Ventureweek

Belly is a hot new shopping rewards startup that is making waves and has secured some strong Venture Capital support. Belly works by providing businesses with everything they need to provide their customers with a digital rewards system, including cards for shoppers iPads, software and promotional materials, and marketing information on the backend, including analytics related to customer shopping patterns.Once consumers sign up for Belly, they can also use the app or website to find other merchants that accept Belly.

This is a business friendly service works on a subscription basis, through a variety of tiered offerings that start at around $50 per month and range upward depending on how many tools and how much support a business is looking for. The company announced a $10 million investment  from Andreessen Horowitz, which the company intends to use to help fuel its growth and kick its U.S. expansion into high gear.

By Deborah Shane

From smallbiztrends.com

Here are 5 ways to grow and build trust using email marketing:

1) Create a monthly Newsletter with specific themes and content that is thoughtful and highly targeted to what your followers need and want from you. Get to know who is on your list and why they joined it in the first place.

2) Be consistent with sending your message and campaign out monthly and find the best frequency and timing. Do not over kill your list with too many daily emails. More and more people are tuning out and unsubscribing  to those that over email, regardless of how popular they are.

3) Offer content especially for this community that other people do not have access too that are NOT on the list. Let your community know how exclusive they are to you and how much you want to serve their specific needs.

4) Integrate your email marketing campaign into all your other platforms. Unify the message across your social media, blog, websites, podcasting, video and mobile. Make sure your visual logo, look and feel are consistent over all your platforms.

5) “Serving is the New Selling’ should be your approach and mantra. Giving lots of FREE WHY, then SELLING the HOW is a perfect formula. We are in it to make money right? Yes, but earning the business by building strong relationships and using the trust to sell your products and services is why they choose you and ensures more longevity in customer retention.

Make a commitment to one of the professional email marketing systems like Constant Contact, which has been mine since 2007, or several other great choices like IConnect, Aweber and Mail Chimp.

Email marketing has been one of the top platforms that I will continue to use. My list grew over 30% last year nationally and internationally. It has allowed me a more personal, direct and exclusive way to communicate to and with “my tribe” and serve them.

By Larry Parnell, George Washington University

From:prnewsonline.com

Larry Parnell is an associate professor at George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management and operates Parnell Communications—a boutique communications consultancy specializing in communications strategy for government, non-profits and corporate clients. He can be reached at larryparnell@mac.com

Hello sports fans!

If you’ll indulge one more piece about the Super Bowl, I want to suggest there are several lessons in strategic communications planning that can be taken from this event.

Simply put—a good strategic communications plan is very similar to the game plans head coaches prepare and execute in a championship football game. You have a similar goal—winning in the marketplace versus on the field. You have your team—employees, products and advisers—to prepare. You have coaches (management) and owners (stockholders or other key stakeholders) to answer to. And, finally, you have the whole world watching and analyzing your every move, just like pro football players do.

So how can you ensure your success in this high stakes game? Simple—prepare a comprehensive plan that addresses the mission and contingencies and execute it better than your competition.

Too often it seems, public relations and public affairs professionals are guilty of entering the big game without a complete plan or thinking through the “what ifs” and how to respond as things unfold. Unfortunately this is a recipe for failure—and one that is more serious than your favorite team losing the game.

You don’t for a minute think that the Giants or the Patriots skimped on preparation do you? All the pre-game talk was about strategy, responding to the competition and in-game developments.  So, if you want to win, why shouldn’t you have the same discipline?

In our classes at George Washington University we emphasize seven key steps in developing a complete communications plan. By working through the list below, and responding to the questions it poses, your chances for success will be much higher.

A complete strategic communications plan should have the following components (along with a budget and supporting research and documentation). Take the recent Super Bowl as an example to illustrate these points.

