I remember the first time I had to get in front of an audience to deliver a speech. I was in the eight grade and it was a very terrifying experience for me. But I survived! (Barely) Then I learned to gain confidence in my ability to speak, so speeches I gave afterwards wasn’t so bad.
Perhaps you can relate to this experience yourself. Eventually in time and with years of training and practice, I became a public speaker.

As people are thinking more of going into business for themselves, they find that being a good speaker to an audience about their business, products, or their services, can come in handy sometimes. So why not learn while still young to be confident in speaking! What will help a student to be a good speaker in school?
Your First Speech
For most of us our first experience as a public speaker was likely as a student. Do you remember having to get up in front of the class for some project or deliver a speech? Maybe it started out with Show n Tell. How did you do?
To me it seems that at every high school graduation I attend, your Valedictorian and your Salutatorian speeches all sound the same; bor—-ing! Even though what they said sounds good, it is often hurriedly read. But the recent graduation I attended, the Salutatorian must have taken a speech class because she spoke like a professional speaker and did an EXCELLENT job in her delivery-and I was impressed! So it is only fitting that we take a moment to address; rather in front of a class, or to an entire school assembly, or in college delivering a lecture, how students can also learn to be good speakers or how they can at least present themselves in front of their audiences-especially if they are to be graded, on how well they deliver.
How to Speak in Front of Your Peers
They key to students is the same with everybody else. Know your material and know it well. Research and study is important if you know ahead of time of what your topic is that you are to speak on.
One small advantage students do have is you know your audience. Because your audiences are classmates-some of them you have known for years. So you are aware of what they are interested in and what they are not. So try to use that to your advantage.
How to Cope With Stage-fright
When you get in front of your classmates to deliver your speech, how are you going to cope with standing in front of an audience? Since you know your classmates, pick out two quiet students that you know, and speak to them throughout your lecture. One to the right of you and one to your left. Try avoiding looking at your friends. Concentrate on your material since you have something important to say to them-something that they can benefit from. This will help you to take the focus away from yourself and demonstrate confidence in your delivery.
Always Stand Tall
If you are not using a podium or a speaker stand, you must stand up straight-starting off with both hands together about chest high in front of you and gesture slowly from one side to another. Then you can relax one hand to your side and continue to motion with the other hand. Guys try not to put your hands in your pocket! More on gestures will be discussed later.
If you are using a podium, don’t lean on it, or grab both sides with your hands as if you’re riding a roller-coaster. Stand tall and relax your arms and hands for effective gesturing.
Join Speech Classes
While still in high school or college, a student can be encourage to not only enroll in speech classes, but also participate in any speech competition programs that may be available. You’ll be surprised on how valuable that training can be later in life!
Keep in mind too, that posting their progress as a public speaker while in school, will no doubt be some of the best status report young people can share to their social media friends.
So if you are a student, why not learn while still young, on how to successfully present yourself in public.

By Reginald Jackson

The above article is a chapter from my eBook entitled “Public Speaking and Public Presentation.” What else is discussed in this unique publication? Click here and see now!

Facebook is more becoming the social networking platform preferred by most businesses when planning and implementing their social media marketing strategy. Whether you use Facebook for business or personal reasons, here’s a nice article from business2community.com on how to increase engagement on Facebook.

Even though Twitter and YouTube are large social media networks, Facebook provides a marketing ecosystem that is multi-media rich and broad. There are literally tens of thousands of apps that can assist business with marketing on Facebook.

Even though it feels like Facebook has been part of our lives forever it must be noted that Facebook “Pages” for Business have only been with us for barely 3 years!

Businesses Are Still Learning How to Use Facebook

Businesses are still learning the most effective tactics to apply when participating and engaging on Facebook.

The questions often being asked are:

•    How often should we post?
•    What type of posts will drive fan engagement?
•    When should we publish our wall updates?

Research by Buddy Media reveals ways to create the most effective engagement for retailers when interacting with their fans on Facebook.

The findings reveal some interesting ways to increase the success of your Facebook marketing.

Even though this research was obtained from analyzing user engagement from the top 100 retailers Facebook pages during a 6 month period in 2011, some of the lessons outlined here could be applied to a wide range of business categories.

Here are the findings of the research.

1. Best Time to Post on Facebook
The analysis showed that it was best to post during times when fans were not at work and between the hours of 8pm and 7am. So to increase your “likes” and “comments”, post during “non-busy” hours.

