Study: Most Effective B2B Social Media Tactics are IT ‘Lite’

According to a new study involving more than 1,700 small business leaders, companies marketing to small businesses would be well advised to focus on social media tactics requiring little IT investment, such as webinars, podcasts and establishing a presence on top social networking sites, before pursuing more IT resource intensive initiatives such as creating a company-managed online community. The study, conducted by Business.com, finds that that four of the top five most effective social media tactics for engaging small business decision makers do not require significant IT investment or involvement. The exception – company blogs – should be backed by both a strategic content strategy and the resources necessary to create this content on an ongoing basis before it allocating IT resources to blog creation or management.

The small business social media study examined the social networks and other social media resources small business owners and managers turn to for business-relevant information. In contrast to the common perception of social media as inherently “social” or interactive, study participants using social media for business were much more likely to use resources which don’t require interaction, such as webinars and podcasts (67%) or reading product reviews (63%), than they were to participate in online discussions (29%).

The top five social media resources used by small business leaders are:

Webinars / Podcasts – small business leaders consider webinars and podcasts to great resources for professional development, industry research and learning about potentially-relevant products and services, saving them the time and expense of attending in-person training.

Ratings & Reviews – provide useful input into the business buying process, particularly those ratings or reviews provided by other small businesses using the product or service.

Company / Brand Pages on Social Networking Sites – social network participation is now mainstream for U.S. adults, with 46% using sites such as Facebook and 25% participating weekly. Small business leaders are increasingly turning to these sites to find the latest information about important vendors, products and services.

Company Blogs – small business leaders praise company blogs – at least, those that are “well written, current and with good thought leadership articles” – as great sources of information about business-relevant products, services and the underlying character of a company.

Social Media Search – while some of the business-relevant information on social media sites can be found through general search engines, a great deal cannot. Realizing this, over half of small business leaders using social media search for business-relevant information directly on sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Business.com Answers, SlideShare and many more.

B2B social media marketing initiatives require Marketing and IT to work closely together to prioritize projects, allocate resources, manage execution and maintain new systems and features. One key implication from this study for companies marketing to small businesses is that Marketing can, and should, actively pursue B2B social media initiatives which require little IT investment before taking on more resource-intensive projects.

For example, rather than placing a company-managed online community the core of the emerging social media strategy – a community where, according to this research, it will be very challenging to build participation by small business leaders – establish a company presence on one or more social networking sites and focus initial community development efforts on those sites. By focusing first on external, IT ‘lite’ social media opportunities, companies marketing to small businesses are more likely to reach a far larger portion of their target audience in the short run, begin developing a following and learn key lessons that inform what social media features and functionality are actually necessary on the company web site.

Learn more about the given opportunities and what’s in it for your business with AAACBC Inc. - just get in touch
___

About Yummy-Cebu.com - the biggest food party in the foodland safari of Metro Cebu

Yummy Cebu is a community platform dedicated to finding yummy places to eat in the Foodland of Metro Cebu. The Site was officially launched on December 01st, 2009 and started to rock on December 16th when the first users noticed that there now was an accurate and updated place on the net to voice out.

Today Yummy Cebu is growing and starting to fulfill its purpose we have growing numbers of registered Food Critics who all in their own style take part in mirroring the food safari of Metro Cebu onthe net. At present the entries and blogs linked to our eating places and restaurants are on the first page of Google results and are giving our visitors, the travelers passing through and our fellow Cebuano’s an accurate and updated picture of what is really out there in terms of food and entertainment. As true food lovers and fans of our beloved home Cebu we pledge to you and to Cebu to continue to strive for the best, most fun and most accurate and updated informative and social media site reflecting Cebus Food Safari. So if you wonder where to eat in Cebu – check Yummy Cebu for the answer!

The platform hosts numerous Blog entries, Photo entries, hilarious Videos, an informative rating page and a Food Directory featuring profile pages for Cebus Restaurants bringing the Establishments in connection with their representative Blogs and so with in direct connection with their customers.

