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May 25, 2010#

Social Marketing Takes Time but Is Well Worth the Wait

This article first appeared in the Belfast Telegraph – but I wrote it so it’s OK

Everything associated with the web is about speed — download speeds, upload speeds, broadband speeds, early adopters, instant feedback and viral campaigns.

Fast is good. And fast is particularly good for marketers. A single tweet, blog post or YouTube video can spread across the Internet in hours, touching countless people, fuelled by nothing more than its own momentum.

But like the actor crowned an ‘overnight success’ after 10 years of waiting tables and bit parts in soaps, the speed of social media marketing can be hugely misleading. Is it possible to create a video and have it ‘go viral’ with no extra effort? Of course. Is it likely? Not very.

For most people, businesses and brands, it takes weeks, months and even years of consistent effort to build

engaged networks online. But once you’ve done the hard work, that network becomes an asset which can help spread your message extremely quickly.

So what are your options right now?

Accept it and get started:

So if it’s going to take time to build your social networks then you might as well get started now — and if you’re planning a campaign or launch, the earlier the better.

A simple strategy starts with time spent listening and getting the lay of the land (who are the main bloggers in your marketplace? Where are your customers and what are they saying?).

Next, set up a base camp (usually your website or blog) where people can learn more about you and access useful content.

Finally, use your chosen social networks to start participating in relevant conversations and adding value. Then keep doing it. It takes time.

Piggyback on someone else’s profile:

Social media is based on connections — and an endorsement or mention from someone with lots of relevant, high-quality connections can be enough to kick-start your own efforts.

Of course, everyone else knows this too and are busy trying to connect with big name Twitterers and Facebookers.

This can certainly be worth the effort but make sure your approaches are genuine, relevant and personal. And while big names can be great, there’s also lots of value in working with smaller bloggers and social media users with influence in your market.

The recent campaign by the Derry-Londonderry City of Culture bid to engage with 50 of NI’s most connected online influencers is a great example of this.

Look Beyond Social Media:

Social media isn’t the only game in town. Pay-per-click ads (small text or image ads that you only pay for when people click on them) in particular can be an effective way of driving traffic to your chosen online destination quickly.

You should also look at combining pay-per-click advertising with your social media marketing campaign.

Get Creative:

Of course there are plenty of creative exceptions that prove the rule. A creative campaign, packed full of exciting, useful, interesting, funny or simply ‘share-worthy’ content can take on a life of its own, get picked up by influencers with big audiences and spread like wildfire.

Certainly be creative and keep in mind what elements of your campaign people will be likely to latch on to and help spread. But, it would be a mistake to hang all |your hopes on the unlikely viral hit.

All of this should actually be comforting to most small businesses. Simple, consistent efforts build useful networks time and time again. It’s not rocket science, but it does mean you’ve got to be prepared to play a long-term game and do the work. And, after a while, your social media marketing can actually be as fast we’d all love it to be.

Mark Nagurski runs www.ownbrandmedia.com , hosts www.ideahacking.com and blogs about business ideas at www.iddictive.com

November 27, 2009#

IKEA, Facebook, Social Media and Video

IKEA’s recent use of social media site Facebook to promote a new store opening is getting a bit of coverage (you can check out the campaign story in the video above).

Here’s my take:

  • Absolutely a smart idea
  • Partly because it leverages existing networks rather than trying to create their own
  • Partly because it puts the product front and centre
  • And partly because it could easily have failed and been no real disaster

I also like how the people behind the campaign put this nice little video piece together to showcase what they did – much better than a staid text-based case study and, of course, it helps spread the word even further.

November 24, 2009#

7 Ways to Use Web Content in Your Business

what can web content do

What do you want your web content to do?

Web content is a pretty wide-ranging field, encompassing everything from on-site text and blog posts to whitepapers and videos.  With so many practical outputs to be considered as part of a content strategy, the first question needs to be: what do I want my web content to do?

Unless you’re in it just for the laughs, this should be a business goal of some variety – although sometimes those goals will be delivered indirectly (i.e. raising your social media profile can lead to new sales enquiries, improved customer service etc…)

7 web content usesWith that in mind, I decided to pick out 7 business goals that web content can help you achieve – and a brief note about how you might go about each. It’s not a complete list by any means but these 7 points do cover a lot of ground.

  1. Get Found Online (SEO)

    Search engines love great content – for two reasons. The first is pretty obvious – the text on your website can be indexed by search engines, so if it’s written with your keywords in mind, you’ll perform better in the rankings. But search engines also love lots of inbound links, and great content gives people something to link to: like cool videos, informative articles and useful resources.

    Try: Text is still the number one choice for SEO. Use blog posts to keep it fresh and target your key search terms.

  2. Fuel a Social Media Strategy

    Social media is based on conversations – and conversations need to be about something. That something could be what you had for lunch but if you want to use social media for business then that something should be in some way business related. Creating great content provides that topic of conversation.

    Try: Again, fresh content in the form of blog posts is a good idea – remember strong titles and sharable formats (like lists).

  3. Attract New Prospects

    There are quite a few websites out there. More than anyone could possibly visit in a lifetime. So to compete you need to give people reasons to visit your website rather than someone else’s (i.e. the competition). Education and entertainment both work well, so by creating informative and interesting content you give people reasons to visit your website and take the first step in becoming customers. And if you consistently produce good content you give them reasons to come back and start forming a relationship with you and your brand.

    Try: Consider what kinds of information will make your prospects’ lives easier. Use a combination of simple formats (whitepapers, articles, detailed FAQs) alongside formats that allow for a little more entertainment value (infographics, video tutorials, audio interviews).

  4. Demonstrate Your Expertise

    Increasingly expertise is the competitive advantage that businesses are looking for – but finding ways to let your prospects know how smart you are is the tricky bit. Web content can play a big part in this process and give you the opportunity to put your smarts in front of the people who matter.

    Try: People absorb information in different ways – deliver your content in a variety of formats and you stand a better chance of getting through.

  5. Differentiate Your Business

    Expertise can be a competitive advantage – but you still need to attract attention and set your business apart in order to get people to listen to you in the first place. So while most businesses continue producing standard websites which focus on design over content, putting content first can help you create a distinctive web presence, communicate your USP (see below) and show off a little personality.

    Try: Be the first to try new media formats. Re-purposing text content into multimedia formats can give it a new lease of life.

  6. Communicate More Effectively

    Getting your point across can be hard enough at the best of times so picking the right communications tools can give you a massive head start. Some ideas are best communicated in text but others come across better visually, in motion, aurally, in diagrams or from a third party perspective. Using all the content tools in your arsenal can make a big difference to how well you communicate with your prospects, customers and the world at large.

    Try: Pick formats on the basis of how well they communicate your ideas. If something would benefit from a visual example, use video or diagrams. If it’s better coming from someone else, use outside experts or case studies as content sources.

  7. Create New Revenue Streams

    And content can even be profitable in its own right. People will – and do – pay for online content all the time. Online training courses in particular are huge business, as are subscription-based membership resources, niche online publications and downloadable information products.

    Try: Don’t be afraid to experiment with new business models online. If they are well-planned the investment needn’t be huge and you can often partner with others to deliver the concept. Online magazines, membership programs and elearning are all within the grasp of even the smallest organisations.

The great news is that even at this stage, if you’re considering how to best use web content for your business, you’re still way ahead of the game and have the chance to achieve considerable competitive advantage.

But it’s not going to stay that way for long.

Pics: Flickr Creative Commons [1] [2]