Sometimes when I tell people what I do for a living they don’t really get it. I mostly get responses along the lines of, “So you play around on Facebook all day?” or “All you do is write a status update?” or “You better start looking for a new job, because that won’t last.” While all of those statements are vastly untrue, the worst is the assumption that I will be out of a job when this “social media fad” is over. Social media is not a trend or something like Giga Pets that we will all get really excited about (I wont lie. I had a dog and a pony..it was awesome.) and then discard and completely forget about after a few years.
Admittedly social media is entertaining, it is fun to see what your high school friends are doing or to be able to watch your cousin’s baby grow up from 500 miles away, but social media has also changed marketing and the way you can build relationships with your customers. Here are a few reasons why social media is going to stick around (especially for businesses):
• Simple to Learn.
Unlike other forms of marketing online that require a lot of technical details and understanding, social media is relatively easy to implement once you learn the basics. It’s just a matter of defining your message, finding your audience and spreading the word. And most importantly, being social!
• Can connect you directly with your target market.
Small business owners are always looking for ways to meet the needs of their market. It might take months or years to develop a relationship with a member of your target market via email marketing. But social media is like personal networking on hyperdrive. You can connect with your market in real-time on issues that they care about and become part of their trusted network of friends and advisors.
• Helps build consistency.
When it comes to marketing your business online, consistency is key. Inconsistent marketing efforts will produce disappointing results. Fortunately, social media makes it easier than ever before to be consistent with marketing. You can set up your updates ahead of time – a week at a time – and let them run automatically. This consistent presence helps build your brand and produces better results.
• Makes businesses more personable and approachable.
Other forms of online marketing can put layers between you and your ideal customers. But with social media – you’re right there! You get to see what they are up to, what they are reading and what they care about, and they get to know you too. It’s win-win!
What does this mean for your business? When used correctly, social media can create more visibility, opportunity and profits for your business. Take the time to research your target market and see how they are interacting on social media so that you can determine how best to use this tool to achieve your goals.
If you aren’t using social media for your business. Run – don’t walk – to the nearest computer and if you need a little help along the way we would be happy to help you get started.
Are you using social media to promote your business? What do you think is the value of having your business on social sites?
Whether we realize it or not, we take in a surprising amount of information about companies and products just based on what we see. Most companies have some semblance of a recognizable image or images which help consumers identify their brand—think McDonalds’ golden arches or the Apple logo. Beyond pure recognition, logos and other visual elements can help to build a personality for your brand and to communicate about the services you offer. For example, if you’re a company that sells traditional, formal stationery, your customers might be confused if your website uses bright, whimsical fonts and bold graphics. It’s possible they’ll be even more confused if your blog looks streamlined and ultra-professional. You want to make sure that the visual style of your online media reflects the personality of your product or service.
Your website, blog, Facebook profile, and Twitter page each give prospective clients another opportunity to find your business and learn about your product, mission, and company values. But with so many forms of media to manage, it can be difficult to make sure that your brand identity remains consistent across each one. Here are our tips for maintaining online brand integration!
Consistency is Key
When we talk about brand integration, we’re referring to the need to communicate about your business consistently across all forms of media. When a prospective client is searching for you online, they want to know what exactly it is that your business offers. What kind of work can they expect from you? How much do your services cost? What is the overall personality of your brand, and/or the product or service that you offer? Brand integration makes sure that you answer these questions the same way on every online platform you use, both in the way you write about your business and in the visual elements you choose, such as your logo, background, and color scheme.
Define your brand identity.
Before you can start thinking about brand integration, you need to define what exactly you want your brand identity to be. Is your brand feminine or masculine? Budget or luxury? Modern or traditional? Think up a list of adjectives that describe the personality of your company. If you think your brand is smart, bold, youthful, mature, energetic, powerful, romantic, etc., jot it down. Once you’ve defined what you want the personality of your brand to be, it will be easier to find out how to communicate these things in your content and visual elements.
Incorporate similar visual content on all of your online (and offline) media.
Once you’ve decided on your brand identity and developed content and visual elements that help communicate it well, try to include these elements in all of your different online and offline marketing tools.Keep in mind that you don’t have to use exactly the same images and content on every page. Your blog or Twitter page, after all, should have a slightly different goal than your website.
Likewise, the two should use different fonts and images, and communicate something slightly different; your website header can look a bit more professional, while your blog header might be more approachable – still keep the most important elements of your brand identity consistent through both headers, using the same graphic elements , general style, and font colors. This helps readers to identify the blog as an extension of your company and keeps your brand personality intact.
