Is the Secret to Twitter Success Link Sharing?

When it comes to using Facebook to promote your business or blog, it seems pretty straightforward as to how exactly to use it. Sure, there are always things we can learn to help boost our Facebook fan numbers and interaction with them, but as far as structure goes, it’s pretty simple.


But what about Twitter? What’s the secret to Twitter success? According to this article, it’s link sharing. The article is rather long, but basically what it’s saying is that we have the same basic tool – 140 characters – but it’s exactly how you use those that counts.

A few interesting studies have been published lately that

all seem to point to the same conclusion –

the secret to Twitter success is driving links.

This infographic shows the top reasons why people follow brands. For Twitter, it shows the third reason is interesting or entertaining content – so link sharing.



The article sums up Twitter success as seeing what works best for you. Do you get better results when you do one link a day, link to a video, say something before the link that grabs your followers’ attention?

What do you use Twitter for the most? Getting information, entertainment, interacting with your followers and do you think link sharing is the key to Twitter success?



By Jennifer Pricci

7 Unwritten Rules Of Social Media

Social media seems easy especially because the barrier to entry is low. You can be up and running on any social media platform in minutes, and usually for free. In reality, social media is hard for exactly the same reason. When the barrier to entry is low, the barrier to attention is high.

The fundamental path to succeeding with social media is to consistently contribute meaningfully—engaging with you should make the lives of those engaging more meaningful. The bonus would be to achieve this without adding costs to the others.

As you think through your social media strategy, here are seven unwritten rules of social media.

1. Connection does not imply permission
Many social networks make it easy for you to connect with anyone. You can follow someone on Twitter, Quora or Google Plus without needing their permission to do that. A small percentage of them might follow you back. If they do, you have a two-way connection. Don’t confuse the two-way connection as permission to interrupt them. You need to build a relationship and there is no shortcut for that.

2. Access does not imply entitlement
When you connect with someone on a social network and start engaging with them, you have access. Don’t assume that they owe you something because you are now engaging them on social media.

3. Activity is not productivity
The barrier to create content on a social network is virtually non-existent. This means that you can write whatever you want irrespective of whether it makes sense or not. You can get extremely busy with social media— trying to post anything and everything. In your enthusiasm to share, you might drop the quality of what you share and that’s when the problem starts—people will silently start to ignore you.

4. More is not better
When what you write about is a hit for some reason, you tend to end up doing more of it on social media forgetting that everything has a lifecycle of its own. What’s hot today may not stay hot tomorrow and what’s hot tomorrow may not stay hot. So trying to do more of what works does not guarantee success—you need to adapt all the time.

5. Reciprocation is optional
Don’t do anything with an expectation that someone will reciprocate back. Equal actions don’t create equal impact on social media. Say you have a 1,000 followers and you share something from another person who has 10,000 followers. Expecting him to share something from you would mean you are expecting someone to give back ten times of what you gave them.

6. Amplification without accomplishment is futile
Social media is a great amplifier. But fundamentals of mathematics are always at play. You can multiply zero with anything and the result will still be zero. You need relevant accomplishments as the foundation and social media can help amplify them. Sans accomplishments, it’s hard to amplify. Unless your business is to make money with social media, you have to get out of social media and spend time on building some meaningful accomplishments. Once you have them, you can use those to extend your influence using social media.

7. Engagement without enrichment is not effective
You are only as rich as the enrichment you bring to the world around you. When you enrich someone, you make their life more meaningful—at home or at work or in both places. Social media provides an excellent opportunity enrich people’s lives. Engagement for the sake of engagement can only make you get tired. Engage with an intention to enrich and you will not only win with social media but also makes this world a better place.

5 Simple Rules for Digital Marketers

1. Listen, engage, and participate.  Measure social media initiatives and tie these measurements back to business value, but keep in mind: it's not a one-way street.
2. Develop a mobile strategy, but realize that mobile is not a channel - it's a platform.
3. No mater the medium or technology, marketers still need to deliver relevant and engaging content to customers.
4. Heard the terms marketing and ROI used together lately?  Take it to heart.  With tight budgets, allocating spending and measuring its ROI will continue to be a running battle in marketing departments.
5. It's too tough out there to commit budgets without a clear return in sight.  Being able to demonstrate value of marketing initiatives back to the overall business objectives is paramount (i.e. what the CEO cares about).

By Jennifer Pricci

*Branded* Content is King

According to a recent study by the Custom Content Council and ContentWise, 78% of U.S. marketers plan to shift investments from traditional marketing to branded content marketing. More specifically, 62% are “moderately” making the shift, while 16% are pursuing it “aggressively.”

