Social media communication uncovering design intricacies

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Social Media for Business

Social Media for Business

Fortune 500 focusing more on Twitter

A recent yearly repost released by the Center for Marketing Research at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth “The Fortune 500 and Social Media” says that America’s biggest corporations have dramatically increased their participation in twitter (~approximately two times).

Today, three out of five Fortune 500 companies in US have an active Twitter account, compared to 1/3 in year 2009. This number is even more than the numbers that have an active Facebook account, which is about 56%.

Today, 60% of Fortune 500 is micro blogging

More than a third of the companies with Twitter accounts frequently responded to consumers with @ replies or retweets within a short period of time, making a solid effort to engage the 26 million US adults use Twitter at least monthly.

Although the taken as a whole usage of Twitter by the Fortune 500 increased, so did its reach all through the ranks of the list. Last year, practically 40% of those companies with an account were in the top 100. But, by 2010, that had dropped to 25%, & companies in the middle of the pack made up a bigger share of Twitter users.

The repost also says that; the industry’s most powerfully represented among Fortune 500 Twitter accounts were specialty retail (23 companies); drug, food, and CPG (22); and insurance (20). And these were also the top three industries to have an active Facebook account.

“America’s economy and to a large extent the world economy is driven by these large & leading companies,” said the report. “Their eagerness to network more transparently via these new technologies with their stakeholders is apparent. It will be very fascinating to observe as they get bigger their embracing of social media tools and bond with their constituents in considerably new ways.”

7 Ways to Get More Value From Your e-Newsletter

Email marketing is one of the most popular and effective ways for businesses to share their content and connect with customers. Besides being relatively easy, eNewsletters provide good analytics along with a low-cost way to help you manage customer engagement. Your subscriber list is a goldmine for your business – the bigger the list, the more potential to achieve desired results.

What’s more, marketers rate eNewsletters as one of the more effective content marketing tactics.

Over 61% of the respondents to the B2B Content Marketing: 2010 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends report use eNewsletters and rate them as one of the most effective ways to distribute content. Only in-person events have a significant advantage over eNewsletters on the effectiveness front.

What can you do to encourage more people to subscribe to your eNewsletter?

Dedicate a page of your website to your newsletter

Something I don’t see often but I think is very effective is creating a dedicated page for your newsletter. Displaying an example is a great way to entice people to subscribe.

Recently, I encountered an excellent example where the design of a company newsletter is used to encourage people to subscribe. Master Photographer Geoff Fisher of Fisher Photography kicked off a new eNewsletter campaign as part of a complete re-branding exercise. His web designer, Ryan Briggs, included a sneak-peak of the customized newsletter he developed for Geoff.

By conveniently providing a sign-up form next to the body of the preview, visitors to Geoff’s website can easily add their name to his list. This technique is not limited to eNewsletters; a print newsletter can be easily dissected for success, as well.

Invest in custom design

It’s extremely easy to fire off a newsletter using a template or a wizard from your email marketing software, and that’s why everyone does it. However, consider investing in a professional design. Your content will stand out and lend a hand to your brand at the same time.

As you can see from the mock-up of the Fisher Photography newsletter above, the design has been developed specifically to support Fisher’s business. The dedicated website page also displays a description of each section. The benefits to this technique include:

• Transparency – The visitor knows exactly what content to expect
• Visual appeal – A custom design supports your brand and shows quality
• Commitment – Posting your design demonstrates an intent to produce regular content
• Excitement – An attractive teaser provokes people to want the real thing

Archive your past newsletters on your website

Not only is an archive of past newsletters an excellent way to extend the life of your content, but it also works wonders on your SEO.  Visitors to your website immediately understand your commitment to publishing good content when they can see a body of work all in one place.

Promote your newsletter like crazy

Of course, once you have your eNewsletter landing page set up, you want to start driving lots of traffic there. Here are some ideas.

Put your subscription form on your home page

It might seem obvious, but it’s surprising how many people bury their form deep in their website or don’t have it on their website at all. And, remember to point people to your landing page to learn more.

Put a subscription form on your social media profiles

Do your Facebook fans know you have a newsletter? Why not let them sign up right on your page?

Add a link to your subscription form at the end of every blog post

If you’ve got a reader who made it all the way to the end of your post, it’s probably because they found value in what you’ve had to say. Chances are they’re going to want more of the same. Why not convert them immediately?

