Simple content marketing tips

Monday morning to everyone! :) Hope, you all had a great weekend!

This week I will start from explaining the basics of the content marketing, because this truly is a big thing nowadays. In case you are wondering why content marketing is important, I will provide you with 3 interesting facts from 2 different studies (by Content Marketing Institute and NewsReach)

1. 78% of UK companies invest in content marketing 

2. 54% of businesses plan to invest more into content marketing next year

3. 97% of UK organisations planed to maintain or increase their investments in content marketing this year

When marketing your content there are three simple but importnat things to remember:

1. Use various formats of content. Overall, among 12 different content marketing tactics - social media channels, blogs and case studies are seen by the practitioners as the most effective. Video as a way of delivering messages is used by 70% of UK businesses, making it 6th most effectively used content marketing tool. Interestingly, infographics - very engaging, likeable and shareable type of content, are used by 32% of companies. I believe this number will increase withing the next few years, because users seems to appreciate infographics more than long boring articles. Finally, contests, games and quests are brilliant, just make sure you know the best way to approach them. This recent piece at +Jeff Bullas blog on Facebook contests should be helpful. 

2. Use multiple platforms to deliver your content. It is not only about driviing traffic, but simplifying it for your audience. It is always great when the mechanics of the website or company`s blog allow readers/visitors to share the content in one click. Thus, don't forget to put the necessary social media buttons and make sure it is possible to login to your site through those social media channels. (And to make this paragraph sound more legitimate, here is some more statistics for you). 83% of all businesses use LinkedIn to share their content, this is a significant figure proving that professional networks cannot be underestimated. Moreover, Google Plus seems to promise great future for your business presence online.

3. It is not about how your write, but what your write about. Quality over quantity, content and essence over the delivery format - there are many ways to formulate this tip. The main point is that everyone, including Google and other digital habitants are becoming smarter developing digital savvy, creating a real challenge for the content marketing practitioners. Not only your content should be tailored for the specific audience, it should always provide additional value and originality. Facts and figures should be up-to-date, 'borrowed' ideas should be referenced, you should be an expert in what you write. (Well, luckily I just share what I know here, not pretending to be a business shark or marketing guru). 

Finally, I have co-written this fabulous blog post with my colleague +Euan Leopold (who, by the way, has also started his own blog). Don`t forget to check it out! 

Have a great productive week and come back tomorrow as I will share some thoughts with you on the new iPhone! :) 

Job hunting, CV writing and professional profile building

Good Monday morning to everyone! :)

Hope, you had a wonderful weekend! It is a beginning of new week, new life and time to look for a new job. For those who are just about to hand in a CV or two to the desired companies (mine is Google), I thought this post may provide some insights.

Earlier today I came accross this article on Mashable (seems like I only post links to this website) talking about Facebook introducing 'Professional Skills' category. It seems like social networking sites are becoming more and more appropriate for building employer-employee relationships. I believe most of you already have LinkedIn profile. I personally find it very useful for me (as a recent graduate), because of the possibility to connect with influencers, look for new opportunities and make quick applications. However, increased number of users demand certain improvements from the SNS. In addition, for your LinkedIn experience to be fruitfull there are 13 mistakes to avoid.

Anyway, LinkedIn is great, but let me share with you some interesting alternatives for creating professional image online. I would want this tips to be helpful for merketers, PR-people and advertising job hunters, but everyone else is also welcome to read and share:)

1. I always wanted to have a business card (not sure if I do enough business for that), smartly designed piece of recycled paper with my name on it, at least. The World Wide Web made my dreams come true - About.me is a wonderful and easy-to-use service ('nameplate') for making online business cards. Many thanks to my friend TJ for telling me about this one. And! you can easily transform the thing into a short CV and send the link with you paper resume.

2. Some jobs not only require to have a curriculum vitae to be considered as a potential candidate, but ask for the portfolio. If you are a designer, person who makes creative commercials or a web developer - check out Zerply and show your work to the rest of the world.

3. Another alternative to the LinkedIn page is a 'branded web presence' making tool called Flavors.me. This service also allows you to connect all the social media profiles at one web-address; create your resume and personal card; promote your 'personal brand' online.

