The Bella Buzz: Successful Web Design, Internet and Social Media Marketing Strategies from Desiree Scales, CEO--Bella Web Design, Inc.

Meet Brent Leary -- Social Customer Relationship Management Rock Star

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It is Brent Leary's turn to appear on the Bella Buzz podcast with Desiree Scales and Joe Magennis.  Brent is the co-founder and Partner of CRM Essentials LLC, a CRM consulting/advisory firm focused on small and mid-size enterprises. CRM Essentials has trained thousands of business people on the benefits and best practices of implementing CRM strategies and technologies.

Brent and Desiree recently worked together on the Moving Business Forward panel this past July and will also be appearing together on September 25th at the New Media Atlanta Social Media Summit.

Brent is also the host of Technology for Business Sake and an accomplished author and writer. You can follow all his work via his blog. (He's hard to keep up with sometimes!)

Social CRM means developing a systematic approach to finding, catching and keeping good customers. The space has some very heavy hitting companies including Microsoft and Salesforce.com focused on the internal operations of CRM. Social CRM helps with the transition from the conversations that are taking place on social networks to the business functions within the sales channel.

As Brent discusses where he sees the future of Social CRM going, he points out that it was only just two years ago when there was any type of insight into the integration of social networks with CRM processes, so it is certainly changing at a rapid pace.  He specifically mentions that Twitter as part of the sales channel has become much more prevalent and integrated into the process. 

BatchBlue is a company that focuses on small business CRM services and has caught Brent's attention. (Company president Pam O'Hara recently appeared on an edition of The Bella Buzz.)

An interesting perspective that many small businesses need to consider concerns metrics.  There are a number of potential metrics to determine success of a social media strategy, however since we are all focusing on very specific niches, it is very challenging to determine what "success" actual means across each niche.  Brent points out that having the patience to acquire enough data so that a realistic analysis can be made is critical.

Brent also gives his insights into his passionate analysis of the Barack Obama presidential campaign leader's use of social media. His analysis first appeared as a webinar, later published in numerous blogs, magazines, and newspaper articles and has now been published in a book.  The web site can be found at Barack20.com.

It would be hard to keep up with all that Brent is doing these days beyond the New Media Atlanta event, he has an conference presentation in Orlando for American Express coming up, then he is off to Buenos Aires speaking at the International Direct Marketers conference.... but you can't overlook his playlists on Twitter during #fridaynightmix check it out!

Theme music for The Bella Buzz is Fallen by Digital Chemistry, available for download at the Podsafe Music Network.

You can subscribe to The Bella Buzz directly from ITunes by following this link, and we would be happy to receive listener feedback and ratings at The ITunes Store.

Why Hiring a Marketing Strategist Before Building Your Website is Crucial

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Are you the type of person who would construct a home by hiring all of the contractors yourself instead of hiring a General Contractor? If so, then you are a rare individual. Most people feel more comfortable finding a good GC they can rely on and can help find the best sub-contractors with special skills and to oversee the entire project ensuring that all of the laborers achieve the overall objective of constructing a quality home. This is just the role an experienced Marketing Strategist can play in your quest for a great website.

On this week's Bella Buzz podcast, hosts Desiree Scales and Joe Magennis welcome Svy Nekrasas. He is just that type of General Contractor or "General Marketer" who works with small and medium sized businesses to develop, review, revise and implement complete marketing strategies.

There is an abundance of marketing tools available for business owners to choose from to deliver a brand message espeically now that social networking tools are so prevalent and efficient. In many cases implementation is more a case of jumping in rather than having a plan. Svy helps businesses to determine that plan before embarking on a web design campaign to review where things are and make recommendations for improvement.

Having a marketing strategist on board also helps when it comes to identifying the best resources for implementing a plan. Svy has been through the web design process before and has vetted specialists with the skill set to tackle specific aspects of the plan will save business owners a considerable amount time and money. The strategist can help find partners to build a web site, create a graphics standard, construct compelling content and craft an appropriate media plan.

When trying to focus a business owner on developing a comprehensive marketing plan, Svy likes to use the basic marketing axiom of Product, Price, Place, Promotion. Each of these elements are something that can be controlled and established when launching a brand message. Consumers today have a lot of access to information and a solid disciplined marketing plan will clearly communicate a brand in the mind of the target consumer.

