Featured in Inc. Online, Start-Up Toolkit for Entrepreneurs

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Congratulations to Michael Papi from Austin, TX, who is our winner this week.

““Robyn Levin’s eBook and interactive template, Cocktail Napkin Marketing Plan™ is like marketing magic. In less than two hours, I created my marketing plan with specific quarterly goals that were simple, straightforward, and achievable. Robyn has the wisdom of a sage and the ability to communicate like the finest actor.”

Joanne S. Black Professional Speaker and Author

No More Cold Calling®: The Breakthrough System That Will Leave Your Competition in the Dust (Warner Business Books).

Posted under The Cocktail Napkin Marketing Plan™

LinkedIn, the #1 professional social networking site announced its own integration with Twitter today. Users of both services will be able to sync some or all of their tweets on Twitter and “network updates” on LinkedIn. This is more reason to “think before you tweet,” as I often say in my social media marketing boot camps.

According to BusinessWeek.com, Tech Beat author, Rob Hof says, “Specifically, users in LinkedIn will be able to check a “tweet this” box near their network update post to Twitter. And while on Twitter, they can add the hashtags “#in” or “#li” to their posts to appear on LinkedIn. Finally, a new app called Tweets will let users put their Twitter streams on their LinkedIn profiles.”

Here’s a video with LinkedIn Executive Chairman Reid Hoffman and Twitter cofounder Biz Stone and you can click the video to read the full story.

Posted under Marketing Trends, Social Media

Top 10 Twitter Marketing Tips for Small Business Owners

By Robyn Levin

If you’re like most business owners, you’re super busy figuring out ways to be profitable, however, you feel compelled to join the social networking world. One question that comes up frequently is, “What should I tweet about and how often?” Think about what you want to share when you see the box, “What are you doing?” Be strategic so you’re using your time effectively. Twitter has been proven to help drive traffic to your blog, website and even trigger a phone inquiry like the one I got this week. It’s a good idea to observe 1st and notice what other tweets appeal to you. How often? Once or twice a day works for me. If you have a dedicated social media marketing staff, tweet more frequently. Keep these top 10 Twitter Marketing Tips & suggestions in mind and remember; give value and you’ll get quality followers. Things to “Tweet” about:

1. Hosting an upcoming event or Webinar
2. Writing a new blog post
3. Writing an article
4. Writing a press release
5. Networking & looking for groups or people in your niche
6. Sharing breaking news, industry trends, etc.
7. Re-tweet someone else’s tweet or link
8. Announcing a special offer
9. Sharing a new video
10. Sharing recent & interesting stats

* Big TIP here– include a link to your blog or website and track your results using http://budurl.com

Feel free to “Re-tweet” this post on your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.

Posted under Marketing Trends, Social Media

Cocktail Napkin Marketing Plan™  was featured this week in Inc.’s online Toolkit for Entrepreneurs. Here’s an excerpt from the author, Howard Greenstein after his interview with Robyn Levin last week.

“A movie magnate was once quoted as saying “If you can’t fit your idea on the back of a business card, you don’t have a clear idea.” Brevity is popular these days – try Twitter. And then there’s the somewhat timeless metaphor – entrepreneur writes out her ideas during a meeting on the back of a cocktail napkin – and success soon follows. There’s entrepreneurial wisdom in brevity.

As a marketing and PR veteran for over 20 years, Robyn Levin found the Entrepreneurs and startup marketing teams she was coaching were missing a simple way and brief way to create a focused marketing strategy.” You can read the rest of the article on Inc’s Blog.

Posted under Marketing Trends, Social Media, The Cocktail Napkin Marketing Plan™

Social Media Marketing in 30 Minutes A Day

Read this article to learn how you can promote yourself using social media marketing in just 30 minutes a day.

“Thought article was dead on and just what the doctor ordered for me. I get too involved with trying to do everything at once.”

Social Media Marketing in 30 Minutes A Day
Are you overwhelmed with all the social networking sites (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube) and trying to figure out how to incorporate these tools into your marketing mix? You’re not alone. Many clients often ask me how much time should they devote to social media marketing for business purposes and what’s the ROI. These are very good questions. My suggestion is to devote 30 minutes per day to social networking for brand building, getting referrals and to test the waters. You can’t possibly know if something is effective or useless until you try it for your own business. Best marketing practices include using a combination of social networking sites and other tools like online video, PR, blogs and Webinar marketing, and you’ll improve your results. The key is to think strategically and make it meaningful.

Most professionals want to increase sales and online visibility and those of you in this category should consider using Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube as your main social networking choices. Facebook has some good applications too, like Facebook Connect, however, I’ve found this to benefit big brands in particular. For example, Ben & Jerry’s promotes new flavors and solicits votes for brand building and to drive traffic to their stores through their “fan” page on Facebook. If you can think of a promotion and tie it into a major cause, this could be effective for you. Remember how CNN promoted the presidential election campaign using Facebook and Twitter to disseminate information to their audiences? CNN’s screen still says, “Follow us on Twitter” and, by following, I’m able to keep track of breaking news….

