Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Making More Out Facebook

With 500 million users a business should not sit back ignore Facebook. Are you?


And if you are out there, you might be asking yourself, now what?


I talked a few weeks ago about the collection of the 3 F words “friends” “fans” and “followers” . You did that right? Good!


Now, as you work to further enhance your businesses Facebook base by collecting all those “friends” “fans” and “followers”, working at making it a positive experience for them to connect with you. Yet at the same time I believe you need to consider using some SEO practices.


First, your name. I know mine is rather bad with http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans but then I am me and I don’t care. ( lol ) Really I do. I am pushing the Larson name as my brand so really that is just want I want to do. Yes, I want you to talk about Larson & Associates around your kitchen table.


After your name work on your “about” and “info” sections. You want to incorporate the key words or what you are trying to attract like I do with Telemarketing and Telesales. If you make and sell cookies, use the word cookies or chocolate chip cookies, or if in insurance use the word insurance or benefits provider.


Next in the “info” section get copy happy. This is a very crawlable part of your page and you want it to be full of what you want to attract!


Remember when it comes to text, copy and links more content usually equals more value to the search spiders. Pages that have lots of copy and content are thought of to be more valuable and rated higher in and by the search engines. So think about adding more tabs other than the “info” and “about” mentioned above. Adding more copy heavy tab sections will or should benefit your pages ratio of text and help your ranking. As long as you keep it “White Hat” you will be ok.


Then remember this is a part of the Social Media Marketing world and you need to be posting regularly and things that your “friends” “fans” and “followers” find relevant. You want not just gobs of “friends” “fans” and “followers” but you want there page views and comments as well.


Then tie it all together. Search Engines DO view the number of links that point to a page as a major criteria of ranking a page. To do that make sure your Facebook page and your non-Facebook pages are linked together as much and as often as possible. The more links your page has pointing to it from other sources the better it is.


Larson Notes & Satire:  Show me the love. It’s not just sports athletes that want you to show your love, its businesses as well. See me, fan me, comment me and I will thank you.


If you need help in making your page more attractable to the Search Engine Spiders give us a call. We have ways to get things done.


Remember our 3 new programs for 2011
1st is our Virtual Sales Manager Program.
2nd our Sales Function Outsourcing Program
3rd our Virtual Business Consulting Program


Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws/
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates


https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate


P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

Friday, May 20, 2011

LinkedIn Went Public (yesterday)

LinkedIn hit the public market yesterday looking to raise $274 million. Seems like they did alright as the stock went from an opening of $45 up to $122.70 to end at $94.25. ) For the record NONE of Uncle Howie’s money was used) for what many people call an online rolodex that is not too bad. This gives LinkedIn a Profit to Earnings ratio of 554. Now compare that to the average ratios of say Apple which is 15. Yet I like where LinkedIn is standing as how they plan to make money. How much the stock is worth is another question.




So, what exactly is LinkedIn's business? Now that is a good question, that is aside from an online rolodex?


For me (http://www.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociates ) it is a B2B Social Media Marketing App that has given me some rather nice connections but I have not hit “gold” there yet, but there is “color” so I keep panning for gold on the site.


Last year it generated $243 million in revenue through the first nine months of the year from three categories: recruiting, advertising, and subscriptions. The bulk of the revenue comes from recruiting, or in LinkedIn's phrasing, "hiring solutions." If you have ever tried to post a job opening you have come across this asking for money feature. I guess it takes in more money than I might have thought, but then I can see lots of head hunters in my list of “friends” and in the groups I am in.




Basic Description: LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site intended for professionals. When users join, they create a profile that summarizes their professional expertise and accomplishments. LinkedIn was officially founded in May 2003 by Reid Hoffman and founding team members from PayPal and Socialnet.com (Allen Blue, Eric Ly, Jean-Luc Vaillant, Lee Hower, Konstantin Guericke, Stephen Beitzel, David Eves, Ian McNish, Yan Pujante, and Chris Saccheri). Its current CEO is Jeff Weiner, was previously a Yahoo executive. According to its Web site, LinkedIn has over 80 million members in over 200 countries. The site is available in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.


