Posts Tagged: Internet Marketing Strategy
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, February 03rd, 2012
We’re long overdue for a dose of cheer. Here are links to some of the online gems we are enjoying and exploring right now.
Pinterest is one of the fastest growing social networks right now. It allows you to pin, organise and share images online. It is very visually stimulating and fun. Watch this space for a more in depth post all about Pinterest and feel free to follow me there.
We’ve been exploring online tools that allowyou to create simple graphics. We like Gimp, Aviary and Pixlr – there’s also “lite” version of Photoshop if you can find it.
Edge Rank Checker is a tool that allows you track the effectiveness of your Facebook pages but beware – it takes ages to generate your reports and pages with low fan counts will be skewed.
Mobile apps we are loving include: Ego (check web stats on the go), Flipboard (Social Magazine) and Evernote (to help you remember everything).
Want to customize yor Facebook page? We’re currently evaluating Shortstack, FaceIt Pages, North Social and Page Modo. If you have used any of these and have a preference we’d love to get your feedback.
And now some social media tools: Echofon (never read a tweet twice), Buffer (add posts and “automagically” post them through the day), CoTweet (manage mutliple Twitter feeds).
Enjoy!
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, January 05th, 2011
If your New Year’s resolution is to get your business in order, then putting together and implementing social media plan to help you use the Internet more effectively should be top of your to do list today. If the thought of getting started has you procrastinating, then you’ve come to the right blog post to kick start your New Year online. Here is how to go about creating a social media strategy document that works for you.
Go Easy – Remember that your strategy document doesn’t need to be war and peace. It can be as long or as short as you want/need it to be but it must be documented (even if its just in bullet form) and achievable given your market economics.
Research – All great marketing plans begin with one thing: research. Before you start take time to do some research: find out what your competition is doing online, ask your clients which social networking sites they use, identify peers and luminaries in your industry and find out how they use social media. Doing this will help put social media in perspective and will allow you to set realistic goals.
Your Social Media Plan Should Include
Overview – Your plan should of the current situation so that you have a yardstick for comparisons. How many followers do you have right now? What is your social media presence and what resources you have available? The overview should also include a short statement that encompasses the purpose of your plan.
Audience – Define your target audience: ages, location, sex, education etc. Knowing who you want to target makes hitting the mark much more likely.
Goals – Define your goals in quantitative terms and make sure they are achievable given your resources. 
Applicable social media goals might be to increase website traffic by X%, to increase your Facebook by X, to grow blog subscribers or to build interactions (how many times people interact with your site including replies, comments, clicks etc). Remember that goals should be time sensitive.
Measure – An important part of goal setting is determining how you will measure success. If website traffic traffic is a priority the Google Analytics is a great tool to use. If it is building your network or interaction then follower count and insights should be used.
Tools - Identify and document which social media or digital networks you will use. This decision should be based on the research conducted earlier – the decisions you make here are important. If you have little time and are looking to network then Twitter’s short sharp 140 character bursts might be right for you (especially if moms, Justin Beiber fans and techs are your target audience). If you have a very visual offering then YouTube might be the most appropriate tool. The key here is to use only a few tools and choose the ones that are most likely to give you access to your target community.
Message – What is it that you want to communicate online, what impression do you want to make? Write it down! Encompass this in a few sentences and bear in mind that brand visuals and your communications style online should mirror those offline. Consistency is key and if different people are managing your presence, it is important that they “act” in the company manner online.
Schedule – Social media can be time consuming and distracting if you are not focused. To help you stay on track, schedule social media marketing time into your day and keep to that schedule.
Implementing Your Social Media Plan
Your social media strategy plan should be an organic document that can be tweaked and enhanced as you go. Once you engage and gain experience using social media, you will quickly learn what works and what doesn’t in your community. Use your social media experiences to hone your plan so that it can evolve and become even more effective.
Not Traditional Marketing
It is very important to remember when implementing your plan that this is not a traditional marketing project. It is not all about pushing out information online, it is about building relationships, communities and interacting. Bear that in mind, build an appropriate strategy, get social and you can’t go wrong.
We Can Help
Out-Smarts provides social media and Internet marketing planning services. If your social media strategy is top of the prioirity list for 2011 but your strapped for time, call us – we’d love to assist.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, November 12th, 2010
One of the major considerations for retail store owners has always been to make sure that your shop is located in the right place and that you are doing things to attract visitors and maximise the number of feet on the street that come through your door to sample your wares. Nowadays, thanks to technology, there are online actions and activities that you can easily do to make it easier for potential customers to locate your real world store.
