Marketing: Social Media

Tap the Power of Twitter to Search for Business Intelligence and Prospects

Learn to tap the power of Twitter search around your brand or business to gain insights on your market and to identify prospects.

This is the first of a three-part Twitter research tutorial, in pictures. I’ve created screen shots that relate to my nonprofit, SCORE Chicago, to use as examples.  SCORE, “Counselors to America’s Small Business,” offers free business counseling and inexpensive business workshops to entrepreneurs and small business owners. One of our most important keyword phases is “business plan Chicago.”

Twitter Search

To learn who it talking about business plans near Chicago, I can run a search. I might use the Advanced Search Form or search query terms Twitter specifies. Here’s my search for tweets with our main keyword in the Chicago area:

Entrepreneurs: Twitter

2 Women Entrepreneurs to Follow on Twitter — Who Else Would You Nominate?

The Mashable Blog just had a post about 10 Essential Entrepreneurs to Follow on Twitter.  Two women made the list. I’d like to introduce them to you and get your nominations for more women entrepreneurs with useful tweets on Twitter.

Leila Janah

Leila C. Janah on Twitter

Leila is founder of Samasource, which provides digital work for Kenyan refugees.

Caterina Fake on Twitter

Caterina is a female entrepreneur with a major success under her belt — co-founder of the photo-sharing website Flickr – and a new and exciting project — Hunch – underway.

Who else would you nominate?

Please leave me a comment, a one sentence bio, and their Twitter name.  The voting booth is open.

And come connect with me on Twitter:  @pcorwin

Peg Corwin, SCORE Chicago
View more posts by Peg

Marketing: Reach Women Prospects in Social Networks

Women and Social Networking

Women predominate in many social networking websites. That’s what Brian Solis’ stats say and this graphic from InformationIsBeautiful shows.

Graphic credit: InformationIsBeautiful

Why More Women?

Those commenting on the Mashable post Women Rule the Social Web speculate as to why:

• Whether being moms or running home-based businesses, women are at home more and have a greater need to socialize, one says. Others doubt this because there is more computer access in workplaces.
• Women have less free time than men. Thus they use less time-consuming methods of socializing, such as social networking and social media.
• Women talk and communicate more than men offline as well as online.
• Women are more comfortable relating, men more comfortable doing.
• Women generally type faster?

The comments also contain questions about the stats themselves (duplicate accounts? active accounts?) and demographic effects (ages, incomes.)

Several readers are skeptical of the quality of some womens’–probably younger womens’–interactions.  “It doesn’t surprise me that women rule the social web. The majority of their time is spent twittering celebrities and uploading drunken photos and stalking ex-boyfriends on Facebook.” Despite this comment, and with other evidence that that those of all ages are using social networks, your current and future women customers will be found there.

Reaching Women Prospects

Regardless of the reasons, the overall message is clear:  if your small business wants to reach women in the future, you and your marketers will need to get good at social networking and social media marketing.

Related Posts

• How to Use Social Media to Reach New Customers
• 5 Ways to Make The Most of Social Media for PR
• Web 2.0 Marketing: Friedman’s 4 Steps into Social Media 

 

Peg Corwin, SCORE Chicago
View more posts by Peg

Marketing: How to Get Re-Tweeted on Twitter

Harness the Power of Viral Tweets

If you’re on Twitter to network or promote your business, you want to be re-tweeted. You want others to share your insight, link or photo. You want your tweets to be viral.

Maybe you are new to Twitter terminology. If so, to “re-tweet” means to have someone else forward your tweet, or update, to their followers. (A “tweet” is merely a short status update on Twitter.) The shorthand for a re-tweet is “RT,” as in this sample Twitter update from a friend who forwards my tweet to their followers:

“RT @pcorwin: 5 good sites on managing online communities and social networks. http://bit.ly/RHr8o”

What Tweets Get Re-Tweeted?

SEO expert Rand Fishkin over at SEOmoz.org has created great short video on Re-Tweets. Watch it for all his insights. Here are his characteristics of tweets that get shared:

• Length under 100 characters
• Time of day — 9:00 – 3:30 Pacific Time
• Phrasing is factual, humorous, shocking, mysterious
• Subject matter is tech, celebrity, politics, images
• URL is likely included
• Authentic Twitter profile
• Tweets with push from emails or direct messages

In the video, Rand also puts Twitter into the context of your search engine optimization (SEO) strategies.

