Successful Blog

How to Maximize Your Time at Networking Events

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By Jennifer Escalona Dunn

Networking events such as conferences and local business gatherings can often go from successful to stressful in a short period of time. You think you’re ready to tackle the evening, even arriving extra early to maximize your time, but in the end you leave empty handed, having only met a handful of people. Worse, nobody can really help you in any way.

Like everything else in business, it helps to have a plan. Use these tips to “profit” from your next networking trip.

Before the Trip

Having a successful trip to a networking event may depend on what you do before you even step through the door. It’s one thing to sign up for an event and hope for the best. It’s another thing entirely to have a battle plan at the ready in order to make the most out of the trip.

The first question you should ask yourself and any team members accompanying you is “what do I/we want out of this event?” In other words, instead of blindly going in with the attitude you’ll just see what happens and come what may, it’s better to have a focus. You’re much less likely to come away empty handed this way.

Be as specific as you want with your goals. Don’t just say “I want to talk to five good contacts,” make the goal “I want to make five new contacts that can help me spread my business to the Northwest region of the state.”

You should also contact the speakers beforehand. And if the event posts a pubic guest list, go ahead and look up the other attendees online. This way, instead of walking into a room full of strangers, you’ll have an immediate opening since you’re “Mary-who-emailed-you-last-week.”

During the Trip

While you’re actually at the networking event you want to cover the most ground possible. If you’re by yourself or the room is huge, this may not exactly be easy. This can be especially true if it’s one of those “cliquey” networking events – you know the type. It can be tough to break into a group that’s already established itself.

However, if you know what you’re there for, this becomes much easier. In fact, if you’ve really done your homework, you may already know who exactly you want to network with. Not everyone is great at these networking events and may hang back – the movers and shakers aren’t always in the big crowds, in other words.

Most of all, act interested in what they want to talk about. You can always pitch them ideas later when you have their email or Facebook page. Talking about something they like will get you in the door much quicker than berating them with business ideas.

Pro Networking Tip: Arrive early. You’ll be able to talk to more people, and it’s a lot easier to talk to the first few go-getters than it is to walk into a big crowd and break into an existing conversation.

Follow Up

Now is when all your hard work starts to pay off. You knew how to work the room, you knew who to talk to, and you made sure to have a pleasant conversation. Now all you have to do is work the follow up.

Of course make sure your message includes something regarding your conversation you had at the event. For instance, if you had a conversation about the best kind of golf clubs, mention you saw their favorite brand at the store the other day on sale. This can be the lead in you need for the rest of the conversation. From there, find your new connections on LinkedIn and then keep up with their news.

Pro Tip: People never forget the person who has done something for them. If you just bought a house and met someone who mentioned looking for a good real estate agent, make that connection. There will always be time later for your own business interests.

One a scale of 1 to 10, how much good did you get out of your last networking event? Why?

Author’s Bio: Jennifer Escalona Dunn is the owner of Social Street Media where she writes about small business, tech and finance for sites like WePay and Outright. You can find her on Twitter @jennescalona.

How to use hashtags without looking like a doofus

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To hashtag or not to hashtag, that is the question

It looks like a tic tac toe board, or the pound sign from a push-button telephone. The weird and wonderful hashtag is pretty much everywhere, from TV shows to the sides of buses. This post will get you up to speed with the latest hashtag etiquette, so you can take advantage of its power.
Hashtag etiquette
The origins of the hashtag go all the way back to IRC, which is a free real-time text chat tool that was popular before graphic interfaces (and video chat) took over. (Incidentally, there are still a lot of people using IRC.) The hashtag was used to pull together messages that all related to a certain subject. Later, Twitter denizens decided to adopt the same mechanism (legend attributes this to Chris Messina).

When you see a hyperlinked hashtag, it means you can click it to find content that relates to that subject, whether it’s an event, show, Twitter chat, meme, or random topic. When you see a non-hyperlinked hashtag, it usually means that someone has inserted a hashtag in a platform where it’s not recognized. That’s usually seen as an annoyance by the citizens of that platform, so it might be best to avoid doing that.

Recent hashtag changes

Supposedly Facebook is going to announce that it will start recognizing hashtags soon. This is a major boon to marketers, who will now be able to extend the reach of a hashtag across two huge platforms at once (Twitter and Facebook). Flickr also just added hashtags to its iOS app. However, Pinterest’s latest update renders hashtags non-clickable.

Pro hashtag tips

  • If you’re using a new/unfamiliar hashtag, go to Twitter Advanced Search and check to see who else is already using it. You can also use an external site like hashtags.org.
  • Join some Twitter chats in your niche; it’s a great way to network. You can use a tool like Tweetchat to automatically add the hashtag to your Tweets and see the stream.
  • Don’t use more than one hashtag in a status update unless there’s a really compelling reason.
  • Remember you’re in public. Since hashtags are aggregated all over the place, remember that content you hashtag is accessible to the world.
  • If you’re using a hashtag for an event, be sure to publicize it in advance, and then display it at the event on screen, and on conference materials. The first two questions at every conference are what’s the WiFi password and what hashtag should we use?
  • If you want to see action around a specific hashtag from across the web, look at a site like Twubs.com, which pulls together content from a hashtag and allows you to screen content if you’re streaming it live (to delete spam from the stream).

