Pursuit, Passion, and Perils: The Story of One Young Entrepreneur
May 12, 2011 - Posted by Shama Kabani
I just did a guest post on Sources of Insight on entrepreneurship. It was so well received, that I wanted to share it with you. I was recently invited to speak to a group of young college students at The City University in Hong Kong on the topic on entrepreneurship. And, I was quite thrilled by the challenge. I believe that entrepreneurship is partly inherent, but everyone has a spark within them to make it happen. At 26, I’ve learned quite a few things about entrepreneurship first hand. My first business was at the age of 9. It was no astounding success. As it turns out, your parents will only buy so much gift wrap before they force you to retire. Since then, I’ve become a savvier entrepreneur. Today, I serve as CEO of The Marketing Zen Group –a full service web marketing firm with a staff of 27 and… read more
How-To: Outsourcing Your Business’s Social Media Marketing During an Event
May 9, 2011 - Posted by Shelby
<p style=”text-align: right”><strong><em><a href=”http://www.findandconvert.com/blog/2009/rick-short-social-media-marketing-success/”><img class=”size-medium wp-image-2956 alignright” src=”http://www.marketingzen.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/indium_tradeshow-300×225.jpg” alt=”” width=”240″ height=”180″ /></a></em></strong></p> Hello again, Mr. CEO. As promised in <a href=”http://www.marketingzen.com/how-to-outsource-your-company%E2%80%99s-social-media-marketing-initiatives-part-1/” target=”_blank”>How-To: Outsource Your Company’s Social Media Marketing Initiatives – Part 1</a>, here is your Wake-Up Call 2: Events, Trade Shows, Conferences – Oh My! The how and why to snag an invite for your social media marketing initiatives when your company is going to be on display. <strong><em>A case study featuring YOU</em>:</strong> So, let’s say you’re going to have a booth at a major conference or trade show that directly relates to your industry and you have recently outsourced all <a href=”http://www.marketingzen.com/services/social-media-marketing/” target=”_blank”>social media</a> to a company that specializes in online marketing . <strong><em>You now have 2 options, well I suppose 3:</em></strong> <ol> <li>Plan your SM strategy ahead & bring someone from your social media marketing agency with you.</li> <li>Plan your SM strategy order viagra ahead & pay for… read more
How-To: Outsource Your Company’s Social Media Marketing Initiatives – Part 1
April 13, 2011 - Posted by Shelby
Okay so, you finally did it! You finally decided to get your business on Facebook and have outsourced the task to a social media marketing agency. It makes sense too as you’re a small-medium sized business already spreading your internal resources way too thin. Your social media marketing efforts are now out of sight, out of mind, right? Time to focus your attention back on your regular tasks, right? Wrong. I have to say it. You are wrong Mr. CEO / Ms. CEO. The words engaging, sharable, interactive should mean something to you by now. I’m positive you’ve heard them a time or two if you’ve made it to our online marketing blog before. You need to be all three and you need to be strategic and you NEED to make sure all efforts are in sync with your company culture. Since you’ve outsourced… your social media company needs to… read more
How to Turn Your Facebook Profile Into a Fan Page
March 31, 2011 - Posted by Shama Kabani
Facebook has recently made available a tool which will allow you to convert your personal Facebook profile into a Facebook Page (also known as a Fan Page). A quick refresher: profiles are for people. Pages are for businesses, brands, puppies, and yes…people. So, a person can have a profile and a page, but a business for example, cannot have a profile. A business must have a page. If someone wants to friend you on Facebook, they go through your profile. This is a mutual relationship. If someone wants to connect with you, and you don’t know who they are, they can connect with you via a page by “Liking it.” This used to be called “Fanning” a page. You can turn your profile into a page by going here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php?migrate. This is perfect IF – 1) You originally created a profile for your business instead of a page. 2) You… read more
2011: Social Media Marketing Consultants on the Decline and Other Predictions
January 5, 2011 - Posted by Shama Kabani
