Posted by Tara Robertson on Fri, Dec 04, 2009 @ 10:48 AM
Did you know that their are only 18 business days left until 2010 begins!! With 2009 almost behind us and what many are calling the "post recession" year right around the corner it is important to take a look at your plan and make sure you are prepared to make an impact.
Ramp up for 2010 using social media
The upcoming year will mark a new decade for selling better, faster, and more efficiently. There will be more opportunities for growth and everyone is going to want to take a chunk of the post recession spending. Most people are working on finalizing their marketing plans for next year and determining what will drive results fast. The answer is simple: Social Networking.
We spent a lot of posts in 2009 talking about social marketing. If you are new to the world of social media, here are some past posts that may be of interest to you:
- Social Networking in less than 1 hour per week
- Top 10 Social Media guidelines for company participation
- Jump on the social media bandwagon
- Twitter Best Practices
If you aren't new to social media but just haven't had the time to network effectively, now is the time to ramp up. 2010 marks a new decade and with it a new time to go to market and position yourself as a thought leader in your industry.
Posted by Tara Robertson on Mon, Oct 12, 2009 @ 08:24 AM
If you are anything like TSL, these past couple of months have been swamped! When things such as planning for the end of 2009 and start of 2010 happen, the little things (such as blogs, twitter, linkedin, and social media sites in general) tend to suffer. TSL has put together 3 steps to effective social networking in less than 1 hour per week:
- Blog - Take 10 minutes and brainstorm your next 3 months of blog posts. Instead of trying to come up with a topic on a weekly basis, spend 10 minutes to sit down and think up the hot topics that you will want to write about in the coming weeks. You will soon find that writing a blog will be as easy as picking a topic out of a hat and writing away! When you take the time away from brainstorming you will find your blogging to be quite seamless and should take no more than 20 minutes per post.
- Twitter - Tweet in the morning. For all new followers, TSL sends a thank you along with a link to subscribe to our B2B email newsletters for top marketing trends and tips. Spend an extra minute after responding to new followers and throw up a "marketing tip" or re-tweet something you see that is memorable. This will only take 5 minutes out of your day and will help continue to build your social network substantially.
- LinkedIn - While starting new discussions, responding to discussions, and partaking in relevant industry topics can really build your name and your company on linkedin, it can also be incredibly time consuming. To save time in the next few months, limit your LinkedIn discssions to sharing your blog posts, email newsletters, press releases, and other relevant marketing material through groups. While it is good to also join other discussions, when time if of the essence, getting your material out there and responding to questions directed to you will take up the least amount of time (no more than 10 minutes a week).
I hope these steps will help you manage your time and also allow your social sites to no longer suffer!
Posted by Tara Donnelly on Thu, Jul 30, 2009 @ 11:04 AM
Recently I ran across an article that I wanted to share with you that directly relates to using social media in your company. With the majority of your company probably connected in some way or another to your social universe, here are some helpful guidelines (presented by Shift Communications) that you can use to assure that any employees tweeting, blogging, or using online communication tools are doing so professionally:
Download social media guidelines by clicking here
"Whether you log into twitter, yelp, wikipedia, MySpace, or Facebook pages, or comment on online media stories - these guidelines are for you."
With the world of social media taking over the online marketing community, it is incredibly important to make sure your team is staying as business professional as possible. After-all, rumors spread like wild fire and you sure don't want bad publicity! Keep your social networking positive by rolling out these guidelines.
Posted by Tara Donnelly on Fri, May 08, 2009 @ 04:47 PM
Social Media has become the highest growing medium for marketing worldwide. Have you jumped on the bandwagon yet?
Here are some of the increased benefits to integrating a social media plan to your marketing schedule:
- Increase company reach by thousands
- Generate awareness for your firm
- Save time and money by cutting back on travel and making "virtual" connections
- Drive new leads through social promoting
- Develop relationships through adding a personal touch to your blogging/tweets/updates/etc.
If you're new to the world of social media, we find that a great place to start is through linkedin, twitter, or facebook. However there are an abundance of other sites that are becomming cluttered and confusing for the new social media explorer. The question of "how much is too much" is constantly being asked as companies continue to try to take a piece of the online social pie.
If you have implemented social media into your world of marketing, you probably have an opinion on what works best. Let's share in our experiences... what social media sites do you find drive the most leads for your business, awareness, and overall reach?
Posted by Tara Donnelly on Wed, Jan 14, 2009 @ 11:50 PM
With the social hype being all about Twitter and the current "tweets," TSL Marketing has decided that it is time we join the revolution and create our own twitter profile. Check us out:
Click Here to follow TSL Marketing on Twitter
So what is twitter anyway? To the untrained "follower," twitter seems like nothing more than a silly and inconsequential way to waste time online. However, the more I got involved in twitter and what it brings to the table, the more I began to realize the value add that this social network prevails.
What makes this social media site difference than the others is that it is solely based on streaming updates. You can connect to colleagues, friends, prospects, clients, and groups by simply "following" their feed. Once you decide to follow a "tweet (fancy word for update)," you will be sent updates as often as the twitter tweeter submits their feed. Some great ways to use twitter in a corporate setting:
Point your followers to your landing pages: If you have a live or online event, white paper, or really any marketing tactic to promote, here is another way to generate leads without spending any marketing dollars.
Follow everyone who follows you: A great way to build your twitter network is to follow the people who choose to follow you. As you start tweeting on a consistent basis, your social media stream will reach higher levels and you will be able to build your network substantially.
Tweet about your blog: You can submit a tweet that links back to your company blog. This will begin driving more traffic to your website and also drive more interest to your blogging network.
When there is nothing to tweet about, say hello: The point of twitter is to get your name and company out in the open. When you find that you may be at a loss for what to say in your updates, go ahead and say hello. The point of twitter (from a corporate standpoint) is to promote your company, this is often done by just showing your company name and continuing to build your network.
- Follow follow follow: Finding the right person to follow is a great way to generate research and learn more about what is happening in the current market. Many companies that use twitter successfully don't use it just to promote their company name. If there is an article of interest or a topic of relevance that would benefit their network, it gets tweeted. This is why when you choose to follow people or companies, follow those that you think you can learn from and benefit from in the future.
If you haven't joined already, check it out Twitter and don't forget to add @TSL_Marketing!