Company Background: Founder Reid Hoffman, previously CEO of LinkedIn, is now Chairman of the Board. Dipchand Nishar is Vice President of Products. LinkedIn is headquartered in Mountain View, California, with offices in Omaha, Chicago, New York and London. It is funded by Greylock, Sequoia Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners and the European Founders Fund. LinkedIn reached profitability in March 2006.


On June 17, 2008, Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners, and other venture capital firms purchased a 5% stake in the company for $53 million, giving the company a post-money valuation of approximately $1 billion.


In June 2010, LinkedIn announced it would be opening up a European headquarters in Dublin, Ireland.

On July 28, 2010, Tiger Global Management LLC purchased a 1% stake in the company at a valuation of approximately $2 billion.

On August 4, 2010, LinkedIn announced Mspoke acquisition. This is the company's first acquisition for an undisclosed amount. This acquisition aims to help LinkedIn users do more than just find a job, increase users' activity and improve its 1% premium subscription ratio.


Membership: With 80 million users, LinkedIn is ahead of its competitors Viadeo (http://www.viadeo.com/profile/00218n8vjhv1ydda/en/?readOnly=true&ga_from=Fu:/tableaudebord/compte/index.jsp;Fb%3Atopmenu%3BFe%3AL2%2Bdrop_see%3B just found it so just listed myself) (30 million) and XING (https://www.xing.com/profile/Howard_Larson but don’t work the site) (9 million). The membership on LinkedIn grows by a new member every second or so. About half of the members are in the United States and 11 million are from Europe. With 3 million users, India is the fastest-growing country as of 2009. The Netherlands has the highest adoption rate per capita outside the US at 30%. LinkedIn recently reached 4 million users in UK and 1 million in Spain.

Main Features: The purpose of the site is to allow registered users to maintain a list of contact details of people they know and trust in business. The people in the list are called Connections. Users can invite anyone (whether a site user or not) to become a connection.


This list of connections can then be used in a number of ways:

> A contact network is built up consisting of their direct connections, the connections of each of their connections (termed second-degree connections) and also the connections of second-degree connections (termed third-degree connections). This can be used to gain an introduction to someone a person wishes to know through a mutual, trusted contact.

It can then be used to find jobs, people and business opportunities recommended by someone in one's contact network.

> Employers can list jobs and search for potential candidates.

> Job seekers can review the profile of hiring managers and discover which of their existing contacts can introduce them.

> Users can post their own photos and view photos of others to aid in identification.

Users can now follow different companies and can get notification about the new joining and offers available.

> Users can save (i.e. bookmark) jobs which they would like to apply for.

> The "gated-access approach" (where contact with any professional requires either a preexisting relationship or the intervention of a contact of theirs) is intended to build trust among the service's users. LinkedIn participates in EU's International Safe Harbor Privacy Principles.


LinkedIn also allows users to research companies with which they may be interested in working. When typing the name of a given company in the search box, statistics about the company are provided. These may include the ratio of female to male employees, the percentage of the most common titles/positions held within the company, the location of the company's headquarters and offices, or a list of present and former employees.


The feature LinkedIn Answers, similar to Yahoo! Answers, allows users to ask questions for the community to answer. This feature is free and the main difference from the latter is that questions are potentially more business-oriented, and the identity of the people asking and answering questions is known.


The searchable LinkedIn Groups (my personal favorite feature) feature allows users to establish new business relationships by joining alumni, industry, or professional and other relevant groups. LinkedIn groups can be created in any subjects and by any member of LinkedIn. Some groups are specialized groups dealing with a narrow domain or industry whereas others are very broad and generic in nature.


Another LinkedIn feature is LinkedIn Polls. A mobile version of the site was launched in February 2008 which gives access to a reduced feature set over a mobile phone. The mobile service is available in six languages: Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish.


In mid-2008, LinkedIn launched LinkedIn DirectAds as a form of sponsored advertising.


In October, 2008, LinkedIn revealed plans to opening its social network of 30 million professionals globally as a potential sample for business-to-business research. And, in doing so it's testing a potential social-network revenue model-research that to some appears more promising than advertising.