In 2010, we were all enamored by social media marketing. Stories about folks getting fired because of their tweets or getting caught cheating thanks to Facebook were all the rage at parties. Okay…well…at least they were at the social gatherings I was attending. Now, we see a greater concern for privacy emerge and more people suffering from information overload. Here are 3 trends I see emerging this year – Every Tweet Counts – In 2010, tweeting became a phenomenon. We saw hordes of people sign up, tweet about their lunch plans, and then promptly stop using the service after pronouncing it absolutely useless. In 2011, we will see more people thinking before tweeting. We’ve passed the experimental stage. It is no longer cool to just tweet. What you say actually matters. (Imagine that!) And, it goes beyond twitter. Businesses trying to reach audiences will have to give content (and content… read more
7 Steps to Marketing a Mobile Application
January 3, 2011 - Posted by Shama Kabani
2011 will be the year of the mobile application. Early adopters will roll their eyes at that sentence, but Joe Doe from suburbia, who just got the iPad for Christmas is nodding his head. This year, widespread adoption will take mobile applications from a buzz phrase at SXSW to an everyday term (like microwave or blender…). And, more and more companies will lunge at creating mobile applications. But, creating an application and getting people to actually use it are two different things entirely. We’ve helped a few companies create and market their mobile applications, and here are 7 steps for marketing a mobile application. 1) Start by creating a good application that people actually will use on a regular basis. This may sound like good business sense 101, but I cannot begin to tell you how many applications I see that people would flat out not use. Or, applications that… read more
How to Get the New Facebook Profile
December 8, 2010 - Posted by Shama Kabani
Google Buys Groupon: 3 Lessons We Can Learn
December 1, 2010 - Posted by Shama Kabani
It’s the hottest news of the season. $6 billion dollars for a company that isn’t quite three years old, and wait for it…has no actual product? Well, it did make $500 million in revenue with its 3,000 employees last year, and Google is betting on it! The business is no other than Groupon.com. While many copycats have come to the market, this daily deal giant has been the leader in the field. So, what can we learn from Google’s decision to vie for Groupon’s attention? 1) Connecting people is a powerful business. As media and technology split our attention in a million directions, gathering multiple people at one water hole continues to be a challenge. And, for those like GroupOn who can conquer that challenge, it means money. Advertisers would kill for the 1950s again when TV and billboards did the trick. Want 80 percent of the market share? Spend… read more
2010 Online Marketing Grader
November 30, 2010 - Posted by Shama Kabani
Let’s face it, 2010 was not the best year economically speaking. People lost jobs, families lost homes, and businesses tanked. But, in the midst of it all, we got creative. New companies blossomed, innovative marketing techniques came into play, and businesses across the board embraced social media as an efficient way to reach out to consumers. Our own web marketing firm grew 400% this year. Clients we worked with saw huge spikes in traffic, sales, and brand awareness. All in all, this was a good year. Now, it’s time to measure your 2010 efforts! How did this year stack up? And what are your goals for 2011? Here are some key metrics you can use. Feel free to print this post and work through it like a worksheet. Revenue – The most important number to measure. Are your sales going up? Number of Customers – If you sell products, this… read more
How to Earn Some Good Karma Points
October 15, 2010 - Posted by Shama
Today is Blog Action Day. Every October 15th, bloggers of the world unite to hone in on one message. This year’s message is WATER! That’s right. The one thing that we take for granted. How to conserve it, help others get access to it, and overall – make the world a better place. Charity: Water helps bring safe and clean drinking water to those who need it most in developing nations. So, here is how you can help. 1) Go buy a copy of Age of Conversation 3: It’s Time to Get Busy! on Amazon. All profits are donated to charity. 2) Tell your friends about it on Facebook and Twitter and the office. Handy links up top to the left. 3) Collect invisible but very real good Karma points. That stuff comes in handy just when you need it most. Oh, and the book is written by 300 VERY… read more