As I mentioned in my Top 10 predictions for 2010 – I think the Mobile Marketing in 2010 will become more mainstream.

As a marketer I always like to play the “odds not the lottery” and to me when you have a market of 3.3 Billion Handsets worldwide (half the population) versus only 1 Billion PC’s with Internet access playing with a 300% larger base is pretty safe bet.

So then it becomes a question of where to start with Mobile and I have been working on this for a while now incorporating Mobile into some of our campaigns. Note: Avaya sells mobile solutions to businesses so I feel its my role to live by example and demonstrate to our potential clients how this might work.

Mobile campaigns that I have used typically have a higher response rate – I have seen our SMS messages get a 15-20% response rate which is huge if you think about that compared to standard banner ad response rates. The reason is that a message on your mobile device are more personal and are typically not avoided by the recipient. You really have a shot at getting some attention.

But that’s where it can also come to an end quickly. You must provide a truly valuable content or else you wont get a second chance. For someone to receive a “commercial” SMS message they must opt-in (true opt-in not – “hey look I got a bunch of mobile numbers lets send them all an SMS”). You are Legally required to get “express prior authorization” before sending any commercial message.

Once you have that you are good to go but there is an art to getting them to sign up in the first place and that has to do with content marketing. If you can hook them on the value of your content then its just a matter of getting them to agree to receive it in a new channel.

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5 Steps to Successful Facebook Advertising This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Currently Facebook boasts somewhere in excess of 400 million users and growing. You’ve probably heard this line by now, but If it were a country it would be the third largest in the world behind China and India only. There’s a pretty good bet that some members of your ideal target customer reside in and visit Facebook land, but the trick is to find them.

Facebook’s advertising platform is a vehicle worth exploring. The tool allows you to place small display type ads in the right sidebar of Facebook pages and profiles. At this point it’s not as effective in pure response as well targeted Google AdWords campaigns, but it’s not really the same kind of vehicle and you won’t find AdWords in Facebook, at least for now.

Like many things Facebook, setting up and running successful campaigns isn’t as straightforward as it could be. Below is a description of five steps to consider as you explore Facebook advertising. (Bookmark the Facebook Ad Help Center and return to get answers to the Facebook Ads process)

Target

One of the best things about Facebook advertising is the ability select who sees your ad using a number of variables, including keywords. You can target by geography, age, gender, education, relationship status, workplace and keywords. (I know someone who wanted to send a birthday message to his wife and targeted so narrowly that she was the only who would see the ad.) Demographics are pretty straightforward, the real trick is expanding your keywords to the point where you have a large enough audience to get the job done. Facebook used to have a tool that let you search for the hottest topics being discussed but they shelved it as they build a more robust analytics package. Check out all of your targeting options here

Attract and Engage

The first thing you must do is decide whether you want people to be directed to your own web page or something on Facebook like a Page, Application, Group or Event. If you are already the administrator of your Facebook Page, Group, Event, or Application, you can select it from the drop down option. The thing that’s nice about using ads to promote your pages and events is that Facebook puts a “Become a fan” or “RSVP to this event” button right in the ad. People don’t even have to visit your page to take action. There are some pros to sending them to a link on your web site (better tracking options) but by sending them to assets on Facebook you have the ability to multiply their actions through the natural social wall activity that occurs when someone RSVPs to an event. (All their followers automatically see that action.)

Some users find Facebook ads a good tool to promote events or get new fans to the pages. From an engagement standpoint think in terms of using the ads to promote content and value and not so much to sell something. The most successful use of ads on social networks is to create deeper engagement so you have the ability to sell once trust is built. Think about putting white papers on your Fan Pages and promoting that content or creating a free event, like a webinar, and advertising that event. In both of these cases you’ll have the opportunity to sell a bit once you’ve proven you know your stuff. (One quirk of note – when you promote an event created with the Facebook event app the title of the ad will automatically default to the title of the event, so name your event wisely )

You don’t get much space in these ads so use it wisely. Your headline (25 characters) should grab attention immediately with a benefit. You’ll get another 135 characters to describe and entice in the body of the ad. You also have the option to upload an image. Take this option. It may be the most important aspect of your ad so choose wisely. Facebook users are very image driven (it’s the largest photo sharing site in the world) and the visual graphic you choose will make or break an ad. This is an element you must plan on testing (see below)

Budget

Facebook advertising works a bit like AdWords in that you bid for keywords and compete to get your ads shown. How effective you are at this depends upon the competitiveness of your keywords. You can choose between a cost per click (CPC) model where you pay only for clicks or a cost per thousand (CPM) model where you pay per 1000 ad views. Most research I’ve read suggests that the CPC model is slightly more effective in terms of ROI. (Here’s a nice Glossary of Facebook Ads terminology in case this is starting sound buzz wordy.)

To start your campaign you must determine a bid per click and daily budget. You can set both of these numbers very low, but don’t expect much. Initially you are just testing so you’ll want to set your click bid somewhere around the Facebook suggested amount and a daily budget you can live with, something like $50 or more to start. You can always adjust these. Learn about the Facebook Ads Manager here .

Test

No matter where or what you should always test your advertising. Online applications like this make it pretty darn simple. You can and should create multiple ad versions. Once you create an ad you will have the ability to create similar ads and run those as well. You’ll be able to easily view which ad is performing the best based on clicks. Facebook does need to approve your ads so make sure you are familiar with their guidelines .

