MarketingSavant

[Slide Deck] Speakership: Grow Your Career or Business Through Speaking and Thought Leadership

2012-02-23T20:32:26Z

This slide deck comes from a recent talk that I presented to Current, the young professionals group in Green Bay.

Speakership – Speaking & Thought Leadership Marketing Presenation

View more presentations from Dana VanDen Heuvel

One of the most incredible things that any professional can do to boost their career, credibility and professional potential is to take to the stage as a public speaker. While not everyone desires a career as a professional speaker, nearly every professional can gain from acquiring the skills necessary to command a room from the podium.

Make no mistake; this is not a presentation on how to be a great speaker, or even a competent speaker. Rather, Speakership is a presentation on how to be seen as the expert, how to earn your place at the front of the room and how to develop your career, business or cause with purpose through the power of speaking.

What in the deck?

The art of speakership – How to leverage public speaking to position yourself as an expert or trusted resource in front of a room of ideal prospects.
How does one get started in speaking? What are the steps and what do you need to make it happen?
Building a platform – what you need to do before you get on stage in order to deliver something worthwhile that resonates with your audience.
Making the most of every speaking opportunity.
What’s next and where to get started!

6 Tips for Handling Negative Comments Like a Pro

2012-02-20T16:22:08Z

One of the biggest challenges in social media marketing is giving up complete control of your message. When you create a Facebook page or Twitter account, you expose your company to the opinions of the general public. Pretty much anything goes. But the truth is, even if your company chooses not to participate in social media, you’re still at risk of being talked about in an unflattering light on the Internet. By participating and creating a social presence, you can more effectively monitor and react to any negative comments being written about you.

The worst way to respond to negative comments is to ignore them and hope no one notices. An unanswered negative comment makes you look irresponsible and leads other followers to believe that the comment is true, even if it isn’t. It’s best to analyze the comment and determine your response from there. Of course you can never be prepared for everything people say, but here are a few tips for reacting in a professional and responsible way to negative comments online.

1. Appologize

After all, the customer is always right. Although this can be tough to do (especially if the comment is particularly surly in demeanor), by doing so you show that you are a responsible and respectful adult. If the comment in question truly brings up a valid fault of your company, it’s best to own up to it and respond with a genuine apology. Offer your suggestion to amend the situation that warranted the comment in the first place.

2. Make it Right

Sometimes, a simple “I’m sorry” is not quite enough in the wronged customer’s eyes. They want restitution for the trouble your error has caused them. Try to come up with a gift that matches the severity of the blunder and offer it up to the offended customer. I would suggest extending this proverbial olive branch in private. If word gets out that you bend over backwards for customers who complain, this will just spur a cycle of social media drama. People could start taking advantage of your generosity, and make up ficticious complaints about you, just to score freebies.

3. Set the Record Straight

You may come to find that some negative comments are just downright false. This could be the result of a misinformed fan or someone trying to spread harmful lies about your company. My advice: Assume ignorance. When you assume the commenter simply didn’t know any better, you are more likely to respond in a polite, informative manner. Plus, if this is something that other people are confused about as well, it gives you a chance to clear things up in front of your social media audience.

4. Embrace It

If you determine that the comment was intended to stir up controversy, use it as an opportunity to start a discussion. Chance are, your loyal supporters will see the conversation unfold and jump in on your side. Comments made by your supportive fans serve as informal reviews of your company as they deffend the quality of your product or service.

5. Agree to Disagree

If you’re known for taking a stance on a certain topic, you’re bound to draw comments from people who disagree with you. It’s not your place to try and convince everyone on the Internet to see things your way. Address comments that challenge your point of view with an open mind. Try to see where the challenger is coming from, but in the end, you may just have to agree to disagree on the issue.

6. Watch out for Trolls!

Some negative comments may be completely unwarrented and irrelevant to your company. These comments fall into the “spam” category. People who make negative comments on social networks just for the sake of gaining exposure or drawing negative attention to a company are called trollers. There really isn’t any good that can come of these comments. If the comment is posted on your Facebook wall, as administrator of the page you have the power to delete the post.

In my experience, negative comments are few and far between. When you encounter a negative comment, take a few moments to think about your response before you take action. Figure out a way to turn a negative comment into a positive situation for your company.

