You are here: Home / Blog

I Suck and I’m Not Worth Following

March 23, 2011 By Sean Nelson 2 Comments

A Quick Twitter Rant

Would you ever tweet that message on your Twitter account. I wouldn’t, yet every day I see people doing it.

twitter unfollow comic I Suck and Im Not Worth FollowingOf course they are not doing it on purpose. In fact I think many feel they are actually to some degree shaming those that un-followed them. They just don’t realize that the jokes on them.

You can recognize these “I Suck” posts easily, they look like this: @ayz_abc @123_456 @some_person @yougetthepoint un-followed me today … checked by http:/any-number-of-twitter-followers-sites.com

So if you are someone who tweets the names of people who un-follow you, what’s the purpose? What do you hope to get out of the tweet. Do you actually think that someone that un-followed you is suddenly going to say “Sorry about that, please let me re-follow you”.

Do you actually take an un-follow so personal that you have to comment on it. I don’t get it.

When I see [Read more...]

Filed Under: twitter Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

QR Codes Extend Marketing

March 18, 2011 By Sean Nelson 13 Comments

I’ve been reading about and seeing QR codes for a while and finally this week I took the dive and created some QR codes.

qr code discount QR Codes Extend Marketing

QR Codes
QR codes are not new but over the last month or so I seem to be seeing more conversation, more codes in windows, and on business cards.  I’m working on new business cards for my Conversion Optimization company Surge Labs and decided it was a great time to incorporate QR codes.

If you are not familiar with QR codes, they specific matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code), readable by dedicated QR barcode readers and camera phones, sort of like a bar code.

I used Kerem Erkans QR Code and 2D Code Generator to create a code that when scanned takes the scanner to a page to download Surge Labs Conversion Optimization white paper.

Here are some things you can embed with his QR creation tool: [Read more...]

Filed Under: Social Media/Networking Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Is Your Social Media in the Toilet

March 9, 2011 By Sean Nelson 10 Comments

social media toilet Is Your Social Media in the ToiletI was heading home from a meeting recently and stopped at a QT (Quiktrip for those not in the know) convenience store for some gas and a quick bathroom break. When I walked in the bathroom the first thing that caught my eye was a large Facebook sticker on the wall directing me to “Like” their page on Facebook.

My initial reaction was great job QT. I’m obviously going to be looking towards the poster for the next 30 to 40 seconds and will naturally read it. Second I’m not likely to forget that they have a Facebook page that they provide offers on. So far so good.

Now the not so good. The sticker itself was in terrible condition and looked like it should have been replaced months ago. Now I wonder if this was a hot idea at QT at some point but now their enthusiasm as faded.

I’ll have to pay the bathroom another visit in about 6 months to see.

With QT inspiration here are 4 ways to keep your social media out of the toilet.

1. Remember if you want it to be about you, it has to first be about them

If you are using social media to drive business its natural to want to tell the world about the great deals you offer, how great you are, and why they should buy from you. You can do that but you need to share this information in the form of value.

What are the top 5 questions people ask [Read more...]

Filed Under: Social Media/Networking Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Online Strategy Using Social Media part 2

March 2, 2011 By Sean Nelson 4 Comments

syndicate content 300x242 Online Strategy Using Social Media part 2In our previous post we looked at Building a Cohesive Social Brand as part of your online marketing strategy. Today we look at the second part, Syndicating Your Content. Syndication is just a fancy word for publishing, or even better “sharing”.

When you think about social media and online marketing what really differentiates a business in the long run is the content they share. Businesses that talk about themselves constantly are eventually ignored, but those that use their content to address problems, educate, inform, and entertain potential customers and clients have a shot at earning some business. And not just any content but relevant content of quality.

Creating content is a time consuming endeavor. If you are a large company you probably have people in your marketing department whose sole job is to develop new content regardless of the medium. For smaller companies without the resources you need to utilize the concept of “re-purposing content” For this strategy everything starts with your Blog.

For every blog post that you write your goal should be to re-purpose the post content as an article, a video, a podcast, as part of a monthly email newsletter, and where possible into an online news release.

Blogs are like the Swiss Army Knife of online marketing. They allow you to easily publish content in written, motion, and audio formats so that regardless of how your audience likes to consume content you can provide it. You can use keywords, links, and tags to improve your chances of being indexed by search engines. And its a lot easier to refresh content on your site through your blog rather than trying to update pages that were designed to be static. So we start with a blog post and re-purpose and syndicate away. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Social Media/Networking Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Online Strategy Using Social Media

February 28, 2011 By Sean Nelson 1 Comment

cohesive social brand Online Strategy Using Social MediaStrategies are like excuses.  Some people have them some people don’t.  Some are good and some not so good.  Some are so good that you file it away should you need it in the future.  Today I offer you an online marketing excuse of a strategy that incorporates social media.

