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 put some working hours toward your online marketing. If you just throw together a landing page in five minutes, that level of effort is going to show.

2. It takes consistency.

If you’re only creating new content once every month or so – or “when I remember” or “whenever I feel like it” – you’re destined for failure. Twitter users send 140 million tweets per day. If you tweet every once and awhile, you’re barely a drop in that vast bucket. As of 2008, there were 1 trillion pages on the Internet (according to Google) – but with the constant content creation that’s happened in the past four years, imagine how that’s grown! If you don’t keep up, you’ll be left in the dust.

3. All factors must be integrated.

The key components of your online marketing strategy (SEO, pay per click, digital PR, and social media) are not separate elements, working independently of one another. All the components of your online marketing strategy complement one another, and should work together to help you achieve your end result. The most basic example? Using SEO keywords in your social media profiles.

4. Testing is key.

How do you know which copy and keywords work best for your intended audience? You test. And then you keep testing. And then you test some more. For PPC campaigns, try split testing your ads to see what works the best. Experiment with your landing pages – what’s the most effective headline? Call to action? If you stick with one, you’ll never know.

5. It’s a lot like baking a cake.

Don’t go running into the kitchen just yet. A cake recipe and an online marketing strategy are similar in some very fundamental aspects. Say you want to bake a cake, but you realize you’re out of eggs. Conventional wisdom says you should just run out to the store and buy some eggs, but your cake is already half done! It’ll probably be fine without eggs, right? Actually, your cake will probably not look or taste very appetizing.

It’s the same with online marketing. If you do digital PR and social media marketing, but don’t bother with SEO and your website is a disaster…that’s one nasty, inedible cake marketing strategy.

What if you’re running late? The cake calls for a 20 minute baking time, but you decide to increase the temperature and bake it for 10 minutes. You’re not going to get a cake – you’re just going to get a hot, possibly burned mess. But not a cake. Your online marketing can’t be rushed either. If you want to do it right, you’ve got to stick to the recipe.

6. Your website is still really important.

Your website should be the hub of your efforts. Everything you do should help eventually direct traffic to your site. Your website is your house. If visitors to your site show up only to find broken links, outdated content, and no graphics, it’s as if you invited them to your house – but it’s a house with no living room furniture and a dirty bathroom. What does this say about you? Nothing good, that’s for sure.

7. It’s not free.

This is where a lot of people get confused. It’s free to sign up for a social media site or a blog. There are many free TOOLS. But strategy, expertise, and implementation come at a price! Once you have people who know what they’re doing, you still need a budget. To see any type of effective return on your investment, you have to (come on, say it with me now) actually invest.

Photo credit

Start a blog that focuses on your practice area.

For example: a lawyer with expertise in banking or finance could write a post detailing how to file for bankruptcy. Immigration lawyers could explain the different types of visas, including requirements and application processes. Blogging is a great way for you to show off that expertise (and your finely-crafted writing skills), while also adding more of a “human” personality to your firm. With the correct use of keywords and phrases, you’ll also reap the SEO benefits in the long run.

Speaking of personality…

For individual lawyers, social media doesn’t need to be all about legal stuff, all the time. In fact, it probably shouldn’t be. Specifically if you’re focusing on Twitter, you can balance legal content with tweets about your hobbies, favorite sports teams, family, or vacation plans. You’re a person with a life outside your career (I hope). People looking for a lawyer are looking to communicate with a real, live human being – not a lawyer-bot (the obvious exceptions being people from the future and the seriously tech-obsessed).

Become a source for news.

This can be as easy as tweeting news stories on relevant topics a few times a week, or you can take it to the next level and blog about recent legal developments. Many successful social media strategies rely on content aggregation and curation, in addition to creation. Why? It demonstrates that you have a worldview extending beyond your firm’s walls. Demonstrate that you really get what’s going on in your field, and you just may impress potential future clients.

Don’t accidentally get yourself into trouble.

There’s a difference between sharing insight on a topic and actually giving legal advice over the Internet. As I’m sure you know, do not leave room for your thoughts to be interpreted as legal advice. If you’re on Twitter, include a blurb in your bio along the lines of “Thoughts here should not be taken as legal advice,” in the same way many professionals indicate that their opinions do not represent their employers.

It should also go without saying, but any conduct that would be inappropriate anywhere else is also inappropriate on social media. For example? If you can’t reveal confidential client information anywhere else, you definitely can’t do it on Facebook. If you’re not supposed to discuss details of ongoing cases, you should also not post that information on Twitter. Sure, roll your eyes. People really do these things.

Create a social media policy.