1. Situation Analysis – What problem or opportunity are you planning to address? The situation is that you are playing a major rival for the championship. They know you and you know them—for the most part. How will you factor that into your game plan?
2. Goals and Objectives – What are you trying to accomplish? How will you know if you have accomplished it? While your overall goal is to win, what are the components (objectives) you need to achieve to improve your chances?
3. Stakeholders – Who has a “stake” in the outcome of your plan (pros and cons)? How might these groups/individuals react and hinder or help your progress? Who, besides the two teams, has a stake in the outcome of the game? How will you leverage or offset that to support your team?
4. Key Message(s) – What are you trying to get across to your audience? What messages do you want your team to understand and follow during the game? How might your opponent react and respond?
5. Tactics – What tactics will you utilize to deliver the message(s)? Tactically speaking, what plays will you call, which personnel will you deploy and how might your opponent react?
6. Measurement – How will you measure success or progress? Will you be able to adjust as things unfold? Your pre-game research will help here. Other than the scoreboard, what metrics are you monitoring to know if you are on track with your plan?
7. Contingency Plans – What could go wrong and how will you respond if it does? Finally, what will you do if something goes wrong? What is your contingency plan—just in case? Have you practiced that plan and do your people know their roles/responsibilities?

The parallels are there to support the analogy. Winning a big game—or succeeding in your business and career—is a function how well you prepare beforehand and how well you adapt during the contest.

Perhaps Darrell Royal, former head football coach at the University of Texas said it best: “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”

Not a bad game plan for PR professional as well.  

You might even get to go to Disney World! 

From Reuters.com This article by John Jantsch first appeared on Duct Tape Marketing. Any opinions expressed are his own.

One of my predictions for 2012 is that more people will come to understand that you can indeed do business using social networks and, frankly, I’m already seeing it.

First off, people are getting more comfortable with social media and social behavior. The idea is fading that social media is a pure engagement temple mentality.

More importantly, however, is that smart marketers are testing, tweaking and trying lots of things and figuring out how to build know, like and trust – the path to selling anything, anywhere – on social networks.

In my own experimenting I can tell you that generating and converting leads using social media takes a more patient approach, but once you find the right path, it’s actually a better way to sell in any environment.

The reason I see many people’s social media marketing efforts fail is that they are still simply broadcasting sales messages. This approach still works to some degree in an advertising setting because people often stumble upon your ads with a buying intent. It still works to some degree in email marketing efforts because people have asked to get your messages and you can easily earn the right to sell in that relationship.

However, most people don’t participate in social networks to shop so any sales message can feel sort of harsh and in the snack sized, feverish world of tweets, shares and likes any and all messages are very easy to ignore.

If you want to sell using social media, here’s one path:

Test your message

Using 140 characters or less to basically write an ad that makes people want to retweet and click isn’t something most people can muster in real time – and yet, that’s what most try to do.

I’ve had tremendous success using Google AdWords to test very compact messages. Once I find a message that draws clicks there, I know I’ve got a winner that will get action in the form of a tweet or share.

This somewhat scientific approach is one of the most overlooked aspects of marketing in social media and it’s the primary reason people that contend you can’t sell there say so.

Target your message

Here’s another proven technique that seems lost on many marketers. Just because there are 800 million people on Facebook doesn’t mean you need to appeal to all of them.

The quickest way to get the right kind of attention is to announce “hey you 437 people that need to get better at X” I’m talking to you.

If you want to learn more about the impact of using data to form your social media messages look no further than the social media research Dan Zarrella is doing.

Prove your worth

It’s nearly impossible to prepare someone to buy simply by crafting a mouth-watering tweet. There’s just not enough information to develop trust.

You must make your initial relationship-building all about valuable content. Give something away that you know your targeted prospect wants and needs. Move the free line to the point where your free stuff is better than most other people’s paid stuff and watch how enamored people get.

Here again, there’s nothing new about this. For years, smart marketers made tiny little inexpensive classified ads in the back of magazines like Popular Mechanics pay off nicely using this exact approach.

