Should My Business Start Using Pinterest?
February 7, 2012 - Posted by Shama Kabani
If you’ve been paying attention to social media news recently, you’ve probably heard about a little site called Pinterest. Maybe you’ve even ventured onto the site, pinning your favorite photos of hilarious baby animals and thought-provoking quotes. But what about Pinterest’s implications for online marketing? Surely it contains a lot of untapped potential, but is it potential that’s relevant to you and your business? What’s Pinterest again? Pinterest is a social network built on the concept of sharing visual recommendations via virtual pinboards. Users bookmark – or “pin” – photos of interest to theme-based boards. Users can also repin from other Pinterest users. The site has quickly gained popularity, and now drives more referral traffic than YouTube, LinkedIn, and Google+ combined. That’s pretty impressive for a network that’s still invite-only. Have people already been pinning photos from my site? I don’t know! If your site draws a decent amount of… read more
7 Things You Should Know About Online Marketing…But Often Forget
February 2, 2012 - Posted by Shama Kabani
With all the advice floating around out there about online marketing, sometimes it can be hard to remember it all – or separate the good advice from the bad advice (from the weird advice). It’s easy to get caught up and forget the basics. If you’re feeling a little frazzled by it all, take a step back. Breathe deep. Then review our list of seven things you should know, but may have forgotten along the way, about online marketing. 1. It takes time. You can’t set up a Facebook or Twitter account and expect it to be successful overnight. Sure, this happens every so often – but mostly for huge, established companies like Nike who have a staggering offline presence. You might not even see results within the first week, so you can’t get easily discouraged. However, we’re also referring to the fact that you and your team need to… read more
How Do I Get People to Watch My YouTube Video?
January 27, 2012 - Posted by Shama Kabani
Let me guess: your company uploaded a YouTube video a few months ago, and you’re still stuck around 100 views or so. You’re not alone – more than half of all YouTube videos will be viewed less than 500 times. Ever. Considering people upload 48 hours of video to YouTube every minute, you’re going to need a better strategy than just recording stuff and putting it out there. “Like what?” you say. Glad you asked! Put your company’s best face forward. We’re talking about human faces, but “best” doesn’t necessarily mean “best-looking” or “highest-ranking” in this situation. The person you want in front of the camera might not be in your marketing department, so branch out. Take inventory of the people in your office: who has the smile that brightens up everyone else’s day? Find that naturally outgoing, charming person – they’re your on-camera talent. Don’t speak in jargon. Oh,… read more
Don’t Call People Names on Yelp and Other Tips
January 24, 2012 - Posted by Shama Kabani
“Marketing Zen!” you say, “Someone said something rude and awful about my business on the Internet! What do I do about this?” From Yelp to Google Places and many sites in between, consumers now have a variety of outlets to express their opinions about your establishment. This can be great for your online marketing – if you do everything perfect all the time. What if you messed up? Well, here are some tips for dealing with that unpleasant predicament. Keep your emotions out of it. Yeah, we get it. It sucks to put all your effort into something, only to see people trash it on the Internet. For an example from the publishing industry, take independent author Jacqueline Howett, whose defensive replies to a two-star review of her book went viral (although many of her comments have since been removed – probably because she realized in hindsight that responding wasn’t… read more
How to Continue Your Online Marketing Education
January 20, 2012 - Posted by Shama Kabani
It seems like there’s a new development in online marketing just about every day, right? Things evolve so rapidly that you might be having a hard time keeping up. For example, what exactly is a Pinterest and do you need one? You added people to your Circles on Google+ but now what do you do with them? The following tips should help you on your journey to continuing online marketing education. Read relevant blogs. Since you’re reading this blog post right now, you’re already on the right track to keeping up with marketing trends. For those who are serious about continuing their marketing education, it’s essential to stay organized. Once you’ve found more than one or two blogs you want to keep up with, you may want to subscribe via email or RSS feed – for example, using Google Reader. Follow influential Tweeps. You may find that many of your… read more
