Start Increasing Your Revenue with Social Media

Inspired by Mike Stelzner’s post on his Writing White Papers blog and the positive comments on my comment, I thought I’d share on my blog how I’ve used social media to grow my business in 2008, particularly the past 3 months.

These tips work particularly well for solopreneurs and small businesses, but even the largest of companies can benefit from taking advantage of some of these tactics.

My Overall Approach to Using Social Media for Biz

The vast majority of the time, I keep my personal and professional online ‘personalities’ separate. My username for almost all of my online biz profiles is B2BMarketingPR or very similar variation like my Twitter name B2B_MarketingPR, so that followers can recognize me across all social media outlets. I use another username and separate profile for personal accounts. People interested in B2B marketing/PR want info from me directly related to that, they don’t care what I’m doing over the weekend. My friends/family aren’t into marketing, but do care what I’m doing over the weekend. Right now I only use Facebook for personal use, if use it for biz I’ll set up a separate profile.

Blog

Started this biz blog in Sept., (having great time doing it!) been great for SEO and driving traffic to my website, and sharing knowledge and resources with the community. More important, one client found me through Google via a blog post, and fellow copywriter that read my blog referred a client to me because they were too busy at the time.

LinkedIn

I have full profile including several endorsement quotes and links to my blog posts via WordPress application. Very picky re: who I connect with and send connection requests to. I send connect invites to B2B tech marketing/PR pros in my network (I did B2B tech MKT/PR in-house for many years before going solo so already had solid network) who could potentially use my services IF they accept consulting requests and I keep it light, not ‘hard sell’. Secured 2 clients by doing this, and another client found me on their own when searching LinkedIn.

Joined several groups and monitor discussions via email updates in case anyone requests copywriting help. Just yesterday I submitted links to a blog post of mine and an article I wrote to the ‘news’ section of the groups I’m in, already driving nice traffic to my blog and I’ve gotten 2 new email newsletter subscribers in less than 18 hours.

Occasionally answer questions posted to Answers section of LinkedIn, one of my answers resulted in me being quoted in an upcoming book on effectively working with clients. Didn’t know person was writing book when submitted answer, just good karma

I put a link to my LI profile on my website to encourage people to connect with me, and also include link in my email signature.

Twitter

Started using in Sept., have 300+ followers so far. I make a conscious effort to only tweet about my blog posts, articles, etc. 30% of time, 70% is sharing other people’s information I find really useful and think my followers would too. I don’t want to be the annoying person who only talks about themselves, doesn’t build trust and credibility.

Very selective about who I follow in order to only get info relevant to me and make Twitter manageable. I DON’T follow a bunch of people just to get them to check out my site or follow me back to increase my numbers.

Several followers regularly ‘re-tweet’ my tweets which helps drive traffic to my blog posts and free article downloads.

A follower who is the owner of a marketing agency in my area got in touch with me via Twitter and hired me for a project. I found a virtual assistant via Twitter who will be helping me with admin tasks I don’t have time for, helping me grow my biz.

I put Twitter button on my website which encourages people to follow me, and also include a link in my email signature.

StumbleUpon

Drives a ton of traffic to my blog and website, better quality than one might think at first. I’m ‘friends’ with 30+ people also into biz marketing, PR, SEO, social media who I send my stuff to give a ‘thumbs up’ (and they send me theirs in kind) which gets it viewed by more people. Have had one blogger link to a blog post of mine when found it via SU, which drove nice traffic to my blog and a few new RSS subscribers.

Commenting on Blogs

I selectively comment on blogs I follow, just like today’s comment on Mike Stelzner’s, making a conscious effort to give useful information, not selling my services. I’ve received nice site traffic from doing this (at least what can tell as most blog comments are ‘no follow’ links) and am not positive it was directly related but think I’ve gotten new newsletter and RSS subscribers from these efforts.

Squidoo

I made a lens re: B2B marketing, PR, social media, SEO on Squidoo which ranks highly on Google for some keywords. Link to my website on lens drives a bit of traffic, not much, but it’s highly targeted. No direct results yet but need to invest more time into lens as it’s not great.

Also using Technorati and delicious, but no results from those yet. I also did a search engine optimized press release on the Most Powerful Online Tool for Influencing B2B Technology Buyers free research report I wrote which got picked up by several blogs and MarketingVOX and MarketingCharts did articles which resulted in a prospective client contacting me.

I set aside 30 minutes - 1 hour a day to these efforts during work week, more on weekends.

I’d love to know how you’re growing your business with social media, please share your strategies and tips!

I attended a great event Tuesday on social media marketing strategies for B2B and B2G technology companies, hosted by Women In Technology, a Washington, D.C. association of women technology professionals. Although the event focused on tech, the strategies and principles shared can be used in any industry. Here are the slides from the presentation.

Although I didn’t expect many of the 80+ attendees to be active in social media, as the event was an overview not deep-dive, I was surprised to be the only one in the room that knew what Technorati is. Many of the people had never heard of Twitter, although I did speak with a few who recently began using Twitter for personal use and 1 using it for their company (Jen Krupey (Twitter name: @krupey) of Viget Labs (Twitter name: @viget), one of the event speakers). A few people using Facebook for personal use, but didn’t hear of anyone using it for business. Quite a few people interested in starting a blog for their company, but having a hard time justifying time and resources to executives since ROI can be difficult to measure. LinkedIn was also brought up, but the only people using it for marketing or business is recruiters. New LinkedIn applications may make it more effective for marketing purposes.

The panel of 4 speakers included Matt Goddard of R2integrated, Susan Kearney of Smith Gifford, Jen Krupey, Director Marketing Services for Viget Labs, and Brian Reed, CMO of Boxtone.

Quick overview of tips and insights:

• Marketing IS technology - think about how technology can make every marketing program more effective, efficient, or measurable
• The Web should be viewed by marketers as a buying engine for customers, not a selling engine for companies
• Figure out how your customers want to purchase and do it their way
• 3 parts of the digital ecosystem:
  • Engagement - the user experience
  • Distribution - the social media outlets used to provide user experience
  • Analytics - the technology/systems used to measure results
• Don’t fall into the “fad trap” - just because there are new technology-based marketing techniques doesn’t mean they are right for your business
• Measure real success (revenue, new customers), not the steps along the way (leads, mentions, etc.)
• Think of your website as a neighborhood or marketplace, make it vibrant and interactive
• It’s the content stupid… Good content distributed widely to the places your target audiences are already visiting is best, especially for up-and-coming companies
• Embrace two-way communication
• Start a lot of fires and see which ones burn - Don’t wait until you feel you’re a social media master before trying different avenues. Social media is ‘learn as you go’, as no way to tell what will be effective for you until you try it
• Don’t forget search engine optimization (SEO), but don’t rely on just SEO to drive people to your online materials. Must seek out where people already are online and meet them there.
• Adopt the mindset of a direct marketer - test, measure, lather, rinse, repeat
• Always be transparent. Don’t try to fool your audience, it will get ugly.

Jen Krupey has posted her presentation slides on the Viget Labs blog, including discussion of the “Motrin Moms”, a group of upset mothers commenting on and responding to an online video advertisement by pain reliever medicine brand Motrin via social media, particularly Twitter.

The speakers recommended the following books:

• Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff

• Guerilla Marketing with Technology: Unleashing the Full Potential of Your Small Business by Jay Conrad Levinson

• The New Rules of Marketing & PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing & Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly by David Meerman Scott (I highly recommend this as well)

What social media strategies are working (or aren’t) for your company? Any advice or tips?