When you think of high-tech, one of the first organization's that comes to mind is NASA. They put men on the moon, send probes to Jupiter carrying small lego statues of Galileo, and launch dune buggy like rovers to explore the surface of Mars. Since the inception of the space program, NASA has held the world in thrall.
They're also showing their tech savvy with their innovative use of social media to promote the upcoming Mars Rover Launch, and what they're doing is a great example of what all sentient species of marketers can do to promote their businesses and organizations.
Create A Social Event
NASA is going to conduct a tweetup from the launch site itself, to help generate buzz and interest in the launch. To get attention and encourage social advocacy, they have announced that they will randomly select 150 of their Twitter followers to attend the launch and participate in the tweetup. Tweetup registration opens at 9 a.m. PDT (noon EDT) on Wed, Oct. 5, and closes at 9 a.m. PDT (noon EST) on Fri., Oct. 7. For more information and rules about the Tweetup and registration, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/tweetup
What a cool idea! Imagine winning a trip to witness the launch of a spacecraft. You may be wondering what you could do to promote your business that compares with that, and it may not require a rocket scientist to figure it out. NASA is in the business of launching rockets, what business are you in? What events does your business host that could be turned into a Tweetup, or what explosive events could you conjure up that your customers and followers would find worthy of lifting off their couch to go take part in, and tweet about it to others?
Pick A Spot On Your Favorite Planet And Turn It Into A Tweetup
NASA intends the Tweetup from Nov 23-25th to provide its social media followers (and if you don't follow NASA you should because the stories and accompanying images are nothing short of fascinating) the chance to meet other followers and the NASA social media team, tour the Kennedy Space center, meet the scientists and engineers, and even view the launch event (assuming there are no delays) of "Curiosity," the latest Mars Science Laboratory rover, from Cape Canaveral.
It's going take Curiosity around ten months to travel the distance from Earth to Mars, and when it gets there it is going to be landing in an area near the Gale Crater that scientists believe could contain signs of microbial life on Mars, past or present, if there are any.
Drive Traffic To Your Website
NASA's mission is to educate and share the findings of the Mars Rover with the public. Their tweets, emails, and Facebook posts all drive traffic back to their website where more details about the findings of their missions are available, along with mission history and photography. I could spend hours just reading about the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. Imagine the excitement that will be generated if life is actually found on Mars, and the way word will spread throughout the Twitterverse
If signs of life are also found at your Tweetup event, leverage that by creating a hashtag and encouragin tweeps to employ it in their tweets. Then make sure there's remarkable and engaging content about the Tweetup on your website along with whatever other call to action, offer and conversion mechanism you think will turn your new found attention on Twitter into leads.
A Tweetup is a great way to blast your social media followers into the stratosphere, and have new customers and site visitors orbiting your business.
You can follow the Mars Curiosity mission on social media:
via Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/MarsCuriosity
and Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/MarsCuriosity .
The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-302&cid=release_2011-302
These tips come directly from the marketing team at Foursquare.
Over 500,000 businesses use foursquare to learn more about their customers, find new ones, and make sure their information is up to date. Here are the three secrets to success for businesses on foursquare:
1. Personalize your foursquare page.
As a manager, you can customize the way your business appears on foursquare. You can edit everything: your phone number, address, twitter name and website, or even add a description that includes details of your delicious pasta dishes. Just log in, head over to your business's listing, and click the ‘edit’ button.
2. Grow your business with foursquare “Specials!”
There is one constant to every foursquare business success story: foursquare Specials. A Special is a free way to find new and engage customers. Here are a few of our most successful types of offers:
- A discount with purchase (something like, 'get 20% any orders over $10'). It’s a great way to push your sales higher.
- Something for free (for example, 'enjoy a free dessert if you buy an appetizer and main course'). These are often low cost and high impact.
- Special treatment (one of our favorites is at a zoo: 'check in on foursquare for private access to the penguin feeding'). These have no cost and create a great connection.
- Reward your best customers (the classic Special is, 'free coffee on your fifth visit'). It’s like a digital punchcard.
Setting up a Special is free, takes just a couple of minutes, and can yield amazing results. And, on foursquare, your listing will include an orange ‘Special’ graphic, drawing in more members from our 10,000,000-strong community! Get started now at foursquare.com by logging in and clicking on 'Manager Tools.' Or click here to find more information about Specials.