Have you ever tried to find a retail store that you havent been to before? You know roughly where it is but you dont know exactly which block or street its on. Off course you have, this happens all the time. The first thing you do is to try to find it using your phone but what if you cant find the store online? The answer is that you get put off and go elsewhere instead, to return (maybe) at a later date.
This blog post gives 6 tips that will help people who use the Internet to find your store but these rules can (and should) be applied to any business with a physical location.
1. Website – makes sure the address, phone number and opening hours are front and centre on your website so that visitors can find your location easily. Consider adding a page that is dedicated to helping customers find your store giving directions, maps and transit tips. The pages that contain your address should include appropriate META and keywords that people are likely to use when trying to find your store.
2. Directories – If you dont have a website yet, dont despair – you dont have to have a website to use Internet technologies to help customers find your shop (although it does help!). Instead make sure your business is listed on a few of the search directories with the biggest clout such as Yellow Pages and Yahoo Directory. Both of these are paid directories but they are worth investing in especially if you dont have a website and you want to help people find your location online. You should also consider listing your location on hyper local directories in your community – many of these are free.
3. Google Places – one of the best ways to help people find your location is to make sure it is listed in Google Places. Not only does it allow you to list your business, it also shows your business on Google Maps. Our next blog post will be all about setting up Google Places as it is without a doubt one of the most beneficial tactics you can use.
4. If you have a Facebook Page, be sure to add your location details, hours of opening and phone number to the information section of your Page so that Facebook followers can find you when they need to.
5. Make sure your business is listed on the location based social networking tools that allow clients to share when they are at their favourite outlets. By listing your business in these forums you will assist those who use these tools (and their numbers are increasing rapidly) to find you online and thus find your real world presence. Read more about location based networking in our blog post).
6. More people access the Internet these days by phone than by PC and people on street are sure to use their phone if they are trying to find your location. Consider adding a .mobi site for your website making it easier to view page contents (including location and directions) by phone.
By applying tips outlined here you can make sure that potential customers locate the address of your physical location using the Internet and thus find your store more easily: enabling the feet on the street find their way through your door.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, May 31st, 2010
There are social networks, professional networks, microblogs, video sites, events sites, blogs, photo sites… the list goes on and one thing is for certain, you can’t be on all of them.
It is best, in fact, to deploy social media marketing strategies that involve using only a select few of these tools in highly targeted ways.
How to decide which social media tools to use?
In order to ascertain which social media tools are best you need to know a few things – some good old market research is needed:
- Customer – if you don’t already know this then you should. Understand who it is you want to do business with and what it is that you do that solves a problem for them. Take some time to listen to what is being said about your company or industry in these forums. Doing so will help understand the online habit of your customers.
- Company – consider your organisation, its products or services and determine which media are most appropriate to showcase these. Consider too, the resources you have at hand (what are you and your staff great at?) and use these strengths to build your social media campaign.
- Convenience – where is the best place to reach your audience online? Which tools you use will depend on knowing this. For example, LinkedIn is great to reach business people, Flickr is a great place to showcase art, photography and design companies – you get the gist.
- Communication – always remember to be consistent with your messaging and branding. Your online brand and message should be consistent with your overall branding as well so as not to confuse. The goal here is to build community, so consider ways to communicate and interact online that will add value, encourage interaction and grow your following.
Take these four C’s into account and your social media marketing is more likely to hit the mark.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, February 23rd, 2010
For many companies, posting a regular blog with informative up to the minute content is a daunting task. This is especially so for small to medium sized business who may not have the resources at hand to blog effectively and consistently.
Sound familiar? If it is simply inspiration that you need then read this blog post about banishing blog writer’s fatigue. But if the thought of adding a blog to your corporate marketing arsenal makes your blood run cold, don’t despair: there are other ways that you can take advantage of the blogosphere with out having to.
Blog Learning
Blogs are a great way to keep abreast of what is going on in your industry, to learn from luminaries, peers and prospective clients as well as to keep ahead of your competitors. Use tools like Technorati to find and follow blogs that pertain to your market. If you are using blogs for this purpose, it is a good idea to bookmark or use and RSS feed reader (like Google reader) to keep track of the ones you like and to share them with others in your company.
Blog Comments
Links are like gold on the Internet, the more your site has leading back to it, the better and this is even more the case if links come from high ranking blogs. When posting comments on blogs, always make sure they are relevant and add value in relation to the post. In addition to the link love, posting comments on blogs can help you establish a relationship with the blogger or company whose post you comment on (particularly handy if you would like to do business with this company) and can spread brand awareness from the blog’s readers.