Engage

Now, here’s a step that just might be unique to social media and online marketing in general and it’s a very powerful one.

In the process of giving away all that great information, ask your prospects to tell you things, share things, rate things and help you make the world a better place for all who inhabit it.

Seriously, create feedback forms and make that part of the deal for why you are giving away such great stuff. Socialize your content and make it easy to email, tweet and like. Send a series of emails during your content sharing phase that reinforces the important takeaways from the content and offers more engagement like email support or live Q and A sessions.

Ask for the order

Once you’ve done all this work and logically and authentically led a prospect to the place where they do indeed have some level of trust, it’s time to tell them where this journey is ultimately headed.

Paint the picture you know exists in their “current reality”, remind them of the incredible glimpse you’ve shared and then illustrate what the picture could look like.

Don’t make the mistake of assuming they will connect the dots – show them how to get the value you know you have to offer and be extremely clear about it. One of the benefits of this approach is that, if you do it right and they still don’t buy, you’ll earn the right to ask why and they’ll gladly help you understand how to get it right.

There’s nothing that magical about this approach really. Marketers have been using some form of these elements for years, but it’s the total package, including patience and hard work, that makes it pay off in the world of social media

From mattaboutbusiness.com By Matt Mansfield

 If you’re like most small businesses, you’ve likely focused a lot of your social media efforts on the big three: Facebook, Twitter and, especially if you sell B2B, LinkedIn.

A few weeks ago however, I found myself wondering why Pinterest, the latest social networking site, kept popping up all over the place. Whether it was a blog post, a newsletter or even a mainstream business press article, I kept seeing the Pinterest name and yes, being the online hound that I am, I got really curious about all the buzz.

 You see, I had signed up for Pinterest earlier this year, but hadn’t had the time to work my way back to play with the site (this happens to me way to often ). Determined to remedy that, I logged into Pinterest late one Friday evening and, two hours later, realized that I was in trouble. I was hooked.

 Behind the Addiction

My First Pinterest Board Simply put, Pinterest is an image content curation site where users can create “boards” to which they can add images and comments around a common theme. For example, my first board was a collection of my “Favorite Geek T-Shirts”.

 In many ways, Pinterest is similar to some of the big social shopping sites (such as Kaboodle) where friends can share recommended products in specific configurations (think “outfit for the prom”). Pinterest however, allows you to add any image from across the web and does not limit you to adding products sold only by certain merchants.

 The advantage to the other social shopping sites is that you can not only view the products, but you can click a button and buy them right there. Believe me when I say that this exact functionality is high on the Pinterest team’s “must implement” list.

 Even without the ability to click and buy, there are a lot of reasons why Pinterest is addicting. In my mind, Pinterest attracts users with its ease-of-use, design and tone and attitude but it’s the social aspect really hooks you in.

 Within minutes of adding my first board, I began receiving comments and “repins” from tons of folks.

For example, within minutes (really!) of adding my first board, I began receiving comments and “repins” (where others share your images on their own boards) from tons of folks.

In an attempt to figure out why these folks had shared my stuff, I visited their boards and was incredibly pleased to discover people with the same twisted and geeky world-view as mine. Soon I was repining their stuff on my boards and before I knew it, a lot of time had gone by and I was still having a blast discovering new people and the content they had shared.

This is powerful social networking.

 A Real Contender

The growth of Pinterest has been nothing short of amazing and many compare it to Facebook in its early days.

Most compelling, the primary demographic of Pinterest users is composed of women, an attractive and hard-to-reach online demographic.

 Given these two factors, is it any wonder why businesses have begun to take notice of Pinterest? In fact, many businesses, both large and small, have used Pinterest successfully for a whole host of things from contests to marketing campaigns.

