Heather Lutze – Internet Marketing Speaker - Internet Marketing Speaker Heather Lutze covers issues on search engine marketing from the advertiser's and service provider's perspective. Heather's easy and non-technical approach to SEM will help you connect with prospects online when they are ready to buy.
Search marketing speaker, Heather Lutze recently presented “The Findability Formula – The Easy, Non Technical Approach to Search Engine Marketing” to the Group at Firespring. The Firespring Group is a high-impact marketing firm, designed for budget-minded small and mid-sized business owners. They asked Heather to present and share ideas on Findability and search engine marketing success.
At the full day session, Heather shared successful Findability strategies to search engine marketing:
• Finding your keywords & conducting keyword research
• Pay Per Click Advertising
• Search Engine Optimization
• Social Media Marketing
The second part of the day was focused on integrating ideas and strategies into the Firespring organization:
• Implementing Findability for Firespring
• Strategies for developing Findability
• Managing and training on Findability for the production team
Overall, it was a great full day session with the group at Firespring! For more information about Firespring go to their website at: http://www.firespring.com/
Thanks for sharing you wisdom Heather. Firespring will be a better company tomorrow because of you. We appreciate your custom attention. ~ Jay
Thank you for exceeding our expectations! You and Kevin were terrific and you have been so accommodating. I look forward to seeing the results of implementing your suggestions. ~ Tawnya
Wow, Thank you for all of the enlightening info & insights you shared with us. I’m so glad to have met you, and hope you enjoy your visit to Lincoln! ~ Stacey
Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge and giving us tools that we can implement now. ~ Randy
Thank you so much for coming in to work with Firespring. We have so much to give our clients. Thank you for showing us even more that we can do to benefit them. We loved having you! ~ Jason
Implement your social media activity and policy from the top down
Your company’s top-level executives need to be willing to dive into the company’s social media activities as well. If your employees see that the CEO is on Facebook and posting tweets on Twitter and blogging regularly, and that he or she is having fun doing it, your employees will embrace social media as well. No matter what the company size, structure, or culture, the use of social media needs to work its way down.
The Way of the Future
Contrary to what some people may think, social media – especially for business – is not a fad. It may morph and change over time, but it’s certainly not going away. Those companies that embrace it now and get its employees involved will be the one to reap the most rewards. So set up your social media guidelines and gradually phase it into your operations. Not only will your employees’ productivity increase, but so will your company’s bottom line.
When implementing social media access company-wide, your IT considerations are critical. You’re opening your company outside your corporate firewall. Therefore, make sure you’re protecting your company’s assets and work with your IT team to make sure you’re protected before opening those portals.
Additionally, while going doing social media posts can be a rewarding part of people’s day, eventually you will need a full-time staff member to oversee your social media activities. In fact, within the next two years, every company over $2 million in revenue should plan to have that full-time position as part of their company structure. Big companies already have such dedicated positions in place; take your cue from them and start planning now.
Stay tuned for part 6 of Social Media and Business: 5 Strategies for Implementing Social Media into Your Organization
To get people excited about social media, have an internal contest. Give everyone (or every department) a promo code for something happening in the company, such as a special sale or event. Then, let people market to their family, friends, customers, and social networks. Whichever person or department has the most promo codes redeemed gets a gift or prize. It could be a catered lunch or even a day off. The point is to engage the company meaningfully so you can see some bottom line results.
One major retailer did this and had a $3 million bottom line improvement during an economic recession. This company never opened social media sites to its employees before. Now they’re a believer in the power of social media marketing. So don’t be closed minded in terms of who can be on the social media sites. Let everyone be a promoter of your company’s products and services.
Stay tuned for part 5 of Social Media and Business: 5 Strategies for Implementing Social Media into Your Organization
Start by giving social media access to certain people to test the waters; then open it to others in phases
Rather than let everyone jump in feet first, start by forming a social media committee. Send out an invitation to your staff for people to join the committee (make sure they know it’s optional). Those who come to that meeting will be the best people to represent you on the internet. Work with them to help clarify the rules of engagement and to help define your company’s purpose for being on the social media sites. Then, allow these people to become social media advocates for your company. After a few weeks, have them report back to you on what’s going well, what they’ve learned, and what’s not working.
After you make policy or implementation adjustments based on their feedback, open social media up to another group of people, and then another, until you have everyone on the sites who wants to be there. Don’t force it on anyone. If someone doesn’t want to tweet, blog, or do Facebook posts, that’s okay. Forcing people to be your social media voice will backfire and cause more harm than good.
Stay tuned for part 4 of Social Media and Business: 5 Strategies for Implementing Social Media into Your Organization
Detail what is and what is not allowed to happen on your social media sites. For example, you may want to specify such things as not sharing proprietary information, keeping all posts positive, not sharing client information, not divulging salary or benefit information, and not revealing any corporate intelligence. What you allow or disallow is up to you and your specific company culture. For example, some companies decide that they will talk about their clients and customers (with the customer’s permission), while others feel talking about customers invites competitors to try to steal them. The main point for everyone to remember is that if you wouldn’t post the information on your web site, then don’t post it on a social media site.
