24 hours since the speech.  On the White House website, they provide an events calendar with the listings of online events for answering the questions provided from the American audience through Facebook, President Obama’s YouTube channel and live feedback from Press Secretary’s Twitter account.

Conclusion

In your social media strategy, make yourself available.  The United States government present themselves in a way that encourages interaction and traffic to their social network pages. What do people want to know about your company or service? Provide information that people will want to hear about.  The White House Twitter and Facebook provided information on the points delivered throughout the speech because that’s what people wanted to hear.  While your company may not be as big and worldwide as the United States government, you still want to give your fans, readers and potential followers something interesting to engage in and possibly participate.

How did you tune in to the State of the Union Address? Are you available to your audience?

Filed Under: Internet Marketing Strategy Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Social Media on the Menu?

December 11, 2010 By Leave a Comment

While great food can make a restaurant successful, it isn’t the only ingredient in the recipe for success.  The restaurant and food industry are prime subjects for utilizing this inexpensive marketing tool-social media.  Here are some key tips on how to use social media to enhance your brand flavor and interact online with your guests.

1. Facebook page

This might be one of the easiest ways for restaurants to connect with people.  Putting a link on your website is the easiest way for you to drive traffic to your Facebook page and have your fans/customers “like” you.  The Facebook page is a great way to share your story, share pictures and share news with your fans.  Just today, I received a message from Sitwells Coffee House sharing with me a holiday event being held all along the street with other local businesses.  What’s great about this is that it’s not directly promoting itself – “Buy me! Buy me!” No one buys into that…- it’s promoting a community of businesses as well as its own.  The Facebook page is a great way for your patrons to interact with your brand and attract new customers.

2. Twitter account

This network allows you to spread real time messages and real time responses as well!  Being able to interact with your followers in this way is great because it gives them immediate news and updates about what’s going on at your restaurant.  You could tweet about your special of the day or who’s performing tonight at your happy hour.  Tweet about happy hour specials or other special offers! Twitter can especially be a great tool for restaurants that have a high number of reservations to announce when a reservation canceled.  This is a way to get the message out to your customers who are looking for that last minute reservation with the immediacy of this social network.

3.Event Invitations

Just this morning, I received 3 event invitations from Sitwells Coffee House inviting me to attend their weekly live music sessions with said musical band/musician.  This is a great way to generate traffic, not only to your restaurant, but also your Facebook page.  Those invited can send the invitation to other users if a band they like is playing or if this event is something their friends might take interest.  This is just another simple way for you to egage with your fans.

4. Special offers/Incentives

Give your fans special treatment for “liking” you or being one of your “followers.”  Attach a special coupon for a discounted lunch or free appetizer just for being a part of your social media network.  This is a great way to get more traffic to your page as well.  Advertise this in your facility or post on your website so that viewers have some incentive to engaging with your page.  Another option could be to reward those who recruit more fans do your page or make positive contributions to your page.  This will give your fans just another reason to spread the word about your restaurant!

5. How do you know if it’s working?

Monitor your pages.  This is the easiest way to tell if your social networking strategy is effectively engaging your audience.  Monitor your fan count.  Read the comments.  Listening is the best way to judge what the buzz is about your restaurant.  By listening and responding to your fans, it shows that you are interested in what is being said and are continually looking for ways to improve the way your restaurant is running.

How is your restaurant using social media?

Filed Under: Internet Marketing Strategy, social media marketing, Social Media Strategy, twitter Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Social Media Speaker: 10 Ways Dental Practices can use Social Media

September 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

I know that a lot of small businesses and practices are interested in social media marketing to grow their business. I speak with thousands of small business owners a year (probably just like you) who hear about social media but don’t know exactly how they can get value from social media.
I have worked with many of these business owners to help them find success in social media, and I know that dental practices can get results using social media marketing. I know first hand that social media can provide a better ROI than traditional marketing methods. Social Media marketing can deliver results when used strategically and with the right plan.
Here are 10 of the most common ways that your practice can use social media to grow their business:

1. Share Deals and Promotions on Twitter

Twitter is a powerful way to share deals and promotions with your patients (and future patients)! Big companies like Dell Outlet have sold millions of dollars through Twitter, but it works for small companies too. Naked Pizza, a small pizza store in New Orleans had their highest ever-sales day from a Twitter promotion. Vista Prints sold $25,000 directly through Twitter in their first year. Find and connect with your target audience and give them irresistible offers, such as free teeth whitening, on Twitter.

