A core goal of marketing is to deliver the best message or impression to the right people.  Google circles support your effort to accomplish this goal.

Many social media sites deliver the same message to all followers. Google plus allows people to easily segment their followers into circles.  General messages may be delivered to all circles. Unique messages can be sent to people within circles who would care the most about the topic.

The tools available to segment social media followers will continue to develop and become standard.  Google has circles and recently the blogging platform Posterous updated their system with squares.  Squares allow you to share blog posts with all or specific followers you place in your customized squares.  Last year Facebook changed their groups , with much less success, to help people segment their friends, family and associates.

Whenever you begin using a new social media platform. Check to see if there are segmentation options.  It is much easier to start the process early rather than working through your entire list later.

Rosh

The answer to the question depends on your target.

The main general difference between Google and Facebook is that  Google AdWords target search results and Facebook targets demographics and interests.  Both are valid methods of advertising.

Few people list their interest as the law unless they are a lawyer.  If someone is searching for a lawyer specializing in Real Estate law than a law firm targeting search with AdWords is a smart move.

If the advertiser is targeting lawyers – than Facebook may be the best advertising avenue.  You can target the 12,120 people who Facebook lists under Lawyer in the United States.  More key words such as law or legal would increase the number of prospects.

The Facebook ads we have managed for clients have worked well to drive traffic and convert to sales.  Like websites the better and more targeted the landing page the better the conversion rate.

If you use Facebook as your landing page a custom Facebook page using iFrames is worth your consideration.  Earlier this year Facebook opened up their system to iFrames giving marketers, designers and developers new opportunities.

Gateway pages are also a good option if your goal is to increase the number of Likes on a Facebook page.  A gateway page requires the visitor to like the page before they can get to the goodies on the other side.  Targeted Facebook ads leading to such pages seem to be effective.  More data is needed, but the case studies seem encouraging.

Facebook Ads will work if you have great headlines to attract the clicks and a valuable well presented relevent offer on the other side.

Rosh

How many times have you attended a networking event, connected with someone and promised to follow-up on Facebook.

Unfortunately, you forgot.

Don’t worry, there is an app for that - Instant Friend (for Android)

This application uses QR codes and your smart phone scanning technology to connect on location.  As long as both of you have the application you can friend each other instantly and follow-up later.

This is a good networking tool.

Rosh

Every year video becomes more important to marketers. It has many uses and soon, if not already, video will be the standard for every website. Here are six ways you can use video now to support your marketing:

YouTube makes it easy to upload, tag, and share videos. Their analytics gives the video producer insight as to when people lose interest and stop viewing their videos. This is very useful to support better video production.

Service is an important part of keeping the customers you have worked so hard to earn. Customer service cannot be ignored and videos made from screen captures can answer questions not easily expanded with still images or text.

Testimonials help visitors gain confidence in your product or service through the endorsements from your satisfied customers. Develop a library of videos from every person willing to share their experience with your company. It will pay dividends.

Video podcasting on a regular basis will help to earn credibility for your company as an expert in your field. Make sure you offer interesting information that people looking for your service or product would find valuable.

People find behind-the-scenes videos interesting. They can be used as part of a podcast, valuable how-to presentations and in conjunction with testimonials. Keep your video camera handy because you never know when an opportunity will arise.

Lastly, it is a good idea to have an introduction video on the front page of your website. This is something we do for clients on a regular basis. We are working on new videos for our own front pages. They increase interaction, time on site, and help to develop a relationship with prospects during the first impression or visit to your website.

The use of video on websites, blogs, and in social media will continue to become expected by viewers. Having video will become as important as having a website and being involved in the social media. What’s your plan?

