 BY KIM T. GORDON Want to know how to spend your marketing dollars this fall? Here's a hint--throw out last year's plan and start fresh. The economic downturn coupled with the rise in social media and the full-bore acceptance of an internet that's accessible virtually everywhere has forever changed the way customers shop. Rather than rely solely on media such as television, radio, newspapers and magazines, it's time to allocate a larger percentage of your budget to less traditional tactics. Winning and keeping customers now calls for innovative marketing that engages prospects in more direct ways. As you plan your holiday marketing tactics, be sure to factor in these three critical elements for a campaign that will work in today's socially and economically altered marketplace: 1. New Media Has Taken Hold
This is not the time for an off-the-shelf media buy. Now is the time to integrate traditional media with new ways of reaching customers. For example, you could use cable TV ads to build recognition and credibility for your business, and newspaper ads to draw prospects to specific price promotions. But both techniques produce better results today if combined with a terrific interactive company website--the first stop many customers make to learn more about you--as well as positive online reviews and recommendations on third-party sites. If you regularly use radio advertising, this fall combine it with a social media effort built around a fun or innovative concept that keeps customers listening for the next installment in your ad campaign. 2. One-on-one Communication Builds BondsThey say everything old is new again, and that couldn't be more on point when it comes to devising opportunities for customer interaction. Consumers who are evaluating every purchase want to make safe and sound decisions. So they're spending their money at businesses, and on products and services, they trust to deliver on every level--from the purchase itself to customer service, low price guarantees and shopping convenience. Create opportunities to communicate directly with customers. If you're a retailer, it's a great time to revive or step up in-store demonstrations, workshops and other events. And customer appreciation events that allow you to share information can be held in your office or off-site. Once you're face-to-face with customers you'll have the opportunity to communicate in ways that can never be achieved strictly through media advertising alone. 3. Consumers Expect to Be Engaged and UnderstoodIn this era of instant and pervasive interpersonal communication, engagement through online dialogue helps customers relate to your company or brand. The key to establishing a positive relationship is to demonstrate that your company cares about the same things its customers care about. Encourage customers to talk with you or about you, just so long as you get them talking. There are several smart ways to engage customers online. You can participate actively in social networking websites and add an interactive element to your own company website where customers can communicate with you and each other. This fall, consider selecting individuals to be part of an online "advisory" group that will provide you with feedback and insight in exchange for early notifications of sales, new products and offers, or free or additional rewards. You can post their insights through a message board or blog and feature stories about their experiences with your products or services on your site. Are there charitable causes that are important to your customers? There's no better way to demonstrate you share their concerns than by contributing your time or dollars to address issues important to them. Detail your charitable efforts on your website to demonstrate that your company is one customers can trust and believe in.
by Neil Patel HGTV. Nordstrom. West Elm. ModCloth. Those are some of the big name retailers who are using Pinterest to drive significant traffic to their retail websites. In fact, Pinterest has become so popular it is driving more traffic than Google+ to retailers’ sites. I think it is safe to say that as marketers it’s time to take this social network site seriously. But what exactly is Pinterest? And how do you use it to promote your business or brand? Well, this guide will help you get started. What is Pinterest? Pinterest is becoming a social network site for sharing interesting images you find online. Think of it as an image-based social bookmarking tool like delicious.com…but with a better community. These images, once uploaded to the site, are known as Pins. Users can place these pins on boards customized under a theme. You can create any kind of theme you want…architecture, motorcycles or even history. Fifty-nine percent of its “pinners” are women between 25 and 40 years of age. Women also make up 58% of its unique visitors. It’s been on a spectacular growth in the last six months with 40 times the number of visitors. In fact, Time magazine called Pinterest one of the top five social networking sites. The site is so popular they are controlling growth by making you enter your email address to get on a waiting list to become a pinner. However, this should only take a couple of days. How to pinPinning is pretty easy. You can link to a website or upload an image. Or you can install the Pin It button from Pinterest. Pinterest will grab the web address anytime you pin content so you don’t have to worry about crediting the original source. After you’ve grabbed an image, your next step is to assign it to a board, add a caption and you’re done. It’s better to create boards that are narrow in focus. If you have fifty boards on very tight subjects…social media tools, 20s silent movies, Seattle micro beers…you are more likely to catch the attention of someone who shares your interest. How to add prices to your pinsIf you want to add the price to something you pin, you can include it in the description. A header will then appear over the content with the price. How to pin on Pinterest with your iPhoneYou can also pin images with your iPhone. And make sure you tag your images. This will help your images to be found when people search Pinterest.
What to pin on Pinterest
When it comes to what to pin, the possibilities are endless. Right now the leading pins tend to be fashion, crafts, photography or architecture.
If you do a quick glance of the most popular pins you’ll notice one thing…they are stunning, unique or useful. That should tell you something. Those who are really enjoying Pinterest are very visual.
And sure, you could just pin random, cool stuff you find across the web…but the power behind Pinterest lies in the ability to organize content around a theme or project.
How to create boards on PinterestFor the best user experience, anything you pin to a board should relate directly to that board. This will also increase the likelihood of people following your boards.
Create a title for the board, and always add a description:
Why should you create a board? You could create boards for… - A car you are fixing up and pin ideas for things you want to do to modify the car.
- Each room of the house you want to redecorate.
- Pin images that are ideas for blog posts.
- Birthday wish list.
- Recipes and cooking ideas.
- Items you might need to go on a camping trip.
- Movies you want to see or books you want to read.
A board can have multiple contributors, so you can work with other people on a project, seeing all the ideas that are being shared. You can invite others to contribute, but they must be one of your followers. 10 tools to help you find great content for PinterestMost people who are professional web surfers are not short on coming across stunning and useful images. However, even the best of us need a little help to find inspiration when it comes to pinning. Here are ten tools I recommend. - StumbleUpon – Choose a topic you are interested in and then click “Stumble” and this discovery-engine will deliver surprising results to your screen. When you see an image you like, pin it.
- Facebook – Follow people who share extraordinary photos on Facebook. When you find a pic you like, search the web for the original source to pin. Pinterest won’t let you pin from Facebook directly.
