Cafe Blog Reviews » Social Media

10 Steps to Encouraging Your Customers to Become Evangelists

admin — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 12:59:30 +0000

We have talked about the value of turning customers into evangelists when using social media . I wanted to give you a few pointers on how to accomplish the task. 10 Steps to Encouraging Your Customers to Become Evangelists 1. First. Make sure you prepare yourself for the focused effort of turning happy customers to loyal promoters and evangelists. Prepare your mind. Maybe yoga? 2. You have an email list right? Use your email list to make sure you are connected to your customers on the social sites you use frequently. Importing and Exporting Contacts Using: Facebook , LinkedIN , Twitter , and Plaxo . 3. After you have imported your contacts into the social media sites of your choosing… make sure you add and contact them through the sites. 4. Once you have connected to most of your customers start communicating on a daily basis with them. We are not talking about sending sales information or product information but asking about their day… etc. 5. Create a list of your high level and value customers. It helps to have a list in place to set some goals toward customer evangelists. Start out with 5 people or companies. 6. Set up Twitter Searches for your valued client’s industries or services. For example, if you have an accountant as a valued client make sure you setup a Twitter search feed for accountant or tax advice. When someone ask for advice make sure you reccomend your client. Disclaimer: You do not have to always monitor the Twitter search but it is good to have around. I know we all have about 5 mins of free time a day. 7. If the client has an event or seminar coming up in the area make sure you share that link with the multitudes of your followers online. Share it as an RT in Twitter Share it on your Facebook Wall Share it as a status update on LinkedIN 8. Recommend your client on LinkedIN . Why recommend on LinkedIN? It is simple. If you want recommended by a client on LinkedIN it is always better to recommend first. Do it and see the benefits. 9. Share an exciting story about your client’s business to your contacts. It is important to share the quality information even if it does not relate you your business. 10. Ask for the recommendation. It never hurts to ask. Encourage your best clients and friends to tell YOUR story across the masses. Remember it is important to give before you receive. If you help your clients become thought leadership in their industries or grow their business using the Internet they WILL become your evangelists.

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10 Steps to Encouraging Your Customers to Become Evangelists

Social Media Changed My Life!

admin — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:20:20 +0000

This weeks guest blog post is by Becky Robinson , a social media consultant and blogger for Mountain State University . (Do you want more than that?) If so: She is also the mother of three daughters and currently lives in Chicago, IL. This week marks the one year anniversary of my entry into the social media world. I am going to say something bold (and risk sounding corny, too): SOCIAL MEDIA CHANGED MY LIFE. I am still the same person at my core: my values, my beliefs, and my purpose, but becoming involved in social media has changed my habits, my activities, and my aspirations. I have a new career path and every day brings new relationships and opportunities. My social media involvement started with Facebook, last New Year’s Day. Less than a month into my Facebook experiment, I reconnected with lots of old friends. Then one day, a high school classmate I hadn’t talked to or seen in more than twenty years posted a status update looking for freelance writers. I have always wanted to write. At age 8, my friends and I created newspapers and went door to door trying to sell them. As a preteen, I filled a series of flannel covered journals with lines of poetry and stories. I majored in creative writing in college but after graduation I got married, went to grad school, and got a job (not writing). After several years of 9 to 5, and 12 weeks of maternity leave, I wanted nothing more than to stay home with my daughter, so that’s what I did. Three daughters and 8 years later, I had a store of creative energy waiting to be unleashed. Being involved in social media has given me an outlet for creativity and means for connecting in relationships with people all over the world. On a personal level, blogging, Facebook, and Twitter are just plain fun. Professionally, though, social media has provides an amazing platform for building not only my personal brand, but also the brand of the university that I represent. My old friend John, who got me started with freelancing, works for the marketing department at Mountain State University. When I became a part of the team there, we started to explore the impact we could make with social media. We started with a blog . To the blog, we added a Twitter presence . Then we started to experiment with expanding the university’s Facebook presence. The whole point of social media for Mountain State – for anyone – is relationships. We are finding new approaches to connect with current students, new ways to make our brand known to potential students. We are finding new methods to delight and engage our students, and new avenues to involve them in community with each other. And you know the best part? It’s really just plain fun. Related articles by Zemanta Try a Slow Media Diet for 2010 (lifehacker.com) Got Caught With My Pants Down and My Ink Dry? What’s My Next Move? (agentgenius.com) Avatar Makes a Billion Dollars (mashable.com) Social Media: More Than Meets the Eye? (myventurepad.com)

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Social Media Changed My Life!

