How to Make Time for Social Media Marketing? 3 Ways to Get Back Time For The Social Web

The Thanksgiving break was a great time of reflection. We have learned a lot the past year in our GenNext Media social media marketing lab. As I sat around with my family and friends digesting my Thanksgiving feast and watching football, I scanned some of my favorite business marketing blogs (tip #2) for an answer to this daunting question , “What is it about social media marketing that makes business owners so scared?”

Internet marketing helps businesses build relationships with customers, generate new leads, and increase profits and visibility of their business. However, the one area that left them asking for more was: time.  

It’s an issue we all face as we get deeper into the execution of our social marketing programs. How do I make time for social media marketing? The Social Media Examiner had a terrific post about this subject about a week ago.

Being a small business owner myself, I can commiserate. There simply is just not enough time in the day to run your business effectively.  However, it is important to remind yourself of your businesses overall goal: to increase customer leads and produce more profits.  Social media marketing is, or will become a key part of running your business and a means to an end goal.

Here are three ways to organize your social media marketing efforts and make the most of your time online:

1.  Time is Money: Social media marketing has the capability to sky-rocket your business, however, it also has the ability to be a immense waste of time.  Many businesses set aside time each day for “marketing and networking.”  By making a structured schedule for marketing efforts, there will be less room for procrastination and wasting time. Set aside 1-3 hours for browsing industry blogs, updating your Facebook page and participating in forums within your niche market.  This will ensure that you remain visible within the distributed web and keep your efforts focused, for a specific amount of time, each day.

2.  Spend Your Time Constructively: Whether you are going on a business trip, sitting in front of the TV, or waiting for a meeting to start, you have time for social media.  Check your messages, send out a “Tweet”, reply to posts, etc.  Any extra effort that you put in will benefit your business, increase your visibility and attract more leads.

3.   Allow Yourself to Have Fun: Social marketing should not be a burden to your life or schedule.  It is there for your convenience and to help your business increase its customer base.  If you forgot to reply to a comment, distribute an article or update your blog today, IT’S OK.  If you treat social media marketing as a helpful and valuable way to market your business and foster relationships, then you will be less stressed and have much more success.

Social media marketing takes time, organization, and dedication, but it almost always pays off in the end.  That being said, embrace the distributed web and put yourself out there for other people to see and communicate with.  So stop reading, and start doing!

What are some of the ways your business finds time for social media? I would love to hear your insights…

Email Marketing Is Going Social

Engaging tartet customers in your content and getting viral traction is one of the tougher aspects of marketing in the social web. As social marketing continues to mature and mainstream, new tools are constantly emerging to help make this task easier.

Share-to-Social is the next generation of the ‘forward-to-a-friend’ forms found on many websites and email campaigns. This will be cool when it becomes mainstream.  Why? Because share-to-social functionality enables an email recipient to share your content with their entire social network.

New Products To Test

Tons of new products are coming to market in the viral sharing space. Here are two that we are looking at that specifically address email marketing.

• Exact Target rolled out a suite called Social Forward in April

• Silverpop also introduced new share to social functionality in the last few months.

Both companies provide a way for marketers to incorporate the icon of a social network such as Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn in an email. Subscribers can then click the icon and share the contents of the message with their online networks.

These products do two things. First, engage prospects and customers to virally spread content to their social graph. Even better, these tools also can track your “campaign” as it travels virally through Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn and other social networks.  For example, Silverpop’s Share-to-Social feature tracks which social network the email recipient posted the message on, and which achieved the most pick up. So you can tell what content is getting the most play in various social networks. This provides great feedback for understanding your target customers better and targeting messages as well as content.

The net is if building our list is the “holy grail” of our marketing efforts, this becomes a very nice capability to help us maximize the value of our list and activate our customers and prospects to spread our messages.  That’s email ROI…

Case Studies

Studies show these tools can be very effective. One study, by Silverpop (you can get the case study on the website), discovered that the average social sharing rate is 0.5% – compared with the less than 0.1% rate realized by earlier-generation forward-to-a-friend campaigns.