Sign up in the yellow box on the top left to receive the full article and other great tips on Internet Marketing!

Posted under Marketing Trends, Social Media, The Cocktail Napkin Marketing Plan™

iPhone Users Watch More Video… and are Older than You Think

According to Nielsen News this week–

“Upon Apple’s announcement of a new iPhone – the iPhone 3G S, slated to be available June 19 – Nielsen takes a look at iPhone insights on its users and usage.”

As of April 2009, Nielsen estimates that there are 6.4 million active iPhone users in the U.S., up from 2.1 million a year prior.

I thought this was particularly interesting about online video- 37% watch video on their phone (6x as likely as the typical subscriber) That’s why you should consider creating videos in your marketing mix, if you’re not already.Take a look at the chart below. Click here to read the full article, http://budurl.com/iPhoneVid

iPhone Users

Posted under Marketing Trends, Social Media

Many business owners and marketing executives ponder this question daily – Have you really seen ROI from Social Media?

I read this blog post and case study by talented author, Timothy Ferriss of The 4-Hour Workweek. By the way, this book is a great read, if you haven’t read it already. After I read his book, I was ready to run to Malta and Italy and run my business from the Amalfi Coast. Here’s a brief glimpse into his blog post so you get the idea of his educational non-profit campaign using Twitter – “Tweet to Beat.” Ferriss says, “The gist: To benefit U.S. public school students, I will bribe the entire world to follow me on Twitter for $3 each.”

“Social media marketing! Twitter consultancies! Conversational communications! Oh, these are exciting times. It seems like everyone and their grandma are getting into social media.
On a whole, I think this is a good thing, but here’s the problem: whenever technology becomes fashion, return-on-investment (ROI) tends to get lost in the excitement of the latest .com catwalk.
It’s going to help “the brand”? Show me data. It’s going to drive more “awareness”? Define it, isolate it, and translate it into a sales increase? In this post, we’ll look at some real numbers (total capital, conversions, redemptions, etc.) from my latest educational non-profit campaign, the Twitter-based Tweet to Beat, which was a follow-up to the blog and leaderboard-based LitLiberation campaign, which outraised Stephen Colbert 3-to-1 with no staff and no material hard costs…”
You can read the rest of his story about Social Media and ROI here.

If you’re struggling with all the new terms and tools and feeling a little stale with your marketing; attend my GET SMART Marketing Boot Camp this Friday, May 15th in San Francisco to jumpstart your social media marketing campaign. You’ll learnhow to cost-effectively improve your results in this 1-day semi-private interactive program. Guaranteed you’ll learn how to grow your business in new and profitable ways!
Learn more and SAVE $100 instantly with this special code– twit515 when you register for the Marketing Boot Camp.

Posted under Marketing Trends, Social Media, The Cocktail Napkin Marketing Plan™

From Fremium to Premium–a new Internet Marketing Trend?

More and more businesses are discovering many ways to reach and connect with their prospects and clients using Twitter and now, Twitter confirms paid pro accounts will be next for ” commercial power users or companies.” Click to read the article from Business Insider here,

Posted under Marketing Trends, Social Media, The Cocktail Napkin Marketing Plan™

Listen to my client interview podcast with Reggie Lal on today’s Real Estate Market and his “Top Tips for Buying REOs (Bank Owned Real Estate).”

Reggie Lal’s new blog is http://www.reggielal.com and you can read his latest updates on real estate investing tips and how to take advantage of today’s unprecedented market. He also has a Short Sale Guide, by request.

He’s clearly an expert in this area. Tap his wisdom, experience and expertise.

Podcast Interviews are a great way to keep your clients and propects informed of breaking news, interesting market updates and offer the listener a variety of ways to consume your news.

Interview with Reggie Lal Play Now | Play in Popup

Posted under podcast

I came across this blog post,  14 Tools of Highly Effective Twitter Users and it’s loaded with great tips. Browse through it and try some out.  Here’s just a few to sample:

• TweetStats – Statistics for twitter!
• Twibs – Twitter business directory. Find businesses on twitter
• TwitPic – Post pictures to twitter from your cell phone
• #Hashtags – Hashtags are a popular way for twitter users to tweet and keep track of relevant queries in search.twitter.com,View top trending topics.

Thanks to Kenny Hyder for compiling this terrific list of Twitter Tools.You can view the full list at his blog. While exploring this list, I got sidetracked (don’t we all) and landed on another great site that makes custom badges and all sorts of products, zazzle.com.

And, I found this one for video today, it’s Twitter with VIdeo, http://beta.twiddeo.com/

Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/robynlevin

Posted under Marketing Trends, Social Media