Internet Marketing 101: Content Marketing - Firmology

One phrase that you’ll hear over and over again in the online marketing realm is that “content is king.”

This is, without a doubt, a true statement. But, just like any other governing official, if this king doesn’t have a sustainable plan to appease the masses, then the only thing on the horizon will be a bloody revolt, deposition, and possibly a beheading.

Content marketing is an integral part of modern online strategies, but it has to be done with the right goals in mind to truly be effective. When you become a content master, you can drive traffic to your website and really start to build a community of brand advocates. You just have to think beyond the search engines.

SEE ALSO: Internet Marketing 101: Local SEO

This isn’t just about words on a page. It’s about creating assets that add real value for your customer.

Technically, a big company could afford to have an entire room full of wage-writers churning out content and clogging up the internet for everyone else. Do not fear this kind of strategy. It’s not for you.

And frankly, it doesn’t work.

The most recent search engine updates have targeted a lot of content marketing practices that were less about generating quality and value and more about linking schemes. They came down very hard on companies that thought they could buy their way into the top of the results pages.

SEE ALSO: Internet Marketing 101: Modern Search Engine Optimization

As a small business you are uniquely positioned to build closer relationships with your customers. This means you should be able to easily determine the real pain points that consumers are dealing with every day, and then you can address them with your content. It’s just another case of quality (and relevance) beating out quantity (and name recognition).

Content without strategy is just a bunch of words. In order to really turn your efforts into a profitable experience, you need to focus on content that engages your consumers and gives them a reason to take action. Setting your strategy doesn’t have to be difficult, and consists of a few simple steps:

Determine the target audience – Who are you creating content for? What are their major concerns? All of your content needs to be focused on the needs of these people.Create the content – Let your creative side show. There are many different types of content you can use to reach your target audience. This might include blogs, infographics, podcasts, newletters, ebooks, SlideShare presentations, videos, and any other medium that can transmit your messaging.Promote the content – This is a step that many small businesses don’t think they can manage. However, it is a critical part of the process because while it is true that if you build it they will come, it’s more true that if you build it and tell all your friends about it, and they tell all of their friends, then a lot more will come. There are several ways to do this, from putting it out on your social networks to using an email newsletter or even paying for a little promotion.Small businesses have the potential to use their content to maintain open lines of communication with their customers. Whether this is by providing valuable how-tos or detailed white papers, there are a lot of opportunities to solve a lot of problems. This is also a chance for you to listen closely to their feedback and respond accordingly.

Content marketing can be the cornerstone of a strong online campaign. It simply requires a careful approach and the willingness to engage with your customers.

What is your current content strategy? How are you engaging with customers?

RELATED: Internet Marketing 101: Pay-Per-Click

This mini-series is based off of this e-book, Internet Marketing 101: How Small Businesses Can Compete With the Big Guys, written by Rapid Advance. Interested in writing a mini-series for Firmology? Get in touch with the editor!

DIY Brain Zapping Meets the World of Internet Marketing - Scientific American (blog)

The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.

tDCS for consumers (not just hipsters)

Going back a couple of millenia, Scribonius Largus, Pliny the Elder and Galen of Pergamum were all avid proponents of using the electric currents produced by torpedo fish to treat headaches.

Physician Ibn Sidah tried to apply electric catfish to the forehead for epilepsy in the eleventh century.

If these esteemed historical figures were still around, they might be forking over bitcoins to buy transcranial direct current stimulators for treating patients—or, rather, for helping them  become better gamers or improve their math or memory skills

Until now, brain zapping—to treat Parkinson’s, depression or other illnesses (not for cognitive enhancement)—required drilling a hole in the head, submitting oneself to powerful shocks that left blanks in memory or going to a hospital to get treatment with a technology that is  far too expensive for the average  consumer to ever pick up at Best Buy.

At least on paper, times have changed. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) seems to solve all the problems that usually come with trying to take control of the television picture inside your head. It doesn’t require a hole in the skull. It seems relatively safe and you can order a kit (or an assembled device) from various places on the Internet for a few hundred dollars, maybe less.