The simplest thing to test is your image. I’ve seen ads go from no response to mega response with a better picture. Mind you I had no idea it was a better picture or I would have used it in the first place, but testing told me so. Here are some suggestions from Facebook on improving your ads .

Analyze

Once you create and launch your campaigns you need to start tracking and tweaking. Facebook has a tool that gives you some information on actions taken inside the Facebook platform. So, if you are running an ad for an event or Facebook page you can use the Facebook Insights tool to monitor interaction.

Facebook Insights is a nice reporting tool as it can give you information about the actual, not targeted demographics and interests of the people clicking on your ads and keywords that drew that interest. This will help you narrow or broaden your targeting. Page admins can access Insights by logging in and viewing the box titled Insights in the left sidebar. This is only visible to Page admins. If you click on See All you will get full reporting. More information on Insights here and from the very useful blog Inside Facebook .

Facebook does allow you to run ads that point people links outside of Facebook and in order to track these ads you simply and monitor them using your own analytics tool such as Google Analytics . If you are using Google Analytics simply use the URL builder tool in Analytics to create a link to your page that contains tracking parameters and place that in your Facebook Ad as the destination link.

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For many marketers, considering mobile marketing year after year is the same story. The year starts off with lots of hype about it finally being the "year of mobile marketing" … and after a month or two, the excitement dies down and reality hits. Most teams realize that they lack the experience or knowledge on what type of messages people will actually engage with and bow to the fear that only a fraction of the people they care about will respond to advertising or marketing in a mobile environment. Predictably, their attention turns elsewhere and mobile marketing initiatives stall. Is this year really going to be any different?

It's hard to predict, but I can say that this year does represent a unique moment where all the different aspects of mobile marketing that have long been preached by believers as signifying a cultural shift that matters to marketers are coming together. There are five concepts in particular that signify this evolution in my mind, and paying attention to their rise is the strongest indicator that mobile marketing may be reaching a new stage of reality:

1. The Shortcode - Similar to the URL system that has allowed brands to have specific destinations online, the shortcode is giving brands a way to allow direct messaging from their consumers in an easily memorable way. Simply send a single word or a message to a five digit code from your mobile phone and you will get something in return. The simplicity of this format is an important prerequisite to make it truly likely that people will actually use it as it offers a memorable syntax that enables an actionable message to be memorable enough to stick in the minds of consumers on the go.
2. LBS (Location Based Services) - One of the biggest new abilities that new phones are offering is the ability for your phone to know specifically where in the world you are. The potential of a personal GPS in your pocket, so to speak, ofers up all sorts of localized marketing possiblities. Of course, the potential for location based advertising could certainly backfire if people start to get inundated, but used right LBS can be a boon - and offer an important basic capability that enables all sorts of innovation in mobile device tools and marketing.
3. APP(lications) - By now you have probably formed an opinion about Apps, and whether or not you feel like they will save the world, there is no denying that letting someone download a branded tool to enhance their experience of your brand offers great potential for engagement, lead generation and even direct sales. The App revolution, more than anything else, is fueled by a new level of utility in content for mobile devices. The popular tagline "there's an app for that" is based on this ubiquitous utility. When you can find an app to enhance just about anything you are doing, the net effect becomes transformative. Marketing can now do that too.
4. AR (Augmented Reality) - You see a lot of hype about the potential for augmented reality these days, as it finally evolves beyond the realm of science fiction. Whether it is a service like Yelp's Monocle or more practical computer-based effort from USPS that I blogged about some time ago and referred to as "holocam marketing" at the time. Through your mobile device, you can now add a new layer to your interactions that offers more knowledge, more opinions and more suggestions - all live.
5. DMPs (Direct MobilePayments) - Underpinning all these advances is the simple question of how people will be able to move money around. The potential for micropayments has always vastly outsized the reality. The only environment that has ever come close is Apple with iTunes, where you have a linked account and can easily click a button on a device to trigger a micropayment from your own account without having to re-enter or re-confirm credit card details. As the recent text-to-donate campaign for Haiti from the Red Cross showed the world, trying these payments to user's phone bills may offer another solution. If the behaviour of using these direct micropayments can be extended for consumers beyond donations, it would fuel many other marketing efforts.

Photo Credit: Mobile Marketing Watch

Having a great time in Vancouver. If you want to see how great, check out my pictures from Day 1 and Day 2 .

For some reason there is a lot of confusion about the word Content lately. Back in the late 90s when the internet was just heating up we all heard alot about how “Content is King”. But these days for B2B Marketers I think we need to take it a step further and say that “Content is Media”.

If you have been following my thoughts on the 4 C’s of Marketing – it all starts with content. Building a solid content creation engine is critical to B2B marketers today. Why?

Its the content that gives you the opportunity to have a discussion with the Media, its the content that gives you the opportunity to create conversations socially, its the content that gives you the opportunity to re-engage with leads in your system that you may be nurturing on that sames topic, and its the content that allows your sales team to start a conversation with their accounts about that topic.

