At TribalVision, we talk a lot about the concept of thought leadership: what it is, how it works for your business, and how to position yourself and your company as thought leaders. The concept is fairly simple. When you provide great content, free resources, and useful information, you are actively working on your content marketing, and in the process, you’re establishing thought leadership, which ultimately positions you, your staff, and your company as trustworthy experts in your field.

For example, when you produce a high quality, informative white paper and make it freely available on your website, that’s content marketing. You share links to that white paper via social media and e-newsletters, and that broadens your reach. Once people read the content, they gain useful information while forming a positive opinion of your firm for helping them become informed consumers, for properly utilizing social media for information sharing (not blatant self-promotion), and for sharing your knowledge to anyone who’s interested. This all establishes thought leadership, which is essential in today’s content marketing environment.

Now What?
Today, Google is getting in on the whole concept of establishing and maintaining thought leadership. With the release and steady increase in popularity of their social networking arm, Google+, those thinkers and tinkers at Google have branched out even further into the realm of blurring the lines between social media, personal Internet experience, and content marketing. Introducing “Search, Plus Your World,” which some social media marketers are calling, “Google Social Search” because the official name is a bit of a mouthful and doesn’t mention Google.

The gist of Google’s new search functionality is that, when logged into Google+, users can opt-in to the social search function, which will not only provide the full Google search results one would expect but also provides images, content, and Google+ posts from “circle” members all right there in the results feed. Imagine one of your Google+ connections is searching on Google for information about your industry. Wouldn’t you want your information, your recommendations, your content to be front and center for that searcher? Well, if you’re active on Google+ as part of your content marketing, you will be. And not only does that keep your name in the searcher’s mind, it further establishes and maintains your position as a thought leader and a trusted resource.

Getting There
With so much potential in this new search functionality from Google, we highly recommend you look over your website and ensure that your social media sharing and following links include a Google+ option. Let your visitors know where to find you, and encourage them to do so.

How are you utilizing Google+? Are your social media followers joining you there? We want to hear from you!

On February 28, TribalVision Founder, Chris Ciunci joined panelists from Constant Contact, The Washington Trust Company, and other national and local marketing experts to discuss eMarketing and technology at the Providence Business News’ summit, held at the Providence Marriott. The entire TribalVision team was very excited to participate through Chris’s involvement in the summit, and the event spurred a lot of great conversations around our new Westminster Street office both before and after it took place.

One of the things we discussed most was a key element at the summit: Marketing in a “new normal economy.” Says TribalVision VP of Client Experience, Damien Cabral,

“The way business was done before this recession and before the Internet just can’t be done anymore. You can’t expect to get the same results that you used to now that we’re into this new operating environment. So the key is to position yourself differently. You can’t just bang people over the head anymore. You have to provide value and you have to stay in front of consumers. One of the best ways to do that is to be positioned as a thought leader and provide content in numerous different fashions. That could be through things as diverse as releasing white papers or speaking at local events.

The other key is when you’re at those events, you don’t want to promote yourself at all. You’re promoting yourself just by being there and providing relevant content. The old school way of thinking is, while you’re at those events, you plug your company and yourself three or four different times throughout the event. The new way of thinking is you don’t plug yourself once. You go up there, make sure you provide great content, and if you do a good enough job, then you might not get a call that same day or the next day, but something might happen six months down the road, and that’s going to have a much higher chance of turning into a closed deal than just sending out a direct mail piece.”

Around here, we think of this as the “Pinterest Method of Marketing,” in that it’s not directly self-serving. Instead, you focus on creating great content, put it out there wisely, and everything else comes together. Of course, that’s all well and good for a marketing company, but for the average small business, content marketing for community exposure and establishment of thought leadership isn’t exactly second nature. Cabral has a helpful tip for those business owners as well.

“Start online with social media and build a base. Get used to developing content and make sure you’re dedicated to doing it on an ongoing basis because this is not something you want to start and then stop. Once you get some traction in operating in that new way, start to reach out to your local chamber of commerce, or take a look at other events that are coming up. Know what your target is. Sometimes you’re not even targeting your direct end consumer. Sometimes you’re going to target people who are in the middle.