2. Best Day to Post on Facebook
Most of the brands researched posted regularly throughout the week. To improve engagement it is best to publish on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

3. How Often Should You Post Every Day?
The research showed that quality not quantity counts when publishing to your wall. One or two brand posts receive 32% higher “like” rates and 73% comment rates compared to posting 3 or more times a day.

4. Most Effective Weekly Post Frequency
Achieve maximum user engagement by not over crowding users’ News Feeds with too many Posts during the week. Posting one to four times produces 71% higher user engagement than five or more Posts in a given week for retail brands.

5. Length of Posts
Retail brand Wall Posts less than 80 characters in length receive 66% higher engagement than longer Posts. Very concise Posts – those between one and 40 characters – generate highest engagement. Only 5% of all retail brand Wall Posts are less than 40 characters in length, even though these receive 86% higher fan engagement.

6. Facebook Post Content
To begin a dialogue with fans, ask questions. Although retail brand Wall Posts containing questions receive slightly lower overall user engagement (‘likes’ and Comments), this type of Post generates more than double the amount of Comments as “non-question” Posts. Use OPen Questions on Facebook.

7. Facebook Post Structure
One of the most underutilized Post techniques is one of the most engaging. Data shows that brand Posts employing the fill in the blank strategy (eg. I like…..) generate Comment rates nine times higher than other Post strategies. The data supports that this is a proven strategy unique to the retail industry, yet less than 1% of retail brands are utilizing this tactic. So just remember, fill in the blanks posts on Facebook receive 9 times more comments

8. Key Words for Facebook Offers
When it comes to deals, fans look for a straightforward offer. The top ten sales keywords were analyzed to determine which receive the most user engagement. The data indicates that retail brand Posts containing the sales keywords “$ off” and “coupon” receive the highest fan engagement. Retail brand Posts containing “$ off” receive a 55% higher user engagement rate, followed by Posts containing the word “coupon,” which is 39% above the average. So keep in mind that popular sales keywords, such as “sale” and “% off,” receive the lowest fan engagement.

9. Coupon Offers
Fans engage well with coupons. When offering coupons, don’t make fans do the math. The data indicates that “$ off” offers generate twice the engagement of “% off” offers for the retail industry. Even small “$ off” discounts – less than $10 – receive 17% higher engagement than “% off” promotions, showing that fans prefer tangible cash discounts, even if the actual dollar discount is small. So dollars off works best while percentage off doesn’t work as well on Facebook.

10. Keep Posts Simple
While interesting content can be added to W all Posts in the form of links, photos and videos, our data indicates that simple Posts achieve the most engagement. The two most effective types of retail brand Posts contain a single photo attachment or use only words. Status-only Posts – Posts only containing words – receive 94% higher engagement than average. Avoid more complicated Posts, such as those with attached links and thumbnail photos.

What About You?
Do any of the findings revealed above resonate with your experience?
How have you increased your engagement with your customers and prospects on Facebook.
What tactics worked best for you? Please leave your comment below.

By Jeff Bullas

Here’s a nice article by Adam Holden who wrote of a study showing how 93% of b2b marketers in early 2011 were using social media for marketing.

According to a recent study by BtoB Magazine, 93% of all B2B marketers are engaged in some form of social media marketing, with most putting their focus on the most popular channels (LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter).

The Big Three

B2B marketers overwhelmingly favor “the big 3″ social media channels, with LinkedIn being the most-used channel (72%). Facebook (71%) and Twitter (67%) are close behind, with those three channels forming the core of most B2B social media marketing efforts. Other channels used by B2B marketers include YouTube (48%), blogging (44%) and online communities (22%).

When asked to cite their single most important channel, LinkedIn again rose to the top with 26% favoring it. Most respondents identified lead-generation as the most valuable result of LinkedIn marketing. Facebook was the most important channel for 20%, while blogging (19%), online communities (14%) and Twitter (13%) rounded out the top tools. Facebook was cited as being a channel where users “pay attention”, while blogs and communities were cited for their customer feedback and engagement.

Despite being used by 67% of B2B marketers, Twitter was only the top channel for 13%, perhaps showing that Twitter is an important piece of the overall social marketing picture but not the best channel for B2B marketers to find value. According to survey participants, many marketers only see Twitter as a way to support website traffic and product/event promotions.
Challenges:

When B2B marketers were asked to identify their top three obstacles to adopting social media marketing, 70% identified a lack of resources as being the biggest obstacle. Other challenges faced by marketers include: poorly defined success metrics and key performance indicators (57%), lack of knowledge about social media (44%) and management resistance (22%).

Measurement:

One of the most interesting statistic to come out of the report is the lack of measurement by B2B marketers. About 75% of B2B marketers who conduct social marketing say they do not measure the ROI of their social marketing programs.

The Study:

This results of BtoB’s exclusive research study Emerging Trends in B-to-B Social Media Marketing: Insights From the Field focuses on how B2B marketers are leveraging social media. Conducted in March 2011 and based on the responses of 577 B2B marketers, this study not only looks at the demand for LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter but how marketers are using the unique applications to their best advantage across all marketing functions.
Does this data match your social media experience for your B2B company?

From socialmediab2b.com

Power Point is becoming to be the most widely visual aid tool used for presentations in many places. With some lessons in Power Point and a laptop computer, you are now in business. Most facilities usually are equipped to provide the rest that is needed-such as a screen and a hook-up for your computer.
Planning is probably the most important step in creating a successful presentation of any kind. Planning helps you decide on the content and the order in which the information will be presented. If you are a beginner, here are some steps to create a simple Power point presentation.
Gather Your Information
Remember the KISS principle (Keep It Silly Simple) when designing your presentation.
Focus on three or four main points only
Determine the Order Of Your Slides
Although this can be changed later, having a rough idea of the order of your topic points, will help you plan the order of your slides.
Create the Presentation
When creating the slides, be consistent in your choice of background colors, fonts, transitions, and animations.

Now your wonderful presentation is created and ready for prime time. It’s your chance to shine when you deliver it to an audience. Here are tips to make this presentation a successful venture.

By Reginald Jackson

Additional help on Power point presentation can be found in the eBook entitled “Public Speaking and Public Presentation.” A 40 page eBook you can download at this address: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005EM6THC.

Branding is a key way to set your company apart from the competition and there are some simple ways you can achieve this. Branding is also an essential part to a good social media campaign. Small business owner Rachel Bitan talks about the importance and mechanisms of creating a strong and memorable company through business branding. Learn the tips she personally shares for a successful business branding.

Video Transcript: Tips on Small Business Branding

Hi, this is Rachel Bitan with Reservoir 4 Jewelry for About.com. When I was a child, my grandmother was a jewelry collector, and every piece had a story. I knew that when I created my own company, I wanted to create classical pieces that could be passed down through the generations.
I started making jewelry when I was… I mean, I’ve been making jewelry for as long as I can remember – I started by just stringing beads together. Before I even started my own company, I actually designed for a few other companies and that really got me comfortable with the business, about how to work with customers and clients and the whole wholesale world. It was this progressive thing from making it for myself, and working for another company, and then finally I decided it was time for me to start my own company and sell it for myself, and create my own designs and collections.

Business Branding: Names
For my business, branding has been really, very important – I needed to set my company apart from other companies. The first thing I did was even just creating a name that I thought sounded different than other jewelry companies. Reservoir 4 was a name that I found – I actually grew up in a neighborhood in Los Angeles called Echo Park. But before it was called Echo Park, it was actually called Reservoir Number 4. There was just something about the name that really stuck with me, and I remembered it. So that’s what I decided to name my company.

Small Business Branding: Blogging
One of the first things I did to make my brand different was I started a blog. What’s fun about the blog is it’s a way for me to not just talk about jewelry and show pictures of jewelry, but to show pictures of inspiration for new collections, and I think it really gives sort of a face to what the jewelry company is. It shows that it’s not just this generic thing that you can buy somewhere, but it’s an actual handmade object made by a person, and it has a story and there’s a meaning to it and there’s a reason why the designs look the way they do. It has created a huge impact, because there’s just people that just follow the stories of the blogs. The people follow that and they forward it to their friends, and from this it creates this web of people, who know about the jewelry, who know about the stories – and they follow it. They buy it for their friends who’ve seen it, they buy it for themselves, they buy it for gifts and it definitely creates a community. For me that’s been one of my favorite things to do for the company.
Small Business Branding: Logos
I definitely wanted to create a logo that was representative of the company, so I actually found a graphic designer and I worked really closely with her to create this logo that sort of looked like the jewelry in a way – it was classical, it had the similar themes of these natural elements but it was a little bit urban. That’s actually been really helpful in people recognizing the brand – they see the logo, it looks like the jewelry, the jewelry looks like the logo, and they really go together. It’s a really important part of setting this company apart, to have the logo.

It takes time to build your name, to have people recognize your company and your brand. I definitely think that the jewelry is recognizable – I think that when you look at it, you can tell it’s Reservoir 4 jewelry. So, if I had any advice new business owners, it would be definitely to keep at it. Try to make it more of a long-term thing – give it time to build naturally, and keep trying to do the best you can and keep coming up with new ideas for getting your brand name out there. Just keep at it – and I think that, for me, it’s been the most important thing, to just keep at it, to persevere, not to give up.

Thanks for watching. From About.com

Here is a post from Top rank blog.com of there 100+ search marketing resources.

How do new marketers learn SEO and Pay Per Click? How do professionals stay current with search marketing tactics considering the sheer volume of social media distraction? Last month we ran a poll of Online Marketing Blog readers to discover preferences for learning and staying up to date with current search engine marketing strategies and tactics. Below are the top categories selected by readers. However, we’ve taken it a step further and listed over 100 different resources for marketers to start, maintain or advance their level of SEO, PPC and any other type of search based marketing. Enjoy!

Search Engine Marketing Blogs

•TopRank’s BIGLIST of over 400 Search Marketing Blogs (updated weekly/monthly since Jan 2007)
•invesp Ranked List of Top SEO Blogs
•Daily Blog Tips Top 25 SEO Blogs
•HuoMah Big Ass List of SEO Blogs
•FutureBuzz Essential List of Marketing & SEO Blogs
•SEOmoz Ranking 50 Top Blogs in the Search Space (2006)
•SEOBook SEO Blogs and Search Engine Blogs (2006)
•Fantomas SEO / SEM Blogs (2005)

SEO/SEM Blog Aggregators

•SEOmash
•SocialBRoll
•SEOalltop
•Original Signal SEO Blogs
•SearchBrains

Testing Tactics on Your Own Web Sites

•A/B Testing resources: (Google Website Optimizer, 7 Free Resources)
•Multivariate Testing service: (Omniture)
•Heatmap & User Testing tools: (CrazyEgg, Clickdensity, Clicktale, userfly and Eyetools)
•Web Analytics tools: (Google, WebTrends, Omniture SiteCatalyst, Unica NetInsight, Lyris HQ, Clicky, Yahoo, BLVD Status)
•Ranking Software: (Advanced Web Rankings, WebPosition, Web CEO)

Search Engine Marketing Forums

•WebmasterWorld
•Google Webmaster Help
•Sphinn
•Bing Webmaster Community
•Search Engine Watch
•High Rankings
•SitePoint
•SEOChat
•Search Engine Roundtable
•Cre8asite Forums
•Search Engine Forums
•WebProWorld
•Digital Point
•syndk8

Paid Subscription SEM Communities

•SEOmoz
•SEOBook
•WebmasterWorld Supporters
•SEO Dojo

Search Engine Marketing Webinars

•Search Marketing Now
•Search Engine Watch Free Webcasts/Webinars
•SEMPO Webinars
•Hubspot Marketing Webinars
•MarketingProfs Online SEM Seminars
•Marketing Experiments Web Clinics
•Inbound Marketing University

Search Marketing White Papers, Research, Special Reports

•Marketing Sherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Report 2009-10
•Econsultancy SEO Best Practices Guide 2009
•Google SEO Starter Guide (pdf)
•Bing SEO Guide for Webmasters
•DMNews Essential Guide to Search Marketing 2009
•Internet Retailer 2010 Search Marketing Guide
•Shop.org Research & Reports

SEO & SEM Email Newsletters

•Search Engine Land Search Cap
•WebProNews
•Search Engine Watch SearchDay
•Bruce Clay
•High Rankings Advisor
•Around the Net in Search Marketing – MediaPost
•SEO Geeks
•Search Insider – MediaPost
•BtoB Hands On Search
•Chief Marketer
•SearchLine – Direct
•Masters of eCommerce – eTail

Online Groups for Search Marketers (Facebook, LinkedIn, Ning)

•Facebook: SEO
•Facebook: PPC
•LinkedIn: SEO
•LinkedIn: PPC
•Ning: SEO
•Ning: PPC

The Big SEM Conferences

•Search Engine Strategies
•WebmasterWorld Pubcon
•Search Marketing Expo
•Affiliate Summit

SEM Consultant/Agency Advice

•TopRank Online Marketing – That’s right, we put our own agency – The reality is, your current SEO/SEM agency or consultant should offer some kind of ongoing education and/or training on top of ongoing consulting services. If not, call us!

Print Magazines

•Website Magazine
•Search Marketing Standard
•SES Magazine
•OMMA
•Internet Retailer
•BtoB Search
•DM News: Search Marketing
•Target Marketing: Search & Social

Offline Networking Groups or Meetups

•SEO Meetups
•PPC Meetups

Books on SEM

•SEO Warrior – John I. Jerkovic
•Art of SEO – Eric Enge, Stephan Spencer, Rand Fishkin, Jessie C. Stricchiola
•Search Engine Marketing Inc, 2nd Edition – Mike Moran & Bill Hunt
•Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day – Jennifer Grappone & Gradiva Couzin
•The Truth about Search Engine Optimization – Rebecca Lieb
•Search Engine Visibility, 2nd Edition – Shari Thurow
•SEO: Search Engine Optimization Bible – Jerri L. Ledford
•SEO Made Simple – Michael H. Fleischner
•Search Engine Optimization: Your Visual Blueprint for Effective Internet Marketing – Kristopher B. Jones
•Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition – Steve Krug
•Building Findable Websites: Web Standards SEO and Beyond – Aarron Walter
•The Findability Formula: Easy, Non-Technical Approach to SEM -
•Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords – Perry Marshall & Bryan Todd
•Winning Results with Google AdWords, 2nd Edition – Andrew Goodman
•Google Advertising Tools – Harold Davis
•Landing Page Optimization – Tim Ash
•Website Optimization: Speed, Search Engine & Conversion Rate Secrets – Andrew King
•Inbound Marketing – Brian Halligan & Dharmesh Shah
•Best Selling “SEO” books on Amazon
•No, SEOBook is no longer available
•Coming 2010: Search Engine Optimization Secrets – Danny Dover
•Coming 2010: Marketing in the Age of Google – Vanessa Fox

Niche or Regional SEO/SEM Conferences and Workshops

•International Search Summit
•PPC Summit
•IM Springbreak
•Online Marketing Summit
•Scary SEO
•SearchFest
•thinkvisibility
•SEM Training London (Incisive)
•SMX Advanced
•SEO Events on Upcoming
•Google AdWords Seminars for Success
•Search Exchange
•SEOktoberfest

Search Marketing Industry Web Sites

•Search Engine Land
•Search Engine Watch
•Pandia
•SEOBook
•SEOMoz
•Practical Ecommerce
•SEO Chat
•Search Engine Guide
•iMedia Connection: Search

SEM Workshops & Training; Certifications

•Web Analytics Association Courses
•Bruce Clay Training
•High Rankings SEO Classes
•DMA Search Marketing Certification
•SEMPO Institute
•Market Motive
•Online Marketing Institute
•Search Engine College

Search Marketers on Twitter

•30 Must Follow SEO Twitter Users
•200+ Internet Marketing Gurus on Twitter
•Follow the Top 40 SEO Experts on Twitter in One Click
•UK Based SEOs on Twitter
•SEO Tips
•@LeeOdden Twitter List of Search Marketers
•@Danny Sullivan Twitter List of Search Marketers

SEO & PPC Focused Podcasts

•SEO Rockstars – Daron Babin
•Office Hours – Vanessa Fox
•Webcology – Jim Hedger & Dave Davies
•PPC Rockstars – David Szetela
•SEM Synergy – Bruce Clay

By Lee Odden

What did we miss? Please share in the comments.

Outsourcing in business is not something that is new. Over the years, big companies have been outsourcing services for their projects. Although most people would be familiar with outsourcing in the common offline office terms, internet-marketing outsourcing has also been in existent for a while as the best way for most companies to have their services done. The high return potential of internet marketing outsourcing is something that those who are not informed in this line have been missing out on. Most people think about outsourcing through the internet as a very unsafe method, and this means that a number of businesses have remained backwards in their marketing strategies.

Although, it can be agreed that there are some confidential matters that can only be dealt with in-house, internet marketing outsourcing cannot be ignored, if you want your business to be at the cutting edge in this growing world of opportunities. A few years ago, companies would comfortably work outside the internet forum, but this is becoming impossible as everyone is moving to the internet as the main marketplace. Services that cannot be outsourced through the internet should be left aside, as companies consider carefully what they can comfortably deal with through internet marketing outsourcing.

Outsourcing Questions

There are a number of sectors of internet marketing that you can safely outsource and be able to achieve maximum results which would not be there, if you were to go the traditional way. If you are thinking about whether you should turn to internet marketing outsourcing, a few questions should be clear. The first and most important is, whether you have the capacity to outsource. If a company lacks the capacity to do outsourcing, it would be better if they do not engage in it.

