The Web has helped level the playing field for small and medium businesses to market and compete, especially as these companies continue to shift their spend and efforts to digital marketing. While targeted, automated e-mail marketing may have been out-of-reach for SMBs five years ago, it is one of the most-used marketing tactics by companies with fewer than 500 employees today. Mobile might have not made sense for most SMBs a few years ago, but it is now a growing part of the SMB marketing mix. Further, while a social media presence was experimental just two three years ago, it is now a necessary part of small and medium businesses’ marketing strategy, just as it is for enterprise marketers. Also like enterprise marketers, SMBs face challenges managing these different channels in an effective way, as well as keeping up with the lightning-fast face of evolution in digital marketing.

While these challenges persist, technology and service providers are devising solutions specifically targeted at SMBs to help them get a hold of their marketing efforts. With virtually limitless storage, widespread broadband availability, and robust capabilities delivered via a browser, similar tools that big brands use to manage and optimize their marketing efforts are available for SMBs at a fraction of the cost, enabling these companies to more effectively meet their marketing goals. InfoTrends recognized this trend when it first studied small and medium businesses’ marketing approaches in 2009. At the end of 2011, we conducted a follow-up study entitled Capturing the SMB Marketing Automation Opportunity to understand how SMBs’ marketing spend, strategy, and tactics are evolving by surveying over 2,000 small and medium businesses across 13 vertical industries.

One of the most striking developments over the past two years is the growth in the use of social media for marketing. Overall use has increased dramatically: in 2009, over half of respondents did not have any social media presence, but in 2011, just 3% reported not having a social media presence. Facebook was the most popular social network for marketing according to SMBs from our 2009 study, with 32% of use. In 2011, Facebook is table-stakes for SMBs: 90% of respondents reported having a Facebook presence in our most recent study. The use of LinkedIn and Twitter also grew substantially, from 19% and 17% in 2009 to 46% and 43% in 2011, respectively. As use has grown, so has budget allocation for social media initiatives; social media comprised almost 9% of SMBs’ marketing spend in 2011.

While social media is proliferating among small and medium businesses, they continue to face the same challenges they did two years ago: constrained resources related to cost, time, and skills. In fact, these issues were more pronounced in our 2011 study than they were in 2009, especially as it relates to understanding new marketing channels and having the skills to address them. SMBs report having a preference for managing all marketing channels through a centralized technology solution or centralized service provider. Whatever the choice, agility is key; as new channels or networks emerge, solutions or providers need to quickly adapt by providing capabilities and education to help their users be successful.

The SMB user is an important audience for a number of prominent companies today:

• Intuit has a long legacy of delivering products and services to small and medium businesses through its QuickBooks accounting software, website services, and payment services. Last month, it acquired vertically-focused SMB technology provider Demandforce for over $400 million. Demandforce gives Intuit robust technology that helps small and medium businesses manage their social media presence and automate marketing across multiple channels, addressing some of the key challenges SMBs face.
• Recently, Yahoo! launched its Marketing Dashboard toolset for small local businesses with features that help companies monitor and manage their online reputation and analyze traffic from websites and campaigns. Yahoo! has built a fairly successful offering for SMBs with its website hosting and eCommerce offerings, and its Marketing Dashboard makes its existing package a much more attractive offering for SMBs looking for a one-stop-shop.
• With Adobe’s recent release of Creative Suite 6 and the Creative Cloud, the company also launched subscription-based pricing plans starting at $50 per month to access the entire collection of applications instead of paying a large upgrade fee every 6 to 12 months. While it is yet to be proven in the market, this low-cost pricing model could open up Adobe’s tools to a much broader audience, including many SMBs. While almost 40% of SMBs in our 2011 study reported owning Photoshop, only 21% owned Illustrator and 17% owned InDesign. It will be interesting to see if this new plan spurs adoption among SMBs.

The SMB marketing mix is diversifying, exacerbating the challenges that already face  resource-strained businesses. In response, technology and service providers are empowering small and medium businesses with solutions that can help them become more efficient and effective with their marketing and communication efforts. As marketing dollars continue to flow to digital channels from organizations of all sizes, SMBs can harness the same tools their larger counterparts can, allowing them to engage with audiences they would have never been able to reach just a few years ago.

Alright, before I let you read this article, please let me state this: I recognize that many readers of the Digital Nirvana generate a lot of their business executing outbound marketing activities for their clients. And if you know me, you know that I believe in a multi-channel approach — one that incorporates traditional marketing channels through outbound efforts as well as newer marketing channels that primarily utilize inbound methods.

Below you will find the latest article in my 5-part series on how inbound marketing can help you — the print services provider — to generate more leads so that you can sell your services, which may include outbound and inbound marketing!

