Sometimes we’re so intent on finding “the next big thing” to promote our businesses that we often miss opportunities that are already available.  Sometimes we can find a brand new marketing tool where we’re not looking for it.  Sometimes our social and business lives merge to add a new dimension to our marketing strategies.   Speed-networking and online forums are two classic examples of this.

One of the more recent combinations of the personal and professional is the use of online social networking communities. You may be aware of social networking communities already, but do you have any idea of their potential for marketing your business?  Here’s a brief introduction to the concept of Social Media Optimisation (SMO) and how it could work for you…

What is social networking?

Social networking is the use of online communities such as Myspace, Bebo and Facebook to connect and communicate with people around the world.  Its advantages to businesses include tapping into new markets and generating new business.  Promoting your company across a number of these networks is known as Social Media Optimisation (SMO).

How does Social Media Optimisation work?

Social Media Optimisation can be thought of as a trail of breadcrumbs that leads visitors to your main website. External profiles introduce your company to the members of these online communities and advertise your products and services. Think of it as the next generation of directory listings: members are attracted to your profile by its content, and then pointed in the direction of your website.

Can it help me with my Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)?

The short answer is YES. Most social networking communities register their members’ profiles with the main search engines. The longer answer is that it depends on which networks you are a part of: different communities have different success rates with SEO. Each community does, however, have its own search engines, and your profile is optimised primarily for these.

What other ways are there of attracting profile hits?

Most of the communities promote profiles that are regularly updated, and members mark interesting content for other members’ viewing. Regularly uploading fresh and interesting content to your profile will give it a greater chance of being noticed.  An effective way of generating interest is to use your profile as the springboard for an online viral campaign. Pictures and movie clips are shared between members, so an advert could potentially reach millions via platforms such as YouTube and MyspaceTV.

Do I have to pay every time someone views my advert?

No.  Although some communities offer pay-per-click advertising services, it doesn’t cost anything for a movie to spread throughout its members. Providing your advert has interesting content it could be viewed all over the world without you paying anything for global distribution!

I’m interested, but I don’t have the time to manage all these profiles…

We can do that for you - we’ll set up the profile and design it to compliment your company branding. We can even provide you with video content if you don’t already have your own! For a minimum of twelve months we’ll maintain the channel for you, updating any news and uploading media at your request. We’ll also keep your channel clean of spam, block unwanted visitors and provide monthly statistics depending on which community you choose.

What next?

This is a guest blog post by Daniel Lyddon who is Creative Director at Seraphim Pictures.

Seraphim Pictures is an independent film and television production partnership based in Wales, UK.  A fusion of the partners’ combined experience in production and acting, the Company commits itself to developing content that showcases contemporary British talent and culture.

If you would like to learn more about how the Generate UK/Seraphim Pictures partnership can deliver and market unique video solutions to your business, please visit the Seraphim website or contact them via email or call them on +44 (0) 7531 614 569.

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This blog post is about Enterprise Email Marketing and the 9 steps that you need to understand in order to really begin to improve your email campaigns. The basic premise is that everyone already knows about email marketing and how to do it, so therefore there is nothing left to learn.

Not surprisingly, we believe that there is a lot to learn. We also believe that for the 9 steps of Enterprise Email Marketing to add value to your campaigns, you need to learn and understand email marketing processes.

The 9 Steps

1.       The Data. This success of your email campaign largely depends on the quality of your data. You should also have a strategy for your existing data and look at how you will add to your data.  Think about the format of your data and how easy it is to manipulate so that it can be used for your campaigns.

2.       Objective. If we work on the basis that you have great data, then the email objective should be not to waste that data. This means that you should take the time to plan your email campaigns as you would any other marketing activity. Before you move on from this step, establish whether your email falls into one of the following categories: awareness, sales, leadership, information or events.

3.       Roles. This is about understanding the roles of your team. Specifically, who is writing the content, who is responsible for the campaign objectives, who edits, who sends and who tests. In a large team environment, it is very important to have this part of the process documented so that ownership is never an issue.

4.       Process. The process is a collection of the two previous steps. It is usually documented and becomes a way to check progress. It is also about the process of testing your email campaign; during your objective stage you may well have come up with a number of good ideas. Email allows you to test different ideas, plan for this during your process and you will begin to see which campaigns and ideas work best.

5.       Template. The template is always an emotive stage and you may find that you are restricted in what you can do. In our experience, the simpler the template the better. Remember that this is an email, which most often will open in a program like Outlook.

