Tag Archives: emarketing
Four great ways to gain Facebook fans
Last week I published an article about “Why you must invest in a Facebook page instead of profile for your business”. This week I decided to touch on things you can do to gain more fans for your page on Facebook.
YouTube is a great tool to broadcast yourself or your business. The good thing about it is that it’s open to everyone and it gives you the option of posting the video to your Facebook page. There are people who are now famous because of YouTube. You must be creative with your video so that it can catch the attention of your fans and motivate them share it with their friends. You can introduce yourself and your business to the world. Don’t forget to include links to your Facebook page, Twitter page or Website.
If you have a website or blog, installing a Facebook page plug-in can really help you gain more followers. However, people will not like your Facebook page if the content of your website or blog is outdated or not interesting. Creativity is essential.
Have fliers around your shop, advertising your Facebook page. Put it on your business card or post it on a receipt. You must also make sure that your Facebook page user name is personalised. This makes it easy for people to find you on Facebook and to be able to remember your Facebook page URL.
Facebook ads are also another great way to gain more followers. There is a cost involved and the price depends on your targeting criteria, so you are in control of how much you spend.
The how to of Blogging
I’m sure many of you know what blogging is, but for the few of you who do not know what a blog is, allow me to enlighten you. A blog is a web page that serves as a journal for an individual which is freely accessible to internet users all over the globe. Sounds easy enough, doesn’t it?
Blogging is not as easy as many think. With millions of blogs out there, it’s hard to achieve true success. You can spend 15 hours a day working on your blog but, if you’re not doing the right things you’re just wasting your time. So what goes into having a successful blog you ask? There are many ways you can ensure your blog will be successful. There are a few important factors you need to determine before starting a blog, which include:
–> Goals
–> Target Audience
Below are a few other important elements you should take into consideration when creating and maintaining your own blog:
1. Name and URL Link
The name of your blog is very important. It should be unique and memorable so that visitors will remember it and return after the first visit.
When choosing a domain for your blog, select one that will represent your brand – which is you. Pick something that’s short and unforgettable. Anything too long will be hard to remember and easily forgotten. This may result in visitors not returning to your blog.
2. Design
The design is the first thing a visitor will notice when arriving on your blog. If you want to ‘wow’ your visitors then choose a design that stands out from the rest in order for your blog to be unforgettable. Remember, first impressions last.
Another important factor to take into consideration is navigation. Make sure that everything on your blog is easy to find and access. There’s nothing more annoying than spending hours trying to find recent posts, tags, a search box, etc.
3. Content
I’m sure you’ve heard the cliché, “Content is king.” Well, if you want a successful blog then you should live by it.
Content helps increase your traffic and improve your rankings. If you want readers to share your posts then you should put a lot of time and effort into your content.
4. Social Media Platforms
Social interactivity is fundamental for any blog. When creating your blog, add plugins or widgets in order to make it easy for your readers to share your content. Be sure to add a Facebook like button, a Twitter button for retweeting, and the new Google +1 button. If you create great content, people will share it on their social media platforms.
Blogging Heroes
Among more than 102 000 000 blogs, a few stand out as influential — they are called Blogging Heroes. Wired magazine Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson is one of them with one of the most successful blogs in the world – “The Long Tail”.
Below are a few points by Chris Anderson that might help you when creating your own blog or increasing the quality of your blog:
A blog is a thinking tool, a means of collecting, composing, and amplifying your thoughts—while getting useful feedback. Ideas are enriched by the experiences of blog readers.
A personal blog presents a better platform for communicating honestly and transparently than a company blog, where a writer is constrained by commercial considerations. However, remember that self-promotion is more effective when it includes a value-added element.
A blog, especially one with a large community, can function as a distributed research project and become an efficient marketing platform.
When blogging, focus on specific interests. You don’t have to appeal to an overly diverse audience. Focused blogs are self-selecting, in that they draw readers who have a legitimate interest in the blogs’ subjects.
Such readers are more likely to forgive errors and omissions, and will contribute more than someone just passing through.
Every blog, and every blogger, can be improved. To maximize your blog’s audience, focus with laser precision on your subject.
If you want to hear Chris live, catch him at the Discovery Invest Leadership Summit on 21 September 2011.
Six ways to use Twitter for Marketing.
Some business men and women have realised that Twitter is a vital marketing tool for business, others are still confused whether they should use it or not. Not all businesses need to be on Twitter. If your target market is on Twitter, you must create a Twitter profile. Here are few tips on how you can use Twitter in promoting your business:
Follow the right people: This will help you connect with people who are good at networking and for sharing information that can add value to your business.
Take note of your customer’s complaints: Listen to what they are saying about the products or service that you render and respond with a good attitude. It is a good thing to keep your customer happy.
Be curious: ask questions, find out about the advantages and disadvantages of the product or service you are offering, let them know about the changes you have made.
Do not leave your follower unattended: Keep the conversation going and be always keen to answer their questions.
Be relevant: share useful information.
Do not try to impress your customers.
Feel free to add your tips.
Blog Blog Blog
We have become so engaged with blogging that we might have lost the sense of meaning along the way. So here is a little recap:
According to Wikipedia, a blog is a short form of the term “web log”.
“A blog is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability of readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (Art blog), photographs (photoblog), videos (Video blogging), music (MP3 blog), and audio (podcasting). Microblogging is another type of blogging, featuring very short posts.”
But does blogging live up to be all this? The answer is no. Blogging has become much more than a few sentences and short descriptions! It has almost become a way of life!
From writing your opinions, to commentaries, to bad or good services or experiences, to even a single parent asking how to raise his baby daughter! It is mind-blowing when you think about all the topics that people blog about. And when you let your mind go, you will realize the possibilities that lie in all these blogs.
