5 Ideas for Status Updates on Facebook or Twitter
Are you getting started with Twitter? Or thinking about starting a Facebook Fan page, but not sure what to post on it?
Here are 5 ideas for status updates that you can use in either place…
1. Tease upcoming product features
You’re probably working on an upgrade to your current product or developing a new service to offer customers. Talk about one of the cool features in that product or service.
For example… “Working on new training modules that we’re offering online. 10 videos, each 5 min long. First shows how to import data from Quickbooks.”
This is a great way to get people excited about what’s coming next.
2. Share customers’ results
Validate the enthusiasm of your fans by showing that other people are choosing your products and services and getting great results.
One way to do that is by talking about the results clients have achieved. You don’t need to name names – you can just talk about the improvements.
For example… “Just heard one of our clients saved $250,000 over the past 6 months using our software.”
3. Acknowledge achievements
Congratulate clients and business partners on winning awards.
For example… “One of our clients was just named to EContent’s 100 Companies that Matter Most in Digital Content. Congratulations to everyone at adenin!”
You can also congratulate employees on their achievements – best sales performance that month, achieving a development deadline, hitting a quality target, even something personal like completing a marathon.
4. Ask for feedback
Are you having internal debates about something? Post the question and ask for feedback.
For example… “Working on a logo for our new product and can’t decide which we like best. Want to vote? Both are posted at www.tinyurl.xxx”
5. Provide treats
The point of being a follower or fan is that you care about the person or the company. Show that you value their support by giving early information and making offers that are only available for fans.
For example… “We’re going into beta in two weeks. If you’d like to try out the new version, email Joe.”
Or “Just found 20 t-shirts from our last promotion. Really cool – black with our logo on back. Size L. Want one? Email me.”
It’s pretty easy once you get started.
So go ahead…
Get on Twitter or launch that fan page and start sharing your news.
3 Ways to Use Crowdsourcing
You have heard of crowdsourcing, I’m sure. The idea is that instead of outsourcing a project to one person or company, you outsource the same project to a group of people and then pick the result you like best.
There are a lot of advantages to crowdsourcing…
- You get a lot more brainpower poured into your project – the more people working on it and thinking about it, the better your results are likely to be.
- You typically get results pretty quickly. When people know there are others working on the same project, there’s more pressure to get it done and delivered fast.
- A lot of people do better work when they know they are competing against others. So there’s an incentive to deliver their best work.
- You can get some pretty innovative ideas, because people want their work to stand out.
Naturally, there are disadvantages too…
- Typically the best freelancers and firms don’t need to work “on spec” and so they tend not to participate in crowdsourcing. So you are likely to be dealing with people who are more junior or have enough time on their hands to dabble in outside projects.
- No one is going to invest a huge amount of time in a project where payment will be small or non-existent, so they won’t spend a lot of time learning about your products and your market.
For a lot of companies, the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages, at least for certain projects. So let’s look at a couple ways you can use crowdsourcing in your marketing…
Graphic design projects
There are marketplaces that have sprung up where you can post projects, typically for graphic design. Site members submit their designs, you choose the one you like best and pay the winner a fee – usually a fraction of what you would have paid a traditional design firm.
Two marketplaces that offer crowdsourcing are:
crowdSPRING
99designs
If you are looking for a new logo, letterhead or business cards, brochure, website design, advertisement, or something similar, this can be well worthwhile.
It’s also a good way to audition designers and look for someone you’ll want to work with on a regular basis.
Brainstorming and problem solving
A company that takes a slightly different approach is Ideas Culture. They have a program called Ideas While You Sleep.
You submit a challenge or a problem that you’re working on by 4pm (in the US) and they send it out to a group of people who work on it overnight. (They are in Australia.) They send you the input from everyone by 10am the next morning.
We tried this recently with a naming project. We had brainstormed internally and were getting nowhere. So we submitted the naming challenge to Ideas Culture. By the next morning we had 122 more names at a cost of about $450.
Did we use any of their names? No. We ended up going with a brilliant suggestion from one of our partners. But we got a lot of good ideas that we are using in other parts of the project. It was well worth the money.
