Tuesday, July 29, 2014

What Wikipedia Couldn't Tell You About Social Media Marketing Plans?

When I went Scuba Diving for the first time, I had no idea what I was doing. My friend and I were complete newbies about the technique breathe underwater and every other bit of what is a basic technical understanding and requires that the diver has equipment that is appropriate for this activity.
We saw others doing it spectacularly well. We were thrilled at the thought of diving deeply in the sea; but we had no idea how to get there. From that day, I’d imagine that a social media marketing plan could feel the same way.

I would say If you’re starting from square one, you should know what you want to do and why. For instance, the people we met in scuba diving they have known what the techniques and have experience level to deep descend in the water. I would say it is like a social media when you plan to target your audience by knowing the technique and get few ideas about how to get there.

It’d help to have a plan!

The idea that I came out about social media marketing plan has stemmed from the personal experience behind scuba diving situation.

Starting at the ground floor and building up, here is our overview of how to create a social media marketing plan from scratch.

I like to think of this plan like a road trip. Start out by pointing yourself in the right direction, then choose the way you’re going to get there, check in regularly to make sure you’re on track, and have some fun along the way.

Step 1: Choose your social networks
Step 2: Fill out your profiles completely
Step 3: Find your voice and tone
Step 4: Pick your posting strategy
Step 5: Analyze and test
Step 6: Listen and engage

 
Step 1: Which social media sites you should use.

Social Media is as homogenous from network to network as soda pop is from brand to brand. Sure, it’s all social media, but Google+ and Twitter might as well be Mountain Dew and Pepsi. Each network is unique, with its own best practices, own style, and own audience.

You should choose the social networks that best fit your strategy and the goals you want to achieve on social media. You don’t have to be on them all—just the ones that matter to you and your audience.

Some things to consider that can help you choose not only which social networks to try but also how many to try

Time – Did you put a plan about how much time can you devote to a social network?
Resources - What personnel and skills do you have to work with? Visual social networks like Pinterest and Instagram require images and photos. Social networks like Google+ emphasize quality content. Do you have the resources to create what’s needed?
Your audience – Where do your potential customers hang out? Which social network has the right demographics?

For the latter part of this decision, you can reference the audience research and demographics from surveys like those conducted by Pew Research. For instance, Pew has complete data, collected last fall, of the demographics for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.

Step 2: Fill out your profiles completely

Be loyalty and let your customers or audiences know how you are when they visit each of every single platform you have or any hub you stand on or social media profiles and make sure that your avatar, cover photos, bio, and profile info is up-to-date and complete. It’s a key part to your social media audit. A completed profile shows professionalism, cohesive branding, and a signal to visitors that you’re serious about engaging. Did you work on that?

On the other hand we should know that the profiles will require two parts: visuals and text. Both complement each other, yet both are distinct in many ways.

Till date we see many people are still only catching up to text based social media without focusing on visual aspect, for instance LinkedIn isn’t Pinterest. It’s not Instagram. It’s a text-heavy platform.  

Why do I need to include images there? Most people think of LinkedIn as being a professional profile – where words do the talking, not pictures. Baby boomers are learning to create blogs, they’re learning to use Twitter, and starting to grasp the concept of text based social media.

But things have changed in the world of LinkedIn with the introduction of what is called “Professional Portfolio” earlier this year…and for this Visual Social Media Fan, it’s a very positive change.

Step 3: Find your marketing voice and tone

The temptation at this point might be to jump right in and start sharing. Just one more step before you do. Your foray into social media will be more focused and more on point if you come up with a voice and tone for your content right off the bat.

To do so, you could spend time coming up with marketing personas and debating the finer points of your mission statement and customer base. These are all well and good. However, for a social media marketing plan just getting off the ground, you can make this process a bit easier.


