Marketing Tips «

Have You Got a Social Media Policy?

July 29, 2010

Since anyone can be a spokesperson on social media, your company should have established guidelines that outline rules for online engagement.

If you’re in a larger company, that means getting everyone from the executive suite to HR, and of course, customer service and marketing. If you’re a smaller one, you still need guidelines, but maybe not to the extreme of larger companies.

The first question is where to begin. You can look at what other big companies have done like IBM or Intel and cut and paste from publicly shared sites. Or you can look to associations like the PRSA or HR sites to give you guidelines.

Another option is developing your own set of guidelines. In reality, you’ll probably do both. The key when developing guidelines is to borrow from the best and adapt them to your company.

You need to find a balance because you are writing guidelines for a media of which you have no control over. This isn’t like writing a HR policy where you can dictate terms/conditions. Social is an open sharing of information and is one’s opinions on a subject which falls under the freedom of speech and privacy issues. Yes you as a company have the right to protect trade secrets and other proprietary info.

Here are some things you need to consider:

Define who will be the “official spokesperson” for your company and outline the topics they can speak about.
Define a process for crisis issues like a Twitter storm on a specific product.
Identify internally who will be responsible for granting permission on industry trends, new products, etc.
How can your employees engage in conversations without speaking for the company?

Here are some links that might be helpful:

Leave a Comment » | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing | Tagged: social media policy, ibm.intel, prsa | Permalink
Posted by tradesmeninsights

Social Media Success Story

July 28, 2010

I’ve been talking about the benefits of social media in the B-to-B space now for almost 18 months and yet there are some companies out there that still don’t “get it.”

I wanted to share a success story with you of a traditional trade association, the PMPA (Precision Machined Products Association) and their results from starting a social program a little over a year ago (disclosure: they are a client of ours). These types of associations aren’t very sexy and they have plenty of competition out there for members to help them run their business better.

To better position themselves within the metalworking world as a thought leader and as part of a new business strategy, we recommended they jump on the social media bandwagon.

They did, and the following is an article written by Miles Free (Director of Industry Research and Technology, and principal contributor to their blog, Speaking of Precision) in their monthly magazine to members and potentials advocating they too jump on the social media bus.

PMPA content has been before people who are interested in it over 1,500,000 times in just one year at next to no out-of-pocket cost…

In just one year, we can document over 65,000 page views on PMPA’s Blog, SPEAKINGOFPRECISION.COM.

We’ve used Twitter to help connect people to our Blog content, and we’ve made hundreds of thousands of contacts using that tool. Once a week, one of our selected Blog topics gets uploaded to LinkedIn, where it is seen and shared by over 25,000 people in the machining, medical defense, and aerospace markets that belong to groups on LinkedIn. We can conservatively say that PMPA content has been before people who are interested in it over 1,500,000 times since we started our social networking program a year ago.

And on our blog we’ve posted some pretty good content – our posts on austenitic grain size, welding resulfurized steels, bar straightness, temper color, and material impacts – these all come up on page 1 of Google search results. Often in the top handful of non-paid links.

Page one on Google is the gold standard for information in the information age of today.

These social networking tools have helped us connect with members, potential members, your potential customers, suppliers, and the larger market for Precision Machining. The out-of-pocket expense was very small, trivial really. And the staff time required once we set it up is just a few hours a week.

So why haven’t you picked up these Social Networking Tools You Can Use? We’ve demonstrated that they can create connection, start a conversation, and introduce us to new clientele. Our getting topical page one rankings on Google shows that the knowledge that your shop has is just as likely to command attention in the Marketplace of Ideas online. Certainly you have special capabilities and expertise that when properly shared and targeted can help those people (and companies) who need and want to find you, to connect.

For several years, we’ve been working on the idea of connecting. Our member surveys always show Networking as a highly valued PMPA deliverable. Networking is done by connecting.

We’ve just had a one-year demonstration of what social media tools can do for an industry association. The numbers are as impressive as the costs are low. We hope that you will follow our experience by using these new tools to connect with tomorrow’s buyers who haven’t yet figured out that you can help them, and won’t take your salesman’s call if he finds them.

Social Media tools make you bigger in your market. The 30,000 people who see a message from us weekly are larger than the few thousands of people who were already in the PMPA “tent.” And they have conversations and network with people with similar wants and needs. Of course you want to reach them!

Consider social networking. Not just an email blats of a newsletter. A blog perhaps or enhancements to your website. At the very least, you need to be on LinkedIn. Join relevant groups. CUSTOMER GROUPS. Industry groups, any group that might conceivably be related to your business. Develop content. Share it weekly with your new Network. Do it now.

