Fresh Blog Reviews

Social Media Marketing is getting a lot of attention in the media on and offline, causing many business marketers to wonder how to adjust budgets and resources to participate. Others that have allocated funds to Social Media and SEO programs without proper implementation, timelines or measurement may question their return on investment. While businesses decide to push or pull budgets, companies that are focused on winning market share and driving revenue are soundly and consistently investing in a mix of digital tactics involving search, email, online PR and of course, social media.  Adding to the marketing mix often means outsourcing and good consultants are not cheap. For many companies, the decision to widen the range of marketing services and get help externally means budget reallocation. For some, it means the blasphemy of cutting tried and true marketing programs in order to chase after shiny social media. The good news is that there are ways to have your Social SEO cake and eat it too. For marketers that want to take full advantage of search engine optimization and social media, here are two of the most important cost saving tips to make both bean counters and marketers happy. Plan ahead . Setting goals is fundamental to marketing but with a social SEO strategy , it’s important to understand the difference in outcomes as well as the tactics used to reach goals. SEO performance indicators are typically links, rankings, referrer and search traffic, inquiries, sales and other conversions.  Depending on goals, social media KPIs will include brand mentions on other social sites, links, comments, measures of engagement,  media placements, measures of sentiment about brand terms, syndication and growth of networks. Setting goals for SEO distinct from Social Media is an important first step to creating a Social SEO strategy.  SEO on it’s own can drive sales. SEO can also help grow social networks via discovery through search. Optimizing content for search within social networks improves discovery in places where Google and other search engines can’t reach. In comScore’s August 2009 Search Engine Rankings report, 3 of the top search engines were social media sites: YouTube, MySpace and Facebook. Companies that focus their optimization efforts solely on Google.com will miss the continued trend towards social search or search within social networks. Social media facilitates word of mouth and requires ongoing participation to realize the most benefit. Whatever word of mouth can do for a business in the offline world, social media can do online; only faster and to a much larger community. Understand the difference between SEO and Social Media outcomes and you’ll save a significant amount of money on the normal discovery and learning phase of a Social SEO engagement. Do your homework. With Search Engine Optimization, keyword research and analysis gives marketers valuable insight into the language customers use when searching for their products/services.  Understanding communities and customer behaviors in social media is a very different exercise. It’s possible to do some keyword research that is social media specific by analyzing the most common keyword tags used to label and organize social content. It’s also important to understand what social networks and media sharing sites your customers spend their time on. What are their behaviors and how do they participate? Do they share, create or just watch? Companies that make the effort to understand search based keywords that are most popular is a great first step for saving on SEO costs spent on keyword research.  Marketers can do that homework through keyword research tools and competitive keyword research. Additionally, understanding customer behaviors and content preferences on social networks and media sharing sites is equally important. What keywords are most often used in their conversations? What words do they use when tagging, commenting, linking and sharing media?  Social media monitoring tools can help as well as first hand experience with customers through social media participation. Insight from direct observation as well as software that can track and organize the large volume of social content will save tremendous amounts of time when working with an outside consultant as they ramp up the Audience phase of a social media program. Make no mistake, there’s work involved to save money on high quality Social Media and SEO programs. Think of it as putting sweat equity into your online marketing. Not only will companies save on consulting costs, but the increased knowledge from better understanding search keywords and social keywords will manifest in better relationships with customers and ability to implement on consultant recommendations. Performing search and social media keyword research isn’t going to replace what consultants will do by any means. But it will shorten the time it takes to ramp up on tasks that can take a large number of consulting hours. The better corporate marketers know their Social Media and SEO goals, the more focused outside consultants can be in helping to reach them. Other cost saving tips for Social Media Optimization programs include ongoing training, analytics and certain types of outsourcing. We’d love to hear your ideas on these suggestions and your own. How has your company been able to deal with slimmer marketing budgets but still engage in search and social media programs productively?

