90% of success in social media is based on a winning strategy made possible by a vision of what is going to happen, and when; with an understanding of technological and marketing changes. The other 10% is execution (Staying in the game in spite of recession)(related from 2010 Guide)
If you think that the changes in the last four years have been hard to keep up with, wait until you see the next four! (related current trends data)
Now that Google , Facebook, and others are tracking how a person gets to a page, how long they stay, how much they like it, and whether they return engage, convert…it is a whole new ball game - as we have predicted all along for 11 years now.
Although proper on-site search engine optimization basics and page elements are still essential, in 2013, proper market planning and vision will be more important than ever.
In recognition of these changes, this, the 56th entry in the 2012 Rothman Guide to SMO, will be the last: our October posts and beyond will start the 2013 Rothman Guide to Modern Marketing - whole new living E-Book like our other three guides, recognizing media merge and other mega trends affecting our business. The only thing that is exactly unchanged: the next years marketing planning begins in September again: Here is the 2013 checklist:
The blog - social media marketing in 2012 starts with a modern website(sometimes referred to as a blog - short for weblog). This website must grow weekly, becoming a more and more popular; and a larger and larger online resource. This website must exist as it's own domain, and be owned by you, so that this 'cyber real estate' is owned by you as the business and presence grows. A blog on WordPress.org, or Blogger, or any non-topic-specific behemoth platform will not work for competitive searches - the host must be known for related content for best rankings on competitive searches. The site must be on it's own machine, or a host that is known for well optimized, related content. A virtual server from a company with cPanel Software is very inexpensive. We offer free hosting on our servers for the first year to offset setup costs with savings. If you have not done so already, it is time to move your website into WordPress, or some other content management system (CMS) which you personally and all of your staff can edit, change, and add to - a website cannot be a static brochure anymore. If you have a larger budget; and you need more security for protecting client information online; and you need custom features, you may want to use Drupal or Ruby-On-Rails: these two have become the preferred platforms for more elaborate custom programming - my son, Solomon Rothman, is a Drupal programmer (prices for this level of website start at about $5000+ for anybody who really knows what they are doing)
CPC, CPA and other auction style advertising models have become cost-prohibitive for most small businesses - because the big players are buying the market with huge sums raised in Venture Capital deals and I.P.O. funding. Unless you are very heavily capitalized, and have a crack, state of the art marketing team, you cannot compete on an even playing field without professional help.
Fortunately, content trumps distribution, which is automatic - and those same large players are not known for innovation, controversy, viral popularity, niche popularity, or non-commercial content - and, thus, the value of these are elevated online. A small or start-up company can compete - but not head-to-head, and not on a level playing field financially. Even the largest of companies need to seek out viral and social marketing experts, outside of their normal chain of command, because innovators and forward thinkers are generally not rewarded in large companies. Now, with our new content aggregations site at UpLog.org: "The roar of all of US" even the smallest of businesses can achieve instant organic rankings and get the help they need for as little as $300 per year (worth it for the link alone, not to mention the rankings, support, training, and traffic we share with our over 135 blogs and growing that are all tied together and share one Buddy Press community)
Facebook is becoming huge for business - we have had great success by tying a Facebook Group to each blog, with a carefully thought-out value statement: our blog becomes the largest social network in town, feeding the corresponding Facebook group members; with the Facebook group feeding the blog local content, which is made searchable on Google! I honestly never thought I would say this, but I am really liking Facebook, AND SO DOES EVERYBODY ELSE, INCLUDING 90 YEAR OLD GRANDMA, LOOKING AT GRANDCHILDREN POSTS AND PICTURES. It is actually very important that it is actually you, not some under-aged surrogate who establishes this presence, but we can guide you and help you to create these relationships by simply re-posting to your group based on a wining blogging strategy: think of your friends as also a part of your audience. It need not take over an hour or two per week, but I predict that you too, once you get into it, will spend longer: if you had to pay for each column inch like the old days, would you value the exposure?!