3. Identify your best customers by diving into your data
You also get full access to your Merchant Dashboard, which tells you interesting information about your customers, like the time they check in, their demographic information (like age and gender), what are your most popular hours, and who are the customers that visit most often. Use this information to grow your business; try running a Special during your slow period to find new customers (for restaurants, we recommend a Special for the often-empty late lunch hours). If you haven't turned on the Merchant Dashboard yet, log in at foursquare.com, go to 'Manager Tools,' and enable it for your business. If you manage multiple businesses, each one has its own 'enable' button.
Many business owners and marketing managers we speak to want to talk about social media, and how to use it effectively to promote their businesses. The focus until now has been a numbers game, with businesses measuring their social media success by the number of followers or fans they have been able to compile.
A number of recent studies have shown that the focus should really be less on the numbers, and more about the level of engagement of those fans. In other words, what percentage of those fans are actually visiting your page, interacting, and sharing with their friends, or retweeting you, during a given time period? Accumulating a large list of fans or followers who otherwise don't care, and do nothing to help advocate you, your company or brand, may actually be worth very little.
If it makes sense to you that fan engagement is more important than total number of fans, then the next logical question becomes "what do we have to do to get fans engaged?" At this point, you start to brainstorm about new things you might be able to do to make your social media pages of more interest, new content or offers to share, etc.
It's usually at that point that we get a call, and are asked to come up with new ideas. While I'm happy to get the call and have the conversation, I always make sure the conversation does not become myopic by only considering things that can be done TO or ON a social media page to make it more interesting and engaging to the people who visit it. Questions arise such as: "Should we reward or incentivize people who visit our pages?" Or, "is there something we need to give them to make them care more, come back more, buy more, and tell friends?"
From our perspective, it's important to remember that real life is still real life. People use social media to talk about and share the things that happen in real life, and with regard to you that means real life experiences with your brand or business. If their experience with you in real life is not good, there's nothing you can do online to meaningfully change that except apologize and fix the real world problem. No amount of offers and incentives and engaging social media content can overcome the base reality of a customer's experience.
As the chart below clearly points out, if you want to increase the level of engagement with your social media fans and followers, focus on getting things right in the real world by doing what you do best, exceeding their expectations, and giving them reasons to want to tell everyone about the great experience they had with you. Whether that's serving a great meal, mixing a great drink, greeting every customer with a smile, preparing a great research report or legal brief, caring for the health of someone or their animal, answering customer service calls, or literally any other role that anyone in your organization plays that has the potential to improve a customer's experience, make sure you get it right. That's the best thing you can do to increase engagement and advocacy.
The 2011 football season is underway with all the excitement that it always brings. The NFL disputes have been resolved, and college stadiums are once again full of the fans and adrenaline. Monday Night Football trounced the CNN Republican Presidential Candidates debate this past Monday. There is no question that America loves its football. The NFL is a $9 billion dollar industry, and NCAA / BCS football brings in nearly $300 million per year. Football is big business.
But let's face it, when the game's over, we've still got our own businesses to run. Wouldn't it be great if we could get as excited about using the internet to market and grow our businesses as we do about football? What if our love and understanding of football could be used to inspire a love of internet marketing, to the benefit of our company or organization?
As I searched for the answer, I came across this incredible blog post written by Dan Bischoff on www.seo.com and I loved it so much I had to share it with you. Here's a big shout out to Dan for his talent at making internet marketing accessible to football lovers!
In honor of college football’s return, here are the position-by-position starters if Internet marketing strategies made up a football team:
Head Coach – Analytics and A/B Testing The head coach analyzes everything and makes changes to improve. Analytics and testing gives you the stats, tells you what is working, where people are coming from, how long they’ve been on the site, what is bringing traffic and what converts best. Through analytics and testing, you can tweak strategies to be more successful.
Assistant Coach – Competitive Analysis 
The assistant coach often scouts out the competition to know how to beat the bad guys. A detailed competitive analysis will reveal the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors so you can know how and where to strike.
Offensive Starters – Building the Brand, Getting Exposure and Outbound Marketing
Quarterback – SEO
Arguably, the quarterback position is the most important position on the field. Top quarterbacks win games despite weaknesses in other areas of the team. If you get top rankings for the right keywords, you will get more website traffic and sales. All-Pro SEO services will almost instantly make you a major player in your industry. Quarterbacks are also the face of a team. Similarly, organic natural results act as the face of your company
Running Back – Conversion Optimization 
There are crucial times in any football game where a team needs 1 yard for a first down or a few inches to score a touchdown. A dependable running back will get that extra yardage almost every time. Conversion optimization plays that role for your website. Once you get that extra website traffic, you need dependable website conversion principles to take that visitor into the end zone.
