Cindy King's International Business Blog » business strategy

7 Ways to Overcome the Social Media Time Sink

Cindy King — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 23:00:06 +0000

Here is my article which was first published on Social Media Examiner:

Many business owners and marketing professionals respond to the social media buzz with what Olivier Blanchard calls the “Social Media Terror Syndrome“—a wait and see approach. The next barrier is often a lack of time. And the focus becomes “how do I avoid the social media time suck?”

Here are 7 steps to help you overcome the time dilemma.

1. Set One Specific Social Media Objective

One of the reasons why people waste time on social media is because their objectives are:

Not clearly linked to their business strategy
Inappropriate for the environment of social media

Don’t be surprised if you find you need to participate in social media for a little while before you find the right way to use it for your business objectives. Take the time to observe your audience and learn how to connect with them on social media.

Read the Social Media Marketing Report to understand how other marketers are using social media.

Return on time investment: Before you see any return on your time investment in social media, you need know what your business can get out of it.

Don’t jump into social media with both feet and no business objective. Develop your social media presence with one clearly defined business objective in mind.

2. Find the Right Social Media Strategy for Your Business

This is what Mari Smith, the Pied Piper of Facebook, says: “The main reason people fail in social media is lack of a strategy. There’s so much confusing and conflicting advice out there, it’s easy to get lost in the social media jungle. By having a clear objective, developing a strategy to accomplish that objective, and measuring milestones along the way, you’re bound to have better results.”

What can you say on social media that would interest your audience?
How should you say it?
Where should you say it?

Many businesses choose to use a blog as their central social media hub. A pivotal role is played by what Authority Blogger Chris Garrett calls Flagship Content. The truth is that your social media strategy needs to be tailored to the particular message you want to convey to your audience.

Return on time investment: When you include a clear objective in the social media strategy most appropriate for your business, it boosts your overall marketing strategy.

Don’t waste time using other people’s social media tactics. Find a social media strategy that connects your business to your audience.

3. Make Your Presence Social

Once you have defined your social media strategy, the process does not end there. It will only work if your presence is truly social and, as Rebecca Leaman says, you need to also “focus on being good online neighbors.”

A good resource to find out how to connect with your audience is Groundswell. And for ideas in creating the valuable content your business needs on social media, Jay Baer gives 7 steps to get your message right.

Return on time investment: The right message aligned with your business objective in a social media marketing strategy can save your business time spent elsewhere on sales and marketing.

Don’t waste time sending inappropriate messages. Find the right message for your business and, above all, be social.

4. Stay Focused on Your Business Strategy

Social media can be a particularly dangerous time waster because:

It is a social environment.
Businesses need to create a social presence and it can be hard to find the balance between business and social.

Don’t fall into traps when adapting your marketing to social media. As Chris Brogan says, the question of friending and reputation “is difficult in the face-to-face world, but it’s even harder online.”

Return on time investment: Social media marketing creates stronger relationships with the people in your market. You can use it to build trust and loyalty with more people and in less time than with most other marketing tactics.

Don’t waste time by getting sidetracked. Adapt social media to work for your business.

5. Adopt Social Media One Step at a Time

Amber Naslund says trying to be everywhere on social media is a big time waster. Social media is made up of numerous different places where people hang out, and these places all have different environments. You cannot try to be everywhere all at once and know how to act and what to say. You need to take things slowly:

Research to find out where your business should be present.
Observe and learn what to say.
Listen and learn how to adapt to each different site.

Be sure to add your own social touch to all of your social media communication. Have a look at Chris Brogan’s social media task suggestions. Look at them closely and you will see how these tasks add extra value to his marketing strategy as a whole.

Return on time investment: When you choose your actions wisely and add some social juice to them, they can give you back much more than you put in.

Don’t try to jump into all social media platforms at once. Find the social media sites that work best for your business.

6. Get Extra Mileage Out of Your Social Media Marketing

Many businesses look at what the social media “stars” are doing and think they would never have the time to do the same thing. Here is the scoop: You need to get into social media before you can fully understand how your time spent can multiply in value.

Once you get your basic social media presence up and running, something very interesting happens. You begin to see little things to do to get a much wider presence on social media.

Return on time investment: The good news is that you can get extra mileage out of your daily social media actions as soon as you begin. One of the very first things you need to do when you begin marketing using social media is to set up professional listening activities. The time you spend on this aspect alone usually adds much more value to your overall sales and marketing activities than you can imagine.