Start with questions like these:

  • If your brand was a person, what kind of personality would it have? 
  • If your brand was a person, what’s their relationship to the consumer? (a coach, friend, teacher, dad, etc) 
  • Describe in adjectives what your company’s personality is not. 
  • Are there any companies that have a similar personality to yours? Why are they similar? 
  • How do you want your customers to think about your company?
Step 4: Pick your posting strategy.

What’s the ideal amount to post per day? How often should you post? When should you post? What should you post? Where should start your posting? So you need to determine your goal. I would therefore say, every post you make on a social network needs to have a purpose. Something you can measure and quantify as being part of an overall strategy. Here are some common purposes and goals.

So much of the social media experience is about your individual audience and niche. What works for you might not work for me, and you never know until you try. Each post type may or may not resonate with your audience such that they will respond to it and help you achieve your goal. That’s okay, you can test the different post types to see which ones do.


That being said, there is some pretty good data and insight about where to start. Here’s what we’ve found to be good jumping off points..

What should you be posting?

The push toward visual content has plenty of anecdotal evidence—as you browse the streams on Twitter and Facebook, you’re likely to see images all over. There’s data behind the reason why. Image posts get more views, clicks, re-shares, and likes than any other type of post. And it’s not even close.

On Facebook, photos get 53 pecent more likes, 104 percent more comments and 84 percent more click-through on links than text-based posts.

Same goes for Twitter. In a study of over two million tweets from verified users across a number of different industries, Twitter found that photos have the greatest effect on re-tweets.

When should you be posting?

There are many neat tools to show you the best time of day to post to Facebook, Twitter, and more. These tools look at your followers and your history of posts to see when your audience is online and when historically have been your best times to share.

So what’s someone to do who’s just starting out on these social networks, with no audience and no history?

Again, this is where best practices come in. I have seen in one of the most important article in info graphic about timing comes from Sum All, which compiled timing research from sites like Visual.ly, Search Engine Watch, and Social Media Today to create its awesome visual. Here’s an overview of what they found in terms of timing (all times are Eastern Time).

Twitter - 1-3pm weekdays
Facebook - 1-4pm and 2-5pm weekdays
LinkedIn - 7-8:30am and 5-6pm Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday
Tumblr - 7-10pm weekdays and 4pm on Fridays
Instagram - 5-6pm weekdays and 8pm on Mondays with a sweetspot at 6pm
Pinterest - 2-4pm and 8-11pm weekdays with weekends being the best
Google+ - 9-11am weekdays



Step 5: Analyze, test, and iterate
Remember how I mentioned about the deep descend in the water, so now you’re data-driven. Your company speaks the language of data and has a full-blown analytics set up tracking every piece of your digital marketing efforts. So you need to go deep and do test, test and test. Test landing pages. Test ad copy. Test content. Test website images and themes. Test everything.

On the other hand, we need to know that more you post, the more you’ll discover which content, timing, and frequency is right for you.

How will you know? It’s best to get a reporting tool. Most major social networks will have basic analytics built into the site; it’s just a little easier to seek and find this information from an all-encompassing dashboard.

Step 6: Engage, and listen.

The final piece of a social media marketing plan involves having a system you can follow to help you stay on top of updates and engaged with your community.

Your plan doesn’t end with posting content and find out audience. Social media requires engagement, too. When people talk to you, talk back. Set aside time during your day to follow up with conversations that are happening on social media. These are conversations with potential customers, references, friends, and colleagues. They’re too important to ignore.

One way to stay up on all the conversations that are happening around you and your bsuiness is to create a system for listening. Tools like Mention will send you an alert every time you’re mentioned online, and you can rely on custom searches and email alerts for mentions on specific networks, too.
What would you share with someone new to social media?

Coming up with a social media marketing plan is a great step toward diving in to social. If social media looks thrilling and overwhelming all at once, start with a plan. Once you see the blueprint in front of you, it’s a little easier to see what lies ahead.
  • Pick your networks 
  • Fill out your infoFind your voice
  • Choose your strategy
  • Analyze and test 
  • Listen and engage
Finally it done!

