Out of the Fog Marketing

In an attempt to find a revenue generation model, LinkedIn and other social media sites now allow direct pay-per-click advertising on their sites. So when should you advertise on these sites and other content networks. Here's my advice....
1. You've maxed out search network PPC and have budget to spare. When folks search for terms in the traditional search network, you know they are looking for something particular to the keywords you have in your ad campaigns. On LinkedIn they might just be looking for their buddy's phone number and many times don't even see the ad. That being said it is another channel and your cost-per-click (CPC) should be much lower than a search network CPC.
2. You can advertise on a niche site. If you sell a medical device for headache relief and can advertise on a migraine discussion forum site, then content network advertising makes a whole lot of sense.

Labels: LinkedIn, pay per click, web marketing

Read a great post and watch an associated video on social media strategies for business-to-business companies.
I agree that LinkedIn is a great place to start.

Labels: B2B, b2bmarketing, LinkedIn, social media, social networking

If you have a LinkedIn profile, you can enter up to 3 website URL addresses. If you select "Other" as a category you can choose any term you want for the link name. For example, I choose "Michigan Marketing Firm" for our company and linked the phrase back to our page which is optimized for that term.
LinkedIn does not have a "no nofollow" on their links, so Google and other search engines still count them as quality backlinks.

Labels: build backlinks, free, LinkedIn, no nofollow, SEO backlinks, trick

Nielsen Online's October 2007 reports show that social networking sites and blogs are still expanding. Social networking giant MySpace drew 19% more unique users between October 2006 and October 2007, and Facebook grew 125% in the same period. Linked In - the business networking site - grew by 189%.

If someone in your company does not have time to blog, then at the very least make sure every employee has a LinkedIn profile that points back to your corporate website.

Labels: business social networking, facebook, LinkedIn, michigan, myspace, social media

Professional Networking Sites

Professional networking sites are great ways to find connections between people. While I've never got a lead off one, clients have mentioned checking my recommendations and customer testimonials on these sites. Here are two popular business networking sites.

• www.linkedin.com

  A must for many professionals, LinkedIn allows people to recommend you, find you via your location and expertise, and prompts users to advertise their experience and education for potential clients and employers.

• www.spoke.com

  Spoke is a large “freemium” service that boasts thirty-five million people and almost a million companies. Use the service to find potential clients and employees.

Labels: business networking sites, LinkedIn, Spoke