Fullback – Web Design
Fullbacks are often the lead blocker that clears the way for the running back to get that extra yard. Good SEO Web design clears the way for everything else to work right.
Wide Receiver — Social Media Marketing 
Fast wide receivers can change the game with one quick-striking score. Good social media marketing using viral video, infographics, blog posts, etc., can quickly send a lot of traffic and create a ton of exposure in a short period of time. Social media can be a game changer just like a flashy wide receiver that blows past the defense.
Tight End – Online Public Relations
Tight ends are instrumental in blocking for the quarterback and running backs. But they also consistently score touchdowns and get first downs in tight situations. Tight ends are critical in clutch moments whether it’s a run or pass play. Online public relations have the same dependability. Online PR doesn’t always results in a home run, but it does consistently bring good traffic quality links. And sometimes online PR scores a touchdown by getting the attention of big blogs and publications. Online PR is the go-to weapon in tight situations when you need good links, and more traffic and exposure.
Offensive Line – Keyword Research 
The offensive line is the foundation of every football team. They give the quarterback time to throw and open holes for the running backs. Games are won and lost in the trenches, and they are similar won and lost with the right or wrong keyword research. Every search strategy revolves around picking the right keywords to target. Targeting the right keywords will make you a lot of money. The wrong keywords will keep you guessing and will lose you money.
Defensive Starters, Protecting Your Online Brand
Defensive Line – Reputation Management
The defensive line is the literally first line of defense. Any offense will roll over a team with a pansy D-line. For online marketing, this is similar to reputation management. It’s the foundation to defending your brand online.
Line Backer – Link Building
I chose this mostly because linebackers and link building have the same abbreviation: LB. So, you can come up with your own analogy on this one.
Corner Back – Social Media Profiles
Corner backs protect the pass and are sometimes the secret weapon on a corner blitz to reach the quarterback. I compare this to social media profiles. An active profile that provides valuable information and brings in fans, is a big part of protecting your brand and company. Social profiles are usually found high in the search engines for a company’s name. Plus, social media is all the buzz right now. In the sports world, corner backs are usually the guys with all the hype.
Safety – PPC 
The Safety position is self-explanatory. The Safety has a lot of roles, but is there to basically defend wherever things break down. That’s what PPC is for. A good mix of PPC with your SEO will make sure you get the right exposure and traffic while you work on getting your SEO rankings where you want them.
Kicker/Punter – Local Search and Maps Optimization
A good kicker can nail a field goal in clutch situations or pin a team near the end zone on a good punt. Local Internet marketing places your website in the right spot for local shoppers to find your business and buy your products.
Click here to see Dan's original post on SEO.com
If you're trying to win the local search battle on behalf of your business, writing articles and blog posts that mention locations in your community can be play an important role in your SEO. There is almost always an audience out there searching for articles about certain locations. Referencing your business, product or service in the context of your local community can help make it relevant if you can make the connection of how it fits into people's lives and helps them solve their problems.
However, when you use a location name such as downtown Tucson, or Paradise Valley in the title of an article, you are making an implicit promise to people searching using those terms that your article will contain information relevant to that specific location. If you create a title like that in order to attract people searching for those terms, as opposed to searching more directly for the services you offer, then the onus falls upon you to ensure that your article really does contain something interesting, useful and specific and succeeds at weaving in how the mention of your business is relevant to the total picture, or your article will be rejected as the blatant SEO ploy it would otherwise be.
Targeted local search results can be improved by developing articles about your city, neighborhoods within it, tourist attractions, parks and recreation opportunities etc. Consumers searching for information about these locales will usually be served articles that including place names in their titles. Such articles are valuable to consumers who may be planning a trip to that area, or looking for a merchant, restaurant or venue in that part of town. How might your business, bar, restaurant or brand fit logically into their visit?
If you plan to try to influence your local search rankings through authoring articles of this nature, then be sure that you don't come across as trying to trick the audience into thinking they are getting one thing, when you are really being self-serving, and serving something other than what they ordered.
So, what makes an article about a location unique? Simply put that it is actually about that location in some specific way. How hard was that? For example, if your plan to write an article about Scottsdale Arizona, mentioning perhaps the charms of spending a day wandering Old Town in order to be able to throw in that your business and several others are also located in Old Town, then make sure that the meat of the article is actually based on offering unique and real insights that visitors to that part of town might find useful. If the same article and tips you offer could also have been written about Austin, Texas, then your article will probably not pass the test of being specific enough.
