Socially Savvy Marketing - Social Media for the AEC Industry
•
2 recomendaciones•2,617 vistas
By now, we’ve all heard that social media should a key component of our marketing strategy and approach, but many organizations are still unsure of how to make it work for them. This presentation will provide an assessment of popular social media applications and cover different tools available to help manage your online “conversations”. Furthermore, we will discuss practical social media strategies you can implement immediately - be prepared to walk out with ideas that won’t rob you of your time.
Recomendados
Recomendados
Más contenido relacionado
La actualidad más candente
La actualidad más candente (12)
Destacado
Destacado (20)
Similar a Socially Savvy Marketing - Social Media for the AEC Industry
Similar a Socially Savvy Marketing - Social Media for the AEC Industry (20)
Último
Último (20)
Socially Savvy Marketing - Social Media for the AEC Industry
- 1. #smpssa Practical Social Media Strategies for the A/E/C Industry Lori Jamail, WinMore Marketing Advisors
- 2. #smpssa Marketing Consultant 15Years Experience Official Marketing “Geek” Social Media “Aficionado” EmergingTechnology “Lover” Data “Junkie” andOver-analyzer!
- 3. #smpssa#smpssa Becoming Socially Savvy… Social media is like a snowball rolling down the hill…It’s picking up speed, moving faster and faster. Five years from now it WILL be standard in EVERY marketing initiative. Why Social Media? Social Media Tools Practical Strategies The Reality (and more tools!)
- 4. #smpssa The Numbers Don’t Lie
- 5. #smpssa#smpssa 2012 B2B Social Media Statistics
- 6. #smpssa Social Media‟s True Benefits (aka – how tosell it internally!) • Inbound vs. Outbound Marketing • Public Relations and the “New Media” • Tribal Marketing and Loyalty
- 7. #smpssa#smpssa Social Media & Inbound Marketing What is Inbound Marketing? Tactics that rely on earning people’s interest rather than buying it! • Communication is two-way • Customers come to you! (so, how are you found?) • Marketing seeks to inform, educate, and even entertain! They “earn” their way to clients. Outbound marketing has lost much of its usefulness. Did you know that 44% of direct mail is never opened? Construction Mag… 82% of AEC firms are utilizing inbound marketing.
- 8. #smpssa#smpssa How Do I Start Inbound Marketing? Inbound Marketing costs 62% LESS than traditional outbound marketing! Social media lead conversion rates are 13% higher than the average lead conversion rate. + = Stellar SEO and Inbound Marketing Robust Social Media Strong, Qu ality Content • Blogs • eBlasts • White papers • Interviews
- 9. #smpssa#smpssa Public Relations and Social Media “BFFs” (for real!) • Social “MEDIA”!! • Master ofYour Own “News” • Easier to get “Coverage” It's not only about the actual “PR moment”, it's about what you do with your entire “media moment” !
- 10. #smpssa#smpssa Loyalty at a NEW Level We‟re building RAVING FANS!! • Customer Loyalty • Employee Loyalty • Referrals (Word of Mouth)
- 11. #smpssa#smpssa
- 12. #smpssa
- 13. #smpssa#smpssa Showcase your firm’s culture and personality…think Family PhotoAlbum! What to Post? • Fun / Quirky Side - Employee Events and News - Industry Humor • Celebrations / Successes - Awards - Project Certifications Best Strategies • Recruiting / Employee Loyalty (HUH???) • Community Awareness Companies that generate more than 1,000 Facebook Likes also receive nearly 1,400 website visits a day.
- 14. #smpssa#smpssa
- 15. #smpssa#smpssa
- 16. #smpssa#smpssa Closed Groups for Special Teams…
- 17. #smpssa#smpssa Twitter is …your very own newsfeed …your industry “lunchroom” …your information hub! What to post - Interesting Industry/Community/Project FACTS - Company News - Technical Content - Client Retweets & Other Acts of Kindness Best Strategies - Event /Tradeshow Marketing - Public Relations - Project Updates (YES, Project Updates!!)
