background preloader

5 Advanced Social Media Marketing Strategies for Small Businesse

5 Advanced Social Media Marketing Strategies for Small Businesse
Samir Balwani is an emerging technology strategist at Morpheus Media, a firm specializing in Social Marketing, SEM, and SEO. You can follow him on Twitter @samirbalwani and get his newsletter. Social media marketing and the businesses that utilize it have become more sophisticated. More small businesses are beginning to understand how to best leverage online tools to build a community and recognize that engagement and interaction are the foundations of social marketing, but most don't know what's next. What follows are five advanced strategies for small businesses that may already have small online communities and understand how to create an online presence, but don't know what to do next. What Is An Advanced Strategy? The definition of an advanced social strategy is a technique that goes beyond the normal social media presence. Strategy 1: Multimedia Usage The term "A picture is worth a thousand words" has never been truer. Videos are useful for explaining complex how-tos or concepts.

7 Secrets to Tweeting Your Corporate Culture Sharlyn Lauby is the president of Internal Talent Management (ITM) which specializes in employee training and human resources consulting. She authors a blog at hrbartender.com. I admit I’m a Twitter addict. But if all you’re doing is sending out auto-tweets, I’m not sure either of us is getting the full benefit of your presence on Twitter. 1. I’m not talking about chronicling the 42 year history of your firm 140 characters at a time. Another historic moment is when an organization grows and expands, especially in the current economic climate. 2. Kris Dunn, vice president of people for DAXKO, explained to me why Twitter is a great fit for his company. His point is well taken. 3. Many companies are using Twitter not only as a place to talk about their organization but their industry. Another company setting the standard in this area is Pandora Radio. 4. There are so many ways you can share with Twitterland the things you do from an employee standpoint. 5. 6. 7. Conclusion

5 Ways to Make Your Business More Transparent Sharlyn Lauby is the president of Internal Talent Management (ITM) which specializes in employee training and human resources consulting. She authors a blog at hrbartender.com. You can hardly have a conversation about social media today without discussing the concept of transparency. More and more, companies are incorporating transparency into their marketing efforts. Transparency is about being open, honest, and accountable. For those looking to refine their social media messaging, here are five ways to become more transparent. 1. Web designer Jeffrey Zeldman talks about web design. Zeldman's example teaches us that transparency is about being who you are. It’s just as important to be viewed as a person with a lot of talented resources as it is to be viewed as an expert. 2. We all know that part of transparency is being responsible about the information you share. This also applies to offering your opinion. But when you offer your opinion, think through the implications. 3. 4. 5.

HOW TO: Use Social Media to Connect with Other Entrepreneurs This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business. Starting a company is often a lonely and nerve wracking process. One day, you’re working at a big company with tens of thousands of people and health benefits, and then the next day it’s just you, maybe a co-founder, and a lack of steady income. Yet you’re really not alone. There are thousands of others making similar journeys around the world, and even more who have not only gone down the entrepreneurial path, but succeeded. These people are more than happy to share their advice, insight, and stories — if you know how to find them. That’s where social media tools come into play. If you’re looking to enrich your entrepreneurial journey by sharing with others, I have a few social media suggestions that will help: Follow Entrepreneur Twitter Lists Connect With Amazing Entrepreneurship Communities Just Reach Out

The 10 Stages of Social Media Business Integration Brian Solis is a principal at new media agency FutureWorks. You can connect with him on Twitter or Facebook. An overnight success ten years in the making, social media is as transformative as it is evolutionary. Here are the ten most common stages that businesses experience as they travel the road to full social media integration. Stage 1: Observe and Report This is the entry point for businesses to better understand the behavior of an interactive marketplace. Listening: Employ listening devices such as Google Alerts, Twitter Search, Radian6, and PR Newswire’s Social Media Metrics to track conversations and instances associated with key words. Reporting: Distill existing social media conversations into an executive report. Stage 2: Setting the Stage + Dress Rehearsal Once the initial intelligence is gathered, businesses will set the stage for social media participation. However, those businesses that conduct research will find a rewarding array of options and opportunities to target.

18 Online Productivity Tools for Your Business This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business. Small business owners may have more of a need than most to be able to access their chosen suite of productivity tools from more than one computer or platform. As a business or startup owner you may have occasion to bring your work home with you, or require frequent access to your to-do lists, notes and documents on the go. Choosing primarily online tools for your productivity workflow is a great way to address the issue of source agnostic accessibility. With the tools on this list, you should be able to check in on your current workflow stack regardless of which machine you happen to be in front of, what operating system it uses, and what browser it's running. To-do Lists One of the favorite and often-mentioned entrants in the to-do list category among productivity geeks is Remember the Milk. Note-Taking

How Web Video SEO is Finally Coming of Age Though publishing videos on the web has been child's play for years now, the process of getting them to rank high in search remains enigmatic at best, frustrating at worst. The pace of video publication is accelerating faster than ever, and though video SEO seems to have been left behind the rest of the industry, it's finally starting to catch up through some exciting developments that will hopefully provide more incentives for publishers to produce great video content. As we start a new year and a new decade, here's a look at the state of web video SEO right now. The State of Web Video When you produce a video now, there's no dearth of places to publish it. Just as there's lots of competition in the platform arena, competition among videos themselves is growing wildly. Hundreds of little tweaks and tricks exist in optimizing a webpage for search, yet the entire realm of video SEO right now consists of only a few to-dos and a lot of finger-crossing. New Developments The Future

10 Small Business Social Media Marketing Tips Ross Kimbarovsky is the co-founder of crowdSPRING, a community of 43,000+ graphic designers that helps small businesses from around the world with graphic design needs. You can follow Ross on Twitter @rosskimbarovsky and @crowdSPRING. Capacity - especially to plan and execute effective marketing strategies - is a big challenge for every small business. In this post, I'll offer 10 suggestions for how small businesses can supercharge their marketing efforts by leveraging social media. For each suggestion, I will discuss a basic strategy - for those who simply want to get their toes wet, as well as an advanced strategy - for those who want to spend a bit more time and go a bit deeper in their social media marketing efforts. I suggest you begin by outlining clear goals for your social media marketing efforts and figuring out how you'll measure success. 1. Facebook offers exceptional, low cost marketing opportunities for small business. 2. Twitter has grown tremendously over the past year.

Related: