Jackie Cuyvers » Online Marketing

Matt Mullenweg’s – 6 Steps to Kill Your Community

Jackie — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 02:09:52 +0000

There is a lot of instruction on the web on how to grow your community, add followers and readership online. But is it all about the numbers? Instead the focus should be about engagement and conversation. The value you’re providing your readers in terms of fresh content that is helpful or actionable. Creating not just a resource – but a forum for debate and communication. Matt Mullenweg, the founder of WordPress recently created a post on his site highlighting what not to do in being successful in building your online community and web presence.

I thought I’d write a guide for how to increase the number of comments you get by 400-1,000% and ruin whatever shred of community you had on your site.

In short his list is:

Abandon Search Engines.

Be Famous!

Put the Comment Form at Top.

No Subscriptions.

Make People Click Click Click.

Treat Everyone the Same.

Don’t Ask Anything of Your Audience.

Read Matt’s full essay here at ma.tt

What would you add to take this list to 10?

Ready to Start Your Blog? Try WordPress

Jackie — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 20:25:34 +0000

Have you been thinking about starting a blog or new site but not sure where to start? WordPress is a great tool that can help you get started in no time. I’ve created a brief WordPress startup guide and tutorial to walk you through the process of getting your blog up and running today.

Click the link below to download your free PDF copy of my quick-start WordPress Tutorial
Click Here for the WordPress Tutorial

You’ll learn answers to the following questions:

What is a blog
How and what to write about
How to install WordPress
How to create and edit Pages
How to add and edit new Posts (or articles)
How to add links and pictures to your blog
How to add new categories and categorize your Posts

and more…

Should You Employ a Social Media Marketing Consultant

Jackie — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 02:33:47 +0000

New companies or small businesses are limited in many different resources. Time, employees, and most of all, funding, can all be an issue for a new company or small business. This is why social media marketing is such a powerful tool for entrepreneurs and small business owners. With a low barrier to entry and low, often no, cost, social media marketing is an attractive option to companies looking to get on their feet, establish a place for themselves in their niche and create valuable networking opportunities. However, social media marketing is a very new area of promotion and marketing. For this reason, it may be in the best interest of a small business to employ an outside social media marketing consultant in order to get the most out of their social media investments.

That’s not to say you can’t bring this job in-house. In fact no one will speak as passionately or informatively about your business as you or your team will. Starting a new company is a hectic time, with many details to be attended to. Advertising, publicity and news release are not the least of these details, and often require the most finesse. So not only does the new business owner have to handle the publicity, but, if they have decided to get involved with social media, they must also educate themselves on the nuances and techniques of social media as well. Hiring a social media marketing expert in these situations is often a lifesaver.

A social media marketing expert can sit down with the company owners and employees, getting a good feel for the vibe and message of the company, allowing the creation of a solid image to be presented on various social media networks. A social media marketing expert can also help to develop a social media marketing strategy, using experience and proven techniques to provide the most return on investment for a struggling small business. The expertise of a social media marketing professional will not only aid in the creation of a successful social media marketing strategy, but also educate owners and employees on the pros, cons, ins and outs of the various social media networks and how to gain the most value from the networks and contacts created. While your company may not need to employ a social media marketing expert in a permanent capacity at first, consider a consultant practiced and experienced in social media marketing strategies to give your new company a great start right out of the gate – then consider transitioning the job in house to a dedicated staffing position like Community Organizer or Social Media Manager.

Techniques for Leveraging the Power of Twitter

Jackie — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 03:29:14 +0000

Including Twitter in marketing strategies and goals for expansion is becoming common place. Many have realized the power of social media marketing, and Twitter is one of the most used and prominent tools the social media experience has to offer. While it is very simple to log into Twitter and begin broadcasting to your Twitter followers, read over these tips, tricks and techniques for harnessing the full power of social media marketing on Twitter.

List Your Contact Details. There are millions of Twitter users on the service every single hour of every day. While it is impossible to interact with every single Twitter user, it is important to make yourself available for those who want to interact with you. If you’ve decided to include Twitter in your social marketing strategy, it is important to give open yourself to every opportunity to reap the benefits of your work. By providing a link to your brand’s webpage, or a custom background that includes your email address, instant messenger handles and other ways to contact you, you are sure to see more results from marketing on Twitter. Interested parties may contact you for business opportunities, interview requests or permission to promote your product on their blogs or webpages. A key to social media marketing on Twitter is to make yourself available for all opportunities that may come along.

Get personal. When you receive notification of a new Twitter follower, take a moment to review their profile, interests and any webpages or portfolios they may make available. Consider sending a direct message to introduce yourself personally to your new Twitter followers, giving your brand a more friendly face. The social aspect of social media marketing is what makes it so effective.

Play nicely. On Twitter, you are the face of your company, your brand, your products and your offerings. Any marketing strategy employed on Twitter is sure to fail if you give off an air of rudeness, elitism or unpleasantness. Twitter is contains your target audience, and social media marketing relies on your target audience wanting to interact with you. Be helpful, informative and polite at all times when employed Twitter as a social media marketing strategy, in order to ensure a positive reputation and perception of what you have to offer.

Using Twitter for Marketing: Three Twitter Tips for a Notable Brand

Jackie — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 00:50:59 +0000

Using Twitter for social media marketing is becoming more and more a standard practice for brands and companies looking to expand and connect with their target audience. When marketing on Twitter, branding is extremely important, to give a distinctive personality to what you have to offer and stick in Twitter users minds. While branding is often still a bit of a fluid concept, especially when it comes to using social media and Twitter for marketing, the following tips will help you along the way to establishing a solid and impressive presence for your brand on Twitter.

Broadcast Relevant News. If you’ve expanded your marketing strategy to include Twitter, then you have obviously spent some time on the Internet. When your feedreader, co-workers or other contacts provide you with breaking news related to your industry, share it on Twitter. Not only will this make you a valuable asset an contributor in the eyes of your Twitter followers, but it can also lead to retweets, where your tweet with a link back to your profile included is rebroadcasted out to widening circles of Twitter users. Those interested in the same type of news are likely to join your Twitter followers.

Find Out Where Everyone Is. At industry conferences, it can be frustrating to try to get face time with popular and influential people in your field. These days, not only do most people Twitter throughout conferences, but conferences themselves also have their own Twitter accounts. If you are attending, presenting or exhibiting at an industry conference, follow along on Twitter to find out where these VIPs are and what they’re interested in seeing. Befriending these social media giants can be a very effective tool in your social media marketing arsenal. Take advantage of the information offered on Twitter to arrange a brief meeting or one on one conversation with these users, in hopes that a good impression will lead to them tweeting about you and your brand in the future.

Monitor Your Reputation. Nothing kills a brand, product or company faster than negative experiences. Negative experiences and stories travel with amazing speed with the advent of tools like Twitter. When Twitter is a part of your social media marketing strategy, monitoring what people are saying about you or your offerings is one of the main benefits of the service. By keeping track of what is being said about your brand, you have an opportunity to quickly turn negatives into positives. If you are able to use Twitter to respond quickly to customer concerns, your social media marketing will allow you to head off the negatives of the problem and instead, create a more powerful reputation for your brand due to your swift and responsive actions.

Social Media Marketing: Building a Community on Twitter

Jackie — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:46:52 +0000

The most important aspect of social media marketing is building a community of interested people who will carry your message, offerings and news to their own networks on contacts. When using Twitter for social media marketing, there are several simple steps you can follow to get you started on building a loyal community of Twitter followers. This network of Twitter users has the capability to spread your brand’s reputation father than you could ever hope to do on your own.

Know What You’re Doing. Before you dive in head first, make sure you understand the basics of using Twitter. The shorthand is also important to understand. A DM is a direct message, only visible by the Twitter user to which it is sent. The “@” symbol before a Twitter user’s name is used to indicate a reply, and RT stands for “retweet,” the practice of repeating a tweet, with credit, of someone else in order to pass along the message. Making use of all of these communication methods on Twitter are important to the community building aspect of your social media marketing strategy.

