Boingnet Blog

Marketing Automation Best Practices, Tips & Tricks

Can Google+ help you market your business?

Boingnet has been working over the past month or so at preparing for our version 2 launch, as readers know. As a part of the preparation, we’ve started the process of creating a presence on Google+. Like most businesses or even most humans, the reach of Google and the pervasiveness of Google’s integration of Google+ into it’s blockbuster properties makes it hard not to at least pay attention to it.

To date, we’ve been posting content on Google+ via Hootsuite, with little variation between what gets posted vs. our other primary social media channels (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter). We hope over time to develop unique audiences in each of these channels and to treat them completely independently, but at this point, we are early in the process and we are still feeling out the best ways to maximize the impact of each social platform.

We have found some unique qualities and capabilities of G+ (I hope Google doesn’t mind us referring to their darling in the familiar).  First, we do appreciate that Google has realized that pages for businesses are somewhat different than pages for people. Facebook seems to struggle with this concept. Second, if you are a local retail business, you MUST SET UP A G+ PAGE. Simply put, Google will feature you in Search and Maps much more prominently than if you haven’t taken the time to set up your page. You want people near you to find you when it is time for them to buy. It’s a bit of a pain (involves a robo call and multiple steps for you to authenticate yourself) but it is worth it. It is especially important for your customers to leave positive comments as a local business, these will further help you stand out in Search & Maps. Finally, for businesses like Boingnet, which isn’t a local retailer, Google has created a concept called Direct Connect (did they talk to Nextel first?) that enables users of Google Search (meaning every human with a computer, tablet or smartphone) to see your G+ page pop up as a part of a Search result. Those of us who spend lots of time trying to figure out how to get Google to give us more publicity for free should pay attention!

Google+ is supposed to be building an audience – we hope that it works for them. As developers, we find Google easy to work with, and, the world of social media needs a behemoth like Google to keep it honest. Do you have any thoughts on G+? Any successes or failures? Let us know.

UPDATE: Clearly, the full affect of Google+ Authorship is still being measured, but by all accounts, if you want your content to show up in Google Searches – you are much better off claiming authorship of things like blog posts. This is a no brainer for anyone in the content marketing world. If you are creating content but haven’t set up your authorship – Get On It!

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direct mail - what is old is new - Boingnet

We at Boingnet like to think of ourselves as somewhat contrarian (building a great tech software company on the South Shore of Boston rather than in Cambridge?). As those of us who have made careers in the tech business know, often the conventional wisdom of what works in tech is a self reverberating echo chamber (emanating primarily from a stretch of office parks between San Francisco & San Jose CA). We always get a kick out of reports that upset the apple cart, and found one last night that certainly fits the bill.

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Mobile Marketing Alert!Mobile Marketing with Boingnet

If you feel like you can’t have a marketing conversation or open a marketing oriented website today without being overwhelmed by everyone saying that everything has to be mobile, you aren’t alone.  Facts are facts, and the world’s attention is now squarely focused on small to medium sized slabs of glass, plastic & aluminum that we carry around and stare at all day to keep us informed, “shared” and entertained. Marketers realize they need to be in the game, and have developed innumerable strategies to remain relevant on the form factor de jour. While some really creative and successful campaigns have been launched, there really isn’t a consensus on the best way for B2B and B2C businesses to play in the mobile marketing game.  Should we be using mobile advertising? Location services? What are appropriate guidelines for text based campaigns?

We at Boingnet believe the newness, testing & creative process around mobile marketing has created a level of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) among the clients and partners that we talk to. We’ll be focused on bringing some focus and clarity to the situation in our upcoming version 2 release, centered around some basic principles:

  1. Mobile campaigns aren’t one-offs or silos. They should be integrated into the overall brand and campaign strategy, giving customers consistent brand messages and driving toward metrics that recognize customers engaging with campaigns living in multiple channels.
  2. KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid). While we try to remind ourselves of this on a daily basis, the multitude of mobile marketing opportunities that are being peddled today make it really hard.  We believe that mobile customers don’t want to try to do anything too hard. Campaigns and calls to action need to be direct, clear and provide value to the customer.
  3. Personalized.  Mobile campaigns can’t become the equivalent of the massive interstitial ads that are increasingly giving us headaches on big screen web. Rather than interrupting and taking over the entire experience in a shotgun style, mobile campaigns should be an arrow shot at the customer, using personalized data focused on hitting them at the right time or being available when they want to or have time to engage.  When campaigns are personalized, user experiences are exponentially better on a mobile device.

Integrated, simple and personalized campaigns. We can’t wait to engage in the mobile market with our vision. Stay tuned for more information on Boingnet v2 as we close in on our release date.

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