- 18. #smpssa#smpssa
- 19. #smpssa#smpssa Twitter – # Sidebar • What is a #? • How do I use one? • How do I get one? • Why would I want one? FUN #... #justsaying #ff #smpssa
- 20. #smpssa#smpssa
- 21. #smpssa#smpssa
- 22. #smpssa#smpssa
- 23. #smpssa#smpssa
- 24. #smpssa#smpssa
- 25. #smpssa#smpssa Members • 200 Million (YES, Million) worldwide • 63M in the USA Demographics: • 68% over 35 • 8.6% Engineering Industry • 4.4% Construction Industry Ummm… 82% of member have high confidence in professional information received through LinkedIn.
- 26. #smpssa#smpssa How to Use LinkedIn • Become a “Visible Expert”! • Network (Obviously!) • Research • Promote your firm (PR again!) • Promote your technical experts • Recruiting Opportunity Areas on LinkedIn • Contacts • Company Pages • Group Pages • Follower Insights and Page Insights (LoveThis!)
- 27. #smpssa#smpssa
- 28. #smpssa#smpssa
- 29. #smpssa#smpssa
- 30. #smpssa#smpssa What can I use YouTube for?? • Project videos (think beyond building/construction – team/client interviews!) • Executive / Leadership messages • Embed on your website • Share through other social media sites • Improve SEO (big time!) Have FunWith It! You Tube is the third largest social media site - Don’t discount it’s possibilities!
- 31. #smpssa#smpssa
- 32. #smpssa#smpssa
- 33. #smpssa#smpssa • 400 million users • Easy interface • Visually appealing • Google loves Google… but is that enough?
- 34. #smpssa#smpssa Blogs and content marketing… Companies that blog have 97% more inbound links to their websites! Why Blog? Promotion of events, project completions, new hires… Highlight and SupportTechnical Expertise Showcase the firm’s history SEO, SEO, SEO, SEO There are many free blog platforms available – but whatever you use setting up a basic editorial calendar is a must! AND – always remember…good content has nine lives!
- 35. #smpssa#smpssa It‟s About CONVERSATIONS Having a hard time? - Follow “like-minded” organizations - Identify centers of influence - Know the brand you want to convey online - GhostWrite – yes, you must! - Pay attention and be tenacious! - Bribes andTorture! Consider guest blogging as a way to get your message across…also ask for guest posts to help out your editorial calendar and BD relations!
- 36. #smpssa#smpssa
- 37. #smpssa#smpssa
- 38. #smpssa#smpssa
- 39. #smpssa Seriously, start them TODAY! Here’s the Heart of the Matter: The Essence of Social Media is Knowing Your Audience and Engaging with Them in Something You LOVE!
- 40. #smpssa#smpssa Do you have a profile? You‟d better - and so should your technical experts! Start Slow! • Go where you’re comfortable • We can’t be everywhere… pick a platform you like and start there • Select 1-3 technical experts to “assist” in your SM strategy • Set a low bar (at first – only at first!)
- 41. #smpssa#smpssa Relationships Matter It’s all about the six degrees of separation….
- 42. #smpssa#smpssa Kill „em with Kindness! I like your thoughts on…. Your article was insightful… Thank you for posting… • Retweets • Sharing Posts • Comments on Blog Postings • Being “Friends” “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” - Aesop
- 44. #smpssa#smpssa Knowledge is POWER! Willingly share information – real information! • Tips, links, advice, case studies, best practices…. Can you share too much information? NO! We want the “secret sauce!” „Lethal Generosity‟ is the concept that the most generous members of any social media group are the most credible and influential and as such, they can devastate their competition in the marketplace.
- 45. #smpssa#smpssa
- 46. #smpssa#smpssa
- 47. #smpssa We don‟t have a choice on whether we DO social media, the question is how well we DO it.” – Erik Qualman
- 48. #smpssa#smpssa The TRUTH About Social Media • Online Attention Span • ThinningTime / Resources • Noise vs. Relevancy • Analysis Counts! Get rid of faux interaction – this is not just a card trading game!
- 49. #smpssa#smpssa The REAL Tools…. • Hoot Suite / Owl.y • Tweet Deck • xobni • GoogleAnalytics • LastPass • Bit.ly and other shorteners… Good analytics can tell you quite a bit about your target audience… For example: Saturday has the highest CTR and most unsubscriptions come on Tuesday.