[Lunch & Learn] Speakership: Grow Your Career or Business Through Speaking and Thought Leadership

2012-02-19T14:25:46Z

I’m very excited about an upcoming program for the Current Young Professionals group in Green Bay. We’re going to be talking about the concept of ‘Speakership’ this coming Wednesday. I consider Speakership to be the combination of the art of Thought Leadership and Speaking, which goes way beyond simply delivering a speech, sharing a deck or doing a talk. Speakership is more a philosophy than it is a specific action.

Read more about the upcoming Speakership event below.

Speakership: Grow Your Career or Business Through Speaking and Thought Leadership

What will you learn?

The art of speakership – How to leverage public speaking to position yourself as an expert or trusted resource in front of a room of ideal prospects.
How does one get started in speaking? What are the steps and what do you need to make it happen?
Building a platform – what you need to do before you get on stage in order to deliver something worthwhile that resonates with your audience.
Making the most of every speaking opportunity.
What’s next and where to get started!

Event Basics
When: Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2012
11:00 a.m. Registration & Networking
11:30 a.m. Lunch Served
12:00 p.m. Presentation
1:00 p.m. Conclusion

Where: Radisson Hotel & Conference Center
Turtle Room
2040 Airport Dr
Green Bay, WI 54313

Fee: $15 Members of Current
$20 Nonmembers of Current
Register: (920) 593-3408
bjohnson@titletown.org

6 Tips for Generating Leads on LinkedIn

2012-02-17T14:09:41Z

Of all the social networks you could use for marketing, LinkedIn is the most inherently business-oriented. What I mean by that is, it’s features are clearly meant for business development, it tends to attract the ideal target audience for many businesses, and its sole purpose revolves around networking for business professionals. If you haven’t found a place in your social media marketing strategy for LinkedIn yet, the time has come to bite the bullet and get on board. Here are 6 ways to leverage LinkedIn to generate leads.

1. Re-Purpose Content

LinkedIn is the perfect stage from which to project your expertise and claim your status as a thought leader in your industry. You can do this by sharing valuable content with your LinkedIn connections. If the thought of coming up with even more content makes you light-headed, take a few deep breaths and relax, because there’s no rule that says you have to come up with original content to share on all of your social networks. For example, you can share little tidbits from your latest blog post, with a link to the article for further reading. The act of content sharing is a subtle, yet effective way to reach out to prospects.

LinkedIn Apps

LinkedIn also offers a number of different applications that allow you to embelish your profile. For example, there’s a WordPress app that allows you to sync your blog with your LinkedIn profile, so that any time you publish a new post, the entire blog post gets posted to your LinkedIn profile too. There is a similar Twitter app, which automatically shares your Tweets with your LinkedIn connections. Have a killer presentation that deserves to be shared with the world? There’s also an app that allows you to upload and share your Google Presentations on LinkedIn.

2. Solidify Connections

Try not to get into the habit of “collecting connections.” Having hundreds of LinkedIn connections that you never correspond with is not nearly as beneficial as having a smaller group of connections that you engage with on a regular basis. After you make a new connection, take the next step to further get to know that person. Taking an interest in people is a great way to show that you care, thereby earning the person’s trust and respect. You will also learn more about that persons needs and find out if there’s a qualified lead in that particular person.

Don’t worry if you don’t get 100% reciprication in your efforts to reach out to people. Not everyone will share your enthusiasm for making solid connections, but those that do will appreciate it and respond whole-heartedly.

3. Get Involved in Discussions

Become a contributing member of the LinkedIn community by joining in the discussions happening every day. Seek out discussions by joining groups relevant to your business. Within these groups lies active, lively discussions just begging for your input. As you contribute more and more helpful comments, people will start to realize that you really know your stuff and you will gain exposure within the LinkedIn community. That exposure and expertise will eventually translate into inquiries, and finally, sales leads.

4. Use Group Stats to Find Your Target Market

Did you know that LinkedIn generates a nice little statistical run-down of the members of each group? The stats include valuable demographic data so that you can more easily find groups that are made up of people in your target market. Once you find a few groups that fit into your target, focus your energy on those particular groups for better chances of bringing in leads.