Break All the Rules or Don’t Waste My Time!

cgseo — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:15:00 +0000

Last night, I was talking to Jeremy Derringer, owner and absolute SEO genius over at Slingshot SEO … we were discussing the idea of taking the “leap” and taking the chance when running your own business. Going @$#@ to the wall and dominating! Shouldn’t that be the way of thinking for every business owner? When did rules ever apply to the art of running a business? Let me preface this post by saying that I do not mean moral, ethical, or legal rules. There are rules that each person has set aside for themselves whether spiritual or from the laws of the land. I am talking about business rules. They are the rules predestined and applied by business owners, scholars, and business minds throughout the centuries. Rules on innovation and marketing that if applied correctly will help you run a business but… Times are trying/changing and individuals/companies are scraping to stay ahead of the competition and make a little bit of cash on the side. I am reading the book First, Break All the Rules by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman and it had me thinking about the rules we apply to business marketing and thought-leadership. I am sure you are thinking of typical rules that you apply on a daily basis in your business. What are they? Where did they come from? Why don’t you just break them? My favorite example is from the minds that brought us Quicken and Quickbooks : Intuit. In the early days the founders were struggling to produce demand for their product. Distributors would not pick them up because, frankly, they were the 47th or so product on the market. They decided to take every cent of their budget in the bank and invest it in marketing directly to the consumer and not the distributor. We are not talking about 10% of their budget or a small portion of the revenue… they bet everything on this ONE idea. The rest is history. They broke the rules and changed the mold of how sass products were sold and distributed. What is keeping you from breaking the rules? What is keeping you from adopting a social media strategy that could revolutionize the way you communicate? What is keeping you from starting a blog or starting a Facebook group? Is it fear? Is it understanding? Is it resources? To this I say, break all the rules. Live out your business and revolutionize the way you reach your customers. Empower your company to defeat fear and rise above the rest. If you would rather lay in the trenches… don’t waste my time.

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Break All the Rules or Don’t Waste My Time!

B2B Marketing through Social Media and Blogging

admin — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:11:37 +0000

What is the one thing that comes up time and time again in our educational sessions at Brandswag? B2B use of social media . I have heard plenty of reasons why social media could not… should not.. be used to sell the B2B world. What do many B2B companies do right now for marketing? Direct Mail? Newspaper Advertising? E-Newsletters? Many of the outbound forms of marketing still work for B2B sales but blogging (in my mind) has taken a mainstream stance when building trust and thought-leadership in a specific industry. There are some truths to the thought that content can build trust between individuals. Many of us look at B2B marketing as fundamentally different from B2C marketing. Honestly….. (in my humble opinion) there is hardly any difference. We are selling to people. Business to business based companies are still selling to people. The CEO of a distribution company is still a person despite the fact he deals with companies instead of an individual. If you are sitting at the helm in a B2B company remember to start a blog that contains content, daily interactions, client thoughts/opinions and industry news. Your purpose is to create an informational powerhouse that keeps people reading… And involved them in your story… your brand… your legacy. Related articles by Zemanta Social Media: More Than Meets the Eye? (marketingpilgrim.com) John Jantsch on “how to get your customers talking” (thecustomercollective.com) Creative Marketing Associates, Inc. Achieves a Consistent Flow of New Clients with B2B Customer Centric Marketing Program (prweb.com) Why B2B Companies Should Be Using Social Media (thenextweb.com)

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B2B Marketing through Social Media and Blogging

My Top 20 Posts of 2009

admin — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:32:31 +0000

I know.. a little egotistical right? That’s why I am splitting it down the middle! My top 10 posts from 2009 and my favorite post from the REAL geniuses of social media. Just trying to showcase the more popular (community driven) posts from 2009. I am going to be taking the rest of the week off in the beautiful San Luis Obispo, CA to be with family. I can’t wait to hook back up in 2010! Have a restful and joyous holiday week! My Favorite Posts of 2009 The Magic of Dynamic Pricing from Seth Godin The Four Spheres of Social Media Strategy from Jason F alls 11 Must-Dos for the Serious Blogger from Jay Baer Sometimes, You Need To Fire a Customer by Lorraine Ball So What’s Facebook Good For? from Chris Baggott User Experience is Not A Check Box from Travis Smith Are You An Elephant or a Butterly? from Douglas Karr The Top 100 Twitter Publishing Tools and Services by Brian Solis Becoming a Social Business from Shannon Paul Death of the Brochure and more Verbal Masturbation by Duncan Alne y My Top Posts of 2009 20 Ways to Drive Leads Through Social Media Customers Are People First. Marketers Are Fundamentally Flawed. 10 Ways to Build Trust with Social Media When Should Business Engage in Social Media Balancing Perception and Reality in Social Media 10 Tips to Integrating Social Media with Marketing Is Out Sourcing Social Media Okay? 5 Things I Have Learned as a Generation Y Business Owner The Three E’s of Social Media: Embrace Educate and Empower Twitter Usage Plan for Success