A great article in Neuron, from which the factoids about the ancients were filched, talks about the phenomenon of tDCS in the media and academic literature. The article documents that hundreds of academic articles and dozens of print media offerings in 2013 chronicled the arrival of a new techno-obsession that has the potential to rival Google Glass as a new electronic device capable of messing with your head.

tDCS is supposed to work by using a weak electrical current—the nine-volt batteries you use in your smoke alarm—to ratchet up or dial down the activity of brain cells, maybe by facilitating a process of altering the proteins that populate the synapses, the connection points between neurons, all of which may enhance  learning. At least that’s one idea, but the people who study the technology are not really sure yet.

Even so, this is already the stuff of great “head” lines: “Brainwave is a breakthrough,” Zap yourself out of depression,” “Electric zap stops migraines,” (pace Pliny). The technology has also gained a reputation for enhancing mental activity in “normals”: “Little brain zap, big memory boost,” Zapping brain boosts math skills,” “Got a problem—put your electrical thinking cap on.”

Of course, the first question is whether it’s safe. No one knows with certainty  and a New York Times article had quotes from a bunch of experts who were wringing their hands over whether it might do harm. But we’re talking here about really weak currents. If these currents really work, you might get almost as much of a mental boost by brushing with an electric toothbrush for 10 or 20 minutes. The more important question might be whether it does anything at all other than tweak the brain’s innate powers to induce a placebo effect.

I asked the University of Toronto’s Andres Lozano, a leader in development of the invasive deep-brain stimulation technology for Parkinson’s and other disorders about what he thought about tDCS. This is what he told me:

“The risks are relatively low because the currents used are small.  The real risk is that the utility of these therapies is unproven and the regulation of its use is sub-optimal.  It creates false hopes and makes people invest their time and resources on something of questionable and uncertain value.  All of this could be resolved and we could get to the bottom of this matter by conducting appropriate sham-controlled clinical trials.”

What is more interesting, for sure, is the sociological phenomenon—the persistent desire for some kind of techno-talisman that will cure all ills while doing no harm. (They could sell these things at showings of “Lucy,” the movie.) Usually, there’s no free lunch, though. As with pharmaceuticals, if a device causes any changes at all, there’s usually some untoward side effects.

Maybe the biggest benefit may be to Google’s marketing of its much-touted “Glass” headgear. The tDCS as a fashion accessory looks so much geekier than Glass that maybe it will help ease acceptance of Google’s idea for the Next Big Thing.

Image Source: foc.us

An Internet marketing lesson--from Weird Al - PropertyCasualty360

This week the Interwebs are abuzz with Weird Al Yankovic, who released eight new parody music videos in eight days to promote his new album, "Mandatory Fun."

In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past 30 years, Weird Al is famous for his spot-on parodies of famous pop songs. (My own personal favorite from the current batch is “Word Crimes,” a parody of last year’s big hit, “Blurred Lines.” Check out the video and you’ll see why it’s dear to my heart.)

If you think it’s tough making a living in the insurance industry, what with competition from direct writers and online sales, consider Weird Al. When he was coming up in the early 1980s, the traditional record (yes, records) industry was coming under fire from the emergence of MTV and the new CD technology. (Funny how things come around: most indy bands are releasing vinyl of their music, along with CDs and downloads.)

Weird Al came along at just the right time to take advantage of all those tech shifts. He got famous with MTV videos like “Eat It” and since then has made money from records, movies, touring and merch. Back in the day, he had the song parody field locked.

But times have changed. While it’s always been tough to make a living in pop music, but you can make the case that today it’s virtually impossible, with the prevalence of free online music sharing and the pennies-on-the-dollar royalties artists get when their music is actually purchased.  

Like just about every other business, the music recording industry has been revolutionized by online sharing and changing consumer demand. Attempts to crack down on free online sharing resulted in the Napster case—seven years of litigation between the recording industry and an Internet startup involving copyright violations,

The irony is that since then, free online music sharing has become ubiquitous – as simple as cutting and pasting from YouTube and transferring that audio file to your MP3.

