Spring is a good time to clean up your marketing basics, especially if you set annual company goals in Q1. We like to organize marketing activity around CONTENT, SEARCH and SOCIAL MEDIA.

Here are my top 4 tips:

CONTENT
1. Start with your business goals. List the top 3 and tie marketing to these. Make every step move towards Mount Olympus.

How do you know what your stakeholders want to know? Conduct at least 5 buyer persona interviews before you create your messaging.

2. Combine indirect marketing – PR – with direct marketing – eNewsletters, email, print, mailing and the web. Re-purpose press releases, viewpoints, blog posts, customer stories in quarterly, monthly or bi-monthly enewsletters and collateral to nurture your opt-in prospects and customers.

SEARCH
3. Invest in having a professional research your keyword phrases once a year. Skip the free tools. How can you find an SEO professional to do this? Conduct an advanced people search on LinkedIn using “keyword research” and “English” filters.

(Click Image to Enlarge)

SOCIAL MEDIA
4. Even if most of your sales leads do not come through social media (and you know this by discovering, during the buyer persona interviews, where your prospects are engaged. You also check the referring sites in your Google Analytics.), set up a publishing platform for your company comprised of twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. We find the APPROPRIATE use of LinkedIn as a sales tool is effective for B2B marketing.

What marketing best practices are working for you? Please give me a shout if you would like more actionable ideas.

As my friend and colleague Barbara Giamanco, co-author of The New Handshake, is fond of saying:

“Selling is marketing, but
Marketing is not selling.”

She also says the sales close rate is “84% if you have an internal sponsor and 44% with a referral.”

That, and the fact that there over 100 million professionals on LinkedIn, make it a strong referral network.  Building on my earlier blog about “How to use LinkedIn to Drive Dollars,” here are 3 tips from Barbara on LinkedIn for social sales.  Please click here for more in-depth information, including 2 TUTORIALS, on how to use LinkedIn.

1.  Search LinkedIn 3 ways.
a. Quick Search for people, companies and groups.
b. #Keyword search for trending topics and people.
c. Lead Generation: Use LinkedIn’s “Advance Search” feature.
Filter for your keywords; location; plus 1st and 2nd degree
connections and groups only.

Save your searches. LinkedIn sends you a weekly email with updated information.

(Click Image to Enlarge)

2.  Sales People: Leverage LinkedIn’s #1 Benefit:  Visibility!  Participate in groups, and always get an introduction.

Be sure your personal LinkedIn Profile is up to date, embellished with applications like “books you read,” and uses keywords in the header.  Create a company page as well, which acts as a mini-website within LinkedIn.

Softscribe’s joint venture partner, JD Gershbein, CEO of Owlish Communications says the most important part of LinkedIn is the invitation and the response. Barbara agrees.

PERSONALIZE THEM.

Click here for JD’s tutorial on how to build networks, join groups, and make recommendations.

3. VIDEO SELLS! Barbara’s 30-second promo video was posted on SlideShare (for greater reach and search engine visibility) and connected via LinkedIn’s apps to her Profile.

Her video was done by Scott Williford, Founder and CEO of Atlanta-based vLink Solutions. Use the LinkedIn Advanced People Search to find a videographer in your area.

What is your #1 tip for using LinkedIn for sales and nurturing your network?

Please click here for more, including 2 TUTORIALS, on how to use LinkedIn.

During SoCon in Atlanta last month Sloane Kelley’s preso rocked on how to organize an event in our interactive world USING A PERSONA AND AN ELEMENT OF FUN.

Sloane is co-founder of Geekend an interactive conference based in Savannah. She is also interactive strategy director for BFG Communications in Hilton Head.

How did they brand and promote Geekend?

With A ROBOT PERSONA – including a dog, which might actually be the persona for Sloane’s beagle “Mr. James Bond.” The Robot personality shined through every detail including the verbiage in speaker contracts.

A VELCRO WALL and Velcro suits loosened up the geeks and got things moving.

How did they attract influential bloggers? By SENDING EACH BLOGGER A PERSONALIZED VIDEO from Forrest Gump’s look alike that virally made the rounds.