Add a sharing widget on your eNewsletters

If you want people to promote your newsletter for you, make it easy on them by including a sharing widget. Give people the option of distributing it on any channel they want and there’s no telling where your content may end up.

Getting your newsletter into as many hands as possible doesn’t have to be a challenge. Creating opportunities to extend the life of your newsletter and encourage new readers is easier than you may have guessed. Don’t think of your newsletter as a static document with a limited shelf-life. A  collective body of well-constructed, beautifully designed and strategically managed newsletters are an asset to your business. Consider the different channels you use to promote your business and ensure your newsletter is referenced in every place. Before long, you’ll be striking gold.

How do you squeeze more value out of your newsletter?

Know how to launch an email campaign:

• 9 steps to executing an email campaign- Step-1 (Strategic Planning)
• 9 steps to executing an email campaign- Step-2 (define list)
• 9 steps to executing an email campaign- Step-3 (creative execution)
• 9 steps to executing an email campaign- Step-4 & 5

Who Says A Business Blog Has To Be Boring?

Let's face the truth. There are a lot of boring business blogs out there. I get bored reading many of them, even when I'm generally interested in the content. It's just hard to inject excitement and pizazz in a cut-and-dry business blog.

I say, don't let your business blog be so cut-and-dry! One of the easiest ways to not only make your business blog more engaging but to also make it more fun for you to write is by creating a unique voice for your blog.

Try mixing in some personal chat, using humor, encouraging your readers to comment, taking a stand, or whatever you think will engage your readers and make your blog more fun all around. Heck, you can even decorate it for Halloween!

A mixture of good, solid content and an endearing personality is a no-fail way to create a successful business blog. And it can be fun, too.

For more tips on starting a business blog and making it a success, read:

• Ten very strong reasons to blog – even if nobody reads it!
• Reduce the Pain of Starting a Business Blog - An eMarketing Insight

Ten very strong reasons to blog – even if nobody reads it!

Building an engaged community through a business blog can be extremely difficult — sometimes impossible. Look at companies like General Electric who do an amazing job with their blog and yet have almost no “community” or comments at all. There must be some good business reason they do it, right? 

There better be. Every corporate marketing activity must somehow be tied to creating shareholder value and blogging is no different. Let’s look at ten legitimate business reasons why your company should be blogging — even if you can’t seem to build a community of active readers. 

1) Search engine benefits — This may be the most obvious business benefit of blogging. Search engines give preference to websites that have fresh, relevant content. Hubspot research shows that sites with blogs get 55% more traffic than sites without blogs — even if there are no readers! 

2) Marketing differentiation – Finding a way to stand-out may be the most difficult chore a business faces. Do your competitors have a blog? If not, this might be an opportunity to establish the voice of authority in your industry and enhance your brand image with customers. 

3) Infinite search life — A few weeks ago I received a call from a potential new customer in the Middle East looking to me as a possible marketing consultant.I had to wonder how in the world they found me! Turns out they were looking for somebody who could help explain where the future of social media was going and when they entered this into Google, a blog post I wrote a year ago popped up!  Your content keeps working for you month after month! 

4) A cost-effective sales call — You might not be able to visit your customer every week or every month but a blog is an excellent way to provide a constant drip-drip-drip of communication to remind them of your products, services, and why you’re special.  If they don’t read your blog, re-purpose the content in customer newsletters and sales materials. 

5) Your content engine — Your investment in a consistent stream of quality content can be leveraged in many ways to support a content marketing strategy. I use links from blog posts to answer customer questions, as the basis for speeches, newsletter content, and as reading assignments for workshops. 

6) Direct sales — Sure, you can sell through your blog!  SAP does a great job advertising training services in a sidebar on its blog. This is valuable real estate! Why not use it?  Wegman’s grocery store employees blog about seasonal recipes and show how to use their food products in new ways. 

7) Indirect sales — Featuring blog-only promotions and offers or opt-in content can expose new sales leads. 

8) PR – Blog posts have the opportunity for massive reach. When one of my posts gets picked up by an aggregation service like ragan.com, my message has a chance to be heard by hundreds of thousands of people. That opportunity would not occur with a press release or status update. 