Google+ - I am using Google+ mainly for contact management - I have converted myself and most of my clients over to using Google and Google apps almost exclusively of free email, contact management and storage "on the cloud." If a bomb fell on my computer, I would lose only the computer, everything else, my entire business, is on the cloud!
Strategy considerations - picking a battle that you can win: I often have this discussion with realtors: they all want to come up on 'city state real estate' searches, because those are the most searched for; but have you ever wondered by whom? There are, by some estimates, over 200,000 licensed real estate agents in the US: they all search city state real estate often …lets see , that is how many per state…the most expensive words you can buy?! One of the problems with Real Estate is that it pays so well that it is hard to get a Realtor to listen to any strategy other than what all the other realtors are doing. I call this "pack mentality". I would equate it to guys who concentrate on metrics and measurements and call them self marketers, when all their decisions are made on main-stream accepted and forensic data. The fallacy is that all this information is worthless when it comes to online marketing: if you do what the 'main-stream' or your peers are all doing, you will fail, from sheer numbers. The true innovators are the ones making real money - and they do not share their secrets until they stop working. In online marketing, following the pack is sure failure: even more risky than trying something new. For most people and companies, innovation is the only solution that MAY work, while following the 'pack' is sure failure. If you are mainstream in real estate, the numbers suggest that you will not be here next year! Online marketing favors the new, the quick, the controversial even, the different. Conventional 'following the leaders' will not work online, for anybody but the leader. Online, it is better to become an expert, than to listen to one. What are you an expert at? Start there. What you know has value online, whatever it is , related or not: and somebody with that same interest needs what you are offering. Make your strategy based on your abilities, interests and assets: if you love what you are doing online, you will do it well, and often; and you will succeed. They all live in houses, take vitamins, buy presents, have health concerns, raise children…there is always something to sell to those that you can reach. Pick the battle that YOU can win.
It is all about the content: what kind of unique content are you the source of? - I post a good, original article or two per week mostly. We encourage our clients to post weekly, as this is necessary for any presence with any reach: to maintain the profiles and build the fans; and to insure that the robots visit you often, creating instant rankings for whatever you post. If you cannot, or will not do this; then you need to pay somebody else to do it. We can host your marketing, train and support you exclusively in your area or niche, and create the initial rankings for you for as little at $300 per year (much better than what we sold $3,000,000.00 worth of at $2,600 year a few years ago) I know of very few businesses which cannot cash flow such an effort from the leads that are generated from the postings and the ever growing social media profiles where the ongoing posts are bookmarked, shared, liked, tweeted, etc…we have ongoing clients in almost every industry. Think of it as potentially your entire advertising budget.
About email marketing - you should seriously consider an ongoing list appending opt-in list like the one we have at israelrothman.com - we can do custom setup, create a CURRENT 5000 person list of your target audience, teach you how to use it, all legal and ethical, and extremely effective. Setup and one year hosting with training and support is $500. Setup plus 90 days of full service launch with three scrapings and up-to six mailings 'hands-on' is only $2,000.00
About robo-calling or 'voice broadcasting' - again, you should seriously consider an initial campaign, and perhaps an ongoing program: we can scrape a list with all the essential information right off the search engines, you can call and email them: 5,000 custom scraped list complete with voice overs, help with advertising copy, and, of course, the campaign, over 200 phone lines: then report the results - only $250.
Herein ends the 2012 Guide! Yes, we did do exactly what we said we would do:
Anatomy Of Successful WPMU (WordPress Multisite) Multi-user Blog - the Cityscoop.us Story
2012 planning guide - 6 traits that are natural for dogs -
2012 Year of Wildcat Social Media according to Rabbi Hillel
5 Minute Seo blog Posting Guide | Updated for 2012 Rothman Guide
10 Questions to ask yourself about your Social Media
101 A never-ending market for whatever it is that you love - Non-Profit Social Media
2012 Local Internet Real Estate - the new Homesteading Business Opportunity
2012 Statistics Politics, Religion and Social Media Marketing
Create Posts for Map Navigation for a geographical taxonomy using MapPress in WordPress
