Popular Articles on Business 2 Community |
- How to Monitor and Respond to Online Consumer Reviews of Your Business
- Four Trends and Predictions for B2B Social Media in 2014
- 14 Customer Experience Predictions For 2014
- 5 Ways To Incorporate Testimonials Into Your Website
- The Business Case for Digital Marketing
- Job Seekers: How NOT To Treat A Recruiter
| How to Monitor and Respond to Online Consumer Reviews of Your Business Posted: 02 Dec 2013 07:04 PM PST You might have built a snazzy website for your business—but in many cases, that's not where your potential customers are getting their information. These days, it's common for shoppers and would-be diners to check out user-review sites like Yelp or UrbanSpoon for reviews of local businesses, or to ask their friends for opinions via social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter. Because most shoppers are looking at sources outside of your official marketing materials for assistance in making purchasing decisions, it can be difficult to ensure that they're finding accurate information about your store or restaurant. Anonymous online reviews can be subject to fraud: The research firm Gartner estimates that, by 2014, 10 to 15 percent of all online reviews are likely to be fraudulent or paid for. And personal recommendations can be clouded by faulty memories or personal preferences. In order to combat false information, it's important to take a proactive approach to managing your brand's online reputation. There are a number of free and premium tools that can help you monitor your brand name across social media. Some options include: · SocialMention – This free tool offers basic searches across webpages and public updates on social networks like Twitter and Facebook for the keywords you select. · IceRocket – Another free service, IceRocket allows you to search Twitter, Facebook, and the blogosphere for mentions of your business. · Mention – This free service is available as both a desktop and mobile app. It allows you to set up search alerts for brand and keyword mentions across a range of media, including blogs, social media services, and videos. You can also add your business partners' or employees' email addresses to the service, so that they will receive the alerts at the same time as you. · Hootsuite – This service is available in both free and premium versions, and provides a wealth of tools for both tracking interaction with your brand on social media and managing your own social media profiles. The free version allows you to manage up to five social media profiles, download basic analytics reports for the keywords and profiles you've set up, and schedule your social media posts in advance. The Pro version, starting at $8.99 a month, allows you to monitor up to 100 social profiles, download advanced analytics reports, add up to nine team members to the service, and take advantage of numerous other advanced features. · Viralheat – This tool allows you to track social mentions on a product-by-product basis, or compare mentions of your brand to those of your competitors. The free version of the service allows you to monitor and manage up to five social media services and schedule posts in advance; the Pro version, for $9.99 a month, provides access to up to 15 social accounts including Google+, and a number of other advanced services. · Sprout Social – Sprout Social allows you to simultaneously manage up to 10 social media accounts, with limited monitoring of brand-related mentions from Twitter, Facebook, and the web. The tool costs from $39 to $99 per month. Simply paying attention to what's being said about your business online isn't enough: Once you've found a service that you're happy with for tracking brand mentions, it's important to come up with a strategy for responding to what's being said about you, whether negative or positive. By signing up for daily alerts, your company can immediately spot blog posts or Twitter or Facebook comments that contain misleading information or complaints about your brand, and elect a community manager to address these comments individually. In some cases, you may want to offer a customer a refund or a store or restaurant credit to make up for a negative past experience. In others, you may be able to correct facts that they got wrong: For instance, customers often mistake restaurants with similar names on sites like Yelp, and write reviews of the wrong business. Although Yelp may not take down the customer's review, you can at least explain that you don't have a restaurant in a particular town or don't serve the menu item in question, and hopefully, the customer will decide to retract the review. (Find some additional tips for dealing with negative restaurant reviews here.) If someone has posted a positive review about your establishment on a blog, social media platform, or online review site, you can also take the initiative to thank your customer for the kind words. This will help to inspire brand loyalty, and encourage them to return to your business again. Additionally, by developing an active social media presence on Facebook and Twitter, you can encourage customers and fans to interact with your brand on your own page, where you or your community manager can immediately respond to complaints or issues, and positively engage with your fans. While it's worth knowing the potential pitfalls of social media, making a strategic decision to engage with the online community—and carefully monitoring what's being said about your business there—is likely to pay off with more loyal fans and customers.  |
