SiteProNews |
- Five Steps to an Effective Social CRM Strategy
- 10 Tactics for Being a Powerful Guest Blogger
- Social Media SEO Takes On New Meaning With New Google Algorithm
- Business Briefs that Cry Out for Attention
- How to Choose a Reputable SEO Company
| Five Steps to an Effective Social CRM Strategy Posted: 21 Oct 2011 10:47 AM PDT 
Step 1: Find Your Customers You need to learn how your customers relate to social media. Many people connect to the major social media sites which have broad appeal and large user communities. Facebook, for example, has 750 million users. In 2011, the site’s fastest growing age segment was 55+. A second class of sites attracts people based on their interests. There are social networking sites for all kinds of people, from schoolteachers and sports fans to parents and programmers. A simple Web search reveals many of these sites. You also need to keep an eye on sites that might have a peripheral connection to your products and services. For example, the customers of an outdoor equipment company may frequent a site dedicated to adventure travel. You want to be where your customers are and when it comes to social media that means following their interests not just their buying habits. Step 2: Learn The Language Once you’ve located the places where customers are either talking about you or about things that relate to your business, don’t jump in right away. Spend some time observing how the group works, who its leaders are, and the kind of language and tone the members use with each other. Your first step is to behave like you deserve to be part of the conversation. Take Mark Twain’s advice, “It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than it is to speak and remove all doubt.” Step 3: Listen Once you’ve located the sites where your customers congregate and spent some time getting a general idea of how they talk with each other, dig a little deeper. If there are subjects that you want to follow and the site has search capability, take a look at what’s been said in the past about those topics. This is listening in the social media world; it should precede participation. Since you’ve probably identified multiple social media channels to track, how do you listen in on all of these conversations? If you have the resources, consider a staff member dedicated to social media. That person can keep track of the sites you’ve chosen, coordinate responses to conversations, and incorporate data from conversations into your CRM system. Don’t engage in more channels than you can monitor effectively. Listening is made easier by social media monitoring and sentiment measuring tools. Listening tools can tell you what’s being said and where; sentiment tools can gauge the general tone of the conversations that mention you. Both can increase your social media productivity. Your company also has great monitoring tools already in place — your employees. Many will use social media outside of work, and they may run across topics that pertain to your business. Employees should be encouraged to report anything they learn to the person you’ve designated to monitor social media. Step 4: Engage When your business is ready to engage with customers in a social media conversation, establish clear rules about who does the talking and where they do it. Someone from service could participate in conversations on a site where service issues are discussed. An engineer would be appropriate on a site geared toward developers. Look for places to engage that will have an impact. If you see the opportunity to make a difference in a conversation, jump in — even if it’s only to say that you don’t know the answer to a question but can find someone who does. Then be sure to follow up. That level of authenticity coupled with tangible assistance builds loyalty with the person you helped. It also establishes you as a reliable participant in the community. You can also start your own conversations. You could begin with a legitimate question about your customers and what they’re thinking. This approach can deliver actionable intelligence more quickly and inexpensively than a formal survey. Don’t make these the only conversations in which you participate. You’re there to participate as a peer not an interrogator. You can use two types of social media information: the data you uncover in conversations and the data that your customers and potential customers volunteer in setting up their profiles. Don’t focus only on the latter. It ignores the truly social aspects of social media and the richer information that conversations can bring to your attention. It’s also a source that’s likely to diminish as social media users become more sophisticated in their use of privacy controls. There is no technology that can automatically detect the social media data relevant to your business and sort it by your customers or accounts. People engaged in conversations and monitoring social media sources will need to manually incorporate important information into customer records. But the use of social media information doesn’t stop there. It also involves careful process design. For example, since a call for help in social media is heard by many people, the transfer of responsibility from social media monitor to designated service contact to the service personnel who can respond is vitally important. The same is true for sales, marketing, and product development. Finally, make sure your employees know that social CRM can be an all-hands exercise that benefits the entire company, just like traditional CRM. Chris Bucholtz is a recognized influencer in customer relationship management. He’s Editor in Chief of CRM Outsiders, and a founding editor of both Forecasting Clouds and InsideCRM. To find out more about how to build your business and empower your employees with CRM Software Solutions please visit http://www.sugarcrm.com Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources |
| 10 Tactics for Being a Powerful Guest Blogger Posted: 21 Oct 2011 10:15 AM PDT 
Today, with blogs being so popular and powerful, the best way to use content is to provide guest posts for bloggers. Below are ten tips to help you become a successful guest poster. 1. Quality Content – Be sure to write an effective guest post. The content has to benefit the visitors of the blog where you will be posted. Don’t try to pass off a badly written, self-promoting sales letter as quality content. All this will do is ruin your reputation. Write something to make people think or provide really helpful information. That type of content will really help the readers and give them a reason to check out you and your site/blog. So, you, the readers and the blog owner will all benefit. 2. Form Partnerships – Work with the blog owner. Let him know that if he uses your guest post you will work very hard to promote your post so as to bring the blog more traffic helping you both. Take time to discuss with the blog owner what his readers are looking for and what interests them. 3. SEO – Take the time to do some search engine optimization on your post. Don’t just leave it to the blog owner. Optimize your post with relevant keywords in the title and body. If your post does well with Google you could continue to receive traffic, and sales for a long time to come. 4. Use Images – Enhance your post with images such as graphs, tables, or any image that will bring depth and more strength to your content. This will grab more attention from the reader thus increasing the chances for your post to be read and your links to be visited. 5. Original Content – Most blog owners will probably request original content that has not been submitted or published anywhere else on the net. Be sure to follow the owner’s guidelines. Don’t try to sneak in an article you have posted elsewhere because the owner will probably check. 6. Proper Format – Discuss with the blog owner which format they would like your post to be. Some blog owners will prefer the post to be written in specific font, size, etc. If you can provide the specifications they need, it will save them a lot of time and work. 8. Don’t Just Be a Poster – Be sure to read and research the blog for which you will be posting. Know what type of posts the owner looks for and what type get the most reaction from the readers. You want your post to get a lot of attention and interaction as well. Link to other posts in the blog that might be pertinent to your post. This will help with SEO as well as show the blog owner that you have taken the time to read his blog. Becoming a successful guest blogger might take some time and work, but it will be worth it for the blog owners and for you and your business. Blogs are the now of marketing and being able to get your content on a good number of quality blogs should increase your traffic and sales dramatically! Don’t be one of the 95% of people who fail at their online business. Terri Seymour can help you make money online. Find out how to increase your traffic and sales with her popular “How to Build Your Online Business” ebook for FREE at: ==> http://www.SeymourProducts.com Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources |
| Social Media SEO Takes On New Meaning With New Google Algorithm Posted: 21 Oct 2011 09:40 AM PDT 
And social media SEO looks like it is going to become more important with the introduction of new tools like Google+. For example, Craig is looking for information on vacuum cleaner repairs. If Craig is not logged in to Google, or does not have many connections, Google will present him with the most objective posts that rely on the typical search engine optimization techniques. He will most likely be presented with the best optimized site about vacuum cleaner repairs. But, if Craig is active on social networks like Twitter, is connected to a lot of people on Google+, and even has someone in his Google Contacts list, Stacy, who has a keen interest in vacuum cleaner repair shops, then anything Stacy has said about vacuum repair is going to appear on Craig’s search engine results. If Stacy has left a comment on a vacuum repair page, or shared a vacuum repair blog post, or even written a vacuum repair blog post herself, then her results will show up on Craig’s page. This will have two positive effects on social media SEO. One, the more connections a business has with potential customers, the more likely they are to show up on the search engine results page. And two, people who write blog posts about vacuum repair can finally show their faces in public without being embarrassed. Social media SEO takes advantage of the connections between a searcher and their networks, because people tend to believe and trust testimonials and opinions of their friends more than they do of complete strangers. But they believe and trust testimonials of complete strangers over the information provided by traditional marketers. The implications of this for traditional marketers is that they may no longer bark at their customers with new special offers and promises of big savings and crazy prices. Customers are no longer looking, at least on social media, for typical marketing behavior. They are skipping TV These days, customers want relationships with their companies. They want to hear from companies they trust, and that have provided value to them in the past. They want to connect with companies that will not send them constant advertisements or pester them with needless communication. They would rather work with companies who help them answer questions, solve problems, and help them fix issues. This means that for social media SEO to truly work, businesses need to connect with potential customers via social networks like Google+, Twitter, and Facebook (if appropriate), and communicate with them in the manner they want, not