What other polls would you like to see on this site? Please feel free to suggest new poll questions in the comments below.
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Poll: How would you describe your knowledge of the Social Web as a whole?
Posted Jun 29th, 2010 By Mirna Bard in Polls, Social Media With | 6 Comments -
Who’s Blogging What: The 2010 Facebook Page Marketing Guide
Posted Jun 25th, 2010 By Mirna Bard in Facebook, Social Networking With | 1 CommentA while back, I ran a Facebook poll on my blog asking readers if they were getting business from their Facebook pages — 44% said “No,” 33% said “Yes,” 14% said “They didn’t know” if they were getting business and 9% said they were not using it to get business.
If you are not getting the business results you want out of Facebook, then it is time to re-evaluate your micro-strategy (you have one, right?), and if you don’t know if you are getting results, then you are probably not measuring your efforts.
My plan was to write a blog post in response to the poll; however, Jeff Ente from “Who’s Blogging What” contacted me to tell me he is using one of my quotes for a new guide Facebook guide.
The timing was perfect and thought it was an excellent eBook to share with my blog readers who are still struggling with how to use Facebook for business. This 30-page complimentary guide on how to create, manage, and grow your Facebook pages was prepared by a team of professional observers, bloggers, consultants and users of Facebook business pages.
Here is sneak peak at the table of contents:
Creating a Facebook page
Examples of effective pages
Six Ways To Get Found On Facebook
Getting People To ‘Like’ Your Facebook Page
Developing Content/Inbound Marketing For Facebook
Leveraging Facebook for Ecommerce
Facebook’s potential to make sales become viral
Analyzing Facebook Traffic
Newsfeed: Parting thoughts on Facebook from a group of social media
observers, authors and bloggers
The eBook can be downloaded on the HubSpot website. BTW, my quote is on page 27 of the guide. (ADDED April 2011) Also, there is a new update since the book was released. Here is information on the new one:
In The Facebook Marketing Update – Spring 2011, “How to use The Open Graph to connect with your market” you will find out how to:
- Optimize the Like button and the Open Graph to improve engagement
- Use iFrames for custom Facebook page content
- Optimize the Facebook page for search
- Create a contest that will accomplish almost any conversion goal
- Use Facebook Connect for ecommerce
- Make the most out of Facebook Places and Deals
- Take advantage of the significant upgrade to Facebook Comments plug-in
- Apply best practices to advertising on Facebook
You can download the update version here.
Enjoy and hope these help a lot of you out! Don’t forget to comment below and let me know what you thought of it.
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Marketing to Your Customers, Not Your Ego
Posted Jun 22nd, 2010 By Mirna Bard in Business, Internet Marketing With | No CommentsToday, I am going to discuss something that I’m sure everyone has seen at least once or twice, and I would hasten to add that probably the majority of marketers have been guilty of it at least in some small way (I’m certainly no exception).
Ego-centric Marketing
It’s not usually done on purpose, but I think businesses sometimes are guilty of forgetting what their marketing is really about, and who it is for…
So here it is then: Marketing is for the sole benefit of your customers. It is about pleasing them, helping them, answering their questions. What it is not, is a chance to tell them everything that you like about your business.
Avoiding Vanity
We’ve all seen examples of this, the Internet is full of it. Corporate websites often looking smashing, but when you land on a home page that reads like a business plan, it’s hard to be enthusiastic about staying to explore that website isn’t it?
Sentences like “We use innovative [jargon] to excel at [jargon] and provide a more [jargon] service for our key customer groups.” belong in your marketing strategy, or maybe on an about us page. (more…)
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3 Undeniable Ways to Turn Competitors into Enemies on Social Media Sites
Posted Jun 18th, 2010 By Mirna Bard in Business, Social Media, Social Networking With | 8 CommentsHave you heard the old saying: “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer?” This was said by Sun-tzu , Chinese general and military strategist. This proverb has been applied in business as well, but it seems that many people using social media for business are not following this motto.
Here are three undeniable ways to turn competitors into enemies on social media sites:
Imitating
Being a copy-cat is the worst thing you can do for your business. Instead of boosting business, you end up making enemies. As I mentioned in my “3 Major Reasons You Shouldn’t Ignore Competitors on Social Networking Sites,” you should definitely observe what your competition does online so you leverage some opportunities, not stalk them and imitate their every social media tactic and idea. Social media copy-cats do not succeed because they lack authenticity, uniqueness, and creativity. (more…)
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3 Major Reasons You Shouldn’t Ignore Competitors on Social Networking Sites
Posted Jun 16th, 2010 By Mirna Bard in Business, Social Media, Social Networking With | 10 CommentsLast month, I ran a poll asking what everyone thought about befriending competitors on social networking sites. Despite the fact that many businesses fear competitors or malicious copy-cats who watch their every move online, 66% said “Yes,” 26% said “It Depends,” and only 8% said “No” to befriending competitors on social networks.
If you are not engaging with competitors online you are missing the real point of social media and its many benefits. You should be embracing the opportunity to converse and establish relationships with competitors who could help leverage your success online.
Below are three major reasons you shouldn’t ignore competitors on social networking sites:
Market Research
Monitoring what your competitors are doing online will help you figure out their strengths and weaknesses as well as identify any opportunities and threats. What better way to discover what they excel at and what holes they have in their strategy than befriending them on social networks. (more…)