The other question that must come to mind is, what specific marketing services you feel safe to outsource through internet marketing outsourcing. Once you have established that, you should be able to plan on how to kick off the outsourcing campaigns. Without a clear guideline on your outsourcing plans, you will not be able to handle the outcome. The outcome of outsourcing may not be overwhelming in terms of challenges, but its benefits can be great and may lead to misappropriation.

Outsourcing to a Virtual Assistant

If your business is a blog or website, and unless you plan to write the content, take the photos, record the videos and program the back-end functionality of the site by yourself, then you will most certainly outsource some of the work, perhaps outsourcing to a virtual assistant or a social media manager. When it comes to developing your business, you’ll be limited by two primary factors: your skills and your time!

Internet Marketing Outsourcing to Generate Leads

Finding referrals or attracting potential customers to your storefront or website is what business is all about. Then from there you have the opportunity convert leads into sales. You may be able to save money and tackle the challenge yourself-but do you have the time and patients? If you have a sales team, how many are needed just for business to break even? By outsourcing, you can pay a fee a reputable company who can generate leads for you and thus minimize your sales team.

The planning part of internet marketing outsourcing is a very basic step, but it is one that is the most crucial. That means it should not be overlooked, so as to ensure that the result of your outsourcing venture becomes better. Even before starting the outsourcing, it is important to be able to ask yourself why you would want to do internet business outsourcing. Whether the reasons are financial or simply promotional, this question must be clearly underlined, so that you can be able to set a target that is both clear and visionary. You will also need to know the best way to interact with your outsourcing vendor, and consider whether the internet marketing outsourcing venture you are getting into will reap immediate results to your business.

Daven Michaels of 123Employee.com

In an ideal world you would be able to build brand awareness, increase authority and generate more leads through the power of organic search and social media engagement. Unfortunately, in the crowded milieu of the web, and with millions of Google Number One contenders, these organic activities sometimes don’t suffice. Here’s where social media advertising
comes in.

Yes, you’ll need to pay a little extra but think about the benefits: your website gaining better visibility and your message getting straight to your target customer. If you could afford it, we definitely recommend spicing up your marketing activities with a dollop of social media ads… in addition to your daily nuggets of search engine optimization, social media interaction and blogging, of course.

So what are the best advertising channels on the internet? Today we present a close-up of traditional Google pay-per-click campaigns and LinkedIn ads.

Google PPC

Before the advent of social media, Google ads were the primary advertising platform on the web. Google ads’ conversion success relies on people searching for a certain word or phrase, and clicking a link which then takes them directly to your website. They are usually positioned at a prominent spot in Google and you pay per each click you get (hence the name Pay-per-Click).

Because PPC ads rely on search, they have to be meticulously optimized for keywords. Practice shows that effective Google ads are those which sound appealing and inviting without being offensively promotional. So if you’re thinking of shelling out on PPC campaigns, make sure you word your ads very carefully – you don’t want to see your efforts go to waste. And if the ads are not generating enough leads, you should test the effectiveness of your ad copy and landing pages and refine them accordingly.

LinkedIn

Based on an entirely different principle altogether, ads on the professional networking platform are proving to be resoundingly successful lead generators, especially for B2B campaigns.

Take for example our client, Hi Software. After running ad campaigns on both Google and LinkedIn, the web content and software provider experienced a conversion rate lower than 10% with Google ads, whereas LinkedIn ad conversion rates soared to 24% while reducing cost per lead to £7.78 after the first three months.

This proves that LinkedIn is winning hands-on in the B2B social advertising arena. The reasons are evident: unlike Google ads, which are based around search, LinkedIn ads target persona’s more precisely. By matching tightly defined parameters such as job, industry, company, age and/or location, LinkedIn adverts are more likely to be effective in driving qualified leads.

Of course, we can’t forget social media giants Facebook and Twitter, which have a lot to offer in terms of social advertising opportunities. We’ll deal with them in another blog article so watch this space!

By Biserka Anderson of business2community.com

The world of online marketing is one of the most competitive industries, and you will find that the best online advertising agency will be the one that will work with you to ensure the success of your website. In order to help you find the best online advertising agency for you, here are some of the main services that the best online advertising agencies should offer you:

Experience

The most important thing that any online advertising agency should offer you is their years of experience. The world of online marketing is only 10 or 15 years old at most, but being an online advertising executive has quickly become one of the most lucrative professions for many people in the world. There are hundreds of online advertising agencies struggling to stay afloat, and you will want to avoid the immature agencies that are just getting started.

