Tag Archive for nxtgen marketing

Adam Babcock | July 7, 2011
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Building An Online Community: Part 3 – Nurturing Your Community

Welcome back for the final part of our series on how to build an online community.  In our previous posts, we talked about Choosing the Right Platfrom and Growing Your Community.  Now we will            discuss the critical step of nurturing that community that you have worked so hard to build.

Have you ever seen the show “Yard Crashers” on HGTV?  It is a backyard remodel show, where the host waits at home improvement stores looking for the perfect weekend warriors who could use his help. People go in thinking they’re just buying a bag of mulch, but instead come home with the host and his team, who completely transform their landscape.  It happens to be one of my favorite shows on TV right now (and I don’t even have a backyard.  Go figure), however, at the end of every show, I am left wondering, “what now?”  What happens when the experts all leave and these people, who previously neglected their yard to the point of it needing a complete makeover, are left to handle it all themselves?  Building a beautiful, lush, garden is hard work, but it all goes to waste if you do not continue to care for, and nurture it.  Well, the same can be said about your online community.  You can put all the hard work, time, and effort in the world into picking the right platform and building your community.  But if you don’t continue to nurture that community, it was all a giant waste of time.  Here are a few key tips to focus on once you have built out your community.

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Category: NxtGen Thoughts, Small Business, Social Media | Tags: , , , , , ,
Adam Babcock | June 30, 2011
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Building An Online Community: Part 2 – Growing Your Community

Welcome back to the NxtGen blog and our series about building an online community.  Last week we started things off by explaining the importance of choosing the right social media platform in order to build your community.  Now that you have done your due diligence, and decided what platform you are going to use to broadcast your message, we are going to look at the next step of the process: Growing Your Community. Below are some key areas to focus on when starting to build your community.

Act Like a Host

Picture this.  You get this amazing invitation to attend “the party of the year”.  It promises to be filled with a ton of people, and all kinds of fun and entertaining events.  You decide to go to the party, even though you don’t know anyone else going.  When you arrive, nobody greets you, or introduces you to any of the other partygoers.  You walk around for a while awkwardly introducing yourself to a few people trying to figure out if you have anything in common.  A half hour into the party, you are so bored, you end up sneaking out while nobody is looking.  Sounds pretty awful right?  Well how is that any different than joining a group online, where they promise you all kinds of great stuff in order to get you to join, and then once you do, nothing!  No interaction.  No engagement.  No perks.  Nothing!  When trying to build an online community, you have to act like a (good) host.  Be courteous to members.  Thank them for being a part of your community.  Introduce them to other members that they have common interests with.  Offer them unique and exclusive content or specials.  Make sure they know you are there for them and that you are happy to have them!

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Category: NxtGen Thoughts, Small Business, Social Media | Tags: , , ,
Adam Babcock | June 22, 2011
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Building An Online Community: Part 1 – Choosing a Platform

I am sure you are sick and tired of everyone telling you that you need to start using social media for your business.  Hopefully by now you’ve read all the articles, seen all the numbers, and are ready to jump on board the social media train.  If so, good for you!  In order to help you get started, I have put together a 3 part series on how to build an online community.  This week, we are going to start off with maybe the most important element in your social media plan: Choosing a Platform.

I am lucky enough to have had the pleasure of seeing Scott Stratten, author of the book UnMarketing, speak a couple of times in the last year.  In his speeches, as well as in his book, he talks about the importance of picking one platform when starting out in social media.  Scott says, “Build a small stage-your platform-that you’re going to stand on and get people to come to.  Pick one place where you want people to find you and play your best “show” there for as long as it takes to build a solid following”.  This advice really stuck with me, and is something I always recommend to people who are starting out in social media.  Especially small business owners, who already feel like there isn’t enough time in the day to do everything they need to get done.  The last thing they need is to have to commit to updating several different social media sites.  People tend to jump onto multiple platforms right away (whether it be Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, LinkedIn, etc.), and then expect to have a huge following just because they are “on social media”.  The reality is, unless you are a huge, recognizable brand, this is not going to be the case.  However, if you choose one platform to really invest your time and energy in, you can create a really great, engaged, and interested community, that in time will allow you to expand into other platforms as well.  So, how do you know what platform to start with?

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Category: NxtGen Thoughts, Small Business, Social Media | Tags: , , , , ,
Adam Babcock | June 14, 2011
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Lessons Learned from the NBA Finals

Finals LogoWhile watching game 6 of the NBA Finals Sunday night, the last thing on my mind was business.  I am a huge basketball fan, and as a basketball fan, I couldn’t help but appreciate the level of basketball that was being played in this series.  I must admit, I was a pretty happy guy as those final seconds ticked off the clock.  I, like so many other people in the country, wanted to see LeBron James and the Miami Heat go down.  I was enjoying it so much, that I decided to stay up a little later and check out some of the post game report.  It was during the post game report, that I heard Magic Johnson, one of my all-time favorite players (and fellow Michigan State Alumni!), say something that really stuck with me.  Since it was kind of late at the time, I didn’t really give it much thought that night.  But as I watched more and more coverage the next day, I realized what a great lesson it was, and how it applies to life and business, as well as sports.

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Category: NxtGen Thoughts, Small Business | Tags: , ,
Noah Babcock | May 31, 2011
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Baby steps

Over the past week, I have been watching one of my twin sons start to crawl.  It has been an amazing experience for this first time dad, as I watch him grunt and struggle to just move an inch or so.  He would get frustrated, take a break and start up again.  He has not figured out how to use his knees yet, he is really just sliding across the carpet, but he can get where he wants to go now.  His crawling is really exciting for me, but I would guess that you the reader really do not care about my son learning to crawl.  As I watched him do it, the thought of  SEO came to mind.    There is no magic bullet for SEO.  No matter how much money you spend , it is the time that is put into it that will make it a  successful or unsuccessful venture.  The strategy is not born overnight, it takes a lot of work, and trial and error to accomplish the goal.

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Category: SEO | Tags: , , , , ,
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