| Four Trends and Predictions for B2B Social Media in 2014 Posted: 02 Dec 2013 09:34 AM PST
B2B brands will integrate social media (and social analytics) with their overall marketing program.This year, 88 percent of brands are predicted to participate in social media. Predictions that claim "2014 will be the year social media is a necessity" bear an eerie resemblance to 2013 predictions (or 2012 predictions, to be totally honest). Brands that are going to participate in social media did so in 2013. This recent study from eMarketer is only forecasting a one percent increase between 2013 and 2014 and the total percentage increase between 2012 and 2015 is only four percent. In my opinion, we have to stop saying, "this is the year for social to be required …" because it already is. It is time, however, for B2B brands to integrate social media with the overall marketing function — taking social "out of the silo," as I'm sure you've heard. Most importantly, it's time for social to be held accountable for the same metrics as other marketing programs. Okay, so your engagement and influence scores are on the rise? Brand sentiment is up? Who cares? Social media needs to be accountable for impressions, reach, clicks, conversions, and ROI just like every other digital marketing function and 2014 is the first year I think we'll see brands doing it right. B2B brands will focus on creating efficient cycles for content generation.Content marketing isn't new. Neither is brand journalism. In fact, 93 percent of B2B marketers use content marketing, according to the recently published 2014 report from Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs. In the same study, only 36 percent of B2B marketers said they were effective at content marketing. And you get it, right? Content marketing is tough. Creating enough original content to have a constant funnel of leads and interest … having it look good … getting that content in the hands of the right readers … it can be daunting to think about how content marketing giants like Hubspot or Salesforce are creating all of that content. 2014 will be the year that marketers find more efficient processes for creating original content on behalf of their organizations. We'll see socialized ebooks (example), infographics (example), andpresentation-style content (example) supplementing long-form content like white papers and research reports, which will be published with less frequency this year. B2B brands will create platform-specific, differentiated content to get the most out of each social network.According to Social Media Examiner, when forced to select only one platform, 49 percent of marketers said Facebook, followed by LinkedIn at 16 percent. Yet, only 37 percent of marketers think that their Facebook efforts are effective (source). While the B2B giants may be getting platform-specific strategy right already, your everyday B2B brand is still creating one strategy for social media, developing content for all platforms, and promoting each of those marketing assets across all of the platforms, like a megaphone. Most B2B marketers say they get the most out of LinkedIn in terms of social ROI — meaning that LinkedIn might not get the highest number of clicks or impressions, but will get the highest number of conversions (especially when B2B brands are leveraging LinkedIn Groups as part of their LinkedIn strategy). And while the perception for Twitter and Facebook is lower in terms of ROI for B2B marketers, I believe 2014 will bring the start of platform-specific content to get the most out of each network instead of blasting the same asset across the three primary networks and wondering why they aren't performing as high on two of the three. Google+ will become an integral part of owned media strategy — from SEO, content and social perspectives.70 percent of brands have a presence on Google+. While Google+ claims approximately 1.2 billionvisits per month (that's more than Facebook with 809 million monthly), that number reflects visits to allGoogle services (Gmail included). So that doesn't help, does it? That doesn't really tell you anything about the success of Google+, does it? And that's how most B2B marketers that I encounter personally feel about Google+. They don't really understand how Google+ plays into their strategy. They don't see results (clicks, visits, etc.) from Google+. They don't know how to use it. They don't feel like people are actually engaging with any brands on Google+ (don't you feel the same way?), but rather that everyone is just using Google+ as a megaphone. In fact, in a recent eMarketer study, U.S. marketers ranked Google+ as the platform they feel is least important. Ouch. But B2B marketers cannot deny the importance Google has placed on Google+ … they will not allow Google+ to fail. That is clear. Google+ is increasingly becoming part of Google's SEO and personalized search platform (think Google Authorship). B2B brands who peg search and social as important pieces to their marketing puzzle can't afford to ignore Google+ in 2014.  |
