Angela Crocker

Write. Teach. Organize.

2011 Social Media Marketing Report

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Recently I spent an afternoon devouring the results of Social Media Examiner’s 2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report. Now in its third year, this report is invaluable to understanding changes in social media marketing. I was particular interested to see the results on the benefits of social media marketing.

Here are the top benefits :

  • Generate exposure for your brand and making it stand up to be heard.
  • Increase traffic to your site including blog readers, website visitors and opt-in subscribers.
  • Improved search rankings to bring your brand to the forefront in your area of specialty.
  • Make new business partnerships from connections made and relationships built through social networking.
  • Generate qualified leads for your business.
  • Reduce overall marketing expenses as your social media efforts gain traction you are likely to spend less on other forms of marketing and promotion.
  • Improve sales as connections become prospects and then customers with a better sense of your overall product or service listing and, more importantly, your style.

If you’d like to read the complete report, download a copy here.

I suggest even one or two of these benefits make your social media effort worthwhile. Please, let me know about your successes and don’t forget I’m available to help with your struggles.

Why Should I Comment On Someone Else’s Blog?

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Recently, one of my workshop participants asked “Why should I take time to comment on other people’s blogs?” Here are some compelling reasons to make this part of your social media strategy:

  • Every comment adds to your online visibility. Each time your name appears on a comment, the blogger and other blog readers see you and become familiar with your name.
  • Building a community is a two-way conversation. By showing interest in other people’s thoughts, you demonstrate how much you value their contribution to your industry.
  • Blog comments help establish you as an authority in your field. You also make it clear that you’re a lifelong learner willing to hear new ideas. Don’t be afraid to share your expertise to enhance what’s already been written.
  • Frequent thoughtful, relevant comments on the same blog can help you build a relationship with the blogger and the audience. Check back for follow-up comments from the blogger and other readers and continue the dialogue as long as there’s something meaningful to say.
  • Often blog comments accommodate your website listing as well as your name. These inbound links, sometimes called backlinks, add to your SEO (search engine optimization).
Snapshot of some comments on my site

Read on for a few words of caution

  • Be careful about including links to your blog in the text of your comment. Anything you share must support what the blogger is doing otherwise you’ll be perceived as spam.
  • Sometimes it’s better to say nothing at all. A brief “thanks so much” may be courteous but it doesn’t establish any rapport with the folks you’re trying to network with.
  • I’d also encourage you to say nothing if you have a negative reaction to the blog post. If there’s a factual error, by all means politely offer updated information but please don’t post your knee jerk reaction. The damage you could do to your reputation is vast.
  • If you’re trying to build relationships from a business point of view, I suggest you avoid commenting on religious or political blogs. Why limit your market share to only those who share your beliefs?
  • Be yourself. It’s all about authentic relationships, right?

So stop reading this and leave a comment today.

Why use iGoogle?

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When starting out in social networking, it’s important to listen to your online community and get a sense of what’s being said before you add to the conversation. I encourage everyone to gather a list of blogs that relate to their topic.

Some people still do this with the old school way with the “bookmark” feature in a web browser. This puts the onus on you to click to each site to see if anything’s new. You can waste a lot of time clicking on sites where nothing has changed while you hunt for new content.

Instead, it’s much more efficient to use an RSS reader. There are lots of options available but I find iGoogle to be one of the simplest and easiest to use. I also like that it’s web based so I can log into this reader from any computer or mobile device, not just my own desk.

You’ll use your hand picked list of blogs in several ways:

1) To observe what others in your field are saying online. You’ll get a sense of how they are communicating and how your shared target market is responding.

2) To assess what works and what doesn’t and then mimic the formats/frequency that suits your communication style and meets the needs of your community.

3) To increase your online visibility by commenting on other people’s posts. Every time you do this you have the opportunity to include a link back to your website which helps people find you and enhances your SEO (search engine optimization).

4) To fuel the “referenced” or “curated” content that you’ll share through social media. As I’ve said before, what you post on Twitter and Facebook shouldn’t be all about you and your company all the time.

5) Comments (#3) and sharing (#4) are also great ways to build relationships with the people behind the websites who are part of your community. They may be customers, prospects or peers .

All of this can be done much more efficiently with iGoogle or something equivalent. The time drain of social media is a huge concern for many people so I hope this strategy will allow you more time to do other things online.

One last thing … you’ll add blogs to your reader over time as you discover websites of interest. You may only find 3 or 4 a week and that’s fine. There may even be weeks where you add nothing new or delete some sites that are not longer of interest. It’s kind of like editing your perfect newspaper with only the sections you want.

I hope you’ll include my feed in your “must read” list. You’ll find the feed here.