There are several ways to measure how well you're performing on the social web. They include:
share of voice (SOV - this is how often your "voice" is heard over all your competitors or who you're sharing your voice with),
level of engagement (how often are people coming back to the discussions about your products, visiting the sites, or generally being engaged with the topic),
tone of dialogue (are they negative, positive, neutral?),
evidence/quality of community (is there a community feel or is the hit-or-miss relationships?), and
cost of market share (interaction between what's being supplied and what the demand is for your topic/company/product or, according to Larry Weber, it's "securing share in prior
With the billions of websites and blogs online, driving people to your site can be a full-time job. But it doesn't have to be. As with off-line, you have to reach out and touch your customers, and potential customers, numerous times to get their attention. As I've stated before, you have to be careful with your online reputation and not just place your name and information everywhere. In part 6, I discussed how to join a discussion and build a relationship with a blogger or community that is discussing your target market. Now it's time to start promoting yourself:
1. Once you've contributed on the blogs, send an email privately to the blogger to ask if they'd review your site or discuss your products.
Once you have built your website with great content and articles that interest and are relevant to your audience, it's time to start building your online presence. As a small business owner, you know how important it is to shake hands at events, pass out your business cards, and advertise who you are and what you offer. The online social world is no different.
Based on your benchmarking from part 1, you now have a list of sites that are discussing your products and what they're saying. It's time to join the discussions and make a name for yourself. Remember, you are your brand.
Six tips to keep in mind:
1. When joining the discussion, be sure to answer the question and keep it brief. Do NO...Read More
Larry Weber, a renowned marketing and public relations expert, lists 4 types of online marketing channels, or conduits as he refers to them. They are: reputation aggregators, blogs, e-communities and social networks. Broken down further, reputation aggregators are search engines that use an algothrim to determine where and how you rank in their search profile (ie, Google, Yahoo). Blogs, as you know, can influence purchasing decisions, behaviors and your reputation. E-communities are websites that people join and visit regularly (the creators hope) for information, discussions and other interactions (Cafe Mom,iVillage). Social networks are a forum/website that build on people's desires to interface with each other and start dialogues (Facebook, MySpace).
It's April 15th...tax day. The tax rebates that are part of the economy stimulus package won't begin arriving until May, but many people have already gotten their yearly rebates if they e-filed (unfortunately I e-filed but I'm still waiting...). Now is the time to start gunning for those dollars that are about to pour into the economy. According to numerous articles I've been reading online, people are eschewing large ticket items (cars, furniture, etc.) for smaller products. I know my husband and I are spending the money on landscaping and expanding our kitchen. Paint, lighting fixtures, countertops, tile and mulch are all products on the list for us to buy and we're purchasing everything we can from local businesses. Why? Because we want to watch our carbon footprint as well.