- 50. #smpssa#smpssa HootSuite • Multiple profiles • Multiple platforms • Multiple users
- 51. #smpssa#smpssa TweetDeck • Multiple profiles • Single platform • Single login
- 52. #smpssa#smpssa xobni • Email management • SM connection tool • “Little black book” for email
- 53. #smpssa#smpssa Measure Your Results - Always!! Prove your effectiveness…Beginning | Middle | End of the sales cycle -Consumption Metrics -Sharing Metrics -LeadGeneration Metrics -Sales Metrics Just because you can measure everything doesn‟t mean you should – be careful of „analysis paralysis‟.
- 54. #smpssa#smpssa Common Social Media Mistakes • You think it’s all about you! • Too MuchAutomation = Not EnoughAuthentication! • You’re waiting for people to discover you • You’re always trying to sell Social media is a long game – it takes time to nurture relationships and build trust. Don‟t think you can get instant results, it really doesn‟t work like that.
- 55. #smpssa#smpssa Common questions • What’s the more important part of social media? • How do I get more followers? • How do I deal with “Trolls”?
- 56. #smpssa Find Me! Lori Jamail, WinMore Marketing Advisors lori@win-more.com | 713.249.4710 Twitter: @ljamail LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ljamail/ FaceBook: Lori Parten-Jamail
Notas del editor
- I know we’ve already gone through my bio – thank you again, XXX. But what I want to point out is that I’m not an “expert” – I’m really just a marketing geek who really likes emerging technology. It helps that I’m really type A and love data analysis – social media gives you a lot of all this!
- By now, we’ve all heard that social media should a key component of our marketing strategy and approach, but many organizations are still unsure of how to make it work for them. To top it off, at some point or another, we’ve all heard people spout off about the “death” of social media. One day someone announces a boycott of Facebook, Twitter or linkedIn -- the next day, the social network is growing exponentially. So how should you, as a savvy marketer, make sense of it all? As a data-driven and social media-loving person, I’d like to set the record straight: Social media is here to stay. This presentation will provide an assessment of popular social media applications and cover different tools available to help manage your online “conversations”. Furthermore, we will discuss practical social media strategies you can implement immediately - be prepared to walk out with ideas that won’t rob you of your time.
- So why social media? Because everyone says so isn’t a true reason – at least not one that the executive suite will buy into! Sure they may support social media verbally and be interested in what it can do, but when it comes down to it – SM is not free (no, your time is not free) and unless the executive team can see some real/substantial statics from your results then they will always put other projects ahead of your sm efforts. SO - In order to “sell” social media effectively within your firm, you’ve got to know your numbers, the statistics and most importantly the numbers. ;) Let’s start with a few numbers…
- Social Media Stats: 56% of B2B marketers plan to increase their spending on social media in 2013. (Source)Read more: http://socialmediab2b.com/2013/02/b2b-social-media-statistics-for-2013/#ixzz2WXFmZO4L41% of B2B website traffic is driven by organic search.Read more: http://socialmediab2b.com/2013/02/b2b-social-media-statistics-for-2013/#ixzz2WXFzX2l585% of B2B Executives say social media is important when making significant purchases for the organization. 75% of B2B buyers expect to use social media in future purchases processes (survey done in 2012)69% of B2B marketers are shifting their budgets toward social mediaSocial media helps B2B marketers improve search results.84% of B2B marketers use social media in some form.21% of marketers say that social media has become more important to their company over the past six months.Approximately 46% of online users count on social media when making a purchase decision.
- Social media has three main benefits: first, it’s an inbound marketing approach vs. outbound which when do effectively attracts quality leads rather than “shout at the world”. Second, social media is the way to good PR – I’ll be touching on this thorughout the presentation. Finally – we’ve all heard it and we know it’s true – people who know, like and trust your product will tell others within their circle of influence.
