Production Blog Reviews

Why the Industry Needs You to Fill Out the Census – AdAge.com

Posted by cgseo under Social Media

Boston Globe Why the Industry Needs You to Fill Out the Census AdAge.com We all know that great advertising and marketing is fueled heavily on the availability of credible market research data. The census is the most important ... Why NOT fill out your Census form? Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog) all 730 news articles

7 Insanely Useful Ways to Search Twitter for Marketing

Posted by cgseo under Social Media, Web Marketing

Share 7 Insanely Useful Ways to Search Twitter for Marketing This content from: Duct Tape Marketing This article originally appeared on American Express OPEN Forum and is one of the most retweeted articles I’ve ever written so I thought I would share it with you here. As a marketing tool Twitter gets much more interesting and useful when you can filter out 99% of the junk that doesn’t apply to your objectives and focus on the stuff that matters. The basic search.twitter.com functionality is fine for searching things that are being said about your search terms. The advanced search function offers more ways to slice and dice the stream, but still leaves some room for improvement as it only searches what’s being said and where. From a marketing standpoint who is saying it might be more useful. Now that the search engines are all pretty geeked up over real time search you can create some very powerful searches and alerts combining Google and Twitter. 1) Target by occupation Let’s say you have a business that sells an awesome service to attorneys. A simple search on Twitter will turn up thousands of mentions of the word attorney, but many of them will be from people talking about this or that attorney or the need to hire or not hire one. That’s probably not very helpful for your purposes. However, if you cruise over to Google and use a handful of operators from the Google shortcut library (more on that here) you can create a search that plows through Twitter and gives you a list of all the users that have the word “attorney” in their title (username and/or real name) – Click on this search phrase and see what happens – intitle:”attorney * on twitter” site:twitter.com – what you’ll find is a handy list of attorneys of one sort or another on Twitter. Without getting too technical, this search basically asks Google to look in the title attribute of profile pages on Twitter – obviously you can use any word to replicate this. The * tells Google to find the words “attorney on Twitter” without regard to order or other words – “on Twitter” appears in the title of every profile page so we need that term to make sure we search profile pages only. 2) Target by bio In some cases searching through the optional biographical information can be more helpful than the username or real name fields. Maybe you’re looking for a very specific term or some of the folks you are targeting only reference their profession in their bio. Google search to the rescue here again. This time add the intext attribute, the word bio and our key phrase to search bios – So a search for web designers would look like this – intext:”bio * web designer” site:twitter.com . When you look at this list you might notice that none of the people on the list would have been found by searching in their title, as in the first tip, for web designer. Try it both ways to test for best results. 3) Target by location Location search by itself is simple using the Twitter advanced search tool – if you want a list of people in Austin you would use this in Twitter – near:”Austin, TX” within:25mi and Twitter would use the location field to show you Austin Tweeters. But . . . let’s say you wanted to target salons in Austin or maybe the whole of Texas – it’s back to Google to mix and match – (intitle:”salon * on twitter” OR intext:”bio * salon”) intext:”location * TX” site:twitter.com – we search the title, bio and location to get a very targeted list of Salons in Texas on Twitter. Note the OR function for multiple queries. 4) New sign ups Another handy thing about using any of the searches above is that you can also use the exact operators to create Google Alerts . By going to Google and putting in your search string as described above you’ll get everything they have now, but by setting up an alert you’ll get an email or RSS alert when a new attorney (or whatever you’re targeting) joins Twitter – I can think of some powerful ways to reach out to that new person just trying to find some new friends! 5) Keep up on your industry Some of the best information shared on Twitter comes in the form of shared links. In other words people tweet out good stuff they find and point people to it using a link. I love to use a filtered Twitter search to further wade through research on entire industries, but reduce the noise by only following tweets that have links in them and eliminating retweets that are essentially duplicates – “small business” OR entrepreneur OR “start up” filter:links – this gets that job done and produces an RSS feed if I want to send it to Google Reader. Don’t forget the “quotation marks” around two or more word phrases or you will get every mention of small and business. 6) Competitive eavesdropping Lots of people set up basic searches to listen to what their competitors are saying and what others are saying about the competition. I would suggest you take it one step further and create and follow a search that also includes what the conversation they are having with the folks they communicate with – not just what people are saying about them, but to them and vice versa – from:comcastcares OR to:comcastcares . 7) Trending photos Photos have become very big on Twitter and the real time nature of the tool means photos show up there before they show up most anywhere. If you want to find an image related to a hot trend, or anything for that matter, simply put the search phase you have in mind follow by one of the more well known Twitter image uploading services such as TwitPic and you’ll get nothing but images. So, your search on Twitter might be – olympics twitpic OR ow.ly (You can add more photosharing sites to expand the search). There, Twitter just go way more interesting didn’t it? Related Posts: Mining Twitter with Google Turns Up Some Interesting Stuff A Practical Use for Twitter Twitter People Search is Back Adding search to your site Google Alerts Hack Powered by Contextual Related Posts Like this post? Share it with others