One of the cool things about inbound marketing is that it is inherently less expensive than outbound marketing. Even if you need to hire a ghostwriter to create content, it’s still likely to be leaps and bounds less costly than efforts through other channels. However, that does not mean that content creation is a process that can be skimped on.

Your Content Must Contain Solid, Helpful Tips

If you are going to publish content under your brand’s name, you do need to know your stuff (or your writer does), and you need to take the time to show others that you know your stuff. This is not the time to load your website up with fluff.

The reality is – people are looking for facts. They want answers. They want solutions. They have the power of the internet at their fingertips, whether that is on their computers, their tablets, or their smartphones. Lackluster information becomes obvious and it’s a turn-off.

Do Not Click “Publish” on the First Draft

As you develop content for your website, flesh out your topics.

Break them down into readable chunks. Too long and your reader will start to yawn. Too short and it may just lack substance.

By taking the time to review what you’ve typed up before you share it with the world, you will most likely identify simple changes that can greatly increase the effectiveness of your content.

Talk in a Human Voice About Relevant Topics

Make your content balanced; don’t get swayed by “shop talk” of creating content that is heavy on the keywords.

Yes, keywords are important — but if you overdo it, your content will not read well.

Your information needs to be relevant. It needs to be timely and helpful. You can do this while still getting those keywords in there.

Be Willing to Share Specifics

With inbound marketing, you are in control of how much or how little information you share.

Don’t make the mistake of assuming that providing “too much” information is akin to giving away your grandmother’s top secret cake recipe. Sure, you don’t want to give away the whole kit and caboodle of your business, but you want to be transparent.

You want to display your expertise. No customer will decide against doing business with you because you provided “too much” relevant information. But you can bet that many a potential customer is lost to the business that fails to provide adequate and transparent information.

Have a Strategy to Build Links

One of the pluses when you post great information is that it gets linked from other sources. Links are great. They provide yet another way to get internet users to come to your site. They are a subtle referral and nod to your expertise.

So, the more links to your site, the better. In addition, it will help with your search engine rankings, making you more visible in those keyword searches.

Using Content to Generate Sales

Content reigns supreme with inbound marketing, as it helps with search engine optimization and expertise display. When you provide relevant content you are becoming a resource that the reader can rely on. This empowers your reader to make the right decision – to work with you!  Of course, a visitor doesn’t immediately turn into a customer. You need to work that lead first. For five points about inbound marketing and lead generation, go here.

Over the past month, I’ve provided a bit of an overview on what inbound marketing is and why it’s important to your business.

Today, I’d like to chat about some of the specific tools and techniques that you can use to succeed with your inbound marketing efforts.

Your Blog

When you set inbound marketing into motion, you will soon find it is a strategy that thrives on consistency.  The most powerful tool in your arsenal is the Blog on your company’s website. You control how much information you disseminate, what information you provide and how often you distribute that information. Ideally, your blog will consist of multiple short (but not too short) articles on relevant topics that set you up as an authority in your field.

The goal is two-fold:

• You get readers who learn to seek you out for your expertise.
• You get others to link to your material…thereby bringing more readers who will learn to seek you out for your expertise.

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an integral part of inbound marketing. You don’t have to become an expert in SEO yourself, but you do need to know what the right keywords are and how to use them effectively. The goal is to increase your search rank. You want to be on that first page of Google and bing results when internet users search for your keywords.

The great thing about SEO is that it is something that can be tweaked and worked on to help your visibility. Over time, you will be able to determine what your effective keywords are – what words are bringing visitors to your site. And you will be able to track links leading to your site.

You can also track links from within your site. Perhaps your current blog post has a hyperlink to an older post on related material. Instead of using a direct link, you can use a tool that will allow you to shorten the link and also see the traffic reports on that url. For example, we use ilnk.me and get a special shortened url. Later we can obtain the information on how often the link was clicked, the highest traffic times and so on. Remember, information is power and you want that information to know what is working and what is not.

Social Networking Platforms

A bit overwhelmed by all the social media platforms out there? Start with two. Perhaps it’s Twitter and Facebook. Maybe it’s LinkedIn and YouTube. But start with two and build from there.

Don’t assume more is better.

You should only have as many social media profiles as you can manage to maintain. And while your main goal with social media may be to promote your brand and distribute content, don’t forget that these platforms are interactive. They invite a conversation with the internet visitor. That’s something you never want to lose sight of.

The Online Marketing Audit

Yes, you’ve got a business to run. But even if you use tools to automate as much content as possible, you should schedule regular “check ups” on each platform to make sure there isn’t a question or comment lingering.

Also, the technology behind online marketing can change quite frequently and at a faster pace than traditional media.

Thus, having an online marketing audit conducted regularly may help alert you to new features that you should be taking advantage of to promote your business.

Integrating Inbound Marketing into Your Sales Process

The reality is – visitors are not customers. It’s up to you to turn them into your customers.

