Social Media Marketing Archives

July 17, 2018 By Jody Raines Leave a Comment

Social Media And Social Networking: Best Practices And Big Mistakes For LinkedIn

Social media, especially LinkedIn, are networking tools which, when applied correctly, can potentially grow your business exponentially. Utilizing social media channels correctly shouldn’t be difficult, yet for some reason, the people who use all social media channels to blast out the same message, will continue to barrage the wrong people with the wrong messaging. What a turn off. Indeed, the folks who use social media incorrectly will stop reading and continue to make the same mistakes that cause prospects to opt-out and disconnect.

If you find that you have a large number of opt-outs of your email campaigns, or you notice that your social media followers or likes are dwindling, read on…

Here are the three biggest LinkedIn Mistakes that I see over and over again… by sales and marketing “pros” who are too eager to “use” social media to generate leads.

Frankly, any of the following mistakes would result in not connecting, disconnecting or opting out.

Three BIG LinkedIn Mistakes:

First mistake – if you met someone at a networking event, chamber meeting, or family barbecue and you exchanged business cards that’s not always the best way to add to your network. When you establish a rapport with someone, and you feel that you can confidently recommend their services or refer business to them, then you should add them to your network. A great thing to do when you add someone is to mention how you met them or something from that conversation. I cannot tell you the number of times I have not accepted a request to connect because I didn’t remember whether I knew the person or how we met.

Second mistake – if the person connects with you, please, do not send them a note immediately trying to share what you do and why they should work with you. Unless that’s continuing a conversation where the person indicated that they were interested, slamming someone that way will not endear you to the new connection.

Third mistake – if you think it’s cool to send your ‘newsletter’ or ‘announcement’ to all your contacts through LinkedIn and that your going to get a ton of business that way, thing again. It’s actually somewhat disrespectful to send a blanket email to your contacts that way. No one wants to be addressed as “Dear Contact”. The power of LinkedIn is that it gives you some great information, and you have the opportunity to make the connection more personal.

Best practices – LinkedIn

Here’s a recipe to utilize the power of Linked in that can work for you. Let me know if you have other tips that work well, and we can share them.

Fill in your entire profile. LinkedIn represents an opportunity to share your resume online. Be complete and share relevant information that can be searched for keywords.
Use links to your website and change the description for SEO. The links in your profile use default descriptions for “my website” and “m y blog”. You can change these to a phrase or company name for improved search engine optimization.
Ask for Referrals. If one of your contacts is connected to someone you would like to know, there is an appropriate way to request a referral. Be sure to explain how you can HELP the recipient contact. If you only want to connect to sell them something, or if you do not add value, you should re-think wasting your contact’s time.
Connect with your former associates. Think about high school or college – each of your friends there has gone on to different organizations or companies. Adding them to your network can expand the strength of your network considerably. People you used to work with, for example, most likely have moved on to other positions within other organizations. Adding them to your network gives you the opportunity to connect with their connections or ask fro introductions… Very powerful when used correctly!
Join groups. A little known feature of groups is that it adds the ability to connect with other members of the group. If you want to meet people or add to your network, joining groups and participating in group discussions is a great way to get your name out there.
Ask questions. Withing groups and within LinkedIn, asking questions can help you to identify others who can utilize your services. A well worded question can expose motivations and vulnerabilities that you have the ability to help with. For example, a client who does vehicle wraps could ask a question regarding the top issues for wrapping a fleet of vehicles. If answered, the person has now identified the fact that they have a fleet of vehicles and that they are having a problem. Based upon the problem, this could be an amazing prospect… Think about it!
Connect with other group members. Other group members have networks too – and their network could be greatly different than yours. By connecting with others in your group, you now have new contacts that are just a couple of degrees of separation from you, and those numbers increase algebraically.
Use Search to connect with company. If you use the search function within LinkedIn, it helps you discover who, within your network, may be connected with someone at that company. Try it – it’s very cool!
Ask for introductions. If you share how you can help the person you are requesting an introduction to, and if you have a good relationship with the person from whom you are requesting the introduction, this can be a powerful tool.
Post periodically. Recently LinkedIn introduced the ability to have articles posted. It’s wonderful exposure – you never know who you may reach! If your post is intelligent and has good content, you will get some attention.

