Category Archives: Social Media Marketing

Social Media Sales & ROI with Jason Falls

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Jason FallsPeople have said since the beginning of time that you can’t sell in social media, and you can’t measure your results.

Seriously, just check Egyptian hieroglyphics if you don’t believe me.

Thankfully, Jason Falls is here to blow up these and other myths with stone cold facts. In this episode, the always entertaining Mr. Falls talks about how you can sell in social media (in a way sure to upset the purists), as well as how you can measure your activities to accurately figure out your ROI (return on investment.)

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Big Ideas:

  • Stop believing the hype in social media. Just because there’s an infographic that says podcasting is hot, or the talking heads say Quora will save your business, there’s no reason to buy into it. Take a look at the real numbers, and see how it works in YOUR industry. What works in general may be inappropriate for your business, and vice versa.
  • Find where your audience hangs out. You can take the anecdotal route, asking customers as they come into your brick and mortar store: “hey, you guys on the Twitter?” Or take a more methodical approach, with short surveys to your current client base.
  • Plan to measure correctly. Determine what you want to measure and figure out how to quantify it. You can track the ROI of social media and web marketing activity if you assign a value to each lead.
  • You can sell in social media…as long as you hit the relevancy target. (The guy selling seat warmers through his personal Facebook profile.)
  • Social media works for B2B. After all, it’s not buildings selling to each other, it’s people. 

Juicy Links:

  • The Marketing Agents Podcast: Subscribe, rate & review. Please take a moment to let me know what we’re doing right and what we can do to improve. Thanks!
  • Over: The mobile app that allows you to quickly add cool text to images for your social media posts.
  • Jason Falls: Here’s Jason’s official site. Looking for a digital strategist? Keynote speaker? Start here.
  • Social Media Explorer: Jason’s agency blog. Great content, so be sure to check it out.

Jason Falls Showing Off Over

 

Jason showing the viewing audience (of which there is one) the Over app.

Rich Brooks
Social Media Consultant

Built-In Social Media with Jeff Korhan

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Jeff KorhanSocial media is like secret weapon for small businesses…it allows us to build loyalty, create deeper connections with our audience, and build our business.

But for too many small business, social media is still something that seems like a foreign language. They don’t know how to make it part of their every day activity.

In this week’s episode, we bring in Jeff Korhan, author of Built In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business, to walk us through how we can use social to grow our own businesses.

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Big Ideas:

  • Understanding the impact of social may be more important than using it. These days, customers often have more information on our products or services than our sales force because of social.
  • Use social to listen. Even if you’re not sure how to participate, you can at least use social to listen to what your customers are saying.
  • Social has democratized media. Getting in front of your ideal customers used to be expensive…but with social media the costs have plummeted, giving small businesses new opportunities.
  • Be in the answer business. Find out what your ideal customers are asking, and be prepared to answer those questions through social.
  • Don’t get overwhelmed. Focus on your goals and plans, and use the social media tools that help you accomplish those goals.

Show Notes:

Rich Brooks
Social Media for Small Business

The Zen of Social Media Marketing with Shama Hyder

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shama-hyderIn her short professional career, Shama Hyder has used social media to build credibility, generate buzz and increase revenue for her business. Now she’s here to share with you how you can, too.

Shama is a sought after, well-resepected presenter on social media marketing for business. She’s the author of The Zen of Social Media Marketing, and runs her own social media consultancy company.

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Big Ideas:

  • Social media is an accelerant if you wish to become known as an expert in your field. It allows you to become a thought leader in your industry in a shorter time.
  • Consistency is important and trumps variety (at least in terms of the number of platforms you’re on.) Better to be consistently present in one channel than sporadic in all.
  • Basics must come first. Why are you using social media? What are the business goals for being there? Leads? Awareness? Knowing this will help you determine how to best spend your time on which platforms.
  • Buzz is important to any small business. Whether you are a professional speaker or run a diner, if no one is talking about you, you’re dead in the water. Depending on your industry or business, where you need to generate buzz may differ.
  • Social media can increase revenues. However, it’s unlikely to work immediately, and it’s best used to build trust so that you’re more likely to make the sale.