Are you using hashtags? Have any hashtag pet peeves you want to share with us?

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for Social Strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Steps to Optimize Your E-Commerce SEO

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By Brian Taylor

Optimizing the SEO on your e-commerce website is vital to selling more product. It will help your pages rank better on the search engines and keep prospective buyers on your pages longer, increasing conversions and sales. With that in mind we have put together a list of steps that you can use to optimize your e-commerce site’s SEO.

Read them, use them and watch them help increase your revenues greatly.

Concentrate more on each product page

Every single product that you have should have its own product page where as many questions can be answered as possible. It will need a great description, a unique title tag and unique description tags as well. Not only that but it should have relevant internal and external links and have all the social media sharing buttons as well so that it can be ‘shared’ online. Think of every product page as its own website and make sure that:

  • As many questions are answered about the product as possible so that a customer doesn’t have to ‘leave’ the page to finds an answer.
  • All technical specs about the product are included on the page.
  • The product title, the manufacturer of the product and the SKU are text, not images.

Take advantage of category and brand pages

These pages are very important. The average person is not going to be very specific when they first start searching for something online. For example, they won’t search for a ‘Honda Civic DL Sedan’ they will search for a ‘mid-sized car’ and then refine their search as they go. If you have a well done category page with all the possibilities listed someone who’s searching will be taken to the category page first and then be able to refine their search right on your website without leaving. These so-called ‘umbrella pages’ need to:

  • Have all the basic info for each product.
  • Have a descriptive category title on page and META.
  • Include at least a paragraph of content describing them to help prospective customers know what’s being shown as specifically as possible.

Create unique categories to group products

Even though you already have everything listed on your website you should create unique categories to be able to attract even more attention to specific items, like sale items at the end of summer for example. Most e-commerce sites won’t make a new page for ‘bikinis on sale’ but instead just make a ‘note’ on the existing webpage that they’re on sale.

Better to create an entirely new category (and page) to display these items so that they won’t be scattered all over your site but will all be grouped and found in one location.

Heavily incentivize user reviews

This may be the most important step. User reviews are the life-blood of many e-commerce websites. Just like positive reviews about movies will have people lining up at the theater for a new flick, positive user reviews will attract people to your site through SEO. And once they land, they will help persuade them to make a purchase.

The best thing you can do to get reviews is to give your customers an incentive to leave one like an extra discount or something similar. The more reviews the better and, if possible (and it is possible) they should be placed on the product page itself for even more selling power.

If you follow these steps your website will attract, convert and sell more products so don’t hesitate to start using them all ASAP and watch as your sales and revenues start to increase.

Author’s Bio:
Brian Taylor is the VP, Business Development at Forix SEO in Portland, OR. a team of crack SEO experts with an impressive record when it comes to results, experience, and expertise. Forix offers affordable and ethical SEO services in Portland helping small businesses with their Internet marketing needs.

How to really make Twitter work for your business

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By Tina Hamilton

By now entrepreneurs and small business owners should be aware that marketing from social media platforms is highly advantageous—namely Twitter. I thought I knew it all when it came to utilizing Twitter for marketing efforts, however, the old saying “you never stop learning” proved to be very true. I knew Twitter for being a notorious platform for fans to follow celebrities on, and for big businesses to establish contact with people via blasting multiple daily tweets. I was under the misconception that when it came to marketing, only large corporations benefited from using Twitter. I was mistaken, for in the words of Yoda, “size matters not.” Twitter can even benefit a kid with a lemonade stand.

Simple rules to follow

When setting up a Twitter business account there are some simple rules you will want to follow that I discovered are very effective. If you are a home-based entrepreneur the Twitter winds will blow your sails towards the shores of other companies and marketing experts with whom you can connect. Marketing your brand on Twitter (correctly) will open more doors for advantageous encounters.

Brand yourself

When setting up your profile make sure you take advantage of the area reserved for your profile photo and instead upload an image of your company’s logo. This will help to establish brand recognition, and the verbal tweets that you provide can be placed with a visual image that will brand itself into your audience member’s minds.

Wave your Twitter flag

In other words, let EVERYONE know that you are on Twitter. Tell all your friends and followers on Facebook, Linkdin, Pinterest, and any other social media platforms you may be using. This is a numbers game: the more followers you get, the better your brand’s online exposure will be.

Being a leader means to be a follower

As a business leader you will want to follow as many businesses, entrepreneurs, marketing experts and those who are relevant in your field. It is common “Twitter etiquette” that if someone follows you, you follow him or her in return. You should also follow all of your competitors for two simple reasons: (1) you can keep an eye on “what they are doing” and (2) it provides an opportunity for their followers to discover and follow you.

