Here's to creating success in 2012!

Happy New Year to one and all!  And WOW, what a great new year it's proving to be. 

Already, January is set to be a very busy month.  It's full steam ahead on all fronts as I help my clients to kickstart their marketing and business plans for 2012.  With the Olympics shining a bright light on London this year, masses of new opportunities are unfolding and we all want to make sure we're ready to ride this coming wave of success.

This month I'll also be helping to get more small businesses up-and-running with social media when I facilitate two social media marketing workshops for female entrepreneurs at this year's Women in Business: Creating Success in 2012 Conference and Expo on 19th January.  If you're interested in attending, head on over the registration website double quick as the final seats are being snapped up like proverbial hotcakes.  

For more about the conference check out the promotional PDF here. 

Stop Wasting Time: The Social Media Revolution

Recently I took part in a panel discussion on social media for business hosted by Sonia Brown MBE on www.playvybz.com.  To listen in, fast forward to the 45 minute mark to catch our chat which lasts for about another 45 minutes.

During the discussion, we talk about planning a social media strategy plus there are plenty of tips and best practice examples on using Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter for better engagement with customers and partners.

Why webinars have risen to the top as one of the most effective marketing tactics for B2B marketers

Strikingly, it’s taken just over a decade for online events to rise to the top of the pile as one of the most effective marketing tactics available to B2B marketers.  

In a recent B2B Marketing Benchmark Survey conducted by leading US research firm Marketing Sherpa, 91% of B2B marketers judged online events/webinars to be the second most effective marketing tactic following on from the company website which sits in first place.

Webinars, to my mind, make total sense if you want to gently kick-start a two-way dialogue with your customers.   They can act as a great precursor to a more in-depth conversation as they allow attendees to post questions to a live speaker. And of course, webinars also require your audience to provide their contact details, the absolutely essential element of any lead generation activity.

I also believe an investment in online events can reap even bigger dividends when you find ways to integrate their use across all sectors of your business.

In my previous role as Head of Online Marketing at Patersons Global Payroll, I found we could use webinars to support not only lead generation but thought leadership positioning, sales / support team training and sales-cycle support along-side media, partner and investor engagement.

To find out how we achieved this, I’d like to invite you to sign up for a free Kelso seminar I’m presenting next month : Using online events to propel national and international sales

During the event, I’ll present a case study that outlines the business challenges and opportunities I addressed when I instigated a twice-monthly webinar programme for Patersons (T-Mobile Fast Growth Company of the Year 2010).  Following on, I’ll also explain how to develop an online events strategy that supports this more holistic range of business objectives. 

This lunch-time event will take place Friday 4th November (Theale near Reading) and Friday 18th November (Holborn, Central London).

For full details and to register, please go to http://www.kelsopr.com/online-events-sales-seminar. 

Polite Note: Make sure to register soon, as places are strictly limited to 25 places per event.  

How exactly do you connect with your customers on social media?

Most small business owners I've met are very keen to know more about social media but have no idea how to successfully connect with new and existing customers via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and all the rest.

 

In this July update, I'd like to share some great quick-start ways to better connect with your existing customers and prospects on social media. But before I get on to the how, let's consider why it's so important to make these online connections. 

 

Why connect with your customers?

 

Social Media has completely changed the sales & marketing paradigm in that customers are far less likely to make a purchase in direct response to an advert or sales pitch.  Now a customer will often look to online reviews and social media comments before committing to a purchase.

 

However, we as business people still have an opportunity to prove our credibility on social media when we share our expertise and demonstrate our ability to nurture customer relationships.

 

In practice this means we: 

• keep up-to-date with our customer's likes, news, interests and issues
• respond to their online questions and queries
• offer encouragement and feedback
• share conversations about our mutual interests

 

These public social media conversations help strengthen our relationships with existing customers.  And, as an added advantage, they also encourage new customers to look more deeply at what we have to offer.

 

With the sheer magnitude of social media content being produced every day, it can seem daunting to keep up-to-date with all these online conversations.  So how do we keep tabs on what our existing customers are saying online?  

 

Quick-start ways to connect

 

Thankfully, some clever software developers have caught wind of our dilemma and there are now a few quick-start ways to keep up with your customer's social media content.   

 

Rapportive for GoogleMail

 

The best option I've seen to date comes from Rapportive. This is a Google-friendly application that can be setup on your GoogleApp Mail account within minutes.  

 

Once installed, Rapportive shows information on all your contact's social media accounts whether or not you are currently connected via these networks.  Therefore, for example, if you have a customer who's on LinkedIn with whom you've not connected, the application provides a link to connect directly from GoogleMail.   This can save a great deal of research time and gives you a quick way to link together. 