9) New product development — Many companies use blogs as a way to engage customers to solve problems and create new ideas. Caterpllar has blogs dedicated to each major product line. Starbucks blogs about customer ideas as a way to crowd-source new product innovation. 

10) Crisis management — A blog is an essential channel to explain the facts amid chaos. In less than an hour after the earthquake hit Haiti, The Red Cross blog had news of their activities and information on how to donate.  Company responses through blogs are often quoted by mainstream news sources. 

So when your company has seemingly unrealistic expectations about building an online blog community, pull this blog post out as a reminder that there are many solid business reasons to have a blog, even if the crickets are chirping in the comment section!   Is a commenting community important to you and your company or do some of these benefits make sense?

Why Your Business Needs Social Media Geeks As Customers

There is a generally accepted statistic in the online world that points to an average of about 1% of any population will be active content creators, 9% will be participants and the other 90% will simply "consume" that content online. If you believe those numbers, then the easy conclusion is to say that 1% is so insignificant that to focus on reaching individuals who fit into this category would just be foolish. In fact, your small business should ask just the opposite question ... how many of this 1% can you make into your customers?

Why does this matter so much? Because these individuals are the ones who are actively creating the content that others online will be reading. If you are a contractor, this 1% are the group that will post a review about your services on Angie's List. If you have a retail destination, this 1% will announce they are at your store on Foursquare, blog about it afterwards and post reviews and photos online.

Read more...

LinkedIn Launches 'Company Pages'

LinkedIn Monday announced an upgraded version of its company profiles called Company Pages designed to help businesses better showcase products and services with additional features and functionality.

The revamped profiles allow page administrators to highlight particular products or services and tailor product lists to different types of audiences. The new layout also lets companies feature product videos as well as targeted display advertising.

LinkedIn members visiting Company Pages can also post recommendations and reviews of products or services and those recommendations will appear in their own profiles as well. Businesses can also write and share their own endorsements.

Let's Make A Deal: Facebook's Groupon-Killer

Having only recently launched its location-based Places feature, Facebook is reportedly testing a "Deals" service with which businesses can offer incentives to users whenever they check-in to a physical store. 

All Facebook, which broke the news, calls the development "HUGE," suggesting that "Deals" could immediately have a big impact on the hotly-contested local business market.   


"Facebook plus Groupon?" ReadWriteWeb asks. "Considering how much profile and social data a Facebook Places check-in can carry as a payload, this sounds a whole lot more valuable to retailers than a Groupon deal. This is very different than the kind of Places-powered hyperlocal advertising that most observers were expecting to monetize the Places feature." 


Read more.,.. 


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Read more recent posts:

• Ten social media problems that drive marketers nut...
• 5 Techniques to Make Your Next Post Unforgettable
• How Companies are Ignoring the consumers!
• Three Wrong Beliefs on Starting a New Blog - An eM...

Ten social media problems that drive marketers nuts

“Use social media marketing to build your business.” Sure, these are captivating buzzwords, but few understand how difficult marketing through social sites can be until they try it!  I’m learning this from experience.  The truth is that social media marketing is difficult work.  To help minimize the impact of this frustration on the beginning marketer, here are my Top 10 annoyances as I try to market through the social web and a few comments on how I’m dealing with them:

1. Marketing for producing votes – Users of sites like Digg and Reddit rate links, allowing some to soar and others to languish in obscurity. When I found myself trying to write to secure votes and work the system, I decided to re-focus on simply creating quality content in spite of the kind ratings I get.

2. Converting followers – I have hundreds, perhaps thousands of followers: Now what? Followers are not the same as sales leads are they?   I’ve learned to think differently about expectations and conversion rates. Over time, buyers will come, but you need to be patient and accept a low conversion rate as you focus on building relationships, not quick sales. 

Read more...

5 Techniques to Make Your Next Post Unforgettable

Reading a blog post should be like sinking your teeth into an ice cream cone in the middle of August.

Or the moment just before you plummet 2,000 feet in a roller coaster.

Let’s face it: blogs posts always have been, and always will be, a diversion from the mundaneness of life. No matter what your blog’s subject.

Since that’s true, let’s give people what they want.

Here are five techniques you can use to make your posts give your readers a great experience—not just dry information, but a truly unforgettable post.

1. Be a contrarian.

“If you try to write for everyone you write for no one.” ~Brian Clark

It’s okay to be controversial. After all, if everyone agrees on the same things, it’s boring.

