How could YOU be using Social Media?
October 6, 2009 by Rebekah King · Leave a Comment
Here at ReBiz Works we’re all aflutter at today’s article in the LA Times (read it here) on small business use of social media. If you are wondering how your biz could be using social media, take a look:
They are not the only small business to miss the potential that social media has to build sales, says Rebekah King, principal of ReBiz Works in Irvine, a one-person shop that specializes in social media marketing and training.
Social media sites, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, and online communication tools, such as Twitter and the content-update utility Ping.fm, could raise TNT’s profile, introduce it to new customers and provide an easy way to keep in front of its growing community. Also, content on social media sites is counted in search-engine results and can move a business higher in result rankings.
To be effective, a business needs a plan.
“Any social-media program has to have a focus, a purpose,” says King, who works with small businesses and advertising agencies. “They want to book more business. Social media can show people who they are and help drive potential customers to their website.”
Check out the article on latimes.com for the full step-by-step program we outlined for TNT Dunk Squad
3 Rules for Community Marketing Successes
August 25, 2009 by Rebekah King · Leave a Comment
When the marketplace becomes more challenging, and business is not so easily come by, community marketing becomes more valuable then ever. Being from a small town community marketing meant walking up and down main street (yes, main street) and knocking on every shop door to say hello. Regardless of whether or not you cared what the shopkeeper had to say about your new business and how well it would do, you still walked up and down and knocked on every door. Why?
Marketing.
Using New Technologies for Effective Marketing
June 8, 2009 by Rebekah King · 1 Comment
Marketing is a long-held and much-needed practice for business growth and development. Not to be confused with Sales (though always used together with sales) an effective marketing program draws in new customers, engages current customers, and builds a product or service’s reputation throughout the marketplace.
Technology is always advancing, and as it does can either improve the value of marketing, or make it even more difficult to get an effective marketing program across to the target audience.
Are you sending SPAM emailing or a valuable newsletter?
Does anyone read your emails? Read more
Marketing ‘Speak’ De-Mystified
May 26, 2009 by Rebekah King · 1 Comment
Some friends and I have a running joke that marketers just make up words & phrases to confuse customers into hiring them. It’s time for some definitions …and before you get upset with the simplicity of the definitions – I’m not trying to be Websters here, just a light FAQ… and hopefully a little dose of reality in this crowded and cloudy marketing verbiage:
Social Media = any kind of media that creates a social or community experience for the audience. Facebook lets people do this by sharing photos and videos and news with their friends.
LinkedIn Spammer? Use LinkedIn without being a jerk
May 23, 2009 by Rebekah King · 1 Comment
People ask me quite often what the etiquette is of using LinkedIn, from connecting to old co-workers, to reaching out to new job openings, or connecting with potential buyers. I have to preface this all by saying that I am a big believer in relationship building vs. connection building. I think a connection means about as much as a name in the phone book, but a relationship is knowing someone on a personal level and having the opportunity to enrich each others lives/businesses. Having 3k plus connections is fine and all, but what good does this do you when you don’t know the people you’re connected to? For many it’s adding names to their database. While there are no hard and fast rules, there are some guidelines I can give you from what I see people doing that you may or may not want to emulate yourself.
1. YOU MIGHT BE A SPAMMER IF: you compulsively send strangers connection requests and not jut the people you met once, but the folks you’ve never ever met… Read more
Social Networking: All Screwed Up
April 24, 2009 by Rebekah King · Leave a Comment
I don’t know about you, but I’m not on my social networking sites 24/7. it’s more like 2/7, because really – I’ve got a business to run! Some people may find this a little contradictory, as I run a social media marketing company, yet we’re always telling people to find balance between the two. If you aren’t working to keep your business growing and gaining clients, then all the social media marketing in the world won’t do you any good.
But, I digress. My tangent is distracting us all for the point of today’s rant.
Pointless, cheezy, salesy, uninvited emails via facebook.
