Social Networking for B2B

Group blogs are a great way for B2B’s to get in on the social networking game.

What are group blogs?

Group blogging sites are shared by multiple firms in an industry.

Here are a couple: CRM Software Reviews, a Microsoft Dynamics Reseller hub and Accounting Software Reviews for ERP vendors.

What are the advantages of group blogging?

By banding together to blog with other companies in your field you get a blog with:

• Frequently updated content an lots of it

• Cost splitting among all of the members

• A place to establish your brand as a thought leader

• Higher search rankings than you could easily achieve if you were blogging on your own.

• Linking building power from a site with a good page rank.

• A place to hype your achievements

• Networking contacts

• A higher likelihood that your work will be read.

For more information about Internet marketing, visit interactivelimited.com.

Optimizing Your Linked-In Profile

This is a great post about how to optimize your linked in profile:

http://www.seoptimise.com/blog/2009/09/10-tips-to-optimise-your-linkedin-profile.html

These are the best three points mentioned in the article:

1. Edit profile to claim vanity URL – This should be set to use your name (or closest match if unavailable) within the URL, for example: www.linkedin.com/in/kevingibbons – this will help you to optimise your own name in the search engines and also makes the URL easier to remember if promoted on business cards or email signatures.
2. Register a company profile – If your company doesn’t already have a company listing, you should create one! Here’s an example of the SEOptimise company profile, if your company does have a profile, you should encourage employees to create their own individual LinkedIn profile’s and ensure the current employer entry is completed. This will automatically update all employees listed on the company profile, providing the company name is exactly matched.
3. Make use of the 3 website hyperlinks – For SEO value, LinkedIn is very good – they give you the opportunity to add three hyperlinks to websites of your choice. If you’re not trying to optimise your site for “My Website”, “My Portfolio” and “My Blog” it might be an idea to select “Other” and choose your own anchor text instead!

Great Post About Headline Writing And SEO

http://www.wordtracker.com/academy/brent-payne-interview

Tribune Company’s in-house Director of Search Engine Optimization, has managed a 20 million increase in monthly visits to its websites, including the Chicago Tribune and the LA Times. Payne tells Rachelle Money how these spectacular results have been achieved, including using keyword research to help give readers “the news we know they want”.

This post is very relevant for writing headlines for your blog posts. Blog posts can appear in search results within minutes after they are published because the posting process automatically pings search engines. Search engines generally favor fresh content from an established blog. So the key is to incorporate good keywords into your blog post headlines.

Read it and reap the benefits.

Best Article We Have Seen About Using Twitter For Business

This article actually gives tips and specific examples of how businesses benefit from the use of twitter. It also gives tips for effective twittering. Read it!

http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2009/06/companies_take_time_to_twitter.html

Excerpt from the article above:

But established Twitterers balk at the idea of using the site to constantly hawk their businesses.

Vaynerchuk will never tweet a direct sales pitch. To do so would be taboo in the Twitter universe, he said. Instead, he uses the site to "eavesdrop on conversations" about wine. Then he'll engage with users, subtly luring them into his world -- and his wines.

"Twitter is like a cocktail party," he said. "You've got to flirt with people. And if you're in sales mode all the time, you're unattractive."

How To Create an Optimized Blog Post

To create a blog post that gives you the most bang for the buck do these eight things.

1. Write an article that provides useful information to prospective buyers of your product. It should not have duplicate content scraped from Microsoft PDFs but it can be a rewrite or a summary of a good PDF provided by Microsoft. Or it can be a rewrite (but not a copy) of an article on your home site.

2. Give that article a great headline with compelling copy and a few targeted keywords.

3. Link from your post with hyperlinked anchor text to your home site. The links should be through relevant keywords that match the content of the target page. You should not exceed one link per 100 words, otherwise the post will look like link spam.

4. The target pages of the links above should be optimized with similar keywords in the title tag, description tag, headlines and ad copy.

5. Do not provide more than one link to any one target page on your site from one post. If you do provide multiple links to the same target page only the first link will count for SEO.

6. Write a good tag line at the bottom of your post that includes some geographic or vertical specific keywords such as. "If you are looking for Microsoft Dynamics GP Partner in Connecticut call Cal Business Solutions at..."

7. Make sure you categorize and tag your post with the appropriate category for your blog so it gets accessed by search spiders after it falls from the first page.

8. After posting, make sure all of your links work properly by clicking on them in the post preview or published post.

Forget the PDFs – Try new Audio and Video Testimonials

What I hear at all marketing conferences today is that technology has changed the way we process information and people today like to listen or watch – not read! So CAL has taken our first step into this new world by posting an audio testimonial clip on our website. If you go to www.calszone.com/staffing and click on the audio button you can hear Christine Huebert at Pridestaff talk about her experience with StaffLinx GP - integrating Microsoft Dynamics GP back office to the Bullhorn front office. And her thoughts on a California company using a Connecticut based company for remote Great Plains support. My next goal is to do a video case study – if I can get Christine to agree to be on camera!

I would love to hear your thoughts – are you using audio or video in your marketing? Are you more likely to listen to an audio clip or watch a video case study instead of reading a written document?

Free Advertising On Google Local

Here is a little trick we learned recently. You can create new categories in Google Local and get your company to show up for Google "One Box" listings. These are the listings that show up next to the little maps at the top of a keyword search on Google. A picture is worth a thousand words, so see below. If you want details about how to set this up then please contact Dave Foreman at Interactive Limited. You can call him at 888-800-0999.

