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5 Ways Government Works Better With Social Media

What is government 2.0? Tim O’Reilly describes it as government working as a platform. Others might describe it as applying the technologies that make up Web 2.0 to the practice of government, including blogs, wikis, social networking and crowdsourcing. The simplest way of describing government 2.0 may be any technology that helps citizens or agencies solve problems, either for individuals or the community, and enables government to operate more efficiently or effectively.

The following are five ways that the U.S. government is using social media to deliver services or engage citizens in making better policy.

1. Communicating Info About the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

As the impact of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that began on April 20 has grown, traditional technologies have been applied to mitigating the damage, like dispersants or floating booms to protect fragile wetlands. NOAA is tracking the oil spill and NASA satellites are tracking the slick.

The Environmental Protection Agency, however, has also used its existing social media muscle to communicate how it is monitoring and responding to potential public health and environmental concerns. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson shared news and her observations on Twitter as @LisaPJackson and on her Facebook (Facebook) page. The agency set up a website, deepwaterhorizonresponse.com, with a dedicated Twitter account at @Oil_Spill_2010 and on Facebook at Deepwater Horizon Response. Following the principles set out by the Obama administration’s Open Government Directive, the EPA is releasing oil spill data it collects from monitoring in open formats.

The EPA is also coordinating with volunteer efforts to help, like the Crisis Commons oil response project. Just as Crisis Camps helped in Haiti, where crisis mappers helped first responders like the United States Coast Guard to find earthquake victims, now thje Ushahidi open source platform is being by the Louisiana Bucket Brigade to track the reporting of oil spill-related incidents. Volunteers are sending texts, tweets and email to OilSpill.LABucketBrigade.org where they’re added to a database of oil spill-related incidents.

2. Using Twitter for Storm Reporting

Emergency management agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency (@FEMAinFocus) or state first responders like the Virginia Department of Emergency Management (@VDEM) are already on Twitter, sharing information during crises. Now, the National Weather Service is experimenting with getting information back from the online community. Government storm spotters are now searching for geolocated tweets that contain “significant” weather information. You can now submit storm reports to National Weather Service using Twitter. Just hashtag a geo-enabled tweet with #wxreport.

Although Twitter storm reporting is still an experimental effort, there’s evidence that the NWS believes this will be valuable, as indicated by their statement that “access to information from this widely used social media tool will help to enhance and increase timely and accurate online weather reporting and communication between the public and their local forecast offices.”

3. Helping Kids Get Up and Move

First Lady Michelle Obama has taken on the issue of childhood obesity with a “Let’s Move” campaign. Can the third of American youth be helped through social media? The Department of Agriculture is doing more than spreading information through its @USDAgov Twitter account or Facebook. The USDA is looking for innovative ideas for applications that could make a difference with childhood obesity with a web app contest – and they’ve put up $60,000 in prizes for the winners. The Official Rules require apps to use the USDA Nutrition Dataset available at www.cnpp.usda.gov/Innovations/DataSource.htm to ensure the educational quality of the games.

“This is about helping people have healthier lifestyles and more active lifestyles,” said Amanda Eamich (@Amandare), Director of New Media at the USDA. “The site is divided into two sections: apps and games. games are targeted at tweens, to help them have healthy eating habits. Apps are more for nutritional gatekeepers, which could be a parent, caretaker or anyone else interested. We want to develop games and apps that useful and relevant to people’s lives, not just what the government thinks you should learn.”

The competition, which has already attracted over 12,000 supporters, closes for developers to create nutrition-related apps on June 30. Members of the public will be able to join Apple Computer co-founder Steve Wozniak in voting for the winners in July. Some fans already have ideas for how to take home top prize: “Make a tower defense game w/ calories as points & veggies as guns,” tweeted Anil Dash. “I bet you’ll get $10k + a trip to the @whitehouse.”

Apps for Healthy Kids was featured as part of an “innovation showcase” during the recent Government Web Managers Conference in DC. Video (video) archive:

4. FedSpace: A Social Network for Federal Agencies

Social media and government isn’t just about new ways that agencies or officials share or gather information, collaborate with the public in addressing the grand challenges for the 21st century or build better policy through online engagement. Applying social software to internal collaboration is also a key element of improving the way government works through technology.

