Category: Social Media

You’re a savvy business owner, so you’re using social media. Unfortunately, you can’t say for certain whether or not it’s really worth your time. If you’re asking yourself what you should be doing and what you should be getting out of social media, the following three musts are for you.

Use Social Media to Find New Ideas

Business owners are some of the best idea people in the world. They find a need in their community and figure out how to address it, but the most aware business owners recognize that they can learn a lot and get a lot of new ideas from others. Whether just monitoring, dipping in a toe, or spending hours in social media, you can pick up a lot of new ideas in social media.

Use Twitter searches, Topsy, Social Mention, and other services to search for your company, your competitors, your industry, and mentions of your local area. Find people that are having relevant conversations and jump in to see what you can learn from them. And, don’t forget to keep track of what people say so that you can see what new ideas get mentions most.

Involve Your Whole Staff 

HubSpot, Dell, Cisco, and Zappos are perfect examples of companies that involve their whole staff in social media, which not only takes the burden of the leadership, marketing, and PR departments, but also makes handling customer service and spreading awareness of the company easier because they have more than just one person supporting multiple channels. Imagine that you run a shoe store and have one employee that is really passionate about photography and another that loves music. Ask your photographer is she would like to contribute to your Instagram, Facebook, and other accounts that can host images. Ask you musician if he would like to share his love of music or if he wants to help create videos for the business that you can then share on YouTube and other channels. This helps to share the burden, since social media is time consuming, and ensures that both people with passion for social media and people with diverse interests get the opportunity to connect you to different parts of your potential audience.

Give Sneak Previews of Upcoming Products and Services

Offering sneak previews of your new products or services online to your potential customers is one of the best ways to build demand even before a launch. The customers can provide vital feedback that can be extremely helpful in ensuring a smooth and better launch. You can post photos of your new products or services on your social media sites and ask for comments from customers.

A lot and none.

I’ve been blogging since early 2007 and have made money and gotten recognition from it, but not in the way that most aspirants think of it. The fact of the matter is that making money directly from blogging is nearly impossible. I’ve run AdSense, participated in affiliate campaigns, been paid for my writing, and more, and the money I can attribute to directly to my blogging is easily less than $200 per year on average.

At the same time, my income has quadrupled, I’ve spoken at conferences and events like the DMA and Social Slam, and I’ve secured a position as a knowledgable and dependable marketer and analyst. Those results easily outweigh the direct financial benefits of blogging, but I would never have realized them if all I had been focused on was making money from blogging.

How can you make money blogging?

As trite as it sounds, don’t focus on the money. The thing is that you can afford to not focus on the money is you don’t delude yourself into thinking that your blog is your business. It’s not. It is a vehicle for you and your business.

Do great work. Create a great product. Make your customers so happy that they blog about you.

Then and only then, when your business is so good that you can afford to spend time on blogging, write about what you know best. If you’re a web startup CEO, don’t blog about marketing and social media unless that’s where you really add value. Stick to leadership, company building, or leadership. If you’re a market analyst, stick to that. How do you add value by blogging about tools, or engagement, or management?

Yeah, I don’t know either.

Stick to what you know, and don’t focus on the money.

The best bloggers create crap content now and then, and they’re writing about their areas of expertise, so how can you or I compete if we don’t stick to what we know best?

Simple answer – we can’t, and it gets even worse if trying to market yourself or your company or, worse, make money from blogging comes at the expense of actually doing great work.

By this time, the question of whether or not you should be using social media to grow your online business has been answered definitively, and it was a yes. The question that remains in most people’s mind though is How. How do you actually use social media to grow your online business?

Customer Communication Platform

Some people don’t like the phone. Others don’t like email. Others don’t like face-to-face communication, and on, and on, and on. Social media introduces a whole new set of channels through which you have the opportunity to communicate with your customers, and while some people do not like using social media, 950 million people using Facebook, hundreds of millions using Twitter, and millions more using other channels confirm that there is a large potential audience there for you.

The thing to look for when using social media to grow your online business is not how easy can you make it or how many possible places can you spread your message to, but rather what does each audience in each different channel want to communicate about. Tailor your content and your communication style to each audience and each channel in order to make your message as relevant and meaningful as possible.

