In today’s market, every business knows that blogging is a very effective tool to use for finding and converting more leads through inbound (online) strategies. No matter whether a company is B2B or B2C, blogging can help reach more people who will turn into leads to be converted. 

So, why does blogging continue to be so important for businesses these days?

First, blogging generates more leads.

 A lead is someone who comes to your site and leaves their information.  Blogs provide a great reason why someone would want to visit a company’s site again. The more the visitor returns, the more opportunity the company has to convert them for whatever goal.

 Source: State of Inbound Marketing Lead Generation Report – http://bit.ly/cVMpkn

Second, blogs do well with the search engines.

That is active blogging does well.  Search engines are looking for new, fresh content that matches what the searcher wants.  Blogs are easy to update so there can always be delicious content for hungry little web crawlers.  A website is standard, but it should include a blog so that it does not become stagnate.  There is no dyed in the wool standard number of times to update a blog that stands out as the magic number for being findable with the search engines.  So active could be once an hour or once a month.  The key is to be consistent.  

Third, and perhaps the biggest benefit of blogs, is that they provide visibility.

We are talking mainly about blogging for business but it is fair to say that individuals could benefit from blogging as well.  After all, we all have a story to tell and if we do not tell it, someone else will.  In the past, it was a little harder for others to spread stories about us or our company.  The storytellers had to have enough influence themselves before the story spreaders like journalists and news reporters would even pay attention. Today, anyone who wants can put up a blog, video, newsletter, etc, and actually gain attention very quickly because of the internet and search engines. 

Blogging increases the chances of being an expert in your subject or industry.  Even if you work as a clerk in the payroll department, there are many aspects of what you do that brings others to you when they have questions.  The same goes for the CEO or entrepreneur.  When you are already telling others who you are and what you know, the storytellers job becomes more difficult as they have to revamp what people already believe.

Here are three best practices that you could adopt to make your blogging strategy more effective.

Make good use of the sidebar.  Do you have a fan page?  Then put a badge in the side bar and tie the two together.  The same goes for Twitter.  This is a good place to put video such as a welcome message for your readers.  The goal is to create interest or perhaps invite your readers to other relevant sites.  So, don’t overload the sidebar just try to have a plan for what you put there.

Increase your activity.  There’s nothing worse than going to a blog, enjoying it, then coming back time after time for nothing.  Make a commitment to blog on a regular basis.  Readers and search engines will love it.

Ask others to be guest bloggers on your blog.  This is a great way to increase the activity on your blog without it becoming an increased burden for the blogger.  One word of caution though, be very selective about who you accept because this person will now be linked to you. 

Blogging may not be for every business or individual, however, because of  it’s highly positive impact, it should be seriously considered and not summarily dismissed as a great tool for finding and converting leads that meet your desired goals.

Look Louise, a shoe sale!

First things first, what is mobile marketing?  The mobile part is all about the telephone.  These days, making phone calls is almost just a by-product of the mobile phone rather than the real reason for having one.  We expect so much more from our phones these days and we accept that we can get more done in real time by allowing our phones to become a one-stop shop for connecting to what we want and need.

In its simplest form, mobile marketing is the use of phone technology for the delivery of marketing messages to people who have authorized a business to do so.

Smart phones have changed the way people make decisions about all kinds of buying. Nearly every cell phone in use in the US and globally can receive text messages.

Group buying collaborations on the fly are common now as well.  There are even phone apps that allow customers to snap a picture of a barcode and instantly receive product information and reviews.  Other technology allows businesses to reach out to their customers offering specials that are compelling enough to get the customer’s attention causing them to come on in the store.  Companies like Foursquare and Gowalla are changing the way people become promoters of their favorite places.

Mobile is uniquely positioned between print, TV, and online and is the connector that will tie it all together putting information in front of potential buyers at the point when they are making a decision no matter where that is. 

Of course, nothing in marketing is just that cut and dried these days, so mobile does encompass a variety of ways that it is used.  Trying to understand it all is overwhelming at times.  Therefore, the best way to see if a technology that is on the rise can be useful for marketing your business is just to start small. The get in where you fit in method of testing ideas.  The playing field really is leveled today.  Big corporations are not the only ones who can incorporate mobile marketing into their marketing strategies.  So where should you start so that your marketing efforts won’t fall behind?

The #1 place to start using mobile marketing for your business is the simple text message.  Yes, that’s right SMS!  It is the instant way to put your brand in front of your audience more efficiently.

Mobile marketing using SMS/Text Messages puts your message local without you having to figure out where local is located.  How much more local can your message be than in the palm of your customer’s hand.  Brands who can deliver unique, valuable benefits to their customers in an acceptable format will have an increase in the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns.

 According to the Mobile Marketing Association:

 The mobile phone is an extremely personal device. One mobile phone typically has one unique user. This makes the mobile phone a precisely targeted communication channel, where users are highly engaged with content. As a result, the mobile channel delivers excellent campaign effectiveness and response levels compared to other media.

 What do mobile marketing messages look like?  Have you ever seen any of the following?

 On TV, Print or Web you might see:

• Text “JOIN” to 122333 to join our VIP invite list
• Txt “Shop” to 122333 to save 50% on your next purchase
• Be The First To Know About Our Upcoming Events!  Text VIP to 122333 Now!
• Text ‘DEALS’ to 25827 to get on our Secret Sale mailing list!