Our idea while creating Yummy Cebu was simple – we wanted to create a place on the internet that would allow any potential client to voice out and share his or hers experience no matter if good or not so good. Giving an accurate and honest picture of not only the establishments but the whole City. The platform is free and fun, the community is growing and there is a great sense of camaraderie.

So while Yummy Cebu continues to grow we have decided to add to the concept and create additional sites for those who seek a more complete picture of our Island.

www.gimmick-cebu.com is our platform to keep you posted on the possible past times in Cebu, the vivid night life of the city and the real fun in our tropical paradise.

www.vacation-cebu.com will be launched shortly and will focus on the accommodation possibilities in the City of Cebu as well as the resorts and Hotels along our gorgeous cost lines.

www.shopping-cebu.com will be a place to share your shopping experience in Cebu, share that one spot where you got the latest hard drive for the most competitive price or the hottest pair of Malaysian shoes as well as to show and warn you fellow Cebuanos as well as our visitors to identify the worst service and the most dreadful rip off in town so shop owners be aware Shopping Cebu will be launched April 2010!

Now visit: http://www.yummy-cebu.com
___

How a Freelance Writer Can Help Your Revenues Grow

The inherent competitive nature of business, coupled with a tightening economy, forces all entrepreneurs to question how they can grow their revenues during a recession. When consumers are tightening their wallets, how can you set your business apart to win their hard-earned dollars?

In economically stringent times, where consumers are each spending less, expanding your customer base is the best way to increase your revenues. With the help of a freelance writer, you can take advantage of several marketing and SEO opportunities that will grow your customer base. Working with a freelance writer specializing in online content is one of the most effective, yet affordable, marketing campaigns you could implement for your business.

Hiring a freelance writer to improve your web copy

An experienced freelance copywriter can revamp your website content, making your copy more appealing to your visitors. Good freelance writers have an ability to completely understand your branding strategy and portray your message in a highly effective way – often better than you originally visualized.

For example, if you have website that sells holiday gift baskets, your freelance writer can transport the reader into visualizing (and even tasting) the delectable luxuries that satisfy even the most discriminating palate. This is far more powerful than your current website content which reads, “This three-tiered gift basket has many tasty snacks and treats.”

If you find that your sales are slumping with the economic times, it may be appropriate to hire a freelance writer to improve the conversion of your website content – helping you to capitalize upon the traffic that is arriving at your website and maximizing the value of each sales ticket.

Choosing a freelance writer to improve your content’s SEO

Not all writers are created equal; some are strictly trained in journalism, while others have solid experience in copywriting. When it comes to maximizing your online presence and revenues, it is critical to choose a freelance writer that understands SEO. Even if you have the world’s best web copy, without visitors to your website, those compelling lines of prose do not help your bottom line.

Your freelance writer should understand how to eloquently use your keywords, sprinkling them into the articles to boost SEO standings, while still ensuring that your website content sounds very natural to the “human” reader. A 3% to 5% keyword density is what your article writer should utilize, and your content writer should also understand other important SEO content considerations, such as latent-semantic indexing, or LSI.

Employ an article writer to build your backlinks

The most affordable marketing campaign is one that is free. And if you can increase your natural search engine listings, then you have the most powerful marketing tool in the world – yet it comes completely free. Having a solid SERP is akin to enjoying a storefront in Times Square, yet without paying any rent.

To the end of raising your search engine results page ranking, hiring an article writer is one of the quickest ways to boost your SEO. An article writer who is versed in SEO will create compelling, valuable content that will not only increase your website’s SEO, but your online expertise as well. You can submit these articles to directories, ezines, and blogs, as well as publish them on your own website. The backlinks these articles will create are an excellent way to build your search engine rankings, especially in the specific keywords your freelance writer optimizes.