the way the marketing department thinks it should be. The businesses need to create a valuable newsletter, add people to their email list, and ask them to add the business email address to their white list. They also need to frequently write blog posts that address different questions and problems these potential customers are facing. As these businesses connect with these customers via social media, it also means the business will show up with a high search rank whenever these customers do a search for a topic the business can handle. Article by Julie Ann Ross. With 20 years in marketing, advertising and 10 years in internet marketing, Rostin Ventures has refined the social media SEO Expert Formula. http://www.rostinventures.com/ offers social media marketing services that are affordable and easy to access and are combined to build the formula that drives search engine ranking through Social Media Optimization, Online Reputation Management, Social Marketing and web 2.0 communities and resources. Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources |
| Business Briefs that Cry Out for Attention Posted: 21 Oct 2011 08:13 AM PDT 
Have you ever been forced to review a business report that was so monotonous you had to jab yourself with a pin every two minutes to avoid fading into rapturous states of unconsciousness. Maybe you didn’t pierce yourself in time and your cranium hit the desktop, allowing a bit of drool to leak onto the report. Guilt immediately sets in because you know that the author worked hard on the thing and that the subject matter is important. Regrettable for that guy, because the other key readers of his report won’t be as sensitive as you– they'll just line their coops with it. You silently have a good laugh and form a wicked grin at the notion– bird cage liner– funny stuff. The grin gets wiped off of your face in an instant when a second thought invades your brain– you have a report due next week to hand into the same crew. What will you do — WHAT WILL YOU DO?! Well, have no fear. There is hope for you beyond this, and you don’t need to be the Ernest Hemingway of business report writing. All you need is a little design, a tinge of confidence, and some courage! HEADINGS DOMINATE THE DAY Many business reports get the pet shop treatment because they suffer from a lack of cosmetic appeal. Yes, your company report needs to look beautiful. It also needs to be accessible, just like it’s a web site, so it is simple to navigate. Wanna hear some unsettling news? Most viewers of your report, no matter how much labor you put into it or how impressive your data reduction is, will not go through it. Oh, they ‘ll browse it, take stock of it, and try to get something out of it, but it ain’t a best-seller and it won’t capture their attention. Make it easy for them to get something out of it. Use headlines that clearly define the parts of the report. You know what I mean, stuff like Suggestions, Budget, and Financial Interpretation. It sounds so basic, but many people skip this one. Appropriate headlines act like visual hyperlinks in the document, allowing the reader to quickly recognize sections and check only what she’s engaged in. Your headlines should be clear, without deceiving the viewer as to what is in the following section. They should be bolded and a larger font size so they really attract attention. Don’t presume to take a chance on the titles though, and use a header that’s a bit unusual, because it adds to the charm. Recommendations are better than Summary, but Actions for Future Growth blows away Recommendations. Get it? PUT THE BOTTOM LINE FIRST Here’s a crazy, contrarian notion for you. Most business reports are written in a silly order. They start with an Intro that gives record of the problem at hand, and then start covering their procedure, and so on. Challenge: people who read business reports already know, in most cases, that material. For them, this filler is just getting in the way of the real stuff. Try starting by putting the bottom line first. That’s why a good report should start with an Abstract or Executive Synopsis. Here’s what we did, here’s the results, and here’s what we suggest you do about it. After that 1/2 page to 1 page overview, try out your Recommended Steps section. Usually, this is what is truly essential to the viewer– what should we do about it? “Wait a minute, Karl, are you saying we cannot include the sacred Introduction?” No, there’s always someone who'll want to read that as well, but I’m suggesting, putting it at the end. This leaves the heavy data stuff still in the middle, where it fits. DEMONSTRATE SOME HUTZPAH! Remember way back in the last paragraph when I said the head honchos want to read the Recommendations first. Re-read it! Many professionals will shy away from this section and remain on the fence because they don’t want to be judged. HORSE FEATHERS! Show some courage and tell people what your interpretation of the outcomes is. You can be mistaken and the world won’t reach an end. If you're fairly intelligent and have functioned well for the company, this is what they want out of you anyway. Just be big enough to recognize that you could be wrong and if the company goes another direction, that’s OK too. Look, the report is for the world but there is no legislation that says you can’t gain from this golden opportunity to extend your ideas and suggestions, so take a stand and watch the value of your report, and you, go up. SUPPORT IT, BABE You know, if there is one item that won’t fly in a business report, it is the unsupported assertion. Even though most CEOs won’t read the whole thing and crawl through the analysis and facts stuff, you'd better have it in there for the boss who just lunched on a burrito and took your report into the throne room. Somebody will have the time on their hands, and if the rest of your report excels, hopefully the need to