During a keynote speech by Baratunde Thurston, director of digital at The Onion, Sloane and team hired a SKETCH ARTIST who sat off stage and created an infographic of the event.

Here are 10 THINGS Sloane learned in creating Geekend:

Build a solid team.
CREATE A FUN IDENTITY.
Know your audience better than they do.
It’s all about community.
Create content that lives on.
Experiment a lot. For instance, a hackathon.
Find your champions.
HAVE FUN.
Learn and share.
Give back. Sloan and team started Thinking Cap to encourage kids to be creative.

Does your company have a persona? What’s your theme song? Do you know your buyer personas? Give me a shout to learn how.

Pure product promotion no longer works on the web.  What works today is a focus on your buyers, their needs, and earning a position as a thought leader.

Have you experienced this galactic shift in PR and marketing?

There is a similar shift in how to MEASURE your PR and marketing ROI.

THEN                                                       NOW
Ad Value Equivalent                             SEO & Page Rank
Eyeballs & Website Hits                     Engagement
Twitter followers                                   Advocacy (tell their friends and peers)

Let’s assume you already understand your company must become THE GO-TO PUBLISHING PLATFORM for your area of expertise.  To do this, your message must CUT THROUGH THE NOISE LEVEL because your audiences are overwhelmed with content.  And, for the C-Suite, you must measure the success of your efforts.

How can you do all this effectively?  One way is to interview people who are purchasing your solutions, or ones similar to it, and create composite profiles of your ideal purchasers.  These profiles are called Buyer Personas. Once they are created, you know exactly what message your buyers want to hear, in what tone of voice, and on what venues. THIS BUILD TRUST. We all want to do business with people we like and trust.   Naturally you have already identified how investing time to create Buyer Personas supports:

1. Your PR and marketing goals (These could include soften the market for sales leads, change positioning, nudge buyers along the engagement continuum, get your message out there, change your reputation).
2. Your C-Level’s definition of success.  What makes the C-Suite say “We really rocked this week.” Or “The competition really rocked us this week.” MEASURE PROGRESS AROUND YOUR C-SUITE’S DEFINITION OF SUCCESS.

Be sure to measure a baseline first.

Here are the kinds of questions we use to create Buyer Personas (thanks Adele Revella @BuyerPersona for your excellent leadership).

For the Core Buyer Persona profile (not related to your products)

1.  How long have you been in your job?
2.  With whom do you work directly?
3.  What are your responsibilities?
4.  What are you trying to do in your job? What does your boss rely on you for?
5.  To what 3 to 5 problems or objectives do you dedicate your time, budget
and energy each day?
6.  What do you like about your job? What is challenging?
7.  What is your basic need? Frustrations? Concerns?
8.  What pressures do you face in your job?
9.  What are your goals and aspirations
10.  Other?

For the Product Persona profile (the same person in relation to your products)

11.  What does success look like to you (tangible or intangible)?
12.  How would you describe your company’s culture?
13.  What is 1 main thing you would like to change about your job?
14.  Where do you consume your information? Online portals? Facebook?
WHERE DO YOUR CONTACTS GET THEIR INFORMATION?
15.  What words, phrases do you search?
16.  Do you read blogs? Chat rooms? Forums?
17.  Are you open to video or audio?
18.  What tradeshows do you attend?
19.  What is the 1 thing you want from a vendor?  What experience are you
looking for?
20.  What is the 1 thing you would like to tell a vendor?
21.  What happened on the day you decided to look for a solution like this?
22.  What process did you go through to find potential solutions?
23.  What other people are/were involved in this process?
24.  What specifically do you think should be easy to use and for whom?
25. What is your most common objection to our product or service?

