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6 Summer Marketing Tips

It’s warm and sunny, the beach calls. You ask yourself “Why shouldn’t I just give in and go? Marketing is a waste of time at this time of year.”

Summer with its delicious distractions tempts you to decide that nothing is going to happen in your business so why not just enjoy the season.

If you decide to make that choice you will be joining much of your competition in thinking summer time is play time.

With the competition out of the game, now is the time to get out and get serious about your business as they lie on the beach.

Give yourself a break from the everyday pressure of marketing and sales by working on future business NOW!

Going into the fall with business on the books before you start the season is not only a great feeling; it changes your perspective when a prospect that may not be a good fit comes along.

Having core business gives you time to explore and investigate other opportunities that come along. Those other opportunities sometimes form the basis for innovation in how you do business, the way you market and what the primary focus of your business is.

Put the power and control of your future back in your own hands.

Implement these summer marketing tips starting today

1. Summer is a slower time of year for some media which means you can negotiate a better deal and extend the buy into the higher priced fall by planning and booking now.
2. Send a Press Release while media staff is reduced by the holiday season and pressure to produce is on fewer numbers of media writers with less time to look for stories.
3. Do take some additional time to read some new marketing books, write some new articles and learn a new marketing skill i.e. blogging or social marketing
4. Hold an annual or semi-annual sale with clear parameters of what, when, and how to ensure it doesn’t creep into the busy fall.
5. Offer a free seminar, put on a picnic, sponsor a high profile summer time event, and/or hire a student to distribute a coupon. Do something different to capitalize on the opportunity created by large gatherings at special events and more people out on the street in the summer.
6. Make a special offer to your current customers to introduce them to another product or service they haven’t yet bought.

If you need to see the possibilities before you put an effort into summer marketing try the following exercise

Draw a circle on a piece of paper representing the market size of your industry. Mark your pie shaped share of the market, no matter how small.

Draw a larger circle around the same central point and extend the sides of your piece of the pie to the new perimeter.

See what happens to your piece of the pie when people return to their fall routines and the prospects you spoke to and those who decided to do business with you told their friends?

That increase is your customer base growing exponentially from the marketing work you did while others were relaxing in the sun.

“Some people forget to plant in the spring, idle away the summer hours and then expect to reap in the fall.”
Grant M. Bright

There is still time to give attention to your summer marketing and reap the benefits this fall and into 2010.

Article By: Nota Bene Consulting
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Content Creates Engagement

Engagement is the buzzword of choice when social media experts get together to pontificate. And while I agree that engagement, and ultimately action, is the payoff of social media, few social media experts talk about how it’s really created. Engagement is not really created by being a nice, genuine, caring and attentive sort of chap on twitter. It’s hard to create much momentum in any kind of social network without some of those qualities, but true engagement, engagement that leads to customers and partners, is created with content. Or, perhaps more accurately, engagement is created with engaging content.

I know you’re likely sick of me talking about the need to create lots of education rich content, but there’s just very few ways around it as a typical small business. Some exceptions, marry into lots of money and buy super bowl ads, get Miley Cyrus to wear your product on stage, or get Michael Arrington and Robert Scoble to argue publicly about the merits of your feature set - baring these, think content creation.

When it comes to effective social media use, I personally push towards using a great deal of energy and activity to create awareness for your content. So, of course if you’re to take this advice, you’ve got to have lots of content. Many people do little more than create small talk on social networks and then wonder why they can’t get an ROI for time spent. Most small businesses will be far better off if they look at their status updates on LinkedIn, Facebook and twitter, not as a way to tell the world about what they are doing (unless it’s creating content), but as a way to shed light on valuable content housed either within the particular social network or elsewhere online.

This means uploading videos to Facebook, creating events, such as webinars and optimizing them using the Facebook Events app, uploading PowerPoint presentations to Slideshare and using the Slideshare app for LinkedIn, and creating a quick hit point out of your latest blog post and pointing to it on twitter. That’s how engagement leads to orders.

I’m not suggesting that you don’t also have to make referrals, point out other people’s great content, and provide great answers to questions posed on that network – that’s just smart networking, regardless of the platform, and it’s also an important trust building function. But, at the end of the day, if someone, looking for a solution, can’t find that you have in detailed, multi-format, education based content, then social media participation for business purposes can feel like a big fat high school mixer.

So, if you’re one of those that’s determined social media is a big fat waste of time, then I’m suggesting that what you’ve really discovered is that your sparkling personality isn’t enough to make social media pay.