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My Top 20 Posts of 2009

A Look Back at 2009 and One Prediction

cgseo — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:15:10 +0000

I know. I know. Everyone writes a post like this..blah blah blah. Looking back at the last year… recanting exciting testimonials of accomplishing goals and just being generally… excited! There is nothing wrong with “looking back at the year” posts which is why I am writing this today. I can be a cynic and a little negative but not during the Holiday! Speaking of accomplishing goals… This post is actually number 500 on this blog. Crazy right? 500 posts about everything from Twitter marketing, Liberty Tax girl I almost hit with my car, music , and grammar in blog writing. First off, thanks to everyone who reads, comments, and joins in the overall human think tank known as the Internet. I absolutely love everything about social media and the thought process behind community engagement! I am going to be taking the next week off to be with my family and to recharge for 2010. I thought I would post the top 5 blog posts from 2009 for the next week. Top 4 Things from 2009 We have had a great year over at Brandswag with Brandon Coon , Amy Rowe , Stephen Coley , and Austin Wechter . Thank you to all of our wonderful clients I wrote Twitter Marketing for Dummies (with the help of Erik Deckers and the wonderful staff at Wiley Publishing Finally broke into the top 150 Ad Age Blogs… but it fluctuates all the time. Was humbled to be able to present at Re/Max Indiana Sales Rally, MBO Conference, and Hoosier Hospitality Conference We are blessed to live and be able to create content and conversation in this age of technology. Remember that. BRING IT ON 2010! And my one prediction: Google is going to buy Twitter. Related articles by Zemanta Making You A Star. With Social Media. (slideshare.net) What The Phoenix Suns Can Teach Your Brand About Using Twitter (socialmediatoday.com) The Marketing Story of 2009 – TWITTER (slideshare.net) Your Online Strategy for 2010 (slideshare.net)

Nielsen Shares Top Advertising Trends for 2010 – Search Engine Marketing (blog)

admin — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 00:55:27 +0000

Nielsen Shares Top Advertising Trends for 2010Search Engine Marketing (blog)Budgets may be moved away from programs like Google AdWords towards maintaining company social media profiles across twitter and facebook. … addthis_url = ‘http2F2Fwordpress2F’; addthis_title = ‘Nielsen+Shares+Top+Advertising+Trends+for+2010+23821128blog%29′; addthis_pub = ”;

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Nielsen Shares Top Advertising Trends for 2010 – Search Engine Marketing (blog)

A Philosophical Debate Over Personal Branding

cgseo — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:10:42 +0000

I decided to move the conversation happening over on Facebook (surrounding personal branding) regarding my post on Dan Schwabel’s Personal Branding blog: From Identity to Personality. Be Remembered. ———————————————— Dave Bennett: Dear Social Media Expert, twitterific and facebookish Kyle Lacey, First off let me say that I respect what you’re doing in marketing, you’re pushing the edges of the field, you’re making people money, and you’re (hopefully) doing something that you love. All things I respect and root for in this world. I have some issues, a few philosophical peccadilloes that I need to pick with you and the industry you participate in. So from one double major in philosophy to another (I think I remember you being involved in AU’s philosophy program) let me start my being acerbic and dispensing with pretense. What you call identity and personality seem to really be pretentious self-projections. Don’t get me wrong, they might be really successful self-projections that gain favor, popularity, and a following but they are far from human dignity. What you see as the point of self expression is external recognition. But the self is something internal and independent from what others think of you, if you are basing who you are on how to attract others, then you really are nothing at all. You’re a pretentious clone of perceived likes and dislikes, a customer service invertebrate bending to the latest marketing trends. My issue isn’t really with customer service or with marketing, its with the collusion of these two and personal identity. When in reality your virtual representation is really the most controlled and least personal representation you can come up with. That is something I am ok with, but call it what it is: namely an advertisement, don’t continue to add to the massive amount of illiteracy out there. What I mean is that there are many people who can read, but few who are literate, few who mean what they say and understand what is meant when they read. Don’t add to the misuse of language and self-understanding in your furthering of marketing, viral marketing, etc. Branding myself is the biggest pretense yet, and while successful, crosses into the unethical when it associates the person solely with the symbol. As if a symbol could ever really encompass a person, especially when personal branding doesn’t really represent the person at all but the concoction of personal investment in an idea or product. I guess what I really want to know is: when you leave an emotional response on twitter or facebook, create a following, if your emotional response is raw. If it is independent of your desire for a following. And if it isn’t then is it you or a self-projection of you? A dumbassed question really, but it begs the ethics of human dignity. Where is human dignity in self-branding when self-branding doesn’t allow for unpopular responses? I hate the idea of selling your “self”, because what is sold isn’t “self” but what the customer wants. Call it what it is. Basically, I’m wondering, where do these things fall into twitter and facebook marketing? How does self-branding differ from self-projection? Me/Kyle: Let me first state that the idea “from identity to personality” is loosely based off of a excerpt from Emotional Branding by Marc Gobe. “Identity is descriptive. It is recognition. Personality is about character and charisma. Brand identities are unique and express a point of difference. But this is only the first step. Brand personalities, on the other hand, are special. They have a charismatic character that provokes an emotional response. American airlines has a strong identity, but Virgin airlines as personality.” One other thing to think about in terms of my post: The things I write about are not suppose to based in any type of philosophical nature… it would be like scientist arguing my logic using scientific reasoning. I write and discuss concepts in business communication, period. The post you read and responded to… was merely an idea behind personal branding. I am not arguing the point of self discovery and emotional response in terms of inner angst (or beauty). I am plainly talking about the concepts of a story… the emotional stimulation a customer or client will receive when they connect with something you write or say.. I write what I think because it is reality.. it isn’t steeped in some inner personal conflict or unrealistic interpretation of identity vs personality. It is business plain and simple… I will give more soon. Thank you for your thoughts. I love debating and trying to solve issues in communication! ———————————- What do you think? Is it worth furthering the conversation on this blog?