Stick to business

We all know that bartenders aren’t supposed to talk about politics and religion, and the same holds true for business Tweets. As you will see lots of tweets floating through cyberspace that stress views on non-business related issues, you may feel tempted to respond. But don’t. Running a successful Twitter campaign requires one to stay on neutral ground at all times.

Get visual

Sharing images is a great way to draw attention to your brand. People are more inclined to respond to tweets that include images—just make sure they are business appropriate. A photo of the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders could offend those who dislike the team or upset those who think cheerleading objectifies women. Instead, show an inspirational and motivating image or personal photo from your place of business (a happy client using your services, for example).

Growth!

Trust me guys, follow these tips and you will see a difference in the number of people you communicate with via your brand. Not only have these methods helped me; they have helped many others who took them on board. Here’s to some successful tweeting!

Author’s Bio: Tina Hamilton is a veteran journalist who enjoys covering a wide range of topics like social media, business, society, and others as a staff writer for Organic Media Group, a boutique SEO consulting agency. You can follow Tina on Twitter as @TinaTheScribe.

Quick LinkedIn Checkup

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By Charles Mburugu

LinkedIn is the world’s leading professional social network. With a membership of almost 80 million, it has become a popular marketing tool for many businesses and individuals. Here are some tips which will help you make the most out of LinkedIn.

Your LinkedIn Profile

Your LinkedIn profile is basically an online resume. Therefore, it needs to be updated and complete. Some of the details which need to be completed include:

  • Your profile summary
  • Your current position
  • Two past positions
  • Your education
  • Your specialties
  • At least three recommendations

Be sure to add a clear, professional-looking photo of yourself to the profile. A good photo will not only reveal your identity, but will also be a vital aspect of your personal brand.

Choose Your Keywords

Many professionals and businesses are using LinkedIn to identify top talent. Therefore, you need to think about what keywords do you want to be known for. Carry out some research to find out which keywords would be most suitable for your skill set, and make sure these words appear prominently on your profile. This will result in a high page rank, thus ensuring better visibility for your profile.

Customize Your URL

Make sure your name appears in your LinkedIn URL. This will make you more visible in the LinkedIn search bar, as well as in search engines. To make changes, go to “edit profile”. Scroll down to the “public profile” section, click on the edit link and add your name to the URL. If you have a common name, you could consider adding a period or hyphen between the first and last name.

Add Your Full Experience History

Don’t leave out any details of your work history. A full history gives a clearer indication of your abilities. Remember to include targeted keywords to enhance your ranking. You can find many free templates online which will help you create your digital resume. Once complete, the resume can then be imported to your profile.

Make Use of LinkedIn Applications

You can enhance your LinkedIn experience by using one of the many applications available. Events and TripIt would be useful for people who travel a lot and want to share their experiences. People with Twitter accounts or blogs can use WordPress or Blog Link to add posts to their LinkedIn profiles. SlideShare is ideal for people who would want to share presentations with others.

Recommendations

To leave a good impression on other professionals, make sure you have positive recommendations on your profile. Get in touch with people you have worked with before and ask them to put in a good word for you. The more recommendations you have, the more credible your profile will be. Don’t forget to also offer positive recommendations to other people. They will be grateful and might even return the favor.

Have you brushed up your LinkedIn profile lately?

Author’s Bio: Charles Mburugu is a HubSpot-certified content writer/marketer for B2B, B2C and SaaS companies. He has worked with brands such as GetResponse, Neil Patel, Shopify, 99 Designs, Oberlo, Salesforce and Condor. Check out his portfolio and connect on LinkedIn.

Who Is Your Marketing Content Written For?

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By James Ellis

Content marketers love to talk about the power of content. It slices, it dices, it makes unsightly blemishes disappear. Mix some with water to make a paste and it will polish the silver. Content is the cheat code of marketing

But when they talk about content, they usually focus on content that increases lead generation. That’s not a bad thing. We all love new leads. But content can do a number of different things. Content that excites and interests isn’t the same as content that convinces and assures.

So if content works at every level of the sales funnel (and I’m convinced that it can), you need some intentionality.

What do you want this content to do?

Break your sales cycle into stages. Everyone’s funnel is different depending on what book they’re reading at the time, but list every stage. What kind of content will speak to people at each and every single stage?

You might be concerned that your targets won’t know how to find the content for their stage, consider that people in each stage will be looking for different content and will use different terms depending on if they don’t know who you are and if they are trying to validate that you are the correct solution provider. At the awareness stage, their search terms will be about “how to fix…” while their validation stage might be “product name reviews.”

Having killer content at each stage in the sales funnel isn’t an accident. You need to be intentional and build for each stage.

Author’s Bio: James Ellis is a digital strategist, mad scientist, lover, fighter, drummer and blogger living in Chicago. You can reach out to him or just argue with his premise at saltlab.com.