Monitor the Competition

 

Social media is one of the best platforms to help in monitoring competitors without going out into the field to carry out a market research analysis of them. Your competitors will tell their customers what they are doing and, in turn, those customers will possibly say something about your competitors over social media. Such information is important as it will help you know what you competitors are up to and how other people are reacting to any new developments they have. From there, you can then adjust your business accordingly to keep abreast with the competition.

Use tools like Topsy, Social Mention, Twitter searches, IFTTT, and others to monitor what your competition is saying, what people are saying about them, and what people are saying about you.

Increase Search Engine Ranking

Prior to social media being widely accepted, search engines primarily used factors like inbound links and textual analysis in order to determine which pages should rank highest in search results. The problem with this is that very few people manage websites, so if you’re counting how many links a website has pointing at it as a sign of how popular it is, you’re missing all of the votes of people that don’t run websites.

Now that so many people use social media, social signals like tweets and Facebook likes act as votes of popularity and value. The more social signals search can see your website has, the better it will rank in search results.

Build Credibility

The key to building credibility in social media is to first build a trusting relationship with your customers. Once rapport is established, then your customers can feel comfortable including you in the constant information and feedback stream that is a Facebook, Twitter, or other social media feed. There are several ways that will help you be able to build your reputation and credibility for your customers to totally trust in you. These include:

• Making sure that people are aware that you know what you are doing and that you are an expert in your area. In so doing, they can trust that you are aware of their specific needs. This means, if you’re a designer, talk about design. Sure, the odd football comment or random joke can pop in there now and then to show your personality, but if you’re a designer with a Facebook page and you want to use it to grow your business, talk about things related to your business that people will care about.
• The information that you give to your customers should add value for them in some way. This information should be aimed at promoting shared interest. This means don’t talk about yourself all the time and don’t share something unless it’s really valuable to your audience. Something that isn’t valuable is just an annoyance, and every time you annoy someone, you make it easier for them to stop paying attention to you.
• You should be dynamic enough to give each customer what they want by tailoring your products and services to be able to meet their specific needs. This means you should do your best to tailor your content to each channel and audience. Pay attention to whether your Twitter followers respond to the same language, content, and posting times as your Facebook fans or your Pinterest followers. There’s a good chance they like different things, so customize your content, as well as the products and services you talk about, to them.

There was a point early in my career, where I built a Twitter presence that (at the time) was on the Top 100 Most Followed list and a blog that was one of the more respected social media and marketing outlets in Washington state. For the bean counters, that was somewhere around 7,500 Twitter followers and over 2,000 daily unique visitors all without advertising and no guest blogging.

I learned a lot from that experience, but maybe more importantly, what I got from it was a lot of connections and two jobs at agencies that increased my income, visibility, responsibility, and opportunities to learn. Once I was on the path to success though, I did not see the need to continue investing in my blog because I was busy enough that I had to make a choice – keep investing in the blog in the hope that I get more and bigger opportunities while potentially squandering the new opportunities I had just gotten or let the blog languish and focus on making the most of the new opportunities. I chose the latter. That was 2008.

Since then, blogging has acquired this image of being a magic pill.

There are bloggers like Rand, or Fred, or Mark, or Seth that write prolifically and seem to soar above the rest of us as a result, and what do you do when you want success for yourself? You model success. The problem that so many people run into is that it’s not the blogging that makes these guys successful. They all have their own businesses, and those take up the majority of their time. They just also happen to blog, and let us not forget perhaps the most important thing here.

They happen to run great businesses, and running a great business is what makes them popular and successful. Their blogs are simply vehicles for sharing their businesses and their greatness. A blog is almost never a business itself.

“I’m going to start blogging to market myself.”

And, that is the thing that really baffles me. Blogging can be great, but it’s a business tool. It’s almost never a business in and of itself, so why start investing your time in blogging before you know that either you are producing great work or your business is really worth promoting?

My recommendation is this. Build a great business. Do great work. Produce something that is so valuable that other people blog about you or it first. Then maybe, start your own blog to market yourself or your business.

Although many businesses struggle to use social media to their benefit, the ones that effectively harness it make huge gains in at least awareness and retention, if not also revenue. With Pinterest being the latest large social media tool, there is again an opportunity for you to gain ground in social media before your competitors learn how to use it.