Other findings from the report:

• The life of a shared message is about one week.
• Email messages generate clicks on sharing links for an average of 6.8 days
• Despite inclusion of links, 35% percent of email messages studied generated no social email clicks.
• Facebook dominates among social networks.
• On average, an email will collect an additional 1% of views when shared on networks, a number Silverpop expects will grow as social sharing moves into the mainstream.
• Shared email has a powerful “multiplier effect.” Using conservative numbers, the Silverpop model estimates a posted email message has an average increase in reach of 24.3% (based on original emails delivered), but it also expects this figure to increase exponentially when sharing becomes mainstream.
• There is not any consistently in click through rates based on placement or other variables measured.

Social sharing is still relatively new and not adopted by mainstream (does your Mom or sister use it yet?). Email and instant messaging are still the most popular way to share web conten.  This is going to change quickly and it is one of the places you can get ahead of the game and get and edge on your competition. We will be testing these new tools in the GenNext Social Media Lab over the next few months.  You should too…

Let’s compare notes.

Confessions Of a Reluctant Blogger: 9 Hidden Benefits Of Blogging

I started writing this blog a little over one month ago.  While I was thinking about it for years, honestly, I was hoping to avoid it. I thought, I already have a large network, do I really need more “friends”. I’m too senior for this…I’m too busy for this. Then I discovered something about blogging that nobody really talked about. Blogging makes me a better entrepreneur and business person.  Let me tell you why…

While bloggers have been around since the 1990s, businesses have only started to tap into the power of using a blog as a component of a marketing plan in the past ten years. In this new economy, having a creative marketing strategy that involves social media is critical for businesses. Sonia Simone of Copyblogger has a great post on the 7 deadly sins of blogging that takes this issue from the other side…what not to do.

We all know using a blog as the center of your social media marketing strategy can increase your search engine rankings, build or cement your reputation, and enhance skills that will let those who lead businesses lead Internet communities straight to those businesses.

But there are several hidden benefits to blogging that are outside the expected realm, including the following.

1. At its very core, blogging is a writing tool. This does not mean that you need to be a New York Times bestselling author, but writing a blog regularly will certainly enhance the writing aptitude of every writer from novice on up. Since blogs also tend to get lots of feedback, you can also learn about what works for your writing style from responses you receive from your readers.
2. Listen Up! Blogging encourages you to listen. Once you start blogging you start to hear everything from a blogger’s perspective, and a buyer’s perspective.  By listening and responding to your audience’s comments, and finding out how they respond to your blogs, you learn to adapt your writing tone and style to meet your audience and buyer’s needs.
3. Brain Exercise. As you attempt to captivate your audience by displaying wit and knowledge, in a different way every day, you stretch your self to address new issues. You solve their problems, learn what they want, and you think differently about every day matters, including various aspects of your business.
4. Speak Up! Although blogging is a written expression, it can actually enhance your presentation as a speaker, and your knowledge on your topic. You continue to learn information as you research and write your blog and you also gain insight from readership response. This gives you the ability to more clearly articulate on your topics whether you are presenting a prepared speech to an audience or chatting casually on the social scene.
5. Blogging gives your sales approach a whole new outlook and takes you out of your rehearsed sales pitch. The more knowledge you gain regarding what you are promoting, the better you become at selling that very concept or product.
6. Successful marketing blogs must be fresh, informational, and enjoyable. In order to write this type of content you need to be aware of what is happening and stay abreast of current industry trends. You need to ask yourself two questions: “Who is my target audience?” and “What do they crave?” Don’t just ask what they want, be one step ahead of your competitors and dare to go beyond the surface. The knowledge you gain extends way beyond blogging, enhancing every aspect of your marketing campaign.
7. Blogs give you the unique opportunity to act as a launching ground to assess new concepts or products. There is no crystal ball in determining how successful something will be and paying for consumer analysis can be quite expensive. You can use your blog to see how your readers respond to your ideas and use their feedback to fine-tune and make adjustments as needed. Negative response from your audience can actually save you a lot of money, if you make the decision not to launch a new product or service based on their input.
8. Expansion is a natural result of blogging and it gives you the ability to take your previous topics and develop them further any time the need arises. You can breathe life into a fading topic by relating previous posts and expanding on them. You can also do the same thing to create excitement about something novel and unknown. Keep in mind the idea is to expand on the blogs and not just rehash and repost your “same old, same old”.
9. Networking is the core of social media marketing and blogs are at the heart of this. Social networking is the fastest way to generate “word of Internet” advertising, and RSS feeds allow your fans to receive syndicated updates of your blog automatically. This is a great way to increase your opportunities without requiring any additional effort.

