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What are the Benefits from Using the Services of a Digital Marketing Company

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Online marketing has become extremely important these days with the increased number of companies that prefer selling their goods online.

How can you benefit from working with an online marketing company?

People have turned into a consumer society. This means that we want everything we need to be as close to us and as easily accessible as possible. And what selling method is better than selling via the Internet? Almost all companies offer sales or services through their websites. If there are companies that do not do that they would at least have a list of the goods or services on their website. That is what makes working with a good digital marketing company so important. [Read more…] about What are the Benefits from Using the Services of a Digital Marketing Company

Are you Neglecting Your Video Marketing?

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video marketing tips

Video marketing can be a great opportunity to capitalize on one of the largest search engines in the world– YouTube. Additionally, other video sharing sites like Vimeo also bring thousands (if no millions) of views to the plethora of videos each site hosts.

However, some companies are hesitant to get into video marketing because they feel that it will be too much effort and too much time will spending editing, designing, and uploading a video post. Even though this may be the case for some longer videos, the fact remains that video recording devices have gotten much more advanced, leading to the ability to shoot and upload HD video virtually painless.

Some smartphones can shoot in HD, as well as pocket camcorders that can upload videos via USB to your computer or even straight to YouTube. So the excuse that video marketing equipment will be too costly doesn’t have a concrete basis, especially because many people now have smartphones.

To figure out how to best implement a video marketing strategy, outline a publishing schedule and specific goals. For instance, uploading videos on Tuesdays and Thursdays with the goal of 2,000 YouTube subscribers by the end of the year is a great beginning of a successful video marketing strategy. Other key points that need to be laid out include places to upload, connected marketing efforts (such as firing a new Facebook Post, Tweet, and blog post each time a new video is uploaded to a company’s YouTube account), and the completion and delegation of the video creation and upload. Once a video is uploaded to a video site like YouTube, all applicable fields need to be filled out because they have link and SEO value. This includes the description (which allows URLs) and tags.

Once a set of steps for each responsible team member is delegated, creating the content topics is the next largest component. Keep a running list of video ideas from frequently asked questions, event information, and key or hot topics that are happening in your company’s industry.  When all else fails, take to social media and employees to solicit ideas for video topics. Once these demographics know that ideas are welcome, it is fairly easy to keep your video marketing topic list updated with additional input and suggestions.

Video marketing can be a great way to reach a whole new set of customers in a different way. Once a strategy and plan is put into place, creating company videos can certainly be a fun experience.

How to Incorporate E-Books Into Your Social Media Marketing Strategy

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Ebooks incorporated into social media marketing

E-books are PDF books that are usually 25-100 pages long. They can either be structured like white papers or more like actual published books. Most e-books share information or teach readers an important skill or strategy. For instance, an internet marketing company may publish marketing e-books entitled, “How to Market Your Business on Pinterest” or “Successful Content Marketing Strategies”.

Though time consuming, e-books can be a great way to both establish credibility while also providing education to current and potential clients. E-books can also help combine content, social media, and viral marketing strategies to create brand awareness and bring traffic to the company website.

Getting an e-book written isn’t difficult if the resources are available. Either an employee (or team of employees) can be tasked with the creation, or it can be sent out as a project to an educated freelance writer who has direct experience in the area. Companies can expect to pay freelancers in one of three ways– a rate by the page, by the word, or a set rate for the entire project. Oftentimes, choosing a rate by the hour isn’t recommended, as it’s harder to track.

Once the e-book is written, it can be implemented as part of a viral (linkbait) and social media marketing strategy. It can be shared via email to an existing customer database, and then posted on the company’s website & blog, as well as social media marketing channels.

To access the e-book PDF, most companies require a user’s name and email address so they can be added to the email and prospect list. Oftentimes, marketers will ask for certain demographic information as well, such as job role, company size, and goals in the applicable area.

Why e-books do so well when shared via blogs and social media is the idea of getting something for nothing, meaning a free e-book filled with information holds a lot more intrinsic value than one that users need to pay for.  The opportunity for instantaneous download is also a big draw; users don’t have to wait for their book to come into the mail. Instantaneous results work well with social media, as networking streams are constantly updating with fresh, new information. An average social media user’s attention span continues to dwindle as people are used to getting information fast and as often as they want.

To make an e-book successful via social media marketing, be sure to focus on language and the continuous growth of the company’s social community.

