First we heard about the +1 button and now the social media world is buzzing with Google+.  For many, the biggest concern is, do we need to learn another social media site and if so, how difficult will it be.

Google has always been a company that launched simple and useful services and managed to do it very well. However, when it comes to social media, Google has been way behind the times.  Their attempt at catching up to its competitors by implementing Google Buzz failed miserably.

Well, this is about to change with Google+ or so it seems.  In the last year, Google has learned from the competition and has now rolled out a new social media platform that will forego the mistakes made by their competition, such as Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter.

For the most part, Google+ is very similar to Facebook; creating your profile and getting started is simple enough.  Where Google+ differs from Facebook is that Google took the time to listen to the cries of categorizing ones “friends” and keeping some things private from certain groups of people. Hence, Google has invented “circles”, which allows the user to systematically categorize who they share certain information with.

Unlike Facebook, every Google+ post has its own unique URL, making Google+ a contender with Twitter by easily indexing shared content. 

“Hangouts”, another new feature, implements Google Voice and Google Talk to allow users to “hang out” on line. Google’s spin on this new feature is to get together spontaneously on line.

 

“Sparks”, a service for tracking topics that interest you, easy upload of images, and implementation of +1 button all add to the simplicity and ease of use of this new social network.

A few hours after launching Google+, users were already divided in their opinion, many stating that it’s just like Facebook.  Over the last few days, many encouraging articles and blog posts have been written, stating the subtle differences that make Google+ interesting enough to give it a try.  I guess, we’ll have to wait for our invitation to make up our own mind.

For detailed information on usage…. http://mashable.com/2011/07/16/google-plus-guide/#

How to Market a Real Time Event

 

by Chris Brogan

Always a URL. Always

If you’re going to wire up people and connect them to an event in the real world, you need a web page of some kind or another. People need all the details. They need some kind of intangible tangible that they can pass around to point out what’s what. Give them a web page.

If it’s just a one-off, use an event system like Eventbrite. If you’re going to do this over and over, consider setting up pages on your own website of choice, and then maybe double-up with an Eventbrite to manage the signup.

 

Extend onto Event Sites

Here’s where you can really get things moving. If you want this event to really spread, use sites like Upcoming.org and Eventful, to name a few. If you’ve got a Facebook group, put up an event notification there. If you’ve got a LinkedIn group, and the event matches, put it up there, too.

 

Status, Status, Status

Without being “that guy” (and never forget, I mean this for either gender), mentioning your event is easy across your Twitter, your Facebook, your LinkedIn status, and all the other social sites that make sense to promote. A word of caution: this gets close to what feels like carpet-bombing, so go gently. In fact, out in front of such a promotional effort, make sure you’re doing your good deeds and promoting others, and sharing other good information. People don’t like a tireless self-promoter, but they don’t mind someone who shares the good stuff, even when some of it’s their own.

 

Email Marketing

Do you maintain an email list? Don’t forget to drop a gentle note of your event into there, too. Again, the goal is subtlety and just a gentle pointer to your URL.

 

Flickr and YouTube

Want to amp up your event’s pre-buzz as well as give it some love on the day of the event? Here are two things: use photos and videos for pre-event invites and promos. Then, encourage people to take photos and videos AT the event. If at all possible, make it easy for the folks who might be into making media to have something to take photos and make movies about. (A side note: if you’re bothering to throw an event with a lot of web presence, use a tag – metadata – to denote the event, for people’s blog posts, for Flickr and YouTube, and for Twitter. For instance, we’ll use #trustsummit for our event in NYC.)

 

Blog Posts Matter

You can do much worse than to find local bloggers and bloggers who care about the subject matter to cover the event, should they find it useful. If you’ve a budget to do so, invite some to attend in exchange for blogging anything that might be of interest to them. Realize that in the new world, bloggers are rarely obligated to do whatever you ask, and yet, if you make it interesting and worthwhile, folks love to tell a story.

Getting a few posts out about the event ahead of time, and/or after give you a lot more traction and appreciation before and after. Again, make sure the event’s worthy of coverage. If it’s just a straight product pitch or the like, that’s tricky to justify.