Where do Buyer Personas fit into measurement?  Buyer Persona’s come 1^st, before you set up your measurement program

As a proof point, here are @KDPaine’s “10 Questions Every Communications Professional Must Be Able to Answer Before Beginning a Measurement Program”

1. What Are Your Objectives?
2. Who Are Your Program’s Target Audience(s)?
3. What Is Important to Your Audiences?
4. What Motivates Them to Buy Your Products?
5. What Are Your Key Messages?
6. Who Influences Your Audience(s)?
7. How Do You Distribute Your Product or Service?
8. What Are You Going to Do with the Information You Get from Your
Research?
9. What Other Departments or Areas Will Be Affected?
10. What Other Measurement Programs Are Currently Underway?

If this seems overwhelming, remember in most things we learn to crawl before we fly. Get started now with your Goals, Success Definitions and Buyer Persona interviews. Would you let me know if we can help?

**

Thanks to Adele Revella, KD Paine and the fine folks at Bulldog Reporter PR University for their outstanding work.  KD Paine’s Proving the Power of Social Media Marketing to Top Management Advanced Measurement Techniques’PR University webinar inspired this post.

UPDATED Feb 1, 2012: Thanks @buyerpersona and @dmscott for bringing this to my attention.  A great read: “Persona based content marketing at the Nobis Hotel“

Google+ was introduced last June and yesterday I made my first post. Have you tried it yet?  It’s an ongoing experiment but guess what: YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE THERE, or will be soon.  Especially if you are in B2B.  Google+ is now open to business brands.  Since Google+ starts to weave together all your online personas with twitter- and Facebook-like features, I encourage you to jump in and get up to speed now.

TIP: Organize your content and a rchitecture around the top 3 messages that support your company’s business goals.

Here is some vocabulary and best practices to get you started.

CIRCLES. Circles are a way to organize your contacts. Once you get on Google+ and establish yourself, start circling people you want to listen to and be heard by.  I was advised to take it slowly.  You can create and get rid of circles, or place a person in multiple circles.

Consider establishing circles around your company’s top 3 messages, or “content pillars.”  For instance, I have 3 circles so far, titled Relationships, Innovation & Experience, and Our Markets – but nobody can see that. When you name a circle, it’s private to you. These are our company’s top 3 messaging buckets that support our business goals.  By organizing around your top 3 content areas, you will create an ENVIRONMENT that nurtures your customers, prospects and friends.

TIP: You could develop a circle with great content and share it with your other circles.  Any person can click on it, add everyone from that circle (or just a few people), make it their own and name it whatever they want.

PUBLIC AND PRIVATE POSTS, GREEN and BLUE. When you create a post, you must select what circles to receive it before it goes live.  You can choose to make it Public or  Private. If the color key is green, it’s public. Anyone can see it and it shows up in search.  If the color key is blue, it’s limited to the circles you selected.

TIP: Thanks to Joe Pulizzi with Junta42 and founder of the Content Marketing Institute for this post on how “GM Uses Google Plus for News Distribution to Media”

HANGOUTS. Hangouts are group video chats with your webcam and can be used to deepen relationships around an area of interest.  They currently let you and 9 other people video chat at once (gotta get a better background before I screen test).  Companies use hangouts to get input on ideas from developers; host press audiences; or chat around conferences at which your team is speaking.

How do you get in?  You get a notification that someone wants to invite you to hangout.  Everyone who is participating is in a live thumbnail across the bottom. Whoever is speaking rotates to the bigger window at the top.

TIP: Hangouts are currently public. If you want a private hangout, create a temporary circle.  Send the hangout invite to just that circle.

+1 BUTTON POWERS SEARCH. The +1 button indicates you LIKE something. When you click it, you can also include a snippet of your own opinion.  This is a POWERFUL way for people to show what is important on the web, and for you to increase your brand’s online influence.   +1 is the BEST REASON to post GOOD, RELEVANT CONTENT.  Google+ is a wonderful place to post content media, rich media and formatting.  You can find conversations that touch and extend your core content.

TIP: Ripples plays a movie on how content goes across Google+.  You can go back in the history of any post, see how the post spreads, and who shared it.

What I will do differently on Google+ than I did on twitter and Facebook. I vow to only add valuable content related to our top 3 brand messages in support of our business goals.  These are Relationships, Innovation, and domain expertise in the Hospitality, Government, Multifamily Housing and related markets.  To start, I will also choose my friends differently than I did before: only people I KNOW.  I will ALWAYS be respectful of your stream; no flooding.