2. Share news and Updates on Facebook

Don’t have a fan page yet? If you have fans or patients who are passionate about your practice, you should have a fan page. Use it to connect with prospective patients and keep them up to date on your new products or services. I was recently getting my car fixed and found that the mechanic frequents the same neighborhood bar as I do. He told me that he checks out their Facebook page every day to see what food and drink specials they have. This bar has a creative new drink special for Happy Hour every day and a different free food item available.
Whether is it food and drink specials, new services in your practice, new practice news or regulations, a Facebook fan page can be a powerful resource to keep your patients up to date. Over 1/3 of people who are fans of practices on Facebook are fans for this reason – to stay up to date.

3. Network on LinkedIn Groups

Lots of small practices as well as business professionals grow their practices or businesses by networking with people. Meeting people and sharing helpful knowledge drives business over time. People do business with people they know, like and trust.
LinkedIn groups allow you connect with others based on a shared interest. You can join a group and contribute to discussions or share interesting news. By using LinkedIn to build relationships you can attract new patients over time.

4. Connect with Prospects with a Webinar

Webinars are becoming increasingly popular ways to connect with prospects and provide value to potential patients. Webinars are virtual and web-based. A webinar is typically hosted around a specific topic and people sign up, call in and login on their computer and they can watch and listen to a live session on a specific topic.
Webinars are very popular in categories that are high-information. Most B-to-B business fall in to this categoy, but it also works for consumer products and services. If people are looking for knowledge or information about some special service your practice offers, a webinar can be a powerful tool to share information with them and position your practice as a leader in the industry.

5. Be a Thought Leader with a Blog

Blogs are very popular for a variety of reasons (we’ll discuss one more of them later in this post). One of the reasons is that a blog can establish you as an expert and thought leader in your industry. If people trust you and see you as knowledgeable they are more likely to join your practice.
Run a gym? Share workout tips. Real Estate Agent? Share posts highlighting the people and events in your neighborhood. Restaurant? Show how you make signature drinks or menu items. For a dentist practice, share patient success stories or new procedures offered exclusively at your practice as well as some tips about oral hygiene.

6. Connect with Patients and Prospects with an email newsletter

So maybe *technically* this isn’t social media, but it is relatively simple and cheap for most practices to create a newsletter. Constant Contact and MailChimp offer services for under $25 a month and are easy to use.
An email newsletter can keep your patients and prospects up to speed on news, deals and promotions. Email remains the preferred communication method of most people (1:10 preference over social media) to stay up to date.

7. Join an online community

There are online communities for almost everything these days. Seek out a discussion forum or community that is specific to your business and participate!
You can connect with patients (or potential patients) and really learn about them. What are they interested in? What do they talk about? What do they want and need in a dental practice? Participating and listening to communities that are comprised of your target market can improve your practice and also lead to sales as you build relationships.

8. Monitor and Respond to your Reviews

There are many business review sites – from product reviews on amazon to restaurant and store reviews on yelp! to complaints on The Ripoff Report. For dentists, RateADentist.com is a site that offers a place for patients to provide reviews of their dentist. Whatever your business line, chances are there are review sites that are relevant. Even Facebook has included reviews on fan pages. Google has reviews in their listings.
Look for and respond to reviews (both good and bad). Saying thanks to a good review can build an evangelist and encourage word-of-mouth. Responding to a negative review can help clarify the situation. Showing that you care about negative reviews and plan to take action shows your side of the situation to the hundreds of people who view the review.

9. Get Found on Search Engines with a Blog

Another great reason to start a blog is to get traffic from search engines. Because blogs are content rich (you typically create content for them on a regular basis) search engines give traffic to sites with blogs.
In almost anything that you search for you’ll find a number of blogs show up in search results. If people find your practice through search a blog can increase the probability that you will show up in results. This leads to traffic and (hopefully) new patients.

10. Generate Awareness with a Video

Videos can be great ways to connect with your audience. A picture is worth a thousand words and a video is worth a million! Video is a great way to share information – whether it is a video showing before & after interviews with patients, customers talking about their satisfaction or a video demo of your special service – videos are powerful tools.
Create a video for your practice to make a deeper connection with your audience. There are many different creative ways to use and share videos.
This list isn’t exhaustive – it is simply a handful of the tactics and tools that are included in the Social Media Action Pack.

How are you using social media for your practice?

Filed Under: Internet Marketing Strategy, social media marketing, Social Networks Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Monitoring Social Media for Smaller Businesses

September 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Without question, social media has taken marketing to a whole new level – in 2009, Twitter grew by more than 600% and Facebook by 210%.  To put it in perspective, if Facebook were a country, it would be the world’s third largest.   Obviously, social media is something worth catching on to, not only for large brands but for small businesses as well.  While small businesses are not able to have social media “Mission Control Centers” like the ones established at Gatorade, there are a number of tools available to monitor the buzz.