Utilize Search Tools. Many Twitter tools come with search tools built in, as does the web interface of Twitter. Utilize the earch tools to find Twitter users who are discussing topics relevant to your interests and follow them. Many of these Twitter users will follow back upon seeing that you share interests. Also, if your search turns up conversations relevant to your marketing strategy, join the conversation by utilizing the “@” reply technique.

Promote Your Twitter Account. While your social media marketing strategy calls for using Twitter to promote your brand, use other web locations to promote your Twitter account. In forums, email messages and web profiles, be sure to include a link to your Twitter page or your Twitter name. When commenting on blogs within your industry, sign your posts with “@YourTwitterName.” By placing your Twitter identity in relevant locations across the web, you will make yourself easier to find and thus grow your community of Twitter followers. A large and engaged community of Twitter followers is essential to acheiving your social media marketing goals.

Twitter Blogs: Finding Tips & Tricks for Marketing on Twitter

Jackie — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:47:07 +0000

While using Twitter for social marketing may seem like the simplest thing in the world, it does not necessarily always have to be. You can create a Twitter account, slowly grow a network of Twitter followers and broadcast your targeted marketing messages to them and be happy with just that. However, over the life of Twitter, many power Twitter users have developed tried and true techniques for establishing community, effective social media marketing and getting the most out of using Twitter. There are several Twitter blogs and blogs dedicated to social media that focus on sharing these tips in order to help you with the most effective social media marketing strategy.

Twitip. Twitip.com, a relatively new blog, was created by Darren Rowse of Problogger.net. Already a powerful figure in internet marketing and generating income through the web, Darren has created this Twitter blog to share what he has learned as far as using Twitter, gathering Twitter followers, effective Twitter marketing and more. His regular posts are full of Twitter tips and helpful hints, allowing your to better craft your social media marketing strategy around Twitter.

Mashable. Mashable.com is not solely a Twitter blog, but is instead focused on social media as a whole. Since Twitter is a major player on the social media scene, it gets a lot of air time on the Mashable blog. Mashable’s Twitter postings will keep you informed on the latest Twitter news and tools, along with helpful “cheatsheet” type posts including lists of people you can meet on Twitter, Twitter etiquette and more. For those whose social media marketing strategies include more than just Twitter, Mashable is an excellent social media blog for all marketing needs.

The Twitter Blog. The official blog of Twitter.com is surprisingly not necessarily the best source of information when it comes to social media marketing and leveraging Twitter for marketing results. However, following the Twitter blog will keep you apprised of downtimes, server issues and upcoming features that you can integrate into your social media marketing plans. Also, the awareness of instability and server problems will help you to time targeted campaigns, contests or other social media marketing strategies that rely on Twitter to succeed.

Three Tips for Effective Twitter Marketing

Jackie — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 17:52:46 +0000

Establishing a social media marketing presence with the intent of publicizing your business, brand or offerings is the newest and one of the most cost effective methods of creating brand awareness and product loyalty. Getting started is as simple as setting of a Twitter account, but some of the nuances of being an effective marketing presence on Twitter can be a bit more subtle. Below, find three tips for creating an effective Twitter marketing strategy for your business, brand or blog.

Complete Your Profile – Completely. When you follow a new person on Twitter, the first thing they will do when deciding whether or not to follow you back is read your profile. The more complete your Twitter profile is, the better chance you have of gaining a new Twitter follower. Include your name and location, your website URL, and a bit about your business, interests or products. You may also want to consider a customized Twitter background, with contact information and other sites on which you can be found. Be sure to include information about topics you are interested in hearing about or discussing so that like-minded Twitter users will consider adding you to their communities.

Choose to Follow Twitterers with Common Interests. Conduct regular searches of Twitter for keywords and terms relevant to your business or products. When you find a Twitter user with lines of interests similar to those your wish to promote, follow them. When you follow a new person on Twitter, they are notified and given the option to follow you back. Even if they do not choose to follow, make a deliberate effort to engage targeted Twitter users in conversation, exposing yourself, your ideas and your products to their followers as well.