This is the simplest way for a law firm to keep itself and its employees out of trouble: set up guidelines for social media use. First, clearly define your goals. Clearly define what constitutes social media: Facebook, Twitter, blogging platforms, and LinkedIn should definitely be on any list, but you may want to include other sites you think are relevant. Next, clearly state who is allowed to speak on behalf of your firm. You might allow other employees to state that they work for you, but do not represent your views (as many companies do). Finally, make sure you state what the consequences are for breaking the social media policy. Be specific.

If you’re a lawyer using social media, leave us a comment to let us know what you’ve learned!

Photo credit

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, so your company is results-focused? Do you integrate/deliver/synergize/think outside the box? By using a phrase like “think outside the box” you are, by definition, not thinking outside the box. Every company on the planet is results-focused; that is the purpose of a company. If you’re talking to people through video, just talk to them. Let your genuine passion for the subject shine through, and it’ll be way more interesting than anything you say about being a collaborative thought leader (yes, we’re already snoring over here).

Get creative with instructional/informational videos.

For this, let’s turn to the master of creative advertising: Google. After all, they own YouTube so it only makes sense that they would have pretty decent video content. In the past year alone, Google’s come out with a ton of new products. And sure, you can read tech blog after tech blog to figure out what’s going on. Or you can just head on over to YouTube and watch it.

For example, 4 million people have seen Google Chrome’s “Dear Sophie” video. It’s about a man watching his daughter grow up.

It’s also an ad for Google Chrome, Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps, and Picasa. While watching, you get to see all the cool stuff you can do with Google Chrome – and even have your heart warmed at the same time! There’s also this popular video that demonstrates the effectiveness of Google’s search functionality (and yes, it also tugs at the heart strings – seems they’ve got a knack for that).

Use video to respond to and interact with consumers.

What do we mean? For an outstanding example, take this video by EA Sports featuring Tiger Woods. A player found what he considered to be a glitch in the Tiger Woods video game and posted a video about it to YouTube. According to Tiger Woods and the people at EA, though, he didn’t find a glitch at all.

In the video, Tiger mimics what the original video captured. Sure, making a famous golfer appear to walk on water is probably out of your budget for a single YouTube video – but you can still engage your audience by simply responding to them.

For example, why not have a question and answer session? Let people submit their questions to you via Facebook or Twitter, and you can respond to some with video. “Breaking Bad” actor Giancarlo Esposito recently used this technique to answer questions on Reddit. If you haven’t heard of that, perhaps you’ve heard of the Old Spice video response campaign – even we’ve referenced it before.

Have a YouTube success story?

Do you have a story about successfully using YouTube for online marketing? Drop us a line and tell us all about it!

Audio and video podcasts aren’t ideal when it comes to SEO. But marketing pro Shama Kabani says they’re still great tools to add to your communications arsenal.

Editor’s note: The marriage of technology and communication has been a boon to savvy entrepreneurs, but it’s also a huge challenge for those who aren’t sure how to navigate social networks. To help, Dallas-based entrepreneur and tech expert Shama Kabani is answering your questions. Email her at shama@marketingzen.com, or check out more of her advice at her online marketing company or on video.

Dear Shama,

I just read your book, The Zen of Social Media Marketing, and I found it incredibly helpful—particularly insightful was your section on video podcasting. I wonder if audio podcasting is as effective in increasing the site’s ranking in Google as video podcasting. Do you have any thoughts?

—Emily B., Herndon, Virginia

To read more about Ask Shama: Pondering the Podcast, check out the article on Portfolio.com.

Forget about work for a moment. What device should you get if you just want to read a book? Marketing pro Shama Kabani offers her take.

Editor’s note: The marriage of technology and communication has been a boon to savvy entrepreneurs, but it’s also a huge challenge for those who aren’t sure how to navigate social networks. To help, Dallas-based entrepreneur and tech expert Shama Kabani is answering your questions. Email her at shama@marketingzen.com, or check out more of her advice at her online marketing company or on video.

Dear Shama,

I am a voracious reader, and as my library gets out of control, I am seriously considering an e-reader, but I am not a techie. At first I was trying to decide between the Kindle or the iPad, but my neighbor suggested the Nook. What are the differences, and what do you recommend for an old-school reader like me?

—Jake L, Vancouver

To read more about Ask Shama: Kindle, Nook, or iPad?, check out the article on Portfolio.com.

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 such a great idea to begin with).

People aren’t always going to like what you’ve created as much as you like it. That’s just how it works. If you get too emotional when people offer criticism, you’re probably not the right person to be monitoring what people are saying. Find a level-headed person whose judgment you trust and delegate the responsibility to them.