As you integrate the SEO aspect with the content and the social media visibility, you will find that you will get those visitors.

In order to turn them into customers, you need to cultivate them into leads. Content can also play a big role in that! Your company should have a stash of content in hand that can support the Sales team at each step in the buying cycle.

Whether you are trying to convert a visitor into an inquiry, an inquiry into a lead, or a lead into a sale, you will need specific content to help move people through each step.

By doing that, you will be working to ensure that your inbound marketing efforts prove to be a success!

In my last article, I discussed the growing importance of understanding inbound marketing.  Yes, it is a popular topic in the worlds of business and communications today… but for good reason: an effective inbound marketing strategy can truly help your organization grow!

Today, I’d like to discuss a bit about how to move forward with building and executing an inbound marketing strategy.

At the Core is Your Website

You already know that the internet is a terrific playing field. It’s the great leveler in that any business can have a web presence and in many cases the internet reader would never know whether a business is a mom and pop shop or a million dollar company in a penthouse suite downtown.  Any business can and should have a good-looking, easy to navigate website that appeals to its target market. This website becomes the base for your inbound marketing strategy.

Reaching Your Audience

Of course, you need to decide how you will provide information to your target market. Blogging or regular article posts should be a given. If you don’t have a blogging platform built into your website, you should have that added. Then you can schedule your posts. Will they be weekly? Daily? You want consistency and timeliness. So you should establish a schedule that you know you can keep.

Creating Content

Then you need to create a list of blog topics. What kind of information do you want to provide? Think about what is relevant to your target market. What will they want to read? What will establish you as the expert?

Not a writer? Not to worry. You have several options. Look to someone within your company or perhaps a trusted colleague. You can also look into ghostwriters to write the content for you. You want someone to write for your company with a voice that fits. Not everyone is a wordsmith. And that’s okay. An outsider can write in your voice and your posts will still be relevant and authentic.

It’s tempting to buy a bunch of articles that are touted to be laden with key words and optimized for the search engines. But these articles can be found all over the net. And you’ll lose your authenticity if the internet reader figures out that your information is not yours.

The Multi-Channel Marketing Approach

Start thinking about how you can provide information that utilizes other mediums. How about some audio files that are chock full of tips? Or what about getting a guest spot on an internet radio show? An audio question and answer session can be provided as a downloadable link on your website or posted on your social media profiles. (Learn more about inbound marketing tools and techniques such as social media platforms here.)

Humanize Your Brand

Don’t forget that amidst all this information dissemination, you need to portray your business personality. It’s okay to have a post that isn’t all business. Want to post a shout out to a customer? Do it. Want to whip up a quick video clip showing a couple minutes of your employees hard at work? These sorts of things make you only that much more real to your target market. And it can give you a definite edge. So as you implement your inbound marketing plans, don’t forget to show your target market a bit of personality here and there.

Over the next few weeks, I’d like to share articles in a series that is  focused on one major theme: How companies in the printing industry can use inbound marketing to grow their business. Here is Part 1!

Every business dreams of those “easy” sales. The sales where customers virtually fall into your lap. Don’t we all want to find that customer who nods at everything we say, knowing that we are the experts and the best solution to their needs? The reality is you likely work hard for every customer you get to that point of the sale. But what if that hard work really involved laying the ground work so that over time, those customers really do fall into your lap?

With inbound marketing, you can lay that groundwork to establish your business as a resource, as a wealth of information and the right solution to your target market’s needs. And while it takes some work, it does not require the outlay of cash that many other marketing strategies take, such as massive ad campaigns.

In traditional marketing, you send your message out to the masses. And hopefully, it gets to your target market and that target market responds. With inbound marketing, you are still sending a message out, but it’s less intrusive and much more authentic. Think about it: when you go to a party, do you want to seek out all the cool kids and chat them up, hoping they will like you? Or would you like to be the cool kid and have everyone come to you?

Attracting Leads to Your Business

By providing relevant and interesting content, you become the cool kid. Your target market wants to get to know you. They want to read your articles. They want to download your audio tips. They want to watch your video clips. As you develop your content and make it accessible in various formats, you get your name and expertise in front of your target market in various ways.

Or course, you do have to make sure your content is optimized for the search engines. You want your informational pieces to be found via free searches. This doesn’t mean you stuff your content with fluff and keywords over and over again. In fact, doing so will turn a potential customer off. You have to find the right balance between using those keywords while providing relevant and readable information.

How Social Media Fits In

Inbound marketing also embraces the use of social media to get noticed. You should be sharing your information across multiple platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and so on. Your target market isn’t going to be hanging out in one place. They’re laughing at the latest tweet. Checking out the most recent status update. Sharing that video clip. By establishing your business identity via several social media platforms, you get the chance to seize the interest of many more potential customers, and continue to establish your business as a resource. Another benefit is the ability to interact with those in your target market on a more personal level. Social media invites dialogue and interaction. By being responsive as well as proactive with your information dissemination, you are becoming the friendly resource that your target market wants to work with.

