Blog
5 Reasons Why Your Company Should Be Blogging
By: Scott Dickson Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc. are now all considered mainstream and imperative in terms of social media marketing. However, it is obvious that many, if not most, businesses have yet to venture into the simplest and arguably the most effective type of social marketing…blogging. Blogging is nothing new. Blogs date back to 1997, took off in 1999 and were considered mainstream by 2004. Why hasn’t your company started blogging? Are you afraid of what someone might post on your blog? Here’s the...
read moreSocial Media and Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin'”
It’s hard not to notice all the local AND national brands/businesses out there in social media land that just don’t get it. For instance, on Twitter I see many well-known businesses and organizations who have apparently just given up completely. Typically, they haven’t posted a tweet in 2 months or longer and they don’t follow back or engage. It’s like they tried it, didn’t work…moving on. Giving up is the easy thing to do. A popular song by Journey suddenly pops into my head…”Don’t Stop Believin’” Here’s the chorus: Strangers waiting, Up...
read moreAre you putting all your social media eggs in one basket?
By: Scott Dickson When asked if they’re utilizing the power of social media and relationship marketing, many business-owners and CMO’s will reply, “Of course! We have an awesome Facebook page and we’re getting started on Twitter.” Well, that’s great. But, setting up a Facebook page and linking your posts to a Twitter profile doesn’t mean you’re “on Twitter.” It means you’re doing it wrong. In my opinion, you’re putting all your eggs in one basket by relying too heavily...
read more10 Quick Blogging Tips
By: Scott Dickson Here recently there have been some issues with the 800-Pound Gorilla…Facebook. This led me to think about what would happen if Facebook suddenly disappeared. What would online marketers do if one of the most powerful tools they had was gone? One of the things we would do is put more focus on blogging. The truth is, we should never lose focus on blogging. Don’t neglect home base. Keep it fresh regularly and blog smart. Here are 10 quick tips for effective blogging: 1 – Decide on a stand alone domain name...
read more10 Ways To Spot A Social Media Snake Oil Salesperson
By: Scott Dickson The social media “experts” are coming out of the woodwork like crazy. Agencies are also getting into the act and guess what? Most of them are doing it wrong. Here’s a little tip for you…there is no such thing as a social media expert. Social media lives and breathes. It evolves and changes. It turns left and right and this way and that way. There are no experts. There are only some who know more than others and some who pretend to know more than others…otherwise known as a snake oil...
read moreTwitter Tip: Shorten Your Tweets & Make Them Re-Tweetable!
By: Scott Dickson I really enjoy sharing content I know others would love to read on Twitter. However, it’s disappointing when I hit the RT and the original tweet is too long. It pains me to have to edit, abbreviate and basically re-write the original tweet in order to re-tweet it effectively. Remember, you only have 140 characters. Here’s the thing…if I have to edit or abbreviate your tweet, I’m probably not going to re-tweet it and neither will others. So, if you condense your message, you’re much more likely...
read moreFive Reasons To Encourage Employee Engagement On Social Media
By: Scott Dickson Your employees should be some of your biggest online evangelists and ambassadors. When launching a social media marketing plan, it’s very important to get those employees excited about engaging and interacting. Let’s look at Facebook, for example. Your employees can be very effective at facilitating the growth of your Facebook page or group. But, why would you need or want their help? Here are five reasons why you should encourage your employees to get involved: 1) Great ideas can come from any level of an...
read moreDoes your website convert visitors into customers?
By: Scott Dickson Maximizing your social media marketing efforts is hard to do if your website is not set up to convert. You can Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube and Instagram yourself to death…but, unless your potential customers are landing on a page or a site that makes it easy for them to contact you…it could be a waste of time and money. Some key questions to ask include: 1 – Is there a prominent phone number on every page of my website? 2 – Are there simple contact forms strategically placed on my...
read moreLinkedIn Listens And Reacts, But Know Your Platforms
By: Scott Dickson Recently myself and countless others have complained on Twitter about the ridiculously amount of useless tweets showing up in our feeds on LinkedIn. I’m not on LinkedIn to read about what you had for lunch. Linking all your social networking profiles is just bad practice. Please don’t do this. I enjoy checking into Foursquare, but I realize that my Twitter followers don’t necessarily care that I’m still the mayor at Bruegger’s Bagels. Don’t link every check-in to Twitter, much less...
read moreWhy Following Everybody You Can On Twitter Doesn’t Work
By: Scott Dickson There seems to be a lot of people out there who get on Twitter and then go out and follow everybody they can find, thinking it’s a smart thing to do. Well, it’s not. Following quality people on Twitter is just as important as having quality people follow back. And always remember, just like anything else in life, you get out of it what you put into it. Don’t set up the profile, follow 100 people and wait to get followed back. Probably not gonna happen. Who NOT To Follow Don’t follow someone who...
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