The power of Google Tools blows me away! Sitting here in my Gmail account
chatting with people across North America at no cost. Now this is a really
cool tool! I love skype as well, there's lots of branding features,
however, free calling exists only between skype users.
Looking forward to sharing this information tomorrow at our Cool Tools
Social Media workshop.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Avoid Being A Chatty Cathy With Pointless Tweets, Peeps and Updates
Since 2007 I have been teaching small business owners how to use Social Media for business. One of the most common misconceptions I have come across is people thinking that Social Media Marketing is as simple as 'Just Talking' on online networks. This is a very limiting view of how to use social media for business. In fact, restricting your use of social media to 'just talking' can wind up as you being perceived as a Chatty Cathy ... and pointless chatter will annoy and bore most of your followers and friends when you use it as just another 'water cooler'.
Learning to harness the power of the internet takes time. Having a Twitter profile and a Facebook page are good places to start, but once you get your feet wet and feel comfortable with using these platforms, you need to take a more strategic approach to using social media for business.
Like any other marketing medium, Social Media is a platform for you to get your message out. For this reason, you need to look at building content rich, education based information that educates your market place about the goods and services you have to offer, and the value you bring to the market place.
The foundation to your social media marketing program is your ideal customer. It is critical for you to understand how your ideal customer uses the internet and social media to seek out goods and services so you can be found when they conduct searches.
Social media provides the opportunity for your ideal customer to experience the personality of your brand while setting the expectations of what it is like to do business with you. With this in mind, you need to consider your online persona, the information you want to share, and the type of conversations you want to have online with prospective buyers, existing customers, strategic partners, and business colleagues. You also you need to ensure your online persona matches that of your offline personality. There needs to be complete integration of your online and offline strategies so they are seamless.
Being strategic also means having clear goals and objectives as to why you are using social media for business. There are a number of good reasons to use social media for business. You could use it for customer service, promotions, recruitment, brand management, online sales, and so much more.
It's a matter of learning where your ideal client hangs out online, how they are searching for your goods and services, populating the social media platforms with content rich education based information, developing a marketing funnel so you stand out from your competition, having list building strategies that includes lead capture at different customer touch points, targeting your efforts towards your ideal client, creating positive (and talkable) online experiences, and integrating your social media program into your overall business marketing strategy.
Remember - in marketing, the number one rule is Strategy Before Tactics - Always! and that includes your use of Social Media and Social Networks. To be successful at Social Media for business, it takes a lot more than 'just talking'. It takes building a strategic social media marketing plan and then executing on that plan.
If you are interested in learning how to use social media for business, I invite you to attend an upcoming workshop I am hosting with Maureen Kerr of Kerr Consulting called Cool Tools Social Media Workshop. To learn more about this workshop and to enroll please visit: http://tinyurl.com/CoolTools-PEI
Learning to harness the power of the internet takes time. Having a Twitter profile and a Facebook page are good places to start, but once you get your feet wet and feel comfortable with using these platforms, you need to take a more strategic approach to using social media for business.
Like any other marketing medium, Social Media is a platform for you to get your message out. For this reason, you need to look at building content rich, education based information that educates your market place about the goods and services you have to offer, and the value you bring to the market place.
The foundation to your social media marketing program is your ideal customer. It is critical for you to understand how your ideal customer uses the internet and social media to seek out goods and services so you can be found when they conduct searches.
Social media provides the opportunity for your ideal customer to experience the personality of your brand while setting the expectations of what it is like to do business with you. With this in mind, you need to consider your online persona, the information you want to share, and the type of conversations you want to have online with prospective buyers, existing customers, strategic partners, and business colleagues. You also you need to ensure your online persona matches that of your offline personality. There needs to be complete integration of your online and offline strategies so they are seamless.
Being strategic also means having clear goals and objectives as to why you are using social media for business. There are a number of good reasons to use social media for business. You could use it for customer service, promotions, recruitment, brand management, online sales, and so much more.
It's a matter of learning where your ideal client hangs out online, how they are searching for your goods and services, populating the social media platforms with content rich education based information, developing a marketing funnel so you stand out from your competition, having list building strategies that includes lead capture at different customer touch points, targeting your efforts towards your ideal client, creating positive (and talkable) online experiences, and integrating your social media program into your overall business marketing strategy.
Remember - in marketing, the number one rule is Strategy Before Tactics - Always! and that includes your use of Social Media and Social Networks. To be successful at Social Media for business, it takes a lot more than 'just talking'. It takes building a strategic social media marketing plan and then executing on that plan.
