January 8, 2013
SlideShare is gaining traction more and more and it’s not just for slides. SlideShare is averaging over 60 million visits a month and 120 million page views. That means great traction for your SEO and you can target buyers/influencers via tags and channels (customize content).You can also use it for lead genreation and there’s a great post in social media examiner,how to generate leads with slideshare that you may find interesting
It’s now owned by LinkedIn and they are doing a great job making it easy to connect with your LinkedIn contacts and groups.
So if SlideShare is becoming so important, we should start paying attention to the details on what and how things should be put up there. I recently read an article by Roger C. Parker in the Content Marketing Institute’s daily updates on a to-do check list (you can download it here) to make sure you’re getting the most out of SlideShare.
He outlines 22 tips on proofing, uploading files and even tips on working with PowerPoint. Here are a few of his points that hit home with me:
- Are slide titles and text consistently placed and aligned?
- Other than the title slide, are they numbered?
- Does your presentation title appear at the top of each page?
- Did you add your firm’s name, URL and contact info at the bottom of each page of your handouts?
- Did you convert presentation files to Adobe Acrobat to preserve text formatting?
- Did you check each link after uploading to make sure they work?
- Did you create links between SlideShare and social media sites like LinkedIn and Twitter?
I guess the point is the devil is in the details and if we all take some time, we’ll get more out of our efforts on SlideShare. Roger suggested if you want to learn more you could read The Marketer’s Guide to SlideShare by Todd Wheatlan.
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Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Social Marketing | Tagged: content marketing institute, linkedin groups, roger c. parker, slideshare, Social media examiner, tips on getting the most out of slideshare, todd wheatland | 
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Posted by tradesmeninsights
November 20, 2012
According to a recent post from B2B online marketing, LinkedIn, Blogging and Facebook are the top 3. This is according to a 2012 social media study of B2B marketers that were asked to choose the most important method they use for social media outreach.
In a study conducted by Social Media Examiner of over 1,900 B2B marketers, results indicate that while B2B marketers are finding success in their social media efforts, they still see room for improvement. Whether you’re a large company or starting a small business, here are a few statistics that show why you should be using social media.
- Over 56% of B2B marketers acquired new business partnerships through social media.
- 53% of B2B marketers found social media helped them develop a loyal fan base.
- Nearly 60% of B2B marketers saw improved search rankings from their social efforts.
Each social media channel is different and should be approached that way. Here are some highlights from the post:
Facebook is more personal. Let them know what your business offers them.
- Create an online community that encourages conversations.
- Use photos and videos to make it more interesting.
- Engage by offering a strong call to action. You want them to start a conversation.
Blogging is a great SEO effort and link building.
- Become a thought leader in your area and gain credibility.
- Target each post to a specific audience for engagement and encourage folks to share your content.
- Use strong key words to improve site’s performance on search engines.
LinkedIn is a great way to connect with other businesses in your industries.
- Be active. Search and connect with individuals and groups that are relevant to you.
- Ask for recommendations from previous and current customers. These short testimonials will help prospects see why people like working with you.
Social media, if used right, can help generate leads, interact with customers and potentials and help you build your thought leadership.
1 Comment | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Social Marketing | Tagged: b to b marketing online, blogging for b to b marketers, Social media examiner, what are the best social media programs for b to b marketers | Permalink
Posted by tradesmeninsights
September 5, 2012
Social forums are an ideal way for B-to-B companies to demonstrate their expertise and knowledge. Forums are intended for people to exchange ideas and gather info. There are several to choose from… Quora, HighTable and LinkedIn to name a few. Most of my experience has been using LinkedIn.
A recent article on Social Media Examiner by Kane Russell gives tips on using social forums in a B-to-B setting. Here are some highlights:
- Comment from the perspective of a thought leader - answer questions and provide qualitative and quantitative supporting evidence. Acknowledge alternative solutions.
- Respect other users - don’t argue but address disagreements using examples and data to make your point.
- Join the conversation - respond directly and acknowledge what others have already said.
- Be consistent and cover subject comprehensively - do this on both where you have expertise and on topics outside your business experience.
- Add links where necessary - but make sure they are relevant.
If you haven’t participated in a forum, please expand your horizons and try. It’s a great way to learn and make new friends.
Leave a Comment » | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing | Tagged: b to b social forums, hightable, kane russell, linkedin, quora, Social media examiner, use b to b social forums | Permalink
Posted by tradesmeninsights
September 4, 2012
What’s your social media plan – Ready, Fire, Aim?
Most businesses social media plans fail because there isn’t a plan. Starting a Facebook account or bl0g with no plan on how they will react, not only with each other but with the rest of your marketing plan, is a disaster waiting to happen.