QUESTION: Will Google+ replace LinkedIn? I hope not.  The marketplace
needs competition.

For more articles on Google+, please click here.

What is your main takeaway from Google+?  Did you get started this week?

*****************************************************************

Heartfelt thanks to the high value webinars from Bulldog Reporter PR University and especially these teachers on the Google+ webinar:

Jon Greer, Training Director, Bulldog PR University
Rebecca Davis, EVP, Digital Influence, Ogilvy
Jennifer Lashua, Global Social Media Strategist, Social Media Center of Excellence, Intel
Vidar Brekke, Chief Product Officer, Conversion
Mark Traphagen, Internet Marketing Manager, Virante

UPDATED Feb 2, 2012: Thanks for great articles from @prominentplacement @stacywms and @HeBS.  “You Can’t Afford To Ignore Google+… Here’s Why” and “How Google+ Affects the Hotelier’s SEO Strategy“

MOBILE was the most vibrant, well attended track out of four at the annual government-industry Executive Leadership Conference in Williamsburg earlier this month. Almost 900 people from the IT community met to discuss how to execute on their missions with budget cuts looming. The consensus was: INNOVATION and WIRELESS.

“Wireless is the horizon industry for every industry. It is where every industry will go.”

-Mr. Blair Levin, Aspen Institute

Field of Dreams
Mr. Levin was involved with the 2009 FCC-led transition from analog to digital for TV stations, which freed up the 4G spectrum. This was in time for the explosion of tablets like the iPad and smartphones.  “If we had not done that, there would not be the fields to build on,” said Levin.

How fast is mobile adoption moving?

“51% of Americans use smartphones and social media,” said Gwynne Kostin, Co-Director, Mobility, GSA.

“Over the past four years, there has been an 8,000% growth in data bits over mobile,” said Jeff Mohan, Executive Director, AT&T Government Solutions. He continued, “The average smartphone generates 10x the traffic of a regular phone.”
Key points to consider in your mobile strategy, according to the panel, are:

1. Ensure a good starting place via a clean, meaningful solution architecture.
2. Ensure your solution architecture looks at 6 critical areas:  device, application, data, connectivity, security management and supporting infrastructure.
3. Remember business is your focus. Set short-term deliverables within a long-term roadmap. Mobility serves the business case and the mission.

The Future of Mobile
“Three years hence,” asked moderator Tom Suder, president of Mobile Government Solutions of the panel, “what is your mobility prediction or wish?”

“Gestures. Move things across a white board like the Xbox Kinect games so we are not tethered to keyboards or desktops. We are closer to collaboration,” explained Gwynne Kostin.

“A national plan that eliminates paper,”  Mr. Levin said.

“When you ask a question, it pops up on your iPad with a video of an expert. You can ask him a question; he can respond or point me to someone who can,” said Jeff Mohan, Executive Director, AT&T Government Solutions

“Business anywhere, anyplace, anytime,” said Owen Unangst, CIO, US Dept of Agriculture.

A parting thought from Mr. Levin:

“Innovation that comes from the top tends to be orderly and dumb.  Innovation that comes from the bottom tends to chaotic and smart.”

HOW ARE YOU INNOVATING MOBILE IN YOUR INDUSTRY? GIVE ME A SHOUT;
I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW.

UPDATED Nov 2.  CLICK HERE for one of the best newsletters from our friends at Prominent Placement: “How To: Mobile SEO. Part One of a Two Part Series on Mobile Search Marketing” Thanks @StacyWms

VAKGT7FNV4SB

Y6RZRDX4T97Z

LinkedIn guru and joint venture partner, JD Gershbein,  shared tactically rich and empowering ideas with both our clients and staff during a recent in-house training session. JD is CEO of Owlish Communications, and a national keynote speaker on LinkedIn and social branding. Companies like Deloitte, Kraft, Orbitz Travel and Coldwell Banker tap his wisdom. Check out his 12-part LinkedIn blog series  in Success magazine.