Get feedback
Another way to use crowdsourcing in marketing is to get feedback on what you are currently doing. For example, you could ask for opinions about a headline, an advertisement, your website, a brochure, a tagline, or a sales letter.
A crowdsourcing site that specializes in feedback is Concept Feedback.
It’s designed for marketing professionals, but small business owners can use it too. You post what you’re working on or want feedback on, people tell you what they think, and you can act on it or not.
It’s free, but if you want faster results or more prominence for your project you can pay $9.99 to get higher priority.
You can also do something similar yourself (although you probably won’t get as many responses)… Just get on Twitter, Blellow, Facebook, LinkedIn or any industry forum, post what you’ve got and ask people for suggestions. Lots of times you’ll get really good input.
3 Easy Ways to Start Web 2.0 Marketing
I talk to a lot of people who have heard that they need to do “Web 2.0 marketing” but have no idea what that involves or how they would begin doing it.
Here are 3 simple starting points:
1. Go find 3 blogs that are relevant to your target market and start reading them on a regular basis. Particularly look for blogs by thought leaders in your industry, competitors, business partners, and prospects.
You can use Technorati or Google Blog Search or just do a simple Google search – search on keywords that are important to your industry and add the word “blog”.
For those who are new to reading blogs… You don’t actually have to visit the blogsite regularly to check if there is a new post. Most blogs give you the ability to subscribe so new posts are sent to you automatically.
When there is a blog post that resonates with you, post a comment on the blog. If you see another comment on the blog that you think is particularly good, comment on the comment. Or rate the comment, if that is an option.
2. Find an online community that is relevant to your market. The best places to look are on the websites of the top publications for your industry or on an association’s website.
See how they let you participate. More likely than not, there will be discussion forums. If subscribing to their forums is an option, do that. (You might want to put a filter on your email client so these emails go into a folder you can check when you have time rather than cluttering your inbox.) Otherwise, check back every week or so (depending on the volume of traffic) to see what’s new.
Is there anything else you can do in the community? Upload an article? Comment on a blog? If there is anything that strikes your fancy, do it.
3. Get a Twitter account. Don’t worry about tweeting yet. Just search on keywords that are relevant for you, and choose a dozen people to follow. As with the blogs, good people to follow include industry thought leaders, editors, consultants, competitors, partners, prospects and customers. (Don’t be surprised if they follow you back.)
Then check back every day or two to see what’s going on. It’s fine to just lurk. But if there’s a discussion you have an opinion about, go ahead and contribute.
There you go – 3 easy ways to get your feet wet with Web 2.0 marketing.
And if, by chance, you are wondering why you would even want to do Web 2.0 marketing…
Web 2.0 is all about going out to your market and talking directly with your customers and prospects. It’s about building connections, collaborating, sharing information – being more transparent than you have been in the past – and getting prospects and customers more involved in your business and with each other than they have been before.
Here’s a recent article in the Wall Street Journal:
The Secrets of Marketing in a Web 2.0 World
Here’s a slightly older blog post from FutureLab that has some good insights too:
15 Golden Rules for Web 2.0
Wondering What Web 2.0 Marketing Includes?
If you have been hearing a lot about Web 2.0 marketing, and are wondering what that means, take a look at this chart from MarketingSherpa.
I don’t agree that online news distribution is Web 2.0, but the rest of the items are:
- Participating in professional or social networks, such as LinkedIn and Facebook
- Commenting in forums, online communities, discussion groups and listservs
- Blogging
- Posting on other people’s blogs
- Advertising in social networks or on blogs
- User reviews or ratings
I would add:
- Creating videos for YouTube and other video sharing sites
- Doing podcasts
- Twittering
Marketing Changes for the Recession
MarketingSherpa just released a chart showing the changes companies are making in their marketing tactics because of the economy. They did their survey at the end of September, which is before the worst hit, but this shows a lot of the same things we are seeing with our clients.
Both groups are reducing the amount of money spent on trade shows and advertising (except paid search ads), and putting more into Web 2.0 and other types of online marketing.
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