 

Twitter on the Day Of the Event

To me, Twitter’s the magic sauce in making your NEXT event really light up. It’s too late for your event by the time folks start tweeting about it, but it’s a great way to really warm up your future events. If people are tweeting that they’re having a fun time, that they’re learning, that there are still a few hours to get down to the event and have fun, magic can happy. That’s why Twitter’s the Serendipity Engine.

 

 

This blog has always been about helping others. We report, offer free marketing tips and share best practices. Of course, it's indirect marketing done to promote goodwill. It's also good citizenship, done to improve the community.

I'm going to be selfish today. There's a lot happening at Aligned Marketing. Here's a partial update:

• We continue to sign up clients for search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) projects. We recommend both because SEO is like farming, it produces results (food) in weeks or months, and PPC is like hunting, Bang!, dinner. A friend of mine used SEO & PPC to grow a distributor’s online sales from $72K/month to an impressive $1.0M+ per month and counting. What recession? Smart companies are getting off the sidelines. There are still markets out there with unmet needs. Someone is going to serve them, why not you?
• We team up with other companies to enhance our capabilities without adding fixed cost. One of those companies just completed a landmark four year study in collaboration with the University of Michigan. Over 200 companies participated in interviews and surveys that included manufacturer and distributor sales reps as well as industrial buyers. They observed over 1,000 live sales calls. From that research they developed a new approach to selling, an actual best practice process. The field test data is compelling and, I believe, can be a game-changer with the right commitment from senior management.
• We launched a 10-day social media campaign for Aligned Marketing and increased visits to our website by 343% in the first week. Because of the way we structured the program visits will continue at the new higher level for several weeks and should remain well above our prior level into the future, assuming we don’t do anything stupid...stayed tuned.
• Gary Vaynerchuk is a top-5 Internet celebrity who has been on Fox News, The Today Show, CNN, Conan O’Brien and several other shows. He reads my blog…surprised me too. Anyway, on October 13 his new book, Crush It!, goes on sale and as part of his promotion tour I’ll be interviewing Gary using video over the Internet. I’m excited to finally communicate with Gary live, not through email, and the technology we’ll be using is very cool. More to come.
• My wife and I attended a convention for web-geeks in Orlando last week. There were over 400 people in attendance. While I didn’t get to speak one of the presenters put my picture up on a slide and recommended that everyone read my book. I didn’t know he was going to do that so it was a nice surprise, although seeing my face fill up two 20’ screens was weird…frightening, actually.
• As companies prepare for 2010, and what we all hope is a year of recovery, many are using outside resources to fill gaps created by the recession and gain specialized expertise without adding fixed cost. Our approach is, "Let us help you reach your business goals." It seems to have some appeal so go ahead and borrow it if you think it will help your business.
• This remains a very challenging time (obviously). The only way the economy is going to turn around is if we all pull together and work our collective butts off. That's what my friends are doing and that's what I'm doing. Sitting on the sidelines and waiting for things to improve will only get you left behind, it's a loser strategy. You get one shot at each day, so make the best of it!

All the best,
Steve

Too often we don't really understand the obstacles we face.

The video below is loosely based on a real event. Once you get past the humor, it makes a serious point: Our faith in our own abilities, our confidence, can be the source of our own demise.

Almost every week some senior level person is telling me they don't need or want anything to do with social media or search engine optimization of their website. "My customers know who we are and don't use the web much..." Oh, oh, red flag!

No one wants to be wrong so I don't challenge their assumptions. I know the more I try to convince them they're wrong the more entrenched they'll become; experience has taught me this. So I ask them questions.

• Have you ever bought anything online?
• Did you ever buy a book from Amazon?
• Do you or your wife bank online or check your investments online?
• Has anyone you know ever looked at mortgage or insurance rates via the web?
• I use Proflowers to send flowers to my wife on Mother's day, Birthdays and other dates. I can pre-schedule the whole year in just a few minutes. Have you heard of Proflowers or 1-800-flowers?
• When something happens in the world where's the first place you go for more information?
• Are you or the people you know on LinkedIn?
• Why do you not trust your own real-world experiences?
• Why do you think your customers are so different than you? 

I may not ask that many questions or be that blunt. The reason is I seldom have to, my clients are smart so they get the point quickly. One client told me later that my asking those questions completely changed his mind. Up to that point he really didn't think his company needed more of a web presence or be involved in social media.

