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Learn how to use inbound marketing tactics to boost the results of your public relations efforts and maximize your clients' visibility.... Traditional public relations continues to migrate to digital PR, content marketing, and inbound marketing, many PR professionals are aggressively learning new skills and adapting their processes to fit the changing environment. The ability to integrate inbound marketing tactics into the public relations mix has never been more important. Instead of letting the massive changes to our PR industry intimidate you, it can help to break them down into digestible strategies you can apply one at a time, while remembering that some things DON’T change. It’s like a shoe with a broken shoelace. Instead of tossing them into the nearest garbage can and heading to the mall for new shoes, you simply need to replace the laces and interweave them into the existing shoe....
Think you’ve got the social media thing down at your business? Think you’re squeezing every last bit of benefit by utilizing online marketing across a variety of social platforms? Think again. Because there’s no way you’re getting the most bang for your social media buck if you’re only using it for marketing. Hootsuite CEO Ryan Holmes tells Fast Company that according to a McKinsey report, social technologies have an untapped business value of $1.3 trillion. “And most of that comes from improved office productivity,” says Holmes. “In the year ahead, expect enterprises to embrace social media tools – including internal networks, real-time chats and wikis – for uses that go way beyond the familiar applications for marketing and community building.” How can you tap into some of that value? Here are a few of the departments besides marketing that could be making good use of social networks...
... To become an empowered social business is to inject the advantages of social media directly into the heart of your corporate DNA. That means recognizing it’s not only about having a fantastic Facebook page or a high profile Twitter account (though that might be part of the plan!). It’s about implementing the benefits social technology offers through the fabric of your business- not just the consumer facing ones. What social networking tools provide is a way to break the divides that separate your employees and their expertise from customers and one another, fostering a climate of knowledge sharing and collaboration. Instead of isolated knowledge hives, you build engaged communities who relate and share with one another naturally. It’s about building a social corporate culture where innovative solutions naturally arise by a foundation built on trust and a love of sharing, a business of conversation and mass participation....
Here's the thing. Search works, but only if, as a brand, you know what it's worth to you. Too often brands allow outside influences (competitors, corporate vanity of presence, top-line revenue) to shape their buying strategy. Just as damaging is taking what eBay has published as anything more than one unique company taking a curious public position around corporate buying choices. It's not dissimilar from GM's declaration of Facebook failing it. Brands need to understand what search is worth to them. Accepting this study as gospel is no more palatable than accepting the long-standing Google view that if it's delivering, you should just keep writing checks. There's a proper brand point of investment in search for any company, just like any other media channel....
... The great majority of brands’ online budgets are going towards gunning for those Facebook likes – and, to be fair, businesses’ hands are tied in that space, thanks to Facebook’s increased advertising pressure based on wonky algorithms. But here’s the thing. The report also found that the resource consumers relied on most for shaping their opinions and making purchasing decisions was blogs. Consumers consider blogs to be trusted sources of information – more so than any social networking site, including Facebook....
A few weeks ago, I had a chance to talk with Sam Decker, the CEO of Mass Relevance. His company helps brands involve and connect with their audiences by bringing social media directly into their marketing and advertising efforts. Prior to that he was the founding CMO of Bazaarvoice and spent seven years in senior leadership at Dell. He’s also written two books on marketing. So he’s well worth listening to. As usual, Decker was full of ideas. Most of all, he talked about how companies can better integrate social media in pretty much every aspect of their businesses. I thought his ideas were interesting enough to share. So here are Decker’s six steps to a more social business...
Facebook on Wednesday rolled out a new feature that lets brands target users for status updates that don't appear on their brand Pages. The intent is to let brands target a subset of customers without alienating other members of its customer base. For example, a sporting goods brand could run a post appealing to basketball fans. While the post wouldn't appear on the brand's Page, it would run in the News Feed of fans who have an affinity for the sport. Other scenarios include a telecom carrier that wanted to target possible switchers (perhaps fans who have shown an interest in a new model of phone) rather than send a more general branding message to its overall fan population. Finally, the unit can be used for A/B testing of ads. In other words, a marketer can run two or more different messages and then see which ones do the best....
There’s a reason why Twitter’s ad revenue is expected to reach $1 billion in 2014 – it really IS the best bang for your marketing buck. But although marketing on Twitter can be a significant boon to your business – do you know what’s even better? “Identifying where Twitter users exist elsewhere on the Web.” And PeekAnalytics does just that. PeekAnalytics “offers an unparalleled level of demographic and psychographic insights from consumer data aggregated not just from Twitter, but from over sixty social sites and every major blog platform.”...
Are you measuring your social media efforts? Do you know what’s working? Over the years, there have been dozens of social media monitoring tools launched, but not all social media monitoring platforms are created equal. In this article I’ll show you five platforms that may work for your business. Social Media Monitoring 101 Before taking a closer look at these platforms, here are a few questions you’ll want to answer first. Your answers will allow you to find the right tool for your business needs....
