BlogIndiana – Be There
One of the coolest events of the year, (atleast for local bloggers) is BlogIndiana. This two day event brings together experts and rookies sharing advice, ideas and strategies.
It is a great way to connect off line, with people you have met online ( And in many cases the conversations continue back on line, long after the event is over.)
I will be attending the first day of BlogIndiana again this year. There is a terrific line up of speakers, and it was tough to decide on who I would check out and who I would unfortunately have to skip.
Will you be there? It promises to be a great event.
Sweet Dreams from Roundpeg Radio
This has been a crazy week at Roundpeg. We have had to deal with trying to wrap up lots of projects before the end of the month, technical glitches which slowed us down, changes in equipment to run the office, and lots of interesting new assignments. After a long week, we all need a rest coming in to the weekend
So this week we thought we would look for songs about rest, vacations and dreams. Ok so some of us also saw Inception, so weird dreams are in the back of our minds .
We are going to kick off with Sweet Dreams by the Eurythmics to get us in the mood. Then we will be live until 3 PM today , and the play list will be up all week. Send send your song requests to @roundpegradio.
NOTE: The widget takes a minute to load, and you’ll have to refresh to see the new songs. Make sure your speakers are on!
All Things Marketing: Give People a Reason to Come Back
In real life, the first time you meet someone, you do not need to tell them everything they need to know about you. More then likely, they will discover those things over time.
The same is true for email and blog strategies. With an ideal length of 250 – 400 words keep your focus on one or two topics. If you have caught the attention of the reader, they will come back for more!
This topic is explored in more detail in this excerpt from the All Things Marketing Seminar this spring.
Seven Link Challenge – Day Two – Posts by My Team
This is the second in a series of posts inspired by Darren Rowes Seven Link Challenge .. Today’s posts features links to posts by members of my team.
One of the coolest things that has happened over the last few months, is how many really great posts the members of the Roundpeg team have written. They each have their own style, and bring something unique to the blog, giving it a wonderful mix of flavors. Here are just a few of my favorites:
- From Jay: What Websites Have in Common with a Trailer Park
- From Taylor: So many good choices, but I had to go with: I Don’t Love Heats and Flowers
- Allison hasn’t been here very long, but she is a writer, so I had so many great posts from which to choose. I finally decided on this one: Bad Customer Service is Worse PR
- We’ve had a number of talented interns over the last few yeas, and I went back into the archives for this one by Neil Chaggra who was at Roundpeg last fall: Tie Your Shoes
- And this one by Melinda Cooper: Retweeting is What Makes Twitter Work
- From one of our team of current intern’s Kelly Rogers: Music, Food and a Bit of Research. The Life of a Roundpeg Intern
- And finally a sentimental favorite. Although my daughter Michelle no longer works here at Roundpeg, I had to include my favorite post by her: First Post by First Daughter
These are my favorites. Did I miss one of yours?
Contests Made Simple with Wildfire
Almost any small business can benefit from the buzz a great contest builds. A well executed contest engages clients, prospects and sometimes even the media. Powerful tools to build brand awareness and generate prospect lists, contests can often be tedious, time consuming, and challenging to administer.
In the past, the effort involved often discouraged my small business clients from taking on the challenge of a contest. The we discovered Wildfire. This is a terrific, cost effective online contest application.
What I like About using Wildfire:
- It was relatively easy to build the campaign. (Depending on how much time you want to spend on the graphics you can be up in less than an hour)
- Options: Sweepstakes, coupons, photos and essay contests
- Easy Promotion
- Inserts easily into a Facebook Fan page.
- Facebook is not required -Wildfire also offers simply widget for website and a microsite you can direct contestants to as well.
- It creates a banner which can be a part of your website and drives entrants to microsite or Facebook page.
- The simple user interface makes it easy for people to invite their friends and expand the contest virally.
- Reasonable Price: Depending on the length of the campaign, and the amount of customization you require, your administration budget will be a fraction of what it used to cost to run a program like this. Typically under $200
What I don’t like about Wildfire: ( Lets face it, nothing is perfect)
- You can only share with 6 people a day through Facebook – Maybe this is a Facebook thing. You can send emails, but I really like the viral nature of Facebook, and it is a shame to limit it.