 Personally, I found Pinterest to be an excellent spot to create boards that focus on different types of online software solutions. Thus far, I have created three such boards:

Best Accounting Software Small Business 

E-Mail Marketing Services for Small Businesses 

CRM Software Programs for Small Businesses

 Pinterest can even be a used as a tool to improve your business’ search engine optimization (SEO) efforts -  it’s a fact: many businesses have seen huge website traffic growth since they began using Pinterest.

Pinterest has become a social network that your business can no longer ignore.

Yes, Pinterest has become a social network that your business can no longer ignore.

 So, to help you get started with this latest social networking phenom, I have included a whole bunch of useful links below.

 

SoJo Studios is a Zynga for charity that has just launched with some high profile funding.

SoJo Studios says it plans to make money through advertisers and sponsors as well as in-game purchases by players, with a mandate to donate 50 percent of the net profits (never less than 20 percent revenue) to its charity beneficiaries. This company is taking social enterprise to higher level.

By Stephanie Sammons

From the socialmediaexaminer com

#1: Update/create and complete your company page

Currently there are over 2 million businesses with a LinkedIn company page, many of which are corporations looking for talent on the network.

At some point, many professionals will choose to follow numerous company pages on LinkedIn just as they do Facebook business pages, and the stream will become noisier.

Keep in mind that with these pages, LinkedIn provides you with the opportunity to integrate rich media content such as images, hyperlinked banners, links to your website and blog and videos from YouTube into your company profile. Take advantage of these benefits to make your page more attractive, engaging and interesting to your target markets!

To either create or enhance your existing LinkedIn company page, focus on the following tips:

• Populate your company overview page using informative descriptions about whom you serve (your ideal customer) and how you serve them. Include the key specialties of your company in the designated “specialties” area and use keywords here that will resonate with your target markets. Also be sure to pull in your blog posts by inserting your blog feed URL!
• Build out your products and services pages on your profile. On these pages you can include an image, description, list of key features, landing page URL to your site, a link to a special promotion and you can even embed a YouTube video both on the products and services overview page as well as on each individual product/service page! Take advantage of the opportunity to integrate rich media. It will liven up your company page significantly.
  An example of a company products/services page from HubSpot.

• Once you have completed setting up your LinkedIn company page, you will want to enable the page for status updates. You must officially designate who can update the company page within your settings. Once you’ve completed this, designated people within your company will be able to post status updates to your page.
  Set a “designated user” for your company page.

#2: Build followers for your LinkedIn company page

Before you can really start to see any benefit from your LinkedIn company page, you’re going to have to work to get company followers just as you work to build a community of followers with your Facebook business page and Twitter profile! Otherwise, your updates won’t be visible unless someone visits your page directly and decides to share or comment on a status update.

Increasing your company followers will increase your company visibility. Your updates will be seen throughout LinkedIn and can easily be shared by your followers with their professional networks.

Building followers for your company isn’t just a one-time process. You should constantly be working to build followers for your company page on LinkedIn in order to expand your reach. It doesn’t matter if your business is big or small. Perhaps you don’t need the masses to follow your company page. You simply need to focus on gathering relevant followers as a small business or professional services company.

Below are some suggestions to quickly build your unique business community for your company page:

• Encourage existing employees to link up with your page (existing employees can help extend your company’s reach by sharing your status updates with their connections on LinkedIn).
• Follow the company pages of industry peers, vendors, current customers and prospective customers (many of them will reciprocate the action). Also consider following companies outside of your industry that are in your same geographic location!
• Send an announcement to the appropriate LinkedIn personal connections. (Best practice: Always provide 2 to 3 concrete benefits for why someone should follow your page. What will they get out of it? How can it help them to be better at what they do?)
• Consider sending that same “call to action” message to your existing database of customers and prospects, especially if many of them are on LinkedIn.
• Post a “call to action” to follow your page within relevant LinkedIn groups.

Remember, the more relevant followers you have for your LinkedIn company page, the more opportunities you have to be visible and build influence with your target markets!

