Tag Archives: marketers

What is Your Goal for Social Media Marketing?

We each enter social media marketing with a goal. The goals may be different in nature or in definition, but they all share the same points, why? We are all marketers and we all share the same point of view. In a post in 1 Good Reason – Social Marketing entitled “The Goal of Social Marketing” :

The Goal of all social marketing is simple:

To identify advocates in social media, engage and build relationships with them, and enable them to spread your message virally.

This principle is in my mind immutable for any social marketing effort. It’s the reason we are involved in social media for business. And it doesn’t matter if your business is personal branding, small business branding or corporate messaging for the largest companies in the world. All of us who are marketing in social media have this same simple goal.

All too often we forget about engaging and building relationships and we get caught up in the finding new people to follow race. As many pointed out two weeks ago when I wrote 9 Point Social Social Media Expert, it’s not about the numbers. It’s about whether we have real relationships with people. Do they find our content, our information, and our connections with them valuable? Or do we simply feed them uninteresting, lines that are all about me, me, me?

So just for today, why don’t you concentrate on building the relationships you have in your network. Strengthen them, by reaching out to people who you’ve not connected with recently and reconnect. Find some people in your network who you aren’t familiar with and strive to learn more about them. Go read their blogs, or Facebook pages and learn more about what they do and what they are interested in. This will lead you to a stronger network which will be much more valuable for you.

I do agree that it is not important how many millions see your advertisements, but what matters is how many of those people pay attention to you and follow you. It is how many people will value you and your product because you have a connection and a relationship with them.

What is Your Goal for Social Media Marketing?

Too Many Experts and Not Enough Expertise

I have been selling SEO and online reputation management services since 2003 and I have been using SEO strategies since 1997. I have been doing “social media” on The Meta Network and ArtsWire since 1993, when it was called “virtual community” and only nerds did it. Actually, before then. In 1982 I was all about the ANSI BBS dial ups in Honolulu! Well, anyway…

Well, this afternoon, DomBrady said, on Twitter, “I had no idea there were so many Social Media marketers and SEO folks until twitter picked up last year,” and I replied, “@DomBrady There are a lot of SEO ‘experts’ out there. Not that many gurus, though. Lots of hustlers out there. Look for references.”

Well, this seems to be something that is in the minds of many people on Twitter and online. I tell my clients, “those folks who sold cell phones, then got Microsoft Certified, then became Mortgage Brokers, are now reinventing themselves as SEO and SEM experts. Be sure to check references.

Well, Kat French has it right when she wrote this over at 5 Social Media Topics I Could Do Without:

Fake, sleazy, bad or just under-qualified, social media “experts.” Yes, I know they’re out there. Yes, it’s irritating. Yes, it makes it even harder for experienced practitioners to get credibility. Stop whining already. Life coaches, massage therapists, yoga instructors, SEOs, real estate agents and a dozen other career fields have been dealing with the same issue for way longer. All of them (except maybe SEOs) have realized ignoring them and doing great work is the best policy. Let’s follow suit.

Too Many Experts and Not Enough Expertise

Online Conversation Marketing Podcast Interview with Chris Abraham

A few weeks ago, Ray Welling reached out to me to see if I would like to be interviewed in a podcast on the topic of online conversation marketing. Well, it came to pass and it is really quite amusing and Mr. Welling did a brilliant job of making me sound good and authoritative. Ray, thank you very much for your interest. Please hurry off and visit the HotHouse Blog!

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HotHouse content director Ray Welling talks to Chris Abraham, president and COO of online consultants Abraham Harrison, based in Washington and Berlin. Chris is a leading expert in online public relations with a focus on blogger outreach, blogger engagement, and Internet reputation management. An international pioneer in online social networks and publishing, he works as an Internet analyst, web strategy consultant and advisor to firms across the globe. He specializes in web 2.0 technologies, such as online collaboration, blogging, and consumer generated media.