See all of Fishkin’s WhiteBoard Friday posts, a series of videos on SEO and much more. They are excellent.

Web Marketing: Customer Power of Social Media

Companies Can No Longer Hide from Digital Media

With the power of social media in this Web 2.0 world, your business can’t run and hide.  It’s got to deliver or apologize and make good.

You have probably seen or read about the video of cable company repair guy caught sleeping at a customer’s house, or how Twitter and YouTube are upsetting elections in Iran.  Here’s yet another example of the power of customers using social media.

SCORE Chicago counselor and DePaul marketing prof Hank Rodkin gave me a head’s up on a small band that was flying on United.  They looked out the window before takeoff to see their guitars being thrown around and broken by the luggage handlers.  Click the arrow to play the above video, and hear the story in song.

And the story, as reported by CNN:

“This is a case study”, Hank says, “on how viral videos and the digital age have changed the marketplace.  And why it’s critical for service businesses to follow through with service.”

Many SCORE counselors, including those at SCORE Chicago, understand social media and can help you market your business online.

Related Posts:
Web 2.0 Marketing:  Friedman’s 4 Steps into Social Media
Why Web 2.0 Marketing Is Hard For Us 1.0 Marketers
Nonprofits Use Fire Power of Social Media:  One Condominium Tries Social Media Marketing

Peg Corwin, SCORE Chicago
View more posts by Peg

Web Marketing: Meta-Post on 18 Online Marketing Techniques

Internet Marketing Series

In July of 2008, I discovered Anita Campbell’s graphic on online marketing ROI, or internet marketing priorities.  SCORE Chicago clients were coming to us, overwhelmed by all the different possibilities.  They asked which were the most important, and which fit their types of businesses.

After seeing Anita’s graphic, I realized I knew about some techniques but not others.  So I set out to explore each on behalf of small business clients of SCORE Chicago.  In the process, I wrote this series of blog posts to provide basic links, further references and sometimes my own experiences.  To make the posts fun, I tried to find YouTube videos as well as text explanations.

It’s taken me ten months to complete these 18 posts.  I’ve now done podcasting, joined voting sites like Stumbleupon and Digg, signed up for affiliate programs.  I’m on Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace.  I’ve learned much more about email marketing, about search engine optimization.

I started out with a rigid format, but gradually changed it to provide meaningful, organized links and annotations.  So, Anita, I’m a bit late but I’m turning in my assignment.

Web Marketing: What Advanced Google Analytics Tells a Marketer, and Questions to Ask Next

In a recent post, I talked about how a marketer can use basic Google Analytics data. Now I’m going to focus on some advanced slicing and dicing to help you better understand the behavior of your site’s viewers and customers using advanced features of Google Analytics.

Marketers can learn how many users take what steps towards goals (conversion tracking); what documents they download and links they use (event tracking); and what groups of users visit certain pages or take specific actions (segmentation analysis.)

GOALS AND CONVERSIONS
Marketers can set a goal by specifying the various pages a visitor has to click through to reach that goal. For example, a workshop signup goal might have these steps: workshop page, workshop description page, signup page, credit card page, and “thank you” landing page. This series of pages is called the funnel.

To set up a goal, go to your Aanalytics settings page, the page that lists the websites on which you have Analytics running. The column on the far right of the Website Profiles table is called Actions. Click Edit there to set up a new goal. Scroll down under Profile Settings, below Main Website Profile, to the section on Conversion Goals and Funnel. Add up to 4 goals there. To get the most use out of goals, use them in conjunction with Google Adwords campaigns.

Stats to focus on: goal abandonment and goal conversion rate
Questions to ask yourself: On what pages are customers abandoning the funnel, and what changes can you make in those pages to encourage them to take the next step? How many potential customers who click over from a Google ad actually complete the purchase? Is this number increasing or decreasing from earlier periods, and why? What can you change to increase it?

Links:

Google site: Goals and Funnels
7 minute video on How To Create Google Analytics Conversion Goals
Google Analytics Demystified: Goal Tracking and Funnels example of funnel and goal setup for an online store

Online Marketing: 46 Links to Promote Your Local Business Online

Graphic created with Wordle.net by Jonathan Feinberg

My theme today is local online marketing, with the emphasis on local. I’m covering local directories, local review sites, local ads, local social media strategies (i.e., how to use Twitter to promote locally), local blogs, and local search engine optimization.