Don’t waste opportunities for more visibility and buzz. Adopt the social attitude.

7. Avoid Social Media’s Fatal Attraction: The Shiny Bells and Whistles

The truth is that there is a lot of movement in the social media arena. New social media tools, applications and platforms hit the news every week. And you just do not know who the key players will be this time next year. It’s natural for businesses to hesitate in investing time in such a climate.

Return on time investment: The key is to focus on developing social skills and to integrate these into your marketing strategy. This is how you can spend your time wisely and be well-prepared as:

Marketing becomes social
Media habits change

Don’t focus on the social media tools. Focus on developing the social skills you need for your business to create a strong social presence.

Use Social Media to Add Extra Value to Your Current Marketing Strategy

Social media helps businesses to create stronger relationships with their clients; for instance, by creating trust agents. This trust factor can be so powerful it removes the question of time investment.

Social media marketing can save your business time when it is included within your overall marketing plan. When you add the ability to build trust, social media becomes a powerful marketing tactic not to be ignored.

These are just some examples of how to integrate social media into an overall marketing strategy to save businesses time. What other tips do you have? Please share them in the comment section below.

What Makes A Good International Sales Specialist

Cindy King — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 23:00:45 +0000

International Sales Professions

My recent article on the definition of an International Sales Specialist raised a few questions on what makes a good international sales specialist.

Broad Base Of International Skills

First, I have to say that I distinguish different levels of international skills. The experts are easy to identify. They always remain professional no matter where they are.

Their experience in multiple cultures is almost palpable.

They do not get unnerved easily.
They do not need guidance often in adapting to new cultures.
If they need to ask a question it sounds like a question from another native and not a foreigner.

Here is something interesting…

All of the people I have met with expert international skills have been more quiet in nature. They do not boast about their experience. They have a certain humility about them.

Their quietness is a distinct contrast to the “international experts” with “expertise” in a small number of different cultural environments or regions.

International skills cover a broad range of interpersonal skills that help you adapt to different business environments.

Ability To Adapt To Different Cultures

Now, there are some people who do acquire international skills but do not adapt to different cultures well.

For example, these are people who live in a foreign country, but do not make the effort to understand and meet the other culture.

In addition to international skills, you need to be able to adjust yourself personally to different cultures.

Solid Basic Sales Skills

This is fairly obvious. To be a good international sales specialist you need good basic sales skills. And a strong broad base of basic skills will get you further than specialized sales skills.

In cross-cultural communication you usually need to simplify both what you say and how you say it.

Clear Vision Of Business Strategy

And this leads into needing a clear vision of your business strategy and an ability to quickly identify your clients business strategy.

The reason for this is again due to cross-cultural communication differences, your communication needs to clear and consistent. And you can only communicate clearly and consistently and make international sales, when you have a very clear vision of the business strategies of both parties.

This is also the best way to navigate different business practices. When you have good basic sales skills and the ability to see the whole picture, you will see how to get where you want to go.

Success Comes With Experience

In summary, a good international sales specialist needs

Strong international skills
The ability to adapt to different cultures

Both of these, should be acquired through experience with different cultural groups in different regions. Diversity broadens these personal skills.

In addition, a good international sales specialist also needs these professional skills:

Solid basic sales skills
Clear vision of business strategy

There are different levels of expertise in all of these skills. And the ability to adapt to a wide variety of cultures often depends on the person’s personal development in cross-cultural skills.

What about you?

Do you have any specific questions related to international sales professions?
Do you have any other insights to share?
What do you like about international sales jobs?

Please leave your comments below.

Get International Clients – Business Guides On Sales

My Own Case Study – Small Business Flexibility

Cindy King — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 23:00:12 +0000

International Web Marketing

As a very small business owner, I do have more flexibility in certain business strategies than many bigger businesses.

Content Creates An Online Communication Base

It has now been 7 months since I started my business directory.

Writing and publishing an article each work day for 6 months
Creating a business system
Recently color-coding on the website to make this system obvious to the readers

Of course, with over 200 articles there is now an obvious editorial direction for the website.

But I have always wanted an online communication base for my own business. Sure, I spent some time looking into the great Internet Marketing “Get Rich Quick” processes out there. It is a good way to pick up a lot of knowledge on web marketing practices.

This is what lead me into copywriting 3 years ago. But I chose to study copywriting because I already had good sales skills, and sales writing skills. Of course, you need good copywriting to make money on the web, whether you are in a typical get rich quick internet business or a brick and mortar business using the web as a tool. But recognizing good copywriting is already more than half the work done.