Inbound marketing isn’t for the lazy business. It takes time. It takes knowledge. It takes dedication. You need to provide good, quality content. You need to be search engine friendly and keyword wise. And you need to establish your business identity across multiple social media platforms. But in the long run, inbound marketing can take your business sales to a whole other level.

When Google+ was first released in 2011, there certainly was a lot of buzz in the marketing world.  However, for many of us, the reaction was this: “Oh no; do we really have another social network to worry about?”

Well, if you have been neglecting adding Google+ to your marketing activities up until now, you may want to re-think that approach! Here’s why.

Search Plus Social

Last week, Google announced that they were going to make some fairly significant changes to their search engine. They labeled these changes “Search, plus Your World”. These enhancements would dramatically change the search results that were presented to logged-in users. The results presented to people would now greatly incorporate the social networking data that a person is connected to — at least the social networking data that Google had access to.

Users would notice this difference throughout the links, images, and videos that were presented by Google’s search engine. Yes, what a person saw two weeks ago as the #1 result when they searched for “printing services” could now be radically different, based on their social network connections.

Since Google only has access to the data within so many social networks, Google+ is playing a major role in the changes that they’ve made to their search engine.

This has caused a number of debates to arise as to whether their actions are fair and justified. But for people like us — those that are looking to do whatever we can to grow our business — we must react to the reality.

And the reality is this: If we want people to find our business online, we need to be on Google+!

How to Get Started with Google+

Google started rolling out these changes to users last week. Thus, chances are very good that you have access to them.

Below are a few things that you can do now to take take advantage of these enhancements:

• If you don’t already have one, create a Google Profile.
• Once you have a profile, make sure that you log-in to Google before you run your next Search.
• Get on Google+! It’s free to create an account.
• Google+ allows you to have a personal profile, of course. But you can also create Pages for your Business, Products & Services, Events, and more.
• Start creating and publishing content on your Google+ profiles and pages
• Build your Google+ community: Take the time to add people and Pages to your Circles and invite others to do the same for your accounts.

It certainly will be interesting to see how companies adapt and benefit from these changes.

Once you’re logged in to your Google profile, start running a few searches. It can be quite fascinating to see how the “Personal Results” change what is presented to you.

If you have a free moment, check out the video that Google has released regarding the “Search, plus Your World” functionality below. I think it does a great job of demonstrating the importance of using Google+ in one’s marketing efforts.

P.S. These changes have absolutely motivated me to increase my personal Google+ usage. Feel free to “Circle” me there!

When people talk about how they are using social media in the marketing efforts, Facebook and Twitter are often the first answers given.

Sure, they might be on LinkedIn. But they may currently only view it as a way for them to “collect people” – i.e. to amass connections.

If that sounds similar to how LinkedIn is utilized in your business, here is one idea for converting that connection data into a way to build relationships and generate sales.

Connections and Job Status

When someone experiences a change in their employment status, LinkedIn is often the very first social network that they update. Depending on our relationship with that person, taking action on that information can be valuable to them… and us.

I recently talked to a service provider that told me how he acts on that type of data. Here’s his story:

His company helps clients reach their marketing goals with design, print, direct mail, email, mobile, landing pages, and more.

While they have had success launching campaigns for a number of companies, they sometimes run into trouble because of high-turnover among the marketing departments that they work with. Lately, this has often occurred because of budget constraints, rather than performance.  But either way, the path to creating long-term, recurring business with those companies is not always easy when the employees change frequently.

In order to capitalize on the successes that they have helped marketers achieve, this company actively seeks to connect with those folks on social networks. Primarily, they try to do this on LinkedIn.

How LinkedIn Helps Deepen the Relationship

If a once-happy customer experiences a job change, the company still has a connection with them. For example, the company may:

• Use LinkedIn to send a personal note when the job change does occur.
• Offer up a recommendation for the person.
• Refer the person’s profile to companies where there may be a fit.

Along with those one-time actions, they will make an effort to stay in touch with them in the weeks and/or months that follow.

By staying connected and engaged to these folks, they create opportunities to receive future sales and jobs once that person is in place at a new business.

How so? Well, they were already a fan of the services provided by that company. And their appreciation of them will no doubt be deeper because of the conversations and actions that took place during the process of changing jobs. Thus, they may be apt to highly recommend that company’s services to their new employer.

Can it Help You?

Certainly, this effort takes a bit of time and determination on behalf of that service provider! But in their words, “it’s helping me grow my business!”

If you are looking for ways to use social media to create and deepen relationships, paying attention to your LinkedIn connections might be a perfect place to start.

P.S. If you’d like to connect with me on LinkedIn, here I am!