Update often!
Don’t let any of your online pages become outdated. If you change something on your website, make sure to check your other pages for inconsistencies. Online and social media management takes time, but if it helps you build a consistent and recognizable brand, you’ll find it’s time well spent.
LinkedIn is great social site to build contacts, connect with employers, look for an employee, connect with old classmates, or advertise your business, but it can be confusing for a college student or a recent grad. Students are different from your average LinkedIn user because they don’t have a lot of work experience or business contacts, but LinkedIn has now made it easier for students to become better LinkedIn users.
LinkedIn has added a section that is specifically for students and allows students to add their achievements including awards, projects, courses, test scores, certifications, organizations and volunteer work.
Need a little help getting setting up your student section? Here is a how to from LinkedIn:
Go to your LinkedIn profile page in edit mode, and click the blue “Add sections” bar under your profile summary.
Then, browse the available sections and select a section to add to your profile.
When editing the section, include examples and specifics about your contributions, and how the experience added to your skills and abilities.
The new section will appear on your profile – and you can adjust your profile settings to control who can see these sections.
Do you think the new student section was needed? Will you be using it when looking for interns or entry level positions?
Now that I have entered the wonderful world that is Google+ I am thinking about a few things…. 1: I am on social media overload this week 2: It’s not easy to search one by one for all 1,000 of your Facebook friends on Google+. As I sat there frustrated and to the point of screaming I found this great video that tells you just exactly to exploit the relationship between Yahoo and Facebook. Enjoy these helpful tips and hints. I know I did!
One of our clients, Hemlock Hill RV in Connecticut, has embraced social media and are always up for new and fun ways to to interact with their customers and future customers. Since signing up with Social.Motive in November, they have done multiple contests, giveaways, sale promotions, a Disney Sweepstakes, and plan on doing a Facebook charity drive in the near future.
Many businesses pages run contests, but what makes Hemlock Hill RV’s social media program stand out?
Targeted Facebook ads
Many people think that the more people a Facebook ad is targeted to, the better. And while I think this could apply to some general businesses, many need to target the niche group that would actually purchase what you are selling. In the case of a RV dealership, I narrow down who our ad is shown to by only displaying it to people in their target demographic (which can be narrowed down by age, sex, location) as well as targeting individuals who have listed on Facebook that they like RVing, Road Trips, Camping, etc. This makes the pool of people that I show the ad to significantly smaller, but the chances of the ad catching their eye is much higher than say a 17 year old girl who has never camped before and would not buy an RV in the near future.
Fun and interactive contests designed to get fans to spread the word about Hemlock Hill Rv’s Facebook page
Everyone knows that contests and giving away prizes are a great way to gain fans to your page. But how do you get the fans to spread the word to their friends and family about your Facebook page and the contest you are running? By getting them involved! Hemlock hill recently ran a recipe contest where 10 fans submitted a recipe to the Facebook page. To determine the winner, the contest participants had to get their friends and family to vote on their favorite recipe, and the recipe with the most votes would win a RV tailgating grill. Hundreds of new fans came to the page to help their friends and family win the grill. We have also done this with ipads and photo contests as well.
Informative blogs that relate to the readers that are not retail driven
These blog posts provide excellent content to your Facebook and Twitter followers without trying to sell them something on every post. These blogs help SEO, makes the dealership look like experts on many different topics, allows different content to be posted every day and more. Every blog post links back to the businesses website, which helps drive people to find out more about the business.
These are just a few examples on why Hemlock Hill RV’s social media program has worked for them. Social.Motive is constantly evolving and coming up with new and exciting ideas to help businesses shine in social media.
If you log on to Twitter at any time you can find thousands of chats with new ones being developed every minute. Chats form so anyone can follow a conversation about a variety of subjects; chats will be formed around a love for an activity, a feeling, a celebrity scandal, or anything else you can think of. Why set up a chat? It is a free and easy way to talk to your consumers, network, and learn about new developments in your industry.
To get the most out of your Twitter chats check out these tips from Mashable:
Be Clear About Your Goals Going Into the Chat
Some say there are already too many Twitter chats. How does creating a new one (as opposed to joining existing ones) help you or your company? When I spoke to creators of successful chats like #wjchat, #blogchat, #smmeasure and #u30pro, they pointed out some powerful benefits of doing it right. For a company, it can position you as a thought leader and grow brand awareness. For an individual it can help you meet people in your industry and grow your personal brand.