Svy will also make sure that the full story is composed based upon the information that is obtained by using Google Analytics on a web site. Traffic sources, keywords, users, and goals are just some of the key variables that appear on these comprehensive reports. Making sense of this data and taking action based upon the results serves as a strong foundation of any marketing plan.

Getting involved with someone outside of a company to analyze a marketing strategy can be very difficult for many business owners especially owners who are extremely connected personally to a business. Allowing good ideas to come from numerous sources in this day and age is the hallmark of an open and transparent organization. Consider the extraordinary resource that Starbucks has implemented by allowing customers to submit their ideas through the web site MyStarbucksIdea.com. It is an extraordinary resource, ensuring that the company is responsive directly to their base.

To talk more marketing with Svy, he can be reached at svy@bellawebdesign.com or by contacting Desiree.

Theme music for The Bella Buzz is Fallen by Digital Chemistry, available for download at the Podsafe Music Network.

You can subscribe to The Bella Buzz directly from ITunes by following this link, and we would be happy to receive listener feedback and ratings at The ITunes Store.

Social Media and "The Flight Attendant Effect"

I originally posted this at http://www.techlifepost.com on June 11, 2009. It was a popular post and many clients asked me to repost it here on the Bella Buzz Blog. Enjoy!

Back in the day when I was a flight attendant for a major airline, we were taught what I call the “Flight Attendant Effect.” It goes like this: If you pay special attention to just one customer on the plane, all the customers around him/her will feel special too and their impression of the airline will be a postive one.

Social media can have the same effect. If you are on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn and you are found helping one person through a difficult problem or just sharing kudos with them, other people reading the posts will feel that you’ve touched them as well and will more than likely think highly of you even though you’re not directly in contact. You become known as the “nice person” who helps people online. The person with all the answers to a problem. The expert with the expertise. The “go to guy/gal.”

The Flight Attendant Effect taught me the importance of how an interaction with just one person makes a huge impression about a company as a whole to others. This is exactly what your helpful actions can do for you and your company. Sharing your knowledge is a powerful connection you can make with others and will leave a lasting impression on everyone who notices. The impression you make by becoming a valuable resource for your clients, potential clients and business partners will take you much farther than you ever dreamed. 

This also works in reverse: A bad impression can be made if you choose to engage in negative or snarky comments or conversations. Sometimes it is even more detrimental and the damaging effects can reach even farther. My personal feeling is to use common sense about what you post. If you can’t say something nice, as our mothers told us, you may want to keep it to yourself. Choose your battles wisely online. You’ll never be sorry you did. 

Also, keep in mind that it’s about the other person, not about you. Reach out and help, but don’t bother if you’re only helping people to “look good.” People can see right through that. Being genuine in your motives will bring you rich rewards when you’re not looking for them. 

I’m so glad I was able to see how important it is to help those in need and how one action will carry enough weight to form a lasting impression about a company at a young age. Those lessons learned as a flight attendant have remained with me to this day and make me appreciate how important it is to share my knowledge and help those around me. I also see this quality in others and I’m so glad that I know people in social media that I can always count on for the right answer or another point of view to explore. Their effect on me, and the people I know, will help us all go much farther with social media than we ever dreamed.

The All-Powerful Share Button in Social Media

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Desiree Scales, CEO of Bella Web Design smoothly segues into our Bella Buzz podcast topic this week, using the Share button for distributing content. With co-host Joe Magennis, principal of Fluid Media in Atlanta, we chat about the mutually beneficial practice of sharing, re-tweeting and forwarding content on the web.

The greatest reward for content producers is to create something that readers, viewers or listeners find compelling enough to pass along to their social networks. As the momentum builds for the content, it continues to get shared with others on the strength of the message or entertainment value that it brings... the content becomes Viral. 

It is an unrealistic expectation to intentionally design content to become viral or share-worthy.  A small business owner should never embark on the process of creating content hoping that it will become the next "Chocolate Rain" video which has received over 38 million views!  Content should be developed strictly with the intention of communicating a message to a target audience.  If that audience deems the content to be worthy of sharing with others, they will pass it along in order to provide some value to the next recipient.