There are many new and exciting ways to utilize the power of LinkedIn for connecting and generating new leads. What are some of the ways that you have had success? Have you tried any of these ideas? What was the result?

June 22, 2018 By Jody Raines Leave a Comment

How To Develop An Online Brand

When it comes to being discovered online, the one part of your online presence that you “own” is your website. Your website should be the cornerstone of your online strategy – the information contained is the beacon that customers can find when they look for you or your services.

But, your website is only a part of your online campaign for online branding. Granted, an optimized website is the most important component of your online marketing strategy, however even with the most glorious and well thought-out website, you may be missing huge opportunities to support your product, champion your brand and connect with your customers and prospects.

Social media marketing was a “buzzword” that we started to discuss a several years ago. You may also have heard the terminology “new marketing” or “online marketing” or even “inbound marketing”. The concept is to create an optimized online presence to help your customers find you and your business. A lot of the social media “guru’ types talked about “engagement” and there was much nodding of heads. But the reality is that there is very little engagement happening, even today, because so many companies have opted to run automated campaigns.

I’m not against all automation, but it just does not work for every organization in every situation. Especially in times of high national tension, when the focus is on an earthquake or superstorm, having an automated message about sunny skies is a real disconnect with your audience. The worst thing you can to is have your customers disengage, opt out, and disconnect. Now, those wonderful social channels have worked against you.

If I had to pick one word to describe the best practices for social media marketing, that word would be responsive. Not only are we striving for responsive design in websites, but we also should be responsive to our audience and to the societal and cultural changes around us. If you are responsive, you are creating content that is relevent and that has true appeal to your targeted customers.

A responsive website is one that fluidly re-conforms to the device it is being viewed on. Newer websites are being created that have this feature built in. Some of the older websites have both a desktop version and a mobile version. Without getting too technical, what you want to be sure to do is to present the version that is best viewed on the device that the viewer is using at the time they visit your site. It makes perfect sense, right?

One of my biggest frustrations is one of the news alert services that I use that sends me a link to an article that I want to read. When I click on the link, I’m taken to a general page that may or may not contain the article. Eventually, I stop clicking on the link and ignore the alert. I may even unsubscribe from the alert. This is no different than putting the wrong terminology or advertising or teaser to an article, then sending the reader to a site that is so general, they get turned off. Social media is an awesome tool to drive traffic to your site – just be sure that the link is truly the target of the tweet or Facebook post. Otherwise, you will lose customers.

When it comes to internet branding and social media optimization, the rules for marketing have changed, and without a social media presence, you will be a dinosaur. Customers are searching and researcing using the Internet. There is an entire generation that is growing up in a world where using Google is second nature to find answers. The changes that search engines have gone through are taken in stride, and adopted readily. To be sure that your online brand is being appropriately represented in today’s informational society means you have to be relevent and you have to be present. That includes social media. The old excuse that your customers don’t use social media is becoming tired and inaccurate. Your customers use social media, and they use it every day. They may be checking their email first thing in the morning, which includes their Facebook statuses and their friend’s updates. The way we communicate is much more fluid, more rapid and most likely, online.

Be aware of derogatory messages about your brand and be responsive. Don’t hide from critical reviews, but address them with equally positive reviews from your customers.

Social media marketing, is primarily social, and secondarily its media, and finally, it’s marketing. Keeping the appropriate perspective will go a long way to your successful online branding and internet marketing campaign.

February 21, 2018 By Jody Raines Leave a Comment

Social Media Fail: Are You Using Linkedin Wrong?

Linkedin: Are You Doing It Wrong?

If you had a dollar for every mistake that someone made using social media, you’d be a very wealthy person! In the meantime, the catalyst for this post was an email that I received from someone I am not well acquainted with, but who asked to connect with me on Linkedin.

