Aligned Marketing Blog

An often-overlooked step in the process is the first one, which is the easiest one: Claim your brand name on every platform. Open at least one account on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc., under your company name and brand names. Claim your online real estate before someone else does. That’s really important so I’ll wait…there’s a very reason I made you do that.

The reason is squatters. Squatters will steal your brand names and either block you from your own names or, worse, begin posting as you and potentially do significant damage to your brand. So claim your space now and thank me later.

Most of the platforms have specific rules about squatting and many will help you reclaim your rightful names, but not all. To some it’s just a platform and whatever happens, well, happens. There are numerous examples of names being claimed and even abused. Look at this screenshot from Twitter carefully:

Pfizer’s real Twitter account is @pfizer_news. The guy, I won’t name him because I don’t want to help him and I don’t support this kind of pirating, has the Pfizer name. He doesn’t appear to be malicious but neither is he flattering. Don’t you want your online representation to be flattering? If you’re Pfizer don’t you want to control your own name?

If someone is only casually paying attention, which happens a lot on Twitter, wouldn’t it be easy for them to think this was Pfizer’s official account?

Here’s a shortcut to claiming your name. There are services, such as KnowEm, that you can pay to secure your name on hundreds of social media sites. It’s a good way to secure your name even on platforms you have no intention of using without having to do all the grunt-work yourself.

Finally, after you’ve secured your name go to each one and complete your profile. I know it’s a pain but the search engines are now indexing the social media platforms so this is a quick and easy way to support your brand and increase traffic to your (official) website.

It really boils down to two choices, you claim it or someone else will. So what’s it gonna be?

Steve

800-707-9150

If you’re looking for niche markets, hot topics and new ideas there are a bunch of sites that can help you beyond the search engines although, in some cases, they are sub-domains of the search engines.

I check out the hottest search trends at Google Zeitgeist. Since I’m usually targeting the US market, I’ll click on “U.S. Zeitgeist,” otherwise I’ll look at “Zeitgeist Around the World.”

Lycos Top 50 and Yahoo! Buzz are two other sites, like Google Zeitgeist, that I review when I’m looking for the latest trends in digital products and hot topics.

The eBay Pulse site is also an excellent place to start looking at niche markets and topics and is one very few people, from what I can tell, use for research.

If you still can’t find anything to get your creative marketing or writing juices flowing then here are some other sites to investigate:

Nichebot - http://www.nichebot.com

Shopping.com Searches – http://www2.shopping.com/top_searches

AOL Hot Searches - http://hot.aol.com/hot/hot

Google Groups - http://groups.google.com

Craig's List - http://www.craigslist.com

Delicious Popular - http://del.icio.us/popular

Digg - http://www.digg.com

Google Catalogs - http://catalogs.google.com

Google Suggest – http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en

Technorati - http://www.technorati.com

If you want to focus exclusively on what’s selling visit the Clickbank Marketplace (http://marketplace.clickbank.net).

The web is constantly changing so it requires effort to stay current, to remain relevant.

As a marketing consultant it’s my business to stay abreast of web-trends. Feel free to call me if you’re having trouble finding the information you need.

Steve Hartkopf

800-707-9150

 

In case you want your message exposed to millions of people, Aligned Marketing does social media and video.

Steve
803-810-3180
800-707-9150

#1 Googlenation

Google continues to expand its online dominance.

In early December Google announced five new services:

• Near instant voice translation – Language translation via mobile phones. This is all new but Google expects to have the major languages available in 2010.
• Customized suggestions based on location – While you type a search term into you mobile phone Google will pre-populate terms based on your location. That can come in handy if you’re in an unfamiliar location and looking for a restaurant, theater or retail store.
• Product search with local inventory – See who is selling what near you and whether or not they have any in stock right now. Amazing!
• Near Me Now – Android owners will get local results ranked by user ratings.
• Google Goggles – Also for Android owners, Goggles is a visual search. Watch video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hhgfz0zPmH4

Google docs, think free Office applications, and Google Wave expand their reach. The applications are free. Doc programs are very good and Wave is an excellent collaboration tool. Once you start using them, it’s hard to stop. They’re that good.