4. For creative industry workers infographics CV does not look like a bad idea at all. If you don`t feel like making it yourself, don`t have inner designer-self or simply want to have it done quick - I have a solution for you. I heard this is a Russian start-up which proved to be successful allover the world. ResumUP - great took for visualising your Facebook or LinkedIn profile. The advantage is that infographics CV looks really clear and informative, so can be send to employers on its on, whilst the 'comics-looking-like' resumes may need a textual compliment. I have used this service myself and really enjoyed the results!

5. If you are an inspiring marketing or PR-professional, SEO guru or content marketing evangelist who does a lot of talks on the subject, takes active part in conferences, TED talks and other speakers featuring events, you should register with ExpertFile. This is probably not for recent graduates, but who knows what you will achieve in the next 5 years, right? ;-)

Good luck getting your dream job!

4 Tips to Get the Best out of Social Media for your Business

Morning guys!

Today I am an early bird producing more interesting and hopefully useful tips. Here you are. :)

With all the amazing online shops the digital world has to offer, how do you attract the customers to really come to your retail store? Is online world for your Forever 21 a chance or a Catch 22?

In a nutshell, it is all about motivating and rewarding with the decent amount of support. Here are some simple tips on how to turn your ‘followers’ into the frequent customers:

  1. Use your social media as a Loyalty Programme Platform

Loyalty programs have become quite a popular tool for the retail stores to attract and please the customers. Similarly, to how the discounts and special deals are received as the award for spending the money, complement your customers for spending their time.

Make the process simple and engaging. Set the price list or assign a value for every Like, Tweet and comment and make it be easily converted into the real money or discount point that can be spend in the store. But does the exchange of Likes into the money really result in brand loyalty? Let`s just say: depends on how you approach it. If your circuit is reduced to a simple ‘bribing’, it will probably result just in a one-day (night) stand on your social media page. The real relationships begin when you show the audience you are on the same wavelength. This is how you do it:

• Do not forget about non-monetary rewards, because their symbolic power really helps building relationships and gaining loyalty from your audience.  Chose ‘the fan of the month’, vote for the funniest tweet or pick ‘the most dedicated customer’. These meaningful achievements may be seen as the online equivalent for the VIP treatments.

• Take it to the next level – give those ‘friends of the brand’ a chance to participate in what you are doing: invite them on a tour around your office, give a chance to dress the window of your store or share your wi-fi password.

• Be creative. (This might not be the best advice to give from the practicality point of view, therefore, you can look up for the examples here:

2. Everybody likes to play, just set the rules

Hopefully surprising, this is not about the Apps and Facebook games. Another way to invite people from and through Social Media to your store is quest – little adventure that integrates online and offline tasks into one big game, making it fun and useful.

• Think about the mechanics of the quest. How many tasks will there be in in adventure? Will you reveal all of them at once or keep the intrigue by posting one task a day (week/hour)?  Will you use only one social platform or integrate Twitter, Instagram and Foursquare all together?  

• Motivation is a king (queen). What is the purpose of the quest and why would people want to participate? It is not only about the prize in the end, so you should make the people feel what they do matters. Perhaps, connect the fun to something bigger (for each person who completes the quest, the company will donate certain amount of money to charity or plant one tree in the local park).  

• Examples of tasks: check-in, take a picture, find, post (anything that will benefit the brand and engage the audience).

3. Use social media as an emergency line

With any business customers will always have queries, questions and seek for assistance, so create a customer service desk on your social media page.

• CRM. Good CRM requires a lot of resources and contribution; however, even if you cannot afford helping your clients online 24/7, they should still feel your support.

• Do your best. Sometimes simply having a FAQs section or image on your Facebook will help. For more serious issue, establish the rules of when and how you will deal with them if you the instant response is impossible.

• Share the duties. Educate your audience with basic tips and advices on what to do if…, so they become experts and help you with the customer service. More on CRM and customer service online here.

That is it for today. :) Let me know if there is anything you want me to write about and thanks again for reading me!!!!!

