Popular Articles on Business 2 Community

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• 7 Twitter Mistakes You Can’t Afford To Make In 2014
• Steps To Growing Your Network Via Social Media
• What Bloggers Need to Know About SEO, Google, and Hummingbird for 2014
• The SEO Power of a Google +1
• LinkedIn Posts: You’re Doing it Wrong
• Can Email Marketing Deliver in 2014?
• Social Media Trends for a Merry Twitmas
• What Is Social Content Marketing?
• Top 5 Social Media Marketing Trends Of 2014
• Mapping the Next Frontier in Brand Storytelling
• How Small Businesses Thrived Through the Holiday Season [Infographic]

7 Twitter Mistakes You Can’t Afford To Make In 2014 Posted: 26 Dec 2013 07:05 AM PST 2013 was a great year for Twitter, we saw some great Twitter tools for business, Twitter Analytics, Vine marketing, enhanced Twitter widgets, Twitter IPO and many more things that made the tool more powerful than before. We also shared how Twitter is better than Facebook sometime back. If you are still doubtful about Twitter being a gold-mine, it's a must read. It is common knowledge that everyone makes mistakes, but making mistakes online is embarrassing for businesses. Some mistakes on social media even have the very real potential to get your business trending – for all the wrong reasons. Hence, before you start sending tweets, you must be aware of these common mistakes. Here is a list of 7 Twitter mistakes you can't afford to make in 2014 as Twitter will keep getting matured and will evolve more over and if you still land-up doing these mistakes, you are digging your own grave. 1. The biggest mistake people do on Twitter via @garyvee I recently bought the book "Jab Jab Jab, Right Hook" by Gary Vaynerchuk and let me tell you, it's an awesome book. A lot and lot of learning experience for me, maybe I will write a review on that also very soon. The number one mistake that almost everybody makes on Twitter is starting your tweet with '@'. If you want all of your followers to see your tweet in their stream, you must not start a tweet with a @username. If you do so, you are restricting your tweet to only the @username and your mutual friends. Yup that means all those tweets you sent starting with @ weren't visible to the audience you thought would see it. You should only use @username when you are interacting with one of your friends on something you don't want to shout-out. Check out this lovely presentation by @garyvee below- 2. #Too #Many #Hashtags Using too many hashtags is a common mistake, particularly made thinking that when potential customers or customers are searching it will be easy for the tweet to pop up. On the contrary, too many hashtags make your update difficult to read. It also shows that you're really not focused about the message and the conversations and you also might end-up loosing some followers like me. Generally people like to include a maximum of three hashtags in a tweet, and that is fair enough. 3. Making Tweets Too long Are you a Facebook fanatic? Twitter is not like that for sure. Believe it or not, a 140 character update on Twitter is actually the best thing. Don't use tools to make your tweets lengthy and bulky unless that's the only option left for you. Studies state those under 100 characters get a much higher engagement rate. Additionally, when a tweet is too long, and takes up the entire 140 character count, there is no room for a ReTweet. You either skip that update or remove original @username, either of them are not helpful. 4. Mistakes while handling Multiple accounts If you manage more than one Twitter account (even just yours and your business'), be very aware and conscious of what Twitter feed you are posting to. Accidentally posting your personal tweets to your business' handle happens more often than you might think. So always be alert, you can avoid a major PR disaster for your company. For Example: Nokia believes in 'Connecting with people' but after this Twitter debacle, they didn't win that many hearts! Within minutes the tweet was deleted, but not quick enough to avoid a plethora of retweets and the inevitable screenshots that have being taken. Nokia quickly apologized and professed their love for their NZ fans. No explanation or the source of the tweet has been offered since then! A Good Tip: Use different tools for handling your brand and personal accounts. Like we use Hootsuite for @allinsights and Tweetdeck for our clients. 5. Obsessed with your products If you spend most of your time on Twitter promoting your business, people will first ignore you; and then "unfollow" you. No one likes a person who talks about himself, his business or his product most of the time. Just because you got some quantitative results last month doesn't mean that you have to turn your entire strategy to talk only about your products. Don't forget that Twitter is a 'social' network. You must learn how to communicate and build good relationships before you start bombarding them with promotions. 6. Ignoring Twitter Analytics Twitter now offers access to analytics to understand your Twitter followers better. Twitter Analytics is a must as with those insights, which allow users to track things like the geographic and interest based classification of followers and the hours your followers are most active. Understanding this type of information can help you plan more effective marketing campaign. All this information is of vital importance so it gives you detailed analysis of your brands entire structure which will then help you draft a strategy more effectively. 7. Easy numbers A lot of brands being obsessed with numbers and they want to show a great amount of followers on their Brand page, they get indulged with some social media agencies that help them getting a lot of followers really quick. Well most of them create Fake ID's so just to increase the numbers and there will be hardly any engagement. When you will really understand the value of Twitter, sooner or later, you will then regret your decision and will want to start from scratch. We did a research here with some brands on Twitter having more Fake followers than the real/active ones. With all the noise on Twitter, make sure that your business stands out for the right reasons. Thus with this list provided above you can save yourself from making these blunders and shine for all the right reasons in 2014! What do you think? Have you made any of these mistakes? Have you seen other brands doing such mistakes on Twitter? Do share your views with us below.