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Model Evolution With Makeup And Photoshop

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Be An Orange

When a prospective buyer is looking at your product or service, he or she is really comparing you to the competition. So the question is, are they comparing an apple to an apple or an apple to an orange? It is vitally important in marketing that you find a way to be THE orange! In other words, what is it about you that makes you completely DIFFERENT from your competitor?

If you can’t find a way to be different, you will constantly find yourself being pressured on price, and small businesses can’t survive on constant price cutting. So how do you differentiate?

First understand that these are NOT differences

1. Great Service
2. Great Quality for the Price

These are expectations for all businesses!

Secondly, just because your product or service is unique doesn’t necessarily mean you are automatically an orange. If others can find another product or service out there that can still give them the same end result then you REALLY aren’t that different! Think about these possibilities:

• Serving a Niche
• Different Form of Distribution
• Unique Process
• Special Offer
• Guarantee
• Unique Service

If you’re not sure what makes you different, ask your top clients, why they chose you and why they keep coming back. They may start with watered down answers like, “you’re great.” Probe a little deeper. Nine times out of ten, what makes us different is the “little things” we do that we didn’t even know mattered!

A good recession brings out creative marketing ideas

WIR Bloggers,

I was on vacation last week and noticed an interesting way for retailers and companies to attract eyeballs.

The baggage claims are rocking!!!

I heard a saying once that one of the most captive audiences are those on airplanes, in prison, or watching bags go round and round at the airport baggage claim.    I like the creativity of the baggage claim advertising.  I think the more creative marking ideas retailers & restaurants can put in place today to drive revenue the better.

I feel too many business owners today in times like our current economic situation get into a shelter or panic mode. The only new thoughts are how you can cost cut everywhere.  This mind set causes a status quo environment and being in that state of mind will never produce creative ideas.  The status quo mindset will shut down the effective brains of a retailer’s organization.

My advice:

• Seek out good ideas from your people and make sure you are stimulating the most important asset you have “the creative minds of your employees”.
• Eliminate the entertainment of just good ideas and only focus on the best one or two ideas.
• Make sure they have a high potential rate of visibility.
• Get excited about a new campaign and have fun running it.

Never let good recessions go to waste; everyone in today’s environment is open to new ideas you just have to bring the ideas to life.

Let me know what creative marketing ideas you have done to attract customers.

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HOW TO: Plan a Vacation Using Social Media

Vacation is a time to relax, or a time to seek out adventure. It’s a way to let go of your stress and live out your fantasies. That is, if the stress and pain of planning the vacation doesn’t kill you first.

Whether you want to relax on the beaches of Hawaii, roam the English countryside, or visit the temples of Thailand, you’ve got to be informed, organized, and ready for what lies ahead. To that end, social and web tools can help. From utilizing wikis for collaborative planning to using social networks to share the YouTube videos you record, social media is a useful partner in experiencing the best vacation possible. This short guide highlights some tips, tools, and advice on how to use the social graph to plan and execute the perfect excursion.

Part 1: Research

The first step whenever you are planning to travel is to do your research! Research is key to choosing a location, picking a hotel, and figuring out where you should visit. One of the best ways to get good information is to read the insight provided by others. This is where social media can play a vital role to getting the best information possible.

While there are hundreds of social media websites you can visit for information, here are recommendations to get you started:

Nextstop: Nextstop, which we recently reviewed, provides a ton of simple-to-understand, user-generated guides for getting the most out of any locale.

Where I’ve Been: Not only is Where I’ve Been a popular Facebook () application, but it’s also a stand-alone social network as well. Use it to get in-depth information on different.

Wikitravel: Perhaps the largest collection of user-generated travel information on the web, Wikitravel provides good information on where to go, what to expect, and even information on the culture.

TripAdvisor: One of the best-known sites in travel, TripAdvisor has millions of reviews that will help you pick out the gems and avoid the disasters.

The key is to look at a wide range user-generated content and reviews to get an overall picture. For more detailed information and social tools for research, check out our article HOW TO: Use Social Media for Travel Research.

Part 2: Planning and organizing

Picking a vacation spot might just be the easiest part of the battle. Tackling the daunting task of planning, organizing, and building a vacation plan can be the stumbling block that makes the excursion fall apart. Yet social and web tools are ideal for saving this information, creating itineraries, and sharing them with others. There are a couple of things you can do to help make the collaboration easier.

First, if you’re going on a vacation larger than just your family, then you’ll want to collect everyone’s research and thoughts onto one page. Setting up a wiki for the vacation is a great solution for this issue. It will help make sure nobody’s ideas are lost. Set up one at Wikidot, PBWorks, Wikia, or Wetpaint. Want a simpler option? Then Google Docs () may be a fit as well.

