Social Media Meets Email, Communication Goes Mobile and More

It’s time again for another community news and information roundup. Each week we look at tools, trends and news important to your small business. And we share content from across the Web to do so. Would you like to suggest some resources we should include in a future post? Read more at the end of this roundup about you too can become more involved.

For now, let’s get started.

Merge Social Media and Email. (Sales Tip a Day)

What if you could ask for a social connection every time you sent an email to a potential client or partner? You can with an app called Repportive, says Chris Hamilton. In this video, he shows us how it works.

Review: How Does Woobox Work for Social Media Promotions? (Jo Barnes Online)

Jo Barnes reviews Woobox, a platform designed to help create all kinds of contests on Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, Vine, YouTube and via mobile channels. Jo says you can also create coupons and other promotions. See her full review above.

Communicate with Mobile. (Get Busy Media)

The increasingly mobile landscape creates a whole new challenge for entrepreneurs. Communicating via this burgeoning new channel is important…but not simple. Mateo Llinas has this simple guide to get you started with creating the mobile ad.

Vine Won’t Get Ads Anytime Soon. (Marketing Land))

There’s a lot of information floating around, what with the Twitter IPO and everything. And here’s one little tidbit dug out by Matt McGee. Twitter has no intentions of introducing advertizing on video app Vine anytime soon. Is this good news or bad news for your marketing efforts?

There’s a Science to Going Viral. (Online Visibility Pros)

This doesn’t say there is a secret trick or technique that guarantees your content will be spread, says Brian Horwitz. But it does mean there are characteristics that will absolutely increase likelihood your content will go viral. Here’s what Horwitz suggests.

Get your Team Some Social Tools. (Soc Media News)

Millennials may be driving the trend, but all your workers need tools that connect them. Collaboration is the wave of the future and the best way to be competitive. Here’s more discussion with Ron Miller on BizSugar.

The Real Reason for Branding. (Visible Logic)

It doesn’t matter what you call it. Your business needs a way to stand out. Here designer Emily Brackett describes the evolution from unique sales proposition to branding. It may be the best way to distinguish yourself from the competiton. But you may not have heard it explained this way before.

Giving Your Online Presence a Whole New Look. (Blog Aid)

One way to transform branding for your online business is by making changes to your Website. Fortunately, this no longer requires major technical know-how. Consultant MaAnna Stephenson shows you how to change your Web presence with change to your WordPress theme.

Do you Use List.ly? (The Social Media Hat)

Mike Allton takes us on a tour of the latest update of the platform. He describes it as a place to create lists for your blogging and content marketing needs. Here is Mike’s guided tour of the site and an explanation of how it can be used.

Listening to Customers is Still The Key. (Aepiphany Business Consulting)

But forget about social media, branding and the rest of it, for the moment. The fact is that none of these techniques will work for you very well, unless you listen to your customers. Rick Meekins talks about what may be the most powerful marketing tool of all.

Thanks for reading!

Reading Photo via Shutterstock

10 Marketing Lessons You Can Learn from Memes Like Grumpy Cat

Memes have become a sensation…on the Internet and beyond. They communicate an idea simply and in a way that’s easy to repeat and enhance

They have also become an important marketing tool. Create products or services around a meme and you may have an unstoppable brand.

Let’s look at some of the most important memes today and see what marketing ideas we can draw from them to help in our own businesses. Check it out.

1. Your Meme Should Have Instant Appeal

For those who may be unaware, Grumpy Cat has become a popular online meme built around the image of a cat named Tartar Sauce.

The cat’s comical appearance, including what appears to be a perpetual frown, is the key to her appeal.

It’s easy to imagine some of the things this cat might have on her mind and to translate these grumpy thoughts into grumpy quotes. We all know, of course, that Tarter Sauce isn’t really grumpy.

She is just an unusual looking kitty with an unusual appearance that makes her look that way.

Even so, we can’t get enough.

2. Integrating Online and Offline Efforts is Important

Grumpy Cat has done more than just conquered the Internet. Everyone favorite cranky kitty is now making personal appearances too.

For example, visitors to this year’s iconic SXSW Interactive festival in Austin stood in line for hours to have their photos taken with the no-less iconic feline.

As much as possible, in your marketing, look for ways to touch your audience through multiple channels…including in the real world.

Though online channels have been critical to the spread of many memes, always seek other opportunities to engage.