I recently read a good article by Jim Belosic on Social Media Examiner that outlines some pretty straightforward tips for your social media efforts to be successful. Here are some highlights:
- Make a commitment – establishing yourself and your company doesn’t happen overnight. You need to make a commitment of time, energy and resources to ensure its success.
- Find your best fit - go where your customers or potentials are. It could be Facebook or LinkedIn. Search for your business on sites like Yelp to see where you are mentioned.
- Create expert content - don’t promote yourself, promote conversations about issues that affect your followers. This will help engage and position you as a thought leader which is one of your main objectives.
- Delegate tasks - as you grow your social presence, don’t get overwhelmed. Get help and recruit more team members. You don’t have to do it alone, but should manage others efforts.
Do you have a plan? Can you add to this list?
Leave a Comment » | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing | Tagged: having a social media plan, jim belosic, Social media examiner, steps to ensure an effective social media plan | Permalink
Posted by tradesmeninsights
May 8, 2012
Do you know where your customers and prospects are spending their time online? Wouldn’t that be an important part of an overall social media strategy to find and engage them?
If trends continue, social networks will soon surpass internet portals like AOL and Yahoo!
I recently read an article by Phil Mershon in Social Media Examiner that highlighted five ways to use market research intelligence on how consumers behave on social media networks. Although the article is focused more on the consumer side of things, he brings out some points that us in the B-to-B world should take notice of.
Here are some highlights:
- Know where your customers spend their time - Over 21% of internet users spent their time on social networking sites. Do you know where your customers and prospects are spending their time? One way is to ask your current customer base where they find meaningful content.
- Develop content that is relevant to your reader - Content is king and if you want to stand out in the crowd, you need to become a good source for not only product info, but for industry issues. Remember, content isn’t about you but how you can help your customer or prospect.
- Take video seriously - Next to Google, YouTube is the most searched site. Video views have increased 43% and currently over 100 million videos are viewed daily. What are you doing to tell your story and points of differentiation?
- Consider the role of Mobile - 8% of all internet traffic comes from mobile devices. Make sure your website is mobile friendly and that content is easy to consume and respond to.
Using key words and investigating sources on the internet, you can find places where your customers and prospects are spending time. Get there and start engaging them.
If you like this post you may like:
Why a Mobile Strategy is so Important in Reaching the Professional Tradesmen
2012 Trends of Smartphones and Tablets
Leave a Comment » | Marketing Tools, Social Marketing | Tagged: find where customers spend their time, google, phil mershon, Social media examiner, using social media to engage your target audience, youtube | Permalink
Posted by tradesmeninsights
May 2, 2012
So what do you do when someone engages you on a social media platform? Hopefully you respond and give them the info they requested, answered their question or directed them somewhere to get an answer. But then what’s the next step? Hopefully you don’t turn them over to your sales force without first determining where they are in your sales funnel.
Does everyone within your organization understand your different stages in the selling cycle? Most sales funnels were set up for developing traditional leads. A question you must ask yourself is whether social media leads fit into your existing process and if so where? As a rule, social media leads take longer to convert because they are engaging you earlier in the process.
Nurturing social leads needs to be handled differently.This will include decision-making content designed to answer questions, overcome objections and provide opportunities that arise during the purchasing process.
I recently read a good post by Nichole Kelly in Social Media Examiner, 5 Tips for Moving Social Media Leads Into the Sales Funnel that I thought might be of interest to you. She makes useful points from understanding the sales funnel to optimizing the path to conversion and explains why social media leads need to be nurtured differently.
What do you think? Have you successfully converted social media fans and followers into revenue? Are you still trying to figure out how to do this?
Leave a Comment » | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing | Tagged: how to convert social media leads, how to move social media leads into the sales funnel, nichole kelly, sales funnel, Social media examiner, why social leads ar differnt from traditional ones | Permalink
Posted by tradesmeninsights
January 24, 2012
Everybody does some sort of events in their businesses. Open houses, counter days, new product launches to name a few. Have you ever considered using social media to help create buzz?
I recently read a post by Ekaterina Walter in Social Media Examiner called 15 Ways to Bring Social Media to Events that I thought was really good. Even though some of her points were more for a retail/consumer approach, here are four of her tips that I thought would be applicable to this audience.
- Create pre-event buzz - Start early with registration. Encourage attendees to share details. If you’re having speakers, make sure to include their Bios and Twitter handles.
- Keep attendees informed – Use QR codes to access presentations if it’s being done outside. Collect your speaker’s blogs all in one place and create a dashboard of their latest posts.
- Help them share information - Use Twitter back channels so you can get questions and feedback. Share images and presentations. Open your event to virtual attendees.
- Post event - Publish your Twitter wall and give all access to your talks with links to videos.
