@Spirocks

social media marketing

Getting the most from your Blog?

Thoughts from the Beach…

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Whether a small business or a professional your blog is not only a part of your online marketing efforts, it should be your lynchpin that holds it all together. Now since you are creating posts that share valuable and interesting information and offers on a regular basis it is time to make sure that you are getting the most from this library of content you have created.

Have you heard of Evergreen Content?

That is a term that refers to blog posts that contain information that si not date specific and still of value to the reader months or even years after it is written. Just because it is buried thirty posts ago doesn’t mean it is done and gone forever. Google search will have them indexed and send visitors too your pages when they are relevant to search terms. That is one of the primary reasons we write blogs, to create content about the business we are marketing, and allow customers to find us via search. You may have heard of inbound marketing and this is a founding principle of that method.

But we want to Turbo Charge Inbound Marketing

Search is amazingly easy, and it currently sends upwards of 20% of the traffic to this blog, but we want more, faster. Sharing via social networks and email is the obvious answer, but how you do it will determine success or failure. At GuestFeed we pay careful attention to the frequency of messages we send out for ourselves and for our customers, I created the EFT Ratio to aid us in maintaining a helpful non-intrusive vibe with our followers. I believe it is one of the primary reasons that our clients and our own followings have increased so rapidly.

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We made a tool to Help

So we spent a lot of time creating great content, most of it evergreen, and tried to determine how to best share it. The over riding principle is that no matter what we don’t want to come across as a spammer, or annoying, or repetitive. But we want to share our evergreen posts more than once, especially on twitter. That is how Spoke Social was born, we wanted to create a tool that both our clients and us could use to help automate some of the sharing. How we do it:

  • We write a great post first.
  • Next we share it immediately on all our networks.
  • Then we schedule it to be reposted with Spoke on twitter at a specific interval, like every 15 days, for a specific timeframe, like until August 25th.
  • Then we monitor the click throughs and page views for all our pages. When one of them is clearly a STUD post with great interaction numbers we share it again on Facebook a month later with a comment along the lines of ‘In case you missed it the first time check out our most popular post of the past month.’

Isn’t automation Evil?

The answer is yes and no. Yes if your feed is a robot driven non-human inconsiderate self serving stream of boringness. No if you automate a very small percentage of what you send out, and if it is sincerely helpful things you are sharing. Check my twitter feed for an idea of what I mean: @spirocks

Keep in mind that EFT ratio idea from earlier, on twitter it is highly unlikely that a large percentage of your following will see a particular tweet. It is just the way it is with twitters real time stream of tweets pushing your last one out of view quickly. So with that understanding the second or third time that you share a post may be the first time that it is seen by a follower. That means that was their only opportunity to see what you are sharing and decide if it was of interest to them.

Take a look at this screenshot, see the spikes?  Those are re-shares on twitter. What this tells me is that there were a bunch of people who were seeing this for the first time even three months after the post was written.

Repeat Posts Traffic Graph

So why do we need a tool to help us automate the Re-Posts? Well creating content is time consuming and time is short when you are running a business. Spoke allows us to schedule posts out as long as we want with exact frequency in a matter of 10 seconds. That single feature would make it worth using for us, of course we use more of Spoke’s capabilities but scheduling recurring messages alone is the key one for us. Of course you can manually schedule posts with Hootsuite, we tried that and found that we were just not doing it as much because it was cumbersome and repetitive.

The bottom line is that you should do it, it is proven to drive more traffic to your blog, which means more potential customers are exposed to the fantastic things you are doing.

That is successful marketing defined.

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TTT: Two Twitter Tips

I love twitter, it has put me in touch with amazing people related to my businesses and connected me in ways I can not be thankful enough for. It is a service that is under appreciated and misunderstood by many. It drives incredible amounts of traffic to websites and blogs. In many ways that traffic has been mis-calculated as evidenced in this recent TechCrunch post: Twitter Drives 4x as Much Traffic as You Think. Here’s Why … all in all it is a very important piece of your marketing puzzle.

Here are two twitter tips to get the most out of your effort:

 

So remember these two things:

1) Know your twitter character limit

Here is the formula: 140 – # of characters in your twitter username – 4 = Your character limit

So for me: 140 – 8 (spirocks) – 4 = 128 which is my character limit.