For example, if you’re in professional services, you might want to get in front of small- to medium-sized businesses, but perhaps there’s a side route to get to that by targeting accountants and lawyers…who have a large client list of these businesses to whom they can potentially refer you to if you do a good job and can build that trust. You don’t always have to think about going straight to the end consumer.”

In this “new normal economy,” content marketing is quite literally the way of the future. TribalVision can help you find the paths that will get you on your way, through marketing research, content development, social media management, and more. Connect with us online or stop by the new office. We’re always excited to meet our neighbors.

Just over a year ago, Pinterest appeared to be little more than an online scrapbook for storing visual bookmarks of websites and projects to revisit at a future date. It was started by a small group of friends who simply thought, “wouldn’t it be cool if there were a catalog full of stuff that our friends had picked out…”? With a short development period (December 2009 to March 2010), Pinterest took off quickly, gaining such massive momentum in 2011 that nearly every marketing and social media trend prediction for 2012 includes a reference to the surprise social media darling of the moment: Pinterest.

Early adopters tended to be female, and current estimates show the trend holding with women making up approximately 70% of Pinterest’s estimated 3.3 million users. That doesn’t mean Pinterest is just for women, but it’s a great indicator that if you actively market to women, Pinterest is the place to be.

How Does It Work?
Every Pinterest account is broken up into “boards” and each board has “pins.” So, for example, Pinterest giant Whole Foods, which boasts well over 17,000 followers on the site, has 25 boards, each representing a different category such as the general, “Who wants dinner?!” and “Sweet Tooth,” and then the more specific such as, “Thankful for Thanksgiving Dinner,” and, “Creative Christmas Projects.”

What’s important to note here is that Pinterest is not about self-promotion, and it’s actually frowned upon in the “pinning etiquette” rules. So Whole Foods isn’t simply pinning photos of their products. Instead, they’re categorizing and cataloging ideas, recipes, tips, and how-tos that represent the healthy, active lifestyle they associate with food-loving Whole Foods consumers. Then, when followers “re-pin” Whole Foods’ pins to their own boards, new followers are linked to the Whole Foods pin boards, and their social media following grows. And of course it’s all linked to Facebook and Twitter too, so it’s a great way to increase your following throughout the social media space.

What Does This Mean For Small Businesses?
What’s great about Pinterest is that it gives small businesses a great outlet for showing some personality, relating to their consumers, and providing an item of perceived value to users without much effort or investment. For example, if you own a candy shop, you know all about candy. You will naturally read and be drawn to images online about your own industry. By using a Pinterest “bookmarklet,” you can easily pin images and their related content to your pin boards, letting your users know what you’re into at the moment.

Run a home improvement company? Pin images of tools you prefer and pin links to new “how to” and “DIY” articles for your followers. You’ll be creating informed consumers and providing a free resource while keeping your company’s name present in an unobtrusive manner with a positive association all at once.

Just as with Facebook, Twitter, and other forms of social media, you need to let your customer base know you’re on Pinterest. Blog about your new pin boards, post links on Facebook, and add “follow us” links to your website, social media pages, and blog. Spend time watching how others use Pinterest, and you’ll catch on quickly to 2012’s hottest social media trend.

Most small business owners, particularly in the start-up phase, tend to wear a lot of hats. They’re the “chief cook and bottle washer” of the operation, doing everything from product sales to hiring, staff training to accounting. As startups begin to grow, their owners typically begin to delegate and outsource, bringing in supervisors, hiring sales staff, or hiring an accounting firm. But for some reason, almost universally, people think they can handle their own marketing, so hiring a marketing expert or contracting with a marketing firm often comes dead last. And this is a huge mistake.

Just as with sales, accounting, training, and supervision, there is a significant amount of knowledge, training, skill, and experience required to successfully manage an organization’s marketing. Small business owners who attempt to “go it alone” in their marketing fail consistently, throwing thousands of dollars away and wasting precious time in the process.

Small business owners do sometimes have to “do it all.” But that’s hardly the same as “doing it right.” Today, we offer five topics to consider when you’re even contemplating of doing your own marketing.

Number Five: Making Assumptions is Bad Business.
Assuming that “if you build it, they will come,” is a huge mistake. This applies to stores, service businesses, websites, you name it. The best product in the world is incapable of turning a profit if no one knows about it. The same goes for assuming you know how to market your product. Just as it’s a mistake to expect a great product to sell itself, assuming you know how, where, when, and to whom to market your product or service is another costly misstep.