| 14 Customer Experience Predictions For 2014 Posted: 02 Dec 2013 08:03 AM PST It's totally December. How did that happen? Here we are again at the end of a year, looking back at the highs, lows and in-betweens. It was a good year for customer experience, in my opinion. A pinnacle event for us CX geeks was the first ever Customer Experience Professionals Day, CX Day, on October 1st. Customers gained advocates as more companies created roles like the Chief Customer Officer and continued to understand the importance of experience over fluff. But, as always, change begets change. So what can we expect in 2014? For fun this month, we'll be exploring the future of customer experience and making some guesses on what's next. Watch this blog, join our communities and let's debate whose crystal ball is right! To kick us off, I'm declaring 14 customer experience predictions for 2014. This is a quick list, and we'll try to explore some of these in greater depth throughout the month. Ready? Set. GO!1. Customer experience will splinter, as marketing has.While customer experience departments and Chief Customer Officers continue to expand their roles within organizations, they will also splinter off into specialties, like analytics, customer feedback, and customer communications. 2. Community management will increase in importance.Why is this a customer experience prediction? Because right now, community managers are often part of various groups like social media teams or promotions. Communities will drive change in the best organizations, and allow them to plug into what customers are really wanting. Those companies that get this will have a huge advantage. 3. Mobile. Mobile. Mobile. (But it's not all the same.)This year, the data caught up to what many of us were discussing in 2012. Customers love mobile! Retailers are starting to catch on with savvy apps and mobile sites, but the experience on a smart phone can (and sometimes should) be different than that on a tablet. As tablets and laptops morph, understanding each unique experience is key. 4. Employees will rule.Employees of all kinds and at all levels are voicing what they see both inside and outside the company. The best companies provide many ways for employees to not only make suggestions and provide feedback, but also make sure they understand they are heard. Employees will not become quieter in 2014, so companies should get ready for their ideas. 5. Humor will win, except when it's not funny.People love to get the joke, but they aren't looking to laugh at someone's expense. Customers will appreciate those organizations that can look at the light side. Understanding the sometimes subtle line between irreverent and irrelevent is critical. 6. In-store and online experiences will continue to blend together.Just as Target started highlighting the "Most Pinned" items from Pinterest, other retailers would be wise to help shoppers blur the lines between their online and offline experiences. 7. Loyalty programs will get easier.The days of punch cards should die already. Help customers by providing rewards via mobile apps, like Starbucks, or keep the loyalty points on the customer's behalf. 8. Speaking of cards, programs like Belly and Coin will help our wallets get thinner.Customers are sick of lugging around 10 credit cards and 26 loyalty cards with the ocassional gift card thrown in. Coin helps us consolidate everything on one card, and Belly helps independent retailers provide sophisticated loyalty programs. 9. Signing with your finger will seem quaint soon enough.If Apple can provide fingerprint technology for security on iPhones, then surely some savvy payment system startup can do this for us? Pay with your Coin card, sign with your fingerprint, and never worry about a lost credit card again! The ease of transactions will be a total win for some retailers. 10. CEO's will continue to NOT get it.I hate predicting this, but I'm afraid it's true. 2014 will bring a new group of clueless, classless CEO's who blame customers for product failures and insult the very people they're looking to attract. The Lululemon and Abercrombie executives certainly gave us some disappointing quotes this year, but others will still say idiotic things. Get your popcorn ready. There will still be some shows in 2014. 11. The multi-screen experience will bring entertainment to the customer experience in new ways.I know many of us use our tablet as a second screen while watching the Oscars, but just wait as creative marketers and product developers begin to tap into the potential of this. Commercials will begin to seek immediate, real-time feedback in new and exciting ways. 12. Business dashboards will slowly add customer metrics.More and more leaders are understanding the connection between customer metrics like Net Promotor Score and Customer Satisfaction Rates and actual business results. While many business dashboards have traditionally ignored this data in favor of "year over year profit" and straight-up profit margin, many leaders will adapt to watching these customer metrics for the insights they can provide. 