The letter began with, “Im sorry to bother you but…”

For the record, I really like LinkedIn. It’s a resume online and also a living Rolodex (yes, I am dating myself), but the cool thing is that it enables me to keep up with my professional network despite years and distance and career hops and leaps and changes. I love the fact that each person updates their contact information so I can congratulate them on the promotions, or encourage them through the changes. It’s remarkable because it’s a tool for business relationships, unlike Facebook or Google+ or Twitter or Instagram. In this respect, Linkedin is unique and I love that about this interface.

Common Linkedin Mistakes:

1. LinkedIn is a BUSINESS Social network platform

So, my first gripe with new users is a big mistake of not understanding the nature of Linked-in as a business platform. It’s fine to connect with friends and expand your relationship to include business. What is not fine is to undermine your professional account with a casual, non-business profile photo. That means the picture of your beautiful dog or amazing cat will not do – unless you want to give the impression of being less than credible. Also, the photo of you swinging a bat at the company softball game, not a good choice. You should pic a photo of you playing baseball if you are a pro baseball player, otherwise, it’s not the right image to project. Leave the sweatshirts, tank tops, cocktail hour, family vacation shots on Facebook – this is not the place for them.

2. Don’t spam the Linked in Connections

My second gripe – ok, so we are connected. Now is your chance! Develop a social media relationship, right? Send an email, get to know each other… or wait, try to sell me something? What? I don’t really know you, I connected because perhaps we met at an event and had a nice conversation… the reality is that you don’t know me, don’t know my company and you are sending me the same template email you sent to everyone else. Do you really think I am going to jump out of my seat now that I got your email and pick up the phone to buy what you are selling? I don’t think so. In fact, most sales take place after you have developed a relationship. Social media is “social” for a reason – to use it as a device to create more emails to send out letter to is a disservice to you, your organization and it’s disrespectful of the connection. If you use Linked in to attempt to sell to me, you risk being disconnected. If I like you, I may reach out to you first, to try to explain why what you did was a bad idea… if that doesn’t work, will disconnect. Part of the power of linkedin is the ability to potentially connect with the connections of the person you are connected to. Yes, that sounds complicated, but what it means is that my network is now open for you to peruse. Why would I open my network to someone who seems to be ignorant of the protocols? I don’t want to be associated with that behavior, nor would I do business with someone who utilizes a network that way, so it’s not a loss to disconnect.

3 Linkedin is about QUALITY not QUANTITY

My third gripe and a very common mistake, is the false belief that someone who has a lot of connections must be very important. There are some people on Linkedin who will connect with anyone and everyone – this is called an “Open Networker” To say that someone has the “most” connections on Linked in does not say the same thing as having the most relationships. There is greater power in having relationships where you can ask or share or tell and it has some influence. The relative amount of influence if directly correlated to the depth of the relationship and the mutual respect. If I met you once at a networking event, and you immediately stared spamming my inbox, there is no mutual respect, no relationship, and no reason to continue to stay ‘connected’.

Bottom line: I suppose if you start an email with “I’m sorry to bother you, but…” you already know it’s not a good idea to send the email, right?

February 6, 2018 By Jody Raines Leave a Comment

Fly Eagles? Fly Dogs! How Social Media Changed A Mascot

The Eagles WON the Super Bowl. Social Media is abuzz with burning questions regarding the team mascot: Is it a bird? Is it a German Shepherd? Or a is it a Belgian Malinois?

Ruger, a Belgian Malinois, pondering his resemblance to the Eagles Underdog

Some fans may have been puzzled that the Eagles, whose mascot, by the way IS an Eagle, were wearing dog masks. Most of the masks were a shepherd type dog with dark muzzle, but some creative types posted their masks of other breeds as their spirit moved them!