Think of these links as a crash course in local target marketing on the internet. If the list overwhelms you, read only the contents of the first link in each section for key points.

But first, look at the table in this post, which document the shift from print to the web:

Relying On Print Yellow Pages? Most Local Customers Turn To The Web! - One takeaway: “Local business needs to ensure they’re measuring the web’s impact in their real-life activities. When people call by phone or visit a store — the top two actions after an online local search — is someone in the store asking about this? Asking about whether particular online sites were used may help local businesses better understand the potentially “invisible” drivers of traffic that they’re not aware of.”  Credit:Search Engine Land, Greg Sterling.

Local Directories

Check your business listing for free at GetListed.org. See how your firm is listed right now on Google, Yahoo, Best of the Web and LiveSearch. If it isn’t, I suggest you use the links to those directories to add a listing now.

Google Autofills Photos & Videos in Local Business Profiles - As of April 2009, “Google is auto-filling local business profiles with photos and videos pulled in from other web sites.” He concludes, “If you don’t optimize your profiles, Google’s gonna do it for you.”  Credit: Small Business Search Marketing. Matt McGee.

The Definitive List of Local Search Directories You Need To List With. – Links to 38 local search engines, directories, providers and 5 data suppliers. Discussion of the importance of online local listings. Instructions on how to write for search engine directories. Credit:eMarketing Matador.

Online Directories And Review Sites: Intro, Video and Links – My earlier blog post on the topic, with many how-to links and examples. Credit:Web 2.0 for Small Business, Peg Corwin.

Twibs A website that “gives Twitter users a place to find businesses on Twitter.”

Web Marketing: What Basic Google Analytics Tells a Marketer, and Questions To Ask Next

“What marketing questions can website statistics like Google Analytics answer? What should I do with this information?” Here are nine key marketing questions, the Google Analytics stats to get a handle on them, and some followup questions to pose.

I’m ignoring metrics from Google Analytics that help with site design, like browser usage and connect speeds. We’re talking hard-core marketing here.

In case you need a refresher before we start, here are links on basic definitions (clicks, visits, visitors, and page views), how to install Google Analytics tracking code, and an intro to Google Analytics.

VISITORS

1. Is traffic to my website growing, declining or stagnating? What are the trends?

Stats to focus on: Visits per period vs last period; absolute unique visitors per period vs last
Questions to ask yourself: Are numbers of visits and unique visitors growing, steady or declining? Do I see spikes when I run various campaigns and promotions? Because of technical limitations in tracking, trends are more meaningful than absolute numbers.

2. How useful are visitors finding the site? What are the trends? In essence, are users engaged?

Stats to focus on: Average pageviews, time on site
Questions to ask yourself: Are pageviews increasing or decreasing? What about visitor time on the site? If there are changes from last period, why? Are high pages views and time on site due to visitor interest or their difficulties finding what they are looking for?

3. Who are my visitors? Where do they live? Are they new visitors or returning?

Stats to focus on: Map overlay and new vs returning
Questions to ask yourself: Where are my visitors concentrated geographically? Does my copy need to be modified (language, jargon, pitches) to tailor the appeal? Which group is growing faster, new or returning visitors? Do I need to run new campaigns targeted to the slower group? How should I reposition product and service offerings on web pages to encourage visitors to return?

Sorry, no individual visitor emails from Google Analytics. You marketers already have data on user actions from other sources: email inquiries, mailing list signups, downloads if visitors register with an email, and of course purchases. Work on a system to add these client and prospect emails to your database.

Strategic Commenting for Visibility in Your Niche, Brand Building and Website Traffic

My New Year’s resolution is to start commenting on selected blogs and contributing to relevant online forums. Why? To build our niche visibility, promote the SCORE brand and increase traffic on SCORE Chicago’s website and blogs.

Commenting  gets you involved in conversations, expands contacts in your niche and brings traffic back to your blogs and sites. In Case Study: Power of a Blog Comment, learn how Jesse Heap of Pink Cake Box left a comment on the Small Business Search Marketing blog, which lead to Pink Cake being featured on a magazine cover.  Similarly, blogger Marko Saric posted a comment on ZenHabits, a blog with over 79,000 RSS subscribers. This one comment brought him 230+ unique visitors in less than 6 days.

Here’s what I’ve learned from a web search on commenting do’s and don’ts:

Commenting Do’s