- Google+ - Follow some power users on this site who tend to share stuff that is both work related and fun. Google’s Marissa Mayer shares pics of her extreme hiking trips while explorer Trey Ratcliff posts pics of great stuff when he travels across the globe.
- Twitter – People share content on Twitter all the time, especiallyTwitter power users. When someone shares a pick, click through and pin it.
- Blekko – You can eliminate the spam stuff from your searches with Blekko, giving you highly-targeted search engine results and inspiring images.
- Paper.li – With Paper.li, you can turn all of your social network feeds…Twitter, Facebook and blogs…into a stream of news content that you can scroll through quickly to get that gem of a pin.
- Delicious – You may have forgotten about delicious.com, and not even used it forever, but it’s still a great place where people save content. You can skim your connections’ list of stuff that they are sharing, crawl through a stack or simply search under specific topics to find great images to pin.
- Google Reader – If you want a quick and dirty way to see what all your favorite blogs are sharing, stick them in a reader like Google’s. Sites that are picture heavy that you might want to add are The Big Picture by Boston Globe, This Isn’t Happiness or Hawlin’s MOOD. Follow the pics from those last two sites and you’ll discover great niche sites that share great images, too.
- Bundlr – Surf this curation tool to find inspiring images to pin. Look at their most-popular collection or staff’s pick to find the unique and useful image.
- Pinterest – It should seem obvious, but simply working through Pinterest several times a day will lead to some amazing images to re-pin. Don’t forget to @mention the original poster when you do.
9 reasons why marketers should use Pinterest
If you are a community manager, early adopter or social media enthusiast, then the business value of Pinterest may be obvious to you. However, everyone else in marketing may not share your enthusiasm. But how do you go about convincing them they should jump on board? Here are nine reasons your business should consider marketing on Pinterest. - Shift in consumer behavior from search to discovery – Search is great for finding answers. Discovery is great for finding inspiration. Pinterest taps into that phenomenon. As Samil Shah explained on TechCrunch back in November, Pinterest is bringing some of that discovery online…which could lead to a revolution in how we purchase items. Right now we are trained to go to Amazon or Google to find what we want. Pinterest starts before that search, before we even thinking we want to buy a particular product. For example, if I wanted a sound system for my laptop, I might hop on to Pinterest, browse a category devoted to sound systems and then land on a product. Within that discovery phase, however, I may never end up at Amazon since Pinterest drives traffic back to a retailer’s site.
- Little interaction needed for brands – A legitimate concern for any brand considering jumping into a new social media platform is the resource question: do you have it in the budget to staff? The nice thing about Pinterest is there isn’t a lot of overhead. Outside of pinning, categorizing and tagging images, you don’t have to worry about managing comments or playing the follower game. You can push content at your own pace.
- Connect with the visual segment of your audience - Pinterest is visual. So it attracts an entirely different crowd…those who may have an appeal for an image over written words. Why is this important? Consider how content marketers typically engage their audiences…through words, videos or audio podcasts. You can open the doors to a new segment of buyers who may be interested in your product…but not know about it…by building a community around the images you pin. That can draw others in who are inspired by your account and lead to referrals.
- Inspires the shy content creator – Pinterest is allowing another segment of the online market get into the action. That segment is the lurker…the person who is too shy to create their own blog, comment on other social sites or contribute in any way online. Pinterest is best compared to Tumblr, where most Tumblrs do not create original content…but share, or “re-blog,” other content. Pinterest is a great way for people to express themselves without having to do anything original.
- Amplifies the content of original creators – The average Tumblr post gets reblogged 9 times. That means it’s reaching far more people than if it remained on its own site. While there aren’t numbers on Pinterest, you can assume the same thing…content is re-pinned and shared across a wider audience. So if you are an original content creator, sharing that content on Pinterest will amplify its reach.
- Repinning is the new “retweet” –It’s quite possible that you can build a community from simply sharing other people’s pins…the same way some Twitter power users have built a following off of retweeting or Tumblr users who’ve reblogged.
- Tap into niches – As I mentioned above, Pinterest will allow you to pick up on a different segment. You can take this idea of niche marketing further by creating boards specific to particular segments. For example, Crutchfield might create boards around “dream man caves,” “cool clubbing” and “ladies’ lounge,” which include reader-generated home-based sound systems in these themes.
- Build your expertise – Even if your brand doesn’t work seamlessly on Pinterest like a lifestyle company’s might, you can still use it to share your experience and build your expertise in a particular location, industry or relationships. A web strategist likeJeremiah Owyang might create boards around “must-have social media equipment for road warriors,” “top people to know in the web analytics business” or “places to eat when you attend Conference X.”
- It’s beating out Facebook referrals - Finally, perhaps one of the best reasons for using Pinterest in your social media marketing plans is that it is outperforming Facebook. The general manager of digital for the print magazine Real Life said that Pinterest was a huge source of traffic in October 2011…more than Facebook. Time to re-tool our marketing strategies, don’t you think?
21 business/brands promoting on Pinterest
So what kind of brand or business promotes on Pinterest? Great question. From non-profit organizations like the Humane Society of New York and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art to small, Midwestern shops to global brands, Pinterest is proving a good fit for offline and online organizations. Here is a list of 21 of the most notable Pinterest accounts. - San Francisco Museum of Modern Art – SFMOMA is the perfect example of an organization being able to weave Pinterest into their marketing plans. A museum on the West Coast devoted to 20th and 21st century art, it’s already got great boards geared toward “caffeinated,” “humans” and, of course, “exhibitions.”
- Modern Ink – This bi-monthly magazine shares photos in boards that reflect critical keywords when it comes to their audience: “polished beauty,” “outdoor lust” and “face time.”
- Etsy – No surprise to find the online vintage and hand-made marketplace on Pinterest. The two seem perfectly fitted for each other.
- Ivory Homes – Utah’s number one homebuilder Ivory Homes shares content with followers that involves great home exteriors, things that make a house a home and décor for each room of the house. It’s a good example of blending their own content with theinterest of their customers.
- Sevenly – Charity based t-shirt maker Sevenly pins the images they use for inspiration, actual t-shirts they’ve created and plain goofiness in their “epic check photos.” The combination of business related and personality make it a great pinner to follow.