2) Be aware of how your tweets come out of third party apps

If you use third party apps that are linked to your twitter account, specifically news readers, rss forwarders, smartphone photo apps, etc make sure you vet out how the tweets are composed. Some do better jobs than others, they may be annoying for your following to click through, they may not respect the 140 character limit, or other less than ideal results.

Here is a humorous one I saw this morning:

Unfortunate tweet image
2900 pounds of Ass

 

 

Features Google+ beats Facebook At (part 3)

This is part 3 to a series of posts on features that Google plus does better than Facebook. Part 1 (photos) and Part 2 (open development) can be found at these links and I hope you enjoy this series. I really wanted to write about Google “Hangouts” today, the video group chat feature that has the potential to deal a serious blow to Skype. But I am devoted to writing about what is truly the most important feature first, so maybe hangouts next… now it is time for:

Google+ is better at Privacy than Facebook

You already knew that right? I know. But here are ways and reasons that may not have crossed your mind yet. I call them the granularization of privacy (my word) in Google+. Everyone is talking circles, and rightly so, the ability to define groups of individuals to share certain items with is a simple yet novel approach to the online sharing quandary. What I see is that Google+ has a chance to be THE SOCIAL NETWORK, not a niche site. I think LinkedIn should be worried, as should Facebook.

Google+ could replace both LinkedIn and Facebook for Most Users

Lets be honest, the things you share and the info you put forth on Facebook is significantly different than what you do on LinkedIn. So basically you have two separate networks for two separate purposes. That means maintaining and updating information in each of them whenever something changes, it means checking messages from both regularly, etc. In short you are maintaining two different CIRCLES of contacts with two different services. Sometimes sharing completely different information, sometimes the same information. With Google+_ you are able to do just that, all within the walls of one network.

Each thing you share is a grain of information, and with google+ you are able to precisely and easily manage whose eyes see it. Facebook fails to do the same, as they push to have everything more and more public, they redesign security settings and leave them open by default so you are required to consistently monitor changes.

By Design Google+ has privacy that you can rely on.

This is not a setting, this is you telling the network exactly which individual you want to share this piece of information with. It is not up for debate and the settings can not be changed in a way that changes that fact. That is privacy that you can rely on.

In the span of 1 minute you can post a picture of yourself accepting an award from the State house for running a few family businesses, and share that with the your customers, friends, family, employees. And then post a video from your liquored up karaoke party where you sang AC/DC and share that with your friends only. Done, no worries, no security setting menus to navigate through. Basically no bull shit.

Facebook is likely to have to change to keep up, consider this quote from the Fortune story on the privacy differences between the two:

…it’s much easier to manage Google’s privacy options than Facebook’s. Reviews of Google+ mention its superior ability to manage personal data, better transparency on how that data is shared and the option to delete all your data… If better privacy is in fact a big factor for many people, then Google+ could easily become so popular enough that Facebook will be forced to improve its own privacy policies.

Implications for businesses are huge.

Privacy is a strong word, it stirs up emotions, but on a level that relates to marketing it can be less strict and more of a tool. Think for a moment of a company Google+ page with various different customer Circles, they could be leveraged to:

  • Deliver offers to select groups of customers, by geography or other factors.
  • Test out different marketing pitches and campaigns.
  • Send customer groups to different landing pages and monitor effectiveness.
In this way the ease of Google+’s circles becomes paramount to encouraging there use. Check out this video for an idea of how easy they are to use:

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Google Plus – Business Ideas

 

By now you have heard about Google+, its a brand new social network that seems to have a ton of potential. I am not going to go over what its features are, as there are a thousand such articles already. What I am going to do is give you a few reasons to check it out, and hopefully reveal a few opportunities it presents.

Google+ and Your Business

By uniting the functionality of the Facebook style stream, the Twitter style update, the Foursquare Check-In, the Flickr photo video curation, the contact collection that is in your gmail contact list, and the power of multiple best in class Google properties from Youtube to Maps, Google+ is a legitimate titan in the making.

Google+ has one major Hurdle to Clear

In order for it to succeed Google Plus for business will have to answer one major question: Will enough people decide to invest time and energy into a new social platform? Who will right away: people like me, who have businesses that rely heavily on their web presence. The reason is, despite Bing’s progress, Google owns search. To ignore the potential for increased search rankings from interactions and content on Google+ would be foolish. Please don’t forget with every Gmail user there is also a built in head start as well… true that didn’t work out so well for Buzz. but Buzz sucked, it felt like an intrusive clone, and nobody likes that.