5. LinkedIn Answers

Demonstrate your expertise and gain exposure by answering questions on LinkedIn. There is an advanced search feature that allows you to seek out questions on a specific topic. Answering questions really helps you gain exposure on LinkedIn. Your answer appears under the question that was asked, on your profile, and in the news feed of all of your connections. Plus, any time the questioner picks your answer as the best answer, you gain expertise points.

6. LinkedIn Ads

If you want to go with a more direct approach to generate leads, there’s always LinkedIn ads. The advertisement plan on LinkedIn is quite user-friendly and is accomodating for any budget size. You have the power to pick the placement of your ads so you can seek out your target based on job title, geographic location, or even group (here’s where those group statistics come in handy). Your advertisement will link back to your website, so you’ll want to make sure to have a specific landing page set up for those who click on the ad.

Generating leads on LinkedIn doesn’t happen by bombarding your connections with sales pitches or by having the most connections. It happens by gaining exposure and offering helpful advice to the people who are proned to buy from your company.

A Review of 5 Free Social Media Dashboards

2012-02-16T15:19:41Z

Looking for a way to simplify your social media marketing process? Social media dashboards are a great way to more efficiently manage multiple social networks in one place. I’ve touched on social media dashboards in the past; however, until now, I’ve never really gone into much detail about what’s out there, how they work, and the unique features they have to offer. Here is a list of some of the veteran applications that have been around almost as long as Twitter itself, as well as a few fresh dashboards on the scene.

TweetDeck

TweetDeck is an application strictly meant for monitoring your Twitter accounts. It was recently purchased by Twitter, so you know this one’s not going anywhere anytime soon. TweetDeck has a very user-friendly interface and allows users to set up multiple feeds. For example, you can set up separate columns for your home feed, @mentions, retweets, and direct message all for one Twitter account. Plus, if you manage multiple Twitter accounts, you can recreate this setup for each account. You can also schedule your Tweets if you’re going to be out of the social scene for a while and need to automate your Tweets. My favorite TweetDeck feature: The audible “chirp” when someone mentions you in a Tweet.

HootSuite

HootSuite incorporates Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter into one dashboard. Most people would agree it’s nice to be able to view all of your social activity from one application. You have the ability to monitor all of your feeds, send Tweets, and update your Facebook status, right from the dashboard. Like TweetDeck, HootSuite also has scheduling abilities if you ever want to automate your social media posts.

One minor limitation of the free version of HootSuite that I have come across is that only one person can use HootSuite per Twitter account. So for example, if your company has several people using the same Twitter handle, only one of those people can use HootSuite for that Twitter account. If you’re willing to pay for the professional version of HootSuite, this problem is easily solved.

Seesmic

Seesmic is an alternative to HootSuite for compiling all of your social media feeds into one dashboard. Seesmic allows you to monitor Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Foursquare. Similarly to HootSuite, Seesmic allows you to update your Facebook page directly from the dashboard. However, I have read articles claiming that Facebook posts made from a third-party application such as HootSuite or Seesmic are subject to a lower EdgeRank than if you were to update your status directly from Facebook. Since nobody knows the algorithm Facebook uses to determine a post’s EdgeRank, it’s hard to tell if that is in fact true.

CoTweet

The free, or standard version of CoTweet is a Twitter dashboard with a focus on a more team-oriented approach to Twitter. For example, many companies want everyone within the organization to be able to participate in social media, but giving employees individual Twitter handles could be counterproductive in building one large following. CoTweet’s collaboration tools allow multiple users to Tweet under the same Twitter handle in an organized way. CoTweet also has scheduling capabilities and e-mail alerts for @mentions. You can add Facebook accounts to the dashboard if you’re willing to upgrade to the enterprise version of CoTweet.

MediaFunnel

MediaFunnel is another great social media dashboard with an emphasis on collaboration. If you’re looking to outsource your social media marketing plan, you may be a bit apprehensive about handing your company’s message over to someone who is essentially still a stranger. MediaFunnel has different user capabilities, which are broken up into administrator, publisher, contributor, and guest. So if you want to keep the social media ball in your court, assign the role of Admin to yourself, and set up your dashboard so that your manager can submit Tweets and Facebook posts, but they have to be authorized by you before they go live. MediaFunnel also has a monitoring feature so you can keep track of what’s being said about your company online using specific keywords.

