With the intent of creating ongoing dialogue with you, every Wednesday, I’ll be posting commonly asked questions and then provide an answer to them.
Easy. Engage and listen to your customers. Talk with them and not at them.
This is the holy grail; it always has been. Social media has simply made it more obvious. But, companies are having difficulty adapting.
Why? Continue reading
Last Monday, I wrote about what topics make for great content. These topics sit at the intersection of your expertise, and your audience’s core needs and interests.
Today, I’m going to provide you with a tool I use to come up with focused content; call it the Content Ideation Map.
The Content Ideation Map has three key components:
What I like to do here, is to then introduce my seven friends:
Questions starting with any of my seven friends, are potential questions anybody may ask themselves. These are the questions/inquiries you can and should answer for them on your blog/website.
Remember, social media opens a vast area of opportunity to connect with people. It provides an opportunity to clear the noise and provide clarity. And, framing your content with questions helps you put yourself in your audience’s shoes.
Answering your customer’s questions is a powerful approach to creating trust and engagement (critical marketing objectives). On my next post, I’ll go deeper into this and provide you with examples.
But, for now, remember the key takeaway: Stop “selling things” to your customers and start giving advice.
This tool helps you put yourself in that state of mind.
Hat tip: Brainzooming for sharing the tool.
Many people and business owners ask me this question. It is still not clear how exactly you get traffic to your website.
Luckily, you can explain “how” in the image below: Continue reading
What is the key for social media success? The right team that understands the human condition.
In other words: empathy. This is such a HOT button for me, personally and professionally.
And, this team has to have a strong motivation to want to understand what others are interested in. Connection takes effort, and this is why the vast majority of social media initiatives fail; they are more focused on gaining followers than on really connecting with people.
To be able to persuade and influence others, you have to empathize with them. You have to take the time to be in the conversation.
I think this is one, if not the biggest, challenge for organizations who want to commit to social media.
Below is an excerpt from The Word of Mouth Comic Book about how take part in the conversation. I think this is really helpful as it is common sense advice on how to get started:
Here is an animation describing the Universal Principles of Persuasion based on the research of Dr. Robert Cialdini, Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing, Arizona State University. Continue reading
To make the most of your social media marketing, you need to have a plan. Social media is about having an ongoing conversation with your customers, not droning on about your business while they ignore you. You have to put in the time to cultivate your existing customers and attract new ones. Yes, this will take a little more time and thought, but that’s why it works. If you “set it and forget it,” you are wasting your time. Guaranteed.
So, to get the most of out your time, here are few things to do:
Understand each channel. Should you jump on the Pinterest bandwagon? Should you be on Google+? Are your customers on these channels? You have to know what you want to do on each channel and also understand what that channel lets you do. The only way to know if it will work for you is by doing a short term pilot. You need to be where customers are and where they are talking to each other. And no amount of emarketer, infographic research will tell you if it will work for you. Jump in and test it. That’s the only way to know if you should keep investing your time.
Contribute and add value. Once you get a feel for the channels where your customers are, join them in the conversation. The best thing to do is to act as a person representing your brand, not a logo. People will respect that since they’ll know there’s an actual person behind the logo. But more than anything, add value. If they have questions, participate.
Aim to educate, not spam. Once you’ve started participating and found opportunities to add further value, create content that addresses those opportunities.
Advocate and enroll. You will find that there are people who are passionate advocates about a specific topic. Maybe you already have content that addresses those topics. If you don’t create content to pull those passionate people towards you. Show you are as passionate as they are. This is the beginning of creating advocacy. No one will follow you if you’re not advocating.
What do people really want?
They don’t want content; they want help. And, if your content (medium) helps them do something, then your message will be well received.
But if you’re just churning out content without focusing on customer value, then you’re just adding to the noise of modern-day marketing.
Every customer really only wants two things from your content:
Focus on the positive. Of course, if you can help people get better and better, that helps your cause. It also helps your chances of your customers telling their friends about how you’ve made their life a whole lot better.
Remember: The reason people share is either because you’ve blown them away with the product or service experience, or because it makes them feel good in some form or fashion.
Focus on helping your customers overcome the negatives and inspire them to achieve something positive. If your message does this, the medium doesn’t matter; it only enables the message.