Chris talks about the ins and outs of social media marketing, which he calls “online conversation marketing”, and why good gardeners make good social media marketers. Listen to the podcast below.

Online Conversation Marketing Podcast Interview with Chris Abraham

Chris Abraham Interview on Online Conversation Marketing

: Image via Wikipedia

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

HotHouse content director Ray Welling talks to Chris Abraham, president and COO of online consultants Abraham Harrison, based in Washington and Berlin. Chris is a leading expert in online public relations with a focus on blogger outreach, blogger engagement, and Internet reputation management. An international pioneer in online social networks and publishing, he works as an Internet analyst, web strategy consultant and advisor to firms across the globe. He specializes in web 2.0 technologies, such as online collaboration, blogging, and consumer generated media.

Chris talks about the ins and outs of social media marketing, which he calls “online conversation marketing”, and why good gardeners make good social media marketers. Listen to the podcast below.

Chris Abraham Interview on Online Conversation Marketing

Social Media Promotes Your Business

: Image by luc legay via Flickr

You are not too late to enjoy the benefits of social media — you will never be too late — because the spoils in social media marketing go to the company that can maintain its social media participation over the long haul over the long term. Start now, start later, and I guarantee that if you’re a lion-hearted social media marathoner, you’ll probably best your competition. Anyway, Joseph Ratliff did a brilliant job getting you motivated in How The Social Media Promotes Your Business:

The great thing about social media marketing is it offers a place to talk about your business in a new setting that is a lot less threatening than many other types of advertising. Social media is not about the hard sell. Instead, it focuses on creating relationships with people. Social media allows business people to share some of their personal lives with others. This helps to overcome any fear or reservations connected to buying from people online.

If you’ve started a blog for your business, you already have your foot in the water. The next logical step is to begin commenting on other blogs related to your business. Spend some time searching for a few blogs that you enjoy and subscribe to them via an RSS feeder to manage your time. This will allow you to follow several blogs without having to go to each one every day. When you find a post you can contribute a useful comment to, go to the site and offer your thoughts. Leave a link, if you can, so the audience can link to your own blog. Make this a part of routine at least three times a week.

Next, choose one or two social media communities to join. There are dozens and dozens out there, so do not try to become visible everywhere. Two of the most popular social media communities for business networking are Twitter and Facebook. Both of these are effective sites to increase your relationship building skills with prospects. Combine some personal tidbits with some business information until you discover the perfect mix of both. Do not just focus on building big numbers of friends or followers. It isn’t all about the numbers. Instead, build a little slower and spend your time interacting with the people you meet.

America Returning to Western Liberal Civilization

According to MSNBC, Obama to rescind Bush abortion rule, which is just the very beginning of undoing all of the laws and regulations America passed while it was a reactionary theocracy. It is hypocritical to want business to enjoy a free market while micromanaging women’s bodies and reproductive rights as spelled out by law.

President Barack Obama wants to rescind a Bush administration rule that strengthened job protections for doctors and nurses who refuse for moral reasons to perform abortions.

[...]

The Bush administration instituted the rule in its last days, and it was quickly challenged in federal court by several states and medical organizations. As a candidate, President Barack Obama criticized the regulation and campaign aides promised that if elected, he would review it.

[...]

Federal law has long forbidden discrimination against health care professionals who refuse to perform abortions or provide referrals for them on religious or moral grounds. The Obama administration supports those laws, said the HHS official.

[...]

The Bush administration’s rule adds a requirement that institutions that get federal money certify their compliance with laws protecting the rights of moral objectors. It was intended to block the flow of federal funds to hospitals and other institutions that ignore those rights.

[...]

But the Obama administration was concerned that the Bush regulation could also be used to refuse birth control, family planning services and counseling for vaccines and transfusions.

Apple Needs a Netbook Soon or Die Die Die!