So how does Weird Al make a living? His Internet strategy is to partner with popular web content sites like Funny or Die, College Humor, Yahoo and Nerdist, which pay to produce his videos: "They're all looking for content and I'm looking for a video so we partner and it's a win-win situation."

In turn, Weird Al reaps the benefits by using those videos, which have cost him nothing, as “commercials for the album,” which he hopes sells big.

Weird Al is facing the end of an era. He has been locked into an album deal since 1982, and his current release marks the end of that contract. But instead of hanging up his accordion, he's learning to adapt to the new reality of Internet marketing and sales.

Going forward, his business model will focus on releasing singles to keep his material fresh and topical, and continuing to partner with online content sites to sell his work.

Song parodies aren’t insurance, but insurance people can learn a lot from Weird Al. In a recent NPR interview, he muses on the fact that song parodies by amateurs are a dime a dozen on YouTube today, and now that he no longer has a record contract, he has to compete with all of them.

He recognizes that the beauty and the curse of the Internet is that content goes viral and is forgotten in the blink of an eye. The advertisers who keep the web content sites afloat are focused on page views and other metrics, and stale material doesn’t get hits. By ditching albums for singles, Weird Al can stay on top of the rapidly shifting terrain of pop music—generating content that gets views, keeps websites and their advertisers happy, and spurs download sales of his own music.

He also knows that promoting his material can’t stop with the Internet. Building from the loyal fan base he’s developed over the years, he tours regularly, giving face time to his constituents.

And although he knows there’s plenty of cheap competition out there looking to steal his thunder, Weird Al abides.

From the NPR interview:

If you had asked me 30 years ago if I'd still be doing it today, I'd say that's pretty unlikely. But I love doing this. I can't imagine a job I'd rather have. I love comedy, I love music. I'm sure people will let me know when it's time to hang up the accordion and call it quits, but it's a lot of fun for me still, and as long as people don't mind, I'll keep doing it.

Marketing Day: Google+ Updates, Weird Al Wins The Internet & LinkedIn's New ... - Marketing Land

Jul 24, 2014 at 5:00pm ET by Amy Gesenhues

Here’s our daily recap of what happened in online marketing today, as reported on Marketing Land and other places across the web.

Google+ Launches Showcase To Show Rich Media To Viewers Of Hangouts On Air Google+ rolled out a new interactive feature for Hangouts on Air today, giving producers the ability to show viewers links to websites, videos, merchandise and other content being discussed during live events. The Showcase app displays links with rich-media cards on the right-hand side of the Hangout’s video player during the broadcast. If viewers click, […]Report: Progressive Insurance Top Mobile Advertiser Of Q2 Mobile analytics provider Adomic released a Q2 mobile advertising report. It covers a range of metrics and issues; among them, top mobile advertisers, most used ad formats and a comparison of programmatic media buying online vs. in mobile. The top mobile advertiser in the US in Q2 was Progressive Insurance. Microsoft came in at number […]Facebook’s Ad Machine Keeps Rolling; Key Q2 Metrics For Marketers To no one’s surprise, Facebook again crushed Wall Street expectations during its quarterly financial call yesterday, reporting revenue of $2.9 billion during the quarter the ended in June. The great majority — 92% — of that revenue total came from Facebook’s advertising juggernaut, an increase of 67% over the same quarter in 2013. In short […]Expedia Leverages #TBT With #ThrowMeBack to Literally Throw People Back To Their Memories Today is Throwback Thursday, the day when all of us unearth some gem from our past and share it with our friends across social media. Today is also the day when Expedia is launching its #ThrowMeBack photo contest on Instagram and Twitter. Starting today and running through September, people can post an image to Twitter […]The Weird Al Yankovic Social Media Case Study Weird Al Owns Social Media Content creators, social media strategists and PR professionals should fall to the feet of Weird Al and lap up his creative genius. What Yankovic pulled off this past week in the world of content publishing was amazing. His 14th (yes, fourteenth!) studio album, Mandatory Fun, was released on July 15th, 2014. […]SMX East Super Early Bird Rates Expire Friday – Last Chance to Register & Save $300! Time is running out! SMX East Super Early Bird rates – the lowest offered – expire end of day Friday, July 25th. Register now for an All Access pass. Here’s what you get: Exceptional content: 3 days featuring 60+ tactic-packed sessions that will help you build site traffic, grow sales, boost your ROI and acquire […]LinkedIn Launches Direct Sponsored Content, Enables Testing With “Dark Posts” Today, LinkedIn launched a “dark” version of its Sponsored Updates ad product called Direct Sponsored Content. These new native-style ads don’t get published to a company’s LinkedIn page, so advertisers can customize and test ad messaging and creatives to targeted audiences. LinkedIn isn’t the first social network to enable testing through posts that aren’t published […]Does Mobile Advertising Work? We’ve all heard for several years that the effectiveness of advertising — print, television, radio and even digital — is suffering from the law of diminishing returns. While there is some truth to that phenomenon, advertising in all forms is far from dead. In fact, since 1926 (with the exception of a dip during World War […]Turtle Wax Mines Social Media Gold With #Reflectie Contest There aren’t many consumer products that inspire more adoration than cars. We love them, pamper them, polish them and show them off to our friends. There’s a reason the 1975 lyrics by Queen’s drummer Roger Taylor — “I’m in love with my car, gotta feel for my automobile” — tongue in cheek though they were, […]2 Questions That Will Make You A Statistically Significant Marketer Yay, statistics! If you run any portion of an online marketing program, you better still be reading. Marketers who don’t embrace the porcupine of statistics over the next couple of years run the risk of becoming insignificant. If you’re still reading, I’m about to put your career or business on the fast track to statistical […]