- Honeycomb Salon – This hair salon in Minneapolis pins images of hairstyles broken down into boards like “short cuts,” “long cuts” and “men’s cuts.”
- The Humane Society of New York – This non-profit uses its Pinterest account to update followers on pets adopted, new pets available for adoption and books pet lovers might enjoy reading.
- General Electric – You might wonder what a giant technology multi-national like GE could do on Pinterest. Well, if you like science, their account is quite fascinating as it pins content to boards like “bad-ass machines,” “the archives” and “#GEInspiredME,” a board devoted to photos taken by people with Instagram and tagged “#GEInspiredMe.”
- Gap – The clothing company pins content based on seasons, holidays and pics of Gap clothing worn by models and customers. The Gap pushed into promotional territory with their “2011 Holiday Gift Guide” board.
- Birchbox – This beauty 2.0 company merges skin care with tech, make up with new media. What’s really cool is their “birch box” board…a place that customers attach images of their birch boxes they bought from the company. A great way to use testimonials!
- AMD – You may be a little surprised at this maker of microprocessor’s Pinterest account…24 boards with topics that range from CES2012 pictures to PC Gaming, Valentine’s Day to New Years. It’s a great strategy that shows you how diverse a company can get when it comes to segmenting.
- Mashable – With nearly 7,000 followers, Mashable staff pin content based on tips and tricks, infographics, Super Bowl ads and gadgets. Check them out and see how a non-lifestyle content publisher is using Pinterest. It will be good inspiration!
- Drake University – This private university curates content around their mascot, the bulldog, items to inspire students to study, what to explore in Des Moines and images the ultimate DU fan may love.
- Better Homes and Gardens – BHG created over 54 boards with over 932 pins (that’s 17 images per board). Boards are devoted to fun front doors, kitchens we want to cook in and not-so-boring neutral. Their Pinterest account shows how well they adapted their magazine online…knowing who their audience is and what they like. Their nearly 10,000 followers is a testament to that.
- Martha Stewart – This lifestyle guru uses her personal Pinterest account to promote her personal brand, while Martha Stewart Living is designed to cater to the magazine lovers. The combined accounts have over 22,000 followers.
- Bergdorf Goodman – This fashion company with over 5,000 followers has created boards around the seasons. Notable other boards include collections of pictures of coiffed hairstyles, books the staff is reading and Tom Ford.
- Travel Channel – True to their core audience, this TV media company puts a unique spin on their pins by placing them in boards like “places we’d rather be than work” and “behind the scenes: man v. food.”
- Chobani – America’s number one yogurt company cultivates “good conversations” around topics that will naturally be shared by their target audience: fitness, travel, flavor inspiration and holiday treats.
- Domestica – Online retailer that specializes in home goods made by hand, Domestica encourages followers through boards that display their love of Wes Anderson art, “Lez Talk Fall Fashion-Femmes” and “Plaid Is Where It’s At.” And they are not shy about directing traffic back to their retail site.
- Daily Grommet – This is the New Egg of crafts, delivering useful, interesting and exciting products they’ve discovered daily. They have a board dedicated to “talented artisans” and their favorite videos.
- Gusto Pizza – Small pizzeria in Des Moines curates content that endorses what they do—sell pizza—but more importantly let’s you see who they are with boards dedicated to swagger and David Hasselhoff.
Brands that will struggle to market on Pinterest Don’t get me wrong…not every business is going to find using or promoting on Pinterest easy. It’s still pretty tightly-focused, so tech brands, for example are not going to find it very accommodating. In a recent article on TechCrunch, Sivan Cohen and Ben Lang share 7 Reasons Why Pinterest Isn’t Ready for Tech Brands. Here are the four most important reasons: - Neither people nor brands are important – Pinterest emphasizes the pin…the image. Not the person nor even the board. The pin is what you will see first when you search.
- Tough to convert pinners into followers – A big global brand like Martha Stewart only has 22,000 plus followers, you would think she would have more. But for the most part, people will re-pin or like an image but won’t take the extra step of following. However, no surprise that Pinterest has close to 10 million. It helps that they re-pin the most popular pins everyday.
- You have to be creative if your brand isn’t visual – Lifestyle brands work well on Pinterest because what they do and how they promote it are identical. If you own a beach resort, all you have to do is show stunning pictures of the beach, your villas and the ocean. A tech brand like DropBox, however, can’t compete. One way to overcome this hurdle is to create boards around the people in the office…and pin images of their antics and adventures in and out of work…much like The Today Show does.
- Men don’t get Pinterest – It’s not hard to see why women dominate as users on Pinterest. Pinterest is a platform that attracts fashion, crafts and lifestyle images…natural favorites for women. I think it might be hard to imagine World of Warcraft or Craftsmanfeeling comfortable at Pinterest. Until then, tech brands will probably be limited on Pinterest.
A great feature of Facebook is that the messages you send have the potential to spread not just to fans but to friends of fans—known as the “multiplier effect.” Not only does this “multiplier effect” have the ability to spread marketing impressions, it also acts as a validation from a friend. Let’s take a look at a few Facebook fan pages and see how the multiplier effect might impact your marketing strategy. Data courtesy of businessinsider.com, and comscore.com.
 by Mike Volpe Twitter is a tool for "micro-blogging" or posting very short updates, comments or thoughts. In fact, since Twitter was designed to be very compatible with mobile phones through text messages, each update is limited to 140 characters. Truly, a micro-blog. Another way to think of Twitter is like a cross between instant messaging (IM) and a chat room, because it is an open forum, but you restrict it to the people with which you connect. I have to admit I have not always been sold on Twitter. At first I did not get it at all. Then I thought I understood it, but thought it was stupid and useless. Then I used it a bit more and got some more followers and followed a few more people. Now I think it has some value, especially as a marketing and PR tool. Ideas for How to Use Twitter for Marketing & PR - Engage your CEO in social media. Social media is a great way to have a conversation with your market and make and mange connections with prospects, customers, bloggers and other influencers. But for a CEO, the typical routes to social media can be hard. Especially if you are a larger or global company. A CEO typically has little time to write a blog or answer lots of messages and friend requests on Facebook. I cannot tell you how many CEO blogs I have seen with only 1 or 2 posts because the CEO never had time to update the blog after the first couple entries. But, Twitter is limited to 140 characters per update, so it is all about short thoughts and comments. If your CEO can send a text message, they can use Twitter from anywhere in the world as a marketing and PR tool. Twitter is actually perfect for CEO or founder who is always on the road meeting with people and who has some interesting opinions on your market.