Before you begin writing with the objective of placing your business into a broader local context, you need to be able to articulate what makes your town or part of town unique in order succeed at the art of writing location-based articles. Once you are able to put yourself in your customers shows, identify those unique items and legitmately associate your business with them in a way that doesn't seem self-serving, then you’ll be heading in the right direction towards writing writing the useful location specific articles people are looking for that can also improve your local search rankings, and help bring new leads and customers to your local business.
Substitution Test – When you’re writing an article targeting local search, use the substitution test to confirm that your article has enough location specific information. Simply substitute any other location name in the article title and body. Does the article still make sense? If so, then your article isn’t quite unique enough to the locale.
And venture capital thinks it will be. Sixty-five million dollars have poured into the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based startup.
By Avery Stone FORTUNE
Blogging. Social media. Old-fashioned cold calling. Getting consumers' divided attention can be difficult – especially for mom-and-pop shops with tiny marketing budgets. Cambridge, Massachusetts-based HubSpot wants to change that. The startup aims to gives small firms an affordable way to reach new customers the way much larger businesses do. The company's service, which starts at about $3,000 a year, automates a medley of basic digital marketing must-haves, including search engine optimization, online analytics and social media like Facebook, Twitter and Digg. On a tear, HubSpot has snagged 5,000 subscribers and managed to acquire a close competitor.
Venture capital has flowed in too, $65 million in all, including a recent $32 million round led by Sequoia Capital. Founded in 2006, HubSpot is the brainchild of two MIT classmates, Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah. Halligan affectionately refers to the pair as the "mere mortal and the geek." The idea came when Halligan, then a venture-capitalist, realized that traditional marketing was being tuned out. "And, at the same time," he says, "the way people shop and learn is changing because they're spending more and more time on social networking sites."
Halligan believed he could merge these two realizations. Enter HubSpot. Halligan and Shah entered a precursor in MIT's $50,000 business plan competition and were semi-finalists. When they had both graduated, they "plunged in and just stared doing it," says Halligan. Jumping into HubSpot is easy for users too. Web visitors can request a live demo with an expert to show them how the software works. They can then sign up for a 30-day free trial. If this goes well, they can subscribe to one of three software packages with varying features and price points. The model quickly took off. Schwartz Communications, a Boston-based PR agency that turned to HubSpot raves about the service. Senior Vice President Ross Levanto says the tool has quickly become crucial, and "a great way to innovate new ideas for our clients." By using HubSpot, Schwartz gets a Twitter and Facebook page, help getting to the top of Google search results, and detailed reports about visitors to his website. And it has proven successful. In the last calendar year, Schwartz's revenues from digital services have tripled. Forrester analyst Suresh Vittal agrees that HubSpot is onto something with its unique premise. "They've created and defined this idea of inbound marketing. The fact they're integrating all of these elements sets them apart," he explains. Inbound marketing, a term coined by Halligan, refers to a way of being found online by more qualified visitors through tools like blogging, social media, and analytics instead of more traditional ways of advertising such as email spamming. Success isn't guaranteed. As it expands, HubSpot faces the threat of a larger and more established company offering similar services at discounted prices, potentially pushing it out of the market. But for now, HubSpot is in growth mode. In July, the company launched the HubSpot App Marketplace -- similar to Apple's (AAPL) App Store save all apps are marketing-related. Currently, the Marketplace houses about 30 apps, both free and paid, that only HubSpot clients can access. (Eventually, it'll be open to everyone.) And, if Halligan has his way, that's only the beginning.
Original Article
Just about everyone is familiar with Facebook's "Like" button, which allows you to see what your friends like and recommend.
Google is making a big play to get into the social sphere, and launch their own "+1" Button several months ago. The way it works and its use are very similar to the Facebook "Like" button. Because it is a Google product, search will now be influenced as well by those things that your friends and contacts have recommended, because these recommendations are judged by Google to likely be more relevant to you than another search result. The "+1" Button can now also be used on postings outside of Google search results, and can be included on your website or social postings.
For a bit more about Google's +1 Button check out the video above.
To get your own code to place Google's +1 Button on your website or blog simply plug your information into the widget in this link then take the provided code and place it on your website.
Infographic credit: Bill Flitter
This article by Michele Linn was originally published on the Content Marketing Institute website on May 13, 2011. The original can be found here.
