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Tag Archives: Social media marketing
6 Universals about being effective at social media marketing
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
How to make the most of social media marketing
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.
To be an authority you have to know what you are talking about
It sounds obvious doesn’t it? But there are people out there on the web who claim to be authorities, when they are not.
Gurus, Ninjas, Jedi’s or any other moniker you can imagine.
First, let’s make something very clear: Authority is bestowed upon you by those you have served.
In other words, if you don’t have anything to back up your claims then you are not an authority. Your clients/customers give you authority because you’ve got something to show.
How do you become an authority?
Do something that shows your competence. Then, do some more. Then, do twice more. Then, do three times more. Then…
If you want to be perceived as an authority, you have to know your topic inside and out; you have to know your industry cold. In this day and age where knowledge is only a click away, this becomes very difficult. I mean, can you honestly say that you are social media marketing guru when everything is changing so fast?
You become an authority by showing competence. You become an authority if people trust you.
With that said, before claiming that you are an authority you should ask yourself: Do people really trust me?
But, don’t stop there. Go and ask your clients or customers if they trust you. Don’t send them an email, don’t ask them to fill a survey. Ask them face to face. If you can ask them face to face, then you should feel very confident about yourself.
Want something concrete to aim for? Take Apple. Half of people who use Apple devices would trust Apple with their savings. Can your customers or clients say the same thing about you?
Recipe for a powerful engagement strategy on Twitter
Last week I wrote about how the first thing marketers should worry about being successful on Twitter is being trustworthy.
But how do you measure trust? Or, how do you know if people trust you?
The obvious answers is to look at your number of followers. And, that’s what most folks look at as a measuring stick. ‘We want more followers. How do we get more followers?’ is a question asked a lot.
Actually, your number of followers doesn’t matter. What difference does it make if you have a million followers, but only a handful of them click on your links?
Getting followers isn’t the challenge; there are a handful of tactics that you can do to get more followers. But, the challenge is developing an active and engaged following.
Great; but, how?
I’ve already shared with you a few ways to get more retweets; here are a few tactics to take it to the next level:
- Twitter chats. Participating or hosting your very own Twitter chat will immediately help you get useful followers who a very likely to engage with you in the future. Plus, this immediately puts you in the Thought Leadership category.
- Answer questions on your blog and invite people to respond. People have questions and you may have the answers or a distinct point of view. When you publish the post on Twitter, invite people to respond by cc’ing their Twitter handle; this is sure to generate comments and retweets because people like to be asked for their thoughts
- Respond to retweets. If someone retweets you with a comment, don’t just say ‘thank you for the RT’. This is an opportunity to engage and either follow the conversation or create one.
Another key point is don’t be afraid of giving your ideas away:
You don’t give ideas away because it’s cool, but because it’s part of what one does in social networks like Twitter and LinkedIn. Adding value to the conversation is how you contribute and build your reputation. Think about it like a real-time wikipedia entry; lots of people adding their own perspective.
If you are helpful, people will become more than your followers. They’ll become your advocates.
A good engagement strategy is about connecting with others and contributing to the ongoing story. That’s really all you need to do.
What would you add? What’s your experience with creating engagement on Twitter?
Related articles
- 11 Guaranteed Ways to Get Others to Retweet Your Content (hubspot.com)
- Is It Time To Abolish The Twitter Retweet Button? (socialmediatoday.com)
- A Starter’s Guide to Increasing Brand Visibility on Twitter (hubspot.com)
- The one thing you need to do to be successful on Twitter (ggbenitezpr.com)
Social Media Marketing is a constant learning process
Launch. Learn. Adjust.
The vast majority of organizations are not designed to operate this was so these principles are not easy to digest for them.
Traditional marketing programs rely of some level of predictability. Social media marketing, though easier to measure in real-time, is not so predictable as everyone says it is. The results I mean.
With different types of networks popping up everyday, you must really be diligent in studying if your audience is on these networks. For example, Pinterest has recently risen to become new channel for people to make better shopping decisions. Who would’ve predicted that?
No one.
That’s why you have to make an effort to participate in new networks, to test and learn and see if they are any relevant to your business and your customers. To see how they might evolve. I like this quote from Miki Berardelli, CMO, of Fashion Label Tory Burch:
“While the voice is consistent across all platforms, we treat each one differently because they are all unique.”
Exactly!
Every platform, be it Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, YouTube and Pinterest are different from each other.
Constant learning and experimentation is needed to see what works and what doesn’t work. Making adjustments on the fly is a task you must be comfortable with. Being stubborn thinking that a detailed grand plan is going to work from the get-go is going to result in a lot of frustration when all that planning doesn’t play out as you expected.
No marketing plan survives contact with the customer. Let’s add platforms in there too.
Related articles
- How to Become a Social Business (servantofchaos.com)
- How Luxury Label Tory Burch Dominates Digital Marketing (mashable.com)
- 10 Learnings from Operationalizing Social Media within the Enterprise (johnbell.typepad.com)
- 96% Of Small Businesses Are On Facebook: Report (allfacebook.com)
- Social Media has evolved; shouldn’t your marketing program do the same? (actionableinsights.covario.com)
- 3 Ways To Appropriately Prepare Your Client For Social Media Marketing (socialtimes.com)
- 86% of small businesses find Facebook effective (infographic) (zdnet.com)
Social Media roadkill: Death by vanity metrics
What’s the main goal of your social media objectives? To get more followers on Twitter or Facebook?
If that’s so, it shouldn’t be.
Vanity metrics still prevail
According to Chief Marketer’s 2011 Social Media Marketing Survey, the number of friends, followers, and likes is the leading measure of social media success for 60% of marketers. In fact, only 35% of marketers said they track qualified leads from social media. This means that a whopping 65% of marketers aren’t even measuring leads generated from social media. Eek!
Maximizing your reach is important, but this shouldn’t be the intent. This is the biggest problem when starting a social media initiative; defining what metrics really matter. Vanity metrics, such as number of fans and followers, really don’t matter. If, at the end of the day you have nothing to show for your increased reach, are your marketing efforts even worth it?
I see way too many social media programs start with the objective of ‘acquiring followers’, as many as possible. This approach is flawed because it begins with the assumption that just tweeting and posting status updates will entice people to follow you. It doesn’t work that way.
Instead you should look a little deeper and come up with a profile of your ideal follower/fan. If your marketing already includes this profile or profiles then you are in good luck because now it’s a matter scanning through potential followers. Tools like SproutSocial can help you dig through a multitude of people to engage with either by tracking specific keywords in conversations, bios or names.
An all out approach is tempting and the majority of businesses approach social media this way, but it’s not the most effective way to go about it. Doing it this way ignores the fact that there are many tools to help target your strategy to very specific people.
Talking to everyone is talking to no one, in this day and age.
One more thing to remember, everyone is thinking the same way you do, and are frustrated by the same results. So why would you expect any different?
Related articles
- 5 Ways Social Media Can Drive Revenue (customerthink.com)
- Social Media Marketing – 5 Steps Bloggers Should Take To Achieve Results Easily (dailyseotip.com)
- How to become more effective with your social media efforts (searchenginepeople.com)
- Here Are Three Crucial Questions About Social Media That We’ll Examine Next Week (businessinsider.com)
