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How can social media help my business

Today's question is "how can social media help my business". In yesterday's blog we answered the question "How Google grew my business" so now we move on to a social media question. Before we go into the question "how can social media hep my business" let's try to define what social media is. Social media can be described as an online media or network that encourages contribution and feedback from the general public. Social media is also open to public participation where they encourage comments and the sharing of views or information. The principle of social media is the ability to build communities quickly and effectively around people that share a common interest or passion.

That is fine but how can social media help my business or your business. There are two answerers to that, one is to listen and the second is to engage. But for today's blog I will cover how just by listening social media can help my business grow and become more responsive.

First part on how can social media help my business is that it tells me what it right and what it wrong with my service or products. If I use Hootsuite as an example you can see some of the views of people on Twitter below. By just listening to social media they can now address the areas that they need to improve and where their strengths lie.

Second reason on how can social media help my business is that I can also listen to what people are saying about my competition or my industry. Let's stick with the Hootsuite example and see what they can learn from listening to tweets about Tweetdeck. This will tell Hootsuite where they are behind their competition and the areas the areas that they need to improve.

So how can social media help my business, even by just listening to what people are saying is a very powerful tool quickly analysis where my brand, products or completion is standing in today's market. But what if you do not have a brand like Hootsuite, what you have is an industry. To win in any market or industry to need to know what is happening now and in the future and the only way to do that is to listen. Your clients come to you as the experts and as such should know everything!

This is just the tip of "how can social media help my business" so next week SiliconCloud are running a webinar on what we can learn from Google to grow your business where we will go into more detail on social media and how social media can help your business. Check it out at: Learn from Google to grow my business.

What part does Inbound Marketing play in your business?

Asking the question ‘what part does Inbound Marketing play in your business?' or even one step back ‘what part does your website play in your business?' is like asking the question ‘what comes first, the chicken or the egg?' I can say majority of the business owners I speak to respond that their website is their business. The website is the only form of marketing and the only way for them to generate new clients. However somewhere along the conversation the value of the website starts to decrease. I don't know if it's the thought of investing any more money into the fancy site with lots of pictures that took months to build or it has to do with the lack of knowledge on what inbound marketing is and how much potential the website can hold by optimizing the site in all the right ways in order to make it a revenue generating machine.

So let's just lay all the cards on the table. If you can say yes to the following:
1. Your website is your shop front door
2. You have no budget to be doing any type of marketing or you have found various marketing methods in the past extremely ineffective.
3. You are not meeting your revenue goals as a business
4. You are not found on Google when searching for your products or services

Then...Unfortunately you need to hold your website at the highest caliber possible. The fact of the matter is, if you can't get found on Google, you are more likely not getting traffic to your site. And if you are not getting traffic to your site, then you are most definitely not getting any sort of tangible leads. And if you aren't getting tangible leads then you aren't generating a source of revenue for your business.

So if you are the business who's website is a billboard in the desert, then I recommend you seriously reconsider what status your website holds for your business, what potential you could leverage, and how you could put an end to the question - ‘what comes first, the chicken or the egg?'. Inbound Marketing is the key to your business if you have a website that was built to draw in visitors, generate leads, and obtain new customers.

Find out why you need to invest more time and money on your website and Inbound Marketing why Inbound Marketing could be the key to your business' success. Join us on Wednesday, March 10 to Learn from Google on How to Grow your Business.

Thanks to the guys at HubSpot we have Inbound Marketing.

As we are aware Inbound Marketing is changing the way people are marketing their company online and in social media. I worked for Yahoo! for a number of years and during that time I would regularly look into how people would search online. I do not mean what they searched for but how they would search. In the last few years I noticed a trend happening in how people were searching. This change in how people search has an effect on how companies should market themselves online.

What I noticed that no matter what people were looking for, it all started with a search engine. And this by the way is Inbound Marketing. It is true that over the last five years people are more informed in how the internet works. They are aware of how URL's work but they simple do not use them. A great example of a top search term that came up every month was Ryanair. Most people are aware that their website is www.ryanair.com but they do not enter in the URL bar but guess where? Yes in the search bar of Google.

So what does that mean for Inbound Marketing and Ryanair. For Inbound Marketing it gives companies that engage in HubSpot's principles of Inbound Marketing a chance to drive attention away from Ryanair and on to their own site. And for Ryanair it takes away the guarantee that while people may know their website it does not guarantee their traffic. Let's look to see what people see when they do a Google search for Ryanair.com.