Limited resources and an overabundance of options requires filtering and prioritization when it comes to where marketing investments are made, whether it’s content, blogging, social media, or SEO. Common questions include: What to measure? What if it fails? What should we outsource? Here are a few answers to those questions that I was asked as prep for an interview...
Lots has recently been written about real-time marketing (RTM), most of it stemming from notable and nimble ripostes, such as Oreo’s superb Super Bowl Tweet, Specsaves sage advice to Eden Hazard... ... Amongst all the excitement, razzmatazz and glitz of RTM and the events which brands seek to become a show-stealing participant in, it’s important to keep your feet on the ground and remember that RTM is just another strand of content, it’s not a strategy. For me, it is just the evolution of one strand of content marketing. Many brands have established, ongoing content teams, but RTM is the just the next stage in its development. In the future, RTM won’t just be wheeled out for the big events, we’ll see more brands with their very own 24 hour newsrooms so they can produce timely content and react to real-time events. But this will feature alongside the ongoing content team. David Armano described ongoing content as a ‘drumbeat’ and continuing the musical analogy, you could compare real-time content as a jam session. Ongoing content is structured, whereas real-time is more opportunistic in nature. Both strands can and should feature within your tactics....
If you've been sitting on the sidelines expecting Google+ to fade away, forget it. No serious marketer can afford to ignore the implications of Google+ and authorship. This guide will help you navigate the often confusing landscape that is Google+.
I was recently asked a provocative question: “What experiences or insights have shaped your views on brand and reputation management in today’s business environment?” This is a great question and the more I thought about it, the clearer the answer(s) became. 1. The first insight reflects the The Changing Role of Influence. There is a great quote by Gary Hamel, who says “Influence is like water. Always flowing somewhere.” This is very true in today's business environment as new sources of influence are forming around our companies and industries at an extremely rapid pace....
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I recently came across an extraordinary presentation on the topic of B2B social media from Social Media Week Copenhagen. The presenter was Jonathan Wichmann, social media manager for Maersk Line. You may or may not be familiar with Maersk Line. They are the largest container shipping company in the world, which while impressive is probably less interesting than many superstar companies of social media. In his talk, Wichmann discussed the baseline strategy in their approach to social, the steps they took to elaborate and develop on that initial B2B social media strategy, and the benefits that they’re now seeing because of their development in the channel. And it’s REALLY impressive....
They're on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. But that's not necessarily where they make purchasing decisions.... When we set our social media strategy we didn't ignore Twitter and Facebook, but we focused our time, content strategy, and community building in the specific networks where people congregate to discuss stocks. By concentrating our efforts and key performance metrics on these networks, we free ourselves from vanity metrics such as "Likes" and "Followers," focusing on what really matters: customer acquisition.
Excerpted from article on HubSpot:
"Marketing Pilgrim published a great blog post by Michael Lieberman called "10 Ways Inbound Marketing Drives Results This Month."
The best inbound marketers do, indeed, play a good long game, but you can use inbound marketing tactics and strategies to move the needle immediately, too. So to add to Lieberman's already stellar list, here are ten more ways you can borrow from inbound marketing to see immediate positive changes in your marketing.
Michael Lieberman's 10 Ways for Inbound Marketing to Drive Results This Month [http://bit.ly/10cQwj9 ]
To catch you up to speed, here's an abbreviated version of Lieberman's recommendations.
- Make sure your website has the right messaging to help visitors pass the blink test.
- Add visual calls-to-action to your site.
- Add offers to your website that appeal to visitors and leads in all stages of the funnel.
- Start blogging, and strive for a frequency of three to four times a week.
- Share your blog content with social media followers.
- Share educational content with relevant LinkedIn Groups.
- Create dedicated, conversion-optimized landing pages.
- Nurture leads with campaigns that bring them further down the funnel.
- Share educational content on sites your target audience frequents.
- Track and test all of your activities so you can get a more accurate gauge of what's working.
10 More Ways Inbound Marketing Drives Results This Month (by Hubspot)
1) A/B Test Elements of Your Email Marketing Campaigns;
2) Implement a List Re-Engagement Campaign;
3) Identify a Long-Tail Keyword Phrase With High Search Volume;
4) Newsjack;
5) Invest in a Social Media Ad Campaign;
6) Build a Free Tool;
7) Respond to HARO;
8) Start Using Tracking Tokens;
9) Create a Blog Subscription Landing Page;
10) Create Social Media Visual Content."