My situation was a little different. I already have valuable skills. I knew I wanted to use the internet primarily as a communication base for my own business services. My websites are there to communicate my international business development system.

All well and good. But how do you go about communicating your business system online to reach the right people, and to bring in the right clients?

Structure For Your Business

I found I needed matter to work with. Content. Lots of content. This took me 6 months of writing one article a day.

As a small business owner I had the flexibility to jump in and develop the structure on an on-going basis.

My primary focus was to write on and around my main business subject area. My articles are not primarily determined by niche keywords and research. Of course I tried to use appropriate keywords, and ran keyword searches from time to time. These searches often proved to me that I knew my subject matter well. My main focus was writing on my own clearly defined subject.

On a side note, my experience has shown this content strategy to give fantastic SEO results. I have come up on the first page of many different search results from month 3 onwards. Businesses from all over the world find me.

People pay money for SEO? Why don’t they sharpen their business perspective and knuckle down to work on exploiting what is basically a communication platform?

Now that the content structure is there, the content is extremely easy to create. This business directory has become very easy for me to feed.

Using the flexibility I had in the beginning probably gave me a better structure 6 months later than if I had planned everything offline first.

So, I now have time for the next business phase and it is now in progress. This is the phase which links my business directory to my business.

What does that mean?

A Real Specific Business Offer And Not The Get Rich Quick Web Marketing

First of all I have a several new URL’s, or domain names, for very specific landing pages. Now these landing pages are not the get rich quick type. These are simply landing pages targeting each of the specific products and services I offer.

These products and services form a lead generation strategy. This means:

There are some landing pages for free products, some for paid products and services.
There are also some landing pages for the same product, but written for different audiences.

This leads to a fair number of new websites, even if they are mainly mini-websites.

Ready Fire Aim

My immediate task is to set up 20 odd landing pages. This takes time. I am doing just about everything single handed:

Lead generation strategy
Web marketing strategy
Copywriting
International SEO

Yes, it is a fair task, even just for mini-sites.

But as a small business owner I do have some flexibility. Also as a small business owner I value batch processing.

So one of the first things I have done is to put all of the URL’s live. I simply put all of the websites up with an article or two from my main business directory.

As a small business owner, I feel I can do this.

It is essentially a Ready Fire Aim approach.

Having all of the websites up early, means that Mr. Google will find them soon. I will appreciate this when I actually get the website ready and want to promote it. Tomorrow I start writing a new landing page website one after the other.

Online Flexibility Brings Success

One of the basics of international web marketing is testing and adjusting your communication. Your communication needs to be live before you get any real market feedback.

Market feedback often shows you how to improve your message. The better your online communication is, the more sales you can expect.

Market feedback will also show you where your business potential lies.

So there will be lots of adjustments to the landing pages. That is my second business phase.

Define International Business

Cindy King — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 09:39:51 +0000

International Business Development Strategy

I came across quite a few questions lately on the subject of defining “International Business”. Here are some of the questions and my thoughts on how to find the best answers for your business.

UPDATE: After reading this article many international business students ask me to spell out international business theories for them. This is not what this article is about.

My blog tries to raise awareness of cultural differences and how this impacts international business professionals in the field. It is based solely on my own personal experience and it’s about developing the personal skills you need to be successful in the field.

One of the very first cultural differences international professionals encounter is the cultural differences in what international business represents to people from different countries.

What Is International Business?

Dealing with so many different cultures and with extensive field experience, I tend to apply the simplest of definitions:

International business =
Business transactions crossing national borders at any stage of the transaction.

But then very often other questions crop up.

When I Export Products Do I Have An International Business?

There are distinctions to be made between:

A company that sells their domestic products to different countries through export/import agents, and
A company that knows how to adapt its marketing, sales, products and business strategies to sell to clients in different countries

A company with in-house international expertise across all business activities has an international business without a doubt.

Some people would say that a company, where a third party international sales agent takes care of all aspects of the international sale, is not an international business.

There are of course companies at varying stages between these two scenarios. And companies often progress through these different stages as they develop their international business.

There is no real “yes” or “no” answer here. It depends what definition you give to “international business”. But you do need to know your definition of “international business” and no matter which one you use you should also convey this definition to others when speaking about it.

What Is International Business Versus Global Business?

To answer this question it really depends which hat I decide to put on.

