Posted on Wed, Apr 18, 2012 @ 11:18 AM
[By Andrew Gerbehy]
Social Media has been the biggest craze that has hit the internet in the past decade. Although most people are just using Facebook and Twitter, the business world has rolled out its own version of a social media page. LinkedIn gives companies a medium to connect with potential employees or potential customers in their given field. LinkedIn is basically a networking convention over the internet. It allows you to meet other people or business you would be interested in networking with just the click of a mouse. Since beginning in 2003 LinkedIn has now reached an astounding 70 million members in 200 countries worldwide.
41 Percent of LinkedIn members using it for marketing have generated business through the website. Also, about 80 percent of companies that are on LinkedIn use it as their primary tool for recruiting new employees for their company. So, when looking to make connections in the business world LinkedIn has become the number one asset for any company or job searcher.
With the large growth of the site over the past decade, LinkedIn has begun to add new features to their site. A recent article by Business Insider reveals the two newest features being introduced will give marketing companies an even better chance at reaching their target employee and target market.
Imagine your company had a list of all of its potential employees as well as potential buyers organized into specific sections. Well, your wish is LinkedIn’s command, because their new function “Target Updates” does exactly that. The introduction of “Target Updates” means that companies can now organize their followers into different sections based on criteria. For example, followers of the companies can be broken up by their industry, seniority, job function, company size, non-company employees, and geography. When broken up into different sections, the company can make status updates (kind of like Facebook or Twitter) to their different sections of followers. For example, if they want to talk about a new product, they can send it to a certain group of people who would be interested in purchasing their products. If they are looking to hire people they would send out a status update to a certain group that fits the specific criteria they are looking to hire. This allows companies to save time and effort looking for potential employees because they no longer have to sort through resumes to see if someone is qualified. The companies will already know someone’s background and job experience with this new feature enhancing the efficiency of LinkedIn.
To compliment the new “Target Updates” system LinkedIn is also introducing “Follower Statistics.” This new system is an analytical dashboard which would allows companies to track how well their status updates are doing amongst their followers. Companies will be able to see exactly how their followers respond to updates and if they need to change which category their follower is located. This tracking system will be the best way to see how well their new “Target Updates” approach is doing.
Overall, the new additions to LinkedIn will without a doubt make life easier and more efficient for companies and followers of those companies. It will allows companies to communicate with the exact demographic of people they want which is one of the main goals of marketing, reaching the target market.
For more information about LinkedIn and inbound marketing connect with us on LinkedIn or follow us on Twitter or Like our Facebook page.
Posted on Mon, Apr 16, 2012 @ 12:00 PM
[By Andrew Gerbehy]
The genius Harvard Dropout and entrepreneur, Mark Zuckerburg, is back at it again and doing what he does best: tweaking and rearranging Facebook’s landscape into its new format called timeline. Timeline allows Facebook users to go back and track what they have done over their entire Facebook history with just a click of a mouse. Whether you have been on the website for eight years or eight months, you can simply see what you have done just by clicking what year you would like to look back to on the side of the screen. With this change in appearance, most people find this format to be insignificant in their daily lives and continue to just click from page to page. However, this new landscape should not be taken so lightly in the business world. Your company has some new techniques it can now use to market to its customers. Here are some ways the new timeline can help your company’s social media strategy:
Cover Photo:
When looking at the timeline the first thing anyone will notice is your company’s cover photo. The days of having a just one small profile picture in the top left of your screen are over. Although that picture is still there, the cover photo is a huge (851 x 316 pixels) picture which allows your company to advertise whatever it pleases. Your business should use this space wisely to enlighten your customers on what your business is all about and what it has to offer on your social media page. However, Facebook does not allow you to have a “Call to Action” so keep that in mind when choosing what to put in that space.
Managing Your Brand:
The timelines allows a company to manage their brand in a way that was impossible in the old format. Any post promoting a new product or service you would like to advertise can now be resubmitted to the top of your social media page just by clicking pin to top. This allows you to continuously advertise anything new going on with your company and potentially generate internet sales leads. Also, your page now can showcase your applications you have on your page right underneath your cover photo. You can showcase things like maps (to show where your business or businesses are located), photos to give a firsthand look at some workers and what your company is up to), and events ( to show what your company has in store for the next few months). You are allowed to have up to four apps showing at one time and, if used correctly, can really be a one stop shop for all your companies’ relevant information.
Private Messaging:
Everyone has this feature on their personal social media web page, but business web pages have not had the opportunity to get private messages from people visiting their page. With the new timeline, however, anyone who liked the page or wants to know more about your company can now send private messages to them. This feature now allows anyone to give feedback to your company about their products or services or ask questions about them. The private messaging allows the consumer to have a more personal Facebook relationship with your company. This tool can be extremely valuable because the more personal a customer feels with your company the better the chance they are going to use your product.
History:
The timeline has one last feature that can have an impact on your business strategy. The new history tabs on the side of your business’ Facebook page. The history tabs can allow you to look back and re-post any monumental moments that your company has had in the past. Timeline can highlight your achievements over time and compel potential customers to choose your company.