JD navigated us through:

Best practices for sales on LinkedIn
How to create sales call preparedness

How to leverage video on LinkedIn, and
How to use LinkedIn company pages

My favorite take away was the “Notes” section. Did you know you can make notes – right on the profiles – about people you research and interact with on LinkedIn? And your notes are visible to you only. Also, searching a person via the “Updates” tab brings up all conversation about that person. Want to know your sales prospect inside out?

You might be using LinkedIn to drive dollars if you:
Spend 1- hour a day nurturing your LinkedIn network
Know who’s viewed your profile lately
Polish your LinkedIn etiquette
Add your Amazon reading list to your profile
Realize the LinkedIn Invitation and Acceptance are key
Know how to embed a video into your LinkedIn Profile
          Hint: Click here to learn how

Would you like to refresh your LinkedIn profile? If so, click here  to test drive Softscribe’s services via our LinkedIn Profile writing. Ask for the video link to JD’s one-hour presentation and get started using LinkedIn to drive dollars.

Thanks to my friend Chip Elbers, COO of America’s Best FranchisinG, for handing me last week a signed copy of Jeffrey Gitomer’s book Social BOOM!

It’s what most of our clients, prospects and B2B colleagues have been waiting for: a 187-page HOW TO business book on why we MUST BUILD a solid online presence – that includes Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Flickr – to win more sales.

My favorite part is: JEFFREY’S BIO on his twitter page. Want to know how to humanize your business persona? HE NAILS IT.  “King of sales, dad, granddad, writer, friend.”

My second favorite part is – His book endorses what we teach our clients: Prioritize Your Marketing Efforts in This Order -

CONTENT

SEARCH, and then

SOCIAL MEDIA.

This ACTION BOOK reveals a tipping point, and then shows you how to engage. NOTE: The set up time for each social media platform is REAL. To leverage our time, we use HootSuite as our publishing platform and TubeMogul to distribute videos.

We also nudge clients along the business social media path AS THEY ARE READY. I’ve found this to be a light that switches on from the inside.

At Softscribe Inc., for clients who are ready we are currently doing a deep dive into LinkedIn monetization with our joint venture partner Owlish Communications. And we are always learning from pros like my friend Toby Bloomberg of Diva Marketing and new stars like my friend Emma Loggins of LNP Studios.

Wondering how you will work this into your already packed day and win more sales? Consider adopting this attitude:

Social media IS FUN and SELF EXPRESSION IS FULFILLMENT.

I favor Twitter!  @Juliesquires   What is your favorite business social media venue?

Code Unique, a hotel complex in the Dubai Studio City district, was built with a QR code theme.

Why will QR – Quick Response - Codes be the new standard for moving mobile content? Because Google – through Google Places – is pushing it, and Microsoft, through Microsoft Tag, is close behind. Thanks to Kerry W. Kirby,CEO of 365 Connect and MultifamilyBiz.com for that observation, with which I agree.

Are you in marketing for the long-term?

If so, click here for a story-rich narrative on the evolution of QR Codes. Guaranteed – the first 30 minutes will give you the background perspective needed to successfully pivot your ongoing PR and marketing campaigns within the context of QR Codes, a new standard for moving mobile content. Again, thanks to multifamily industry leaders Ernest Oriente of PowerHour® and Kerry Kirby.

Some Vocabulary

To play with QR Codes, you will need a camera phone – like a smartphone, a QR Code generator and a QR Code reader, also called a scanner.

Generators and readers are not the same. Generators, which create QR Codes from a URL you type in, usually reside on the Internet and are accessible through a browser.

Scanners are downloadable to your smartphone. Click here for a short video on how to use a QR code scanner with a mobile phone

Here is a list of QR Code Generators and Generators with tracking and analytics .

QR Codes need a mobile ready website to convert visitors. YOU need a QR Code reader.

To leverage QR Codes, your hotel or apartment complex will need a mobile ready website, and you personally will need a QR Code reader and QR Code generator. I downloaded i-nigma reader for the iPhone, and plan to use it to generate QR Codes, too. It has analytics, a key feature to measure conversions. Thanks to my colleague and mentor Stephanie True Moss, founder of QRmedia.us, for the guidance.

