DeansGuide

Content Writing for the Non Writer

deansguide — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 07:02:57 +0000

Google’s move away from old school link building as the cornerstone of search engine optimization, to a more content friendly algorithm, places the importance of content creation front and center for many companies. If you are a marketing consultant, work in a marketing department, or own a small business you must understand how to create the types of content that your clients will benefit from and continue to support. Here are some ideas that may help you.

Where do I start?

Blogging: Before you begin formulating your content, you must have a publishing platform that matches your goals. For people tasked with writing for their brand, a well positioned blog sitting on your website’s domain is the ultimate place to begin. Blogging software, most notably WordPress, provides marketers with the platform to begin creating messages (posts) that will support your product(s) and service(s).

Where do I create my content?

Setting: Many people will disagree with this statement but the fact is there is no correct setting, place, library, office, or dungeon that fits every person. If you need total silence and privacy you know a place that works best for you. On the other hand, if you thrive on social noise and chaos a local coffee house may suit your needs. Think about the most comfortable place you enjoy thinking; that may be your spot.

How do I get my ideas?

Dreaming: One of the best places I find ideas for content is while dreaming during a restful night’s sleep. I have dreamed about writing ideas and acted upon them the next day. If you are passionate about your company, sleep is the perfect launching pad for ideas. An important tip is to keep a pad of paper and pen on your nightstand. If you awaken with an idea write down notes documenting your ideas.

Niche: Another place to research is your business niche. What is the latest news? Who are the most influential players? Why has the niche moved in a certain direction? Where is the next trend coming from in your niche? Look for evidence of something new or developing.

Experience: Detail your experience(s) that have an impact on your business. Tell a customer story that illustrates the impact your product or service plays in their life. Testimonials are great but you don’t necessarily need a testimonial to write a great piece of content

Social Media: Twitter is my leading idea engine! The shear volume of content I can tap into at any given moment is amazing. Whether mining my real time stream, my lists containing tweets from niche specific accounts, competitor’s lists, trending subjects, or hashtags, Twitter is the mainstay of fresh breaking news and information.

Events: Networking events, conferences, lunch and learns, business trips, and client meetings are some of the live in-person events you attend each year. Look for great stories to tell from your experiences.

The Most Basic and Powerful Steps to Launch Your Social Media Marketing Efforts

deansguide — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 06:20:57 +0000

If you are just beginning to invest in social media for your marketing efforts then you are in the due diligence phase of adoption. Although you may have had great reasons for not adopting earlier, the fact of the matter is your organization is playing a desperate game of catch up with the competition. Here are three tools you need to establish: a publishing platform for your marketing messages, a distribution network to spread the word, and a professional networking engine.

Blogging

The most important piece of your social media marketing plan is a publishing platform. Blogs provide the publishing mechanism that allows small, medium, and global firms to publish their story, vital statistics, and ongoing activities. The most successful companies understand that their blog provides consumers with a look inside the organization, a place to learn, and a place to communicate and interact with the firm. The benefits of search engine optimization and brand awareness are ancillary byproducts of the firm’s efforts to provide the most compelling content on their products, services, and people.

Twitter

Although there are many social networks available to individuals and companies, the most powerful distribution network that supports a firm’s ability to reach consumers on a massive scale with lightening speed is Twitter. With 200 million active users, Twitter is a ultra rich environment for many firm’s to find, listen to, and engage with their consumers and prospective customers.

Linkedin

Considered the business network for job seekers, Linkedin is an important solution for connecting. Whether your sales reps are looking for prospects, you are proving your expertise, networking, or distributing blog articles about your company’s offerings, Linkedin can play an important role in any organization.

In 2013 there are many new social networks and tools to support your organization’s marketing efforts. Before you begin, explore the new networks like Google+ and Pinterest. Understand your goals and research what networks your customers are utilizing on a consistent basis.

Dean Guadagni is Inner Architect’s chief communications strategist with 20+ years of business development, sales management, and national account management experience. Dean is the author of a nationally recognized self-help business guide whose articles have been published by Reuters.com, Nielsen.com, FoxBusiness.com, Ziff Davis Enterprise’s “Microsoft Watch”, Computer Shopper, and the Chicago Sun-Times. Prior to joining Inner Architect, Dean worked with management consulting firm Domus Consulting Group, whose mission was to help real estate brokerages and affiliates develop technology marketing strategies in real estate.