Viral Marketing: Not Just For Cat Videos Anymore
January 13, 2012 - Posted by Shama Kabani
From a quick glance at YouTube, you might think that the only way to make your content go viral is to replace your old marketing strategy with a gaggle of adorable kittens. But before you head down to the animal shelter to cast your next video, we think you should read our list of tips for viral content marketing. What is viral content? “Going viral” simply means that your content has been shared on a massive scale. Videos are often associated with going viral. For example, you may be one of the 71 million people who’s seen this Free Hugs video since it was uploaded in 2006. What makes content go viral? As shown in the Free Hugs video, people are more likely to share content that has made them feel some sort of emotional reaction. Other reasons people are likely to share content include: It’s funny. Sometimes you need… read more
How to Manage and Repair Your Online Reputation
January 6, 2012 - Posted by Shama Kabani
Know what people are saying about you. The biggest mistake when trying to manage your online reputation is to be totally oblivious of what your reputation even is. How do people see you? Are they saying good or bad things? Is there something embarrassing about you from 10 years ago floating around out there? If your answer is “I don’t know” then that’s bad. Go to your search engine of choice. Type in your name. Read everything. Do this regularly. If you find any really potentially harmful information about yourself, like a leaked Social Security number or other content that should be immediately removed, contact the owner of the site. If you do not get a response, a support team from the search engine should be able to help you have the harmful content removed. Be transparent. If you’re responding to a negative comment on Yelp on behalf of your… read more
Five Tips for Successful Foursquare Marketing
November 7, 2011 - Posted by Shama Kabani
If you have a physical location: 1. Claim your venue. Even if you’re not actively participating in Foursquare as a form of social media marketing yet, chances are users are already checking in to your business. If your business isn’t already there, that’s actually kind of a bad sign – any user can create a new venue, so why hasn’t somebody created yours yet? It’s not the end of the world, though, because it also means you can put yourself on Foursquare. There are varying instructions if you’re a chain with 10+ (or 100+) locations. In any case, Foursquare will verify your ownership by phone or mail and then…well, what does being verified mean? Claiming your venue not only allows you to use Foursquare’s built-in analytics, but it also lets you: 2. Create a Foursquare special. Verified business owners get free access to Foursquare’s merchant platform, which includes the ability… read more
How to Use QR Codes for Mobile Marketing
October 27, 2011 - Posted by Shama Kabani
Time for a pop quiz: what is this thing? It’s a Quick Response (QR) code. QR codes are similar to standard barcodes retailers use to track and price goods, except they can hold and share much more data. Believe it or not, these funny looking black and white boxes are revolutionizing mobile marketing. How QR Codes Work QR codes are activated when they are scanned or read by a mobile device. The only requirements are a smartphone with a camera and an installed barcode reader. Many free QR and barcode apps exist for both iPhone and Android. When you scan a QR code, you can link to many different types of content, including web, video, email, and IM. Why Use QR Codes? 1. Generating a QR code is not only easy, it’s free 2. QR codes are convenient for users, who can access your content after a simple scan 3…. read more
Top 3 Signs It’s Time to Raise Your Game
May 12, 2011 - Posted by Julie Ann
Did you know it’s possible to be playing SMALL …and not even realize it? Amazing – but it’s happening A LOT … and in some subtle (and NOT so subtle) ways … It’s a fact that: * Far too many are yielding to a temptation (yes, let’s face it – out of fear) to PLAY SMALL…”hunkering down,” “treading water,” “pulling back for a while,” or even “waiting this out” (how’s that working so far?) … And, as management expert Tom Peters says:“You can’t SHRINK your way to GREATNESS.” * Far too many others are “aiming too low” – toiling away at the level of mere TACTICS … chasing the next “shiny object” or tech toy … or even on the latest “hot” business model or “blueprint” … (Often jumping from one, to the next, to the next – with little to no results to show … and feeling increasingly more… read more