Archive for social media

03 Jan 2012
business tips • small business • social media

Social Media Glossary


I’m often accused (and rightly so) of being nerdy and geeky and some of that is because I know the “lingo”. In other words, I know what Klout is and I use Hashtags in my tweets and I love Widgets. I only know these and more because I read about them often and I’m sure if you read the same things that I did you would be just as nerdy and geeky as well. (Not sure if that’s a good thing or not).

Anyway, my business coach sent me this great link with descriptions of 120 social media terms that you might not be familiar with.

So, take a look, see what you’re familiar with and any that you may not be familiar with, take a moment to learn about it. Who knows, you just might like it!


Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.

eckweb | No comments
04 Dec 2011
social media

Social Media – Here For Good – Like It Or Not


I have a friend who is quite computer and Internet phobic.  For whatever reason, she keeps coming up with a million reasons as to why computers and the Internet are just not good for her or for society.  We had a discussion recently where she expressed her thoughts that texting and communicating via the Internet is not really communicating.  People need to get on the phone and talk or meet and talk.  That’s TRUE communication, she said.

I disagreed and said that for me, and for many others that I know, social media and the Internet has brought me much closer to others.  I mean, there are people that I communicate with daily, sometimes several times a day without speaking a word to them.  I text, I Twitter and if I have something to say to alot of people, I Facebook as well.  The idea is that I know more about what is going on with my friends daily than I ever did.  I know what they’re doing, what they’re thinking, how they’re feeling.  Yes, we still do talk but now, when we talk, we spend that time exploring more deeply what’s been going on in our lives – it’s more intimate and less superficial.

What do you think?


Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.

eckweb | No comments
05 Aug 2011
internet marketing • seo • social media

Google Real Time and Social Media


So, are you ready for even MORE information overload? Are you not happy with how quickly your news is updated on your computer screen?

Well, Google is bringing back “Real Time Search” which gives you, the User, the opportunity to search through social media programs like Twitter, Google+, etc. for whatever it is that you’re looking for.

As for it’s impact on marketing, well, for me, as an Internet Marketer, I won’t have to search on separate screens on Twitter or Facebook for information. All the information will show up on the Google screen.

Hmm – they really are taking over the world, aren’t they?


Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.

eckweb | No comments
09 Jun 2011
internet marketing • small business • social media

Going Global – Is It For You?


The majority of the businesses that Eckweb deals with as far as Internet Marketing services are local types of businesses.  And because of the fact that they are local we don’t do much in the way of “global” advertising.  What I mean is we don’t market the company in other countries.

But, if you’re a local business owner – you may want to re-consider and begin thinking about how you can “go global”.

Worldwide Internet Traffic Increasing To One Zettabyte Per Year by 2015

I’m reading an article on Mashable about Global Internet traffic and how it’s expected to quadruple by 2015 to one zettabyte.  (I didn’t even know there was a zettabyte!)  Anyway the article does a great job of showcasing what type of traffic and the regions that are expected to grow.  According to the article, the areas with the least amount of growth will be North America.  Obviously that caught my eye since all my clients are in that geography!

So, it got me thinking that if the majority of Internet traffic will be from other countries, how can a local business tap into that?  Should they even try?  Would it be worth it?

Well, I had some thoughts…

1) Every business knows that you can’t survive without expansion.  I don’t mean expanding the size of the staff – I mean expanding what the company offers.  These days, you can’t keep offering the same service or product year after year and expect to do well (or even the same).  It’s important to keep up with the trends of your audience.

So, in this regard, it would be the right thing to do to try to expand to other countries.

2) But, having said that – how?  If you’re an accountant living in Baltimore, MD your services are of course local.  How can an accountant in the USA help someone in Australia?

The only thing that I can think of is Information.  The number one reason people use the Internet is for Information.  If you can be the source that they find (the answers to their questions) then you become the “hub” of your industry.