Marketing advice from my Master's dissertation No.2

Rainy-windy-busy afternoon to everyone.:)

That's been a really loooong and pleasand weekend for me, hope you enjoyed it as well. 
It is Monday now and time to read and share more interesting ideas and useful tips. As I've told you last time my dissertation seems to be full of PR and marketing insights, so I cannot wait to share the second finding with you. In fact, this will be my own thoughts with reflection on something very engaging.  

Just the day before I finished my last chapter somewhere in the labyrinth of the Internet I`ve found these amazing video. Created by extremely talented motion and graphic designer Shimi Cohen and based on Sherry Turkle's book Alone Together, it made me think of this second tip. 

2. Don't make people feel lonely

The main conclusion in the video is that SNSs, although designed to connect people and facilitate communication, in fact, made us feel even more lonely. That is because of this three paradoxical assumptions that we all have as Facebook, Twitter and Google+ users (any other SNSs counts):

- We can put our attention wherever we want it to be
- We will always be heard
- We will never have to be alone

This is the actual video in case you have not watched it yet.

What has all of these to do with marketing? Hm...I suggest it might be true that people became  less connected, less happy or even  less sociable. On the other hand, it also is true that we make those 3 above mentioned suggestions and want social networking sites to make us less lonely. Therefor, why don't you,  marketers, give people what they want?

1. Be a friend - be that company which will always make its customers day - with its oustanding services, high quality products, helpful website and attractive social media content. 

2. Always listen to your customers and make them feel you appreciate them. 

3. Never ever leave your clients, customers, readers, visitors etc. without support. There is nothing more annoying than a customer service that cannot be reached when you need it most; nothing more dissapointing than my 'witty comments' on Facebook left unnoticed by the page owner; and nothing better than a cute picture of a fluffy cat and a 'good read' posted somewhere on Google+ at 2 pm just on time, in case I could not sleep. All of this makes the digital world better, transforming users illusions in some very real customer care. 

This is it for today. :)

P.S. How cool would that be if the word loneliness meant 'no friends online', while in real life somebody was always there for you? Like abso-bloody-lutely cool! :)

Marketing advice from my Master's dissertation No.1

Hey-hey, my amazing virtual audience! :) Hope you are all doing great enjoying you digital selves.

Have not posted anything here for quite some time...I know...in my defense - I was not procrastinating, but making some wonderful scientific discoveries! In other words, I spent few sleepless nights putting together the very last chapter of my dissertation. And you know what? - That was totally worth it! Not only now I am feeling proud and relieved, but I`ve also got some pretty wonderful tipsto share with you.

Just to give you some background information: my reserach was a part of MSc Sociology programme (in case you don't know. Hm...I wonder if my blog is adding anything to promotion of such a great major?). However, the topic I`ve chosen for investigation is very digital-PR-marketing-SNS orientated.

It is all about this neologism coined to describe a phenomenon when people 'Like' and '+1' and 'Share' and show huge online support, but than this all stay Facebook-(or whatever)-declared only. They (and by them I mean journalists and academia people) call it 'slacktvism', 'clicktivism', 'keyboard activism' and so on. If you google the thing, you'll probably find more articles on politics, civic activism, charities and similar contextualisation of the idea. Well, I kind of studied similar dimension in my dissertation, but because I cannot reveal anything specific here (due to University Policy on Ethics and something else), I decided to share some thoughts on the application of my findings for the PR and marketing purposes. In particular, it really is interesting why many people state 'purchase promising' behaviours online (e.g. in a form of 'Like'), but never actually buy, leaving your digital or social media manager sad and almost fired.

To clarify, with the tips provided bellow I hope to give you some answers (or just food for thought) on the issue of:

'I have 135k Twitter followers and have not sold anything to them yet', or 'Facebook picture of our new product got 200k likes and 100 reshares, but only 10 people order it from our shop' and etc.

I know these are very childish-silly kinds of examples, but I hope, you know what I mean. Let's see how slacktivism of SNS users may be transformed into some real sales. I will hope it will be possible to conclude after I explain some possible reasons of the existing gap between 'online intentions' and 'offline actions'.

