By Paul Rosenfeld on February 20th, 2010
Are you too Twitter-obsessed in your social media approach?
Twitter’s role as a Magic 8 Ball for our shared culture is unrivaled, and it has almost single-handedly ushered in the era of real-time search and social customer relationship management.
But Twitter is the online equivalent of HBO – important more because of who uses it and the media’s infatuation with it, rather than the actual size and impact of its audience. Here are 7 reasons to be careful with putting all your effort into Twitter.
1. Growth is Slow. The true size of the Twitter audience is a bit tricky to pin down because 55% of its users access Twitter via third-party and mobile applications. But new data from Compete.com shows a clear stagnation in Twitter’s runaway growth.
2. Young People Don’t Use it. Today’s marketing coordinator is tomorrow’s CMO, and younger Americans don’t embrace Twitter. A new Pew Research study shows only 8% of U.S. teens using Twitter, compared to 66% engaged in texting. Do young people not appreciate the m:any-to-many nature of Twitter, preferring the one-to-one paradigm of text messaging?
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By Paul Rosenfeld on February 20th, 2010
In January, I received several calls from business owners who were just short of a nervous breakdown. What has shaken them up so much?
Well for one thing, they’ve been suckered into investing tons of money into advertising that produced virtually zero return on dollars invested! What’s more, their sales teams are working their fingers to the bone and keep coming back empty-handed.
One guy even sunk mega bucks into a fancy sales training company and his salespeople still aren’t able to close. I have a guy who confessed to me on the phone that if things don’t change, he’d lose everything. Get this:
David Shulman, a senior economist wrote that he expects the current recession will span 19 to 24 months, surpassing the 1981-1982 recession, which dragged on for 16 months.
Can you afford to wait that long?
Stop what you’re doing and look around. Listen closely to radio ads, look at your mail, look at online websites… businesses are trying to survive by running deep discounts. But you can’t survive for long by playing the deep discount game.
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By Paul Rosenfeld on February 20th, 2010
Looking for better performance from your order form? Check out these 10 ways to make your order forms sell more.
1. Insert a box that they can tick (if online) or checkmark (if offline) and after that use the word “Yes”.
2. Restate the big benefits. Don’t over do it, but remind them of what they stand to gain by taking action.
3. Summarize the package components, sizes, colors, warranty, etc., they’re getting.
4. If your offer is online, make sure you tell them their order is 100% secure and safe and that their personal info will be protected.
5. Include a quantified testimonial inside a box on the order form.
6. For offline promotions, if possible, try to mention the prospect’s name on the order form and have their address printed onto it.
7. Mention the guarantee or the words “no-risk” in the order form headline and then in the copy after the tick box.
8. For direct mail offers, if you’re offering a reduced price it is very effective to place an expiration date on the order form warning them they must act before the price goes up or the offer changes.
9. Cross out the price in red ink and list a lower price.
10. Try testing a certificate style order form for higher response.
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By Paul Rosenfeld on February 20th, 2010
LinkedIn is often discussed as a powerful social networking tool, particularly for business professionals, employers, and jobseekers. What is not discussed as frequently is the site’s ability to simply drive traffic toyour site. We talked to entrepreneur Lewis Howes (who claims that LinkedIn is one of the top traffic sources to his blogs) about how powerful LinkedIn can be for driving traffic.
We asked Howes why he thinks people don’t generally associate LinkedIn with driving traffic like they would with other social networks like Facebook or Twitter. “Their perception of LinkedIn is of a resume, or a way to get a job, but they don’t see all of the powerful tools within LinkedIn that allow you to drive traffic back to your site,” he tells WebProNews.
LinkedIn has announced that it is now being integrated into Microsoft Outlook, in one of the numerous convergences of social media and email that are increasingly taking place.
In some ways, LinkedIn traffic may even be more valuable than traffic from other social networks and sites. This is simply due to the generally professional nature of LinkedIn itself.
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By Paul Rosenfeld on February 20th, 2010
Currently Facebook boasts somewhere in excess of 400 million users and growing. For that reason alone, Facebook’s advertising platformis a vehicle worth exploring. The tool allows you to place small display type ads in the right sidebar of Facebook pages and profiles.
Like many things Facebook, setting up and running successful campaigns isn’t as straightforward as it could be. Below is a description of five steps to consider as you explore Facebook advertising.
Target. One of the best things about Facebook advertising is the ability to select who sees your ad using a number of variables, including keywords. You can target by geography, age, gender, education, relationship status, workplace and keywords.
Demographics are pretty straightforward, the real trick is expanding your keywords to the point where you have a large enough audience to get the job done. Facebook used to have a tool that let you search for the hottest topics being discussed but they shelved it as they build a more robust analytics package.
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