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More than nine out of ten B2B marketers (93%) say they conduct social media marketing to some extent and cite LinkedIn as their single most important social channel, according to a new report from BtoB Online.
Among surveyed B2B marketers who conduct social marketing, 26% cite LinkedIn as their single most important social tool, 20% cite Facebook, 19% cite blogging, and 14% cite a customer community as their top tool.
Some 13% of B2B marketers cite Twitter as their most important social tool, and 7% cite YouTube.
Below, other findings from BtoB Online’s report, Emerging Trends in B2B Social Marketing: Insights from the Field.
Speaker, trainer, and consultant Mikel Erdman comes from an executive background in the competitive real estate, mortgage and advertising industries. He has over fifteen years experience in relationship sales businesses, program development, and sales training and coaching. Mikel is the founder of Equation Marketing, dedicated to helping individuals and businesses achieve their goals.
Tightwad Tuesdays – Saving Money by Dave Ramsey
Saving money is not a matter of math. You will not save money when you get that next raise. You will not save money when that car is paid
off. You will not save money when the kids are grown. You will only save money when it becomes an emotional priority.
We all know we need to save, but most people don’t save like they know they need to save. Why? Because they have competing goals. The goal to save isn’t a high enough priority to delay that purchase of the pizza, DVD player, new computer, or china cabinet. So we purchase, buy, consume all our dollars away or, worse yet, go into debt to buy these things. That debt means monthly payments that control our paychecks and make us say things like, “We just don’t make enough to save any money!” Wrong, wrong, wrong! We do make enough to save money; we just aren’t willing to quit spoiling ourselves with our little projects or pleasures to have enough left to save. I don’t care what you make—you can save money. It just has to become a big enough priority to you.
If a doctor told you that your child was dying and could only be saved with a $15,000 operation that your insurance would not cover and could only be performed nine months from today, could you save $15,000? Yes! Of course you could! You would sell things, you would stop any spending that wasn’t required to survive, and you would take two extra jobs. For that short nine months, you would become a saving madman (or madwoman). You would give up virtually anything to accomplish that $15,000 goal. Saving would become a priority.
The secret to saving? Focused emotion. The secret to saving money is to make it a priority, and that is done only when you get some healthy anger or fear and then focus that emotion on your personal decisions. Harnessing that emotion will make you move yourself to the top of your creditor list. Then ask yourself, “Which bill is the most important? After tithing, who should I pay first this month?” The answer is you! Until you pay God first, then yourself, then everyone and everything else, you will never save money.
The advertisers and marketing community are affecting our emotions every day and taking every dollar we have by making us see our wants as needs. It is time for this to stop! Emotions make great slaves, but they are lousy masters. No matter how educated or sophisticated we are, if we are not saving all we should be, we are being ruled by emotions, not harnessing them as financial planning slaves.
So whether you are saving for college tuition, a trip to the family reunion, new school clothes for little Bobby or Sally, or anything else, start saving now! It’s never too late!
Speaker, trainer, and consultant Mikel Erdman comes from an executive background in the competitive real estate, mortgage and advertising industries. He has over fifteen years experience in relationship sales businesses, program development, and sales training and coaching. Mikel is the founder of Equation Marketing, dedicated to helping individuals and businesses achieve their goals.
Internet Marketing: How To Use Social Media To Connect With Consumers
Times are changing, and changing with them is how businesses connect with their customers. Technology has made public relations and marketing more effective, and at the same time more complicated, and being up to date on these techniques can make or break a business in this modern world. Internet marketing has become a huge part of the business world, so huge in fact that so many websites run based solely off of the money they make from advertising space.
Take Facebook as an example, which takes it a internet marketing a step further and uses social media marketing to help companies and products grow. Facebook can look at what things people “like” or what people say their interests are on their profile and cater the advertisements people see directly based on these observations. For example I recently updated my profile to say I enjoy playing golf and I suddenly have golf advertisements on the side of my page. This method is far more effective than assuming everyone watching ESPN will want to buy beer or men’s hygiene products and therefore advertising for them on the station. Not only can companies use Facebook to market their products, but they can also use it to build public relations. Many companies have created their own Facebook pages where consumers can go to get updates on new product, ask questions, and even express their opinions about the company and what they do. Having these pages also acts as free advertising for companies, as people can see when their friends like a page and because of that may be inclined to go check it out for themselves.
Another way to do this is to start a blog that allows consumers to ask questions that can be answered by members in the company. By allowing individuals to ask specific questions people can get the answers they really want, while the company can work to build better rapport with their customers. This also allows for potential consumers to get in touch with current consumers who may be able to recommend your product.