Google Alerts

Google Alerts is a service designed to send out email updates when relevant Google results surface based on your topic choices.  These free alerts are set up through your Google account and can be sent to any email address you choose.  This tool allows you to keep tabs on developing news stories, articles, blogs and other mediums that might mention your company or topic.

Yahoo Alerts

Just like Google Alerts, Yahoo! Alerts also a personally designed service that alerts you about content you wish you monitor.  Yahoo! gives you the option to receive notifications about articles and news linked to specific categories such as Health News or Stock Alerts.  Alerts can also be useful in monitoring the news of your competitors and obtain information on their activity.

Twitter Search

Twitter Search is an option specific to Twitter users that allows you to search a keyword or topic and shows all the “tags” or mentions in the Twitter world.  You will see results of what is being said about a specific company or topic that are making people buzz.

TweetDeck

TweetDeck is an application for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Buzz, Foursquare and MySpace.   A typical TweetDeck screen is divided into a number of columns, specific to the different social media outlets you wish to monitor.  In each column, you are able to see status updates, tags, tweets, photos and that which you wish to monitor.  Each TweetDeck is specific to the individual user.  The founders of TweetDeck describe this application as being the  “air traffic controller for Twitter.”

Facebook Stats

Facebook Stats can give you feedback on the traffic that your company page is receiving.  You can find this information under Facebook Insights that provides you with a number of graphs displaying mentions, weekly activity, post quality, reviews and a demographic summary of your fans.

Answer LinkedIn Questions

LinkedIn has a segment on their site called Answers that allows LinkedIn members to ask and answer questions in an open discussion forum.  This is a great way for you to establish a credible foundation for your company by answering questions that are relevant to your specific service or product.  By giving helpful feedback and advice, you are giving your company the publicity it needs through these social mediums.

How have you monitored social media?

Filed Under: social media marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Small Business Social Media Speaker: 10 Ways Small Businesses can use Social Media

August 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

I know that a lot of small businesses are interested in social media marketing to grow their business.  I speak with thousands of small business owners a year (probably just like you) who hear about social media but don’t know exactly how they can get value from social media.

I have worked with many of these business owners to help them find success in social media, and I know that small businesses can get results using social media marketing. I know first hand that social media can provide a better ROI than traditional marketing methods.  Social Media marketing can deliver results when used strategically and with the right plan.

Here are 10 of the most common ways that small businesses can use social media to grow their business.  In no particular order, here are 10 ways that small businesses can use social media:

1) Share Deals and Promotions on Twitter

Twitter is a powerful way to share deals and promotions with your customers (and future customers)!  Big companies like Dell Outlet have sold millions of dollars through twitter, but it works for small companies too.  Naked Pizza, a small pizza store in New Orleans had their highest ever sales day from a twitter promotion.  Vista Prints sold $25,000 directly through twitter in their first year.  Find and connect with your target audience and give them irresistable offers on Twitter.

2) Share news and Updates on Facebook

Don’t have a fan page yet?  If you have fans or customers who are passionate about your business you should have a fan page.  Use it to connect with customers and  keep them up to date on your new products or services.  I was recently getting my car fixed and found that the mechanic frequents the same neighborhood bar as I do.  He told me that he checks  out their Facebook page every day to see what food and drink specials they have.  This bar has a creative new drink special for Happy Hour every day and a different free food item available.

Whether is it food and drink specials, new items in your store, new industry news or regulations a facebook fan page can be a powerful resource to keep your customers up to date.  Over 1/3 of people who are fans of companies on Facebook are fans for this reason – to stay up to date.

3) Network on LinkedIn Groups

Lots of small businesses and professionals grow their businesses by networking with people.  Meeting people and sharing helpful knowledge drives business over time.  People do business with people they know, like and trust.

LinkedIn groups allow you connect with others based on a shared interest.  You can join a group and contribute to discussions or share interesting news.  By using LinkedIn to build relationships you can earn new customers over time.

4) Connect with Prospects with a Webinar

Webinars are becoming increasingly popular ways to connect with prospects adn provide value to customers.  Webinars are virtual and web-based.  A webinar is typically hosted around a specific topic and people sign up, call in and log-in on their computer and they can watch and listen to a live session on a specific topic.

Webinars are very popular in categories that are high-information.  Most B-to-B business fall in to this categoy, but it also works for consumer products.  If people are looking for knowledge or information on your subject area, a webinar can be a powerful tool to share information with them and position yourself as a leader.

5) Be a Thought Leader with a Blog

Blogs are very popular for a variety of reasons (we’ll discuss one more of them later in this post).  One of the reasons is that a blog can establish you as an expert and thought leader  in your industry.  If people trust you and see you as knowledgeable they are more likely to do business with you.