NASA has used Spacebook, an internal expert networking site for NASA employees, to enable staff to get to know one another in the immense agency. Spacebook helps improve teamwork, communication and access to information across NASA’s many projects and technology installations. “Using these tools lets you be sort of top-of-mind with a lot of these people so that when you need to call on them there’s already a connection,” said Emma Antunes (@eantunes), Web Manager for Goddard Space Flight Center, and the project manager responsible for developing the agency’s Inside NASA intranet and the Spacebook utility.

Antunes is now involved in a new project: an internal federal social network, known, for the moment, as FedSpace. As Antunes explained in a comment on Gartner analyst Andrea DiMaio’s post:

“FedSpace will be a professional collaboration space for Federal staff and contractors…many of whom don’t have access to secure, accessible, compliant collaboration tools to work across government. FedSpace will use the collaboration work/tools that some agencies have developed for internal purposes and fill gaps to provide these and other resources for interagency use. Intellipedia, Spacebook, Diplopedia, and other agency-specific internal spaces have proven to be highly valuable by increasing collaboration, nurturing innovation, increasing knowledge, and reducing redundancies. Similarly, there are many examples of how large-scale collaboration tools can and do work well internally in corporate settings. Jakob Niesen’s case study “Enterprise 2.0: Social Software on Intranets” cites industry leaders from IBM to Sprint who have found success in social intranets that were completely internal.

The potential benefit of combining the best ideas, processes, and lessons learned from more than two dozen Federal agencies in policy, human relations, software development, and subject-matter specific areas is immense, and optimizing the talent of the Federal workforce is critical to accelerating efficiencies and effectiveness in government. By working with our government colleagues (and for profit and nonprofit organizations) that have demonstrated value in hosting internal collaboration spaces, we expect FedSpace will help provide the tools and platform for quality collaboration across government.”

While the working name may not be ideal, given recent challenges at MySpace, the idea is ambitious. Will people get nervous when the FBI director follows them? Will a presidential poke mean you’re late for a meeting in the Oval Office? Jokes aside, the same potential for knowledge sharing and collaboration that other internal social networks have demonstrated could help the feds work better together.

5. San Francisco and the District of Columbia Team Up on Open 311

At first glance, standardizing the specification for the application programming interface (API) for Open 311 may seem like a minor technical detail. Adopting the 311 platform certainly doesn’t sound social, even if the announcement is made on a blog. But when the research and development group in the Office of the Chief Technology of the District of Columbia (@OctoLabs) tweeted, “Historic moment : ) SF+DC agreed on Open311 API v2.1 spec, implmnt. is underway,” it was a milestone for open government.

Why? Open 311 is a standard for citizens to communicate with their local governments. For instance, SeeClickFix integrates with Open 311 to communicate service requests directly into a city customer relationship management (CRM) system by reporting issues through the Web, widgets or smartphone applications. Citysourced is also using Open311. Now that D.C. and San Francisco have standardized on the API, developers across the nation can create applications that will work in any city that uses Open 311. That means citizens will be able to tell their governments what’s happening where they live, participating in improving their own communities.

Luke Fretwell (@lukefretwell) interviewed Phil Ashlock (@PhilipAshlock) of OpenPlan.org on GovFresh.tv about what Open 311 is and why it’s important:

Fretwell also recorded a video of craigslist founder Craig Newmark and San Francisco CIO Chris Vein discussing Open311 and open government.

How to Make the Most of Black Friday Sales

There is no better time to take advantage of great deals on your favorite merchandise than the day after Thanksgiving, or Black Friday as it is known to most. Even if you’ve never participated in the annual event, you know exactly what it entails. With Christmas right around the corner, thousands upon thousands rush to their local retail and department stores to fight the cold and the crowd with nothing but a little bit of cash and a lot of hope that the item they hope to purchase isn’t sold out by the time they gain entrance to the store. You know you want to get that great gift for that special someone and you want an awesome deal and maybe save a little bit of extra cash, but rushing into a store without a plan on Black Friday is a dangerous mistake that could land you with nothing but disappointment when the day is over. I’ve got a few tips for you, and I think that they are pretty reliable. I’m an associate with a large retail chain, and I can help you save time by showing you the shortcuts to Black Friday shopping.