- When you talk about social media, you’re really talking about inbound marketing strategies. POINTER FOR THE DAY: refer to your social media campaigns as INBOUND marketing campaigns when “selling” or speaking about it to the executive team. Traditional advertising sources such as magazine and newspaper ads are going unnoticed by consumers. As less people use traditional sources for information they turn to the search engines and Social Media to find out what is going on. A process a call Inbound Marketing.The change has left businesses who have relied on traditional media to reach people scrambling to adapt to this "new" media. If you have not considered an Inbound Marketing strategy for your business, it's time to adjust.What Is Inbound Marketing?Inbound Marketing is a process. It's more than Social Media. It's more than e-mail marketing. We think of the process in 4 steps:Get Found: People are searching and sharing online. How do we get them to visit our website and connect with us. Social Media, Blogging, SEO, Podcasts, and video are some of the tools we use during this process. We need people to find us and visit our website.Conversion: Visitors to our website are just that, visitors. You can look at your website analytics and traffic all you want but unless you're getting something out of a visitor you're missing out. The use of Calls-to-Action (CTA's) can turn visitors into leads just by filling out a form.Nurture Leads: We have done our job of converting the visitor to a lead, but now what? We need to take the information and follow up to continue the sales process. This often includes following vi e-mail based on your leads interest. Remember this is a process. Develop a relationship with the consumer based on their interest, not yours. 44% of buyers begin by using a search engine!! 60% of organic clicks go to the top 3 organic search results – keep your key words in check people (and name everything!)
- One of the biggest reasons inbound marketing is growing is its ROI. The cost is less than traditional marketing efforts and it generates more qualified leads. So – how do you cultivate an inbound marketing culture within your department? MUST combine a strong social presence with interesting, useful, or educational content. When you have quality content and a solid SM presence you WILL be found online (aka. Improved SEO!)
- social media - PR's BFFL. Hence, social “Media”! Search engines, websites and blogs, social sites (Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, so on and so on), all allow a media moment to live for more than a lifetime. The 21st Century has given us media moments that can be resurrected as often as the whim strikes, to coincide with a company campaign, a marketing event, a Hallmark holiday, another PR moment, a "fill-in-the-blank here.“ Because social media allows every company is it’s own TV Show, it’s own magazine, newspaper…. You ARE the master of your own destiny relateLet’s talk about the press release for a moment – it is NOT DEAD! In fact, it’s now like a cat with nine lives! Make sure to use popular keywords when writing it and the press release, never mind any stories it generates, will continue to bring search engine traffic and ALWAYS will act as a way to validate your marketing story.
- A Strong Social Media presence helps you engage your “followers’ and ultimately creates the “Raving FANS”!!Clients (and employees – don’t forget to engage your employees!)The biggest advantage of using social media is the ability to communicate directly with your customers. Whenever there is a query or a compliment or even a complaint, make sure you respond to it as soon as possible. Customers remember when their comments and complaints are ignored and this also affects the reviews they give to their peers. Proper and timely responses will ensure that your customers don’t get disappointed and will ensure a good word-of-mouth advertising for your brand.Referrals / Word-of-mouth is often the best marketing. This is the case because there is inherently more trust between a friend and a friend than between a friend and an unknown entity like a company. Social media is word-of-mouth marketing – online and exponentially powerfully because of how quickly and easily content is shared. Having a presence on social media and regularly posting helpful content or updates gives you access to your own network, and the network of others when they share your messages. If people see your name frequently, you move from “unknown entity” to “potential friend.” This means people think of you when they have a problem and seek you out to help them.
- “But wait," you say. “I’m an AEC marketer who responds to a ton of proposals – my technical experts are highly billable and spend their time on projects. What’s a Facebook page supposed to do for me?” Social media isn’t just Facebook. Keep the fundamentals in mind: Identify where your customers are first and then choose the right social channel.
- Though Facebook is by far the dominant social network, B2B marketers increasingly are questioning its effectiveness for connecting with business decision-makers. Here’s why – and what it might mean for your smart marketing strategy.What We Used to Think about FacebookIn the early days of social media, marketing consultants everywhere believed nearly every business needed to be on Facebook. The reason was simple: Hundreds of millions of users.Facebook seemed like the place you couldn’t afford NOT to be. So everyone got on board, from accounting firms to steel companies. But according to the B2B marketers I know, not much happened as a result. Marketers and strategists have begun to rethink Facebook’s value for B2B marketing.Two Reasons Facebook Fell Flat for B2B Marketing1.Business executives are on Facebook, but they’re using it for personal interaction. When they “like” businesses, they’re more likely to engage with entities related to their personal passions – sports teams, schools, causes, and consumer products – not the suppliers they work with at the office.2.Other channels have evolved to offer B2B marketers the kind of engagement and connectivity they’ve been seeking on social media, especially LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and Google+….HOWEVER – There are still reasons to usefacebook and it can be a tool to use in other marketing tactics.
