UPDATE: Now available as an on-demand movie.wmv file from Lyris: FREE Social Media Marketing Webinar.
Lyris is sponsoring a FREE Live Webinar on how to increase email marketing results by incorporating Social Media marketing. The Enhance Your Email with Social Media Marketing Webinar is this coming Tuesday July 28, 2009 at 2:00 p.m. EST [1:00 pm CST/12:00 noon MST/11:00a.m PST].
Speakers include:
- Ken Magill, Moderator, Senior Editor, Chief Marketer
- Blaine Mathieu, Chief Marketing Officer at Lyris, Inc.
- Karen McNaughton, Director of Marketing at In-Touch Survey Systems [Twitter]
Webinar attendees will receive a free copy of the Lyris Social Media Marketing Guide. The event is sponsored by Chief Marketer, Direct Mag, and Multi-Channel Merchant. They are covering the cost of the Webinar in exchange for your contact information including name, address, and work phone number.
LYRIS:
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Gail Gardner
Small Business Marketing Strategist at GrowMap
Gail Gardner is the founder of GrowMap.com. She is a Small Business Marketing Strategist she mentors small businesses, bloggers, and freelancers.
After 23 years in the field with IBM and 5.5 years managing AdWords accounts, her focus shifted to small business marketing strategy. GrowMap.com is listed by Cision as a Top 100 Site for Marketers and has received three Small Business Influencer Awards from Small Business Trends. Named by D&B a Top 50 SMB Influencer on Twitter, you can follow Gail @GrowMap and on LinkedIn.
Socail Media is the soul of every type of marketing.It is place where people with common trust gathers and business activities are happening there.
It takes some work to really convert your social network onto your email list. What I have found, it that it is very easy to get people onto your social network. That is only the beginning. Now you have to connect with them to get them to trust you enough to go onto your email list…. and what if they are hardly ever on their email, but are on their social network account all the time? Has that effort gone to waste? I think this is still wild west territory here.
.-= Bee@Webinar Services´s last blog ..Why Teleseminars Are an Excellent Way to Market Your Business =-.
social media now become very powerful but not aware that much about but as you described here on post, SM become powerful media to enhance PR Connections.
.-= Prajakta@Funny T-Shirt´s last blog ..International Shipping Now Available! =-.
I myself am crazy about Twitter, but you have to go at it from a genuine viewpoint so that you are not just one more spammer. I use Facebook for my own personal life, but my Twitter is dedicated to building business relationships.
Hi,
I couldn’t reply to your thread for some reason but that’s what this is!
Thanks ever so much for taking the time to look at my site and giving your thoughts on it, I really appreciate it. I will definitely make the changes you suggest as they make loads of sense. I haven’t changed the theme for a while and the green was supposed to be Ben 10 related but if it works for GI Joe too that’s great as I’ll get round to a post on his toys soon hopefully!
Thanks also for your stumble. I had 36 visitors last night because of it!
I have been using SU for a while now but again am having no luck with it other than on one post HM Armed Forces Toys – 10 Things Every Parent Needs To Know which seemed to go mad (well relative to my other traffic any way!). I have no idea why as I did nothing different with it and it only had two people that thumbed it up.
I’ve since tried to sponsor some pages (again with no luck) but I don’t think my content is what SU users are interested in. I’ve heard they are more into images rather than reading much but I would be very interested in a post if you write one on how you get it to work for you.
Thanks again.
Cheers, Chloe
.-= Chloe @ Ben 10 Toys´s last blog ..VTech Kidizoom Digital Camera Review =-.
Hi Chloe,
That’s technology for you: sometimes it saves you time and sometimes it eats up time. Glitches are just another part of it. I don’t know anything about Ben 10 toys – had never even heard of them before I met you online – but the green color just seemed very appropriate for boy’s toys and that particular green is really unusual.
I am happy to offer tips to anyone who is interested. It takes so long to learn so much and there is always more to research, implement, and test. There is no way one person could do it alone. That is why I keep encouraging people to collaborate. We simply must share what we learn.
StumbleUpon is the best Social Networking site for driving traffic. I will write a post on why and how to use it but here are some quick tips:
1) ALWAYS use tags – as many as apply
2) Make sure the site has a category – these are limited so pick the closest
3) Add an image using the tool (right click & select StumbleUpon PhotoBlog It)
4) The best method is to include an image, personal review, and excerpt – their algorithm favors longer reviews, reviews with images, and reviews with personal comments)
5) Click on the tags to go to a page on that subject. Find the people interested in it and connect with them.