13. Customer journey mapping will grow up.Instead of just a pretty image to post on the wall, dedicated mapping teams will begin to check in frequently with both employees and customers to make these maps living tools. Software and expertise will help the entire process become more sophisticated and integrated with the overall business. 14. Customer experience will continue to rock your world.There will be several times in 2014 when you'll shake your head in disbelief at how wonderful something is. You'll post images on social media about the best ones, and rave to friends about the corner store/the customer service rep/the bank who showed you they care. It's exciting, isn't it? A whole new year to see what amazing things customers and companies will do together. Image credits: pasukaru76, jaimemorto via Creative Commons  |
| 5 Ways To Incorporate Testimonials Into Your Website Posted: 01 Dec 2013 08:42 PM PST
A quote from famed psychologist, Dr. Robert Cialdini, "People see an action as more appropriate when others are doing it." When someone is going through their decision making process, they want to feel that there is as little risk as possible when moving forward with their decision. Feeling like other people have already done what they want to do will give them a mentality that it's a "safe decision." So how can you incorporate testimonials into your website? Here are 5 ways you can implement today:
Write Customer Stories For Your BlogIncorporating testimonials into customer stories is a great way to not only get the social proof and credibility but also showcase your company's success. As with this Benseron reviews page, they are on a mission to collect customer stories that show off how well their product works and how happy their customers are. This kills two birds with one stone. Case studies (or whatever you want to call them), are a great piece of content to use to not only attract new prospects, but to help nurture warm prospects through their decision making process. And not to mention, if you're a B2B company and your customers are featured, they will appreciate that extra promotion! Plain Ole Testimonials PageIt's always a good idea, and a standard one, to have a testimonials page on your website. This page is basically a list of all different testimonials that you have gathered over time. One of the reasons this is my least favorite way to incorporate testimonials into your website is because how many people are really interested in clicking to your testimonial page? I don't find that likely, and it doesn't help build your credibility alongside the other valuable information you have on your site, related to your services, that people are actually reading. Insert Testimonials Into Your SidebarA good way to spin off of the plain ole testimonials page is to create a list of your testimonials that are archived on one page, but then are also distributed as quotes throughout your website. If your site is built with WordPress, then you can do this using custom post types (or a regular category) and a widget area in your sidebar (the how-to instructions for this would be for another article altogether). Now with one effort, you have your testimonials listed on one page for those that want to drive traffic, send to prospects, or for the occasional website visitor that's interested. But you also have them added to supplement your blog posts and service pages to help reinforce your website visitors belief in your company. Use A Testimonial On Your Home PageWhen someone visits your website's home page, they are being introduced to your company and looking for more information about who you are and what you do. The Merchant Business Academy home page prominently highlights their value proposition with a Call To Action, a testimonial to immediately start earning credibility with the reader, then the services they offer targeting specific niches. Quote Your Customers On Your Landing PagesWhen building a landing page that is highly optimized for converting a reader into a customer, it is key to have a customer testimonial here to help influence the visitor to complete the desired action. A great point by Joanne Wiebe in this Unbounce article is that there is no such thing as "low social proof", without having testimonials on your page, then you have negative social proof. One way or another your testimonials will tell a story to your readers, a lot of testimonials will tell a positive story, and a lack of testimonials will tell a negative one. According to Joanne, people need to believe that they are one member of a larger herd. Seeing that other people have already done (and are happy with) what they are contemplating will lower their feeling of risk. The lower you can bring that reader's feeling of risk, the more likely they are to move through your sales funnel. How Do You Incorporate Testimonials Into Your Website?Tell us in the comments how you are incorporating testimonials into your website. Are you using any of these techniques? What else would you add to this list?  |
