Author Archive

I wanted to invite you to my next complimentary teleseminar on Wed. 9/15 at 8pm EDT.

It’s called “What Recession? How to Use Social Media and Online Marketing to Make MORE Money, Struggle LESS and THRIVE in the New Economy”

The business game has changed! What used to work to get your business and name out there in the world isn’t working so well anymore.

That’s why I’m so excited to have you join me for this FREE teleseminar where
I’m going to personally share with you exactly how I built a successful business
online (from having NO clients, customers, contacts or list…in the midst of a
recession, no less) and how you can too. (Yes, really!)

All you need is a phone to join me, so don’t miss this call. Whether you are a
seasoned business owner looking to find out how to leverage the Internet or just
starting out, you won’t want to miss this 60 minute call all about what it
REALLY takes to succeed online.

Register here: http://communicatevalue.com/onlinesuccess/

Hope to have you on the line with me!

As your social media blogger, I thought I’d share some info on the upcoming free 60 minute teleseminar I’m holding on 3/25 at 8pm Eastern (it was so popular last time I held it in October that I am holding it again!):

“The Top 7 Ways to Leverage Facebook Pages for More Buzz, More Visibility and More Sales!”

The call is Thursday, March 25, 2010 at 8pm Eastern.  If you can’t make it live, no worries, you will still be sent the recording.

However, only those on with me LIVE will benefit from the Q & A at the end of the call—as well as be eligible for the special offer I will be introducing!

I know firsthand that Fan Pages are one of the best ways to bring attention to your business and generate more clients, customers and sales. However, there seems to be a lot of confusion among small business owners about how to use Pages effectively. On this call, I’m sharing all about how to make them work for you–and anyone who has been on my calls before knows I always give a TON of meaty, actionable content!

All you need is a phone to join me, so register now for this FREE teleseminar.

Register here: http://communicatevalue.com/fanpagecall

It sounds obvious, but before you implement a new marketing strategy in your business, you need to first know what your objectives are. That is, what is it that you are trying to accomplish? Social media is no different. It’s not enough to want to add it to your marketing mix just because “everyone else is doing it.”

Luckily Forrester Research came up with a really useful acronym called the POST Method₁, and it’s a really easy way to frame your social media strategy. Here’s what it stands for:

P: Who are the PEOPLE you would most like to attract in social media For example–mentors, colleagues, potential clients, strategic alliance partners, raving fans, local connections? Or a combination of these?

O: What are your primary OBJECTIVES for your Social Media presence? For example, is it to get found by those who are looking for your services or products, building a community around your business, finding and interacting with current and potential clients and customers, creating awareness of your content and offerings, building relationships with potential strategic alliance and referral partners, learning from mentors?

S: What Social Media STRATEGIES do you plan to implement? Will you have a LinkedIn profile, Twitter profile, a Facebook Fan Page, join a Facebook Group, start a blog? Which ones have priority over others?

T: What TECHNOLOGIES will you use? For example–Twellow, Hootsuite, Ping.fm, Twitpic, YouTube, Bit.ly for link shortening?

Finally, for bonus points, you could also include “M” as in “how will you MEASURE your results?” Understandably, businesspeople still want to know the ROI of their activities–and although this is not as cut and dry to measure in social media, there are still certain numbers that you can look to: your number of newsletter or blog subscribers, number of followers and fans, your website traffic, the amount of comments on your blog, how many purchases made, etc.

The POST method is a good basic structure for starting to define your social media plan, objectives, and priorities. By identifying all the relevant parts of the structure you are creating a clearer vision and purpose–as well as implementing goals, strategies, and tools that will best enable you to effectively reach the people you are looking to connect with through social media.

~Christine Gallagher, Mompreneurs Social Media Expert

₁Source : Forrester Research/Groundswell: http://blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/2007/12/the-post-method.html

Many small business owners are already on Facebook but are either still not sure that it is a good use of their time, or they see its potential but are just confused about how exactly it can work for them.  Starting a Fan Page for your business may be your answer.  But how can you use a Fan Page to achieve fantastic results?

1) The first way to leverage Fan Pages is to set up your Page for success. One of the first things you need to do when you set up a new Page is to give it a title.  A tip with this is to think about using keywords related to your business that you would like to be found for. You also want to choose a good, clear photo for your Page.  Another thing to note is to make sure you have filled out the Info tab on your Page thoroughly with all the relevant information about your business.

2) The second way to leverage Fan Pages is to build your Fan base. You have to be a little proactive about getting Fans, especially when your Page is new.  An easy way to invite people is to use the “Suggest to Friends” link underneath the picture on your Fan Page.  Facebook will then pull up a list of your Facebook friends and you would just click on the ones you want to send invitations to. You’ll want to consider people like former and current clients, people you’ve partnered with in your business, vendors you work with, people who you know have purchased from you before, etc.

3) The third way to leverage Fan Pages is to interact and engage with your Fans. Once you have some supporters of your Page, you want to encourage more dialogue and interaction between yourself and them and even among each other. The biggest impact comes from simply having conversations with people. One thing that I do on my Page is to just ask open-ended questions. Asking people to share experiences is another great way to get a dialogue going.

4) The fourth way to leverage Fan Pages is to provide good content. Offering regular content will naturally encourage interaction because you are giving people something to respond to.  You don’t need to come up with all the content yourself, either.  You might just link to an interesting article or blog post you have found on the web related to your business or industry. What content like this does is attract comments from your Fans, which is activity that in turn goes out into the News Feed.  The more activity on your Page then, the more attention to your Page you have a chance of attracting.