 

This information is displayed in an information panel in the space where Google Ads usually appear alongside your emails.  When you hover on a social media icon with your mouse, your contact's latest posts and tweets display within a speech bubble to the side.   It also takes your profile summary info from LinkedIn and displays it at the top of the panel.  

 

Quick to install and get value from, this is a fantastic app if you want to get connected fast.

 

 

Microsoft Outlook Social Connector

 

Microsoft Office has also integrated Social Media Connector as a 'to-go' feature in Office 2010.  There are also Upgrade downloads if you want to add it to an earlier version of Outlook.   I've not tested this yet, but I'm told by other users that it works well and in a very similar way to the Rapportive application. 

 

Once these applications are up and running, you'll have a great short-cut to connecting to your customers on social media.  One downside of the Microsoft Social Connector is that it doesn't show Twitter account details. I've not got to the bottom of why that is, but it does show LinkedIn and Facebook information which is still of great use.  Any insight on the Twitter omission is much appreciated!

 

Hootsuite Alternative

 

If the above applications are not for you, you can do your own research or ask your customers for their Twitter details.  Add their Twitter addresses to a Twitter List and then setup the list as a stream in a programme like Hootsuite which enables you to manage all your social media accounts in one place.

 

Once you have setup your new Hootsuite 'Customer' stream, you can more easily view your customers' tweets or posts in one place.  This makes it easier to monitor and respond to your customer's social media conversations on a daily basis.

 

But I've got a very large volume of customers.  

If that's the case, concentrate on connecting with your top and most loyal spenders.  The additional attention should help turn these important customers into business advocates who spread the word further afield.

 

And some of my clients won't want to broadcast our business association

When confidentiality is a concern, it's better to offer support, information and encouragement by email.  However, you can still pick up on potential topics of conversation by keeping an eye on their public social media streams.

 

Like any networking or relationship building activity, you will still need to allocate time to monitor and nurture these online conversations.  However, once you start implementing this activity on a regular and consistent basis, you are sure to see the benefits with more referrals coming via existing customers who are loving the attention and becoming your greatest fans. What's more, you're going to win again by attracting the attention of new leads who like the way you're communicating with your existing customers.

 

 

Next month

In August,  I'll share tips on how to generate brand awareness for your business / product via social media.

 

Got a burning issue?

What issue are you struggling with most when it comes to using social media for marketing?   Feel free to post your answers below and I'll be happy to help with further advice.

 

More about Susanne Currid

As founder & managing director of The Loop, I help small to medium sized businesses by providing digital marketing consultancy, training and out-sourced marketing project management.   

 

Whether you're looking to increase brand awareness, generate leads or nurture more business opportunities with existing customers, I can create a tailored marketing plan that will realise your specific business objectives.

 

To find out more, please get in touch and I'll be happy to chat further about your business objectives and marketing requirements for 2010/2011.

New service from The Loop improves webinar recording quality

Ever on the quest to improve the way we deliver webinars, The Loop is happy to announce the launch of a new synchronised Live Event + Webinar recording solution.

From testing we’ve discovered that if two speakers present a webinar in the same room, with each speaker recording to their personal laptops via a microphone headset, then the sound for both speakers has a habit of going slightly out of sync.  This is caused by slight variable broadband speeds experienced on different laptops, even from the same WiFi or wired broadband service.  This is not necessarily noticeable on the live presentation, but if you record the event, you can end up with an annoying echo on the sound track. 

Then why not record the webinar via more traditional phone line, you may ask.  Overall, the webinar technology vendors recommend that you record your webinar straight to your personal computer to achieve the best quality sound for the live event.  From testing, we’ve found that is definitely the case.  So if you’re looking for the best quality recording, microphones are the way to go.

But what about the nasty echo on the recording?  In response to this issue, The Loop is partnering with Icon Presentations, one of the City of London’s leading Audio Visual suppliers, to offer a new integrated ‘Live Event + Webinar’ audio visual solution.   Put simply, any business can now present to an online and venue-based audience in one seamless, synchronised, live event production.  

This audio visual solution has been designed to solve the above mentioned sound synchronisation problems between the live and online audio whilst also improving speaker sound settings for individual presentations and panel discussions.  The result is a superior, professional audio visual experience for both the online and face-to-face audiences.   

Does your business need help with the broadcast of a simultaneous webinar and face-to-face seminar?  If so, please get in touch.  We’re always happy to discuss your specific event requirements without obligation.