Choose a Topic People Care About
How do you know if people care about your chat? They should already be discussing it informally. “It’s better to build a twitter chat around a topic of interest that’s directly related to your brand,” says David Spinks, creator of #u30pro, a Twitter chat for young professionals. “In the end, the participants will still relate the chat back to your brand because you’re the one organizing it.
Be Authentic
“The key to true reach and success is being authentic,” says Robert Hernandez, founder of #wjchat. “#wjchat is something organic and represents a passion shared by others. … If you have a topic you are passionate about, there may be others that are looking to connect with you.” Don’t do it just because you think you’re supposed to. Do it if you are genuinely looking for a way to engage and communicate with a community. Use that passion to stick with the chat when it starts out slow. Spinks says #u30pro’s first chat only had seven people and 150 tweets. Today, their typical chat includes 150 people and 1,200 tweets. Keep engaging and the right people and community should find you.
Bring In Thought Leaders
Don’t be afraid to get others involved, whether you need a partner to develop and plan the chat (#u30pro is operated by a team of four), or great guest “speakers” to help bring in audience. Twitter chats are successful because of the people in them. Do what you can to get great people involved, especially when you’re just starting.
Thank People Who Participate
If people take the time to engage with your chat, take a moment to thank them individually or in the chat itself. Collier has found huge success by following this strategy. “These are your rock stars, and you need to treat them as such,” he said. “That will simply give them more incentive to spread the word, and help you grow your community.”
Bottom Line: Keep your chats fun and interesting to the audience. Do you have any tips or thoughts about Twitter chats? If you need any more tips or assistance we would be happy to help!
Most people in the professional world have joined LinkedIn to help build their social media profiles. But besides setting up their profile, and requesting connections with past and present co-workers, most do not know how to fully utilize this great network to its full potential. There are so many ways that you can use LinkedIn to help you build your business or help to add employees to your company. Check out of these 5 ways to help your LinkedIn account work for you.
1. Join Groups – Your free Linkedin account will limit you to 50 groups, and my advice is to take advantage of all of them. Join groups in your core market that cover topics similar to those you blog about. You can join or leave groups risk-free at any time.
*Tip: Try to join groups with at least 500 members, but not more than 5,000. If the group is too small, you’re wasting valuable group allowance and will not be reaching as many people as you could. However if the group is too large, you’re running the risk your message will be diluted among thousands of other posts. I like to aim for a more tight-knit group in the 1,000 member range. Remember, you have 50, so 1,000 members in each group equates to an audience of 50,000 people.
2. Make Friends – Start connecting with your fellow groupies. Linkedin is like a mini-rolodex, and the more people you connect with, the larger your blogging network and distribution list will become.
* Tip: At any time, you can export your Linkedin connections to Excel and import to your desired e-mail program to alert them of new blog posts.
3. Share Your Content – Share relevant, meaningful content that links back to your blog. Post relevant discussions in groups and comment on other posts. Short on time? Try using RSS. In many situations you can contact the group owner and set up your Blog feed to auto post content within the News section of your group.
*Tip: Linkedin has an easy-to-use content sharing feature that makes it extremely easy to post a link to multiple groups at the same time. Once you’ve posted a new discussion, click the down arrow and select “Share.”
4. Have Fun (and don’t spam!) – Linkedin is a free and easy way to promote your blog posts while building your own professional network. You can easily share as much blog content that you feel your group will be interested in, but try not to abuse the platform by overposting or spamming.
*Tip: My advice to those sharing on Linkedin is to ‘keep it real’ and keep it relevant.
Content is key when it comes to your social sites. Whether a reader finds your contest useful, funny, entertaining, boring, or uninteresting can mean the difference in hundreds of fans and impressions. You can make your content funny (and you should), but always make sure the content you choose is relevant to your target audience.
Providing content that people want to read can help increase traffic to your sites and attract and retain a healthy following. Sometimes coming up with fresh and valuable content can be a challenge, but there are a couple of ways/sources you can use to prevent every running out of something new to say.
RSS Reader: Scan It Daily
A great way to get fresh ideas and inspiration is to sign up for a free RSS reader such as Google Reader. Then use the Google Blogs search option and search blog directory sites such as Technorati and Blogcatalog for blogs that are relevant to your product or service. When you find what you’re looking for, simply subscribe by clicking on the RSS feed and adding it to your reader.