Planning a vacation should not be a solo effort. Working with a spouse, the kids, and friends not only lightens the work load, but makes the vacation a greater shared experience. Make collaboration a painless process by using time-based tools like Google Calendar and CalendarHub, both of which can remind you when tasks are due. TripIt () is also ideal.

Finally, remember that Facebook, MySpace (), and comprehensive social networks are an easy way to keep a group of friends in the loop about a vacation. Create a new event or a group for the vacation and post updates via the wall or send messages to everyone in the group. This can be a lifesaver when you need to collect things like signatures, opinions, or vacation funds.

Part 3: Using social media on the ground

Social media’s usefulness in vacation planning doesn’t end when you step off the plane. Even the best-planned (or impromptu) vacation will require adjustments. Here are a few tips and tools for when you need to find a great restaurant on-the-ground or are looking for advice from locals:

Go mobile: iPhone and Android () apps are your friends. Having GPS-enabled and informative applications while on-the-go can mean the difference between finding the great treasures of Italy or getting lost in the alleys of Brazil. Be sure to check about data plans in the area you’re visiting – you don’t want to pay enormous roaming and data fees after all.

Some apps need online access, while others will work regardless. So even if the phone is off, there are a great deal of applications that can make life easy. We suggest having ZAGAT TO GO, MapsBuddy, and Yelp () [iTunes links] handy to start.

Check tweets in the area: Did you know that Twitter () search has location-based search? Say you want to find out about parties near Paris. Just search “party near:Paris” and you’ll have a set of local results. Refine as you’d like. Reach out if you’re adventurous.

Another idea: use Tweetie’s local tweets function to find residents who may be willing to help. Just be sure not to tweet to unsavory characters.

Use location-based social networks: Location-based social networks, while still fresh and new, are a great way to find friends and friendly strangers around you. Check out Loopt and BrightKite () and see if either will work for you.

Part 4: Documenting and sharing

Tools like Flickr (), YouTube (), and a personal blog should be key partners in your vacation plan. Specifically, use these tools to store the memories of your trip for posterity. Creating albums of your adventures helps encompass the memory and can be referenced for years to come. A personal blog chronicling the trip can also be fun to write.

Don’t forget to share your multimedia with your friends and family, as well. You know they will ask, so make it easy for them to find it by posting the photos and links via your top social networks.

Hopefully with all of the tools and information highlighted in this short guide, you will have a no-stress vacation that you can remember for the rest of your days.

HOW TO: Use Social Media for Enterprise Business

Companies such as Zappos, Dell, and JetBlue are all known as successes in harnessing the power of social media for business. However, the aforementioned businesses sell directly to consumers. How about the business that sells products to other businesses? What if you’re a company that builds inventory software or datacenters for the likes of Walmart? Is Twitter, Facebook, Ning, or a company blog going to be any use?

In fact, the answer may surprise you. There are business-to-business companies that are utilizing the social web to find customers, to build up a reputation, and to get the upper hand on landing the big deal. There’s a great deal that social media offers to the non-consumer business. Here are four of the best ways to use social media when you’re in enterprise:

Step 1. Build a reputation of expertise

What use is a company blog if you only have 10,000 customers, rather than 10 million? While it may be true that a B2B’s blog or Twitter is not going to be followed by as many people, it doesn’t change the fact that it will affect the decisions of your customers. Say a potential customer becomes aware of your software solution, and goes to your website to find out more about you. How can you stand out from the crowd? By building a blog with your expertise in focus.

If a potential customer comes to your company’s website and sees an active blog with insightful posts on how your company’s product helps customers, reads detailed posts demonstrating your company’s knowledge, and comes across a few case studies, they’re going to be far more inclined to come to you for their needs.

Social media provides an outlet for displaying who you and your company are. Talking about your industry in an intelligent way via Twitter and a regularly-updated blog can raise your company’s profile and brand it as a thought leader and expert in its specific business area.

37Signals, the maker of Software-as-a-service business collaboration products, is a prime example of this philosophy in action. Their blog is regularly read by thousands of people, shared among businesses, and has even opened up another revenue stream in the form of a popular job board. Social media builds reputations.

2. Research your customers

Everyone thinks of social media as a communication tool, but not enough people think of it as a research tool. With the ridiculous amount of data produced every day on social networks, blogs, and in conversations, it should be apparent that you can learn tidbits or spot major trends by tracking the social universe.

