Marketing Tactics That Work: How Social Media Led to Followers, Customers, and Sales for Startup GoGo Gear

I love social media marketing success stories about small businesses and startups operating on a tiny budget.  If you’re a small business owner or entrepreneur looking to create awareness, earn interest and actually win paying customers on a budget, blogger Mary Hall’s recent interview with the founder of GoGo Gear is a must-read.

Marketing expert Mary Hall published a valuable, how-she-did-it interview for anyone starting a new company or looking for a marketing tactic that Read the rest of this entry »

Putting Social Media Marketing to Work Like IBM

Ready to put BtoB social media marketing to work for your small business to increase leads and sales like IBM?  See my earlier post here about how IBM has generated millions in sales based on social media and blogs by sales folks and others.

Here’s a quick next-steps checklist to help you get started:

1.    Identify people in your company to create exceptional content. IBM suggests that subject matter experts are the best. (Usually not sales people.) Business buyers and prospects want from-the-trenches technical help to make buying decisions.  Here are some content ideas:

• Develop easy-to-locate information that Read the rest of this entry »

B2B Social Media: How IBM Uncovers Millions of Dollars in Sales Leads

Is your small business looking for proven B2B social media marketing tactics that generate leads and sales?   Read on!  You may like this business-to-business marketing case study.  IBM shares their experiences with social media roles for subject matter experts, sales reps, and results metrics. Clark Fredricksen at eMarketer uncovers valuable social media best practices from Ed Linde II, who is in charge of Internet presence at IBM.

According to Linde, IBM’s social media efforts have uncovered millions of dollars Read the rest of this entry »

Small Business Success: Startup with a Big Vision Wins LHJ Do Good Award

Business owners and startups are often looking for ways to increase visibility, stand out, and get known.   Social media marketing can level the playing field for small businesses working to get known online—even on a tight budget.  However, gaining recognition and visibility is still a steep hill to climb for many small businesses.

Here’s a from-the-trenches success story of how a small, startup organic skin care company named Four Truffles won an award for its “Do Good” work.  Four Truffles and its founder, Ana Soriano, were recognized along with three others with the “Do Good” award from Ladies Home Journal.

Full disclosure, I’ve been working with Ana Soriano and Four Truffles for several months.

Small is the New Big

Take note small business owners!  Size is not a barrier Read the rest of this entry »

How to Find Time to Create Great, Ongoing Content

Are you a business owner who has (reluctantly) concluded that creating an ongoing supply fresh content for your small business website and blog is a good strategy to increase website visitors? if so, my friend and expert at Marketing with a Book, author, speaker, Henry DeVries has some tips for you.

Here’s how Henry DeVries answered the $64 million question “how do I find  the time to create great ongoing content?”

“One secret that worked for me was to contact authors Read the rest of this entry »

Does Your Small Business Have 8 Key Social Media Marketing Basics in Place?

If a social media marketing program is a part of your small business growth plan, here are a few basics that will set you up for success.  First, you’ll want a regular supply of fresh how to articles, and other original content published on your website or business blog.

Exceptional content is important because it helps customers find your business when searching online, more bloggers will link to great content (boosting your search rankings) and it encourages ‘sharing’ of valuable links back to your site.

Image purchased at iStock.com

These basics will help you clear the decks and set your company up to become a team of social media marketing ninjas.

1. Ask your web developer to add a ‘content management system’ (CMS) capability to your company website.  Content management makes it easy for non-technical people to add/update information and content on your website.   It should be as easy as creating a Word document.

WordPress (not just for blogs) and Drupal software are my personal ‘content management’ favorites.  I can’t program HTML on a bet, but I create and post website content without waiting for my web developer on a Drupal site.  It’s as easy as publishing on this WordPress blog!   You can read more about content management system options for small businesses here.

2. Make a list of topics that you are excited to write, blog, video and talk about.

3.  Pull together a selection of good quality content you’ve previously created that you can ‘repurpose’ into shorter blog posts or how to articles, PowerPoint presentations, audio Podcasts or online videos.

3.  Assign responsibility to the team members in your small business that will create new content.

4. Compile a list of partners, suppliers, and/or raving fan customers who are willing to help you produce exceptional content.   They can be guest authors or co-authors of ‘how to’ articles, case studies or short (1-3 minute) online videos.