Blog PR
Blog PR or as it is sometimes called, blog outreach, is another way you can use blogs without having to have one. Popular blogs often get many thousands of visitors every day. Imagine the traffic that would bring to your site if the blog were to mention and link back to your page. Blog PR is all about enticing the rock star bloggers in your industry to blog about you, your product, service or unique story. Bloggers, like journalists with traditional PR, are on the receiving end of many attempts to get publicity every day so your message has to stand out from the crowd in order to get any attention. To be successful with blog PR you have to be highly targeted and creative.
Internal Blog
Blog technology is very versatile. Just because you don’t want the exposure an external blog might bring doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take advantage of blogs in house to disseminate information. By doing so you might discover that you do indeed have the talent or resources within the organisation to make an external blog possible. Read our post from last September to learn more about internal blog uses.
Conclusion
Blogging is often the backbone of a social media strategy but, to be successful, you don’t need to have your own blog. In fact, if blogging isn’t right for your company then embarking on a blog and then abandoning it can be really damaging. Instead, consider the options above in order to take advantage of blogs to build your online presence.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, January 18th, 2010
Our strategic partner, Louise Desmarais of Mud Creative always writes great and valuable blog posts and the latest is no exception, its all about effective online PR on a shoestring:
Why free press release sites may be all you need
Online press releases are perfect for an SEO tactic called “link building.†Link building is the process of creating inbound links to your site from other sites. The more inbound links your site has pointing to it, the more popular your site is perceived to be by the engines. And that bodes well for your rankings.
An online press release will offer readers a story that is newsworthy and have – at the very least – your sites URL in it. Because your press release stays on the web for extended periods of time, that link is always working for you.
Readers of this blog know why I like PR Web for online press releases. I have also used www.marketwire.com and www.newswire.ca for releases that are geographically targeted with good results. But these are all paid services and for many small business owners, their rates can be a little out of reach. Plus, for best SEO results, online press releases should be issued on a regular basis – once a month or more frequently, which can really drive your costs up.
Start out free, and see what happens
If youre just trying online PR for the first time or you have a tight budget, you can still get solid results by using free services. To find a good one, look for these characteristics:
- Free to use – or low cost for additional features
- Releases show up in Google and sometimes on Google News (Pick any release on the site, type the headline in the Google search bar, and see if it comes up.)
- The releases posted on the site are newsworthy, not sales focused. This is an indication that the site has editors who care about which releases they accept
- They allow at least one direct link to your site
There are gazillions of free press release distribution sites, (A Google search of “Free Press Release Sites†shows 70,900,000 results), but you can save yourself tons of time and still build inbound links with just three or four services, like these:
- For $12US, www.onlineprnews.com lets you add an image (could be your logo) and three anchor text links, gives you listing above the free releases, tweets the headline and guarantees inclusion in Google News. Not a bad deal.
Did it work?
While free services wont provide a results report, its easy enough to see how successful your release was with these tricks:
- “Google it†– A day or two after your release, simply “Google†(or Yahoo) your company name, your targeted keyphrases, or even the entire headline of your release. Google will let you know which services, blogs, and industry publications picked it up.
- Google Alerts – Google Alerts is a time-saving feature that delivers results right to your inbox. Heres how to set up Google Alerts.
- Google Analytics – Google Analytics are free, and easily added to your site. Your analytics will tell you where traffic came from and even which keyphrases were used to point them to your site.
If youve got news to share on the web, but you are avoiding press releases because of cost, give the free services a go. Online press releases just may be the extra boost you need to improve your rankings.
Thanks again Louise for letting me post this for my community too!
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, December 21st, 2009
This month we’ve invited some guest bloggers to contribute. The first is by friend and colleague Guacira Naves (Owner, The Online Strategy House):
The Whole is Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts
Over a decade ago, an online marketing strategy was comprised by separate tactics that had only one concern in mind: to drive traffic to a site. The game was relatively simple: a site would be built, it’d be supported by email newsletters, advertising, maybe some traditional media, and that was all that there was to it.
Then, marketers became aware of the importance of search engine optimization, and added that component to their plan. Today, social media marketing is the new kid on the block. Not only that – its changing how the other online marketing elements interact with each other.