The best online advertising agency for you will be the one that has had years of experience with helping online businesses succeed in their marketing and advertising campaigns. The more years of experience that an online advertising agency has, the more likely they are to be professionals and experts at what they do. In order to ensure that you are getting only the best service for the money you are paying to contract an online advertising agency, find an agency that has years of experience to put behind your online advertising campaigns.

Pay Per Click

The Pay Per Click, or PPC, services offered by the best online advertising agencies is just a standard part of the deal, but you should look for an online advertising agency that has years of working specifically with PPC advertising. This type of advertising is incredibly competitive, and only the best PPC advertisers know how to use the precisely placed ads to generate interest, traffic, and revenue for an online business or website. Rather than finding a company who has people who know a bit about PPC, find the online advertising agency that will put a professional with years of experience handling primarily PPC ads to work with your website.

Organic Search Results

“Organic search results” is the name given to the results brought up automatically for any Google search. The true path to success doesn’t lie down the road of paid advertisements, but you will only truly reach success by getting ranked highly on the Google search engines. The best online advertising agency that you can find will help you to get your website ranked highly for your specific niche, and will understand how to use niche marketing to obtain the best organic search results. Be wary of any company that offers you a guarantee that you will be on the top of Google search result lists. Nothing can guarantee high SEO rankings, and these companies are simply scamming you out of your money.

Up to Date Knowledge

The world of internet marketing is constantly shifting and changing, and only the best online advertising agency that you can find will be up to date on the latest trends in the world of the internet. Thanks to Google’s constantly shifting algorithms, the Web 2.0 and HTML 5 upgrades, and many more things, there is nothing that can guarantee the success of your internet marketing campaigns other than constantly updated knowledge on the latest trends. Your online advertising agency should have experts dedicated to studying the latest trends in internet marketing, consumer spending, and other essential things that will be the key to your internet marketing.

Marketing Solutions

You aren’t looking for an online advertising agency that will just give you the best marketing and advertising tactics, what you want is solutions. Marketing solutions are guaranteed to work, while advertising tactics are simply hypotheses that advertisers hope will work. The online advertising agency that will provide you with the most effective marketing solutions will be the one to work with, and you will find that the marketing solutions offered you will be a good indicator of the quality of the online advertising agency that you work with.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is one of the most effective methods of advertising on the internet. All of the best online advertising agencies will offer you one of two email marketing solutions. The first will be a program that will help you to send out your email marketing newsletters, and the software will not only automate the process but will also help to make your emails more effective. The second solution that they will offer you will be to train you to send out the newsletters yourself. This is often the more commonly used option, as the software that sends out the email marketing newsletters tends to be pricey.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing gives your business the broadest base of potential clients to work with, and you will find that you can reach far more people when working with social media marketing. Every online advertising agency should offer social media marketing as their main marketing solution, as there are few other solutions that you can give you such a wide variety of options than social media marketing will.

Dedicated Service

Rather than handing the advertising of your website off to a temp, you should find the online advertising agency that will offer you the services of a trained professional. The services offered by the online advertising agency should be designed to provide you with the best professionals who are most qualified to work with your website. Don’t expect the CEO to come and work on the internet marketing for your plan, but you should definitely expect that trained professionals will be the ones doing the work to make your website’s internet marketing campaign a success.

By Brian Garvin

Is your business a social business? Companies that are making good use of social media should take the next step and measure the progress of their social media programs and campaigns. How do you know if you’re succeeding if you don’t have the numbers?

Today we’ll look at 10 ways that metrics can offer visibility into your business’s performance. You won’t want to chart all of these, but tracking a few well-chosen metrics — and incorporating the learning’s into your business processes — can contribute to the bottom line.

Customer Engagement

1. Engagement can take place offline and online, on your site, on your social networks and in real-world face-to-face events. By letting customers participate in conversations about your brand, you can improve your business, your products and your levels of service. Ultimately, customer engagement is key to improving satisfaction and loyalty rates and revenue.

Metrics to track could include:

• Number of followers on Twitter, Facebook, etc.
• Number of retweets on Twitter
• Number of comments per blog post
• Number of external widgets embedded
• Invaluable assets as re-distributors of content
• Customer reviews and ratings

Note: Such customer interaction can be invaluable in fostering a culture of community and in guiding product development. In addition, endorsements can be used as testimonials in marketing materials (with permission).

