Ideas for Business

Is Web TV any different than traditional TV? According to blip.tv founder Dina Kaplan, it is. And, actually, I agree.

The most interesting difference between traditional TV and Web TV is that the audience can influence the story line as it develops. Consider:

Fans that watch Web shows have the ability to write comments that provide immediate influence on the plot of a series. However, by the time a traditional television show reaches its audience, the next several shows have already been filmed.

This is something that Web TV and an online business have in common. You can use the comments on your blog, Twitter stream, LinkedIn and Facebook walls, and anywhere else online to get real-time feedback on your business, your service, and your products. You can then take that information and redirect if you have to.

Online marketers have always claimed to have more flexibility and freedom than traditional marketers. Now, Web TV producers are saying the same thing. See a common theme?

While your competition is struggling to figure out just how to incorporate online marketing into their overall business strategy, you could be implementing it successfully, interacting with your clients, and refocusing your business based on the feedback you get from them in real time.

Trends come and go, but not all trends end up going. Some end up sticking around for a long time. I predict that the following trends are here to stay and that you should seriously start thinking about following them now that you’ve brought your business online.

1. Mobile Search – Seriously, mobile phones have hit the market big time. People are buying on their phones, reading blogs on their phones, and updating their social media on their phones. Mobile search is big and I predict it will get bigger.
2. Facebook and Twitter – If you thought social media was a trend that would go away, you’d better face it. Not only is it not going away, but it’s getting bigger and better. Today, if you have an online presence with your business, you’d better be on Facebook and Twitter – at a minimum.
3. Blog Marketing – Blog marketing came on strong, then it dipped. I mean, it slowed down. Businesses lost interest. But it appears that blog marketing is experiencing a surge again. I think this trend will continue for a long time.
4. Local Search – Local businesses have discovered the Internet. Whether you are in a large metro area or in a small rural town, local search is going to be huge.
5. Longer Content – It seems that the search engines are favoring longer content. Can you blame them? I think longer content is in, and to be truthful, longer content will always have great benefits.

Catch the wave of these five trends right now. They’ll be major influences to online marketing for a long time.

View from my vacation house on Sunset Beach, Oahu where I didn't think about marketing at all.

I’m blogging on a plane coming back from a week in paradise. That’s part of my process for returning to the “real world”.  As a marketer I cannot help but think what’s behind the communications and actions of companies I engage with as a consumer. My time on Oahu talking with local residents and surfers in Haleiwa was a notable contrast to the techie social media marketing world I live in day to day.

In today’s digital age, things move fast. New models of communication establish themselves quickly and new categories of brand and consumer engagement continuously emerge. Defining the means for communicating with and engaging with customers is by no means static whether you’re trying to reach cosmopolitan buyers in London or tourists of a sleepy village on a tropical island.

Marketing evolves with consumer preferences, technologies and society. A specific definition of marketing is no more static than marketing itself.

Recently Heidi Cohen pinged me for a super-size roudup post on definitions of marketing. Here’s mine:

The practice of creating value for the mutual benefit of meeting consumer needs and business objectives. In action, that means knowing and meeting target audience/community information discovery, consumption and sharing behaviors with relevant and timely communications throughout the customer lifecycle. Engagment influence consumer behavior to drive revenue outcomes and strengthen relationships.

That’s just one definition and Heidi’s post came up with 72. That’s right, 72! If we ask that many people what marketing is and get such a variety of definitions, it’s no wonder marketing advice is such a crapshoot for many companies. Asking a company marketer what they do should essentially define what marketing is for that company.

But I’m guessing it doesn’t.   A lot of companies are executing tactics. They’re in a perpetual state of experimentation to see what sticks, to see what works.  Does that work? Does it adapt? Does it focus on what’s important?

As our own online marketing agency evaluates it’s own marketing efforts, i also challenge readers to reflect on what you’re really doing to communicate with and engage customers,  Are you executing tactics with uncertain outcomes simply because you’ve always done it that way? Are you continuing to experiment with things that have no clear connection to measurable results? Are you really engaging customers and developing relationships?

Dare I ask, what’s your definition of marketing?

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2011. | Marketing – What’s Your Definition? | http://www.toprankblog.com

You’ve created a social media profile, now what? Unless you are one of the biggest brands in the world such as Coca-Cola or Apple, people most likely haven’t heard of you and attracting brand advocates is going to be difficult. This means it will take some work to get noticed and as well as keeping visitors coming back.  However, with these easy to follow tips, you’ll be on your way to success.

Leave Your Ego at Home

Most sites won’t maintain a solid following base if they only put out egocentric content. Avoid this ego trip by providing current content that will allow your followers to gain insight into your business and industry without being plagued with messages and advertisements about your company.

Don’t Advertise

It may sound counterproductive, but you don’t want your postings to sound like you are advertising to your followers.  Just like you don’t like to follow people that talk about every little thing that goes on in their life and never give you a chance to respond, people don’t like to follow a business that is egocentric. People log into Facebook to be entertained and to create and maintain relationships, so sending them your advertisements may make your followers annoyed. If your followers see that all you are posting are things about your company and boasting about what you have accomplished people may get bored and either block or unfollow you.

Provide Interesting Content

Instead of creating all of your posts to let people know about what is going on at your company, use this space to post about things that relate to the industry you’re in. This means, for instance, if you’re in the music industry and there is news about a band, you can inform your followers of the current event. This could also be something as simple as hearing that a band is giving away a free song download; you can let your audience know about it and provide a link to the download site. (If possible, it might be a good idea to make the link open in a new tab to ensure the customer isn’t straying away from your site).

Stay tuned– Part 2 will include the final three steps that may help bring your social media marketing plan full circle without drowning your audience in egocentric posts.

You’ve created a social media profile, now what? Unless you are one of the biggest brands in the world such as Coca-Cola or Apple, people most likely haven’t heard of you and attracting brand advocates is going to be difficult. This means it will take some work to get noticed and as well as keeping visitors coming back.  However, with these easy to follow tips, you’ll be on your way to success.

Leave Your Ego at Home

Most sites won’t maintain a solid following base if they only put out egocentric content. Avoid this ego trip by providing current content that will allow your followers to gain insight into your business and industry without being plagued with messages and advertisements about your company.

Don’t Advertise

It may sound counterproductive, but you don’t want your postings to sound like you are advertising to your followers.  Just like you don’t like to follow people that talk about every little thing that goes on in their life and never give you a chance to respond, people don’t like to follow a business that is egocentric. People log into Facebook to be entertained and to create and maintain relationships, so sending them your advertisements may make your followers annoyed. If your followers see that all you are posting are things about your company and boasting about what you have accomplished people may get bored and either block or unfollow you.

Provide Interesting Content

Instead of creating all of your posts to let people know about what is going on at your company, use this space to post about things that relate to the industry you’re in. This means, for instance, if you’re in the music industry and there is news about a band, you can inform your followers of the current event. This could also be something as simple as hearing that a band is giving away a free song download; you can let your audience know about it and provide a link to the download site. (If possible, it might be a good idea to make the link open in a new tab to ensure the customer isn’t straying away from your site).

Stay tuned– Part 2 will include the final three steps that may help bring your social media marketing plan full circle without drowning your audience in egocentric posts.