6) The more you use SU the more “juice” you get. Build a power profile there by putting great content there. I don’t actually Stumble – I just click thumbs up and then the cloud to add a review.
7) Make your profile about your niche. Stumble lots of things about toys and also about subjects those who would buy them are interested in.
The post that went “mad” probably got reviewed by someone with a powerful SU account. Watch for my new post on SU for more details. Oh – and go back and add images to any posts you already have there. They will help. Just right click, SU PhotoBlog It and it will add the image to your review. Much easier now than when I used to do that manually!
.-= Internet Strategist @GrowMap´s last blog ..Local Search Directory Taps the Power of Television =-.
I agree – sharing is so valuable. I feel like I’m right at the beginning of this learning curve but I guess there are always people just starting out who could learn from my mistakes (here’s one – don’t spend more time keeping up with Twitter and Google Reader than actually doing stuff on your site!).
Anyway I digress – I’m a bit confused by what you mean about right click and PhotoBlog It in SU. I can do this from an image in my post but how is this submission process any different to the normal one?
I’ve just submitted my latest post in this way to give it a try (boo hiss at self submission!! oh dear) and I’ve done a longer review than I normally would with an excerpt like you said.
It also put it’s own excerpt in and only put tags on my review not on the post link so I don’t know what I did there.
On the review page within SU now it has an orange rectangle that says ‘Featured Review’ which is a new one on me – what does that mean?
What is the deal with the image? As SU has one for each submission anyway do you just mean in reviews. I’ve just gone back and added an image to a review I made previously but it doesn’t show up on the review page so what is the point or have I done it wrong?
Are your points (1) to (4) about self submissions? If not, how does SU drive traffic for you?
I’m so sorry for the number of questions but I thought I knew a bit about SU and apparently I don’t!!
Am looking forward to your SU post!
Cheers, Chloe
.-= Chloe @ Ben 10 Toys´s last blog ..Battle Strikers – 10 Things Every Parent Needs To Know =-.
Hi Chloe,
StumbleUpon does put an image to the left now which it didn’t used to do; however, you can add one or more images to the review itself. Their system manages multiple images automatically now. (We used to have to copy/paste to get more than one into a post.)
You can see examples of reviews with one or more photos by looking at my GrowMap StumbleUpon account.
If you highlight text on a page before you click the thumbs up icon it will put that into your review in quotes with From the Page in front of it. You can type your own review into the box (in addition or instead).
Click through to look at your post and you’ll see what is in it. You can cut/paste to rearrage the images, excerpts and review text. That is also where you want to make sure there are tags and also make sure the post is in a category.
Traffic from SU comes from people stumbling and also from anyone visiting an SU account that has a review of your post or going to pages that exist for each tag. Those cause residual traffic and get your site stumbling again.
Imagine you add a post. It gets stumbled for a while. Others give it a thumbs-up or review it. That gets it some more impressions. It ends up on the pages for the tags you used. Someone sees it there and thumbs it up or reviews it again and it gets more traffic.
.-= Internet Strategist @GrowMap´s last blog ..Success IS a Numbers Game =-.
Thanks for the tip about highlighting the text before pressing thumbs up – saves a lot of typing or copying/pasting. Am still struggling with getting Stumbles though – I just don’t think my posts or my niche are up to the task for some reason.
Happy Birthday to Growmap by the way!
Cheers, Chloe
.-= Chloe @ Ben 10 Toys´s last blog ..Motorcycle Toys – Where Do I Start? =-.
I agree that Twitter is very helpful in the quest for achieving the biggest traffic possible. But I must say also that I don’t like Twitter. And it’s personal, cause Twitter did nothing wrong to me. And in general I can’t find any reasonable argument against it. But I don’t like Twitter because of what have be done to the whole blogging idea. I loved blogs when first of them appeared. The idea was to write something about yourself – to create a sort of a diary that is accessible to anyone online. And that was cool. But now almost every blog is deeply drown in sea of web marketing. Every blog must be promoted to get to people, I doesn’t matter any more what are you writing about – you just need to promote yourself and people will come. Not because you are genius, not because you write great posts, but because they will find you using Google, Twitter or something similar.
.-= Richard Frawn´s last blog ..Yet another movie rant =-.
Hi Richard,
I am honored that you took the time to share your thoughts here although I will admit that at first I thought oh no another adult site. I welcome having an intelligent conversation with anyone who actually uses the space between their ears for thinking and discernment.
This particular blog may have to keep treading water in your sea of marketing because we exist to help small businesses and bloggers increase their sales and alas marketing and advertising are still very necessary for achieving that end.
When I was a computer tech sales was a dirty word.
