Social Media Tactics With Stephanie Ciccarelli of Voices.com

October 31, 2013

Are you eager to learn what social media tactics and strategies other companies are leveraging to grow their digital footprint?

Are you curious how other businesses are using their blog and social media to get crazy web traffic?

This week on the Social Media Social Hour, I’m joined by Stephanie Ciccarelli of Voices.com, as we talk about specific social media marketing tactics that Voices.com has leveraged to grow their website which averages over 300,000 unique visitors each month. I also introduce a great new tool I’ve been using to help with my writing.

About this show:

Social Media Social Hour PodcastThe Social Media Social Hour is a podcast for marketers and entrepreneurs looking to get on the social media fast track. The podcast is an interview format, where each week I get up close and personal with top brands and influencers to talk social media, tech and online marketing. Each week I also share tools that I personally use to help me with social media management, sales, marketing, account management and productivity.

In this episode, here’s what we’ll cover:

  • Tech Tool of the Week: Byword is a writing app that helps make the writing experience more enjoyable.
  • Voices.com connects businesses with professional voice talent who can record a variety messages for them.
  • Stephanie and her husband started the company with experience in audio production and engineering.
  • They were drawn to the idea of being the marketplace to connect people in the world of voice.
  • Stephanie talks about how every business uses voice in one way or another.
  • Stephanie started the business in 2004 and worked to build up a community of people before they went social.
  • The company had already been blogging for years and fell easily into the world of social.
  • What they found to be absolutely critical was having the support of the community of people who wanted to hear what they had to say and would gather around them.
  • Having a shared history with a large number of customers and building the community first really helped with their success in social.
  • They created traffic on their blog by first sending out newsletters to consumers.
  • Stephanie talked about how inviting customers and blog followers to join their social networks helped get them participation and engagement.
  • In the beginning the blog was more strategically focused on securing voice talent.
  • In the last year or so the blog has shifted away from looking for voice talent to a focus on people who need to hire the talent.
  • Stephanie asserts that you need to write for the audience that you want to be approaching and attracting to your site.
  • She talks about the need to provide a demand generation for what you have. The best way to do this is to create content to show how you can serve the needs of the customer.
  • The first mainstream social network Stephanie developed a user base on was Myspace. Facebook was the next step in social.
  • Stephanie reports that currently they are doing well on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
  • They also have a presence on YouTube, Pinterest, and Google+.
  • Stephanie says that in terms of choosing a social outlet, the most important piece of the puzzle is to be where your audience is.
  • Voices.com’s largest social following is on Facebook, however this audience tends to be more passive. The Facebook followers want to receive information, whereas the LinkedIn audience is more engaged and ready to have in-depth conversations.
  • Stephanie has found that Twitter is good for those one-on-one, small conversations.
  • The marketing team works to share two unique pieces of written content each day.
  • Stephanie and her team use Bizible to track which customers came from where, and whether or not they spent money on Voices.com or became registered users.
  • They have used Facebook ads in the past which have helped out with the fan base and they are experimenting with LinkedIn advertising.

Stephanie Ciccarelli’s Social Media Six Pack (actually, there were only 5 this week):

  1. What social network do you personally spend the most time on? Facebook
  2. What was the last YouTube video you watched? TEDx
  3. What smartphone do you have? iPhone
  4. What was the last Facebbok page you liked? The Don Wright Faculty of Music, University of Western Ontario
  5. What was the last piece of content that you engaged with? The Bible

Items mentioned in the episode:

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