Website Becoming the Local Newspaper Radio Station and TV Station
2012 WordPress | Enterprise Level Social Network | Google Maps Navigation
101 A community blog why?
2012 B2B Business Opportunity to be THE Local Community Online Media
10 Disruptive Guerrilla Tactics that Generate Hits and Conversions
2012 top Social Media Jobs are in Social Media Management
101 Changing the Media Model From Control By Distribution
7 Best 2012 Websites to Post Content On | How and Why
2012 Best Advertising | Local News Blogging Replacing the Newspaper
City-State-Community-Blog the how and why you want one!
How to Promote Local Business on a Community Blog
1M Dollar Blog Post | The value of a post that ranks
50+ Towns in Texas Hill Country and Becoming a Mover and Shaker in one of them
April 15th 2012 B2B Network News Goes Bi-Monthly | Advertise Now Instead of Paying Obama!
101 Converting Old School Websites in .ASP and .CFM to WordPress-open-source CMS
San Antonio Ticket Lawyer in Texas | How to Fight Tickets and Build Traffic to a Website
How to Promote a Real Estate Agent-Broker with a Local News and Information Resource
101 How to raise money for a start-up under SEC Rule 506 of Regulation D
Affinity Marketing 101 | How to cross link a niche and GEO targeted website for lead capture
2012 Checklist for Automated Website or Blog Audit
1000000 USD Buys US Citizenship Easily and Legally
Blueprint for Large Real Estate Brokers | In-House Lead Generator Service
Business Consulting - to be a good teacher you must be a good student first..
Houston Texas Community News Blog - Not I am in Real Estate too Blog
June 15 2012 B2B News Special California Edition | California Housing Market Report
101 How to Self Publish an E-book Self-Help Market Case-Study
Largest social networking groups in Los Angeles or anywhere begin on Facebook
Why I Write - Baby Boomer Mid-Life Solutions for Crisis and Profit
Becoming the Number 1 Local News Advertising Agency In Your Town
3 Easy Steps to Create the Largest Social Networking Group in Your Town on Facebook
101 How To Make all your posts from Facebook searchable on Google
Blogging 101 - Writing for 3+ Audiences at the same time - Art + Science
1000 USD per year New Media Model is all the Advertising your business will ever need!
Becoming the 1 Number One Internet Advertising Consultant in Your
Town How to make and attorney rank line one number one on Google
1rst on Google Search 4 City-State-Real-Estate-MLS-Listings Search Overnight
101 How CrescentQuarters.com Bed and Breakfast Gets 753 visitors Monthly from Google Organic
2012 Event Planning LA Social Media Advertising New York…
Death of SEO for Real Estate and Hospitality-Events Planning Advertising Agencies - Panda update 3.9
Niche Marketing on Steroids - Social Media Advertising Agency Services
How Real Estate Teams Work - Kathy Toth and Team in Anne Arbor MI
101 New Media Real Estate - Spending on Social Media Advertising Increases Dramatically
Texas Heritage Music - Living Reef Memorial - Non-Profit Social Media Blogging
2012 September | Marketing Action Plan - Social Media Advertising Agency Services
101 Create the largest social network in your town overnight
101 Video Blogging Tutorial - Youtube First Rankings and Traffic
Are you still buying from lead generators who mess up your marketplace then sell it back to you populated by your peers? Are you finding that traditional SEO techniques are futile in competitive industries like travel, hospitality, real estate, Law, Medical… because of the competition from these outdated lead generators and online malls who charge per click, or per lead?? We are the only real social media advertising agency in the world; we can create organic rankings for you for any search, without any spam or SEO tricks; without breaking any search engine or social network rules. Initial consultation is free 805-827-2450 - for Hospitality Industry, Real Estate Industry, Law, Medical, Consulting, Professional Services, Auto-related: Social Media Advertising Agency, Organic Search Marketing: http://uplog.org