In October, 2008, LinkedIn enabled an "applications platform" that allows other online services to be embedded within a member's profile page. For example, among the initial applications were an Amazon Reading List that allows LinkedIn members to display books they are reading, a connection to Tripit, and a Six Apart, WordPress and TypePad application that allows members to display their latest blog postings within their LinkedIn profile.


In November, 2010, LinkedIn allowed businesses to list products and services on company profile pages; it also permitted LinkedIn members to "recommend" products and services and write reviews.


Larson Notes & Satire: Well that is the scoop on LinkedIn. So are you going to have 1 scoop or 2, or are you just on a diet? Did you / are you going to buy stock? As for me? You do what you want with your money but I am going to keep investing my company.


Remember our 3 new programs for 2011
1st is our Virtual Sales Manager Program.
2nd our Sales Function Outsourcing Program
3rd our Virtual Business Consulting Program


Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws/
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates


https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate


P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Marketing In A Backwards World

You have a great service or product. Who cares? You have wonderful customer service. As if I cared. You on time delivery is impeccable. So what?


Sorry Charlie but for today’s marker you need to be bottom up, and I don’t mean a stiff drink although if you’re doing it backwards which is (traditionally correct) you might need one.


In today’s creasy world with all the new and changing marketing channels you need to sit down with your strategy team and first decide which tools you are going to use to achieve the results you need and want.


People, Objectives, Strategy, Tactics, Tools. These 5 words need to be the focus and order your marketing now needs to be done in.


It’s a very Social world and people come first. Remember my last blog, the 3 F words, Friends, Followers, Fans. If you do this right you can put a plan together that you can tweak and change but won’t have to totally abandon later on.


You start with your audience which are your 3F’s. What are their needs wants and goals? Does your company fit into what they want? Yes it is all about them. If you choose to ignore them, it your sites give no motivation to what they want, you get put on the sideline. You sites need to be showing how you can help your prospects your 3F’s achieve their goals, needs and wants. If you can do that you might just get to achieve yours.


You still want to educate them. You still want to answer their questions. You want to walk with Rudyard Kipling’s 6 honest serving men: “I keep six honest serving men, (They taught me all I knew) Their names are What and Where and When And How and Why and Who.” If you do your site becomes more valuable. Rudyard knew why back then so maybe we should all take a hint.


Enter Social Media Marketing. Now you have the tools to keep customers and prospects engaged. If you are or can use bottom up thinking and engagement you will not be missing the opportunities that are right in front of you. Good content, consistent content is important, but more so is engagement.


Larson Notes & Satire: the 3 F’s: What do they want and Where are they and When do you get to interact with them And How do they want this interaction and Why do they want to interact with you and Who the heck are they?


Now take some time and think about it. Preferable with a pencil and pad of paper.


Remember our 3 new programs for 2011
1st is our Virtual Sales Manager Program.
2nd our Sales Function Outsourcing Program
3rd our Virtual Business Consulting Program


Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws/
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate


P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Friends, Followers, Fans

The 3 F words, Friends, Followers, Fans. Do they mean anything or affect your business at all?

Last count my Facebook Fan Page had 232 fans. On LinkedIn I was standing at 613 and on MerchantCircle 1504 Connections, and Twitter at a massive 3106 and all growing. Does it do any good? Does it bring me business? Sales? Qualified leads?


The biggest thing on Social Media is for companies to go around and collect the 3 F’s. Some of them count the ROI on Social Media by how many F’s they have collected. Those of us that have been in the Social Media world for a while, know better, but still keep our eye on what is happening and changing with our numbers. It’s like, you never know who can or could turn into the bedrock account.


Why do I still do it? Eyeballs. I want more eyeballs on me. I want to be seen, not for myself gratification and ego but because the more eyeballs that are seeing me and my posts get a better shot I have at striking a cord that would make them want to buy some of what I sell.


