People ask me all the time why I’m so excited about Google+ as a marketing tool. After all, it doesn’t (yet) have anywhere near the user numbers of social media juggernauts like Facebook or Twitter. Doesn’t it just make sense to go where the numbers are?

When I hear that I stop and wonder if it’s really 2012. Broadcasting to the big numbers was the way to go for the Mad Men of the 60s, but savvy marketers like Seth Godin realize that these days it’s all about the tribes we lead. In other words, if you can connect with a smaller group of people who are passionate about what you’re selling, you don’t need to fire a shotgun at big crowds.

This brings me back to why I’m such a Google+ evangelist. I haven’t seen anything anywhere any time so readily available to anyone and everyone that can help you find and connect to your tribe as powerfully as can G+.

Why? It’s because of the unique and integral connection of G+ with Google search. This is the secret sauce that so many social media gurus out there totally miss when they pass over G+. Maybe it’s because I come to social out of a background steeped in SEO (search engine optimization). I understand that as powerful as social media is for direct communication and engagement, it’s in search that the right new people find you. When people search they are in a state of intention. Google+ head Vic Gundotra called search “commercial intent.” People are looking for something they want to know/get/acquire/connect-to, and you have the opportunity to get your message right in front of them.

I’ve written elsewhere about the powerful influence of Google+ on Google search. In this post I want to share with you three new features of G+ that will only enhance and expand this ability to reach into and influence search results.

Google Knowledge Graph

At the time of writing of this post, this one is hot off the press!

Earlier this week Google announced its latest innovation to its search engine: Google Knowledge Graph. Knowledge Graph is both a new way for Google to find information and a new way to connect searchers to that knowledge. Basically, Google is using advanced semantic and natural language technology to build algorithms that learn from real humans using Google to recognize the connections between things the same way those humans do.

For example, if you search “Eiffel Tower,” the old Google could only connect you to pages that mentioned those exact words, and/or were linked to by pages that did. But Google Knowledge Graph can learn that the Eiffel Tower is a structure, and that it’s in Paris, and that it was built for the 1889 World’s Fair, etc.

More and more when someone searches for something, if Google suspects they are looking for knowledge about that thing, they will see a Knowledge Graph box in the right sidebar (see illustration). The box provides quick facts about the subject and thumbnail links to related searches based on the behaviors of other searchers for the same topic. One thing more though: if the topic can be related to a brand or person on G+, the Knowledge Graph box will also show some of that brand or person’s lastest public posts, along with a link to their profile. If Knowledge Graph is active for you (US only at this writing, but it will expand), try a search for “Barack Obama” to see this in action.

Take away for marketers: Brands and content producers with strong profiles on Google+ will be in a front runner position as Google begins to expand the reach and scope of Knowledge Graph. I firmly believe that recent additions to Google such as author verification will help Google make these Knowledge Graph connections, so those with web content properly connected to a Google+ account will be the first to be indexed and show up. Imagine owning a whole sidebar of Google search!

Enhanced Search Listings

This feature, similar to Knowledge Base, doesn’t have a public name yet, but many are already referring to it as “enhanced listings.” When searching for a brand that has a G+ page, users have started seeing a special result in the right sidebar, with a link to the brand’s page, a “follow” button (to add the page to one’s circles), and a few most recent public posts. Here’s an example for chocolate maker Cadbury:

Enhanced listings are only showing for a limited number of brands now, but they will certainly be expanded in the future. By the way, the listings show up whether or not the searcher is logged in to Google, so they are not personalized results.

Take away for marketers: Obviously you need to have a G+ brand page to be eligible for these enhanced listings. It is reasonable to assume that the more active and well-followed pages will get the feature activated first. Also, be certain your page is properly verified with Google!

Live Hangouts On Air

Google+ Hangouts have been one of its most popular and highly-praised features. A Hangout is a live video chat for up to nine participants. Even with that limitation (and is it fair to call it a limitation when it is  bigger than most other chat programs?), many brands found ways to make use of Hangouts to give at least small groups of followers that “face time” experience.

Then late last year Google introduced “Hangouts On Air” (HOA). While an HOA is still limited to nine active chatters, it can be broadcast in a G+ stream so that an unlimited number of people can watch it. This enables endless possibilities, such as virtual product demonstrations, panel discussions, and even rock concerts (yes, it’s been done, with huge attendance). And that’s not all, as they say in the infomercials! HOA sessions can be automatically archived as a permanent YouTube video on the person or brand’s YouTube channel. The only sad thing about HOA was that for months it was available to a very limited number of users and brands.

That changed last week when G+ announced that HOA is being rolled out to all users and brands. If you don’t see it yet in your profile, you soon will. You’ll know you have it if when you initiate a Hangout you see an “Enable Hangouts on Air” check box. In a future post I’ll go more into detail about Hangouts, and provide some examples of their effective use by brands on Google+.

Take away for marketers: Hangouts on Air will richly reward those who can come up with creative and enticing ways to connect with their followers and potential customers. For example, some brands have already started Hangout “shows” with a regular panel of experts that are broadcast on a regular schedule, just like a TV program. The auto-archiving to YouTube is where the search connection comes in. Every Hangout On Air you do becomes another “page” on the web where you can be found, especially as YouTube is being increasingly integrated into Google’s social search.

Pro Tip: If you manage multiple pages, getting your Hangout On Air archived on the right YouTube channel can be a little tricky. See “Connecting Your Hangouts On Air to Existing YouTube Accounts” for instructions.

Which of these new features is most exciting to you for marketing? What marketing features would you most like to see Google add to G+ brand pages in the future?

