Tell Your Story with the use of Content Marketing

Content marketing is a term that not in everyone’s vocabulary yet but it is something that every business is doing. Doing well? Maybe. Let’s discuss it.

I have been reading a book called Content Marketing by Rebecca Lieb. It explains what content marketing is and how businesses are using it to create a new customer experience and to sell their products and services. Many businesses are not relying on traditional media outlets to inform the public about their companies – they are becoming publishers themselves. Producing original content and delivering their story through a website, social media platforms and other outlets.

The number one issue for content marketers, according to Lieb, is producing original content. The second largest obstacle is the time it takes to create original content.

Why is it necessary to produce all original content? When I put together a content calendar for my clients I use an 80/20 ratio. 80% of my content is curated from articles written by influencers in the industry, fun pictures or quotes, videos and fun facts just to name a few. The other 20% is content that points to my clients website, talks about specific products and sales and other original pieces of content. Lieb says that a 1/12 ratio is acceptable when it comes to posting original vs. curated content. The trouble lies in deciding what content is good and worth pointing to.

Why bother with any of it?

• Elevate brand visibility. Get your name out there – rank higher in the search engines.
• Establish thought leadership. Be a resource for your customers. Become an expert in your field.
• Secure leads. Need I say more?

Content marketing is what businesses need to be doing. Get on board and start to tell your story by using original content, curated content, pictures, video, audio and whatever else you might think of.

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Facebook Page Engagement Rate

While you might have different purposes for engaging fans on Facebook, every business will want to know what content creates the most interaction from their fans. If you know what types of content motivates your fans to interact with your page – you can publish that type of content more often to best utilize your Facebook page.

One effective way of doing this is to measure the engagement rate of your page. The engagement rate measures the interaction on a page (comments, likes and shares). I measure engagement rate by taking the ‘People Talking About This’ (PTAT) number divided by the total number of page likes and multiplying by 100. PTAT is the number of people who have interacted with a page through a host of activities such as liking, commenting on it and sharing it over a seven-day period.

So if your page has 100 likes and 15 people are ‘talking about this’ – your engagement rate would be 15%. A more difficult equation would be if you have 367 page likes and 28 people are ‘talking about this’ your engagement rate would be 7%.

There is a debate over what a ‘good’ engagement rate of a page is. While listening to a webinar provided by the Social Media Examiner and Mari Smith it was mentioned that you could expect 2% of your fan base to actually interact with your page. I consider anything over a 2% engagement rate successful. In a local market you can expect much higher results. I have managed pages that have hit a 50-75% engagement rate – keep in mind they don’t remain consistently high – but higher numbers can be reached.

As I have mentioned in previous posts, it is important to have a goal when starting your social media campaign, a way to measure the success of your page. This is a great place to start.

2012 – My Year in Review

Well, it is officially my one-year anniversary as a fully self-employed individual. Although the concept of Brand Yourself has been a part of my life and consumed many hours of brainpower for much longer than that – the year flew by! Do I regret it? No! Not one MINUTE of the many late nights, constant struggle with choosing what goal to pursue next and challenging myself to learn more each and every day. Here are just a few of the things that I have learned this past year:

- I’ve learned that not only am I a marketer – I am a content marketer.
- The landscape of social media is ever-changing and I, along with my clients, have to have the ability to adapt with an open-mind.
- ROI (a return-on-investment) is something everyone wants and needs when preparing a marketing campaign (and deciding to continue with said campign).
- Placing an ROI on social media marketing is VERY difficult (but can be done!).
- Creativity is awesome.
- People (most of them) are supportive (usually).
- Networking works and I love it! In fact, I was told I was addicted to it!
- Collaboration and surrounding yourself with like-minded people is good for business.
- Office hours should not be taken for granted.
- Family should not be taken for granted.
- Just because I work FOR myself doesn’t mean I have to work BY myself. (Thank you SPUR!)
- Time management skills are difficult to learn.
- I am easily distracted.
- Having coffee with someone ‘just because’ is good for your mental health.
- I can be flexible (If I have to be).
- I enjoy a routine.
- Sleep is overrated.
- Most people (even my closest friends and family members) have no idea what I do – and that is okay.
- I still love design.
- I still love photography.
- I still love working with and meeting new people.
- I still love to read.
- I still love spending time with my friends and family.
- I still love my job.