 

The Nine Best Social Media Influencers to Follow on Twitter

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If you want to learn more about the social media industry, follow these top social media influencers on Twitter. Whether you are a social media marketing specialist or just interested in the industry, these experts provide valuable links and resources that you may not find elsewhere.

  1. iJustine: Justine Ezarik is an Apple queen and does an amazing job at all things social media. She maintains an active presence on so many social media sites, it’s hard to believe how she does it. She is mainly known for her YouTube videos, but this girl is EVERYWHERE!
  2. Scott Monty: Scott Monty is the head of social media for Ford Motor Company. What may seem like an overwhelming responsibility to some has been a platform of success for Scott, who often speaks at social media conferences and explains how to use Ford’s strategies in other industries.
  3. Adam Ostrow: Adam is the Senior Vice President of Content and Executive Editor of Mashable.com, the extremely popular social media and internet news blog. He shares a behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like working for Mashable while also re-tweeting great content and links.
  4. Jay Baer: Jay Baer is a celebrated social media consultant and author. His book, the NOW Revolution continues to be a hot seller and he also writes great content at http://www.convinceandconvert.com.
  5. Sarah Evans: Sarah is a great speaker and focuses on social media, public relations, and blogging. She does a great job with answering others’ questions and helping people when they need it. She also has a great perspective on industry trends.
  6. Mari Smith: Mari is amazing at Facebook and Twitter marketing. She regularly produces video tutorials and blog posts on MariSmith.com that makes new concepts and marketing techniques easy to understand and implement.
  7. Michael A. Stelzner: Michael founded SocialMediaExaminer.com, which is an amazing wealth of social media marketing information. Each article is heavily researched and contains great information.
  8. Shelly Kramer: Shelly is part of V3 Integrated Marketing, which is based out of Kansas City, Missouri. V3 does a great job of both promoting the social media industry in Kansas City and in general.
  9. Jeff Bullas: Jeff is a consultant and speaker specializing in social media, internet marketing, blogging, and content marketing.  He blogs at http://www.jeffbullas.com, which gets over 100,000 hits a month.

These are just some of the social media influencers who would be beneficial to follow on Twitter.

Who else do you think would be beneficial social media-wise to follow on Twitter?

How to Set Up Your Business on Pinterest

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Pinterest is one of the fastest-growing top ten social media networking sites currently, and has set itself up to become a major player in social media marketing strategy for many businesses. If your business has an e-commerce site or blog utilizing galleries or featured images, it may benefit from the creation of a Pinterest profile for the business. Pinterest is a great way to let social media grow your traffic organically online, especially because Pinterest currently still has “do-follow” links from pins to websites.

Lowe's Pinterest Marketing Board

 

Screenshot taken Feb 6, 2012

Profile Set-Up

Pinterest is still in beta-invite only mode, so ask an employee or collegaue with a Pinterest profile for an invite. Use a basic email address that several employees can access when needed, such as [email protected] or [email protected]. Save the login email and password in an online spreadsheet so employees can login when needed.

Once the profile has been created, be sure to fill out all the applicable profile fields, including links to twitter, the company website, and Facebook, as well as the RSS feed if applicable. The profile picture should be the company logo or a current branding theme that consumers will recognize.

Next, create boards that are applicable to your business. For instance, a hardware store could have separate boards for rooms of the house, such as “Kitchen Ideas” and “Bathroom Inspiration”.

Pinning

Try to get 6-10 items on every board. When a list of boards are shown on a single profile, it shows six of the pins on each board, so it’s important to have at least six images so there aren’t any blank spots.

First, upload items from the e-commerce website or from inspiration galleries from your own website. Make sure they are visually appealing and go along with the overall “look” of Pinterest. For instance, users will gravitate more towards a photo of a completed side table using wood and screws rather than separate photos of the wood and screws themselves.

After uploading items from the business website, start following other Pinterest users and brands (following on Pinterest is the same concept as following on Twitter) and re-pinning their pins. Hover over a pin (separate images are called pins) and then the options to “Comment”, “Re-Pin” or “Like” the pin should appear at the top corner of the image.

Just like with Twitter, be sure to re-pin other user’s content along with promoting your own. Be sure to answer any comments users may post on your pins and follow back users who follow you. You never know when one will become a loyal customer!