- Keep in touch with bloggers / media. It is really easy to follow someone on Twitter (see below). And you'll be surprised how often they decide to follow you as well. In fact, I have lots of people I consider "famous" in the marketing and PR worlds following me. In my opinion, this is a way easier way to connect with influential people in the media than calling and emailing them.
- Monitor your company / brand on Twitter. A while back we noticed that Guy Kawasaki mentioned Website Grader on Twitter. Well, of course we had to let him know a bit more about Website Grader and maybe ask if he would also blog about it? The result was this blog article on Website Grader which drove a good amount of traffic and leads. (See below for a cool tip on how to easily monitor people talking about your company on Twitter.)
- Announce specials, deals or sales. If you are a retailer or anyone who often has special offers, you can use Twitter to announce these deals instantly to a large audience. You know those commercials from Southwest Airlines about that "Ding" application you could download and would then alert you about specials on flights? Well, Twitter can be used as a kind of free version of that. Dell and Woot have done just this type of marketing, with a lot of success.
- Live updates on events or conferences. If you participate in a large trade show or run your own corporate event, you can use Twitter to announce last minute changes, cool events that are happening ("Just announced, David Meerman Scott book signing in the exhibit hall until 11am") and more. It is a great last minute marketing tool.
- Promote blog articles, webinars, interesting news and more. Its really easy to post a link to something in Twitter, and I often post links to blog articles on this blog, or other news articles relevant to HubSpot. A good idea is to post articles on other websites that are relevant to your business, like a customer success story or other PR coverage. If you have other content that is appealing to your audience like a free webinar, post links to those too.
Using Twitter for Marketing & PR - A Step-by-Step Guide - Sign-up and post a profile. Visit Twitter and click on the "Get Started - Join" button in the middle. The rest is simple enough that I think you can figure it out without my help.
- Write some updates. The beauty of Twitter is that the 140 character limit is the great equalizer - I am about as good of a writer as Shakespeare on Twitter. Post a link to a news article you liked with a one line comment, mention an interesting thought you had, or tell everyone what you are cooking for dinner. Just write something.
- Make friends. Making friends on Twitter is pretty easy. Just surf around the web on your favorite blogs, people's Facebook profiles etc, and when you see a Twitter box that tells you what they are doing click on it. That will bring you to their profile and then you just click on the "Follow" button on the top left and you are now following them. Most of the time they will then follow you back, and the audience for your 140 character insights will have grown by one person. You can get started by following me: Mike Volpe on Twitter. You can also click on the people that other people are following to find more people to follow.
- How to post URLs. Twitter is based on 140 character updates. If you have a really long URL, that doesn't leave much room for Most people on Twitter use www.TinyURL.com to take a long URL and make it short. Give it a shot if you have a long URL that you want to market on Twitter.
- Monitor conversations about your company. Even if you don't join Twitter yourself you can monitor what people are saying about any person, company or brand. This is quite useful from a marketing and PR standpoint. Twitter has a search engine that lets you do just this. For instance, here is a list of everyone who is talking about HubSpot on Twitter. You can subscribe to these searches by RSS to keep yourself updated. Another tip is that you can "follow" all the people you find talking about your company (just click on their username to go to their profile). If they are talking about your company, they would probably be pretty happy that someone from the company wants to follow them.
- How to "chat". Using the @ symbol before someone's Twitter username is how people have "conversations" in Twitter. This makes their username a link to their profile so other people can follow the conversation (sort of). For example if you wrote "@mvolpe thanks for the cool blog article about Twitter today" that would be a way of telling me you liked this article. Try it out. It's not IM (instant messaging), but it is sort of like a publicly broadcast IM service.
 Written by Carol Tice Strong branding is critical in our ad-cluttered world. After all, you want to ensure that you're the first provider in your niche that comes to customers' minds. But what if your brand is, well, just you? How can you be memorable and stand out? Never fear -- solopreneurs can have snappy branding, too. Here's a quick guide and some examples of one-person businesses that have great, memorable brands: - Make it visual. Simple branding is best, especially if you can make an association in people's minds that helps them remember you. Two of my local realtors are Ed Aro and Penny McLaughlin. You guessed it -- Ed's logo is an arrow, and Penny's is a one-cent piece with her face on it in profile instead of Lincoln. Penny has had so much success with her brand that she grew into a real-estate empire with eight brokers, a.k.a. "Penny's Team." Their trucks are often seen around town, with that familiar penny logo on the side.
- Be sure it's tweetable. Social media is increasingly important in coming up with your brand concept. Look what happened to Netflix when they didn't check if their chosen spinoff brand name, Qwikster, was available on Twitter. It turned out to be already taken by someone who wanted to post about their drug use. When you're choosing a brand name, consider how and whether it would work in social media.
- Have fun. Some of my favorite solopreneur brands have humorous or whimsical elements. For instance, a proofreader and writing-consultant friend of mine, Stefanie Flaxman, is the Revision Fairy -- check out her cool cartoon. And franchise expert Joel Libava is the Franchise King, down to posing with a red-velvet-and-gold crown (once again, great visual). What better way to instantly communicate that he's the top expert in his field?
- Make sure it fits. If the entrepreneurs I've cited above were uncomfortable with the brands they've created, their brands would flounder. You may be living with this brand for a long time, so don't go with a brand concept that embarrasses you. Customers will sense that, and you won't promote your brand as enthusiastically.
- Be consistent. Once you've come up with your branding, you want to use it everywhere. Get new business cards, magnet signs for your car, stationery and a new sign for your store. Don't leave any of your old, less-awesome branding lurking around to confuse people.