Below is a sample of how this interdependence plays out – and how you can combine each individual channel for the greater good:
Twitter and Google:
- Googles new real time search results mean that tweets with your brand may now appear in search results. So, a strong visibility on Twitter can very well influence your site’s exposure on Google. Thats another reason to maintain an active Twitter profile, and populate it with quality content.
Twitter and Customer Opinion:
- Not only is Twitter the most important micro-blogging network, it is increasingly used as a search tool. It is a channel where people go to find the online equivalent to “word of mouth†about a product, service, etc. On Twitter, frustrated customers often share their gripes, and loyal clients rave about their favourite brands. Heres an example:
Imagine if you were looking for reviews on Virgin Mobile and came across the two tweets above. They may very well sway your decision-making.
However, Virgin Mobile could have stepped in to have their say. Itd potentially have an impact not only on the three individuals involved in that dialogue, but Virgins update wouldve been found in searches made for that brand.
Heres a positive example of how proactive companies observe Twitter conversations, and interact with users: on December 10th, I decided to try Pearltrees. I then tweeted this update:
Minutes later, I received a reply from Pearltrees CEO, Patrice Lamothe, with this message:
That update was not only relevant to me, but to any other individual making a search query for “Pearltrees†around that time.
So, the lesson is: people are going to use Twitter’s search tool to find information on your products or services. You might as well help them find information that is as positive as possible.
YouTube and Search Engine Optimization:
- YouTube videos are prominently represented in Google’s search engine results.You do have a YouTube channel, don’t you? Then, make sure that, among other things, your videos titles and tags are optimized. And guess what – this will help your presence in search engines, too.
YouTube and other Social Networks:
- YouTube also gives viewers the option to share a video via Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, orkut and StumbleUpon, directly from the videos YouTube page. You can also embed a video into your blog, and invite readers to share it – either by embedding into their own blogs, by adding it to Facebook, or inviting them to share it through social bookmarking sites like Reddit. Earlier today, I embedded this third-party YouTube video about Hewlett-Packard into my own Facebook profile:
I wasnt the only one. According to the video statistics, it was watched an additional 279 times as a result of links from Facebook. Reddit, a popular content-sharing site, had also generated 1,317 views.
Blogs and Search Engine Optimization:
- By frequently adding fresh, relevant content to your company’s blog, not only will you improve your brand’s presence and clout in the blogosphere, but you will help your site become more appealing in Googles eyes. That is because Google naturally gives more importance to sites that are updated on a regular basis.
Blogs and Twitter:
- Blogs can easily be set up to automatically promote a new post, as soon as it is published. You will be not only be driving traffic to the blog itself, but will also help to keep your Twitter profile active with new, original material.
I could go on and on. This just scratches the surface, but gives you an idea of how, nowadays, online marketing elements are so interdependent. When planned accordingly and executed in an orchestrated manner, these tactics will make the whole stronger than the sum of its parts.
About the author: Guacira Naves is an online marketing strategist who has 18 years of Internet experience. Her company, The Online Strategy House, develops and executes holistic online marketing strategies to help clients achieve their short, medium and long-term goals.
Thanks to Guacira for this. If you are interested in contributing a post – give us a shout!
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, November 09th, 2009
I recently had the opportunity to attend a leadership round table headed up by Judy Bishop of Bishop and Associates. Judy has been a key player on the Vancouver business scene for 20 years and her discussion surrounded building your personal brand.
During the conversation Judy pointed out that “branding” is not a term that should be used in a business context and that it in fact should only relate to cattle or livestock. Its an interesting point and got me thinking about the process we go through as marketers trying to influence our audience. A mistake is often made in focusing on “us” (ie the company, product or service) and not “the audience”.
Taken literally as a verb, using -ing to form the progressive tense: branding, is grammatically correct. However, I think its not the grammar that Judy has a bone of contention with but the implication. Branding implies that we actively seek to make our mark on the audience when in actual fact its not marketers who are in control of our brands but the audience itself. Many marketers fail to recognize this and go about building their brand from the inside out without giving too much thought to the audience who is on the receiving end.
So what has all this got to do with social media I hear you ask. Well, since you asked, I think its vital. You shouldn’t go about using social media as a means “to burn your brand” into the minds of your audience. Social media users are particularly sensitive to manipulation. Rather, look on social media as a great tool for making contact with your audience, to understand them better (what makes them tick)and to allow you to build better products for them. Use it as a tool to build better relationships with them so that they, in turn, build a great perception of your company in their minds and are more likely to turn to you when in need. The best way to do this is to constantly be on the look out for ways that you can help your target audience and add value for them. The key point here is that it is all about them not all about you.
