Nile Marketing - Designing a Social Media Marketing Plan

Designing a Social Media Marketing Plan

Planning and executing a social media marketing plan can be easy as long as you first clearly define your company goals. Knowing your products, target audience, company mission and services will allow you to better understand how social media will boost your business.

Social media is more than just getting fans, followers and likes on platforms like Facebook and Twitter. You want to focus on bringing in quality customers that are interested in your services or products. You are not shooting for quantity. A million people visiting your site that are not interested will not up your sales.

Here a few things you want to showcase in your 

social media marketing plan:

• Announce a new service or product
  
• Get your target audience excited and talking about your brand
  
• Direct traffic to your site from social media platforms by engaging the users
  
• Generate some buzz for your company by having events or promotions
  

Once you have that nailed down, you need to choose the social media platforms that your demographic is using. Facebook tends to lean towards a younger audience. LinkedIn is a more professional oriented site. Define your audience and go with a mix of mediums to reach your target audience.

Another important part of a social media marketing plan is content and execution. First, you need to decide how often you want to post content. Next, you need to hash out a content calendar to make sure you post on time and at the frequency that is best for your brand.

You also want to make sure you are posting relevant content. Do not just spew whatever comes to mind. Your audience will only read your content and engage with you if you write about relevant topics.

Now that you have your company pages build on the pertinent social media platforms, you willl want to think about advertising as well. If your target audience is young, then run Facebook ads to drive them to make a purchase.

Remember a social media marketing plan is all about targeting the correct audience, informing them, engaging them to talk about your brand and driving them to buy your services or products.

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Nile Marketing - What You Need to Know Before Developing Your 2013 SEO Plan

What You Need to Know Before Developing Your 2013 SEO Plan :

SEO is Dead :

On the contrary search engine optimization (SEO) is evolving and you need to clear the dust off your old SEO plan. The new year is here and you need to make your resolution to get on board with the new SEO strategies.

The days of writing only with the search engines in mind or tricking the algorithms is over. The search engines are wise to those games and they are continually upgrading their guidelines to improve the results they provide to users.

For this new year, it is important for you to develop an SEO plan that encompasses social media, relevant content and targeted keywords.

Get Social :

Social media is here to stay so get use to in and join in on the fun. It is the way most people share information with their friends and family. Search engines are now starting to tap into social media and using it to return more and more relevant results to users. Rumor has it, Google wants to eventually rank sites according to their social signals.

Engagement with your audience is important and definitely what your customers expects now-a-days. Consumers no longer want to purchase services or products from a faceless corporation. They want to get to know the values and mission of your company. Communicating at a grassroots level is a simple way to interact with your target market.

Get Relevant :

You can’t just publish fluff stuffed with keywords and think that’s enough to satisfy the search engines. Your content has to be relevant to your site and industry. The site content needs to be updated often and written in a way that is easily crawlable by the search engines.

Keywords and phrases are important but it must not disrupt the integrity of the writing. Hiring an SEO writer is a good investment as they are familiar with an SEO plan. They are masters at weaving together all the intricate components while delivering interesting readable content.

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Nile Marketing - How to Choose a Web Marketing Firm ??

How to Choose a Web Marketing Firm ??

As a business owner, you want to make sure you choose an experienced web marketing firm that will give you the highest return on investment (ROI). Your specific business needs will play a vital role in choosing an online marketing firm.

Here are a few tips to guide you into selecting a 
quality web marketing firm.

Your Business Needs

Before you begin interviewing potential web marketing firms, get a good grasp at what you think you will need. Doing a little online research beforehand can help you ask informed questions that will give you better results. Knowing what you want will help you find a well-rounded web marketing firm that has a diverse portfolio.

Here are few things to decide upon before making 
your first call :

Will you need a website built or redesigned?
Will you need a new logo?
Are you going to initiate an email marketing strategy?
Will you be posing pay-per-click (PPC) ads?
Is your site’s content optimized for SEO?
Is your current site optimized?
Will you need traditional marketing as well?
Do you require a company brand strategy?
Will you need to implement a social media campaign?

Flexibility :



The firm you choose should be flexible to adhere to your business needs. As your business grows, your online marketing needs will change and the agency must react quickly.

Reputation :

Besides taking the firm’s word, you need to check their references, business standing and testimonials. There are sites like Glassdoor.com or the Better Business Bureau that can give you an idea of the company’s reputation. A solid reputation speaks volumes of their capabilities to potentially grow your business and brand.