Rosh

1. Create a Web site. If you don’t have one -  you are not in business.
2. Start a blog.
3. Note that social media is not just Facebook and Twitter
4. Use headlines related to current news events.
5. Create a Facebook business page.
6. learn how to use Google’s +1 button to your companies advantage.
7. Create targeted Facebook ads for your products and services.
8. Use Linkedin ads to target specific professionals.
9. Use Twitter ads for branding.
10. Create an AdWords campaign.
11. Review your Google analytics for new opportunities.
12. Start an email newsletter.
13. Create a marketing calendar.
14. Attend local business networking events.
15. Start a rewards program for your networking partners.
16. Register your business with Foursquare.
17. Make sure your Facebook places is up-to-date.
18. Write an e-book.
19. Start a podcast.
20. Create regular videos for your Facebook page.
21. Create videos related to new or unique ways to use your product.
22. Search engine optimize (SEO) your Web site.
23. Use call outs in your Web site.
24. Open a Twitter account.
25. Open a LinkedIn account.
26. Look for target companies on LinkedIn.
27. Create custom landing pages for all your marketing efforts.
28. Advertise on Groupon.com (Make sure you will not lose money if your offer is a hit.)
29. Use custom call tracking you advertising with services like callfire.com.
30. Use Social Mention to monitor the conversation about your brand for free.
31. Open a hootsuite.com account to keep to manage and monitor your social media. (You can use Tweetdeck or Seemic too)
32. Optimize a Web page specifically for Bing search.
33. Customize your Youtube.com channel.
34. Write a white paper about your profession.
35. Invite someone to lunch regularly. Never eat alone.
36. Sponsor a charity event.
37. Self-publish a book and sell it on Amazon.
38. Review books in your industry on Amazon.
39. Retweet (share information on Twitter) people who you are interested in knowing better.
40. Use A/B split testing for your online campaigns.
41. Learn to write great headlines for all your advertising.
42. List your service on Craigslist.
43. Leave helpful comments on multiple industry blogs.
44. Open and use Google reader (or any RSS reader).
45. Make sure your front Web page title tag says what you do, not who you are.
46. E-mail relevant articles to clients and prospects – no jokes.
47. Create a newsletter that is more about supporting your clients than your company.
48. Download Pox the box by Seth Godin from Amazon.com
49. Open a Google Webmaster tools account.
50. Make sure your Web site has a site map and share it with Google webmaster tools.
51. Accept payment on your smart phone with Square.
52. Use Google Docs to collaborate on project in real-time.
53. Update your information on Google Places.
54. Have your logo professionally redesigned.
55. Run an archive day on Twitter.
56. Create a FAQ page for your Web site.
57. Sell your products with good photography and stippleit.com.
58. Add a Facebook Like button to your blog and Web site.
59. Add a Tweetmeme button to your blog and Web site.
60. Add social media locations in your e-mail signature.
61. Create a mobile advertising campaign.
62. Test ad headlines with Google AdWords.
63. Don’t forget about Yahoo’s analytics http://web.analytics.yahoo.com/
64. Place successful Google AdWords ads in newspapers and magazines.
65. Send thank you cards after every job.
66. Keep the conversation going after events by uploading photos to a Flickr page.
67. Ask your clients for a video testimonial and display the passionate ones.
68. Start thinking about your customers’ return on investment (ROI).
69. Return all phone calls the same day.
70. Use Google voice for your business number.
71. Create unique business cards.
72. Trade something of value for your Web site visitors’ e-mail addresses.
73. Ask to be a guest blogger on related blogs.
74. Use PollDaddy on Twitter to ask questions of your followers.
75. Hold a photo contest as part of your company branding.
76. Use link shorteners with analytics to test headlines and ideas.
77. Create an affiliate program.
78. Don’t show people what the product or service is, demonstrate why they need it.
79. Create supporting Web sites that link to yours.
80. Create Web site descriptions that entice people to click on your search listing.
81. Find your organic search click-through-rate with Google webmaster tools.
82. Make sure you fill in all your Alt tags so Google images can find your photographs.
83. Submit your Web sites to relevant directories.
84. Ask visitors if the information you provide is helpful.
85. Use Facebook analytics and demographics to see who your marketing is attracting.
86. Use YouTube’s insight tools to find out when people lose interest in your videos.
87. Use insights for Search to see what people are looking for in the search engines.
88. Use Google keyword tool to find new keywords.
89. Make it easy for people to give your company referrals.
90. Make it easy to do business with your company.
91. Make sure your contact information is on every page of your Web site.
92. Understand your brand. (It’s reputation, not your logo.)
93. Update photographs of every employee for social media and public relations.
94. Develop relationships with local patch editors.
95. If you want someone’s attention, write about them.
96. Treat everyone like a VIP (Very Important Person).
97. Champion other professionals in your industry.
98. Use Google Alerts to search for RFP’s (request for proposal).