The share functionality has actually been with us on the internet well before the tools of Web 2.0.  The simple act of forwarding an email was the first level of sharing that we encountered.  Now that we are in the social era of internet services we have Re-Tweets on Twitter, we have numerous Share plugins for blog posts such as Share This used on both bellawebdesign.com and befluid.com and we even could consider a Trackback or a Link as a form of sharing content from someone else's blog.

Think about it for a second. How valuable is it to you as a content producer to have your audience share your content within their own circle of influence? Since we are much more likely to trust the content passed along from someone we know, we are much more likely to consume it.  If you employ the old shampoo commercial axiom of "tell two friends, and they'll tell two friends", your message will be transmitted far beyond your own social graph and will start to carry serious significance in your niche.

As with all things social these days, we are also living in a very collaborative environment. A good practice is to contribute to the distribution of other people's content by using the share button yourself.  Re-tweeting, Stumbling or Digging an article, linking to a blog post in Facebook or on your own blog will not go unnoticed and might lead to a reciprocal sharing of your content. 

Don't forget to use the reporting functions from URL shorteners such as Bit.LY or the dashboard within Share This to determine if you are producing the right kind of content. Witnessing small share numbers might indicate that you need to refine your content so that it communicates more meaningful information to your audience. You can also use the Hootsuite service to review the success of your campaign ROI, shared items is another measure of effectiveness.

We are interested in finding out from you what you would like us to share, we would love to see in the comments any topics or ideas that we can address in the podcast.  Thanks for Listening!

Theme music for The Bella Buzz is Fallen by Digital Chemistry, available for download at the Podsafe Music Network.

You can subscribe to The Bella Buzz directly from ITunes by following this link, and we would be happy to receive listener feedback and ratings at The ITunes Store.

Using Comments as a Business Tool

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Our hosts on The Bella Buzz podcast, Desiree Scales and Joe Magennis discuss the use of commenting on blog posts and activity streams, as a way to contribute to the overall conversation on the web.  Each blog post should simply be the catalyst for a conversation, with the comments from the readers & listeners as the different ingredients that combine to form an even more interesting dialogue.

The idea for this topic began with a simple statement from Desiree on her Facebook profile, that turned into a multi-post article that helped direct one (if not many) readers towards a better understanding of how to use an application. We applaud the integration of commenting functions in social networks, particularly Facebook. 

Unlike mass media outlets which are a one way dissemination of content, a blog post or a podcast is an open invitation to engage the audience like never before.  Taking the time to add to the post via a well thought out comment is a great way to develop a significant relationship on the web and to promote your own brand by demonstrating your knowledge and understanding in a very meaningful way. Comments allow you the opportunity to fully express your opinions beyond the limitations of 140 characters.

But it's not all about using comments to promote, as may bloggers are extremely concerned about comment spam and comments blatantly designed simply to link to your own profile.  Done correctly, you have inserted yourself into a topic that could lead to other opportunities. As a small to medium sized business owner, you should make it part of your regular efforts to respond to the posts that you read with a comment .. you will find it can lead to greater rewards.

There are also networks on the web that allow for a follower/following relationship for comments. As you contribute to blogs around the web your followers can see your messages in a social way.  This is also great for blog owners as a single commenter with a large following can lead many others to see your original post.

Integrated blog commenting tools such as Disqus and Intense Debate are great examples of these types of networks, while the web service BackType takes a more holistic approach to tracking comments via email address. A great advancement on the Disqus system is the integration of Facebook Connect as part of the social sharing of your comments, and may even disintermediate the need for having yet another social network to participate in... by having your comments feed into the Facebook Activity stream you are reaching your audience and sharing your web participation with them.Your Facebook followers can see your activity on the web, migrate to the site where you left the comment, and participate in the ongoing conversation.

As a site owner you have business decisions to make regarding the implementation of commenting systems on your own site.

In discussions with companies venturing into the use of blogs and social networks for the first time, a typical response is voiced .. "we'll do a blog but we want the comments turned off, we don't want anything bad to be said about us on our own web site!" ... This is improper thinking about how commenting can help a business owner.  Positive comments are of course peer to peer endorsement that carry much more weight than any content you could every write. A good comment can also help you to expand upon the meaning of your original post by drawing out more examples that make your point, making your content even better.

