The Power of Bottom-Up Branding

Every marketer should read the recent Harvard Business Review article, “Branding in the Age of Social Media,” by Douglas Holt. The former Harvard and Oxford University professor asserts that most businesses are failing with social media because they’re using the same tactics they used in the days of mass media. This familiar strategy is called “branded content.” The idea is to create memorable content that people come to associate with a brand. It's not a new idea. Back in the 1950s brands sponsored popular TV shows, and legendary advertising campaigns like “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing” were based upon the same id…

25 B2B Marketers Sound Off on 2016 Priorities

I was delighted when B2B Marketing Zone – a website and newsletter that I devour - asked me to be one of 25 contributors to its "B2B Marketing Trends for 2016" e-book. I love this content concept, and it’s an idea more B2B marketers could adopt. Contact influencers in your market – or even your own customers or subject matter experts – and ask them for short paragraphs on a topic, then combine that content into an e-book. Then do what Tom Pick and Tony Karrer of B2B Marketing Zone did – make it easy for people to compose posts like this one and share the book through their social networks. Your contributors will be flattered …

What’s next for B2B social media in 2016

By Paul Gillin,  January 2016 I was recently contacted by a B2B publication looking for some thoughts on what’s coming up in the next year. I thought some of the questions were interesting and worth sharing here. What trends are gaining momentum in B2B social media right now? B2B marketers are finally realizing that merely throwing content into the ether is both expensive and wasteful, so they’re trying to target their content better to the audience and purpose. Marketers realize that buyers are people, not demographic segments, so they are appealing more to the motivations that influence human behavior. That’s one reason we s…

5 Tips for Social Selling

Conventional wisdom these days says that social media is a poor lead generator. Conventional wisdom is wrong. While social media doesn’t lend itself to the hard sell, it provides some excellent opportunities to find and qualify buyers who can become leads. Here are five ways to do that. Research prospects Nothing is more flattering to prospective customers than showing interest in them personally. The Web is the greatest prospect research tool ever invented. Look up the LinkedIn and Twitter profiles of prospects before you contact them. Google them to see if they have online bios or blogs. Look for connection points. Was your prospect…

Leveraging Google On Air

Many of you might be asking yourselves why would I want to be on google plus? Its a good question to ask. There are several other social media platforms out there that already do some of the basic functions of Google Plus. However, there is a single tool that makes it one of the more effective forms of engagement for building social authority for your business. That tool is the use of Google On Air. We are going to talk about how to use Google+ On Air for your business. We are also going to talk about very briefly on difference between On Air and Hangout to make sure that you are setting up the right video conference for the right purpo…

Business Blogging Tips on Tumblr

You’ve got your feet wet with the basics of Tumblr and what its capabilities are. For your own personal use it's a lot of fun and very engaging. But how can you use a platform like this for business? Blogging with Tumblr At the end of the day, Tumblr is used for blogging. You’ll find a lot of users who blog only using visuals and GIF, however this atmosphere is still open for written content and opinion. Due to the possibility for posts to go viral and spread quickly, you can weave your blog posts in using several different methods as outlined below. Posting Links The easiest way to share your blog post from your business website …

4 Ways to Find Quality Content to Share

Part of building your Social Authority is sharing relevant information for your followers. But how do you find information to share? What information do you share? Major News Outlets One way to find information is to follow or monitor some of your favorite news outlets, such as the New York Times, The Washington Post, or Entrepreneur Magazine. Start following them on your social media networks or place their websites in your favorites in your browser. Google Alert Google Alert allows you monitor key words when they appear on the internet. Most people use Google Alert with their own names, but if you want to keep track on things having to …

Pinterest for Business

Pinterest is not just a pretty face. It is also a powerful conduit for the purchase path of high end retailers. Shops like West Elm, Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom enjoy the referral traffic that comes their way from products shared via pins. It is estimated that close to half of all online shoppers have made an online purchase as a result of seeing a pin on Pinterest. And with the introduction of rich pins last year, Pinterest has made it even easier for a potential customer to check price and availability before heading off to a friendly shopping cart. Rich pins also give the retailer a way to stimulate repeat interest in a product by offering…

Twitter – Its More Than You Think

We’ve received a lot of questions about why a business would need a twitter handle. There are a lot of myths concerning Twitter and who is on there. Those myths can sometimes keep businesses away. But in fact, this social media platform specifically is where you want to make your presence known to engage with other businesses. One of the main myths we hear constantly is this: Its for celebrities and for people telling the world what they had for breakfast. In some ways yes, you see a lot of celebrities on Twitter, and there are a lot of people who will tweet unnecessary things, but that is only one side of this mega social media platf…

Being Honest On Social Media For Business

The internet evolves on almost a daily basis. Yet for those who navigated the web pages of old before the dot com boom, people always warned not to put out too much personal information about yourself. But now, the more information about yourself you can put out, the better. So why is this? How did we transfer from this cautionary practice of anonymity on the web to open information about who we are? Furthermore, why should you be completely open and give as much information about your business as possible? The Wild West of the World Wide Web In the ‘old days’ of the internet, regulation was sparse. Businesses were unsure of wh…