As the tech savvy young people of today continue to grow into the clientele of tomorrow it is important that companies keep up with the times by using internet as well as social media marketing to reach these potential consumers. By using these public relations techniques companies can continue to survive and thrive in this hi tech world.
Speaker, trainer, and consultant Mikel Erdman comes from an executive background in the competitive real estate, mortgage and advertising industries. He has over fifteen years experience in relationship sales businesses, program development, and sales training and coaching. Mikel is the founder of Equation Marketing, dedicated to helping individuals and businesses achieve their goals.
Effective Social Media Marketing
With the growing popularity of the internet as an essence to many ways of life, businesses are beginning to utilize the internet and all of its abundant resources to benefit their advertisement and crowd to whom they sell to. Over the last decade, there has been a rapid growth in the amount of use and ease of access to social media. Sites such as “Facebook”, “Twitter”, and “Linkedin” have paved the way for this rise in the significance of social media.
Such a strong rise in the usage of such sites have struck businesses; provoking new ideas and methods of effective marketing, truly ideal for this rise in technology and reliance on the virtual world. Businesses have noticed this new opportunity and many have taken advantage of such a playing field, testing and utilizing diverse methods in hopes of achieving the best solution. Social Media Marketing has become a new open territory for businesses to explore.
Internet marketing has always been a big part of the world wide web itself, allowing companies to achieve a wider geographically sound customer base. With such a significant rise recently in the utilization of social media, companies have begun to stretch their internet presence to such markets such as these as well. An effective social media marketing plan is the key step to having a successful usage of time and money through such markets. The first part of deriving this plan is to have an understanding of the company’s customer. Knowing the typical age, wealth, and hobbies of the customer is very significant towards the long run of solid advertisement.
With this new knowledge, one can target the typical lifestyle of the typical customer, finding ways to intertwine the product, with advertisement, into the customer’s everyday life. The social media site “Facebook” is great with taking the hobbies or interests of a person and then matching advertisements on the side that apply to that particular user’s interests. With an active account on “Twitter” a company can update its customers with new information or sales. “Linkedin” does an effective job to connect people to work for the greater good of solving a problem or opening new connections in the job market.
There are many popular social media sites that can work to provide great marketing opportunities, but sometimes a community moderator is necessary to see the impact the social media page has on the area and potential and existing customers. Ideas executed adequately in social media can have a positive effect on a business.
Speaker, trainer, and consultant Mikel Erdman comes from an executive background in the competitive real estate, mortgage and advertising industries. He has over fifteen years experience in relationship sales businesses, program development, and sales training and coaching. Mikel is the founder of Equation Marketing, dedicated to helping individuals and businesses achieve their goals.
Why Your Business Needs Social Media Marketing
Business owners know that it is important to keep up with marketing trends. Social media marketing is the tool that business owners can use to promote their business. There are many benefits to using this new form of marketing that other forms of marketing do not have.
Outbound Marketing
Outbound marketing uses marketing methods that many people are familiar with. These forms of marketing include, but are not limited to: email blasts, advertisement, cold calling, trade shows, and telemarketing. Outbound marketing has proven to be successful for many business owners; however, many business owners understand that it takes a lot of time and hard work for these methods to pay off.
Outbound marketing methods are hit-or-miss because they do not target certain audiences. In other words, the company is promoted to people who may or may not be looking for its product. Even though outbound marketing is hit-or-miss, a lot of the methods are expensive to utilize, and thus, not worth a lot of a business owner’s time or money.
Inbound marketing
Inbound marketing uses marketing methods like social media and internet marketing to target specific audiences. In reality, social media gives a business owner instant warm leads. With inbound marketing, people control what kinds of advertisements they see. A business owner that effectively uses social media marketing will see an increased amount of traffic to their business. Sites like Facebook allow a business owner to create a business profile that, with proper promotion, can be seen by millions of people.
Social sites like Facebook and Twitter focus on relationships. Social media marketing allows the opportunity for people to share a business profile that they like with their friends. Because of this, it is possible for a company to go “viral” among potential customers.
Many business owners are realizing the potential of social media marketing, and they are taking advantage of it while it is still new. Soon, internet marketing and social media marketing will be another outdated method, and the companies that utilized social media early in its life will still profit from it.
It is important for you to understand how important it is to use internet marketing. If you do not use social media, your competition will take advantage of it and profit. To be successful with social media, you need to establish your brand before your competition. Your loyal customers will give you free word of mouth advertising, which is the best kind of marketing.
Speaker, trainer, and consultant Mikel Erdman comes from an executive background in the competitive real estate, mortgage and advertising industries. He has over fifteen years experience in relationship sales businesses, program development, and sales training and coaching. Mikel is the founder of Equation Marketing, dedicated to helping individuals and businesses achieve their goals.
