April 26, 2012 at 14:54TeamLab: a walk through the promotion channels, or how we created social buzzz
When we talked about our translation system , we were asked to write about how TeamLab is moving forward , especially to foreign markets. Today we’ll try. There were ups and downs, very often they went through trial and error, but any experience is priceless, so we’ll share it, maybe it will be useful to anyone. We will not write smart, and already banal, tips about SEO, Adwords, etc., we will try to be as specific as possible.
So, a squeeze from the basic methods of attracting new users and strengthening the loyalty of existing ones that have been successfully working for our project to this day:
Press releases on important updates and new versions of TeamLab . Submit occurs both on paid resources and on free ones. Here are some resources on which the result of posting is tangible. We take into account factors such as the popularity and specificity of the resource, the number of reposts, good results from search engines, traffic to our website, feedback activity:
in Russian:
http://b2blogger.com
http://ain.ua/
http: // www.livebusiness.ru
http://msug.vn.ua
http://f1cd.ru
in English:
http://www.dwpub.com - 70 GBP
http://www.prweb.com - the cost of accommodation varies from $ 89 to $ 369, but the result is tangible
http://www.widepr.com - an example of a free but effective resource
Mass mailing to users. Despite the ambiguous attitude to email marketing, we consider this a convenient and efficient way to notify of all updates. We do not spam to no avail and, of course, provide the opportunity to quickly unsubscribe.
We are talking not only about the ubiquitous FaceBook and its Russian counterpart VK, but also a number of resources of a narrower focus. So, among business communities, LinkedIN can be distinguished , most of whose users do not hide under nicknames (ala Bagira 812), but have quite detailed profiles with a description of their track record and professional interests. Thus, by conducting a group and answering questions in the q / a section of the community, you not only receive traffic, but also very valuable information from specialized specialists and the possibility of establishing new business contacts. So, for example, in the absence of experience promoting the project in the countries of South America, invaluable help was provided by members of the media communities and marketers of the respective countries.
The main rule that we adhere to when working with social networks is regular updates on a page or in a group of companies and operational feedback. If a user contacted us via Facebook or VK with questions about the service, we do not send him to the tech support, but try to figure it out right on the spot in a timely manner. We arrange, of course, and contests in which we are drawing up a subscription to our Extra services. Competitions are also thematic, timed to some holiday (love hockey for Valentine's Day, for example) and “spontaneous” in the style of “Write why you love TeamLab”. In addition, we regularly conduct especially careful monitoring of all social networks for the mention of TeamLab by ordinary users, answer questions, comments, suggestions, and help determine the choice.http://socialmention.com
It’s impossible to forget the now popular placement of paid posts in social networks. Of the Russian services, similar services are offered:
http://smiar.ru
http://www.prospero.ru
http://www.twite.ru
http://socialtools.ru
Among foreign ones, http://buysellads.com (offers high-quality accounts with clear targeting) and http://fiverr.com Moreover, the latter can realize literally all your promotion fantasies, from creating video tutorials to messages written in cappuccino foam.
Stable traffic can ensure the placement on news social sites of links to news / review / comparison of your project. The most popular sites:
Multidirectional topics
http://digg.com
http://www.delicious.com
http://www.stumbleupon.com and its Russian counterpart http://surfingbird.ru
IT-oriented
http: // news .ycombinator.com
http://www.dzone.com
Our practice shows that Stumbleupon and Surfing bird give the most long-term effect due to the orientation of resources, primarily on the subject matter of the published material, and not on the date of its publication, while other resources give priority to the hottest news.
Initially, we were active in almost all known "question-answer" resources. Practice, or rather Google Analytics, shows that there are very few transitions from “responders” of a general nature “about everything else” like Yahoo Answers, but Quora is not without reason known for being a more serious community, which at one time could only be reached through invites : This resource provides us with stable traffic, most of all from the USA. As for IT communities, in our case many users come with Stackoverflow .
In addition to specialized q / a services, do not forget that many sites with IT (or business) topics have forums. So, the answer to one question in French is http://www.commentcamarche.net back in 2010 brings a large number of stable visits to the French version of TeamLab to this day.
Posting articles and reviews on blogs can bring both huge success and turn out to be a completely empty sound, therefore, when choosing this type of resources, you need to carefully study the audience and the nature of the published materials.
From the infinitely huge blogosphere, we can distinguish those who publish custom posts and those who allow you to send guests, provided that they are not of an advertising nature and will be useful to blog readers. If everything is clear with the first ones, it’s only a wallet, then writing guest posts takes much more time and effort. At the same time, the blogger / editor of the magazine has the full right to refuse publication if he did not like it.
Our strategy in this direction is to write thematic reviews of tools useful to the blog audience. This can be as 10 open source systems for project management, as well as an overview of useful services for the effective operation of small businesses. At the same time, often a guest free post really gave more transitions than a review for 60-80 bucks.
Examples of successful free guest posts on rating blogs:
in Russian
10 free business process management applications on Maulnet
7 project management systems for a small team on BlogDima
in English
Top 7 Collaboration Software Tools for Successful Freelancers on FreelanceFolder
Top 10 Open Source Project Management Apps for Freelancers at Freelanceswitch
10 Most Popular Online Project Management Solutions at FamousBloggers
Of the total number of them, we list only those that bring us high traffic:
www.alternativeto.net
http://freecode.com (formerly freshmeat) - cross-platform software catalog
http://www.getapp.com - catalog for business software
http://www.cnet.com
http://www.appappeal.com - a directory for web applications
That's probably all for today, we hope the experience of TeamLab will be useful to you.