Tip 1 Budget

As with every other aspect of your life, you should set aside a certain amount of money that you plan on spending that is separate from what you’ll use to purchase things necessary to live. You don’t need to overdo it, but you do need to remember that Black Friday is usually a day where high-dollar products are promoted, so you’ll need more than a twenty in your wallet when you leave your home.

Tip 2 - Research

The next step to organizing your Black Friday experience is to research the different stores in your area that are participating in the event and take note of what products they will be featuring this year. Not every item in every store is marked down, so it’s important to know what products you’re interested in, and if any store in your area (or one that you’re willing to drive to) will carry that product, or one similar. You can find advertisements in your local newspaper, in your mailbox, online, or in the store itself.

Tip 3 List

You make a list on any ordinary day when it’s time to go shopping for groceries, don’t you? You should! After you get an idea of the different stores around you and the items that they will be featuring in their doorbuster sales, make a list of what you hope to purchase, and make your most important item first. A list is a great tool to keep you on track, and can act as a quick reference to what you’re after should you get lost in the excitement of discount shopping. Note that you should keep items in the same store together as a way of managing your time, and follow the list from top to bottom, unless you feel that you could potentially sacrifice losing one item in order to get another.

Tip 4 Prepare for THE Day

You’ve set some money aside, you have done the research, and you know exactly what it is that you’re going after and where to find it. All that’s left to do is wait for Friday and get in the car and go! Well, almost.

Just getting in the car and going isn’t going to get you to the product that you want in time. You’ll have to make a few sacrifices, such as going to bed early on Thanksgiving and forcing yourself up at a terrible hour in the wee morning. Utilizing all of your tools is necessary, so get that coffee pot ready, and organize yourself a bit.

You should get up, wake up, and make yourself presentable. Take some time to go over your list, and rehearse the morning over and over in your head until you’re confident you know what you are going after. Leave the house in a timely manner, making sure you arrive at your first location before the sales begin.

(Note: At the retail chain that I am employed at, our store will stay open twenty-four hours and will put special policies in place to ensure organization and calm. We anticipate a crowd to gather all through the night, and intensify as early as three in the morning. Consider getting to your first location a couple of hours before the sale.)

Tip 5 Manage Your Day

You’re at the store. You’re in a long line somewhere, whether it is outside the building or at a pallet of merchandise. Stay calm, and keep yourself organized!

Most stores will have some sort of organization to their products. When you arrive and are able to enter the store, ask an associate at the door where the products that you are interested in are located. Chances are they are not next to where they usually are on the shelf due to spacing issues, so please note each location carefully. Also, ask if the associate has a map or list of where the products are. You’ll find this to be very useful.

While walking through the store, remember that the people around you are just as crowded as you are, and just want to get in, get their stuff, and get out. Be courteous to everyone, or you could create intense situations that could lead to crowd instability. That’s never a good thing, especially when people are tired and in a hurry.

Walk from item to item on your list, making no stops. There isn’t much time, and you are sure to lose out on a deal if you stop!

When you have gathered everything, make your way to the checkouts. Exhale, and be happy that you have found such amazing deals!

Last Notes and Closing Comments

It will be a hectic day, and you’re sure to get frustrated at some point or another. Just remember to be courteous. Don’t argue, push in line, steal from another cart, stalk individuals with the hopes that they will not be able to pay for their item, disrespect associates, etc. Remember that everyone is just like you, and wants that amazing deal for the holidays!

Have fun, stay safe, and keep to the plan. Organization is the best way to make the most out of Black Friday!

Media Dollars Shift to Digital in Downturn

Spending recovery will lag economic recovery

The economic downturn is causing most marketers to decrease media spending budgets, and the remaining expenditures are shifting further toward digital, according to a Q2 2009 survey by Round2.

More than two-thirds of senior executives in the Western US responding to the “2009 Media Survey Results & Analysis” reported their media budgets would decrease at least somewhat in 2009 compared with 2008. Still, almost one-quarter expected spending to climb by up to 10%, and a few respondents reported even greater increases.

While a majority of respondents said they would hold budgets for each medium except print steady in 2009 compared with 2008, digital was still the clear winner. Budgets were more likely to be cut than increased for traditional media such as TV, radio and direct mail, but more respondents said they would up their investments in e-mail marketing, search and interactive than said spending would be reduced.