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Whether you are a content marketing newbie or someone with more experience, you’re bound to have questions. Here are the answers to 50 common ones.
Do you have other questions? Share in the comments, and we’ll point you to an answer or ask one of our contributors to write a future post on the topic.
Getting started
What is content marketing, and how is it different from traditional marketing?
Want to learn what content marketing is or explain this to your peers? This is the post for you.
How should I get started with content marketing?
Twelve CMI contributors give you essential getting started tips (check out the end of the post for a summary of ideas).
How can I change the culture in my organization to support content marketing?
One of the biggest challenges with content marketing is getting buy-in from management. Nate Riggs gives tips on how to do this.
I’m new to content marketing and don’t have a lot of time to spend. What would you suggest?
Mark Schaefer shares how any company – large or small – can use micro-content.
How to I monitor my brand online?
You know you should be monitoring your brand online, but how exactly do you do this? CB Whittemore walks you through the steps (and check out the comments for an additional video from Brody Dorland).
Developing a strategy
What is content strategy?
Here’s an essential post from Kathy Hanbury that explains content strategy in a very easy-to-understand way.
I want to create a content strategy. Where do I start?
A great post from Chris Moritz that breaks down the first steps in a content strategy, from creating a content inventory to developing personas.
How many tactics should I use? How do I decide which tactics are best for my audience?
In a follow up post, Chris Moritz shares how to develop strategic pillars for your content marketing.
How do I create an effective content mix?
Kathy Hanbury walks you through a series of exercises to help define the right content mix for your business.
What process and templates should I use to map by B2B content to the buying cycle?
If you are a B2B marketer who has a long or complex buying process, this is a must-read post from Barbra Gago complete with templates.
Understanding your buyers
How do I develop a buyer persona?
A lot of contributors have touched on buyer personas as they are at the heart of what we do. Barbra Gago touches on the highlights and provides a solid template for you to use.
What is a web persona, and how is it different from a buyer persona?
Brian Massey discusses a web persona, which is a useful tool to help you figure out how to present information on your website.
How can I learn more about my audience via analytics?
In this five-minute video, Andrew Davis shares two tools you can use to figure out what you audience is doing online.
How can I research my buyer?
Many marketers talk about knowing your buyer, but how exactly do you do this? Barbra Gago explains.
I want to create the type of content my audience wants. How do I know how they are consuming content?
Not only do you need to know what kind of info your audience wants, but you also need to know how to present it. Here, Barbra Gago poses 20 questions to help you get the answers you need.
Where can I find demographic data?
Manya Chylinski provides a really useful list of sources to get demographic data.
Managing the process
What process should I use for content marketing?
A definitive post from Joe Pulizzi on the basic steps for managing content marketing.
I often hear the mantra that content marketers should think like publishers. What does that mean?
Jeremy Victor provides easy-to-follow ideas on what marketers can take from publishers.
What is an editorial calendar, and how do I create one?
An editorial calendar is a must-have tool for content marketers. Here is a template I use to help you get you started.
I am creating content for multiple geographies. How do I manage this?
Does your content marketing span countries? Sarah Mitchell shares tested tips for making this ever-challenging process run more smoothly.
Getting help
I need help with content marketing. Is a consultant right for me?
If you are thinking about hiring a content marketing consultant, check out this post from Robert Rose where he shares some common objections – and responses.
I want to get help with my content marketing. How can I prepare?
Russell Sparkman outlines some ways that you can get more “bang for your buck” when working with a content marketing consultant.
Coordinating the right team
Who should be on my content marketing team?
A straightforward post from Angela Vanucci on the key players in any content marketing team.
Are there certain personalities that should be on my team?
Not only are the right skills needed, but you also need the right personality mix. Ahava Leibtag shares a fun list of five kinds of people every content marketing team needs.
How can I make my team better writers for content marketing?
Looking to use internal resources for content marketing? Elizabeth Sosnow’s step-by-step bootcamp will help!
My content marketing team sometimes gets “stuck.” What can we do?
Most content marketers struggle with coordination at some point. Ahava Leibtag provides some tips on how to get out of the rut.
Creating content
What are the basic things I need to keep in mind to create valuable content?
An essential checklist by Ahava Leibtag on how to create and distribute your content.
How do I repurpose content?
One of the best ways to gain efficiencies in content marketing is to repurpose content. Here Manya Chylinski provides an A – Z list of what you can repurpose.
How do I find the right keywords from my content?