Mark Traphagen  (5 Posts)

This monthly Google Plus column is contributed by Mark Traphagen. Mark is Director of Social Media Marketing for Virante. A former teacher, Mark has worked directly in Internet marketing since 2005, but has been involved in social media and online community formation since the mid 1990s. When not helping Virante clients improve their online presence, Mark participates in competitive storytelling, plays with a Dixieland street band, and (surprise) spends more time on the web.

Organizational “social PR” is silkier when representatives are accorded trust and authority about a company’s vision and goals, plus how internal leaders and employees operate and engage; in other words, reflect the true “culture” of the business.

Digital “public relations” for an enterprise is much harder and less likely to achieve success if the culture is porcine or controlled (i.e., grunt out some canned corporate or marketing messages on social media platforms…after five revisions and three levels of approval).

“Silk purse” social business culture coming of age

From a personal PR perspective (regarding reputation, value and relationship building), it’s my belief healthy social business cultures are starting to come of age for savvy organizations with forward-thinking leadership. This Byte builds on themes of my earlier Profile Byte and last month’s Employee Byte.

Three reasons why…

1. Reputation “proof points” that investment of resources (i.e., employee-dedicated or allowed time) is worthwhile, both on and away from social media platforms, and increasingly in larger companies. I offer four examples later.

2. Organizations have witnessed the departure of employees responsible for the strategy or hands-on responsibility of social media accounts—often recruited away by other companies for this role. As savvy and sophisticated social business cultures know this might happen, they develop and codify:

• effective succession planning for critical roles
• social media policies (including what’s proprietary, post employment)
• sustainable and logical reporting and/or approval structures
• business communication plans; and
• content strategies

This means less focus on social media “stars” (and acolyte followers, who often aren’t even customers/stakeholders) and more emphasis on the social business culture and its own relationships. Ergo, the value and relationship building continues, unimpeded by employee turnover. When it comes to the management role of PR, a combination of successful continuity and evolution is important regarding the social business profile. If the employee exits on an amicable basis, he or she may voluntarily remain an “alumni” brand champion. (See the plethora of LinkedIn and Facebook Groups for former employees of companies.)

3. I’m following more businesses! That’s because I’m interested in knowing more about the organization, based on the communications and public relations expertise demonstrated. In other words, I’m intrigued by their social business cultures and how closely it reflects the internal ones.

Public relations sow’s ear in less-evolved (social) business culture

The culture of an organization is determined or at least “flavoured” by who is leading it. This has always been true.

You know this if you’ve worked at an organization that had a change in CEO. Sometimes, happily, the culture changes for the better (e.g., when the previous leader lacked vision, was indecisive, showed favouritism, didn’t trust employees or was egotistical). Most times there is a transition period of “change management,” when it’s decided whether the prevailing culture (especially in more-established companies) or dominant one (in the case of mergers and acquisitions) will prevail. Sometimes a new CEO come into an organization with a mandate (board or self-imposed) to literally or figuratively “clean house.” Occasionally the house cleaning is warranted.

A change in CEO is a particularly difficult time for the public relations lead, who sometimes is vulnerable to house-cleaning efforts. At a minimum, it’s challenging to lead an effective integrated communication effort, including social media, when the internal organization is in a state of flux or turmoil—particularly if employees are dispirited or fearful about their jobs. In the words of Olga Orda (Employee Byte), “Involving employees makes sense when you need to do a survey of internal organization issues. Poor internal communication equals poor external communication. I’ve found that you can only cover up internal strife for so long!”

A perfect storm

It’s unfortunate social business truly began to take off the same time as the global recession (i.e., 2008-2009), as many CEOs and organizations began to de-emphasize public relations and communication roles (including internal) and efforts. I’m referring to “investing” in and appreciating reputation, value and relationship building efforts. Conversely, during this perfect storm many companies put increased efforts into pure marketing and sales initiatives and messages. And lo and behold, social media was sold as the perfect place to pump out canned marketing messages and increase sales—the silver bullet mentality. (Note I recognize that there are many enlightened marketers and salespeople in social media.) Sometimes younger, digital natives were hired to replace more seasoned employees, because they were active on Facebook and could devise some cool promotions and contests. Likely they were willing to start at lower salaries, as this was one of their first full-time jobs out of school….

There’s not much room for non-marketing communication, engagement and personality with this kind of “sow’s ear” social media mentality. Not to mention being a hellish experience for the senior public relations lead, especially if not given access to the C-suite’s vision and business goals—mind reading is hard at the best of times, but quite horrible when responsible for an organization’s social business reputation. Yet if there’s an online marketing “miscue,” public relations will be (inexplicably blamed and) tasked with cleaning things up…pronto!

Of course that’s the worst-case scenario. The more reasonable CEOs, who value a healthy internal culture, can be persuaded to trust PR-knowledgeable, digitally savvy employees and their business initiatives, at least on a trial basis. Establishing and explaining goals and objectives, plus building in measurement, are effective strategies for influencing an ongoing social PR lead and focus.

Proof points to persuade

Steam Whistle Beer

One of the first non-PR-related business Twitter accounts I followed back was Steam Whistle Beer. An occasional beer drinker, I’m particularly supportive of this type of independent microbrewery . Having been to a social event at its headquarter, I found Steam Whistle staff to be customer-service oriented, friendly and fun—as appeared to be the person behind the Twitter account (whom I later learned was “Marina”).

Flash forward to hearing a Steam Whistle representative speak at Social Media Week Toronto’s Social Media ROI: Myth or Reality? panel session. He explained the history of the company, including its culture and attitude, and aspirational perception for the hearts and minds of its stakeholders (particularly community outreach/events sponsorships). The company’s vision is to be the “most-respected premium beer in Canada.” The culture of fun is profiled on every single bottle. If you ever have the opportunity to drink a Steam Whistle Beer, look for the 3FG mark. It stands for “3 Fired Guys. Likely the deliberate corporate culture of the “3FG” is in direct contrast to their former employer…another microbrewery, which was bought out by a conglomerate. Besides the profile, reputation and relationship building implicit in the company’s PR efforts, here’s a RPO proof point: over its 11 years of existence, Steam Whistle Beer has experienced a 20 to 30 per cent growth in sales, mainly attributed to its social media efforts. Also see Social Media Done Really, Really Well.

