Posted by: candice
on Feb 07, 2012
Social media marketing is the new frontier for businesses looking to attract new clients and make more sales by harnessing the power of the internet. Gone are the days when it was enough to have a simple ad on a search engine or place your website on an online directory – today’s online user must be approached through social media, and that is a challenge in itself.
Standing out from the crowd
The realm of social media is a crowded place. With millions of users on Facebook, more twitter feeds than you could follow in a lifetime, and a host of other social media sites just waiting to grab the attention of potential clients, your message really has to stand out from the crowd.
It’s also important to remember that web users don’t sign up with social media websites in order to read advertising material. Facebook is a place where friends and family connect, while twitter is like one big conversation between people who are seeking a really good chat. None of these users is there because they are looking for the latest product or service.
These two factors spell out the challenge for any social media strategy. Your message has to be compelling, unique, and must speak to the audience as individuals – with the same personal touch as their friends’ Facebook updates and tweets. If you’re able to craft a message like this, your social media strategy will be off to a great start.
Know Your Audience, Personally.
The key to compelling copy is to really know who your audience is. There’s no point in producing something so generic that anyone might read it – chances are, no one might read it. Instead, try to visualise the individual person you’re writing to, taking notes of the person’s dreams, desires, goals and personality. Think of someone you know who would fit the bill, and write a piece of copy that would blow them away.
The ‘wow factor’ is a very important part of any content strategy. When it comes to attracting potential clients, you’ll see great results if your content is tailored to the person reading it – your newest client.
Posted by: candice
on Jan 31, 2012
The benefits of a well-planned content strategy can range from an enhanced brand identity to tangible increases in leads and sales. On the other hand, up to 95% of blogs on the internet are abandoned eventually, probably because they are seen as not being effective enough.
How can businesses measure the effectiveness of their content strategies? Here are a few useful tools that will allow businesses of all sizes to gauge the effectiveness of their internet marketing efforts:
What Are You Measuring?
In order to track the effectiveness of your content strategy, you need to decide how you are going to measure it. Since most content strategies are geared towards increasing brand awareness, a good starting point is to track the number of new signups you are receiving.
Establish a baseline
In order to track the effectiveness of your content strategy, you’ll need to find out how many signups you’re currently getting and from what sources. Once you know this, you can track your future progress.
Track your early success
If you’ve recently launched your content strategy, you may not have a large audience yet. Nonetheless, you can use several proxies (indirect measurements) to track your progress.
Focus on your social media presence, taking note of the following: likes on Facebook, retweets, reblogs, links back to your site, followers, @ mentions, followers, and average page views per visitor, as well as the amount of time spent on each page. With these proxies, you’ll be able to measure your progress by understanding how effectively your content is ‘speaking’ to the audience.
Track Conversions
You’ll know your content strategy is working once you start to see conversions – the percentage of site visitors who take the desired action like clicking the ‘buy’ button. Google Analytics can measure your conversion rate easily, but you’ll need to track your progress by measuring more than the sheer number of leads. By using proxies like the quality of leads, retention period, and number of new customers referred per lead, you’ll have a clear picture of your content strategy’s Return on Investment.
Patience is Key
An online content strategy may take a while before it shows tangible results – it’s an investment in the future of your business.
Like planting a seed, you’ll have to put effort and patience into your strategy but when it starts to bear fruit you’ll have a sustainable, personal online relationship with your clients – both current and prospective – that will bring you increased leads and sales in the future.
Posted by: candice
on Dec 01, 2011
Since its launch in February 2004, Facebook rapidly overtook its competitors to become the internet’s most popular and commercially valuable social media site. Today, with over 800 million users, it has become an essential platform for internet marketing as well. The new F8 upgrade, which replaces the traditional facebook page with a timeline, promises to take the site to a new level of functionality.
Recognising the success of Facebook as an internet phenomenon and not to be outdone,Google has entered the fray with their own social media site - Google Plus. With its clean-cut design and easy to use features, this new social media site hopes to attract existing gmail users by offering enhanced privacy options not yet available on Facebook.
The Google+ Circles of Trust
The feature that sets Google Plus apart from Facebook is the ability to divide contacts into categories such as friends, family, and acquaintances. This feature allows you to customise your front page and wall for each category, limiting the amount of personal information that people who don’t know you that well will be able to see. The circle system will appeal to privacy-loving users as well as business users who don’t necessarily want to share every post on their walls with colleagues and acquaintances.
In response to this innovation by Google, Facebook now allows users to customise some of their displayed information and wall posts according to categories of friends – Facebook contacts can now be divided into friends and close friends and each blog post can be customised so that it may only be read by close friends.
Facebook’s Timeline
The latest innovation from Facebook is the gradual replacement of the Facebook page with something known as a timeline – a running list of all your Facebook activity from your first-ever post to the present. This new innovation means that users will have to review their history to ensure a clean social networking identity.
Combining The Two
If you just can’t choose between Facebook and Google Plus, it’s possible to create a Google Plus tab on your Facebook page. This will allow you to manage your social media identity easily and take advantage of both sites. Click here for a step-by-step guide.
Posted by: candice
on Oct 11, 2011
If you are involved in internet marketing, be it web design, article writing, or any step in the marketing process you may be aware of the recent changes Google has made to its search ranking algorithms.
If you’re concerned that these changes will affect the rankings of the websites you design, manage or market, you will need an SEO strategy that is able to change with the times. Like so many things in life, a strategy based on strong fundamentals is most likely to stand the test of time.
Posted by: admin
on Sep 13, 2011
Creative Commons is an alternative to traditional copyright rules. Commonly, most original works are protected by copyright, which reflects specific rights regarding the use and the distribution of work. Creative Commons allows copyright owners to release some of those rights while keeping others, with the goal of allowing access to and sharing of intellectual and creative property. Copyright has been an all-or-nothing plan: a work is either in the public domain, or its owner states “all rights reserved”. The term or period of copyright protection for most has increased significantly, from 14 years to 70 years past the death of the work’s creator. The creators of Creative Commons wanted to start a central ground of “some rights reserved” that respects intellectual property while growing the acceptable uses of protected material. All licenses need acknowledgement, and the slightest limiting only needs attribution.
Posted by: admin
on Aug 10, 2011
Are you frustrated because you know how important internet marketing is for your business, but you either just don’t know where to start, or you have some idea but you are not sure how it all fits together?
If this sounds familiar then I have some great news for you – GetSmarter together with the University of Cape Town have a short-course on Internet Marketing which is held online twice a year, and which I will be convening from this September. The course covers the fundamentals of a website and web design to online advertising, copywriting, web PR, Mobile marketing and email marketing not to mention Social Media and strategy creation.
Posted by: admin
on Jul 25, 2011
Have you ever wondered what rights you have as a consumer? Consumers are defined as private individuals, members of a consumer interest group, people acting in the public interest and people acting on behalf of others who are incapacitated. The definition does not include the government, though it may cover certain types of businesses. If you are a consumer, it is important that you know your rights.