JoelGoldstein

Video Word of Mouth Marketing on Facebook

by JoelGoldstein on January 31, 2012

Although having client testimonials listed on your website may serve as a functional tool, often times they may leave a negative connotation with readers. There’s no doubt that potential consumers who come across client testimonials may be hesitant to believe the reliability of them. This is where putting a face to a name can truly come in handy.

The key is utilizing one of the earliest tactics of marketing. Word of mouth marketing has continuously backed the success of companies, products, and services. How many times have you utilized services by someone or tried something new simply from having a friend refer you or tell you to do so?

The perfect place to broadcast this is on social media websites like Facebook. With the video coverage of client testimonials combined with the broad reach of Facebook, word of mouth marketing has the ability to expand your company’s reach and overall success. The way to act on this is by uploading your personal videos from your camera, to your computer, and then finally to your Facebook page. FaceBook’s homepage is extremely user friendly and you’ll be able to do this fairly quickly. On the top of the facebook.com, click the link “Add Photo/Video” and follow the steps from there.

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2012: Recent changes in Google’s Privacy Policy throws up a few red flags in my book…

by JoelGoldstein on January 26, 2012

2012 Google Privacy Policy

Google recently shifted it’s privacy policy away from 70 different privacy settings into one document. What you need to know about how google uses your information is generally stated in this document, however the idea that one document lending itself to transparency is one I don’t see. Grouping the multitude of services that google offers and the ability for the online search giant to track and analyze data useful for advertising is easy.

Google makes their billions of dollars off advertising revenue, this is custom tailored to your life by tracking your search history and inferring what you want to hire, buy, learn about. As of now every one of Google’s tools were not in communication with each other, however with an overall shared privacy document this may not always be the case.

Speaking from a marketing standpoint, the ability to understand the search and purchasing habits of your demographic will allow more targeted advertising and marketing in specific areas driving up the cost of advertising along with the frequency of someone selecting an advertisement for “information”

We’ve seen a shift just recently in how google uses it’s search with it’s “search plus your world” feature that customizes your search results using your history and hundreds of other factors. The idea that Google will forgo a potential billion dollar spike in revenue by keeping the advertising and search sides of it’s business separate while being housed in the same compound is a leap I’m not willing to make.

If you are currently using AdWords this will be the most important shift in your online advertising program, use your money wisely and explore local search and Search Engine Optimization before you’re drowning along with the competitions ads on the sidebar of Google.

Details about Google’s Privacy Policy Change

A Dumbed Down version of Google’s Privacy Policy Change

FAQ about Google’s Privacy Policy Change

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Make Your Business Famous using Social Media, Blogs and Articles

by JoelGoldstein on November 17, 2011

From the beginning of Social Media and Blogging marketers have been trying to find the magic key to unlock it’s revenue producing business model. The research has been done and many have tried and failed, the truth is that there is no “one size fits all” solution that will work for every business. However, this does not mean that a blog mixed with Social Media can not propel your business. As the Internet evolves and becomes more social we will start to see the social element of the web spill over onto how we search and find product and service information. Knowing the trends and staying ahead of the curve will become more important than ever.

Step 1) Know your customers

Always in the front section of any college level textbook, knowing who your customers are is often the most overlooked method to building a successful business. Have realistic goals of who you are and where your business is relevant, do not pitch a service to IBM if you have 5 customer service representatives.

Good design can’t fix broken business models.
Jeffrey Veen, Designing the Friendly Skies, 06-21-06

My process is simple and I believe the most effective, every year I reflect and go through my client list noting similarities and trends. Often the customers that I have show a pattern that relates to an industry or a referral source. Either way, it tells me what the business trend is and where to focus my attention.

Step 2) Be seen

As the social web develops and becomes more complex, we find ourselves lost in the tedium that is the “Facebook Wall”. The best way to be seen is to be controversial and start a yelling match that people get heated, however this tactic isn’t great for business… By sharing relevant “inside the industry” information that your customer may not always see you will see a spike in the content being shared and read.

Take this a step further, why not be the information source for the news and write your own articles and blog posts about what you see going on in the industry? Do you think that people won’t read it? Think again, some of the most saught after and appreciated writers are independent industry analysts. These experts in their field are featured on CNN, Fox News and MSNBC almost everyday. Why not you?

Step 3) Build a list

What good is a shepherd without a flock? Develop your own voice and you will see the flood gates open. Use outlets like yahoo news and RSS readers to syndicate your blog posts into worldwide viewership. If you develop informative articles and site sources like a true reporter you will have a better response posting on one of the many free article databases.

Make sure that on your website you have a section that is easy to see where your reader can subscribe via email or social media to your next media release. Capturing this information will give you leverage when speaking with the media on your credibility.

Step 4) Enable a conversation

If you have hundreds of eyes on your content every time you post you’ll be able to activate that readership into having a conversation. This can be done on your website as comments, social media, or a channel like YouTube. Enabling a conversation is one of the best ways to drive your site to the top of an organic Google search because Google sees content like a discussion as new relevant content.

The goal besides an increase in readership and website traffic is to get your readership thinking. Make them think about ways that they can use your services to propel their own businesses and careers. Make them contribute ways that they have used your products in other ways that they weren’t intended for originally.

WD-40 did this recently when a fan of their product reveled to the company that he was using WD-40 to remove love bugs from his windshield. He found that it was one of the only ways to get the pesky bugs off and told the company how pleased he was. They responded by launching a full campaign on how to remove love bugs from your windshield using their product and sales soared.

As you have been reading you may have asked yourself, this isn’t a quick overnight trick that will boost your business into overdrive. It’s a time honored technique of sharing good information, creating a spark of conversation, harnessing the power of group-think and building a reputation based on honesty and trust.

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