From PMPA’s first-year experience, there may be a million and a half or so of your potential followers, customers, and maybe even potential employees out there waiting to find you. And, perhaps, 60,000 or so opportunities to teach those who are really interested in what you might have to say – the stuff that makes you an expert and that they really need to know.

Social networking. It’s not about selling. It’s about cultivating your market. Connecting. Establishing your expertise. Finding your voice. Being found. Connecting.

Social Networking – it’s Tools You Can Use. Pick your tool. Give it a try.

Leave a Comment » | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing | Tagged: blog, miles free, pmpa, Precision machined parts association, social media sucess story, twitter | Permalink
Posted by tradesmeninsights

Pros and Cons of Starting a Blog

July 22, 2010

Blogs can be a very important part of your social media strategy. I use it as the hub of all other activity and get more hits to it than our website. If you’re thinking about doing a blog, here are a few things to consider first.

Starting a blog is a great way to show the world your unique identity. Even an “amateur” blog can let customers, friends, and coworkers know you are serious about establishing yourself online.

Pro – It’s Free! From Blogger to WordPress to TypePad to Tumblr, there are dozens of sites out there that will let you start a free blog. Just sign up for an account and get started setting up the style and layout just how you’d like it. Many even offer design templates to help you get started.

Con – Time Consuming. Once you’re signed up, the empty space of your blog can be intimidating, especially compared to bloggers who have years of experience and tens of thousands of posts. You are faced with the task of filling up a digital journal with an unlimited number of pages and an unlimited number of readers. This can be very time consuming.

Pro – Unlimited possibilities. Blogging is a great way to share your professional knowledge, but your blog need not pertain to just your work life. Infusing your personality can be a great way to connect with your audience on a more human level.

Con – But would anyone read it? You have to give the world a reason to read your blog – they won’t come flocking to you. Letting friends and family know is a great way to get started, but ultimately you need to build your audience through dynamic, interesting content targeted at a niche subject. The Internet is a big place with a lot of competition.

Pro – Establish your Brand. Whether you’re a CEO or a student, you owe it to yourself to create and incubate an online identity for yourself or your company. 45% of employers will conduct an online search to screen potential employers – do you control what they will see?

Con –Watch what you blog. There may not be any official standards to what you can and can’t blog, but you have to live with everything you post, for better or for worse.

Pro – Squash Rumors. Not everyone has crazed fans that start outrageous rumors. Everyday people can find themselves a victim of spamdexing, a phenomenon where your name is repeatedly used on unscrupulous websites simply to generate unique traffic. Your web identity gives people a detailed picture of whom you are, so keep what is said about you under your control.

Pro – Establish Thought Leadership and Build Relationships. A blog allows you to become an expert in your industry. It is a great opportunity to share your knowledge, tips and tricks in the industry. Share valuable information and people will turn to you when they have a problem or question. A blog is another great resource to be able to listen to your audience.

Don’t be put off by a blog as it’s a powewful tool, but don’t be fooled as it does take a time commitment.

If you liked this post, here are others that might interest you.

6 Tips to Make Your Blog More Successful in Reaching the Professional Tradesman.

Social Media: How Manufacturers Can Make the Most out of it.

Social Media: Catching on in the B-to-B Markets.

80% of Visitors to Your Blog are First Timers!

If you like this post, please pass it onto a friend.

Leave a Comment » | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing | Tagged: blogger, pros and cons of starting a blog, tumblr, typepad, wordpress | Permalink
Posted by tradesmeninsights

Thought Leadership: Repurpose, Repackage, Refine Messages

July 21, 2010

If you’re a blogger, you know that it takes a lot of time to continually write posts, and once it’s on your site, you have to start on the next one. You may be overlooking ways to “reuse” the content across other medias to generate new conversations. Here are some hints:

Repurpose existing content - collect all thought leadership you have created over the past few years that isn’t time sensitive. This goes beyond the posts you’ve done. Look at white papers, articles, presentations, webinars. You get the idea. Once you have a stack, organize them by various topics or themes that’s appropriate for your target audiences.

Repackage your content - there are so many different options. Here are just a few suggestions:

Powerpoints - can be converted to an online slide show and put up on slide share.
Case Studies - can be used as a series of ”Best Practices” and can be delivered by way of podcasts or webinars.
Industry News/Trends - use as mobile SMS alerts where folks can subcribe to your updates.
White Papers - turn into podcasts or a series of forum topics.
Position Papers - turn into podcasts, and if you haven’t already done a post on them, it’s an ideal way to reuse content.
Use Other Social Media Outlets - post comments on your Facebook wall, tweet about them and use the content on the appropriate groups on your LinkedIn account.