Each way mentioned by Hubspot is analyzed with more information. Read full article here: http://blog.hubspot.com/get-instant-results-with-inbound-marketing
In addition, check out also full article on Marketing Pilgrims: http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2013/03/10-ways-inbound-marketing-drives-results-this-month.html
Via Giuseppe Mauriello
A recent survey from J.D. Power points to the risks associated with monitoring: 51% of consumers simply do not want companies to eavesdrop on their conversations and 43% believe that monitoring is an intrusion on their privacy.... Social, at its core, is about getting closer to the customer and monitoring enables it. It explores customers thinking, and how they are communicating across their networks and the marketplace. This is essential for developing a strong brand and a close relationship with those customers. Monitoring is not inherently bad, but companies need to remember why they do it. It is to get insight into consumer needs, not just to monitor what they say. Meeting consumer needs, above all, is what defines a social media strategy. J.D. Power recommends the following when in comes to implementing a social media monitoring strategy...
Amongst the many online conversations I have with people each day, one of the key questions I get asked is: How do you keep up? I'm on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Quora, Foursquare, Slideshare, Instagram, Vine and Google+. And yet everyday, there is something new coming out, a new social network to pay attention to or new features of the current popular ones. And everyday, it seems like there are more people on social media, more content to be consumed and shared, and more people to reply to. So how in the world can you keep up with it all, and stand out amongst all of the noise? It’s about using the right tools and developing the right focus on what’s actually important in social media. And yet, ignoring the noise, and standing out in a positive way is easier said then done. Here are the top seven tools to easily create a valuable, stand-out social media presence for yourself....
Sports are an inherently social activity, so brands like Nike are a natural fit when it comes to social media marketing. To find out how the sports giant makes the most of this opportunity, I thought it would be interesting to see how it uses Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+. This post is the latest in a series of blogs that have taken a similar look at major brands including ASOS, Tesco, Red Bull, Cadbury and McDonalds...
By now, if social media isn't a critical element in your online marketing strategy, it should be. Having a presence on sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn can add value to your product, to customer service and ultimately to your brand. But simply having an account and broadcasting company news isn't enough. To attract and keep customers -- and to build a strong brand online -- business owners need to be active on social media. They have to provide valuable information and engage with their followers. Here are four things businesses should be doing on social media in order to grow the brand online...
Ikea USA serves as a blueprint for social media content creation. There are some great ideas to steal from Ikea USA’s editorial calendar. If I were to reveal a hidden talent of mine, I’d say I’m good at assembling Ikea furniture. As most Swedes, I’ve grown up with flat packages and family quarrels around mounting manuals. I’m practically born with a hexagon key in my hand. Therefore, as a devoted brand advocate, I wanted to check out Ikea’s social media strategy; curious to know if it is as innovative as their products. Ikea Sweden is not on Twitter while Ikea USA tweets according to a clear content strategy....
... with multiple outlets and audiences to share with, social media management is often time consuming as it takes time to find the right content to share. And when the right content is found, marketers, community managers, and social media users are constantly copying and pasting or signing in and out of different accounts to share the content with the appropriate audience. The time spent on the seemingly simple task of logging into accounts to post begins to add up and become cumbersome, especially for those managing multiple accounts for numerous companies or businesses. With so much happening on any given day, especially in the unpredictable and ever changing social world, how can one begin to effectively manage time and content engagement? Let’s take a look at some ways to ease the task of sharing content across multiple platforms....
Tactical fatigue getting you down? How about lack of results from your efforts? ... How about we hit the pause button and look at some areas of impact on your business first? Maybe you set out with an objective and quantifiable goals for your marketing plan and aligned social media to those, then found that it's taking too long to close the gap on your goals. Or perhaps you've been testing the waters on some of the social networks, figured out that's all you can do, and moved on, abandoning those outposts. 7 areas of impact to get back on track...
...the shrinking newsroom doesn’t mean doom for the PR profession. According to Pew, there are many other new players producing content that “could advance citizens’ knowledge about public issues”—such as Kaiser Health News, Insidescience and the Food and Environment Reporting Network. And whatever sector you’re targeting (for-profit or nonprofit), there is a trove of Web sites that can serve as a conduit to your audiences and constituents. Social media is also filling the void. In an admixture of the old and the new, using social channels to spread the word plays into how people have gravitated toward news and information since we crawled out of the ocean: learning from our friends and family. Social networking, the report added, is now a part of this process: 15% of U.S. adults get most of their news from friends and family this way, and the vast majority of them (77%) follow links to full news stories....
A well maintained social media presence is like a fine wine; it develops more character as it ages. As you invest more time in to social media, joining additional networks and using new tools, your presence gains different characteristics that it did not have before. However, just as certain wine characteristics mesh well together, others simply do not. Certain wines will pair well with certain foods and enhance the experience, while others conflict and compete. So it is with different social networks. Some are natural fits, enhancing each other and creating synergy. Others are so vastly different in scope and purpose that using them together can actually weaken the total effort. So how do you know which networks jive well together, and which just don’t? Well, I reached out to several brilliant professionals whose experiences in social media give them a unique perspective on which networks work great together. They are, for all intents and purposes, Social Media Sommeliers, pairing different networks together to create an experience greater than the sum of its parts. So, what networks do they believe hold the greatest power for synergy?...
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