The study found that branded content marketing spending reached its highest level ever in 2011, just shy of $2 million per company. This accounted for 26% of overall marketing, advertising, and communications budgets for the year, and 30% of marketers expect their content budgets to increase in 2012.

Why content?

The top-ranked reasons are:

1. To educate customers (49%)
2. To retain customers (26%)
3. To increase brand loyalty (14%)

Similarly, marketers believe content marketing is more effective than:

1. Magazine ads (72%)
2. Public relations (69%)
3. Direct mail (69%)
4. Television ads (62%)

Is your brand pursuing a branded content marketing strategy?


By Jennifer Pricci

An Open Letter to Brian Dunn: CEO, Best Buy

An Open Letter to Brian Dunn
CEO, Best Buy


I am writing to make you aware of an astonishingly horrendous experience I recently had with Best Buy. I believe every chain of service that comprises the, what I previously always hailed to friends and family as the ‘well-oiled-machine-known-as-Best-Buy,’ broke down; and I can only hope I can find the words necessary to effectively communicate the level of frustration, disgust, anguish and disappointment this terrible experience has caused.

I’d like to begin my email by stating that I am an extremely loyal Best Buy consumer. Beyond going to Best Buy for all personal electronic purchases, I also shop Best Buy for corporate purposes. My occupation, Marketing, finds me buying many of the newest gadgets, regardless of the employing organization. In addition, I rave about each and every transaction to family, friends and colleagues. I talk about the excellent service you can expect from your sales associates in-store, their product knowledge – and the extensive training I know they receive prior to hitting the floor. I talk about your new, growing Mobile capabilities and, given the excellent deals you offer on Mobile phones throughout the year and your relationship with all major carriers, (you’d) be crazy to go elsewhere. I also share via my many social networking sites many of your marketing messages, sales, promotions, etc., making me more than just a loyal consumer but a brand advocate as well. This, ALL IN SPITE OF, the fact that your parent organization donates to anti-gay political causes in the mid-west -- though I am not gay I am a firm, firm believer in equal rights for our LGBT neighbors.

This particular incident began on Tuesday, November 22, 2011 when I wanted to purchase a laptop for my Father. Having just spec’d out all of your laptops for myself, when I heard my Dad’s laptop crashed and he needed to replace it immediately for a business trip, I was confident I could make the choice quickly and easily since I had just gone through your entire online inventory. I found the product I wanted, the Toshiba-Satellite Laptop, SKU: 3624333. Whenever I have personally purchased PC’s and laptops from you it has been in-store. I have ALWAYS opted to purchase your optional Geek Squad set-up service to remove all the bulk-ware Windows loves to pile in there. I HAVE NEVER PURCHASED A PC OR LAPTOP ONLINE SO I DID NOT KNOW HOW TO PURCHASE THIS GEEK SQUAD SERVICE THROUGH BESTBUY.COM. I called 888 BEST BUY to get help with this question: “How can I purchase the Geek Squad service through the Internet and/or through you by completing the transaction over the phone? Plus, since the laptop was for my Father, who is in a different state and in urgent need of a machine, I would need the pick-up option at his local store, Would it be possible to get the computer “ushered” over to Geek Squad to have the service performed and then call the store and/or be notified via phone once the work is complete and the laptop ready for pick-up?”

Priscilla who helped me on this day (about 10:30 AM), told me that I could purchase the laptop through her ALONG with the Geek Squad set-up service (which she told me would cost $125.99). In addition I wanted to purchase the 2-year protection at $109.99 and the Norton anti-virus which you were offering for $19.99 with the Laptop Purchase. Though the transaction took a very, very long time because the computers were slow to process on your end, the transaction was complete; Order Number: BBY01-429074009409. Priscilla tells me that the Laptop should be ready for pick-up from the Saratoga Springs, NY store (as I requested) from the Geek Squad on the morning of 11/23/11.

I call my Dad feeling pride that I’ve “done good.” Did I mention he’s just been diagnosed with Cancer and that, though a very smart Man, just simply not of the generation who knows how much RAM he needs and what size processor he should buy and why he doesn’t need to pay for a machine that’s good for gamers. I give him the BBY # and instruct him to call Best Buy, Saratoga in the morning to confirm the machine is ready before he goes to pick it up.