- In some campaigns we can capture emails of everyone who submits, but not everyone who votes. To accomplish this, we created a two part campaign using Formstack for the voting
In general, I am excited about Wildfire, we are testing a number of the variations for clients in the coming months. Including our own : Biz Card Makeover
Have you used Wildfire? What experiences have you had with the product?
Don’t forget to – enter your child or grandchild to win a ride on a helicopter, zamboni machine and more!
5 Reasons Your Social Media Isn’t Working? Try Marketing Basics!
The more I learn about internet marketing and effective use of social media the more I am convinced it isn’t really any different then traditional marketing. Amanda Brooke writing for Drop Ship News identified five reasons a social media campaign might not deliver the results you seeking.
Take a look at her list and ask yourself this question – Is there anything on this list which doesn’t apply equally to the off line world?
- Targeting the wrong demographic – This needs no translation
- Failure to use good SEO – In the off line world it would translate to: Failure to use good advertising strategy, placing media in the wrong places
- Your content and contributions were substandard – Offline: Your ads are cheesy, poorly designed or uninteresting
- You came across as shady and untrustworthy – Again, no translation needed
- You spread yourself too thin – On or offline, you can not be all things to all people. Decide where you can be most effective, and commit!
Do you have other examples of how the rules on and off line are the same? Share them here.
Email, Email and More Email
While social media is all the rage, and everyone wants to follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook, and link up on Linkedin, I still believe there is a place for email in your marketing mix.
Email is an important part of your overall internet marketing campaign and as a small business owner, it is a simple and affordable way to stay in touch. Over the last few months I have written several posts abut ways to improve your email. If you have missed any of them be sure to check out:
- Still a Place for Email - This is a compliation of some of my favorite tips on ways to make your email more productive.
- Don’t Torture Your Prospects - Email is wonderful, easy and cheap, but it can also be annoying if you overuse it.
- Marketing Drip Campaigns - Small focused campaigns are a great way to stay in touch with your clients.
Want to learn more? Sign up for our email newsletter!
Does Your Small Business Have a Social Media Policy?
A few days ago, I shared some of the results from our social media survey. This particular post focused on the question as to whether a small business had a social media policy.
Reviewing the data, and checking out other companies policies got me thinking about the Roundpeg policy. As every new employee, interns included, join the Roundpeg team, they are asked to set up a twitter and LinkedIn accounts. Most of them already have Facebook pages. And I really think Facebook is still personal, but as a B2B marketing firm, twitter and Linkedin are seriously business applications.
My primary guidance is to behave on line exactly the way you would at a networking event. Be polite, friendly,helpful, informative, personable, and interesting. Occasionally it is ok to try to sell something, but only after you have done all the other things listed above.
I found a wonderful example of a social media policy, In this example example,the policy focuses less on what to say, and more on but what to do. I love the fact that customer satisfation strategies are included in the policy. This is a great example of how social media should shape business.
HEADSET BROS – SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY
What about your firm? Do you have a social media policy?
Vote for Your Favorite
Entries are now closed, but you can still vote for your favorite by selecting the link below. Be sure to pick the card you believe most deserves to win!
I Must Be On the Right Track… I Have Other Trains Behind Me!
It’s been an amazing summer here at Roundpeg. Allison, Taylor, and Jay are all hitting their stride and constantly coming up with ideas to serve our clients in new and exciting ways, and we’re lucky enough to have four fabulous interns to assist us.
Emily came up with the idea of creating a custom landing page for our Facebook Fan Page (Please Like us!) and Dan and Heather did an awesome job implementing it. Thanks to Kelly, our WordPress pages are filled with unique new plug-ins.
Jay’s been taking the lead on increasing our involvement with AddressTwo, while Allison’s been focused on behind-the-scenes logistics. Taylor’s been driving our successful Business Card Makeover contest.
And me? I’ve been working to support my team and make sure they have all the tools they need to keep up the good work. How do I know it’s good work? We’re starting to see imitators pop up with ideas that are remarkably similar to our own.
And we all know that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