Google+ is different, it is intuitive and it is a hybrid of features from successful networks that have been improved and tied into very very robust Google properties.

Privacy is Weapon #1 for Google+

How many people have had an issue arise from something posted on Facebook? How many people have grown frustrated by the obvious push by Facebook to make it hard to keep things private?  Sure it does make sense that you should not share things on Facebook that you would not want public. But those making that argument are missing the point. PEOPLE WANT TO SHARE THOSE THINGS. They just want to be able to choose with whom. With circles Google has the best answer to date. You can share items specifically with the people you want to, and creating a circle is incredibly easy and the granularity of the process is as transparent as I can imagine. I highly suggest that you take your time at the beginning and try to think of the ideal structure for your circles. Work, Friends, Family may be too general to really get the benefit. Think: Potential Customers, VIP customers, company bosses, employees who report to me, CBS fantasy league, college guy friends, Mom’s side of the family, cute girls (if you are looking for that), etc. You can always select to share something with everyone, or you can drill down to the groups you are trying to reach.

Video Meeting via Google+

Having an active Google+ profile and well defined groups means that you will be able to selectively manage the promising video meeting feature of Google plus for business. That could mean proactively jumping into a customers Google+ hangout and striking up a convo and asking if you can do anything for them. But most incredibly you can be face to face with a  customer who needs help with your company immediately and for free. Yes it starts to sound like a Skype killer here.There are a ton of possibilities here, including remote meetings with co-workers. Imagine for a moment. Google plus for business and for personal use, under one hood.

Google+ is Uncluttered

Time will tell if it stays this way but the clutter of Facebook is not here. There are no mafia invitations, or applications that ask you to answer juvenile questions about your friends. It is pure and that is refreshing. I don’t have to tell you about the annoyances with Facebook applications, they are the Myspacification of that platform in my eyes. Combined with the lack of control over privacy, the black screen of death when viewing photos, and the general feel of a meat market Facebook has lost some of its appeal to me. The big draw? Everyone is on it… but you know what everyone I knew was on Myspace too, and I can remember the day I fell for Facebook and then the day some time later that I somewhat sadly deleted my Myspace page. Things change and in the world of internet empires, pretty f’in quickly.

In summary here is why you should give a chance to Google Plus for business:

  1. Google+ is a legit, full featured, and well thought out social network.
  2. Google+ makes Privacy a core feature, highlighting the shortcomings of Facebook in that department.
  3. It has the strength of many Google properties driving it. (Youtube, Maps, Places, Picasa)
  4. Google owns search and will be tying data from Google+ into search results.
  5. The Video feature has a ton of possibilities, and it is free on Google+
  6. Google+ is a more grown up social network, uncluttered by childish games and the meat market feel of Facebook.

Want an invite? Email me your gmail address and I will send you one. (spirocks@gmail.com or @spirocks on Twitter)

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This is my initial post on how to use Google Plus for Business, and ideas about the feature of Google plus for business.

Run your own Group Buying Promotion. I am.

Who needs Groupon?

Keep all the revenue and stir up some serious business along the way. In this post I am going to explain how with an example I just put together for Evenfall Restaurant, it’s a home grown group buying marketing campaign. It’s Mojito Time.

Mojito
Evenfall's Famous Mojito

The Hook: The more people that buy the cheaper it gets.

Evenfall is well known for having the best Mojitos in the area, with elbow grease, fresh muddled mint and lime, and some silver rum they serve them in pint glasses and they serve them often in the summer months. So for this promotion we decided to lower the price every week that at least 100 mojitos were sold. We started by reducing the price from $8 to $5 for the first ten day run. The every week until mid August the price will be reduced by 50 cents until it reaches $1 a Mojito.

I created a page on the restaurants blog dedicated to the promotion, you can see that here: (Make My Mojito Cheaper) and shared it via Twitter, Facebook, and a soon to be released email blast.

As the promotion progresses the deal gets more and more enticing, it is timed to coincide with the slowest season of the year for the restaurant and designed to drive businesses during the dog days of summer with ridiculously cheap mojitos. Read on to see the consideration I took, and why it makes sense for the restaurant…

[Read more…] about Run your own Group Buying Promotion. I am.