While I don’t recommend you disagree just to get attention, there are bound to be times where your interpretation of certain concepts differs from that of many other bloggers. When this happens, don’t hesitate to share your opinion.

When readers come across your blog and read a different take from the usual, it’s refreshing. Allow readers to enjoy that experience by having the courage to be controversial.

Read More...

How Companies are Ignoring the consumers!

Watch this video for a humorous example of an egocentric advertiser and customer. This is the attitude of most of the companies. They need to realize that consumer has to be given a chance to speak up, otherwise sooner than later consumer will dump them!

Post writing by Anshul Gupta. Follow his on twitter.

Three Wrong Beliefs on Starting a New Blog - An eMarketing Insight

I have met many working professionals who regularly complain about the pain of starting a blog! And more about the maintaining that blog. It certainly seems to a tough job, but in reality its just that; "we think a lot about it..."

Three wrong beliefs on starting a new Blog:

1. People think that, we need to have thousands of ideas in an organised fashion before we start blogging. They have a belief that, "because it's my first interactive interface to the public as a writer, it has to perfect!" The zest for achieving perfection before they start doing it, makes it impossible to do it in the first place.

If you have a similar concern, then here is the panacea: "Stop thinking---and Start Writing!" Think of one idea at a time and follow your inner voice...paint the picture around that idea...give supporting examples, links, beliefs, facts and remember: "IT SHOULD BE EXPLAINED, AS EASY AS POSSIBLE!" I don't remember the name of the movie, but there was a famous dialog in it, which would further clarify the point: "Explain it to me, like you are explaining to a six-year old".

2. We need to write something which is accepted by everybody! 

Not at all!!! Remember the lessons from marketing? "DEFINE YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE!" It's that simple...You need to visualize the picture of people to whom your writing is being targeted. And make it that way...don't be too wavy, otherwise people would soon realize that, you have no idea on what you are writing...

3. And last but most important: Can I write a Blog? I think any person in this world with a reasonable conscience and writing abilities can write. There are people who are famous with their blogs on "CATS!". 

One more key point here is that; "Don't focus on things like: How many people are reading, or am I popularizing my blog enough!", Initially, focus on developing quality content and nothing else. After you deliver 10-15 good posts on your blog, to which people could relate their conscience, then it's like a plane on an autopilot mode.

Post writing by Anshul Gupta. Follow his on twitter.

More previous posts:

• SOCIAL MEDIA SCREW UPS - A HISTORY
• 5 DEADLY SINS OF CORPORATE SOCI

Social media Screw Ups - A History

Social media Screw Ups - A History

5 Deadly Sins of Corporate Social Media Marketing

1. Fear - Of course we know fear is all in the mind and by the looks of it, there are some pretty vivid imaginations out there. Remember when companies feared putting up a blog with comments because, “What if someone says something bad about us?”.  In contrast, companies successful with social media are celebrating such criticism and showing how well they address customer concerns – in public.

A presentation during the Rise of Social Commerce event from Altimeter Group yesterday by Bob Kupbens, Vice President of e-Commerce at Delta.com, included a slide featuring a customer comment that used the words “Delta” and “suck” prolifically.  No one thought any less of Delta as a result. They listened intently on how Delta is engaging customers.

People know that companies aren’t perfect and there will be issues. Social media opens lines of communication for customers to give companies feedback on things that really do need to be fixed, when they otherwise might have go unattended and become huge problems. Companies need not fear the social web, just because they themselves are not social. Harvest internal talent, technology and even outside advice if necessary. Make a plan and commit to objectives along with the top down support necessary for organizational change. Read the Original Article here..

9 Top - Strategists you will need in Defining your e Marketing strategy

Here is a  short list of the types of specialists you will need in designing your eMArketing strategy. Here it is:

New Media Strategist - This differs from a Social Media strategist in that this strategist strategizes about “new” media, not just Social Media. Foursquare is still relatively new, for example. Facebook, not so much. Having a New Media Strategist onboard will give you an edge on your competitors (who still think that having a Social Media Strategist is the bomb) because you will have strategies based on new (not just sort of new) media.