To best ways to use Pinterest for your business are:

• Offer Important Information -You can be a source of helpful information to prospective customers who are researching on the Internet. Pinterest is the best of both worlds, because you can use it share advice while spreading the word about your business, all at the same time. Pin data that can solve a common problem and people will want to follow your boards, and share or repin your pins, making your Pinterest viral in a good way.

• Register Your Business Properly -Register a Pinterest account using the same email address you input on other social network registration forms. Include your business name as your username, so that people will easily remember and recognize you. Post new content or a comment in multiple social networking sites. Add your business website link to every pin to increase website traffic. Most visitors prefer to click on a presented link rather than having to search around for your website.

• Consider Contests-The best way to make your website popular is to run frequent contests. Websites generally give small prizes, while others give high priced items, such as iPads. Require entrants to share the link to the contest in order to enter. The more friends a contestant brings in, the higher the chances of winning.

• Showcase Your Personality-Funny or interesting pins get more attention than boring pins. People often follow others who have interesting things to share. Topics that interest you are a good source of material, because there will surely be users who have the same interest. Having a profile photo can also help you gain followers.

• Follow Big Names on Pinterest-Just because you follow a celebrity or big brand doesn’t mean that they will pay attention to you, but interacting with their content can expose you to their audiences and potentially draw people to your account and then your website.

• Pin Daily-Pin regularly to establish an online presence. Most people prefer to see something fresh and interesting. They are hungry for updates and gossips. So maintain your Pinterest account and post regularly to attract new followers.

• Take Your Time -Making a new account on Pinterest does not automatically give you thousands of friends. You have to devote time to adding and retaining your Pinterest friends. Relationships do not happen overnight so you have to invest in time for them to grow.

The best thing about Pinterest is that it is new and exciting, gaining the attention of many Internet users by taking advantage of the concept that people like to look at images rather then read large blocks of text. Once you create an account and start pinning, you’ll find adding and maintaining your Pinterest boards to be quite addictive and lots of fun. Imagine taking such an enjoyable activity and being able to increase your sales with it; it’s a win-win situation for everyone.

You know you have to be on Facebook. There’s no question about that. The problem you and thousands, probably tens of thousands, of business owners face is, “I’m on Facebook. Now, what do I do?”

Profiles are for individuals. Pages are for companies and other organizations.

Since you have a small business, you’ll want to create a page by going to the main Facebook Pages page and clicking on Create Your Own in the upper right. The only cases in which I recommend only using a Facebook Profile are when you’re a public figure of some sort like a politician, celebrity, or sports star. In those cases, you can just allow people to subscribe to the updates you post publicly on your profile, and this way, you don’t have to bother splitting your attention and time between a profile and a page.

Interact with Your Fans through Asking Questions

For you to attract and maintain friends and customers on Facebook, you have to give them an experience that they 1) value and 2) can’t get anywhere else. Sadly, most small businesses think they can just post pictures of the latest products or bits of information about what happened recently at the company, and people will love that. The truth is that posting about products often makes people feel like you’re just asking them to by and that the goings on in your office, store, or whatever else have to be really exciting. Otherwise, your posts are just noise.

Let’s say you run a showroom that sells bath furnishings. Your customers are people remodeling, or building, their own bathrooms and their contractors. When one of them comes into your showroom, pick up on what they really like. Then, after they leave, see if they like you on Facebook…hopefully, you asked them to before they left though. Post a picture of something you think they might like and mention the person with something like, “We thought that Lin Wormley might love this for his new bathroom. What do you think, Lin?”

When you mention one person by name, it’s common for others to take notice, so you might get some likes or even comments from other people. I worked on some things like this with a coffee shop once. Frequently, we would post a beautiful looking latte or even a new odd creation from a barista, and we would tag a customer, whose name we had just learned. The thing that we had to ask for from the staff was, “Give us a customer’s name, talk to them while you’re making their drink so that you learn about what interests them, and then tell them that we’ll give them a shout out on our page the next time we have something they’ll like.”

Post Interesting Content

As a Facebook marketer, you need to attract friends, start a conversation, and keep it going. Conversation pieces need to be selected carefully and should be of public interest. Make sure that what you post or share in terms of videos, photos, audio, or ideas is interesting and will keep people talking about it. Be vigilant about the content you post on your Facebook page, keeping it fresh and up to date.

