3 Comments Posted in blogging, social media February 21, 2009

You Want to Drive Traffic? Ask. Ask. Ask.

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(via Darren Rowse @ ProBlogger)

The same question always seems to resurface at every seminar or class we (Brandswag) give: “How do I drive traffic to my blog?”

We try to give the best answers and there are a couple of ways to do this through social bookmarketing, social networking (Twitter), linking… blah blah blah..

There is another way to drive traffic both through Twitter and through a single blog post: Asking Questions.

Mr. Rowse has some great points to asking questions, asking for advice, and asking for tips. If you ask a question there is more of a chance that you will be  able to drive conversation and in turn traffic to your blog post. This also gives you (the … Read more

7 Comments Posted in baby boomer, blogging, social media, Social Media Community February 21, 2009

Baby Boomer Me Up. The 43+ Revolution.

How many times have we heard the negative remarks surrounding social media marketing sound something like this:

“I don’t feel like I need to invest our time and resources into social media. I don’t think our Baby Boomer demographic will relate to that type of technology.”

At Brandswag we hear this all the time. It is a concept that has been etched into the mind of small business owners who cater to the baby boomer generation. They have a hard time connecting the importance of social media to their niche clientele. This is because of the overwhelming MYTH that social media is only for my generation, the millenials.

The shift has slowly started to take form. The paradigm shift between social media being a “bright shiny object” and … Read more

5 Comments Posted in small business, social media, Social Media Community February 20, 2009

Use Your Company Personality. It’s Still There.

Direct mail… Yellow pages… Many traditional marketing concepts have killed the personality of your company. They have taken the story you had at the beginning… that wonderful plan to rule the world and do it with your mind.. and yes they trampled it. Do you find yourself asking the question.. “How did I get here?”

How did I become part of the pack? Doing the same marketing and communications strategy as everyone else..

It is interesting to read blog post like the one by Jay Baer at Convince&Convert called Marketing Sideways to Win at Social MEdia, that call for companies to start marketing their personality instead of something NOT interesting.

Times are tough. Marketing is tough. Competition is fierce. You have to dig down deep to reach the personality and … Read more

2 Comments Posted in small business, social media, Social Media Community, Social Media Expert February 20, 2009

Auto-Invite and Breaking My Window

Peter Kim has an had an awesome post a couple of days ago that really rocked my memory and brought me back to the world of Made To Stick or maybe it was the Tipping Point… In the long run it doesn’t really matter both books are absolutely brilliant.

In his post, Peter talks about the broken window theory where graffitti and *trash* leads to misconduct and chaos in a community. I was relating it (in my head) to social media experiencing an increase in spamming and straight up hard-selling of products and services through outlets like Twitter and Facebook. (Thanks Peter for a great article). I realized that part of the reason why we are seeing a push back from small business owners on using social media is because … Read more

1 Comment Posted in small business, social media February 19, 2009

The Dynamics of Change

Oh Seth Godin… How I love you!

Seth had a small post yesterday talking about changing a business or the way you do things in a recession. Read his post here. It really hit me pretty hard as a small business owner.

If you’re not happy with what you’ve got, what radical changes are you willing to make to change what you’re getting? In my experience, not much. But that doesn’t mean you can’t start now.

I guess the question would be… what is the definition of radical change? You can relate it to a certain point in the past where you assumed you made a “radical change.” It could be a shift in your business environment. It could be a new product offering or a change in management. … Read more