Unlike Judy, I may use the term branding from time to time to categorize the efforts we make as marketers to build awareness but I do see her point. Branding is something that is done to something else – the word implies a lack of respect. Building a brand is all about respect: understanding your audience and catering to their needs. By placing your customer front and centre and catering to their needs not yours, your marketing efforts will be more likely to succeed.
Related posts:
Branding – with Isabelle Mercier
And thanks Michelle for the great Highland Coo image!
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, October 28th, 2009
This post is in follow up to our post last week about the risks of social media, this time we are looking at how to avoid them.
1. Litigation – to avoid the threat of litigation put HR processes in place so that your staff knows what can be said and what can’t. Never spout off in social media in the heat of the moment and always stop to ask if what you are posting is professional, fair and representative of your brand.
2. Brand Killer – Avoid diluting your brand by using the same corporate or product name, logo, corporate colours and messaging in all these forums. Ensure that the brand remains consistent across all touch points and that your presence is easily recognizable.
3. Forever and Ever - always remember that what you post is out there forever so refer back to point one.
4. Time Waster - schedule time for social media marketing and stick to it. If you want to play, do it in your own time to avoid the big time suck.
5. Pushy -look for opportunities to add value, to answer questions those in your community ask that are relevent to your area of expertise and always share links, posts and sites that you think might be valuable to your audience. This really helps in building your rapport online and mitigates any risk of looking too pushy. Oh and remember not to blatantly sell – it just puts followers off.
6. Disclosure – again make sure to put in place policies so that staff know what is expected of them in social media, what can and can’t be said.
7. Negativity – if someone says something bad about you in these forums, respond quickly and professionally – state your case or address the concern. This will have the counter effect of showing that you are listening and that your company cares about what people think.
8. Just Because – Don’t build a social media presence just because its the latest buzz technology. Before you start ask, what is in it for me or my company, do I have the time and resources to do this, how are my competitors using it, is my target market on there or is there an opportunity to reach new markets.
9. Spam – you can limit this by being extremely strategic and careful when building your following, by using software like Akismet and Captcha and by making sure you don’t click on links from untrusted sources.
10. Ignore It - A social media presence might not be right for every company but that doesn’t mean you should ignore social media completely. Use these forums to listen and learn and to hear what is being said about your industry to help you stay ahead of the curve.
I did a search for “risk” on Flickr and up came this wonderful photo of a tiger from Ian Michael Thomas’ fabulous photostream. Social media may be risky but thankfully it doesn’t have such sharp teeth! Thanks Ian.
Other related posts:
Is Social Media Losing Its Lustre?
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, September 23rd, 2009
Having a social media presence is vitally important these days. With 300 million users on Facebook, over 20 million on Twitter, not to mention millions blogging, it really gives you access to a wide audience.
A social media presence is an important addition to any marketing arsenal but the key to successfully using social media to build business is not in the technology itself but in the relationships you build and how you use these tools.
Social media is all about connections, about being social. The more social you are (with the right people in the right way) the more successful you are likely to be.
Social media allows you to:
- Reconnect with old colleagues, friends and business partners – to build awareness of what you do now;
- stay in touch with existing members of your network – helping you maintain awareness of what you do and get to know these people better, forging stronger relationships;
- Build new relationships with peers in your industry, prospective partners and customers – to identify and connect with new people you would like to do business with or even learn from.
As with any marketing or business development effort, using social media to build relationships should be done in a strategic and targeted way. You should know :
- the types of businesses or people you want to work with (i.e. old kindergarten friends may or may not be your best prospect so check them out first).
- the industry segments – what type of industries are they in (are they companies you would like to work with?).
- the target geography – i.e. connecting with people in Asia/Europe might not be the best use of your time if you don’t have a business presence there or if you don’t speak their language.
The bottom line is that your social media efforts should reflect your basic marketing strategy in terms of your target audience and your offering: always always bear that in mind.
Perhaps the biggest factor in successfully using social media is interaction. There’s no point in having thousands of followers if you simply push information out to them all the time, interacting at them rather than with them. You will simply appear automated and this will damage your efforts. Join the conversation. Read others’ posts to see which questions you can answer and how you can add value. Share information that is valuable to others by linking to it via your social networks. By thinking about how you can assist people you will find that these people are more likely to remember you and think of you when the time is right.
Finally, when using social media, remember that it should not be the sum and substance of your marketing or business development efforts. Social media is at its best when it complements and reflects your real world networking, marketing and business development efforts .
Thanks to Luc Legay for the image.