The viral power of social media marketing is like nothing that’s ever been available to business and leaders before. By using a well targeted blog as the foundation, you can take the skills above, and watch the results increase incrementally. Other social networking tools and users will find your business based on the content of your blog. A blog reaches the people you need to reach, you teach them what you have to offer, and they tell you exactly what they want and need. Since your skills are growing based on blogging, your results just get better and better. It’s a perfect mix of win-win for you and your potential buyers.

Writing, listening, thinking, speaking, learning, selling, gauging, expanding, and networking are some of the hidden benefits of a blog that I’ve seen transform potential into strategy. Businesses that take advantage of this simple tool have the power to cast a wider net, on the Internet, than ever before.

How has blogging made you a better business person?

Social Media Marketing: The Game Where Everyone Gets To Play Publisher!

The game in social media marketing is to build authority in your market or niche.  Why? To differentiate your business and build a defensible mote that can get you more pricing power, special relationships and winner of the coolest business in your market award!

To play this social media marketing game, you will come to the realization that you are now in the content publishing business.  Blogs, articles, whitepapers, ebooks…Phew!  We know this is overwhelming for most businesses and marketing organizations. We can tell by looking at your eyes as we explain the social media strategy and programs that your business should launch…yes, we can see your eyes start to widen and a sudden panic set’s in.

Copyblogger has a terrific post The 7 Realities of Social Media Marketing that characterizes this issue well.

Ok, take a deep breath and follow these steps:

1. Make sure you have a strong Unique Selling Proposition in your market or niche.  A clearly defined positioning will help you think about content strategy and be much more engaging and passionate about your message.

2. Don’t sell, teach! The distributed web is a collection of conversations in social media settings where a hard sell will be out of place.  The way to get attention is to inform and educate.  Should be easy because you are an expert in your market right?

3. Use content that answers the questions and issues your target customers are searching for.  Do some research to find out what these questions are.  Look in the forums they hang out in, Yahoo Answers, LinkedIn Answers, conduct surveys, do keyword research. If you get this right, your will have a content strategy that your customers will flock to read.

4. SEO and site design matter! You will need to get your site structure right with landing pages, “link bait” and distributed content all lined up so you get the SEO benefit of this effort and convert target customers to your list.

5. Outsource content development and other tasks.  Don’t abdicate it, just outsource so you can maximize your internal resources on what they do best and benefit from expert writers, content publishers website designers and SEO specialists.

We are not saying this “new normal” of marketing is easy. But if you plan well, do the research upfront and outsource help you will succeed. Even better, you will get there faster, better cheaper than competitors.

What are tricks that you use to produce and publish great content?

Business Marketing Today: We Need A New Tool Chest

In Mastermind groups and client meetings I’ve noticed two things.

First, most companies (by the time we actually meet them) acknowledge and embrace the changing marketing landscape.  They get it…and are eager to learn how to adapt before competitors. Second, the first instinct is to use old techniques in a new paradigm. I see it because I sometimes do it myself.

Seth Godin blogged about the need to “change hammers” based on the situation.  We all tend to go to the same old tools based on training, comfort or experience.  This new normal of marketing requires a new kind of professionalism.  This is about customer focus, flexibility, dedication, insight and smarts.  Out-shouting your competitors does not necessarily work, and can in fact do more harm than good.

Taking old school tools and putting them into a new paradigm will not work either.  Instead of interrupting prospects and outshouting competitors, focus on education with your prospects. Give them something really valuable, your unique knowledge about how to solve a problem they have. Instead of continually washing the same message over prospects, get into a relationship where you nurture, build trust and authority.

The cool thing about this new normal is that technology makes it possible to automate most of the tasks so you can focus on the marketing.

