1. You Choose your Level of Engagement
You can pick your hand mower, one which does mow the lawn but takes a long time. You can get one of those self propelling mowers which does a little bit more, though is still time consuming. You can get a riding mower, one with all of the bells and whistles, which does the mowing still faster but requires a tidy investment for a good one. You can also choose to have someone else mow the lawn, allowing you to do other things.

With social media, there are plenty of services available. You can choose Twitter and Facebook, LinkedIn, or any number of other networks and services. You can do all of the posting, tweeting, article writing, press releases, and more yourself. You can use an automated service like ping.fm or Onlywire to take care of some of the posting, picking and choosing where you wish to devote your time. You can fully automate these services, too, though you might be hard pressed to find something reliable and non spammy. Or, if you have the money, you can get someone else to do all of your social media marketing functions for you.

2. Immediate results
Depending on the type of lawn mowing that you do, you can see immediate results in your movements. When you’ve done only one row, you can see that the row is cut, but you know that you have more to go. Social media is similar, because you’re inevitably faced with the question of ‘what’s next’ after you’ve done your posting and tweeting.

3. Consistency
Unfortunately, your lawn grows back and your potential customers forget about you. You have to be consistent with your lawn mowing to present the best image possible. With social media, it’s recommended that you do at least one thing a day (or have someone else do it) to keep your products and services fresh within your prospect’s minds.

4. There’s Only So Much
Many new homeowners love to mow their lawns because it’s a sign of homeownership. In reality, there’s only so much that you can mow your lawn in any one go-round. Once it’s done, your lawn is good for another week or two while the grass returns.

In social media, you might have the urge to do absolutely everything at once. You might want to post every single day, market that post, and do all of your social media functions in a single day. This, like excessive lawn mowing, leads to burnout. There’s really only so much that you can do without tipping the signal vs. noise ratio.

5. Involvement
As to what you’re going to do? This depends on the level of passion that you’ve got for lawn mowing. If you’re really enjoying it, you’re more prone to do it yourself. If you love the way that your lawn looks by your own hand, by all means keep doing what you’re doing.

The same works for social media. Social networking is all about the people that you meet along the way. The tools that you use, regardless of what they are, are just tools. If you hate talking about your business and your products, let someone else do the talking (and the lawn mowing).

Both lawn mowing and social marketing have different levels of involvement and price points. When you choose the areas that you can do the most good, you will find that your social marketing (and your landscaping skills) will become more effective.

This question will take different forms for different products and services. If your business is selling specialty household items like custom made candles, the chances of modifying your current sales approach to reach a broader online market are pretty good. But if you sell a service like pool cleaning or home renovations, your online objectives will probably be different. Unless you are prepared to travel hundreds of miles to perform your services, you are probably only interested in reaching local prospects.

Think of all the plumbers, home renovators, auto refinishes, pool cleaners, landscape suppliers and so on in your community and ask yourself if it is feasible to market these kinds of products and services online.

For instance, say you sell landscape products such as paving stones, top soil, crushed stone and so on. And say you already have an established business in your local area. Your geographic market area is roughly the area you can reach with your trucks in less than, say, 30 minutes. In other words, your target market area is any place within about 25 miles of your shipping depot. Dealing with customers beyond this radius becomes too expensive because of the shipping costs.

Would it be worth marketing your landscape products online specifically to this narrowly defined LOCAL target market area?

Well, it depends. Obviously if your marketing efforts were free*e there would be no question. You should just go ahead and do it. But your marketing efforts will not be free. To do effective online promotion you will have to create a website, create some sort of online marketing program, and then have the response system in place to answer customer inquiries and take online orders. None of this is free. Most of the costs will be in designing and creating the website. But there will be ongoing costs for regular marketing efforts and online advertising.

Regular marketing efforts? Online advertising?

Absolutely! It is important to realize that you will be wasting your money if you just set up a website and expect customers to flock to it. It just won’t happen. You need an ongoing marketing effort that includes, as a bare minimum, Search Engine Marketing and probably Pay Per Click Advertising.

Thinking about other products in this way will very likely lead to the same conclusion. Say you are a chiropractor and you are wondering about promoting your service online. Is it worth the effort?

Probably not in the short term. You will probably not gain instant recognition or instant clients. But a concerted, sustained effort over a 6-18 month period will help you create a web presence in your community and establish you as one of the leaders in your area. And that will result in sustained and lasting results which should eventually translate into sales.