Know what your customers are saying: If you’re trying to secure a contract from a big business, then they are probably talking to their customers via Twitter, Facebook, and more. Learn what they’re saying to their customers and read the blogs of decision makers to learn what they value and how they think.

Know what your customers’ customers are saying: Your customers don’t care about you – they care about their customers and their bottom line. If you can find behavior patterns in their customers that your product can address, your pitch will resonate more. Driving the point that their current solution doesn’t work, and then proving that with social chatter is even better.

Track industry trends: Think about the keywords that define your industry, and then track them so you know what’s changing in it. If you’re a medical company creating devices for spine fusion surgery, then you’re going to want to track any developments in spinal fusion technology. Use Twilerts and Google Alerts to track keywords by email, or create an RSS feed of new information via the Content Keyword RSS Yahoo Pipe.

Step 3. Ramp up your networking

If you are competing with another company to land a big deal, it always helps to have connections and friendships within the company you’re trying to woo. You should always be networking, because you never know when a contact can become your advocate or even the decision-maker. And that’s where social media can help.

There are a lot of things you can do to get started on the networking front. They key, though, is that you have to reach out. Otherwise, how will people know to listen? While there are literally hundreds of ways to network with potential partners, vendors, clients, businesses, customers, and decision-makers, the truth is it doesn’t matter which tool you use as long as it is one that the other person values. LinkedIn, Twitter, Plaxo, etc. are always great places to start, but if you can network with him or her on niche social sites, you’ll stand out just a bit more.

Step 4. Learn from others

In the end, you want to come out sharper, more knowledgeable, and better prepared than your competitors. It doesn’t matter if you have 60 or 600,000 customers, and it does not matter whether or not you sell to general consumers or Fortune 500 companies. Almost everyone is using or tracking social media and it provides you a prime opportunity to make you and your business a leader rather than a follower.

- Seek out blogs and publications in your industry and subscribe via RSS
- Network with relevant experts, including those who may only be partially related
- Follow the insights of business leaders on Twitter
- Connect with commenters on your own blog
- Make yourself very easy to find on the web – if people search for your name or your business, you should be at the top of Google’s results. Building a blog, using a Twitter, and creating a decent corporate website always helps
- Keep an open mind

Don’t underestimate how much information is on the web. It’s stunning what you can learn just by reaching out. If you and your business have a strong social presence, it’s simply easier for potential partners, customers, employers, and businesses to find you. In enterprise, it’s about closing the deal and standing out; social media’s one of the easiest ways to achieve this goal.

by Ben Parr
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Facebook Users Are Getting Older. Much Older.

Analytics company iStrategyLabs has examined the demographics stats from Facebook ()’s Social Ads platform, and they’ve reached some very interesting conclusions. Facebook’s userbase, as a whole, is getting much older very fast.

As you can see in the chart below, the overall number of users between 18 and 24 years of age has grown only 4.8% between the fourth of January and the fourth of July of 2009. In comparison, the number of users aged 25 – 34 has grown 60.8%; the number of users aged 35 to 54 has grown 190.2%, while the number of users older than 55 years has grown a tremendous 513.7%.

If the iStrategyLabs numbers are correct, Facebook, simply put, is not a young site anymore. Most of the users (20,3 million, or 28.2% overall) on the site belong to the 35 – 54 age group. Compare that to the age group that was once Facebook’s bread and butter – the 18 – 24 group – which is now in third place with 18 million (25.1%) users, behind the 25 – 34 year old group, which makes for 25.2% of Facebook’s user base with 18.1 million users. The number of users aged 55 and over has grown from negligible 950,000 to 5.9 million in mere six months.

Now, although it may seem like the number of young users has declined, this is not true. The overall number of users of all ages is growing. But they are growing at very different speeds, and therefore the percentages have changed significantly; on a site like Facebook, which lives on advertising, this is a big deal.

However, although the number of young users has increased, the number of high school and college students has declined by -16.5% and -21.7%, respectively. This can indicate several things: first, that the data that iStrategyLabs is incorrect or very rough (which is a possibility, since Facebook doesn’t guarantee that the data provided to advertisers is absolutely accurate); secondly, it’s possible that Facebook users simply don’t think that their education, or the school/college they’re in are very important so they’re simply not entering the data. It’s probably a little bit of both, but it’ll be interesting to see and compare Facebook’s own demographics data with these numbers.

In any case, these are significant changes. If you show the same ads to Facebook users now, they will react vastly differently than they would have half a year ago. If you’re an advertiser on Facebook, you should take these changes into account and react accordingly, because your campaign might not be as effective as it was a couple of months ago.

by Stan Schroeder
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Facebook Simplifies Event Planning

Facebook has become a significant player in event planning. After all, why use a service like Evite when all of your friends are already on Facebook?

