Category Archives: Social Media Strategy

Lead Generation Using Social Media

Posted on April 12, 2012 by
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Marketing Integration

Everyone wants more business and more and more people are looking to social media to help them generate leads.  But the question is how do we use social to get leads.  We first must look at what social media is good at, conversations.

Getting involved in conversations is a great way to begin building your social media presence.  It isn’t that far from real life.  If you’re the person at the party that sits in the corner and waits for people to come talk to you, you might have 1 conversation all night.  However, if you are active, approaching others, LISTENING to what they have to say and responding intelligently and authentically, you are talking all night.  You are engaging.  You are memorable.

The same is true in social media.  Listen to what is being said and participate, authentically.  This is not the time to “sell”.  This is simply a conversation.

Know Your Audience

Understand how the people you’re conversing with work.  What are their likes and dislikes.  Where do they spend their time online. What sites do they use.  While your audience may not be on facebook a lot, they might be on linkedIn.  They might comment on popular blogs, forums, etc.

Develop Your Social Media Strategy

Dale recently wrote a blog about why you need a strategy for digital marketing.  You must have a plan and then execute that plan.  We don’t want to roaming around the digital landscape and not know where we are going.  Spending all our time on one platform when another is the fertile ground.

Consistency Is Key

Some say absence makes the heart grow fonder but in business it makes the mind wonder.  Wonder what happened.  Ever find your self thinking I wonder what happened to them….  When people stop hearing from you, they assume the worse.  They don’t assume you are so busy you can’t talk.  They assume you are so dead you don’t want to talk.  Make sure you are talking, consistently.  This is hard, I know.  We struggle with it too, but it is something we are constantly working on.

Be Authentic

In the day and age of 24/7 information, anything is a simple google search away.  You must be true to who you are and don’t try to fake the details.  Just be you.

In the end, social media is a relationship building tool.  You aren’t going to gain a new customer from social right when they like you.  You are just getting started.  You then use that platform to let them know what you are about, what you stand for, and how you think.  You grow that relationship over time.  More importantly you learn about them. Who are they, what do they like, etc.

So, I encourage you to start the conversation below.  Let’s get the party started!

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Categories: Online Advertising, Online Marketing Strategy, Social Media, Social Media Strategy

Relieve The Stress of Social Media

Posted on April 11, 2012 by
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Even though most people consider social media to be 3 sites, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn (and now maybe four with Pintrest), last time I checked there were over 600 sites that considered themselves to be a social media platform.  How overwhelming can that be, that there are hundreds of sites to work with?   First step take a deep breath.  Second step,  look at who your customer is, what information they need from you, and where your customer is spending their time in social media.  For a small business to business company there are great opportunities on LinkedIn, Digg, and Faceook.  For a business that is selling a product to consumers, Facebook, Twitter and Pintrest maybe the best social media platforms for you.  Once you have figured out what platforms you want to be active on, plan out how many post per site, and when would be the ideal time to post them.  Put this information in a calendar or spreadsheet, so you know exactly  when and where you will be posting.  Not only will this schedule help you plan, it will save you time and stress.      I know that when I have a schedule of what needs to get done and when it needs to get done, it makes the tasks less imposing and also decreases my chance of procrastination.  In three steps you just put together the beginning of your social media strategy.

There are many benefits to having a social media strategy, but the one that I like the most is I do not have to worry when or where I am going to post, I just check it off my list, and move on to the next task.  Since I am not trying to figure out what to post, I have much more time to listen to what other people are saying and join in to meaningful conversations with my network.  Another great benefit of having a strategy in place is it makes social media much easier to track how it is doing.  By knowing how often you posted, and where you can see what are the best times to have a conversation with your customer and what they are talking about.  So the last step is review your strategy and make tweaks to it for the next month.  What tactics do you use to relieve the stress of social media?

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Categories: Social Media, Social Media Strategy | Tags: , , ,

Remember The Internet Bubble Burst? Is Social Next?

Posted on December 5, 2011 by
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Whoa, stop laughing.  I was in this industry in 2000 when the bottom fell out of the internet industry, I was also in this industry in the late 90′s when it was exploding and there are a lot of parallels today with what is happening with Social Media Marketing.  Let me take you back in time, just for a minute.  It was the late 90′s and everyone, literally everyone, was racing to the Internet for their fortune.  Back in the day, there wasn’t a lot (any) conversation about usability, conversions, or even much conversation about traffic.  Everyone was building websites based on this blind faith that the customer was going to beat a path to their door.

Then, 2000 hit, the bottom fell out and we all started to look at this Internet thing through different glasses. Companies were starting to evaluate the return on their investment for all of this technology and we started to see businesses and marketers starting to have conversations about the goals for being on the Internet and more importantly how to gain more of what their business needed through the Internet.

Now, here we are, again.  This time it is 2011 and the topic is social media marketing.  There has been a bit of a frenzy surrounding the social platforms with businesses starting up Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, YouTube channels, etc with little strategy being applied to the effort and many times unwarranted expectations for what the results will be for the social effort.

Please, don’t misunderstand me, I do believe in the business application for the social platform, but I also believe that it has to fit into your marketing strategy.  What you post on the social platforms has to be relevant to the audience and your expectations have to be in line with the reality of what social marketing can deliver.  Then, once you have figured out the strategic value for being “social”, be committed to the tactical execution!  There is no magic switch online, marketing online is no different than marketing offline.  It takes a plan, using the right channels, and a commitment to consistent execution of that plan.  Let’s not repeat ourselves.

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Categories: Social Media Strategy