Deloitte South Africa

In Decorum Byte I introduced readers to Deloitte South Africa’s David Graham. Recently I shared an Altimeter white paper (received from Kred), The Rise of Digital Influence: A “how-to” guide for businesses to spark desirable effects and outcomes through social media influence, written by Brian Solis. I received the following message in response:

Thank you so much, Judy! This will keep me busy for a while. It comes at a good time because we have been approached by an organisation that wants to arrange a social media awards event. They have asked Deloitte South Africa to audit the process they have adopted to measure the top social media influencers in South Africa.

I was thrilled for David and the “cultural” appropriateness of his company being approached, both for its effective social business profile, as well as the apropos “audit” component of the request. I hope this involvement comes about, so that Deloitte South Africa garners even more well-deserved public relations profile in social media.

(D&B) Hoover’s/Eloqua

This third proof example is a combination of “silk purse” points 2 and 3, about two companies with a B2B relationship.

Hoover’s is another account I followed back, “A D&B company that provides insight and actionable information about companies, industries and key decision makers.” I noticed the account because of its active participation in various business-related Twitter chats. I knew the person behind the account was smart and added value to the chats, and was personable and fun. Later I learned it’s staffed by senior manager Shelly Lucas. Asking Shelly about the tweets from the Hoover’s account, she indicated an agency assists with some content, but Twitter chat participation is 100 per cent by her.

At a recent Brainrider-sponsored #torontob2b Marketers Meetup I appreciated Eloqua consultant Jeffrey Yee’s presentation on Setting Your Clients Up for Success with Marketing Automation – Best Practices. Jeff used Dunn & Bradstreet as his case study, because he was Eloqua’s in-house D&B point person when an automated email client retention program was being implemented. The partnering was so successful that Eloqua hired him….

One of his slides showed all of the D&B companies—and I recognized the Hoover’s logo as being that of my valued Twitter mate. This speaks to the importance of visual branding, as I didn’t immediately remember it was a D&B company. Chatting to Jeff afterwards, I told him what a great job Hoover’s was doing on Twitter. Jeff wasn’t surprised, indicating D&B had a great corporate culture and was good about exploring new areas of communication and growth. Ergo, Jeff is not only able to use his D&B work as a public case study, but he remains a brand champion, even though he now works for a different company.

IBM Alumni Brand Champion

I enticed whip smart, social-media savvy Gen Y Sacha Chua (see how much she impressed Neal Schaffer) into attending that same #torontob2b Marketers Meetup. When Andrew Jenkins (head of social media strategy, RBC) gave the first, also very good, case study on Building a Social Enterprise, he indicated Sacha Chua’s former employer, IBM as a “best practices” company regarding its employee social media policies.

I asked Sacha whether she’d helped design IBM’s social media policy—indeed, she had. Perhaps even more impressive is IBM’s inclusive social business culture that its leadership agreed to let Sacha blog without restrictions about her exit interview. Even though Sacha has chosen to embark on a new career as an entrepreneur, she remains a high-profile alumni brand champion for IBM and its corporate culture.

Check out the this How IBM Uses Social Media to Spur Employee Innovaction  (February 2010) on Social Media Examiner, which Steve Birkett shared in the comments section of Employee Byte for yet another proof point.

Your turn

Do you have any direct experience with or knowledge of a “silk purse” organizational example of social PR?

What are the innovative ways that the internal, healthy corporate culture is expressed externally?

Alternatively, any success stories about how challenges of a public relations “sow’s ear” of a corporate culture were overcome, at least partially through social media?

If yes, it would be great if you share in the comments section.

Judy Gombita  (9 Posts)

This monthly Social Media and Public Relations column is contributed by Judy Gombita. Judy is a Toronto-based public relations and communication management specialist, with more than 20 years of employment and executive-level volunteer board experience, primarily in the financial and lifelong learning nonprofit sectors. She is the co-editor and Canadian contributor (since 2007) to the international, collaborative blog, PR Conversations.

Judy Gombita  (9 Posts)

This monthly Social Media and Public Relations column is contributed by Judy Gombita. Judy is a Toronto-based public relations and communication management specialist, with more than 20 years of employment and executive-level volunteer board experience, primarily in the financial and lifelong learning nonprofit sectors. She is the co-editor and Canadian contributor (since 2007) to the international, collaborative blog, PR Conversations.

By the end of this article, you will discover the easiest and best way to not only convey your message to your audience, but to also have the freedom and flexibility to have that message spread like wildfire.  But first, a question…

“What would you do if your website could do anything?”

The problem is most businesses, small or large, chain themselves in the hopes of being “professional.”  Unfortunately, that usually means hiring a large web development firm to create a custom-made website that has all of the so-called bells and whistles that a company needs to play the online business game.  That means creating a custom interface to create and modify content in order to keep their visitors informed of what’s going on with the company.

Sounds great, right?

Well, the problem is, things change.  A new boss comes in and wants the website to be more social media friendly.  No problem, except you now have to pay the developer make it happen.

Next, the marketing director wants to display the latest public relations new releases on the home page.  Certainly, with another infusion of cash, the developer can make that happen.

Finally, the sales team asks that every new piece of content have a call-to-action at the bottom to get visitors to sign up for a “free” promotion in order to generate warm leads.  No problem at all, fork over the cash and it’ll happen.

You see, for many companies who outsource a majority of their web development, your website really isn’t yours.  If it were, you wouldn’t have to rely on another company to make it do the things that you want it to do.  You would have the flexibility to make it happen yourself most of the time, free of budget constraints.

