digital marketing

INTERVIEW: Social Sapiens and the Seattle Shrimp Tank!

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Seattle Shrimp Tank pros and Me (Social Sapiens)

Seattle Shrimp Tank pros and Me (Social Sapiens)

I was asked recently to be interviewed on a podcast (of and for entrepreneurs and business owners…) of which I have been aware and have listened to a few times. Most of my familiarity with the content and tone of it, however, derived from my relationship with one of the co-hosts, Dan Weedin. Dan is a colleague, friend and fellow Rotarian, so familiarity bred a bit of lowered attention on my part, I admit.

Dan called recently and asked me if I would like to be interviewed for the Seattle Shrimp Tank podcast. It sounded like a load of fun, so I agreed.

Some of the things we talked about include:
  • Where did social media start, what’s going on with it today, and where is it going? (the short version!)
  • What is the importance of thinking about business goals, plans and strategies when considering digital marketing and hiring an expert to help?
  • How important is it to learn how to express yourself well online? What is the balance of listening, asking powerful questions, and understanding in developing an authentic and powerful online presence?
  • What else is there other than the “usual suspects” of social media (like Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Yelp, Instagram, Pinterest and the like)? Is there more there?
  • What’s the right frequency to post online?
…and so much more. Check out the whole podcast here, and the shorter video follow-up here. We covered a lot of great questions and concerns.

If this interview brought up other questions for you about your business and professional presence online, please reach out to me and also look for some other information that’s relevant to you on my site here.

Engagement and Choosing the Right Platform – Best of July

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Engagement

How’s Your Audience Engagement Coming Along?

July always feels like the mid-point for summer…the home for vacations, cook-outs, and many more outdoor activities (especially here in the Pacific Northwest…) than the rest of the year! There’s still the constant tsunami of articles and tips online, though, holiday or not! July’s compilation is weighted towards engagement online, assessing the right platform and service for your digital marketing efforts, video tools, and taking a bit of that “sunshine time” to practice thinking for the benefit of your business and your life.
"Follow Us" = Engagement?

“Follow Us” = Engagement?

How frequently you post, how relevant your posts are to your audience (based on you research…), how many clicks and likes you get….it’s all empty until you can really “engage” with you audience. That’s the point of a lot of social media content and your presence…so how do you DO that? Here are some great tips, delivered in a very helpful infographic, to help you!

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Social Media Blunders and Challenges, GDPR, and Just Keeping Up – Best of May

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Best of May

Best of May

The month of May provided a bumper crop of great articles, and this is a concise digest of the best ones for your business!  They touch on meeting the challenges of social media marketing, as well as the things to avoid, the impact that the GDPR might have on your business, and how to keep up with the constant changes and new information available almost every minute (without going nuts…).

Blunders

OOPS!

It’s just as important to learn and know what NOT to do as it is to pick up the best practices….in many cases these kinds of tips have been gained by, shall we say, “learning the hard way!” Take advantage of others’ hard lessons and make the right moves.

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Facebook Live video – “Hit the Button, Buddy!”

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video live button

VIDEO – GO LIVE!

It’s Live Video Month! This article is the second in the series in which I’m going over:
  • Strategy and Planning
  • Processes and How-To
  • …and include a few examples.
This week is all about what happens when you push the “GO LIVE” button and what you do through to the end of your video, and what you do afterwards, too.

But first, a quick recap:

My earlier article, “Facebook Live Video – Getting Everything Ready To Go!” is all about Strategy, Planning, Content Format ideas, and the Hardware / Software you can use. If you haven’t read that yet, follow the link and it will take you through the pre-process, getting you to…..

How To Start
 
Actually, you start before you start, so to speak.

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Facebook Live video – Getting Everything Ready To Go!

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Start that LIVE VIDEO!

Start that LIVE VIDEO!

It’s Live Video Month! This article is the first of two (for now….) in which I intend to go over:
  • Strategy and Planning
  • Processes and How-To
  • …and include a few examples.
This week is all about the Strategy and Planning, along with a little “Why do this video thing, anyway?”

Facebook Live Statistics that will convince you!

There are a ton of numbers out there that demonstrate the value of Facebook’s Live video streaming service even above that of “standard” video.  Here are a few:

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Get Ready to Smile – Live Video is Coming for You!

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You're LIVE on Video!!!

You’re LIVE on Video!!!