This classic post from Elise Redlin-Cook shows you how to find the right keywords for your content.
How do I curate content?
Amanda Maksymiw shares her tips for curating content for an aggregated content site.
How do I ask the right questions to get the best content?
To get to the “so what” that your readers care about, you need to ask the right questions. Dianna Huffs shows you how.
My brand isn’t very exciting (Ok, it’s boring!). What can I do?
Let’s face it: some brands just aren’t that exciting. Patricia Redsicker shares some tips and examples that are sure to inspire.
How do I make my content more engaging?
In this five-part series, our CMI contributors share ideas on how to define, create and measure engaging content.
What are some examples of great content marketing?
Sometimes the best way to get inspired is to see what others are doing. Check out these examples from our contributors.
Content marketing takes a lot of time! Any ideas on what I can do?
Here are seven things you can do to streamline your content marketing efforts.
How can I create an effective call to action?
Brian Massey tackles the call the action. Seems simple, but many marketers don’t get it right.
Localizing content
What are some best practices for translating content?
While it’s relatively easy to translate content with tools like Google Translate, this often isn’t the best approach. Christian Arno walks you through what you need to know if you have a multilingual audience.
If I am localizing my content, what should I do beyond translation?
Ann-Christin Lindstedt share the six things you need to “switch” when localizing your content.
What are the basics of localization?
Sarah Mitchell presents this handy checklist of things you need to consider when localizing your content.
Distributing content
Once I publish some new content, how can I distribute it?
In our most popular post to date, Brody Dorland shares a useful checklist on how to distribute your blog posts, but this can be used for most content. This is one to hang at your desk!
What are QR codes and how do I use them?
QR codes are an increasingly popular way to promote content. Katie McCaskey shows you how to get started.
I have so much content. How do I organize it?
Doug Kessler shares the basics of Library Marketing, which is the art of science of presenting your content so users can find it.
Using social media for content marketing
How can I use LinkedIn for content marketing?
If you haven’t searched for your company name on LinkedIn, do it. Now. As Constance Semler explains, you may be surprised at what you find!
How can I use Facebook for content marketing?
There are definitely better ways to use Facebook for content marketing. Katie McCaskey walks you through the basics.
How do I plan what my social media conversations?
Do you want to participate in social media but aren’t sure what to say. Here’s a handy template.
Measuring success
I’m new to measurement? What are the most important things to track?
Heidi Cohen presents a handy checklist of metrics to track for content marketing.
How do I measure the impact of my social media marketing?
Tom Pisello walks you through how to calculate the ROI of your social media program.
How do I know if my audience is engaging on Facebook?
Nate Riggs walks you through a series of exercises to help you understand how you are really engaging with your Facebook fans.
What kind of tests can I use to see how my website is performing?
Yeah, you know you should be testing, but where do you start? Scott Frangos outlines useful tests for all content marketers.
How can I use my web analytics to track my content marketing progress?
Are you like a lot of marketers who know you should use your analytics but get easily overwhelmed by all of the data? Scott Frangos walks you through a process to help you pull out the key things to measure.
This article by Michele Linn was originally published on the Content Marketing Institute website on May 13, 2011. The original can be found h
ere.
This post was originally written by Dan Schawbel, who is the author of Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success, and owner of the award winning Personal Branding Blog.
It appeared here: http://mashable.com/2008/12/24/free-brand-monitoring-tools/
Brand monitoring has become an essential task for any individual or corporation. Years ago, when people talked about our brands, it was behind our backs and we almost never found out about it. Today, most of these dialogues are right in front of our own eyes and the number of locations where our brands may be cited is astronomical!
We must remember that conversations are being held on the web with or without our consent. That means we can choose whether to be observers, participants or outcasts. Before you select observer or outcast, remember that these conversations can have a negative impact on your brand. Also, when conversations start on the web, like a forest fire, they travel very fast and wreak havoc along the way; what might start out as a mere tweet, may turn into a blog post and then make national news.
Here’s a basic reputation management system that I’ve been using, as well as a list of the top 10 free tools you can start using today.
How to Begin
Depending on how popular and well-known your brand is, there may be few or many people talking about it. If you’re looking to start a blog, position yourself as an expert or start networking actively in your desired topic area, then listening is an important research routine. As you become more well-known, more conversations will be held around your brand name, so you’ll spend more time listening and possibly responding to blog posts, tweets, etc. If you’re a large and popular company, you may need to hire someone to manage these monitoring tools daily.