How did you develop your social media strategy? I’d love to keep the conversation going in the comments. If you know someone who could use this, feel free to pass this along. If you can use it yourself, let me know how it goes!

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

What the Business Would Be Like If Content Marketing Didn't Exist

Content marketing is becoming more than just a buzzword in the Internet marketing and SEO industries.

Here's an in-depth look at content marketing, including the ideas of Content Marketing System and the idea behind it, its potential problems, and what it means to create "quality" content.

Contrary to popular opinion, the idea of "content marketing" and its importance isn't a new one. Bill Gates first drew attention to the concept in his appropriately titled 1996 essay "Content Is King." In the essay, he talks about his predictions for the Internet after its recent birth and his message is simple: understand that companies who find ways to inform and entertain will thrive on the Internet and reign supreme.

Gates' 18-year-old prediction was accurate - it's still an extremely important issue today. Content marketing should be adopted as a philosophy, not taken to and tested like a trend. There are plenty of misconceptions and assumptions about content marketing, so what's it all about?

Marketers now understand that brands must become publishers. The “why” of content marketing is no longer in question. But marketers are still asking “how?” How can marketers or team in marketing department able to generate the high quality and quantity of content necessary to succeed in the new marketing era.

From my point of view, if you we want to generate high quality and quantity content we should build up and operate a Content Marketing system that outputs accurate, relevant content that attracts leads at the top of the funnel and leads them down. But do you know what the definition of Content Marketing is? Put simply, it's the strategy of attracting and retaining customers by way of creating content.

What Is "Content" Exactly?

That's a pretty subjective question. There are many different types of content and some of the more popular forms are: blogs, e-books, videos, webinars, podcasts, whitepapers, competitions, press releases, emails, newsletters, and info graphics.

As a business owner, the trick is to work out the type of content that's right for your audience. If you sell information technology services, for example, your approach to attracting audiences is probably going be very different than if you sell cars. Either way, the umbrella principle is that compelling stories drive action.

Why Have a Content Marketing System?
People are tuning out to traditional forms of marketing. Marketing is pretty simple in theory: you create something of value and then tell everyone about it. But what if people aren't listening? Well, that's where content marketing comes in.
Thanks to technology, people love looking at content whether they're at work or on the bus - so potential customers have never been so accessible.
Creating great content takes time, but it's a very cost-effective strategy.
Here’s a description of the different components of the system:

  • Plan: Create a strategic structure for your content marketing 
  • Team: Assemble the group to manage your content marketing operation  
  • Ideas: Generate a steady flow of ideas for your content 
  • Production and Distribution: Assemble your content and distribute it across the web
  • Audience Development: Generate traffic to your content  
  • Conversion & Nurture: Convert visitor to leads, nurture them to opportunities 
  • Measure & Optimize: Analyze and improve performance

Idea Behind Content Marketing.

Put simply, content marketing is used to attract audiences to your shop window and genuinely nurture relationships. The days of the hard sell are gone - this is about building brand loyalty through emotion, interest, and usefulness. The tactics you use will vary. Some businesses may just need a cool product and people will flock anyway. Many might need a fashionable brand identity. Others aren't so lucky and will have to think a bit more laterally, maybe by using content that's unrelated to the business. Content marketing is subtle. It's used to create a loyal community of people that either don't notice or don't care that they're being sold to.

I would say, content marketing is a hot topic right now. Why? Because it’s an effective method of advertising at a time when old marketing models aren’t as effective as they once were. Rather than buying a full-page newspaper ad and hoping your customers see it.

Monday, July 21, 2014

If You Read One Article About Ego Bait .. Read This One!

EGOBAIT and SEO
Nowadays, we live in the era of micro-celebrities (or influences, people who know how to sell their image). These are people become well-known within their very specific niche. may be you surprise when discover those people may have an average social media following (never be quick to judge by numbers! as I mentioned in my previous article), but they are able to influence someone and that someone may very well be your future customer or promoter.