He calls ME the next morning to inform me that not only is the Toshiba-Satellite Laptop, SKU: 3624333 NOT READY but it is on back-order and will be shipping to MY HOUSE in approximately 2 weeks. What??? I have so many questions at this point. How did this happen? I placed the order with a live human being? How is it shipping to MY HOUSE? How is it shipping to ANY house given the importance I placed on needing the Geek Squad Service.

I call 888 BEST BUY immediately. Now I am rushing as it is the Wednesday morning before Thanksgiving, 11/23/11, and I have to catch a flight to Albany to see my family. On this day I speak to Marci, I give her my BBY # and explain the situation. I am obviously very upset but am more concerned with quick resolution than finding out how this happened. The first thing Marci tells me is that IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO PURCHASE THE GEEK SQUAD SET-UP SERVICE THROUGH BESTBUY.COM OR 888 BEST BUY. WHAT???

Well, being that was my VERY FIRST question the day prior to Priscilla this whole thing would have likely been avoided as I would have gone to my local Best Buy store and would have tried to figure out my options there.

So now, I’m a little more upset… but still… working toward a resolution. Marci confirms that the laptop I ordered is on backorder and should not have been sold to me. That it is indeed scheduled to ship to my house with the Norton anti-virus and that I was not charged for the Geek Squad set-up. So, now we have to cancel that order before we do anything. This creates great complication for me, because although the order is now cancelled, I need to use my Best Buy Store Card to take advantage of your 18-month interest free financing offer – and now – purchasing two machines will put me over the limit and cost me over-limit fees. Still… exhale… working toward resolution. I am in front of my computer asking about various SKU numbers. As I go I am learning so many of these machines are back-ordered. BestBuy.com has a way to filter search results by computer specs, so I ask Marci, isn’t there a way to filter HER search results by specs and get only inventory result that ARE available?

Well, Marci knows nothing about computers, she doesn’t know the difference between types of processors, and she doesn’t understand what to look at when I ask about the size of the hard drive. This is the complete OPPOSITE experience of what I usually get in-store (where have your priorities gone?). So I remain patient, I simply don’t have time to educate your order processing team on what the difference is between a dual core and an i3. FINALLY, FINALLY, we find a machine - HP - Pavilion Laptop / Intel® Core™ i3 Processor, SKU: 3441137. It is more expensive with a smaller screen but Marci is willing to meet me half-way on the difference in price. I have to EXPLAIN to her that the Norton should only cost $19.99 as that is a promotion you offer with the laptop purchase (as it says on your website product page) – to which she replies she doesn’t see what I’m seeing (does that really matter – hello, customer service, are you there?). We set the order up for pick-up at the local Saratoga Springs store and Marci explains to me that I should call the Saratoga Springs store to set up the Geek Squad service which, by the way, only costs $99.99, not the $124.99 as Priscilla had quoted the day before.

This takes a VERY long time to resolve, particularly given the amount of out-of-stock/back-ordered inventory. I miss my flight to Albany. But, given the importance that this is for my sick Father who doesn’t have the kind of experience I do purchasing these machines and is in need of a new laptop first thing Friday morning for a business trip, this is how I chose to prioritize my day. I now have a 6 hour drive ahead of me. But the order has been placed, BBY-4292 4100 2043.

I call Saratoga Springs Best Buy and ask to speak to a Manager. Why is it that whenever you start a phone call like that the first thing the person on the other end of the line attempts to do is help you personally? I get it, filter the calls, but I’ve been in customer service, just give the customer what they want. So, I explain to the person on the phone, Sarah, who calls herself a Customer Service Manager (and who I later learn is a Senior Customer Service Representative) all about the order. As I’m explaining it she sees it on her screen – I ask her to confirm the product – she does, the HP - Pavilion Laptop / Intel® Core™ i3 Processor. I explain I’d like to pay for the Geek Squad service and have the computer personally escorted over to Geek Squad for the work to begin so it can be ready TONIGHT. I also request it be ready TONIGHT because (a) you (Best Buy) will be closed tomorrow for Thanksgiving, (b) my Dad is leaving Friday and needs the computer that morning for business and (c) we do NOT want to find ourselves on the line behind Black Friday shoppers – especially since, technically the work should have been done already. All of this is no problem ensures Sarah. I request that she personally escort it over to the Geek Squad and ask if this is a problem, she says no. I double, triple, 4X confirm this will not be a problem. She says not a problem. She then transfers me to a nice young lady, Nikki, who takes my payment method for the GeeK Squad Service.

Is this it? Have my prayers been answered?
Could this nightmare be over?
Not by a long-shot.