Dean is a frequent public speaker and workshop facilitator on social media strategies, blogging, and networking. He is a graduate of San Francisco State University with a BA degree in Speech Communications.

Social Media Quotes Provide a Learning Experience

deansguide — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 01:31:15 +0000

The following are short quotes from social media superstars, business leaders, entrepreneurs, and mavericks about the impact social media has on our personal and business lives. Although most of these quotes are blasts from the past they are interesting nonetheless.

If you had to come up with 10 quotes about the impact of social media, what would be your focus?

What They Are Saying About Social Media

Chris Brogan: “I don’t use Twitter for play. I’ve doubled my business earnings from Twitter. Twitter is the new telephone. 100 years later.”

Guy Kawasaki: “Twitter is the most important factor in Alltop”

Jonathan Zittrain, Harvard law professor: “The qualities that make Twitter seem inane and half-baked are what makes it so powerful”

Brian Solis: “Social Media is about sociology and psychology more than technology”

Seth Godin: “How can you squander even one more day not taking advantage of the greatest shifts of our generation? How dare you settle for less when the world has made it so easy for you to be remarkable?”

Erik Qualman: “With the growing reliance on social media, we no longer search for news, or the products and services we wish to buy. Instead they are being pushed to us by friends, acquaintances and business colleagues.”

Pete Cashmore: “Privacy is dead and social media holds the smoking gun”

Brian Solis: “Please Repeat: Influence is NOT Popularity!”

8 Basic Social Media Marketing Strategies for 2013

deansguide — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 17:55:57 +0000

According to a recent 2012 Chiefmarketer.com survey highlighted by MarketingCharts.com, the majority of marketers utilized social media for customer engagement more than as a means of finding new audience(s). When marketers were asked to provide a snapshot of their social media marketing strategies, the following answers were the most prevalent:

84% of marketers cite the ability to reach consumers at multiple touch points as the most important strategy
62% of marketers believe engaging with consumers “where they spend time” on social networks is vital
56% of marketers cite the fact that consumers expect them to use social media and be accessible
53% of marketers use social media as a tool for one on one conversations
51% of marketers believe the viral speed of social media

8 Basic Social Media Strategies

Do these strategies make your top five social media strategies? If they do would you rank the strategies in the same hierarchy of importance as survey respondents? Here is a look at strategies that I find compelling:

Listening: gathering consumer intelligence on social networks
Crowdsourcing: asking your consumers to provide their feedback, both good and bad, as well as wants-needs
Keyword-Search: uncovering conversations on social networks and generating sales leads
Networking: creating relationships with consumers, industry professionals, and vendors
Reputation Management: ensuring your brand is not being unfairly disparaged
Distribution: channels to distribute links from your blog(s), website, newsletter, and other social networks
Due Diligence: monitoring competitors, industry trends, and networking partners
Branding: consistent, ongoing messages that build brand recognition with consumers

Unshorten.It: Open Unidentifed Links with Confidence

deansguide — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 05:30:16 +0000

This guest post from Innerarchitect.com, digital marketing agency based in San Francisco, takes a look at content curation security. Opening links in today’s world is often a dangerous activity.

Safety in today’s Web world is often threatened by a wide array of malware, hackers, and unscrupulous cookies designed to steal your information. Marketers are often faced with security issues when curating content in their everyday duties. With the now industry standard link shortening services, marketers are faced with opening links that have no identifying attributes. What lurks behind a shortened link can be nothing but a great article or something that could cause real problems- until now.

Unshorten.It

Unshorten.It is a tool designed to take the fear out of opening unidentifiable shortened links. According to Unshorten.It “Unshorten.It takes any bullets for you, analyzing the website for safety and letting you see it before you decide whether to proceed.” Unshorten.It provides:

Identifies the URL the link points to
Title and description tags of the target web page
Screenshot of the target website
Safety ratings as provided by Web of Trust
Alerts you if the website is found in the HPHosts blacklist

Unshorten.It Results

Unshorten.It for each shortened link input returns a post title, destination URL, description, and safety ratings:

And the final output a screenshot:

Leverage Twitter “Favorites” Like Brian Solis

deansguide — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 16:29:08 +0000

Are you strategically utilizing Twitter? Would you like to identify, understand, and successfully utilize the same strategy that thought leader and social expert Brian Solis uses? If your answer is yes, then the following post will help you take the first step. This post was complimented by Brian and received 173 retweets, 75 Facebook likes, 71 Linkedin shares, and 17 Google+ +1s. Consider the following post a road map into how Brian has successfully taken one feature on Twitter and made it his own recommendation channel.

