Thursday, July 2, 2009
By David Carleton
As I'm sure you've already discovered, it now takes more than your typical newspaper ad, radio spot and networking meeting to get the sales you used to get.
Why? Because the dynamics of the market have changed. Consumers are better educated and have more choices than ever before. In addition, there are fewer buyers out there and more intense competition from everywhere to capture their business.
It seems as though the worldwide recession changed the rules of marketing. Companies are now finding that the marketing tools and techniques considered valuable and effective just a few years ago, are no longer bringing in the sales they once were.
More and more companies are seeking out low cost "guerrilla" marketing techniques that they can implement quickly and easily. Social media is an easy and affordable way to do just that if you have the strategies in place.
But social media marketing is very different than traditional marketing methods. Don't think for one minute that just because you have an in-house marketing staff or outside agencies handling your public relations, creating brochures or managing your ad campaigns that they automatically know how to create and manage your social media marketing efforts.
Social media marketing and traditional forms of marketing require different skill sets and strategies. Don't assume that just because your agency can write great copy, and are whiz-kids when it comes to search engine optimization or creating websites that they can handle your social media marketing efforts.
I am often asked, "I don't get how I can use social networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to help my business." To help you get your "creative juices flowing, " I have listed 20 different ways that social media marketing can help your business. Future articles will go into more depth on how to get achieve resutls.
The Top 20 Business Reasons to Use Social Media Marketing:
As I'm sure you've already discovered, it now takes more than your typical newspaper ad, radio spot and networking meeting to get the sales you used to get.
Why? Because the dynamics of the market have changed. Consumers are better educated and have more choices than ever before. In addition, there are fewer buyers out there and more intense competition from everywhere to capture their business.
It seems as though the worldwide recession changed the rules of marketing. Companies are now finding that the marketing tools and techniques considered valuable and effective just a few years ago, are no longer bringing in the sales they once were.
More and more companies are seeking out low cost "guerrilla" marketing techniques that they can implement quickly and easily. Social media is an easy and affordable way to do just that if you have the strategies in place.
But social media marketing is very different than traditional marketing methods. Don't think for one minute that just because you have an in-house marketing staff or outside agencies handling your public relations, creating brochures or managing your ad campaigns that they automatically know how to create and manage your social media marketing efforts.
Social media marketing and traditional forms of marketing require different skill sets and strategies. Don't assume that just because your agency can write great copy, and are whiz-kids when it comes to search engine optimization or creating websites that they can handle your social media marketing efforts.
I am often asked, "I don't get how I can use social networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to help my business." To help you get your "creative juices flowing, " I have listed 20 different ways that social media marketing can help your business. Future articles will go into more depth on how to get achieve resutls.
The Top 20 Business Reasons to Use Social Media Marketing:
- Improve customer and prospect relationships
- Conduct inexpensive yet effective market research
- Build brand awareness, authority and credibility
- Drive traffic to your website
- Ability to obtain insight into targeted niche markets
- Find new distribution channels
- Improve search engine rankings through link building
- Find and research targeted decision makers, prospects, customers and contacts
- Monitor reputation - what are people saying about you or your company
- Attain expert status for you, your company or your brand
- An effective form of communicating with past, present and future clients
- Share information used to educate prospects
- Spy on your competition
- Provides increased visibility for you, your products or your brand
- Generate more leads
- Get more referrals
- Find joint venture partners
- A new vehicle to post PR, events and articles
- Provide better customer service
- And of course - INCREASE SALES!
As President of Street Smart Sales and Marketing, David Carleton specializes in helping companies spend less and get more from their marketing and advertising using low cost guerrilla tactics in lead generation and social media marketing. For more information and resources about social media, go to ExpertsInSocialMedia.com
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posted by Top Ranking Company
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To get good Search Engine Optimization resulsts, your website needs to have quality content. That's not all it needs, but when you have a quality Search Engine Optimization company like LoveClients at your back, a lot of the heavy lifting gets done for you.
You don't need to mess around with complicated optimization and keyword research-that's what great Search Engine Optimization does for you. But you do need content on your site. That's right: precise, good writing is very important online.
Whether you need to explain your product, write a catchy "About Your Company" page, or talk about a new offering you're rolling out, your Search Engine Optimization will always be better when your website contains fresh, interesting information.
