SEOnline Magazine

... do what I just did: get it wrong! :)

After I proofread the mail about 1000 times, almost each changing something and "correcting" something, I finally hit the send button and I felt a strong wave of relaxation going through my body. But that didn't last long - why? Because, in this mail I had a list (from 1 to 5), which, despite of the common beliefs, as well as the grammar and mathematical rules, goes 1, 2, 4, 3, 5. Yeah, I know. I'll be receiving some replies now...

I'm so mad right now, madder than a cow (wow that rhymes) :)

Seriously, have you ever done something so stupid? :)

Posted via web from SEOnline Magazine

"Whoa! What do you mean "so that fans could tag pictures in the fan page?" was probably one of the hardest things to explain in my recent campaign. For most of the people doing online marketing it's down to this: meeting clients, development of the strategy, recommendation on what is wrong now, approval by the client, and execution. Right?

Yeah, well, when you're trying to do something like this with a company that has been around for over half a century and has never before seen or heard of such miracle by the name of "social media" (these words still provoke a hard-to-digest thoughts in the CEO), things get stuck by step 1: meeting.

Meeting the clients is the scariest thing ever! Okay, not exactly, but I bet ya, you'll sweat your cheeks off.

When I was about to present my first strategy mock-up I was excited. I felt like I'll be stopped at every word and asked how much would that bring back, why this should be done with that-much-money... you get the idea. Instead, the first question I got was why, for crying out loud, was there a site who has a blue pigeon for a logo, in my "investments" column. I was stunned. I said "What? You mean Twitter?"
They didn't know what Twitter was. That was bullet-point number one in my presentation, so if they didn't know that was - I was about to face the longest and most painful presentation in my life; and boy, was I right.

After I had explained the basics of micro-blogging, I was able to go ahead and present a carefully created chart of different social media tools that complete one another - I'd like to call it The Social Media Flow. You know, how Twitter links to the blog that links to the site that shows the product that the customer can ask about in the comments section or see more in the video module, or interact with the company in the fan page or receive newsletters, and so on, and so forth. Managers' looks were blank. They were all thinking "What the heck is he talking about?".
When I opened the floor for questions the first one was: "Can we do it for free?", followed by "It's worse than TV spots, how would you know who read what we posted?"

Cut scene here, you can't imagine my painful and long explanation of each website (that's how they addressed the tools). After we shook hands with the managers, fully in doubt of my witchcraft, I was ready to get started with the development stage.

When the CEO doesn't know what a Facebook fan page update is, how can you make them see the big picture?

It's really hard to develop a plan if your customers don't know the first thing abut social media. Every marketer has his or her own "formula" on how to proceed with a client that has never been exposed to social media. But the difference between yet-another client and whoa-what-in-heaven's-name-is-that-thing client is that the former gives you directions, whereas the latter gives you vague hints.

It's like playing Marco Polo in a pool: They're Marco, you're Polo and the pool is Internet - you're both surrounded by it, but in order to get the right directions they have to find you first.

What I've learned in such situations is that the most profitable solution here (where profitable is a measure of time) is to go ahead and take the first "big" decisions by yourself. By big, I mean this: When I started the fan page in Facebook I asked the CEO about every single update I was about to publish. Here's what happens, this company is in a very specific niche of the entertainment industry and updates that concern it don't come up very often so whoever is posting them has to focus on external things (like posts about stuff related to but outside the company). For example when I first wanted to post an update about the upcoming art show of a local artist, it took the CEO about 10 hours to come up with a final decision. Why? Because he was unable to see the link between this event and his company.
I said that I would be materially responsible if any "scandal" (as he put it) grows out of such "news segments" (that's his definition of a "fan page update") and that I would report the final numbers of increase or decrease in fans and page views of their home page, I only wanted him to back off for a short period of time. Reluctantly, he said OK.

Of course, you're quite aware that such updates, circling around the field of interest of your fans are very rewarding - the number of new fans increased in a geometric progression every month for about 3 months. Fans were interacting with "Like"s and comments and the CEO was happy "it all worked out" as I said.

For the first detailed report, I was armed with Google Analytics print-outs, fan page "Insights" statistics, and some supporting materials that unanimously showed a great increase of interest by "the people of Internet" (that's another definition by the company's management).

The Big Bang - the company has a show to make and it uses internet to invite people

As I said earlier, this company is in the show biz and its main income comes from making shows. However, the real test for me was when they set up a open-doors event with no advertising except for some banners (about 1,000) and internet. To make that even more interesting they said my advertising budget is 0 (zero). That was 23 days before the show. I was furious! I was so mad I said I quit. Then I thought, you know what, I'll do it, if you let me do it my way. That means, my rules, no "can I post that, Mr. CEO" and so on.