Steps To Growing Your Network Via Social Media Posted: 26 Dec 2013 06:18 AM PST Building your network in social media is a great way to enhance your brand. You can improve how your customers are able to reach you which are tied to ways to make money online. But showing up on social media does not mean that your network will grow. Just like a plant it needs watering, nurturing and some sun to grow. When you heard about the potential of social media, admit it but you got excited. You will have lots of fans, friends, followers, comments, traffic which lead to customer engagement. Engagement which can create leads and into conversions which is tied to make money online. The truth about social media is that it works the same way as an offline engagement. Without a plan, you cannot just attract people in a snap. It takes a lot of planning to attract people to your page. It pays to have a direction so that you can ultimately say that you will make money online with your great network in social media. Have a vision and an objective Start things off with an objective about how you want your social media presence pans out. Once you have defined your objectives then start planning for strategies that makes sense in attracting people to your network. It is best to create connections to people that needs your services. Use a channel where you can promote your content and drive traffic ultimately to your network. Take care of current customers because they can influence new customers to join your network. Build relationships with other people in the blogosphere in order to drive digital influencers to celebrate your brand. Tap digital influencers Speaking about digital influencers, use them to become brand ambassadors. These are people that are noted advocates which have advocacies that can influence how people read your brand. Brand networks that can tap digital influencers are able to multiply their impact and thus can add to the value of creating a bigger network through social media. Most the digital influencers have their own social media platforms where your brand can become a mainstay. Know where your customers are If you want to build a great network, you need to know where they are at. Know where your customers spend their time. Get customers to join your sphere of influence by baiting them towards you. Join with other websites and attract customers through content consumption and sharing of information. Be authentic Genuine is a lonely word as everything can be so untrue, unreal. Understanding the needs of your customers lies on your ability to be helpful and comprehend their needs. Let your network help customers buy your product and peddle your relationship with customers as you become part of their everyday life. Using this tactic you can create a gravity of popularity through building trust and authentic relationships that can prove to be invaluable and meaningful. Create a feedback loop All good intentions of creating a big network are useless without a feedback mechanism. When there is feedback loop there is no way for you to measure the engagement. At the end the feedback mechanism allows you to provide the needs of your members and keep them in your network.

What Bloggers Need to Know About SEO, Google, and Hummingbird for 2014 Posted: 26 Dec 2013 03:05 AM PST Penguin and Panda Algorithms Knock Out Page Rank Are you lost in Google’s algorithms? Hummingbird: Google’s newest algorithm focuses on searchers. Prior to Google’s Penguin and Panda,  search engine optimization (SEO) often involved manipulating the algorithms by repeating key words and phrases throughout blog posts. This achieved a higher Page Rank for a site, so SEO strategists figured out what the algorithms were looking for and flooded their content with it. If you remember those days, a lot of searches would pull up articles that were nonsense, but included the key words you were looking for. Searching lead to frustration because you pulled up sites that appeared on the surface to address your needs, but turned out to be bogus sales sites. For example, if a webmaster wanted to appear  on the first page of Google for a popular term like "make money online," he would repeat the phrase approximately 3% to 5% of the time in an article. He would also include it in the  article's title, toward the front, like this "Make Money Online The Right Way." The result was empty articles and unfulfilled search needs. Another strategy was to get other websites to link in with the anchor text "make money online," a feat that helped raise the  blogger John Chow  from a ranking at 158 to the coveted number three slot on Google for that phrase. Google measured backlinks because they figured it was a good sign of the site’s popularity with searches. Chow still enjoys that number three spot, having survived Google's numerous algorithm changes, ones that lash out specifically at payday loans one moment, while leaving other sites alone. However, Google designed and modified the Penguin and Panda algorithms to make searches more effective for consumers, and in the end, the content of articles rose to supreme importance.  The changes benefited consumers because rich content rose to the top of searches rather than hollow shells that offered no real information or answers. The algorithms made SEO more complex than keywords and backlinks, forcing marketers to provide rich content if they wanted to land on Google’s first page. Content marketing arose in response, with the idea that solid information, knowledge, and answers provide the most benefit to searchers. Effective marketers found the way to use rich content to market their product. Hummingbird Refines Searching with Penguin and Panda The most recent evolution is Google’s 2013 Hummingbird, which positions search queries and language in primary importance.  