Social Media Personality Profile – Top 10 Traits

 

Shouldn’t everyone be a social media expert by now? Seriously, why are some people perplexed by Twitter while others have created dynamic personal and corporate brands seemingly overnight? Why do some people just “get” Facebook, YouTube and blogging as others sit on the sidelines?

Based on my highly unscientific pondering, I’ve developed the following Top 10 personality traits of successful social media practitioners:

1) Enthusiasm – If you’re not geeked about your subject, no one else will be. Seriously, you need to reach through a computer screen to grab peoples’ attention. People with laissez-faire or sarcastic attitudes need not apply.

2) Connected Thinking – Social media doesn’t serve up ideas or opportunities on a silver platter; at best, you’re one or two degrees away. You have to identify unpolished gems of insight that can be developed into big ideas or invaluable connections.

3) Synthesis – When doing social media monitor or research, there’s a boatload of input and data. Your job is to synthesize the fragmented, pieces-parts into actionable insights. Tools can help you collect and sift through data, but it’s up to you to develop a more meaningful whole.

4) Contemporary – Are you the “go-to” person when people need something — anything? You need to read, be immersed in your industry subject matter and ready to create content/ideas/opinions in the same social space. If you’re running a blog, you’d better be an active participant on many others.

5) Caring – Of course you need to be a subject matter expert, but people don’t care how much you KNOW until you SHOW much you CARE. You have to prove you’re more interested in helping others than yourself. View money as the reward you get for adding value to other people. Think karma.

6) Storyteller – Can you weave a good story together? Websites are great places for sales and data sheets, but social media demands a voice and personality. Mad-lib’esque press releases are not welcome. Candid writing – succinct and without embarrassing spelling/grammar mistakes – is rewarded.

7) Brand Master – Are you comfortable with the brand spirit of your organization? It MUST be your guide when communicating online. You’re a living, speaking ambassador of your company’s brand. You cool with that? Hope so!

8 ) Internal Advocacy – While much of social media is public facing, rallying support of your efforts is critical to a sustained, credible presence online. Let’s face it — you’re going to need access to a lot of people in your organization for content and answers. Do you have what it takes to lobby internally on behalf of customers online?

9) Responsiveness & Consistency – Time is one helluva test. You need to stay in touch with online communications and reply in a timely manner. Inviting customer interaction and then not responding conveys an “Ivory tower” impression which is infuriating. Timely responses and contributions offered consistently over time builds credibility and authenticity in the online world.

10) Curiosity – Finally, you must, must, must be curious. Our world is rapidly changing and you’re just fingertips away from the next great idea, contact, customer or idea. But they don’t present themselves — you have to connect the dots out of curiosity to create something far greater than the sum of the parts.

We’re living in exciting times. Social media is such an alluring opportunity. What other traits do YOU think are essential? Please post them in a comment below. Thanks!

http://moneysmith.com/2013/03/21/social-media-personality-profile-top-10-traits/

There are many individuals who have found significant success turning to the online environment to find new resources of revenue. Creating an online business is relatively simple and available for any individual to take advantage of. Finding success with this business can prove complicated so it is always important you take advantage of as many resources available to improve your results. When you are looking to get a fast start at online success, it would be advisable you take advantage of solutions such as the ability to blog daily, online marketing tools, and the empower network.

Blog Daily

When many individuals first create their online business, their tendency is to focus on website development and the goal of selling products. Regardless of the amount of time you spend creating your website, no success will be found if you cannot properly market your business. One way to accomplish this goal is to take advantage of a blog daily strategy. When you blog on a daily basis, you create new content that consumers will follow and traffic to other potential consumers. The resources of blogging not only help a business to attract consumers but will improve search engine recognition through keyword development and link building.

