Maybe you’re planning to get in better shape in 2011… maybe you’re not.
Maybe 2011 will be the best year of your life so far…maybe it won’t.
Maybe you’ll start a family in 2011…maybe you ‘ll say good bye to a loved one.
Maybe you’ll remember the ball drop ushering in 2011…maybe you won’t.
Maybe 2011 will be less government and smarter spending…maybe not.
Maybe in 2011 the grass will seem greener on the other side…maybe it’s not.
Shape up, think positive, enjoy life, stay sober, don’t hold your breath, take care of your own yard…
…maybe your 2011 leaf hasn’t fallen from the tree yet.
“Outbound marketing” is where a marketer pushes his message out far and wide hoping that it resonates with that needle in the haystack. Some examples include trade shows, seminar series, email blasts to purchased lists, internal cold calling, outsourced telemarketing and advertising.
Rather than do outbound marketing to the masses of people who are trying to block you out, let’s do “inbound marketing” where you help yourself “get found” by people already learning about and shopping in your industry. In order to do this, make your website a hub for your industry that attracts visitors naturally through the search engines, through blogs, and through social media sites.
I believe most marketers today spend 90% of their efforts on outbound marketing and 10% on inbound marketing. What if we flipped those efforts?
I enjoy Seth Godin’s writing…Â here’s an excerpt from one of his blog entries I want to share with you.
We say we want one thing, then we do another. We say we want to be successful but we sabotage the job interview. We say we want a product to come to market, but we sandbag the shipping schedule. We say we want to be thin but we eat too much. We say we want to be smart but we skip class or don’t read that book the boss lent us.
The contradictions never end. When someone shows up and acts without contradiction, we’re amazed. When an athlete just does the sport, or when a writer just writes the words, we can’t help but watch, astonished at the purity of their actions.
Why is it so difficult to do what we say we’re going to do?
Maybe you’re ready for a more professional presence on the world wide web?
If you want your website to work for you, here are some points to think about:
- Keep your website fresh.
- Monitor the effectiveness of your website.
- Collect analytics to see if you need to change what you’re doing.
- Re-evaluate your goals for your website.
- Listen to your customers that go to your website.
- Keep new products / services in front of your website visitors.
- Have your website re-designed by professionals.
It’s time. The new year is right around the corner.
When making a significant purchase, consumers are always seeking validation of their choices from others.  But this is hardly something new.
Prior to the advent of the social web, you would have had to rely on advice from knowledgeable friends, or consulted trade magazines. But now, social media allows consumers to tap into feedback from others who have already tried your offering.
This should send an important message to marketers: Don’t forget about the needs of your existing customers after they have purchased a product because they are influencing the decisions of others who are considering it.
So, why is it so easy to find reasons to gripe, complain and moan 364 days a year? Then Thanksgiving Day rolls around and we muster up our best attempt to spend a few hours thinking of things we are thankful for.
Thanksgiving Day is barely over and we’re standing in line at 3:00am on black Friday griping, complaining and moaning about the 87 people who pitched tents to be in line before you.
Instead of one day a year for Thanksgiving, I propose we turn one day a year into Gripe, Complain and Moan Day. That would give us 364 days to talk about everything we are thankful for, including what Thanksgiving Day actually symbolizes. Sounds like a good idea for a Facebook group.
How exactly do you spend your “one day of thanks?”
It’s really not enough to have a Search Engine Optimized website without developing a social media strategy. Here are a few tips that have the potential to add a high level of success to your SEO Website.
If you don’t have a social media platform for your company, create one! Start with the basics: Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and a blog.
Gather up content that you already have, chop it up into small bites, then develop a publishing schedule. Add a little spice to your content to make it relevant and fun… things that your target audience would find interesting.
Your Facebook page is a microsite; your YouTube Channel is a video microsite; and your Twitter account is your micro-blog. Driving visits to these pages can drive engagement and create lifelong connections with consumers when they “friend” or “follow” you. Think of fans and friends as people opting into your database.
Post your YouTube channel’s videos and include them on your site.
Promote your social media assets like crazy. Post them on your site, drop press releases about them in the wire services, and link to them from your site and in e-mail signatures.
Track traffic and actions in general using Google Analytics.
shepâ‹…herd – a person who protects, guides, or watches over a person or group of people.
As I was thinking about my role with our clients in social media and other services, the word “shepherd” jumped out at me. My job is to protect, guide and watch over our clients… whether it’s with social media or any other area of services we offer to our clients.
If the opportunity at hand is not a good move for the client, I say no.
So, there you have it. I am officially a Social Media Shepherd for our clients, a Direct Mail Shepherd… okay, you get the idea.
Implementing a social media marketing program without optimizing content is leaving money on the table.
Useful content that cannot be found through search engines is a lost opportunity to reach an audience that is looking.
A basic blog optimization effort leveraging keywords and other minor adjustments can improve search traffic substantially – without any compromise in content quality or user experience.
On the other hand, implementing SEO programs without leveraging the content distribution and linking benefits of social web participation makes link building for SEO an uphill battle.
The nature of the social web encourages participation: sharing, voting, commenting & linking. Popular social content gets exposure and traffic and can result in a substantial number of relevant inbound links.
Social interactions and media sharing among social network participants create the kind of content that can improve a brand’s visibility within search results through profiles, videos, blog posts, or other media.