How To Set Up Google Analytics To Expose Search Queries

You CAN expose your specific AdWords Keyword Data beyond the dreaded “other unique queries” in the AdWords Search Query Report with Google Analytics!

Don’t you hate running the AdWords Search Query report because you know the best data is behind the cold words “other unique queries”?

Do you have a sick feeling in your gut because you know you can make more money with your affiliate programs, blogs, and ads if you could only tighten up your AdWords advertising?

If you answered “yes”, then you need to read and implement this Analytics secret immediately.

Here is a detailed, step by step process to take a look at what lies beneath the silky covers of “other unique queries” using Google Analytics.

If you want to go a step further and track the keywords that lead to conversions on your site see this post.

Blogging With Microsoft Word 2007

Now bloggers can create blog posts from within Microsoft Office Word 2007 with a few simple clicks of the mouse. This article shows you how you can create blog posts with Office Word 2007 and post them to the blogging account you've created.
Starting a new Blog post

Basically, creating a blog post is the same as creating any document—you click and type your text as you want it to appear. Follow these steps to start a new blog post:

1. Start Word 2007.
2. Click the Microsoft Office Button. Then click New.
3. In the New Document window, click New Blog Post (see Figure 1).


For the rest of this article see this page http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/blog-posting

Why I love using Google Alerts for sales and marketing!

If you are not taking advantage of the free Google Alerts service, you are missing out! I could spend all day trolling the web OR I can let Google Alerts give me the information I want right in my inbox in a neat little package. (you can sign up for immediate, daily or weekly alerts but I recommend weekly so you don’t get overloaded with emails)
I have alerts set up for:
· My product name (Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0)
· My company name (CAL Business Solutions)
· My personal name (Anya Ciecierski)
· My main competitor (that’s a secret)
· My best client’s name (whoever I want to keep track of)
· Bullhorn Staffing & Recruiting (just so I can keep up with all their news)
This way, if my company name (or my own name) is mentioned online – I know about it! I can find out what my competitors are up to, what kind of press releases they send out or what type of online directory’s they are in (so I can join them too). And if I hear news about my best client, I can proactively send them a congrats email and show that I care.
Google alerts are free and extremely useful – try it! Go to http://www.google.com/alerts to sign up.

Top Keywords For GP Partners

Microsoft Dynamics GP Reseller
Microsoft Dynamics GP Consulting
Microsoft Dynamics GP Experts
Microsoft Dynamics GP Consulting
Microsoft Dynamics GP Consultants
Microsoft Dynamics GP Support
Microsoft Dynamics GP Sales
Microsoft Dynamics GP Partner
Microsoft Dynamics GP Service
Microsoft Dynamics GP Implementation
Microsoft Dynamics GP Customization
Microsoft Dynamics GP Non Profit
Microsoft Dynamics GP Not For Profit
Compare Dynamics GP to Peachtree
Compare Dynamics GP to Sage
Compare Dynamics GP to QuickBooks Enterprise
Compare ERP Software
Compare Accounting Software
Compare Financial Software
Best ERP Software
Microsoft ERP Software
Microsoft Accounting Software
Microsoft Financial Software
Best Accounting Software Package
Best ERP
Microsoft Accounting Software
ERP Software Consultants + (Name of Location)
Accounting Software Consultants + (Name of Location)

AdWords For Microsoft Partners Webinar By Dave Foreman

Ten minutes of highlights from the AdWords webinar presented by PartnerPoint and Interactive Limited in February 2009. Be sure not to miss the next webinar in March; it will cover keyword research methods that the pros use.

How To Track Your Referring URLs In Google Analytics

This  image  below (click to enlarge) shows how to configure a filter in Google Analytics that will show the referring URLs for visitors to your site this is extremely valuable information. When you are done setting up this filter you can go to the "User Defined" tab under the Visitor drop-down menu and view the report of all of your referring URLs.

To create this filter go to your filter manage (see below):

After a few days go to your user defined tab in Google Analytics and see the referrers:

Then download the report as a CSV file so you can hyperlink the URLs and visit the pages if you want to see the exact page the referred the visitor to your site. But be careful not to visit pages that may affect your AdWords CTR.

Sites For Microsoft Partners To Post Company Information - Also Great For Backlinks

Below are some great sites to get your business listed on if you are a Microsoft Partner:

1. Microsoft Solution Finder - This site will be phased out and replaced by PinPoint (see below) but its still a good place for getting traffic and links.

2. Site for Listing Training for Dynamics Products - shows up high in search results

3. PinPoint a Directory of Partners Run By Microsoft - To list your business follow these instructions...

Take a look at some of the Company Overviews and Product and Service Solution Descriptions currently on Pinpoint for guidance on how your profile should look. Then, use the Pinpoint Content Guidelines to create your own profile. For each product or service your company offers through the Pinpoint site, you must create a Short Description (1-3 sentences) and a Solution Description (long version-up to 250 words). Once you have created your profile, please do the following:
Logon to the Partner Membership Center. Go to the "Organization Information" menu and select "Manage Organization Profile". Update your profile as necessary, and pay particular attention to the Organization Description which appears as your Company Overview on Pinpoint.
Logon to the Partner Solutions Profiler. Update your profile as necessary, and pay particular attention to the Solution Name, Short Description, and Solution Description (long version) which are required fields for Pinpoint. It may take up to a week for your profile to appear on Pinpoint.
If you have any questions or would like to expedite the publishing process for your profiles, please e-mail the Pinpoint Team.