Online Marketing  

Along with the solutions of blogging, another important element you must incorporate to succeed in the online environment is found with online marketing. There are millions of potential websites consumers can visit so it is necessary you lay a trail of breadcrumbs consumers can follow to find a business. This can be achieved in many ways. The development of keywords can help your business be found on search engines that consumers utilize daily. The creation of links will build this recognition, in addition to creating a variety of different paths consumers can follow to find your primary website. Using the resources of social marketing can prove valuable as you interact with consumers and build brand recognition.

Empower Network   

The third solution to improve your online success is seen with utilizing the empower network. Many individuals make the mistake of attempting to find success online by working by themselves. They create their own keywords, build their own links, and never rely on outside resources to find success. For an inexperienced individual, this can lead to complications that will result in the loss of sales and the potential failure of your business. With the tools of the empower network, you can rely on a quality resource of information distribution that will help to enhance your education and improve online success.

http://goarticles.com/article/Methods-for-Improving-Your-Online-Success/7439511

How To Integrate Social Media Into Your Marketing Programs

Today’s B2B marketers increasingly feel the pressure to quickly adopt social media and integrate it into their daily marketing activities. It’s not just the internal pressure from leadership but the constant bombardment of sales reps from the hundreds of vendors now pushing social media tools, analytics platforms, engagement platforms and lead generation programs. This pressure pushes most B2B marketers to make quick decisions based purely on resources and budget.

A November 2012 study by Eloqua “How Do B2B Companies Use Social Media For Marketing? [INFOGRAPHIC],” polled 548 B2B marketers about their approach to social media within their organizations. The survey finds that 36 percent of marketers say their organization doesn’t use social media whatsoever. And of those organizations that do use social media (the other 64 percent) there is some confusion as to exactly who is in charge of the tweeting. Twenty-six percent of those polled say that the PR and communications department owns social media, 11 percent pass the ownership to their website team and 23 percent share the responsibility between multiple departments.

According to BtoB Magazine‘s 2013 Outlook: Marketing Priorities And Plans survey, more than half of U.S. business to business (B2B) marketers plan to increase spending on their social media budget in 2013. The survey reveals that their marketing spend on channels such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook will rise in 2013.

With this increase in spend and continued emphases on social media, many B2B marketers still take the traditional method to integrate social media. Like most marketers, they take the route of just adding on another line of business and typically assign a team resource whose time will be spent posting and responding within social media platforms in isolation. This means that their time is spent building out the company Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ pages all with the goal of curating content and posting witty questions in the hopes of driving likes, shares, comments and +1s. But this methodology tends to dry up because it is all done in isolation.

Traditional Social Media Integration

Most social media companies also reinforce this traditional thinking as their sales reps focus their efforts on just selling advertising programs and lead generation campaigns. A typical sales spiel focuses on how many visitors the program can bring and how much engagement it may create, but again this is all still done in isolation.  This strategy lacks long-term vision and long term success, especially as budgets are placed under scrutiny and marketers are forced to measure a return on investment. Because social media in isolation requires budget and very minimal quantifiable return at the bottom of the funnel, it is usually given credit as a feeder to the top of the funnel but that is usually quick to the chopping block when things get tight.

Granted, social media is a viable way to feed the funnel and drive more traffic but social media is much more than feeding the funnel. Social media is the enabler that drives engagement through the funnel by offering social interest and social influence during the buying cycle. So the best way to create value through social media programs is to understand its integrated value.

Social media alone using organic content creation and engagement holds value but definitely only in the short term. Without an integrated approach, social media programs will fail. If you integrate social media with your other marketing programs, then the long-term success will show a value that is more than just feeding the funnel but it will show social media as the catalyst that enriches and drives prospects through the funnel.