3) But is that enough?  I mean putting up some videos or articles answering questions concerning your industry – that’s it?  That’s all you have to do?  Hmmm – no.  I mean, there’s alot of competition so you have to stand out.  You can do this by…

a) create constant information.  In other words you don’t just write ONE article and then step back and wait for the traffic to come.  You keep writing, writing, writing, writing.  You answer each and every question with ONE article.  You go into as much detail as you can.  You offer resources, links, etc.

b) create entertaining videos.  There are many clever videos out there talking about the most mundane of subjects but the creative types have put a spin on them by making them entertaining.  Here are some:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAAeiCI1OVE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIAEy4fshOE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyoHILAqqqE

I’m sure you could find many more – but you get the idea.

4) So, what kind of “return” would be expected?

Well, first you have to know that it’s not going to be overnight.  I mean, like any other marketing – it takes time, of course.  And you also should know that not every single idea is going to “take off”.  How many times have you launched an advertising campaign and gotten nothing from it?  There are going to be ups and downs, like anything but the overall concept is to expose your company, expose your services because in this Global era – you never know who knows who.

There are direct customers and there are indirect customers.  Every business has them.

Direct customers are those that will find you online when they search for your service or product.

Indirect customers are those that find you online via a recommendation from someone, via an information source (like Wikipedia or article website), via a link on someone’s website.

So, if the world Internet traffic is going to quadruple in 4 years time – what can you do to capture some of that?  Think about it.  Let me know.


Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.

eckweb | No comments | Tags:
02 Jun 2011
internet marketing • small business • social media

Tweeting and Marketing


According to a Pew Research Center study released yesterday (Wednesday – June 1st 2011) – 13% of online Americans use Twitter.  That doesn’t seem like much, but that’s a 5% increase from November 2010.  And, the demographics that pushed this up is younger adults (ages 25 – 34).

If this trend continues, basically, every 7 months there will be a 5% increase in Twitter users.  Again, that may not seem like much but in 14 months, about 25% of Internet users will be on Twitter.  That’s getting into some numbers!

The article on Mashable breaks down who uses Twitter – it may give you an insight to learn if your target audience can be found on Twitter.

So, don’t discount tweeting as a marketing tool.  Here are some tips on how to use Twitter for marketing your small business.

1) Tweet about your industry, new events, everyday events, etc.  In other words – keep the talk conversational – don’t sell.

2) Respond to tweets and try to be consistent – don’t just tweet when you feel like it.  Make it a point to check your twitter twice a day – spend 10 minutes – it’ll be worth it.

3) Use twitter to monitor your company, your industry, your brand, your name.  Simply go to http://search.twitter.com and conduct a search just like you would on Google.  You’ll find every mention.  You’ll be able to respond to positive and/or negative – it’s the responsible thing to do.

 


Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.

eckweb | No comments | Tags: , , , ,
27 May 2011
business tips • seo • small business • social media

Lights – Camera – Action – The YouTube Angle


If you get monthly marketing reports from Eckweb then you know that we’ve been advising you to create videos.  Whether they’re videos of you talking, how-to type of videos, entertaining videos, whatever – aim the topic to what your audience is looking for and YouTube it!

An article from Mashable that I just read reports that “More than 48 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute.”  Youtube is only 6 years old.  But the ease of use of its program coupled with the smart phone explosion has created the easiest method for anyone to put themselves “out there” on the Internet.

You may be thinking that with so many videos getting uploaded how can I possibly compete?  Who would want to see MY video?  Well, that’s why we always recommend to target the content of the video to what your audience is searching for.  The more niche, the better.  Get the keyword list of what is being typed in to the Internet from your SEO webmaster (or do it yourself if you know how) and get cracking!  (Well, get filming.)

Think you have to be a Spielberg prodigy to create a film?  Uh – not quite.  If you’re one of the few who don’t visit Youtube daily (youtube reports 3 billion views per day) and you’re not familiar with what’s on there here’s a little sampling for you to test out…

1) search your favourite hobby (anything from stamp collecting to bungy jumping)

2) search your favourite actor/actress/singer/entertainer

3) search anything with the word “funny” attached (i.e. – funny cats, funny cars, funny dances)

4) search for what’s on the news (i.e. – obama, palin, voting, egypt)

5) search for anything you’re wanting to know “how to do” (i.e. – how to paint cabinets, how to change the oil in a car, how to dance the tango)

You may be surprised at what you find.  The GREAT majority of Youtube videos are NOT professionally produced, meaning they are scripted, lighted, choreographed and filmed by an amateur, usually the person(s) you see on the video.  I’m sure once you see what Youtube has to offer, you will NOT be nervous about putting yourself on a video and begin to use the power that this search engine has gained in it’s 6 years of existence!