#3: Provide interesting and value-added company page updates

Although LinkedIn suggests that you post status updates to your company page about jobs and breaking news, these types of posts are all about you and your company. If you want to engage followers, make it all about them and provide interesting and value-added updates that can help them to succeed in business!

This is your opportunity to establish your company as the industry expert. Also, don’t forget to include rich media such as an image in your company updates in order to make them stand out and capture attention!

A great example of this is HubSpot.  They update their company page with valuable resources and insights that can help marketers and businesses to be more successful in their online marketing efforts. Notice how they end their status update with a question. This is a great strategy to engage your company followers.

An example of how HubSpot is updating their company page with business resources and insights.

#4: Engage and network with people from companies you follow

Want to get on the radar screen of a business you’d like to work with? Watch for their company updates and engage with them! Just as you can engage with individual status updates that you see on LinkedIn, you can do the same with company page updates.

Perhaps a company that you follow is looking for a qualified candidate to fill a position. Point them to several professionals in your network who might be a good fit!

Maybe a company posts something that is helpful to you in your business. Thank them for the resource publicly and share it with your connections!

By helping the companies that you care about grow their visibility, you’ll also expand your influence with the company. It’s a very simple concept that most people don’t think about. Promote and refer the companies that are important to your business by liking, sharing and commenting on their updates. These companies may also return the favor and help to promote your business on LinkedIn as well.

In order to find the right companies to follow on LinkedIn, I would suggest utilizing LinkedIn’s advanced search features to find and follow industry partners, companies in your geographic location, companies that you currently do business with, companies that you’d like to do business with and companies within your same industry (competitors and non-competitors).

Filter searches to find relevant companies to follow!

Also, check out this article for more tips on using LinkedIn Company Search to expand your network.

Engaging and networking with relevant LinkedIn company pages will also help you develop and grow your personal LinkedIn network with other professionals who are engaging with these companies. You may discover other professionals who share the same business interests.

#5: Monitor and focus your efforts

LinkedIn does provide a nice “Analytics” feature to help you monitor and track visitors to your company page, but these metrics do not yet highlight how effectively you are engaging your target markets. However, on the main landing page for your company profile you will be able to see who has engaged with or commented on any of your company updates. Read more about the LinkedIn Company Page Analytics feature on the LinkedIn Blog.

LinkedIn Company Page Analytics feature.

Carve out time specifically for “company” networking on LinkedIn. Update your company status frequently, check for comments and engagements on those updates to determine what’s working, and continue building followers for your page through the strategies mentioned in section #2 of this article!

Also remember to keep your LinkedIn company page fresh and interesting. Add new videos or images from time to time, run special promotions, etc.

I have found that if you focus your time with your social networking efforts, you can accomplish greater success rather than just skimming the surface.

There are several places within LinkedIn to focus on company networking. On your LinkedIn home page under “Companies,” you can view the updates from the companies that you follow.

Or you can visit “LinkedIn Companies” home page (see image below) to see the same update. I find this to be a better place for focusing, as you won’t be distracted by all of the other items on your primary LinkedIn home page. Finally, you can also visit a company page directly and engage with any of the status updates right there on the page itself.

Monitoring the companies you follow on the “LinkedIn Companies” home page.

Regardless of the size of your business, it’s important to invest in your LinkedIn company presence. I believe that going forward, this will be one of the very best ways to set your company apart and provide ongoing value to your customers and prospects.

Don’t forget that your LinkedIn company page will also be indexed by search engines, which can provide another positive gateway online to your business.

What do you think? Have you thought about how you might build and engage your following on LinkedIn through a company page? Leave your questions and comments in the box below.

Brands are increasingly using Twitter as a tool to promote their products or services. Paramount Pictures used Twitter creatively to promote the  SUPER 8 new movie. Twitter users were encouraged to buy tickets for a special, June 9th showing of the movie from a Twitter “Promoted Trend” at select, participating theaters. Since March, Paramount started offering up a trailer via Twitter.