When people criticize you, don’t call them insane.

In summer 2010, a man named Joel went out for pizza in Scottsdale, Arizona. Then he wrote a one-star review of the experience on Yelp. Then the restaurant owner replied to let him know that their food was great and he was a moron. A little more research reveals that this restaurant owner has a pretty full history of poor Internet etiquette.

The “fake review” the owner refers to actually contained some pretty constructive criticism, had he bothered to pay attention. The reviewer thought the portions were small for the price she paid, and that the service was a little slow and inattentive. Which brings us to…

Do try to fix what’s wrong.

Negative reviews can hurt, especially if they’re anonymous negative reviews – those are the ones where people tend to be more rude, since no identity is attached. But take a step back for a second. Then ask yourself this question: Where’s the truth in what this person is saying?* Does my receptionist have a bad attitude? Does the decor really look that shabby? What’s going on that you may have not noticed? You may be doing something to turn away customers that you didn’t even realize you were doing.

*Note: If someone leaves you a review saying, “I’d rather drink expired milk every day for the rest of my life than go back to (your business),” do not try to find the truth in that. Just leave it alone.

Apologize.

So a person has indicated that they’re really disappointed and absolutely never going to return to your establishment again. Don’t just leave them alone to be angry. Here’s an example of how you could respond:

Hello (name of reviewer),

I am very concerned about your observations/experiences concerning (thing they did not like). We appreciate your feedback and can assure you (thing you did to fix it). I’d like to invite you back for a (discount/free item) so you can see how great we really are! Please email me at (email address) so we can work out the details.

We hope to see you again soon!

(Your name)

Do you have any tips?

How have you previously dealt with negative online reviews? Leave us a comment to let us know!

Photo credit

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 favorite marketing bloggers are also using Twitter to exchange ideas and engage in conversations about the constantly evolving nature of online marketing. Although these Tweets are much shorter and simpler than the thoughts laid out in a blog post, they are often posted much more frequently and allow for more one-on-one interaction. If you don’t know where to start, try following:

• Your favorite companies – a Twitter handle should be easy to find on their official websites
• Influential people from those companies – a simple Twitter search can help you find them
• Accounts that influence those people and companies (simply see who they follow and retweet)
• Our CEO Shama Kabani, @Shama on Twitter

If you start following more people than you can keep up with, try downloading one of the many Twitter desktop clients. You can organize your contacts into easily manageable lists, instead of trying to follow all of them in one stream.

Join LinkedIn groups.

Whatever your industry or concern, there’s probably a LinkedIn group addressing it, and it’s full of professionals just like you. Once you join a group, LinkedIn will suggest similar groups that you may also be interested in joining. If you have a question, you can ask it to your group members. Or you can pose it to the LinkedIn community at large using the LinkedIn Answers feature, which you may not have noticed since it’s buried in a submenu.

The Answers feature is a lot like Yahoo! Answers, except the questions are less outlandish and more professionally focused. You can pose your question into a specific category – marketing has its own, with multiple subcategories – and members of the LinkedIn community will answer for you. You can also answer other people’s questions, if you’re so inclined.

Attend a webinar.

There are tons of useful marketing conferences and seminars, but how are you supposed to get to all of them? Unless you have an unlimited budget and a private jet (and if you do, congratulations), you’re probably not going to make it to everything that interests you. The affordable alternative? Attend webinars. They’re generally free, and you can watch and listen from the comfort of your own office. Can’t make the webinar? Presentations are often posted online after the fact, either on the company website or Slideshare. Contact the specific webinar organizer for information.

Talk to an expert.

If you have a very specific question or concern, it may be more useful to contact an online marketing expert one-on-one. Reach out to your current marketing firm, or give The Marketing Zen Group a shout if you don’t have a designated online marketing team.

Photo credit

You’re sending too many messages.

It’s not even noon, and I’ve already received about 20 emails – and that’s without taking my work account into consideration. For many people, that number may even seem low. The point is this: people send and receive a whole lot of email. Only a very small percentage of that constant wave of emails should be from you. Be helpful, not annoying.

YOU ARE SHOUTING AT PEOPLE.

This should go without saying but…seriously, don’t ever do this. Not only are you practicing poor Internet etiquette, but you’re probably also being filtered into everyone’s spam folders.

You’re not offering anything useful.

People handed over their email addresses to you with the idea that they would get something positive out of the transaction, too. Make sure your content is relevant, helpful, interesting, and even funny (if that’s your thing).

Your subject lines aren’t interesting enough.

