I’m often asked, “How do you have the time to spend on social media? How do you handle client accounts and do all that blog marketing?” Or my personal favorites, the less tactful questions, “Do you ever sleep? Do you have a life?”

The world of 2.0 has created a wealth of free marketing and PR opportunities. It’s leveled the playing field—the smaller companies can compete on the same level as the big boys. PR 2.0’s user-friendly interface makes it simple for anyone to use. The problem is, this wonderful technology has delivered a healthy dose of overwhelm and exhaustion to those who use it to promote their company.

If you are struggling to find the perfect balance between promoting your brand online and spending your time wisely, you’re not alone.

The list is exhaustive: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon, Del.ici.ous, YouTube, blog writing, blog commenting, article marketing, ezine writing, and more.

Where does one begin? Where does it end? (Is your head spinning yet?)

There’s a simple remedy to wasting your time promoting your business on social media, Tweeting all day, and commenting on blogs until your fingers ache.

It’s called a strategic plan—one that you can actually implement and stick to.

My team and I are able to accomplish so much in such a short amount of time for our clients and Sūmèr (and, yes, still have a life) because we operate off of a deadline-driven plan. Each week, we have objectives we need to meet, which are broken down into daily tasks.

And we batch our work. It’s amazing how many blogs you can comment on when you have a set list of blogs and do it all in one sitting. Set a timer, and don’t switch tasks until you’re finished.

Another great tip is to track your efforts. Whether you track efforts in a spreadsheet, a planner, or a word document, you’ll be able to see where your time is being spent and refine your efforts weekly.

To recap:

1) Create a plan.
2) Break goals down into easily digestible daily tasks.
3) Batch your work.
4) Track what you do and the results you get from your efforts.

Have any tips to help increase business productivity while decreasing the time you waste promoting your company online? We’d love to hear your feedback in our comments section.

Message from Michelle

September already–I can hardly believe it. My schedule is already filled with networking events, birthday parties, and fall festivals. On top of that, there’s completing client work and implementing my own marketing plan.

It’s easy to get busy. It’s too easy to get caught up in the doing. This issue of Sumèr’s Secrets is about slowing down–taking a break from the doing–and taking the time to look long and hard at your company’s brand message.

Connect With Me Online at:
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/writtenbysumer
Facebook: www.facebook.com/michelle.salater
Blog: writtenbysumer.com/articles

Feature Article:

Does Your Business Have the Personality of a Carrot?

You might not think so, but do your prospective customers? If you want to achieve online business success and attract more clients, you must step outside of your usual realm of thinking and view your company from an outsider’s perspective. From the perspective of your target market.

Too many times businesses either neglect their brand message or don’t project it accurately. When this happens, a brand image is easily misconstrued and it can have a devastating effect on your business.

Don’t let your prospects think your company is comparable to a carrot–orange is out of style.

Here are some tips for making sure an accurate brand image is shining through in all that you do:

Step 1: Take inventory. Review your company vision and mission, what types of products / services you offer, what sets you apart from your competition, where your products / services are sold, and all the details about your target market.

Once you’ve done this, it’s time to take a hard look at how you are projecting your business message. Take out a piece of paper, and answer the following questions as honestly as you can.

You may be surprised to find that your message is boring–extremely boring. Or you simply aren’t conveying an accurate message.

Step 2: Don’t feel down about Step 1–your findings do not mean your company is boring or unorganized or incompetent. It simply means your marketing message is not clear and accurate. Every business should regularly analyze how they’re projecting their brand personality and message.

Step 3: Ask friends, family, and colleagues if they would purchase from you based on your current marketing message. Make sure to ask people who will give you an unbiased opinion. If anyone says that he or she would not purchase from you, ask why. Perhaps your web copy does not project the correct business image, and you lose prospective customers who visit your site. Maybe your website design is jumbled and difficult for viewers to navigate through. Perhaps your website lacks a strong call to action or is simply boring.

Step 4: Now that you know where your website and other marketing materials need improvement, it’s time to revamp them and inject some brand personality. Whether you need web design work, a professional web copywriter, a blog marketing expert, or a social media guru, it’s important to find the right one who can provide you with the results you desire. Don’t hire just anyone. Do your research.

Did you like this article? Receive marketing updates and sign up for Sumer’s RSS feed.

When you’re at a loss for words and have nowhere to turn for the perfect blog topics, Google Wonder Wheel is there for inspiration. This highly effective tool brings the topics to you. All you have to do is type in a keyword and related words pop up. Click a related word for even more related words and continue until you find the perfect word that inspires your next blog topic. View the tutorial below for details on how to use this wonderful wheel:

Once upon a time, the dreaded memo was a popular way to communicate with the business workforce. It’s safe to say sending out a memo was a gamble. Perhaps half of the employees briefly skimmed, and the other half asked the skimmers what the memo was about. This one-way communication tool appears to be highly endangered, if not extinct.

If you’re looking to find a free and easy-to-use online communication tool for your employees to be motivated and engaged, social media sites are excellent platforms. Not only are social media sites being used by businesses as a website marketing and promotion tool, but they’ve also proven quite successful with fostering interaction among the workforce.

In a survey conducted by the International Association of Business Communicators and Buck Consultants, researchers studied how businesses are keeping employees engaged and productive through communication.

Communication is one of the most vital components in keeping businesses thriving and successful. Without proper communication from all members of a company workforce, it’s extremely difficult to keep a solid business structure from crumbling.