I would start my introduction by the wonderful detention of content marketing:
Content marketing is creating a content strategy (from content creation to amplification) geared towards influencing not only your potential customer but also people who can influence your potential customer.

Influencing the influencer has becoming a more powerful concept recently as more and more online businesses are forced to become more niche-specific (while watching bigger brands taking more competitive areas).

In the sphere of marketing there are different ways to provide answers for growing business via social network and other channels, so we can extend the purposes of influence marketing to include:
  • Those who can influence your potential customer in any way (from promoting your brand to simply adding trust signals) 
  • People who can link to your site or encourage others to, did you hear about inbound marketing
I would say that social media marketing is considered as a most obvious way to build relationships with influencers. Yet, it is not the only way.

If you are not thinking “people” and “influencers” when developing your content marketing strategy, you are losing out.

The Concept of Ego Bait in Content Marketing:-

Ego bait is a widely used tactic to attract online influencers’ attention and turn them into promoters (or brand ambassadors if you like buzz words). The tactic is very useful way to attract the attention of a specific individuals or a group. I personally use the Egobait and work to speed on link bait and picking the right target.

  • The following types of ego bait are the more popular ones: 
  • Targeted ego bait (when you target one influencer) 
  • Group ego bait (when you target a group of influencers) 
  • Associated ego bait (when you associate yourself with micro-celebrities and thus attract more of them on board). The term has been coined by Anthony D. Nelson. 
  • Community ego bait (when you target the whole micro-community)
Targeted Ego Bait and Find the right partner

So what do you think about ego bait link building? Have you done it before? Did it work? Think about the methods you can use to get through to other like-minded bloggers and influential people in your niche.

When link building, you need the other party to notice you. Better yet, you need them to notice the benefits of being associated with you. People are often self-centered. It can be a bit difficult to get them to see your point if there is nothing in it for them. That is why Egobaiting can work wonders for your link building efforts.

With link building, you want to achieve as much success as possible. But this does not mean that you should seek to link to just anyone. Look at your options and select them very carefully. The things to bear in mind include relevance, likelihood of linking back and niche.

To sum up,  Link bait, share bait, click bait. These are all names for tactics designed to get a specific action from readers. Ego bait is the most common and easy to use. Here’s the what, why, and how of targeted blog mentions.

In my opinion, egobaiting is a marketing and link building technique, and as such, it should be focused on achieving an appropriate level of success.  Striking a balance between reader enjoyment and getting what you seek out of the deal is essential. 

This might mean selecting individuals based on how likely they are to link to you and help you in promoting the piece.  Of course you shouldn’t solely choose to target individuals based on how likely they are to link, but this should certainly be a consideration.

Saturday, July 19, 2014

Why Organization DNA is the Secret Ingredient To Differentiate

In a competitive industry, managing of any organization must continuously find ways to retain current clients and in the same time we need to create a effective strategies to attract new customers. This is especially true in these tough competitive markets and economical times.

In all of these changes and the direct impact of globalization did we ask ourselves where we are in all this, what the positioning map of our organization and what you offer to differentiate?

Why some organizations are able to face these changes and it can form themselves in a manner that make them able to compete and offer better services or products? While others can’t leave their corner of the ring without tripping on their own shoelaces?  To answer that question, I would say look to your organization’s DNA.

In science or in biology, we know that DNA does a lot of interesting things (some of which we don’t fully understand) but one of its main and most clearly understood functions is to tell amino acids how to line up and form themselves into specific protein shapes. Do you get the idea of “to tell amino acids how to line up and form themselves into specific protein shapes?” 

In business era the scenario is the same, you have to look beneath the surface at the organization’s DNA. Organizational DNA is a metaphor forth e underlying factors that together de fine an organization’s “personality” and helps explain its performance. 

