HubSpot Answers Six of the Most Common Social Media Marketing Questions

Having a social media presence for your company is a given. However, once you establish that presence, getting people to notice it is an entirely different matter. That’s why Magdalena Georgieva, writing for hubspot.com, recently discussed Dan Zarella’s excellent presentation, “The Science of Social Media.” In her article “Answered: 6 Frequent Questions about Social Media Marketing,” she says that a recent appearance by Zarella inspired some very thought provoking questions:

1. When you put up a company Facebook page, how do you get somebody to “like” you? You can accomplish this by creating some form of positive interaction. One good example is creating a new tab on your Facebook page that offers something free and compelling to anyone who “likes” you. Contests for people who “like” you work well , too.

2. Can social media be anti-social? Non-social? Too social? You can certainly be anti-social by appearing rude or obnoxious, as well as non-social by not developing long-term relationships . Too social? As long as what you’re doing doesn’t overhype itself and come off as spam, it’s not easy to be too social in social media.

3. What tools should be used to track specific social media metrics? Zarella recommends the paid tools Trendrr and Radian6. Georgieva recommends Hubspot’s own social media monitoring platform and marketing automation software. She also mentions Twitter Grader as a quick, free way to evaluate your current social media influence.

4. Should the company have a landing page tab on Facebook? Most certainly. It’s a perfect way to use a call to action that doesn’t look overbearing.

5. What’s the best way to engage influencers? Influencers are those people and online connections most likely to get excited about your product or brand, who will then spread the word to their friends, etc.Sometimes simply paying attention to influencers is enough to get them talking. This can be done via direct contact or even mentioning them by name in a blog entry.

6. How do you stay personable on line without tweeting about yourself? Talk instead about things that interest you. Point out interesting articles and links that you can discuss online.

Karlie Justus at SocialMediaB2b Discusses Pros and Cons of Blocking Social Media at Work

Can your employees access popular social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter? Karlie Justus, in her article “Pros and Cons of Blocking Social Media at Your B2B Company,” at SocialMediaB2B.com, cites a new report from Purdue University that says more than 80% of the businesses surveyed restrict the use of at least one social media site, while another 13% restrict all such sites.

The concern, said the survey, wasn’t so much that people were using their social media presence to socialize, but that classified information was being entered into the public record, at an average cost of $2 million per incident.

However, another report from McAfee, which also commissioned the Purdue report, says that 40% of businesses that allow their employees to use social media in the workplace have seen a measurable increase in productivity.

So what exactly are the pros and cons of blocking social media at work? Justus sheds some light on both sides.

Pros:

1. Your business needs a singular tone and voice for its perceived image. Many B2B companies use a singular image and voice to represent their businesses. In order to maintain the image and feel you want throughout your communications, you can’t have more than one or two people writing what you release to the public. Too many voices muddy the waters.

2. There may be industry specific concerns about social media. For example, if your company makes helicopters for the military, and their current project with you is top secret, you probably don’t want somebody accidentally spilling this information out on the internet. Justus says marketers in these areas should ask their customers whether social media is a part of their marketing plan before planning to use it yourself.

Cons:

1. It silences your biggest fans – your employees. Who knows your products better then the people who make them, sell them and want you to be successful, so that they can be successful too? If your employees can’t talk about your product, what better forms of free advertising do you have in mind?

2. Justus says that few companies tend to stretch the boundaries of how social sites can be used in the office beyond the marketing department. She questions why more companies don’t use Twitter, for example, to provide public relations opportunities for their sales teams. She asks why more companies don’t allow Facebook to be used by Human Resources to help fill a position. And LinkedIn is a proven source for leads. If your employees can’t access all this, however, these are all moot points.

3. A company that can’t access social media is a company that continues to live under the idea that social media is a waste of time, Justus says. If your company uses social media to attract new accounts, but you don’t let your own employees use it, how does that look to your customers?

Kristi Hines Offers 25 Ways to Search your Social Media Keywords

Like your website, your social media presence should have keywords that help to make new customers aware of your existence. There are many ways to determine which keywords are working best for you. Kristi Hines, writing for stayonsearch.com, compiled “The Top 25 Social Media Keyword Search Tools.” Among her favorites:

Technorati: Searches blogs and posts by topic. Has a lot of useful features, including checking the latest posts on topical subjects listed in the menu. Its “tag page” allows you to select a keyword and review common topics for the keyword.

BoardReader: Lets you search topics discussed in forums and message boards. It can give you some idea of how many forums are currently available that focus on your particular topic.