Cost :

Once you narrow down your search, make sure you find a web marketing firm that has reasonable prices that fit your budget. There’s no sense in diving into debt before your business has made a profit.

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Nile Marketing - JamStir Performance Platform Inspires McDonald's

JamStir Performance Platform Inspires McDonald's :

How do you get McDonald’s managers to learn how to inspire 
their crew members to improve store operations ??

The answer: JamStir.

JamStir is a first of its kind learning and performance improvement platform that combines the science of inspiration with social collaboration and gamification.

McDonald’s annual Southeast Region Winter Business Meeting brings together over 750 owner-operators, general managers, and shift- manager for an opportunity to learn about the business, network, and recognize outstanding performance. The regional Human Resource and Owner-Operator leadership at McDonald’s realized that this meeting created a tremendous opportunity to create an experience to teach managers important leadership skills vital to the future of the region.

Working together the team from McDonald’s and JamStir created a social gaming experience where each manager learns to identify opportunities for waste reduction and then learns behaviors central to inspiring their crew members to take ownership of waste reduction in their stores.

The scale and impact of the experience is tremendous. All 750 managers will use a Samsung Chromebook to explore JamStir Performance Platform at the Annual Winter Event taking place on January 29, 2013 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Atlanta, GA. The Samsung Chromebook Chrome Operating System is perfect for this highly interactive experience and will allow participants to navigate the game levels and connect with each other easily. For the game experience design, Performance Inspired, Inc. combined its science of inspiration behavioral model with Badgeville’s outstanding gamification software to create a truly unique solution. The JamStir platform is rounded out with social collaboration and system integration being provided by Nile Marketing  Internet Marketing Strategies.

Say goodbye to boring, ineffective and static learning and performance improvement systems. Say hello to JamStir: The next giant leap in performance improvement.

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Nile Marketing - 5 Myths About Internet Marketing

5 Myths About Internet Marketing :

Learning the truth regarding the top 5 myths about Internet marketing can help you get your business on the right track. It’s not about if you need to market your site online – nowadays you have to. Its about how effectively you plan and execute an online marketing strategy.

1. Internet Marketing is Free :

There is a little fact and fiction when it comes to the idea that internet marketing is free. Yes, there are aspects of online marketing that are free but to get the most out of the Internet, you will have to pay. As the old saying goes, ‘you get what you pay for,’ or in this instance what you don’t pay for.

To target the right audience, you will have to pay for pay-per-click (PPC) ads. These targeted ads will bring in the customers you want, not just any random person who doesn’t have an interest in your services or products.

2. Website has to be Fancy and Expensive :

You don’t have to put a second mortgage on your home to get your site designed and built. It is not about how much money you spent or how flashy it is.

The site should be informative and easy to navigate for the average customer. It should also be designed and written with search engines in mind. The easier it is for Google and similar search engines to crawl your site, the easier it will be for your customers to find it when they enter a search query about your products or services.

3. Content is Irrelevant :

The subject about content and internet marketing is always a topic for debate. Half think content is gibberish and others think it is the key element to any site.

Let me leave you with food for thought. If your content is not informative, your potential customer will click over to your competitor. And if your content is not SEO friendly, then the search engines can’t rank your site. So when talking about Internet marketing, content is very relevant.

4. Social Media is Unimportant :

Social media is more important than ever. It is the platform that your audience uses to send messages to their friends and family.

Using social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter will allow you to interact with your audience at their level. It also makes is easier for them to get your brand out there at the grassroot level.

5. All Traffic is Good Traffic :

All traffic is not good traffic. There is not a logical reason to drive customers to your site that are not remotely interested in your product or services. There is a much better return on investment if you focus on targeting quality customers not quantity.

Now that you know some of the myths and facts about Internet marketing, you can make an informed decision when hiring a online marketing firm to help you strategize an effective marketing campaign.

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Nile Marketing - Using Social Media for Marketing

Using Social Media for Marketing :

Using social media for marketing purposes is very important in today’s online driven world. The days of companies being faceless and disengaged is over. Traditional marketing is also no longer enough. To get the attention of today’s tech savvy individual, companies have to market online and get to know their audience by using social media platforms.

Social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter makes it easy for organizations to market their brand effectively to potential and current customers. It is highly important for companies to have those account. It’s even more important for companies to remember to not leave those pages static, stale and untouched. The purpose of social media is to interact.

