Holistic Technology Enabled Internet Marketing Solutions

This is an entry in our daily Internet Marketing Advent Calendar series. Each day your favorite marketing elves will focus on a new topic to get your internet marketing in order before the start of the new year.

I love the end of a year. I love the holidays. I love the fresh start feel of a new year. I LOVE end of the year lists! This week Techcrunch shared with us the Top Twitter Hashtags of 2011.

A hashtag (#) is a way to mark a conversation on Twitter. Then you can refer to that content later and/or connect with other people who are using the hashtag. To learn more about Hashtags you can read What is a #Hashtag or How to Use Twitter Hashtags and Search to Make your Twitter Experience More Valuable.

So without further ado, here are the top Twitter Hashtags of 2011

1. egypt
2. tigerblood
3. threewordstoliveby
4. idontunderstandwhy
5. japan
6. improudtosay
7. superbowl
8. jan25

So Twitterers were talking about Egyptian revolution, Charlie Sheen (#WINNING), memes, sports and the devastation in Japan. Actually pretty well rounded when you compare it to the top web searches of the year, which is dominated by celebrity names.

So that is what people were tweeting about this year. I found the list from 2010 and 2011 was definitely a more serious list of hashtags. Interesting how Twitter is becoming a voice for change all over the world. Wonder what we will all be tweeting about next year.

Read more from our Internet Marketing Advent Calendar series!

This is an entry in our daily Internet Marketing Advent Calendar series. Each day your favorite marketing elves will focus on a new topic to get your internet marketing in order before the start of the new year.

Saint Nicholas knows how to reach every person he needs to but does your organization? By using LinkedIn Advertising your company could be getting in touch with just the right people at just the right time!

LinkedIn is obviously a great new resource for businesses to use. It’s a great networking site for business professionals and companies. In many cases, because of its business professional nature, it can be especially useful for companies that operate in the business to business environment. Recently I began to research the possibilities of using LinkedIn Advertising for B2B efforts. At first glance, it certainly seems to be an option worth testing for many B2B’s.

Here is a quick introduction to LinkedIn Advertising:

• Setup

  LinkedIn Advertising is done directly through LinkedIn, and your LinkedIn account. It is made to be very simple to use. To create your ads they have an easy to use template. For each ad created, payment fees are charged by pay-per-click (PPC) or pay-per-thousand impression (CPM), you set a maximum bid for each click or thousand impressions, and a daily budget can be specified.

  

• Ad Content/Placement:

  In your ad you are given a space for a small image (branded or not), a headline (up to 25 characters), and a 75 word description to catch the attention of the audience. Once launched, the ads can be seen at the right of each LinkedIn page and in a banner at the bottom of each page.

  

• Ad Targeting:

  The number one reason that makes this form of PPC advertising unique is its exceptional ability to target in the B2B environment. Because LinkedIn users list specific professional information tied to their employer and their job duties/titles, LinkedIn allows you to target your ads down to very specific parameters related to professionals. The following is the list of options you have for targeting:

  • Geography – by continent, country, state, even major cities
  • Company – industries, company size, or even by a specific company or list
  • Job Titles – categories, functions, seniority, specific job titles
  • Group – specific LinkedIn groups and networks
  • Gender
  • Age

  These targeting options open up amazing possibilities. For example, if you provide HR services to retailers, you can target your ads towards only certain job titles or departments related to HR. Then, you can narrow targeting to only the retail industry and even to specific retailers you want to reach. If you wanted to only target employees at JC Penny, you could do that. If you specialize your services for only small retailers in Maine or only large retailers in the US and Canada, that can be done as well. The options are abundant and at first glance seem to be extremely useful.

Read more posts from the Internet Marketing Advent Calendar!

This is an entry in our daily Internet Marketing Advent Calendar series. Each day your favorite marketing elves will focus on a new topic to get your internet marketing in order before the start of the new year.

When you were little, did you ever have to travel for Christmas? Remember how scared you were that Santa wouldn’t know you weren’t home? I remember writing letters and nagging my parents to make SURE he knew we weren’t going to be home for Christmas.

If you could just capture a thread of that nervous energy and use it to start a fire to get your social media icons on your website and other promotional items – that would be swell. I see so many companies that have a decent presence on social media sites, a great newsletter or a great blog but there is little to no mention of it on their site. Your additional internet marketing efforts should be integrated into the other forms of marketing you are doing… not be separated.

Someone may be in the research phase of their buying process and come across your company. Perhaps they aren’t ready to buy but if they started following your Twitter account, Like you on Facebook, sign up for your email newsletter, subscribe to your blog etc., when they are ready to buy you stand a better chance of being on the top of their mind.

Letting people know where else they can find your content is as easy as adding icons to your website or promotional items. You could also add widgets for social media sites and email newsletter signup boxes right on other pages of your site.

Integrate all of your marketing efforts that you can! Just like you didn’t want Santa dropping your loot off at the wrong house, you don’t want your next customers subscribing to your competitors content over yours!

Photo credit: kdonovan_gaddy

This is an entry in our daily Internet Marketing Advent Calendar series. Each day your favorite marketing elves will focus on a new topic to get your internet marketing in order before the start of the new year.

Thanksgiving Day, every year the same two local radio stations drop their format and go straight to 24/7 Christmas music. Some will cry it is too much. Some will say it is overkill. But… when you feel that twinge of holiday spirit creep in your bones, you know what channels you will be turning the dial to.

So here WE are again for another year to do our Advent Blog schedule – to be consistent. People like consistency. They like knowing what they are going to get. Throughout the year people bring up this series to me. They like it. We like doing it so it is a win-win.

Of course there is always room to surprise people but being dependable for what people want is one of the best things you can do for your business and your marketing messages.

Three places where being consistent will help your internet marketing

1. Keep your website consistent with your industry and with websites in general – Many creatives will disagree with me here but this really depends on your business. If you are in the B2B industry, people are coming to your site to research your company and your services, they are coming for information and they are coming to gather data so they can make a buying decision. While they are collecting that information, they don’t want to learn how to use your website. There are things they have become dependent on like easy to use navigation, an About Us page, product pages etc.
2. Keep your messaging and tone consistent – Make sure the content on your website, blog and social media profiles are consistent. Although many blogs and social media profiles often have a more personal tone, don’t let it be the exact opposite of your company site. A person may get to know you through your social media accounts first and you don’t want them to feel like they got duped when they visit your site.
3. Keep the your posting schedule consistent – If you have an email newsletter, blog or social media profiles you should try to keep how often you post to them somewhat regular. There is something dependable about knowing I am getting a newsletter each week or month. A blog or social media site that sits stagnant for months and then posts in bursts is hard to get any traction on. Space your posting out and make yourself accountable to get things out on a regular basis.

And so beings our consistent routine with the 2011 Advent Schedule! Enjoy!