Here are my questions for you:

• Are you open to new information?
• Do you know how much time you spend online?
• Do you think your customers are very different than you?
• Can your company be found easily through the search engines?
• Have you joined the social media conversation? Or better yet, if you belong to any industry organization, even the Chamber of Commerce, then why won't you joined the online conversation?

Enjoy the video!

Steve
800-707-9150

A CEO of a major company recently said to me, “Your timing may be perfect.”

He was referring to me being a consultant and, indeed, there’s evidence to support his statement. The industrial market is heating up. The Industrial Supply Association’s (ISA) most recent Economic Indicator Report was up for the second month in a row. Their Manufacturer Index was 66.42% in February while the January index was 60.63%. The Distributor Index saw similar gains (61.1% and 65.72%, respectively). Anything above 50% indicates those surveyed expect economic expansion.

The subjective evidence is equally strong. I talk with frustrated marketing people every week. Their complaint is with management and goes like this: “They laid off half my staff so we’ve been struggling to keep up for over a year. Every month we fall further behind and are getting our butts chewed out. Now, because business is getting better, they want us to do a bunch of new stuff. We can’t complete our work now! I have no idea how we’re going to get any new projects completed.” Maybe you can help them?

If you’re an unemployed or underemployed marketing professional consider becoming a consultant. As my CEO friend said, the timing may be perfect.

The client benefits because they can rent the expertise they need (from you). You simply augment their staff as a variable cost solution. A competent resource they can eliminate quickly without a long HR process.

Do a great job and maybe you get hired full-time, if that’s what you want. Here are a few things you need to be prepared for before accepting your first consulting job.

• Be prepared to add value immediately. One good way is to do more than you’re asked. In other words, take tasks off your new employer’s task list. Most marketing managers have presentations to create, reports to format, blogs to write and other nuisance tasks that they’d love to delegate but are beyond the skill level of most support personnel. Don’t wait for them to ask you to help. Be proactive and add value.
• Understand that there will be politics and much of it will be invisible to you. You represent a variable cost option and, as such, threaten everyone in your area of expertise that is an employee, a fixed cost. The best way to combat this is to recognize the politics exist and find a few key alliances within the client’s organization that will help you navigate through the terrain.
• You must be taken seriously so don’t walk in meekly. State your positions and your recommendations clearly and directly. Not everyone will agree but if you focus on pleasing everyone, finding the maximum in common ground and playing politician, you’ll lose. Understand your pre-designed role is to get in, complete your assignment, and get out. You are not part of the long-term extended corporate family (not yet, anyway).
• There’s nothing unethical about selling more services while you’re completing your project. Be polite and professional but keep your eyes and ears open for pain points, new projects and things the company would like to have if they had the resources. There’s truth in the old saying: “The best source of new business is old customers.” In my experience the big firms spend up to 30% of their time onsite looking for a new project while they’re completing the current project. I find that objectionable (selling while I’m on the client’s clock) so I never charge by the hour and I only spend about 10% of my time prospecting for new projects. You’ll need to find your own balance.

If you have skills and are either unemployed or underemployed I encourage you to think about consulting. The market is getting stronger, it’s a great way to leverage your strengths, and may get you the inside track on a full-time job if that’s your ultimate goal.

Feel free to call me if you want to discuss further.

Steve

800-707-9150

Copywriting refers to a particular type of writing. Copywriting is writing that sells, delivers a call-to-action in a compelling way, and influences you to think and do things that, without it, you might not do.

Good copywriting is a combination of talent and technique. Traditionally copywriting was a mysterious craft locked deep within ad agencies. The web, as it has a way of doing, has changed that. Now everyone who sends an email, posts a blog, creates their own website, or promotes their business through social media is a copywriter. Some of us are good copywriters but most of us are not.

Blasting out “buy me” messages is not good copywriting or good marketing, it's spamming. It’s an immature approach and reminds me of a teenager’s approach to music – the louder the better. Turning up the volume doesn’t make bad music better; it makes it worse. People buy things to improve their life, not because you’ve beaten them into submission.