Each of those tools allow companies to have a following making it easy to blast out information to a mass audience in minutes. An organization can inform their target audience of a special or promotion in seconds.

Using social media for marketing also makes it easy for the target audience to share a company’s message with their friends and family. It only takes less than a minute for a person to share a company’s post with their following.

Another aspect of social media is comments. Not only will consumers post comments to the company’s account but company personnel can reply just as easily. Comments will be positive as they will be negative. The latter comments don’t necessarily have to damage a company’s brand. If a company responds appropriately and in a timely manner, the negativity can just wash away.

Some of the social media platforms also allow for paid marketing ads. Facebook for example has ads that a company can set up to target a specific user. The ad will use keywords that will show to individual who have searched for those particular keywords.

In the end, there is no way around not using social media for marketing in today’s day and age. It is the easiest way to reach a target audience quickly and effectively.

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Nile Marketing - Outsource Marketing

Outsource Marketing :

In today’s day and age, where the ever advancing world of technology has opened the door for a more specialized workforce, outsource marketing has become an essential aspect of a business plan. Whether you have an in house marketing department or not, your organization can benefit from outsource marketing services.

Benefits of Outsource Marketing :

Reduces Overhead :

The cost of outsourcing an individual is less that hiring an employee that will need a salary plus office items like a computer, desk and benefits. There will be times where it would cost more per hour for an employee to complete a task than an outsourced party.

Specialized Personnel :

Online marketing, social media and online advertising have opened the doors for a more tailored workforce. There is so much to know and learn and one person can’t master it all. By outsourcing, you can hire a highly qualified person for each piece of a project and get more bang for your buck.

Unique Perspective :

Since an outsourced staff is unaware of any internal politics, their ideas are fresh and not tainted, bias or prejudice. They are free to work in an uncluttered environment and not be slowed down by any internal processes. Outsourced individuals are also known for being creative, risk takers and out-of-the-box thinkers.

Analytic Reports :

Most outsource marketing firms will provide analytical results for services like search engine optimization (SEO), social media and pay per click (PPC) campaigns. This is their way of showing you how the services are benefiting your business. It’s also a way of knowing which services need to be tweaked to get your business a better return on investment (ROI).

Improved Efficiency :

Since the individual or agency you’ve hired is fully dedicated to one particular task and project, they can be highly efficient. They are not being pulled in different directions like an in house marketing person might be.

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Nile Marketing - What is Internet Marketing ??

What is Internet Marketing ??

Also know as online marketing, it is a mix of strategies and tactics to brand your company and make it popular within the correct target audience. For most companies, traditional marketing is no longer enough. More and more consumers are online and companies need to go where their customers are shopping.

Internet marketing has several branches that intertwine to maximize the reach of the campaign. Whether your business needs only a local audience or national, internet marketing can target your exact market to get your brand in front of the right shoppers.

Website Design :

Your site has to be built in a way that search engines can crawl it. This is one of the ways you can improve your organic rankings. If search engines can’t find your site, chances are neither can your potential customers.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) :

Another component to answer your question, what is internet marketing, is SEM. This piece is actually composed of two parts – organic rankings and pay-per-click (PPC) ads.

You have to make sure your content is search engine optimized to further improve your organic rankings. Content must be relevant to your product and services and must also be keyword rich.

A PPC campaign runs ads that are typically seen at the top and right hand side of a search engine results page. These ads are targeted by keywords to appear on internet pages once a consumer has searched for those keywords.

Social Media :

This is a way for your company to fully engage with your audience using platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Social media gets your name out there, lets you easily blast out promotions or sales to millions and allows you to speak one-on-one with consumers.

Email Campaigns :

Email campaigns are a simple way to stay in contact with your audience. You can send a welcome email, promotional email and even emails designed to bring old customers back.

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Nile Marketing - The Importance of an SEO Audit

The Importance of an SEO Audit :

When was the last time you did and SEO audit of your website? If you haven’t done an audit, then you don’t really know which aspects of your site need to be optimized. If you don’t have a solid SEO foundation on your site today, any money you invest on improvements from here on out might be in vain.

The results of an SEO audit can help you plan your next steps to improve your site’s performance. Then and only then can you properly plan an effective online marketing campaign that will improve your organic rankings, drive traffic to the correct pages and you will improve your return on investment (ROI).