If you are interested in learning how to use social media for business, I invite you to attend an upcoming workshop I am hosting with Maureen Kerr of Kerr Consulting called Cool Tools Social Media Workshop. To learn more about this workshop and to enroll please visit: http://tinyurl.com/CoolTools-PEI
Video Resources:
- Social Media for Business Success: http://tinyurl.com/Be-Strategic
- Social Media Revolution: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFZ0z5Fm-Ng
Blogroll
1. Seer Interactive - http://tinyurl.com/GroupieChattyStrategist
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Do You Still Think Social Media is a FAD?
Recently I have been challenging my friends and colleagues to watch the Social Media Revolution video by SocialNomics. It's the video you see here on my blog, and trust me when I say, it is worth watching.
If you are still in doubt whether or not you should engage in Social Media, watch this video. This is a video that all economic development practitioners, small business, entrepreneurs, and any support organization to SMB's and entrepreneurs, need to watch.
Some people have been asking me: "WHY are you challenging people to watch this video?" Simply put ... some people still think social media is a fad. A big trend. Something that is going to burn out. Further, some people can't seem to see the value in social media. They are really intimidated by the time factor and I can certainly understand this.
The problem is, many people, when they think about social media, they automatically think about the most popular social media platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook .... and they panic over the idea of spending time (or should I say ... wasting time) on two-way conversations. The typical thought process is "I am busy enough as it is - how can you possibly expect me to tweet, beep and update my facebook status, while also engage in online conversations? I'm already working over 9 hours a day, and you expect me to layer in more?? Holy Bleeeeepppppp???
OK, I can totally get where most people are coming from - put me back in November 2006, and this is what I would look like:
YUP - that's exactly how I looked. Confused, frustrated, overwhelmed. I made a lot of mistakes, and ticked a few people off in the meantime. I can recall using a tool called Evite for Ladies Who Launch socials. 
This was back in 2007/2008, and I was really new to social media. I was hosting a few events in PEI, and I sent out invitations to various women entrepreneurs I thought would be interested in attending.
This was back in 2007/2008, and I was really new to social media. I was hosting a few events in PEI, and I sent out invitations to various women entrepreneurs I thought would be interested in attending.Well, let me tell ya - I was WAY AHEAD of my time on this social media thing! PLUS, I was really new and made some awful mistakes. In Evite (which is a really great tool) I set up auto-responder reminders that were supposed to go out once a week, but in my newbie approach, I made a HUGE mistake and the auto-responders went out daily.
WELL! You can just imagine the flack over that! I was so embarrassed! So before I go any further - I send out a BIG SORRY! to all those I ticked off at that time. It was a total mistake! BUT I certainly did learn from it.
Much has changed since the early 2007's. The Social Media landscape has really advanced. That's what my gal pal, Maureen Kerr of Kerr Consulting, are here for! To share our knowledge and experience with local entrepreneurs. Between us, we have over eighteen years experience!
During the week of September 20th, we are hosting our 'Cool Tools' Social Media workshops! We are really looking forward to sharing our knowledge and experience with PEI entrepreneurs and Island Business. We are hosting the workshop in four Island Communities, at three different times during the day to meet different schedules. We really hope to see you at one of the workshops!
You can enroll online for this 3 hour workshop, or call me at 902-724-3330 by phone, or by email at nancybeth@sweetspotmarketing.ca
You can enroll online for this 3 hour workshop, or call me at 902-724-3330 by phone, or by email at nancybeth@sweetspotmarketing.ca
We look forward to seeing you there!
Friday, August 27, 2010
'COOL TOOLS' Social Media Workshop
So my gal pal Maureen Kerr and I have teamed up to deliver a 'cool tools' social media workshop. With so many social media tools and web applications out there, it can be pretty confusing determining which ones to use and how to use them for business.
'You don't know what you don't know' and our objective is to introduce you to our top 15 list of cool tools, show you how they can be used for business, and give you real live examples of how local companies in PEI have mastered using these tools for their business.
The 'Cool Tools Social Media Workshop' will be delivered in four Island Communities. We go beyond the basics of Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. We'll show you How to Create a Marketing Plan Using Social Media.
DATES and LOCATIONS:
To enroll or learn more about the 'Cool Tools' social media workshop, click on the community nearest you:
Tuesday, September 21st ... Pooles Corner
Wednesday, September 22nd ... Charlottetown
Thursday, September 23rd ... Hunter River
Friday, September 24th ... Summerside
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Before spending money on advertising know your ideal client and where they hangout. ALWAYS ASK for reader, listener and viewer profiles for print, radio and tv. Ask for participant profiles for tradeshow and exhibits. Ask for web visitor and email subscribers for online and email marketing. If the media supplier can't... provide the profile stats, be cautious, maybe your ideal client isn't spending time there.
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