Where Power Meets Flexibility

There have been plenty of posts on why WordPress is an amazing, easy, and effective platform for your business, so I won’t go into detail about all of its benefits.  However, there is one aspect of WordPress that is undeniably powerful and severely undervalued – plugins.

Much like an iPhone is relatively useless without its apps, wordpress gets its muscle from plugins that do everything from making your content sharable to building sales pages instantly.  Yes, this is not new to the average person, but traditional and large-scale businesses have failed to adopt what startups and game-changing companies have embraced for years.

For example, check out a sample corporate blog, this one being the Wells Fargo Blog:

1. They’ve taken a great first step toward more social, but their hands are still tied.  Yes, they have all of the viral sharing buttons at the top of their posts, but what about the ability to place a random call-to-action in their content that can be used to generate new leads from those social media visitors?
2. Or how about automatic relevant linking within the content to other Wells Fargo content, so as to better reveal other content in hopes of improving your chances of converting visitors or at least prompting greater social sharing?

It Doesn’t Have To Be a Blog!

The myth is that WordPress is only for blogs.  Well, the top plugins used by just about every well-developed website have nothing to do with blogging and everything to do with being found on the Internet.

Google XML Sitemaps – Automatically get all of the pages on your company’s website recognized in major search engines by having an XML sitemap generated.  It’s like giving Google a catalog of everything you have so that they easily index it and display for any given relevant search result.

All-In-One SEO – What many companies spend thousands of dollars on a monthly basis on, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), can easily and partially be done for free – automatically – through on-page optimization using this plugin.  This has become all the more important lately with the new Google “Penguin” Update.

Google Analytics for WordPress – See where your visitors/buyers are coming from and set up sales funnel tracking.

None of these have anything to do with having a blog!  However, they have everything to do with having a flexible and low-cost way of being found worldwide on the Internet!

It’s Time To Be a Little More Flexible

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing with you some of the best plugins for companies that will not only help you to improve your social media and web presence, but will help you to generate more revenue.  Just as with any tool, plugins need to be used wisely and have a specific role in your overall social media marketing strategy.  So don’t go out, install WordPress, and download every plugin known to man.  We’ll start this journey together and by the end of it, you’ll have a powerful web marketing machine!

Dean Soto  (1 Posts)

This monthly "WordPress Plugins" column is contributed by Dean Soto. Dean is the President and founder of Pro Sulum, LLC, an interactive development agency specializing in marketing and customer conversion products for the Wordpress platform. With a focus on simplicity of functionality and design, Dean and his company help businesses engage more intimately with their visitors.

Dean Soto  (1 Posts)

This monthly "WordPress Plugins" column is contributed by Dean Soto. Dean is the President and founder of Pro Sulum, LLC, an interactive development agency specializing in marketing and customer conversion products for the WordPress platform. With a focus on simplicity of functionality and design, Dean and his company help businesses engage more intimately with their visitors.

Social businesses have a significant competitive advantage, as they keep pace with today’s market. Now that consumers are more connected, informed, and empowered than most businesses, a growing gap persists between consumer’s expectations and a business’s ability to deliver.

According to Patrick Lencioni in his book, The Advantage, there are two factors required for business success.

1) Smart

2) Organizational Health

Smart is defined by strategy, marketing, finance, and technology; basically decision sciences.

A healthy organization is defined by minimal politics and confusion, high morale and productivity – and low turnover among good employees; it’s social.

There is a connection between being healthy and being social – healthy provides context for the smart attributes; it can create a competitive advantage.  When businesses leverage health and embrace social, marketing is a natural outcome. In other words, healthy social business, by its very nature, is contagious.

Today many business owners and executives are struggling to figure out what, if anything, they should be doing with social media.   “According to a study by Insites Consulting, some companies still view it from the sidelines, rather than integrating it fully with their overall marketing efforts. Less than half of the businesses surveyed have integrated social media into their business processes. And, 43% of U.S. firms are just getting started, or are still in the process of, evaluating whether or not is effective.”

“The most important information Insites discovered is that businesses that have already integrated social media into their operations are seeing greater financial results from their efforts than those who have not. It’s time to get off the fence!” (Source)

Understanding the role of social media in your business is important; however before you get caught up in tactics first ask yourself “Is my business social?” If not, or if you aren’t sure, here are 3 reasons why building it into your existing marketing offers a significant competitive advantage:

1. Social adds pull to the push, making your marketing attractive. What a beautiful thing it is to be able to draw customers toward your business, instead of relying on broadcast or one-way communications mediums to build brand impressions. This process is often called Inbound Marketing.

Marketing efforts perceived by consumers as an interruption are no longer effective. Consumers want to communicate on their terms.

Infusing social into your business doesn’t mean that you abandon your tried-and-true marketing tactics. Being a social business requires a different mindset; it updates effective traditional marketing practices by maximizing appropriate calls to action and web site references, and carefully and thoughtfully positions opportunities for feedback across your marketing mix. In fact, as mentioned in Integrating Social into your Marketing? Don’t Overlook Your Most Important Asset, it can transform your website into your most valued marketing asset.

For example, The Krazy Coupon Lady is a website that’ll turn a Sunday coupon-clipper into a Coupon maniac. The website is the marketing hub for the The Krazy Coupon Ladies. The site is updated constantly with new deals, has an active blog and a “brag” lounge, which is an interactive chat spot to share all things couponing. Consumers love the thrill of a challenge, look forward to sharing their successes and strive to communicate on the web–something traditional, outbound marketing and Sunday newspaper coupon promotions alone just can’t compete with.

By adding social into their website, The Krazy Coupon Ladies have attracted an audience and orchestrated an effective strategy to meet their needs, using non-traditional tactics (blogging, site promotions) to enhance consumers’ use of traditional (newspaper, print) marketing ads. Read How Does a Business Generate Traffic from Social Media for more about building your following.