The most effective time to do an SEO audit is when you are planning to build a site, after a site redesign, if you see an issue with your search engine ranking or as an annual check-up. An online marketing firm will not only assist you with the audit but also implement a cleanup plan to improve your site.

Below is a list of some of the information you will gain from an SEO audit:

● Analytics – Your site should be tied to an analytics platform like Omniture so you can gather reports on a routine basis.

● Blog – The content on a blog should be relevant and should be updated frequently.

● Content – Your content needs to be keyword rich, relevant and updated often.

● Domain Name – Your domain name should have targeted keywords that are relevant to your product and services.

● Duplicate Content – Search engines frown upon websites that have the same content on more than one page on a site.

● External Links – Your site should link to quality sites to improve your credibility.

● Internal Links – Your content needs to link to relevant content on other pages of your site.

● Meta Data – Each page on your site needs to include meta data that is focused on the keywords used on that page.

● Navigation of the Site – Your site need to be structured in a way that is easy for your customers to use and for the search engines to crawl.

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Nile Marketing - 10 Things Most SEO Consultants Hate

10 Things Most SEO Consultants Hate :

Having spent over ten years as an SEO consultant, I’ve gathered a list of “top ten challenges” (or, as I think of them, my pet peeves) about the industry and our clients.

I’m sure you’ve had similar experiences to share with our community. I’ll go first, and list out 10 things that challenge and push SEO consultants to come up with their very best efforts.

1. Fascination With Quick Fixes :

Our clients, normally savvy business owners, are strangely driven by the urge for “quick fixes” in their SEO. Even though they understand the complexity of SEO and the potential benefits from getting it right, many just want a quick win.

My clients are evaluated on their quarterly or annual results. Even though my convincing pitch with fact-based reasoning demonstrates that they will double revenue from organic search by taking a long-term approach and working on a 24- to 36-month timetable, I still see resistance. They don’t like this. They want faster results. They prefer 12 month horizons.

Often, I’ll get anxious client emails before board meetings. They’ll break down our organic traffic goal into a 12-monthly figure, get pretty graphs drawn, and then discover (to their dismay) that the traffic we’re receiving is nowhere near what we “agreed upon at our initial discussion.”

Businesses should understand that organic search is important, and it cannot be rushed. Quick fixes may deliver quick wins, but it is unreal to expect them to be sustained and long-lasting.

2. ”But My Competition Does…”

One of the toughest questions I’ve had to field begins with, “My competitors are doing _____ , so why can’t I?”

Many sites ignore Google’s guidelines and exploit loopholes in the search giant’s algorithms. They indulge in practices like shady link-building, exact match domains, ranking on duplicate content, and so on. In the near term, sometimes, these techniques help them outrank other businesses.

As an SEO consultant, I get frustrated at hearing Google’s never-ending string of (rarely implemented) rosy promises and dire threats to discourage webmasters against such practices.

In Norway, we have 5 million citizens. That isn’t many. But when I’m responsible for SEO strategy at some of the biggest, highest-traffic sites in the country, I am frequently left red-faced at Google’s lack of effective responses to such under-handed and crooked tricks to game search rankings. My personal opinion is that Google isn’t quite good at filtering out low-quality content in Norway. Even when I report poor-quality sites, nothing happens.

There are times when I even feel sorry for my clients. Their competitors have been using tricky techniques for years, and yet nobody stops them or penalizes them for such actions. They make a lot of money through their shenanigans. On the other hand, my clients are practicing ethical and white-hat SEO, adopting best practices and respecting guidelines, only to find themselves outranked by low-quality sites. It’s frustrating for SEO consultants. Have you ever felt the same, or had similar experiences?

3. The Conundrum of “Hourly Rates” :

So, I’m called to bid on an SEO consulting project. I make a presentation, hand over my proposal… and a few days or weeks later, my prospective client will call to complain that my hourly rate is too high. They love everything else about my proposal, but try to negotiate a lesser rate, saying that my competitors claim they can do it at a lower price.

Well, that’s true. They can. And it’s because they have a different approach and attitude toward SEO. Instead, wouldn’t it be nice when clients look at how much more money I’m going to add to their bottom-line? At how quickly I can help them achieve their financial goals and targets? At how effectively I can help them grow their business?