E-mail marketing was the channel most likely to see an increase in spending in 2009, and print was the biggest loser. The across-the-board shift from traditional to digital media is no surprise—it represents a general reallocation of marketing budgets to newer media channels.

Media spending cuts due to the economic downturn tended to fall most heavily on print, where spending had previously been highest. Just 1.8% of respondents reported cutting each of e-mail marketing, search and interactive because of the recession. Online advertising may not be immune from economic problems, but it is well-insulated.

This is in line with estimates of US advertising spending on various media. For example, Barclays Capital predicted in its “Internet Data Book July 2009” that spending on every medium but online would decrease this year.

Very few marketers in Round2’s survey were prepared to move forward aggressively with their expenditures in the down economy. More than 37%, however, said they would be looking for new media opportunities. The next-most-common answer, with 35.7% of respondents, was to spend the bare minimum until the economy recovers. About one-fifth of marketers reported doing “business as usual” despite the downturn.

Asked when they expected to see economic recovery, almost 60% of marketers said in 2010. Although nearly one-fifth of respondents were optimistic enough to expect recovery this year, 17.3% claimed recovery would come in 2011, and a few indicated 2012.

Media spending levels may lag that recovery somewhat. One-half of responding marketers said they expected their expenditures to return to peak levels in 2011. Fewer than one-third thought 2010 would bring them back to their previous budgets.

Source - EMarketer

Back-to-School Marketing Campaign Ideas

Back-to-school is one of the biggest shopping seasons of the year so you don’t want to miss out on it.
Back to school marketing pays off in sales. Even if you’re not selling school supplies or clothing, there are lots of ways you can attract back-to-school shoppers to your products and services.

Here are some back-to-school marketing ideas.

1)Tried and true.
Back-to-school sales are a tradition now and can work well for you if you sell products that are obviously school related …. or obviously non-school related.

If the kids going back to school is going to cause your sales to slump, now’s the time for “last chance” sales. For example, a kayak rental business might offer “last chance” lessons and outings; a museum might offer discounted tours.

2) Reach for the tie-in.

If your products or services have no obvious back-to-school tie-in, you can still create one.

    * Whether selling services or product, a nutrition-related business might offer information on preparing healthy school lunches.
    * A business selling cleaning products might back-to-school market its products as great for cleaning dorm rooms and sell a special “student-pack” of products.
    * A watch repair business might run a “be on time for school” special.

3) Don’t forget the parents.

Back-to-school means different schedules for parents, too, and for some, more time to do things for themselves or things they’ve been putting off.

    * Personal care businesses, such as hairdressers, manicurists, and massage therapists can offer discounts on “they’ve-gone-back-to-school” appointments.
    * Restaurants could offer special menus and/or dishes to encourage patrons to come in for lunch.
    * Fitness studios and gyms could offer special workshops or session series in school hours.

The really great thing about targeting students’ parents in your back-to-school marketing is that your promotion can carry on right through September and on into Fall.

Marketing Tips for Autumn Profits

Is your company’s marketing ready for Fall opportunities? If you plan to make a big splash about an early Fall event or promotion, remember that it requires four to six weeks advance notice at the least to prepare marketing materials without incurring rush charges. Even if you are expecting big things from the winter holiday season, the time to start the marketing machine is when the kids go back to school!

Why is Fall such a great marketing opportunity? Think of it as a side effect of the traditional business cycle.

End of year budgets: Some managers are cautious during the first half of the year, hoarding their budget. Then during the second half, they realize that year-end budget planning and deliverables are coming up, and the purse strings loosen to get key projects completed on time. This is especially true for companies with a “use-it-or-lose-it” budget approach, where managers have an incentive to spend down before the end of the year.
Ramp up for the holidays

It is a wonderful thing for business that so much of the world celebrates a holiday of some kind during the last few months of the year. Between October and January, almost everyone has a reason to buy gifts, stock up on special groceries and entertain. If your business sells gift items, food, entertainment services or home décor, this is the season to make sure everyone knows about you! You’ll need some extra marketing savvy to cut through the clutter.

New Year Budgets

Managers who ran out of discretionary budget before the end of the fiscal year just ending may be counting the days until the New Year’s budget starts and they can buy what they need. Make sure your business is top of mind by getting your message out early, before the holiday clutter. September and October are not too early for managers who are budgeting purchases for January.