Negative comments give you two opportunities; one is to address the deficiencies that are voiced in the comment and become a better organization, and the second is to craft a response to the negative comment that demonstrates to the rest of the readers that you are listening, responsive and engaged. Don't fear negative comments .. embrace them and use them as a tool.

In the end, don't overlook the power of comments on the web. Feedback via comments is in many ways a motivation to continue producing the great content that we all enjoy on the web, and can be a great tool for business owners to use to help expand brand reach.  

Do you leave comments around the web? Are you contributing to the dialogue by jumping in to the conversation.  Are you a site owner using comments to expand your business? Let us know, we'd love to hear from you.

Why You Might Want to Consider a Social Media Coach for Your Business

Social Media Marketing is here. Is your business ready for it? Think about the following:

• Are you and your company fully represented on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube? 
• If you aren't, why not? What is keeping you back? 
• If you are, are you maximizing each post to benefit and attract the type of people you want to work with? 
• Do you know what Social Media is? 
• Are you currently following anyone who can help you on any of these platforms?  
• Do you know and follow the experts in your field and/or competitors who are currently using these tools? 

A lot to think about, right? 

Business is moving at the speed of light. Using social media tools can help you reach more people in a smarter, more cost-effective way. If you aren't participating in the conversation, you are soon going to be dead in the water. A Social Media Coach will give you the oars to row your boat in the right direction. 

A few things to think of before hiring a Social Media Coach:

1. Is this person maximizing their own use of the tools they want you to use?
2. Can they give you some statistics and metrics which backup their advice? 
3. Are they personalzing the strategy to work for your company or just using cookie-cutter ideas? 
4. Does this person study Social Media every day and know more than you do? 
5. Would you feel comfortable taking a class from this person? Are they easy to relate to and make the topics easy to understand? 

I think the role of Social Media Coaches is becoming more and more important in business just as Life and Business Coaches have become mainstream. Look for this role to be an even more integral part of the marketing arm in business just as it has already for Starbucks, Dell and Whole Foods who have in-house Social Media experts at the helm. 

If you are a small to medium size business just putting a toe into the waters of Social Media, you might just want to spend a little more this year to hire a Social Media Coach for your company to get you pointed in the right direction. You'll save a lot of time and money by not having to research these methods on your own and you'll also learn invaluable tips and tricks from someone who's "been there" and has made their own mistakes already.  

Have you met Mr. Tweet? How to Find Followers and Interesting People on Twitter

I've been asked a lot this week about Twitter especially by clients and people just trying this online social community for the first time. The question they most commonly ask is, "How do I find people to follow me and how can I find more people to follow on Twitter?"

In comes www.mrtweet.net which is a great service on Twitter few people know about. Mr. Tweet does three things very well:

1. Suggests people to follow based on their popularity and your list.




2. Tells you who is following you and if you're not following them yet. 




3. Gives you Twitter usage stats. 

All you have to do is go to www.mrtweet.com and click on the button I have up there on top of this post. Go follow Mr. Tweet on Twitter and you'll start seeing some results pretty quickly.

 
So go and find Mr. Tweet to help you navigate the waters of Twitter and tell him I said "Hi!"  Don't forget to follow me @DesireeScales!

Two Web Marketing Events you Don't Want to Miss This Year! (Free Tickets!)

I want to let you know about two events this year that will help you change the way you market your company. Both of them center around social media and how to network online with very little or no cost. 

The first event is called SoCon 2009 and will be held on February 6-7 2009 at both Maggiano's in Atlanta and Kennesaw State University. I attended SoCon last year and was very impressed. Chris Heuer was one of the speakers and taught me a lot about Twitter, Facebook and marketing online using social media tools in general. They changed my entire marketing game in this past year and have astounded me with what is possible online. The connections I've made have been overwhelmingly positive. I learned a lot and I was also able to teach my clients how to use these systems to gain clients and vendors online. Click here for more information and to register.

The second event is for real estate professionals, but anyone who owns a business would benefit. Its called REtech South. The real estate industry was hit hard in 2008, but there was a group of realtors, builders, brokers and mortgage company owners that used online tools to network and have survived. They learned how to use online networking tools to market their customers homes and their own business skills. Anyone in business can learn from these stars of the real estate industry. The REtech South conference is March 20th at the Gwinnett Center in Atlanta.  Click for more information.  

