BroadVision Marketing Blog

LinkedIn: Two Different Groups of People

You will find that you have two different groupsof people in your LinkedIn network—those that have sent you many contacts and those that have not sent you very many. Here are some suggestions from us at BroadVision Marketing.com.

You need to stay connected to the strong ones by sending them emails, texts or calls every two weeks or so. That way they will continue sending you referrals. You can also send them quality referrals, people who can help your contacts the most. Visit their websites and leave comments (all website owners and bloggers love comments). You could even send them something snail mail. Yes, I did say snail mail.

Topics: marketing, San Francisco Bay Area, Networking, Strong Connections, Weak Connections, Marketing in Petaluma CA, Facebook, Social Media, Marketing Principles, LinkedIn, Business Owner, Jaco Grobbelaar, Leadership

Social media has come to mean an array of activities from your website to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and beyond. But the foundation of all social media is your website and your blog.

With the infinitely vast ways your website can stand out which you can do yourself or spend anywhere from a small amount of money to the big bucks, there is no excuse to not to have the best website you can afford. WordPress is the going concern for the bottom layer of the site. On top of a basic WordPress foundation, you can add different skins that will change the look without changing the computer language at the foundation.

Furthermore, when the foundation gets a makeover, you can safely download the new version without losing what is on the skin above. This way you can keep up with the latest and greatest improvements.

Topics: Using Different Media, Petaluma California, Web search engine, WordPress foundation, WordPress, Marketing in Petaluma CA, Facebook, Social Media, Marketing Principles, LinkedIn, Business Owner, Jaco Grobbelaar, Business, Branding, Blogging, Twitter

We have been working on the idea of doing your social media work yourself. I have been telling you uncompromising truths about the process of successfully marketing yourself. These things are what marketing companies like BroadVision Marketing do for companies who don’t have the time, the resources or the desire to do-it-yourself.

The last blog I wrote we were talking about a simple system to tell if you are moving into a better ranking. We decided to use the Alexa number system, which for all its faults does provide a simple measurement of motion.

Topics: marketing, Using Different Media, Uniform Resource Locator, StumbleUpon, OnlyWire, Social Media, Marketing Principles, Business Owner, Jaco Grobbelaar, Business, Branding, Blogging, Yelp

I thought I was finished with the idea of do it yourself social media work, but apparently I am not. There are some other things that you need to know to find yourself on the top page of many search engines.

Last week we totaled up the amount of time you could take doing social media marketing, without LinkedIn and some other places. We saw how you could spend over half of a 40-hour work week. If you were worth $30 an hour, it would have cost you $2888.00 a month to pay yourself. Your time and your worth are your value added when you do it yourself.

Topics: BroadVision Marketing, Facebook, Social Media, Marketing Principles, LinkedIn, Business Owner, Jaco Grobbelaar, Business, social media marketing, Branding, Blogging, Twitter

I am going to go deep now into the world of Business Social Media Managing for those of you who want to do it yourself.

We have already decided that to write 3 business blogs a week will take approximately 6 hours of your time for a monthly total of 24 hours. Hypothetically speaking if your time is worth $30 an hour, blogging for yourself could cost you $720 a month.

Topics: Using Different Media, Pinterest, Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Realtors, Sun Tzu, BroadVision Marketing, Facebook, Social Media, Marketing Principles, LinkedIn, Business Owner, Jaco Grobbelaar, Business, Branding, Blogging

Have you ever gone fishing and taken several poles?  Business blogging and other platforms like Facebook and Twitter are like having several poles in the water to hook a client into coming to your website and using your products or services. These platforms are not hard sell platforms. People won’t come visit you if all you do is bombard them with why they need your product or service. They want to learn something or be entertained. What you tell them is the bait on your hook.

Topics: marketing, Using Different Media, blog, BroadVision Marketing, Facebook, Social Media, Marketing Principles, Business Owner, Jaco Grobbelaar, Business, Branding, Blogging, Twitter, Marketing strategy

Business blogging is a powerful low-cost marketing tool when you look at all the other marketing tools available. Its power is in the fact that you are writing about what you know. While it takes time, your knowledge is the value added if you have taken the time to learn how to use blogging properly. There is a big caveat here. Do not expect your blog to get you instant clients, customers or even readers. Expect little and you will be surprised when things work out. Expect instant success and you will be disappointed.

Topics: marketing, Web search engine, Business Blogging, blog, BroadVision Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Marketing Principles, Business Owner, Jaco Grobbelaar, Business, Branding, Blogging, Marketing strategy

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Being Social"] [/caption]

Do you see yourself as Mr. or Ms. Business Blogger, along the same lines as the  “Cherry Ames, Companion Nurse” stories by Helen Wells? Writing a business blog is a good step in the right direction, but if no one reads your blog, you have just wasted a lot of time.

How do you get that great article you wrote out there? Blogging and social networking are both parts of the same strategy. You have to go out and promote your blog by being social. There are many different ways you can use to get your word out. We are just going to look at four.

