Week 7 - Twitter

Well I finally got my twitter account...finally.  When looking for names to use it took several tries to find one that would go through.  Seems others have the same ideas with user names and passwords.

So now I'm searching for people and subjects to follow and them on my list of two.  Actually I have four types of lists to track different things but the two main lists are People and Business. 

Now comes my dilemma.  
The industry I'd like to get into is quite competitive.  Many years back my branch was asked to help up north in the San Francisco area to get new business. 

So I checked around for some lead list providers in
the area and found some interesting things with them.
I asked why their lead list service was better than their competitors.  Some were matter of fact in their comparisons but others were borderline nasty in their description.

The common thread with all of them was they were very competitive to get my business and don't like playing nice with each other. So now I looking around for similar businesses that I wish to follow but keep thinking back to my Bay Area experience.

Would they appreciate that I'm following them?  Or them wanting to follow me?  And if so, to what end?  To share or to find more about me via a little company espionage.

Of course I may be blowing this out of proportion but then maybe not, hence my dilemma.  So I have to weigh into this part of the lesson with a little trepidation.  But hey, at least I know how to tweet now.


Why have Lists:  If I'm only following one or two folks that wouldn't be a problem but having 10-20 or more may be harder to keep up.  Lists are helpful in keeping people and subjects filed in their proper groups.

So if I only want to check up on tweets regarding zombies break dancing in our midst, I just have to
go to my zombie list.

I can set my lists to be public for all to see and easier for others to follow the type of tweets that interest them.  Folks can follow certain type of tweets rather than the individual.  Or I can just choose to make the list private for my eyes only so people don't have to  know what category I stuffed them into.  

Search Words Used:

There weren't too many search terms that were

needed for my type of service.  For now some

of these seem to work for me at this time.

• Leads in San Diego: No success with this one.

• Business leads in San Diego:  Even worse.

• Leads: Many returned but none worked for me.

• New Business lists:  Found several that applied
• New Business leads:  Worked pretty good as well.
• Business Leads: Best results

You can do a search by multiple categories such as: people, photos, videos, news, and timelines.  You can also refine your search on just one or more words, phases, places, dates and multiple languages.

Week 6 - Intro to Facebook Strategy

I've chosen the following businesses to like on their Facebook page for a couple of reasons.

One, to hopefully foster a working relationship regarding new business lead services.  These companies sell or refer these type of services to their clientele.  Services provided by third party companies.  Something I hope to be as a future vendor for such services.

Two, keep up on the latest trends and changes in the internet marketing world which these other companies provide by way of newsletters, email updates, seminars, training and blogs.

I've divided these businesses into the two groups as mentioned above.

• Group 1: Business Leads Vendor 

 

Melissa Data - A company that has several services regarding data enhancement, address hygiene, email and IP solutions, support and training as well as mailing lists ad sales leads.


Vista Print - An online supplier of printed and promotional material and marketing services
to micro businesses and consumers, specializing in print on demand products.


Smarty Streets - Specializing in street address cleanup and verification via web based applications.  Used at point of sales or data uploads 24/7, 365 days a year

 
Search Bug - A professional online service for finding and investigating business, address,
and phone numbers, conducting telephone number verification and address/phone cleaning.

• Group 2: Internet Marketing information  

 

Hub Spot - Develops and markets a software-as-a-service product for inbound marketing which features Social Media, email marketing and web analytics and SEO services.


Marketo - Leading provider of cloud-based marketing software for the modern marketing professionals to help find future customers, build, sustain, and grow relationships.


MarketingProfs - Provides the latest online marketing strategies, tactics, tools and trends
with practical, hands-on online seminars and e-newsletters, blogs several times each month.

Blog Post Screen Shot:

I believe my Facebook posting offer information that may be of value to others looking to increase their new customer acquisition, cut down on wasteful expenditures, drive efficiency, streamline office strategy that would have an overall goal of  adding profit their company's bottom line, all the while stay within the law. 

That nature of each post, driving home these separate, distinct messages are as follows:

Post 1: Why do good letters go bad - Cost Savings
Some correspondence necessitate the use of the US postal system.  Which year after year gets more and more expensive with their annual rates increase.  Last time I checked it's 49 cents to mail an envelope 1st class.  And much more so for packages.  Returned mail due to a bad address can add up and start eating away at the company's operating cost.  This post addresses that reality and possible fixes.

Post 2: Dos and Don'ts of Email Campaigns - Legal
There are email etiquette that a company must try to follow if they wish to have any kind of success rate in this type of new business acquisition.  There is also the CAN-SPAM act of 2003 that can hurt a company legally should they ignore these set of rules governing prospecting by email. 

Post 3: Door-to-Door Prospecting - Efficiency
A salespersons time is his/her most valuable commodity.  Cold calling for new prospects is a numbers game and anything and everything that can help the logistics of that strategy can only save time and money if the business lead address is known to be a store front, home based or PO Box entity before heading out to chase possible wild geese.

Post 4: Address Verification - Accuracy
All too often a prospects address that is collected either by phone, remote site or point of sales is inaccurate.  Either due to the person collecting the data or the person giving it.  This breakdown can cause a slowdown in fulfilling orders and irk the client who may start to think the company they're dealing with inept.  By referring other businesses that can help with that dilemma shows a sense of community, that you're just not all for profit and want to help with tips and advice. which in turn provides goodwill.

Post 5: Telephone Verification - Best source of new business is your own clientele
Most often, a company's own clientele are their best opportunity to increase sales.  Keeping accurate phone records is simply a must.  But for some, client information may get old and stale.  Updating and verifying phone records can be tedious.  As with post 4, referring another company to offer a solution benefits all concerned.

By posting benefits and solutions either by my company or another helps everybody.  There need not be a direct monetary payoff  with every post and that's ok.  Goodwill extended is goodwill received.