- Can I go live to their FB page
- Just what is a hashtag? If you are new to Twitter, some of the different conventions such as hashtags might throw you for a loop, but hashtags are easy to use How do I use a hashtag?Tagging your message on Twitter is easy. Simply add a hash (#) in front of the word, phrase or acronym that best describes your message. Due to the limited number of characters allowed in a tweet, the best hashtags are usually a single word or a few letters. Hashtags do not support spaces, so if you are using two or more words as a hashtag, remember to skip the spaces. How do I get one?Hashtags are user generated. Make it short, memorable and appropriate. No one wants to type a long hashtag or use up valuable space imposed by the 140 character limit in a post When you’ve decided on your chosen hashtag – check it’s not already in use. You could have chosen something that will have negative connotations. It’s simple to check – just search for the hashtag you’ve chosen and if it’s already taken, find anotherIf your hashtag includes more than one word, like ‘World Cup’, remember to close the space between the words (like this: #world cup) otherwise your hashtag could take on another meaning (#world cup – ‘world’ will become the hashtag)If your tag is for an event remember to tell people before, during and after, and encourage them to use it so your message and buzz spreads virallyHere’s why…You can use a hashtag to follow or search tweets on a topic of interest. That may be an organized event, noteworthy cause, breaking or running news story, or group conversation taking place on Twitter. They’re valuable in emergency situations and relief efforts too.You can add a hashtag to your message so it reaches more people – your tweet is seen by your followers and anyone following the hashtag.Often users will use a hashtag to add context or irony to a message, #fail and #justsaying being examples of this.
- Linked In is the most popular social media platform for B2Bs – 83% adoption rate (up from 71% in 2011)! At a high level, LinkedIn is a B2B-oriented network. With the highest concentration of educated professionals of any major social network, it is rife with professional services providers and clients. High member confidence – 82% of members have confidence in professional information received through LinkedIn. (don’t be afraid to use your “experts” login from time to time – and train others on how to use this tool for the befit of your firm).
- The Company page (recently enhanced with new features) givesfirms the ability to introduce a little personality. In the Services tabyou can showcase up to 3 banner images and messages.In the Company Updates section, you can select the profile of theaudience you want to target. The most effective way to engageyour LinkedIn audience is by posting relevant content in yourcompany status updates. (yes, I’m talking about content again!) Follower Insights and Page InsightsYou’ve done all the work, your page is perfect and you aresharing and updating. Now what? Step back and assess all yourLinkedIn efforts. Are your clicks growing or declining? Who areyour followers and page visitors? What are they interested in?How much traffic are you driving to your website? All this deliciousinformation can be found under Follower Insights and PageInsights. And they’re free!
- If you’re not already using LinkedIn, the SMPS group is a great place to get your feet wet – to participate in group discussion and get a feel for completing a poll ect. For business networking purposes, you’ll also want to consider following groups and companies like many of the publications we’ve already mentioned – ENR, construction news, Texas Municipal League, but also follow ACG, AIA… your clients?? Your competitors?? Ummmmmm……
- Don’t think your clients are using LinkedIn??? Ummm…. SAWS has a pretty good company page (for a government agency) – and look 307 employees of SAWS are on LinkedIn….
- Surprise -- The top three social networks for B2B marketing are: Twitter, LinkedIn, and…YouTube. Yes, YouTube. Twitter and LinkedIn aren’t terribly surprising, but YouTube beat out both Facebook and Google+ for third place. So what does this mean?As a final thought, it occurred to me while digesting these findings, that we as strategists and marketers often compartmentalize B2B and B2C tactics into completely separate silos. While granted, the language and outlets for B2B and B2C campaigns differ in many ways, that however speaks more to the mindset of the target audience than the marketing principles in general. If nothing else, these data from B2B Marketing reveal that a tactic often associated with B2C marketing (videos posted to YouTube) can also work with B2B marketing if we recognize people behave similarly when researching consumer or business products.