• Twitter is a quick way to let people know that you are in business and that you have a live website, as opposed to one that is static where nothing new is ever going on. You can tweet about your new post in such a way that people will be interested in reading about it. Remember that no one wants to be sold on social network. They do want to learn things and be entertained. If you are offering information, make that obvious in your tweet. Oh yes, it’s a good idea to put out around 10 tweets on various subjects a day and then spend some time actually on Twitter to show that you are a real person.

Topics: Using Different Media, Google, Corporate blog, Social network, Helen Wells, blog, BroadVision Marketing, Facebook, Social Media, Marketing Principles, LinkedIn, Business Owner, Jaco Grobbelaar, Blogging, Twitter

One of the greatest things since sliced bread in the business blogging world is using multimedia. This week you have seen me use some of the ideas that I have written about. Today I have a video for you because words sell and video helps.

[kkytv id="livzJTIWlmY" width="600" height="385"]

 

• Adding video and photos to your website and blogs can have a major impact on your sales.

• Unless you are aiming for an amateur look, create videos that look professional or you can find something like the one I found on YouTube. These will enhance your image.

• Remember that photos are not free. When you search using Google and select images, go to the funny gear looking thing on the upper right. Click on that and go to advanced settings. You will go to a page that at the bottom has a place where you check mark that you want images that are free. Click search and see what is left. Not satisfied? Try Flicker: http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/ using the attribution license and be sure to attribute. Try PublicDomainPictures.net: http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/;  or Dreamstime: http://www.dreamstime.com/free-results.php?searchby=sandwich+generation&searchtype=free.

• You can also purchase photos and graphics, often for reasonable rates.

What sort of multimedia are you using? How has it worked for you? What would you like to know more about?

 

Jaco Grobbelaar, owner of BroadVision Marketing, helps business owners and business professionals put marketing strategies in place that consistently secure new clients. He can be reached at jaco@broadvisionmarketing.com or 707.799.1238. You can “Like” him at www.facebook.com/broadvisionmarketing or connect with him on www.linkedin.com/in/JacoGrobbelaar.

 

Related articles

• WordPress' new version 3.3 gives multimedia and mobile some love (venturebeat.com)


• My Mini-Gallery At Dreamstime (richbystockphoto.wordpress.com)

Topics: Google, YouTube, Videos, Multimedia, Photos, blog, BroadVision Marketing, Facebook, Social Media, Marketing Principles, Business Owner, Jaco Grobbelaar, Business, Branding, Blogging, Marketing strategy

When it comes to business blogging (or any blogging for that matter), content is king of social media. You can save money by writing from your own experience and you can build your business at the same time.

You want to create original content full of your sage advice. You also need to keep your blog fresh with more and more of this original content. Of course, it is always great to have a guest blogger who has a different approach to add to the originality of your site. All these are clues in how to reach your audience.

What you want is to create posts that are not only original, but also give in-depth answers to your clients’ questions. Here are some suggestions on how to do this:

• Be sure you use your keywords constantly. If you want clients to find your answers, you have to improve your blog’s search-engine-optimizationability (yes, I just made that up). If you are writing about eye care, be sure you talk about eye care. If you are focusing on homecare services, house cleaning or Rolex watches, you want to use key words as often as possible without sounding silly.

• If you are a local brick and mortar business or if you are a national chain, it is always best to blog to a particular region. Talking about clients or using testimonials with a particular area mentioned is always a good way to tag your community. In doing this, if a person in Fort Worth is looking for a house cleaning service, your site will come up in the search.

• What you don’t want to be is a blogging commercial. People don’t watch television to see nothing but commercials. No one will read your blog if it is one long commercial for you. You don’t want to promote a product, service or your business in every post.  One source I read suggested that you use a mixture of 75% information and 25% promotion.  It’s worth an experiment. You can always tweak your percentages depending on the success of the experiment.

• Along those lines you want to vary your posts. You can embed videos from YouTube or link to cartoons and comics. There are always occasional funny stories or cool illustrations, maybe even with one of your clients as long as you don’t violate privacy. Guest blog posts are a super addition and so are graphics or charts. Info graphics are becoming a popular item.

Blogging is one of those bread-and-butter items of social media that will keep you in front of your clients, prospects and search engine.  Yes, content is king.

What do you think is the most important aspect of business blogging? How are your blogging efforts working for you?

For more information please refer to our new guide: An Introduction to Business Blogging.

Jaco Grobbelaar, owner of BroadVision Marketing, helps business owners and business professionals put marketing strategies in place that consistently secure new clients. He can be reached at jaco@broadvisionmarketing.com or 707.799.1238. You can “Like” him at www.facebook.com/broadvisionmarketing or connect with him on www.linkedin.com/in/JacoGrobbelaar.

Related articles

• What is a business blog anyway? (marketing.yell.com)

• What's stopping you writing a business blog? (marketing.yell.com)

Topics: Google, YouTube, Web search engine, Rolex, User-generated content, blog, BroadVision Marketing, Facebook, Social Media, Marketing Principles, Business Owner, Jaco Grobbelaar, Business, Branding, Blogging