We're going to be giving away 2 free passes to SoCon and an Individual Ticket to REtech South to three lucky people. Just comment on this blog post and you'll be in the running for one of these three tickets. If you have a preference of events, let us know. You have until February 1, 2009 to enter so hurry and good luck! Winners will be contacted no later than February 2, 2009.

10 Compelling Reasons Your Business/Organization/Brand Needs a Facebook Page

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For those of you already on Facebook, you'll understand how powerful those two words are. I started my own Facebook page about 6 months ago. I also started a page for our company, Bella Web Design, Inc. (in case you didn't already know--ha!) about a month ago. In a very short time, I went from 0 followers to over 150 and growing every day. I've seen how powerful this application is both personally and professionally and I want to share some of my own reasons I think your company/org/brand should have its own Facebook page:

1. Facebook has more than 130 million active users. That's a lot of eyes to get your information in front of every day. 
2. Exposure, Exposure, Exposure! The average user has over 100 friends. Think about that. The power of referrals. I would hire someone I was referred to by a friend much quicker than someone I didn't know. What a huge referral base you have access to!
3. More than 2.5 million users become Page fans every day. That means that people love to join groups, become a part of something. When you build a page for your business/org/brand, people can opt to join your page and become a member of your Tribe, your club, your secret society. 
4. More than 70% of Facebook users are outside the US. Thinking of growing your business on an international scale? This statistic is pretty amazing. Think globally!
5. 2.6 Billion (BILLION!) minutes are spent on Facebook every day! Wow! Not only are a lot of people accessing Facebook, but they are staying on it during the day. That's an average of 20 minutes per user per day. Most websites don't see that much action, less than a three minutes or so per user, especially if the site isn't compelling or user-friendly.
6. Your page can establish your company's credibility and expertise. By adding information your customers/clients/fans are looking for to help them further their business or educate them, you're creating a powerful reference tool people will come back to again and again.
7. Facebook isn't just for kids anymore. The fastest growing demographic are those who are 25 and older and college graduates. Its true that we have the college and high school crowd to thank for helping Facebook get where its at, but business owners and GenX/Y/Baby Boomers are quickly taking over as Facebook users. Its a highly desirable demographic to get in front of.
8. Facebook is FREE. Free advertising to millions. You can't argue with that.
9. Advertising rates are still fairly low compared to Google and Yahoo. Since Facebook is still a pretty new marketing/advertising tool, you can still jump on the click-ad bandwagon at pretty reasonable rates.
10. You never know who knows who. I have a client who was trying to get a meeting set up between himself and a particular business for years. Turns out someone in his Facebook friends knew the right person and opened the door for him. You never know who can help you open the next door to opportunity.

I hope you'll consider creating a Facebook page for your company/org/tribe this next year. I see Facebook as a very powerful tool and a way to get in front of many people at a very low cost. The ROI is worth the time that can go into setting a page up and maintaining it. Facebook isn't just another trend, but a new way for people to come together and keep track of one another. To socialize and be social. Join us on Facebook and see if its something worth doing for your own tribe!

 

Desiree Scales Meets John DiPietro on LinkedIn -- Funny Teleseminar Interview Follows!

Let me tell you another story about how powerful social media and marketing tools are. Today we're going to talk about LinkedIn and how I met up with author and motiviational speaker John DiPietro and ended up on his online show.

A few weeks back, John asked a question on LinkedIn about a Flip Video Camera and how people used thiers to promote their business. I answered his question immediately and he was intrigued once he decided to check out my profile. The profile then led him to my website (www.bellawebdesign.com) where he learned even more about our company and what we do.

This then prompted John to call me last week and ask me if I was interested in being on his show called "Journey to Success." I was very impressed by John and his humor and couldn't wait to be on the show. We were both amazed that two strangers have become friends in such a short time thanks to the networking we did on LinkedIn. See? I keep telling you how powerful it is to connect and answer questions on LinkedIn. I know this won't be my last connection. Go start answering questions today and tell 'em Desiree sent you to share your personal expertise!

Please click this link to hear the results. John is a very funny interviewer and I think you'll enjoy it:

http://ds1.downloadtech.net/cn1086/audio/14811148244713-002.mp3

or

http://www.instantteleseminar.com/Default.asp?eventid=5126844