Creating A Strong Corporate Blog

Yesterday I attended an all day webcast hosted by MarketingProfs focused on best practices for using Social Media, Website ROI Measurement, Email and Blogging. There is great value in having a blog for your business, if done right. As a consultant I often hear- "blogs are free so we really can do this ourselves. " Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

Leading the corporate blog panel was Christi Day/ PR Coordinator from Southwest Airlines and Lionel Manchaca, Chief Blogger at Dell. Once you select the blog tool to use, you need a business plan. Things to consider in defining your corporate blog

Why do I need/want a blog? - conversation is going on in the consumer world with or without your participation….be a participant! Have another communication channel to interact with your customer base

What is the goal of your blog?

Manpower- this is always the one that catches the small business owner by surprise. Are you dedicated to making daily contributions, real time replies to customer questions and complaints, tracking your presence on the blogosphere for hot spot sand damage control? Will you be distributing the blog? Though Dell and Southwest Airlines are both large companies, they do have best practices in place to execute successful blog communities. Southwest has a full time emerging media team of 7 in place strictly for online communication efforts. Likewise Dell has several teams in place to respond to bloggers.

Resources & Time both companies agree that a strong corporate blog has provided an additional communication channel for their company and the value well worth it. But dedication and personnel are instrumental.

Blogs are free? The tool is free. Consider you may need tech, design support, personnel full-time or part-time to make ongoing updates to your blog

Legal Issues- be careful of commenting on competitors, safety issues, claims etc. A lawyer can be helpful in reviewing content before you post

Detractors -negative comments about your business posted on your blog. There will always be that one negative voice out there. Take control and use this as an opportunity to engage that person and provide customer service and resolve problems.

Challenges- Creating content on a schedule. Will you be posting daily, weekly? Adding Video & Podcasting – that is more hands on time to schedule.

These are just a few things I took away from the Webcast .

Importance of social marketing grows for travel companies

Travel Weekly interviews several travel companies on insight on how they use social media to engage customers and generate sales. As the social-networking phenomenon grows and evolves, travel agencies, home-based agents, suppliers and destination marketers who sit on the sidelines may risk missing significant opportunities to engage existing customers, recruit new ones, bolster their brands, undertake market research and, yes, drive bookings

Consider Adding Social-Media/Social-Bookmarking Sites

Share your favorite sites on the Web with potential clients and business partners by commenting on, uploading and ranking different newsworthy articles. You can also create a member profile that directs traffic back to your company's Web site.
Reddit: Upload stories and articles on reddit to drive traffic to your site or blog. Submit items often so that you'll gain a more loyal following and increase your presence on the site.
Digg: Visitors can submit and browse articles in categories like technology, business, entertainment, sports and more.
Del.icio.us: Social bookmark your way to better business with sites like del.icio.us, which invite users to organize and publicize interesting items through tagging and networking.
StumbleUpon: open your online presence up to a whole new audience just by adding the StumbleUpon toolbar to your browser and "channel surf[ing] the Web. You'll "connect with friends and share your discoveries," as well as "meet people that have similar interests."
Ning: After hanging around the same social networks for a while, you may feel inspired to create your own, where you can bring together clients, vendors, customers and co-workers. Ning lets users design free social networks that they can share with anyone.
Squidoo: According to Squidoo,everyone's an expert on something. Share your industry's secrets by answering questions and designing a profile page to help other members.
WikiHow: Create a how-to guide or tutorial on wikiHow to share your company's services with the public for free.
YouTube: From the fashion industry to Capitol Hill, everyone has a video floating around on YouTube. Shoot a behind-the-scenes video from your company's latest commercial or event to give customers and clients an idea of what you do each day.

testing out Ping!

Should you hire an Online Marketing Temp?

Ask small-business owners to name their top priority and they’ll tell you it’s making sales and growing their businesses. Trouble is, small-business owners shoulder so many day-to-day tasks, there’s little time to master online marketing – and no time to make a potential mistake that impacts your bottom line

PPC, SEM, SEO, Twitter &Tweets, Long Tail, Broad Match, CTR, CPM, CPA, Local Search, HTML Email, Analytics, Meta, Conversions, ROI, Contextual, Ad Network, LeadGen,- what does this all mean for your business?

Once it was a simply a matter of having a website. You figured out a simple web design or outsourced it to a specialist. Having a website does not mean you will be found online. Your site must be 1.Optimized and 2.Marketed /Targeted.

It makes sense to outsource some of your online marketing to a specialist. It is vital to have a knowledgeable person deal with one of the most visible features of your business- your online brand. Online Marketing today is specialized: SEO, SEM, Email Marketing, Video/Podcast /Bloggers, Social media. Where do you start and how much to spend? All media has value, but not all media is right for your business.

As an online marketing temp, I conduct a detailed needs analysis of your business. I help small business owner enhance their site; improve their search engine presence through viral marketing, seo and targeted content. It is a tedious process but the benefits are worth it. Having an Online Marketing Temp to work with you a few hours each week or each month, you can achieve maximum results without spending a lot of money, or making a hiring commitment. A media plan written for your business allows you to “focus”, review and plan accordingly. If you need online marketing guidance I provide onsite or virtual temp services by the hour , 5 hours or more. Contact info@iwanttoadvertise.com

Twitter and Business

Online Media Daily feature on the evolution of Twitter for business.About 56% of Twitter users say they use the online social communication site for business purposes.... you can read the article at http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=101018

Small Business Challenge : Internet Marketing in the Travel Sector

Recently I visited the New York Times Travel Show to find out how are small businesses in the travel industry marketing themselves during the down economy? The New York Times Travel Show, Feb. 6-8, is the largest consumer and travel trade show of its kind in the U.S.
The entire travel industry has felt the impact of the recession. Hardest hit are smaller tour operators focused on one specific destination, as well as some destinations with a glut of accommodations- like Vegas. The challenge is how do you market your business, sell services in a down economy when you have a product that is not a “need” but a “want” ?
Many businesses represented at the show indicated online advertising and social media will play a key role in their 2009 marketing plans- regardless of the economic slowdown.
As an Interactive Marketing Consultant for the tourism industry I see trends such as: moving some money from Pay per Click to Lead Generation. Bidding on Google can be quite competitive and small budgets go fast. When clicks don’t convert it can be hard to have a strong presence in Google Adwords. Surprisingly many of my smaller travel clients are finding Google is not performing for them. Part of this is due to a lack of knowledge on how to mange bids/keywords and ad groups- which can be a full time job. Anyone with $ 50 can create a GoogleAdwords campaign, but that doesn’t mean you are equipped to manage a campaign.
People want tangible results. In lead generation or CPL you only pay per lead received. You also receive the actual email address and contact information of the person that clicks on you unique landing page (part of the lead gen campaign). At the end of the campaign you now own the database of leads. Once you have that “contact info” you can market to them again and again at no cost. I work with lead generation programs in addition to other interactive advertising programs for tourism clients – feel free to post a question