I’m sure there are other ways to use social media for events, and I’d like to hear ways you’ve used it.
Leave a Comment » | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing | Tagged: ekaterina walter, Social media examiner, social media to enhance events, using social media at events | Permalink
Posted by tradesmeninsights
December 14, 2011
Here are some facts we can’t ignore: According to Hubspot, mobile devices will be the number-one way we access the Internet by 2013. Comscore just released a white paper that shows in the U.S. right now almost 7% of Internet traffic is coming from non-computer devices with mobile phones leading the way.
So it begs the question – is your website optimized for mobile users? I recently read an article by Jamie Turner in Social Media Examiner, 9 Tips for Optimizing Your Website for the Mobile Users that I thought was very helpful. Here are some highlights:
- KISS - keep it SIMPLE.
- Plan your site layout - keep pages to a minimum and the layout simple.
- Match branding elements - make sure mobile site looks like your regular site (look and feel).
- Avoid Flash and Java - Apple products don’t Flash and many phones don’t support Java.
- Reduce the amount of text entry - use dropdowns, checklists or prepopulated fields when possible.
- Use mobile redirects - make sure your site has the correct software so it can identify a mobile user and send them to that version of the site.
Have you made sure your website is mobile friendly?
4 Comments | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Traditional Marketing | Tagged: comscore, hubspot, jamie turner, Social media examiner, website optimized for mobile | Permalink
Posted by tradesmeninsights
October 19, 2011
To listen to all the “experts” Google+ is the next best thing to come down the pike and will eventually replace Facebook in the B-to-B space. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but since they opened it up to the public a few weeks ago, there are over 50 million users and it’s growing everyday.
I have to believe that if Google is involved then it has a pretty good chance of succeeding. I’ve been on it and have started building my circles, but have yet to fully understand all the ways we can use it.
I recently read an excellent post by Debbie Hemley in Social Media Examiner, 20 Ways to Improve Your Google+ Knowledge that I thought was very helpful. She gives tips on how to get through the basics and highlights ways that you can use it in everyday B-to-B applications from setting up your circle to creating your profile, setting up notifications, plus much more. Here are some highlights that I found interesting:
- Engage and learn - go to Google+ tips on Twitter and see what others are saying and dive in.
- Watch and learn - look at Google+ help and watch videos from people who created it.
- Set up Google Sparks account- that way you can get the latest developments on what’s new.
- Create a cheat sheet - to help you format and utilize hotkeys until you become more familiar.
- Show off your Google profile – by putting it on your blog or website.
- Go mobile - make sure you get the mobile app so you can use it from your phone.
So I’d like to know if you’re on Google+ and if so, what are your thoughts?
Leave a Comment » | Marketing Tools, Social Marketing | Tagged: debbie hemley, google, Social media examiner | Permalink
Posted by tradesmeninsights
September 27, 2011
QR codes in the world of marketing are relatively new and as such a novelty. The problem is, if you don’t use them correctly, they can do more harm than good, and if you turn off your target audiences by a simple thing like not using a QR code correctly, what might it do to the rest of your relationship with them?
For those who might be interested, we have a Trends in Mobile Media white paper that can be downloaded that will give you a pretty good overview of what’s currently available.
I recently read an interesting post in Social Media Examiner by Jeff Korhan titled, 5 Steps to a Successful QR Code Marketing campaign. Here are some highlights:
- Plan a strategy - You need to understand your target audience, have clear objectives and offer useful and valuable incentives.
- Create quality codes and test them - You only get one chance to make a first impression. There are many QR codes out there, the most popular being QR codes and Microsoft (MS) Tags. Do your homework when choosing one and then make sure to test it several times before making it live for the rest of the world to see.
- Link your codes to mobile friendly or mobile optimized sites - One of the biggest mistakes is linking to a traditional size page that you want to be read on a mobile device. Make sure where you link is optimized for mobile.
- Track performance with management tools - QR codes and MS tags have reporting sytems built in. They currently don’t go very deep, but I think it’s just a matter of time until they do. There are several other developers showing up, but it’s too early in the game to rate or recommend any.
- Deliver value and a favorable experience – That’s what the user who clicks on the code will remember. Did you WOW them with a video, did you give them a discount on the product?
I’d love to hear how you’re using QR codes and how successful you’ve been.
Leave a Comment » | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing | Tagged: Jeff Korhan, microsoft tags, qr code campaign, QR codes, Social media examiner, trends in mobile media | Permalink
Posted by tradesmeninsights
John Sonnhalter
Welcome to my blog, Tradesmen Insights. I'm the master of one trade, founder of a B-to-B marketing communications firm to companies that target tradesmen in construction, industrial and MRO markets.