Twitter’s most underutilized, outside of lists, and most valuable opportunity is the “Favorites” feature.You all know how it works but do you understand how to strategically utilize favorites? Do you use Favorites for anything other than to “bookmark” important tweets for research and future reading?

Brian Solis is a formidable thought leader in the digital space, author, and genuinely willing participant who engages with many who seek his help. Brian’s use of the Favorites feature is the reason for this post- it’s simple and simply brilliant.

How Does Brian Solis Utilize the Twitter Favorites Feature?

Granted, the vast majority of us, me included, do not have the name recognition, authority, and influence of a Brian Solis in the digital marketing space. But that doesn’t mean we can not utilize Brian’s strategy. Brian’s strategy is to Favorite the wide array of compliments, positive references to his work, and referrals he receives on Twitter. Like many websites that provide customer referrals, in quotes, Brian is leveraging his deserved popularity with people on Twitter.

References to Brian Solis’s Expertise

An example of people’s perception of Brian’s expertise:

Referrals to Brian Solis’s Work

An example of people’s referrals to Brian’s work, books, speaking engagements

People Quote Brian Solis

In what has to be the most flattering and effective use of Favorites is the collection of people quoting you, your book, or your speaking engagements. Here are some examples of people’s reaction to Brian Solis:

3 Ideas How You Can Utilize Twitter Favorites

Showcase Retweets: every time you receive a RT that is about your work, favorite (save) that tweet. People who thank you for your work including writing, speaking engagements, or opinions sought should also be Favorited. This stream will provide prospective followers with reasons to follow you
Tweet Your Favorites: as you begin to build your Favorites “bank” of goodwill, start tweeting the link to this section. Promote what people are saying about you
Tweet Other Users Favorites: help recognize people’s work by tweeting the link to their Favorites section as I did above with Brian Solis. This will also place you on the map as a person willing to share content and help other users. In addition, you might catch the eye of a user by promoting their work

How to Use Twitter Lists to Launch Your Twitter Account

deansguide — Thu, 31 May 2012 15:49:22 +0000

What is in a list? Why are Twitter lists so useful? When should you use Twitter lists. How do you leverage list building on Twitter? All of these questions should be asked before a person creates their Twitter account. Yet, very few people consider the list feature for anything other than keeping brands or people grouped together. There is more to it than that, let’s take a look.

Perception of Out of Balance Twitter Accounts

One of the most common strategies many users choose is utilizing an automated paid tool to add Twitter followers. Although this is a method that allows you to add hundreds even thousands of followers in a very short time, it is not the most effective strategy. Instant Twitter followings, when you have very few tweets, is a signal to every user that the account is either a ‘bot or an account that most likely was setup to mass blast broadcast sales tweets.

How to Use Twitter Lists to Launch Your Twitter Account

When launching a new Twitter account the following steps will help a person avoid any perception problems:

Niche: create lists based on keywords that describe the niche you are interested in finding. Example: If you want to promote your Mixed Martial Arts gear you could begin by creating lists like “UFC Fighters” and “MMA Fans.”
Research: finding important information is a very valuable benefit for being on Twitter. Build lists based on keywords that describe the type of information you are seeking. Example: If you want to find information on yoga you could build lists like “Yoga Studios” and “Yoga Instructors.” Fill the lists and then monitor the tweet streams of each list for real time updated news about your target content
Monitor: if you are just beginning your Twitter account you should vet the people or brands you are considering following. You can accomplish this review process by building lists and simply monitoring the stream of tweets. The option when you are in your list is to view tweets or the members on the list. By viewing the tweets of the people or brands in your list you begin to understand how frequently they tweet, how active they are in conversing with people, and how valuable their tweets are to your efforts. Most importantly, by not immediately monitoring the users in your list you have the opportunity to gradually add them and avoid the stigma of an account that is out of balance.
Customer Service: if you have customers-clients on Twitter, place them in a list. By doing this, you can easily review their tweets all in one place. Twitter’s algorithm is such that you will not be able to see everyone’s tweets all the time. Building a list of your customers ensures you can see what they are writing all the time. By listing your customers, you can vet who you should follow and who is not utilizing Twitter on a consistent schedule.
Lead Generation: building quality lists often attracts subscribers. Review these subscribers to your lists for insight- are they competitors, are they collaborators, are they prospects, are they influencers in your niche?
Find People-Brands to Follow: once you have organized your lists and started the vetting process by monitoring the tweet stream, you are ready for the next step in launching your Twitter presence. Begin to drill down and “mine” your listed Twitter users. Review who they follow and who follows them. Finally review the lists they have built for more choices

Inner Architect is a digital marketing firm based in San Rafael, Ca. For more information on our services and for more information about social media marketing strategies, please visit us at Innerarchitect.com.