Hummingbird is meant to be precise and fast like the animal, focusing on the meaning and intent of the searcher rather than just the words. The algorithm favors titles and content that respond to user needs and queries. The tool can better understand speech, and passes the benefits on to searchers. Think of Google’s Hummingbird as a super smart and ultra fast reader. The following methods will help you in working with SEO: 1. Write rich, high quality content that responds to user needs Google's shift toward making results pages more valuable to readers favors rich content, helping people who are  looking for your writing. Rather than focusing exclusively on key  terms, littering the article with repeated phrases, articles should deliver quality content, with information and credible references. As long as you focus your article on a key idea, you don’t have to worry about using terms repeatedly. Adapt your writing to meet the needs of the reader, anticipating answers to the questions they have. You should still research key terms, but pay attention to the heart of your reader’s question and what they mean, focusing on full phrases and sentences instead of two word combinations. 2. Write long,  in-depth content Replace the thin pages of  your website, articles of  200 words or less, with content that delves deep into an issue or problem that concerns your readers. Your writing should be solid. Not just lengthy blathering to fill pages, but 800 to 1200 words of well researched and reviewed information.  Practice your journalist questioning skills: who, what, when, where, why, and how. 3. Pay attention to social signals, especially Google +1's In turning search results to focus on the searcher, it makes sense that Google would reward pages with many +1s because people are marking the valuable content. According to the 2013 Moz.com search ranking factors study, Google favors their own system of sharing above those of other social networks. Measure and evaluate the sharing that takes place on Google Plus, and adapt to make this your most important sharing resource. As time passes, Google Plus and social media will continue to become more significant in search ranking. Searchers are able to demonstrate their content preferences through social sharing. In 2014, Google will maintain the number two position in social media easily and will probably threaten Facebook. 4. Don't assume everything you read about SEO is true Even though so-called experts will pontificate on their understanding of  the latest changes in Google's algorithm, the truth is, only the developers and engineers at Google really know their own code. There are so many hundreds of updates and tweaks that it can be difficult to keep track, and supposed SEO experts are oftentimes as in the dark as you are. The true SEO experts are the ones in the trenches quietly getting results day-in and day-out. Experience shows what works, so get to work with experimentation and monitoring. Hands on SEO with standards of measurement will work best in targeting traffic. This is not to say that you shouldn’t research SEO, but be aware that you may find conflicting information. Make sure that the sources you use to learn about SEO are reliable. 5. Remember Google+ local and other consistent search ranking factors If your business operates on a local level, make sure that you exploit  Google+ Local and other social media resources that provide resources for searchers to discover places nearby and write reviews. In September, Moz.com updated their local search ranking factors 2013 survey, which monitors successful SEO campaigns and strategies over time. The survey suggests that a few backlinks from high-quality websites can go a long way in elevating search rankings, and excessive backlinking is no longer desirable. The survey also shows that the business name should be present in headlines and title tags, to show its relevance. Moving Forward with SEO in 2014 Remember that SEO changes continually, and you should always adapt. Hummingbird is far from the last algorithm change. Time, experience, and measurement will help you evolve to meet the algorithm updates and ranking "tweaks" of the future. Google will never arrive at a stage where the algorithms are stagnant because they always evolve to meet the needs of consumers. Keeping the searcher and reader in mind will help you consistently adapt to algorithm changes.

The SEO Power of a Google +1 Posted: 25 Dec 2013 04:48 PM PST What value does a +1 from Google give to a website? photo by Dave Sutton There have been public statements from Google’s engineer Matt Cuts that they do not use the +1 as a ranking factor.  However, a study by Moz.com shows that there is a great correlation between +1s and rankings.  The +1 may not be a ranking factor but it has several SEO benefits.  By increasing your Google+ engagement, you reap SEO benefits to your site. Publicly Recommend on Google When someone +1s your site, their is a chance that your site will show up to them and their circles higher in Google search results if they are logged in.  So how does this help SEO?  When most people are researching a subject, they are using Google to find information about that topic.  If they have given your site a +1 and it is showing higher because of personalized results, there is a better chance that they may link to it while writing their article.  How many times do we write a blog post and keep Google open on a tab for research purposes.  This means that if your article is a good source, people are more likely to link to it while they are writing an article.  People are more likely to see your post and visit your site if they are logged in.  So you can potentially get more visitors and links to your site that way. How can you build a strategy around this? image source trupphr.com If you have a highly engaging Google+ network, you can utilize it to get more +1s.  Having a ton of followers is not the most important thing. If you have a million followers who are not engaging with your content on Google+, it will not help you. If someone +1s your Google plus post that contains a link to your page, that page receives a plus also.  So you can receive a +1 from your site or your Google Plus post.  If a person on Google Plus has the plus one tab enabled, you also receive a dofollow link back to your site (you can only get this type if they +1 from your actual webpage). Use Pictures on Your Google Plus post! People are more likely to plus a picture that is embedded than they would a link that is embedded. If you upload a picture and put a link in the description, all +1s to that picture is given to the link and the page it links to.  You can improve your chances of getting +1s by building your Google plus network around people with a similar interest. Final Thoughts Google plus in not only about social signals.  You can meet many people on Google+ who may link to your content and you may gain knowledge from their content as well.  If you like using shortened urls, the plus one passes through the shortened url from Google+ to your site.  However, I changed my domain name yesterday and lost all +1s to my site even though it uses a 301 redirect :(