While we’re all waiting for the smoke to clear around Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement a few weeks ago regarding the BIG CHANGES taking place in the Facebook Newsfeed and how that will hit your marketing, one thing is pretty clear…

Video remains HUGE, and Live Video (Facebook Live, for this article…) is going to become something that all businesses are going to have to come up with a plan for.  This ties in directly with many things that Zuckerberg mentioned in his announcement (emphasis mine):
  • “…recently we’ve gotten feedback from our community that public content — posts from businesses, brands and media — is crowding out the personal moments that lead us to connect more with each other.”
  • “We started making changes in this direction last year, but it will take months for this new focus to make its way through all our products. The first changes you’ll see will be in News Feed, where you can expect to see more from your friends, family and groups.  As we roll this out, you’ll see less public content like posts from businesses, brands, and media. And the public content you see more will be held to the same standard — it should encourage meaningful interactions between people.“
  • “The research shows that when we use social media to connect with people we care about, it can be good for our well-being. We can feel more connected and less lonely, and that correlates with long term measures of happiness and health. On the other hand, passively reading articles or watching videos — even if they’re entertaining or informative — may not be as good. Based on this, we’re making a major change to how we build Facebook. I’m changing the goal I give our product teams from focusing on helping you find relevant content to helping you have more meaningful social interactions.”
  • You can read his entire post here.

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Best of January – “Facebook Zero”, Digital Strategy Tips, and Success

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"FACEBOOK ZERO!!????"

“FACEBOOK ZERO!!????”

So your 2018 has blown through the first month…how are things going? Out of breath yet?

There are constantly evolving things happening in digital and social media marketing (you HAVE heard of the big announcement by Mark Zuckerberg, right?!). This month’s round-up of the best-of-the-best includes a couple of terrific articles about the Facebook news, as well as thoughts on the importance of reviews, some thoughts upon analyzing a TON of LinkedIn profiles, and several others.

Freaking Out?

Freaking Out?

Many analysts and marketing gurus agree that the folks getting hit the most by this update are small businesses. While most also agree that we JUST DON’T KNOW how this is actually going to roll out, this article from Entrepreneur.com has 4 recommendations on what you can do now to help mitigate the impact of this.

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No Free Lunch: Pay-To-Play is Here to Stay

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No Free Lunch

No Free Lunch

We all learned very early on in this life that there is NO SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCH!

In the context of digital marketing, that is made evident in that you must invest resources (time, effort, money, etc….) to get results. There never was a “build it and they will come” (what I call the Field of Dreams fallacy) for online marketing. Sure, it may have been a bit easier a number of years ago when there weren’t so many companies and users online, all vying for attention. Certainly, on a platform like Facebook, things were somewhat more simple, or so they seemed. All you seemed to need was a lot of followers of your page and to post something every so often and it looked like you were successful (whether you were or not depended on how you defined success, but that’s another story…).

This has changed significantly…and in ways that require a lot more consideration on your part as a small business owner and entrepreneur.

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Surveys: Tell Me What You REALLY Think!

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Survey Results

Survey Results

Surveys are notorious, from both sides of the subject… 

As someone who gets at least a survey per week in my mail, I respond to very few of them. Sometimes it’s because I’m just plain busy when I first see it, and it feels like a drag on my time (the DELETE key is so very tempting…). Other times it comes from a source I almost never hear from, so I wonder why (s)he wants me to give them input now, when I’ve gotten so little from them of value to date. However, when I do respond, it is usually to a person or organization from whom I’ve gotten some kind of value over time, it is tightly proscribed (that is, won’t take longer than a couple of minutes to complete….), and concerns topics that I care about.

As a business owner and blogger, I take these motivations and concerns into account when creating surveys. During the month of November I ran a survey for those who subscribe to my newsletter and regularly read my blog. The single question was:

What are the topics you wish to learn more about to help you in your business? 

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Setting Up for 2018 – Best of December

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Make the Leap to 2018

Make the Leap to 2018

The end of 2017 brings a focus to planning, strategy and change in the marketing teams of every business, whether you have an actual team or it’s just you, the solopreneur. This collection of the best of December articles reflects this focus and gives you the thoughts and processes for consideration as you launch into the new year.

Sincerity

Sincerity

This article about sincerity and dialogue in business is my most popular for 2017. The value of sincerity in business cannot be overstated, especially as building solid, long-term relationships with your customers is easily one of the most profitable things you can do.

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