Here is an example of how social media can be integrated with each existing marketing program:

• Search – Based on the latest SEO techniques, social signals hold a large impact on a website’s search engine rankings. Working with your search team on aggregating the influence from each of your social platforms will prove great success
• Display – Referencing and mentioning recommendations and engagement from your social platforms in your display messaging can be key to increase click-through rates on social. And directing your display to your company’s social media sites can help reinforce the message in the display ad
• Content – Creating socially-centric content can help drive both the engagement and virality of your content. Also using authors with high authority can boost the reach of your content
• Email – Using social media links as secondary or tertiary calls to action or social media references can offer a higher click-through or engagement rate on your emails as it supports the primary call to action and messaging
• Website – socializing your website is a heavy undertaking but can be the key driver to increase visitor engagement and conversion on your website. More than just sharing and liking, but using a social sign-in, references and recommendations can positively drive conversion on your website
• Campaigns – Building campaigns that are outbound focused and targeted at a generic mass market are destined for failure. But using social media as your syndication method and focusing engagement around a specific social personas allows your campaign to best appeal to your audience and drive the engagement beyond just an impression and click-through

Advanced Social Media Integration

Imagine if your social media sales rep approached a product pitch by first understanding your internal marketing programs and integrated marketing strategies and then took the time to explain how their social media programs complimented and fit in to each existing program. This level of integration would quickly and clearly be adopted by your marketing leadership, have a higher and more notable impact on revenue and exist within a long-term strategy.

With so many factors affecting the long-term success of your social media programs, it is best to always use a strategy that identifies social media as the key success factor and driver for every other marketing program. So, take the time to learn from other teams in your marketing org and determine how social media can best integrate in your other marketing programs.

http://www.theessentialmarketer.com/2013/03/14/how-to-integrate-social-media-into-your-marketing-programs/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-to-integrate-social-media-into-your-marketing-programs

The Key Benefits Of Internet Marketing

Internet marketing is a buzz word that’s gaining steady popularity in the recent times, and has emerged as a cost-effective way of promoting a small to medium sized business. It does not require the time and the resources that are needed in traditional marketing strategies and is indeed a revolution in the field of business promotion and advertisements. Here is a list of some of the key benefits of internet marketing:

Cost Effectiveness

Internet marketing is a very cost effective option of promoting your business. Your business website can only take you to a certain level if you do not make the effort to increase its visibility. Internet marketing will make your business promotion dynamic and lively at a very nominal cost.

You can optimize your website for the search engines, avail the pay per click programs, use the option of list building and even send promotional newsletters to your prospective clients to drum up some publicity for your offerings. All these options can be availed for free or can be subscribed at a very nominal cost. To take advantage of internet marketing, you do not even have to own a business and can participate in the affiliate programs and promote other people’s business to make huge money. So, investment wise, it is a better option than the traditional print advertisements and marketing strategies.

Very Wide Reach

One of the major online advertisement benefits is that it has global reach. Internet is a medium, which will enable a potential client from the other end of the world to reach you without any trouble. So, you can conveniently eradicate the traditional geographical boundaries and access a wide of pool of client base easily accessed with the help of properly implemented internet marketing strategies. You can even contact the overseas market and increase your business prospects to a great extent by using this marketing method.

Easy to Manage

You can easily manage your internet marketing programmes. Any change in the strategy can be brought about even when you are travelling or commuting for your business. What’s more, even while on a vacation, you can make changes on the fly and save precious time that would have otherwise been wasted on an endless wait. The benefits that your business is making with the use of such strategies can be easily gauged and monitored as the process is not very complicated and even a layman can follow the procedure with some prior research. You can also hire a professional agency for internet marketing tips and help.

Track real-time results and Display of full information

The advantages of internet marketing can be translated in palpable terms. In other words, you can statistically measure whether your PPC campaigns are generating results or how much of the traffic is being converted into your customer base. One of the major benefits of marketing online is that it can help you to display as much information as you want about your product or service on the web. The print medium will give you only a limited space and your scope might be restricted in many cases.

Availability of 24 Hours

Your online advertisements will be available 24/7 for your customers through internet marketing. One of the major online advertisement benefits is that you have to put in a lot of effort initially, but once you develop a system, it becomes much easier to draw the profit. So, if you have a proper and functional strategy in place, internet marketing can ensure a round the clock and never ending advertisement for your business.

