Marketing Commentary from interlinkONE
Multi-channel marketing communications - all in one!
John Foley Jr. speaking on Social Media at NAPL Conference
Posted by 
on Wednesday, February 3, 2010 
at 11:04 AM 
in John Foley Jr., President and CEO of interlinkONE, inc. will be speaking at the NAPL Conference on Tuesday, February 16th on the subject of “How to Use Social Media to Build Your Business.”
The conference will be held in Marco Island, Florida
Here is an overview of what John will be discussing:
LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook- these sites are growing in popularity in all vertical markets and are being leveraged to promote printing and marketing services. In this session John presents advice on how to use these social media sites to grow your print and marketing services provider business. He presents real-world scenarios and shares the pros and cons of each of these popular sites.
For more information about the NAPL Conference , you can visit their website at http://www.napl2010.com/tmc/
Tags Are you using these Headline Techniques?
Headlines are of the utmost importance when it comes to gaining the attention of your reader. There are some tactics that you can implement so that more people to click on your article and read it! Psychotactics.com posted an article about how to use headlines more effectively. When posting on Twitter and Facebook, I had always written a quick blurb about the article that I wanted to share with people and then posted it without much thought. I was intrigued to see how changing my headline could better capture my audience.
Psychotactics.com broke the advice into three psychological triggers.
1. Question based vs. Statement based headlines
This trigger simply means that humans are curious by nature. Give them a question and they will automatically want to learn more. Ex: Do you get the most out of your social media marketing?
2. Problem based vs. Solution based headlines
This trigger taps into a humans need to solve problems. When the target audience sees a headline with a problem, their brain wants them to read it so that they can then solve their problem. Ex: Are you struggling to manage all of your social media pages?
3. Curious vs. Non-curious headlines
This trigger explains how the word “these” can have the most impact on your headline. When people read “these” in a headline, curiosity makes them HAVE to read the article because life as they know it may come to an end if they don’t know what “these” are. Ex: Are you using these headline techniques?
After reading the article, I began using the triggers in my headlines for posts that I made to both Twitter and Facebook. Using ilink.me, I created trackable short URLs. Typically, when I would post a link to Twitter, I would get about thirty hits to my link each time it was posted. Within ten minutes of posting, “Are tough times causing marketers to promise too much?” with my link, I had over sixty hits. I began to write more headlines such as, “Are you doing these things to take search measurement beyond last-click metrics?” and “Do you know which marketing and selling trends that you should be paying attention to?” Not only are people reposting my tweets more frequently, they are also reading and clicking on my links twice as often.
Give your headlines a facelift and see more results from your posts! As said in psychotactics.com, “Better headlines mean better bottom lines.”
A link to the site to read the full article from Psychotactics.com is: http://ilnk.me/1569
Get your own ilink.me account (free!!) to track your links at: http://ilink.me
Tips for Using Facebook in Social Marketing
Facebook can be a quintessential tool in social marketing when used correctly. Facebook, a social networking site that was originally created for college students, has exploded on the internet. It is now open to everyone with networks including colleges, companies, and locations.
With more than 350 million active users, it is no surprise that Facebook revenue will be close to $600 million according to marketingpilgrim.com. That is 350 million people who could possibly be viewing your company’s profile, 350 million chances to wow someone.
Perhaps the biggest benefit of Facebook for businesses is that it allows you to connect to your audience in a more personable manner which is very effective at fostering trust and credibility for your company.
Things to Remember:
1. Keep your information contact information, web address, and any other pertinent information current and accurate.
2. Beware of over posting. It could be considered spamming.
3. Use events to get the attention of your fans, group members, or friends. Whether you are launching a new product, going to a convention, or having a company outing, use events to build excitement and share your news with a wide array of people.
4. People remember pictures, not words. Post photos whenever you can.
5. Take advantage of the option to “Message All Members” in a group when you have something special to share.
Facebook Basics For Marketing Services Providers
Are you Facebooking your prospects and customers? With today’s technology and the multiple ways you can interact with your prospects and get your message across, it’s important to take advantage of the more popular social media sites where your prospects and customers hang out. Did you know that Facebook has over 200 million active users? Don’t you think your current and future customers are among them? So stop putting off the inevitable and set up a Facebook business page so you can connect with prospects and customers, promote your products/services, and also the content you put out (articles, videos, audios, etc.) about your products and services.
Keep in mind that there is a difference between personal and business accounts on Facebook. Business accounts are limited in the information they are able to access compared to the standard accounts. You can’t send or receive friend requests. However, this shouldn’t prevent you from creating a business page for your company. In fact, there are benefits to business pages, where you can designate multiple administrators to manage and post to the account. Also, the pages are public and therefore will attain rank in Facebook and search engine results.
A business page can garner “fans” and you can still post events, pictures, videos, polls and other interactive ways to promote your business and build the buzz.
So remember: profiles are personal but pages are business in Facebook world. So you’ll want to set up a page (not a profile). And remember to only create one account, because Facebook doesn’t take kindly to those who create multiple accounts.
After you create your Facebook business page, you want to find “fans.” Here are some ways you can build that fan base:
- Make sure your page is searchable by the general public. This is typically the default setting, but you may want to double-check and look at the Settings on the Edit page. Make sure your page is “Published (publically visible).”
- Announce your new Facebook page on your website / blog with a link to your page and an invitation to become a fan.
- If you have a newsletter, be sure to include the news about your new Facebook page.
- Send out an email to all your existing contacts asking them to check out your Facebook page, become a fan and leave a post.
- Leverage your other social media profiles and invite those connections and followers to check you out on Facebook. For example, if you’re active on Twitter, you should tweet the link to your Facebook page and ask your followers to become fans.
- Post a Facebook badge or widget on your website to let your site visitors know about your Facebook page.
- Think about using Facebook ads. Yes, it costs some money, but the advertising will get your business name in front of a lot of eyeballs.
Of course, it will be easier to get more fans as you build your page and add content that is informative and engaging. Add polls, events, links and videos. Invite commentary by posting questions. Pull in the RSS feed of your blog. Post about special discounts or coupons. As you build upon your page, current fans will share the page with their colleagues and friends and your fan base will grow.
Remember, Facebook is not just about information or entertainment. It’s also about relationship building. Connect with your fans and respond to any posts by prospects and customers. It’s important to create a dialogue with your fans, rather than just have a running monologue of business information.
VIDEO: Using Social Media to Build Business
Video Series: Using Social Media to Build Business
interlinkONE’s President and CEO, John Foley, Jr., has delivered the presentation “Using Social Media to Build Business” at events around the country over the past few months.
Recently, John presented the topic at the National Association of Quick Printers (NAQP) conference in Austin, Texas…. and, we were there with our video cameras!
We have posted some of the highlights of John’s presentation.
Click here to check out video clips from John Foley, Jr.’s “Using Social Media to Build Business”.
Some of the highlights include:
- How to find prospects with social media sites
- Using social media for customer service
- What can you actually learn in 140 characters
