5 things your company could do in digital marketing right now
Your company likely has the tools in place online, but isn’t using them to their fullest potential, if at all.
Let’s look at five ways to improve your digital marketing right now. You don’t have to do all of them, just one or two of them consistently.
• Let subscribers know the latest news or give them helpful advice in your newsletter. For some reason, you may have fears about your readers. Spamming them, bothering them. Try instead in trusting them and investing in them. If you can’t remember when you emailed them about what’s going on at your company, it’s time you reconnect with them.
Example: A Birmingham restaurant, Urban Standard, does a good job with its weekly updates. In the latest edition, the company shows off its newest hires (click the image at right to see full size). Simple, but shows the heart of the operation. (Too bad the revamped restaurant website has no place for you to subscribe to the newsletter. Oops.)
• Share something of interest several times a day on your company Facebook page. Two aspects are important in succeeding. First, vary your posts to include photos, shared updates from other companies’ Facebook pages, videos, questions and more.
Example: I love what my business partner Emily has shared on the ShopBirmingham.com Facebook wall, a great assortment of items of interest to local shoppers.
Second, post updates manually. For the time being, Facebook is giving higher weight to links and posts shared via the “Write something …” box on the wall. (As opposed to using third-party apps such as Hootsuite.) That emphasis on “live” posts means more visibility and engagement from your fans.
• Stop trying to “beautify” your blog — just use it. It worries me when business owners tell me they’re spending thousands of dollars to upgrade their site, but have no real purpose behind it other than “It’s due for a makeover.” What good is a spiffy new site if you intend to continue your neglectful ways? Post something to your blog, and then 7 days later, do it again. And again.
Example: One of my clients, fi-Plan Partners, has done a great job on its blog of developing an editorial calendar, hitting timely topics and showing off the depth of expertise from all of its in-house experts. You’ll find three posts a week on all things related to finances and the economy.
• Dive into Google+. Make a plan, create your company page, promote it, make an easy-to-remember gplus.to short URL, share some interesting items in your company stream and hold a video Hangout with up to 10 people. Your page can’t “follow” anyone (except other pages) until that person follows your page first. (Somewhat similar to Facebook company pages passively waiting for fans to Like it, but can still connect with other pages.)
Special tips: First, tour personal profile can Circle as many people as you like, which makes for a richer experience. For local businesses, it might be helpful to know who’s actually using Google+ in your city and what they’re saying. You can view the Nearby stream, even on your desktop. Then add them to a new Circle; you can see the one I created for Birmingham.
Second, use the “Search Google+” box at the top to see what people are talking about, based on keywords and hashtags. A good way to keep up to date with trends and feedback. For example, you can see the latest on Google+ about Penn State, including “Best of” and “Most recent.”
Note: Google+ has not made metrics available yet, so you have just a few to go by: number of followers, number of +1s and shares and comments, traffic to site, etc.
• Start brainstorming your digital marketing plan for the first half of 2012. What do you want to accomplish? How will you measure it? What are your expected costs in money and time?
Make a plan, execute it, adjust as needed, measure along the way.
Don’t wait till the new year to get started. These five suggestions are relatively painless, but can help your company stand out from the ones standing still in their online marketing.
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Birmingham Blogging Academy 
I think the idea that Urban Standard has about showcasing new hires is excellent. This gives the employees a feeling of being appreciated as a part of the organization and having a greater stake in their position with the business. For clients this approach adds the personal touch of actual people instead of just the entity of the organization. It all creates something to connect with.
Lee
Best selling author Lani Diane Rich visits
Tossing It Out
Wednesday November 16th.
Companies have many stories to tell. It’s just a matter of telling them. Thanks for your comment, Lee.
Wade, I’ve been giving my clients very different advice on Google+. I am not quite as optimistic as you, Chris Brogan, and others that Google+ is the next big thing. Frankly we haven’t found many other BtoB folks on there to chat with. Businesses have a hard enough time figuring out how to devote time to one or two social media sites right now – I’ve advised that they take a “wait and see” approach until they determine that it’s worth a time investment.
That said, I personally like many of the features in Google+ that are frankly done better than in Facebook and/or Twitter (an example would be all the “sharing” features, which helps with starting/spreading conversations). And there’s the obvious benefit of driving SEO with the content being indexed.
Just thought I’d share. Tomato, tomahto. 😉
To be fair, I have not said Google+ is the way to go or the devil. But until someone tests a new channel, there’s absolutely no way to determine if it’s the right fit for your company.
My recommendations are the most basic things you can do to get started without over-investing time/money in it.
I agree that G+ is not as robust as other channels, but that also makes the opportunity greater in some respects to be an early leader.
Thanks for your comments, Phyllis.