Synopses & Reviews
Traditional marketing tactics aren't bringing in customers like they used to, and even today's most successful businesses are suffering shrinking returns on their advertising and marketing investment.
The Digital Handshake explains this phenomenon and reveals seven effective, proven strategies for using new media and online tools to find new customers and keep them.
Marketing is no longer a one-way street, but an engagement in a conversation with customers and potential customers. The Digital Handshake shows you how to introduce yourself to the online world and engage customers via new media tools like blogs, social networks, online video, podcasting, mobile marketing, customer ratings systems, and Twitter.
Using real case studies, social media authority Paul Chaney shows you how to design a comprehensive marketing and advertising campaign that enhances traditional marketing efforts with an entire suite of new media applications. He provides practical Web 2.0 solutions for real-world business problems, including how to counter negative perceptions about your brand or company, reward those who speak well of you online, and generate brand awareness and positive impressions.
Social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn are growing by leaps and bounds, connecting people in profound new ways and changing the way communities and individuals buy. Tomorrow's best companies will be those who can most effectively use social media to connect with consumers, ramp up branding efforts, and grow their online presence.
New technology can either undermine your marketing efforts or enhance them. Don't be left behind. The Digital Handshake is a tactical and practical guide for non-technical business leaders who want to leverage the new media tools like social networks to positively affect their bottom line.
Synopsis
Businesses are seeing less ROI from their advertising and marketing dollars. The Digital Handshake explains why and instructs what to do about it in an easy to understand, practical manner. The book explains in chapter-by-chapter detail the conversational social media tools in current use by consumers and businesses alike, emphasizing practical applications. Each is amplified by a series of case studies, proving that small businesses, including a real estate agent in Florida and sign-maker in New Hampshire, have successfully applied these tools in real-world settings, effectively addressing market changes. Technologies that are covered include: Business Blogging Social networks and online communities Online video and podcasting Micro-blogging Mobile marketing Social media tagging and bookmarking Customer reviews and rating Social media press releases Wikis
The final section explains in three simple steps how to use these applications to create a comprehensive, cohesive media marketing strategy summarized in three words: Listen, Respond and Engage.
Synopsis
Practical applications for using social media to boost your businessEven today's most successful businesses are seeing shrinking returns on their advertising and marketing dollars. The Digital Handshake explains why advertising and marketing are losing their effectiveness and how to solve the problem using social media to corral elusive consumers. It explains the best practical business applications in current use and how you can use them to ramp up your business.
Using case studies gleaned from real businesses, author Paul Chaney shows you how companies both large and small that can tap social media to mitigate market changes and reap valuable business benefit in the real world.
- Explains how you can use social media to grow your business and connect with consumers
- Author Paul Chaney is a leading authority on blogging and social media
- Covers practical, effective business applications for blogging, social networking, online video, microblogging and much more
- Shows how to design a comprehensive marketing strategy using traditional and new media platforms
Today's technology can either undermine your marketing efforts or enhance them. The Digital Handshake helps you make sure the Internet grows your business for the long run.
Synopsis
Praise For The Digital Handshake"Social media is now an essential component toexcellent marketing. Paul Chaney, a real-world marketingexecutive himself, provides both a strategic overview and atactical blueprint to exactly what you need to know for success in the digital world. This is no academic tome, it is practical anduseful advice you can apply to grow your business today."
—David Meerman Scott
bestselling author of The New Rules of Marketing & PR and World Wide Rave
"There's no one better qualified to explain the power of social media than Paul Chaney. He's done it with our audience for years. If you want to understand how online conversations, opinions, and recommendations affect you and your business, read this book."
—Kerry Murdock
Publisher, Practical eCommerce magazine
"A handshake is a symbol of trust in business, and Paul Chaney shows you how to use social media, today's form of handshake, to engage your customers and build trust like never before."
—John Jantsch
bestselling author of Duct Tape Marketing
"The Digital Handshake evokes the new marketing relationships of today, where it's not about artificial marketing speak, but real relationships—the only difference being, those relationships may be conducted digitally instead of in person. You couldn't ask for a better small business guide to today's changed online landscape. Paul Chaney is the person to help you navigate it."
—Anita Campbell
small business expert and Editor, Small Business Trends
About the Author
Paul Chaney is President of the International Blogging and New Media Association, a nonprofit trade association dedicated to the advance of new media as an industry. He also works as Marketing Director for Bizzuka, a Web content management software company. He has worked as a professional blogger and frequently leads seminars and workshops on business blogging and social media. For more information, please visit www.thedigitalhandshake.com orwww.thesocialmediahandyman.com.
Table of Contents
Foreword Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer, MarketingProfs.
Preface The Insurgent Consumer.
Acknowledgments.
About the Author.
Introduction A New Communications Paradigm.
PART I: Five Consumer Trends Turning the World Upside Down.
Chapter One: Consumer Skepticism Is at an All-Time High.
Chapter Two: The Media Is Fragmented and So Is the Audience.
Chapter Three: Who Is In Control of the Marketing Message?
(Guess What. It’s Not You!)
Chapter Four: Businesses, Improve Your Aim.
Chapter Five: Customers Are Mad as Hell, and They're Not Going to Take It Anymore.
Chapter Six: What's a Marketer to Do? (Start a Conversation).
PART II: Seven Proven Strategies to Grow Your Business.
Chapter Seven: Business Blogging: Your Social Media Marketing Headquarters.
Chapter Eight: Social Networks Strengthen Your Social Graph.
Chapter Nine: Niche Online Communities Can Benefit Your Business.
Chapter Ten: Microblogging: Social Media Marketing in 140 Characters or Less.
Chapter Eleven: Lights! Camera! Action! Use Online Video to Market Your Business.
Chapter Twelve: Podcasting (Overlooked, Underutilized Marketing Tool).
Chapter Thirteen: PR 2.0 (Introducing the Social Media News Release).
Chapter Fourteen: Other Social Media Marketing Tools.
PART III: Putting the Tools to Good Use.
(A Social Media Marketing Plan of Action).
Chapter Fifteen: A Brief Word About Web Sites, E-mail Marketing, and Search Engines.
Chapter Sixteen: Listening Is the New Marketing.
Chapter Seventeen: Now That You’ve Listened, It’s Time to Engage.
Chapter Eighteen: Measuring the Effectiveness of Your Social Media Marketing Plan.
Conclusion.
Notes.
Index.