Of course this list could go on for days, but I chose the social media dashboards that are the most reputable and offer the most useful and diverse functionalities. Everyone will have their own dashboard preference based on interface preferences and what they want to accomplish with their social media marketing plan. Feel free to try out a couple of these dashboards before you settle on one. You want to make sure that the dashboard meets all of your needs and that you feel comfortable with the one you choose.

Social Media: Obligation or Opportunity?

2012-02-16T03:45:02Z

This past weekend my team had the pleasure of working in the midst of about 200 sales people, helping them with their social media questions, putting on mini-workshops for them, walking them through tedious steps of getting started and of course, as is the case with many groups just crossing the threshold into the social media space, dealing with a fair share of skepticism on to the topic of whether or not social media can help them sell.

Let’s step back for a second and just look at the data. According to reports from HubSpot (they’re good for these sorts of data points), not only is LinkedIn one of the best channels in all of social media for generating leads that benefit sales people, in a survey of thousands of businesses, over 50% have generated sales from their blog and from LinkedIn. That alone is pretty powerful information that would get me off the fence.

Alas, that’s not enough for some, and the main challenge that we still see is the “obligation vs. opportunity” mindset that resides within certain people. Now, this doesn’t mean that everyone has this mindset. In fact, there are many people who are bullish on social media. And let’s be honest here, if you’re in sales or marketing, you’re always working toward the future, selling to the future customer, seeking the next project or working on the next idea – we’re paid to think ahead and to be more optimistic…it’s how we keep ourselves going in the face of closed doors, unreturned calls and unsuccessful marketing attempts. Nevertheless, we heard plenty of “oh my, how am I going to fit this in with everything else I have to do?” Well, let’s address that.

Obligation or Opportunity?

In his book, Today We Are Rich, Tim Sanders talks about turning your “Have-Tos into Get-Tos”, meaning that we should simply be thankful and have the gratitude for what we “get-to” do especially in the face of so many people out of work and all. However, I’m not sure that everyone would be sold on the concept of “yeah! I get-to go and search for prospects in LinkedIn today.”

The prevailing attitude toward social media then is that it’s this onerous obligation stacked on top of dozens of existing obligations that we don’t already have time for. For those people, perhaps they see everything in their life as an obligation, and that’s unfortunate, as there are so many opportunities hidden by the thin cloak of obligation. For the record, I see the world of social media one of unprecendented opportunity. Such as:

An Opportunity to build a wonderful community of customers in a place that they’re already spending time. (Facebook)
An Opportunity to stay up to speed on the real-time conversation in my industry, making me better informed and more useful to my customers. (Twitter)
An Opportunity to be notified of upcoming projects, ideas and changes in the market before any of my competitors. (Google Alerts)
An Opportunity to network with like-minded professionals in my area and position myself as a helpful resource. (LinkedIn Groups)
An Opportunity to connect with old friends, key influencers and others for whom I can make a difference (LinkedIn)
An Opportunity to take in some stunning visuals and to add my own touch of style in social media (Pinterest)
An Opportunity to share my knowledge, insight and research with anyone who’s seeking the information I have from recent presentations, talks, webinars and so on. (SlideShare)
An Opportunity to share my unique point of view and start a conversation with people that holds mutual interest. (Blog)

I think you get the point. Opportunities are everywhere in social media, and we can start to see them when we look at this new world through the lens of opportunity rather then through the bars and shackles of obligation.

5 Ways Public Safety Departments Can Use Social Media

2012-02-14T16:21:39Z

Let’s face it, social media is not just for college students and businesses anymore. Any organization can find a use for social media, whether it’s to market a product or service, raise awareness, or simply to connect with people on a deeper level. The uses for social media amongst public safety departments may not be obvious on the surface, but a closer look reveals some pretty cool ways in which the various groups that make up the public sector can use social media to interact with citizens, share valuable information and keep people safe.

1. Heightened Public Safety

Members of the police department or fire department could reach out to local citizens with a daily safety tip on Facebook or Twitter. Think about it, a Tweet could serve as a simple reminder that saves a person’s life! Or the Fire Department could teach an entire lesson in fire safety on its YouTube channel! Keeping the public educated and informed is one of the best way to improve safety, and social media is the most efficient way to reach the masses.