5) The fifth way to leverage Fan Pages is to use them to drive traffic to and from your blog or website. To do this, you definitely want to list your website in the Info section, and you also want to share links in your updates to your own site. You can also use an application like Notes to enter your blog feed so that it pulls your posts into your Page. You also want to add your URL to your email signature, and use the free badges and widgets Facebook provides that you can add to your website.  You can check out faceboook.com/facebook-widgets for those. Once you have something like this on your site, visitors can just click on it and they will land on your Page where they can become a fan.

So, if you don’t have a Page yet, head over to facebook.com/pages/create.php and start one now.  If you do have one set up, use these tips to help make your Page stand out, get noticed, and become a helpful destination for all of your raving Fans.

You may have heard of RSS feeds, but you might still be wondering exactly what they are. RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication.” RSS itself is just the format for delivering regularly updated web content. Blog feeds allow readers to keep up with the newest information posted on different sites, and people “subscribe” to the feeds of their choice.

For example, there are 20+ blogs out there that I really enjoy reading on a regular basis. I want to keep up with them because they help keep me up date with all of the latest information in my niche. However, I don’t want to have to go out to the web and pull up each blog individually every day in order to see if they have been updated. The solution to this is to use a “feedreader” to see all of my favorite blogs’ latest content all in one place. Feedreaders allow you to access new content in two main ways: in the actual reader itself or by email updates. One of the most popular feedreaders and the one that I use is Google Reader.

Why is this important for marketing? Two reasons: 1-It is a great way to stay current and educated on the things going on in your market or niche through blogs, and 2-It provides a simple way for people who are interested in you and what you have to offer to stay informed. You want to remain on people’s radars consistently so that even if they are not ready to buy from you now, you are able to stay top of mind for them when they are ready to. Just as an email newsletter helps to build and continue a relationship with its subscribers, a blog does the same with those who subscribe to its RSS feed.

By its very nature, social media allows content to be shared and spread far and wide across the web, resulting in more exposure for you and your business. Therefore, being able to share your blog’s content through multiple channels is crucial. For example, many social media services and platforms such as Facebook require you to provide an RSS feed address in order to syndicate your content.

Blog platforms such as WordPress come with feeds already built in and it’s pretty simple to find the RSS feed of your own blog. Just type the address of your site into a browser and add/feed right after it. I use a service called Feedburner through Google to manage my feed and give me detailed statistics on my site’s traffic and subscribers. I suggest you “burn” your feed as well to keep track of your subscribers at feedburner.google.com.

Now you know a bit more about RSS feeds and why they are such an integral part of having your own blog-or keeping up with the ones you like to read the most.

As your social media blogger, I thought I’d share some info on the upcoming free 60 minute teleseminar I’m holding on 10/21 at 8pm Eastern:

“The Top 7 Ways to Leverage Facebook Pages for More Buzz, More Visibility and More Sales!”

The call is Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at 8pm Eastern.  If you can’t make it live, no worries, you will still be sent the recording.

However, only those on with me LIVE will benefit from the Q & A at the end of the call—as well as be eligible for the special offer I will be introducing!

I know firsthand that Fan Pages are one of the best ways to bring attention to your business and generate more clients, customers and sales. However, there seems to be a lot of confusion among small business owners about how to use Pages effectively. On this call, I’m sharing all about how to make them work for you–and anyone who has been on my calls before knows I always give a TON of meaty, actionable content!

All you need is a phone to join me, so register now for this FREE teleseminar.

Register here: http://communicatevalue.com/fanpagecall

Two of the biggest components of effective marketing are reach and frequency. Reach refers to the number of people you “touch” with your message; while frequency refers to the number of times each person is reached on average. Frequency is a way to build trust and drive your particular message home.

In the marketing world, it is often said that you need to “touch” a prospect 7 to 11 times before they buy. Online, someone needs to hear your message at least that frequently-if not more–before they will be ready to spend money with you.

We know that social media is great for building relationships, but what about outside of that? Just as there is more to the Internet than social media sites, there are many other ways to grow and strengthen relationships with potential prospects online. Here are three of the most effective ways to do that:

1) Build a list of email subscribers. It is important to build a list of targeted subscribers to market your products or services to. You want a list that’s responsive and your job is to keep in touch with them regularly so that you remain top of mind for them. Most people won’t be ready to buy after only interacting with you a couple of times on a social site or visiting your website once or twice. It’s the building of trust and the relationship that makes it more likely they will make a purchase down the line. Having permission to contact them on a regular basis means your emails do the heavy lifting.

2) Maintain a blog and build a list of blog subscribers. What makes a blog a blog and not a website is the fact that it’s updated frequently. When people visit your blog and see that it has consistent, fresh content, it’s likely they will keep coming back for more. The goal here is for those visitors to become subscribers of your blog via RSS feed or email. This allows them to be notified as soon as your blog has a new post published, either in their email inbox or their favorite feed reader.

3) Send a regular email newsletter. Once you’ve begun building a list of email subscribers, your job is to provide value to them on a regular basis. It’s not enough to send emails that only promote your offerings or ask for the sale. The members of your list have given you the privilege of contacting them because they have decided they want to hear what it is you have to say. An email newsletter is the perfect way to give them valuable content while staying on their radar screens. A newsletter does not need to be in HTML or be especially long. A few tips, a top ten list or some recommended resources are fine. The key is for your list to see your information as useful, and to keep you and your business in front of them.

Once you’ve attracted people into your community and begun furthering that relationship, be sure to take good care of them. It can pay off handsomely in the end.