3. Always Look for Ways to Build On the Value of Your Brand

Photos of an adorably annoyed kitty are terribly cute, of course. But how can you build a brand on them.

And, perhaps just as important, how do you add value for your audience keeping their interest and building their involvement.

Attaching valuable products and services to your brand is another way to build brand engagement.

For example, Grumpy Cat’s name and memorable face has now been used to market several products. Everything from Grumpy Cat coffee drinks to a Grumpy Cat themed premium weather app for smartphones are now available.

4. Don’t Allow Your Marketing Message to Stagnate

Memes must be simple but still allow for evolution of their message. Look for ways to keep evolving your meme over time to keep it from ever getting stale.

For example, another unusual kitty meme that has spawned countless video mashups constantly encouraging others to contribute to the message keeping it fresh.

Meet the orange keyboard playing cat named Fatso (pictured below). The cat was originally video taped in the 1980s by her owner Charlie Schmidt who posted the video on YouTube in 2007.

In 2009, a popular YouTube mashup juxtaposed the Keyboard Cat with someone falling down an escalator. After that, creating videos in which the keyboard playing cat would appear following an unfortunate event became a viral sensation. Keyboard Cat, who unfortunately died long before achieving celebrity, is now featured on products ranging from T-Shirts to mugs and bumper stickers.

5. Tell a Compelling Story

All popular memes set a compelling narrative. Users can create a persuasive story around a meme, and that’s what makes them so popular. Likewise, brand storytelling strategy should be a part of your larger marketing plan. Weaving a compelling story around your brand helps inspire people to talk about it, and share this story with their friends. If your marketing message is shaped like a story, there is a better chance of its taking off.

Think about the Subway story about Jared the Subway Guy. Jared Fogle, an obese college kid, used the sandwich chain’s product to solve a problem much more compelling than what to have for lunch. That problem was how to shed unwanted pounds and, as a result, an unlikely marketing campaign was born. That’s what compelling storytelling is all about. So make sure you have a story to tell. It will work all the more if it’s an in-person customer experience.

6. Get Your Social Media Marketing Right

Memes, and we are talking about the popular ones here, continue to exploit social media to the hilt. If there was no social media, we wouldn’t be writing an article on Grumpy Cat and the marketing lessons one can draw from her popularity. A large part of your marketing efforts must focus on using social media to engage with your customers.

7. Don’t Focus on Content that will Instantly Go Viral

The well-known meme known as Nyan Cat, Poptart cat was never created with the idea of creating a viral sensation. The animated kitty with an improbable pop tart body and rainbow tail sailing through outer space was created by illustrator Christopher Torres who owns the website LOL-Comics.

But it was only after one fan added a popular pop song behind the animated cat that Nyan Cat became an Internet sensation on both Tumblr and YouTube.

Focus on creating content that can resonate with your audience and let them do the rest. Think of Po, the well-known animated Panda star of the Kung Fu Panda movie series.

8. Make Your Marketing Message Easy to Understand

Think of Scumbag Steve, the characture of the teenage looser many remember from high school.

One of the reasons why Scumbag Steve is popular is because if you read all those meme captions from Steve’s perspective, their humor is not lost on you. That’s what make this meme a pop culture phenomenon - simple messaging. Make sure your marketing message is simple and straightforward. That’s what works. Complex, layered messaging never works.

9. Forget Brand Loyalty, Look to Create Brand Devotion

Even Scumbag Steve (pictured above), for all the hate directed at this meme, has a devoted band of followers. Use marketing as a means of falling in love with your product, and not just spreading brand awareness.

First, create a product that your target customers will like using, and use marketing as a way of creating an aura around your product. Much like what Apple’s marketing team has done. Apple’s customers don’t just consume Apple products, they are passionate about them. That’s devotion for you.

10. Get People Talking About Your Brand

Give people a reason to talk about your brand and share your brand’s content with their friends. Don’t just give them one reason, give them plenty of reasons. That’s how Internet memes go viral. Scumbag Steve is a case in point. The weird attire apart, it was the humorous captions that had people sharing this image all over the Web.

The surest way of spurring sales is to get as many people talking about your brand as possible. A unique marketing message is what you need. A creatively done YouTube video or an eyeball grabbing content strategy can set the ball rolling. Try to do something that takes you away from your comfort zone.

Knowing why and how an image became a meme allows you to implement the same kind of thinking in your marketing campaign. But, this is what I think. What do you think?