2. Solicit Fundraising Participation

Want to get more people to attend the police department’s monthly pancake breakfast? Social media is a great way to promote events, fill seats, and sell tickets for fundraisers. Save money on marketing materials by creating a Facebook event for free. That way more of the money you make with the fundraiser goes toward the cause rather than cost.

3. Roadway Updates

Keep the roads safe with Twitter traffic reports, driving conditions, and accident updates. Don’t make drivers wait to hear about driving hazards on the news, or worse yet, in person. Tweet real-time road conditions or indicate roads to avoid on a map on your Facebook page and update it as needed. Keeping people away from the scene of an accident or off of a dangerous, snow-covered road makes your job as fire fighter or police officer easier and helps keep people safe.

4. Recognize Staff Achievements

Turn members of the squad into hometown heroes by featuring different emergency personnel on your blog each month. It’s a great way to boost morale and team work within the police department, fire department, or any other public sector group that deserves recognition for hard work and high achievements. It also lets citizens know they have a great team of people protecting their city.

5. Promote Programs

There’s always something going on within the community, whether it’s CPR class or the babysitter certification course. Keep citizens informed and involved easily with social media. You could incorporate a calendar of events within your Facebook page and remind fans the day of the event so people don’t miss out. E-newsletters are another great way to keep people informed of the programs and events happening in the community. Use MailChimp to send out a monthly newsletter to people of the community for a more direct form of contact.

Staying in contact with an entire town or city is easy and efficient with the use of social media. It’s a great way to proactively keep citizens safe and informed, so your departments can dedicate more time to serving the needs of the community.

5 Tips for Implementing Your Mobile Marketing Campaign

2012-02-09T14:18:39Z

I recently wrote a blog post about the increasing importance of mobile marketing and some of the benefits mobile marketing provides for businesses. By now you’ve probably had a chance to let all that information sink in, and I’m sure you’re just dying to get started with your mobile marketing campaign. Well, today’s your lucky day because I’ve outlined the steps to take and included a few tips to make sure your mobile marketing plan is implemented flawlessly. Here are 5 tips for starting your own mobile marketing campaign.

1. Follow the Opt-In Rules

Just as there are rules to follow with social media marketing and e-mail marketing, mobile marketing has its own set of guidelines that businesses must follow in order to stay compliant. So before you dive into your customer contact database and start texting, make sure you follow the proper opt-in procedures.

There are a few different ways to go about creating opt-in procedures for your customers, and Social Media Examiner does a great job explaining those methods. A very common form of customer opt-in is to ask people to text a keyword to a designated phone number. By doing so, they essentially give you permission to include them in your mobile marketing campaign. One of the more up-and-coming forms of mobile marketing opt-in is the QR code. Which leads me to my next tip…

2. Educate Customers About the QR Code

I bet if you took a poll of your customers, most of them would claim to have heard of the QR code, but if you were to ask how many know the purpose of the QR code or what to do with it, the percentage would fall drastically. The purpose of the QR code seems to remain a bit hazy for the general public at this point, resulting in a waste of perfectly capable technology. If you’re going to make use of the QR code in your mobile marketing campaign, be sure to explain to your customers why it’s plastered all over your marketing materials and what they need to do in order to take advantage of it.

3. Incorporate Mobile Marketing in with Social Media Marketing

If you happened to catch any of the commercials during the Super Bowl, I bet you noticed a lot of commercials flashed a Twitter hashtag (#keyword) on the screen to conclude the commercial. This is their way of incorporating (effectively or not)social media in with their traditional marketing campaign.

You can achieve synergistic results if you can find a creative way to tie your mobile marketing campaign in with your social media marketing campaign. For example, you could ask customers to scan your QR code to receive a discount on their next purchase. When customers scan the code, you could direct them to your Facebook Page, where they must Like your page to receive the coupon. By scanning the QR code, they are effectively opting in to your mobile marketing campaign, and you gain a new Facebook fan in the process.