99. Use Google Alerts to keep track of people writing about you and thank them.
100. Include hot topics in the title of your blog posts.
101. Never stop thinking about finding new link bait ideas (topics that attract links to your site).
102. Include translation options to widen your market.
103. Use Feedburner to manage your blog and podcast subscribers.
104. Don’t let the dangerous, business-killing words, “It’s good enough” hurt your company.
105. Share your company story.
106. Protect yourself from spam comments. They will hurt your Google rankings.
107. Don’t use other people’s content on your website (It hurts your search rankings).
108. Use pagespeed.googlelabs.com it improve your website load speed.
109. Post your new blog posts on Twitter.
110. Speak to groups and organizations.
111. Send birthday cards to your clients.
112. Develop a specialized niche and become the expert.
113. Analyze what is working for your competition.
114. Use compete.com to compare Web site traffic.
115. Use SEOmoz tools to track links.
116. Discover SEO tools from SEObook.com.
117. Read Mashable and Techcrunch to keep up on emerging technology.
118. Join a professional organization.
119. Use Buzztweet for social direct campaigns on twitter.
120. Make your e-mail address simple.
121. Sign up for Help A Reporter Out (HARO) and look for public relations opportunities.
122. Teach your networking partners how to refer you.
123. Become the expert: Teach at a local college or university.
124. Cross-promote with other businesses.
125. Create a lens at Squidoo.com.
126. Create a company 365 photography project using Tumblr.
127. Use Hubspot’s  Website.grader.com to see how Google views your Web site.
128. Create an exclusive online club for your best clients.
129. Offer free Webinars.
130. Use the WordPress plug-in Sociable to support sharing of your content.
131. Create a welcome kit for new clients.
132. Make it easy to embed your stuff on other Web site. Scribd.com is a solution.
133. Use your voice mail as a marketing tool.
134. Answer questions on Yahoo answers.
135. Use an e-mail service like Constant Contact, iContact, Mail Chimp or Vertical Response.
136. Attend local meet-ups.
137. Organize a Tweet-up (meeting of twitter users).
138. Organize a Barcamp.
139. Start a LinkedIn group.
140. Create a free social media platform for your target market.
141. Use e-mail auto responders with friendly messages.
142. Offer an e-mail option to your blog RSS feed.
143. Create a page where media and clients can access your logo.
144. Offer free consultations.
145. Avoid heavy Flash on your Web site. It’s bad for search engine optimization (SEO).
146. Remember SEO is great but search engines don’t buy your products or service.
147. Create unique meta tags for each web page.
148. Offer multiple service packages.
149. Offer a free trial.
150. Submit your company’s products or service for awards.
151. Make your e-mail request contact forms short and easy to use.
152. Create a smart phone application for your company.
153. Use text messaging advertising.
154. Create a lab for your employee to experiment with new ideas.
155. Create a presentation and share it using Slideshare.net.
156. Share your location using an Internet map service such as Mapquest,  Google maps, or Bing maps
157. Create a shared calendar using Google Calendar.
158. Create an easily accessible v-card for prospects and clients.
159. Create a Flickr group for customers to share photos.
160. Create a Facebook group for your best clients.
161. Give away micro drives with your information on it.
162. Sell the experience of working with you.
163. Take a successful business person to lunch and ask questions.
164. Post special offers on your receipts or invoices.
165. Use QR codes to help people to find more information using their smart phone.
166. Create a downloadable PDF with helpful information.
167. Engage in at least one marketing activity every day.
168. Share good books with your clients.
169. Create a company mission statement.
170. Use Eventbrite.com to organize free or paid events.
171. Start a photo blog.
172. Exchange links with related businesses in different parts of the country.
173. Fire bad clients so you can serve good ones.
174. Create a multi-media story about your company using photography stills, video and audio.
175. Self-publish a book through sites like Lulu.com.
176. Use services such as 37 Signals’ Highrise to manage contacts.
177. Define your ultimate client.
178. Become a connector at networking events. Introduce people.
179. Use an iPad or tablet to display your portfolio of products and services.
180. Give customers more than expected.
181. Use internal links. Link related content within your Web site and blogs.
182. Be strategic about tagging your videos.
183. Use fotobabble to add an audio dimension you your product photographs.
184. Reuse your best social media content for marketing material.
185. Use Ning.com to develop communities.
186. Create a regular ustream program.
187. Use your smart phone or digital recorder to dictate new marketing ideas.
188. Segment your e-mail. Make sure your e-mail is focused on the right prospects.
189. Advertise your newsletter in e-mail signatures.
190. Deliver high-value presentations or work on an iPad.
191. Let your good prospects and clients keep the iPad.
192. Give away iPods or mp3 players with a special audio segments or podcasts about your company.
193. Read Presentation Zen, by Garr Reynolds before you give your next presentation.