I look forward to seeing you there!


Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.

eckweb | No comments | Tags: , , ,
21 Apr 2011
small business • social media

5 Great Questions To Ask Your Social Media Consultant


Got another great article from my business coach, John Miller. We all know that the Internet is still fairly new, but even newer is social media. And, human nature being what it is, there are those out there who will try to sell you some snake oil service – hoping you won’t ask any questions and you’ll just sign their contract.

John put together 5 questions that you can ask someone who you’re thinking of hiring as a social media consultant.

1. How long have you been working in social media and the internet? Make sure that if your expert does seem green, they prove their experience in some other way.

2. Can you share an example of one small business you helped and how you did it? Case studies should be king. Make sure that the experiences that your expert has had are directly relatable to your business needs (not necessarily to your industry).

3. What is the biggest mistake you have seen small businesses make with social media? The heart of this question is to understand whether your expert pays attention to what is happening in the marketplace.

4. What do you think we should do first? Focusing on the first steps will help to determine two things about your expert: 1) Whether he or she has done their homework about your business and what you might already be doing, and 2) You want to make sure the expert is not just a professional theorist and that they are actually skilled in getting stuff done.

5. How will I know whether your/our efforts are working? How will you measure success? It is also a hidden test. If your expert focuses your metrics for success on volume (ie getting 1,000 Twitter followers), they probably have no idea what real business impact looks like. If instead they talk to you about how you can map your social media efforts back to your business goals – it is worth continuing your conversation.

Why A Social Media Consultant?

Just in case you’re asking yourself about the concept of a social media consultant vs. hiring someone to manage the social media marketing for you – let me give you my 2 cents worth – it may help.

First, the whole concept of using social media is to have an ongoing conversation with your customers. It’s meant to be casual, relaxed and personal. How personal can those articles or comments be if they’re coming from someone you hired? (The answer is, “not much”.)

Second, social media marketing helps you to gain the customers’ trust. It’s you, speaking to them, talking about new ideas, new products or services, the latest happenings in the industry, what your thoughts are on how your business can help your customer, etc. Now, who can do this better than the folks IN the business?

I know, I know – the concept of having to manage social media on top of everything else that you do in your business is just a bit much – believe me – I know! But the reality is, there’s no getting away from it. Social media has become a large factor in Internet Marketing. And Internet Marketing has become a large factor in business marketing. So, it’s not a matter of “should you get into social media” – it’s actually “how to manage the time to get into social media”.

If you have any questions about social media feel free to contact Eckweb – or if you have thoughts on how you manage social media in your business workday – by all means, share!!!!


eckweb | No comments | Tags: , ,
06 Apr 2011
internet marketing • small business • social media

Internet Power – Use It


I totally admit that I am a Gleek – (a huge fan of the show Glee) – and an even bigger fan of the newest member, Darren Criss. So, of course, I had to do some research and what I found is that this young kid began his road to fame via the Internet.

I know, I know, it’s a story we’ve all heard before but his is just a little different – let me share.

He attended the University of Michigan and majored in theater. He is a huge fan of Harry Potter (you know, I still haven’t read those books!) anyway, he found several other members of the theater department were also fans so, as a fun project, they decided to create a musical about Harry Potter. They based the musical on the first book. And since the majority of the students were from all over the country they decided to film the play and put it on Youtube so their family and friends could see.

Well…….

It went completely viral! So much so that they created a sequel (based on the second book) and that was even a bigger hit on Youtube. They’ve now presented productions in Chicago and may go on tour.

From that success they created the production company Starkid – have created another musical called Starship and began working on a “threequel”.

Of course, Darren Criss played Harry Potter and he wrote much of the musical so his success on Glee now may interfere with these plans but – 10 years ago – this would have never happened. His road to success would have taken much longer and could have gone a completely different path.

I know what you’re thinking – I’m an attorney, I’m not a singer or actor. What can all this exposure on something like Youtube do for me? Let’s see if I can give you some thoughts on that…

1) According to the New York Times – Youtube is the 2nd most used search engine in the world. So, there’s no denying the fact that there are people on Youtube – so the issue now is how to use it.