Organize your feeds into folders and sort by category for easy scanning; you can combine topics you find in your industry’s blogs with your own commentary to create posts that stand on their own.
Make Every Employee a Marketer
Encourage employees to contribute to your blog by writing posts on a topic of interest in your industry. Ask your customer service and sales teams about their most frequently asked questions, then have them write blog posts about the solutions. Creating a simple blog template for employees to use can be a great tool to eliminate any objections to writing a post.
Forums
If social media has a grandfather, its name is Grandpa Forum. These open and free discussions are a fantastic way to find out what’s going on in your niche. A simple search on Google for “<your topic> + forum” will yield thousands of results.
Crowdsource
Post a social networking status or blog asking your audience for content topics and suggestions. Online survey and polling tools can be invaluable resources for collecting and prioritizing these ideas in an organized way. Embedding a survey or poll directly into your website or blog engages your audience in real time, and lets their voices be heard. You can also launch a survey or poll directly in Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn asking for feedback.
Google News
Want to keep your content relevant to current events and hot topics in the media? Sure you do. Google News aggregates headlines from news sources worldwide, groups similar stories together and displays them according to each reader’s personalized interests.
Simply search for keywords related to your industry and click on the news. Scanning the results will immediately provide you with headlines to tie your topic to what’s happening in the world.
Frankenblogging
“A Day In The Life” is one of the Beatles’ most influential songs and it came together with two seemingly unrelated bits, one written by John, the other by Paul. This is a perfect example of how bringing together two distinct segments written independently of one another can spawn greatness.
Like most bloggers, you probably have a growing number of half-written posts. The idea here is to find a common theme or link between two of them and combine. For example, I took a half-written post about identifying influencers, combined it with another half-written post about using Twitter lists, and came up with a fabulous post about finding influencers on Twitter and following them efficiently using Twitter lists.
Facebook is FUN! It’s supposed to be a place to meet people, reconnect with people, stay in touch with people and build and nurture relationships. Facebook pages really give you and your business an opportunity to do this with your customers future, past and present. I wanted to share with you today a few tips from Mashable about some different ways that you can help liven up your businesses Facebook page and create more interaction. These days it’s not about the number of fans you have but the number of interactions that you get from the fans that you do have. I truly believe it is QUALITY over QUANTITY.
First: Show off your customers!
Classic Chevrolet in Grapevine, TX is the #1 Volume Chevy dealer in the United States loves to share pictures on their profile of their newest customers with their new Chevy. This really makes the new car owner feel like they are becoming a part of the Classic Chevy family in a newer way. Now he can brag about his new Chevy on not only his Facebook Profile but on Classic Chevy’s Facebook Page.
Second: Have a sense of humor!
Did you know that a little bit of humor and a big smile can go a long way? Here you can see that I was at a Rangers game and just so happened to come across this Classic Chevy Texas Rangers Camaro sitting on the stand. We’ve been collecting entries for the big giveaway for the last year. I took a picture of the Camaro from my cell phone and uploaded it straight to Facebook with the caption, “At Rangers game…..Me Likey!” This simple picture and post resulted in a very nice amount of interactions from the Classic Chevy fan base.
Third: Give them something to read, consume, and comment on!
It is so important to be able to provide fun, entertaining, engaging stories for your customers and fans to read. That’s why the blog comes in handy. You don’t want to drive people away from your Facebook to someone else’s blog or website. Creating your own blog and writing your own stories allows for your fans to be driven in a circle around your company and brand. In this particular picture above I had written a blog about a Chevy Camaro that has 30″ wheels. It just so happens that Classic Chevrolet has a very heavy Camaro following on their Facebook page. As you can see this blog post to the Facebook page resulted in over 100 blog views, 16 comments and a really good amount of interaction.
Fourth: Ask Questions!
One of the great things about Facebook’s new questions feature is that is allows for one question to become viral in a matter of minutes which could result in a huge spike in Facebook “Likes.” For instance, in the picture above I asked the Classic Chevrolet Fans if they were stranded on the side of a busy freeway with a flat tire what would they do. I put 6 different options in the question for them to respond to. We had over 52 votes that day and added roughly 10 fans. It’s a good way to get people talking. Once a Facebook user answers the question it will show up in their news feed. Then another Facebook user will see it and if they click on the question they can see who originally asked the question and decide they want to be a fan of them.