The CreepyParty German Shepherd Mask

The “underdogs” motif may not be officially Sanctioned, however they are proving popular with fans. What’s more fun than a graphic of a fierce dog/man who’s “gotta eat”, “gotta be trusted” or who can fly? Variations of the dog/bird/man can be found and purchased on street corners, on popular websites like Amazon, EBay and Etsy. Variants of the Eagles logo with a dog head are also popular.

Whether they are officially licensed or not (mostly not) the burning question in my mind is whether this dog tracks it’s lineage to the German Shepherd dog, a very popular and recognized breed, or whether it’s the Belgian Shepherd or Belgian Malinois, a breed that has gained popularity and favor with law enforcement and which has been glamorized recently in movies and television shows.

The official Eagles rendition does not even look like a German Shepherd OR a Malinois.

It’s easy to be confused or to mistake one for another. In fact, there are many crosses that are being touted as one or the other, but it takes an astute observer of the breed standard to discern which breed is predominant.

So I did a scientific analysis of the “underdog” mask. By scientific, I mean that I asked my friends who are dog breeders and have been involved with the breeds for many years what type of dog the mask represents. My Belgian Malinois friends all say the mask is a “really bad German Shepherd”. With this in mind, I asked my German Shepherd breeding friends, and their collective response was “We are not sure”.

So, considering that most people would not recognize a Belgian Malinois, and most would certainly recognize a German Shepherd or Shepherd Mix, I am going to concur with the masses, that this must be a German Shepherd.

Interesting side note, the mask, which was produced originally by a Chinese Company who had NO idea about the impending popularity, was sold out in one day on Amazon. All 230 of the CreepyParty “German Shepherd” masks were sold out in one morning. The owners of the company, Jason Lee had no idea what happened, and to his amazement, discovered that the sell out was due to the Eagles win over Atlanta in the playoffs, and two Eagles players, Lane Johnson and Chris Long, celebrated by donning the masks and embracing the role of “underdogs”. The rest was a social media firestorm, and adoption of the German Shepherd mask as a rallying cry to Eagles Fans everywhere.

So, don’t despair, Eagles fans… we are NOT losing an Eagle, we are gaining a German Shepherd as a mascot.

Congratulations #Eagles! #FlyDogs#Fly

April 23, 2016 By Jody Raines 1 Comment

Social Media Tips: How Much Time Should I Spend on Social Media?

Clients who have accepted the fact that Twitter and Facebook and Linkedin are great for business, have asked me how much time they should devote to social media marketing. It’s a valid question, and one that has more than one answer.

It depends on what your goals are and what you hope to achieve. Keep in mind that Google has admitted that social media clout is one of the ingredients in their search engine ranking formula, and having your message tweeted by others can briefly have your website listed as number one on Google.

The Internet is a dynamic environment and the old days of optimizing a website and then leaving it for a year just don’t work any longer. We no longer can say the Internet is changing daily or even hourly – the content is changing every second as more and more people add to the information that is available online.

If you are not adding your business or brand information to the mix, then it’s tantamount to everyone taking a step forward, and you are standing in the same place. Even though you didn’t move, you wound up behind everyone else!

So, the first step to determining how much time you should spend on social media marketing is to determine what your goals should be. What do you hope to achieve using social media? Are you using social media as a broadcast device? If so, I can already tell you, it doesn’t matter how much time you spend, you are using it wrong!

One of the things I look at when I evaluate how my client is using social media marketing – and this is a great way to determine whether that so-called “expert” really knows what he or she is doing – is to see if there is a broadcast mentality to what they are sharing, or whether there is true engagement. I have seen these ‘experts’ with the same message sent multiple times. That’s enough to recognize that they obviously do not understand how to use social media and therefore, I wouldn’t waste any money or time investing in having them help set up a campaign.

Automated programs also are a waste of time. That’s the same as calling and hoping to get a live person, and then become frustrated with not being able to reach a person. They can actually cause more harm than good in a social media program, and any ‘expert’ who is advocating automating should be burned at the stake!

So, how do you manage your social media and how much time should you invest?

