BlogPosts from June, 2011

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From Beginner to Expert in One Hour

You don’t have to cram an extra six hours in the day to keep up to speed with the latest happenings in the world on social media marketing. Just cream off the best knowledge from the masses out there in less than an hour with our handy hints…

  1. Blog it. Sign up to Google Reader and you’ll see a helpful ‘Check out these blogs’ column. Pick the ones that look interesting (to you, that is!) and read the latest posts.
  2. Beep it. Set up Google Alerts to send you the latest headlines in your sphere of interest
  3. Tweet it. Do a quick survey among your Twitter followers and ask them to recommend the 5 most interesting people (who aren’t celebrities!). Then follow them. And engage with them. That was quick, wasn’t it?
  4. Link it. Be honest now…when did you last update your profile? Are you telling potential customers what they need to hear? Get it updated, and then connect it with your email addresses to make the most of your contacts.
  5. TED it. There are loads of marketing TED talks online. Choose one. Make a cup of tea. Watch one. 20 mins of your life well spent.
  6. Read it. Amazon’s not just for last minute Christmas panic buying, you know. Read the reviews, browse the virtual shelves, and then get your shopping basket filled. Check out the Marketing and Sales section or just type in keywords to get started.
  7. Visit it. Conferences and networking events are great places to get inspired, meet like-minded people and keep abreast of the latest development. Oh, and there’s usually a free lunch. And tea and coffee. Did we mention the lunch?
  8. Learn it. The fun doesn’t stop when you graduate, and learning doesn’t mean heading back to college. With online seminars, web courses and useful learning sites like Hubspot, you don’t need an MBA from Harvard to stay on top of your game.

There you have it. Just as everyone else has finished the latest episode of The Apprentice, you’ve become the next Lord Sugar. Imagine what you can achieve in two hours…

Get selling through Facebook

Why spend time trying to tempt your customers away from the allure of Facebook to your store, when you can bring your store to Facebook? But as the idea catches on, it’s good to think about how you can stand out among in the virtual high street. We’ll give you a starter for 10…

  1. Store appeal. Your ‘shop window’ is what entices people into your store as they wander along the virtual high street. Make sure its attractive, and appealing.
  2. Profile it. What does your profile picture say? Nothing? Or does it – should it – talk about your new store, letting your fans know of the new
  3. FAQs in place. You won’t always be on hand to answer queries on the shop wall – so anticipate what questions might be asked and put up a list of FAQs to make the process easier.
  4. Offers, offers, offers. Get the ball rolling with exclusive offers and discounts, encourage your fans – and their friends – to buy.
  5. Stay on the wall. Use your status updates to keep your fans and customers involved and engaged by staying at the forefront of their minds – and their homepage.
  6. Don’t go in blind. Test your store! Would you rather you spotted any flaws – or your customers?
  7. Advertise. If your budget permits, consider Facebook ads – they can be targeted directly at your fans, nudging them to make that first purchase. Don’t forget – they already like you!
  8. You talk about it. Use the Facebook icon on all your communications – ezines, newsletters, websites, voicemail, e-signatures…you name it, you talk about it.
  9. They talk about it. Make sure it’s easy for people to leave a recommendation or post an opinion – word of mouth is one of the most valuable marketing tools. Don’t be afraid of negative opinions – it means you have a chance to put right anything that’s gone wrong, and perhaps retain a customer.
  10. Talk to the professionals. Consider investing in a social shopping platform like Gloople, already adopted successfully by a range of businesses. Creating offers and discounts, gaining advocates, enabling reviews and recommendations, going mobile – all available – and simple to use – for even the most technophobe of entrepreneurs.

What are you waiting for?

Like is the new Love

As well as being great for noseying at ex-classmates, Facebook is a phenomenal driver of web traffic – if you know how to play the game. We’ll assume your content is as compelling as possible, but what else can you do?

Social plug-ins are the answer – with stats like the average media site, when integrated with Facebook, increase its referral traffic by 300% – what’s not to Like? (There’s a button for that, you know.)

Success stories are many and impressive. American Eagle added the Like button and found that their Facebook-referred visitors spent an average of 57% more money. Levi’s saw an increase in 40% in referral traffic, and the Huffington Post doubled theirs. It’s where it goes that counts too – Metacafe added an additional Like button at the top of its content as well as the bottom, tripling its daily Likes and also doubling traffic.

It’s all about social recommendations these days. Not sure whether to buy that 11-inch glitter ball? You probably will if your friends have all Liked it. It’s about personalising your Like too – the option to add comments, or view friends’ thumbnails, increase the snowball effect of Likes.

Such a small button – such a big impact.

Don’t forget Google either. It might not be integrated with Facebook, but it still captures a lot of data – and is able to mine it for valuable data at a personalised level. These shows up in Google’s social connection tools, such as Dashboard: direct connections are drawn from a range of sources, including Facebook. A Google profile that is connected to Facebook, seen by someone who has a Facebook connection, could create a Facebook interaction that is facilitated by, and appears on, Google.

That Google uses Facebook data in realtime search means that lots of Facebook shares result in higher ranking on Google News – same as Tweets. Not to mention the strong presence Facebook has in brand searches.

So get going – and get liked.