Look, a good SEO consultant is so much more than just a technical specialist. A great SEO consultant is excellent with analytics. Armed with access to valuable data, a consultant can help with your business development needs, guiding you grow your business in new ways. It is meaningless to evaluate such value by “hourly rates,” yet we see it all the time. How do you deal with it?

4. SEO Cannot Compensate For A Poor Product :

SEO can’t fix everything. I know that’s contrary to industry-driven myths, but hey! If your product, service or customer care are mediocre or just not “awesome,” you should fix that first before you call in the SEO guy (or gal) to get you more traffic.

SEO can amplify your business results. If you have a great offer which adds value to people, SEO will help you expand your reach and help many more people while making a bigger profit.

5. Learn To Say “No” More Often :

I should follow my own advice! Sometimes I get a bad feeling when a prospective client calls for a meeting. Maybe he wants to switch agencies for the 3rd time in 2 years. He isn’t happy with his present SEO vendor, or recently had a confrontation, and so, wants to change consultants.

I’ve often found that these clients are impatient, frustrated, and difficult to work with. Any trivial thing can affect their behavior and attitude toward their SEO consultant. A sleepless night, a bad quarter, a rough review by their boss, and they’ll impulsively leap to random conclusions, second-guessing your judgment, and blaming everyone but themselves.

It’s a bad situation to be in, as a consultant. Such a client’s attitude can drain your motivation and mess up your mood. You have to promptly break off these relationships. Say “No” when you see it coming. Cry “Stop” when it begins with an existing client.

Yes, you may lose an account. But it’s still the right decision. Keeping on “energy vampires” as clients can have devastating consequences on the rest of your consulting business.

6. An Obsession Over Hit-Counters :

People love “hit counters.” Ok, maybe hit counters isn’t the right way to describe this. But, many clients still place disproportionate emphasis on page views, search rankings and other such low-quality KPIs (key performance indicators).

None of these correctly reflect your business’ performance. You need to focus on the right KPIs. Ones that are actionable, and which contribute directly to bottom-line profitability. Those are the ones you seek to improve through your SEO strategy.

In many clients’ eyes, ranking is still king. But, SEO consultants understand that a site’s placement in the SERPs is only a rung in the ladder to business success. Without an acceptable conversion rate, more sales and higher profit as a consequence, even a #1 ranking on Google will be worthless.

7. SEO Is Still Icing On The Cake :

A few business owners cherish a naive belief in the ability of SEO to transform everything and magically create results. So, they put off consulting an SEO expert until everything else is ready with their website development.

Unfortunately, when this poorly planned and constructed site generates sub-optimal results, fixing it will need expensive changes. It’s far better to involve an SEO consultant right from the planning phase so that all aspects of your commercial website will work in harmony and synchronize with other elements to deliver stellar results.

8. IT Consultants Can Fix Everything :

It still amazes me that my family will call whenever they have trouble with their printer, PC, mobile phone, scanner, or have a virus problem — just because I’m an “IT Consultant.” Sometimes, they’ll even call for help with their TV, cable connection, or satellite dish!

It’s the same story at work, too. Clients don’t see a difference between a Web designer, Web developer, paid search expert, or SEO consultant. They figure that “If you’re an IT manager, you should be able to fix everything that runs on electricity.” Well, that’s not how it works!

9. ”Content Is Easy” :

Sorry, it’s not. Unless all you need is to fill in some white space with text and stuff it with keywords.

Time and again, I hear clients saying they can handle content by themselves. I no longer go into raptures of delight when clients say they have a “good copywriter or writer on their staff.” Rarely, if ever, do those writers have a good understanding of SEO.

Whenever I’ve relied on these “inside experts,” I’ve been disappointed and ended up having to teach them how to do what’s needed. That also cuts into my SEO budget, wasting time that’s better spent on other SEO tasks. Does this sound familiar?

10. Getting Paid Per Link :

When the SEO discussion turns to link building, the issue of buying links crops up. In the aftermath of Google’s Penguin update, it’s weird to even hear that businesses dare buy links from people offering “pay per link” deals.

This is risky, and I always turn down such requests from clients. But, some still go ahead with shady or black-hat link building techniques, and then blame SEO consultants when the ax falls on their business’ head.

So there. These are my pet peeves about being an SEO consultant. I’m sure there are many others you’ve faced in your career. Please go on and share them in the comments below. Let’s get some discussion going on these vexing problems and talk about how to solve them.

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