This article is meant to be a hands-on exercise. Why? Chances are you already know that you need to be submitting more content into the marketplace to grow your business, but you find this thought overwhelming. So I have a challenge for you, here today.  Take one piece of content you have already created (this can be stats in your industry, a newsletter article, blog post, case study, etc.) and ACTION each step below as you read them.

Step One – Let’s start with an easy one. Put it up on your website. Make sure you have some common search terms in there so Google can index it and increase your relevance for these terms.

Step Two – Send it out in your newsletter. Don’t have a newsletter? Set one up now. Constant Contact offers a free 30 day Trial and has templates pre-built.

Step Three – Post it on your blog.  Don’t have a blog?  Set one up now. WordPress is by far the leading blog software and will allow you to set one up for free in 5 minutes. You can also get some help and have it integrate right into your site.

Step Four – Submit it your industry or regional publications and to the media. Don’t have a list of relevant publications or media contacts? Call up your library and ask them if they carry a recent copy of the Gale Directory of Publications and Broadcast Media or if they have a local list of such publications (if your focus is the local market). Gale Directories cover media and publication listings all over the world. See if the library can create a list otherwise make time now in your calendar to go down there and compile the list yourself.

Step Five – Submit it to online article sites like www.ezinearticles.com. It’s free to sign up and takes only minutes to submit and link the article back to your site.

Step Six – Take out 5 – 10 little one sentence snippets and create small posts. Post these snippets on Facebook and/or your Facebook Business Page, Twitter, Linked In and Google +. If you don’t have any of these of profiles, set them up.  If you want to make posting to these sites easy, set up a tool such as HootSuite (again free) to submit posts to all your social media sites in one click of a button.

Step Seven – Insert into a Word File titled “MY Book” or “MY e-Book” or “Another great free report”. Place it into the chapter where it would belong so that over time you have created a larger publication and also so you start to put themes around future content (to fill in blanks).

Step Eight – Create an online Ad – This could be on a Chamber online newsletter, Google, Linked In or Facebook.  Link back to the article on your site and have a call to action at the top and the bottom such as subscribing to your Free Tips or a Free Assessment or a trial product or service.  Set it up for one week only and put a small budget on it like $40 – $50 and then watch the traffic to your site and measure results.

Step Nine – Send it out in the mail to prospects.  Include a nice introductory letter outlining your interest in servicing business like theirs, a special offer and this very helpful article. Don’t have a mailing list? Try InfoCanada or InfoUSA and create one today. Dun and Bradstreet also has great lists.

Step Ten – Use it at your next live event (networking, tradeshow, sales presentation). Think of it as a large business card and include your contact details and a call to action on the back.

Content is valuable.  It takes you time to create and is designed to help both your present and future customers.  Make sure you take advantage of ALL the avenues available to you or you aren’t marketing as effectively as you can.

(Photo Credit: Courtney Dirks)

Did you miss any of Tim’s great posts from the last week? Never fear, we’ve got them listed out below. Click to your hearts content!

Test Your Leadership With These Two Questions

Are you running a business, or an organization, or a team? For a quick rating of your own leadership, ask yourself these questions about bad news:
1. How quickly do you get the bad news? and  2. How do you respond to bad news?

Are Business Social Media Campaigns About Listening?

Brian Solis, author of Engage, expert on social media for business, posted  The End of Social Media 1.0 last week on his blog. Not that there is a 2.0 or 3.0 exactly, he explains, but he says we’re at an inflection point.

Are Spelling and Grammar Obsolete?

Am I being too critical? Do you react like I do to blatant spelling errors? Do they spoil messages for you?

Don’t Compete on Price. Please.

I caught Ted Coiné’s 12 Most Irrefutable Laws of Business Heresy the other day. I really like that list. And it’s a great title for a post. And it’s an excellent post, great advice coming one delightful rule after another.

Today’s guest post is from Brook Hays of Hy.ly – the customizable Facebook tab-building app. 

Hy.ly is running a contest where the winner will get a free design consult and Facebook page makeover! For more information on their contest and to enter to win, go here.

By nature, small businesses (as well as big corporations) are always anxious for immediate results. Fast results are the hopes of all entrepreneurs, not to mention an expectation that’s been subconsciously engrained by the fast pace nature of our modern world.