Not Everyone is a Writer:
And therein lies the problem. Not everyone can write. It's just not possible for everyone to be great.
We all write emails every day, and probably do some level of reading, but when it comes to writing in a clear, precise way, many of us are at a loss. It simply takes too much work, too much editing, too much knowledge of those obscure rules of grammar and style to churn out good, readable prose.
Writing is a Skill, Like Many Others:
So if we aren't farming the writing out to wordier relatives, or hiring overpriced ad agencies to write about our products, what are we doing? Trying to write the stuff ourselves, that's what.
Writing really is a skill that can be developed and improved, no matter how subtle and frustrating it may seem. There is a wealth of knowledge on how to write well, a lot of it contradictory. Writers are famous for making definitive-sounding declarations on what 'good' writing is, only to have another critic come and disagree immediately.
Why Do Authors From Hundreds of Years Ago Have the Best Advice on Good Writing?
So I've found some advice for you, narrowing our focus down to four writers-all of whom died before the year 1900. Why go back so far? It's simple, really:
These pieces of advice were expressly designed to simplify a very complicated beast. Have you ever tried to read literature from 200-300 years ago? Direct, clear, pared-down style did not exist.
Remember, Hemingway and Orwell were centuries away, words were longer, more obscure, and the culture was simply very different. Reading was undertaken with long, sustained concentration, and writing was dense and difficult.
So the writers desperately urging precision and clarity were doing so because these qualities were in very short supply. Their advice is relevant and to the point, no matter how old it is.
You don't need to mess around with complicated optimization and keyword research-that's what great Search Engine Optimization does for you. But you do need content on your site. That's right: precise, good writing is very important online.
Whether you need to explain your product, write a catchy "About Your Company" page, or talk about a new offering you're rolling out, your Search Engine Optimization will always be better when your website contains fresh, interesting information.
Not Everyone is a Writer:
And therein lies the problem. Not everyone can write. It's just not possible for everyone to be great.
We all write emails every day, and probably do some level of reading, but when it comes to writing in a clear, precise way, many of us are at a loss. It simply takes too much work, too much editing, too much knowledge of those obscure rules of grammar and style to churn out good, readable prose.
Writing is a Skill, Like Many Others:
So if we aren't farming the writing out to wordier relatives, or hiring overpriced ad agencies to write about our products, what are we doing? Trying to write the stuff ourselves, that's what.
Writing really is a skill that can be developed and improved, no matter how subtle and frustrating it may seem. There is a wealth of knowledge on how to write well, a lot of it contradictory. Writers are famous for making definitive-sounding declarations on what 'good' writing is, only to have another critic come and disagree immediately.
Why Do Authors From Hundreds of Years Ago Have the Best Advice on Good Writing?
So I've found some advice for you, narrowing our focus down to four writers-all of whom died before the year 1900. Why go back so far? It's simple, really:
These pieces of advice were expressly designed to simplify a very complicated beast. Have you ever tried to read literature from 200-300 years ago? Direct, clear, pared-down style did not exist.
Remember, Hemingway and Orwell were centuries away, words were longer, more obscure, and the culture was simply very different. Reading was undertaken with long, sustained concentration, and writing was dense and difficult.
So the writers desperately urging precision and clarity were doing so because these qualities were in very short supply. Their advice is relevant and to the point, no matter how old it is.
Have something to say, and say it as clearly as you can. That is the only secret.
-Matthew Arnold
-Matthew Arnold
I can't offer much commentary on something so simply expressed. If there's one word to keep in your mind while writing, you could do far worse than clarity.
Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it-whole-heartedly-and delete it before sending your manuscript to press.
Murder your darlings.
-Arthur Quiller-Couch
Murder your darlings.
-Arthur Quiller-Couch
Rightly famous. Get all your bad, puffed-up writing out in the first draft, and then delete it all. Look, he didn't even say erase or cancel it, he said delete! A man ahead of his time.
You write with ease to show your breeding, But easy writing 's curst hard reading.
-Richard Brinsley Sheridan
-Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Maybe you're like me, and read that second line as something to do with 'crust'. I believe we would use the word 'cursed' nowadays. 'Don't show off, because it'll make your writing hard to read' has never been expressed so lightly.
The virtue of books is to be readable.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
I'm sure there are many other virtues, too, but hey-he said it. Write with an audience in mind: your customers.
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posted by Top Ranking Company
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