4. Exercise Principles of Scarcity

I recommend that you take it easy with the SMS marketing (AKA text message marketing) for a couple of reasons. First of all, you don’t want to bombard customers with text messages, just as you don’t want to clog up their Twitter feeds, for fear of losing subscribers. Secondly, scarcity adds an element of perceived value. If your customers get a text every day with a 1-day-only coupon code, there’s no reason to use it today when they can always use the coupon in tomorrow’s text. Whereas if you only send a text with a coupon once or twice a month, customers will feel more compelled to use them because the next one won’t come back around for a while.

5. Integrate with Location-Based Marketing

Part of what makes mobile marketing such a valuable tool is its ability to provide customers with “just-in-time” information. You can do this more effectively by syncing your mobile marketing with location-based marketing. For example, if you have your business registered on Foursquare, you can reward those customers for checking in with a text message coupon. Although you can provide these types of rewards within the context of Foursquare itself, by combining the two different marketing platforms, you have a better chance of getting that customer involved with your mobile marketing campaign.

People don’t go anywhere without their phones anymore. That’s why it’s so important to meet people in their medium, and be present in the context that matters most to your customers. What are some creative ways you are seeing mobile marketing used lately?

7 Tips for Incorporating Pinterest Into Your Social Media Marketing Strategy

2012-02-10T11:48:09Z

Gone are the days of scrapping together long lists of links to interesting recipes, blog posts you’ve been meaning to read, or designs you’re into. Ever since a little invention known as Pinterest came about, that’s all history, because now whenever you’re surfing the web and see something you want to remember, you can simply pin it to your boards and come back to it later when you’re ready. It’s super easy and there’s even a creative aesthetic aspect to the new social network.

With 10 million users to date, it’s pretty clear this social network is gaining ground fast. So what does this mean for marketers? How can we capitalize on this wildly popular social network? Here are 7 ideas for businesses who want to add Pinterest to the social media marketing mix.

What is Pinterest?

Pinterest brings a totally new concept to the social network scene. It’s not so much about collecting friends or fans, speaking your mind, or connecting with professionals. It’s about collecting good ideas on the web, organizing them in a unique way, and creating an image. Users can create different boards for different categories, such as recipes, decorating ideas, fashion tips, or bits of inspiration. When users find something on a website they want to remember, they can simply “pin” the image to one of their boards. There is a social element to the network, as you can connect with and follow other users, just as you would on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. That way, you can look at your friends’ boards, and if you see something on someone else’s board you like, “repin” it to your own board.

There is also a pretty neat design element to Pinterest. Its layout is very simple, with clean lines and simple colors. The aesthetic aspect to Pinterest makes it easy to spend hours cruising other peoples’ boards, looking at pretty pictures and gathering ideas. That said, it’s worth noting that Pinterest is not just for the female demographic. Pinterest is catching on with guys just as quickly, and while they may not have boards for “cool hairstyles” or “my fairytale wedding,” guys are definitely finding their own things to pin on Pinterest.

1. Portfolio Piece

Are you a designer, artist, or stylist of some sort? Pinterest offers you a great way to showcase your work and even organize it by project type. For example, a photographer could have a board for weddings, a different one for senior portraits, and another board for engagement pictures. It gives people a feel for your style and makes it easy for people to share your work with their followers.

2. Featured Products

A lot of retail stores have already jumped on the Pinterest bandwagon by creating boards for different product lines. For example, a clothing store could make different boards for women’s cloths, men’s apparel, and children’s clothing. Within each board they could put together different “looks” to give consumers ideas for putting outfits together. Although there is no e-commerce component to Pinterest, each pin should have a link back to the original website. Not only does this drive traffic to these retailers’ websites, but it makes it easy for consumers to find and buy merchandise online.

3. Give Your Brand a Persona

This is especially relevant for businesses that don’t have something “physical” to display on Pinterest. If your business provides a service rather than a product, you’ve got to get creative with your boards. Create boards that speak to the values your brand strives to embrace or the type of lifestyle your consumers lead.

Take a massage parlor for example. They probably can’t pin the different types of massage packages they provide, and if they did, that might not be so well received on Pinterest. However, when you think about the type of clientele a massage parlor attracts, it’s people who put a premium on relaxation, tranquility, and even health. Said massage parlor could create a board featuring images that inspire relaxation, yoga poses, pictures of relaxing places, and health food.