Show Notes:

Rich Brooks
Social Media Consultant

How to Use Virtual Assistants to Grow Your Business – Chris Ducker

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Chris DuckerWould having a Virtual Assistant free you up to grow your business? Chris Ducker thinks so.

Do you ever find yourself thinking there’s just not enough time in the day? Or there are certain tasks in running your business that you hate doing, or you aren’t very good at, or that you shouldn’t be doing any more because they’re keeping you from growing your business?
 
If that’s the case, a virtual assistant may be your ticket to freeing up your time and succeeding with your business.
 
This week Chris Ducker stops by and walks us through how you can find and get started with a virtual assistant to free you up to do the work that matters.
 
Favor! Could you please head on over to iTunes and leave us a rating and review? It will only take 30 seconds and it makes a huge difference in helping us get the word out about the show.
 
(Or, have your VA do it! 😉 )

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Big Ideas:

  • Decide if you need a Virtual Assistant (VA). Create a three column sheet and label it thusly:
    • What do I do every day that I hate?
    • What are things that I can’t do that will help me grow my business?
    • What should I not be doing any more so I can focus on higher return activities?
  • Chris thinks every entrepreneur needs a “General” VA. Someone to handle your emails, calendar, travel itinerary, transcripts and more.
  • Break in a new VA with a specific project. If you’ve never worked with a VA, or you’re breaking in a new one, give them a very specific project to get to know them.

Show Notes:

  • The Agents of Change Digital Marketing Conference: Whether you come to Maine or watch in the comfort of your own home or office, be sure to check out the 2nd annual conference all about search, social & mobile marketing! Save $25 on your physical or digital pass with the discount code TMAP. 
  • ChrisDucker.com: Where you can check out Chris’s great “New Business” blog, podcast and other resources. 
  • Virtual Staff Finder: Want to get started with a VA right now? No better place to get some great VA matchmaking services than Virtual Staff Finder.
Pat Flynn, Chris Ducker & Rich Brooks

Pat Flynn photobombing this pic of Jason Stratham and Steve Jobs.

Rich Brooks
Digital Marketing Consultant

Create Knowledge Based Products for Leads and Profits with Denise Wakeman

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Denise WakemanThere are plenty of benefits to creating knowledge based products…you can use them to establish your credibility, generate leads, and create additional streams of revenue for your business.

In this episode of The Marketing Agents Podcast, I speak with online marketing expert Denise Wakeman about two of her specialties: creating a business blog that generates leads and how to turn everyday content into knowledge-based products that people will be willing to pay for.

Whether you’ve been looking to build a powerful, lead-generating business blog, or create your first Kindle book, this episode has everything you need and more!

Please subscribe directly at iTunes so you don’t miss any future episodes! And if you’re already a subscriber, please consider giving TMAP a juicy 5 star rating and review…those reviews help us reach a wider audience and let us know you’re listening…and enjoying! Thanks. 🙂

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Big Ideas:

  • Start with a blog. Too often businesses feel overwhelmed where to start with social media. Denise recommends a blog because it’s your home base, and unlike social media platforms, you own it.
  • Determine your topics first. Topics become categories and you should have five posts ready to go in each category before you start.
  • Use “social” to drive traffic and build your list. While you don’t own these channels, they are critical tools to drive traffic to your blog.
  • Create additional streams of income with knowledge-based products. Anything you’ve written or recorded can be turned into a product. Blog posts can be turned into a Kindle book. Interviews can become audio products. Transcripts of interviews can be turned into ebooks.

Show Notes:

  • The Agents of Change Digital Marketing Conference: Whether you come to Maine or watch in the comfort of your own home or office, be sure to check out the 2nd annual conference all about search, social & mobile marketing! Save $25 on your physical or digital pass with the discount code TMAP. 
  • Evernote: The most popular tool for keeping track of ideas for blog posts (and everything else.)
  • Editorial Calendar (WordPress Plugin): Great for managing multiple authors, or just keeping track of upcoming posts for your own blog. 
  • Triberr: The network Denise uses to help promote blog posts and other topics. 
  • Denise Wakeman: Be sure to check out Denise’s home base and sign up for her newsletter!

Rich Brooks
Digital Marketing Consultant