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7 Insanely Useful Ways to Search Twitter for Marketing

5 Ways to Use Social Media for Things You Are Already Doing

Posted by cgseo under Social Media, Web Marketing

5 Ways to Use Social Media for Things You Are Already Doing This content from: Duct Tape Marketing One of the biggest road blocks facing small businesses when addressing social media is the question of return on investment. With so little time devote to what’s crying out to be done, adding something else or something new like social media can feel like a real burden. Sometimes the only way to rationalize and prioritize something new is to understand the benefits in relation to everything else your doing and take a new view based on that understanding. So much of what’s written on social media amounts to lists of things you should do, get on twitter, blog, create a Facebook fan page, and not enough on why you might consider doing it. While all those tactics may indeed be wise, I would like suggest a number of ways to use those actions to do a better or more efficient job doing things you’re already (or should be) doing. Start to think in terms of doing more with less effort, not simply doing more. If I can let small business owners get a glimpse of social media through this lens, they might just decide to go a little deeper. Here are five ways to look at it. 1) Follow up with prospects I love using social media tools as a way to follow-up with prospects you might meet out there in the real world. So you go to a Chamber event and meet someone that has asked you to follow-up. Traditionally, you might send an email a week later or call them up and leave a voice mail. What if instead you found them on LinkedIn, asked to be connected and then shared an information rich article that contained tips about the very thing you chatted about at the Chamber mixer. Then you offered to show them how to create a custom RSS feed to get tons of information about their industry and their competitors. Do you think that next meeting might get started a little quicker towards your objectives? I sure do. 2) Stay top of mind with customers Once someone becomes a customer it’s easy to ignore them, assuming they will call next time they need something or, worse yet, assuming they understand the full depth and breadth of your offerings and will chime in when they have other needs. Staying in front of your customers and continuing to educate and upsell them is a key ingredient to building marketing momentum and few businesses do it well. This is an area where a host of social media tools can excel. A blog is a great place to put out a steady stream of useful information and success stories. Encouraging your customers to subscribe and comment can lead to further engagement. Recording video stories from customers and uploading them to YouTube to embed on your site can create great marketing content and remind your customer why they do business with you. Facebook Fan pages can be used as a way to implement a client community and offer education and networking opportunities online. 3) Keep up on your industry Keeping up with what’s happening in any industry is a task that is essential these days. With unparalleled access to information many clients can learn as much or more about the products and solutions offered by a company as those charged with suggesting those products and solutions. You better keep up or you risk becoming irrelevant. Of course I could extend this to keeping up with what your customers, competitors, and key industry journalists are doing as well. Here again, new monitoring services and tools steeped in social media and real time reporting make this an easier task. Subscribing to blogs written by industry leaders, competitors and journalists and viewing new content by way of a tool such as Google Reader allows you to scan the day’s content in one place. Setting up Google Alerts and custom Twitter Searches ( see more about how to do this ) or checking out paid monitoring services such as Radian6 or Trackur allows you to receive daily email reports on the important mentions of industry terms and people so you are up to the minute in the know. (Of course, once you do this you can teach your customers how to do it and make yourself even more valuable to them – no matter what you sell.) 4) Provide a better customer experience It’s probably impossible to provide too much customer service, too much of a great experience, but you can go nuts trying. Using the new breed of online tools you can plug some of the gaps you might have in providing customer service and, combined with your offline touches, create an experience that no competitor can match. While some might not lump this tool into social media, I certainly think any tool that allows you to collaborate with and serve your customers qualifies. Using an online project management tool such as Central Desktop allows you to create an entire customer education, orientation, and handbook kind of training experience one time and then roll it out to each new customer in a high tech client portal kind of way. This approach can easily set you apart from anyone else in your industry and provide the kind of experience that gets customers talking. 5) Network with potential partners Building a strong network of strategic marketing partners is probably the best defense against any kind of economic downturn. One of the surest ways to attract potential partners is to build relationships through networking. Of course you know that, but you might not be viewing this kind of networking as a social media function. If you identify a potential strategic partner, find out if they have a blog and start reading and commenting. Few things will get you noticed faster than smart, genuine blog comments. Once you establish this relationship it might make sense to offer a guest blog post. If your use a CRM tool (and you should) you’ve probably noticed that most are moving to add social media information to contact records, add your potential partners social media information and you will learn what’s important to them pretty quickly. If you know how to set up a blog already, offer to create a blog of network partners so each of you can write about your area of expertise and create some great local SEO for the group. So, you see, you don’t have to bite into the entire social media pie all at once. Find a tool, a technique, a tactic that makes your life easier today and provides more value for partners, prospects and customers and you’ll be on the path to getting some real ROI on your social media investment. What social media tactics have you discovered that allow you to do more of something you’re already doing? Related Posts: Small Businesses Will Simply Become More Naturally Social 7 Simple Truths of Social Media Marketing 5 Tips for Getting More From Your Blog 5 Ways to Share Content to Create Referrals Create a Journalist Listening Station Powered by Contextual Related Posts Like this post? Share it with others