Social media marketing is no different: the need for speed remains.

But just like size isn’t everything (good things can come in small packages), speed and stats aren’t everything.

Yes, “Likes” and positive reaction to your Facebook and social media output are good, but they won’t immediately result in an influx of sales and cash. But that’s okay.

Small businesses should be using social media to engage: to create social relationships that keep current customers captivated and encouraged to re-buy/revisit, and that draw in new visitors with valuable content, increasing the chance they will become paying customers down the line.

When creating your business’s social media presence on Facebook, you should certainly set metrics goals and monitor your progress. But you should not let the expectation of quick results or immediate sales spikes distract you from what’s important:

• Bridging new relationships by growing your Fan-base
• And offering valuable content and features that keeps your contacts engaged

You can do that be designing an elegant Facebook page that’s organized by specific call-to-action Tabs, enhanced by useful promotions, contests, coupons, and features, and populated by valuable content not sales-speak.

About the Author: Brooks Hays is a freelance writer and the resident content creator for Hy.ly: sharing helpful social media marketing advice with Hy.ly customers and attempting to spread the good news about Hy.ly Tabs to would-be users

Have you ever opened up the paper or turned on the TV only to see your competitor being quoted as an expert?   Are there times when they are up there speaking to your target audience, when you think, “I know more than this person.  I should be up on that stage!”

Well you’re right.  If you are in fact exceptional at what you do, have a ton of experience or are sitting on a leading edge breakthrough it’s time to start adding some PR to the mix.

What exactly is Public Relations?

According to Wikipedia, it is “The practice of managing communication between an organization and its publics.  PR provides an organization or individual exposure to their audiences using topics of public interest and news items that provide a third-party endorsement and do not involve a direct payment.”

That’s right, public relations is when a third party endorses your public interest and news stories for FREE!  It differs from a referral which refers your products and services and differs from advertising because you don’t pay for it.  But it can be one of your strongest tactics for attracting and closing business.

Who are your Publics?

Typically a small business owner is trying to position themselves as an industry leader to:

• Customers
• Prospects
• Circles of Influence (Peers, Media, Strategic Partners, Industry leaders)
• The general public, and possibly
• Investors and/or employees

There are 4 key activities you can leverage to reach these publics.  Some or all of these may apply depending on your personality, speaking skills and level of expertise. They are:

1. Speaking online (webinars, videos) and offline (conferences, associations)
2. Writing online (blogs, online publications) and offline(magazines, newspapers, newsletters)
3. Working with the media
4. Social media engagement

Let’s have a look at each of these.

Speaking

Unless you are looking to become a professional speaker, speaking should be a way for you to capture leads (see Speak for Leads). Speaking allows an audience to not only get to know you, but to determine if they like what you have to say and if they think you really know your stuff. If you are worried about your speaking skills, look into public speaking courses through associations like Toastmasters. Chances are there are plenty of industry and special interest groups that can benefit from your wisdom and a lot of stressed out events people who will be relieved to have a great speaker for their audiences. Speaking can take many forms. It’s not only about being invited to speak to a group live.  It can also include recording yourself with a webcam or smartphone and posting it on YouTube, your site and other company’s sites. You can be a guest on a webinar, or blog radio show. The possibilities are endless and the other great bonus is, it provides you with new content you can use for our next section…..

Writing

You’re hearing it everywhere now, and I know I keep saying it over and over. Content is king. For service based companies this is how you SHOW your expertise. Even product based firms can benefit in sharing product specs, testing and demos. Start by creating your own articles for your own newsletters and posting those articles:

On your site
Via your social networks
On your blog
On article submission sites, and
Via strategic alliance channels (newsletters, sites)

Don’t shy away from approaching free magazines and publications (online and offline), to see if they might like to make you a regular contributor.

Working with the media

The first key step to working with the media is to identify exactly who you should be talking to. This means you need to start collecting the names of Newspaper reporters for relevant sections, TV and Radio Producers and editors of magazines and publications. Don’t forget those important thought leaders online as well!

Secondly start to listen and follow these media sources.  Set up RSS feeds for their name in Google News Alerts, follow their blogs, connect with them on social media sites and lastly subscribe to HARO.

