3 Things A Social Media Strategist Must Do

Thinking of hiring a social media strategist? Sounds like a great way to jump on the social media bandwagon, and bring in a massive number of new clients, right? But before you take the first step towards hiring someone, consider these 3 things first.

1. Think about your expectations.
What do you hope to accomplish through social media? Do you want to expand your brand awareness? Do you want to attract new clients? If so, how many per week? Per month?

Social media is a brand new way to market your business; so new in fact that its hard to quantify the results yet. You can quickly find someone who says they have a new client thanks to Twitter, or sold $1000 worth of product on Facebook, but these are short term statistics. There is nothing that says these results are achievable over and over again.

A good social media strategist won’t make guarantees about performance; instead you’ll discover options on how to lead your industry with a new way of reaching out to clients and prospects. You have to be willing to try something new, and expand based on what you learn along the way.
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Filed Under: Social Marketing Tagged With:

Want A New Idea? Ask Your Social Media Lists

Ever want to get inside your clients heads and find out what they really want? Ever wonder what questions your prospects may have regarding your industry? There’s no better time than now to ask them.

Thanks to the Internet, there’s no more drafting a letter, creating a focus group, and waiting weeks or even months for a response. You simply build up your online lists and ask any time you choose.

Today I was reading an article in the NY Times, Apps That Don’t Exist But Should. With one simple question to people that follow him on Twitter, he began receiving a ton of ideas on iPhone app possibilities. Pretty cool if you were trying to think of new apps to create.

What else can you ask your Twitter, Facebook or even your own list built from your website/blog?

  • What do you like about (your industry)?
  • What is missing from (your industry)?
  • What could make your product/service better?
  • What name do you prefer for your new product/service?
  • What key benefits make you buy a certain product/service?

While you don’t want to make every post you create a question, you can throw them in here and there, and get a ton of responses to help you focus what your are doing. Then take your idea to the next step, and ask another question. You’ll soon have the perfect product/service built and promoted in a way people love.

Filed Under: Social Marketing Tagged With: ,

Location Based Marketing – Is It For You?

Location based marketing is meant to describe any type of marketing that takes place via a mobile device. It allows businesses and organizations to engage with their audience in an interactive manner through any mobile device or network, says the Mobile Marketing Association.

Location based marketing is the definite trend right now, and one that you’re seeing pop up in all kinds of applications: Foursquare, Looptstar and Gowalla. But will it work for your business? Can you have success with it today?

Just like other types of marketing, its harder than it looks. You can’t simply sign up, get thousands of followers overnight, and have your business double and triple with these new services. It takes thought, time and a lot of work to get this to work for you. Because its new and relatively unknown, you’re still stuck with the obligation of educating your customers on how to use the technology, as well as how to use it with you. And that can be difficult at best.

Ask yourself these questions before jumping into a location based marketing plan.

1. Who is my target audience? The younger crowd is easier to reach with the newest technology, and are more willing to play a location based game for prizes.

2. Are others in my community using location based marketing? Now is the time to join your local chamber, or set up a networking event just for local business owners. Is anyone else trying it? Would they be willing to try it together? You may have more success if a number of business owners in the area are promoting it.

3. Do you know your customers and do they check in with you? If you are on a one to one basis with your customers, and have regular repeat customers, they may be willing to check in with their mobile devices.

4. What would I be willing to offer? If you’re already doing a postcard campaign or incentive programs, what can you do in addition that will motivate people to use their mobile devices to check in?

5. How will this help grow your business? Put numbers down, time limits, and ways to grow within your community. If many of your potential customers have never heard of location based marketing, how are you going to reach them?

6. Is my staff willing to work with this as well? You can’t be in the store all the time. Will your staff by in to this type of marketing, and have fun with it as well? You don’t need to add another chore – this should be something they readily want to play with.

7. What will your time limits be? Every campaign has a time limit. Decide up front how you will build and what you will offer. You may even be able to show past events to get people excited about joining. It should always be about change, and getting them excited to visit and buy from you.

Filed Under: Social Marketing Tagged With:

There’s A New Search Engine In Town – Open Graph Search Engine by Facebook

What’s the number one site? Google

Number two? Facebook

So what do you do if you’re number two? Fight for the number one position of course. And for Facebook, that means creating their own search engine.

Facebook recently released Open Graph Search Engine. Facebook gives webmasters tools to help index their pages in Facebook, which include a “Like” button to install on your pages, and a set of tags to use that lets Facebook know what your site is all about.