While Ryanair do have the top positions, you can see by the fourth result they have lost their presence to other websites. So what can we learn from this? If you are not using Inbound Marketing then you are leaving yourself open to your competition.

The number one website that wins at Inbound Marketing is Google. So next week we are running a webinar next week on "What can you Learn from Google to Grow your Business"

You can register at "Learn from Google on How to Grow your Business"

3 reasons for a Social Media Strategy

It appears that a Social Media Strategy is the new strategy to have. Companies seems to be jumping in left and right into social media without any idea why they should use Social Media or why they might need a social media strategy. Companies feel the pressure that they need to be in involved and engaging in social media and hope that something could come from it.

Before you start building your Social Media Strategy should you consider why you need social media or what benefits it can bring to your company. To help you along here are some reasons why you or your company needs to consider a social media strategy.

1: Listen to your customers. If you already do not have a social media strategy, then this is a great place to start. Why, because now you can tap into what people, clients, partners are saying about you, your products or your services. The added benefit of listening to your customers is you can find out to whom they are talking to, and what they are thinking about your competition. By listening to your customers provides valuable insight into your own offering and makes an excellent starting point for making changes, playing to your strengths, your competitor's weakness and otherwise building offerings that will appeal to your audience.

2: Your social media strategy can help you build your brand. Part of your social media strategy can be about creating awareness about a new service, product or a brand. More and more consumers are consulting online first before making any purchasing decision. So by getting a customers or people talking your product means they can also share their views with hundreds of friends on Facebook or Twitter and that is a massive amount of potential exposure.

3: Become real. Generally your social media strategy should be about engaging is not pushing corporate speak. Most people view companies or corporations as impersonal and faceless. So use social media and your strategy to connect your brand or profile to a personality. This can help make your business seem more approachable. Regardless of how you engage in social media try to let your personality shine through and build a bond between you, your company and your clients.

These are just 3 reasons there are many more. But in simple terms your clients, potentials clients are out there why are you not?

To help you build your own reasons for your Social Media Strategy. SiliconCloud are running a webinar next week on "How to Googlize your Business". Since Google appears to succeed at everything online we are running a webinar on what you can learn from Google and their website for your own business advantage.

Click here to register Social Media Strategy

Is Don Corleone Inbound Marketing in Action?

Before we answer that what is Inbound Marketing? Inbound Marketing is the about generating and letting people or leads find you rather than pushing your message, products or services out to a cold unresponsive market.

Outbound marketing is focused on traditional outbound methods such as cold calls, tradeshows, etc. The principle behind this was to get in front of your cold market and warm them up to a point where they would be interested in your products and services.

At times marketing and sales can come down to numbers game by contacting "X" amount of people and a percentage of those people will be interested in your products and guess what a percentage of those people that are interested would actually making a purchase or use your services. It is a pretty simple model, get in front of enough of enough people and a percentage will buy. However this method can be inefficient and expensive, causing marketers to waste time by pushing their message to people who may have had no interest or need for what you are offering.

So Inbound Marketing is becoming increasing as the more popular choice for marketing departments and business owners as they seek more efficient and affordable ways to acquire website traffic and generate new leads.
What are these Inbound Marketing techniques, they can be broken down into blogging, social media, search engine optimization, and webinars. The principle is that pre-qualified leads find you and your company and your message is just what they are looking for.

So if Inbound Marketing was a movie what would it be? My first stop was to look at the Internet Movie Database website. Their top three movies are The Shawshank Redemption, The Godfather, The Godfather Part II. So I am not sure if I would view Don Corleone as inbound marketing. He has more of direct approach than anything else. Would you view "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse." as Inbound marketing, maybe not.

So what would be a good Inbound Marketing Movie? Before I answer that my version of an Outbound Marketing movie would be the Minority Report. Every time Tom Cruise enters a shop or passes a billboard the adverts or products are pushed. Yes, they are personalized but it still traditional outbound marketing at it best.
And my Inbound Marketing movie, that would be Ferris Bueller's Day Off. If you recall right at the end when Ferris's sister (Jennifer Grey) is in the Police station sitting beside a boy (Charlie Sheen) explaining everything that is going wrong. His first response is that she should talk to Ferris Buller (Matthew Broderick). And that is Inbound Marketing and Social Media in action.