Now, let’s be honest here just between you and me. The numbers game is simple, comfortable and so very countable. Yet research shows that fewer than 20% or your fans, my fans, every ones fans that go and “like”a page ever return to it. Ouch. Again, when I think about it, if I am honest with myself, I’ll take that 20%. If I could take that 20% to to the bank with 46.6 fans active on my page it would be a happy day with a better than not chance to get them become money paying customers. Some say likes are useless hits and wasted page views and an overall drain on resources. Again I disagree. I have my pages out there for all to see. I have no secret stuff. So what is the loss? ZERO!


There is no harm in spiking up your numbers of F’s. Just be ready to nurture them if all those companies and people decide to get active.


Larson Notes & Satire: When dealing with the 3 F’s think about the nurturing that you might want to be putting into it. Use the comments as places of interaction. Take those shares and engage your now broader audience. Remember this is Social Media Marketing so you need to be heavy on the SOCIAL …please.


Remember our 3 new programs for 2011
1st is our Virtual Sales Manager Program.
2nd our Sales Function Outsourcing Program
3rd our Virtual Business Consulting Program


Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws/
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate


P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Is Your Direct Marketing a Disaster?

Do you settle for too little, talk about yourself too much or rely on outdated and inaccurate data?


1) Channels: Most companies and marketers rely way too much on standalone channels that aren't focused on demand, that are not asking for a call to action. As a direct marketer needs to be committed to a well disciplined, programmed, result oriented approach while building a multichannel marketing attack.


2) Results: What kind of results are you willing to accept? If you only accept a 1%-to-2% response rate because that is the industry average you are making a big mistake. NO really if you want to be like everyone else and just as good as everyone else, ok be happy, but think about it, in what other part of your business do you accept 98-99% waist? You need to be expecting, getting, and insisting on double-digit response rates for you program.


3) Social media: As a marketer you are probably spending too much time talking about yourself and not taking enough time engaging in conversation with your friends, fans, prospects and customers. The main point of social media is to be social to be able to create a dialogue with people quickly putting aside the self-serving side of marketing.


4) Segmentation: As a Marketers I doubt if you are getting down into your lists deeply enough. Unless you are using a large enough segment of people or prospects you don’t have enough hits to know if you are on or off in your attack. Then again the smaller the nitch or audience the more pointed the message. This can work to your advantage. It is harder to create content for any particular audience but you can start using your experience and jargon words and knowledge if you are narrow enough.


5) Content: Are you one of the guilty ones who’s arrogance sticks out like a sore thumb? Are you one to the one’s that when it comes to creating relevant content you get lost in your own rhetoric and press releases? You need to be more humble about yourself and a little more engaging towards customers so they can tell you what they consider to be relevant and important to them! Get rid of the I’s and Me’s.


6) Metrics: What do you measure? We should to be more focused on sales conversions, not lead creation. What good is a lead anyway? Try taking a lead to the bank? Lead creation is part of our job as a direct marketers but the real thing to be measuring is sales conversions.


7) Lead conversion: Marketers spend too much time focused on the wrong people. Here is where you need a sales person. A blood hound. The person who initially responds to you is more often not than not, NOT the buyer. But marketers go after them as if they were the VP of purchasing. Turn that lead over to your sale people they have a way to get to the heart of the matter quickly and fast. That is after all their job specialty.


8) Lead nurturing: The problem in more companies is a lack of focus. Marketers spend too much time and money on lead acquisition instead of nurturing existing customers. I have been told (I don’t remember from who) that 66% of your advertising budget should be directed at existing customers, who already know you and love you. Thank about it. Do you only get excited about your customers at the end of their contract? Customers will and should go with the company that has been good to them not just at signing time and sending a required Christmas card but all though the year.


9) Value: You need to improve how they demonstrate to the “Suites” in your company on the value of direct marketing. If you are the “Suite” take a step back from what you’re doing and ask yourself “Prove it!” Then using hard data write down the proofs and facts on paper. And you can only accomplish this with insight that can only come from hard data. Numbers don’t like.


Larson Notes & Satire: 9 things here and I know I left out lots of important things to really make your marketing hum. I guess you will just have to keep reading from time to time to find what I missed putting down.


Remember our 3 new programs for 2011
1st is our Virtual Sales Manager Program.
2nd our Sales Function Outsourcing Program
3rd our Virtual Business Consulting Program


Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws/
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates


https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate


P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.