If you follow Seth Godin at all you will know that Mass Media in forms that we are used to like Advertising isn’t working for or B2C breatherin. Sure anyone  can take out an ad in a major publication but his point is more about the sustained effort over time to create a brand using advertising hasn’t worked for years and is just too expensive and too inefficient to build a brand.

I think B2B marketers really need to think and act more like a media house themselves. What is your publishing calendar? Can you stick to it? Does it relate to the major growth initiatives of your company? Your Content engine should be able to answer all these questions – and when you do then you will be able to use your Content as Media!

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The PR industry is in a state of flux with increasing importance on getting into the content and social web business. Consumers are spending more time with digital and social media. Advertising dollars are following. That means less budget to staff newsrooms and reporters, journalists and editors to pitch.

Understanding the needs of their “customers’ customer” is essential for PR agencies and communications professionals to remain relevant and productive. “Push PR” is increasingly being complemented by “Pull” tactics – optimization for discovery. Being able to provide value is essential and here are 3 ways a better understanding of SEO can do just that.

1. Fish where the fish are.

There were over 14 billion core searches in Dec ( comSore ) vs 285 million who watch TV in a given month ( Nielsen ). Consumers rely on search daily to find news and information. PR and communications types need to understand the consumer search behaviors and preferences (keywords) of their clients as well as the publications they want their clients to be covered by.

2. Journalists rely on search.

According to TopRank’s “Journalist Use of Search survey”, 91% of journalists, editors and reporters surveyed use standard search engines such as Google, Yahoo or Bing to do their job. That preference was mirrored by findings in a recently published “ Social Media & Online Usage Study ” (pdf) by George washington University and Cision where 100% of those surveyed use Google to research stories.

3. Optimization is about more than SEO.

Search engine optimization, digital asset optimization, social media optimization and even micromedia optimization (ie real time SEO) are buzzwords all representing opportunities for Media Relations and communications professionals to influence discovery by making it easier for various types of search engines to find, index and rank their content.

It’s imporant that communications people understand the different search options consumers and the media are using to distribute and consume news. If content can be searched on, it can be optimized. That includes everything from press releases to video to Tweets.

Search Engine Optimization or “ SEO ” as an umbrella term is typically concerned with any kind of work that influences any kind of search engine to do what it does best and hopefully in favor of the content being promoted. Most people mean optimizing content for better visibility in Google, Yahoo or Bing when they employ SEO tactics.

It’s important to note that many publishers are already using SEO tactics to make their news stories better suited for discovery and ranking on search engines. These efforts have resulted in substantial increases in traffic to online news sites, improving the attractiveness of advertising.

Digital Asset Optimization or “ DAO ” is a term TopRank has used and promoted since 2007 that makes reference to the different types of media search engines like Google have started to display (aka Blended or Universal search results) depending on the query. Search results are no longer limited to web pages and can include images, video thumbnails, news, blogs, books and local information. Optimizing for these different types of media involves understanding what digital assets can be created, keyword optimized and published online for search.

Social Media Optimization or “ SMO ” is a term initially made popular by Rohit Bhargava and added on to by several others in the SEO world including TopRank. While many social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn keep the bulk of their content behind a login and away from search engine spiders, many social interactions produce content that can be indexed and included in search results. Journalists and consumers increasingly participate with social channels to watch, share, contribute and curate information. If PR and communications can understand how to influence keyword use of social content then their news will be easier for analysts, reporters and journalists to find.

Here’s a story related to me by an editor in the TopRank Journalist use of search survey that illustrates the intersection of search and social media:

“I was writing a column about the planned partnership between Google and Yahoo.”

“I tracked down potential sources first using Google and LinkedIn, and came across a white paper prepared by a senior fellow at the American Antitrust Institute.”

“While I could not easily find an e-mail address, I went to Facebook where I located him, then sent a message. He replied and we followed up with a phone interview.”

Micromedia Optimization is a new term that basically means real time optimization of status updates and content sources that are indexed and included as real time content by search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. The same micromedia content can be shared and discovered on platform specific search engines such as search.twitter.com and across social networks that provide the opportunity to syndicate such content. Google Buzz, Facebook status updates and LinkedIn updates are also included in this category.

The takeaway that I think is most important for communications professionals is to understand the nature of search and how to match up optimization tactics with channels of disccovery. Using keyword research for both standard search and social search optimization of news content along with ongoing web analytics and social media monitoring are key.

I’ll be discussing these strategies, tactics and a lot more at SMC Louisville tonight 6:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. ET on at the Louisville Visual Art Association. I hope folks can brave the snow (safely) and make it out. You won’t be disappointed!

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© Online Marketing Blog , 2010. | 3 Reasons PR & Communications Pros Need to Know SEO | One comment | http://www.toprankblog.com

A friend of mine who is an experienced corporate marketer started a new business. The store just opened and being the good pal that I am, I was able to provide some advice regarding marketing on the web – specifically regarding blog marketing.

This is a new small business, so considerations for what to do about a web site included: cost, functionality, flexibility, ease of maintenance and marketability. The web site needed to serve as both an online representation of the business, but without transactional functionality, as well as a host for landing pages used with email and PPC campaigns.

My recommendation for a low cost, easy to use and search engine friendly content mangagement system? Blog software.