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A Philosophical Debate Over Personal Branding

Twitter Announces Enhanced Business Applications

admin — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 12:13:10 +0000

We have been waiting… and by we I mean every social media consultant on the face of the planet… for Twitter to announce business friendly applications and developments . It finally came on Monday with the announcement of the development of what is called Contributors (and other applications). From the Twitter Blog : “The feature we are beta testing is called ‘Contributors’ – it enables users to engage in more authentic conversations with businesses by allowing those organizations to manage multiple contributors to their account. The feature appends the contributor’s username to the tweet byline, making the business to consumer communication more personal; e.g. if @Twitter invites @Biz to tweet on its behalf, then a tweet from @Twitter would include @Biz in the byline so that users know more about the real people behind organizations.” I like the concept but it still is not as revolutionary as it should be (in my humble opinion). I trust that Twitter has some other ideas up their sleeves in regards to businesses truly maximizing the tool. Until then we will stumble… make mistakes… add to many followers… send out the wrong message and get spammed to death by MLM’s and idiots. Until the beta is released to bigger subset of users the opinions… will be varied. Want more information about the Twitter beta? Twitter signals commercial accounts (robbiz1978.blogspot.com) Twitter Runs “Feature Test” For Businesses (centernetworks.com) Twitter Highlights Coming Contributer API (thenextweb.com) BREAKING: Twitter Starts Testing Features for Businesses (mashable.com)

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Twitter Announces Enhanced Business Applications

Don’t Sleep Around on Me. I Want a Relationship

cgseo — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:18:47 +0000

Matt Rhodes over at Freshnetworks sparked my post today with a quote from the article: Love Your Customers. Use Social Media. “A brand should be thinking of themselves as part of a consumer’s personal brand rather than the other way around…” So many times we find ourselves spending money on external marketing, advertising, and branding. How do we get noticed? How do we get the average consumer to remember our brand name? It is all about ME. ME. ME. How do we get them to spend money? Acquisition. Acquisition. While I think internal branding and design is important to success… social media has created a space where you can become part of the LIFE of a consumer. Talk about a good way to spark viral marketing! If you are molded into a client or consumers life… the potential of being spread to friends, family, and co-workers is exponential! We can talk about internal marketing, external promotion, advertising, marketing, branding, and design… but if you want true results… Use the tools in front of you to create relationships… to start conversations… to monitor your brand. It is going back to your brand being lovable and NOT a dirty flirt. Don’t sleep around and screw up your relationships. Related articles by Zemanta What Can Search Engine Marketing Toronto Do For You? (ronmedlin.com) Wine Kitz Squeezes More Out of Their Marketing Dollars with Marketing Engine from Globally Boundless (prweb.com) Flash! It’s Not About Engagement (socialwebschool.com) Radio And The Internet [Read Only] [Compatibility Mode] (slideshare.net)

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Don’t Sleep Around on Me. I Want a Relationship