Increasing the Returns on Investment on a Website

If you have spent a lot of money on developing a competent business website, you must also expect a good return from it. Internet marketing can ensure a good ROI as your website will be promoted to have a formidable online presence. Internet marketing is developing by leaps and bounds, and is including new strategies within its folds. You can promote your website through article submission in various directories and even through the social networking sites. So, it is likely to increase the effectiveness of your business website to a great extent.

Discover New Markets

The primary target of any marketing strategy is to discover new markets for the business. Internet marketing can help you do that very effectively. It can help you draw a lot of vacillating traffic to your website, and can realistically help you to convert them into your clients. Internet marketing has various advantages and if you can carefully implement the strategies, you can reap the benefits and promote your business in a cost effective and a hassle free way.

http://www.quotebean.co.uk/buying-services/internet-marketing/help-to-buy-guides/the-key-benefits-of-internet-marketing/

Tips on How to Be a Great Marketer

Want to do know how to be a great marketer? In this snapshot of an interview between Dale Beaumont and Stuart Gordon, you will learn what it takes to be a great marketer. Take some time and learn from someone who has been in your shoes and has found great success.

After a year-long stint as a sales representative, Stuart founded Giant Promotional Products in 1997. Giant provides promotional products to a wide range of companies in industries as diverse as IT, banking, insurance, finance and automotive.

What are your top tips for becoming a great marketer?

Remove risk – in any transaction someone will bear most or all of the risk. Often it is the customer who bears the risk because they are not sure whether the product or service will suit them or work at all. As a result they resist buying what you have to offer. I recently saw an advertisement for a Sony Handycam, a top-end $2,000 product, which invited prospects to take the camera home for ten days and then either buy or return it. All of a sudden the customer is in the driver’s seat and some of the risk is removed. After ten days, the seller hopes that the item becomes indispensable for the customer and that they realise how much they need it. Imagine a customer looking at a dozen options, brands, features and formats for video cameras and then discovering the Sony Handycam with its risk-free ‘take me home and try me’ offer. Which camera would you choose?

Look beyond advertising and branding – marketing is more than advertising and branding; it’s everything you do. It needs to be about the whole experience that a customer has when they deal with you. For example, my cable modem was recently hit by lightning and I needed a solution that would get me up and running immediately. I checked around and located a popular brand of wireless broadband that promised me everything I wanted. Their offer was communicated clearly on their packaging, in their store and on their website. It seemed perfect. Well, it wasn’t. There were several obstacles that diminished the experience (to be polite!) which included filling out a multi-page registration form online that consistently crashed at the last page, tech support that was closed during the hours it was meant to be open, very long waiting times to speak to people – and cancelling my service has also been difficult because emails go unanswered. These experiences completely negated the effect of their positive marketing and advertising efforts. Remember that the experience the customer has when they deal with you is also part of your marketing and needs to match the promise you make.

Put yourself in your customers’ shoes – we recently carried out an exercise at Giant where we looked at all the points of contact that a client has with us – from an initial enquiry, to receiving quotes, to approving layouts, to delivering and following-up. We broke it down into eight stages and compared what the customer expected at each stage with what we gave them. Despite being in the industry for 16 years I learnt a lot from this process. By asking ourselves about the customer’s mind-set at each point of interaction we revealed some simple things that we could do to improve the customer experience. For example, during our production process (which can vary from a few days to a few months, depending on the project) we knew what was happening with an order but our clients didn’t. So we realised that when everything was running to schedule, we needed to tell the clients that everything was okay. It was simply a matter of pre-empting how the customer was feeling at the time – they wondered how their order was going, but sometimes not enough to pick up the phone and ask. A quick email from us reassuring them that everything was on track was all that was needed. Is this marketing? Yes! It is managing the customer experience and it is an important piece of marketing

.http://www.businessblueprint.com.au/tips-on-how-to-be-a-great-marketer/

Simple Marketing Strategies to Generate Leads And Grow Your Business

Here are seven ways you can become one of those smart companies:

1. Embrace SEO
Startups and small businesses don't have the cache and general market awareness to generate meaningful amounts of traffic without an intentional strategy for ranking for relevant keywords.