Facebook’s timeline is causing every business in the world to adjust how they will now market from their Facebook page. When readjusting your Facebook strategy, keep in mind these new features and make sure you use them correctly. If used properly Facebook timeline can help boost the marketing aspect of your business in no time. To learn more about social media marketing, Click Here.
Posted on Tue, Apr 10, 2012 @ 12:00 PM
[By Koleen Singerline]
Grass Roots Marketing, Inc., an inbound marketing company that specializes in manufacturing industry marketing, recently announced the results of a case study called “Inbound Marketing for Staffing Agencies”. The case study examines the current usage of effective, online marketing tactics for U.S. manufacturing companies by comparing typical manufacturers with the top companies in the field.
If you’re unfamiliar with the methodology, inbound marketing is based on attracting qualified leads to an optimized website, the hub of your marketing and sales efforts. Using search engine optimization (SEO) techniques, social media, blogging, email marketing and public relations to collectively support your content-rich website will help increase brand awareness and drive sales.
The study specifically looks at the website grades and social media platform activity (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and blogging) of approximately113 typical New Jersey manufacturers along with the top 25 manufacturers in the state as determined by number of employees. Results showed that in nearly all of the analyzed categories, the top 25 manufacturers ranked better than their 113 counterparts in inbound marketing usage. While many of the companies had a good grasp on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, there is still a greater need to them to leverage the power of social media.
Our study falls in line with current trends of companies using inbound marketing strategies to substantiate their marketing campaigns and extend public reach to generate business. A recent 2010 study analyzing the Internet habits of U.S. citizens found that 78% of all U.S. Internet users say that they use the Internet to research products, indicating a continuous, upward trend.
The key takeaway of this research is that typical manufacturers can increase their sales by investing more resources into inbound marketing tools. Technology and software has made it possible for these smaller companies to be just as effective as the top 25 manufacturing companies in New Jersey.
It is important that this industry grows through the use of productive inbound marketing strategies that help manufacturers improve their online presence to attract clients and talent. While this research is industry specific, the principles of inbound marketing can be applied to any type of business in any industry.
“Inbound Marketing for Manufacturers” discusses the case study in greater depth, as well as provides insight and tips for how any type of company can use inbound marketing strategies for their business. The study provides insight into the practices of the industry and how to create sales by using inbound marketing strategies. Click here to get your FREE copy!
About Grass Roots Marketing, Inc. (GRM)
GRM’s HubSpot Certified professionals provide inbound marketing programs for the staffing industry. Enhance brand awareness and drive your sales by attracting qualified leads to your website through search engine optimization (SEO) techniques, email marketing, public Relations, social media and blogging. GRM is recognized as the first company in the nation with HubSpot Certified professionals to serve the staffing field. For more information about GRM, please visit www.grmwebsite.com or call 732-380-8400.
Posted on Wed, Apr 04, 2012 @ 01:06 PM
[By Jeff Androsko]
They say beauty is only skin deep, but that's not the case with websites. 76% of consumers want a website that makes it easy to find what they want (HubSpot), and so, not only does your site need to look the part, it needs to act and function in a way which makes it simple and deafeningly apparent what you want your visitors to do.
So, what exactly does a redesign mean for you? Are your colors totally out of whack with your brand? Do you have a million pop-ups? Is your entire site comprised of images (with no ability to ever copy & paste anything)? Do you have a Flash page intro? Do you need to restructure your navigation? Are you not getting enough lead conversion or orders from your site? All of these questions are integral to figuring out whether of not your site may need a new, fresh look and/or adjusted functionality.
Take a look at your site (if you can't be objective about it, have a co-worker and someone from your marketing team come in) and ask yourself the following:
- Does the home page tell me exactly where to go to find the answers for which I am looking?
- Is all the text on my pages about my company and not about solutions to your typical audience's inquiries?
- Are there animated dancing bears saying "Click me" for absolutely no reason?
- Is there a clear, concise point to each page of your site?
- Is your navigation mysterious and/or complex (does it take more than five seconds to find the link for which you are looking)?
Now you may be saying, "My website is fine. It really only needs to be an online brochure that tells people about my company" (which we most recently heard, verbatim). And, while the last word slips out of your mouth, I am screaming in a corner and clawing at the walls. There's one thing you need to understand about the internet, it's gigantic and everyone's on it. 78% of internet users conduct product research online (HubSpot). If you think that when (or if) consumers find you, eight pages of information about your company, hastily thrown together with no real rhyme or reason, is going to entice them to make a purchase, you've got another thing coming.
You may see the letters "UI" and "UX" tossed around a lot, and there's a good reason; "UI" stands for "user interface" (the elements with which visitors interact) and "UX" stands for "user experience" (what visitors feel when interacting with your site). See, to those not immersed in internet marketing and design, it is easy to marginalize layout, feel and strategy. However, these key ingredients not only dictate UI and UX, but determine whether or not a visitor will become a lead, loyal visitor, skeptic, mavin or, hopefully, customer.
In an effort to help company's figure out if their site is out-of-date, dysfunctional, cofused, misguided (or in some cases, great as it is), we developed the Website Redesign Grader. Simply answer the questions objectively, add up your score and grade yourself! It's free, so print out as many copies as you like. For a true test, distribute them around your company and ask them to fill it out. You may be surprised at what you find.
To get your free Website Redesign Grader, just click below...