Just as organic optimization takes time, so does your social media program. If done correctly, it will stand the test of time. Just like “black hat” SEO techniques can have a short upsurge then have dire consequences, so can these ‘quick win’ social media plans.

So, with that being said, here is my recipe for a general social media program:

1. Post a blog at least once a week. Twice a week if possible.

2. Link your blog to your Facebook business page and Twitter and Linkedin profiles.

3. On a daily basis, check into Twitter and send out Tweets for fifteen minutes. You can break that into three five minute intervals during the day. You’d be surprised how much useful information you can obtain in those five minutes.

4. Post a question or observation on Facebook on a daily basis. Ask for input or feedback on a topical issue. Encourage interaction. This may take another ten minutes.

5. Daily, review your Linkedin messages and respond. This may take another 5 minutes.

So, all told, excluding the time you took to write your blog, your entire social media program may take thirty minutes a day. Of course you can spend more time if you’d like.

There are tools that can make monitoring your social media much easier, and we will address these tools in a future post.

How much time do you take for your social media program? Where do you focus your social media efforts? Have you seen an increase in sales based upon your social media efforts?

April 20, 2016 By Jody Raines Leave a Comment

Social Media Tips: Trust and Transparency

Trust. What does it take to create trust, and how can trust be taken away?

And for that matter, what is social media trust? And how does social media transparency help or hinder building trust and engagement in social media?

You may have heard the term “transparency” used in relation to business branding or identity marketing, but what does the concept of transparent marketing mean, and how can you be sure to establish trust with your clients, customers and prospects?

When you’ve lost trust, you can bet you’ve lost business.

Recently I’ve been receiving a series of emails, on a almost daily basis from my Internet service provider, that imply that my computer and network have been compromised. At first, I disregarded this as a sales attempt… After all, I am running hordes of security on my network, and the op sys I am using is touted as being fairly stable and resistant to virus infiltration.

But as I started to think about it, I realized that if this was a sales attempt, it is preying on a vulnerable market. So many people have computers today who did not grow up with them like Generation C is… To this older an newly connected generation, computers are still something of a mystery! Case in point, I recently got one of the new ipads for my mother who is 87. She absolutely loves the ipad interface and marvels at what the device can do,…. She’s unusual for her generation, howeve she is not as aware of hacker attacks or viruses as someone who is Generation C or even Gen Y.

So, the email about viruses made me angry.

I am sure this was not the result the company that sent it to me had hoped for. They more likely were anticipating that I’d be thankful for the heads up. But recently, I’ve had a malevolent person who has been stalking me, and in addition to my system potentially being hacked, I am now concerned that this individual may may have done something to my system when he had access to it.

But was my service provider preying on my insecurity? For a megalith company, that I respect, and who I have as a service provider to stoop to sending me false allegations that my Mac may have a bot or key logger really miffed me.

Question is – do I trust that the service provider is truly attempting to be helpful, or do i disregard and figure it’s an attempt to add additional service fees to my monthly invoice?

Trust. If I trusted the service provider, there would be no question. Like the Facebook trust experience, where multiple changes have disrupted or opened up our privacy settings, the Internet and social media marketing has elevated the attempts on the part of undesirable or poorly informed suppliers, especially those who are adept at positioning themselves as “experts”. They prey on our fears and use double talk to obfuscate their meaning, The plethora of these types has given rise to our questioning whether these are actually attempts to help versus attempts to sell. As it turns out, I did decide to have this third party evaluate what is going on with my systems…. They are immersed in my Mac as we speak and they’ve started to unravel things.

How much simpler things would have been for them, had they established a level of trust first. Then there would be no question that the first sign of trouble was real. As it was, this sale took 4 phone calls to 7 individuals including their security division before I “trusted” what they were telling me, that’s 7 people who were tied up taking to a prospect when really, and ideally, this should no have had to escalate to that level. If there is a lesson, it is to treat your brand and your customers with value, be truthful, and don’t think that a cleverly veiled sales approach will not be recognized as such by your prospects.