I call throughout the day, on my 6-hour drive to upstate New York, to make sure the computer is being worked on. It is. I am feeling more confident that we are there. Still worried that there will be another hitch but chalking that up to paranoia. I was told I’d be contacted when the computer was ready. The store closes at 10PM.

At around 9PM I call the store, the laptop is ready for pick-up. I was never called. I am now is Saratoga with my family. I send my Dad… alone. BIG MISTAKE. He gets there. IT IS THE WRONG MACHINE! What kind of unbelievable breakdown took place now!?!?

They performed the work on a $300 machine. Sarah is no longer in the building – you know, the same Sarah who promised to personally escort the machine to Geek Squad. The same Sarah who either did not do this or who failed to match the order to the product. Who at Geek Squad is responsible for checking to see that the paperwork matches the machine they are working on? Who in the warehouse is responsible for the original mistake?

A young woman is trying to help me – a different “Nikki.” I really don’t want to hear anything, I just want a manager. She tells me there are no managers available - THAT THEY ARE ALL PREPPING FOR BLACK FRIDAY.  I'm sorry, but after all of this, you are more concerned about customers who have yet to spend money with you than you are about a consumer who has been working to resolve a, now, 3X botched order already paid for?  Completely unacceptable.

This is also difficult to manage as I am on the phone and my Father is in the store. I instruct my Dad to let me handle it – I do not want him stressed in any way because of his health – after all this was the entire reason I took this on. I suppose no good deed goes unpunished.

I finally end up on the phone with Chris Preston who is trying to help me sort this out. He is very concerned with deciphering what went wrong. I don’t care what went wrong. You close in less than 30 minutes, how are we going to make it right in this time? Finally the CORRECT machine is located – only I am told that the Norton is shipping to my house. WHAT??? I am constantly being placed on hold which is just infuriating me more and more. Chris tells me they will just install the Norton there so never mind about the shipment to the house. Geek Squad takes it and starts to install the Norton. I am still on the phone with Chris who offers me 20% off the Geek Squad service for the inconvenience… gee, so generous… I’ve spent at least 8 hours trying to work all of this out AND I’ve missed a flight… and you’re offering me $20. The Geek Squad is unable to perform their regular work vis-a-vie restore discs. Chris tells me not to worry, they will grab a different machine of the same type, create the restore discs and mail them to my Dad. OK, good idea – I am fine with this. Then I am on hold for an unimaginable amount of time. Chris comes back and tells me sorry, the Geek Squad started the first restore Disc… ON MY DAD’S MACHINE!!! My Dad is now sitting there for the entire length of the first disc run.

Chris was also unable to provide any supporting paperwork for the 2-year protection plan. I insisted to Chris that given all the breakdowns with this order I didn’t want my Dad walking out of there with no supporting paperwork – there’s a great quote from Godfather that I’d love to reference here but it’d be too inappropriate for use in a letter that I’m trying to maintain as high-road as possible. Unfortunately, the Best Buy computers do not allow users to print anything? They do not allow managers to provide any paperwork, no matter how “unofficial” just to help my Dad – should he need assistance with support – and I am not present? Insult to injury.


My call with Chris ends with his guarantee that he will handle the mailing of my Father’s restore discs first thing Saturday morning. I told him I will follow-up with my parent’s on Wednesday, November 30, 2011 – as that should be plenty of time for the discs to arrive down the road from his store – and if they have not yet arrived he’d be hearing from me again. I also requested the names of various managers, the GM, DM, Warehouse Manager and Customer Service Manager.


Finally, my Father returns home... after 11PM - the correct machine in hand. More money spent, a total of 8 hours wasted on the ordering and fulfillment process, 6 hours wasted on driving when I should have taken a flight, and about 2 hours wasted by both my Father and myself in-store/on phone after having Geek Squad services performed on the wrong machine. A total of 16 hours of frustration all on the day/night before a holiday.

If I make $80 net per hour my estimation is that beyond the cost of the computer this entire experience cost me $1,200 in time. Add the cost of a round-trip ticket from Newark to Albany… $436. This horror adds up to over $1,600, before pain and suffering… just to put things in perspective.

And then I am invited to private shopping events to get 4X reward points because I of my "VIP" status?  If I were that "important," why wasn't my order treated as such.  No calls or emails with apologies about the experience after the fact. No follow-up at all. After I took all of those names from Mr. Preston you would think one of those individuals could have called me with an apology or some kind - "are you satisfied with your purchase" kind of question.  Could have gone a long way.  Afterall, I fully get that the breakdown truly began with the very first question I asked of Priscilla: “Can I purchase Geek Squad service through you on the phone?” But I suppose it is naive of me to think that there would be any escalation of this issue to anyone who could have called to make a loyal consumer feel just a bit better considering how badly so many balls were dropped.

