socialmediamarketingHubspot recently posted an article “30 Brilliant Social Media Marketing Tips From 2011.” The article compiled a list of the best social media marketing tips that came out of this year that can also be used to help your marketing campaign in 2012. Here’s our top 5 favorite tips from the article.

  1. If you’re building an online community, show your followers that you appreciate their contributions. Ask them for feedback, offer them special discounts or prizes and thank them for participating. (Source: Social Media Today)
  2. Consider the timing of your social media posts. If you’re posting in the morning but your audience doesn’t get on Facebook or Twitter until night time, your post will get lost in a sea of status updates and go unnoticed. (Source: Search Engine Optimization Journal)
  3. Here are three universal content ideas that never fail: teach your audience how to do something, express a new opinion, create an awesome new list. (Source: Social Fresh)
  4. Use social media to get to know your customer better. Ask them how they heard about you to get a sense of what channels people use to learn more about you. (Source: Mashable)
  5. Write blog content for your target audience, which isn’t necessarily you. Blog about things your readers what to know about. (Source: Mark Suster)

Want more great social media marketing tips from 2011? Read the full article here.

If you had some products that you thought would sell out this Christmas but just didn’t fly off the shelves as planned, keep reading! Did you advertise these products online? If you answered no, chances are your customers didn’t know these great products existed. One way to advertise your Christmas products online is using search engine optimization (SEO). Want your business to show up when a potential customer searches for wrapping paper in Google, Yahoo! or Bing? Then you need to start thinking about optimizing for those keywords months in advance. Here are some steps to take so you can use SEO to advertise your Christmas products for next year.

  • Figure out which products you want to highlight and choose your keywords accordingly. If you want to show up in the search results for Christmas ornaments, choose keywords like ornaments, Christmas ornaments, holiday ornaments, Christmas tree ornaments, etc.
  • Start weaving these keywords into your website content. If you sell your products online, sprinkle these keywords through the content on the product page. When search engines see new content, it’s more likely to boost your ranking.
  • If you’re a local business, freshen up the content on your Google Places page. Weave these keywords into your content and also add them to your Keywords section.
  • Run some pay-per-click ads using Google Adwords. Use one keyword per ad and customize the ad to reach your target audience. If you aren’t sure how to use Google Adwords, hire a professional to help you.

Remember, SEO takes time. If you want to use SEO as a technique to help you advertise your Christmas products you need to begin your efforts months in advance. Start thinking about optimizing for your products in September or October so your marketing campaign will be in full force by November and December.

seoAccording to a recent study conducted by Pew Internet and American Life Foundation, users turn to search engines rather than social media when finding information about local businesses. Pew surveyed about 1,000 adults in January 2011 and gathered the following information.

To find information on bars, clubs and restaurants:

38% of people use search engines.
17% of people use specialty websites.
3% of people use social media.

To find information on other types of local businesses:

36% of people use search engines.
16% of people use specialty websites.
1% of people use social media.

Although Pew found that about 14 different sources were used to get local business information, the Yellow Pages was not even a choice given to the respondents. This just goes to show how obsolete the Yellow Pages have become.