Real Time Search includes social media in search results. If something happens in the world Twitter may be a better source of news than CNN, which was the case following the Iranian election.

#2 Video explodes

YouTube is the second most searched online property behind Google and in front of Yahoo. Whether you want to learn how to use software, film a videoblog, repair a deck or bust through writer’s block, there’s a video that can help you.

Smart marketers will use online video to get their message out. More online video libraries, premium content subscription services, and increased advertising bandwidth will result in more online video ads.

New entrants will join the club currently dominated by YouTube, Vimeo, Viddler, MetaCafe and Hulu.

#3 More Mobile

In a September 2009 survey, eMarketer respondents anticipated an increase in mobile ad spending to $593M in 2010, up 43%! As more companies attempt to engage an always-on-the-go population mobile applications and investments will explode.

Personal Apps, such as the one I’m building for iPhone users, will automatically configure your website, blog, etc. for mobile readers. This will become a high-growth business and eventually incorporate the already popular Apps that allow mobile users to interact with Social Media, our next trend.

#4 Social Media

Twitter’s popularity may have peaked in 2009.  2010 will be the year more companies learn how to make Twitter, and other social media, work for business. If you disagree, that’s fine. Maybe you can explain why Google has invested so heavily in Local Search?
Customer service won’t shift entirely to Social Media but smart companies will understand that a quick post on Twitter to an unhappy customer that solves their problem is a competitive advantage over phone trees, automated messages and being placed on interminable hold. Reliability will have to be addressed but the speed and cost of social media already give them the upper hand.

#5 Convergence

The offline worlds of television and movie playing devices, for example, and the online will converge. You can already buy DVD and Blue Ray players that connect directly to the web and provide access to movie trailers, games, and search. Televisions with access to NetFlix, Blockbusters and other online video providers are coming this year.

#6 Cheap

Google Docs, iPhone App, Twitter and YouTube can all be useful business tools and are free, as are blogs from WordPress, Blogger, Blogspot and many others. Through Skype I have video conferencing capabilities through my Mac and unlimited calling for $30.00 a year. What’s your phone bill? Do you have video conferencing capabilities in your office?

Picture editing software, customer relations management programs, email marketing tools and a myriad of other productivity tools are available online and many of them are free or ridiculously inexpensive.

#7 Mish-mash

Copywriting, search engine optimization, tools that add more leverage to social media will all continue to grow in their importance and utility. Websites that can't be found are just pointless expenses and sites that lack purpose and focus are not much better. More companies will catch up with those facts. And writing that was exceptional for a brochure may not be adequate for a website, which works best with strategically placed keywords throughout.

What did I miss?

Chris Brogan wrote a blog a week or so ago about what he'd do if he suddenly found himself with some unscheduled time, such as a flight delay. The only thing I remember from his list is he'd write a recommendation on LinkedIn. That's a good task to knock off your to-do list but probably wouldn't make my top ten list. If I had 30 minutes of unexpected time open up, here is what I'd do.