Your freelance writer is one of your most powerful marketing tools. Whether you want SEO articles, powerful web copy, intriguing blog posts, or newsletters that will develop a loyal readership, your freelance writer can help you grow your revenues – even in economically stringent times.

___

Freelance Jobs: Gain Maximum From Global Demand for Talents

This is the age of globalization and an Information Technology enabled world. The demand for freelance jobs has increased multifold in the global market keeping the strategic needs and economy of the companies in mind. Freelance jobs are possible in a huge variety of fields like customer relationship management, data mining, marketing initiative and web-based offerings. The information technology industry and companies have deepened their roots all over the globe offering a variety of services in the fields of medical transcription, market research, data processing, banking industry, insurance companies, financial institutions, customer interaction, shares, education and so on.

The growth of the services businesses and software industry is reaching new heights and are in the ascending way. This has lead to the new generation of freelance jobs that can be done from the leisure and comfort of homes. Such home-based jobs can be found on the Internet and everyday new ones surfacing. There are many home-based jobs that are interesting and at the same time have attained online success. The person looking for freelance jobs should research the Internet and choose the one, which is suitable for him and can provide him great success. There are many online directories such as online jobs, work from home options, work at home, home business ideas, work, typing jobs from home, data entry positions online, free data entry jobs, free typing jobs at home, affiliate programs and so on.

There is no need to have any prior experience in order to get into freelance work. The person is required to have some working knowledge on the computers and the knowledge to access the Internet and get information from it. When a person does a freelance job, he is in control of his job and working hours. If the freelancer wants to earn good money, he needs to spend more time doing freelance jobs, as the earnings are directly proportional to the quantity and quality of the work done. Freelance jobs are mainly taken up by students who would like to earn an extra income or by mothers at home who had worked earlier but are not able to go for work due to the arrival of their child or by retired people who cannot commute to work daily or by handicapped people and so on.

As far as the freelance jobs are concerned, they are not different from the ones done in the office premises. Freelance jobs are done in order to earn money. It makes the dream of becoming an entrepreneur as all the profits earned through freelance jobs are kept by the freelancer himself. Many women are doing freelance jobs and are committed to the work done from home and for making this decision they also enjoy many rewards. Work done from home too are not void of any struggles as they may be in the form of disturbances like attending the phone, answering the persons at the door, taking care of the kinds at home during work, carrying out the household chores and so on.

AAACBC Marketing Consultants - Business Marketing Professionals

Do you need to promote your business but lack the proper resources or staff?

Maybe you are feeling overwhelmed, or just don’t know where to begin. Perhaps you know what needs to be done, but you lack the time to do it all yourself. The solution is hiring a freelance marketing consultant. A freelance marketing consultant can help you promote your business online and off, through press releases, social and media networks, blogs, printed pamphlets, online newsletters, and many other methods.

Before a freelance marketing consultant can get to the actual work of marketing and promoting, your consultant will need to learn about your business, evaluate your goals, and get inside your customers’ heads. The secret to good marketing is to know your customer base. Freelance marketing consultants work hard to get to know your target customers, learn what they’re needs are, and find out where they can be found and how to reach them. For example, if your business operates entirely online, and your target customers are teenagers, you won’t want to waste your money placing advertisements in senior citizen magazines. An experience freelance marketing consultant will not only be able to put himself in your customers’ shoes, but also know the best way to communicate with customers in order to sell your product. Your consultant will be able to devise the best marketing plan for reaching your customers and increasing your sales at the best possible price.

If you’re on a tight budget, a freelance marketing consultant can recommend the most cost-effective promotional methods. Often, marketing online is the most practical, low-cost choice. A freelance marketing consultant specializing in your industry will likely have connections to get your online and offline marketing needs implemented at a reasonable cost.

Although marketing consultant firms like AAACBC can often execute your marketing plan more quickly, the cost for employing such a firm will cost you more than hiring an independent freelance marketing consultant but it's worth it!

___