2. Social networking adds relational power to your existing marketing. It enables unprecedented connectivity with the consumer, providing Marketers with the ability to truly ENHANCE consumers’ lives. Social networking allows marketers to make marketing memorable. It provides the technological ability to delight, inspire and surprise the audience in ways that marketing has never been able to before. There is an unlimited number of ways to creatively integrate social into campaigns to make it exciting for marketers and consumers alike! People are interactive and love to share their voice and take part in games and promotions that generate buzz.Facebook is one example of a marketing channel that facilitates social network activity. According to Business Insider, it appears that globally Facebook is being used to generate lots of interest.

Organizations that adopt a social mindset can benefit by empowering colleagues and customers.  So far we’ve emphasized social’s incredible capacity to connect business with external audiences, but we must not neglect it’s ability to enable businesses to connect and engage with internal stakeholders.

Just as customers are empowered with knowledge through their personal networks, social businesses keep colleagues informed and openly communicate with employees by:

• Communicating company initiatives
• Listening to feedback and input
• Mapping consumer touchpoints (whether through email, in-store, on a social platform or at a customer service center)
• Encouraging sharing and collaboration across functions, especially those who have ongoing contact with customers/prospects.

A healthy social business will inherently energize existing marketing efforts through empowered employees.

3. Without social, you are neglecting your audience. If your business isn’t social, it’s time to give your marketing a makeover. Let’s face it, if all your friends decide their new favorite place is the local lounge and you’re still sticking to the old tried-and-true corner café, you’re just out of the loop, which translates to out of the conversation. According to Hubspot, US internet users spend 3x more minutes on blogs and social networks than on email.

Smart marketers know they need to be where the conversation is…and even smarter marketers know how to start the conversation. If you neglect to put social in your marketing, your marketing is likely at a dead-end…going into never-never-land. And without a call-to-action tying in your strategy, all you got for that glossy print piece was real estate in a trashcan somewhere. Make your DM efforts work harder by enticing readers to visit your site, comment on your FB page, comment on your blog. Consumers expect businesses to be social. The time to be nice is now; play friendly and put yourself in consumers’ corners.

Not sure where to start with your makeover to generate a competitive advantage? For starters, in addition to the options I just listed above, think about how consumers are using smart phones, and begin by:

• Making sure your website is mobile friendly. See Optimize for Mobile and Watch your Social Media Presence Soar
• Updating local search options
• Considering location-based options– consumers want options

Does your company have a social mindset? If not, what steps are you willing to take to enhance the health of your business? What else could you be doing to make your marketing more socially-engaging and give yourself a competitive advantage? Please comment and help carry the conversation forward. Thank you!

Joe Ruiz  (4 Posts)

This monthly Social Media Integration column is contributed by Joseph Ruiz. Joe is President of Strategic Marketing Solutions, a full-service marketing and consulting firm specializing in web-based integrated Relationship Marketing. Joe thrives on the ever-changing nature of marketing in the digital age, embracing interactive opportunities, while applying three decades of hands-on expertise in online and traditional marketing. When he’s not helping business-makers navigate through complex marketing challenges, Joe enjoys reading, working out and traveling just about anywhere…anywhere you can get a digital signal, that is.

Joe Ruiz  (4 Posts)

This monthly Social Media Integration column is contributed by Joseph Ruiz. Joe is President of Strategic Marketing Solutions, a full-service marketing and consulting firm specializing in web-based integrated Relationship Marketing. Joe thrives on the ever-changing nature of marketing in the digital age, embracing interactive opportunities, while applying three decades of hands-on expertise in online and traditional marketing. When he’s not helping business-makers navigate through complex marketing challenges, Joe enjoys reading, working out and traveling just about anywhere…anywhere you can get a digital signal, that is.

If you’re reading this post you are interested in generating traffic via social media. You’re bright, bubbly and enthused about social media and you love the fact that your new role allows you to demonstrate your talent. But before you switch your computer on, you need to ask your marketing department some questions…

1. Who is the ideal client for your company?
2. What demographics does she fall into?
3. How much does she earn?
4. Where was she educated?
5. What are her fears? Her problems? What keeps her awake at night?
6. How does xxx product (what we sell) solve her problems?
7. Where does she hang out?

Let’s address each of those questions.

Who is the ideal client for your company? This is the most basic question that every social media marketer MUST know the answer to. Knowing who you are selling to, well that’s essential. If you try to sell to everyone, you’ll end up mass marketing, broadcasting and running out of budget pretty swiftly. You need to know the perfect customer and talk directly to them.

Demographics are important, and question three and four qualify this. If your target market is women aged 30 with one child, then the chances are she’s married, educated and taking a career break. But what if your target client is a one parent family? Divorced? And working part time. How does that affect the sales of your product if you market to person A and not person B? It’s possible person A is more affluent and isn’t kept awake at night by the same things that keep person B up and pacing the floor.

Knowing their levels of education helps you talk to your ideal prospect in the language they understand. Jargon can help you demonstrate your expertise. If you are talking to scuba divers knowing the correct parts of the equipment and how it’s used is how you show your company is reputable and knowledgeable. Likewise, when you were interviewed for your role as a social media marketer or community manager, you knew the language and what you were required to show your expertise. And it worked because you got the job and are reading this post.

What keeps you up at night? Is it the same things that keep your prospect awake? Is she awake because she has debts? Is she worried about her bills? Is she awake because little Jonny is failing his SATs and she’s thinking about the help he needs? Is it her burst pipe in the loft? Whatever is keeping her awake, you need to know about it. Then you need to know why what you are promoting will help her.