Trust me, if you do this right you will not only get more leads and customers, but your business will gain a huge economic advantage. More on that later…

Social Marketing for Business: Hit pay dirt following these three simple (not easy) steps

Whether you are just getting started in social marketing or have been testing out the waters with few victories, the one thing you need to achieve social marketing success for your business is a game plan. Randomly joining social networks and submitting content without purpose can be time-consuming and ineffective. However, don’t think that your plan must be complicated and professionally-designed in order for you to succeed. In fact, these three simple (although not always easy) steps, can help you to hit pay dirt in no time.

Step One: Set a Firm Foundation with Solid Keyword Research and a USP.

It is imperative to identify a keywords list and use those keywords to attract search engine spiders. There are free tools available to make finding the right keywords for your business a snap. One such tool is the Google Keyword Tool at https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal. Here, you can find the keywords people are plugging into the search engines as well as what your competitor websites are using.

Once you have identified the keywords and phrases best for your niche and business, you must add them to everything you do: domain names, blogs, article titles, and content. The search engines will pick up on these keywords and with quality content you have a great chance of receiving a higher ranking, which will put you at the top of the search engine results—right where you want to be.

Finding the right keywords to use helps you to create the all-important Unique Selling Proposition (USP). As you consider being unique and setting yourself apart from the competition, it makes sense to choose keywords that are popular yet do not have the most competition. For example, a website selling wheelchairs could focus on “wheelchair” as the top keyword, but there would be significant competition for that keyword. However, using the words “quickie wheelchair” helps to gain more targeted traffic and side-steps the primary competitors.

In addition to targeting unique keywords, you will want to offer a unique selling proposition. This means you want to offer a solution to your target market that somehow stands out and is different than what you competitor’s can offer. Whether it is a special service, bonus products or a cutting-edge solution, make sure you are offering you customers something of value that is solving a problem or meeting a need.

Once you become familiar with the Google Keyword Tool, you can begin utilizing more sophisticated tools such as Market Samurai, Niche Bot, Wordtracker and many others. You will also want to use Yahoo’s Site Explorer to reverse engineer your competitors’ sites. With this you can find out who their customers are and then target the high PR value sites for you own linking strategy.

Step Two: Establish Your Marketing Branding and Communication Touch Tones

Developing a brand for your business is one of the most important steps you can take in securing customers and making the sale. Your brand is the essence of who you are, how you differ from your competitors and why a customer should choose to do business with you.

So what is a brand? It’s more than your name, motto or the colors of your banner. It is a culmination of all of the different aspects of your business. In order to create a brand you must consistently communicate your business mission and purpose as well as promote a consistent image, personality and voice to your target market.

The idea of communication touch tones goes hand-in-hand with your brand. To have a cohesive brand that works, you must fine-tune your communication styles so that the customer can hear something about you, read a tag line, see a logo or banner ad, and know it is your business. This consistency and uniformity throughout all of your social marketing communications creates trust and loyalty in your customers—these are the keys to a solid business.

Furthermore, you want to ensure your brand identity can be differentiated from your competitors’. You want to stand out and offer something unique to customers. Focus on really plugging in your primary and secondary target keywords to reach your desired customer.

Step Three: Implement Social Media Layers Effectively

It is far too easy to get distracted when it comes to social marketing for business. The social media networks are seemingly endless and there is always a new guru touting the best new method for conquering social marketing once and for all. Here’s the thing: if you can just buckle down, create something of value, know your target market and develop the content pumps for distribution, you are well on your way—no guru necessary!

As you are searching for the right venues for your content, try to start by identifying two of the most appropriate social media sites for your niche and target market. Explore the forums and blogs to find out which ones seem to be more active. Ask yourself: who are my ideal customers? Which social media sites do they use? Once you have narrowed it down to two sites, become a member there and follow other members who seem to have a great following and have similarities to your niche or marketing style.

Get a handle on what works for specific social media sites and then prioritize the ones you have chosen. The next step is simply pumping out the high quality content to these sites in order to quickly establish your reputation as a business that offers something of value.

Keep in mind that social media sites are not the place to spam, posting copies of blogs or articles from other sites or just offer remixed articles. Be original. Be unique. And set yourself apart from the competition with creative and compelling social marketing campaigns.

Chris Marentis is a serial entrepreneur and recognized Internet Marketing expert having served as SVP at AOL and CEO of Clearspring Technologies. For more information on Social Marketing for Business, go to http://www.surefiresocial.com today.

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