Certainly it’s important to aim at giving value, but it’s equally important to refrain from disguising your true intent. In this instance, had the service provider simply shared that there is a paid version and an unpaid version of support in a clear manner, I may have jumped inboard sooner. Have you had experiences where you were not sure whether the offer was genuine or a sales attempt? Do you have call to action offers that may cross the line, or have you experience one on a site you’ve visited?

April 18, 2016 By Jody Raines Leave a Comment

3 Social Media Mistakes To Kill Your LinkedIn Credibility

Social Media can make you rich! If you had a dollar for every mistake that someone made using social media, you’d be a very wealthy person! In the meantime, the catalyst for this post was an email that I received from someone I am not well acquainted with, but who asked to connect with me on Linkedin.

The letter began with, “Im sorry to bother you but…”

For the record, I really like Linked In. It’s a resume online and also a living Rolodex (yes, I am dating myself), but the cool thing is that it enables me to keep up with my professional network despite years and distance and career hops and leaps and changes. I love the fact that each person updates their contact information so I can congratulate them on the promotions, or encourage them through the changes. It’s remarkable because it’s a tool for business relationships, unlike Facebook or Google+ or Twitter or Instagram. In this respect, Linkedin is unique and I love that about this interface.

1.LinkedIn is a BUSINESS Social network platform

2. Don’t spam the Linked in Connections

3 Linkedin is about QUALITY not QUANTITY

I suppose if you start an email with “I’m sorry to bother you, but…” you already know it’s not a good idea to send the email, right?

April 16, 2016 By Jody Raines 3 Comments

Social Media Marketing Tips: How To Optimize Your Blog

Social media marketing and website optimization are dependent upon adding content on an ongoing basis. Business blogging is a part of social media marketing where you can add dynamic keyword-rich content to a website. Assuming that the blog is part of the website, the blog can be a forum to express ideas, philosophies and share information.

Understanding the power of a blog includes making the commitment to use the blog in a way that it adds value to the website. Simply having a blog that is dormant does not add interest or value.

Many businesses make the mistake of having a blog, but then underutilize it. Here are three key blogging best practices that can help power your blog and help to optimize it’s value to your Internet marketing program and your website:

1. Blog often.

If you have a blog and you aren’t adding to it, it’s not really a blog. Blogs are meant to be living, breathing and dynamic content for your website. If you haven’t yet made the commitment, you really should blog at least once a week. Obviously if you can blog more, then you have more opportunities to connect with a potential customer.

2. Use keywords.

If you write for your blog without considering keywords in your content, you are missing a huge opportunity. Determing which keywords are effective and then weaving them into your articles can help your blog be discovered in Google searches. Using the Google keyword tool is a free way to evaluate keywords. Another trick is to use Google Analytics to evaluate how people are finding your website in order to focus on those topics.

3. Don’t sell.

Blogs add the most value to the website, when they complement the site, but are not sales oriented. Don’t make the mistake of using your blog just to pitch your products. Share information, thoughts, lists, ideas on topics that could potentially be of interest to your customers. By sharing information, you position yourself as an expert and a go-to source.

If you follow these best practices for blogging, be sure to stick to them. Like starting an exercise program or a diet, it’s only as effective as your commitment.

February 16, 2014 By Jody Raines Leave a Comment

What Is The Value Of Social Media Marketing?

This morning, as I am drinking my coffee and evaluating website analytics using Google Analytics website tool, I saw an interesting trend. Traffic comes from several sources, including organic search, direct traffic, referrals and social media. First, one of the most fascinating statistics regarding social media is that it contributed more traffic that any of the other channels. This phenomena may be due to the fact that I haven’t really worked on this website until recently, but I do have a fairly strong social media presence. Of the social media channels, the strongest was Facebook, followed by Google+. Surprisingly Twitter sent only a spattering of visits and even Linked In was much stronger than Twitter.

Of the traffic that came from social media, the quality of the traffic was better than the organic traffic, in that they stayed on the website longer, and they also visited more pages. It also out performed the referral traffic for the same metrics.

