5 Steps to Promote Your Business Blog Through Social Networking
In my most recent article on Entrepreneur.com, I share 5 steps to promote your business blog through Facebook, LinkedIn and social networking tools to build your brand and business. The tips come directly from my book, “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to WordPress.” In the article, I explain,
“Building an audience from scratch for your blog doesn’t always happen overnight. Fortunately, several opportunities are available through social media to help spread the word. Doing so will require more than creating a profile on popular sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn, especially if you want to use social networking to increase awareness of your business and traffic to your business blog.”
You can follow the link to read the full article on Entrepreneur.com. Bottom-line, a blog can boost your business and WordPress is the tool I recommend to do it!
Image: stock.xchng
30-Minute Social Media Marketing on Radio America’s Business Owner’s Toolkit Podcast
On Radio America’s popular Business Owner’s Toolkit Podcast, host Greg Corombos interviewed me about my book, 30-Minute Social Media Marketing, and we talked about the keys to successful social media use by small businesses.
During the podcast, I offered insights on how to establish quality relationships and why your strategy for building contacts should integrate many of the same methods you would use in face-to-face situations.
You can listen to the complete podcast using the Business Owner’s Toolkit Player or click the arrow below to listen to the podcast without leaving this site.
You can also subscribe to the Business Owner’s Toolkit podcast, so you don’t miss future interviews.
Complete Idiot’s Guide to WordPress Now Available
My new book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to WordPress
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to WordPress is intended to be a beginner’s guide to using both WordPress.com and WordPress.org, but it also includes a great deal of advanced information. Since the book is written modularly (so each chapter can stand on its own), you can pick and choose the chapters to read that apply to you, or you can read the book from cover to cover and learn everything you need to know to start a blog that is positioned for success.
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to WordPress is part of the popular Complete Idiot’s Guide book series from Alpha Books/Penguin. If you want to learn how to create a blog or website using WordPress or if you want to learn about some advanced WordPress topics, pick up a copy from any book seller or download The Complete Idiot’s Guide to WordPress on Kindle
6 Easy to Follow Twitter Do’s and Don’ts
I shared some Twitter do’s and don’ts from my book, 30-Minute Social Media Marketing
Don’t overpromote.
Stick to the 80-20 rule of marketing. Spend 80 percent or more of your Twitter time on activities that are not self-promotional. No one will want to interact with you if you’re constantly talking about yourself and promoting your business. For example, the Red Bull Twitter feed is filled with useful information such as links to event information and tickets, questions posed to followers (e.g., “What’s your best Red Bull recipe?”), and replies to consumer questions. For example, when people asked for information about the sound track in a video published on the Red Bull Twitter profile, Red Bull responded not just with the title but also with a link where they could download it. Try to offer similarly diverse tweets in your own Twitter stream.
What do you think is the most important Twitter tip? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.
10 Irrefutable Laws of Social Media Marketing
My most recent article on Entrepreneur.com reveals the 10 inarguable laws of social media marketing. You can read the complete article on Entrepreneur.com, but a snippet is included below to get you started.
It’s vital that you understand social media marketing fundamentals. From maximizing quality to increasing your online entry points, abiding by these 10 laws will help build a foundation that will serve your customers, your brand and — perhaps most importantly — your bottom line.
1. The Law of Listening
Success with social media and content marketing requires more listening and less talking. Read your target audience’s online content and join discussions to learn what’s important to them. Only then can you create content and spark conversations that add value rather than clutter to their lives.
2. The Law of Focus
It’s better to specialize than to be a jack-of-all-trades. A highly-focused social media and content marketing strategy intended to build a strong brand has a better chance for success than a broad strategy that attempts to be all things to all people.
Be sure to click the link above to read the complete article, so you don’t break any of the laws of social media marketing.
Marketing Lessons from the Best Super Bowl Ads of All Time
My newest article on Entrepreneur.com discusses what businesses can learn from multi-million dollar jingles, babies and sock puppets from some of the best (or at least the most remembered) commercials aired during Super Bowl games. I discuss five memorable ads and offer takeaways from each advertising effort that businesses can apply to their own campaigns in the future.
My favorite example was cut from the article for length, but it’s included below for those of you who, like me, miss the Pets.com sock puppet.
Company: Pets.com
Commercial: Please Don’t Go
Year: 2000
Description: A dog watches forlornly as its owner pulls his car out of his garage saying, “Okay Dino. I gotta go to a lot of stores to get what you like. I’ll be back.” The door closes and a sock puppet dog with a microphone emerges in the background singing “If You Leave Me Now” by Chicago. The sock puppet visits various pets whose owners had to leave them at home alone (including a crying turtle) and continues to sing the song with the messages, “Please don’t go” and “I want you to stay,” making it clear that these pets miss their owners when they have to go out to purchase various products for them. A written slogan appears on screen that says, “Everything they need,” followed by the Pets.com logo. The commercial ends with the sock puppet making an appearance in Dino’s owner’s car saying, “Hey man, I think I’m getting car sick. I think I’m gonna boot.”