Content Strategist - Ignore my diatribe about this the other day. That was the old Olivier. The critical olivier with all the hangups about strategy vs tactics, and nomenclature. Pffft. That’s all over with. The new Olivier totally gets the need for content strategists, especially now that you had to let go your editors, copywriters, content planners and content managers when the economy tanked last year. Having a content strategist will help you ensure that your content doesn’t accidentally end up making no sense at all, for example. (This takes a lot of planning and strategy mapping.) You wouldn’t want pictures of Kermit the frog showing up on your 4″ ball bearings product page, for example, right? That’s what Content Strategists do: They strategize content.

Digital Conversation Strategists (you may need more than one) -That’s right: If you are going to be having conversations with customers on the interwebs, you are going to need a solid conversation strategy plan.

Social Engagement Strategist - This role works hand in hand with the conversation strategist. That said, you will need to make sure that the conversation strategist focuses on conversations and the engagement strategist on engagement. If you allow any overlap, you invite a turf war you do not want. Trust me on this. So make sure that your engagement strategist focuses on engaging, not conversing. Different strategies altogether.

Marketers and Social Media: Cutting Through the Noise

Marketers of all kinds have been lured by the promise of social networking, and the ease with which they can set up Facebook pages and Twitter accounts for their companies and even their individual brands. But does any of that have a tangible effect on what they are trying to accomplish? According to a new report from Forrester Research, it often does not, primarily because Generation Y users are overwhelmed with Facebook friends, Twitter and MySpace accounts already, and it’s hard for marketing messages to cut through the clutter. Forrester’s advice? Make your content more interesting.

The research firm says its surveys show that the average Facebook user has 135 friends on the network, 107 friends on MySpace, and follows about 77 people on Twitter — but the younger Generation Y demographic that many marketers want to reach is even more overloaded: the average younger user has 220 friends on Facebook, 147 friends on MySpace and follows 86 people on Twitter (interestingly enough, Generation X users tend to follow more people on Twitter than Generation Y users, according to Forrester’s research). On an anecdotal note, I have spoken to several friends in the Gen Y category who have well over 500 friends on Facebook. Read more: Original Article.  

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What exactly is site optimization? -eMArketing Insight

In eMarketing, optimizing your website is a very important task. Basically, Optimizing your Web site means designing, coding, and copywriting the site so that you have a better chance of getting your pages to appear closer to the top of search engine results for your selected keywords, and therefore found by more potential customers, which further fulfills the objectives of your eMarketing strategy.


Search engines change their algorithms all the time, so even if your site is doing well now there's no guarantee it will continue to stay at the top. According a report, Google uses approximately 400 different variables having varying weightage for measuring the page rank of a website. And it changes updates these pages 300 times in a year! The only thing you can do that will be effective no matter what changes the search engines make is to optimize your site properly.


Even this can't guarantee a top spot for your site in the results, but it's your best bet. I will be writing many posts in their topic in coming weeks, on information on how Optimized eMarketing can help you build a strong foundation for generating more leads from the search engines. Subscribe to this blog to remain updated!

Companies Struggle to Keep Social Media Content On-Message

Nearly three-quarters of blog posts don’t reflect corporate messaging

Marketers and other corporate communications professionals may sometimes feel they have a thankless task: carefully craft messages about their company’s thought leadership, social responsibility efforts and new product or service launches, only to find those messages distorted as they’re disseminated through the media.

PR and communications firm Burson-Marsteller analyzed more than 150 messages sent out by companies in the Financial Times Global 100 list of firms and discovered a large gap between the messages that went out and how they were covered on blogs. Read more...

Small Businesses Change Social Media Expectations

About a quarter of small businesses now marketing via social media

After climbing steeply, according to research fromNetwork Solutions and the Center for Excellence in Service at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, small-business adoption of social media marketing has plateaued at 24%.

The study of US small business found that those that do market via social media primarily use Facebook (82%), and that the most common activities are maintaining a company page on a social network and posting status updates or links to interesting content. About half of businesses that used social media also monitored brand chatter on social networks.

As small businesses have gained experience with social media, some have realized their expectations for the channel did not line up with the reality of the social web. As the wider marketing world begins to look at social as more of a loyalty channel than one for acquisition, small businesses are also finding that their hopes for spreading brand awareness and attracting new customers have not been fully met. By contrast, somewhat fewer small businesses had expected to use social media as an engagement channel, but nearly two-thirds have had success in that area. Read Full Report.  

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