4. Re-pin Your Followers

Pinterest is not meant to be purely self-promotional. Just like with Facebook and Twitter, people will only put up with so much self-promotion before they stop following your brand. Take time to check out your followers’ boards and if you see something that speaks to your brand’s image, re-pin it. It shows that you’re not just all about you, and it makes things more interesting for your followers. Wouldn’t you be flattered if Pottery Barn liked your style enough to re-pin something from your boards?!

5. Follow the People Who Pin You

Pinterest allows you to see who has pinned you, or re-pinned one of your pins. Chances are, the people who are frequently pinning you are going to be your best customers. Follow these users, study their boards and do some good old-fashioned market research…well, not too old-fashioned I guess. Either way, by studying your followers’ boards, you’re granted an inside look at the things your best customers like the most. Take that information and try to apply it to your business strategy.

6. Pin Resources

Not only is this one helpful for you to have easy access to a running list of some of your favorite resources, but it’s also extremely useful for followers who might be interested in learning more about your industry. Think thought leadership with visuals. Pin your favorite books, blog articles, and infographics that are related to your industry.

7. Reach out to Your Facebook Fans

Currently, you can’t register for Pinterest through your Facebook fan page, so you can’t find Pinterest followers using your Facebook fans. However, there’s no reason you can’t manually invite Facebook Fans and twitter followers to look at your boards. Anytime you create a new board, let people know about it on Facebook and Twitter.

There are already so many uses for Pinterest when it comes to marketing your business, and it’s still only in beta testing! The marketing potential with Pinterest is great with endless possibilities. What are some creative ways you have seen brands using Pinterest for marketing?

Words Marketers Should Never Say

2012-02-03T12:44:17Z

Words have a power all their own (Photo credit: waɪ.tiː)

Marketing is the discipline of the future and of possibility. You don’t ever hear of anyone marketing to the past, do you? Of course not. Marketing is about looking forward, marketing is about improvement and planning for the best of what’s next. Whether you are for profit or not-for-profit, marketing is the key to greater awareness, great engagement and greater fulfillment of the organization’s mission.

Knowing that, marketers should refrain from using all-inclusive, negative and restrictive words in their thinking, reasoning, and planning lest you close off opportunities for the future. Such words include:

Always – What is always true? In marketing, almost nothing. Demographics change, markets shift, ideas that didn’t work in one place produce magnificent results in another. Always question your always assumptions!

Only – Only eliminates the possibilities of the or and the and. Rarely is something an “only” in marketing. There are many roads to the same destination and many channels and tactics to reach the same consumer or objective.

Never – You’ve heard the phrase “never say never.” It’s as true in marketing as it is in life. Never say never to a new idea, a new market, a new approach to the customer, a new technology on the horizon or anything else that you’ve not given it’s due.

Nothing – Nothing is as useless as the word nothing. Nothing denotes things lacking importance, interest, value, relevance, or significance. Marketing is about creating interest, delivering value, becoming relevant to the customer and building something significant.

Every – Marketing is not about using every tool, every idea, every word or everything including the kitchen sink. Brevity is good and being selective, especially when considering the customer’s time and attention, is appreciated by all. Every can be as a damaging as nothing when misapplied.

Everyone – Everyone is not a target market. Everyone is not interested in what you sell. Everyone is an expensive segment to market to! Just because everyone is doing it doesn’t mean it’s right for you or your organization. Be careful of everyone and focus on the “the one’s.” Your customer and your company.

No one -There is always going to be someone who wants something and that something could be what you’re offering! Saying “no one” shows our own biases of what we like or don’t like and what we think the customer will want. Unless your “no one” statement is backed up by irrefutable research, consider the contrary and market to the someone who wants what you have.

Can’t – What did your parents tell you about saying can’t? Stating that something can’t be done is the quickest path to the death of a great line of thinking and a big slamming door in the face of a potentially great idea that won’t be let in because can’t is standing in the way. Make sure that your “can’t” isn’t a “won’t” that’s hiding a weakness in your marketing strategy before you dismiss something wholesale.

Impossible – I’ve rarely heard a great marketer say that something is impossible. Think about it – if we’re they profession of possibilities, then impossible just isn’t in word our vocabulary! Sure, maybe something work’t work under the present circumstances, but in marketing, as in the movies, it’s amazing what we once thought was impossible that’s now part of the daily routine.