 Jonathan Rick is a director at Levick Strategic Communications. He contributes to Levick’s Bulletproof Blog. Follow him @jrick.Every year, for the last ten years, someone has proclaimed that the press release is dying. While the rumors of its demise are exaggerated, they are not totally unfounded. That’s because the press release is, in fact, being eclipsed by digital alternatives that are more flexible, more interesting, and more relevant. In 2010, when Google made a major announcement not by press release but by blog post, we reached what seemed like a milestone. Five years earlier, a company of Google’s stature would have issued a statement on a newswire. Now, a Google executive was crafting a more thoughtful narrative that the company published on its official blog. This shift in medium and message represents a new era in corporate communications. News now needs to be conveyed in an empathetic tone and delivered in a user-friendly format. And Google isn’t the only company using this strategy. Dell breaks news on its blog all the time. When Netflix has something to say, it complements a traditional release with a first-person post. Southwest Airlines takes the prize for a blog that whips CNN-type announcements into HBO-like celebrations. What’s so encouraging about this trend is that it isn’t exclusive to corporate behemoths. To the contrary, smaller companies can leverage blog-centric communications with great success. Here are four examples of those that do it well. 1. ZillowZillow, the real estate company, has a great blog where it bypasses the typical corporate press release. Instead, it opts for more conversational posts like: “Whether you’re driving around a neighborhood checking home values on your smartphone, using an iPad to draw a search around that dream neighborhood while waiting at the airport, or doing some serious house hunting on your computer at home, there are multiple ways to home search and shop with Zillow.” Similarly, new hires are introduced by their respective manager in a first-person post. The Lesson: Keep it human. Your stakeholders, and your customers, prefer it that way. 2. PatagoniaThose searching Patagonia’s website for a press release will look in vain. Instead, media folks are invited to join the Patagonia PR Facebook group. This group is dedicated to keeping journalists, writers, editors, and other media informed about Patagonia and its outdoor clothing products. While a social network isn’t technically a blog, it works. In fact, Patagonia also operates a robust blog. The Lesson: Passion, even edginess, does not get in the way of your message. Passion actually shows personality, and that there’s a real person behind your press shop. 3. InnocentWhen the British smoothie-maker Innocent announced new juice blends earlier this year, it did so via press release and blog post. The difference between the two versions speaks volumes. Here’s the press release: “We’ve been so pleased with how popular the juice has been that we got back in to the kitchen and have made some delicious juice blends, which we think everyone will enjoy just as much.”
Here’s the blog post: “You can choose from our delicious apple and raspberry recipe or totally tasty tropical (sorry), depending on whether you need to be transported to a dappled orchard or a desert island.”
The formatting differences between the two are even more glaring. The press release lacks any social sharing buttons. Its claim to fame: it’s downloadable as a PDF. The blog post features the colorful new bottles and video created for the occasion. There’s also a promise to reward the most interesting comments with a free case of the new blends. The Lesson: Entertaining consumers is as important as informing them. 4. ServIntWhen ServInt, a web host, announced a new line of servers from their Flex brand, the press release followed the tried-and-trite formula. “ServInt, a pioneering provider of managed cloud hosting for enterprises worldwide, today introduced its new line of fully managed, dedicated servers under the Flex brand.” Then things got interesting on their blog, ServInt Source, which ran three posts about Flex. First, ServInt’s sales director touted the servers’ “power and options.” A week later, its vice president of marketing connected the new machines to the company’s new brand identity. Finally, the COO placed these changes in the context of industry-wide developments. What’s significant about this approach is how it turns a single announcement into multiple opportunities. With press releases this continuity is difficult. A blog, however, is perfect for ongoing updates. The Lesson: Make it personal. Comments from soldiers in the trenches are more memorable than a few quotes from a chief executive.
 by Eric Geier
Do you manage a Facebook Page for your business or organization? If so, you're probably aware that many of the same security issues that plague personal profiles also apply to Pages. But what you may not know is that there are several additional security issues that you should be thinking about when managing a Facebook Page.
The top areas you should be thinking about include: Securing your Page, locking down your admin accounts, and securely managing apps, comments, posts, and abuse.
In this article, I’ll discuss each of these areas and give you some tips on keeping your company's Facebook presence as secure as possible.
Configure Your Page for Maximum Security
To review and manage your Page settings, you must first log in with your personal Facebook account. Once you're logged in, click the arrow in the upper right corner and select your page. Now you'll be using Facebook as your Page(rather than as yourself), and you'll be able to review and update your page settings and permissions, admin accounts, and featured settings. You can also access these settings by clicking the Edit Page button in the upper right when viewing your Facebook Page. You'll want to periodically review these settings, as Facebook often makes changes and additions in these areas.
On the Your Settings page, it's a good idea to enable the setting labeled Always comment and post on your page as [Your Page Name], even when using Facebook as [Your Personal Name]. Doing so will help hide your personal Facebook account from your Page's visitors, which is a good idea in case your personal account gets hacked. On this page you'll also likely want to enable the email notifications so you can regularly keep tabs on postings and comments left by the public. If you have other people set up as Page admins, keep in mind these settings are unique to each admin. It's a good practice to make sure all admins are following a consistent policy with regard to these settings.
On the Manage Permissions page, pay close attention to the Posting Ability, Moderation Blocklist, and Profanity Blocklist settings.
On the Manage Admins page, make sure you keep the list of admins up-to-date and remove anyone who no longer needs access.
On the Featured page, it's a good idea to stay away from designating any of your admins as Featured Page Owners, because the act of exposing your admins' personal accounts could make your Page more vulnerable to hacking. Furthermore, your admins might inadvertently post content on their personal profiles that would not be appropriate for your Page visitors.
Protect Your Admin Accounts
Remember, admin access to your Page content and settings is managed via personal Facebook accounts. Any person that is set as an admin for your Page can login with his or her personal Facebook account credentials to manage the page. This means that if an admin's personal Facebook account becomes compromised, then the hacker automatically has admin access to the Page content and settings as well. (Unfortunately, admins can't mitigate this risk by creating multiple Facebook accounts: It is a violation of Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities to maintain more than one personal account.)