2) Entertainment of course gets a large audience on Youtube but so do “how to” and “information” type of videos.

3) Of course, combining the two would be the best type of video. This is where creativity comes in. If you’re not a creative type of person – consider visiting your local art school – the creative students there would definitely be an asset to creating your video campaign.

4) What information do you have that your audience would want or need? Present this in a simple, concise video.

5) Don’t be afraid to share. If anyone thinks that they have information that is not available online by someone else – well, stop thinking like that!!!! If you don’t share your knowledge and expertise, believe me, someone else will. (and they will benefit by getting clients)

6) Don’t sell – educate! You’re not making a used car lot commercial where all you talk about is “come on down” and how great you are. Let the audience make that decision, don’t tell them how great you are, show them how great you are.

7) The Internet is all about sharing and giving. And isn’t that the lesson we all learn throughout life? Give and you will get.

Enjoy the video – watch the whole play – it’s quite good (and if you know me – you know I’m not a fan of the theater so it’s quite a compliment).


Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.

eckweb | No comments | Tags: , , , ,
10 Mar 2011
business tips • internet marketing • seo • social media • Uncategorized

What and Where Is Your Audience?


Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our own little worlds that we forget about what’s happening all around us. It happens to everyone. It also happens to businesses.

I think one of the most important factors to remember, when it comes to marketing, (especially on the Internet) is to understand what your audience needs. And because the Internet can be analyzed so intensely we can get the answers to these questions so, lets see how to do that.

What Does Your Audience Need or Want?

What do these people want? There are a few ways to do this.

1) Go to samepoint.com and type in a keyword phrase. Make it as relevant as possible (meaning don’t be afraid to type in 4-5 keywords). Something like “help for depression in atlanta”.
2) You’ll get a list of “conversations” from several social media programs and a list of related terms.
3) You can scan through these posts to read what folks are looking for.

For this phrase that I typed in I found…

a) Several mentions about postpartum depression. This then gives me an niche to target. If the numbers of people looking for help for postpartum depression in Atlanta is high enough, that’s certainly something that I would want to target.

b) I looked at the “social tone” for each post and that gave me some other areas that I should look at:
anxiety
help with
traumatic
humor for
These phrases give me ideas for additional information that I can add to my Internet marketing campaign.

Where Is Your Audience

Using the tool, socialmention.com, you can type in your keyword phrases and you’ll get an idea of where your audience is hanging out. For this particular phrase I found that folks looking for “help with depression in atlanta” are in…

digg.com
youtube.co
yahoo.com
google_video.com
bing.com
Yahoo News
and others.

This tells me that I want to submit articles and participate at digg.com and youtube.com.

So, I better get cracking on some articles and some videos!

Hope this was helpful for you!


Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.

eckweb | No comments | Tags: , , , , ,
06 Mar 2011
business tips • small business • social media

Media Influence On Us All


We all know that we are influenced by the media, although I’m sure that many of us have no idea how much. We all like to think that we have our own minds and make our own decisions, but the truth is, we are what we see, what we hear and what we read.

What got me thinking about this?

Yesterday, my husband, (who is a physician assistant at an Urgent Care clinic) told me that they had to throw away a large quantity of flu shots because so few people took them this year.

He said, “Remember, last year was the Swine Flu panic. All over the news they were predicting thousands would get it. As a result, we could barely keep up with the demand at the clinic.”

But this year, well, no panic. And because of that, the number of people who actually took the flu shot decreased dramatically. But what happened instead? The number of people coming in with the flu increased dramatically!

I had to pick up a prescription today at the drug store so I asked my pharmacist that question, were more people coming in with the flu and did they have a surplus of flu shots left over? He confirmed “yes” to both questions. We both just shook our heads at the concept.

We are SO influenced by media, whether we like it or not. So, the next time you give your opinion, think about it. Is it really your opinion? And if you’re spouting information that you’ve heard elsewhere, how trustworthy is your source? We all have the responsibility to pass on valid, truthful information. No matter if it’s business, personal, political, spiritual, whatever! Let’s make sure we do it as best as we possibly can.


eckweb | No comments | Tags: , ,
« Older Entries   Recent Entries »