My list, I believe, could go on and on and on but instead of spending too much time looking back…let’s look forward. In 2013 I plan to:

- Enjoy my family.
- Enjoy my work.
- Laugh more.
- Spend less.
- Concentrate on what truly matters.
- Have more fun.
- Read more.
- Learn more.
- Love more.
- Have more patience.
- Smile. A lot.

But most of all, I couldn’t do any of this without all of you. Thank you everyone for your support, encouragement and good wishes. I am excited and honored to be able to do this for another year. I look forward to MANY more years. Happy 2013 everyone!

What is Your Time Worth?

The biggest misconception about social media is that it is FREE. Your time is valuable. The average business owner like yourself is spending a minimum of 6-11 hours per week on social media marketing – consider what that 6-11 hours costs you and your business per hour.

Does Your Social Media Strategy Encourage Mobile Interaction?

Did you know that more than half of Facebook users access the site through their smart phones and mobile devices? Have you considered how this would impact your Brand? How this would impact your social media strategy?

This past May, AdParlor research showed that users accessing Facebook via mobile device are fifteen times more likely to click on an ad (as opposed to computer users). This means that Facebook mobile users are more likely to view your business’ page, interact with your content, and click through to your website.

In addition, Facebook announced on Thursday that users will now be able to “share” links and photos with their mobile devices. Previously, users could only share media on the computer-based Facebook site. Mobile users will now be able to show content to friends and family in a single click. This is a powerful feature, since mobile users are almost twice as likely to “like” a status update, as compared to computer users.

So how can you harness these changes to make the most of your business’ Facebook presence?

1.       Keep your posts short. Eighty characters is ideal; you want to share enough information, without forcing your fans to scroll through a chunk of text.

2.       Be sure to include photos and links relevant to your business. Mobile users are especially willing to share interesting content with their friends. Find funny, interesting, or beautiful graphics and post them on your page.

3.       Ask for what you want. Fans are much more likely to interact with your Facebook page if you ask for a specific result. Attach a call-to-action to every post you make, tell users to “like” this post or “comment here”—but be sure you give the reader a good reason to do so.

There are currently more than 955 million Facebook users. If your business doesn’t have an online presence or social media marketing strategy – you need one.

Hi, my name is Tami and I am a blogging loser. This is my confession.

As a marketing consultant (both online and off) one of my first suggestions for clients that want to boost  their SEO, online presence, brand recognition and Social Media efforts is to create a blog – and make sure to post to it consistently. Why then, when they all go and look at MY blog and MY website am I not taking my own advice?! My answer – I am an epic failure at time management and I often (I mean ALWAYS) put my clients marketing before my own.

Don’t get me wrong, I have the best of intentions and I have an inner voice nagging me every day to post something both innovative and attention-grabbing that people will be able to learn something from while being pleasantly entertained by my quick wit and knowledge of Social Media and just marketing in general.

But alas, like the majority of my clients, I find it difficult both to find time and to create appealing content. And as each day comes and goes, I find myself not making my blog (my biggest sales pitch) a priority. So, what’s the big deal? As long as my clients are happy with the results I am creating for them – why would I worry too much about my blogging (or lack-there-of)? Because I’m losing Klout, the ability to become a resource/expert in the field – oh, and did I mention I’m probably losing clients?

Here are 5 of the most important reasons to blog – and why I, as a small business owner must make my blog a priority:

1. A blog allows me (Brand Yourself) to create a Brand Identity – a direction, purpose and meaning behind what I want people to understand and see when they are introduced to my website or other Social Platforms.
2. To build TRUST. I have a lot of knowledge in the Social Media marketing world, but who is going to believe me? By blogging consistently about topics that I am experienced in, it will help me to build trust with people who don’t know me or have not experienced my brand before.
3. It is a creative outlet for me. I am a creative person – a blog allows me to be just that – creative, fun, witty and extend a little bit of my personality into my work.
4. To get found online. A blog helps tremendously with SEO. Each time you add a blog post, you add a page to your website and keep your content fresh and updated. Consistently updated websites are more likely to succeed in organic search engine results.
5. Finally, it is my biggest sales tool. Although a Social Media campaign and platforms such as Facebook are extremely important to marketing my business – they shouldn’t be my ONLY form of marketing. A blog is an easy, efficient way to communicate with my customers and sell my services. I offer a lot more than Social Media management and content distribution – this could be explained on my blog.

Are you on board with blogging? Am I? Let’s all make a commitment to produce MORE content – I will leave it up to my customers to determine if it is both educating and entertaining.