To help keep their personal accounts secure, all Page admins should be familiar with and follow the tips and best practices listed on the Facebook security page and in the downloadable Facebook Security Guide. Some of the steps you can take to secure your personal account include: Making your profile and content private, and enabling SSL connections. You should also carefully review which apps have access to your account and disable all the ones you can live without.
Manage Apps, Comments, and Abuse
Facebook apps let you add custom functionality to your Facebook Page, which can help create a more compelling experience for your visitors. For example, you can use the Hosted iFrame app to add custom tabs to your Facebook Page.
But before you add a Facebook app to your Page, make sure to read the app reviews and carefully review the list of permissions requested by the app. Some apps may pose privacy risks while others may be completely malicious. Review your app list periodically and remove those you don't use.
If you allow posting by visitors (as specified in permissions), you can always remove posts and comments from your page that you deem inappropriate. Simply view your page, hover over the post or comment, and you’ll find a small icon for deleting it. If you accidently remove or hide a post, you may be able to recover it by clicking the Wall link on your Page and selecting Hidden Posts.
You can also remove or permanently ban troublemakers from your page. When removing a post or comment, you’ll be asked whether or not you want to just delete the content or delete and ban the user.
To help protect your business or brand, you should periodically search Facebook for any third-party pages or profiles about your organization. Users could create hate groups and imitation pages about your organization or brand for malicious reasons.
If you do find inappropriate content you can report it to Facebook. Even if you find a username of a page or personal profile that infringes your rights, you can report that as well.
Lastly, you might want to check Facebook’s official Privacy for Page Admins info. If you have specific questions regarding pages or their security, consider posting them on the Facebook Pages Forum. And it bears repeating that you'll want all page admins to follow good security practices when using their personal accounts as well, so be sure to check out the general Facebook Security page too.
Eric Geier is the founder of NoWiresSecurity, which helps businesses easily protect their Wi-Fi networks with the Enterprise mode of WPA/WPA2 security. He is also a freelance tech writer. Follow him on Twitter: @eric_geier.
by Corey Eridon  As an inbound marketer, you spend so much time writing amazing blog content -- you conceive an engaging topic, research the subject matter, pour your heart and soul into writing the post, and beam as you hit the publish button for all the world to see.
And then after a day or two, in the immortal words of Jay-Z, it's "on to the next."
So what happens to that awesome blog post you published a few days ago once the next one comes along? For most people, it just kind of ... disappears into the ether, getting buried by newer posts and disappearing from your blog's homepage. What a shame.
But it doesn't have to be that way! There are plenty of ways to resurface your best blog content so it gets more visibility than just a day or two on your blog's homepage. We know how much time and effort it takes to create content, so why not squeeze the most ROI out of your business blogging with these ideas to resurface your blog content?
1) Recommend Blog Posts About Similar Topics
If your reader was interested enough to click through to your blog post on, say, paid search for mobile (like I was on Search Engine Land's recent blog post on the subect), it stands to reason that your reader might like to read the other content you've written on the subject. That's why it's a great idea to include links to related blog posts you've written on the subject in the bottom of your blog posts, as Search Engine Land has done on its site.
You'll notice they not only include links to the titles of blog posts that relate to mobile marketing and search engine strategy, but they also link to their blog topic tags on paid search marketing, mobile marketing, and search marketing for those who might like to browse the entirety of their blog archives. You can make this related content module a feature of your blog design, or simply include it in plain text at the bottom of each blog post you write.
2) Republish Successful Blog Posts in Social Media
You may already use social media to achieve visibility for your blog posts when you first publish them -- so why not continue to promote them via your social media accounts well after their initial publish date, too? This is easy to do with automated social media publishing tools; if you're a HubSpot customer, you can make use of oursocial publishing tool that lets you schedule posts across all your social media accounts for pre-defined dates and times in the future.
3) Use Your Blog Posts as a Lead-Gen Offer
In a recent blog post about how to quickly create a lead-gen offer, we recommended creating a "blog bundle," or a compilation of your best blog posts on a particular subject. This tactic can be used for a quick lead generation offer and to gain more visibility for your best blog posts. Don't you just love repurposed content?
To get the most visibility for your blog posts using this method, include links throughout the offer that lead back to other blog posts. For example, if I were to create a blog bundle about SEO, it's possible I'd talk tangentially about paid search. While it wouldn't be relevant to go in-depth on paid search in a piece of content focused on SEO, it would be helpful to reference and link to other paid search blog posts within the blog bundle offer. You might say, "To learn more about how paid search can help your organic search strategy, read this blog post about integrating a paid and organic strategy," with a link back to that blog post.
This strategy not only lets you leverage your best blog content as a lead generation offer while simultaneously getting more eyes on those blog posts, but it also gives you ample opportunity to drive visitors back to your blog through relevant internal linking opportunities.
4) Grow Inbound and Internal Links for More Search Engine Visibility
The linking opportunities don't end with your lead generation offers; it's crucial to grow your inbound and internal links within blog posts to increase blog post visibility in search engines.
Think about how users find your blog -- it's not just through email alerts to subscribers and social media links. If you're optimizing your content, you'll get found in search engines for years to come! Increase that visibility by naturally acquiring inbound links for your most important blog posts -- through guest blogging opportunities, polite requests to industry connections, and graciously linking to other people's content. Then bolster the impact of those internal links by implementing a savvy internal linking strategy to help bolster organic visibility of important blog posts even further. If you're curious how to implement an internal linking strategy that will help your SEO, read our blog post that explains its importance and how to get started.
Aside from the SEO value you'll get from internal linking, continually referencing your old blog content within the context of new blog posts helps you continually drive new traffic to them. We make use of this tactic all the time in our blog posts (see the internal linking examples in the previous paragraph); instead of explaining a concept in its entirety in a blog post, we link to a past post that goes into far more detail. Not only is this more useful for the reader -- we don't derail the subject of the blog post to explain a tangential concept -- but it also helps us to drive more traffic to blog posts that have long since been archived.
5) Update & Republish Old Blog Posts
You now know -- from your social media republishing research in tip #2 -- which blog posts were the most successful. But are they all still up-to-date? If your best blog posts are months or years old, it's possible the information contained therein is outdated -- especially if you work in a fast-changing industry. So why not save yourself the time of writing a new post from scratch and get more leverage out of those evergreen blog posts by updating the content and republishing it to your blog?