The IABC and Buck Consultants’ survey took a deeper look into what type of vehicles businesses use to communicate with their employees and keep them motivated to achieve company goals. Guess what? The memo wasn’t one of them.

Of the 1,500 survey participants, 79 percent say they use social media to communicate with employees and facilitate result-oriented behavior, compared to 75 percent who say they use email to communicate. Blogs take the top spot in social media popularity with 47 percent of participants using blogs as their main social media tool at work.

Using blogs to communicate is an excellent way to encourage employees to comment and read other employees’ comments. This type of communication is collaborative and engages readers, since it’s usually a more informal approach than a memo. Brief chunks of information on a blog can be digested easier and facilitate more conversation and interaction among the workforce than a long, formalized memo.

Other social media sites currently being used among business employees are Twitter, Yammer, and Facebook. Twitter at 21 percent, is the runner-up to blogs.

If you’re using social media sites for your website marketing and promotion, try using it for communication among employees. If it works for website marketing and promotion, it might just work for bringing your workforce closer together and more motivated.

Increasing targeted traffic to your website can cost a small fortune. But it doesn’t have to if you know the right tips, tools, and strategies to get a significant amount of targeted traffic that you need right now. 

·       Post comments on blogs, forums, and discussion boards related to your target market. It would be highly beneficial for you to join a discussion board / forum related to your industry in order to post comments, get consumer feedback, and be introduced to new industry information you may not already know. Posting relevant and helpful comments can increase your credibility and lure more readers to your website link. After every comment, include a link to your blog or website to increase targeted traffic.

·       Social bookmarking is a great way to increase targeted traffic. Bookmarking your online articles and website on a site, such as Digg, under specific categories allows you to reach out to your target market. It permits you to share your web content with others and allows them to vote on its content. If it becomes popular among viewers, it will be voted to the front page of the bookmarking site and be viewed by thousands of potential clients.

·       Utilizing RSS feed and email lists allows you to reach subscribers interested in what your company has to offer. RSS feed and emails are similar since they’re both sent to subscribers, providing them with updated information. RSS feed makes it easy for subscribers to be alerted immediately and allows them to click on the link to your website. Using these combined marketing strategies will increase your client base and will likely ensure an increase in visits to your website.

·       Exchange links with others to increase targeted traffic. If your link can be found on a handful of sites, it can dramatically increase the number of clients visiting your site.

·       Online Article Directories allow you to place niche-oriented articles into specific categories. Your target audience is more likely to be searching for articles in a specific category. For example, if your real estate company writes an article for ezinearticles.com and submits it under the Real Estate category, you’ll receive viewers who are specifically searching for Real Estate articles. This will eliminate viewers who are not in your specific target market.

For more helpful tips on marketing in economic crisis and to learn about our many marketing services, visit Michelle Salater Writing and Editorial, LLC.

Blogging is an excellent way to get thousands of potential customers, increase website traffic, and boost company credibility. One thing many bloggers don’t realize is the importance of commenting on other blogs. This is an excellent way to get inbound links to your site, gaining you more potential customers. Commenting on blogs is a powerful networking tool in the internet community and should not be overlooked.

Your comments should . . .

·       Add value and your expertise to what is being said in the blog.

·       Give positive feedback. Don’t be a Debbie-Downer, even if you disagree with what the author is saying. It’s important to give constructive criticism.  

·       Peak the interest of the author and other viewers. Authors who are intrigued by your comment may want to visit your blog and comment themselves. This creates even more clicks to your site.

·       Contain links to similar pieces you may have written about the subject. 

·       Be relevant to the blog topic. Make sure you’re on a site where your target market would visit and be interested in what you have to say, relevant to the topic of the blog. People may get frustrated if they click on a link that is not relevant to the topic, possibly creating a poor image of your company in the client’s mind.

·       Have a link to your email and website below comments you make. When people viewing the blogs see comments below that intrigue them, there is always the potential for them to click on these links to view your site or send an email your way.

Visit Michelle Salater Writing and Editorial, LLC, for more marketing tips and view our many writing services.

1. Search engines hone in on the most relevant information to your search. What’s more relevant than an up-to-date blog with a focused topic? Constantly updating your blog will enhance your site rankings.

2. It’s all about the links. Let’s say someone found your blog in a simple search for a particular topic. Now that they’re on your blog, they have the option of clicking on various links. Links to your main blog page, specific pages on your website, and other links you provide work to your benefit. Links can also be embedded into the written content on your blogs, peaking interest in the viewer.

3. Keyword placement is critical in attracting viewers to your blog. Keywords that are focused on your target market will provide the greatest benefits. A set of the same three or four keywords can be placed strategically in the title, links, categories, and body of a blog. Don’t use generalized keywords or words that you think will attract a general crowd. Why? Because general searches won’t necessarily get you sales. Attract a specific target market with profitable keywords. Your goal is to get a high conversion rate from your visitors. This won’t happen if you generalize your target market. Know your target market and get specific with your keywords.

4. The right keywords can get your blog inbound links from other higher-ranking sites. Inbound links are links from other websites or blogs that go directly to yours. Viewers who see your blog link on other sites may be interested in checking out your site as well.

5. Posting your blogs on social bookmarking sites will also increase your company’s exposure. Popular blogs and articles are ranked and, in turn, can get your blog tons of views per day. The relevancy of topics on these sites also helps increase your search engine rankings.