1. Re-organize and prioritize my tasks. I'm always making lists and checking off completed items, which means sometimes my lists get messy. I find that taking a few minutes to clean them up and create clear priorities helps me stay relaxed and be more productive.
2. Investigate new social media sites. I have a list of social media sites that I keep meaning to investigate. 30-minutes is just about the right amount of time to really dig into a social media site, see what they're trying to do and then compare their value to some of the better known sites. Since a lot of people ask me about social media I feel an obligation to be well versed on the subject.
3. I like to take 30 minutes and focus on one client. I ask myself one question: What can I do or recommend that will improve their business? Sometimes this results in a proposal but most of the time I just call them, share the idea and let them know that I'm thinking about them. In my experience these types of phone calls are very well received.
4. Call a friend. Everyone is busy so it's hard to stay in touch with all the important people in our lives. Give me 30 minutes and I can leave voicemails, no one answers anymore, for 5-6 people and just say, "Hello, I was thinking about you and wanted to touch base.". (I need to do more of this.)
5. I subscribe to the online version of the Wall Street Journal but don't read it everyday. Sometimes, as a change of pace, I'll open it up and read whatever interests me. Typically, I tweet a link to the most interesting articles. It's my favorite source of Tweets.
6. I subscribe to several business journals and receive summaries regularly. It's a good way to keep current and has, on occasion, been the source of new business. It typically takes 5-10 minutes to get through one summary.
7. Promote my blog. Few blogs grow readership by themselves, you have to promote them. I use Twitter, FaceBook and LinkedIn (primarily) to let folks know a new post is up. In addition, I read several other blogs and leave comments, which is a good way to get people to read blog, in return, and you help grow an audience.
8. Speaking of blogs, 30 minutes is just enough time to brainstorm blog topics and write a short paragraph outline.
9. Take a walk or just look out the window. I have long days and seldom take a day off so every once in a while I just need to step away from the desk or whatever I'm working on to relax and regain my perspective.
10. Clean up my desktop. By the end of the week my computer screen is often cluttered. I don't like clutter so spending 10-15 minutes to get files organized and into a folder is time well spent. This is similar to #1 so here's an extra bonus.
11. Bonus: Check out the competition or one of my clients' competitors. Websites are being changed all the time. My arsenal of intelligence gathering and website analysis tools is constantly expanding so it pays for me to take the time to do a little competitor checking.

So, what would you do?

Steve

Social Media To-Do List

You may be confused about social media (SM), many business people are. There are literally hundreds of social media sites and sorting through them seems impossible. There’s Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, FriendFeed, LinkedIn, etc., and then there’s the ones with unusual names,  StumbleUpon or Posterous, to name two. No doubt, there are too many for a non-professional to evaluate and, since most SM sites are awash with non-customers for most businesses, why would anyone in a traditional marketing role take the time to review all those communities. So what should marketing professionals do about social media? Here’s my take:

1. Target your activities:

Information overload saps efficiency and limits productivity, that’s why many of us hate email. Take the time to investigate the top 25-50 social media sites and see if your company, your products, your competitors or your key industry words are prominent. Do a generic Google search for the same terms (company, product, competitors and you) just to see if you’ve missed anything. If any of the social media networks you evaluate have activity around your company, products or competitors, then join and monitor those networks. This approach let’s you focus on what’s important and weed out most of the “social media noise.”

2. Know who is talking about your brand:

You need to know who’s talking about you online and social media is the perfect mechanism. There are companies, such as Aligned Marketing (yes, that’s a shameless plug), that can break down the demographics of the people talking about your brand by gender, age and geography. If the demographics match your target audience then, again, you’ll need to pay close attention to those conversations and be ready to engage quickly, which brings us to the next point.

3. Engage the conversation:

It’s better to be proactive than it is to be reactive. Joining the online conversation allows you to speak directly with your target audience, your customers and your detractors. You can monitor the conversation. You can’t manage the conversation, per se, but you can insert your own perspective and, hopefully, influence the direction of the conversation. Engaging gives you the opportunity to react, share your side and, perhaps, steer a negative comment into a customer service success story before it becomes a trend.

4. Reporting:

Use your social media research and the available tools to capture relevant information. Organize that information and use traditional reporting tools, such as charts, graphs and PowerPoint, to combine both qualitative and quantitative analysis, to inform your organization. As the data increases you may find that even your most ardent critics will realize that spending a portion of your marketing budget to monitor online conversations is wise.

I may be wrong but, like it or not, I don’t think this stuff is going away anytime soon.

Steve

Opening your account:

• Visit: http://www.twitter.com

• Create your account. You’ll need to create a unique username (see next bullet) and password, and have to enter your email address. These can all be changed.

• Unless you’re a major corporation, if this account will be used to promote your business I highly recommend using some form of your name since the Twittersphere is social media – an online conversation amongst people.

• Create your fill-in-the-blanks Bio. Give this some thought, especially if you’re using this account for business.

• You can upload your picture, or a picture/image, which I highly recommend.  Note, the file can’t be larger than 700k and since the default window is square, a square image works best, at least in my opinion.