“Tactics, Tactics, Tactics…. Everywhere I look, all I see is tactics!”

Perhaps you have also felt that same way recently. We hear about tactics across nearly every marketing channel out there. QR Codes. Personalized URLs. Augmented Reality. SMS/Text-Messaging. Mobile Email. Social Media Advertising.

Those are just a few of the terms that we hear and talk about quite frequently in the marketing world. I know that I can often get quite excited about them!

But, while there is nothing wrong with diving in and understanding specific tactics, we run the danger of thinking of those things as bright and shiny objects that can solve all of our problems!

Instead of falling into that trap, we must be willing to increase the amount of effort and focus that we put on having a strategy.

Long-Term Solutions Come From Having a Strategy

If our business primarily consists of providing marketing services to our customers, we certainly need to pay close attention to new tools and technologies that could improve our offerings.

However, we must ensure that the things we do add (for example, a QR Code or PURL on a postcard) are not treated simply as add-ons. Rather, we should focus on integrating them into the overall marketing strategy that supports our customer’s goals.

Often, the development of a strategy will consist of us asking critical questions. The answers to those questions will not only help us decide which tools and technologies should be used, but also, how should we best use them.

Yes, I realize that some clients may come to you with a fully thought-out marketing strategy. But in today’s world, many CMO’s are running around at a frantic pace; thus, they could benefit by having a service provider offer some consultation and suggestions. If you do find yourself in that position, here are 4 steps that could help you develop and/or analyze a marketing strategy for your clients:

• Describe the Business: This sounds simple, but it’s crucial. It may help you to define key characteristics that affect branding and messaging.
• Define the Goal: The goal will help us to avoid using a new tool or tactic simply because it’s new. Rather, it will help us to ensure that the reasons we decide to do (or not do) something are done for a reason.
• Understand Who the Audience is And Where They Are: Think about QR Codes for a second. If your client is going to be placing print advertisements inside of a subway station where there is no cell service, do QR Codes really make sense? Or, if you are going to send information that is highly sensitive or private in nature, will a personalized URL actually cause people to not respond?
• How Will You Measure Success?: As a service provider, we may be constantly looking for ways to demonstrate and prove our value. However, in the rush to incorporate a new tactic, we may overlook what steps are necessary to help us measure the effectiveness of a specific tactic. By answering this question ahead of time, we will increase our chances of being able to present valuable data to our customers during the marketing campaign.

These are just a few of the questions that can help us to develop and deliver solutions that increase our revenue now and in the future. I hope that you find them find helpful! Yes, there will be always be new tactics that catch our attention, create some buzz, and get us excited (me included!). But no matter what the tactics are, having the right strategy will help to put us on the right path.

From the day Google+ was released a few months ago, it has made quite an impact on the world of social networking. Many reports indicate that 50 million users signed up for the service within the first three months.

Yes, it’s true that there is still quite a gap between Google+ and Facebook and Twitter. However, Google helped to solidify the relevance of its social networking by releasing its Pages functionality this week.

If you are looking for ways to increase the effectiveness of your marketing efforts through social media, you should certainly take a look at whether a Google+ Page could benefit you.

Here are few things that we have learned so far that may help you in that process:

What You Might Like About the Page Setup Process

It is quite easy to do! You should be able to create a Page in a matter of minutes. Here are the main steps:

• Log-in to Google+
• Go to https://plus.google.com/pages/create
• Choose which category you would like to assign your Page to. Options include “Company”, “Product/Brand”, “Local Place”, and others.
• From there, you will simply need to enter in values for a few basic fields, including Page Name and Website URL.

Once your page has been created, take the time to fill out your profile. This may include:

• Using the “Recommended Links” section to share other URLs that are relevant to your business. This may include other social networks, a Newsletter Sign-Up form, and even a way for people to access an online storefront for products that you may sell.
• Take advantage of the content that can be entered into the “Introduction” field. Google+ provides plenty of space for you to share a compelling story about your company. You can also add links to relevant sites here as well.
• Utilize the “5 Photos” Area on the Home Page! This space does give companies a chance to be creative. When done properly, you can provide a great image of your company through the photos that you share there.

What You Might Not Like About the Page Setup Process

Google might certainly make changes to the items mentioned below sooner than later, but we just want you to be aware of them right now:

• There can only be one Page Administrator right now.
• It’s not exactly Facebook. This can be a good thing! We are all excited to see what opportunities Google+ may open create for businesses. However, since many of us are very familiar and comfortable with managing a Facebook Page, we may struggle a bit as we look around for similar capabilities within Google+.

Moving Forward

One of the best, but yet, most challenging items of being in the world of social networking today is that things change very quickly. Many companies are still trying to figure out how to grow their business through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Thus, some might look at the process of adding Google+ to their marketing mix as a burden.