After you have got the answers to those six questions, the answer to the seventh is easy. Does she hang out in forums? Velvet roped communities? On Twitter? On Facebook? Or somewhere else?

Just because she hangs out on Facebook that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t develop a presence on Twitter (your secondary customers maybe there), it means that Twitter is used to sign post people to the community you have where your prospect hangs out. In other words use additional social channels to boost your community where your prospect feels happiest. If it’s g+, don’t fight them and bully them to Twitter just because you love it there, go to where they are. If your target market is Pinterest then set up your boards and invite your prospects to collaborate.

Knowing where your prospect hangs out is vital – it’s where you can focus your social media marketing efforts – and your reward will be traffic that converts its socks off.

Remember, social media isn’t just about prospects. In my next post I’ll share why secondary customers are important and how to find the influencers, even if they have zero budget and live in another country…

Do you have answers for all of the above questions to unlock social media traffic secrets?

Lilach Bullock  (3 Posts)

This monthly Social Media Traffic Generation column is contributed by Lilach Bullock. Lilach is a social networking pioneer, business consultant, mentor and personal brand expert. One of the most dynamic personalities in the world of UK social media, she is frequently credited with the accolade of being the first in the industry to actively leverage networking. She launched and then sold her first business within three years of becoming a mother. Even now, she juggles a demanding home life with commercial commitments. Lilach’s contribution was recognized nationally, when she became a finalist at the Best MumPreneur of the Year Award, presented at Downing Street, where she was praised for her entrepreneurial efforts.

Lilach Bullock  (3 Posts)

This monthly Social Media Traffic Generation column is contributed by Lilach Bullock. Lilach is a social networking pioneer, business consultant, mentor and personal brand expert. One of the most dynamic personalities in the world of UK social media, she is frequently credited with the accolade of being the first in the industry to actively leverage networking. She launched and then sold her first business within three years of becoming a mother. Even now, she juggles a demanding home life with commercial commitments. Lilach’s contribution was recognized nationally, when she became a finalist at the Best MumPreneur of the Year Award, presented at Downing Street, where she was praised for her entrepreneurial efforts.

There’s been much buzz recently about the use of images in social media marketing.   More and more platforms are visual (think Pinterest, Instagram, SlideShare and Tumblr).   Facebook’s Timeline is all about pretty pictures.  And it seems that every other tweet references an infographic.

We love images because they offer a nice diversion in a busy social media environment, and, let’s face it; viewing can be more fun than reading.   Savvy marketers are jumping on board and exploring ways to incorporate imagery into the marketing mix.

It is about winning and keeping attention.  The right image can bypass our filters, trigger feelings and emotions, and get people in a buying mood.   They can communicate complicated information in an easy-to-understand way.

Yet there are some pitfalls; it is not necessarily easy to put images to work in an effective way.  This article explores the trend of visual content marketing.  It discusses challenges, and offers tips for overcoming these and tapping the power of pictures in marketing.

Writer’s Block:  Why isn’t it Easy to Put Images to Work?

Brains or beauty?  Left brain or right? Words or images?  For as long as marketing has been around, there‘s been a tension between the use of words and pictures to sell products.

This probably has something to do with silos and the way we function.  Few people are great at both design and writing.   Pictures take many marketers out of their copy-centric comfort zones.

E.g., PR has always been more about copy, and not as clued into graphics as advertising.  It is hard to talk about online marketing without bringing words into the picture (no pun intended), especially keywords and SEO.  On the latter point, many, including myself, have often recommended against eye candy like Flash animation due to its lack of contribution to SEO.

Fortunately, in most cases you can use both words and images.  Yet, one usually needs to take center stage.

While using imagery may involve unfamiliar skill sets, a look at the psychology of Web marketing may convince you about its benefits.  Here is an excerpt from the ClickZ article Which Brain is Your Website Selling to?

… the instinctual reptilian brain can exert a powerful influence over both emotion and logic. In fact, if there’s one thing you can be sure of: in a battle of the brains, the reptilian will always win.

So what does this mean for websites and landing pages seeking to sell a product or service? The reptilian brain responds rapidly to visual cues. First impressions are always based on appearances, not information, and in the buying process, words are secondary to visual cues.

If images of dinosaur brains don’t sway you to use imagery in marketing, perhaps cold hard logic and numbers will.   Like me, you may be growing weary of but also are fascinated by reports about the crazy amounts of referral traffic generated via Pinterest, the visual content marketing poster child.  E.g., in the article: Why Marketers Should Invest in Visual Content Creation, HubSpot reports:

… a Shareaholic study revealed Pinterest generates more referral traffic than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn combined; only Facebook and StumbleUpon generate more. What does this mean?  Some early data is indicating that Pinterest is even driving sales directly from its website — in a survey of people with Pinterest accounts, 21% have purchased an item after seeing it on Pinterest.  [It} is now the number three social network in the country for total visits, and videos and infographics are peppering blogs everywhere.

The article points out that visual imagery can be a powerful way to support and communicate brand attributes, and that images drive engagement too:

But images drive more than just attention -- they drive engagement. In fact, just one month after introducing timeline for brands, Simply Measured reports that engagement is up 46% percent per post, and visual content (photos and videos) have seen a 65% increase in engagement. 

Follow Professional Design Principles and Heed Basics in Image Usage

While there certainly is a place for user-generated content, in most cases you will want to give your campaign an edge through professional quality images and artwork.

Get help from the pros if you don’t have the talent in-house to produce the needed images.  E.g., it might not be the best idea to rely on stock photography.  A NY Times Bits blog post reported on an eye-tracking study by Web design and usability authority Jakob Nielsen.  Here is an excerpt:

“Big feel-good images that are purely decorative” are mostly ignored online, while stock photos or generic people are also intentionally disregarded. In contrast, when users know that a picture … is real they will engage with the image for extended periods of time.

