Who Said What? Social Media Marketing & How To Monitor What Is Being Said About You

There are a multitude of sites where consumers can comunicate their extreme happiness about you, your product, your service or express their utter disgust and disappointment. With Twitter, Facebook, blogs, forums, Yelp, Pissedconsumer and many others, consumers can build your business up or shut your doors down.  Unanswered complaints or questions about a product for instance can turn potential clients away or disappoint a company's loyal fan or avangelist.

More and more companies are using tools to not only monitor what is being said about them online but also to gather information about the competition, the industry, related products and services. It is not just about defending your product or company but it could help create new opportunities. These tools tell you where your audience is and that is the starting point for engagement.

The most basic of these tools is Google Alerts, which is free to use and sends you an email when a keyword you select appears on the internet in an online discussion. It will tell you what was said, who said it and give you a link to go to for the comment.  If you have many keywords, many brands, many retail stores to keep track of, then you will be better off with a more sophisticated service which provides more detailed information including the influencers of your brand or product.  These can tell you whether a comment is negative, positive and which needs to be addressed.  The following are some of the more sophisticated tools companies are using in social media marketing monitoring:

Viralheat
Trackur
Radian6
Visible Technologies

"My Business is on Facebook and Twitter. Now What?"

It has happened to all of us. We get a profile up for our business on one of the social networking communities like Facebook or Myspace and on a microblog like Twitter and write some posts  on our wall or do some tweeting. We then suggest the page to our friends and even get some “likes” and some followers or fans. We wait a few weeks, maybe months and then boom. Silence. No interaction. No activity. No engagement and definitely no leads. What happened? What went wrong? We ask ourselves, “Why isn’t social media working for my business”?

Once research has been done on the product or service and it has been established that the best social media for the business is social networking through Facebook, then you can take the steps to really harness the power that it can provide.  You also have to establish who your audience is. Is it businesses (B2B) or is it the consumer (B2C)? Or both? Consider the following:

1. The most important thing to remember with social networks is that people do not want to be marketed to so do not try to pitch your product or service at the community on your Facebook business page.

2. Do find groups or associations on Facebook that you have similar interests in as your business and /or start a discussion in that area. You can do this directly on your Facebook business profile.

3. Do share information, suggestions, opportunities that have to do with your industry and not your product. Give away free information that your audience can actually use and be thankful for. Make your content real, interesting, and valuable.

4. Do share your passion for your industry by posting upcoming events having to do with your industry and interesting articles, links, videos, pictures having to do with your industry.

5. Do share and show with your own podcasts, videos or pictures and text what you and your company has done for the society as in charities. Show also how your business has succeeded in a difficult job. For instance you and your staff went over and beyond the call of duty to get the product ready for delivery. Utilize Facebook's video feature. See Nick O'Neil's post : http://www.allfacebook.com/2009/11/how-to-get-thousands-of-facebook-fans-with-a-single-video/.

6. Do make sure your blog, FB, Twitter are all linked so your audience can easily exchange and share information with one another.

7. Always reply to comments and be thankful even for the negative comments. Make sure you address them. Ask the audience for their comments, questions, insight and answer them.

8. Educate your staff and get them onboard. They are what make your company real.

10. Get fans to tag photos you have posted.

11.Utilize your physical office, store or place of business to promote your Facebook page with a laptop present or print media and get clients to become fans instantly (ideally from their mobiles).

12.Sign posts on other walls

13.Use the Share button

14.Suggest your business profile on Facebook to Friends

15. Place widgets on your website or blog. By placing the Like Box on your website, you are encouraging your audience to become a fan of your facebook page.

These are just a few of the many ways you can proactively encourage engagement on your Facebook business page.