However, we must keep in mind that success in marketing truly comes down to being where our customers and prospects are. In the case of the print industry, many of us are trying to reach marketing departments so that we can offer solutions to them. Google+ is already the home of a lot of forward-thinking marketing professionals!

Creating a Page now while the Feature is relatively new might give us a tremendous opportunity to increase awareness of our brand and attract some well-deserved attention!

At the end of June, search giant Google unveiled its new social networking site, Google+ (phonetically pronounced “Google Plus”). Google+ is the company’s attempt, albeit not its first, to create a social network that rivals dominant services like Facebook and Twitter. Google is trying to differentiate itself from those networks by providing robust tools for managing friends & followers and the type of content that you can share with them. This control is accomplished through a mechanism called Circles, where contacts can be categorized as “Friends”, “Acquaintances”, and whatever other custom categories you’d like to create. When you post messages or share content like photos, links, and videos, you can choose which Circles can view that content.

There are two other primary functions of Google+ that are new: Hangouts and Sparks. Hangouts is a group video chat tool that allows up to ten people at a time to have a conversation. We tried it out at the InfoTrends office last week and it is indeed a pretty cool experience. Also, if you don’t have a webcam handy (like myself), you can still participate in a Hangout via audio. Just one week after Google+ was announced, Facebook announced a partnership with Skype that enabled one-on-one video chat within the Facebook network. The general reaction has been that Google has a leg up due to the group functionality (which can only be enabled in Skype through a paid “Premium” subscription). Sparks is essentially a news feed you can add to Google+ based on your interests. If you find an interesting piece of news or content in your feed, you can instantly share it with your Google+ friends. It has been rumored that Google will integrate and rebrand its blogging service, Blogger, and its photo hosting/sharing service, Picasa, into Google+ in the near future.

Previously, Google launched a network called orkut, which is still in operation and is popular in India and Brazil. In addition, the company tried its luck with social collaboration and messaging through its Google Wave tool, but failed to gain widespread traction. The launch of Google Buzz in February 2010 was marred with privacy concerns when the company opened up Google users’ account information without warning or permission. Did Google learn from its past experiences with its new foray into the lucrative world of social networking?

For the most part, I think it has, and here’s why:

• Testing and Feedback: When Google+ launched, it was made available to Google employees and a very limited amount of journalists and analysts, with the intent of ensuring that proper, controlled testing was conducted before rolling it out to the masses. Over the past few weeks, the company has opened up invites for longer periods of time, enabling it to quickly amass over 10 million users, which speaks to the exponential inertia of the social Web.
• Content Control: Google+ is certainly not the same as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or any other specific social network due to the control it provides over how content is shared. Nevertheless, I think it does take some core elements from existing social networks and implements them in a unique way. There are no such things as friend requests; anyone can add you to their Circles, just like anyone can follow you on Twitter (if you have a public account) at will. Like Facebook and LinkedIn, there is a rich stream of content and information that you can view; Circles act like Twitter’s List feature, enabling you to view this information based on the way you categorize your friends.
• Preemptive Release of +1: At the end of March this year, Google released “+1″, its version of the Facebook “Like” button or the Twitter “Retweet” button. The button originally premiered in Google’s search results as a way to recommend content and make search results more relevant. In June, +1 was made available to the entire Web, enabling sites to implement a +1 button on all content for sharing purposes. The button has popped up on sites like The Huffington Post, Reuters, Mashable, and many others. The roll-out of +1 before launching Google+ was a smart move as it provides users with an instant way of sharing content on the network.

The Google+ interface is very clean; vacant of the targeted ads that exist across the social network landscape. Expect that to change fairly quickly. Google plans to soon offer brands their own tools to create a Google+ presence, which will likely rival Facebook Pages. Additionally, there’s no doubt that, over time, Google will implement contextual, targeted advertising in Google+. After all, it was calculated that it cost Google close to $600 million to build its social network. As we’ve seen, every social network needs a business model at some point or another, and advertising seems to be a winning route to take in most cases.

I’m a big fan of social networking via mobile devices, so when the Google+ iPhone app is finally approved for the App Store, I will likely become much more active on the site. I’ve already connected with a number of folks from the printing industry via Google+, and hope to see many more (you can connect with me on Google+ here).

With all the questions and mystique that seems to still exist around social networking, my suggestion is always to try it out and get a feel for it. Google+ has gained a lot of traction in a short amount of time, in part because I think it does indeed have some differentiating factors when compared to other networks. The key question will be whether the hype can be sustained. There are only so many hours in the day, and there needs to be clear value and a continually evolving platform to keep peoples’ attention. While it remains to be seen if that will happen, Google is certainly off to a good start.

In the social media marketing world, there are plenty of tradeshows and events that you can be a part of to help further your company and network with prospective partners. You can benefit your company if you attend these events. But there are some ways you can really maximize your presence at the next big event, especially if you take the right promotional steps by utilizing social media.