And, my personal favorite that is getting me into so much trouble now:

• TXT SB252 to 34568 to download this song as a ringtone; $1.99 will be added to your phone bill!

And least I forget, I also get the severe weather alerts on my mobile phone from the Weather Channel.  I will not be blown away by surprise!

Using SMS marketing is simple and hard at the same time.  How complicated it becomes is really based on the company and the campaign. 

Some brands will want to have their own short code; that is the 5 or 6 digit number where people will send the keyword.  A large global company might need to have this kind of autonomy. The costs on a campaign that begins with leasing a short code from CSA (Common Shortcode Administration) will start at $1500 to $3000 for a three-month lease. 

 A smaller company or entrepreneur might want to go with the option of finding a provider who will sublet a short code they already lease from CSA to others.  The costs on this end start around $120 to $1200 depending upon the provider.

What type of businesses can use mobile marketing?

Restaurants, Night Clubs, Bars, Event Promoters, Retail, Magazines, Radio, Television, Universities, Non-Profits, Religious Congregations, Real Estate, Direct Mail, Home Office. 

Is that list long enough for you? 

Once again social media has leveled the playing field.  Neither business type nor size matters!

Let’s talk about this… Does any of this information seem important to you and your business?  Have you already been thinking about starting to use mobile marketing?  If so, but you haven’t started it yet, what’s holding you back?

So I used to think that Bill Gates would be the one to take over the world with all the Microsoft products, but now we see who the real (hopefully, not evil) world dominator will be, Mark Zuckerberg.  Facebook is at it again.  This time they are giving developers the opportunity to use a plug on the sites the developers create that allows them to pull in FB profile information.  Now, developers are using the plug-in at a rate of 300 websites an hour!

What does this mean for you?  It means that whenever one of your friends or fans or whatever they are called these days in on CNN, for example, they might see your lovely picture already there because you read the same article they are now reading.  And, you don’t have to be logged in for that to happen.  Mark wants to make the internet a more social place with Facebook being the hub for all those social interactions.  This is either the most altruistic reason ever and we’re going to be so glad it happened.  Or, we’ll be afraid to turn on our computers because now we really don’t know who is watching.

Mashable reported about this in their article, FaceBook’s New Social Plug-Ins Come to 50,000+ Websites in One Week. 

What do you think?  Should we all be concerned about this or is it harmless fun?

Well, just when we all think that social media is getting to a manageble level it happens again.  Another social networking platform, Facebook, adds a few new features that make you go, hmmm…  Now, I do like what LinkedIn changed, but I’m not sure exactly what FB is going for.

First, they have changed the way people join fan pages.  Now, we can only like each other because apparently, according to FB, fan was too strong of a word.  Also, on the fan page you now see your personal FB friends along with the people who “like” you.  The thing that I loved about facebook’s personal profile and fan page was the separation.  I liked having people who only want to see pictures of my granddaughter separated from the other people who want to talk about social media.  It’s down right frustrating, I tell you.  I’m almost afraid to teach my next social media class because while I’m explaining a feature of some social networking site it might change that very hour. 

Second, Facebook is now introducing another level of networking (I guess that’s what it is) called community pages.  So what’s the difference between community page, fan page, personal profile and group?  I don’t believe anyone know yets.  If someone does then like the Bush’s Beans dog, they ain’t talking.  For now what is known is that individuals can create a community page.  I think that the page will be owned by the one who creates it at first but once it reaches a certain number of people who like it then the community takes over and it becomes more like a wiki.  If you understand that, please explain it to me!  LOL!

So the question again becomes should people/organizations go ahead and create a community page to have first in advantage or just wait to see what happens.  How will people use the community pages?  What will having these well liked community pages do for fan pages.  Will it make fan pages obsolete?  The world is waiting for an answer. 

Here’s my biggest question:  Are the big drug manufacturers working on a pill to combat social networking chageitsis?  I might need a perscription.  In the meantime, I guess margaritas will have to be enough.

Burson-Marsteller recently released the results of a survey they conducted to determine where companies engage the most using social media tools.  The study indicates that 79 percent of the largest 100 companies in the Fortune Global 500 index are using at least one of the most popular social media platforms: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or corporate blogs.

It’s interesting to find that companies are not just posting and tweeting randomly.   Real conversations are going on.  

For an evidence-based approach to social media, the reports suggest the following 9 tips:

1.  Monitor your own, and your competitors, social media presence.

2.  Get top management “buy-in”. 

3.  Develop a social media strategy.

4.  Define and publish a social media policy.

5.  Develop internal structure.

6.  Contribute to the community.

7.  Participate in good times and in bad.

8.  Be perpared to respond in real time.

9.  Beyond monitoring, measure the impact of social media engagement.

You don’t have to be a big company to harness the power of social media engagement.  The rules are the same for any size business.  In fact, social media has leveled the playing field in such a way that a small company or individual can have the same kind of reach as a bigger company by using social media tools.   But you do have to follow the rules.  If you are the top management then you must agree with yourself that you will be committed to using the social media tools you select.  Do publish your social media policy even if you are the only one who will see it at first.  This will give you a guide to help you remember what you said you would do.  Don’t think that just because your business is local that you don’t have competitors.  You do.  Social media tools provide a great way of finding out what they are doing.

So, what is your social media tool of choice?  How is your engagement through that channel improving your business outcomes?  Have you performed a social media checkup lately?