LinkedIn Posts: You’re Doing it Wrong Posted: 25 Dec 2013 04:34 PM PST Are you using LinkedIn to generate leads? If so, you've probably already discovered how powerful the platform is for B2B social selling purposes. Whether you're promoting original content, sharing a link to a relevant article, or posing a question to promote engagement, there are several guidelines you should consider when crafting a LinkedIn message aimed at reaching target prospects. First Come, First Engage When first joining a group, the best approach to take is to start by asking questions related to your industry, or initiate a discussion about recent trends. This will assist in you in building up trust, influence and credibility among Group members, and likewise driving active engagement among them. The simplest way to achieve this is to post an open-ended question or conversation starter in the subject line of your LinkedIn message. The subject line not only appears in your post, directly on the LinkedIn Discussion Group page, but it also shows up as the main message in the daily or weekly digest that Group members receive. For example, a general open-ended question can be along the lines of: What KPI is most relevant for achieving your business objectives? Or: What were the most popular content marketing trends of 2013? Remember that the question should be broad enough to allow a range of members to respond, but should still be specific and relevant to the Group you are posting in. Also, when writing the subject line, keep in mind that LinkedIn limits it to 200 characters. During a recent Oktopost customer-hosted webinar, Adam Robinson – the Marketing Director of Cerasis, remarked: "Before you start including links to your content, I strongly suggest spending 30-60 days asking open-ended questions in the subject line, and really engaging on LinkedIn to build up your profile. By putting links up right away, you run the risk of losing credibility with your audience, causing readers to be apprehensive about the relevancy and value of your content." Apart from establishing credibility, asking questions is a great way to raise your profile within a Discussion Group. In this context, LinkedIn created an algorithm that takes into account your posting and engagement activities, and determines whether your profile is eligible for Top Contributor status. If selected, your name and photo are featured at the top of the Discussion Group page. This can be extremely valuable in terms of increasing brand awareness and building connections with Group members, including industry thought leaders and potential prospects. Promote Content, But Don't Abandon Engagement After you've built up your trust and influence within a certain Group by asking questions, initiating thoughtful conversations and actively engaging with members, you can begin promoting your content. Yet, even though you've passed the initial 30-60 day 'credibility building' period, this doesn't mean that you should use LinkedIn Groups solely as a platform for distributing content. You should employ a number of tools to continue attracting new prospects, and maintaining a positive reputation among your existing user base. Make it a point to find the right marketing balance between promotional posts (which advance your blog, website, marketing collateral) and engagement-oriented posts (which encourage ongoing industry-related discussion, without directly promoting content and including links). Before you begin writing the subject line and body of your message, first take a look over the Discussion Group profile and rules. When accessing the Group Page, click on the Information and Settings icon in the top right corner, and under the About section, read the Group profile and Group rules. This will provide you with a better idea about the main topics covered by the group, as well as any policies about including links or promotional content in the body of your message. After you've taken a closer look at the Group guidelines, one helpful strategy for promoting content – particularly a blog post, is to create a question based on a specific part of the post, and use it in the subject line to spur engagement. In the text of the message body, you can either write a short summary of the post itself, or even ask an additional question. Don't forget to include a link to your content to generate a thumbnail, choose the most relevant image, and then delete the actual URL from the message body (the thumbnail will remain). Including the link in the text itself can cause readers to view the message as spam, which may result in fewer clicks. Select Optimal Times and Days for Posting Before sharing your message, remember that if you post on a LinkedIn Discussion Group today, Group members will most likely only see it until tomorrow. Rather than directly accessing the Group page, members frequently opt to receive a daily or weekly digest containing the messages instead. In the past, these digests would always arrive during the morning hours, but LinkedIn has since started staggering the digests, meaning that it's difficult to judge when they will arrive. On this note, Adam Robinson, Director of Marketing at Cerasis recently shared his best practices for scheduling posts: "I always post early in the morning – between Sunday to Thursday, to make sure that posts appear Monday through Friday. You can post on the weekend, but then you run the risk of members receiving three days worth of digests from you if they don't check their e-mail over that period." In general, it's important to carefully schedule posts to avoid over-posting. Posting once to twice a day per group is sufficient, but as mentioned earlier, if you post twice and one message is promotional, the other should be engaging. Otherwise, members may feel you are being overly promotional, which could ultimately hurt your company's chances of creating a sustainable and engaging social presence.