• There is a Default background, or you can create your own. There are several free templates online. (Short commercial: Contact me at shartkopf@aligned-marketing.com if you want my design team to develop a custom page for you or your business.)

Twitter terms you should know:

• Tweep or Twit is someone who uses Twitter.

• Tweet is a message. Messages must be shorter than 140 characters, which is why many refer to twitter as a micro-blogging tool.

• Follower is a person (tweep) who has chosen to track (follow) your tweets.

• Short URL refers to one of the many tools you can use to shorten long urls and, thereby, tweet them without exceeding the 140-character limit. I use the “TinyURL Generator” Add-on for Firefox.

• Re-Tweet or RT means resending another twit’s tweet. As you can imagine, this is huge in the Twittersphere because it is a form of viral marketing.

• DM is short for direct message. A DM is a private tweet to a specific twit. (Okay, even I have to admit, that sounded weird.)

• If you want to send a tweep to a specific person simply insert “@” before that person’s Twitter name and it will be sent directly to them. Note, it will be visible to all so, as with anything in the ether, be careful what you say.

 

How to be a good Twitizen:

• Be friendly and open to others.

• Don’t be put off by all the spam, let it roll off your back.

• Similarly, don’t spam or sell constantly, it’s a form of harassment.

• Limit your tweets (I tweet 5-10 a day) and pause between tweets.

• Be funny but understand one person’s joke can be another’s insult.

• Mix your business/cause tweets with pleasant, fun or interesting tweets.

• ReTweet often but only if you genuinely think the tweets merits recycling.

 

On Wednesday’s post we’ll teach you:

• How you can find people to Follow.

• How to find people to Follow you.

• How to locate tweet topics and items to retweet.

 

Remember, this is the only Monday you’ll get this week so enjoy it and do something remarkable!

Steve

Are you getting frustrated with Twitter? Is so you're not alone.

I use Twitter a lot and am often frustrated by the lack of quality content. Most tweeting is just babble and self-promotion. Help may be on the way.

To help solve the problem, Twitter recently launched Lists, which is a tool that allows you to group the people you follow into categories,. The benefit is you can reduce the number of people you truly want follow and avoid the noise created by those that, for whatever reason, are included in you officially Follow. You can now drill down into the conversations/news that matters to you. Here’s a summary of the benefits I see with Lists:

1. Saves You Time.
Someone else has already discovered the best people to Follow for your keyword. As you scan the lists you’ll notice that many of them include the same people. That’s ok,. That means the crowd has spoken and a consensus was reached.

2. Keep Control Over Your Followers.
You don’t have to actually Follow all the people on a list.  You can just follow a list and dive in occasionally to see what people on your list are tweeting about and then go back to your main feed to see what everyone you are Following are tweeting about. In the end, you actually gain more control. That’s huge, I Follow over 1,000 people and have over 1,000 Following me, there’s no way I can keep up all the Tweets.

3. Keep Your Lists Public or Private
You can create your own lists and set them up as either public or private. There will be times and topics where you want to create your own list. For example, I’m going to create a list of tweople in the Lake Wylie, (SC) area.

4. New Application is Awesome – Listorious
There’s a complimentary service that just came out called Listorious. Listorious aggregates the best lists from everyone who has created a list and, then, lets you use them as a resource. It’s very cool! It was created by Sawhorse Media in New York City and has over 6.5 million lists already. You simply type in a word such as “news,” for example, and the tool delivers you the best lists.

5. What else? Increase Followers
I use Listorious and Lists to search for people I want to Follow and, as you would expect, once I started Following all these great people they started Following me. In addition, a bunch of other people, some good and some not-so-good, started Following me back. Here's the data: In three days I went from about 875 Followers to 1,167 and the quality of those new Followers is much better than is typically found with other Twitter tools.

Some of my favorites Lists are:
Linkers: http://listorious.com/palafo/linkers
Thought Leaders: http://listorious.com/kitson/thought-leaders
New Media: http://listorious.com/palafo/newmedia
Great Content: http://listorious.com/Jason_Pollock/great-content
Blogging: http://listorious.com/bloggersblog/blogging
Marketing: http://listorious.com/dannysullivan/marketing

Steve