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5 Ways to Use Social Media for Things You Are Already Doing

Will too many Facebook friends be the downfall of social media? – Media Asia

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Mobile Deals Compared (blog) Will too many Facebook friends be the downfall of social media? Media Asia Just as brands up their spending on social media marketing , potentially worrying news reaches the industry: ... Social Media Marketing Business Advantages of Facebook vs. Twitter Part 4 Release-news.com (press release) Ecommerce companies favor Facebook and Twitter for marketing EDL Consulting Is USA Today's 'Social Media Lounge' A Little Late To The Party? Inventorspot Examiner.com

17 Terrific Tactics to Inspire Customer Love (and Get New Business)

Posted by cgseo under Social Media

17 Terrific Tactics to Inspire Customer Love (and Get New Business) This content from: Duct Tape Marketing This post is a special Make a Referral Week guest post featuring education on the subject of referrals and word of mouth marketing and making 1000 referrals to 1000 small businesses – check it out at Make a Referral Week 2010 There are two fundamental approaches to generate more business: The first is to focus on making your existing customers insanely happy, so that they want to tell others about how much they love you; the second is to simply be a resource, or be helpful, to those who aren’t customers yet. Specifically, here are 17 tactics: 1. Have a goal . Set a clear goal with a specific timeline – for example, you want an x increase in referrals over the next six months. You know that old adage about how you can’t get there if you don’t know where you’re going? It’s true. 2. Monitor the web and primary social channels (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn) for people talking about you or your company . Say thank you (if they are saying nice things). Reach out and ask how you can help (if they aren’t). 3. And if they aren’t, BTW: Apologize for mistakes and solve problems fast. Speed is your ally. 4. Monitor the web and social channels (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn) for specific keywords relevant to your business. Be approachable, conversational, and helpful there. Engage, don’t sell. 5. Join LinkedIn groups relevant to your expertise or industry, and build conversations with relevant individuals . Chime in when you have something to contribute, and be helpful with your advice, suggestions, opinions. Again: It’s about engaging, not selling. (This bears repeating.) 6. Create a blog with content that helps your customers with a problem, or gives advice on a difficult situation, or walks them through a hard decision, or just takes the customer’s point of view, generally. Be a resource, and don’t simply toot your own horn. 7. When someone comments on your blog, respond . Talk back. Thank them for participating with a follow-up email. This is a dead-simple thing, and something a lot of people don’t do. 8. Read other relevant blogs in your industry , or by your customers, or would-be clients. Comment there, too. How? I almost want to repeat that bit about engaging-not-selling again, but I know you get it. 9. Put something on your front door (if you have one) that reminds people to tell their friends about you. (This is an idea from my friend Andy Sernovitz . 10. Put a “tell-a-friend” form on every page of your website . (Another idea from Andy .) 11. Put a special offer in easily forward-able mail . 12. Add a small gift and a word of mouth tool to every package you sell . Do something unexpected. (Andy once sent me a few packets of Bacon Salt with a copy of his new book, for example, which inspired me to blog and tweet about it . 13. Create a mechanism to keep in touch with existing customers or clients , even if they aren’t in buying mode. Perhaps you publish and “insider’s” newsletter, guest-blog on their blogs, or pick up the telephone and call every once in a while, just to say hello. 14. Be generous in your business practices . Go the extra mile. Offer extra service or follow-up support as a routine way of doing business. 15. Be generous with your own referrals . 16. Say thank you . Someone refers new business to you? Send them a note. An especially nice touch in this digital age is a handwritten card. The kind that arrives in the mail. 17. Be nice . Does this sound lame? It’s not. People refer people who treat them well, are approachable, and likeable. Be that person. Your turn. How else do you generate referrals, or inspire positive word-of-mouth? Ann Handley is the Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs , the world’s largest community of marketers. Follow her on Twitter at @marketingprofs Related Posts: Making Referrals As a Job Creation Engine Author of Word of Mouth Marketing Visits Referral Week 5 Ways to Share Content to Create Referrals Have You Made Your Referral? Get Closer to Your Customers Now Powered by Contextual Related Posts Like this post? Share it with others

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17 Terrific Tactics to Inspire Customer Love (and Get New Business)