In December 2007, Technorati tracked more than 112,000,000 blogs! Imagine one of these blogs is written about your company, whether it is negative or positive, the impact is amazing. Of course not every blog owner has a long list of readers, but someone might end up on that blog one day and it might just be that they are impacted by what that blogger has said.
A very good example is a well-known estate in the Western Cape. Someone came to visit the farm and had a bad experience at the restaurant and blogged about it. This quickly came to the attention of the person in charge of the social media of the estate. He contacted the blogger, apologized for the inconvenience and handled the situation in a positive manner. This lead to a blog about the quick response of the estate. What a way to turn things around! It’s like a new way of doing PR!
If you have not yet realized the impact that blogs have on the business environment, the time is now! Otherwise you may loose valuable customers. It is not about keeping the consumer in the shop happy anymore; the cyberspace community also needs to be considered.
That is the main thing traditional ways of communication tend to neglect. If you neglect online, you neglect your company’s future!
Is there more to life than GOOGLE?
I am constantly amazed at the global fascination with Google. Sure they’re a well known brand ( #1? ) and sure they guys there are internet pioneers.
Blog Marketing
Surely the blog is getting recognised (by some) as a valuable eMarketing tool. I do know that many still dispute this or haven’t quite figured out how exactly to make the blog work for business.
For those that have, the question that still begs to be answered is how to market your blog, that will in turn market your business.
In the early days we were told that web surfers will find your blog via search or hearing about it from others and that it ain’t cool to market your blog.
How has that changed and how can you market your blog?
Surely with the often quoted figure of 80 000 new blogs being launched daily, you can’t expect some-one to just “find” your blog.
So, does this mean that you have to put a marketing plan together to tell people about your blog, the non-profit generating part of your business?
I certainly won’t consider going that route if I had a business blog.
Some things I would consider doing however include:
- adding a blog url to your email signature
- linking your blog from your web site
- posting comments on other blogs with links back to your blog
- attempting to get permanent links on other similar blogs
- link baiting: writing an article or post that would make other bloggers want to link to your blog
- adding your blog url to your skype or msn profile
- entering the SA Blog awards
- telling friends, family and associates about your blog.
There must be plenty other ideas of how to market a blog short of taking out newspaper ads or TV commercials.
Ideas…?
eManuel
Okay, so he isn’t quite the Messiah or Immanuel, but business, individuals and parties at both ends of the political spectrum seem to have liked his budget speech yesterday.
What does it mean for IT, the internet and eMarketing specifically though? Well, reading through the entire report in Business Day, I can safely say that the word eMarketing was not mentioned once…ai!
However, technology was mentioned plenty times.
In the allocations for Home Affairs, Education, Science and Technology ( no less..) and police, telecoms, etc.
What was mentioned many times over though was the lack of skills in that field and how it is impacting on our great nation’s development. Even where funding for projects have been made available, there ain’t no-one to do the job!
IT colleges, universities and recruitment companies: take note.
The only reference to the internet is the allocation of R 622m towards InfraCo to improve the roll out of their national broadband backbone. This company is built on the infrastructure of Eskom and Transnet and entrenches government’s involvement in telecoms, something we were hoping to see the end of.
Interesting is the fact that InfraCo is 26% owned by VSNL, the largest shareholder of Neotel. They will of course use this network for their own broadband.
ISP’s were keen to hear how they can benefit from using Neotel in order to escape Telkom’s stranglehold but there does not seem to be news on that yet.
Interesting also to note ( on AllAfrica.com ) yesterday that Telkom is buying Kenya’s Africa Online.
The other government broadband provider Sentech says that it is launching new business and consumer services next week. They also have their job cut out for them to convert local TV channels to digital by 2010.
Let the games begin!
Photo of TM courtesy of BD
The Budget and eMarketing
What on earth can the national budget, to be announced tomorrow, have in common with the internet, online business or even eMarketing?
The answer: I just dont know.
The fact is however that the budget affects every individual and business in some way, so surely it must have an impact on those doing business via the internet as well as those making their living from the internet.
We have all heard the facts:
- a R 30 Billion budget over run
- Money allocated to major infrastructure projects has not been spent: shortage of skills and natural resources
- Increases in housing, education, policing, etc.
So, where does it leave us: the people that make our living from the internet or use the internet as a marketing or sales tool or as a major sales channel?
One thing that is true is that the government is taking e-learning, e-government and collecting taxes via the internet seriously.
That could mean more work for internet companies, a greater understanding of the medium by all and maybe a greater commitment of the government to roll out internet to those people is small towns, rural areas, schools and generally less privileged people.
Let’s hope…!
Academia and eMarketing in SA
One of my biggest concerns about emarketing in South Africa is the lack of exposure it gets in the academic institutions in South Africa. I know emarketing is an elective in some MBA programmes but I have yet to hear of a university that even has a semester course in emarketing.
Judging by the lack of understanding of the field in the business world, one can only assume that this topic will become more and more important and that including it in any marketing / business course will be essential and not just a nice-to-have.
One of my personal goals this year is to get the institutions to wake-up to emarketing.
Great was my joy when I saw an ad for Electronic Marketing Officer in last week’s Sunday Times for UNISA no less.
The requirements, besides the normal web and graphic design experience, also calls for some-one with experience in:
- “search engine registration”
- “electronic communication”
- “creative writing ability
The duties include:
- “…advertising campaigns using the internet”
- ” strategic planning”
- “…online electronic branding”
So, I thought, if they understand the need for such an individual to assist with the marketing of UNISA as a brand, it can not be too long now (hopefully years and not decades ) before they and other institutions realise that their students need to know about it too.
In fact, what an irony: a university wanting to employ some-one with a skill / qualification that they themselves don’t offer.