1. Time is money.

This conclusion may seem quite obvious, but the biggest concern of nowaday lives is time, there is always not enough hours to sleep, not enough minutes to talk and not enough years to make our dreams come true. Many web designers and development companies have already understood this idea and applied to their interfaces, making everything as simply as it can possibly be. Therefore, every business trying to sell products needs to simplify purchasing experience. Online shops was a partial solution to a problem.

On the other hand, if you compare a number of received 'Likes' with your sales statistics, the difference may be explained by the 'instantaneous factor'. The nature of 'Like' or '+1' button suggests its being the easiest way of showing agreement/support/approval/emapthy and many other feelings and emotions (yeah, at this point you might ask where is the 'Unlike' or 'Hate' option).  Whilst the process of considering what was 'Liked' takes a while, with a high tendency towards 'not to buy' desicion. My conclusion here is that social media are great for PR and marketing purposes, but it is important to keep in mind their rather entertaining character. Thus, you can and should promote your stuff online, but not put many expectations on the instant sales growth.

In this respect, I think if there was a social network for shopaholics with the initial aim of 'selling and buying' with not just 'Like' but 'Buy' buttons, it would be really successful. People would create their 'shopper profiles' and post 'look what I`ve just bought' statuses. To some extent my point can be proved with the example of Russian social network vk.com where there are thousands of 'VK groups' (communities) where people only promore and sell '100% non fake Ray-Bin glasses from Vietnam'.

Conclusion: the longer it takes for a customer to proceed from initial seeing ('Liking') of your product to actual 'here is my money I want this' phase; the less likely is the chance of completing a purchase.

What to do:

• have online shop - have direct links on you SNS accounts (posts) to the online store; 
• if you don't have online store - have your adress and opening hours and all the important information regarding the purchase written AS CLEARLY AS POSSIBLE IN A PLACE WHERE YOUR CUSTOMER SEES IT (not where YOU think it should be)

P.S. Yeah, right, I am talking about how time is expensive these days and made you spent almost 15 valuable minutes reading this extra-long article....Sorry for that. :) 

Come back tomorrow and you will have even more shocking impressive fascinating tip based on the findings of my recent research! 

Take care! :)

The Art of Blogging

I am back on track and ready to share my new post with you guys.

A friend of mine (thanks for reading me, Simona) asked a couple of days ago if I can write something on how to actually start a blog. I thought this would be a great tip to share, because my blog is only a couple of weeks old, so I can reflect on my recent experience.

The following tips are useful for those who are just about to start a blog and for those who already did and want to improve their blog and make it more professional. Thus, first 2 tips are for beginners and the last 2 - for advanced users.

1. How to start a blog

We are lucky to live in the digital age, because the opportunities it gives us are trully unlimited. It is not like decades ago you had to invest a lot of time and money to start a newspaper and even more to have your own TV channel. On the contrary, social media today represent indibidual platforms for every person to become a news outlet. You want your TV channel - set up YouTube account; you want your own music label (radio station)- create MySpace page; you`ve always dramed on becoming a journalist - start a blog. You want it all together - have your personal website. Here I should probably mention, that I don`t in anyway mean compare or contrast the quality, content or the level of authority of the new and traditional media. Moreover, I don`t call my self a journalist writing this blog. But I do think that evry person can become a medium or at least a thought leader through blogs, websites and SNS.

Does not matter what you need a blog for, there are at least 2 free ways to start one.

Google Blogger (this is the think I am using now)

WordPress  (another free platfrom)

If you ask me which one is better, I don`t really know. I use Blogger and highly recomend it - easy-to-use, works great. Here is a blog post where the person says WordPress is more technologically difficult.

2. How to connect your blog to other social media accounts

As far as SEO is involved, you have better chances for your blog to get indexed if it is connected to the social media accounts. I am going to do it with my blog as well, but am not sure if I should conect it my personal accounts. Anyway, this would be something really useful to learn for the digital age purposes. Thus, if you decide to connect the blog with your personal profiles, make sure you`ve mentione the website`s adress by giving the relevant link!