In our hurry-up, get-it-done yesterday, world only the best copy gets attention and results. Explaining what is involved in the best copywriting would require a book but here are three things to keep in mind the next time you have to do some copywriting:

1. You need to clearly understand your product and your goal. How does what you are selling improve your target audience’s life? And, what is it, specifically, that you want your audience to do? Think about this as though you are a business: (A) What is it that you are offering that is superior and distinctive from the competition? (B) What are your audiences “hot-buttons?” Connect A and B. You will receive “A” (the benefit) if you do “B” (the action).
2. You need to have some writing skills. This probably seems like a no-brainer but it’s amazing how many people send out emails, for example, that are poorly written. Pedestrian emails that are not only stale and unoriginal but are also unclear and irrelevant won’t get the job done. Copy that doesn’t relate and doesn’t make sense to the target audience falls flat and can even irritate those you are trying to win to your cause. The examples are endless but (here’s one) how many websites have you visited and read where there is no clear idea of what’s in it for you?
3. You need to be creative. I know your boss just wants the facts. He wants you to get to the point. That’s a good approach when you need to plow through a ton of work but if you need to change behavior, then sprinkle some creativity dust on your copy. Just don’t go wild. There’s a big difference between copy that titillates, but is basically pointless, and copy that motivates and produces action.

If all that sounds too hard, then maybe you need to hire a professional?

Steve

800-707-9150

I’m often asked how businesses can use social media. In separate conversations, the National Electrical Supply Association (NAED) and the Industrial Supply Association (ISA), think GE and 3M, respectively, are asking that very question. Collectively the two organizations represent approximately  $300B of our economy. Neither has an answer to the question, so I gave their representatives a glimpse of mine.

Social media is really nothing more than an online reflection of the offline world. The offline process that leads up to a sale; "know me, like me, trust me," also applies to the online world of social media. Sales happen at the end of that process in both worlds.

That sounds simple because it is. What’s striking is how many people get it terribly wrong. Instead of taking the time to get involved in an online community, much as any good business person would if they joined the local Chamber of Commerce, most people rush to the Close. They broadcast their sales pitch out randomly, hoping to hit a target. What a total waste of energy, not to mention the damage done to your brand.

When they don’t hit a target, they blame the medium, the technology. “I tried social media and it didn‘t work.” That’s a crock but it is easier than blaming themselves. It’s easier than doing the hard work involved and dedicating the time to do truly join a community and contribute real value. It’s easier than being a responsible citizen.

Responsibilities are serious business. Avoiding your responsibilities to build trust in the community, which is that you are doing if you just throw out your pitch randomly, means you are a spammer. Spammer is an ugly word in our wired-up world. So ugly that in it’s most literal sense, it’s illegal. Most of us have software installed on our computers to block these cretins.

Opening accounts on social sites such as LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, Twitter and the others for the single purpose of promoting yourself is a bad strategy. Get involved! Become an active member of the community. Provide value. Give good advice and engage with a servant’s heart. Keep the conversation going on the forum itself, don’t try to divert members to your site, your self-interest. Wait until you’re asked.

Take the time to comment and vote on other people’s content. Visit other people’s blogs and “RT” (retweet) good information, Friend those you know or who have similar interests as you and call-out the spammers. Finally, rather than quantity you should seek quality.

In other words focus your efforts on the social sites you are going to be involved in and sites that contain a group of people who can relate to your content and perspective. Don’t submit an article on postpartum depression to a social network convened around Fantasy Football.

As is always the case, to reap the rewards you must do the work. Everyone, as I taught my two boys, pays List Price for success.

Add value to the community and the community will reciprocate.

Steve

800-707-9150

Does your company have specific business goals for your social media activities? If not, you should.

In a November 2009 survey MarketingSherpa discovered that approximately ninety-four percent (see chart below) of those surveyed use social media to increase their website traffic, which is not surprising.

What might surprise you is twenty-one percent don’t actually measure their results and five percent have no specific objectives for their social media activities. So I can only assume that they’re on LinkedIn and Tweeting, for example, because they think it’s the right thing to do.

Doing something for the sake of doing it doesn’t sound like real business to me, does it to you?

 

The other thing that surprised me was the relatively low number of respondents who use social media to reduce their customer acquisition and customer support costs. I mean, the tools are free!

The bottom line is social media is a free and easy to use platform for promoting your business and communicating directly with your customers and prospect, so use it.

If you’re not sure how, give us a call.

Steve Hartkopf

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