Of course, you don’t want to ignore other basics – such as steering clear of overly large images that take too long to load and frustrate users; see this link for more tips from Nielsen.

Another point to consider:  when you are curating images (see my article on the benefits of content curation for marketing) take care not to skirt copyright laws.  Fellow Windmill Networking writer Michelle Sherman touched on this in her post To Pin Or Not To Pin: How Businesses Can Use Pinterest And Reduce Their Legal Risks Of Copyright Infringement.

Finally, avoid making your images too complicated, as pointed out in this article on Ragan’s PR Daily:

If you cram too much information into your graphic, you’re defeating its original purpose…infographics are “more clickable” than other multimedia, such as video, which may turn a reader off since it usually requires sound, as well as investing more time to watch….

Tune Layout, Leverage Specific Features of Each Medium

As I said above, in most cases you can put both copy and pictures to work.  It is important to understand the medium at hand and make sure that you are taking advantage of the features and optimizing layout for each.

Forbes tells how to do this for Facebook in the article Turning the Facebook Timeline into Content Marketing Gold.  It says:

The new Facebook Timeline makes it easier than ever for you to tell your brand story and take control of that story as well as visitors’ experiences on your Facebook Page. [You can] turn a boring Facebook Timeline into a successful content marketing initiative. Here are five features of the new Facebook Timeline that you don’t want to miss…

The article tells how to use the cover photo, posts, milestones and apps to greatest advantage.

The Business 2 Community blog posted about text coexisting with graphics: When Copywriting and Graphics Need to Play Nice.  It focuses on use of images and layout with blogs, also quotes Nielsen, and says:

Put blog content on the left…. the left side of the screen is going to get the lion’s share of attention: and if you don’t believe us, believe usability expert Jakob Nielsen, who can statistically tell you that people spend more than twice the time looking at the left side of the screen rather than the right…Good design is essential to helping your copy stand out.

Fit Images into an Integrated Content Marketing Strategy and System

When done right, content and social media marketing employ images not just to grab attention – but also to engage, and coax the reader down a path that will hopefully result in some type of meaningful outcome, AKA conversion.  You want to make sure that the images you use support the greater effort and have a specific place and function in the overall system.

Magdalena Georgieva of HubSpot guest posted a great article about the Rise of Visual Storytelling in Marketing on Pro Blogger.  She explores Instagram, Slideshare and Pinterest, and offers the following advice:

Make sure that your visual content includes calls to action that take viewers to a landing page on your website related to the specific visual content… you can include calls-to-action at the bottom of infographics, in the descriptions of images, or on the last slide of presentations as a natural next step for readers who want to further engage with your brand.

The post Pinterest for Bloggers – Image Based Content Marketing on Blogging Tips says:

Some blogs mention that Pinterest traffic is useless.  Why only Pinterest? In fact, referral traffic from Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and others are useless too if you don’t know how to use them, that is, convert them…. In short, how you use Pinterest traffic depends on YOU. There is no fixed manual. You have to tweak and experiment.

The Mashable article 12 Essential Tools for Content Marketing suggests using embed code with your infographics, and shares a link with instructions about how to do this.  Doing so will ensure that the image points back to the right place (your landing page or website) when reused elsewhere.

Conclusion

I hope you have found my tips and the linked articles and resources to be useful.  I firmly believe that we are still in the early days of visual content and social media marketing, and look forward to coming back to the topic, as well as hearing about experiences and tips from others.

Is your company successfully integrating visual content into your content marketing mix?

Bob Geller  (7 Posts)

This monthly Content Marketing and Social Media column is contributed by Bob Geller. Bob is president of Fusion PR, and has a background that combines a solid grounding in technology with a 25 year record of success in sales, marketing, and public relations. Bob joined Fusion in 2000, and has helped build it into a leading independent tech PR agency. He has led client teams that have achieved outstanding results in areas ranging from enterprise tech, to telecom, online, CE, financial and clean tech. Bob also helped launch Social Fluency, a subsidiary of Fusion that develops dynamic social media practices which are integrated with traditional PR efforts. Bob has provided critical commentary to publications such as CMO Magazine, PR Week, PR News, and Bulldog Reporter. He created and manages the influential blog Flack’s Revenge, and has contributed to Cision Navigator, Ragan’s PR Daily, and Handshake 2.0, among others.

Bob Geller  (7 Posts)

This monthly Content Marketing and Social Media column is contributed by Bob Geller. Bob is president of Fusion PR, and has a background that combines a solid grounding in technology with a 25 year record of success in sales, marketing, and public relations. Bob joined Fusion in 2000, and has helped build it into a leading independent tech PR agency. He has led client teams that have achieved outstanding results in areas ranging from enterprise tech, to telecom, online, CE, financial and clean tech. Bob also helped launch Social Fluency, a subsidiary of Fusion that develops dynamic social media practices which are integrated with traditional PR efforts. Bob has provided critical commentary to publications such as CMO Magazine, PR Week, PR News, and Bulldog Reporter. He created and manages the influential blog Flack’s Revenge, and has contributed to Cision Navigator, Ragan’s PR Daily, and Handshake 2.0, among others.

With Facebook’s recent implementation of Timeline for Pages, we are quickly reminded that we have no control over what direction Facebook might take with their platform. Regardless if you are a fan or not of Facebook, however, there is still no better way to reach out and engage with both present and potential consumers in social media than through a robust Facebook Page. The problem is: Are you truly maximizing your Facebook presence to reach your marketing objectives? Many businesses that I meet are not.

Maximizing your business presence on Facebook begins with truly maximizing all of the functionality that Timeline – your Home Page on Facebook – provides page owners. Rest assured: Facebook wants to sell more advertising, so they inevitably created the new Timeline to maximize the chances that your page will become “stickier” to your fans.  Some of the functionality they provide is intuitive, but it’s all about applying your creativity towards each bit of functionality as part of your social media marketing efforts and maximizing your chances of breaking through the EdgeRank filter.