The new version of the blog post offered an updated graph, more explanation to accompany the original video that was embedded in the post, and highlighted new product functionality that helps marketers keep track of lead generation progress that was not available when the post was originally published.
When updating and republishing blog content, rather than creating a new draft, just change the date from the original publish date to the current one so readers don't think they've stumbled across outdated content and so you aren't publishing what search engines consider duplicate content. Share the new post in social media, and if your blog comments automatically turn off after a certain timeframe, enable new comments again since you'll be getting new traffic to the blog post.
6) Recommend the Most Popular Blog Posts You're getting new, unique traffic to your blog every day. Don't you think those new visitors would like to read some of your blog's oldies but goodies? Make use of one of the simplest ways to resurface old blog content -- a blog post recommendation widget. These modules can be built into your blog's design, and automatically recommend the blog posts that were the most popular. Just be sure you're vigilant about updating old but popular blog content (refer to tip #5) so you don't drive visitors to pages with incorrect or outdated information!
7) Use Blog Content in Email Marketing Campaigns
One of the most common reasons marketers fail at lead nurturing is a lack of suitable content. Use your blog to simultaneously feed your lead nurturing content arsenal and generate more visibility for past blog posts. We're not talking emailing subscribers about a new blog post getting published -- that's not targeted lead nurturing. Rather, pick your best, most comprehensive blog posts that address your prospects' pain points, and include them in your lead nurturing content map. For example, a prospect in the top of your sales funnel that has viewed a lot of HubSpot's past Facebook content might be interested to receive our post about the most inspiring Facebook brand page designs. Just be sure to include calls-to-action in all of your posts so traffic that converts from the email can reconvert on the blog!
You don't need to be utilizing advanced lead nurturing tools to leverage your blog content in emails, though. Give your sales team an arsenal of evergreen, educational posts that address common pain points they hear when speaking to prospects. When they uncover a serious pain point, they're equipped to verbally explain the solution and send a personalized email with a link to the blog post that explains the solution in more detail.
8) Include Blog Posts in Your Resource CenterWe've written before on this blog about a resource center as an important place on your website to update content. But it can be daunting to continually come up with new content to include there -- and you want to update your site as much as possible for optimal search engine optimization, right? Kill two birds with one stone, and highlight your best blog posts in your resource center. We advise against including the entirety of your blog content in your resource center, since search engines might ding you for duplicate content. Instead, write an original abstract that explains what the post is about, and direct the reader to the full post on your blog.
9) Reference Your Blog Content in Q&A Forums
Just as your how-to and explanatory blog posts are useful content for your sales organization, they can be repurposed on Q&A forums and social networks like Quora or LinkedIn Answers where users crowdsource answers to industry questions. Get a FREE blog writing quote here.
 by Lauren Sorenson
Your brand’s strategy should be based on company goals. And just like James Bond wouldn't have gotten too far without a plan, your business will eventually hit a wall without a cohesive brand strategy. Sure, maybe you can finagle a big sale or trick a Russian spy or two, but one day you'll wake up and have no idea how your company got from A-to-Q -- it’s supposed to go from A-to-B, remember? And skipping steps is not how a great company that stands the test of time is built.
Brand strategy is the how, what, when, and to whom you plan on communicating your product or service. Having a clear and concise brand strategy leads to stronger overall brand equity -- how people feel about or perceive your product, and how much they are willing to pay for it.
It's the stuff that feels intangible, but it's that hard-to-pin-down feeling that separates powerhouse and mediocre brands from one another. So to help you rein in what many marketers consider more of an art and less of a science, we've broken down seven components of a comprehensive brand strategy that will help keep your company around for ages. So is your company's brand strategy smooth like Bond? Or will it leave your company shaken harder than Bond's martini?
Tie Your Brand to Your Business Model
Let's clear up the biggest misconception about brand strategy right now. Your brand is not your product, your logo, your website, or your name. It’s what your customers perceive about you, and how you make them feel. Chances are you're not the only company out there selling your product or service. Figure out what your company does best beyond what you sell, and make it a part of your brand strategy.
For example, Apple doesn’t just sell computers and music equipment; it sells well-designed products that are easy to use. Are they the best computers on the market? No. (Well, I guess that depends on what side of the Mac-PC debate you're on.) But Apple sells a lot of them at twice the price because of the way Apple positions its brand in the market. This goes beyond your product itself -- it's about selling the problem you are solving.
Don’t claim to solve generic problems; your customers have specific problems. Play the word game. Volvo = safe; Coke = refreshing; Disney = magic; HubSpot = All-in-One. What does your brand equal? You always knew Bond was going to get out of a pickle, but you wanted to see howbecause he did it with resourcefulness and flair. Decide which aspect is the most important about your product or service, and make it a part of every aspect of your brand communication.
Be Consistent
Now that you have decided your key brand attributes, make sure it is clear and understood through all your communications -- especially inside your own company. Don’t talk about things that don’t relate to or enhance your brand. Added a new photo to Facebook? What does it mean for your company? Does it align with your message, or was it just something funny that would, frankly, confuse your audience? If it doesn’t tie back to your brand's message, you will have trouble differentiating yourself from competitors.
To reinforce the message, in your company meetings, over coffee or lunch, or just chatting at your desk, encourage the feelings you want your brand to evoke in customers and your employees. When employees start to talk the talk and walk the walk -- especially those on the front lines -- the messaging is consistently reinforced with leads and customers, too.
You might be thinking, “Volvo doesn’t say safety, safety, safety all the time, though.” But listen to how Volvo describes its cars and how long they last, as well as how it describes features. It all ties back to Volvo's underlying brand theme of safety, and customers know what they will get when they buy that product.
Connect Emotionally
Customers can either think rationally about your product or service, or they can think emotionally about it. How else do you explain the person who paid thousands of dollars more for a Harley rather than buying another cheaper, equally well-made bike? There was an emotional voice in there somewhere, whispering “Buy a Harley…open road…tough.” It’s the way the brand makes you feel. You feel like you belong, like you're part of a larger group that's more tight-knit than just a bunch of motorcycle riders. Where do you think HOG came from? Harley Owners Group.