- Look for clients to follow an other “interesting” channels – share great information (especially if it’s a project you’re firm’s involved with).
- As of April 2013, Google reports that Google+ now has 4000 million active users. Google+ attracted 20 million users within the first 3 weeks of its launch – it was very popular on first approach, but other than the fact that google loves google, I haven’t seen any real movement within professional services to this platform.
- The global population of blog readers keeps growing. This is where your true “passion” comes through – your authentic side! And the fact is – if you’re doing a newsletter of any kind (electronic or hard copy) then you can and should be doing a blog! Quit thinking of your content in silos – and find ways to repurpose it, to have it reach multiple audiences. Blog frequency impacts customer acquisition. 92% of professional service companies who blogged multiple times per month acquired a customer through their blog. B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads per month than those who do not. What about other items: Call to actions promoting events get almost twice the click through rate as emails promoting the same! Companies that blog have 97% more inbound links. (HubSpot State of Inbound Marketing Lead Generation Report, 2010)Marketing.
- “The focus of my coworkers is to produce billable work for their clients, not provide marketing material for me,” Be a ghostwriter. Write the blog on a team member’s behalf, and, of course, allow them to edit and approve it. The blog will look dynamic with a multitude of contributors who otherwise may not participate if they have anxiety about writing.Attend meetings. GHT has monthly lunch-and-learn sessions where engineers share on-the-job experiences. Kelly transforms these presentations into blog posts.Pay attention and be tenacious. “If I see something on a printer that looks like it would make good blog material, I will stalk its owner to find out the back story,” says Kelly. “You really have to think on your feet and not wait for your team to come to your door and say, ‘I want to write a blog’ because it’s never going to happen.”Bribe. Whenever Kelly receives an order of branded specialty items, instead of passing them out, she requires staff to come to her office and tell her about the projects they’re working on to receive one.“It’s sort of a barter system,” she laughs
- Quick clicks to the profiles of the “top technical talent” and their SM bios – quick RSS feed for delivery better delivery options (AND – helps with maintaining your database for other email related items). Something this simple (in design) can be done through WordPress and linked to your website very seamlessly.
- If you are like most professional services marketers, you arestrapped for time. And while the benefits of social media soundappealing, the process also sounds very time intensive (which itis). Does all of this activity justify the time devoted to it? So here are some pointers and ways to dive in….
- Profiles are so important – which ever platform you chose for yourself/your firm/your experts – please make sure the profile is current, fresh and reflective of your brand. It may take a few days or weeks. Look at other profiles to see what kinds of information you might include.Know that social media is very hard for many of your technical experts – I read an interesting article from Blue Horse consulting stating that Many architects and engineers learned a rather formal style of communication in their professional training – and some received little communication training at all. Architects and engineers understand the importance of being good team members. They speak of ‘we’ when talking about their project, their team, or their firm. The voice of first person singular can be an uncomfortable stretch, not to mention putting oneself forward into the swirl of messages and posts that are social media.Again, this is not really how social media works. If you hate Facebook, you simply won’t want to use it. If you use it for organizing your personal life, you might not want to use it for professional stuff. And if you don’t feel comfortable with a particular tool, it will show in your updates and, ultimately, it’s likely that you’ll just stop using it.So pick social networks that you enjoy and feel comfortable with, because you’re going to be spending some considerable time there over the coming months and years. If there are lots of networks you feel happy with, narrow down your choices by looking at the demographic of the network and think about how that fits in with your readers.
- Seriously though – identifying the right relationships can help at the onset of an opportunity/pursuit. Research the prospect, the board of directors, the different people within purchasing departments – who do they know, what pulls at their strings, how can you get your BD team an introduction??? I like to referred to this approach as a beginner level into social media and it’s benefits for “winning work”. The truth is, executives seem to like the relationship mapping tool!