So, a squeeze from the basic methods of attracting new users and strengthening the loyalty of existing ones that have been successfully working for our project to this day:
Press Release Distribution
Press releases on important updates and new versions of TeamLab . Submit occurs both on paid resources and on free ones. Here are some resources on which the result of posting is tangible. We take into account factors such as the popularity and specificity of the resource, the number of reposts, good results from search engines, traffic to our website, feedback activity:
in Russian:
http://b2blogger.com
http://ain.ua/
http: // www.livebusiness.ru
http://msug.vn.ua
http://f1cd.ru
in English:
http://www.dwpub.com - 70 GBP
http://www.prweb.com - the cost of accommodation varies from $ 89 to $ 369, but the result is tangible
http://www.widepr.com - an example of a free but effective resource
Email Newsletter
Mass mailing to users. Despite the ambiguous attitude to email marketing, we consider this a convenient and efficient way to notify of all updates. We do not spam to no avail and, of course, provide the opportunity to quickly unsubscribe.
Social activity
We are talking not only about the ubiquitous FaceBook and its Russian counterpart VK, but also a number of resources of a narrower focus. So, among business communities, LinkedIN can be distinguished , most of whose users do not hide under nicknames (ala Bagira 812), but have quite detailed profiles with a description of their track record and professional interests. Thus, by conducting a group and answering questions in the q / a section of the community, you not only receive traffic, but also very valuable information from specialized specialists and the possibility of establishing new business contacts. So, for example, in the absence of experience promoting the project in the countries of South America, invaluable help was provided by members of the media communities and marketers of the respective countries.
The main rule that we adhere to when working with social networks is regular updates on a page or in a group of companies and operational feedback. If a user contacted us via Facebook or VK with questions about the service, we do not send him to the tech support, but try to figure it out right on the spot in a timely manner. We arrange, of course, and contests in which we are drawing up a subscription to our Extra services. Competitions are also thematic, timed to some holiday (love hockey for Valentine's Day, for example) and “spontaneous” in the style of “Write why you love TeamLab”. In addition, we regularly conduct especially careful monitoring of all social networks for the mention of TeamLab by ordinary users, answer questions, comments, suggestions, and help determine the choice.http://socialmention.com
It’s impossible to forget the now popular placement of paid posts in social networks. Of the Russian services, similar services are offered:
http://smiar.ru
http://www.prospero.ru
http://www.twite.ru
http://socialtools.ru
Among foreign ones, http://buysellads.com (offers high-quality accounts with clear targeting) and http://fiverr.com Moreover, the latter can realize literally all your promotion fantasies, from creating video tutorials to messages written in cappuccino foam.
News social sites
Stable traffic can ensure the placement on news social sites of links to news / review / comparison of your project. The most popular sites:
Multidirectional topics
http://digg.com
http://www.delicious.com
http://www.stumbleupon.com and its Russian counterpart http://surfingbird.ru
IT-oriented
http: // news .ycombinator.com
http://www.dzone.com
Our practice shows that Stumbleupon and Surfing bird give the most long-term effect due to the orientation of resources, primarily on the subject matter of the published material, and not on the date of its publication, while other resources give priority to the hottest news.
Work with Q / A services
Initially, we were active in almost all known "question-answer" resources. Practice, or rather Google Analytics, shows that there are very few transitions from “responders” of a general nature “about everything else” like Yahoo Answers, but Quora is not without reason known for being a more serious community, which at one time could only be reached through invites : This resource provides us with stable traffic, most of all from the USA. As for IT communities, in our case many users come with Stackoverflow .
In addition to specialized q / a services, do not forget that many sites with IT (or business) topics have forums. So, the answer to one question in French is http://www.commentcamarche.net back in 2010 brings a large number of stable visits to the French version of TeamLab to this day.
About blogs, my blogs ...
Posting articles and reviews on blogs can bring both huge success and turn out to be a completely empty sound, therefore, when choosing this type of resources, you need to carefully study the audience and the nature of the published materials.
From the infinitely huge blogosphere, we can distinguish those who publish custom posts and those who allow you to send guests, provided that they are not of an advertising nature and will be useful to blog readers. If everything is clear with the first ones, it’s only a wallet, then writing guest posts takes much more time and effort. At the same time, the blogger / editor of the magazine has the full right to refuse publication if he did not like it.
Our strategy in this direction is to write thematic reviews of tools useful to the blog audience. This can be as 10 open source systems for project management, as well as an overview of useful services for the effective operation of small businesses. At the same time, often a guest free post really gave more transitions than a review for 60-80 bucks.
Examples of successful free guest posts on rating blogs:
in Russian
10 free business process management applications on Maulnet
7 project management systems for a small team on BlogDima
in English
Top 7 Collaboration Software Tools for Successful Freelancers on FreelanceFolder
Top 10 Open Source Project Management Apps for Freelancers at Freelanceswitch
10 Most Popular Online Project Management Solutions at FamousBloggers
Thematic directories and directories
Of the total number of them, we list only those that bring us high traffic:
www.alternativeto.net
http://freecode.com (formerly freshmeat) - cross-platform software catalog
http://www.getapp.com - catalog for business software
http://www.cnet.com
http://www.appappeal.com - a directory for web applications
That's probably all for today, we hope the experience of TeamLab will be useful to you.