Refine content – optimize your content using your keywords to increase your site ranking. If mobile marketing is an important target for you, you need to reformat content so it’s reader friendly. Here are some helpful hints from Christina Kerley.

These are some of the ways I try to reuse content. I’d like to hear what you do.

Leave a Comment » | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing | Tagged: thought leadership, repurpose, repackage, redefine | Permalink
Posted by tradesmeninsights

Social Media Strategy: READY-FIRE-AIM

July 20, 2010

60% of companies using social media have no plan. Shooting from the hip does not make sense. Your purpose should dictate strategy.

Companies are going about social strategy backwards, by first concentrating on the tools and technologies instead of focusing on what they want to achieve. My understanding of social media and how to use it was greatly expedited because my rifled focus on applying it for new business.

A survey conducted by marketing firm Digital Brand Expressions found that 78 percent of client companies responding to their survey said they use social media, but only 41 percent said they have a strategic plan in place to direct their social media efforts.

Other key findings from this survey that should be of interest:

Of the companies that have no plan in place, 88% agree that it is important.
Of those companies that work from some plan, 94% said that marketing activities are included in the plan.
71% of those with a plan said their Marketing Department is the group with the primary responsibility for creating and maintaining the firm’s social media presence.
Of the planners, 71% indicate they use social media for public relations communications while 55% said that they used social media for sales-related activities. A surprisingly small percentage (16%) say their HR team is using social media for recruiting, employee retention, training and development, etc. and 26% use it for customer service.
Social media efforts are being led primarily by Marketing (71%) and PR (29%) departments.
Even among those with a plan, few (29%) have written policies and communications protocols in place, leaving the organization exposed to problems arising out of employees communicating in ways that inadvertently hurt, rather than help, their company brands.

“It’s fairly well established that social media is a channel that businesses must participate in, leaving CEOs with the new challenge of planning and implementing brand aligned initiatives enterprise-wide,” said Veronica Fielding, president and CEO of Digital Brand Expressions.

Click on the link to download a PDF copy of: Corporate Social Media Report

If you like this post, these others might be of interest to you:

Social Media Catching on in the B-to-B Markets

Social Media Marketing Continues to Grow: Great Way to Reach the Professional Tradesmen.

1 Comment | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing | Tagged: social media strategy, digital brand expressions, veronica fielding | Permalink
Posted by tradesmeninsights

How to Find Tradesmen on Twitter

July 7, 2010

Twitter is one of the most useful social media tools we use to drive traffic. For it to be effective, you first need to determine key words and phrases that fit into your space.

Twitter has tools as well as third parties that can help. I recently read an article by Adam Holden-Bache in Social Media B2B where he outlines some tips on fine-tuning your audience searches. Here are some highlights:

Determine key words and phrases - Go to Google AdWords Keyword Tool and enter some key words. For example, air conditioning heating gets an average 550,000 monthly hits and 450,000 are local searches
Search Twitter by key words - Twitter Advance Search, take what you find on Google and plug into Twitter
Optimize tweets for inbound opportunities - Use Google Reader and select Twitter Search Feed. When you click on “show details,” it tells you when most activities are taking place so you know when to Tweet
Use Buzzom.com to search Twitter Bios - Search key words that would describe the people that buy your products, such as remodeling contractors
Use Twellow.com to search business categories - This is a directory of Twitter accounts and you can search broad categories to identify people who are in the energy market, aerospace or green

These are some great tips. Do you have any to share?

If you like this article, you may like:

How to Engage the Professional Tradesmen on Twitter

Awareness of Twitter has Exploded: Great Way to Reach the Professional Tradesmen

Leave a Comment » | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Social Marketing, Twitter | Tagged: twitter, tradesmen on twitter, adam holden-bache, social media b to b, google adwords keyword tool, twitter advance search, twellow.com | Permalink
Posted by tradesmeninsights

50 Power Twitter Tips to Help B-to-B Marketers

July 1, 2010

Twitter is often one of the most misunderstood and underutilized social media tools. I use it all the time and it’s one of the best lead generators for my blog.

Chris Brogan, one of the industry’s gurus, has put together a list of tips that I thought would be useful, so here they are:

Intent (Human Artist)

Don’t read EVERY tweet. It’s perfectly okay. You have permission.
Follow anyone who follows you (and unfollow spammers/jerks).
Promote other people 12x to every 1 self-promotional tweet.
Build lists to watch people who matter to you more closely.
Retweet the good stuff from others. Sharing is caring.
A lot of @replies shows a lot of humanity/engagement.
Robot tweets are less sexy than human tweets.
Promote the new/less followed more than the “names.”
Set an egg timer. Twitter is addictive.
Everyone does it their own way. You’re doing it wrong, too – to someone.