I relied solely on the company's web site, the fan page and, videos of previous shows (that's YouTube), and a local social bookmarking web site.

What follows was The Social Media Flow: Daily updates were reminding fans of the free show, the videos were a graphic proof of how cool this free show was going to be, the company's user in the local social bookmarking site was so active, its friends naturally grew by over 200% and read every bookmark it posted, and the company's website promised great surprises for those who show up.

The result of all these was that over 50% of the people who showed up had to stay outside because there was no room. The theater's staff closed the doors, literally in their faces, and people started yelling "Let us in!"
The next day I changed the index of the corporate website with a message to both people that saw the show, and those who couldn't. I said we were charmed by the warm and cheering audience and that the show went million times better than what we had expected. On the other hand, those who couldn't come were free to enroll for a "small" surprise (they had a form with name and e-mail to fill out). The "small" surprise was a free ticket for the following paid show. That worked out even better.

This is how my first big campaign ended. It was hard. But it was fun. Now that I had gained the management's trust I was free to experiment and that felt good.

Join me next time for some more on how to make an old-school boring company into a 21st century socially responsible and active one!

Best of luck and feel free to post comments and questions!

Phil

Posted via web from philbg's posterous

I met a great professional recently in the social network Twitter. His name is Danny Brown and he is the founder of Press Release PR - a new and brave online agency that combines the good ol' PR strategies with the new and yet-to-be-explored social media. Skillfully combined, this agency offers a unique service for your company's image. As his website dictates, Danny "provides consultancy services to clients in both the consumer and commercial markets, from small start-ups to Fortune 500 businesses" and while there are tons of online "media experts", Mr. Brown has a solid education and experience to back him up. He has a degree in Marketing and has been part of the big and demanding team of the UK telecom
munications leader British Telecom where he played a key role in the introduction of a service "that resulted in over £100 million of new business".

To prove his inspiring ambition to help others, he has created a unique charity project using social media to change the lives of millions in 2009, called 12for12k Challenge.



I was eager to ask him a few question about social media and, honestly, I was a little concerned that he might turn me down. Well, he was kind enough not to, so without further ado, I give you, Mr. Danny Brown.

Do you think every company on the market today should consider having a social media marketing campaign?
It's already there. Social media news releases are the natural complement to traditional releases. I wouldn't say they're going anywhere soon either. Look at TV - it was meant to kill radio. CD was meant to kill vinyl. DVD was meant to kill video tape. They're all still around and sitting side-by-side. So yes, technology will change and offer us more options, but that's all they are (for now) - options. They're not replacements, and there will always be industries, trade magazines and similar that prefer "traditional" media over newer media.


Thank you, Danny! I am sure that your knowledge can and will help others and I sincerely wish you glamorous success in all your activities!
You can find Danny on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn

I'm talking to the administrator of one of the big websites that offer free domain names: www.ddboard.com. Weblord, or William, however, has a different true love - affiliate marketing.

For those of you who don't know (seriously?) this is a relatively new е-business practice in which companies create some sort of incentives for Internet users to become retailers. This way the company can advertise and sell its products using a virtually endless affiliate network.
I spoke to a very experienced young man who was willing to sacrifice some of his time and answer a few of my questions regarding Affiliate Marketing and hopefully help some of you who are still wondering what are the costs and benefits of this activity.

How long have you been working with affiliate programs?

I have been doing this for 14 years.

If I don't know anything about PHP or HTML, or webmasters' "stuff" can I still be successful in Affiliate Marketing?

You don't have to be an AJAX or PHP expert because most of the affiliate programs will provide you with templates but you'd have to know at least how to configure your settings and some HTML would help you in customizing this template and be more competitive.

How many different programs should one sign up for if they want to make some decent money?

There is no magic number but what I can advise you is to sign up on anything that you feel comfortable with and think you can easily devote your time, effort and money. It really depends on the niche you want to be focusing on but this is the foundation that you should be based on.

How much time do you spend every day in doing "affiliate marketing"?

If you want to have serious income, you gotta take this thing seriously. I consider my affiliate marketing business as a full-time job. I would usually spend anywhere between 12 and 14 hours every day except Sundays. Affiliate marketing is not a lazy man's job!

What are your best results until now?

Well, my highest sale per day is U.S.$300 (except domain sales) and lowest is zero even for weeks or months, but I insist on doing this. If you are devoted enough and believe in your success, your efforts will be rewarded. Don't give up!

Thanks, William Nabaza, I hope this interview helps young and passionate "marketers" get in the starting positions and become more confident.
For more tips and tricks on Affiliate Marketing, William has an awesome detailed website, called http://www.nabaza.com/ or http://twitter.com/Weblord. You can also contact him @ william at nabaza.com


If you like it, comment on it! Thanks, guys!