5.  A weekly schedule for creating and publishing your company’s ongoing content on your website and/or business blog.
6.   Arrange for someone to be responsible to review Google Alerts and track online mentions of your company, your products/services, your competitors and your key customers.  Reviewing the topics being discussed online in your industry will provide fresh insights for creating content.

7.  A regular schedule that you follow for talking to two or three customers a week just to see what’s keeping them awake at night.   This keeps your content topics sharp and up to date.

8.   Identify the specific marketing or other functions that are not delivering positive results and  eliminate them.  In order to add social media marketing that require your time and attention you’ll benefit from letting go of other activities that aren’t paying off.

Good luck with setting up your social media marketing basics!  If you’ve got other key items you’ve found are needed, post them below in the comments.

Related posts:

1. How an Online Customer Community is Different Than Your Company Website

2. Danny Brown’s Discussing Social Media with Lisa Hoffman

Finding Time for Social Media Marketing in Your Small Business

As a small business owner you’re wearing a ton of hats—entrepreneur, chief sales person, accountant, product developer, customer service rep, and more.   If you’d like to jump on the social media marketing bandwagon, great!  Social media marketing is really the way business gets done now. It’s time to put on your publisher’s hat.

Before you fire off a bunch of clever Tweets or set up one of the latest Facebook pages, you’ll want to make sure you’ve got a plan to develop lots of original, exceptional how to articles, white papers, online videos and other content.  Content that’s going to set you apart from your competitors.

Do yourself a favor.  Figure out what tasks and functions aren’t paying off.  Evaluate everything you and your team are doing—include marketing and every other function.  If a program or task isn’t producing new prospects and leads, delivering happiness to your customers, or producing revenue—either outsource it or eliminate it. Be brutal.

Free up your time and your team’s time and energy for creating exceptional content that demonstrates your unique competitive advantage..  Social media marketing can’t be phoned in.  She with the best content and the best interaction online wins.

During my time in corporate America, I experienced repeatedly how new programs and initiatives failed because the senior team didn’t (have the guts to) eliminate non-productive, non-revenue producing tasks from their staffs.  Executives simply piled on new programs/tasks and rarely considered what functions could be eliminated.

This is the beauty of a small company, you’re more nimble and you can quickly discard what’s not working and invest your time and energy in a new role:  exceptional content publisher.

What tasks have you seen successfully eliminated in order to find the time for social media marketing?  Or successfully outsourced/delegated? Post your thoughts in the comments section below.

Other posts you might enjoy:

1. Five BtoB Social Media Marketing Tips from IndustrialInterface.com’s Brian Jones

2. Junta42 Content Marketing Blog:  37 Reasons to Blog

Marketing Insights from Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos and the Author of “Delivering Happiness” Book

It was a real treat last week at a conference to hear a down-to-earth keynote speech from a guy who’s had two start up company exits between 1998 (LinkExchange, sold to Microsoft for $265 million) and 2009 (Zappos to Amazon for $1.2 billion).

Tony Hseih (pronounced Shay), an investor, CEO, serial entrepreneur, and author shared wow insights about growing businesses, building a killer company culture, hiring and working with (the best) employees and the greatest non-marketing   non-advertising) strategy ever.

Tony Hseih’s new book Delivering Happiness, A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose will be out on June 7, 2010.  In the book he’s sharing his insights, success and mistakes.  And Tony wants other businesses to avoid the mistakes he’s made.

Here are highlights from Tony’s speech at the HBS Business Growth Summit that I think can benefit small all business owners:

Early on in Zappos’ life as a start up company, the management team decided they were a “customer service company that happens to Read the rest of this entry »

Rev-up Your Small Business Website with an Online Video

Small business owners and marketers can always use an online marketing tool that’s proven to increase interest and sales among their  (hard-earned) web site visitors. Product or service Internet videos can increase the so-called ‘conversion rate’ of a website according to some business owners’ anecdotal feedback.

Photo: My partner’s video cameras, Flip Minnow and 3-year old, Sony HD

Conversion Rates Matter

If you’re working to improve your website conversion rate Read the rest of this entry »

Business Growth Goals and Content Marketing Tactics (Part 2)

Problem: You’d like your website to be a source of prospects and leads for your sales team.

Goal: Attract more potential customers with the types of problems your products solve to your company website.

Tactic: Strengthen your website content Read the rest of this entry »