Find a way to connect to your customers on a deeper level. Do you give them peace of mind? Make them feel like part of the family? Do you make life easier? Connect with your customers on this point before and after a sale. Answer their questions and concerns on social media. A little goes a long way. Batman doesn’t have any real superpowers, but whenever that signal lights up the sky, people trust that he will be there -- because he always is.
Reward and Cultivate
If you already have people that love you, your company, and your brand, don’t just sit there! Reward them for that love. These customers have gone out their way to write about you, to tell their friends about you, and to act as your brand ambassadors.Cultivating loyalty from these people early on will yield more returning customers -- and more profit for your business.
Sometimes, just a thank you is all that's needed, but great brands also tend to give more than that. Write them a personalized letter. Do you have some extra special swag? Sent it to them. Ask them to write a review, and feature them prominently on your website. For example, Porsche reached 1 million Facebook fans quicker than any other automotive brand, so to thank its fans, Porsche made a wraparound for its GT3 Hybrid that included all 1 million names. No doubt the car company also received an extra bit of buzz for it. And showing how happy your current customers are with your product certainly helps your sales organization, too, because it shows the positive end result of becoming a customer.
Measure
Just because you come up with a campaign to reinforce your brand strategy, doesn’t mean it will work. There have been plenty of schemes and plans that have ended with our beloved heroes in the clutches of an evil foe. How the Penguin catches anyone, I don’t know, but if it can happen to Batman, it can happen to you. Watch your return on investment as you implement new campaigns to strengthen your brand. If your brand isn’t resonating with enough people through the campaign, you have not given them a good enough reason to love you.
At the start of each new campaign, check your marketing analytics for branded and organic search. If it goes up when you launch your campaign, it means people are hearing about your campaign and becoming interested in your brand. They are searching for you -- often by name -- because you have provided them with enough compelling content that they want to know more. Just don't get stuck on one tactic or campaign. By staying agile, you can better measure whether your tactics are aligning well with your overall brand strategy, and if they don't, you haven't invested so much that you can't re-evaluate.
Be Flexible
Speaking of agile inbound marketing, in this fast-changing world, marketers must remain flexible to stay relevant. On the plus side, this frees you to be creative with your campaigns. Old Spice generated quite the buzz over the last few years because it took its old brand and made it relatable to a new generation. Old Spice still held true to its brand; they just did it in a different, buzz-worthy way that opened them to a new customer market. I’m still talking about them, and that horse left the barn over a year ago.
So if your old tactics aren’t working anymore, don’t be afraid to change them just because it worked in the past. Take the opportunity to engage your followers in fresh, new ways. Are there some out-of-the-box partnerships your brand can make? Are there attributes about your product you never highlighted? Use those to connect with new customers and remind your old ones why they love you.
Watch Out for Competitors...a Little
You know that part in the movies, just when you think you're safe? When Indiana Jones gets through all the booby traps only to discover an army of guards waiting there as he turns around? Your competitors are like that. Just as soon as you think you have them figured out, they throw a curve ball. This will never end. And it can seem disheartening until you realize it is helping you improve your brand in the process.
Take the competition as a challenge to improve your own strategy and create greater value in your overall brand. You are in the same business and going after the same customers, right? So watch what they do. Do some of their tactics succeed? Do some fail? Tailor your tactics based on their experience to better your brand and company. For too many years, American car companies ignored their foreign competitors. But they finally realized they needed to change their model for the changing times and tout a more fuel-efficient agenda to keep pace with foreign competitors.
That being said, don't let your competitors dictate each and every move. I started this blog post talking about why you're in business. Sure, you probably sell a similar product or service as many other companies. But you're in business because your brand is unique. By harping on every move your competitor makes, you lose that differentiation. And soon your customers won't be able to tell you apart, making it even easier for them to leave you. Keep your eye on your competitors when experimenting with your brand strategy -- just not a hawk's eye.
What are some ways you evaluate the effectiveness of your brand strategy?
 It often seems as though every blogger, small business, and website manager is using social media these days in an effort to advertise and increase exposure for their product or service. They are turning to Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. They are posting tweets, providing status updates, and introducing new products via an image upload. And many of them are taking wide-ranging steps to boost and sustain their number of Facebook “Likes.” It is understandable that someone using social media will want consumers to view their Facebook page. But what added benefits are accrued from getting those consumers to take the extra step and clicking the “Like” button? If you’re using social media for your reputation management, how can managing your “Likes” translate into greater exposure and success? Here’s how:LegitimacyA big corporation with 10,000 Facebook “Likes” may not benefit a lot whole from working to increase that number to 12,000. But there is a very real difference between 50 “Likes” and 300 “Likes” when a smaller company is involved. At the low end, 50 “Likes” could simply mean that you got all your friends and relatives to follow your Facebook page. At the other end of the spectrum, 300 “Likes” and upwards can convey to a visitor that you page has a greater intrinsic popularity. This can, in short, confer a greater legitimacy upon your business. Maximize ExposureA person who “Likes” a given Facebook page is more likely to view content from that page and return to it on a regular basis. Why is this? When someone “Likes” a business on Facebook, any images or status updates posted by that business can show up in the person’s news feed, meaning that they will see this information as soon as they log on to their account. Moreover, boosting your “Likes” can expand your exposure to the friends of the people who “Like” your page, since your profile will be linked to under the Information section of any follower’s account. FeedbackA Facebook page can serve as a free, real-time focus group for the blogger or the online business. When you announce a new product or promotion, the number of people who “Like” that post and who respond favorably (or negatively) to it can be incredibly useful when determining future products and marketing strategies. In order to assemble that focus group, however, you need to insure that your most loyal and trustworthy customers are regularly appraised of the happenings on your Facebook page. This means boosting your “Likes” in an effort to encompass all of these more loyal followers. These are the three main reasons why boosting Facebook “Likes” can be helpful for an online enterprise. While there are components of social media and online marketing that probably deserve a larger percentage of your time, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t take a few minutes here and there to try to increase your “Like” count.
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