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10 Marketing Lessons You Can Learn from Memes Like Grumpy Cat

Memes have become a sensation…on the Internet and beyond. They communicate an idea simply and in a way that’s easy to repeat and enhance

They have also become an important marketing tool. Create products or services around a meme and you may have an unstoppable brand.

Let’s look at some of the most important memes today and see what marketing ideas we can draw from them to help in our own businesses. Check it out.

1. Your Meme Should Have Instant Appeal

For those who may be unaware, Grumpy Cat has become a popular online meme built around the image of a cat named Tartar Sauce.

The cat’s comical appearance, including what appears to be a perpetual frown, is the key to her appeal.

It’s easy to imagine some of the things this cat might have on her mind and to translate these grumpy thoughts into grumpy quotes. We all know, of course, that Tarter Sauce isn’t really grumpy.

She is just an unusual looking kitty with an unusual appearance that makes her look that way.

Even so, we can’t get enough.

2. Integrating Online and Offline Efforts is Important

Grumpy Cat has done more than just conquered the Internet. Everyone favorite cranky kitty is now making personal appearances too.

For example, visitors to this year’s iconic SXSW Interactive festival in Austin stood in line for hours to have their photos taken with the no-less iconic feline.

As much as possible, in your marketing, look for ways to touch your audience through multiple channels…including in the real world.

Though online channels have been critical to the spread of many memes, always seek other opportunities to engage.

3. Always Look for Ways to Build On the Value of Your Brand

Photos of an adorably annoyed kitty are terribly cute, of course. But how can you build a brand on them.

And, perhaps just as important, how do you add value for your audience keeping their interest and building their involvement.

Attaching valuable products and services to your brand is another way to build brand engagement.

For example, Grumpy Cat’s name and memorable face has now been used to market several products. Everything from Grumpy Cat coffee drinks to a Grumpy Cat themed premium weather app for smartphones are now available.

4. Don’t Allow Your Marketing Message to Stagnate

Memes must be simple but still allow for evolution of their message. Look for ways to keep evolving your meme over time to keep it from ever getting stale.

For example, another unusual kitty meme that has spawned countless video mashups constantly encouraging others to contribute to the message keeping it fresh.

Meet the orange keyboard playing cat named Fatso (pictured below). The cat was originally video taped in the 1980s by her owner Charlie Schmidt who posted the video on YouTube in 2007.

In 2009, a popular YouTube mashup juxtaposed the Keyboard Cat with someone falling down an escalator. After that, creating videos in which the keyboard playing cat would appear following an unfortunate event became a viral sensation. Keyboard Cat, who unfortunately died long before achieving celebrity, is now featured on products ranging from T-Shirts to mugs and bumper stickers.

5. Tell a Compelling Story

All popular memes set a compelling narrative. Users can create a persuasive story around a meme, and that’s what makes them so popular. Likewise, brand storytelling strategy should be a part of your larger marketing plan. Weaving a compelling story around your brand helps inspire people to talk about it, and share this story with their friends. If your marketing message is shaped like a story, there is a better chance of its taking off.

Think about the Subway story about Jared the Subway Guy. Jared Fogle, an obese college kid, used the sandwich chain’s product to solve a problem much more compelling than what to have for lunch. That problem was how to shed unwanted pounds and, as a result, an unlikely marketing campaign was born. That’s what compelling storytelling is all about. So make sure you have a story to tell. It will work all the more if it’s an in-person customer experience.

6. Get Your Social Media Marketing Right

Memes, and we are talking about the popular ones here, continue to exploit social media to the hilt. If there was no social media, we wouldn’t be writing an article on Grumpy Cat and the marketing lessons one can draw from her popularity. A large part of your marketing efforts must focus on using social media to engage with your customers.

7. Don’t Focus on Content that will Instantly Go Viral

The well-known meme known as Nyan Cat, Poptart cat was never created with the idea of creating a viral sensation. The animated kitty with an improbable pop tart body and rainbow tail sailing through outer space was created by illustrator Christopher Torres who owns the website LOL-Comics.

But it was only after one fan added a popular pop song behind the animated cat that Nyan Cat became an Internet sensation on both Tumblr and YouTube.

Focus on creating content that can resonate with your audience and let them do the rest. Think of Po, the well-known animated Panda star of the Kung Fu Panda movie series.