In order to perform this digital bonding, first of all, you need a basic understanding of HTML. Don`t worry, nothing superficial. You just find social media icons that you want to appear on your page. Later on, you upload them to a photo bank such as Photobucket. This particular website is great, because it lets you copy HTML code for each photo you upload there.

The HTML code for the Twitter icon will look as following:

<a href="http://s1293.photobucket.com/user/Maria_Zhdanova/media/Social-Truck_twi_zpsa5b0aadc.png.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1293.photobucket.com/albums/b586/Maria_Zhdanova/Social-Truck_twi_zpsa5b0aadc.png" border="0" alt=" photo Social-Truck_twi_zpsa5b0aadc.png"/></a>

The third step is to copy the link, paste it into some document and than change the first <> weblink into the link to one of your social media accounts.

<https://twitter.com/MariaZhdanova3><img src="http://i1293.photobucket.com/albums/b586/Maria_Zhdanova/Social-Truck_twi_zpsa5b0aadc.png" border="0" alt=" photo Social-Truck_twi_zpsa5b0aadc.png"/></a>

This is how I have connected that Twitter icon to my Twitter account.

The finish up, you have to place this icon on your Blogger page. In order to do this, you have to go to your Blogger settings page. On the left hand side you will find: Overview, Posts, Pages and etc.

What you need is Layout. Click on the Layout and than find Add a Gadget option, this shows you a place where the social media icon will be situated on your blog page.

Click Add a Gadget, and find the one which says 'HTML/Java Script 

Finally, paste the HTML code we`ve created above into the gadget text box. You can also name this Gadget, for example, with 'Follow me on Twitter' headline.

3. How to increase your traffic to your blog

Well, I say - have thousands of friends and big friendly family. This will be your primary audience, anyway. Those people will spread the word and, hopefully, read (or at least) view your blog regularly, improving your stats. 

Secondly, don't forget to share every blog post in every possible SNS. I use Google+, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for this purpose. Interestingly, I have different audiences in all of those networks, therefore, I can reach more people. Even though my Twitter is not as successful as Facebook, but few days ago, my Twitter follower re-twitted info about my blog post, while Facebook people were a bit more passive in this sense. If you ask why does it matter? I will tell you - the more your blog address (web link of http://bla-bla-bla) is mentioned on the Internet, the more it is visible for Google and other search engines.

After you create a blog, you will be concerned about being seen by Google, believe me. If Google don't see your blog - it almost does not exist on the Internet, and this is sad. With my blog, for instance, because it is very young, if you type its name to the Google Search (Tips from the UK, or What I know I share, or anything like that), you won't find it. To check, how many time Google knows about you, copy-paste your URL adress into the Google Search (you will be able to see how many of your friends and relatives do believe in your writing talent ;-)

4. Improve your blog and blogging skills

Read and learn. Here is good short reading list for you:

1. Jim Connolly talking about successful website building, absolutely 'blog applicable' material 

2. Jeff Bullas on ways to boost your blog traffic

3. Article on how to become a thought leader in your industry, not all about blogging, but still usefull. 

That is it for today! Don't forget to share.

Be happy, my dear readers! 

Guerrilla marketing and digital approach

Lazy Saturday to everyone,

I am a bit out of track these days - caught cold and was working on the last chapter of my dissertation, therefore, did not write much here. But today I was reading this little note I found on some SNS and thought it was interesting thing to write about.

Our discussion, more like my writing, today will concern the so-called 'guerrilla marketing' and its digital dimension. For those who don't know the term refers to quite cheap means of marketing for the businesses  who cannot afford very expensive tools, so this is something you can do even if your company has only 2 employees, 1 laptop and plenty of great ideas. The only condition for choosing guerrilla marketing as a main tactic is creativity. In that article I mentioned above 25 examples of the   guerrilla techniques for marketing and PR were given. I want to share with you the most interesting ones and give the idea of possible digital application of those techniques.