I’m not sure how much of this is due to the nature of the website, which is more along the lines of a personal blog than a company website. It could be that there is a correlation because the highest referral source, Facebook, does contain may people that I know personally. However, I also have a few pages on Facebook related to the company, my personal page, and a couple of podcasts that I co-host, so that may be part of the reason. I usually post on several Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and social media sites as blogs and other items are published.

What does all this mean? Here are my thoughts, and I’m curious if you’ve noticed these trends as well, and also if you agree with my analysis:

1. Social Media offers higher engagement. It appears that when someone finds my website through social media, they tend to visit more pages and also stay longer on the site. It could be due to the fact that most of the visits are due to blog posts. I am careful when writing blogs to try to focus on topcs that I feel would be of interest to potential prospects, and this appears to be an effective approach.

2. Social Media offers opportunity for sharing. Many of my posts wind up being shared or re-tweeted. I’d like to believe that is due to the quality of the content and that I offer some good advice. Regardless, it’s more likely to occur within Facebook and Google+ and Twitter than this re-sharing seems to appear in LinkedIn. That means that I will tailor content that is sharable more to the networks where sharing seems to be more popular, and unique, more intellectual content to LinkedIn where it may only be viewed by my immediate network and groups.

3. Social Media offers amplification. Another trend that I’ve noticed is that the new visits as a percentage of all visits is higher from Social Media than from other sources, like organic search or direct search. That makes sense to me. Social media sharing can create a way of amplifiying word of mouth recommendations though cyber space. In other words, when someone retweets a message or shares a Facebook post, it’s perceived as almost a recommendation for the content. In some ways, that amplification is more valuable than the intial post. Moving forward, one way I will utilize this knowledge is to be more concious of “influencers” who can share my message and who seem to have a fairly loyal following.

If you are trying to get a message out, or to establish a brand, social media can be a powerful tool. I get a kick out of those businesses who are still avoiding social media because they think it’s not their “market”. The funny thing – your public and potential prospects expect you to be on social media, and to not only post, but also to be listening.

What do you think? Do you agree that social media is powerful for marketers? How have you utilized social media to amplify your messaging?

February 9, 2014 By Jody Raines Leave a Comment

Social Media Marketing And Inbound Marketing Trends For 2014

Want your online marketing to be a Knock Out?

Internet marketing trends continue to evolve and as we enter the new calendar year we evaluate what the Internet marketing trends will be, and what the impact will be on social media marketing or inbound marketing. Some of the changes we are tracking will have great impact on the way we communicate using the Internet.