Ready. Set. BLOG!

Content Marketing – start thinking like a publisher to promote your Brand

Gone are the traditional ways of marketing and advertising. It used to be that companies could put together an expensive campaign by running a flashy television ad or by purchasing a colorful full page ad in the local newspaper and consumers would believe their message and run out to buy their products. Now, consumers are growing smart. They can check reviews, search Social Media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter for recommendations or perform searches on Google, Yahoo or other search engines for more information about particular products before making a decision on whether to purchase it. Just the other day, I asked a question on Facebook about whether I should purchase a Kindle or a Nook – I had about 25 people give recommendations to me. I also Googled ‘kindle vs. nook’ and read about the differences and reviews before making my final purchase. (For those of you who are curious as to which one I chose to buy – I went for the Nook.) In fact, 90% or more of buying decisions begin with a web search.

Now, more than ever it is important to educate your customers about your product BEFORE they want it, before they need it. You can do this by creating content and distributing your message across multiple channels. This is called content marketing. You become a resource to consumers. It’s important to remain authentic, consistent, original and entertaining – by doing these things you will gain brand recognition, trust, credibility and loyalty. You will also encourage engagement, which is the key to a successful Social Media Campaign. Marketers are starting to think like publishers – what will people read and interact with? What will they recommend to others? With digital media platforms such as WordPress and Facebook, marketers can publish their content for free – and consistently. There are over 11.4 million hosted WordPress blogs on the web today. Companies are starting to take advantage and rely on content marketing to promote their products and services.

Content marketing can also help with Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Companies need to be found on the web – providing valuable content that points to your website or storefront is just the beginning. The more content you create – the higher you will rank in Search Engine results.

Consumers have come to expect content from brands. Make sure you are using all of the available tools to promote your business. Please visit my previous post on the importance of a content calendar if you need some suggestions on how to get started – otherwise don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions you might have.

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Things to consider before launching your Social Media Campaign

I have been attending the Social Media Success Summit 2012 and while listening to the Keynote Speaker Jeremiah Owyang, I heard an interesting comment – it went something like: ‘Would you fly in a plane with someone who didn’t have their pilots license? Have an operation performed by someone who wasn’t a doctor? {Heck no I wouldn’t!} Why then, would you let someone in your company interact with customers online that wasn’t properly trained in Social Media?’ This comment really resonated with me. I often hear frustrations from business owners who have been trying to market on Facebook by themselves – or have an employee do it – saying that they don’t know what they are doing or how to measure it’s success. Here is some tips that I have come up with in launching your own Social Media Campaign.

Before diving in to a Facebook or Social Media Campaign you need to do some planning. How will your online campaign integrate into the rest of your marketing? How will you deal with a crisis or an unhappy customer – responding online isn’t always the best option, you could open the door for more online negativity. Having a plan in place before this happens (which in my experience – is not often) will put you more at ease when journeying into the world that is Social Networking.

Figure out what to post and when. When I take on a new client I start with market research – find out what similar companies are doing (or not doing) well. This can generate some great ideas. Then I create a content calendar – usually posting at least 2-3 times/day depending on the product and platform.

Brand your Facebook Page (Twitter Profile etc.) as much as possible – for example, create a great cover photo, profile picture and branded application images within Facebook.

Finally, the most important piece of your Social Media Marketing Campaign, determine how to measure your success. Most clients say that they will determine success by the increase. This can and does happen, but it may take time, and I don’t want you to get discouraged early on when results are not what you expected. I suggest measuring the engagement rate on your Facebook Page (anything over 2% is good) and monitor the visits to your website. I’ve had client’s increase traffic to their websites by over 40% in one month just from the referring links on Facebook!

When you look into launching a Social Media Campaign and you are trying to decide whether to outsource it or do it yourself – consider your time vs. your desire to learn about Social Media Marketing. I have found – and the reason that my business exists – that small business owners are great at what they do sometimes marketing and networking get pushed to the side as other important issues (like clients) arise. I’ve encouraged clients to watch and learn how Social Media Marketing can be done – and done right – before taking it over themselves. The Social Media world is fun – but time consuming and you need to remain consistent for it to work.

Yeah, I’m on LinkedIn. But I have no idea why.

This is what almost everyone I talk to says about LinkedIn. ‘Yeah, I’m on it. I accept all of the connection requests I get! But other than that, I don’t remember the last time I logged in.’