Can Email Marketing Deliver in 2014? Posted: 25 Dec 2013 12:00 PM PST With the rise of social media marketing and the increase in purchases being made on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, you may be wondering if you should continue to focus efforts on email marketing in 2014? The answer is a resounding, "Yes!" While social media has become an important part of marketing for businesses, email is still the work horse of your marketing tool kit. According to a study by predictive analytics firm, Custora, email is one of the top ways to get new customers (beating out Facebook and Twitter), and what's more, this channel has continued to grow considerably over the past year. Most importantly for your business, customers that come to you via email rather than social media tend to shop more and spend more, as stated in the Forbes article, "Why Email is Still More Effective Than Social Media Marketing." That's a definite win for email! One of the reasons email marketing is going strong? Mobile. According to Litmus, mobile email opens just hit 51%, meaning not only are people still reading their email, but more emails are being opened on a mobile device than on a desktop. "Email is effective because it's permission-based. The people on your email list have given you the go-ahead to send them messages. They're bought in. And, with the prevalence of smartphones and tablets, they're always listening," says Tim Devaney and Tom Stein via Forbes. "In fact, email is the number-one activity for people on their phones." Courtesy of eConsultancy infographic Now that we know email marketing is still alive and well, let's take a look at some benchmark stats and see how your marketing stacks up in 2013. Opens - According to a recent study by Epsilon, the average open rate for 2013 is 29%, up 3% over 2012, so far. Clicks – Clicks have declined a bit over the course of the year, but the average so far is still above last year: 4.7% vs 4.5% in 2012. Have no fear if your own stats don't quite measure up. Email marketing is nothing if not flexible, so there are plenty of tactics you can take to improve your stats. You can help increase your own open and click-through rates by testing (always!) and paying attention to: Subject lines and from labels – The two parts of an email that entice your readers to open it. Content – Compelling, valuable email copy, incentives and offers. Calls-to-action – A CTA button can help drive more clicks or actions, especially when they're clear and easy to find. Email design – Clean, simple layout and "Pinterest-worthy" images. Send – The day of the week and time the email is sent can impact how your readers engage. There's still plenty of time to take a look at your email marketing plan for 2014 and make changes if you need to. And, if your stats are out performing the average, keep doing what you've been doing, with just a few tweaks here and there. While email is a very effective performer, using multiple channels to drive purchases is still the best bet. Remember that social media sales are only going to grow, so mix in marketing on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest, as well as email to keep your business growing. We have a guide that can help you decipher your marketing stats, as well as tips on how you can improve them. What are your plans for email marketing in 2014? Will you make any big changes? Let us know in the comments!

Social Media Trends for a Merry Twitmas Posted: 25 Dec 2013 10:00 AM PST I may be revelling in a tenuous pun, but Twitmas is happily upon us. It's that most wonderful time of the year when absent-minded and crazy things happen on social media giving the rest of us a little festive cheer. It's a bit like the day after the internet's office party. Last year, Twitmas was curated mainly by Starbucks, which after a year of accusations of tax avoidance made the mistake of trying some PR (public redemption) when it perhaps should have just stayed quiet. A Starbucks-sponsored ice rink in central London featured a projection of tweets from the public, tagged with Starbucks' hashtag #spreadthecheer. The feed was unmonitored, which – as you might imagine – resulted in some rather uncheery comments on Starbucks' corporate tax policy. Christmas Day, lunched This year, Twitmas got into full swing with the chef Jim Knight, who was let go by his former employers The Plough pub in Oxfordshire over a disagreement about his Christmas hours. Unfortunately, The Plough forgot that Jim was in charge of the pub's Twitter account. And so it was that a Twitter storm ensued. Heavily retweeted messages from The Plough's account included: “We’d like to inform you that we’ve just fired our head chef. Unfortunately he wanted to have a weekend off this month and Christmas Day this year for family commitments so we thought we’d sack him.” “Yeah a week before Christmas! We don’t care that he has a 7 1/2 month old baby daughter." “So anyway come on down and continue to pay a premium for Australian sirloins, New Zealand lamb and everything else that is bought from Asda.” The pub, which perhaps should have heeded warnings like those of disgruntled staff at HMV, has since dismissed claims of passing off cheap meat as premium as "outrageous and untrue". Chef Jim, meanwhile, has been offered a new job off the back of his tweeting at a pub that has given him Christmas Day off. Miley Cyrus' happy holidays In the world of Twitter-based shocks, Miley Cyrus has done it again for Christmas. Miley tweeted her Christmas card this year, and full of cheer it was too. A little too much cheer, perhaps, with the star passed out on the floor on top of a comatose Santa, surrounded by festive iconography like a full moon throwing up and a bear beating up a bunny. John Lewis would be so proud. (Picture: Twitter) Christmas Jammies goes viral Quite possibly the most divisive viral video this year is choc full of Christmas cheer. Or cringe, depending on your state of mind. Now inexplicably trending with the hashtag #XmasJammies, a YouTube video called Christmas Jammies, a Christmas rap delivered by the Holderness family of North Carolina dressed in pyjamas and to the tune of Will Smith's Miami, went fully viral in a matter of days. Now clocking over 7 million YouTube hits, the video is a PR stunt by a husband and wife team trying to promote their new media company. It's safe to say this is one family Christmas message that is certainly testing the internet's levels of comfort and joy. Have a watch and decide for yourself. Family Guy 'brings back' Brian After animated TV show Family Guy left Twitter in tatters over a decision to kill off its beloved talking dog Brian Griffin – trends of #RIPBrian and #BringBackBrian going utterly bonkers over the course of the last few weeks – the show then 'resurrected' him for a Christmas episode. Creator and voice of Brian Seth MacFarlane took once again to Twitter to ceremoniously say to fans: “You didn’t really think we’d kill off Brian, did you?” And: “Oh and hey… thanks for caring so much about the canine Griffin. He is overcome with gratitude.” Of course, no one really believed that one of the show's most popular characters could ever be killed off. Except this guy: (Picture: SevenEightZero/Twitter) The trending tattoo is now permanently etched into 2013's most unfortunate social media memories. A Merry Twitmas from Southerly! We’d be hugely indebted to you if you could vote for us in the UK Blog Awards.