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5 Ways to Find Leads and Customers on Twitter, www.socialmediaexaminer.com8 Tweets That Generate Engagement [INFOGRAPHIC], www.mediabistro.comAmerican Users Spend An Average Of 40 Minutes Per Day On Facebook, techcrunch.comFacebook Video Posts on SocialFlow!, www.socialflow.comHow to Get Started With Social Media Marketing, www.socialmediaexaminer.comHow to navigate the Facebook ad campaign maze, www.insidefacebook.comInstagram and Twitter May Pair Better Than We Thought, simplymeasured.comInteresting facts about brands that winning big on Twitter [Infographic], www.promodo.comManaging a Growing Social Media Team Using Analytics and Data, simplymeasured.comRetweeters: Why They’re Important To Your Twitter Marketing Efforts, www.socialbro.comSocial Media Marketing for Lead Generation, www.ducttapemarketing.comThis Is Why Nobody Sees Your Tweets, lkrsocialmedia.comThis summer’s box office hit? Twitter, Official Twitter BlogTop the Charts! 5 Insights for How to Do Social PR, www.vocus.comWhat’s the Difference Between Pinterest and Instagram? And 9 More Instagram FAQs, blogs.constantcontact.comWhen an ad is not an ad on Facebook, digiday.comWhy LinkedIn Could Be The De Facto B2B Data Platform, www.adexchanger.com

Video

AOL Video Doubles NewFronts Haul, Names New Head of Sales, adage.comApplebee’s consistent, interactive video experience across screens drives sales lift, www.mobilecommercedaily.comHow to Optimize YouTube Tags and Descriptions, www.reelseo.comInstagram Video: The Lovechild of YouTube, Vine, and Lil Jon, contently.comVideo Marketing Tactics for the B2B Marketer, blog.visual.lyYouTube Nonprofit Program and How to Get Started, www.copypress.comRelated Topics: Channel: Marketing Day | Marketing Day

Internet Marketing And Selling Small Business Style - Business 2 Community

Small Business

By Mike Brooks, Published July 25, 2014

I have published quite a few blog posts and podcasts about the importance of selling in your content and on social media. Here are two: click here and here to see each.

I believe that a small business should always be selling. This may run counter to what you may have heard about content.

You may have heard some say you should give it away 80% of the time. Give 80% take 20%. Or to never use social media to sell.

Here’s the thing; this isn’t wrong, but it also isn’t right.

Sometimes the person disseminating this advice is completely wrong. But many times, the blame falls squarely on the shoulders of you, dear reader.