Number Four: Throwing It All Against The Wall To See What Sticks Is Not A Valid Plan.
Trying a little bit of everything is like wagering your entire business on a blindfolded dart player. The “throw it at the wall and see what sticks” method may be good for pasta, but it absolutely doesn’t work for marketing. Professional marketing experts can analyze your competitors’ marketing efforts across various media and see what is (and isn’t) working so you don’t have to guess. Likewise, choosing just one marketing avenue and putting all of your efforts into that single campaign is an equally costly mistake. Your target market may all be radio listeners, but they don’t all listen to the same station at the same time. You have to diversify without crossing the spectrum all the way to the dartboard mentality. A pro will know how to find that balance for you.

Number Three: No One Likes A Copycat.
Successful marketing efforts are unique and attention grabbing. They engage your audience and are memorable enough to encourage potential clients to interact with you. This means doing what everyone else is doing, or worse, running a copycat campaign, just won’t cut it. Just as you know your business best, a quality marketing team knows theirs. The right team will come in, learn your organization, listen to you, and build a one-of-a-kind campaign that’s right for your needs.

Number Two: Seek First To Understand, Then To Be Understood.
In short, listen before you speak. The marketing equivalent: research, poll, ask, and survey to get information from customers and people within your target demographic before “speaking.” What do your customers and potential customers want? What do they like and dislike about your products and services? Where do they get their product information? How do they see you? If you don’t know, you need to find out.
On the flip side, listen to those who would handle your marketing for you. Just as in nearly any industry, some are genuine professionals who know their field, while others are looking to turn a profit off of you. Listen and perform your due diligence before you hire anyone.

Number One: Just Because You Can, Doesn’t Mean You Should.
Just because it’s possible for you to do your own taxes doesn’t mean you should. A pro will often get much better results. The same holds true for marketing. Sure, you know how to post to Facebook and you can put together a flyer. But if you’re marketing more than a lemonade stand, that’s just not enough. The right marketing team can pay for itself many times over in sales and growth for your business. Look around and hear what the experts have to say.

January is a time for making resolutions, and that activity is not limited to individuals; companies make resolutions too by way of making solid plans for the coming year. One of the most important resolutions your company can make: market smarter.

Last week, Yahoo!’s finance segment “24/7 Wall Street” put out an article about “The Worst Product Flops of 2011.” While Yahoo! attributed these notable failures in great part to the fact that they were, “either inferior versions of already successful products or they have little to no demand,” there were other factors at play. One major aspect to consider is the role of marketing in launching new products or services. So, this week, let’s look back at the role of marketing in some of the items on Yahoo!’s list of product failures as we look forward to a year of marketing successes.

Number one on Yahoo!’s list was the “Ashley Push-Up Triangle,” a padded-bra-style bathing suit top sold by Abercrombie and Fitch’s kids’ line, Abercrombie Kids, which carries clothing for children ages 8-14. Parent groups were outraged over this age-inappropriate offering appearing in stores where people purchase clothes for their elementary school-age children, and A&F took a hit both financially and in terms of reputation.

There is a very key lesson here for product developers: properly utilize market research tools before launching new products. For small businesses, our top pick for new product focus groups is the online tool GutCheck, which offers real-time, online focus groups and surveys for small business marketing research. A&F’s misstep also offers a second cautionary tale: Know your customers. And if you don’t, then get to know them. Again, focus groups and surveys are great tools here. Additionally, a healthy two-way social media relationship with your client base can be an excellent place to test the waters by offering sneak peeks into what’s going on in product development.

Failing to listen to one’s client base was also key in the failure of Qwikster, the DVD-by-mail spinoff Netflix scrapped before it ever got off the ground. In this second item on Yahoo!’s 2011 Product Flops list, appropriate preliminary market research would have made a huge difference. Additionally, what Netflix failed to see here was one of the most important questions we should always ask ourselves before launching any product, service, or advertising campaign: From the consumer’s perspective, when s/he asks, “What’s in it for me?” what will the answer(s) be?