Planning an event on Facebook is already fairly easy – you just click on “Events” from the applications menu bar and create one. But the social network has decided to make it even easier, letting you create an event directly from the publisher (aka, the “what’s on your mind” box).

To do so, Facebook explains, ”after clicking on the “Events” icon, you can enter information about what the event is and where and when you want to meet. You can invite friends directly from the Feed story that’s created either on your Profile or your News Feed. Just select the “Invite guests” link to share the event with friends.”

Like other Facebook updates, this is presumably being rolled out gradually, so you might not see it yet (I don’t), but Facebook shows what it looks like:

Moving events to the publisher makes sense, and it seems Facebook hopes users start using the app more casually – you’ll notice the example they offer is “lunch,” as opposed to the more formal invites you might be used to receiving.

Keep in mind, however, that the publisher is set to become increasingly complicated, as Facebook is currently testing its new per-update privacy options that will be rolled out to all users in coming weeks. Too much clutter could lead to users simply ignoring the features and continuing to just post status updates – user behavior that Facebook () is clearly hoping to change.

Google vs Microsoft: A Guide to the Battle

Last night, Google jumped directly into Microsoft’s home turf by announcing Google Chrome OS, its new operating system for PCs and netbooks. And while we’re still debating whether it will take down Windows or flop like a fish on land, we tend to forget that this isn’t the first time Google’s challenged Microsoft. In fact, it’s become almost routine. Whether its operating systems, documents, search, communication, or mobile, the two behemoths have been increasingly butting heads in a war for tech supremacy. Now with Google Chrome OS making headlines, we thought it would be appropriate to perform a straight-up comparison of where the competition between Google and Microsoft stands. So who’s winning the war? And how will Google Chrome OS affect this longstanding battle? Here’s an overview:

1. Search

Google: What is there to say, really? Search is to Google as Windows is to Microsoft. They dominate the search market by a wide margin, despite Microsoft’s best efforts (including the company’s failed attempt to buy Yahoo).

Microsoft: They had to do something drastic to compete in search, and they did with their recent launch of Bing (). It’s received a lot of press, a lot of positive reviews, and has clearly caught Google’s attention. But does anyone seriously think it will overtake Google’s dominance in search anytime soon?

Advantage: Google. By light years.

2. Documents

Microsoft: Microsoft Office, with Word, Powerpoint, and Excel have been the leading way to create and edit documents for years, and for good reason – they’re widely used, widely known, and feature-rich. There’s also now Microsoft Office Live, which while not as collaborative as Google Docs (), isn’t a bad solution and has the benefit of being connected to the desktop apps.

Google: Google Docs have been growing in features and users. They provide a level of collaboration that Microsoft documents simply don’t offer. But they don’t provide as many options as Microsoft Office and they just don’t have nearly as many users. This is one area where the majority of users still prefer the desktop to the web.

Advantage: Microsoft

3. Communication, Email, and IM

Microsoft: While Google’s probably more revered for Gmail () and its communication suite, Hotmail is still bigger, and Live Messenger is heavily used. Microsoft also produces the popular Outlook software and has software in a variety of arenas, such as Windows Live Meeting, giving the company an edge in the enterprise.

Google: The search giant has a suite of very popular communication products – Gmail and Gtalk () being the best known. The X factor in this debate though, is the upcoming Google Wave () communication platform, which has impressed us so far. There’s also the intriguing Google Voice () offering to consider.

Advantage: Push

4. Mobile

Google: Google’s has good traction with its Android () mobile OS given it’s relatively new to the space. It runs on more than one million T Mobile phones and has a strong app platform. Many of Google’s apps also run well on mobile phones, especially Google Maps () and YouTube ().

Microsoft: Windows Mobile still shipped tens of millions of units last year, far outpacing Android. It also has apps to run Office, Outlook, and Windows Media Player. We think the long-term trend favors Google, but as of right now Microsoft is the leader.

Advantage: Microsoft, but perhaps not for long.

5. Operating System

Microsoft: This is Microsoft’s bread and butter. Windows is the reason Microsoft makes $60+ billion in revenue every year and has stayed on top for so long. Its stranglehold is legendary. Yet Windows Vista proved that it is not invincible.

Google: Let’s say this: we can’t wait to see what Google has in store for Google Chrome OS. We’re skeptical that it could ever kill Windows, but Google will be Microsoft’s most powerful challenger yet.

Conclusion: We look forward to the upcoming war.