Listening to real time conversations for opportunities, leads, and reputation management is now a standard marketing item on the to-do list.

While there are services such as Radian6, Trackur and Jive Software (Filtrbox) that provide this kind of tracking for a fee, there are a number of tools that any do-it-yourselfer can employ to capture much of what’s being said about their brands, people, products, and industries in real time:

1.  Google Alerts

This one is certainly not new, but I still find people who don’t tap into it. Google Alerts allows you to set up as many custom searches as you like and have Google alert you via email or RSS when any mentions of those search terms hits their radar. Not 100 percent foolproof, but very good.

2.  Google Reader

Google Reader is an RSS reader, which means you can use it to subscribe, capture, read and display anything that produces an RSS feed. Most people use it to sort and read blogs, but anything with an RSS feed will show up here, so you can filter a great deal of content, including tags in bookmarking sites such as Delicious. Every customer and competitor blog feed should be in here.

3.  MyReviews Page

Rating and review sites such as Google Places and Yelp have become essential marketing tools. Monitoring reviews is a big part of managing and building reputation on these sites. MyReviewsPage alerts you when a new review shows up on many of the more popular review sites.

4.  Backtype

Backtype primarily focuses on blog comment streams and is a handy way to track this important content source.

5.  Boardreader

Bulletin boards and forums have lost a lot of their buzz due to social networking sites, but many industries still have very strong and active ones. Boardreader is your alert tool for the most popular bulletin board and forum sites.

6.  Social Mention

Social Mention is a real time search engine and important part of the mix because it not only catches things that others miss, it offers a wide variety of content types such as images, video and audio mentions, as well as giving some data about the influence and sentiment of the mentions.

7.  Netvibes

Netvibes isn’t a tracking or listening tool, but it’s a nice way to manage viewing all of the data you collect. Netvibes allows you to create a custom dashboard of RSS feeds and other elements and can be a great way for you to bring all of the content created by the tools above into one handy viewing station.

John Jantsch is a veteran marketing coach, award winning blogger and author of Duct Tape Marketing and The Referral Engine.

He is the creator of the Duct Tape Marketing small business marketing system. You can find more information by visiting http://www.ducttapemarketing.com

Photo Credit

I’ve been meaning to post something here.

Been seriously thinking about sending something out to my list…

Pretty much disconnected from social site time… rarely Tweet or Facebook or Buzz.

Heck, some of my online friends sent me emails asking if I’m alive and ok.

Yep.

Doing great.

Playing golf.

Wrapping up work with two remaining real-world offline clients.

And actually fired a couple other clients. Not actively looking for any new clients.

Not looking to become a GURU or do any big product launch.

Just quietly working away on some little niche sites.

Maybe someday I’ll share some How-to’s and secrets.

But, thing is…

There ain’t really any secrets.

1. It’s focus on a Starving Crowd.
2. Understand EXACTLY what problem this Staving Crowd wants to solve, or desire they want to fulfill.
3. Give ‘em what they want.

Yep, there IS a Big “How do you do that?” question around those three things.

But, I’ve found only a rare hand-full of clients appreciate the value and the investment required to deliver this to their businesses.

And, I don’t have the ego and the moral fortitude to become a GURU and teach the “How To”.

So, I’ve decided to simply…

DO IT!

Thanks Doberman Dan. I’ll make my MILLIONS the old-fashioned way too.

P.S.—  For a more detailed explanation of where I’m coming from, click on the link to DD’s post above.

What he said.

If you’re on my Gmail contact list, and you received the following email from me, please accept my sincere apology.

Hello (Your Name),

Your contact Walt Goshert invites you to participate in an iPad review program.
Marketing research companies are looking for individuals who are interested in reviewing the new Apple iPad. The testing period lasts one month, after which reviewers can keep the device as a reward.
To see more details or to register to our program, follow the link below:

http://www.betaincgroup.com

Thanks,

The Beta Testing Inc Group

I know you’re busy. My intention here is to give you top-notch money-making marketing ideas and resources, along with marketing tools that increase your productivity and save you time.

While I too received this offer from a trusted friend, I hit the email friends button (perhaps you did the same?) before I checked out the entire details of the deal. Yes, the trials, products, and services appear legit, but without checking them out I can’t vouch for them. Plus,  what’s the time price and hassle if you respond? How many hounding phone calls and emails? It’s my practice NOT to recommend something I haven’t used or know, and also it must fit my “Sniff test”. A big thing for me, and you, is how much time, because as business owners, nothing is more precious than our time.

One marketing resource I DO recommend:

Screenr.com

It’s FREE. No trial offers to complete. No friends list to email. No catch.

Screenr is a simple, easy way to create screen capture videos. You can record up to five minute videos, save and promote them on Twitter, even upload to YouTube or your own site. It’s so easy even non-video peeps, like me, can do it.

Check it out.

(Not sure if you can use Screenr on your iPad… I don’t have an iPad ) )

Photo Credit:Flickr

More on Screen Casts

• How to Create a Screencast Like A Pro with These 6 Free Online Tools (makeuseof.com)
• Screencasting In The Cloud (slideshare.net)
• Technology Tools and Ideas for Real Estate Brokers and Managers (slideshare.net)
• Media Stream Digest for April 9th (piosocialmediatraining.com)

Something quick for you today…

Troy White opened my marketing mind with his rewrite of a Bad Marketing Email message.

Some months ago I downloaded and read Troy’s Million Dollar Lobster Report… and promptly saved and filed it away on my computer hard-drive.

Do yourself a favor…

If you’re grappling with how to use the Internet to boost your local business sales, grab Troy’s Million Dollar Lobster Report.