check out the fine details behind your views. Don’t get caught being an empty suit. That’s worse than not voicing an opinion, because now you're a loose cannon with a lazy streak. The data should support your points and it should do so in multiple ways. If research doesn’t do it (some issues won’t have “data” per se) then back yourself up with like opinions from professionals within the company or in the field that is being examined in the report. At least that way, you're in good company. Albert Einstein said you should always “back up your convictions with evidence.” I’m absolutely sure of it. See how effective that is?! DON’T SPEAK IN THE 3RD PERSON Another component of bad report creation that literary talking heads call the official style is speaking everything in the third person. Unless your name is the Rock or Bob Dole and it’s part of your schtick, forget the third person bunk and talk in the first person. Take the credit, take the blame, or assign it to the applicable party. “It” was not found– Joe Schmoe discovered whatever “it” was during his investigation. “I got the account by busting my buns” is much more effective than “There was a bun busting situation in which an account was awarded to the firm in question.” Don’t agonize about appearing arrogant. Like the man says, it ain’t braggin’ if you can back it up, and you will. So what have you discovered today? Notice that not a single time did I say something about gerunds, descriptive adjectives, action verbs or dangling participles. That’s another article. All I have said is to make it appealing, put the best stuff first, shake things up and take a stand, making sure you can support your points, and speak in the first person. Do these things and your business report to the canary enthusiasts won’t end up in the bottom of a cage and you'll see that your level of career success is on the upsurge. Trust me. Arnold Schwarzenneger said that too, and he turned out OK. Karl Walinskas is the CEO of Smart Company Growth, a business development and cost management consulting firm for small to mid-size enterprises, and Virtual Mastermind, an online network of Mastermind Groups for small business owners. He has made a career of leading, inspiring and raising the game of small business people. He is the author of numerous articles and the Smart Blog on leadership, business communication, sales & service, public speaking and virtual business and Getting Connected Through Exceptional Leadership, available in the Smart Shop, Amazon.com, or Barnes&Noble.com. He can be reached at kwalinskas@smartcompanygrowth.com. Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources |
| How to Choose a Reputable SEO Company Posted: 20 Oct 2011 10:00 PM PDT 
If the company provides a street address, Google it to see if it’s a real address. If they provide a telephone number, call the number to see if it’s answered by the company or an answering service. If they don’t provide a telephone number, walk away. SEO is serious business. You need to have the ability to talk to whomever is going to be handling your account. You need to be able to ask questions, and you have a right to expect your questions to be answered in a professional manner. 2. Talk to Previous Customers If the SEO company publishes testimonials on their website, contact a few of their customers and get their feedback. If the company can’t provide testimonials, walk away, or if the testimonials don’t have contact information, they’re probably bogus. Walk away.
Visit reputable SEO forums like Jill Whalen’s High Rankings Forum to find out what forum members have to say about the company. If an SEO company has a bad reputation, it will race across the Internet at warp speed. Conversely, if a company has a good reputation, you will find that out also. 4. Check Their Better Business Bureau Record Most companies who are members of the BBB post it on their website with a link to their record. Check their record to see if they have any complaints, but don’t panic if the company has complaints. All companies receive complaints from time to time. What you want to find out is whether or not the company has an inordinate amount of complaints, and how those complaints have been handled. 5. Check Them Out with Their State’s Attorney General’s Office If the company is located in the United States, check them out with their state’s Attorney General’s Office, Division of Consumer Affairs. All companies aren’t members of the BBB so often unhappy or dissatisfied customers will file a report with the AG’s office to get satisfaction. 6. Check Them Out with Local Police Agencies Before you give a company your hard-earned money, do your due diligence. In addition to checking them out with the BBB and AG, put a call into the police department in their city to see if they’re involved in fraudulent activities. You’d be surprised how cooperative many police agencies are when it comes to fighting fraud in their city. 7. Check Them Out with Online Scam Watch Sites Like I mentioned a moment ago, if an SEO company has a bad reputation, it will race across the Internet at warp speed. If a company is ripping people off, someone will know about it. Before parting with your hard-earned money, always check companies out with various online scam watch sites like Scam.com. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times, legitimate companies don’t send unsolicited e-mail. They don’t send sp@m. Do you know what kind of companies send sp@m? Scam artists intent on ripping you off, that’s who. The best thing to do when you receive sp@m is delete it. Don’t open it, don’t read it, don’t consider it…delete it! If an SEO company doesn’t have the ability to secure a competitive ranking for their own site, then how on earth can they secure a competitive ranking for yours? Answer: They can’t. While far from perfect, sites like Alexa can give you a fair idea about a site’s ranking. Choosing the right SEO company is critical to the success of your company, so you want to make sure you get it right. Take your time and leave no stone unturned as you do your due diligence. Don’t rush the process, and walk away from companies that try to pressure you into making a quick decision. 