| The Business Case for Digital Marketing Posted: 01 Dec 2013 10:23 AM PST Entrepreneurs are regularly engaging with customers through digital marketing applications. Corporate businesses' sites are enabling interactive information sharing, inter-operability, user-centred design and collaboration. Some are even allowing customers to interact and collaborate with each other in social media networks, blogs, wikis, video sharing sites, hosted services and web applications. The companies that are embracing such innovations will be those that will be successful in leveraging themselves against competition. They will be rewarded by the marketplace, as a result. Multichannel communications particularly through mobile technologies reach customers in a timely, relevant, personal and cost-effective manner. Therefore, digital marketing comprises a set of tools that allows people to enhance their social and business connections as they can share information and collaborate together on projects online. Millions of people have increasingly become familiar with blogs, wikis, social-networking sites and other online communities. A growing number of marketers are active on social media including Facebook, Linkedin or Twitter. They use these networking sites to collaborate with consumers on product development, service enhancement and promotion. Not all entrepreneurs are well versed in information-communications technologies, yet some are becoming quite successful in consumer engagement. Nowadays, it is relatively easy to build your own web page through blog sites like wordpress, blogger or posterous to name a few. The tools of production (e.g. content editing software and blogging tools) are widely available and are very user-friendly. In addition, customers have become increasingly acquainted with the marketing tools of distribution (e.g.amazon, ebay, itunes and the like). These days, marketing is all about keeping and maintaining a two-way relationship with consumers. Digital marketing tools are a powerful way to do that. A growing number of businesses are learning how to collaborate with consumers about product development, service enhancement and promotion. Successful companies get consumers involved in all aspects of marketing. They listen to and join online conversations about products outside of their sites, as they value customers' opinions and perceptions. Many businesses use web 2.0 tools to forge collaborative relationships with business partners including customers in their value chain. Their employees are often involved in this process. Moreover, it seems that customers are willing to participate by giving their feedback. For instance, consumers can possibly provide invaluable insight during the research and development phase of a product. In a sense, customers may help companies to improve on their existing product or service offering. The firms who respond quickly to their customers' pleas will inevitably lead in customer satisfaction and retention. Apparently, consumers trust each other's opinions more than a company's marketing pitch. It goes without saying that there is no shortage of opinions online. For instance, blog sites like digg and delicious are continuously tracking the most popular topics on the web. Such blogs often feature the latest buzz about new product propositions. Commentators can often help to generate favourable remarks and positive reviews – which are always beneficial for businesses' reputation. This may result in free publicity for brand awareness. Blogs, wikis and online communities are among the tools that companies are increasingly using for marketing, but there are other ways to reach consumers. For instance, many companies are resorting to instant messaging on their web sites, where shoppers can chat online with customer-service representatives. Arguably, web sites and blogs can provide invaluable support to businesses in their endeavours to attract new customers. Yet, the businesses' corporate image can easily become tainted with negative reviews (and comments) at some point in time. It is important for businesses to address and recover from such poor feedback. This contribution suggests that digital marketing tools can possibly be used to reinforce existing promotional strategies. These tools complement quite well with conventional advertising tactics as they raise awareness of the company's presence. Needless to say that social media networks are used by millions of customers every day. Similarly, entrepreneurs can write numerous blogs to remind customers of their products or brands. However, the successful businesses are the ones who are capable of forging relationships with customers through digital marketing tools, including social media. Perhaps, consumers ought to be involved in marketing and selling activities; from product development to after-sales feedback. Companies can gain sustainable competitive advantages only if they value consumers' opinions on various aspects of the marketing mix (including product, pricing and distribution preferences). In Kotler's own words, "the marketing organisation will have to redefine its role from managing customer interactions to integrating and managing all the company's customer-facing processes".  |