194. Read Resonate by Nancy Duarte for better speaking and presentations.
195. Be remarkable. Thank you, Seth Godin.
196. Think about how you can make it easier to purchase your product.
197. Make your brand exclusive and expensive.
198. Be less concerned about vanity searches.
199. Don’t create videos more than five minutes long. (less than three minutes is better.)
200. Don’t mix family and business social media.
201. Invest in fast and reliable Web site hosting.
202. Monitor your Web sites for malware.
203. Use Yahoo’s SiteExplorer to review your links and important pages.
204. Ask questions in your headlines.
205. Use a lot of relevant people’s names in your blog posts.
206. Search for your prospect’s No. 1 point of pain and find solutions.
207. Keep a list of good public relations Web sites such as prweb.com.
208. Create a company show for blip.tv.
209. Offer a free Internet service to attract attention ie: Twitter.grader.com.
210. Use Twitter grader to search and connect with top tweeters in your area.
211. Conduct regular Web meetings to stay connected with your clients. Try goto meeting.
212. Sell a special version of your product on eBay.
213. Use WordPress as your Web site platform.
214. Turn your brand into a cause.
215. Upload interior photos of your store on Google places.
216. Video white board sessions to share online.
217. Recommend your clients on LinkedIn.
218. Subscribe to your competitors’ blogs.
219. Find out who owns competing Web sites: http://ajaxwhois.com/.
220. Visually track how people use your blog or Web site with Crazyegg.com.
221. Use Aweber.com for their e-mail delivery and auto responder services.
222. Use eBay labs to see what products are hot.
223. Use Google’s Wonder Wheel to find related keywords.
224. Use Evernote to capture and save great marketing ideas and information.
225. Use Tweetdeck or  Seesmic to engage with your social media community.
226. Trade banner ads with relevant companies.
227. Create a Hubpage.
228. You can’t tell people about your service, you can only show them.
229. Ask your customers how they would like to be contacted.
230. Keep video camera, smart phone or video recorder with all times for impromptu testimonials.
231. Simple works extremely well in marketing and advertising.
232. Consider Salesforce.com for customer relationship management.
233. Ask your sales team what is working.
234. Use Facebook pages to promote your events.
235. Have a professional photograph taken of all your staff members.
236. Create funny videos that might go viral.
237. Use risk reversal techniques. Put the risk on you rather than the customer.
238. Make sure your fax number is easy to find.
239. Test Web site button shapes, colors and sizes for better click-through.
240. Use the link shortener http://su.pr so followers can easily Stumble your content.
241. Make sure your About page is interesting and full of useful information.
242. Link to Google blogs when relevant. They offer good traffic back to your site.
243. Claim your name on new social media sites. You never know what will take off.
244. Use Instapaper.com to save good articles for future reading.
245. Set your blog up for sale via the Kindle.
246. Turn your 404 (missing page) into a marketing tool.
247. Create Web pages dedicated to long tail keywords (keyword groups longer than 3-4 words).
248. Prepay for your domain years in advance. Good for SEO.
249. Create a box-opening video of your product.
250. Hire interns to do the mundane marketing activities.
251. Create an online suggestion box for your clients.
252. Spend more time impressing existing customers.
253. Create an office video series for YouTube. Make it interesting and fun.
254. Make visiting your office or store an exciting experience.
255. Sometimes absolutely stupid ideas will make you a multi-millionaire.
256. Submit product photos to Flickr Creative Commons and ask for a link to your home page.
257. Allow customer rankings and reviews on your Web site or blog.
258. Create business cards from Moo.com.
259. Submit a tutorial for your product to online how-to Web sites.
260. Avoid business and industry clichés – think outside the box.
261. Make sure your Web site looks great on all browsers.
262. Embrace the negative and turn it into a positive.
263. Ask for the sale.
264. Don’t burn bridges.
265. Advertise products in the Facebook market place.
266. Promote the fact that you are hiring.
267. Ask how can you make your client’s job easier.
268. Don’t let little things become big things.
269. Don’t place ads just one time to see if they will work. Run an ad  a minimum of six times.
270. Remember your competitors are watching you, too. Don’t fear it.
271. Define your unique selling proposition (USP).
272. Cross-promote on other companies’ newsletters.
273. Remember that most purchases are emotional not logical.
274. Answer your phone cheerfully.
275. Don’t race to the bottom to be lowest price.
276. Network with companies and trade lost referrals and leads (for a second chance).
277. Train third-party sales people how to best sell your product.
278. Make the customer the hero.
279. Follow Twitter hashtags to find prospects.
280. Read the The Long Tail by Chris Anderson.
281. Focus on keeping great employees.
282. Promote your vendors on Twitter.
283. Different people consume media differently; give prospects options.
284. Trade commercials on podcasts
285. Understand the best social media Web site is where your clients and prospects hang out.
286. Create a list of 287 marketing ideas
287. Read this list again