What Is Social Content Marketing? Posted: 25 Dec 2013 08:45 AM PST Traditional marketing was all about print advertising, branded magazines, catalogs and directly promoting sales – until the digital age took over. Today's marketing has adopted a completely digital look and feel; from eBooks to white papers, blog posts to webinars, the Internet is considered the primary conduit for modern content distribution. Within this transition to digital marketing, social media and online engagement have quickly taken on major roles, and are now viewed as fundamental tools in present-day B2B marketing. The integration of 'social' into the digital marketing space has fostered a new concept, recognized as Social Content Marketing. In this respect, any message, comment, question, image, video or presentation posted on a social media network constitutes content, in and of itself. In this new world of marketing, content is no longer itemized in terms of a case study, blog post or webinar, and doesn't necessarily adhere to a certain length. The paradigm has shifted to accommodate a broad definition of content, regardless of whether it's a 140 character Tweet or a 25 page white paper. Following this logic, social message creation also entails the same steps as traditional content creation. To successfully engage potential prospects and existing customers on social media, marketers must still define a target audience, analyze its interests, needs and unifying traits, and distribute content on a large-scale. In addition, the development of cloud-based social media management platforms gives businesses the opportunity to track, monitor and measure social content activities in the same way as other marketing collateral. Despite the widespread similarities, one major difference inherent to social content is its underlying purpose. Unlike traditional marketing, which revolved around direct sales and promotional materials, the objective of B2B social content is to educate consumers by providing valuable and useful information that influences their pre-purchasing research. Social content doesn't simply drive traffic or increase sales, it has the ability to build a favorable reputation for brands across multiple channels, and establish a brand's credibility across the online community at large – which includes prospects, customers and thought leaders. Social messages go one step beyond traditional content, given their ability to engage target audiences and address customer questions and concerns, in real-time. A range of social platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+, are actively being leveraged by businesses to share core messages, educate users about products and services, and lead prospects to sales – without resorting to overly promotional tactics. Consumers are increasingly relying on social media to determine whether or not they would like to do business with your organization, and many of them feel that companies providing helpful content are interested in building a lasting relationship, and not just closing a sale. Remember, each post or comment that appears on your social media profile automatically becomes a part your brand's identity. As a result, social media marketing must always be consistent, engaging and time-sensitive and relevant to your audience. Logic dictates that the more a prospect comes into contact with informative, appealing and tailored social content from a brand, the more likely it will achieve top-of-mind preference, which is critical in the bottom stages of the sales funnel. The social era of marketing has created a situation in which a substantially "heavy" piece of content, such as an extensive white paper, has the same potential to win over a consumer as a 140 character (or less) Tweet. It's time to start treating social messages with the same level of consideration as any other type, particularly since social networks enable brands to share content faster, and connect with relevant prospects in a personalized, interactive manner.