Picture source: crystalbballforecasting.com

Here we go:

1. Attract attention. One way of marketing as a real guerrilla is to organize a 'fake' meeting near you companies office. Say there will be a group of people holding streamers like 'This business is too amazing', 'this company is too professional', 'their services are too good and effective'. This kind of mass event will certainly gather people's attention and may become a good news hook. On the other hand, this somehow indirect way of promotion and even self irony will work better as more straightforward 'we are the best company - choose us'.

As for the digital implication of such technique one would probably immediately think of viral marketing. Viral content without direct sales flavour have proven its efficiency in a number of campaigns. One of my favourites is viral video about English speaking traffic officer, created by a language school in Ukraine before the UEFA EURO 2012  championship. For those who don't know - check this video. Another example would be Internet memes or the use of hashtags for marketing purposes that help generate awareness of a company or a product.

2. Use business cards. Every business person has business card. That's clear. What isn't so obvious are the creative ways those cards may be used. For instance, guerrilla marketing suggests going to a local library, finding books in the section, relevant for your business and putting hour business cards in those books. In this way, you are only doing good stuff. Say, a person is interested in reading about painting walls. He/ she opens a book and...ha! out of nowhere there is 'Clever wall painters' business card inside of the book. Of course, there is no guarantee the person will use your service, but readers would definitely appreciate a free bookmark you gave them.

The digital analogue of this approach can be made in a few ways. Firstly, you may think of posting stuff about your company in a relevant Internet communities and forums. However, I am not sure as a user  whether I would much appreciate this, because those posts don't always have similar value for me as a free bookmark. On the other hand,  information about a company on a source like Wikipedia as an example (in a good context) make people aware and increase chances of consideration. If you think of Wikipedia as a book, an article about your company or a mentioning is like a business card in the library. Hey, Wikipedia haters, don't get me started! I know some of you may think of its low authority as information source and unchecked content. As Master's student I am absolutely aware of the criticism and limits, but millions of users and crowds of other students would argue that Wikipedia has great persuasive power, just don't forget about the audience you are going to target.
Other form of digital business card, I guess, would be: a link to your website and social media accounts, reference in the thought leader's blog or industry journal.

3. Comment, read and keep commenting.  The last technique would be initially digital, but I would think of real-life alternative in the end. So, don't underestimate the importance on commenting and supporting conversations about your company (product, service). When you comment on information  regarding your business (e.g. in other people's blog or website), this gives you better promotional opportunities than writing information yourself - it is less direct and, therefore, less aggressive. Similarly, it is important to always comment and reply on other people's posts and notes in your own blog, website or SNS page.

As I promised to think of a real-life example of the last technique, the one thing I came up with is 'join the conversation'. Have people talking about your business out loud at some event, join their conversation and make other people hear. No, not like scream through loudspeaker, but spread the word in non-obtrusive maner. Like: 'Yeah, I heard that company is great, my sister uses their services all the time'.

How to spend less time on SNS and never miss anything important

Hi guys!!;)

I know it is already Sunday in the UK, but I did not want to live you without any tips, so here we go. Don't forget to come back for more tomorrow.:) 

Do you use any social networking sites? Well, I am sure you do. I am registered in almost every possible SNS, therefore, find it quite challenging to keep all of the accounts up-to-date and follow all the news. Luckily, Web 2.0 has created solution for this problem, even two. 

If you are a smartphone owner and want to have all www news in one place, there are 2 great applications you need to download: 

1. Prismatic - this app (as both for Apple and web) is something close to a digital newspaper, or a platform integrating content from social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, Google Reader, and every news outlet you read. You can then filter the news according to your topics of interest, location or other parameters. Simple design and nice interface.

2. Flipboard - your social media news magazine for iOS and Android. As for me this one is much more fun comparing to Prismatic. Overall, it depends on what you prefer - a magazine (with all the colourful  glance) or a newspaper (strict classy b&w). Flipboard allows you to browse all content from your social media accounts and from all over the web based on your interests. By choosing to read about food, marketing or fashion (or about everything at once) you can create unique, absolutely personalized magazine! It is extremely simple, bright and handy when you don't want to spend hours checking all the SNS you are registered with.

Have fun exploring!

Good night or good morning.:)