20 Social Media Sites That Educate

deansguide — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 06:49:45 +0000

You are not a newbie to social media and the digital revolution. You understand the vital opportunities that are on the horizon as our world evolves away from the desktop to mobile devices created with our on-the-go life in mind. Although you have the motivation for self education, you often search for relevant sites that trade information for eye balls.

The following list provides information, breaking news on social media networks, search engine optimization, and other subject matter relevant to the social digital world. If used properly, this list can uncover dozens of additional resources for your education

Why Does Google Provide Free Products? Welcome to deansguide’s 5 Year Anniversary

deansguide — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 07:50:10 +0000

Introduction

Special acknowledgment must be made to two very important people in my life. The first is my inspiration to begin blogging and the man that introduced me and inspired me in becoming a social media consultant: Patrick Kitano. Pat, my former business associate at Domus Consulting Group and close friend, is truly a thought leader in the social media space and one of the original first adopters of Twitter and Facebook.

The second hero in my rise into blogging and social media is my current business partner Susan Hanshaw, A former Vice President in a large direct marketing firm and marketing expert, it was Susan who helped me believe in my abilities and was instrumental in launching my public speaking career. She means the world to me.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Dateline March 31, 2012

Today is my 5 year anniversary as a blogger. Although my instincts say write a post about my accomplishments and experiences as a blogger, my judgment says that’s too self serving. Instead, I will dedicate this short post, #718 to my thoughts on Google and why they have provided free products to the masses.

Google’s Premise

Long before consumers had privacy issues with Google, Google understood the “social graph” and how the information we provide to them, through all of their free product offerings, could impact their ability to deliver target specific advertising that works.

Today, Google understands that Google+ is the “glue” that binds together their product offerings. They have rewarded consumers and brands that have adopted Google+ with SEO benefits. Any free product that Google offers is done, first and foremost, to capture your personal information, your habits, your favorite things-people-places. Eventually all of this social graph intelligence will help them continue to build better advertising product offerings and in the future truly build a real-time search engine that prominently includes “social signals” and not just questionably link stuffed websites.

Conclusion: Citizen Journalist Power to the People!

Blogging is the lynchpin driving force behind Web 2.0. We have finally gained control over our own information. We now are “citizen journalist” with the power that blogging has represented in the democratization of content, news, and personal information. We are in control and own our destiny like no other time in history. We have wrestled this control from the greedy, over confident, and monopolistic print and television media that had a stranglehold over us for over a century.

It’s a new day, a new era. Are you taking advantage of your rights? Join me in standing together forever for the rights and freedoms that every person enjoys to take control of their story and present it to the world. . . long live citizen journalism, blogging, Google, and the spirit of discovery!

5 Factors in Hiring a Social Media Consultant

deansguide — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 07:25:27 +0000

Do you know how to hire a consultant? Inner Architect’s focus is Social Media Marketing based on the integration of social media channels with direct marketing strategies. We focus on producing positive measurable results for our clients.

You are a COO, Marketing Director, or business owner and you are in charge of creating, executing, and maintaining a social media marketing plan. You understand the following challenges in executing this task:

Time: you do not have the time to execute and maintain your company’s social media marketing plan
Expertise: you do not have the expertise to leverage Twitter, Facebook, Google+, blogging, or mobile applications
Expense: you do not have the budget to hire, train, and pay benefits to new employees to execute your marketing plan

What Are You Getting From Your Social Media Consultant?

What are you getting when you hire a social media consultant to run your company’s social media marketing efforts?

Goals: have you identified your goals? Do you want to drive traffic to a brick n mortar? Are you looking for ecommerce online store traffic? Is your firm interested in protecting brand recognition and reputation? Are you tasked with growth?
Strategy: do you have a specific strategy that you want the consultant to execute?
Plan of Action: did you receive a written plan of action from your consultant on how they will achieve your desired goals?
ROI Measurement: Is your consultant explaining how he/she will measure their efforts within the chosen social networks to provide a clear picture of the ROI for your investment in their services?
Progress Reports: Has your consultant set up a schedule of regular reports detailing their progress?