8. Make Your Marketing Message Easy to Understand

Think of Scumbag Steve, the characture of the teenage looser many remember from high school.

One of the reasons why Scumbag Steve is popular is because if you read all those meme captions from Steve’s perspective, their humor is not lost on you. That’s what make this meme a pop culture phenomenon - simple messaging. Make sure your marketing message is simple and straightforward. That’s what works. Complex, layered messaging never works.

9. Forget Brand Loyalty, Look to Create Brand Devotion

Even Scumbag Steve (pictured above), for all the hate directed at this meme, has a devoted band of followers. Use marketing as a means of falling in love with your product, and not just spreading brand awareness.

First, create a product that your target customers will like using, and use marketing as a way of creating an aura around your product. Much like what Apple’s marketing team has done. Apple’s customers don’t just consume Apple products, they are passionate about them. That’s devotion for you.

10. Get People Talking About Your Brand

Give people a reason to talk about your brand and share your brand’s content with their friends. Don’t just give them one reason, give them plenty of reasons. That’s how Internet memes go viral. Scumbag Steve is a case in point. The weird attire apart, it was the humorous captions that had people sharing this image all over the Web.

The surest way of spurring sales is to get as many people talking about your brand as possible. A unique marketing message is what you need. A creatively done YouTube video or an eyeball grabbing content strategy can set the ball rolling. Try to do something that takes you away from your comfort zone.

Knowing why and how an image became a meme allows you to implement the same kind of thinking in your marketing campaign. But, this is what I think. What do you think?

Sponsored Content

“Link Building is Dead:” What Small Businesses Should Know About Links

Link building is not an activity that we typically think about here at Small Business Trends, even though we run an online business.  In that regard, I suppose we’re not much different from many small businesses.  We have 100 things we have to do in a typical work day just to keep operating and make a profit.  An activity called “link building” simply doesn’t make it into our daily activities.  We just don’t have time.

Or, at least, that’s what I thought before reading  a book called “Link Building is Dead - Long Live Link Building!”

This is a new book written by Sage Lewis. Together with his wife Rocky, he owns a digital media agency called SageRock Creative in Ohio not far from our headquarters here at Small Business Trends.  He is someone I have known professionally for years in real life.  His firm is a member of the Northeast Ohio Software Association, where I was on the Board for a number of years.  So I was beyond delighted to get an autographed copy of his book as a gift in the mail one day.

The book is about 200 pages.  I was able to get through it in four evenings â€" your mileage may vary.

This is a book intended for business people with a website they want to attract traffic to. It’s also for those who may be relatively new to the search field or to online marketing - beginners to intermediates.  It’s not intended for those with advanced knowledge.  There are no complex formulae or techniques.

Rather, this is a primer on what link building is, and how a business can go about addressing it.  As you read it, you can pick up lots of tips and pointers explained in a way that will make you feel like you could apply them.  The author has a knack for describing things in everyday words and examples. He makes even the most complex concepts understandable.

Two Overriding Messages

There are a couple of overriding messages woven into this book.

The first message is that link building has changed dramatically in the past several years.

Let me back up for a moment. Perhaps you have only a vague idea of what link building is all about and why it’s important.  Link building is the process of getting third party sites to link to your website. Why are links important? The author writes, “All search engines value links as a measure of how influential and important a Web site is online. According to search engines, sites with many important, related sites linking to them must be worthwhile, therefore deserving a better ranking in the search listings.”

In other words, it’s a good thing to have important sites linking in to your site on relevant topics.  It will help your own site get found when people search in search engines.  The emphasis is on “important” and “relevant.”  The goal is to get links to your site from reputable sites that are themselves considered important, and that are relevant somehow to topic(s) on your pages.  Links from spammy sites or totally off-topic sites don’t help (nearly as much).

Lewis goes over what has changed in recent years.  The search engines are continually evolving. Methods for making a site popular in the past no longer work as well today. Newer techniques have to be learned, such as using social media for link building.

One fascinating section is called “All links are not created equal.” He evaluates some inbound links, but looks at them from different metrics.  He compares which links sent the most visitors, which resulted in the most pages per visit, and which ones kept the visitors on the site longer.  After reading that section, you will have a greater appreciation for which links are valuable.  The conclusion: search engine rankings are just one dimension.  Other benefits of links may be more valuable to your business. For example, traffic directly from a site that attracts an audience interested in what you offer may be more valuable than search traffic.