- The kill ’em with kindness approach is for the intermediate social media user – retweet and share postings from quality connections, opine and comment often (don’t forget your signature line…) Comment on blog postings – yes, comment on blog postings (again, use your signature line)
- In short, the company whose representative posts the most tips, links, advice, case studies, best practices that followers find useful will always [rise] to the top, not just in influence but also in search results. The more outbound links you post, the more inbound links you are likely to Can You Share Too Much Information?Many traditional marketing thinkers hide their competitive information, and believe that:Sharing secrets and expertise arms customers with too much information.Sharing secrets and expertise gives an advantage to the competition.Neither of these is true.Most companies believe that their competitive advantage is in some process, some product, some service. That’s hardly ever the case (except maybe for companies like Apple and Google). Anyone, at almost any time, can copy your process, product or service, especially today.What’s Your Secret Sauce?Giving away your expertise and teaching your customers what you know does one amazing thing — it positions you as the expert in your industry. That is the core of content marketing. Once you are known by your customers and prospects as the industry expert, it will be almost impossible for any process, product, or competitive service to come between you and your customers.Keeping your “secret sauce” to yourself does a few things:Customers / prospects will never know that you are the expert in your field.Customers will never share your expertise with others because there is nothing to share.It gives a huge opportunity for someone else to share their secret sauce and position themselves as the industry expert.Lethal Generosity turns traditional marketing on its head. It can be used to dominate any industry vertical to position your company as an industry expert. Once initiated and replicated, it’s challenging to duplicate.
- Companies that give away their industry insight and expertise on a consistent basis, and publish that information freely and through multiple channels, can dominate their industry niche – including social media and communications in general.I did some searches for engineering firm niches – educational facilities engineering; educational facilities architects…wow, nothing but job postings and associations! (HINT – open market on long-tail key words here!!) after a few other options, I thought I’d look for religious facility architects texas and found EV Studio’s blog…it was on google first page….ummm, if I’m building a new church, who am I going to call for some advice?
- I have another example – and I only share because I’m truly amazed at how awesome this worked. The example is from the financial services industry – Dental CPAs. This organization is a division of Naden Lean, a mid-sized firm in maryland - they provide a ton of services; many of which are “bigger ticket items” than dental office management. However, they realized that this niche, although the dollar wasn’t high – the overall ROI was. Especially if they could bring in a good number of these types of clients)…in comes a strong website just for this niche (dentist and doctors aren’t the same
- So look – I know I’ve just shared a ton of information and it’s all overwhelming – where to start, what to do, how do I get there – and now that I’ve gone through a good list of the top SM tools you’re proably thinking “how will I ever fit this into my current workload??” So let me share the reality with you…
- The truth is --- we have a very limited online attention span. Although many people can spend or waste several hours on FB, the reality is that those are not your buyers. Your buyers are busy – they don’t want the noise and will easily tune you out if you’re not relevant, fun, honest, authentic – authentic. You’ll know if you’re doing it right by focusing on the analysis – are you using the right platform, are your communications getting you the click-throughs and ultimatly the CTA you need?
- HootSuite is the premier SM management tool – connects to all SM applications….Ow.ly is HootSuite’s URL shortener. You can use it from within the HootSuite dashboard with a single click, or as a stand-alone URL shortenerSaturday has the highest CTR at over 9% (Sunday is second just under 9%) (HubSpot) 6 AM has the highest CTR of any hour (HubSpot) Most unsubscriptions come on Tuesdays (0.52% unsub rate) (HubSpot)
- The truth is --- we have a very limited online attention span. Although many people can spend or waste several hours on FB, the reality is that those are not your buyers. Your buyers are busy – they don’t want the noise and will easily tune you out if you’re not relevant, fun, honest, authentic – authentic. You’ll know if you’re doing it right by focusing on the analysis – are you using the right platform, are your communications getting you the click-throughs and ultimatly the CTA you need?
- The truth is --- we have a very limited online attention span. Although many people can spend or waste several hours on FB, the reality is that those are not your buyers. Your buyers are busy – they don’t want the noise and will easily tune you out if you’re not relevant, fun, honest, authentic – authentic. You’ll know if you’re doing it right by focusing on the analysis – are you using the right platform, are your communications getting you the click-throughs and ultimatly the CTA you need?
- The truth is --- we have a very limited online attention span. Although many people can spend or waste several hours on FB, the reality is that those are not your buyers. Your buyers are busy – they don’t want the noise and will easily tune you out if you’re not relevant, fun, honest, authentic – authentic. You’ll know if you’re doing it right by focusing on the analysis – are you using the right platform, are your communications getting you the click-throughs and ultimatly the CTA you need?