So you could have any number of reactions to this letter. You could choose to ignore this letter entirely. You could have any number of possible solutions. You could have none. But you should know that through posting on my blogs and social media outlets the same friends and fans that follow my posts advocating products and services will be reading this open letter – I trust they will likely be just as offended as I.

Jennifer Pricci
732.291.4536

jennifer@jenniferpricci.com

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Inbound Marketing vs. Outbound Marketing Infographic

Online Audience Development for Content Owners

It is true when they say content is king. But "relevant" content is key to success. All publishers need to make sure they have the right content for the right people in their audience.

How is the online content consumed?

A pull strategy (bringing people to your online content) requires SEO / SEM or display advertising to acquire the audience. This can be expensive.

A push strategy (delivering content to the people) is likely going to be key in getting cost-effective results and ROI. The best way to do this is delivering relevant content in a timely manner via email. In this case content is targeted to individuals based on their preferences and behavior.

Here are some more on some /pull techniques:

• Search engine optimization and search engine marketing
  Seems obvious, but how many publishers do this? If you publish media in a given space, the huge number of topics that your publication or Web site covers makes SEO/SEM a totally different challenge.
• Co-registration
  This is easier said than done for publishers that sell advertising, but basically the idea is that anytime someone signs up for an e-newsletter subscription on another Web site that's topically related to your Web site, you negotiate a relationship whereby your newsletter subscription is offered as another checkbox on that other Web site's e-newsletter sign-up form. Not surprisingly, Marketing Sherpa uses this tactic on a lot of marketing vendor sites. One advantage: They have a paid content model, so there's no conflict of interest. I'd like to see an example of an ad-supported publisher doing this with suppliers in their space.
• Landing page optimization
  I know most publishers aren't using this technique. The idea is that the very design and layout of the sign-up page (for our purposes, called the landing page, the place where the moment of truth occurs, when readers decide whether or not to opt in to your site, newsletter, magazine, advertiser white paper, etc.) greatly influences the number of readers who "convert" or complete the form. By testing different versions of the page, you can increase conversion by up to several hundred percent.
• Tracking/Analytics
  This is the adroit use of Web analytics programs to give you feedback on metrics that are meaningful to publishers. How many people subscribed to which e-newsletter products, and which were the most effective sources of traffic, both internally and externally? If you're doing paid search, which keyword groups yielded the best ROI? Which should be scrapped? Anyone doing paid search without tying it to some ROI metric is throwing their money down the drain.

Do you have a system for determining the relevancy of your content?




By Jennifer Pricci

101 Small Business Marketing Activities

One universal small business goal is to sell the business's products and services. This is usually best accomplished by positioning the business in front of the target audience, and offering something they can't refuse or find elsewhere.

To this end, one of the smartest things a small business owner can do for their business is take the time to develop a small business marketing plan that will set them apart from the competition. A marketing plan clearly outlines how you will reach your ideal customers by effectively implementing your marketing strategy.

There are thousands of ways you can promote your small business. With the right mix of activities, you can identify and focus on the most effective marketing tactics for your small business. Here is a list of 101 small business marketing ideas to get you thinking about all of the different ways you can promote your business.

Marketing Planning

1. Update or create a marketing plan for your business.
2. Revisit or start your marketing research.
3. Conduct a focus group.
4. Write a unique selling proposition (USP).
5. Refine your target audience and niche.
6. Expand your product and service offerings.

Marketing Materials

7. Update your business cards.
8. Make your business card stand out from the rest.
9. Create or update your brochure.
10. Create a digital version of your brochure for your website.
11. Explore a website redesign.
12. Get creative with promotional products and give them away at the next networking event you attend.

In-Person Networking

13. Write an elevator pitch.
14. Register for a conference.
15. Introduce yourself to other local business owners.
16. Plan a local business workshop.
17. Join your local chamber of commerce.
18. Rent a booth at a trade show.

Direct Mail

19. Launch a multi-piece direct mail campaign.
20. Create multiple approaches, and split test your mailings to measure impact.
21. Include a clear and enticing call to action on every direct mail piece.
22. Use tear cards, inserts, props and attention-getting envelopes to make an impact with your mailings.
23. Send past customers free samples and other incentives to regain their business.