The Organizational DNA framework was developed by Booz & Company to give organizations an easy, accessible way to identify and remedy the roadblocks that impede results:
  • “Everyone agrees on a course of action, but nothing changes.” 
  • “There goes another opportunity, while we wait for a decision.”
  • “It’s a great idea; it’ll never happen.”
  •  “I’m either micromanaged or left holding the bag.”
  •  “The businesses and functions just aren’t working together to get results.” 
  • “I don’t feel motivated to go the extra mile. What’s in it for me?” 
  • “We have the right strategy and a clear implementation plan, but we can’t seem to execute.” If any of these complaints sound like your organization, Organizational DNA can help.

The Five Building Blocks


Like the four nucleotides that comprise human DNA, there are four basic building blocks in any organization’s DNA—decision rights, information, motivators and structure. These building blocks and the way they combine largely determine how an organization behaves, and whether it can achieve results.

Yasser Al Mimar - DNA OrganizationDecision Rights: I would like to start with this sentence “We have five seniors in this department and no one find out a solution” The most important decisions in an organization affect not only the decision maker but also other members of the organization. At some fundamental level, every individual in organization is constantly making decisions and managing trade-offs, whether it’s how to price a customer quote, which engineering projects to fund given a limited budget, or what phone calls or e-mails to return first. How well and how efficiently they make these decisions largely determines the organization’s success in the marketplace. Decision rights—the underlying mechanics of how decisions are truly made—determine how well organizations work, how quickly the right new products/services get to market, and how much the organization spends to get results. Therefore, decision rights are the first building block that dysfunctional organizations should address; it’s the cornerstone of effective organizational renovation.

Information: I would like to start with sentence “I don’t have the information I need to do my job.” Poor information is the organizational equivalent of junk food. It clogs communications arteries, bloats the system with empty calories, and fools the body into thinking it’s nourished, when, in fact, it may well be on the verge of crisis. The effects of bad information on the other DNA building blocks—particularly decision rights and motivators—are powerful. Without accurate and available information, decision makers cannot make quick, smart moves in the market- place, and employees don’t receive the recognition—either positive or negative—that their actions merit

Innovation: “We should find out new application or system for new customers segment, but we need to find a way   to implement it” Innovation is one of the keys to success moving forward. Without exception, let me know if you can think of an exception. In most great businesses today, the executives need their people to bring outstanding, new ideas to life. However, the key question remains: how? Innovation is considered as powerful tool in DNA building blocks as it help your company to differentiate in the market and foster the right decisions that contribute to the sustain your business growth .

Motivators: “We paid bonuses, but no one seems to behave any differently.” Motivators include more than money; they also encompass all of the objectives, incentives, and career opportunities that prompt people to care and achieve. These rewards, both financial and nonfinancial, can encourage individuals to align their goals with those of the organization and pursue them in earnest...or they can, however inadvertently, stimulate counterproductive behaviors by driving a wedge between self-interest and the good of the organization.

Structure: “Here’s our org chart, but let me tell you how it really works around here.” Structure is the most visible and obvious of the four Organizational DNA building blocks, and it’s where most organizational change programs start. Structure should not be a starting point, however; it should be the logical outcome of the choices made regarding the other three building blocks. While important and potentially crippling if designed poorly, structure is the capstone, not the cornerstone, of most reorganization efforts.

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Don't Hold Back Your Social Media Strategy it is about Quality, Not Quantity

Starting a business is an exciting endeavor for every new business owner, and when you establish your own business and the doors finally open, many breathe a sigh of relief. You start think that the real work in starting a new business is getting your first customers. Am I right?

So your marketers start doing their work to win large customers by using different ways to attract attention and get your first pool of many customers. On the other hand, marketers believe that the number of followers they have is an indication of their success on social media. A recent Wall Street Journal article argued that social media is failing to live up the marketing hype companies originally expected. The reason for this is because many companies get caught up in the numbers game and focus their efforts on growing their audience on social media. A successful social media strategy should emphasize customer engagement and interaction with followers.


Quality Over Quantity

When it comes to followers, it’s about quality rather than quantity. Smart social media marketers realize that the number of followers is insignificant compared to the comments, engagement and interactions with followers.