Eventually I got older and wiser and realized sales wasn’t the problem – it was the unethical way that some in sales choose to operate that created my – and my techie coworkers – inherent distrust and dislike of all things sales related.
In a better world we would decide what to buy based on what other people we know thought was good and we are moving in that direction if only at the speed of a sea slug.
If each person would take the time to review their favorite businesses we would all have better information to make decisions and small businesses would thrive, changing the world – literally.
Everyone wise has a love – hate relationship with Twitter. The hate part will continue to swell because of spammy Tweets and get-rich-quick-wannabees who don’t know what they’re promoting will never work.
We can all still love the blogs that appeal to us. This blog and those used to generate business do have to market themselves – or at least place themselves in front of appropriate audiences.
Personal blogs and blogging diaries don’t have to do that – they can just be what they are and only those who know how to find them will ever know. The reason some of those choose to market is most likely ego related. We have all been conditioned to believe we are only as worthy as others think we are. Blogs are one way to measure ourselves. Sad that so many feel that need.
.-= Internet Strategist @GrowMap´s last blog ..How Much Is A Memorable Logo Worth? =-.
Social media is no doubt, one of the most important aspect of internet industry. you can’t only market your website through social media but you can also get backlinks and traffic for your site.
Hello,
While Social Networking is certainly important many do not have realistic expectations about what it does for you. It is far better for growing significant relationships and identifying resources and who is exceptional at each specialty than it is for generating any immediate business.
StumbleUpon is the best for getting traffic. I’ll be writing more on that soon.
.-= Internet Strategist @GrowMap´s last blog ..ppcSummit Seminar Discount Extended to Sept 1, 2009 =-.
I want to know more about this because it is another way to increase traffic and receive real online visitor. Would you mind to share some updates? Thanks!
Hello,
This Webinar is now available as a free download at Lyris Resources.
.-= Internet Strategist @GrowMap´s last blog ..ppcSummit Seminar Discount Extended to Sept 1, 2009 =-.
I’ve a downer on social media at the moment. I loyally jumped on the bandwagon – Twitter/SU etc 6 months back and have been trying to be useful and not just promoting my own stuff. Anyway I got round to looking at my analytics over the weekend and it’s all been a waste of time as time on site and page views are awful. Do you think it’s just the internet marketing niche that does well on social media or big household names rather than toy review websites? It just seems I could spend my few working hours better doing link building etc rather than the time I did put into social media. Oh dear rant over! Onto e-mail marketing – after much brain storming I’ve come up with something to give away that isn’t going to bankrupt me (so not free toys!) as an incentive for e-mail sign ups. Now I’ve just got to go and write it. Do I sound grumpy today – that’ll be the no sleep with a sick child! Sorry.
Cheers, Chloe
.-= Chloe @ Ben 10 Toys´s last blog ..Bumblebee Helmet Review – A Transformers 2 Toy =-.
Hi Chloe,
I hope your child feels better today. Remember that everything you do is not a waste of time; it is building a business one grain of sand at a time. Check out my latest post Success is a Numbers Game to get a better understanding. Remember you need a lot of visitors and of every 100 visitors only 1-2 are likely to convert. See that post for details on that.
All traffic from Social Networking would be categorized as content rather than search. Search converts better because it is what we do when we are ready to buy. Content can be considered a curiosity click. Even if we’re interested we aren’t likely to be planning to whip out our wallets at that time.
Expect Social Networking and content type clicks to have high bounce rates, low page views, and low time on site on average but don’t dispair because a few of those visitors will hang around, come back, subscribe and buy something.
One point I didn’t make – yet – is that part of the numbers game is you need a lot of products too. I’ll be writing more about how to use the new tools like Datafeedr, PopShops and Data Feed File to add hundreds or even thousands of targeted products to your blog.
The odds of selling a particular toy to a small number of people are disapponting. The odds of generating a lot more traffic with an SEO optimized store containing thousands of products are much more realistic.
In the meantime, implementing a way to capture those visitors you already have and targeting them with both email and new content via RSS feed is a good plan. What those who will never succeed don’t know is there are thousands of actions like those grains of sand and you have to keep piling them into your business before you can really make money.
.-= Internet Strategist @GrowMap´s last blog ..Success IS a Numbers Game =-.
Hi IS,
Child still sick so no more sleep for me!
I certainly no what you mean about the numbers game thing (and I will head over and read that post next) but the grain of sand thing is a good way to look at it.
As you are saying that search is better for conversions, why should I bother with social networking? Is it worth squeezing out my work on search to fit in social networking stuff given the limited hours in the day?