Why it works: This commercial was very popular and the sock puppet became even more popular going on to star in additional Pets.com commercials and later (after Pets.com went out of business) being sold to Bar None, Inc. and appearing in some commercials for that company. This ad worked for several reasons. First, it tapped into the emotion of guilt that pet owners feel when they have to leave their pets home alone. Second, it solved a consumer problem by offering everything they need for their pets in one place and allowing consumers to save time. Third, it used a humorous element that people responded positively to.
Lessons to learn: Even a clever commercial that people remember over a decade later can’t save a company. A great business model and product are essential, too. Pets.com spent $2 million on this Super Bowl ad at a time when dot-com companies were growing incredibly fast. In fact, 2000 has been dubbed the year of dot-com Super Bowl ads. But the dot-com bust happened, and by the fall of 2000, many dot-com companies folded. On November 6, 2000, Pets.com announced its doors would close, too. Bottom-line, don’t risk everything on a single, expensive ad or marketing effort.
Follow the link to read my complete article on Entrepreneur.com: What You Can Learn from Super Bowl Ads.
Staking Your Brand’s Claim in the Digital World
The newest issue of Dan Schawbel’s excellent publication, Personal Branding Magazine, includes an article that I wrote called Staking Your Brand’s Claim in the Digital World. You can get a sneak peak of the new issue and learn how to subscribe to the magazine on Dan’s Personal Branding Blog.
Here’s an excerpt of my article, which ties in with my latest book, 30-Minute Social Media Marketing
“A fundamental brand-building requirement in the 21st century is an online presence. Fortunately, you can stake your brand’s claim in the virtual world using the tools of the social Web without spending a lot of money. The key to success is to follow the three primary rules of brand building — persistence, consistency and restraint —in all of your online activities.”
Be sure to check out Personal Branding Magazine to read the complete article and learn about branding from a variety of experts. This issue includes interviews and content from Brian Solis, Brian Clark, and more!
Susan Gunelius Talks Branding and Social Media Marketing with Stiletto Woman Magazine
The January/February 2011 issue of Stiletto Woman Magazine features an in-depth interview with Susan Gunelius, KeySplash Creative CEO and author of 30-Minute Social Media Marketing. You can listen to the complete interview or read the article in Stiletto Magazine.
Following is a brief excerpt of the interview from the magazine article:
“Social media marketing is the biggest opportunity for businesses of all sizes to grow their brands. Social media gives businesses the ability to connect with more people around the world than ever before. It’s an opportunity to build relationships and create brand loyalty; which evolves into vocal brand advocacy, where you have people around the world talking about your brand—the kind of word of mouth marketing that you just can’t buy. It’s an opportunity that businesses are crazy to pass up. Consider this analogy: 10 years ago, before the social web existed businesses would have killed to get audiences of engaged people standing in front of them so they could talk to them; well we have that now, it’s just happening on the social web, and the audience is bigger than ever. Not leveraging that opportunity is crazy.”
10 Marketing Trends for 2011
I put together a list of 10 marketing trends for 2011 that you can read on Entrepreneur.com. In my article I explain,
“As the global economy struggles to correct itself, and social-media marketing becomes a strategic imperative, small businesses will have exciting opportunities to expand in new directions this year.
“The need for trust, value and brand transparency, among other trends from last year, are just as important today. But the current shift to geotargeting, mobile marketing and online reputation management require that small businesses modify their plans to surpass competitors.”
Here’s a preview of my 10 marketing trends for 2011:
- Number of followers is irrelevant.
- It’s the year of the niche.
- Content is key.
- Budgets shift to social media and digital marketing.
- Reputation matters.
- Diversify to connect with more people. There’s more to the social Web than Facebook and Twitter.
- Time to go mobile.
- Localization is hot.
- Offline, online and mobile integration is a requirement.
- Co-marketing opens new doors and reduce costs.
Each of the above statements matches up with the list in my 10 Marketing Trends for 2011 where you can get all the details.
What do you think is the top marketing trend for 2011? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.
Building Your Brand with Social Media
In my latest article on Entrepreneur.com, I share 5 strategies that you can use to build your online presence and boost your brand and business through social media. As I wrote in the article:
“Tapping the vast audience of the social Web is a low-cost way to catapult a small-business brand onto the global arena. Building your brand using social media allows you to develop new (and strengthen existing) relationships, which often leads to everything from brand awareness, loyalty and word-of-mouth marketing.
“While perhaps initially daunting, the trick is to break the process into manageable pieces. From creating your online destinations to connecting with influencers, following these five steps will get you on your way to building your brand and boosting your business.”
You can follow the link to read the complete article and learn how to build your brand with social media.
Connect with Susan Gunelius