Engagement with followers is a key to building your brand identity and online presence, which can lead to follower growth. Rather than focusing your efforts on gaining followers, your social media strategy should include daily social media monitoring, responding to followers’ comments, and analyzing data about your audience. Social listening is essential to help you understand your audience so you can create content that they will be interested in.

Customer Engagement Drives Social Engagement

A recent Gallup Survey shows that 72% of adults in the U.S. use social media, making it an effective platform for B2C and B2B marketers to connect with consumers. But the majority of consumers use social media to connect with friends and family, and are less interested in engaging with brands and learning about their products or offers. In fact, 62% of consumers said that social media does not influence their purchasing decisions at all. They’re more likely to listen to their family, friends or experts to learn about new brands or products.

Businesses need to reevaluate their social media strategy and initiatives to have a positive influence on the bottom line. If your company wants to acquire new customers, remember that customer engagement is driven through social engagement. Try engaging with your existing customers on social media and encourage them to advocate for your company.

Listen Up!: The Importance of Social Listening

The concept of social listening is nothing new, but many companies and organizations are now beginning to incorporate it into their social media strategy to improve the effectiveness of their social engagement. Social listening includes monitoring the conversations consumers have on social media and finding opportunities to participate and interact with existing and prospective customers. It can also give you insights on the type of content that will interest your audience and helping to identify industry influencers and brand advocates.

The social media team at American University of Sharjah does an excellent job on Facebook or twitter at responding to both positive and negative feedback. Take a look at the two tweets below:

@Maitha_AH You may not have to pay another deposit for change of major. For definite answers please contact infodesk@aus.edu. 

And @leasowwm Please contact the Testing Center through Tel: +971 6 515 1111; Fax +971 6 515 1011 or Email: testingcenter@aus.edu. All the best.

 
This is a great example of how social media can be used as an extended customer service. When a customer tweeted about issue they were experiencing with their deposit payment, American University of Sharjah clarifies the situation and offered a clear the picture to help resolve the confusion.

 

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

New to Information Technology in Social Development? Here’s What You Need to Know

Nowadays we live in an era where information is considered as a communication loop to know others, how they think, what they want and where they are. It's a professional businessperson's responsibility to know how to use information and technology to their advantage specially when start to promote your business and you have plan to find out who are your audience! This is critically important to internalize because the sooner you use the available technology to your advantage, the sooner you'll beat your competition in growing your business.

Information technology has been a key contributor to the major transformations on how companies market their products and services. Anticipating the impact of information technology is becoming more difficult. Businesses are e experiencing fundamental transformation due to the impact of information technology.

Information Tecnology

All new information technology (IT) systems bring a range of associated changes with them. These may be changes to the business process and procedures, new roles and responsibilities, organizational restructuring, new equipment or facilities, or new skills to learn. All these issues involve people and it is they within organizations that are the key to success of any IT implementation 

I would like to start with the simple things and clarify what is the significance of this article! If you do business outside your local calling area I believe you need to at the very least have a toll-free phone service. If you only work within a small geographic area, a basic local phone line will suffice. You also need a fax machine and fast connection to the internet. On the other hand, you don't want to waste your time or money on "economic" and you know the internet service will serve your need and the requested information will be coming and going as fast as possible. Am I right?

For instance, and away from the business life, the majority of people prefer to get their news from online news sources. And the majority of those are access the Internet from their smartphones/blackberries/iPhone/Samsung, so we find the technology has become a key factor in information transmission and considered a necessary part of any business.

I would say, with the proliferation of technologies that are able to overcome the obstacles of time and space in Information Technology such as (Video calls, Online Training, distance Learning and others on Internet applications), one would think that these tools would be used to gain an understanding of other cultures, meet people all over the world, maintain and strengthen familial relationships, communicate effectively with others, and help people to become more socially adept. Therefore, without new information and communication technologies none of what is changing our lives would be possible.