There are guided instructions on how to install OSX onto the current crop of netbooks. It breaks my heart because the PowerBook Duo line of notebooks actually defined the executive sub-notebook (they also defined the PDA/PIM with the Newton and dropped that ball, too), Why Apple must do a Netbook now:

My brother-in-law Ken IM’d me the other day with this message: “Did you see they’re loading OS X on Netbooks?” He sent me a link to a Gizmodo article that explained how to hack a Netbook into running Apple’s OS X. He also pointed me to a chart that BoingBoing put together showing how compatible various Netbooks are with OS X.

Obviously, none of this stuff is geared to the average consumer–and there are certainly some bugs to contend with–but with some tweaks, techies have gotten certain Netbooks to run OS X shockingly well. Perfect or not, those articles and some videos had my brother-in-law, who’s a total Applehead, champing at the bit to get his hands on an Apple Netbook. (Via CNet Reviews)

Well, the market decides (he writes on his XP-laden Lenovo S10 netbook, considering installing OSX just out of spite) and Apple’s slow to the punch. Not just that, but Google is preparing to eat Apple’s lunch. And the MacBook Air is more form than function, an aesthetic useless peice of shit!

I Resent Tropicana’s Rebranding as Fugly

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Online Marketing and Online PR Converge

I got trained up in marketing and evolved into PR and there is a convergence going on. Not just between PR and marketing but also with advertising and … SEO (yes, I said it). David Hargreaves of Bitemarks agrees that there is a strong convergence — and so does the originator, Jeremiah Owyang:

Jeremiah Owyang produced an interesting piece earlier today asking what will happen to PR firms in a recession based on research among 200 PR agencies. I must confess I am not surprised to see that a small majority of firms are predicting that PR budgets were smaller than they were in fiscal 2008, but then if you if you look at any operating cost, I would be surprised if this wasn’t pretty much tracking the downward pressure on all operating costs.

Having said that I think cost reductions fall into two categories: reducing costs because in this climate ‘you can’ and ‘you need to be seen to’ and then there are those companies that are having to reduce costs because ‘they must’. I wonder what if the PR budget reductions are greater or smaller than comparable ad budgets?

I both agree and disagree with the second point Jeremiah makes when he says that “things don’t look too rosy for the PR industry.” If you are a traditional PR agency doing the same old stuff then I would be worried. However, if you accept that the world has changed and embracing social media is neither an option or an add on to your traditional offering then the world looks rosier.

By putting social media at the centre of what we do, we have a fantastic opportunity to extend our remit more broadly into the world of online marketing. Far from being gloomy, as someone who has been involved in the PR industry for 20 years and who has always embraced technology, the future for the industry has never been more exciting.

SEO Strategies Aren’t Either Or But Both

Nick from Search Engine Optimization Journal says it short, sweet, and right on, Is Organic SEO Really Your Best Option?

For years SEO practitioners have been proclaiming the virtues of organic SEO. It’s free. It’s easy. It’s not PPC. Etc. By the same token, PPC experts have been signing the praises of PPC – it’s fast, it’s dynamic, it’s targeted traffic, and it’s not organic SEO. Does it really matter?
Personally, I think that your Internet marketing efforts should all work together. It’s not a matter of SEO vs. PPC. It’s more a matter of whether or not you are targeting your traffic through the tools that are available to you, and organic SEO is one tool at your disposal. And it’s a valuable tool.
Organic SEO is about targeting the keywords that are important to your business and achieving business results for your targeting efforts. There’s more to it than simply picking keywords out of a vacuum and throwing them against the wall. The idea is to target the keywords that searchers looking for a service or product like yours would use to find it. If you can identify the keywords that the market thrives on then you can drive traffic to your website. You can do this through organic SEO and PPC as well as through other avenues.

The only thing I might add is the power of digital PR, blogger outreach, and online engagement to help out your war of search placement; otherwise, this is the best I have read in quite a while.

This is not a game of panaceas, it is a game of content-creation, site architecture, organic SEO strategies, PPC, and all the rest, over time. SEO is about consistance, predictability, and is much more of a war than it is a battle.

Mind you, try not too lose to many battles along the way.