Run a gym? Share workout tips.  Real Estate Agent? Share posts highlighting the people and events in your neighborhood.  Restaurant? Show how you make signature drinks or menu items.

6) Connect with Customers and Prospects with an email newsletter

So maybe *technically* this isn’t social media, but it is relatively simple and cheap for most businesses to create a newsletter.  Constant Contact and MailChimp offer services for under $25 a month and are easy to use.

An email newsletter can keep your customers and prospects up to speed on news, deals and promotions.  Email remains  the preferred communication method of most people (1:10 preference over social media) to stay up to date.

7) Join  an online community

There are online communities for almost everything these days.  Seek out a discussion forum or community that is specific to your business and participate!

You can connect with customers (or potential customers) and really learn about them.  What are they interested in?  What do they talk about? What do they want and need in products?  Participating and listening to communinities that are comprised of your business target can improve your product but also lead to sales as you build relationships.

8) Monitor and Respond to your Reviews

There are many business review sites – from product reviews on amazon to restaurant and store reviews on yelp to complaints on The Ripoff Report.  Whatever your business line, chances are there are review sites that are relevant.  Even Facebook has included reviews on fan pages.  Google has reviews in their listings.

Look for and respond to reviews (both good and bad).  Saying thanks to a good review can build an evangelist and encourage word-of-mouth.  Responding to a negative review can help clarify the situation.  Showing that you care about negative reviews and plan to take action shows your side of the situation to the hundreds of people who view the review.

9) Get Found on Search Engines with a Blog

Another great reason to start a blog is to get traffic from search engines.  Because blogs are content rich (you typically create content for them on a regular basis) search engines give traffic to sites with blogs.

In almost anything that you search for you’ll find a number of blogs show up in search results.  If people find you business through search a blog can increase the probability that you will show up in results.  This leads to traffic and (hopefully) sales.

10) Generate Awareness with a Video

Videos can be great ways to connect with your audience.  A picture is worth a thousand words and a video is worth a million!  Video is a great way to share information – whether it is a video showing how you make a dish, customers talking about their satisfaction or a video demo of your product – videos are powerful tools.

Create a video for your business to make a deeper connection with your audience.  Whatever your business there are many different creative ways to use and share videos.

This list isn’t exhaustive – it is simply a handful of the tactics and tools that are included in the Social Media Action Pack.

How are you using social media for your small business?

Filed Under: social media marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Twitter Ads

June 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment
toy story 3 is a promoted trend

Twitter Launches Promoted Trends

I read an article recently about Twitter selling ad space, back in April Twitter introduced Promoted Tweets, a platform to allow businesses to promote themselves within the Twitter stream. Now it seems Twitter has launched Promoted Trends, a feature that will allow advertisers to insert their own trends into Twitter’s trending topics.

Twitter’s Value

twitter logoTwitter’s value was released the other day at one billion dollars, impressive, but only one tenth of Facebook’s reported value. At some point Twitter will need to find a way to monetize their site, without

making it a pay service. I don’t have a problem with the paid placement of tweets and trends; I think it would be an excellent addition to any Internet or Social Media Marketing Plan.

How Twitter Needs to Handle Placed Trends

Here is what I want to see Twitter do with the paid placements. If they are allowing a company to pay to place an ad within the stream, call it out; make sure everyone understands someone paid to put that ad in their stream.  As far as the Promoted Trends, I want to be able to ignore this feature, because the whole point of Twitter’s trending topics it to see in real time what is happening in the “twitterverse”. You can already choose between worldwide, by country even by city. I don’t want to see the trending topics “polluted” with a paid placement.

a promoted tweet from Pixar about Toy Story 3By creating a competition for the top trending spot, with a Google AdWords type auction, it would created a nice competition and help Twitter make  money from  selling the ads. As Twitter continues to grow they have got to find a non-intrusive way to bring in advertising dollars while still being able to create enough awareness of the ads.

Mobile Application

More people are logging on to Social Media; Twitter specifically, using their mobile devices. If you use an iPhone and a free Twitter app you most likely have to deal with some sort of ad placement now, so by adding ads to the main Twitter page should be too much of a problem.

Number of Mobile Subscribers Accessing     Twitter via Mobile Browser 3 – month average ending Jan. 2010 vs. Jan. 2009 Total U.S. Age 13+
Total Audience
Jan-09 Jan-10 % of Change
Twitter.com 1,051,000 4,700,000 347
Source: comScore MobiLens

– brian tudor
follow @briantudor on twitter

Filed Under: blogging, industry news, Internet Marketing Strategy, Mobile, social media marketing, Social Media Metrics and Measurement, twitter Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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