Sales & Profits

2. In the end, you business’s social media efforts need to not just generate customer goodwill — it should contribute to your company’s bottom line.

Metrics to keep an eye on include:

• Track sales from Google referrals
• Sales from paid search
• Sales as a result of social network mentions

Dell said it made $3 million selling products to its Twitter followers on the strength of coupons and discounts that other Twitterers gladly passed along vi-rally as tipsters. And Blendtec’s “Will It Blend?” blender’s campaign on YouTube helped to drive a 500 percent increase in sales in 2010.  Just don’t expect the needle to move right away!

Search Marketing & Rankings

3. The importance of search engine optimization to your brand cannot be overstated: SEO & social media efforts should significantly increase your site’s visibility & performance in search results. It should also help you rank prominently for targeted items and increase your long-tail traffic. Identify and incorporate targeted keywords on major landing pages on your site. Strategically use keywords on social networks as well, such as Facebook. You can use links from Twitter or YouTube to claim valuable search rankings on your brand search terms. Tweets that rank for targeted keyword can lead to traffic from keywords that the site does not rank for.

Whenever someone shares content from your site on a social site, you get a link back and a submission history. Try to convert one-time visitors from Digg, StumbleUpon and other social news sites into long-term members of your community.

Traffic & Conversation Reach

4. Your business can produce the most gorgeous, well-manicured press releases in the world. But unless you get customers talking about your product or service and generating traffic to your website, micro-site or social networks, you’re missing the boat. Raw traffic is important, but you’ll want to measure traffic from segmented audiences that you’re targeting-people who are likely to follow you or more so, buy from you. Also chart the number of visitors to your social networks.

Brand Sentiment

5. The nature and purpose of public relations and external communications is changing from an industrial-era paradigm to one of facilitation and curation. Go with it — help create evangelists for your products or services among your most ardent fans. Word of mouth and the viral nature of sites like Twitter, Facebook and Digg can help shift your company’s key brand metrics.

You’ll need a more sophisticated set of metrics tools to gauge the following: Brand awareness, brand favor-ability, brand recall, propensity to buy, etc. (TV ads are measured in this way.) A positive brand associations via social media efforts can help drive clicks on paid search ads. Use a social media service to measure brand sentiment.

Public Outreach

6. The worlds of public relations, customer service and marketing are merging. Social media enables customers to interact with all channels within a company. Traditional metrics, such as column inches in newspapers and magazines, are becoming less relevant over time. Outreach to blogosphere & Twitterverse is becoming as important as outreach to media organizations. Consider creating a social media newsroom that offers bloggers and news organizations a rich set of multimedia, bullet-ed takeaways and quotes from key participants. Then track the number of mentions on social sites by using the bit.ly url shortener.

Lead Generation

7. Social media is becoming a funnel for lead generation. A number of tools now let you track business prospects through sophisticated filtering mechanisms. Use LinkedIn to connect with potential business partners and clients, and chart the rate of invitations accepted and follow-up communications acted upon. See which kinds of messaging are resonating.

Here’s an opportunity for your internal teams to work together to optimize your site for keywords and key phrases. It’s always better when potential customers come to you.

Customer Retention

8. We’re moving into an age of optimization and retention. Watch your retention rates as you start participating in social media. Over time, if your team uses social media intelligently, they should rise. Zappos, which uses Twitter, MySpace, Facebook and YouTube for its social media efforts, has exceeded $1 billion in sales. Some 75 percent of its orders are repeat customers. Make sure you monitor your repeat customers and shower them with love.

Cost Savings

9. In this age of cost-cutting, companies are looking to apply savings wherever they can. Cisco saved $250,000 by using social media rather than traditional PR and marketing to roll out its Data Center project.

Crowd sourcing has become an increasingly popular way for businesses to leverage customers and outside parties for savings. Consider how cost reductions can be applied in a way that benefits the bottom line while not infringing on worker rights or jeopardizing health and environmental standards. Then measure how each initiative contributes to cost containment.

Employee Recruitment

10. The brightest young minds coming into the workplace today live, breathe and understand social media. Show them that you’re a genuine social business and not just another company hunkering down in the wake of the social media revolution. Measure incoming employees’ sentiment about your company. What are they saying? What attracted them?

Measure exiting employees’ sentiment. Assign someone from human relations, with no stake in the matter, to conduct exit interviews. Assess their feedback — and take it to heart.

By JD Lasica of Socialmedia.biz

These are 10 ideas, but it’s not a complete list. List your ideas in the comments below.