What often happens when friends ask for advice regarding web marketing is that I’ll make some recommendations in a casual setting or email links to a few resources like this one on blog marketing tips , then a few weeks or months later, the conversation will turn to, “So, how is your blog or web site doing?”, and I find out that the site/blog was either not started at all, it was created in a way that blows away any chance of SEO or marketability outside of advertising or it was built using resources with no cost of entry but without the capabilities to scale if successful.

Something along those lines happend with my friend’s blog.

What was the issue? The blog was started using Blogger.com, which by itself is not a problem, but the blog address selected was: nameofstore.blogspot.com. This is understandable because it’s the default URL selection when you create a blog with Blogger.com.

However, picking a third party domain for the blog address violates one of the most important rules in sustainable blogging: Always host the blog address with a domain name you control. That means yourdomainname.com/blog or blog.yourdomainname.com or yourdomainnameblog.com.

Otherwise, you give up control. How so? What if the blog host goes down? Free services rarely provide support. Also, what if the service does not support the functionality you need? You can’t change their entire platform to suit your individual needs.

There are other reasons for keeping the blog address as part of your own domain name including the ability to change blog software services without having to change your blog address.

Of course there’s also a benefit for search engine optimization if you host the blog as a sub directory of you main company domain name such as yourdomainname.com/blog. Blogs are very linkable entities and other blogs tend to be enthusiastic about linking, so any links to your blog can be percieved as a vote of credibility to your main web site since the blog and the web site share the same domain name.

Now back to our tale of the small business blog. My friend had only made one post on the blogspot.com URL so nothing would be lost by moving to a dedicated domain name. My own experience with Online Marketing Blog was different. After blogging for nearly 2 years at a blogspot.com address, I decided to move to a dedicated domain name and Wordpress. It took some talented optimization and 6 months of aggressive promotion to recoup the linking footprint (100,000+ inbound links) that was lost. Of course, now our traffic is multiple times more than what it was.

What my friend decided to do was register a domain name and setup a hosting account. Since there was no main company web site to attach the blog to, this makes the most sense. Essentially, the blog became the company web site. With more and more businesses, this is becoming a very practical, cost effective and functionally efficient way to manage web site content: Using blog software as a content management system.

As my friend asked what to do next, writing everything down in a notebook, it became clear that there’s a litany of things you COULD do with setting up a blog. Even if we filtered it down to what one SHOULD do, the list was amazingly long. As someone new to the whole idea of blogging and this not being a formal consulting arrangement, I decided to create what I think, is a short list of what a small businesses CAN do when starting a blog.

1. Decide the purpose of the blog.

Do this before going out and registering a domain name or anything else. Is the blog going to serve as a journal for starting the business? Is it a search marketing tool? Is it to be used to demonstrate thought leadership and create credibility? Will it be a communication tool for customers? Will it also serve as the main company web site? Is the purpose some or all of the above?

I could elaborate on setting up each of these types of blogs if I ever decided to write that book, but for now, we’ll stick with a blog that serves as a company web site, hosts landing pages, serves as a small business resource and marketing tool.

2. Pick a URL.

If the purpose of the blog is to support company brand and audience, then the URL should be part of the company web site. Ideally, the blog hosting situation allows for a sub directory such as companysite.com/blog.  Otherwise, a sub-domain such as blog.companysite.com will work and you can can host the blog elsewhere, separate from the company web servers. IT will like that.

If the purpose of the blog is independent of the primary company brand, or messaging, then a dedicated domain name such as topicgoeshereblog.com might work better.

It’s tempting to use a keyword only domain name, but those keywords will not be a silver bullet for search engine rankings. A catchy, meaningul brand name for the blog will go much farther as content can always be optimized for search engine rankings.

3. Pick blog software.

In most cases, WordPress is the way to go. An inexpensive Linux platform hosting account that supports PHP and mySQL can be secured for $10-$20 per month. However, should the blog get really popular, expect to upgrade to support increased demand. It’s entirely worth it.

The blog software will need to be installed on the server that will host it and the database will also need to be set up. This is fairly straightforward, but in all honesty, it’s best to have someone that knows what they’re doing help. As an example, I do very little of the technical work on our blog and prefer to have a specialist (Thomas McMahon) take care of maintenance, adding plugins, design and functionality updates. We have outside programmers do any heavy lifting in the application development department.

Wordpress software is open source, ie free, so if you are code/technically savvy and you have the time to figure it out, it’s certainly doable. There is no one “right way” to setup a blog. There are literally hundreds of shades of gray.

It can cost a hundreds to thousand of dollars for a blog consultant to install, setup and customize the design of your blog. You’re not paying for the software, you’re paying for expertise that will save you MONTHS of time and allow you to get to market more quickly and efficiently.

4. Customize the blog.

After installation of the core blog software, there are a number of customization tasks.

First, the blog design should be modified to match your branding. If you don’t hire a consultant to do this, there are many free templates that can then be customized, but many of them require a link to the author at the bottom. Personally, I’m not a fan of those, but they are a low/no cost place to start. Design customization involves modifying the CSS, JavaScript, graphics and possibly a few database elements.