Top 5 Social Media Marketing Trends Of 2014 Posted: 25 Dec 2013 08:31 AM PST Social media marketing is becoming powerful means of advertising your products/services without sounding like a salesman. It is interesting to note that social media developed merely as a means to stay in touch with friends or business partners. It was a communication innovation that gradually grew from casual or friendly communication to professional communication. Now it is an integral element of Internet marketing, something which consumers are not uncomfortable about. Here are some social media marketing trends you could expect in 2014: Twitter to Get More Important Than Facebook It may seem impossible, but there are indications that suggest something like this. Of course, we cannot ignore the fact that Facebook has got 1.18 billion users and the number is growing rapidly in many countries. However, in markets such as the US Facebook's growth seems to have reached a pinnacle. Among teens Facebook's popularity seems to slowly decrease, but what's more relevant for the marketing community is that it takes a significant amount of time, effort and some money to build an active following community on Facebook. Twitter is still in the growth phase, unlike Facebook which is more or less a finished product, and teens are beginning to embrace the former in large numbers simply because you can post an update in a few lines and, if need be post a picture, all without their parents or other family members knowing about it. Many businesses are already using Twitter actively since it is emerging as a great platform for customer service and generating leads. All set to become a public company in 2014, Twitter will receive renewed attention from marketers and consumers alike. Google+ to Keep Growing in Popularity Google+ is already second to Facebook in terms of the number of monthly visitors, so what can stop it from going one better in 2014? Google is seriously promoting Google+ and making people want to have it. That can get it somewhere since Google is the leader in search engines. It is making its social network an integral element of SEO, and Google+ recommendations will begin influencing search rankings. Since all Google services are being integrated, getting into the Google+ bandwagon could help marketers in many ways – social media, search engine rankings, local listings, etc. Visitors too can experience a customized search experience, which is exactly what the search engine major is aiming it. Its latest Hummingbird algorithm change is a sign that SEO is evolving and since Google always seems to dictate that flow of the trend in search, marketers will find it highly useful to hop onto Google+. Visual Content to Become Integral to a Marketing Strategy The potency of videos and pictures in conveying thought provoking and attention grabbing messages has already been experimented on and proved by marketers. It is set to get more popular in 2014. This is helped by the rising popularity of specific image sharing networks such as Pinterest, Tumblr, Vine, Instagram, Snapchat, and of course, the ever popular video sharing YouTube where hundreds of short videos get uploaded by the hour. Even on Facebook, marketers choose videos and exciting images as their invariable medium of communication. Applications such as Vine which offers 6-second video marketing opportunities really spike consumer interest. Vine is an example of how short videos make the difference and it's something businesses are increasingly realizing. What all this goes to show is that content that applies to the visual senses really works more than text content. Micro Videos Will Take Over from Conventional Videos As discussed in the earlier point, micro video is coming the most powerful element in visual content. It's one of the reasons why Vine only gives a time of six seconds for a video marketing message. Instagram also has its video sharing feature which allows 3 to 15 seconds for video. Brands are increasingly employing these super short videos to convey their message strongly. These short videos will mostly be viewed by potential customers from their smartphones or tablets wherever they may be. This is quite an effective combination that influences consumer decisions. No doubt, micro videos are sure to keep getting more and more popular among businesses and consumers in 2014. Real-time sharing of videos is here to stay and micro videos will be the most popular and effective ones among these. User-generated Content to Keep Growing Allowing consumers and potential customers to join in the content posting process seems quite an innovative move. It has already been tried by retailers and other marketers. For example Urban Outfitters is one retailer that encourages its customers to take snaps of them wearing its outfits and then post then to the Instagram application along with a hashtag. The content is then moderated by the retailer, selecting some of the photos to be included in a gallery. The gallery will link to the pages where the clothing can be purchased. User-generated content is free and requires much less time and effort as well. More and more marketers are expected to employ this technique in 2014. This method also makes it easy for businesses to measure their returns on investment from social media marketing. Roll On 2014! 2014 is all set to be a really exciting year for social media marketing. The trends discussed above will surely be accompanied by newer and newer trends once the New Year arrives. What the social networks have done is transform advertising and marketing from the obtrusive and pompous way it once was to something that blurs the line between ad and entertainment for potential customers. Surely the most exciting element of social media marketing in 2014 will be how Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat and other social networks vie with each other to gain significant market share. In the near future it seems that Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube will remain high in their lofty perch while marketers gain the most from them but other challengers like Pinterest, Tumblr, Foursquare, snapchat etc are going to get marketers attentions too.

Mapping the Next Frontier in Brand Storytelling Posted: 25 Dec 2013 06:15 AM PST What happens when we are all artists, all storytellers, all flooding the ever-expanding array of digital and traditional channels with our brand content and calls to action? Does content marketing — which promised to level the marketing playing field — regress into the inevitable battle of budgets? Will success come down to who can hire the best writers, outsource to the top agencies, and buy the most sponsored content to generate the greatest number of impressions? Or has marketing technology changed the game, giving organizations of all sizes access to the tools and knowledge needed to compete; using technology, can marketers succeed by outthinking, rather than outspending, their peers? The reality is that we are still too early in content marketing's rise and evolution to know. While organizations continue to pour resources into content marketing, there are tremendous gaps in talent, technology, and strategy holding back the industry — and possibly your organization. According to Accenture's Turbulence for the CMO report, 39 percent of CMOs say