Technical

A non-standard background and face avatar means we believe you may be human.
Leave 20 characters or more space in each tweet to improve retweeting.
Use Seesmic or Tweetdeck or Hootsuite so you can see more.
Linking one update to several communities is technically possible. It’s just not respectful of each community’s uniqueness.
Tools like http://bit.ly let you see stats. Use them.
Make hashtags small and simple. We need room to tweet.
If software allows you to “post updates to Twitter” as well as to the app, don’t do that. We rarely want to see them.
If you develop software that pushes updates to Twitter, be VERY explicit how that works.
Every time you use OAUTH to give apps permission to use your account, you open a potential security hole. Check your permissions monthly.
The best mobile app is the one that you feel comfortable using. We don’t know better.

Business

Spamming us repeatedly is okay. We just unfollow you.
Spend more time in search than in chatting us up about your stuff.
Finding people who need what you’re selling trumps advertising to us.
Retweeting someone’s nice words about you is lame and doesn’t buy you more attention. Let it stand.
If your link is an affiliate link or a client, say so (in parentheses).
Your customers might not be on Twitter. Use rapleaf to find them.
Invite your customers to Twitter, then make it worth it for them.
Use Twitter as a personalized communication tool, not another blast.
Having different accounts for everything seems like the right move, until you realize it’s hard to grow multiple followings.
Just make money and then the boss won’t ask about ROI any more.

Integrated Usage

Twitter makes every event better. Post the hashtag everywhere. Make every speaker sign/label/name include a Twitter ID.
Apps like TweetChat.com make following event chats really easy. Put in a hashtag and go.
Tweeting the content of events is nice, but so is occasionally making a real live connection with the speaker.
It’s okay to tweet your blog posts, but try asking a question that leads readers into the post.
Can you invite Twitter followers to your other social platforms, like LinkedIn or Facebook? Sure you can.
I’m not into mixing my location apps with my tweets, but if you do, do it FROM the location app into Twitter, not the other way around.
Getting others to tweet your posts or news or registrations is useful, but sometimes comes off as a barrage or spam. Be prepared for that perception.
Tweets that point us to photos and/or video and/or music, etc., are always a great way to enhance the experience.
Please remove Twitter from LinkedIn. Use the #in tag instead and be selective.
Spammy or no, events that tweet their attendance registration seem to drive attendance.

Off-Twitter

Are your tweets really what you want to show in your sidebar? Doesn’t that direct people away from your site?
Think of Twitter as a guidance system to what you think is interesting. A lot of that is likely off-Twitter.
Apps like VisibleTweets.com are neat, but can be very distracting at events.
If you use tweets on a screen at an event, be warned if you moderate. Angry crowds can happen.
Don’t forget to invite people from off-Twitter to follow you on Twitter. Include your actual Twitter ID (I see lots of “follow me on Twitter” with no details).
Asking questions on Twitter makes for very interesting commentary and opinions for blog posts.
Tweetups are awesome, especially if you make them about more than just drinking and saying hi. (Though, hey, drinks can be nice.)
Outside of the Twitter app, keep “Tw” names to a minimum. We’re not your “tweeps.”
If your only marketing efforts are on Twitter, start building an email marketing list. Never put your eggs in one basket.
Start thinking in 120 characters (remember? save 20). Every bit of this advice is tweetable.

Your mileage may vary. Some of these might be really helpful and others might not be that useful at all, given your own situations. In fact, feel free to make your own version, add and subtract at will, and comment on where you disagree or agree. It’s all up for discussion. Besides, you’re doing it wrong.

If you like this article, you might enjoy:

How to Engage the Professional Tradesmen on Twitter

Awareness of Twitter has Exploded: Great Way to Reach the Professional Tradesmen

B-to-B Marketers: Tips on How to Optimize Twitter

4 Comments | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing, Twitter | Tagged: Chris Brogan, twitter | Permalink
Posted by tradesmeninsights

Podcast: Industry Interview with Georgia Foley-STAFDA Market

June 30, 2010

I recently had the chance to catch up with Georgia Foley, Executive Director of STAFDA, to get her read on what’s happening in their industry and what STAFDA is doing about it. You can hear the entire interview here.

Highlights include:

What the biggest challenges facing members are. Health care lines of credit and overall government policies top the list.
Key issues facing the manufacturing sector.
Employee Free Choice Act - What it means if it becomes law.
What the manufacturer’s role moving forward should be to support distribution.

If you like this podcast, please pass it onto a friend.

Leave a Comment » | Marketing Tips, Traditional Marketing | Tagged: Georgia Foley, industry overview of stafda, STAFDA | Permalink
Posted by tradesmeninsights

Podcast: Industry Interview with Georgia Foley-STAFDA Market

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