The first thing you need to do is acquire a feed reader. I personally use Google reader because it’s easy to sort feeds, bookmark/favorite them and share (give value) them with your network.
I would also register for a Delicious account, which can help you sort and organize blogs that mention your brand. Think of Delicious as your own research and development plant. Once you’ve set up these two accounts, the following tools will help you locate articles that mention your brand, feed them right into your central hub (Google reader) and allow you to manage them (Delicious).
1. Google
Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results based on your choice of query or topic. You can subscribe to each alert through email and RSS. The alerts track blog posts, news articles, videos and even groups. Set a “comprehensive alert,” which will notify you of stories, as they happen, for your name, your topic, and even your company. Yahoo! Pipes is also a good tool for aggregating and combining feeds into one central repository.
2. Blog Posts
If you have a blog, then you have to be on Technorati, which is the largest blog search engine in the world. They say that if you don’t claim your blog in Technorati, then you don’t own it! When you register with it, Technorati tracks “blog reactions,” or blogs that link to yours. Search for your brand on Technorati, and subscribe to RSS alerts so that when someone blogs about you, you find out.
3. Blog Comments
Backtype is a tool for monitoring blog comments. If people commented on various blog posts, citing your name, you never used to have a way of tracking it, until now. Backtype is a service that lets you find, follow, and share comments from across the web. Whenever you write a comment with a link to your Web site, Backtype attributes it to you.
Use it to remind yourself where you commented, discover influencers who are commenting on blogs that you should be reading, and continue conversations that you started previously. You can even subscribe to these comments using RSS. coComment is another tool that will help you manage your comments across the web.
4. Social Comments
Yacktrack lets you search for comments on your content from various sources, such as Blogger, Digg, FriendFeed, Stumbleupon, and WordPress blogs. For instance, if you comment on a blog, you can locate other people who are commenting on that same blog post and rejoin the conversation.
My favorite feature of this tool is the “Chatter” tab, which allows you to perform keyword searches on social media sites and then notifies you of instances of your brand name. Yacktrack’s search page results also give you an RSS feed for the search term. You can also use Commentful and co.mments to track your social comments on the web.
5. Discussion Boards
Along with blogs and traditional news stories, discussion boards are another channel where people can gather in a community and talk about you. Most people disregard discussion boards until they see other sites commenting on information viewed on them. Use boardtracker.com to get instant alerts from threads citing your name.
Boardreader and Big Boards are other tools that work similar to this one
6. Twitter
Twitter messages (tweets) move at the speed of light, and if you don’t catch them they will spread like a virus. Using Twitter search, you can locate any instances of your name and decide whether you want to tweet back or ignore them. It really depends on the context and meaning of the tweet.
Conduct a search for your name, your company’s name, or various topics you’re interested in and then subscribe via RSS. Twilert and TweetBeep are additional tools you can use to receive email alerts.
7. FriendFeed
FriendFeed is a social aggregator. You have the ability to take all of your social accounts, such as YouTube, Delicious, Twitter, blog, and Flickr,
and pull them together into a single (Friend) feed. You can conduct searches on your brand throughout all social networks at once using this search engine.
Aside from learning about the latest video or tweet related to your topic, you can analyze comments that people make under them. FriendFeed users tend to favorite and comment on what you share and tracking it will become more important as this service grows in population. You can also receive alerts straight to your desktop with Alert Thingy.
8. Social Search
Social Mention is a social media search engine that searches user-generated content such as blogs, comments, bookmarks, events, news, videos, and microblogging services. It allows you to track mentions of your brand across all of these areas.
The results are aggregated from the top social media sources, such as Flickr, YouTube, Digg, Delicious, Twitter and more. Like the other services, you can subscribe to your results by RSS or email. Other social search engines include Serph and Keotag.
9. Interactive Search
While all the other tools listed are quite rudimentary, this one is rather complex and intelligent. Instead of being hit with hundreds or even a thousand results for your brand name, Filtrbox only delivers the most relevant, credible mentions of things you need to track. Its “FiltrRank” technology scores content based on three dimensions: contextual relevance, popularity and feedback. You can look back to previous searches 15 days out for free as well.
10. Your Network
A lot of people overlook a strong network when it comes to monitoring their brands. If you have a robust network, especially people in your industry who observe the same keywords as you, then you will receive important updates without even asking for them.
I get updates for just about everything now, including Facebook messages stating that I misspelled a word in my blog post and email messages pointing to an article I was referenced in. If you concentrate on building relationships, you won’t miss a beat, even if you want to!