Advertising

24. Advertise on the radio.
25. Advertise in the Yellow Pages.
26. Advertise on a billboard.
27. Use stickers or magnets to advertise on your car.
28. Take out an ad in your local newspaper.
29. Advertise on a local cable TV station.
30. Advertise on Facebook.
31. Advertise on LinkedIn.
32. Buy ad space on a relevant website.
33. Use a sidewalk sign to promote your specials.

Social Media Marketing

34. Get started with social media for business.
35. Create a Facebook page.
36. Get a vanity URL or username for your Facebook page.
37. Create a Twitter account.
38. Reply or retweet someone else on Twitter.
39. Setup a Foursquare account for your business.
40. List your business on Google Places.
41. Start a business blog.
42. Write blog posts on a regular basis.
43. Start social bookmarking your online content.
44. Create a Groupon.

Internet Marketing

45. Start a Google Adwords pay-per-click campaign.
46. Start a Microsoft adCenter pay-per-click campaign.
47. Comment on a blog post.
48. Record a video blog post.
49. Upload a video to YouTube.
50. Check your online directory listings and get listed in desirable directories.
51. Set up Google Analytics on your website and blog.
52. Review and measure your Google Analytics statistics.
53. Register a new domain name for a marketing campaign or a new product or service.
54. Learn more about local search marketing.
55. Track your online reputation.
56. Sign up for the Help a Reporter Out (HARO) email list.

Email Marketing

57. Create an email opt-in on your website or blog.
58. Offer a free download or free gift to make people willing to add their email address to your list.
59. Send regular emails to your list.
60. Start a free monthly email newsletter.
61. Use A/B testing to measure the effectiveness of your email campaigns.
62. Perfect your email signature.
63. Add audio, video and social sharing functionality to your emails.

Contests, Coupons and Incentives

64. Start a contest.
65. Create a coupon.
66. Create a "frequent buyer" rewards program.
67. Start a client appreciation program.
68. Create a customer of the month program.
69. Give away a free sample.
70. Start an affiliate program.

Relationship Building

71. Send out a customer satisfaction survey.
72. Ask for referrals.
73. Make a referral.
74. Help promote or volunteer your time for a charity event.
75. Sponsor a local sports team.
76. Cross-promote your products and services with other local businesses.
77. Join a professional organization.
78. Plan your next holiday promotion.
79. Plan holiday gifts for your best customers.
80. Send birthday cards to your clients.
81. Approach a colleague about a collaboration.
82. Donate branded prizes for local fundraisers.
83. Become a mentor.

Marketing with Content

84. Plan a free teleconference or webinar.
85. Record a podcast.
86. Write a press release.
87. Submit your press release to various distribution channels.
88. Rewrite your sales copy with a storytelling spin.
89. Start writing a book.

Marketing Help

90. Hire a marketing consultant.
91. Hire a public relations professional.
92. Hire a professional copywriter.
93. Hire a search engine marketing firm.
94. Hire an intern to help with daily marketing tasks.
95. Hire a sales coach or salesperson.

Unique Marketing Ideas

96. Get a branded tattoo.
97. Create a business mascot to help promote your brand.
98. Take a controversial stance on a hot industry topic.
99. Pay for wearable advertising.
100. Get a full-body branded paint job done on your company vehicle.
101. Sign up for online business training to revamp, expand and fine tune all of your marketable skills.

There are many more than 101 small business marketing ideas.

Do you have an idea not listed here? Add your small business marketing idea to the list.



By Jennifer Pricci

What is The Social Funnel?...And Why You Need to Build One

Social media channels increasing the venues of choice for consumers to collect information and connect with brands, presents a strategic opportunity for companies to create a “Social Funnel” above the traditional marketing and sales funnel – where consumers take the lead in finding information and content that ultimately drives brand preference and sales.

In Winning the Consumer Decision Journey, McKinsey & Company’s David Court shares that, in the new social and digital age, “the path to purchase and loyalty is now complex, iterative, and dynamic.” In this new environment, creating a Social Funnel allows brands to identify and have access to buyers long before the buying process begins.

The Social Funnel Defined
The Social Funnel is a dynamic collection of consumer activity across social media channels, which sits on top of the traditional marketing and sales funnel. Developing a Social Funnel requires a systematic process of identifying and capturing consumer interactions across a variety of social media channels, aggregating this activity in a social customer relationship management (SCRM) infrastructure, and continually mining this insight to deliver relevant content to the right social profile at the right time. The chart below describes the Social Funnel and its tie to the traditional marketing and sales funnel:



To be effective, Social Funnels need to be tightly integrated with traditional customer relationship management (CRM) systems to create a 360-degree view of a prospect to allow marketers to nurture this relationship over time using a combination of social and traditional, experts agree that this integration holds a lot of potential. “Integrating social deeper into existing CRMs is going to be very popular in 2011 – we expect to see a growing number of brands tying customer records to public social profiles and bread crumbs”, says Nathaniel Perez, head of social experience at SapientNitro.