With both A&F’s and Netflix’s failures came public relations nightmares, and a lot of this fallout has to do with poor marketing choices. First, both products were arguably bad ideas from the start, which, of course, makes marketing efforts much more challenging. Second, the companies showed startling lack of self-awareness. And third, their official responses to public backlash were significantly lacking. Let’s look at that a bit more closely.

If either company did market research ahead of time, they didn’t do it thoroughly. That is, it’s not enough to ask focus groups if an item of clothing is attractive or if $4 a month is a good deal for getting unlimited DVDs by mail. As marketers, we have to ask detailed questions about the products we want to sell, where we will sell them, to whom we will direct our marketing efforts, and what the price point will be. What we see as a great new product idea may not be well received by the public, so it’s always important to stop and find out whether the product itself is even a good idea.

Beyond this, it’s important for companies to be self-aware. A focus group may not have a negative reaction to the question, “Would you pay $4 a month for unlimited DVDs by mail?” but if you add some corporate self-awareness to the equation, the response would likely be different. That is, Qwikster failed not because it was a terrible product or unreasonable price, but truly because it was being offered by Netflix and was therefore viewed as a price hike to current subscribers rather than a new offering. Again, think, “What’s in it for me?” The same goes for A&F. While a focus group may not have reacted negatively to the new line of bathing suits, including the fact that these would be sold in Abercrombie Kids stores would more likely have yielded a more accurate prediction of public sentiment.

Finally, there’s the response. This is the public relations side of marketing, and while PR and marketing have some separate roles, especially in larger companies, they must go hand in hand for a successful corporate image. Success in this area means knowing when to cut your losses and go with public sentiment and knowing how to go about doing it in a way that ingratiates your company with the public as opposed to exacerbating the problem.

What will your company do this year to market smarter? How will you evaluate new products and services before developing marketing plans, investing in product stock, and announcing your new offerings to the public? Need some ideas? Connect with us, and let us show you the Tribal way of marketing smarter.

Small businesses are overwhelmingly turning to social media to boost their site traffic (and foot traffic) in a cost-effective manner. They tweet and send out Facebook updates regularly, and they encourage customers to “check in” when visiting them in person. But without a company blog, many of these small businesses are missing the boat when it comes to social media.

Blogging is an integral part of a social media campaign and, in fact, nearly any successful modern marketing campaign. Why? Because blogs are the foundations upon which social media is built. That is, without a blog, yes, you can certainly post tips and product notifications, questions and polls, and even links to your static website pages. But only blogging provides the two most important elements in a social media campaign:

1. A regularly updated stream of search engine optimized (SEO) web content your site needs in order to consistently rank well,
2. And a source of informative, engaging material to utilize in your social media postings that will not only interest your audience, but also drive them to click through your site, and hopefully keep them there.

So, ultimately, the business of blogging … is business. How do you ensure that your blog is helping keep you in business? By tracking the metrics. This is not as daunting as it may sound. Essentially, we’re just talking about keeping tabs on your site traffic and analyzing some of the trends we see there.

What To Look For
When analyzing site metrics for a company blog, consider these five basic items first and foremost:

Site Traffic: Look at how many unique site visitors you have and pay careful attention to where they’re coming from. Look also at which pages on your site get the most traffic and think about why that is. Are those pages getting referrals from more outside sites than your other pages, or is the content more relevant to searchers?

Length of Visit: How long are visitors staying on your site? There’s a big difference between a 30-second perusal of a blog introduction and a 30-minute perusal of your whole site. Which pages do people spend the longest amount of time on?

Interaction: Are people leaving comments on your site? Emailing you? Signing up for your RSS blog feed or e-newsletters? Are they clicking on calls-to-action or using on-site coupon codes? Look at each element and measure the value of each by tracking their success at keeping people on the site.

Links: How many outbound, inbound, and internal (to other pages on your site) links do you have on any given page? Are they being utilized? Which ones? Consider why these links are (or are not) working for you.

Sharing: What about social media “shares”? Are people sharing your content via Facebook, Twitter, email, or other media? If so, does your company have a strong presence on the most utilized social networks on your site? That is, if people are sharing your content regularly on Twitter, it’s even more important than ever to ensure that you have a strong company-driven stream of content there and a consistent hash tag for trending.

