9 Ways to Transform Your Website Into a Social Media Hub
Should your website be social? Are you looking to turn that static website into an interesting social media–enabled destination?
Keep reading to discover how.
Should Your Site Be Social-Enabled?
There’s no doubt that social media is a powerful marketing and communication tool for businesses and non-profits that have embraced it.
Yet, for most of us, our websites are still where the rubber meets the road. It’s where you turn visitors into leads and prospects into customers. It’s where you build your lists and sell your goods. 
Getting Social Media Right: Insights From the Social Media Club
In this video I interview Chris Heuer, founder of the Social Media Club, a popular social media network with local support groups in more than 240 cities around the world.
Chris shares the story of how he took advantage of cheap airplane tickets to hold roundtables in various cities to start the Social Media Club and how it has evolved since then.
You’ll also find out what businesses are doing wrong in social media today and hear how Chris sees human nature impacting the future of social media.
Be sure to check out the takeaways below after you watch the video.
UnMarketing: Stop Pushing and Praying, Start Pulling and Staying
When marketing consultant Scott Stratten worked with the owners of a new restaurant, he recommended inviting residents of a nearby condo complex to a free dinner. Over two nights, the owners could get 150 people to start the buzz about the new restaurant in town.
But the owners balked at giving away free food, which they estimated would cost them several thousand dollars. Yet they had spent $5,000 on a magazine ad!
“How many customers did it bring in?” Stratten asked. “We don’t know,” they replied.
Does this sound familiar? Stratten calls this the “push and pray” marketing strategy. You push your ad out to thousands and even millions of people, and pray that some respond.
How to Create Compelling Blog Content
In this video I interview Chris Garrett, co-author of the best-selling book Problogger and the popular blog ChrisG.com.
Chris shares the foundation pieces you need to build a successful business blog and explains how to create killer content to engage your audience and get the results you want from blogging. Chris also talks about the role blogs play within a good social media ecosystem and how this helps you connect with your audience.
Be sure to check out the takeaways below after you watch the video.
How H&R Block Uses Social Media to Enhance Customer Relations
In this video I interview Jennifer Love, Senior Vice President of Communications at H&R Block. Jennifer shares how H&R Block adapts conversations across all channels to create customer experiences which bring in tons of referrals.
You’ll hear how she adapts her social media tactics to get the most value out of the 120-day tax season and why she strives to pull in questions and how she answers them in a challenging real-time environment.
Be sure to check out the takeaways below after you watch the video.
5 Steps to Achieving Success With Video Marketing
Have you been considering taking on video marketing in a larger way this year? If you’re looking to add video to your content offerings, this article is for you.
The following tips will help you understand how to get started with video.
#1: Select Your Video Marketer
A successful web video is personality-driven. Find someone who comes across as the most “social” on camera. Weigh in expertise, authenticity, personality and familiarity (with the audience). Look at his or her ability to be concise and clear, schedule and availability (to create and engage) and how well he or she can use social networking tools. The person should also be able to produce, publish and do social media optimization with video.
If you have the resources, hire more than one and you can assign different duties to different people and make up a new “video marketing team.”
How to Easily Create BlackBerry Social Apps
In this video I interview Alex Kinsella, product manager for BlackBerry App World. Alex talks about Webworks, a new development platform that makes it easy to build BlackBerry apps, and what this means for consumers.
You’ll also hear about the trends in mobile marketing and how this impacts businesses today.
Be sure to check out the takeaways below after you watch the video.
Is Your Business Ready for the Now Revolution?
I recently interviewed Jay Baer, co-author of the brand-new book The Now Revolution and founder of the popular blog ConvinceandConvert.com.
In this interview, we talk about social media marketing, Jay’s experience writing the book and about where this crazy, fast-moving industry is headed.
Mike: Jay, what’s the single most important thing that marketers or business owners need to know to be successful right now?
Jay: It’s a terrific question. One of the things that we talked about a lot in the book is the fact that you have to act quickly as an organization. The example that we use to kick off the book is if you’re at a hotel and you’re having a bad hotel experience—it’s dirty or gross or whatever—historically, you might go down to the front desk, or call the 1-800 number or write a letter.
8 New LinkedIn Features Worth Exploration
Recently LinkedIn added lot’s of new functionality that impacts marketers and business owners. This article will tell you what you need to know.
But first, were you aware that LinkedIn has a company page (similar to Facebook). With 85 million business members, who wouldn’t want a business page there?
Normally the profile pages that you set up on LinkedIn are for your own personal use. It’s against LinkedIn’s terms and conditions to set up a personal profile page as a business. But LinkedIn has seen that by capturing and promoting more business information in this community, it could make way for a lot more engagement and knowledge-sharing.
How to Create Your Personal Social Media Brand
In this video I interview Mari Smith, author of Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day. Mari talks about the Brand of You and how to monetize your personality on social media.
You’ll discover the steps needed to build your own brand equity with social media, along with some great tips for both the self-employed and people who work for large companies.
Be sure to check out the takeaways below after you watch the video.