“Twelve steps to a strong QR Code campaign”

Once you have a reader, a mobile ready website, and an understanding of where this tactic fits into your overall marketing plan and sales goals – now what? Here are Twelve Steps to A Strong QR Code Campaign.   

Fabrice de Nola, an Italian-Belgian visual artist, was the first artist to create works of art, in 2006, using painted QR codes containing web links and texts readable through mobiles.

How do vertical industries use QR Codes?

Still wondering if the learning curve is worth your time for the PR and marketing ROI? Here’s how various industries already use QR Codes:

Retail and Performing Art

• McDonald’s in Japan puts QR Codes on the side of burger boxes to embed nutritional information.
• Artists embed info on photos and art with QR Codes.
• Recording artists promote their music. Fans scan the QR Code and go to the artist’s video.
• Hollywood promotes movies with QR Codes.
• Retailers like Calvin Klein, Best Buy and BMW use QR Codes to push product info and specials.

(Thanks Kerry Kirby)

Hotels and Restaurants

• “Rather than using a survey link on your receipts, use a QR Code.
• Have your customers give out referral cards with QR Codes on them which lead to a special friends and family rate.
• Create table tents or displays that lead to review sites so your customers can review your property while it’s still fresh in their mind.
• Put a QR Code on your door or front window that leads to your Facebook fan page complete with hours and a menu.
• Use QR Codes on your menu to show diners where your locally sourced food comes from.”

Thanks to Hospitality Marketing Experts for the ideas and 1-minute video.     Another idea is to add a QR Code to your business card that takes the viewer to your Vcard full of contact information.  Thanks to Cendyn (client.)

Destination Marketers

Click here to read best practices for Destination Marketers in the hospitality industry. Much thanks to Two Chicks and Company.

Calvin Klein was the first major U.S. brand to use QR Codes in marketing.

At Softscribe, every day we see how a focus on 1. Content 2. Search Engine Optimization 3. Social Media and other tactics like QR Codes, helps our technology clients reach their sales goals. What other insight about QR Codes, and online marketing + public relations would you like to see? What are some of the biggest obstacles you face? What has been your biggest marketing success to date?

Photo credits: Kevin May, QR Code Hotel

Bottom Up by artist Fabrice de Nola

I promise an expanding, clarifying experience if you take 20-minutes to listen to Steve Rubel’s comments on the Laws of Attention.  If time is limited, my Cliff Notes are below.

Highlights from Steve Rubel’s talk at The Next Web Conference.

Trend: The concept of attention and how to manage it.

People need to see a message 3 to 5 times before they act.

Attention has 2 vectors: Time and Space

How to Optimize Space:
1.     Build and maintain digital embassies
“I advise my clients to follow the Jay Leno rule where guests talk for 15mins about interesting things and 5mins about themselves”

Hand craft your content for each embassy.
Have a content calendar.
Use tools to manage your presence: HootSuite

2.     Activate employees as thought leaders inside these embassies
We are now entering the 3rd Era of the web:

1st Era of the Web: Commercialization. Only large companies had a presence.

2nd Era: Democratization. Anybody can have a voice.

3rd Era: Validation. People want quality over quantity and expertise. People now trust technical experts. Social media should be 1% of 100 people’s jobs.

3.     Tightly integrate social into your website.
Social is not a channel, it’s a behavior

How to Make Time Your Ally:
1.     Think about day-parted engagement. Practice bi-focal awareness.
Situational – what’s going on in the environment
Ambient – what’s going on near me
The Economist uses a tool called Social Flow

2.     Optimize your content based on time of day:
Tool – www.timely.is

3.     Plan, test, measure.
This is a science experiment. Look at link tracking; see how long the links last.
Eventually you get to a formula when you figure out what works and what does not.

What about you?  Are you engaged in social media?  Give me a shout at julie(at)softscribeinc.com to learn how to integrate social media into your public relations program.