Facebook won’t work like Google, which relies on a series of SEO tactics in order to rank pages. Instead, Facebook will rely on the number of “Likes” each page has. Which means people will control what’s ranked and what’s not. The more you can get people to talk about and “Like” what you do, the more results you are going to see in the online world.

Filed Under: Social News Tagged With: ,

How Hootsuite Can Make You More Efficient

If you use Twitter, you have to use a desktop application. It will speed up your process and your system, and allow you to get more done in a shorter amount of time. For most of the time I’ve used Twitter, I’ve also used the Twhirl and the Tweetdeck applications. And while I loved both of them, I found myself wanting just a little bit more.

Hootsuite was launched in December 2008, and while I’ve seen a lot of people using it, I never jumped at moving platforms, well, because I’d have to learn a new system. If finally decided to give it try this past week when someone referred it again to me as a way of automating what I do. I’ve also read the iPad application is fairly dynamic, so with those two dynamics coming at me, I decided it was time.

If you have ever wondered how you’ll get everything done on top of your normal workload, Hootsuite may be your answer. With just a couple of clicks, you can load in a variety of your social sites, including your Twitter accounts, Facebook profile, Facebook pages, LinkedIn accounts, and Foursquare accounts. They all show up as tabs across your screen, so moving is as easy as clicking on your tab.

Compose a message, shorten your URL, schedule when you’ll release your message, even save your message in draft mode, its all easy to do right from your web browser. Unlike Twhirl and Tweetdeck, there’s nothing to download – access it from any web browser. And you choose where the message will be sent to – one account or all, its up to you.

Social should never monopolize your time. Instead, it should become a routine in your day. Spend 30 minutes in the morning adding posts and generating content. Check back once or twice in the day to engage with your followers. And build as you go along. And Hootsuite will definitely be a part of my new schedule – how about you?

Filed Under: Social Resources Tagged With:

The Future Of Television In A Social World

Right now we are going through a massive change. We’re changing the way we watch television, use technology, and market our businesses. We can only imagine what it will be like 6 years from now, when things happen so fast, even 6 months is a long time on the Internet.

Television is now using interaction between viewers and technology in order to be a part of the production of the show. Shows like Dancing With The Stars allow you to vote off one contestant by voting online or by texting. Shows like Heroes allow you to interact with other fans on their sites, and see more in depth highlights by being a part of their online fan club. And last night, America’s Got Talent wrapped up their final week of looking for talent – but you can still participate by uploading your video to YouTube. Head over to YouTube and you can vote on the top videos, and help choose which one will join the final run in Las Vegas.

Social isn’t just a fad. It’s a way of controlling your business. People will talk about you whether you want them to or not. The eyes and ears are everywhere with cell phone cameras and the power of commenting. You can’t avoid it. But you can control it.

America’s Got Talent has a tremendous marketing budget, and can afford to market in a lot of different ways. Yet one of their strongest methods is a YouTube channel.

As a small business owner, you can have a YouTube channel too – and its free.

So emulate their ideas. Why not start a YouTube channel just for your prospects and clients – the best video showcasing your product gets free products or services?

Start your own YouTube channel and make it into a how-to television show – ever seen one of the shows on HGTV? If you’re a plumber, hvac or painter, you can give tips and strategies, prove your expertise, and create quite a following at the same time.

The tools are there. What are you going to do with them?

Filed Under: Social Networking Tagged With:

Why Should You Care About Social Media?

Is social media really here to stay? Is social media the way we’ll be marketing our small businesses now and well into the future?

I’m always watching for new videos on YouTube to bring home the reasons why you should have social media in your marketing plan, and this video says it all. Watch this two minute production, and take note.

I guarantee your competitor is.

Filed Under: Social Marketing Tagged With: ,

If I Write Blog Posts, Do I Need To Be A SEO Writer Too?

SEO Writer

So you’ve been writing your blog posts faithfully for a few weeks now. You have a lot of content on your blog, but you’re still not getting any traffic, or having any results. Should you just keep writing? Will the traffic eventually come? Is there something else to concentrate on?

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the process of improving the volume of traffic delivered to your website or blog from the search engines from naturally placed search results.

Based on that, becoming a SEO writer means that you produce quality content in your blog posts that helps you generate that natural placement.

How do you do that?

1. Write what your readers want to hear.
First of all, write what your readers want to hear, and what they are searching for online. If you are a plumber, they probably don’t want to hear a sales pitch on why they should replace their water heaters. Instead, they are searching because they have a problem. A typical search may be:

What does the pinging noise in my water heater mean?