Make it clear in the document that if they break any of the rules outlined, their job is in jeopardy. Additionally, reveal whether HR is monitoring the emails, posts, and tweets. Have each employee sign off on the social media rules and place a copy in their employee file.
Stay tuned for part 3 of Social Media and Business: 5 Strategies for Implementing Social Media into Your Organization
As many companies have already found out, having a business presence in the social media communities – namely Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube – can have a positive impact on the company’s bottom line. Being able to connect with customers and prospects to build loyalty and community goes a long way in today’s world, and social media marketing is changing the way customer relations take place.
One of the main questions businesses ask when implementing their social media strategy is, “Do we open this up to the company?” Some argue that allowing employees to access social media sites during the day will result in a productivity drain, and they encourage businesses to put web site filters in place and to ban social media sites from the workplace.
However, Australian scientists at the University of Melbourne recently published an interesting study that found when employees take time to visit websites of personal interest, such as social media sites, it provides them a mental break and actually increases their ability to concentrate. The scientists documented a nine percent increase in productivity among their subjects. As they explained, “The activity helps keep the mind fresh and helps put you in a better place when you come back to working on topic.”
Additionally, realize that people don’t work 100 percent of the time on what they’re assigned to. They do other things, such as get a snack, go to restroom, talk to co-workers, surf the web, etc. So they’re giving themselves some distractions already. The question is, “Do you want to offer a suitable distraction, or let your employees choose their own distractions?” Clearly, giving your employees an acceptable distraction is the way to go, especially if doing so helps the company’s bottom line.
With that said, you can’t simply allow everyone to post to the company’s social media sites arbitrarily. You can’t rev the engine and then let go of the steering wheel. Rather, you need to establish rules of engagement. The following suggestions will help you do precisely that.
Stay tuned for part 2 of Social Media and Business: 5 Strategies for Implementing Social Media into Your Organization
I would like thank all who attended my internet marketing session “Your Tweets Hurt My Facebook When I am LinkedIn” at the ProGreen Expo. Those who attended got to see how social media could optimize a business, by developing social media strategies to help communicate with its consumers. The ProGreen Expo was a wealth of information, and a great place to meet amazing green industry professionals. It was a privilege to listen to their questions regarding social media, and help answer them. Not to mention, I even picked up a few pointers on gardening myself. Again, thank you ProGreen for the great event!
Wow! What an event! I was honored to be the Day One General Session Keynote Speaker on Social Media Marketing to over 500 KOA Kampground owners (yes with a “k”) in Houston TX this November. The event started with a great opening act called The Drum Cafe! Great entertainment, they had everyone pounding their drums until their hands were dumb.. and you did not care. It was that amazing. I got goosebumps.
After the KOA event, the current Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jim Rogers opened the event, followed by the incoming Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Pat Hittmeier as well as the Vice President of Marketing Lorne Armer. Great information about the “Yellow Shirt Relationships” that are so important to KOA as a company.
I came on the stage at 2:00pm and had a fabulous time talking about all the people I had met at the events mixer the night before as well as all the great interviews I had conducted to get ready for the Think Global, Act Local: Social Media Marketing to Get Business To Your Kampground! I was in awh of the amazing main stage they had setup for the convention. Two Jumptron screens and all the professional setup you would expect of a top notch event. The AV staff was amazing!
What a beautiful bling on Stage! Thanks Kerkimer Diamond Mind!
A big surprise was that Herkimer Diamond Minds won Fanchise of the Year for 2009. I was fortunate to have had a great conversation with the Owner Renee Scialdo Shevat the night before and that morning. She was wearing one of her diamond necklaces that morning. 8 carats of pure bliss on her neck. I started joking with her that we can be a “red carpet” moment and she can “sponsor” my neck and I will wear the necklace, well to my surprise… she say YES ! So I was given the necklace to wear for the rest of the event. The necklace was my bling for my keynote and it glittered from main stage. What a thrill! Thanks so much Renee for letting me wear such a special piece. We also did two great breakout sessions talking about the tactical aspects of Social Media Marketing and Time Management.
After that very busy day, we headed to the Convention Hall and my Senior Project Manager Troy Stockinger and I conductined “Findability Makeovers” for the KOA Kampground owners. Here is a video that was generously given to us after his makeover.
Join internet marketing expert Heather Lutze on August 26 for a business seminar in Denver. Presented by the Findability Group and the Cherry Creek Chamber of Commerce, this half-day business seminar in Denver will show you how to get new business for your company using internet marketing.
Common misconceptions about internet marketing:
You have to be technically minded and know all the ins and outs of the internet
You need thousands of dollars just to get started
You need a large team of people
For just $69, fellow business owner Heather Lutze will show you a non-technical action plan on how to find more business for your company using FREE online tools. This action plan is easy to understand and can be implemented the very same day! And for a limited time only, Heather is offering a VIP upgrade package that includes $129 worth of products, a free report on your website, lunch with Heather, and more! This Denver business seminar is great for local businesses!
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