The third step is to start communicating with them via their blogs, social media, online press releases and through pitching them your ideas. Share new trends, an interesting angle to a topical, major event, awards or recognitions or new innovations.

Once you get coverage, you can post this on your site and share it with your networks for even more credibility power. Don’t forget to also follow up and thank them for the coverage and measure your results.

Social Media and Online

While I’ve touched on this throughout the article, you should be looking for ways to increase your own star power via Social Media. A great place to measure where you are and where you need to go is through a site called KLOUT. Find influencers in your industry and look for ways to get more engaged online.  Many of today’s top experts are products of a strong online presence. It shouldn’t be an area you overlook.

Upping your PR may be adding some major to-do’s to your list or to the list of an already overworked employee, but these are important and effective actions every company should take. Assuming you are passionate about what your company does for a living, doesn’t it only seem right that you should be educating the public on the benefits you can offer to others and the problems your products or services can solve? Find a way to get it done!

Image via CrunchBase

I remember two years ago listening to a Web expert predict that eventually websites would be all video instead of print. While it hasn’t quite reached that extreme, it’s hard to ignore the impact videos and YouTube are having as a marketing tool. As a small business owner, you may want to take a close look at this amazing tool.

Thanks to companies like Bizbox TV and Pixability, creating videos is not necessarily cost prohibitive. If you are more of a do-it-yourselfer, you can even arm yourself these days with your phone or Flip video, along with some editing software, and be on your merry way.

So how can you use video?

1. A Two-minute commercial of what you or your company does
2. Testimonials (much more impactful than just words)
3. Blog posts (sometimes referred to as Vlog) can be great to mix things up, or if you don’t like to write
4. Promotion (demo a product or your speaking style)
5. Credibility builder (“how-to”, webinars or statistical videos)
6. Lead generator (think “sales letter or sales presentation” but in video)
7. Ad or info on other websites (think advertising or strategic alliances)

Where can you use the video?

The two big ones of course are on your website (or blog) and YouTube. YouTube right now is the second largest search engine after Google. What does that mean? That means millions of people are searching for specific information on YouTube. You should also know that people pay more attention to a YouTube video than they do their TV set. Finally, you should know that it can do amazing things to your Search Engine Optimization (being found on the Internet).

But definitely look for other options. Incorporate a video into presentations, as an introduction to your company at a live event or as an “ad” on your website or other websites.

A few key tips:

1. Keep it real – the more authentic the video, the more believable.
2. Keep it short – unless you are providing how-to info or product demonstrations, try to keep to two minutes or less.
3. Make it entertaining – seems obvious, but boring videos will lose your audience.

While video may seem daunting, it doesn’t have to be. Look for great resources and, for a start, why don’t you try today to “point and shoot.” You never know what the result might be!

Image via Wikipedia

Sometimes we get so caught up in following the rules with marketing that we forget its entertainment value. However, with marketing becoming more community based than ever (thanks to the onslaught of social media channels), you ‘gotta’ inject some personality or you are going to have a much tougher time engaging your prospects.

Without some personality:

• You won’t get their attention in the first place
• They won’t forward it on or tell others
• They will remain neutral about your product or service.

At a recent social media conference, I had the pleasure of hearing the story of Knorr’s recent Sidekicks campaign, created by Tribal DDB Canada. It’s such a great example of how a bit of personality can go a long way.

Knorr had just introduced their new Sidekicks with less sodium and wanted to take over the #1 spot in the marketplace. Tribal DDB introduced Salty – the lonely and dejected salt shaker. The ad and Salty were an instant hit, and they soon created a Facebook page for Salty’s Life and a Twitter feed as well. On Facebook alone Salty has 12,777 Likes (note: Knorr’s Facebook page has only 1,416).

Salty became such a hit that Knorr even created salt shakers of Salty and his buddy Pep. In less than 25 days the first shipment of 20,000 shakers sold out. In fact, people were selling them on eBay for $200 a set! People started launching YouTube videos of them and their Salty and Pep shakers. In fact, Salty is quite the hit on YouTube as well. Check this out.

Did Knorr achieve their goal to dominate their market? Yes. Did they end up creating enormous buzz for the product? Yes. Heck, they even created a new income stream (Salt & Pepper shakers). Just because of a little bit (okay a lot) of personality.

