5 Tips for Making Your Brand More Social
What message does your brand convey to socially engaged customers?
As we enter the golden age of social media, companies can no longer afford the luxury of tightly scripted, top-down messaging (e.g., “We’re the best! Take our word for it.”).
Nor can a company simply opt out and remain silent (as epitomized in Northwestern Mutual’s “The Quiet Company” ad campaign of years past).
As social media channels have increased, so has the need to communicate effortlessly and simultaneously. Just as presidential candidates now face the constant scrutiny of a 24-hour news cycle, companies are being called on to respond in real time across multiple media platforms. This is not a time for hesitation.
To market effectively, companies need a consistent, compelling brand voice—one that doesn’t pause, mumble or clam up. Here are five ways to share your message comfortably and confidently. 
6 Tips for Starting an Online Community
Are you considering building an online community? In order to build a strong community, there are a few key factors every business should take into consideration.
This article will assist you in gathering the building blocks for a strong online community.
#1: Know Your Audience
Every business should begin its focus on its audience, the customers. No online community can exist without a firm foundation and if your online community is to truly succeed, you need to know the demographics of your target audience.
3 Ways to Close the Gap Between Social Media and Direct Response
Does the phrase direct marketer conjure up sleazy images? If you thought yes, you’re not alone.
Both social media marketing and direct response marketing place a focused pitch on the right list (prospects) and understanding what they want in order to engage them with relevant information that will get them to buy from you.
So why are social media and direct response considered mutually exclusive?
Jonathan Fields, author of Career Renegade, put a stake into the hearts of social media “purists” when he said, “Those making the most money with social media marketing today are doing so by turning it into direct-response 2.0.”
How to Select a Facebook Community Manager
The key to a successful Facebook page is to make sure you have a plan. Specifically, it’s crucial that you have a strategy to build your fan base, experiment with promotional opportunities (including Facebook advertising) and customize your page to build brand awareness.
Although there’s a lot to consider when growing a successful Facebook page, the rewards of brand exposure, loyal fans and increased revenue are well worth your time and effort!
One way to streamline the time and resources that you put into your Facebook page is to assign a community manager. A community manager is an admin of your page who is responsible for managing the page and making sure it’s running smoothly. If you have multiple admins on your page, the community manager is ultimately responsible for managing them as well.
The 5 Pillars of Business Blogging Success
Are you looking for practical tips for blogging success? Are you wondering what to avoid? While my position is generally that there are no “rules” in blogging, there are best practices that will help your business blog succeed.
There are a lot of obvious elements you need to include to make a blog reader-friendly: quality, compelling content, good navigation, a contact page, an about page, focus and clarity about the subject of the blog… and there’s a lot of not-so-obvious or overlooked things that can really help make a blog stand out if they’re implemented.
While I do have my own list of do’s and don’ts included, I decided to get input from other smart, savvy bloggers. I posted a request on LinkedIn Answers and received many great do’s and don’ts. I’ve grouped the tips into five categories: Planning, Content, Design, Marketing and Engagement.
How to Develop a Social Media Content Strategy
Do you have a social media strategy? Does it involve content? Should it?
The other day I drove past a local convenience store that makes most of its profit from beer, Slush Puppies and beef jerky (not that there’s anything wrong with that). A big sign out front asked passers-by to Like them on Facebook.
“It’s official,” I thought. “Now every business in America has a Facebook page.”
Unfortunately, few businesses actually have a strategy for their Facebook page, or for the rest of their social media activity. They tweet, blog and set up a Facebook business page out of fear of being left behind, rather than as a way to engage their audience.
How to Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy
Canadian grocery store chain Loblaws knew they had a great BBQ sauce based on customer comments. But they didn’t understand why sales were so dismal.
Until they invited customers to post product reviews on their website. Only then did they discover the problem was the bottle – it was too tall to fit in refrigerator doors! They redesigned the bottle and their sales immediately increased.
That’s user-generated content directly leading to an increase in sales. That’s the power of social media marketing.
Are you still sitting on the sidelines when it comes to social media marketing because you know you can’t control the conversations about your company, your products and your services? And because you have no idea how to respond to negative comments?
5 Ways to Make Your Blog Posts Outstanding
Are your blog posts just “okay”? Want to make them great? If so, keep reading.
A great blog post respects the needs of three distinct entities. It educates and informs your audience (your subscribers and visitors), optimizes for the search engines and sufficiently energizes you so that you do a good job creating it.
Every blog post should address the following five components to ensure it hits the mark for your audience, the search engines and you.
The Inside Scoop on How Intel Manages Its Facebook Page
Have you ever wondered how mega-corporations manage their social media initiatives? Keep reading for a fascinating inside look at Intel Corporation’s sophisticated social media initiatives.
I interviewed Ekaterina Walter, a social media strategist at Intel to better understand how the company is using Facebook.
For the last two years, Ekaterina has been part of Intel’s Social Media Center of Excellence. In addition to developing social media policy for their 80,000 employees, the center is also responsible for strategy, training and monitoring. Ekaterina manages Intel’s Facebook page.
How to Use Social Media for Crisis Management
When most people think about the advantages of using social media for business, they immediately think of the marketing benefits.
However, many businesses are starting to use social media as a tool for listening and providing customer service.
When a crisis or emergency erupts, the power of social media can be an amazing tool for businesses. A crisis can include anything from a simple website outage to negative publicity. This article will reveal how to use social media during a crisis and provide many examples you can model.