Thus, your view of link building shouldn’t be limited to thinking about search engines.  Look at the bigger picture.  It’s about getting the right kind of visibility and traffic and attention.

The second message is that you should think about link building as “accreting” links to your site.  That word means gradually collecting something over time.  You  need to envision a long term series of activities that attract links to your site, that build up over time.

His point: make your business interesting,  and your site will attract links.  Focus on giving people a good reason to link to your site.  And don’t expect overnight results. In their natural state links grow gradually, not in one fell swoop.

Other Topics Covered

He even covers controversial subjects like buying links.  The author’s position:  you can buy links, but with two HUGE caveats. First, if you buy a link, do it in order to get online exposure, not to try to game search rankings.  Second, use a “nofollow” tag to protect your site, as that tag tells the search engines you’re not trying to use that paid link to game them. If you want to know more about nofollow, you’ll have to read the book.

The book includes sections on monitoring which sites link to yours, which pages they are linking to, and why.  But the tools and monitoring techniques are all ones that a relative newbie could use after a short learning curve.

There are a few short places where the book goes off on less-than-useful tangents. One, about linking to copyrighted information, is based on such a unique set of facts that it won’t apply 99.99% of the time.  Another is a section about PageRank sculpting. Most small business owners could be perfectly successful never knowing a single thing about sculpting except this: don’t link out to disreputable spammy sites.  But those are minor tangents. They do not detract from an otherwise useful book.

More About the Author

Finally, I want to warn you that the author is a bit of a character.  I mean that only in a good way.  The USA television network has a tagline “characters welcome.”  I like to think of the small business market as one where characters are welcome.

Most small business owners tend to be independent types. We march to our own drummers. That’s why I love dealing with other business owners.  There are a lot of “characters” in this market and I am proud to know them. Sage Lewis (@SageRock on Twitter) is just that type of small business owner. It makes him interesting and memorable.

The author’s personality comes through in his writing style.  When you read the book, you’ll see what I mean. He writes like he talks, and he has a colorful way of expressing himself.  He doesn’t take himself seriously, either. For instance, he jokes about “all five visitors” to his blog for a certain topic â€" and turns that into a lesson on what he did wrong and what he should have done instead.   Oh, and his book has a picture of his cat, Marty, in it.  How can you go wrong with a book that has the author’s cat in it?

All kidding aside, Lewis has been in the search business for nearly 15 years.  He has been the professional in residence at one university and teaches SEO classes at another university.  His book also comes with recommendations from industry veterans such as Jim Boykin and Bruce Clay.  He also got testimonials from three nationally-known people based here in Ohio who I know, including marketing guru Jim Kukral;  Joe Pulizzi, the founder of the Content Marketing Institute; and Mike Murray with whom we collaborated on a small business call-to-action study recently.  So Lewis’s expertise comes well recommended.

Why You Should Read “Link Building is Dead”

Make no mistake.  You’ll hear from an experienced practitioner who can give you a serious grounding in how to make your business and your website more popular, and attract links.  And that can help your online presence grow, and in turn help your business grow.

Whether you are a do-it-yourselfer, or a marketing manager or business owner planning to hire an outside agency to improve your online presence and just want to know the right questions to ask â€" I wholeheartedly recommend Link Building is Dead - Long Live Link Building!

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Wix.com Announces IPO Plans

Wix.com, the DIY website builder with more than 38 million users so far, has announced plans for an IPO.

Wix.com frequently makes lists of top eCommerce solutions and top website builders for small businesses.

In a registration statement filed this week with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company explained its services to businesses and individuals:

We are pioneering a new approach to web development and management that provides an easy-to-use yet powerful cloud-based platform that eliminates the need for complex coding and supplants expensive design services. Our solutions enable millions of businesses, organizations, professionals and individuals to take their businesses, brands and workflow online.

The company reports having $34.1 million in revenue as of June and will be seeking a maximum aggregate offering price of $100 million based on papers filed with the SEC.

Wix offers users a free drop and drag website design service and also some premium services at various monthly fees. The company also offers a curated App Market to help users design and maintain their Web presences.

Those premium services include packages specifically targeted at small businesses and entrepreneurs including eCommerce.

As of August 31, Wix claims it had 679,536 premium subscriptions, according to filings with the SEC.

The company is based in Tel Aviv with offices in San Francisco, New York and Dnepropetrovsk.

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