Virtually any product can be marketed online to a local market if you are prepared to put in the time, effort and expense necessary to make an impact. You may be able to get relatively fast results with some products. But generally speaking because you are dealing with a confined geographic area the number of prospective customers looking for your product at any given time will be relatively small. So the response will usually be slow in coming.

But if you are planning to be around for the long haul, persistent online marketing efforts will eventually pay off. And the best time to get started is right now.

Do extensive research to uncover the daily frustrations of your market. What everyday things aggravate them the most? What really drives them crazy? For businesspeople, quite often it’s employee problems. It could also be a lack of new customers. What about problems satisfying customers or problems finding good suppliers. Maybe they have worries about future trends or changes in the industry. Some issues are that large companies are luring business with low prices or small companies stealing customers with false promises. Find out what frustrates your potential customers the most. For golfers and other hobbyists, they want the pride of doing their hobby better.

Make sure you have accurate information about the market. How large is it? How many customers are there? Are there regional distributions? How many potential customers do you have in each state? How easy is it to contact this market? Are magazines already being sold to the market? Are there multiple magazines for a particular market? Are there specialties or sub niches, groups of people within the market that are interested in more specific programs and ideas? You need the answers to these questions before you can create a product that will sell. In addition, you might find out this market isn’t worth creating a product for!

Consider who else has tried to sell something to this market. Have other information marketers offered products to this market in the last two or three years? What products were they? Did they succeed? Are they still in business? Are established competitors aggressively selling to this market already? (While nobody likes a lot of competition, it can be a good sign that this market wants information products and services.) Don’t ignore vendors that are not marketing information products. For example, are there equipment manufacturers? How are they promoting themselves in the market? Which ones are the successful vendors in the industry, and who are the contact people? Are there ways to works with those individuals?

You need to carefully consider and extensively research your market before you jump into doing business as an info-marketer. This is not something you can short-circuit. Even if you already believe you’re an expert in the market, you must go through these steps, conduct this research, and find out more information. You’ll be glad you did. It can save you hours of time and thousands of wasted marketing dollars. You don’t want to market a product people don’t want or aren’t ready for. You don’t want to repeat the mistakes others have made. Find out what has worked and what hasn’t. Then you’ll be ready to create your product.

Many companies today are launching branded communities of their own using tools like EPiServer CMS to create a purpose-built social network that focuses directly on a particular brand. While your company might not be quite there yet, there are still many steps you can take to make your website more social and engaging for your visitors.

There are the more obvious ways…

1. Use Share Buttons to Spread Content

Using content-sharing buttons such as the “Facebook Share” or “Twitter Tweet This” buttons, visitors can post your content on their networks, encouraging their friends to visit your website. Put the share buttons on all blog posts, articles, photos or videos that are posted to your website.

2. Feature Social Links on Homepage

Place your social icons somewhere on the homepage where it’s easy for visitors to find. Don’t bury your social links on subpages within the website, feature these links prominently. It will encourage them to become a fan of your pages. Onextrapixel has some great examples of well integrated social media links that maintain a professional look on the homepage.

3. Allow Users to Login Through Social Networks

If you allow users to log in and interact with your site using plug-ins like Facebook Connect, then any activity will be automatically published back to that users’ social channel, encouraging their friends to engage with your website as well.

Then there are the not so obvious ways…

4. Embed Videos Using YouTube Player

Add a YouTube player to your website like we do on the VerndaleTV page so you can create a presence on YouTube in conjunction with adding video content to your website. YouTube recently released the new playlist player, which is meant to display a series of videos from the same player. Video is a great way to keep your visitors engaged and the player is easy to manage directly from your YouTube account.

5. Install a Floating Social Bar

Remind visitors to become a fan of your page by installing a floating social bar to your website that stays with the user as they browse your content. wpBeginner does this in the footer of their website.

6. Stream Social Updates

Use the twitter widget and Facebook stream plugin to allow visitors of your site to view your social updates directly from your website. This might encourage them to fan your pages if they happen to see a tweet or status update that interests them.

7. Encourage Users to Submit Content

Keeping a website full of engaging content is time-consuming and difficult with limited resources. One solution is to ask users to submit content to your social channels that you can then feature on your website. This could lead to improved thought leadership and brand recognition for your company.

8. Connect Blog to Website

Make sure your blog is fully integrated with your website so it can rank on fresh content posted to your blog. This helps with search engine optimization (SEO) and draws traffic to your website. Use keyphrase focused blog tags and categories to improve visibility and search engine rankings. Enable blog commenting as well using the social plugins mentioned above.