6.       Delivery. The great thing about email is that you can plan ahead and schedule your emails. You should really take advantage of this. If you are an experienced user, then consider the use of triggers to take your email campaigns to the next level.

7.       Compose/Send. We advise that if you’re sending a branded newsletter then you should be consistent and send roughly at the same time each month. Before you send any email, test it. Send it to as many as ten different people and check to see how it is presented.

8.       Analyse the data. In our opinion, analysing an email campaign is as almost important as your data. Take advantage of the fact that email marketing provides you with real time information about your click through rates, unsubscribe rates and your most popular content. Having information like this at your fingertips means that you should always strive to improve your campaigns based upon tangible data.

9.       Build, grow and repeat. Continue to grow your data lists, analyse your campaigns and repeat. Learn from what was good and what was bad and do not be afraid to tweak your campaigns.

What to do next? We’d love to hear from you, post your comments and feedback below. If you would like to speak to Generate UK, please feel free to contact us on 0845 388 9185 or via our contact page.

Special Offer: If you have read this post and would like to learn more about how Enterprise Email Marketing can help your business, contact us immediately for details of how we can help you. Quote the title of this blog for a 20% discount on all services, software or support.

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The blog world was buzzing with the news that the finance related blog Bankholic.com has been acquired for $15m this week. It’s a huge amount of cash for a blog that has until now been run by one person.

After taking a good look at the site, it is interesting to try and break down what was attractive about this site. In terms of traffic, it is receiving around 8,000 hits a day, not huge by any stretch of the imagination, however it is a very competitive market and 8,000 visitors to a site with high paying affiliate advertisements is not to be sniffed at.

The ads are very well positioned and integrated well into the content; I would guess that this site is making a lot of money via the affiliate adverts. This is a highly competitive market, one that pays top rate for qualified leads so I would not be surprised if this site was turning over mid to high six figures per annum.

The site is also very well indexed in the search engines, such a large footprint would take a lot of time to achieve, so this would be very attractive to a potential buyer. Remember, this has all been achieved by the hands of one person, imagine what could happen if you put a team of professional finance writers on the site.

This site is a lesson for all businesses on how to make the most from a web property. It focuses on a specific market and provides quality information and content to its readers.  The site’s clear objective is to attract visitors and encourage them to click through the lucrative adverts.

Is the site worth $15m? This is hard to say, the buyers were bankrate.com. Their revenue for the first six months of 2008 was $82.7m, so they’re a decent sized company who are looking to continue their growth. You could argue that bankholic.com was a competitor, so who is to know whether this was a purchase designed to open their market.

If you’re toiling away on your own blog and wondering why you’re doing it; remember that there may be $15m reasons just around the corner. If you’re still wondering, visit the site quickly to see what they are doing well that can be implemented on your own site.

Do you have a view about this blog post? Please feel free to comment below, if you would like to speak to someone at Generate UK please call us on 0845 388 9185 or email us.

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Before reading this post, we recommend that you get Generate UK - Digital Marketing Blog delivered directly to your email inboxThe great benefit of a working Knowledge Management system is that it will enable your staff to make more informed decisions and be more proactive with their knowledge. This in turn increases their contribution to your organisation. Knowledge Management is about learning, this is achieved via the affective collaboration and sharing of individual knowledge and experience.

The challenge when implementing a new Knowledge Management project is that it is not just about the technology. It is about the people and how to motivate the people to share their knowledge in a new way that benefits them and your business. This article describes four tips to help you choose the right Knowledge Management technology.

1. Take the time to develop your staff. The success or failure will be based upon user adoption. Talk to them to understand their current process and what they would need in order to improve it. This will help your staff gain a sense of ownership to the project, which will ensure their continued support. Once you understand what content is available and the process, evaluate the technology based on this.
2. Compare what is it that you need to deliver with the different Knowledge Management products that are available. It is likely that a single piece of technology will not be able to fulfil your project goals, evaluate the one that is the closest to your needs and more important is open so that you can bespoke add to it.
3. Shortlist a selection of Knowledge Management products and give them all equal chance to work based upon your original criteria. Each will have good and bad features, once you have a technology fit; weigh this against the relationship you have with the vendor and how they have worked with you during the evaluation process. Your budget will also have a major factor here.
4. Where possible try to select a technology solution that is not locked. By this we mean a piece of software that is standards based and can be extended. So often companies invest in software that is unable to grow with their needs. Good software should be able to grow with you and work with you now and in the future.

The Generate UK Knowledge Management system has been designed for small, medium and enterprise customers in the UK. If you would like to learn more or see a demo, please click through to our web site.