On your corporate Twitter account, create a special hashtag for the event. Use it a couple times a day in the weeks leading up to the event, to generate some buzz about your presence there. Hashtags categorize tweets and make it easier for users to find similar subjects among tweets. Make sure the event also has its own Facebook event page. Post on the page, tweet to the event’s account and retweet relevant tweets.

Think beyond Facebook and Twitter as well. Make sure your colleagues and peers blog about the event and have an e-mail blast focused on it, or maybe even a webinar. The more diverse the methods of distribution, the larger the audience you will reach.

Be sure to ask questions that can spark a conversation. Social media lends itself incredibly well to conversational interaction. Ask questions that will garner some responses, and field questions from followers as well. This is a great way to gauge interest in the event and for companies to have interaction with users that they can retweet and survey. And make sure to keep a countdown to the big day! No need to overwhelm anybody, keep your social media efforts business as usual with just that daily reminder of the event added to it.

So you have done your preparation leading up to the event. The day is here! Now what?

Take pictures! Lots and lots of pictures. Borderline on taking too many. Pictures can be put on all of your social media networks. Make your followers feel like they are right at the event with you. And archive everything; it all becomes great blog content down the road. Also, video is very effective in making your audience feel like they are right with you. Beef up your YouTube channel with some great video content and also use it to spice up a blog in a post-event recap.

When you are in your event, make it very clear where you are at all times. Explain what booth you are viewing, the room you’re in, and always use hashtags. Make yourself noticeable! Use the hashtags that others are creating for the event and interact with them on Twitter. Start conversations and compel people to come to your booth. And when you do meet someone, make them remember you. Exchange social media in a way you would exchange a business card. This is important because exchanging social media accounts can lead to immediate interaction. A business card can very easily slip through the cracks and a contact can be lost.

When it’s all over, make sure you write detailed blogs and use all of the great content you generated to make all of your efforts at the event translate into a great online presence.

Yesterday, I returned from the Print Solutions 2011 Conference and Expo where one of the over-riding themes was, not the death of print, but how digital content is driving print.

• Did you know that eight of the top 10 bestselling books in Japan are print versions of mobile novels (novels written in 200–300 word chunks on mobile phones)?
• Or that Justin Halpern’s bestselling book $#*! My Dad Says (now a sitcom starring William Shatner) was printed because of his success on Twitter?
• Or that Zappo’s — the 100% online merchandiser — uses a printed book to build its brand?

“If print is dead,” said Andrew Davis, owner of Tippingpoint Labs in his presentation “Positioning Print for Today’s Customer” (from which these examples were taken), “then why are Google and Yahoo! using direct mail to promote Internet search?”

Good point. As I sat in the presentation, I thought about the multiple direct mail pieces sitting on my own kitchen counter at home. They were from Google, with integrated cards inviting me to expand my AdWords account. Haven’t gotten anything from Yahoo! yet, but it’s probably a matter of time.

When I got home from the trip, I was going through my mail and I had to smile and think of Andrew. Yet another direct mail solicitation from Google.

Have you gotten direct mail from Google lately? If so, what does this say about the viability of print?

As MSPs (marketing services providers), printers need to encourage their customers to move into social media and must be prepared to help them implement it, too. But social media isn’t a one-way street to success. There can be surprises and drawbacks, too. Do you know what they are?

At its most basic, social media marketing costs nothing but your time. When handled well, you and your clients can reap tremendous results, especially if the campaign goes viral. I think of The Ace Group’s Calvin Klein QR code campaign in which 28% of the seven-figure hits to the mobisite were from Facebook and Twitter. I also think of a Dunkin’ Donuts SMS campaign in which 17% of recipients forwarded the offer to a friend.

In social media, viral is king. But viral isn’t always a good thing. Recently, I came upon something interesting on SunChips’ Facebook page that reminded me of one of the risks.

As you may know, SunChips introduced a 100% compostable bag last year. It was a huge hit and got national media attention, but the bag was so noisy that it was deafening. In fact, social media ultimately caused the demise of the bag: an explosion in the blogosphere, ubiquitous YouTube videos with ear-ringing audio, and mass Twitter and Facebook wall postings (so much for concern about the environment being greater than personal convenience!). The bag was pulled from the market.

A new, quieter bag introduced earlier this year. I decided to go to SunChips’ Facebook page to see what people were posting about it. There I found something else SunChips probably isn’t very happy about — several discussions (right on SunChips’ own Facebook site) about whether the SunChips bags were biodegradable at all. What I discovered was that many people been attempting to compost the bags to no avail. There were quite a few angry SunChips fans who had attempted to compost their bags for months. Turns out, the “right” composting environment isn’t something nearly any household can do at all, and when these enthusiastic SunChips customers found this out, they were not happy. SunChips had likely set up these forums to be able to monitor consumer reaction to its products and serve as informal focus groups, but in the end, it exposed itself to charges of greenwashing and misleading the public.