I can’t wait for your info on the tools to add more products – I assume this is an automated thing as not being a techie I struggle getting up to date prices for the products I do have never mind thousands of them. And in stock info from my affiliates would be out of this world. I know the answer is probably outsource but I hate relying on other people and am a short sighted do it all myself kind of person!
“The odds of selling a particular toy to a small number of people are disapponting.” I agree but I want to differentiate from Toys R Us, Amazon etc by going niche and giving more info on Ben 10 than they do. I’m planning to have all Ben 10 products on my site before the end of Q3 (ready for Xmas) so anything you can advise me on with regards to product feeds will be very useful.
Thanks for your thoughts and advice.
Chloe
.-= Chloe @ Ben 10 Toys´s last blog ..Bumblebee Helmet Review – A Transformers 2 Toy =-.
Hi Chloe,
Search always converts better than content or Social Networking. Think of it this way. If I search for a specific toy I’m probably interested in buying it. If I click on something I see at Twitter or in a blog I may be curious or may even buy it some day but what are the odds I’m going to buy it now? That is the difference.
Social Networking is good for developing relationships that can benefit your business. You need to reach people who buy toys. That will probably be best done by commenting in blogs for parents; however, being easy to find and contact at Twitter allows anyone to connect with you, ask a quick question and become a buyer.
The tools I’ve mentioned are fairly new ways for non-technical bloggers to pull in product feeds. If you’re using the feeds to display items in a store on your site the prices can be updated live. Of course the merchants have to provide a product feed but most larger companies already do.
I will write about these tools probably in the next week or two. If you want to know before then just ask and I’ll share some more details.
.-= Internet Strategist @GrowMap´s last blog ..Local Search Directory Taps the Power of Television =-.
Hi,
I’ve been doing the commenting thing as well as Twitter etc, but will focus my social networking on this area more then. The stats do look better for these referrers.
Looking forward to your post on tools shortly.
Cheers, Chloe
.-= Chloe @ Ben 10 Toys´s last blog ..VTech Kidizoom Digital Camera Review =-.
Hi Chloe,
If you don’t already have one definitely sign up for StumbleUpon. They send more traffic than anyone and what you share there lasts longer and gets seen repeatedly more often than other Social Networking sites that are more serial in nature.
Wow did you install a new Theme or do a redesign? Just clicked through to your site and it looks different – really good. Wow that is some unusual bright color of green – and green is the perfect color to symbolize boys toys (I’m thinking G.I. Joe).
I stumbled you and added an image and review. You definitely want to get active on StumbleUpon because they have a TOYS category! If you go to my StumbleUpon page you’ll see your review (on top right now but won’t stay there).
Looks like I need to write a post about how I use StumbleUpon because it is not anything like the way SU thinks we use it.
The Featured Drawing is a great idea. Three tips for your site:
1) I would put that Ben10 logo on the far left.
2) Add a search box on over at the top right. People are busy and some of us use search immediately to find just what we want.
3) Make it more obvious how to get back to the main site from the blog. I didn’t make the connection between the tab labeled Ben 10 Toys and the main part of your site.
.-= Internet Strategist @GrowMap´s last blog ..How Much Is A Memorable Logo Worth? =-.
Thanks for the information: social networking sites are definitely an upward trend, although I myself don’t use Twitter and rarely check my Facebook page (I check it about once every two months, just to update all the friend requests).
Hi Matt,
I really recommend using Twitter because it is often a way to connect with exceptional people who would be very difficult to meet or contact any other way. It is also a way to generate traffic. When someone leaves their Twitter ID in my blog I do visit their profile, follow them, and send traffic their way.
While not everyone will do this those of us who are very active in Social Networking have unwritten ways of working. For example, instead of saying thank you, you’re welcome when someone shares something we wrote we seek out quality content they created or something they’re promoting and we share that for them. We only share what will be valuable to our own readers and what we are comfortable passing along.
If you followed businesses related to weddings that operate in your geographic area, share each other’s content, and recommend each other when opportunities present themselves you will all benefit each other. See How to Geo-Target Twitter to create an account that targets only those interested in specific events and/or weddings in Sacramento.
You will end up being followed by others outside that target but that doesn’t matter. As long as you start out targeted you will be reaching those you wish to reach. Be sure to use other places you frequent to recruit followers at Twitter and vice versa.
I claimed the GrowMap Facebook page but only use it to let people who might look for me there know where to find me. I recommend all businesses claim their usual UserID at least the major sites. Even if you don’t actively participate there you can send that traffic on to wherever you are active or to your site or blog.
.-= Internet Strategist @GrowMap´s last blog ..Success IS a Numbers Game =-.