they do not have the right people, tools, and resources to meet their marketing objectives. These gaps present obstacles for many, but tremendous opportunities for the few who seize the chance to differentiate their brands, take a more scientific approach to marketing, and drive business results through content. The art of brand storytelling We know consumers crave content. In what Google calls the Zero Moment of Truth, B2C consumers increasingly tap into the wealth of data and information available to them, researching products in advance of purchasing. Gone are the days when a stimulus leads directly to a sale. On average, Google found that shoppers reference 10.4 sources before making a purchasing decision. On the B2B side, the Marketing Leadership Council shared in its Digital Evolution in B2B Marketers report that customers progress nearly 60 percent of the way through the purchase decision-making process before engaging a sales rep. So, as marketers, all we have to do is become publishers, produce great brand storytelling, and give consumers the content they seek. Right? Unfortunately, it is not that simple. Connecting content to metrics that matter Marketers face increasing pressure to measure the ROI of their campaigns and connect every dollar spent to bottom-line results. In the 2011 IBM Global Chief Marketing Officer Study, 63 percent of respondents cited marketing ROI as the most important metric to measure marketing success, followed by customer experience (58 percent) and conversion rate/new customers (48 percent). The job of every marketer, from the copywriter to the CMO, is to connect actions to outcomes. However, according to the 2012 Marketing Skills Gap survey conducted by Focus and the Marketing Automation Institute, 75 percent of marketers say their lack of skills is impacting revenue in some way, and 74 percent say it's contributing to misalignment between the marketing and sales teams. So while content marketing gives us the ability to consistently produce meaningful results — website visitors, subscribers, registrations, downloads, leads, sales, retention — marketers often lack the fundamental skills, marketing technology utilization, and integrated strategies to go beyond brand storytelling. Next-generation marketers must have a clear understanding of how their actions impact organization goals. Closed-loop sales monitoring ensures marketers can tie activities to metrics that matter, easily identify bottlenecks in marketing campaigns and sales processes, and continually improve over time. Top content marketers develop and activate assets at all phases of the marketing funnel. They build reach and brand at the top of the funnel, generate leads and convert sales in the middle, and retain customers and increase loyalty at the bottom. When the art and science of content marketing collide We are entering the era of the marketing technologist. Gartner predicts that by 2017, the CMO will spend more on IT than the CIO. In his blog post, 50 Percent of All New Marketing Hires Will be Technical, Scott Brinker, President and CTO of ion interactive, states, "There's a real scarcity of technical professionals, even more so for those with passion and aptitude for marketing." He also says, "There will be enormous competition for those unicorns, not just from other marketing departments, but from marketing software vendors, consulting firms, agencies, and a whole new bumper crop of startups — all of whom need this talent in pursuit of their missions." And Brinker is not alone in his assessment. In the 2011 New York Times article, Advertising Companies Fret Over a Digital Talent Gap, John Ebbert, Executive Editor and Publisher of AdExchanger.com, says, "The marketers, the publishers, the ad tech companies, the agencies, data management companies — they're all going for the same type of employee." The marketing industry needs skilled brand storytelling, but content creation and distribution are not enough. The marketers who will redefine the industry in the coming years take a technical, scientific approach — and we'll all be fighting to hire them. They devise content calendar strategies to match historical and predictive search patterns. They use contextual content on their websites to adapt copy and calls to action at an individual visitor level. They develop interactive tools and algorithms to customize the consumer experience in real time. They analyze data to turn information into intelligence, and intelligence into action. They personalize emails to speak to specific needs, pain points, and behavioral triggers. They use marketing-automation tools, fully integrated with sales and customer relationship management (CRM) systems, to deliver maximum value at every consumer touch point. They design strategies around content consumption patterns in a multi-screen world. They push the limits of what is possible with today's project and content management systems to connect content efforts to outcomes. And they never stop seeking better talent, enhanced technology, and more intelligent and integrated content strategies. Content marketing is now, as it has always been, an art form. But, the next generation of content marketers understands it can be so much more. These innovators are moving beyond brand storytelling, and rewriting what is possible when the art and science of content marketing collide. Score your content marketing team Consider your content marketing team and ask yourself whether it has the capabilities to: Devise content calendar strategies to match historical and predictive search patterns Use contextual content on websites to adapt copy and calls to action at an individual visitor level Develop interactive tools and algorithms to customize the consumer experience in real time Analyze data to turn information into intelligence, and intelligence into action Personalize emails to speak to specific needs, pain points, and behavioral triggers Use marketing automation tools, fully integrated with sales and customer relationship management (CRM) systems, to deliver maximum value at every consumer touch point Design strategies around content consumption patterns in a multi-screen world This article originally appeared in the November 2013 issue of "Chief Content Officer." Sign up to receive your free subscription to our quarterly magazine.

How Small Businesses Thrived Through the Holiday Season [Infographic] Posted: 25 Dec 2013 03:37 AM PST The holiday season is crucial for businesses who make most of their sales within the two month frenzy. For small businesses feeling the pressure, there are plenty of new tools and advice to help ease the stress and start thriving during the holidays. Mastering the omni-channel is key to creating a consistent, positive customer experience. From research to purchase, customers are becoming more complex shoppers. The infographic from Merchant Warehouse provides tips on how to streamline your channels and increase sales. It also shows insight about customer demographics and how to cater towards different shopping preferences. With households spending 20% more this holiday season, every bit of insight counts. Take a look at this infographic to learn how to make the most of your small business this holiday season and beyond. Infographic via Merchant Warehouse

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