11. How Long Has the Company Been Around? When choosing an SEO company, the length of time they’ve been in business matters. A company’s longevity is a good indication of stability and how good they are at what they do. When it comes to SEO companies, the longer they’ve been in business the better. 12. Have They Written Articles About SEO? Ask if anyone from their staff have written any articles that have been published on reputable websites. Has anyone on their staff written any books? Do they speak at major SEO conferences? Are they moderators at SEO/SEM forums? All of these things are indicators of professionalism, reputation and expertise. Don’t sign any contract until you’ve read and completely understood its terms. Better yet, let your attorney look over the contract. Contracts can be tricky, so it’s best to let a professional check things out. It’s too late to read the contract after the fact. 14. Money-Back Guarantee I’m a firm believer that if you aren’t satisfied with the results, or if the company hasn’t delivered on their promises, you are entitled to either a full or partial refund, depending on the terms of the contract. Avoid companies that aren’t willing to stand behind their work. No company can guarantee you a first page or top 10 ranking. I repeat: No Company Can Guarantee You A First Page Or Top 10 Ranking. Here’s why: There are far too many variables involved in the ranking of a website – not the least of which are the age of the domain, relevancy and quantity of content, number and quality of inbound links, competition, and of course Google’s ever-changing algorithms. That’s why legitimate SEO companies don’t make those kinds of outlandish promises. Ask plenty of questions and monitor the companies willingness to answer your questions. If they seem argumentative, evasive or unsure, walk away. Whether you call or e-mail a company, monitor how quickly they respond to your communications, or if they respond at all. Slow communication is a huge red flag. Walk away. 18. Do They Engage in Black Hat Practices? In case you don’t know, black hat SEO practices consist of unethical methods like cloaking, hidden text, doorway pages, link farms, mirror sites, duplicate content, etc. Ask questions to see how the company feels about these types of practices. If they don’t strongly denounce these types of unethical practices, walk away. Before making your decision, carefully look over the companies portfolio, the projects that they have worked on in the past, as well as current projects. Does the portfolio accurately reflect the information you’ve been given, or does something seem not quite right? If you don’t like what you see, walk away. 20. Listen to Your Gut Over the years, listening to that little internal voice has served me well. The times I ignored that little voice is when I’ve gotten into trouble. Listen to your gut. If something doesn’t feel right, walk away. In closing, in a perfect world, we would be able take SEO companies at face value without being suspicious. Unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world, so be suspicious. Be very suspicious…the money and aggravation you save may be your own! David Jackson is a marketing consultant, and the owner of Free-Marketing-Tips-Blog.com – Powerful, free marketing tips to help grow your business! http://free-marketing-tips-blog.com Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources |
Before you embark on the five steps, make sure you understand the customers you’ll be working with and the social media ecosystem you’ll be working in. Other important considerations are time and resources. How much staff time can you spare for social CRM (SCRM)? And what budget will you have for sentiment monitoring and listening tools?
We’ve all heard the phrase “content is king” but this isn’t always true. First of all, the content has to be quality, well-written content and you also have to know what to do with the content to make it king. Years ago writing articles and submitting them to article directories and ezines was the best way to promote with content but things have changed.
Social media SEO has increased in importance, thanks to some changes in Google’s algorithms, most recently the Google Panda update. What Google Panda has done is made social media connections a bigger part of their SEO algorithm – in other words, the more connections a person has, the more likely some of their material they have read or recommended will show up in the person’s search engine results page.
Substandard business reports don’t attract the reader’s eye, they neither inform nor entertain, and worst of all, they don’t get action. Don’t let the author of the next bad report in your company be you.
The two most important elements that qualify companies to promote themselves as SEO experts are competence and professionalism. And the way you find out if a company is competent and professional, as well as legitimate, is to do your due diligence and check their credentials thoroughly, by exercising good old common sense and following these steps:| You are subscribed to email updates from SiteProNews Recent Articles To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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1 comment:
A lot of great information on your blog. I was actually looking to talk with an seo company, so your last post on here was a great help. I'll definitely know what kind of research to do and what kind of questions to ask before hiring anyone. Thanks for the great info
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