Here’s 5 creative ideas on how your brand can truly maximize some of the functionality that the new Facebook Timeline provides you to spark new engagement with your Fans:

1. Cover Photo

Your Page’s cover photo (851 x 315 px) appears at the top of the Timeline where it takes up a good portion of the average computer screen. Hence, I can’t overemphasize the importance of having a visually-attractive and “branded” cover photo. You probably already know that Facebook has set a few guidelines down, but as a reminder your Timeline cover photo can’t include the following:

• Price or purchase information
• Company contact information
• References to Facebook elements such as ‘Like’ or ‘Share’
• Calls to action.

2. Pinned Posts

Tell people which messages you really want to get across by pinning them to the top of your page using a Pinned Post. A Pinned Post remains on top for 7 days, which means that page visitors get to see it often and you even get your message read by people who visit your page just once a week. This is the ultimate solution for a clear “Call to Action” which the old Facebook Pages lacked.

Creative Idea: Instead of just utilizing traditional marketing to have a weekly call to action here, I actually recommend mixing up what you pin on a daily basis. The last you thing you want in a dynamic environment such as Facebook is to have a post which could become “stale” to the average social media viewer very quickly. Why not highlight your fans in some of your Pinned Posts? Or perhaps shuffle those posts that have sparked particularly high engagement? This could lead to even more engagement to help your battle with EdgeRank – or, at the least, add to your Page’s Social Proof!

3. Highlighted Posts

You can also expand your stories so that it takes up both sides of the Timeline via Highlighted Posts. These images appear prominently in your Timeline in a 843 x 403 px size. Preliminary research on certain Pages that implemented Timeline right after it was announced revealed that there has been an increase in engagement of up to 65% for visual content like photos and videos. That makes sense: after all, images are the most highlighted posts in Timeline since Facebook automatically blows them up to fill the width of the post.

Creative Idea: We all know how well images do in the News Feed, and they can now also feature prominently in your Timeline. Why not try to mix up your posts by Highlighting several prominent ones, especially ones that had a lot of engagement to try to spark further engagement. Once again, let Social Proof work in your favor. Furthermore, when scrolling down a Timeline, Highlighted Posts beckon to be read once you see it emerging from below the fold, which undoubtedly can spark new engagement.

4. “Fill in the Gaps” with Milestones and Past Posts, Hide Other Posts

Every business has a story, and you can now share it to your fans through Milestones. Sure, it’s not as visible as your cover photo, but nevertheless it’s still a good way to keep your fans more connected to your brand. Although it is still questionable whether Milestones appear in the News Feed even though there is a “Hide from News Feed” option when creating a Milestone,  the top righthand corner of ever Page beckons you to go back in history on each page.

In addition to creating new Milestones, you can create as many backdated posts – as well as hide as many older posts, as you want.

Creative Idea: Just as you might have hidden embarrassing content from your personal profile, what about hiding posts from the past that might not be as appropriate for your current brand? Or what about posts that didn’t end up getting any engagement? Take this one step further and, in addition to hiding select posts from the past, through a combination of adding Milestones and “new” posts from the past (albeit these new posts from the past will start with zero engagement), you can recreate how your brand should have developed content for their Page. It’s all about increasing the chances of engagement when a viewers scrolls through your timeline.

5. Apps Still Matter!

Apps are the new Tabs, and they’re still on your Timeline, right below your cover photo. While you can no longer use them to welcome fans to your Page (as in the case of a Welcome Tab), your visitors will still see them prominently under the Cover Photo.  Therefore, it’s a must to rearrange the apps in order of importance and create thumbnail images for them (111 x 74 px) to showcase them. Hover over the thumbnail, click on the pen icon, and start editing.

Creative Idea: Take this chance to organize all of your old Apps and consider hiding ones that might not matter anymore. In fact, if Facebook is only exposing four, why don’t you limit your visible Tabs to four as well? Yes, this means that, in addition to the Photos and Likes, you can only use two additional tabs. However, the fewer calls to action you make, the more people will engage with the visible tabs. If you run contests, consider hiding the tab you replace it with – you can always add it back in in the future after the contest ends by visiting your Page’s App settings.

Now, after saying all of this, it is important to mention that maximizing your Timeline is only one piece of the Facebook marketing puzzle. After all, research has been pretty consistent in revealing that most fans never go back to a Facebook page after liking it, with only 0.1% to 0.5% returning to the actual fanpage every once in a while. Whether this number improves or not with the new Timeline has yet to be seen.  My own Windmill Networking Fan Page Insights show that I get as many monthly Page Views as 1% of my fans.  One of my social media agency clients who has several hundred thousand fans exhibits a number that is closer to 0.2%.  For many small businesses, however, this number could represent a number that is close to the actual page views they get on their real website – which is why having a robust Timeline presence is still important.

If you enjoyed these tips, join me on Thursday, May 18 for a webinar where I unveil my new Facebook for Business 10 Step Guide – practical and actionable advice to promote your company to 900 million users.

Neal Schaffer  (370 Posts)

The founder and editor-in-chief of Windmill Networking, Neal Schaffer is a leader in helping businesses and professionals strategically leverage the business potential of social media. A Forbes Top 30 Social Media Power Influencer and creator of the AdAge Top 100 Global Marketing Blog Windmill Networking, Neal is a popular social media conference speaker who is also known for his two award-winning and critically acclaimed social media books: ”Maximizing LinkedIn for Sales and Social Media Marketing” and “Windmill Networking: Maximizing LinkedIn.” As a leading social media strategist, Neal has created social media strategies and coached implementation for companies ranging from a Fortune 50 software company to a Grammy-award winning musician with one million social media fans.