Many researches had assured that Internet today used by about 100 million people, and doubling this number every year is a channel of universal communication where interests and values of all sorts coexist, in a creative cacophony. What I have mentioned above was only about the internet technology and application. Did you ask yourself what about other information technology systems and applications that impact your business, such as modeling and software applications, wireless system or operating infrastructures?
Information Technology 

Furthermore, there are a number of technologies that can help you with various aspects of the business. They're fairly easy to use and will help you keep track of your business growth and make things easier when audit your business.  You'll also want some sort of customer relationship management (CRM) system. Being able to capture information about customers -- especially their preferences and quirks -- really helps with building repeat business. It can also help you see who your best customers are so you can market to them more effectively. You can either purchase software to run it yourself, or you can use a "hosted" model where you login on the Internet to use it but the supplier takes care of all the technical management.

In sum, information and communication technology is the essential tool for economic development and material well-being in our age; it conditions power, knowledge and creativity; it is, for the time being, unevenly distributed within countries and between countries; and it requires, for the full realization of its developmental value, an inter-related system of flexible organizations and information-oriented institutions.

Saturday, July 12, 2014

How to Easily Build a Powerful Employees' Performance

If you have your own business or you drive a company, I believe you are always looking to drive this business or this company forward! But the question is; can you do it alone? Or you need other elements to support you and keep your business in sustainable framework!

Did you ask yourself if your employees giving your company their all? Do they believe that what they're doing is important? Do they feel appreciated? Do they show up for work each day filled with passion and purpose?

For business leaders in any organization of any sizes, the writing's on the wall: You can make and save money by keeping employees engaged.

From my perspective I would say; to make your workers more engaged, more satisfied at work, and more likely to stay at your company--try adopting these sustainable work practices.


Every company wants to drive sustainable high performance from employees. But many leaders make the mistake of not starting with themselves.  As a leader, what is say is important. But it's what you do that is mirrored by your employees. If you want your employees to perform at a high level and not burn out, you better take on sustainable work behavior on the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual level. 

Fact says that many bosses practice unsustainable work behavior, leading to stressed and unhappy employees who are distracted by their search for their next job. According to a Harvard Business Review study, only 25 percent of 19,000 employees from around the world said their leaders model sustainable work practices! 

For instance, organizational leadership or managers support have been identified as key determinants of the success of organizational environmental initiatives (e.g., Ramus & Steger, 2000). Leadership plays a role both in communicating the importance placed upon environmentally sustainable behavior by the organization and in providing a role model for the desired action. Furthermore, the opportunities for employees to be able to engage in environmentally sustainable work behavior can strongly influence action.

Today's entrepreneurs must make it a priority to get to know their employees so they can provide whatever's needed to keep them fully engaged in what they do. This creates wins for everyone and helps to boost company performance.
In this article I would list below four fundamental way or behaviors you should be modeling that help to enhance your employees’ performance, which will be reflected positively on your company growth

Encourage Vacation.
What is your company’s policy on vacation? How do they encourage (or discourage) employees to take vacations and breaks? Take one yourself.  Do you encourage your employees to take lunch out of the office, take short breaks, and go on vacation? You need to do all of those things, too. It's not just so they work harder, more efficiently, and line your company's pockets with more revenue. It's to ensure they are less likely to quit. I would strongly say, employees are more likely to come back refreshed and full of new ideas. When an employee returns from a well-deserved vacation, you will begin to see their work progress and their attitude improves.

Don't email over the weekend.
If you email late at night and over the weekend, what kind of message do you think that sends to your employees? Even if you say explicitly "I don't expect a reply over the weekend," what do you think someone under your employ is going to do? "But once again, their behavior speaks louder than their words. If you feel compelled to write emails at all hours, I would suggest to park them in your draft folders and push the send button during working hours!. During office hours do you expect an automatic reply? It's important for everyone to have some time to concentrate on their work without distraction. 