- 53% of social media marketers don't measure their success.52% of marketers cite difficulties in accurately measuring ROI as their biggest source of frustration in social marketing. The benefits of measuring your content’s impact: Remember why you started creating content in the first place — to achieve business goals, rather than just the SM objectives.Consumption: Page views, document views, downloads, social “chatter” – but what happens next?? Sharing Metrics: likes, shares, tweets, forwards, inbound traffic….Lead Generation Metrics: form completions/email signup/blog subscriptions…. Sales metrics – include client retention metrics as well…. When tracking/measuring, make sure to note PR coverage, events, campaigns that may influence traffic – this is where your gain key coverage and see results!
- You think it's about you, but it's not. It's about your friends, followers, fans, connections... whatever you want to call them. If you go into social media with the mentality of "what am I going to get out of this", you're making a big mistake. Think about how you're going to help others. Ask yourself what value you can bring to the people you're connected with. Why should someone want to connect with you or your brand?You automate too much. Tools to help you manage your social media efforts are great but they need to be used properly. People want to engage with people, not bots created to talk like people. You responding to people when they talk to you? Are you having actual conversations? If you set it and forget it, you'll be forgotten.You're waiting for people to discover you. This is one of the worst as far as I'm concerned. Do you think people will come to you because you setup Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and Twitter? Good things don't come to those who wait on social media, you need to be proactive. Find people who share similar interest, are in your industry, or you find interesting and connect with them. Once you have found these people (it's a never ending process), treat them like people. Interact with them like you're a person and they will likely do the same. Don't wait for people to come to you, it will never happen.You send an automated DM on Twitter to anyone that follows you. This is the worst for me... who actually thinks this is a good idea? The second you earn a follower you spam them? The second I receive this, I unfollow you. I'm not going to elaborate on this one- don't do it. You try to close immediately. Like most businesses, you signed up for social media to grow your business. That's great but how about taking the time to learn about the person you're connecting with before trying to sell them whatever it is you have to offer. Just like you would at any networking event, take the time to develop relationships with people and understand their needs. It's possible (and even likely) they don't need what your selling right now. Continue to develop the relationship and listen to what they are saying. You'll know when the opportunity arises for you to make the business connection.
- "What's The Most Important Part of Inbound Marketing?" In order for an inbound marketing initiative to be successful, all the pieces must work together. That being said, if you were to focus on one thing, it needs to be your content. Without content your marketing efforts will fizzle out. You won't have anything to share socially and when it comes to search (Google, Bing, Yahoo!), you'll be left behind. We said it in the first point, start with your website and blog content, the rest will follow. "How Do I Get More People to Follow Us on Social Media?" A famous line from the movie Field of Dreams is "If you build it, they will come". Unfortunately, that doesn't work for inbound marketing. Simply building a website and creating social media accounts does not mean people will find you and follow. It takes a lot of hard work. If you want more followers via social media you need to give first. It's not enough to post content, you need to engage. Use Twitter to have conversations with people and share their content. If someone comments on Facebook, be sure to respond. Share engaging content, no one cares about your 10% off sale every day. I would also recommend using Facebook and Twitter ads to grow a little quicker.
- "What's The Most Important Part of Inbound Marketing?" In order for an inbound marketing initiative to be successful, all the pieces must work together. That being said, if you were to focus on one thing, it needs to be your content. Without content your marketing efforts will fizzle out. You won't have anything to share socially and when it comes to search (Google, Bing, Yahoo!), you'll be left behind. We said it in the first point, start with your website and blog content, the rest will follow. "How Do I Get More People to Follow Us on Social Media?" A famous line from the movie Field of Dreams is "If you build it, they will come". Unfortunately, that doesn't work for inbound marketing. Simply building a website and creating social media accounts does not mean people will find you and follow. It takes a lot of hard work. If you want more followers via social media you need to give first. It's not enough to post content, you need to engage. Use Twitter to have conversations with people and share their content. If someone comments on Facebook, be sure to respond. Share engaging content, no one cares about your 10% off sale every day. I would also recommend using Facebook and Twitter ads to grow a little quicker.