It’s an entertaining story. Troy isn’t kidding… in the right hands, the information in the report is GOLD.

You just might catch an idea you can use in your local business… and turn it into a Million Dollars.

Or…

You’ll become a card-carrying member of the Ready brothers Lobster Club.

Enjoy!

Photo Credit:Flickr

Here’s Daniel Levis on the 3 ways to engage your visitors to your website…

And…

Gain more opt-ins, phone calls, and sales.

Does Your Online Copy Talk?
THE UNSPOKEN DIALOGUE

When it comes to online copywriting, it’s not the words you use that count. It’s the reaction to those words in the mind of the reader, as he reads them on the screen…

And it’s your ability to anticipate and plan out those reactions that spells the difference between being able to get your web site visitors to opt-in or buy your product in sufficient numbers to make your business a success.

It’s like a dialogue between two people, divorced in time and space. You are feeding your reader images, ideas, and emotions across the continuum, in a carefully planned sequence… and he is feeding you back reactions.

You plan for certain reactions, and do your best to make them come about. You hope your reader will understand and agree with the assertions you put forward, and that he will share in the emotions you are suggesting he feel.

Included among these reactions are demands, questions, and anticipations, which must be answered, or your copy will fail…

When you’ve successfully aroused your prospect’s interest, his reaction may be to demand more information, more image, and more desire from your copy, as if to say… hmmm, tell me more? Where you have inflamed his desire, he will demand proof. And even when you demonstrate proof, he is likely to demand to know how those results are to be achieved, so he can judge for himself whether or not the product will work for HIM.

CREATIVE SCHIZOPHRENIA… So your challenge is to play a dual role. You must be copywriter and prospect at the same time. You must walk in his shoes, sense his reactions, feel what he feels at each point in the copy… so you can switch direction at the precise moment his demands arise, and answer them. This fracturing of your mind is one of the most difficult skills to master in copywriting. And naturally it demands a great deal of research into the product, and the market you’re working with. This sensitivity is one of the key distinctions between writing “good enough” copy… and writing grand slam home run copy that pulls in obscene returns.

Those anticipation points are crucial. If you miss them, you lose the interest of your reader.

Let’s examine one of these demands in more detail. At some point in your copy, your prospect generally will ask this question. “How does your product do all these good things you say it does?” First you must anticipate where this question will arise, and then answer it.

“REASON WHY”

Notice this a very specific kind of proof. It’s not a testimonial or an authoritative endorsement. Your prospect is asking for an explanation of the “reason why” something works, which may or may not be included in the aforementioned. It is an explanation of the mechanism behind the magic.

I have seen ads that included every conceivable proof element under the sun fail, because they left this simple device out. They failed to demonstrate the ‘reason why’ the product delivered the promised results.

Of course John E. Kennedy and Claude C. Hopkins are well known for popularizing the importance of this idea at the turn of the last century, and today many direct response ads make use of it to some degree. But how much ‘reason why’ is enough, how much is too much, and where in the copy does it belong?

WHEN TO USE LOGIC AND REASONING IN YOUR COPY

The answer to these questions comes from your market. Are you writing to those who already understand the reasons why your product can do what you claim? Do they accept those reasons as valid? If so, there is not much point in wasting the reader’s attention with a lot of ‘reason why’ copy. For example, if you are writing a car ad today, and the car you are writing about has ABS brakes, all you need do is name this mechanism. Millions of dollars of advertising, perhaps hundreds of millions that has gone before you, has distilled the logic and workings of this technology down to a three letter acronym that just about everyone with a license to drive understands. You simply name the feature, tie it to a benefit, and then move on.

But what about the vast array of products that present a new promise, but where the prospect does not yet understand the mechanism behind the claim? Here it is a simple matter of building a strong promise, backed up by a ‘reason why’ the product delivers on the claim. In the early days of ABS for example, the pioneers made the promise of greater safety, and then backed up that claim with a reason why. Safe, because you could now steer while braking in slippery conditions, and so on.

Of course, the cardinal sin is to make your ‘reason why’ copy dull and boring. It is not scientific discourse. It should sell the mechanism, just as hard as the opening sells the promise, and it must continue to captivate and engage the reader’s interest and build his desire.

In the later stages of product competition, where the market is sophisticated, and it seems that everyone has the same technology, the same promise, the same price, a new strategy is in order.

At this stage your ‘reason why’ should take center stage. Move it up from the anonymity of the body copy, and put it in your headline. It is now just as vital as your promise, no longer just a proof element, but a new, fresh incentive for your prospect to read your ad.

Another place in your copy where this reaction commonly arises is where you offer a special price or discount. Your prospect is suspicious. Many advertisers ignore this fact, and are shocked to discover that a price reduction does nothing to increase sales.

What you must realize is that a price cut, like a promise or a claim or a benefit is only as good as the words you use to describe it, and the strategy you use to present it. Price cuts should be justified. There must be a reason for them. A ‘reason why’ you are doing what you are doing. Without it, you are selling with only a fraction of the power.

Related articles on Copywriting:

• Your words can make a difference. Do it pro bono. (socialactions.net)
• Resources Every Copywriter Must Have (lazerpromotions.com)
• The Art of Zen Copywriting for Bloggers (copyblogger.com)
• Copywriting Advertising Is Easy (wealthyways4you.com)
• 4 Things an Ethical Internet Marketer Can Learn from Spammers (copyblogger.com)
• Get Business Buzzing with a Buzz Piece (freelanceswitch.com)
• How The Marketing Rebel Can Help Your Business (marketingonlineinternet.com)

Photo Credit:Flickr