Sure, as small businesses, we might not be able to go to this extreme, but personality still plays an important point. One small company I know simply played with his Facebook ad. His first ad, presented his product in a serious tone and got a decent number of click-throughs, but when he added a fluffy kitten and some fun to his business page, his results tripled and his leads became way more engaged with his company.

Marketing should be about having some fun. Enjoy it and make it enjoyable for your prospects, too.

When it comes to social media, the signal-to-noise ratio is low. That is, there’s a whole lotta noise and not much signal. In the words of Clara Peller (RIP), “Where’s the Beef?”

These days you have about 3 nano-milliseconds to get a reader’s attention because they’re trying to read your blog post, check email, check in on FourSquare and play CityVille, all at the same time…and let’s not even talk about what it takes to KEEP their attention.

To get their attention, you need to flaunt your social proof — or show them that your blog is worth reading because other people think it is. Judge Judy would call this “hearsay”.

You see, it’s not enough for YOU to say that your blog is “the best”, or “award-winning” or “read by a lot of people”; you have to PROVE it.

And, the only way for you to prove it is by highlighting your numbers. Numbers don’t lie. 2+2 is always 4 — at least in this dimension.

People don’t have time to waste so tell them straight away:

• 47 new Facebook “Likes” per day
• 24 reTweets daily
• 15 comments daily
• 163 new subscribers each week

Put the numbers in their face and your quality and success are irrefutable.

When people see numbers like that, they think to themselves (even if they don’t consciously know they’re thinking this), “Hey, this blog must be doing something right, they’ve got a lot of people paying attention.” And, then guess what they do? They follow you on Twitter, they subscribe to the blog and Like your Page on Facebook, too!

Here are some examples of companies that get it right:

• Manta Media, Inc. Look at the full-color, HUGE testimonials in the top-center of the page. Look at how they leverage the ads they’ve taken out on ESPN Radio. And, if you scroll a bit, you’ll see the exact number of company profiles that have been updated in the past 24 hours – talk about social proof!
• Angie’s List. The rotating testimonials are a GREAT way to show feedback from members — even if the testimonial is not directly attributable to a specific person or a specific vendor. How cool is that!? Further down the page, they tell you how many members submit new reviews each month – 40,000.  What would be even better is for them to show the exact number of reviews that have been submitted month-to-date.
• And, for a different take on social proof, take a look at Chris Guillebeau’s blog, The Art of Non-Conformity. If you’ve ever read anything by Chris, you know that part of his way of showing up in the world is through experiential travel. He doesn’t just tell you, he SHOWS you. He tells you how many countries he’s visited and how many countries there are in the world so his 152 countries visited out of 192 countries in the world, actually means something to the visitor. He makes it relevant with those three extra characters.

Show, don’t tell. This is one instance where it’s OK to showcase the quantity, in addition to the quality.

(Note: reposted with permission from Part-Time Perfectionist.)

A year ago I had my first day at Klout. There were five of us, we were sharing a space with four other companies, and we were just about to launch Klout 2.0. Today, there are about 35 of us, we have our own gigantic space, and we just beta launched Klout 3.0. It’s been a crazy, busy, amazing ride and I have never been happier that I decided to join (plus I’m pretty sure this means some of my stock is now vested, so, woot!). So while I think the biggest lesson I’ve learned is that I have so much more to learn (cheesy, I know), I thought I’d share a few others things I’ve learned along the way.

1. Culture matters. At a startup it’s not just work, it ends up taking up a lot of your life. If you’re not happy going into the office on Monday (or at least once you’ve had that first cup of coffee), you’re in for trouble. And, as much as this is about loving what you DO, it’s about liking the people you work with, wanting to make awesome things, and this weird thing that develops out of that that is work “culture.” Once upon a time I thought people who worried about work culture were crazy. Now I totally get it. No wonder all those consultants make so much money.

2. Learn from the people around you. I’ve always been a big believer in learning by doing, but, it turns out, it is much less effective and — let me just say it — lamer than learning from smart people who have already gone through this. Or at least smart people who can help you break new ground together. Luckily Klout is filled with smart people. I’m always happiest when I’m learning and Klout has been amazing for that.