SEO is like a locomotive, it takes a bunch of 'fuel' to get it moving, but the momentum can be sustained for a long time without incremental effort if it's appropriately maintained. A high ranking on Google for the right keywords can get to more visitors to your website - which can generate more leads. 

2. Have a Blog
Every business - big, small, large market or small can benefit from blogging. And, I would submit that if you're not blogging, you will never get as much out of your marketing efforts as if you were. 

Unclear why blogging is so important? Here is a quick rundown.
-Google's algorithm favors new content over old content. 
-Google rewards frequency as well. The more frequently you offer information on a particular topic (or keyword) the more credible Google begins to believe you are on that identified topic. 
-Google rewards depth of content. Each new blog post is a new page on your website.

3. Have a Presence on Social Media
Many too quickly dismiss the power Social Media can bring to their marketing strategy. In my experience, traditional industries like manufacturing, banking, law firms, accounting firms, etc. are the worst offenders at writing off the value. This can be a meaningful source of traffic.

Build a company profile on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Google+. Build a following by commenting on other's activity and contributing to the conversation. Don't be too "salesy." It's about relationship building and developing awareness. 

4. Let Customers Tell Your Story
There is no one more powerful to tell your story than your satisfied customers. 

It's simple. Make a list of your top 8 success stories. Over the next year, tackle two of them every quarter. Don't over complicate it. Set up a videographer and capture it on camera. Then, write it down in a page or two case study. Identify the situation, what you did and have the customer define the impact you had on their business. Don't just talk about the work. Talk about the working relationship - and the things that make you different from the competition. 

5. Pick up the mega phone 
Awareness is the first step to a successful marketing effort. Here are some ideas about how you can more intentionally get your company's name in lights.

Be a guest blogger, speak at conferences, make friends with the media and never let up on your efforts to network.

6. Ask For Referrals
Be intentional about asking for referrals! Write it into your contracts that it's an expectation of the relationship - once you've delivered value that exceeds what you've been paid - that your clients will begin giving you referrals. Lastly, be smart about the timing of when you ask.

If that isn't incentive enough - consider this stat. Referrals generally have a greater than 60 percent close rate. 

7. Love Thy Database
Perhaps the most undervalued marketing asset a company owns is their contact list or database of contact information for prospects, customers, lapsed customers, industry leaders, vendors, etc. At best, the data exists in an excel spreadsheet or in a never-quite-implemented CRM and at worst - on 15 different personal computers. 

Focus on continued segmentation, on developing Standard Operating Procedures for keeping contacts updated as they change companies and positions - and integrate the behavior learned through marketing analytics to inform how you better optimize the sales funnel. 

Conclusion
The recipe for successful marketing is the same thing that makes a successful company. Focus. Determination. Creativity. Discipline. Effort. Time. And sometimes, money