Show appreciation, Reward and recognize employees.
Employees have emotional needs that need to be met at work. If you do not recognize and appreciate your subordinates, they'll leave you and get it somewhere else. There is a study shown "findings strongly confirmed the adage that 'people don't leave organizations, they leave leaders.' When employees in this study felt valued by their leaders, for example, they were 1.3 times more likely to stay with the company," the duo writes. Remember to celebrate both accomplishments and efforts to give employees working on long-term goals a boost.

Clearly communicate about your company goals
Employees can't perform well or be productive if they don't clearly know what it is they're there to do and the part they play in the overall success of the company. Be sure to communicate your expectations--and to do it often. Leaders or Managers need to fulfill employee's spiritual level too!

Friday, July 11, 2014

Ways to Engage with your Customers and Make Best Content Marketing Tactics

Connection or engagement with your clients is one of the highest goals of a content marketer. True content marketing goes far beyond self-promotion to encourage solid engagement and a two-way conversation between brand and consumer.

Tactic One that content marketers are using is Social Media as tool to enhance and support the network engagement , whether they’re building a presence on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ (just to name a few) or even Blog.  Although not all marketers have confidence that their social media efforts are working, the adoption rates continue to soar. 


Nowadays, everybody knows a fact says social media can be a great way to build your brand’s voice & persona while becoming the star outlet for spreading all this content you’re creating. Marketers can buy different forms of advertising on these sites. They can also create their own corporate profiles and try to build relationships with potential customers and provide service to current customers.

2. Educate

Be an expert! Consumers today are thirsty for knowledge and are looking for companies who are the experts in their field.  On the hand, we have to do it better than our competition. Every dollar must be spent efficiently and productively, working to create a powerful marketing strategy content.
From my perspective, blogging is an exceedingly effective method of generating content and sharing your know-how, and these can be created fairly quickly (just don’t forget to post on the regular!).

Having a good blog with a lot of good content and being able to share them on social media platforms with lots of followers and fans can be a really good start.
But the marketing material you should never forget to use in your content marketing strategy; is a White Paper. In today’s competitive climate, it’s not about claiming that “you’re the best.” To a degree, it’s not even about actually being the best. It all comes down to proving you’re the best. You have to demonstrate your expertise to your target market!

White Papers, though longer form than blogs, are another fantastic way to educate your audience. White papers differ from blogs and other form of content as they have a tiny bit of direct marketing messages in them. Most of the white paper is generally content, but a small fraction of a white paper consists of direct marketing material. From there, you can even create a case study on how your company helped a customer with this particular issue, demonstrating your commitment to your customers while confirming your expertise on that subject.

3. Entertainment

Cat videos get clicks, but it doesn’t mean they will get you customers. Entertain your audience in a way that makes sense for your brand by generating interesting content and presenting it in an entertaining way. It includes the different aspects of traditional marketing that we see every day. Some of these aspects include sports marketing, branding, public relations, endorsements, digital marketing, and social media marketing. Build a voice for your brand and be consistent and engaging.  Customers will respond positively when done right. Videos, blogs, social media accounts, anything that you publish – is a way to entertain and engage your audience with a likable, relatable persona.




4. Tell and update

Use different content marketing tactics to update your audience on what’s happening in your company and the industry as a whole. Newsletters, eBooks, digital and print magazines all serve as informational hubs for your customers to learn more and continue envisioning you as an expert. 

5. PR (Press relation)

Use professionals PR who Their job is to identify what would make an interesting story about your company that the journalist would want to write about (most journalists do not want to write ads). The PR professional then writes a press release, which should sound just like a real news story.

Try always to contact the right journalists and news media, and pitch the story to them. However. The payoff of good PR is high, but that means the risk is also high. If you want control, then you have to buy traditional advertising like everyone else.

A content marketing cocktail is your best method to build up your brand, each tactic you adopt will lead you to customers at different stages in the buying cycle. And each piece of helpful content on your website acts like a fishing line getting pulled behind a fishing boat. The more lines you have in the water, the more fish you can catch. So stretch your content creation muscles pick up that pen and start creating content today. Your audience (and your bottom line) will thank you for it!