One of the best ways to figure out what’s working for you is to set a schedule where you have a content type – video, audio, trivia, news, etc – combined with a message type – question, statement, customer call out, humor, etc. Put together a schedule where you cycle through every possible combination of these and then see which ones got the most response. For bonus points, you can also track this by time of day and day of week to really see what works for you and your audience. Once you find out, focus on the things that give you the best return.

Facebook Insights will give you a lot of information on what’s working, but my preference is to use something like PageLever or Edgerank Checker because these and other similar services do almost all of the measurement work for you.

Have Contests to Promote Fan Building

 

We all love to win things, and we love the thrill of knowing that we just might be picked for a contest or competition. It makes us feel special. You need to create this feeling for your fans. If you’re a local furniture shop, hold a contest where everyone that likes your page and gives you their email address will be entered to win a certain piece of furniture or a $100 gift card. If you’re a plumber, give away an hour’s worth of work anytime that person wants it.

One of the keys here is to not just get people to like your page and give you their email address (hello email marketing), but also to make sure that your page is worth liking whether you were to give away something or not. Having a page that posts engaging, interesting, and compelling content ensures that your new fans will not just unlike you as soon as the contest ends.

Conclusion

While social media is great and Facebook can do a lot for you, don’t forget that you don’t ultimately control your Facebook page like you do your store or website or email list. If Facebook decides to make a change to how it works tomorrow, you can’t do anything about it. As a result, you should cultivate the best page you can, but remember to motivate your fans to sign up for email, give you a call, or connect to you through as many other channels as you have so that, if anything ever does happen to your Facebook page, you’ll have another channel to connect to your customers through.

Over 10 years ago, The Cluetrain Manifesto gave us the phrase “markets are conversations,” and with the advent of social media, we stretched that to imply that both individuals and brands should be conversing, but despite well-worn examples of some brands conversing with their customers, I’m not convinced there really is a social media conversation for brands.

Brands don’t want to converse with their clients. They want to sell more stuff. For every @ComcastCares, Zappos, or Microsoft help channel, how companies completely ignore online engagement opportunities? I, myself, have written about Comcast, Logitech, Men’s Wearhouse, and Sandals customer service only to have not one of them even acknowledge the posts, and in the case of Men’s Wearhouse, I was praising them, which would have been a softball for any of their customer service representatives monitoring blogs.

Individuals engaging in social media feels normal. It’s a lot like talking to friends, or at least people you have something in common with. Brands engaging in social media feels odd, but we want it to be right. If brands can talk to you through social media, they should. Shouldn’t they?

Valuing social media is really hard.

The problem is that we expect brands to respond to tweets, Facebook Page complaints, blog posts, and more, but they don’t want to, and they have to justify spending time on paying attention to you in social media, which is hard to value properly, rather than a plethora of competing channels that are significantly easier to value:

• On-site.
• Telephone.
• Email.
• Website.
• Advertising.
• Broadcast.
• And more.

I worked specifically on social media measurement for 2 years of my career and have spent a large portion of the following 3 years continuing to work in this space, and while social media is measurable, it is difficult because we don’t always have comparable cross-channel metrics and sometimes have to set company-specific conversions or valuations. For example, in every social media channel, you can value activity partially by the users driven from those channels into your website, phone system, or other more traditional channels. If X spend $X in salaries, tools, or vendors on Twitter and Y number of twitterers visit your website and buy products or service worth $Z, you have an easy ROI calculation.

BUT that’s not everything. How much is customer service on Twitter worth? Well, if you spend $A answering questions that help B number of twitterers that do not call in and use up employee time answering their questions individually, just look at how much money you spent answering those questions on Twitter and how much you saved by not answering them individually.

Now, how about the branding, awareness, goodwill, and all of those other fuzzy things?

Cat got your tongue?

Thought so.

You get buzz metrics from social media, but that doesn’t make branding, awareness, or goodwill any more measurable. Rather, it just means that we get tough-to-measure metrics paired with still-somewhat-foreign media, and that equals out to a reluctance to budget marketing dollars toward these channels.

And, so it comes back to markets.

Whether you like it or not, brands value markets they can measure first, markets they understand second, and only then markets they’re told are supposed to be valuable third, and social media in most cases falls into that third category.

So, next time Frigidaire, or Dairy Queen, or your local dry cleaner does not pay attention to your social media praise or hatred, don’t be shocked. You have been sold the lie of the social media conversation, and they make decisions based on dollars.