Avoid Over-promotion. Whether you are promoting yourself, your blogs, your business or your products, avoid flooding the Twitter service with constant promotional messages. Look for reasonable and natural openings in conversation or questions to suggest or link to your products or more information. Try to tweet about your own products or interests only when you have news, are running a contest, launching a new project or otherwise have something important to share. While keeping promotional posts to a minimum may seem to go against the very idea of a social media marketing strategy, it is important to keep up at least the appearance of being interested in the Twitter community as a whole rather than just your own interests.

Social Media Marketing on Twitter: Create a Meme

Jackie — Sat, 30 May 2009 05:49:47 +0000

When doing research on Twitter for social media marketing, or, in fact, for any kind of internet marketing, a term you will come across often is “meme.” Memes, pronounced like “themes,” are simple, user generated concepts or repeated structures that pass quickly from one person to the next, in an almost viral fashion. When you have established a solid social media marketing plan and presence for your company, you may want to consider attempting to start a meme that relates to your products, brands or Twitter goals.

A meme has to be catchy and easy in order to encourage the maximum number of Twitter users to participate. A popular meme is #followfriday, in which users suggest other Twitter users for following every Friday, denoted with #followfriday included in the Tweet. In establishing a meme, you will have to think carefully about your brand, your social media marketing strategies, and the best way to engage your Twitter users in a meaningful and fun way that will spread quickly to other users.

The main goal of your meme, with regards to Twitter and internet marketing strategy, should be to get your hashtag or keyword to be used so often by Twitter users that it appears in the “trending topics” sidebar or gets some press on popular blogs. Also, it may be picked up by Twemes.com, a listing of hot Twitter memes, if it ends up being popular enough. Crafting a meme related to your business, brand or products will involve serious consideration and most likely many failed attempts. However, once you find something that works, your Twitter followers will do the rest, carrying it (and your marketing message) to vast numbers of Twitter users.

When thinking up a meme, come up with something quick, memorable, easy to participate in and associated with a specific date or time. #Followfriday and #musicmonday, for example, occur on their respective days. If you run a blog network, you could start a meme that includes suggesting a favorite blog every Saturday morning. Crating a meme that fits in with your Twitter marketing strategies will take some serious thinking, but if accomplished, it will easily become the most recognizable thing about your brand.

Corporate Twitter Accounts: A Benefit, A Drawback and a Pitfall

Jackie — Fri, 29 May 2009 14:53:29 +0000

When integrating social media marketing into your overall marketing plan, an option many companies are choosing is to create a Twitter account for the CEO or company as a whole. An effective strategy, it gives your business or brand a personal face, making it seem more accessible and interested in the desires and needs of your targeted audience. As with any new strategy, there are immediate benefits to such a plan. However, there are also drawbacks and things to avoid in implementing a Twitter marketing strategy for your CEO or company.

A Benefit of Creating a Twitter Account for Your CEO: By setting your CEO or other company VIPs up on Twitter, you humanize your company, giving customers, clients and other contacts direct and personal access to your company. Whether solving problems, answering questions, addressing needs or simply just making the company seem more accessible as a whole, a CEO on Twitter presents an engaging face for your company in the social media world.

A Drawback of Creating a Twitter Account for Your CEO: Simply put, social media marketing takes time. While marketing is usually left to marketing departments or employees specifically dedicated to the task, participating on Twitter takes valuable time from a CEO or other company VIP. Twitter is only effective with regular and consistent use, and may be difficult to fit into the daily schedule of people who do not usually dedicate parts of their day to marketing. While Twitter marketing does not have to be a full time job, conversing and interacting with Twitter followers can take up a big chunk of day to day work hours.

A Pitfall to Creating a Twitter Account for Your CEO: Marketing is a delicate process, especially social media marketing. Twitter is so public that everything your CEO says or does on the service is available to be seen by millions every day. One wrong step, insensive remark or misstep will be picked up by retweets, blogs and consumer interest reporters faster that ever possible before. For a CEO who is not usually involved in marketing techniques, it is easy to put a foot wrong on Twitter, not realizing how the whole brand will be affected by what seems to be an hoenst mistake. A reputation is easy to ruin on the internet, and extremely difficult to rebuild.