Social media isn’t a side note. It isn’t something you can hand to the temp and pay attention to when things slow down. It’s a ubiquitous part of modern marketing, and it’s here to stay. Make sure your blog is doing its part for your business by keeping up with site analytics and social media interaction. Need some help? Connect with us for a consultation, and we’ll get you right on track.

Most marketing plans focus on prospecting. Business owners tend to use marketing channels to deliver messages they hope will drive new business. Generating new customers is key to a company’s success. But it is important to remember that keeping your current customers happy is even more crucial – not to mention more profitable.

In fact, acquiring new customers generally costs 5 to 10 times more than maintaining existing ones.  By investing marketing dollars in retaining current customers you are more cost effective with your budget and can yield a higher ROI.

Why? Current customers are already invested in your brand. You’ve captured their attention, motivated them to purchase your product or service. You’re already positioned first and foremost in their minds, making your business the go-to source for next time – as long as they are satisfied with the experience. Loyal, happy customers can even lead to generating new customers at almost no cost to you. They are more likely to refer you to others and provide third party endorsements, whether through word of mouth, blogging, positive reviews or tweeting. In today’s social media world, satisfied customers are even more valuable and important for companies. The best marketing strategies reflect this by attacking both challenges: prospecting and retaining.
How does your business retain customers?

Photo Credit: vitorcastillo

It crept up on us pretty quickly, this need for social media. It went from an optional little side project to occupy the college intern to a fundamental aspect and significant percentage of our marketing activities in well under 10 years. For many, however, social media still feels quite new or even overwhelming, in no small part due to the ever-evolving nature of the beast. For most small business owners, keeping up with these trends is something they simply don’t have the time for. At TribalVision, we make time for it, and we enjoy sharing that knowledge. To that end, today we’ll feature TribalVision’s Top 5 Ways to Boost Your Social Media Following.

Number 5: Be Present. Not only is it inherently important that your small business has a social media presence, but you and your chosen representatives must be actively involved in that effort on a regular basis. That means you need to choose the social media outlets you want to focus on (usually two or three is enough) and make those content streams count. Stagnant Facebook pages and neglected Twitter streams are more than missed opportunities for exponentially shared publicity. They’re signs that your company is tuned out. If you’re not posting, your followers won’t post either. And if no one’s talking, that takes all the “social” out of your media.

Number 4: Be Consistent. This one goes along with being present. Being there isn’t quite enough on its own. You have to infuse your social media content with a consistent corporate image. For many consumers, who you are as an organization is very much defined by who you are in the social media stratosphere. So you cannot be quirky and tongue-in-cheek one day and then overtly political or serious the next. You must also be consistent in your quality, which takes us to Number 3.

Number 3: Be a Thought Leader. “Thought leadership” is one of those buzzword terms of the last few years that’s really stuck around because it just makes sense. Being a thought leader means being willing to share your knowledge and inform your clientele and the general public to create an educated consumer base. Selling auto parts? Blog about common maintenance tasks with insider tips and post your blog articles to your Twitter and Facebook streams regularly.

Number 2: Be Responsive. Social media is about circular marketing; two-way conversations generate inbound marketing via followers’ responses. Have a customer posing a difficult question or lodging a complaint on your Facebook wall? Don’t delete it. Instead, respond publically and appropriately by answering professionally, providing contact resources, resolving the issue, and following up in a private message. Let people see how your company handles consumer challenges.

Number 1: Be Focused. People who subscribe to social media streams do so because they’re interested in the topic of discussion or products being offered. Direct your efforts appropriately by choosing a core competency and focusing your content on that. For example, the TribalVision Facebook page is specifically geared toward small business marketing even though our firm offers business and web development services. Yes, those are related to small business marketing, but you won’t see posts on our Facebook wall about learning to build websites with jQuery versus HTML.

The bottom line with social media marketing is that you have to be dedicated to these efforts and make them a priority. Simply because something is being posted on the casual format of Facebook doesn’t mean it should be of any lower quality than something you’d put on your website during a site revision. Remember to make all of that high quality material easily “shareable” by adding prominent social media links throughout your website, on blog articles, and yes, even on your Facebook page.

The social media conversation is ongoing. What does your company have to say?