Optimize your Restaurant’s Landing Pages

Shucks

So you market your restaurant on facebook and twitter, you talk about your menu, your special event menus, your new drinks, the local oyster celebration you are taking part in… You link back to your website and sometimes your blog. You are really good at sharing new things each day, and you curate it all on your blog, facebook, youtube, and flickr. You engage your audience, your following, and you strive to make sure you are part of the conversation daily.

But your results kind of suck.

Sad face

Let’s set out to remedy that in the best way possible. When you share links on your social media sites, you are picking a particular page you want them to land on. That is your landing page. This is the first step your customer takes as they get led into your dining room.

  • What are your landing pages like? Are they well thought out or are you leading people back from social media and email marketing to the front page (index page) of your website?
  • Is it a page that lacks content specifically tailored to the conversation you are having, the campaign your are running, or the information you are sharing?
  • Are you talking about rehearsal dinners? If so you should be linking back to pages tailored to people who are looking to book one. From design and imagery to, was to contact you that should be the mission of the page you are linking to.

Take that last example for instance. People who are interested in booking a rehearsal dinner want to know the following things right off the bat:

  1. Does your restaurant have a private area that can accomodate their group?
  2. What kind of menu options are available for group dinners?
  3. How much do the rehearsal dinner options cost?
  4. What does the private area look like?
  5. Is there a room rental fee, or other fees to consider.
  6. Who do I talk to, and how do I reach them?

When I am building these types of pages for my clients I aim to make all the above happen on one page, as should you, so that the customer finds all information in a forthcoming way (not a wild goose chase manner) This transparency helps drive the customer to request more information, and in doing so completes the goal of your social marketing efforts. It is now time to close the deal.

Here is an example of the way I do it for Evenfall Restaurant, which has built an incredible private party business because of their private dining areas and the ease of booking with them via pages like this: Evenfall

Basically I created a new wordpress install just for the private party landing page, and built out more specific pages that can be used for other marketing campaigns, like say for afternoon events like baby showers. We included a slick little slideshow, to demonstrate the breadth of the types of parties that Evenfall hosts, and also that this restaurant is serious about hosting events. This page answers the questions above in a straight forward way, it has led to hundreds of requests in the past 12 months.

Hopefully this illustrates HOW SOCIAL MEDIA CAN MAKE YOU MONEY and motivates you to create landing pages that answer the questions of the people you lead to them.

If you want to get more updates like this one please consider subscribing to my blog updates here: I would love to have you.

Want this done for you? I can do that too.

Hope this finds you well, until the next time lets chat on twitter @spirocks

Attention Currency

With The Boom of Connectivity Remember:

Humans Have Limits

I love hearing about the boom of internet communication platforms, and how they have created a million new ways to connect to people. Ways that a decade ago were non-existent. Its cool to hear about the evolution at the big guys we all know and the little known players that are bidding to be the conduit that takes Facebook and Twitter’s mojo in the coming years. Its my thing to see how the human element is twisted around each new technology to deliver the marketing success being sought. The bottom line is, understanding how people get turned on is still the key to success.

It Is Simple:

Do Epic Shit

THINK: If You Were the Target of the Campaign Would you?:

  1. Think it was cool enough to tell a handful of your friends at separate times
  2. Think about how or why the business was making such a crazy offer
  3. Be compelled to CHECK IT OUT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If so there is a good chance that in its own way, the offer is epic. It takes balls to stand out of line and call real attention to yourself or your business, to offer something that seems too good to be true, to fly in the face of what has been done.

In your business and in your marketing, stand out from the crowd and make people talk. Forget what you need out of a marketing effort and think about what you would do if you were exposed to your campaign.

EPIC

WHY?

Because with all the tweets, status updates, blog posts, emails, text messages, etc that people are bombarded with today you have to compete for their attention. You want people to SPEND their attention currency on you, they only have so much and have to choose what to spend it on. It is natural selection of 2011+, if you offer dim witted content, boring ideas, lame conformist offers, you will be rewarded with a slow fade into the background noise unworthy of spending attention currency on.

Make a choice to do epic shit, cause a stir, and send some god damn ripples out.

I will try to send you Epic Shit all the time, subscribe to my updates HERE