The second set of customization tasks involves plug-ins to improve the adminstration, front end functionality and the SEO friendliness of the blog. Thanks to Twitter and Thomas for this recommended minimum list of plug-ins:

• Redirection
• HeadSpace2
• Google XML sitemaps
• Gravity forms
• All In One SEO
• PostPost
• ACE WP Plug
• ComLuv
• Disqus
• Members only
• Cookies for comments
• Section widget
• Page order
• Related posts
• FeedSmith FeedBurner Plugin
• Sociable
• Askimet or WP-SpamFree
• Post Teaser

5. Create a content plan.

In concert with the purpose of the blog, it’s important to generate a basic editorial guideline for creating content. The easiest way to manage this is by creating categories for the kinds of content you plan on posting.

Before you create those categories, it’s a good idea to do some keyword research as the categories will become excellent repositories of related content. Why not make it even easier for search engines to understand and rank them?

Common keyword research tools include: WordTracker and Google . Paid keyword tools include WordStream.com and KeywordDiscovery.com

Once you identify which keyword phrases best represent the content you’ll be publishing, use them to name your content categories. Each time you make a blog post, that entry will be associated with one or more categories, creating a very search engine friendly repository of content.

Create an editorial calendar or schedule of posts to keep you on topic for your audience and true to the purpose of the blog. Leverage interactions with blog readers as well as your analytics to know if your content and keyword picks are productive or not.

6. Pick your blogging team.

In the case of most small businesses, the blogging team is a team of one. That’s fine, just be sure to document what’s working and what’s not so when the time comes, you can get your blogging team mate up to speed quickly.

Since blogger’s block (like writer’s block) can really dampen a good thing for a small business blog, go ahead and keep a good number of posts in draft mode. Add to them as you get new ideas and inspiration. Or facts and examples. That way, you’ll have a steady stream of blog posts ready to publish in advance. In fact, you can schedule blog posts in advance using WordPress.

7. Make it easy to share.

Blogging in a vaccum is inevitable blogging death. It’s essential that you solicit comments in your posts, respond to comments quickly, create and enforce a commenting policy. Being responsive is an essential part of attracting subscribers .

Don’t covet the comments either. Visit other blogs in your industry and write useful comments. Those bloggers may notice you and it can become something more, like an invite for a guest post, collaboration or simply a new online friend.

Make it easy for readers of your blog to save and share your content with sharing buttons or widgets. It pays to create accounts on the more popular services and develop social networks there. Your contacts on Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon and similar services will watch for your next post and vote for the good stuff, which can drive your content to be exposed on more popular areas of those web sites. More exposure can mean more traffic. The social bookmarks tool is handy for adding such functionality to any web page and Thomas offered several new blog promotion tips last week.

8. Get your social on .

RSS feeds come with blogs and it’s worth taking the time to make sure the RSS feed is readily available and obvious for people to subscribe. Submit your blog and RSS feed to our HUGE list of blog and RSS directories .

Set up social profiles on sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn as appropriate and automate the sharing of links from your blog posts to those services. In other words, you could use a service like TwitterFeed to publish your latest blog post to Twitter and Facebook automatically.

Be sure to publish your blog URL everywhere you publish your web site address.

9. Make static.

If you’re using the blog as a CMS for a small business web site, then make your static web pages such as those for About our Company, Product/Service pages, Contact Forms, etc. The blog can be customized to have a home page like any other web site as well. That way, visitors arriving on your site can see what they expect from a company selling products/services. At the same time, blogging creates a rich and frequent source of useful content that’s syndicated via RSS, promoted automatically to relevant social channels and leaves the door open for interaction via comments.

10. Measure. Test – Test. Measure.

It’s important that you set goals for the blog, a plan to execute tactics and most of all, measure progress. Most web site measurement is focused on web analytics and metrics specific to different types of marketing such as with email, SEO or PPC. Standard web analytics software such as Google Analytics will address the vast majority of your needs.

I would also recommend social media monitoring and analytics. Monitoring can be as simple as the RSS feed from search.twitter.com combined with the RSS feed from the results of a search on Google’s blog search. You could also use services like socialmention.com , trackur.com or more robust social media monitoring tools such as Techrigy SM2, ScoutLabs or Radian6.

Social monitoring tools will help you understand what your customers are saying about you on the social web as well as uncover new interaction opportiunities with influentials. Real time search means real time marketing and social monitoring can facilitate that. One example would be if a competitor Tweets a deal on a product. Your Twitter search on that competitor or product would create an alert. You could then decide to offer a deal at a lower price or some other counter offer.

Another example is if a customer complains about your company. Before others jump on the bandwagon, your social monitoring tools would alert you and you can then qualify and address the situation quickly.

As web analytics and social media monitoring tools become increasingly intertwined, you’ll be able to identify many other key metrics for the effect of your social participation on bottom line business goals.

There you go. Ten tips for starting a small business blog.

This was a long post and yet, it’s nowhere near a comprehensive guide to create a small business blog. Even though there is plenty of free blog software and advice available online, many companies would benefit from having professional help with a business blog.

The funny thing is, my friend will look at this post and say, “This is the SHORT list?”. Blogging can be simple to start, but no one said it wasn’t hard work.

If you’ve created a blog for your small business, what has your experience been? Did you do it yourself? Do you get expert help? Have you set up a small business web site using blog software? we’d love to hear about your experiences, challenges and successes.