Fifth: Take them behind the scenes!
Classic Chevrolet in Grapevine does more than just let you see videos of their service dept, waiting areas etc. They also like to pul pranks on their fellow colleagues. Classic Chevrolet in Grapevine has a relaxed, laid back, non-threatening sales approach. I think this video clearly shows that they are having fun at doing their jobs. When I wrote a blog about this and posted it to the Facebook page they received great comments and wonderful interaction.
So in conclusion there are a few things you can do to liven up your Facebook page and make it more fun and entertaining. The whole point of social media is relationship building and bonding. No one wants to bond with a company that’s stuffy.
The Facebook algorithm is affecting SEO, which means that your Facebook posts need to spark fan interaction. The more interaction that you get on your posts, the better your SEO results will be. Steve Allan, Social Media specialist at SMThree, has outlined how important this is, and how to connect with your fans to create the important interactions on your page.
The one item that struck me is how Facebook likes will now start affecting search results. That means the more times you can get your fans and followers to respond to your content the more likely you are to affect your SEO- at least on Bing. We have known for quite some time that Facebook’s Page Rank algorithm is affected by audience interaction. Now, this interaction has taken on greater importance.
Which leads to the obvious question – how do I get my followers to click “like” on my content?The answer is simple while the process is exceedingly complex. Connect with your followers on an emotional level and they will respond. See how easy that is? All you have to do is create content that touches someone.You can say resonate or engage or interact but the bottom line is you have to give them something that they care about.
Of course, doing that is what separates the great communicators from the average posters. Great communicators know how to reach inside an audience and cause action. And we know that every action causes a reaction (Wow, high school physics finally came in handy).
The question for you, Mr. or Ms. content Creator, is – exactly how do I do that? Here are a few ideas that will get you started:
Think like your audience – Whatever you have to say about your brand is really meaningless to me. It is your job as the content creator to craft your message in a way that has relevance to me. The easiest way to do this is to examine how you feel about content you interact with ON YOUR OWN TIME. Examine your personal interactions in social media. What makes you respond? What makes you click away?
While it would be incredible arrogant for anyone to presume they know exactly what their audience is thinking at any given moment, this process will help you to get outside of yourself and gain a different perspective. The biggest mistakes I see in content is inward focus. Telling me who you are – alone- does not create an emotional bond. Telling me how what you do is meaningful to me is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Understand emotion – When I say the word “emotion” the visceral reaction is usually “love” or some other soft, tender, personal feeling. Emotions run the gamut from fear and rage to amazement and humor. We can be equally touched by a drama or a comedy. Our interest can be piqued by facts or questions. Tapping into emotion means you are getting someone to pay attention.
So, when you are crafting content ask yourself this question – How do I expect my audience to react to this? If you can’t see an emotional connection between what you are writing and what they are reading – re-write!
Don’s ask, do tell – The biggest mistake I see in content creation is asking for responses. While it is important to “ask for the order” the question alone will not elicit a response. You have to give them a reason to respond. That goes back to that whole emotional thing.
“We just got in a shipment of new shoes. What kind of shoes do you like?” That is not the kind of content posting that will get a ton of likes. You haven’t motivated anyone to respond. You just asked a question.
“Studies suggest that shoes lose most of their support after about a year of walking. How old are yours?” This sets up a situation that makes someone think. Even if they don’t respond you have cut through the clutter and made an impression.
Manage expectations – Even the best content will only get about a 1% response from your followers. If your Facebook page has 5,000 fans your best posts will likely garner 50 likes and/or comments. This is why growing a fan base is so important. It is also why great, emotional content is so important.
Know your voice – The beauty of social Media is that you can humanize your brand unlike never before. This applies to small businesses and non-profits alike. Develop your style. Realize that everything you post does NOT have to be of monumentous importance. Strive for a balance between the frivolous and the essential. Find that mid-point between having fun and delivering value.
Do you still have questions on how to incorporate your social media and your SEO efforts? If so, contact Social.Motive and we will put you on the right track!
Social.Motive is a collaboration of 3 national advertising agencies. Our sole purpose is to provide the very best social media solutions to companies needing assistance in the vast Social Media world.
Here you can read blogs from our Social Media Directors David O'Hearn, Kate Carroll, Michelle Gamradt, and Shalanna Clark.
If you have any questions or suggestions on how we can improve this site feel free to email us at TheSocialMotive@Gmail.com