“Unlimited Investing with a Self Directed IRA LLC or Solo 401(k):  Break Free From Wall Street to Build Real Wealth with Alternative Investments” teaches investors safe and effective ways to build and protect their wealth.

DENVER, March 10, 2009 – With investors fed up with corporate greed, corrupt financial institutions and risk-laden Wall Street investments, now more than ever investors are looking for strategic ways to accumulate, grow and preserve their wealth outside of Wall Street. “Unlimited Investing with a Self Directed IRA LLC or Solo 401(k): Break Free From Wall Street to Build Real Wealth with Alternative Investments,” enables average investors to start learning how to identify safe, alternative places for their money so they can achieve financial freedom and financial security. The book is co-authored by the world’s leading self directed investing expert, Jeff Nabers, and real estate and financial author, Phoebe Chongchua. Download the first chapter at www.UnlimitedInvesting.com.

Nabers says that unlimited retirement accounts have been used to invest in alternative assets for decades, but few investors take advantage of these opportunities because of a lack of awareness.  “Until recently, everyone thought the road to riches was paved with stocks and bonds.  But today we know this isn’t true.  Investors can no longer depend on untrustworthy financial institutions and greedy Wall Street executives to secure their financial future for them,” says Nabers. “Instead, this book will teach investors how to convert their shrinking mutual fund portfolios into solid portfolios of real assets.”

Unlimited Investing includes everything an investor needs to know about protecting and growing wealth in today’s uncertain terrain, including:

•    How to profit from the decline of the dollar
•    How to recession-proof your investments
•    How to get your assets in your hands and stop risking them with untrustworthy financial institutions
•    Understanding your Self-Directed IRA or 401(k) investment structures’ options
•    How to avoid large or unnecessary fees and expenses

“Anyone who has ever wanted to invest in real estate, gold and silver, private equities, private debt instruments and international investments will benefit from the practical advice and rare information available in this book,” says Chongchua. “It’s time for investors to wake up and explore the investment opportunities that await them outside of Wall Street. They’ll be glad they did.”

Nabers says he believes average and sophisticated investors alike can benefit from his years of knowledge.  “I’ve dedicated six years of my life to learning everything possible about self-directed investing and am making all this information available for public consumption for the first time ever with the release of Unlimited Investing,” says Nabers.

“Unlimited Investing” can be pre-ordered directly at www.UnlimitedInvesting.com.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Jeff Nabers is a nationally recognized educator, speaker, and consultant specializing in the topic of investing with Self-Directed IRA & 401(k) plans. He is the founding member and chairman of IRA Association of America, the industry’s only non-profit trade association. Jeff is also CEO of Nabers Group, a full-service self-directed retirement plan provider. Years ago, as a real estate investor and owner of a mortgage lending company, Jeff set out to learn the ins and outs of using a Self-Directed IRA. It turned out to be a long and strenuous process. Jeff found himself traveling all over the country to pick up bits and pieces of useful information from dozens of sources. Unlimited Investing is a compilation of the fruit of Jeff’s research combined with the experienced perspective from Jeff’s participation in thousands of transactions involving both alternative assets and retirement plan funds.

Phoebe Chongchua has a 20-year background in journalism, marketing, and customer service. She specializes in real estate writing and her work is featured in Donald Trump's book "The Best Real Estate Advice I Ever Received," and “The Complete Idiot’s Guide To Buying Foreclosures.” She is the author of “If the Trash Stinks: TAKE IT OUT! 14 Worriless Principles For Your Success.” Phoebe began her career in TV as an anchor and news reporter for ABC News in San Diego, California. She holds a real estate license in California and continues to write and educate consumers on real estate and financial issues in various columns and publications online and in print. She is a columnist for Realty Times, Bizymoms Expert on Real Estate, and the publisher of Live Fit Magazine. After writing several articles on the topic of alternative asset investment vehicles, she realized how little the average consumer understands this highly powerful method of investing. Catalyzed to improve awareness, Phoebe’s research dug deeper, and the helpful findings are presented in this book.