.http://www.insideindianabusiness.com/contributors.asp?id=2426

5 Steps to a Successful Internet Marketing Strategy

Classical methods of marketing are becoming far less effective as customers of today become better equipped to avoid them. Typical classical methodologies include TV, Radio, Telemarketing, and Print, which can all be neutralized with DVR, Satellite Radio, Do not call lists, and the shredding machine, respectively. So what are modern businesses to do? We are in an age of dramatic marketing overhaul, because the fact is that when almost everyone is in the market to purchase almost anything, they all turn to the internet for their research. This means that an effective internet marketing strategy is now crucial. This article offers the five most important elements that must be followed in order for businesses to remain significant in the marketplace today. (1) GETTING FOUND: Many organizations spend considerable resources in the development of beautiful web sites, only to find that traffic to these sites does not grow. The reality is that sites must somehow get the attention of Google and other top search engines by being optimized for particular keywords that potential customers use to find the business. This is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO) (2) GENERATING LEADS: Once the optimization process has been completed, visitors will appear at the site. The next step is to create calls to action for converting these visitors into leads. One of the key things to remember is that visitors are generally looking for information that is useful to them in their research. They are not interested in hearing about how great and fantastic a particular company is, so the call to action needs to exchange something that meets a visitor's need such that they are willing to leave their contact information in exchange for it. (3) CONVERTING CUSTOMERS: Leads that have downloaded information are generally 'top of the funnel' prospects that need time and attention before they become customers which is why it is important to collect an email address during the call to action phase. With a lead's email address, businesses are equipped to nurture them with additional information and offers over the course of some number of days to encourage the lead further down the sales funnel, to ultimately become a customer. (4) MONITORING PERFORMANCE: The next part is to analyze the success of the previous three points. This requires internet software that is capable of providing statistics on keyword performance, site traffic, click-through rates, and more. The ability to monitor the performance of a web site is one of the key attributes that sets internet or 'digital' marketing apart from classical marketing approaches because it enables marketers to see which of their efforts are paying off, and which are not. (5) UPDATING STRATEGY: Now that performance has been analyzed, it is generally clear which of the above elements are working and which are not. This is a crucial part of an effective internet marketing strategy, because it enables businesses to make corrections to optimize the performance of their marketing plan. This regular updating is part of a complete marketing strategy that happens on a cyclic basis. The above strategy has been proven to be the best way for businesses to succeed online. Many simply do not understand what to do in spite of the answer being so close and well within their reach. Try not to become a statistic of this sort! http://marketing.yoexpert.com/internet-marketing/5-steps-to-a-successful-internet-marketing-strateg-32925.html

Basic Truths About Success Online

If you think that to be successful online or in any other field, requires hard work, consistency and persistency, than this could be your most welcome thought, since, contrary to what goes on the internet marketing world, this is too often considered a "no go area" or something that is definitely an obstacle to your success online.
I don't want you to think that instead of hard work, there is some fairy formula out there that is going to bring you money out of thin air and make you successful online.
No, the fact is, before you find success, there are endless obstacles that you have to overcome, and for that you may have to work hard often and persistently.
You probably would be much happier thinking that somehow there is a way out there that could put money in your pocket magically without having to work hard. And I understand that very much. Others are telling you continuously, especially online, that they are successful simply by pushing this and that button to pour money in their inflated accounts...
It would be great if I could tell you a magical formula like "Easiest Online Money Making System" that implied working hard is not needed at all. You simply did not know the secret of making money online and now I am telling the secret to you... Push button simple! No, it is nothing like that and don't believe it when they tell you.
You probably can tell me of a few programs or products that you have, that made you so enthusiastic about success online that promised you so much success. Very often, they do not stand up to their promise, only for you to realize that there is something missing that prevents you from getting there.
Are there people who make it online with their first product they bought? Possibly, I don't know of any but it may be possible, after all, there are many people out there extremely talented who can pick things easily or have superb capacity to find what is missing. But they still need to be persistent and much focused.
You may find that, on average, you are going to need to go over so many things about success online, that in the end, if you do not quit, you get to put everything in place for you to start the success wheel rolling and begin making money online. I urge you simply to not quit and you will get there, you will find the truth about success online.

To not allow anything getting in your way of success, no matter how difficult the obstacles, is the sure way to achieve success online. Of course, it is easy to say, but lets go back to the beginning and remember the other important truth for success, the no-go 'work hard' and the persistence, the consistent focused effort.

I hope that achieving success online is no longer a dream for you, or let it be that because if you keep persistent and go after it, you will end up being successful I am sure. Not giving up is key, keep it going all the way pass those who stop after 99.97% effort... There is almost nothing left for you to be there. So do it, you'll be glad you did.


http://ezinearticles.com/?Basic-Truths-About-Success-Online&id=7527637