This is NOT a good use of the Social Media Platform. I can tell you that with CERTAINTY.

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network available. Your personal profile serves as a standing resume. Your COMPANY profile (yes, a company page is available on LinkedIn as well) reveals the people behind the Brand – it shows the HUMAN side of your business. It is a powerful tool to network with other professionals in your industry as well as turn cold calls into warm ones. It is a great platform to prospect, get recommendations from other leading professionals and learn about what others are saying both about your industry and your Brand

I’m going to share with you a little story about a client of mine. We will call him Eric. Eric’s company provides a very specialized service that can assist individuals who want to quit smoking. Eric has been looking to promote his product to Human Resource and Wellness Directors as part of the Wellness Programs that a lot of companies participate in. When asked what companies he would like to target first he gave me some of the major manufacturing companies in our area. Luckily, we were sitting in front of his computer and had just finished our discussion on LinkedIn (it was very similar to the one mentioned above). I suggested he do a targeted search for one of the companies that he was interested in pursuing. We placed the company name in the ‘search’ field (note that on the left of the search bar you can choose whether you search for a company, person, job and other options). After finding the company within LinkedIn we can see who we know – or are connected with – that is associated with that company in some way. In this particular case Eric didn’t have any direct connections with anyone associated with this company but he did know one individual that was connected to one of the employees. He clicked on the employees name and was given a couple of options (shown on the right hand side of the screen) – to either send an e-mail, get introduced through a common connection or save the profile for future use. He chose to get an introduction to this prospect through LinkedIn. Since requesting this introduction he has spoken to both this employee and their HR department, sent over his information and scheduled an initial meeting!

This is a great story for many reasons. It saved my client time and money on putting together information to drop off on their doorstep or in the mail (most likely to end up in the trash). It turned a cold call into a warm introduction from a friend. And all of this was FREE!

This is only ONE of the benefits you can utilize LinkedIn for. You can also use it for market research, prospecting, lead generation and job searches. You can see who has viewed your profile, make and receive recommendations and educate yourself on both your competition and your prospects.

If you would like more information on LinkedIn please don’t hesitate to contact me at tami@brandyourselfconsulting.com. Or better yet, connect with me on LinkedIn! Brand Yourself Consulting does offer Social Media Coaching sessions if you are interested in some one-on-one time as well.

In addition, if you would like to learn more about the smoking cessation program listed above visit the website here!

Social Media is Constantly Changing – Adapt and Keep Customers Engaged

Ongoing Continuing Education is a MUST for me and my business. In a field that is constantly changing it is vital that I stay on top of trending ideas, SEO, Social Media Marketing and content development. It is a good thing that I love to read – and learn.  I can lose myself for hours on Twitter, Facebook, blogs and in books like The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott and The Zen of Social Media Marketing by Shama Hyder Kabani.

I am excited to be participating in this year’s Social Media Success Summit. The line-up is pretty impressive and I will learn from some of the industry’s top leaders such as Chris Brogan (Google+ expert) and  Michael Stelzner (Social Media Examiner) and then be able to apply what I’ve learned to help develop strategies for my client’s to successfully market their products and services both online and locally through other media platforms. Variety is the key to a successful Integrated Marketing Campaign. Occasionally I find that businesses get comfortable utilizing the same platform and producing the same campaign over and over again. That may have worked in the past but with the industry changing so much it is necessary to adapt and change with it. With trending platforms such as Pinterest and Google+ you need to stay current in order to keep customers engaged. Did you know that  Google+ is changing the way SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is measured – is your business on it? Are YOU? Businesses are also having to change their Facebook branding strategy with the implementation of the new Facebook Timeline feature that will be completely rolled out at the end of March 2012 – is your business ready for that?

Today I was asked about LinkedIn and how it can be used to build business on a local level. I have also been faced with the infamous ROI question – How can I guarantee an increase in sales due to implementing a Facebook or Twitter campaign? I am excited to learn about how other Social Media Experts approach these questions as well as beef up my skills as a Social Media Strategist.

There is value in Social Media and it is not going away. Businesses need to utilize Social Media as part of an Integrated Marketing Strategy. If you have questions on how your business can start using some of these tools or what resources I utilize to stay up to date on the industry please don’t hesitate to contact Brand Yourself at (507) 351-9000 or e-mail me directly at tami@brandyourselfconsulting.com