Semantic Search Yields Improved Results. The world of Google and search changed with the introduction of Hummingbird and the birth of semantic search. What this means is that search is more intelligent and adaptive. The old days of matching specific keywords for “optimized search” results are hopefully dead. Long live the new SEO and semantic search results. With a more intelligent and personalized result, the old days of ‘gaming’ the search engines are hopefully over. A new dawn of improved search results will dictate that websites become more serious about improved and helpful content. If the information is simply ‘marketing pablum’ with keywords sprinkled through the text, it will no longer garner top placement or search engine rankings.
Mobile’s Influence On Responsive Web Design And Marketing. It still amazes me when I am searching for a company or service or product on my mobile device and the result is difficult to read or evaluate. More and more, mobile has become the way we find what we are looking for, and if your website is not mobile enabled, you will be knocked out of the game. Google Webmaster Tools even offers some best practices for mobile websites. This past Holiday season, statistics show that over 25% of online purchasing was done on a mobile device. With the increasing number of transactions and searches being performed on mobile devices, mobile responsive web design will be a huge factor for online marketing success moving forward.
Social Video, Real Time Increase In Offers And Adoption. Google+ was revolutionary with the Hangout and Hangouts On Air platforms. Integrating with YouTube (the #2 search engine) makes G+ Hangouts an important tool for 2014 and beyond. Many traditionally audio podcasts have made the transition to video. In fact, video production and embedding have become relatively easy. There are tremendous advances in editing software that makes video production more attainable for the general population. Apple has proven that you can use an iPhone as an all in one video capture and editing platform for creating surprisingly professional results.
Wearable Technology And The Dick Tracy Era. Wearing your heart on a sleeve will take a back seat to wearing your phone on your wrist. Jewelers who lamented the fact that no one wears watches any more are now excited about trends in wristwear that incorporate technology. Whether it’s a watch that monitors your phone messages or records video or monitors your exercise, the way that we will communicate in the future is making great changes. Google glass has had it’s blips and false starts, but generally its an exciting new technology. At $1500 a pop, people have to wait to get an invitation to even line up to purchase the device. Seems a bit expensive to have glasses that take pictures or record video, and perhaps the early adopters are reluctant to share the Emperor’s clothing scenario, but it’s definitely a trend to watch.
Business Networking Expanded. In the age of Linkedin, Quora, Google Plus and other networks that have a business edge, the importance of business networking, both online and in person has been escalated. No longer can a company grow without a network of evangelists. Brand evangelists will do the job of spreading the word better and faster and with greater credibility than the company can through advertising or other methods.
Consolidation of Social Platforms. As social media platforms evolve, there is a tendency for them to become more and more similar. When LinkedIn and Facebook added a Twitter-like stream, then when Twitter added a new improved Facebook-like wall the fuzzy differentiation became even more diffuse. As Google+ and Facebook vie for social dominance with the newer entries like Pinterest and Jelly, the delineation will become blurred, and the fast pace of absorbing the newer, successful social channels will increase. The good news is that the same skills for engagement and sharing social content that have helped to develop associations in the past will continue to be important, and those who have mastered the ability to identify and connect with influencers will continue to have success.
Analytical Information Gains Importance. Does your social media program work? How would you know. Identifying measurable goals then finding a way to determine progress towards those goals will be the lifeblood of any social media program. If a company is involved in social media, it’s not to say that every tweet or post or like has to be a contrived part of a plan, however the messaging and momentum should be consistent, especially in organizations where there could be more than one voice for the company.
Sharing is the New SEO. While Facebook celebrates its tenth birthday, social media and the era of engagement and sharing has blossomed and in some cases, social sharing has greater credibility than the old formula for inbound links. The age of semantic marketing, of creating content that is meaningful and not just a mish mosh of keywords has begun. For your web presence to be important, you must contribute and those contributions must be recognized by third parties. To the extent that you are tweeting or “liking” or “plussing” or being tweeted, liked or plussed, that is the way your authority and web presence will grow.
Demands for Privacy Escalate. (The Downfall of Big Data). Eric Snowden may have brought new focus to this issue, but it was there before the NSA backlash began. In fact, there have been waves of people proclaiming loudly that they are leaving Facebook due to concerns about privacy, only to be lured back and lulled into ambivalence by the comforting presence of their peers. Just because other people are doing it, does not make it save and more and more the call for the opportunity to hide or block information has become louder and more strident.
Accountability Of Individuals. (Reductions in Cyber threats, anonymous trolls, spam) Recently Google made a rather bold change in they way comments on YouTube videos are posted. The comments are linked to a Google account and appear on Google+. The anonymous troll who used to post derogatory and inflammatory comments is limited to a greater extent than ever before. Whether the individual tries to obscure his or her identity or creates pseudonyms, the fact is that this is getting harder and more difficult than ever before. Perhaps by making individuals accountable for their actions and words, we can begin to put a stop to cyber threats and online harassment. Then again, if the person is truly “off their rocker”, its evident by their posts. Well, more appropriately clear to everyone except the perpetrator… The good news is that the public is demanding great accountability of organizations and individuals, and decrying those cowards who troll the Internet with the intent to do harm.

Have you identified additional trends? I’d love to hear about them and learn your thoughts – please share you ideas with whether you agree (or disagree) with these trends, and also whether you feel that there are even greater waves of change coming?

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