The integration of social media with the traditional funnel is one of the key priorities for brands in 2011. Although only 6% of companies today report that they fully integrate social with traditional marketing funnels.

David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation for digital marketing agency 360i, agrees but tempers things by saying that “we are still early in the process but tying social profiles to CRM systems will be big.”



We see a growing number of companies starting to tie social profiles to their CRM systems. As this process continues to evolve, we expect to see social media becoming more of a critical component throughout the entire customer lifecycle. Systems that support the integration of social with CRM will increase in adoption over the course of the next 12 to 18 months, giving organizations the ability to seamlessly combine data from multiple systems easily and efficiently.



By Jennifer Pricci

Achieving The Coveted:Viral Marketing

Viral campaigns yield the highest ROI... Information about your product spreads naturally, like a contagious disease... only a good one...

I once read up on the 5 C’s of viral marketing:

Community, Compelling, Comedy, Charity, and Contest

Let's talk Community...

We all know that viral marketing in the social media space is all about communities. In fact, I would argue that communities play a larger role than most people think, both online and offline. They can build a brand, kill a brand, make a career, break a career, influence elections, etc. Think about it; from an offline perspective, life is community driven through PTA organizations, church groups, sports leagues, stay-at-home mommy groups, and various school organizations (sororities, fraternities) to name a few. And of course online, you have Myspace, Facebook, Linkedin, Digg, Stumbledupon and hundreds of other social media sites jumping in the scene daily.

Within each of these online/offline communities consumers are talking and having conversations with each other. And, they are sharing opinions, experiences, advice, recommendations and commentary about products, services and companies usually based on real personal experience.

THIS IS VIRAL MARKETING.

The challenge with viral marketing is that it’s not always viral, if that makes any sense... Often, marketers plan for and label their marketing plans as “viral” but 9 times out of 10, it never catches on. It’s the things that just happen by accident that become viral. Remember the Diet Coke and Mentos video? At first, Coca-Cola distanced themselves from the exploding Diet Coke and Mentos viral video phenomenon, fearing it would damage their reputation and brand; however, just recently that have fully embraced the concept and now there are over 7,000 consumer generated videos on YouTube, millions of pageviews, hundreds of comments, and favored by thousands of fans. The community here is not only the millions of YouTube enthusiasts, but also the micro-communities of people and their offline conversations about these videos.

• Formulate your marketing message. Think about the product or service you are advertising and create a message that communicates the benefits and uses of what you are selling. A website is nonnegotiable.
• Make the content on your website sharable. For example, you can allow readers to embed a funny video from your website onto their own blogs. An "email this article to your friend" link is another way information spreads from one person to another.
• Use email as a viral marketing tool. Include a marketing message about your product or service in the tag lines of your emails and also include your advertising message in auto responder emails you send to those who email you.
• Post your content on other Internet sites such as message boards and blogs. However, do this carefully; many forum managers are now aware of this practice and may delete your messages if they think it's spam.
• Incorporate your marketing message into rich media. Video clips and Flash games are very popular on the Internet, so if you have a great idea for this medium your message will spread like wildfire.
• Spread your message off line as well. Tell your friends and colleagues about your product or service and hand them business cards with the URL on them along with a catchy tag line, perhaps the same one you use in your emails.

What are you doing to boost your buzz factor?



By Jennifer Pricci

Enourmous Benefits of Blogging

I am already on record as pointing out that if you want to raise your visibility and get in touch with your audience, it’s a good idea to blog. It does take a little chunk of time out of your agenda, but it’s probably no more than you should spend on marketing, anyway. Also, I’ve seen many outstanding blogs….most notably by Guy Kawasaki… that are all photos and captions. But then Kawasaki goes to really interesting places like a battle ship or Red Square. And if he photographs something ordinary like a tech company office, you can rest assured it is no ordinary office but an incredibly creative, way out there, in a class of its own, office.

My point is, blogging can take as much or…almost… as little time as you want it to. And if you aren’t doing it yet, perhaps you should take a look at the following:

1. Blogs initiate dialog with web visitors

Blogs start a two-way traffic with web visitors. When you write about your products and services and write with authority, as though you are the master of your business and with in-depth knowledge about your products and services, you not only create awareness of the benefits and disadvantages about the product and service you deal in, you engage people’s attention. Your blog should also have a call to action, to make the readers of the blog interact with your website.