The Effectiveness of Social Engagement

Google recently announced Social Engagement Reports available through Google Analytics, which can measure the effectiveness of your website’s social engagement. The reports will help you analyze the sharing and social activity on your website including the information on any new Google+ interactions that occur on your website.

With search engine optimization constantly changing and social media continuing to become a large part of marketing, it’s important to build a social corporate web presence on your website so that you are positioned for better rankings, more social activity and potential leads.

What are your plans to make your website social? Do you have any other suggestions?

Brand exposure to multiple markets
The internet has millions of users, each of whom has the opportunity to see the ads that a company places. This inexpensively opens the door to other markets, markets which can be capitalized upon. By placing the advertisements and marketing materials in the online world, there is always a chance for a magnification of a company’s exposure.

Enhanced customer experience
Successful marketing managers are adept at managing multiple platforms for their campaigns. One strategy might have a mailer directing customers toward the web site. Another might have a web site directing customers toward their phone or to leave an email message. With a social networking aspect added to the campaign, a customer has multiple avenues in communicating with the company.

Reputation Management
Monitoring programs exist so that a company can ascertain the sentiment of their company through the use of social networking platforms. They can find out how well a campaign is working. They can find out more about the customer service experience. With the social marketing platforms in place, that company can quickly and easily maintain and protect their reputation.

Social networking and marketing has become a necessity for offline companies. When the new methods are viewed as tools, doors open for acquiring new customers and keeping the old.

Did you read the ghost story about why video games are dead? I don’t have the link to it, though it’s on all of the major news sites recently.

I wanted to send you this letter — it’s bold, it’s brash, and it will either generate curiosity or anger, or both… but it spurs folks into thinking. I didn’t know how you wanted to go with it… but I think that it gets the message across.

Dear Matthew.

When you look at your website, what does it say? Is the interface easy to use? Are you offering the best products for the best price? Does your website make customers feel comfortable? Trust, simplicity, and value are all factors which go into successful websites.

What kind of first impression is your website leaving?

Chances are, your target customers aren’t looking at offline outlets to discover your company. They are relying on references from their friends on Facebook, on Twitter, and on LinkedIn. They are also relying on your website to tell them whether they can trust you.

As a marketing manager, you are also responsible for the appearance of your website. Unfortunately, as with many positions, downsizing has created a situation so that you are stretched to the limit on activities. You more than likely hit the ground running, and don’t look up from your desk until it’s time to go home.

You set up the website with the basics, having full intentions of cleaning it up and smoothing it out at some point. It’s now been six months, and that same site with no alterations is still out there on the web, providing a poor impression to your customers. You just need to get a little help.

Help is out there.

Warmest Regards,
Joseph.

Video production tips

1. Keep your background simple
If you are producing this video at home, make sure that your video is simple and not distracting. If there is a lot of activity going on within your background, your potential customers will become more fascinated with that rather than what you have to say. Choose neutral colors, free of posters and visual ‘noise.’

2. Wear business clothes
When shooting a video for your business, keep your clothing neutral and business casual. If you are a financial planner, your potential customers do not necessarily want to see you in shorts and a t-shirt. These video productions can be thought of as larger-scale interactions with clients.

3. Background noise
Minimize your background noise by shooting your video in a quiet area. The kids should not be playing outside the door, there should not be any distractions. You might even wish to go to your business over the weekend when it is quiet to shoot the video.

4. Keep it short
Your customers have a wide array of choices for their viewing material. Your videos should be short and entertaining. That way, they will keep coming back to your page. Provide a call to action to your site on the video so that they can hear the rest of the story.

Topics

1. It’s all about your customer
Your customers do not want to hear a pitch about how you are the best person for the job. They have heard it before, and they will hear it again. They want to know about how your product or service can benefit them.

2. Think about your passion
There was a reason that you got into your business instead of another business. You might have loved cooking enough to become a chef. You might have enjoyed cleaning enough to start a janitorial company. You might be a financial planner. Look at the reasons why you started your company and think about your personal passions. Talk about that subject on your videos.

3. Plan for multiple videos
You want a topic that is wide enough so that you can make multiple videos. If you are a chef, you might want to have your own cooking show. If you enjoyed cleaning, you might want to start a series of videos called ‘the dirtiest office.’ Financial planners can talk about taxes, saving money, and many other topics of interest. The sky is the limit.