What to Do Next
After you’ve selected which tools you want to use in your brand reputation management system and you’ve set the proper RSS or email alerts for your name, company and/or topic, now it’s time to set a schedule for when you want to check your status.
Will you do it once a day, twice a day or once a week? When you’re first starting out, once a day or week will work for you, but I highly encourage those who participate regularly to pay more attention to their online brands. Just Googling your name won’t be enough. You need to be a bit more paranoid in the digital age. in order to prevent fires from spreading, actually network with people who are talking about topics of interest or thank people who have complimented you.
Think about the brand reputation you want to project to the world. Wouldn’t you like it to be positive!? :)
Dan Schawbel is the author of Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success, and owner of the award winning Personal Branding Blog.
http://mashable.com/2008/12/24/free-brand-monitoring-tools/
Research has shown that people like sharing good news. According to Brett Hurt, CEO of Bazaarvoice, a company whose review engines power many other well known online review sites including popular restaurant reservation and review site Open Table, or reviews at Walmart.com.
Addressing himself to marketers and brand managers who may be reluctant to allow online reviews of their products on their own web properties, he asks:
"Don't you think that customers have already been talking to one another? Don't you think that's already relfected in your sales trend? Why would you not want to know?
According to Hurt, whose firm powers online reviews for leading sites worldwide, over 80% of all reviews are 4 or 5 stars, because the primary reason people create review content is altruism. In other words, they like sharing good news and paying compliments when they are due.
Further, even 5 star reviews can be mined for ways to improve your products and services, and your sales, because they usually contain suggestions for improvement. People may say they love something about your product or service, but that it would be even better if you were to make xyz changes. I see that all the time when reading reviews on Amazon, Yelp and even the iPhone App Store, and it made perfect sense to hear that it is supported by data. Particularly, in the case of apps, customers are offering suggestions for improvements and shouting out about the developers who take that feedback and act on it quickly.
The number one reason people write content, says Hurt, is altruism. It is in our human nature, apparently, to want to help, and to make a difference. Onlilne reviews, then, should be looked at as people trying to help you. I have had conversations with several clients about the nature of their reviews online, and I often hear these business owners say that they believe that people are more likely to use online reviews to thrash them, to only talk about negative expreiences. Some believe it could even be their competition trying to harm them. This is likely based on their experience dealing with customers directly, on-premise or over the phone, where complainers are often seeking ways to shame the business owner into giving them something for free when they've found fault in it. The meal was cold, or the salad had an insect in it. Your delivery man was not on time. The promised results did not materialize, etc.
According to Avinash Kaushik, repsonding to negative criticism is highly misunderstood. Negative criticism can be a great way to engage with your online community, particularly if you are the first voice to respond to it, and have the opportunity to establish your voice and tone, resolve the issue, and establish a connection with the reviewer that will increase the likelihood of their long-term engagement.
However, not all online reviews are negative. In fact, research has shown that people are much more like to share good news online, and are much more likely to talk about favorable things. If you are ignoring reviews because you believe they are all negative, then you are also missing the valuable insights contained in positive reviews. Those simple suggestions your customers make, if incorporated into your offering, could potentially double your sales. But you'll never find out if you're not listening.
I has this conversation with my friend and marketing research expert Jeff Walters recently, and asked him about the importance of time in receiving and responding to feedback obtained through reviews. Theoretically, he said, reviews that are obtained onsite, in real-time, would have higher validity than reviews that were written some time after the delivery of your product or service, but only to the extent that in getting the review sooner you were also in a position to respond to it and rectify whatever the complaint was. For businesses that are seeking real-time customer reviews and feedback, new services such as Chatterplug are entering the market that enable onsite reviews and real time dialog and engagement between merchants and customers. I met a few days ago with Chatterplug President JoyAnn Book (@joyannbook) and took a tour of their impressive suite of tools for merchants. As with any tools designed to provide data and actionable insights, such tools are only as good as the way they are used. If you're willing to make the investment in encouraging customers to use a new iPhone or Android App to review you in real-time, which involves training your customer-facing staff to alert customers to adopt the App as well as to encourage them to review you, as well as your management who will monitor the data feed and respond to the reviews, then such tools would likely be beneficial to you.
If you are still on the fence about whether to make online reviews avaiable to your customers on your own website, or whether to pay attention to them on third-party review sites, we think its time you came down and in out of the rain. People are already talking about your business. Why wouldn't you want to know?