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© Online Marketing Blog , 2010. | Ten Must Read Tips to Start a Small Business Blog | 3 comments | http://www.toprankblog.com

div class=”separator” style=”clear: both; text-align: center;”a href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_5teyRpJfosk/S3hJ4xw0-lI/AAAAAAAAC8w/49serAY25M8/s1600-h/googleppc.jpg” imageanchor=”1″ style=”clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;”img border=”0″ height=”200″ src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_5teyRpJfosk/S3hJ4xw0-lI/AAAAAAAAC8w/49serAY25M8/s200/googleppc.jpg” width=”200″ //a/divdiv style=”font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;”div style=”display: block; float: right; height: 60px; margin: 8px; width: 52px;”script type=”text/javascript” tweetmeme_url = ‘http://marketing-expert.blogspot.com/2010/02/making-money-with-pay-per-click.html’; tweetmeme_source = ‘The Marketing Blog’;/scriptbr /script src=”http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js” type=”text/javascript”/script/divspan style=”font-size: small;”Whether you’ve been using AdWords for years or have never even heard of pay-per-click advertising (PPC), know that it’s an essential part of any Integrated marketing program.nbsp; I recently provided some of my most valuable bpay-per-click/b advertising secrets on an interview with Jonathan Taylor and Russell Portwood at Blog Talk Radio (a href=”http://www.blogtalkradio.com/beginnerinternetbiz/2010/02/13/how-your-business-can-profit-from-google-adwords-1″listen here/a).nbsp; During the interview we discussed how to get started with Google AdWords and some valuable secrets for making money online./span/divdiv style=”font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;”span style=”font-size: small;”br //span/divdiv style=”font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;”span style=”font-size: small;”If you’re not running any campaigns on Google AdWords, I suggest that you open an account.nbsp; The beauty of PPC advertising is that you only pay when an individual clicks on one of your ads.nbsp; You might have tried PPC in the past and generated a lot of clicks but no conversions.nbsp; Perhaps you tried it for a short while and found it too complicated to manage.nbsp; I know how you feel…/span/divdiv style=”font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;”span style=”font-size: small;”br //span/divdiv style=”font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;”span style=”font-size: small;”bThe Long PPC Road/b/span/divdiv style=”font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;”span style=”font-size: small;”When I started in Internet marketing, pay-per-click was just coming on to the scene.nbsp; The premise was great, only paying for an action, but the results weren’t so good.nbsp; Over time, as the tracking become more sophisticated and the quality of analytics improved, results started to improve.nbsp; I’ve spent over 5 years making small distinctions in pay-per-click advertising campaigns that have dramatically improved my results.br /br //span/divdiv style=”font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;”span style=”font-size: small;”b /b/span/divdiv style=”font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;”span style=”font-size: small;”b /bMany people believe that to get quality traffic you need to spend a ton of money or always be in the #1 paid position.nbsp; Nothing could be further from the truth.nbsp; Some of my highest converting keywords cost the least.nbsp; Additionally, and here’s a free tip, I often get higher conversions when my ad shows in positions 3 - 6.nbsp; I find that prospects clicking in the ’sweet spot’ are more buying oriented than just doing research./span/divdiv style=”font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;”span style=”font-size: small;”br //span/divdiv style=”font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;”span style=”font-size: small;”To be effective with PPC, you need to run a number of campaigns on your own.nbsp; I attended at least half a dozen workshops on pay-per-click advertising and spent close to $1,000 on so called PPC courses only to find that there wasn’t a lot of “new” information designed to improve the effectiveness of my campaigns.nbsp; What I learned through trial and error was certainly more valuable.nbsp; iAlways seek hands-on experience if you wish to be success./i/span/divdiv style=”font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;”span style=”font-size: small;”br //span/divdiv style=”font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;”span style=”font-size: small;”bPPC Made Simple/b/span/divdiv style=”font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;”span style=”font-size: small;”In a couple of months, I’ll be sharing everything I know about PPC advertising in my next book, i”PPC Made Simple.”nbsp; /iUntil then, I wanted to share a few tips you can use right away to start improving campaign performance./span/divdiv style=”font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;”span style=”font-size: small;”br //span/divdiv style=”font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;”span style=”font-size: small;”b1.nbsp; Set a budget of $10 - $20/day.nbsp; /bIt doesn’t take much to determine if a particular type of PPC campaign is going to be profitable.nbsp; Start with a small budget to generate clicks and watch your campaign closely.nbsp; Usually, for around $100 you can determine whether or not you’ll be successful./span/divdiv style=”font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;”span style=”font-size: small;”br //span/divdiv style=”font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;”span style=”font-size: small;”b2.nbsp; Do your keyword research.nbsp;/b Start with the a href=”https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal”Google AdWords Keyword Tool/a to find frequently searched upon terms.nbsp; In addition, do some competitive research using any one of dozens of tools that reveal what terms your competitors are bidding on.nbsp; Once you’ve compiled a list, focus on buying keywords.nbsp; Use the Microsoft Commercial Intent tool to optimize your keyword list./span/divdiv class=”separator” style=”clear: both; text-align: center;”a href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_5teyRpJfosk/S3hKQ2P9tQI/AAAAAAAAC84/0mHE64-Ux8E/s1600-h/computer2.jpg” imageanchor=”1″ style=”clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;”img border=”0″ src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_5teyRpJfosk/S3hKQ2P9tQI/AAAAAAAAC84/0mHE64-Ux8E/s320/computer2.jpg” //a/divdiv style=”font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;”span style=”font-size: small;”br //span/divdiv style=”font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;”span style=”font-size: small;”b3.nbsp; Use a tool like the Google AdWords Editor to help manage your campaigns./b The tool costs nothing and can help you stay on top of the performance of your campaign.nbsp; Additionally, you can easily manage multiple campaigns simultaneously./span/divdiv style=”font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;”span style=”font-size: small;”br //span/divdiv style=”font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;”span style=”font-size: small;”b4.nbsp; Use the AdWords Dashboard.nbsp;/b As usual, Google AdWords comes with it’s own resources for evaluating campaign effectiveness.nbsp; Learn the value of your AdWords dashboard.nbsp; This gives you information about your click-through-rate, cost per click, and overall campaign metrics.nbsp; The more you understand the data being provided, the more effective you can make your campaign./span/divdiv style=”font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;”span style=”font-size: small;”br //span/divdiv style=”font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;”span style=”font-size: small;”b5.nbsp; Implement Google Conversion Tracking./bnbsp; When you implement conversion tracking, you can quickly and easily see which keywords and ads drive sales.nbsp; This is the most important aspect of any PPC effort and essential for long term success.nbsp; If you know which keyword/ad combination is most effective, you can optimize your PPC budget./span/divdiv style=”font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;”span style=”font-size: small;”br //span/divdiv style=”font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;”span style=”font-size: small;”These are just a few tips to help you improve the performance of your pay-per-click marketing campaigns.nbsp; Again, it’s essential that you start using Google AdWords in order to learn how to implement successful campaigns.nbsp; Even though you may have four or five campaigns that don’t generate a favorable return, one profitable campaign can more than make up for it./span/divdiv style=”font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;”span style=”font-size: small;”br //span/divdiv style=”font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;”span style=”font-size: small;”Once you launch your campaign, utilize the metrics provided by Google to refine and improve your campaign.nbsp; By learning the ins and outs of pay-per-click advertising you are improving your overall knowledge of Internet marketing and finding new ways to promote your products or services.nbsp; In addition to generating sales, PPC is a great tool for lead generation as well./span/divdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”For more free marketing advice, visit the a href=”http://www.marketingscoop.com”marketing experts/a at http://www.MarketingScoop.com.img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/30060900-5761106680940562778?l=marketing-expert.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div