Video production is a tool that every small business owner should have within their toolbox. Your videos reach a new field of target customers who might not have heard of your company. Think about the business that you could attract with compelling videos and strong calls to action.

1. Determine your target audience
The laser beam approach to marketing works much better than the shotgun approach. By targeting the people with whom you want to buy, you can more readily devise a marketing strategy that will speak directly to them. You don’t want customers who would love your products to be off-put by the idea that maybe it isn’t for them. Take a few moments to think about who your ideal customer is, and what they would be enticed with.

2. Define your success
Success means many things to many people. Is success with social media defined as stastical increase in the number of readers to your articles? Is success determined by the number of phone calls that you receive within your office? Out and out conversions? When you identify the purpose for your social media strategy, you are aiding in the creation of making a laser-focused message.

3. Call to action
Every effective social media strategy has a call to action embedded within it. Your customers need to know what to do, else their interest in your company will immediately fade. They want to know whether you want them to click, call, or something else. Your personal definition of success will shape the call to action.

4. Attitude
Your writing voice is an essential aspect to the brand. Are you completely formal and dry? Do you want to show that you have a personality and that your company is a great place to work? A personality should be consistent, approachable, unique, and authentic. That attitude should be consistent, as consistency is one of the most potent methods to building trust.

5. Analyze your scope
The best and fastest way to be remarkable within your industry is to do something and do it well. If you are spread ou among fifty different places and you cannot remember what you last posted where, you are denying your customers the value that they so richly deserve. Many managers love to think on a huge, grandiose level, but the best advice that we can give is to start small. By carefully choosing your platforms, you are broadening the arena for success.

A plan is the most essential part of the social media strategy. Once you know with whom you’re talking, and what you want them to do, devising the perfect plan should be quantitatively easier. Start small, because it’s easier to start small and grow rather than start huge and need to retreat.

As members of the ‘club,’ power comes with knowing the secret handshake. Real answers come from the members in the forums, not ‘nice post’ and ‘buy something unrelated.’ Someone actually cares about your livelihood and you dreams in that exclusive community. In social media marketing, making people feel wanted is a stepping stone toward sales.

Steps toward developing an exclusive online community

1. Focus
Before the first piece of code is written, before the first email is sent, the community manager must have a focus for the online community. Each community and forum has their specific focus and reason for joining which goes beyond ‘buy our stuff,’ and that goes into the recruitment drive. The forum must have a mission statement which determines the overarching purpose for it. Knowing the purpose of the community makes marketing and recruiting significantly easier.

2. Naming
Renaming is an old trick used by marketers, though it is highly effective. Instead of calling a forum ‘The Apple Forum for People who Absolutely Adore their MacBook Pro’, a simpler name might be ‘Apple Warriors.’ This leaves a little bit of mystery in the name, and curiosity brings visitors and applications to the club.

3. Branding
Branding and naming must be consistent overall. Let’s take ‘Apple Warriors,’ for instance. This name would do well with a military or militia themed forum, where the leaders have appropriate military names. If the club revolved around great food, the branding and naming might turn to types of silverware or great dishes in history.

4. Marketing
After deciding a name and a brand, then it’s time for marketing the exclusive product. No matter which method of marketing is used, that marketing should be geared toward the target audience. Look toward the already existing forums to find seed members for the new forum. Give those individuals an exclusive opportunity to move up within the social standing.

5. Participation
A lot of forums fail because there is not enough participation. Participation, unfortunately, is a vicious circle. It is difficult to have participation when there are no members, and potential new members shy away from empty forums. The key to getting around this is to instigate a lot of conversations and market enough to win over one or two loyal fans. In the beginning, the site’s owner will need to talk a lot.

6. Standards
The club must have standards for admission. Not just anyone can join this club, there is a threshold for conversation. For an iPad lover’s app forum, has the owner of the forum tried a lot of the apps in question? The standards are important in determining who receives membership. As a note, make sure that the administrator rises above these standards.

7. Guidelines
Nobody enjoys rules, but owners of an exclusive community need to have a way to expel members who are not living up to the expectations. These guidelines, such as proper english, affiliate link guidelines, and more, provide the boundaries of the exclusive community. The exclusive community is something which requires a lot of time and moderation, but it can yield great benefits if it has guidelines and standards.

Developing an online community is not the fastest way to riches. It is, however, one of the most lucrative and rewarding. These exclusive online communities are where the real conversations take place, and these real conversations are where a social media marketer can receive authority and respect.