Related Resources from B2C
» Free Webcast: Strategic Thinking: Social Media + Social Business Strategy

Here’s the definition of marketing according to Wikipedia.com: “Marketing is the process of communicating the value of a product or service to customers, for the purpose of selling that product or service.”

Here is the dictionary definition: “The activities that are involved in making people aware of a company’s products, making sure that the products are available to be bought, etc. 1: a: the act or process of selling or purchasing in a market. b: the process or technique of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service. 2: an aggregate of functions involved in moving goods from producer to consumer”

In this age of social media people have become selling phobic. But it isn’t because you shouldn’t be selling. It’s because people have the definition all wrong.

Selling doesn’t mean asking for money. That’s certainly part of it. But that’s the very last part of it.

It is that part of the marketing picture that should be used with caution. Asking people to buy in content and on social can be a bad thing if it’s over done.

But selling is not just asking for money. It is qualifying the prospect, grabbing attention, building interest, growing desire, etc. This should always, always, ALWAYS be done in content and on social.

Most importantly, there should always be a strategy. Producing free content with no marketing message does not serve your business at all. And you’re in business to make money, pure and simple. Too many people these days make that sound like a bad thing.

People say you can’t be self serving on social media.

Marketing is the oxygen your business needs to survive. Without it, there’s no point.

In episode 57 of the Nuclear Chowder Podcast, I bring on my good friend Ralph M. Rivera who is one half of the brains behind Web – Search – Social. We have a discussion about the importance of selling all the time. After all, as Ralph said… You can’t deposit branding in the bank.

Internet Marketing Hero Sazeeb Blesses Bangladesh with Bitcoin - CoinTelegraph

We talk a great deal about how the large economic powers are reacting to Bitcoin and some of the efforts being carried out regionally to enhance Bitcoin awareness in major markets like the United States and China.

What we often miss however is how important smaller nations, especially countries with large tech presences, are to the success of Bitcoin. Bangladesh is an excellent example of this and the new Bitcoin Foundation Bangladesh seems to be an excellent example of a great start on cryptocurrency education in the region.

The President of Bitcoin Foundation Bangladesh is S M Monir Uz Zaman Sazeeb ,or Sazeeb to his friends. He is a Bitcoin entrepreneur and internet marketer as well as a singer, releasing his first solo album in 2009. He also holds a degree of Bachelor of Science in Computer Science & Engineering and has 10 years experience in Internet Marketing.

- Sazeeb - Kalo Megh

He also works as a motivational speaker and Bitcoin Bangladesh seems to have been imprinted with his enthusiastic spirit. Sazeeb’s dream is to not only bring this information to government and business groups so that they can see the advantages of cryptocurrencies but to the people as well.

Sazeeb told CoinTelegraph via email:

“I have been a Bitcoin enthusiast for 3 years. I am the one who introduced Bitcoin to Bangladesh. I established this foundation to introduce Bitcoin to massive population of Bangladesh.

“I believe that Bitcoin and crypto-currencies per say, represent a practical way wealth can created and controlled by individuals. The wide acceptance of Bitcoin in Bangladesh will come about when Government and Business groups can understand and discuss their needs within the new Bitcoin economy.”

- Sazeeb himself

Bangladesh will be an interesting testing ground for Bitcoin. Because of the influence of India, Bangladesh has a very large tech community while at the same time suffering from a very large income disparity. However, there are no restrictive laws on cryptocurrencies in the country. The Foundation has three goals in Bangladesh: standardizing, protecting, and promoting Bitcoin.

But Sazeeb is not only involved in the newly formed foundation, and he is fully concentrating on spreading the word on Bitcoin to the general public. Here are some of his other projects he is currently working on:

Meanwhile, Bitcoin Foundation Bangladesh is being advised by Roger Ver, an angel investor sometimes known as “Bitcoin Jesus” for his active digital currency proselytizing. Hopefully, these efforts will help Bitcoin take root in Bangladesh as the newly formed organization believes that Bitcoin is a formidable instrument for overcoming income inequality by transferring the control of money back to the people.

Donate to Bitcoin Foundation Bangladesh: 1QFZGpQWUXyacuenvoHxzQDzCQkvnbWA79

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