If we are going to discuss the theory of international business, there are some fine differences. But this is not a university and my response is based on my many years of field experience in international business.

Here is my current reality: In conversations across cultures the terms “international business” and “global business” refer to the same thing.

The question of different meanings for these terms has its place in classrooms and also for in-depth strategy sessions.

Today, if you are in the field, academic definitions of “international business” are not easy to translate into the cross-cultural reality of business. The boundaries of definitions become fuzzy and inadequate.

Remember, both “international business” and “global business” mean that you have to adapt your business to the outside world. Herein lies the true meaning of international business for me.

You need to learn how to adapt your business to your markets in different cultures

Successful international businesses or global businesses seem to become free of their own national boundaries. They simply become very competent at navigating through the whole world market.

The Differentiating Factor: An International Mindset

When determining whether a business is international or not, and when comparing how one business could be “more international” than another, perhaps the best thing is to look at the company’s mindset:

How real are your international client relationships? Do you connect with your international clients?
Is your “international business” only about your company? Or do you make an effort to understand your international client?
What do you do to adapt your business to your international markets?

International business has more to do with a mindset and the answer to these questions will give you a company’s real international business value.

Internet Strategies For French PME

Cindy King — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 17:15:33 +0000

International Case Studies

Organic SEO To Give French Companies With An English Language Website The Visibility In American Markets To Compete With Anyone

As a French company targeting international markets you probably have a website in English.

Once you have had your business website up for a few months, you will be able to evaluate your results.

What can you do if you are not getting the prospects and leads you want from your website? How can a small French business gain any visibility in the huge American market? Do what the North American companies are doing.

Implement the right Search Engine Optimization campaign to get targeted visitors to your website.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is often divided into two categories.
- Organic SEO
- Paid SEO

Paid SEO is essentially paid advertisements calling and leading people to your website.

What does organic SEO involve?

Organic SEO is different from paid Search Engine Optimization. It encompasses a variety of tools to drive traffic to your website

Organic Search Engine Optimization is how you can get traffic to your website using tools based on distributing your content wisely in key positions throughout the internet.

Why organic SEO is important to French companies

Each category of SEO has its own value. There are a number of parameters that will influence the quality and quantity of leads to your website.

However, one of these parameters is absolutely critical to companies targeting foreign markets. Your results will depend on how well you know how to adapt your products and services to your market. If you do not know how to market your products to your foreign prospects any of your actions will be unproductive.

A well thought out organic SEO campaign combined with an integrated marketing campaign will bring you three things:

1. Potential clients to your website
2. Feedback directly from your foreign prospects and clients; and
3. Tracking tools to give you the information you need to refine your business strategy and position your products and services for more international sales.

Do you know the exact need your market has for your product?
Does your market recognize their need for your market?

If you cannot answer the two questions above, you will probably benefit greatly from organic SEO.

You could have a third party carry out extensive market research and move quickly into the traditional avenues for opening your business abroad. International business development strategies will allow you to acquire foreign market knowledge first hand here in France without the added expense and risk.

An organic SEO program is a good choice to give your website international visibility and give you time to get to know your market and to better adjust the positioning of your products and services to your international markets.

Here are the key elements you need to use in your organic SEO campaign to get your website more visibility.

Website

Your website must operate on several levels. First you have to understand that you have to begin by making your site friendly to both the people and the search engines.

One tip to be people friendly:

Adapt the amount of graphics on your main page to foreign internet capacities. For example, if you are targeting the typical North American on their home computers, the standard level of graphics or flash animation acceptable here is France will severely limit your market penetration.

One search engine friendly tip:

Have a link to your site map in the upper left hand corner of your site. Your first page is the most important for the search engines and internet users alike. Search engines will follow the site map link and people will find it useful.

Blog

One people friendly tip:

This is a current trend. More and more North American businesses are using blogs. A blog simply makes your SEO actions more effective. Blogs are also thought leadership tools that can complement your company website.

One search engine friendly tip:

The more the search engines come to visit your website the higher you will show up on their search engine results when someone enters a related search.

How can you get search engines come to visit you often? Use the “ping” function available in most blogs, and consider searching for a complete list of sites that can do a “ping” for you.

What is a “ping”? A ping list sends a notice to the web sites in your ping list each time you update your blog. This is how search engines see you most recent entries to your blog.

Article

One people friendly tip:

Articles are another thought leadership tool. They can also be used to answer any objections, gain more trust and visibility for the solutions and benefits your company provides.