You don’t even want to know how many emails I’ve gotten in the past two weeks with the subject line “New Year, New [blank]“. I have not opened any of them. The subject line of your email is your one chance to grab attention. You want to sound more like a newspaper headline and less like an advertisement.

You haven’t included a call to action.

What do you want people to do in response to your email? Do you want them to click on a link? Use the coupon you sent them? Download a whitepaper? Tell your audience what you’d like them to do – and make sure you don’t bury it at the very bottom of the message.

–

“But Marketing Zen!” you say, “None of that applies to me, especially because I would never market anything with caps lock. What now?”

Never fear, dear reader. We have some suggestions for you.

Ensure your email is readable, even with the images disabled.

Many email clients automatically block images unless the user has specifically allowed them. For this reason, you’re going to want to make sure your message is readable both with and without images. Make sure descriptive text is set up in a useful way, using keywords from your marketing copy, and don’t rely on images to deliver your most important information.

Ask for feedback.

An easy way to engage your readers is to ask an open-ended question in your email, then direct them to reply via your Facebook account or Twitter mention – even an email reply, if you’re up for it. To take it one step further, you could even specifically ask them for feedback about your email campaign.

Keep email client viewer sizes in mind.

Most popular computer email clients have a default message window size of about 400×600. To complicate matters further, the viewable space on an iPhone screen is about 320×350. If you want your messaging to easily fit inside these dimensions, you may have to reconsider your design.

Have you found success with your email marketing program? Let us know your tips!

Photo credit

Striking a balance between strong branding and effective social-media marketing can be a delicate proposal. Portfolio.com’s marketing expert Shama Kabani simplifies the task with some old-fashioned human interaction.

Editor’s note: The marriage of technology and communication has been a boon to savvy entrepreneurs, but it’s also a huge challenge for those who aren’t sure how to navigate social networks. To help, Dallas-based entrepreneur and tech expert Shama Kabani is answering your questions. Email her at shama@marketingzen.com, or check out more of her advice at her online marketing company or on video.

Dear Shama,

I am now in the second decade of my business, and I feel like I need to refresh my brand. Instead of having a company name like Molly’s IT Group, I should change it to Hire Me For IT Services and use this same tag for my Twitter, Facebook, and website. It tells people what I do and sets the tempo. Can you provide guidance on how effective this new branding will be in social media and overall business marketing?

—Madeline, Washington, DC

To read more about Ask Shama: Branding and Social Media – What’s the Right Combination?, check out the article on Portfolio.com.

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 to take a break from the daily grind with a laugh. Think about it – there’s a reason The Simpsons has been on the air since 1989.

It’s useful. It’s nice to help other people, but sharing useful content can also help people seem a little more savvy or in-the-know.

It’s controversial. When something makes your jaw drop, what’s the first thing you usually do? Well, first you pick your jaw back up off the floor, but then you tell other people about it to watch their reactions.

Bonus: It features cute kids or animals. 

Can you give me an example of a successful viral marketing campaign?

Of course! Since we go above and beyond here at Marketing Zen, I’ll even give you two examples of online marketing campaigns gone viral.

1. Blendtec

Blendtec sells blenders. Blendtec also puts unusual objects in their blenders, videotapes the results, and posts these videos to YouTube in a series called “Will It Blend?”. They’ve blended a garden rake, some glow sticks, Justin Bieber (not the actual person), and even an iPad. These videos have racked up a total of almost 200 million views. Why? In an absurd way, the video campaign is pretty funny. There’s also the inherent curiosity involved when you see that a grown man is sticking a pool noodle into a blender.

2. Old Spice

How do you revamp a 72-year-old brand? Easy: hire a funny and good-looking spokesman, shoot a well-received Super Bowl commercial, and then spin that off into a social media campaign that results in your shirtless spokesman recording 183 personalized videos in three days (including one where he proposes to someone’s girlfriend for them). The result was millions upon millions of views and an almost 3000% increase in Twitter followers. How? One tactic employed by the team behind the campaign was to dive further into web communities than just Facebook and Twitter – for example, they took questions from both Digg and Reddit.

How do I make my content go viral?

Have a compelling title. The first thing part of your content that people will see, whether it’s a video, story, or infographic, is the title. Your wording needs to immediately spark interest.

Make sharing easy. The less work people have to do to share your post, the more likely they are to pass it along. Ensure that sharing buttons are prominently placed.

Don’t be long-winded. If you’re making a video, cut yourself off at the two-minute mark. Viewership drops off dramatically after that point. For articles, you want to write enough to be informative, but not so much that the reader feels like they’re staring at a wall of text. Break it up with photos and formatting.

Has any of your content ever gone viral? Tell us about it!

Image sources: 1, 2, 3