Take a moment to think about, and count, the number of B2C social media success stories that pop into your head.

I’ll venture to guess that you could immediately name five to 10, if not many more. From Ford to Dell to Zappos to Best Buy , B2C social media winners – those organizations that caught on early and created a cult following of brand cheerleaders via the social web – are hard to miss.

But how about the B2B social media winners? I’m guessing these weren’t as easy to name.

And yet, there are just as many B2B organizations successfully conquering social media. While their stories might not be as well-known, we think these 5 B2B social media winners are doing a pretty doggone good job. Tell us if you agree.

1. American Express OPEN
American Express OPEN is the company’s division dedicated to helping small business owners succeed. It has based its marketing strategy around the social web, realizing that social media has become a priority for small business owners.

Since 2007, AMEX OPEN has relied on its OPEN Forum to provide business advice and insight. The social site includes a blog with frequently updated content, and a large collection of videos that users can rate and share via other social networking channels. In the site’s “Idea Hub,” forum members can network with one another and with industry experts, as well as customize topics to their specific interests.

The social site has been extremely successful, increasing unique visitors 525% over the past year – from 160,000 in December 2008 to nearly 1 million in December 2009.

2. HSBC
To target business entrepreneurs and provide them with an active forum to share and gain knowledge, HSBC has created The HSBC Business Network for both customers and non-customers.

It’s evident that the HSBC Business Network truly thrives on its members.

The site includes a network of blogs, and invites members to create their own blog to share their personal experiences with other entrepreneurs. Currently, the network is made up of 148 blogs from members.

The site’s homepage is populated with content from users: the most popular recent blog post, forum post and user profile.

3. Microsoft Advertising
Microsoft Advertising has been using social media as a vehicle to listen to, educate, support and market to their customers and potential customers since 2006. However, the past year has seen a distinct effort from Microsoft to reach customers through social web participation.

An AdCenter Community site as well as blogs, Twitter accounts, Facebook presence, videos, photos and social media coverage of industry events along with proactive listening and community manager participation have been instrumental for growing the AdCenter community and providing customers with an opportunity to be involved with how Microsoft does business with them.

4. Archer
The social media strategy for Archer Technologies, provider of risk and compliance solutions, and a 2009 Forrester Groundswell Award winner for B2B social media, revolves around two components.

First, the Archer Community is an online social network that gives customers a forum to interact, share best practices and provide feedback to help drive Archer product development. The second component is the Archer Exchange (pictured above), an online marketplace that enables clients to download applications developed by other clients or by Archer.

The two social sites have been successful at driving website traffic and attracting new members: The Archer Community receives 20 new members, 4,000 unique visits and 400+ downloads every week, while the Archer Exchange boasts 17,000 unique visits, 90,000 page views and 1,200 downloads.