End of year panic: Fall can be a moment of reckoning for managers who realize that there is more project left than there is calendar to complete it in. That can lead to forced spending on extra resources, productivity-enhancing tools and outsourcing to meet year-end deadlines. If your company can help with the last quarter crunch, start getting the message out in September!

Back From the Beach

Some companies take a break over the summer. They put projects on hold, and set few deadlines. Then, as soon as school reopens, managers are back at their desks and everyone is recharged and ready to get down to business. That can include making decisions about purchases that have been deferred over the vacation months. Early Fall is the perfect time to follow up on proposals and close those deals with fresh sales materials or customized direct mail pieces.

Get ahead of your competition by revving up your marketing engines in September. Use the pressure of the business cycle to your advantage, and market your goods and services relentlessly as the year counts down. By helping your clients have a successful year-end, you’ll also be doing your own bottom line a favor.

Gail Z. Martin

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.

Source URL Here

8 Common Small Business Marketing Mistakes

Advertising can be one of the fastest ways to market and grow your business or it can be one of the quickest ways to go out of business. With the right ad you can attract clients to your business and increase your profits. With the wrong ad you can spend your way into bankruptcy.

To grow your business you need to attract the attention of your prospects, advertising can help you do so if used correctly. Unfortunately, many small businesses owners waste thousands of dollars on advertising efforts that only achieve minimal results.

If you want to get the most from the money you spend to promote your products and services, make sure to avoid these common mistakes.

Focusing on Your Products and Services
If you want to get the attention of your prospects, speak to their needs and wants. Your prospects’ primary concern isn’t that you’ve been in business for 25 years; it is do you know the problem they want to solve. Use your ad to identify at least one common problem of your prospects and the benefit of using your product or service.

Having a Weak Small Business Marketing Message
All to often you hear ads and it takes some thought to figure out what they are even promoting. Make sure your advertisement includes a 7-10 word description of whom you serve and the problems you solve so people who read or hear your ad know how you can help them.

Using the Wrong Words
A word here, a phrase there can change your response rate by hundreds of percent. When you spend money on advertising, first test a number of versions of your copy to identify the one that works best. Just by revising her ad copy so it was client and problem centered, I helped one small business owner achieve her best month in sales ever.

Missing Motivation
Most ads miss the mark in moving prospects to action. If you want to prompt prospects to visit your web site or your store or to contact you, include an offer that motivates them to do so.

Lacking in Frequency
Some people make spur of the moment buying decisions, but most need to become familiar with your services and products, and this takes time. If you want your advertising to work, you need to ensure that your prospects see or hear it regularly.

Web Sites that Don’t Move Prospects to Action
Many small business owners direct prospects to a web site where they have more extensive content covering available services and products. I constantly get calls from people who have been successful at attracting prospects to their web site, but generate few sales.

Once prospects get to your web site make sure the content and visual organization moves them to take the action you want them to. Whether it is providing them with ample opportunities to fill in your service inquiry form, or including a subset of your product catalog in your web page navigation bars, help prospects move to client and customer status.

Lack of Follow Up

Sometimes making a sale requires sending a note or picking up the phone and calling your prospects. If you have an effective lead generation strategy, prospects will provide you with their contact information and the problem they want solved. Use the web, email, and the phone to follow up and close the sale.

Use your articles to establish yourself as an expert and increase credibility.

Lack of Tracking
If you are making more from your advertising than you are spending, you’re ahead. Frequently small business owners can’t tell you which of their efforts helped bring in the business. Track each of your ad campaigns and you’ll know where to spend your money in the future, what to modify and what to eliminate.

- Do you know how many sales and how much money you made as a result of each of your advertising campaigns?

- Are you making any of the above common small business marketing mistakes?

- What elements of your small business marketing should you change?

Put your marketing house in order. Fix your strategy and your materials. If you don’t know what to change or how to change it, use experts to help you with strategy, copyrighting, design, PR, and media placement.

Avoid these common marketing mistakes and you’ll find more people contacting you about your products and services and that your making more than your spending on your advertising.

Discover how to find the right words to explain exactly how you help prospects. With a brilliant elevator speech you’ll attract more clients right away.

By: Charlie Cook
Source URL Here

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
Source URL Here

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.

Source URL Here

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!