3. Influence is hot. I probably didn’t have to tell you that and who knows if it’ll last, but Klout is hot right now because EVERYONE is trying to understand and measure influence. It’s a space I personally find intellectually fascinating and, clearly, I’m not alone. Please hit me up for debates about influence, reputation, trust, and, although I hate the term, personal branding any day of the week.

4. The social media community is amazing. I can’t even begin to count the number of awesome  people I’ve met through Klout and the social media community. Seriously, what a bunch of talented, kind, and funny people. Yes, there are haters out there too, but I try not to waste thought on them.

5. It’s good to be challenged. We’ve had our fair share of debates at Klout and my coworkers will be the first to tell you I don’t shy away from heated discussions. Although I like being right, I’ve discovered that there’s also a lot to be said for being wrong and learning from your mistakes. Perfection is overrated anyway.

There’s actually a lot more I could add in here about the perils of trolls, personal vs. work life, and many other lessons learned, but five is a good number (being the youngest of five kids, I’m quite partial to it) so I’ll stop there. Have you had similar experiences/lessons in your job?

For those of you who recall this line from the cult classic, Carrie from the 70′s, there’s a modern-day parallel, it’s called:

“If we start using social media, people are going to say bad things about us.”

Let’s just get the obligatory responses out of the way:

1. “Gasp! You don’t say?!”
2. “They already are. What’s next?”

I’m left to wonder where all this intense paranoia comes from? Is this to say that companies weren’t concerned when people talked PRIVATELY amongst themselves about how horrible their products were? That was OK, but just don’t put it in writing! Oh, no!

I once had a completely rational person ask me, “Now that we’re using social media, what are we going to do when our rivals say bad things about us?”

She really used that word: rivals.

What is this, West Side Story? Grease? Saving Private Ryan? Gangs of New York? Lockup Raw?

A small thing to remember – everything that happens online is public. Any person or organization that’s going to “go on the attack” (she used that phrase, too) has to do so publicly. And, in order for them to do that, they’ll kinda make themselves look like a fool in the process, no? (Note: anonymous attacks hold virtually no weight.)

I could describe just how BADLY someone can make themselves look when they attack other people online, but sometimes it’s best to see it in action (strong language alert).

After reading the comments at that link, what is your opinion of the author? Exactly.

Point made? Great.

Traveling around speaking as I tend to do, I’ve been asked almost every possible question about social media that you can imagine. Some are REALLY good ones and others are just well…I’m going to keep it real…others are asked by people who want someone else to think for them — and not in a good way.

Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s not my intent to criticize people who are brave enough to ask questions at a public event. I guess this is where all the misinformation about social media kinda gets under my skin.

There are so many people who dub themselves as social media experts and they have 20 followers on Twitter (yep, I went there) and the closest they’ve come to a stage is the local Karaoke bar. And, these same people spout formulas at people — as if every business should approach social media in the same way.

Granted, there is some validity in the need to systematize social media marketing – heck, I do that with my clients.  Systems are easy, they help us remember and, when acted upon, they help us to become more consistent.

However, I draw the line when people buy into the notion that you should spend 85% of your time using social media to market your business and 15% of your time “chatting”. Or, what about what percentage of time should be spent on Twitter versus Facebook. And, the cream of the crop, that it’s OK to outsource 55% of your social media tasks, but the other 45% should be done by you.

What?!?!

This is taking systems to the extreme and it paints everyone in the same box. The reality is that the answers to those questions have everything to do with the company, its goals and resources to get the social media marketing tasks done. What works like gangbusters for Company A is going to stink for Company B — and vice versa.

So, please, for the love of all things righteous about social media, stop looking for down-to-the-nth-degree-formulas to insert into your business’ marketing. Guidelines are cool, but when you start plugging in activities “just because”, that’s going to cause all sorts of problems for you — you will, in essence, be following a strategy for someone else’s business, not yours. Bad, bad idea.

Take the time to THINK for yourself.

Ask yourself questions like:

Based on what I’ve said I want to do with this business, what seems to be the best course of action?

Based on what I’ve been able to achieve thus far on my own, what’s realistic for me to outsource — where do I need the MOST support?

Is the majority of my market on Facebook or Twitter? How can I find out? (Hint: ASK THEM!)

You’ve put a lot of time, love, energy and money into your business, you and it deserves better than a pat formula. C’mon, don’t start cutting corners now.