One search engine friendly tip:

Articles are a key organic SEO tool. If you write educational and informative content for your foreign audience you will see an increase in visibility and traffic to your website. Send your articles to online article directories.

A good list of online article directories can be found at http://richardontheweb.com and you can choose which you would like to use, my preference is the first on the list.

If you already publish articles and want to target a specific audience, make sure you are using the article directory most used by your target market. There is no value in writing an article if you are going to post it in a place where you audience does not go.

Article Bio

One tip to be people friendly:

At the end of each of your online articles, don’t forget to put in an author’s resource box or author’s bio. Write information in this box that the reader will benefit from. Do not bore him. Only include minimal details about you at the very end of the box.

Give the readers a call to action they cannot resist. Offer a downloadable gift they will want immediately after reading your article or invite them to a fun quiz.

You need to equate your readers’ specific needs, with the momentum in your article and by offering something so compelling the readers feel an immediate need to follow your directions.

Again it boils down to how well you know your audience and how well you address their needs. The more accurately you do this the higher your click through rates will be.

One tip to be search engine friendly:

The author’s resource box or bio is the main reason why you write the articles in the first place. It is not a tool to tell of all your company’s merits. The article is a tool for you to persuade your readers to go where you want them to. As the article may be read online or printed out, spell your url’s out in full.

Depending on the maturity of the market for your product and your readers readiness to buy your product, you could have your links to your company website or sales landing page. However, for optimum organic SEO link your articles to your blogs or social media pages.

Social Media : Squidoo and HubPages.

One tip to be people friendly:

There are all sorts of social media websites. Squidoo and HubPages are just two of them. Social media posts are similar to both articles and blogs. They are probably the best of both worlds.

The social media sites allow you to write on a specific topic. You can increase the length of your post, include pictures and video clips as well as advertising.

One person can write on a dozen unrelated subjects. Each subject stands alone and does not reference another subject unless you chose to make the link. This is different from blogs and articles. A blog does not allow you to disconnect like this and articles do not allow you to connect like this.

One tip to be search engine friendly:

There is a huge benefit from posting on social media websites: their high visibility. The different kinds of social media websites, some may be more appropriate to your business than others. Again treat this like a blog. All of your posts on social media sites should link directly back to your company website or sales landing page.

Keywords

Before writing anything, research your best keywords. You will need them when you sit down to write. Using keywords correctly will give you more visibility.

What are keywords? These are the words internet users will enter into their internet browsers when looking for the information you can provide.

If you want them to you’re your company easily you should have these keywords positioned throughout your online content and also in the online text that is hidden to readers eyes.

Use your keywords in:

The titles of your articles, blog posts and social media entries
The first paragraphs of each of the things your write.
And again in the rest of your content.

There are various tools to determine the best keywords you should use. If you are just developing your international business online, do not let this hold you up. This is something you will need to refine as your knowledge of your foreign market expands.

If your online content is informative and interesting to your target audience you will be using your keywords. Simply remember you are writing for the web and not offline. Search engines need to see key words up front, often but not so often they think you are a machine writing for them.

Basic Internet Marketing Strategy Using Organic SEO.

With the example of this organic SEO campaign, these are the steps your visitor will take:

Use articles published in online directories to link back to either your blog or social media page.
Use each blog entry to link directly to your company web site or sales landing page.
Use entries on the social media websites to link directly to your company web site or sales landing page.
Your company website, or sales landing page. Give extra thought as to where you want your visitor to arrive. Does it say to him what he needs to hear? If not, adjust your url and send him to the appropriate page on your website.

Pay attention to the “conversation” you will have with your visitors all along this path. You need to have a coherent conversation. The same story should follow through. You might want them to “land” somewhere specific on your website.

If you have potential clients in different industries, make a separate path for each industry linking them through a story line that is relevant to their needs, questions, objections, using their industry specific vocabulary.

Ask yourself the following questions at each step in the path:

Why do we want this traffic in the first place?
What do we want the visitor to do?
What is he thinking right now?
Are we answering the questions he is asking himself right at this minute?

Integrated Marketing Plan

Your internet marketing strategy using organic SEO is a powerful lead generation tool. It will bring you optimum results by using an integrated marketing both online and offline.

Implement a multi-channel integrated marketing plan to work together with your basic internet marketing strategy. Use newsletters, ezines, audio, case studies, surveys, teleconferences, videos and other communication tools to guide your visitors and get to create a relationship with them.