Whether you have a small business or a large company, the question most asked nowadays is if you or your staff can carry out your own social media marketing activities or do you need to hire a consultant.
The answer is largely dependent on what you want to get out of social media marketing and what you can put into it, in terms of time and money.
As anything else, the more time and attention you devote to something, the greater the chances of it growing and developing. You know your product or service more than anyone else but can you devote a lot of time to digital marketing activities? How much time? I would say you should be able to devote at least 1-2 quality hours daily. This means time devoted to research (staying informed of what is new in your sector, product but also in terms of viral marketing), writing valuable content, contributing to forums or groups and associations and answering questions. It is not easy nor is it fast. It requires hard work and consistency. It requires putting together a strategy with goals, implementing your strategy, measuring what you are doing and then tweaking and retweaking until you are getting the results you want.
Without a doubt, if you do decide to hire a consultant or agency, you will still have a major role especially because you know your product more than anyone else. You will be working with your consultant and giving him/her the input he/she needs to carry through. Make sure that the consultant is not just offering you a list of things to be done. Every product and service is different and the consultant has to understand this. Most importantly, ensure that the consultant is doing the research to know who your audience is and where your audience is. Good luck.
Showing posts with label content. Show all posts
Showing posts with label content. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Friday, January 14, 2011
TIPS ON USING FACEBOOK
DON'T use Facebook for a fastsell. People don't want to be marketed to and it is a quick turn off. If you have a repair shop or store don't post "Get our gift certificates now." This type of marketing via social media is not effective.
DO offer valuable information for your audience and then mention your product or service. It is much more effective. In other words if you have a shoe repair shop or dry cleaning business, tell your audience how to get rid of stains on your shoes or clothes. Then you can tell them about your gift certificates.
DON'T just copy what your competitor is doing. What works for them may not necessarily work for you. Just because Burberry's Christopher Bailey is "talking" to his fans about the brand on its Facebook page and has fantastic results in engagement does not mean Gucci's Frida Giannini will have the same type of success. There are a lot of different factors in play and duplicating exactly the same thing that the competitor is doing, especially for a luxury brand, is like copying another brand's designs. Not good.
DO research what the competition is doing via social media and then find creative ways to make your strategy even better.
DO engage the audience offering interesting information. No one wants to read that you are attending a staff meeting to discuss delivery schedules. Boring.
DON'T be wordy. People don't have time to read lengthy posts.
DO provide accurate information and use proper grammar.
DO find an audience that can actually utilize your information.
DO offer valuable information for your audience and then mention your product or service. It is much more effective. In other words if you have a shoe repair shop or dry cleaning business, tell your audience how to get rid of stains on your shoes or clothes. Then you can tell them about your gift certificates.
DON'T just copy what your competitor is doing. What works for them may not necessarily work for you. Just because Burberry's Christopher Bailey is "talking" to his fans about the brand on its Facebook page and has fantastic results in engagement does not mean Gucci's Frida Giannini will have the same type of success. There are a lot of different factors in play and duplicating exactly the same thing that the competitor is doing, especially for a luxury brand, is like copying another brand's designs. Not good.
DO research what the competition is doing via social media and then find creative ways to make your strategy even better.
DO engage the audience offering interesting information. No one wants to read that you are attending a staff meeting to discuss delivery schedules. Boring.
DON'T be wordy. People don't have time to read lengthy posts.
DO provide accurate information and use proper grammar.
DO find an audience that can actually utilize your information.
Monday, November 15, 2010
"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”?
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.
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.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Social Media & Putting Yourself in Your Audiences' Shoes
There is a multitude of information out on social media these days about “thinking from the end user’s perspective.” We tend to forget that the audience is real people with real feelings and real needs.
The people that buy your product, complain about your product, fantasize about owning your product and the people that does not know your product. Who is this particular audience of your business or product or potential customer? What social media circles does he / she visit and hang out in ? Where are these conversations taking place? What problems or needs do these people have concerning your product? For instance are they searching for a particular shoe model to buy and cannot find it? Are the sizes not corresponding to their actual size? Have they had a problem with a product defect? Do they know the different ways they can wear that coat? Do they want to find out the latest trends in shoe heels? One could go on and on with needs but this is the idea. You have to put yourself in their situation considering as many demographic factors as you can gather. Where are these people? Who are they? Mothers? Aged 40-60? Male professionals in their 40’s from the West Coast in the United States? University students? Retirees? You need to do your demographic research and find out what your audience is doing in the social media sphere. You need to find out where their conversations are being held. Are they on Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, using blogs or message boards and forums? Wherever they are, you need to start listening and listening more.
The other factor to consider is providing your audience with quality content, quality information. For instance if you have a shoe repair shop, why not offer tips on how to keep your shoes from falling apart. Tell your audience about products they can use to prevent wear and tear. Tell your audience about what to do if their shoes are too big, using particular insoles that will keep your foot from slipping etc. Here the trick is not to wait until a need is expressed but to provide your audience with useful free information before they actually request it. If you are putting yourself in your audience’s shoes, it will be easier to know what these needs are.
Trust and Service. Putting yourself in your audiences’ shoes also means gaining their trust and providing them with quality service. If someone has expressed a concern or a complaint about your product or service, quickly respond to that person thanking him or her for taking the time to express it and tell him or her you will see to rectify the problem. There are no tricks here. The focus is to be real and not on getting the fast sell. This is about wanting to truly create long term relationships with not only the influencers in the social media circles but your audience in general.
The other factor to consider is providing your audience with quality content, quality information. For instance if you have a shoe repair shop, why not offer tips on how to keep your shoes from falling apart. Tell your audience about products they can use to prevent wear and tear. Tell your audience about what to do if their shoes are too big, using particular insoles that will keep your foot from slipping etc. Here the trick is not to wait until a need is expressed but to provide your audience with useful free information before they actually request it. If you are putting yourself in your audience’s shoes, it will be easier to know what these needs are.
Trust and Service. Putting yourself in your audiences’ shoes also means gaining their trust and providing them with quality service. If someone has expressed a concern or a complaint about your product or service, quickly respond to that person thanking him or her for taking the time to express it and tell him or her you will see to rectify the problem. There are no tricks here. The focus is to be real and not on getting the fast sell. This is about wanting to truly create long term relationships with not only the influencers in the social media circles but your audience in general.
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