2 Parts of the Strategy

The strategy that I’ll layout has two parts to it:  1.  Build a Cohesive Social Brand; 2.  Syndicate Content.  Then as you can see in the video I’ll show you how the two components work together.  The goal is to generate an impact in your social media marketing while also looking to benefit from being indexed by search engines.  Its a push / pull strategy that relies on one key component …quality content.

In today’s post I’m going to walk through part one.  Tomorrow I will add part two, Syndicating Content.  Of course you can watch the video and see everything at once.

Cohesive Social Brand

There are thousands of social media and networking sites out there and you could drive yourself crazy trying to sign up for everyone.  You should focus on establishing a presence on the major sites and then add in some specific sites that fit your niche.  Each of these components should [Read more...]

Filed Under: LinkedIn, Social Media/Networking Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Fake LinkedIn Accounts

February 14, 2011 By Sean Nelson 20 Comments

As an open networker I tend to receive anywhere from 100 to 150 invitation requests each week. Over the last couple of weeks I’ve noticed some suspicious items about many of these invitations:

  1. Either no profile photo or a stock photo
  2. Use of the words “Independent” or “Student”
  3. Or no title at all

As I began looking at the profiles it was clear that these were basic accounts with little more than name and title. On about 50% of the questionable account there were three urls included but not much else.

I can’t say with 100% certainty that these are fake accounts but they look suspect. In the video I show [Read more...]

Filed Under: LinkedIn Tagged With: , , ,

Five Social Media Key Performance Indicators

February 3, 2011 By Sean Nelson 1 Comment

roi salsa Five Social Media Key Performance IndicatorsIf you search the internet you will find a lot of information regarding tracking social media and ROI. ROI will always be the standard in determining the ultimate success, but many metrics will provide an indication of whether or not you are on the right track.  In working with our clients, we’ve focused on tracking five key performance indicators to help determine if we are on the right track. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Social Media/Networking Tagged With: , , , ,

Putting the Social Web to Work

January 31, 2011 By Sean Nelson Leave a Comment

Going into this weeks Super Bowl both Green Bay and Pittsburgh will have game plans. Those plans will likely evolve throughout the game but before the first snap there was a plan.

Most successful businesses have an overall business plan that likely includes an individual marketing plan. It makes sense, right. So why, when I talk to people about social media, do I find many that have no social media plan?

You need to have a social media strategy in place with goals and objectives. This plan needs to be incorporated into a marketing plan, which is then part of your overall business plan. Without these, how do you know what actions you should be taking?

Before we go any further lets make sure that we understand the landscape. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Social Media/Networking Tagged With: , , , ,

Showing How Social Media Works Beats Selling the Hype

January 19, 2011 By Sean Nelson 5 Comments

Most companies providing social media solutions are busy selling the statistics and the hype. They’re quoting stats such as the 3 year growth on Facebook, that Dell earned $3 million dollars from using LinkedIn, the number of new LinkedIn members … and so on and on.

Don’t get me wrong, I love statistics. But “how can you use social media to grow your business?” That’s where it gets exciting because most of the tools are free or relatively in-expensive in terms of cost. You just have to be willing to invest the time required to engage and interact.

So while many people are focused on talking about how they can help small businesses, we choose to show small businesses how to do it themselves.  We knew that those who can, will do it themselves, and those that understand the need for social media, but lack the time or resources, will seek to outsource the work.

As a full fledged member of the David clan (small businesses), we continue to help businesses understand how to use the Social Web, making sure they understand the need for a strategy, and the tactics to accomplish their goals and objectives.

In business there is a process of familiarity that most people go through prior to making a purchase. The first step is they have to know that you exist. Next they need to like you or your product or service. Finally they have to have some level of trust. If they know, like, and trust you then you have a shot at earning their business.

Social media provides numerous opportunities to introduce you or your company to other, to capture their attention through sharing content, or build goodwill through being a resource. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Social Media/Networking Tagged With: , , , , , ,

LinkedIn Marketing Book 2nd Edition

January 15, 2011 By Sean Nelson Leave a Comment

LI Marketing Secret Formula Coversmall LinkedIn Marketing Book 2nd EditionIn June of 2009 I released my eBook LinkedIn Marketing Secret Formula. At the time it was one of the first books to look at using LinkedIn to communicate a message to tens of thousands of people on a daily basis.  That might sound like spam but the techniques I detailed were all through indirect communication tactics.  At no point did it advocate or suggest that you send sales messages directly to people.

As I release the 2nd edition of the book it is still one of the only books that lays out a LinkedIn communications strategy.  Most books simply tell you what LinkedIn is and help you learn how to accomplish tasks such as completing your profile, creating a group, answering questions, etc.  Nothing wrong with that, I released two such books:  LinkedIn 101 in 2008 and The LinkedIn MBA in 2009.  There are enough people that will continue to release these types of books which are great for people new to LinkedIn.

This book is for the person that has figured out the basics of LinkedIn and is ready to put it to work for them. [Read more...]

Filed Under: LinkedIn Tagged With: , , , , ,
« Older Posts
Newer Posts »