So how did Ferris build up this reputation? This Thursday we are running a webinar on "How to Build a Brand with Social Media", so you too can sing in Village Halloween Parade!

Do You Have a Website or an Internet Marketing Strategy?

There seems to be an influx of people opening their own businesses, from consulting to project management, to aspired dreams. This is no surprise due to the rise in unemployment over the past year. These people have a dream, they see an opportunity and they believe enough to go out and market themselves. What surprises me is the lack of research or planning that goes into it. The time seems to be spent designing personalized websites, creating fancy business cards; essentially doing all the things a professional company would do to create a business, EXCEPT develop an internet marketing strategy. The planning seems to stop at developing the website in hopes that people will find them and their business will start to develop.

I spoke to three different people this past weekend who all told me they were venturing off on their own and opening a project management company. When asked how they are going to market themselves, I was left with the simple answer, ‘I have a guy developing my website' but no Internet Marketing Strategy.

There is a lot of noise out there and a lot to swallow when it comes to internet marketing or inbound marketing. The concept seems fairly new for many businesses. They are familiar with SEO and social media, and blogging, but hardly do I find anyone use the term internet marketing as an all-encompassing marketing strategy.

Every part of internet marketing is as important as the next but without the right tools, knowledge, and visibility, it's difficult to take it all in. I hear many that want to know how to get more involved in social media but don't have the content to promote themselves. I hear many companies talk about SEO and optimizing their site but paying someone to do it for them.

My advice to those starting a new business is to develop an internet marketing strategy. Do some research but remember that there is only so much you can read and analyze. At some point you need to just jump in.
1. Build a great website! Simple, easy to navigate, and content rich.
2. Use the right tools to optimize your site where you have complete control and visibility into the content that's going into your website.
3. Create a blog that speaks about your experience, you knowledge, and your expertise but also optimized to drive traffic to your site.
4. Promote your content through social media but remember to listen more than you speak.
5. Analyze everything. Analyze, analyze, analyze.

If you're starting a new business and are looking for a great internet marketing strategy, join us on this free webcast on how to build your brand with social media.

SEO and Inbound Marketing is for Life but PPC is only for Christmas?

PPC advertising is great and we use it ourselves at SiliconCloud. There is no denying that PPC campaigns are brilliant to build relevant traffic quickly. In the short term, it helps you to determine which specific keywords will generate leads before you go off and spend time trying to rank for them organically through SEO or Inbound Marketing.

Ideally this is how it should pan out, but we've been speaking to a lot businesses and they're seeing their advertising spend go through the roof. They always come back saying they are happy with the amount of traffic PPC brings in but the cost per click is forever increasing and decreasing their profits.

This is where the problems start and the dangers of only having PPC as your primary online strategy with no Inbound Marketing. Companies get addicted to PPC and the traffic that it brings in and with more and more businesses moving online and bidding for those clicks. There needs to be a way to get a competitive advantage over their competitors.

SEO or Inbound Marketing may be time consuming but it clearly separates you from your competitors and gives you the chance to reach those 75% of people that click on organic listings.

We always try to tell our clients the steps involved for Inbound Marketing and improving their organic rankings for relevant keywords. From there the process of starting to write great, compelling content that adds real value to the business and potential clients. People and high ranking sites start link to you and the inbound links start to come flowing in.

As a result your rankings start to climb steadily up which in turn brings in free traffic and leads all generated through Inbound Marketing. There is no doubting that this takes time and considerable effort. There's no doubt that this investment produces real sustainable advantage compared to PPC, reduces the cost per lead and sets you up with a long term online and Inbound Marketing strategy.

So as I was saying earlier, if new competitors enter and start to compete against you they will have no other option to start to pay large costs in implementing PPC campaigns. And as you have put in the hard work to get traffic from SEO, you'll have the competitive edge and more likely to hold this edge longer.

SiliconCloud specialise in helping clients engage with Inbound Marketing. We have clients in UK, Europe and the States. For the this week we are giving a free competitors analysis for companies to see how they are performing against their own competitors. We also analyse and measure the marketing effectiveness of your social media presence and website. We incorporates things like website traffic, SEO, social popularity and other technical factors. We also provide some basic advice on how your website can be improved from a marketing perspective. Click here: Help me with my Inbound Marketing Strategy.