What would you add?

If you found an idea you can use, please share this list on Facebook or Twitter.

Rosh

I’m beginning my new venture breaking one of the rules of blogging – don’t write a first day introduction blog post.

I’m not writing this post as an introduction, but to mark the beginning of a new case study.  I’ve put my main blog new media photographer on hold to start over at square one.  I want to show that even in 2011 a blog can still be developed to a scale the drives new business and earns a large following.  My goal is to double my following compared to New Media Photographer (currently about 10,000 views per month).  New media photographer is a niche blog and I have a lot more to say to a wider audience.  A wider audience will not make it easier to grow The Driven Business blog – the field of digital marketing blogging is already very crowded.

Currently, The Driven Business earns about 145 views per month.  This does not include our faithful podcast subscribers. I do have social media assets to draw from such as my 7000 twitter followers and growing Facebook pages and podcasts.  They will be helpful, but I assure you – I will have to earn every new viewer and subscriber.

This blog is my new play ground to experiment with digital technology as it applies to marketing.

Why am I doing this?

For my clients.

let’s connect,

Rosh

Podcast title: The Driven Business
Hosts: Rosh Sillars and Greg Evans.
Time 13:00
The Driven Business is a podcast powered by Synectics Media. Synectics Media is a Metro Detroit Michigan based integrated marketing firm. We focus on combining the best of traditional and online marketing. We share what works with our listeners.
Comment line: 646 397 6741
Email rosh: rosh@synecticsmedia.com
Email greg: gevans@synecticsmedia.com
Synectics Media Twitter
Synectics Media facebook

Show Notes:

• Podcast title: The Driven Business
• Hosts: Rosh Sillars and Greg Evans.
• Time 24:22
• The Driven Business is a podcast powered by Synectics Media. Synectics Media is a Metro Detroit Michigan based integrated marketing firm. We focus on combining the best of traditional and online marketing. We share what works with our listeners.
• Show Notes:

1) What’s new?  News, updates and releases related to digital marketing:

• Rosh Twitter
• Comment line 206 202 3568
• Synectics Media email
• Email Rosh
• Email Greg
• Synectics Media –  248 246 6855