But the real benefit has been enhanced product development as a result of user feedback and sharing. Archer tells Forrester that its Archer Community directly helped form its Business Continuity Management, Mobile GRC and Data Feed Manager applications.

5. Cree
LED Manufacturer Cree is embracing social media to build awareness and promote the benefits of LED technology, rather than directly sell products.

At the center of its latest campaign, “ LED Revolution ,” is an interactive social website. On the site, visitors can submit their bad lighting photos (think bad 1980s office fluorescent lighting) to win LED recessed downlights. The site’s blog is posted to almost daily, and humorous videos encourage visitors to, “Break Your Fluorescent Shackles!”

Cree also leverages Facebook and Twitter in a push/pull approach for the website.

Hear from Ginny Skalski, Cree social media specialist — who happens to have a background in journalism and community management rather than marketing – in this video on the Social Media B2B blog.

Of course, these five B2B social media winners are only part of a much longer list of companies that are successfully interacting with customers, building brand awareness and driving traffic to their websites through the social web. What are your favorite B2B social media success stories?

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© Online Marketing Blog , 2010. | 5 B2B Social Media Winners | One comment | http://www.toprankblog.com

Cedric Chambaz, marketing manager search and SMB at Microsoft Advertising  - and a speaker at our Online Business Communities seminar on March 3rd on his admiration for Intel and his hatred of Marmite

Cedric Chambaz, marketing manager search and SMB at Microsoft Advertising  - and a speaker at our Online Business Communities seminar on March 3rd on his admiration for Intel and his hatred of Marmite

Question: With Google unveiling its Nexus One and Nokia and Samsun also preparing handsets to rival Apple’s iPhone, will 2010 be a tipping point for B2B marketers’ use of the mobile channel?

Question: With Google unveiling its Nexus One and Nokia and Samsun also preparing handsets to rival Apple’s iPhone, will 2010 be a tipping point for B2B marketers’ use of the mobile channel?

Being sensitive to customer behaviour and needs is just as important online as it is in the physical world, says Darren Guarnaccia, VP of product marketing, Sitecore

A little planning goes a long way if you want to make the most of the social media landscape, says Gifford Morley-Fletcher, director of strategy and inbound marketing at Base One 

A little planning goes a long way if you want to make the most of the social media landscape, says Gifford Morley-Fletcher, director of strategy and inbound marketing at Base One 

Stuart Wheldon, client services director, Eloqua on the critical questions B2B marketers need to ask before embarking on a lead scoring programme

Stuart Wheldon, client services director, Eloqua on the critical questions B2B marketers need to ask before embarking on a lead scoring programme

Paul Hatcher, web development director at Base One, wonders if B2B marketers get too caught up in the glamour of social media and forget their audiences

Paul Hatcher, web development director at Base One, wonders if B2B marketers get too caught up in the glamour of social media and forget their audiences

Jim Pennypacker, president and CEO at Dance Communications, presents a simple model for understanding how to improve your thought leadership marketing capability

Jim Pennypacker, president and CEO at Dance Communications, presents a simple model for understanding how to improve your thought leadership marketing capability

Marketing automation is a term increasingly bandied about by marketing technology vendors; but is it something that more B2B practitioners should be taking notice of? Claire Weekes reports

Marketing automation is a term increasingly bandied about by marketing technology vendors; but is it something that more B2B practitioners should be taking notice of? Claire Weekes reports

Reviewed by Paul Godwin, planning director, Positive ThinkingPublished by John Wiley Sons

Reviewed by Paul Godwin, planning director, Positive ThinkingPublished by John Wiley Sons

Emerging technologies and communication channels have led to a sometimes confusing raft of new marketing roles and titles. Lucy Reiter reports

Scot McKee, MD at Birddog gets down with digital and causes a ruckus as he says traditional B2B communications are dead

Scot McKee, MD at Birddog gets down with digital and causes a ruckus as he says traditional B2B communications are dead

As more and more B2B marketers grapple with online lead generation, Alex Blyth uncovers the best techniques to get that campaign started

As more and more B2B marketers grapple with online lead generation, Alex Blyth uncovers the best techniques to get that campaign started

Max Firth, client director for PH Group, explains why tailoring your approach to pre-screened data can lead to optimal success

Max Firth, client director for PH Group, explains why tailoring your approach to pre-screened data can lead to optimal success

Claire Macland, senior EMEA marketing director at Juniper Networks, took on a major rebrand in just six months during this latest recession – and the brand emerged stronger. Lucy Fisher reports

Claire Macland, senior EMEA marketing director at Juniper Networks, took on a major rebrand in just six months during this latest recession – and the brand emerged stronger. Lucy Fisher reports

The growth of social media has provided B2B marketers with a range of new tools and platforms for market research, according to research from Forrester. Lucy Fisher reports

The growth of social media has provided B2B marketers with a range of new tools and platforms for market research, according to research from Forrester. Lucy Fisher reports

Marketing technology is fast becoming every marketer’s best friend, with prospects for its future looking rosy, finds Anna Goldie. But how can businesses make the most of it?

Marketing technology is fast becoming every marketer’s best friend, with prospects for its future looking rosy, finds Anna Goldie. But how can businesses make the most of it?

Customer testimonials form the basis of Citrix Online’s new TV campaign for its GoToMeeting product. Maxine-Laurie Marshall reports