I recently received this from someone in one of my groups:
When Britains Got Talent start Susan Boyle took the stage in front of the three judges, it was all the audience could do to stop themselves from laughing. In front of them stood a 47 year old woman with an unpolished appearance who was certain to humiliate herself in front of millions. Then she did something extraordinary. She sang “I Dreamed a Dream” from the West End musical Les Misérables so beautifully that she received a standing ovation and is the talk of the UK. Her audition which has since been put on Youtube has received tens of millions of views. Read more
Newsletters: Just Do It
March 11, 2009 by Rebekah King · Leave a Comment
I have worked with SO MANY clients that are just distraught over their “Newsletter Situation”… which frankly means their LACK of a newsletter.
It doesn’t matter what it is; a newsletter, postcard, fun picture or a sample of your work, sending anything out to your address book on a semi-regular basis is good for business. Let’s be clear: I am NOT advocating sending out a digest of boring crap that you think is important. I am NOT cheering for the rights of the cheezy sales guy sending me a 3-page long “regular priced 199 but for you it’s 99 (if you order in the next 10 minutes)”. I am ABSOLUTELY NOT endorsing the emailing of a daily quote that will be the first thing I curse at every morning….
What I am always encouraging of is the sharing of your brand and your personality in a way that betters the lives of those around you. If you are a online video company send me one of your coolest videos (if you have cool videos… if you don’t then just make one that’s funny) every month. If you’re a celeb photographer send me something no one else has seen yet. Are you getting the drift yet?
The trick to a great newsletter/eblast/marketing thing is
1. Be consistent with your personality. Read more
KISS – Keep (your introductions) Simple Stupid!
February 27, 2009 by Rebekah King · Leave a Comment
DON’T OVERDO IT…
You know who you are, and what you are selling, but do we?
It’s easy to tell the biz owners and salespeople that feel they must “educate” their customers before making the purchase. This “educating” often turns what should be a 30-second commercial or introduction into a 90-second or (even worse) 5 minute explanation… the handshake becomes a hand-clasp and pretty soon the person your talking to starts sweating and looking for the door.
Don’t worry – I’ve been there too. In fact, we all have (come’on, admit it!).
Educating your customers comes after they become your customer, not when you are shaking the hands of strangers at a networking event. What we need is a quick snapshot of who your prospects are, if we are to have any hope of recommending one or two of our colleagues to you.
So keep it simple, stupid – tell me your name, your company name, and the simple-est explanation of what you do that you can possible come up with… how do you know if you’ve got it? If you can tell the neighbor’s 6th-grader what you do in 3 sentences or less and they get it – or ask you more about it – then you’ve hit the mark.
An example:
my buddy Lesley Sattin over at monkeyjoespeak introduces herself as someone who does “stuff with your logo on it”
Doesn’t get much more simple than that, does it?
Social Media and Customer Loyalty: The Skinny
January 30, 2009 by Rebekah King · Leave a Comment
Typically I frown on simply ‘reposting’ articles, but this one is so good it’s my exception to the rule this month:
Deepening Customer Loyalty Through Social Media by Aaron Strout
When was the last time you said to yourself: “Wow, I’d recommend this product or service to a friend”? Within the last month? Six months? If you have to think about this question, you’ve already made my point. Over the last 50 years, outsourced manufacturing, poor customer service and an overall commoditization of products and services have served to erode consumers’ affections for most brands.
While the idea of diminished customer loyalty may be disheartening–after all, if customers aren’t loyal, they don’t rave about your brand to other customers and they certainly can’t be tricked into forking over a greater share of their wallet–all hope is not lost. In fact, smart brands like Dell, Ford and Sears are starting to see increases in brand affinity as a result of their social endeavors. Read more
Transparency: Circuit City Admits They (did) Stink @ Customer Service
January 9, 2009 by Rebekah King · Leave a Comment
I ran across this new ad today on youtube:
You can also follow them on Twitter (465 friends at time of writing this blog) and become a fan of their new I Wear Read 4U campaign on facebook… Let’s see how it does over the next few months.
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