| Job Seekers: How NOT To Treat A Recruiter Posted: 01 Dec 2013 06:20 AM PST Here at Bubble, it's fair to say that in the past we've given recruiters a bit of a hard time.A quick glance at our "Employer Advice" section shows that over the last 12 months or so we've moaned at them for things like writing shockingly bad job adverts, using cheesy digital job titles and insisting candidates fill out lengthy, time-consuming application forms (and everything else in between!)… but today we've decided to switch things up. I don't know if it's because we're starting to feel all Christmassey because the first advent calendars have appeared in the Bubble HQ (yes, really!) but today we thought we'd be kind to recruiters and give them a break. You see, while we're happy to admit that some of them aren't the best, we also know that there are others out there who are really great at their jobs and we're sorry to say, sometimes job seekers don't treat them as well as they should or could. Currently applying for jobs through recruiters? Here are our top five mistakes you need to avoid! 1. Underestimate Their Role: Think recruiters are just there to pass on your CV and act as the go-between between you and the employer? Think again! Recruiters are basically the first point of contact for the job – it's up to them to determine your suitability for the role – so it's fair to say you have to impress them. In other words, you need to treat them with the same respect you would the employer. Fail to do so, and there's a pretty strong chance that you won't be put forward for the role. And even if you do get put forward, there's a chance your bad attitude could still screw things up. Think about it; the employer obviously trusts the recruiter's opinion, so even if your CV is amazing, if the recruiter says that you're not a nice person to deal with, there's a chance the end-employer might end up dismissing your application because they think you're the not the type of person they want to employ! Be warned!
Recruiters are really busy people. 99% of the time they have countless roles to recruit for at the same time which means they've got to sort through potentially hundreds of applications and set up countless interviews each week. The result? You may not always be at the top of their list of people to contact… but that doesn't mean you're not on the list at all! Just to clarify; we're not saying don't keep in touch… but there's really no need to call or email Every. Single. Day! :) 3. Demand You Be Put Forward For The Role: Remember how we said you need to be polite and treat recruiters with respect in point one? Well, that applies to your application too! We agree that it's good to be confident and forthright with recruiters… but be careful not to cross the line. By all means, be persuasive when discussing your suitability for the role – but never demand to be put forward for a role if the recruiter doesn't feel you're suitable. Yes, you might think you'd be perfect – but remember, the recruiter probably knows a lot more about the role than you do so you need to respect their opinion. 4. Not Be Willing To Discuss Your Application: Following on from point three, we understand that when you're applying for jobs you want the process to be as quick and painless as possible but you still need to make time to discuss your application with the recruiter. We don't mean to harp on, but at the end of the day, it's a recruiter's job to find the best candidate for the role and it's their reputation at stake – so you can understand why they want to find out as much as they can about each candidate before they put them forward. All we're saying is it's definitely worth trying to find a few spare minutes to discuss your application with the recruiter – because even if you don't end up getting that role, at least they'll have a good idea of who you are and what your skills are so can bear you in mind for future vacancies. Oh, and while we're on the subject – if you do arrange a call, try your best to make it – and if you can't, try your best to let them know! Remember, it's all about making the best impression possible! 5. Throw A Tantrum When You Don't Get The Job: No one likes to be told 'no' and hear criticism but it's important to try and keep your emotions in check, particularly when the recruiter is trying to offer constructive criticism about your application or interview performance. It's like we just said in point four – you never know when another suitable role might turn up with that recruiter – so you need to make sure you don't give them a reason to discount you in the future!  |
2014 is right around the corner. Whether you have developed your annual social media strategy and budget yet or not, don't miss out on these four trends and predictions for smart B2B social media planning.
Why are testimonials important to have on your website?
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