Advanced Twitter Search: As the name implies, you can use it to search keywords, locations, sentiment and more in Tweets on Twitter.

Twazzup: More detailed than Advanced Twitter Search, it provided real time updates for related tags, links, pictures, tweets and much more.

Kurrently: Collects all recent comments on any word or subject on Facebook and Twitter, and presents them conveniently.

YouTube: The top video search engine. Hines says it’s only going to be more powerful, now that it has extended the time limit for videos to 15 minutes.

B2B Companies: Be more social now with these 11 tips from Hubspot.com

B2B businesses are traditionally slow to adapt to new changes. This is particularly true when it comes to social media. Many companies are still having trouble understanding that they need a social media program. Sure, there are a lot of technical things to worry about that are best left to the folks in your IT department. However, Kipp Bodnar, writing for Hubspot .com, says there are “11 Simple Ways B2B Companies Can Be More Social Today.” They are smaller steps that any B2B employee can not only implement easily, but also actually understand.


Socialize your documents: Chances are you’ve written white papers and speeches that contain valuable information that your potential customers can use. Post them on the web.

Social Media Icons: Make sure you have company logos that conform to the sizing requirements of various websites.

Set up social media accounts now, even if your company won’t be using them for a month or two.

Create a profile for your company at LinkedIn.com. It’s a good way to start connecting with other people in your business as well as potential customers.

Write blog posts. Even if you don’t have a live blog yet, create content that you can post when you go live.

Make sure your staff is equipped to go social. Make sure they have the right tools to create the media you’ll need to create when you go live.

Start to understand the tools of social media conversations such as Twitter Search, Alerts Grader and Boardreader. Use them to monitor the search terms of your business.

Determine who in your company will handle your social media content. Go over how they will represent the company in their posts and blogs.
Set up a Bit.ly account. This service shortens URLs to give you more room on limited-character sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

Add social media browser extensions that can help make your browser more social-friendly.

Install Analytics. As you start getting new visitors from your social efforts, you’ll want to know exactly where they’re coming from Analytics tools can help you do just that.

Dustin Brady Reports on Building Links the Google Way

In his article “What Google Thinks about Your Link Building Efforts,” FathomSEO.com’s Dustin Brady addresses one undeniable fact: Despite what your SEO firm says is the most important link building strategy, Google has the only opinion that matters. “Google decides which links matter and which don’t,” he says, and with that in mind, he lists the best and worst strategies in the eyes of the search engine giant.

Among the best strategies, Brady suggests becoming an expert in your field and contributing to blogs and forums. However, you need to keep your content useful. Don’t spam sites or shamelessly promote yourself. This is because the best quality links come from developing relationships in communities. Brady also suggests publishing compelling content. This is a very broad category and can include tutorials, white papers, tools, videos, graphics or anything you believe will be linked to by other sites that are relevant to yours.

Brady also suggests using humor for an “immediate traffic bump.” We all know how well humor works in social media. Just make sure that what you post is truly funny, or it won’t get you any links at all. The worst strategies in Google’s eyes include reciprocal links and mass submissions to link directories. For the latter, Google much prefers submissions to relevant directories.

Columnist Cohen Says Twitter Translation Tools Keep Tweets From Being Lost in Translation

Most B2B firms have Twitter accounts these days. However, once they begin to work Tweets into their social media and link building strategy, many firms find themselves the recipient of Tweets from foreign countries that they can neither read nor decipher their purpose. Are they requests for business? Spam? How can you tell? What if you want to Tweet someone who doesn’t speak English? What do you do?

That’s what Jeffrey L. Cohen writes about in his article “4 Ways B2B Companies Can Translate Tweets” on SocialMediaB2B.com. Cohen reviews four of the most popular translation tools available on the internet specifically designed to bridge the translation gap between Tweeters. The first tool he discusses is Tweetdeck, the desktop tool that you may be using already to monitor your Twitter traffic. What most people don’t know, he says, is that Tweetdeck has a built-in language support option that you can find in the “Services” area. It also allows you to “un-translate.” Next, Cohen discusses the hootsuiteiphone app for iPhone. He calls it a “quick way to translate incoming tweets to your native language while on the go.”

Another web-based tool that Cohen likes is Twaitter, an update scheduler that also has Google Translate services embedded into its programming. Type an update, click the language you want it to translate to, and send. Cohen saves the most recent service for last. Tweetmeme, the popular retweet tool, recently announced that it has added Google Translate tools as well.