So much for a happy social media ending.

As you encourage your customers to move into a multi-channel marketing environment that includes social media, remember that social media has both pros and cons. It offers tremendous opportunities and significant risks, too.  Helping your customers understand and balance those risks is what being an MSP is all about.

You may have noticed that more and more URLs are being shortened with bit.ly. If you’re still using TinyURL or other non-trackable shortener, you’ll want to check this out. Not just for your email marketing, social media, and e-newsletter efforts, but also for creating QR codes to add to print.

Log into bit.ly and put the URL into the box. Hit “shorten” or, better yet, “shorten and share.” The “share” option allows you to automatically post the shortened URL to your Facebook profile or Twitter account. Built in social media marketing!

Now sit back and watch. Bit.ly not only shortens and posts to social media, but it also tracks. It provides you with the number of clicks to each link, when those clicks occurred, and where they came from. It gives you referring sites and the countries where the clicks came from. On the reports page, there is also a QR code you can download to add to blog posts, email, print, or any other marketing medium you might be using. It’s all free.  (Google offers goo.gl, a trackable shortener, too.)

For my previous Digital Nirvana post on mobile websites, I created QR codes for readers to check out the differences between traditional and mobile sites themselves. I used bit.ly to do it. Not only did I add the QR codes to my post, but I also used bit.ly to share the mobile link on my Facebook profile and my Twitter account. By the time I uploaded the post (about 40 minutes later), bit.ly told me that I had 5 clicks already — 40% direct, 40% Twitter, 20% from Facebook — from two different countries. Not from the post itself (since it was scheduled for two days later) but from my social media connections.

As John Foley of interlinkONE / GrowSocially likes to say,

“In marketing, if you can’t measure it, don’t do it.”

Bit.ly is a powerful tool that allows you to measure the success of your marketing efforts. Instantly, you know what’s working, what’s not, and what’s working better than something else. Not only this, but it has sales implications, too. Imagine the value to clients in saying, “Sure, you can create your own codes for free, but we’ll create them for you and provide you with tracking and results measurement.” It’s a powerful value-add.

It’s a great tool that doesn’t cost you a dime!

Last week, I posted about my action points from DSCOOP. I’m happy to report that the number one item on my hit list — making my newsletter social media enabled — has been accomplished. This required firing my email service provider and moving to a new one with a deeper commitment to social media.

Now at the footer of both of my newsletters (one B2B and the other B2C) are icons for Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and LinkedIn. When readers get the bottom, if they like what they’ve read, they are encouraged to share it. I also have the ability to automatically Tweet the newsletter when it goes out. As I’ve heard from others, my B2B site posted to my Facebook page and my LinkedIn profile, as well.

Just by making this simple change, I have the basics of a social media program. I can multiply my time investment far more easily than I could in the past. If I’ve done a good job with the content so that subscribers find it of value, they can help me along by sharing the content easily, too.

Where I’m really going to grow as a social media marketer, however, is through link tracking. On one dashboard, I can see not only the opens, bounces, and opt-outs, but also which links were clicked. If people shared the newsletter with others, I can see which social media options they chose. This is where I’m really going to focus.

At DSCOOP, Val DiGiacento, vice president of technical sales for The Ace Group, shared in one of his sessions how the ability to easily share a Calvin Klein video (accessed via QR code on a Houston Street wallscape) gave the campaign a 36% lift. As he spoke about the critical role of social media in this campaign — and how crucial social media are to the success of all marketers, whether you are marketing your own print business or helping customers market theirs — I about jumped out of my seat. I wanted to shout “That’s me! That’s me!”

What hit home so deeply was when Val talked about how this QR code was printed on one wallscape, hanging on one buildin, on one street in New York City. Despite this limited exposure, the campaign went viral and hit seven figures — in large part due to social media. That resonated with me. My subscriber base is tremendously valuable, but I am only one person with one list. As a marketer, I need my subscribers to share it. I need to make my content so valuable that they want to share it. The Ace Group helped Calvin Klein do it. I can do it, too.

That’s where link tracking comes in. I have two audiences. The needs of both are different. As I learned from the link tracking, their social media activity is different. I need to interact with each audience differently. Watching the click-throughs, the social media activity, and new sign-ups gives me marching orders for how to improve content and better interact with those on my list.

I’ve been active in many social media outlets for a long time, but it’s always been haphazard. With the investment in a new email provider and a commitment to really mining the metrics and acting on them, along with a commitment to spend a certain number of hours per week solely on social media marketing, I suddenly have moved from random social media activity to having a strategy. John Foley would be proud.

What’s your social media marketing strategy?