Or

What’s the most efficient water heater for my home?

Your writing isn’t about you. It’s about what your clients want to hear.

2. Create your subjects around what they search for.
Start with the average question someone uses when they call into your office. If you hear the same question again and again, that’s a great topic for a blog post.

Using that as your starting point, create your title around that idea. Then fill your blog post content with information to support your title.

Too often I see titles such as “testimonial” or “My Company gets a new client”. Have you ever had a prospect find you by looking up “testimonial” in the phone book, or typing “testimonial” into Google? It’s just not going to happen. So you need to think like your customer, and create content based on what your customer thinks.

3. Fill in with keyword and key phrase ideas.
I’ve also heard people say, “I just don’t have anything to talk about in my blog.” How many ways could you talk to a potential client?

Start with your FAQ, or frequently asked questions. What do people want to know about your business? Then find dozens of ways to talk about those questions. Because people will have dozens of ways of asking the same question, only in their own language.

People want understanding and solutions. If you provide them with both, and a person can see himself or herself in your blog post, you’re on track to a new customer.

Filed Under: Social Copywriting Tagged With:

Yelp: A Small Business Friend Or Enemy?

Social networking sites have the power to help your business – or harm it. It all depends on the way the site is used.

In the case of Yelp, it started out as a great way to build your business. Yelp is a review site that allows you to search your local area for everything from restaurants to professional services. If you are heading out to dinner, find out what other people are saying about places in your area. Or if you have something to say about another business, login and write up a testimonial yourself.

Yelp for small business marketing

Sounds like a great idea, and many small business owners are encouraging their clients to write reviews for it, and even link to Yelp from their own websites showcasing the reviews.

But allegations over the past couple of months may change the way you feel about Yelp. Several lawsuits have been filed on behalf of small business owners, claiming extortion from Yelp’s management team.

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/03/17/small-businesses-join-lawsuit-against-yelp/tab/article/

According to the lawsuit, sales reps would offer to remove any negative reviews – if a small business agrees to advertise on Yelp and pay the monthly fee.

This makes Yelp, well, just another advertising site. The idea behind a social site is to allow the general population to have their say. No interference by the site itself, or by the small businesses affected by the social site. Good or bad, it’s all there for people to see.

While Yelp is denying any wrongdoing, only time will tell.

As a small business owner, the best lesson you can learn is to keep track of what is being said about you and your company online. Don’t put too much merit on one item – look at things as a whole. No business is perfect, and you’re always going to have the occasional customer whom you just can’t satisfy. If someone searches and finds 100 positive reviews and 1 negative, they know to question the negative. As long as you have your finger on what’s being said, it’s easier for you to control and put out the fires before they get too strong.

Filed Under: Social Networking Tagged With: , , , ,

Using Social Media Wisely: Think Before You Write

If you’ve been following CNN’s latest hire Eric Erickson, and the impact it’s having on the network, you know that what you write online will affect you forever.

This is just the latest incident that shows once again your past can catch up with you in the online world. Whether through email, a blog, or your Facebook account, the item will remain online, and have the ability to come back and haunt you at any time.

Which is why I was surprised recently as I found a large group of parents talking about Facebook and their children. A number of parents stated, “being a friend on their child’s Facebook account was like reading their diary – no way, no how”. Really? idea cloud

When my daughter turned 13 and decided she wanted a Facebook account, I was her first friend. As a 13 year old, we can talk and talk, but that occasional 13 year old attitude kicks in once in awhile and who knows what she would write. So as a friend of hers, I know she’s constantly thinking, “mom can see this”. And I mention things once in awhile as well. “I saw Amy went skiing, did she have fun?” I’m always letting her know I’m protecting her, and making sure she keeps herself safe online. That’s what a mom does.

My daughter also has a diary – it’s tucked up on her bookshelf in her room. She’s the only one who reads it, and she loves writing her hopes and dreams in it. I agree with parents on one issue – I would never read her diary. That’s hers to write about anything she chooses.

The difference is her diary will always belong to her, no one but her will read it, and it will never have an impact on her life unless she chooses to do something with it.

If she writes something on Facebook, it could impact her getting into a college, or landing her “dream” job. It could impact her relationships over the next few decades, and be found and used against her in any shape and form – for the rest of her life.

To me, that’s a huge difference.

It doesn’t matter if you’re protecting your child, or protecting your own image. You have to make a choice when you head online.

You should always be asking, “How would this impact me 5 years from now?”

Think before you write

Filed Under: Social Networking Tagged With: ,
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