A call to action can mean asking them to leave comments, encouraging them to speak out. Comments left by the readers of blogs might include inquiries and leads that could lead to sales.

Blogs generate a prospective about your company. It silently speaks about the culture and vision of your company and even helps in building a brand image.

2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Blogs peppered with targeted keywords, keyword phrases and search terms related to your business puts blogs in plain sight whenever web visitors use related search terms. Instead of using long-tail keyword phrases, targeting niche keywords will help in attracting more qualified web traffic.

3. Blogs attract more links

Blog are meant to be informative and not advertisements. Informative quality, industry related articles that provide insight or a critical analysis of product and services you deal in helps you to get more links.

Links will get better search engine rankings for your website and will help in generating more traffic.

4. Fresh, original content for blogs

Fresh and original web content is the feed for search engine spiders. Websites that are updated frequently get crawled by the search engine spiders more often. Your website gets more authority and better search engine ranking.

By now, you should have enough reasons to be seriously considering blogging. For your interest and for the interest of getting more visitors to your website, blogging is the way to go. You can get started now by viewing the following tutorial videos:

How to Create a Blog on Blogger
How to Create a Blog on Wordpress




By Jennifer Pricci

The Importance of Long-Tail Keywords

Those of you who have tried in vain for years to rank high for your head keyword of choice know what I am talking about. To those of you who are newly introduced to this wondrous world of SEO, I’ll say this: roll up your sleeves and prepare to wait. Or you can do the smart thing and just target long-tail keywords. You won’t have to deal with all that fierce competition for popular head keywords, and you will be a few steps closer to getting your site rank high.



It comes with one warning: the traffic volumes will be considerably lower than that from a head keyword. But then, the probability of your ranking high for a head keyword is less than unlikely, so the traffic from that keyword will amount to, basically, nothing.

It’s a quantity vs. quality argument. And when you do the math, you will find, the long-tailed keyword is the bird in the hand.

Last month, Google introduced an algorithm update and many webmasters saw a drop in traffic from Google for keyword phrases that are three or more keywords long. However, Google is now able to index longer keyword phrases more accurately. It seems that Google guessed the best pages for long keyword phrases until recently based on other signals and keywords on the indexed pages. The new Google patent indicates that Google now has the computing power to index longer keyword phrases on web pages instead of guessing them.

What does this mean to you? It means that those who have taken the time to anticipate the need of their customers and Google’s customers will be rewarded.

Still not convinced? Consider this:

• Ease When you try to rank for a head keyword, you essentially go into competition with millions of websites. And the odds of your ranking high for that term are very low. For example, if you try to rank for the head keyword “online learning” you’ll have to beat at least 36 million other sites to rank high. Instead, if you use a long-tail with niche terms relevant to your site, like, “online learning in South Carolina” the competition drastically drops to under three hundred thousand. And your odds of ranking high will improve too.
• Speed
  Thanks to the diminished competition, you don’t have to spend nearly half your life optimizing your site and building links before you can see your site ranking high for long-tail keywords.
• Relevance
  Since long-tail keywords are more often than not, specific strings of keywords with a niche term; the chances of then meeting the exact search needs of users are very high. This aids the target marketing methods of your overall mix and ultimately drives…
• Conversion
  The fact that search users will find sites targeting long-tail keywords more relevant contribute another point to chalk up in its favor. Reports attest to the fact that users with specific search queries know exactly what they are looking for and are more likely to turn into customers.
• Exposure
  This is perhaps the least known advantage of targeting long-tail keywords. Using long tail keywords over a period of time will eventually help you rank higher for your head keywords as well. As your site gains authority and builds its trust quotient, the long-tail keywords will help provide enough targeted traffic and also enough ‘exposure’ to your head keywords that your attempt to target them alone won’t prove to be all that disastrous.  

A great thing about targeting long-tail keywords is that you can play around with all the niche terms relevant to your site and try and rank for a series of long-tails. You don’t always have to target “online learning in South Carolina,” “online high school in South Carolina” can help send an entirely different set people swinging to your site. However, targeting keywords on your site alone won’t help you achieve all this, and I doubt if I have to reiterate the importance of building credible links with the right anchor test. Try to have your targeted keywords in as many incoming links (internal as well as external) as possible, combined with your on page optimization efforts, it will do wonders for your ranking.

What are some of your long-tail keyword success stories?


By Jennifer Pricci