Here's a bummer: You've just met a potential customer that's likely to drop an impressive amount of money in your company, you've talked for about an hour, you've laughed, even shared some personal details about each other when you suddenly realize that you can't remember the guy's name. It's too late to go "What was your name again?" and a cliche like "I remember you well, but I can't recall your name" is way out of this league. Question: What do you do now?

I propose something even better: What follows is a list of a few tips on how to protect yourself from embarrassing situations like the one from above! Sorted in ascending order are the most (according to the author, that is) helpful things one could do to store a name in their memory:


6. Associate the person's name with an unusual feature of the person's face

If anyone asks, I didn't tell you this! This tip may sound a little, how should I put it, unethical, even racist but some people swear on it! Associating a big nose, for example, saved me an awkward situation in a computer hardware shop in which I've been many times but never before remembered the manager's name.




5. Associate it to a word, an item or a famous person

For example, Will can easily be pictured as the funny guy chasing aliens in a black suit, Jack goes pretty nice with a well-played hand of another Jack and three more Aces, and Phil (hey, that's me) can feel.


4. Make sure that's their name!

Say what? No, seriously, let's say Jim introduced you to a guy that's, most probably, going to be a customer of yours anytime soon. The thing is, thought, Jim knows the guy since they were kids and he said: "Hey, Stephen, that's Dick!" Dick, however, does not kindly appreciate being called like that in formal meetings, so he might not be very comfortable in the situation. So, you can say something like, "Hey, Dick , nice to meet you. Bla-bla-bla, is that, by the way, what you like to be called?". This would not only boost your prestige, but help you remember Richardo's name. Yes, Richardo.


3. Imagine writing the name in the air

Some scientist somewhere have proven that (that's some source, huh!) writing secretly your new contact's name in the air would help your brain put it in the long-term folder. I can verify. Just make sure they don't see you.


2. Imagine their name on their forehead

Yes, yes, yes, good old F. Roosevelt's strategy was to picture the names of people on their forehead. I tell you, this is a great way to have fun at boring meetings and, at the same time, do something useful.


1. Don't sleep!

The best way to remember somebody's name is by, wait for it, actually paying attention to what they say. Many people think that they can't remember people's titles because of, I don't know, some secret psychological or even physical condition - namopathia - well guess what, guys, you're still sleeping!

This idea of an interview of bloggers by asking them just one question belongs to a website, most of you probably know - problogger.net

Anyway, since I'm trying to end up my days as a SEO writer and transcend into a more interactive person (as well as to promote my brand new blog :), I'd like to ask you and learn from you!

If interested, please post your answers bellow and I would like to interview you some more and we could come up with a good advertising tool for your website - a question-and-answer article about your own beloved website! You know how helpful this might be!

Here's question number 1:

When starting your own brand new website (being a commercial one or just informative), what should be considered of utmost importance - design, copy or appropriate early SEO and why?

Unlike some 30 years ago, today a business that is up to date can’t afford to ignore the existence of computers. Even basic events like bookkeeping, schedules, and office labels are being created by software. Many small and medium size firms are integrating information system to their body and become partially or fully dependent on computers.

Managers from all levels rely on software that would assist them in taking decisions, making forecasts or even effectively leading their employees. There are thousands, if not millions, of paid software solutions for almost any kinds of businesses and company sizes. Of course, it also depends on the overall economic situation of the country, but it’s not uncommon anymore to even see a small corner groceries store doing its accounting on a computer.

Businesses are not the only financial units that could benefit from the rapidly developing IT field. Today, there are over a hundred online funds transferring services, some of which have expanded so much, that are one of the biggest financial managing companies in the world - PayPal. There are millions of online retails that could ship to your doorstep, clothes, medicine, even food. There are pre-paid or on-demand services that make your life easier and save you a trip to the local video store (do they even exist anymore?) and get you the movie in a matter of seconds.

As Steve Ballmer, CEO of the biggest software company known to human kind, Microsoft, once said: “As computing has rapidly extended beyond the "back office," it has added significant value across organizations--from information insight to sophisticated business analysis” (Ballmer, 2004). There are millions of companies that, if left with no computers, would vanish and declare bankruptcy in a matter of hours. There are, also, new age firms that call themselves internet companies, or virtual companies, a phenomenon that was never before seen, and until recently not even considered possible. Now, though, these virtual corporations proudly name themselves as the future of business, the so glorified by sci-fi writers, hybrids of the future, both flesh and machine, combined together to achieve new heights.

As scary as this might sound to some, I think, this is the natural result of our tireless efforts to help ourselves by exploring and exploiting the yet to be completely utilized magnificence of the world of Information Technologies.