Social Media

It sounds obvious, but before you implement a new marketing strategy in your business, you need to first know what your objectives are. That is, what is it that you are trying to accomplish? Social media is no different. It’s not enough to want to add it to your marketing mix just because “everyone else is doing it.”

Luckily Forrester Research came up with a really useful acronym called the POST Method₁, and it’s a really easy way to frame your social media strategy. Here’s what it stands for:

P: Who are the PEOPLE you would most like to attract in social media For example–mentors, colleagues, potential clients, strategic alliance partners, raving fans, local connections? Or a combination of these?

O: What are your primary OBJECTIVES for your Social Media presence? For example, is it to get found by those who are looking for your services or products, building a community around your business, finding and interacting with current and potential clients and customers, creating awareness of your content and offerings, building relationships with potential strategic alliance and referral partners, learning from mentors?

S: What Social Media STRATEGIES do you plan to implement? Will you have a LinkedIn profile, Twitter profile, a Facebook Fan Page, join a Facebook Group, start a blog? Which ones have priority over others?

T: What TECHNOLOGIES will you use? For example–Twellow, Hootsuite, Ping.fm, Twitpic, YouTube, Bit.ly for link shortening?

Finally, for bonus points, you could also include “M” as in “how will you MEASURE your results?” Understandably, businesspeople still want to know the ROI of their activities–and although this is not as cut and dry to measure in social media, there are still certain numbers that you can look to: your number of newsletter or blog subscribers, number of followers and fans, your website traffic, the amount of comments on your blog, how many purchases made, etc.

The POST method is a good basic structure for starting to define your social media plan, objectives, and priorities. By identifying all the relevant parts of the structure you are creating a clearer vision and purpose–as well as implementing goals, strategies, and tools that will best enable you to effectively reach the people you are looking to connect with through social media.

~Christine Gallagher, Mompreneurs Social Media Expert

₁Source : Forrester Research/Groundswell: http://blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/2007/12/the-post-method.html

Many small business owners are already on Facebook but are either still not sure that it is a good use of their time, or they see its potential but are just confused about how exactly it can work for them.  Starting a Fan Page for your business may be your answer.  But how can you use a Fan Page to achieve fantastic results?

1) The first way to leverage Fan Pages is to set up your Page for success. One of the first things you need to do when you set up a new Page is to give it a title.  A tip with this is to think about using keywords related to your business that you would like to be found for. You also want to choose a good, clear photo for your Page.  Another thing to note is to make sure you have filled out the Info tab on your Page thoroughly with all the relevant information about your business.

2) The second way to leverage Fan Pages is to build your Fan base. You have to be a little proactive about getting Fans, especially when your Page is new.  An easy way to invite people is to use the “Suggest to Friends” link underneath the picture on your Fan Page.  Facebook will then pull up a list of your Facebook friends and you would just click on the ones you want to send invitations to. You’ll want to consider people like former and current clients, people you’ve partnered with in your business, vendors you work with, people who you know have purchased from you before, etc.

3) The third way to leverage Fan Pages is to interact and engage with your Fans. Once you have some supporters of your Page, you want to encourage more dialogue and interaction between yourself and them and even among each other. The biggest impact comes from simply having conversations with people. One thing that I do on my Page is to just ask open-ended questions. Asking people to share experiences is another great way to get a dialogue going.

4) The fourth way to leverage Fan Pages is to provide good content. Offering regular content will naturally encourage interaction because you are giving people something to respond to.  You don’t need to come up with all the content yourself, either.  You might just link to an interesting article or blog post you have found on the web related to your business or industry. What content like this does is attract comments from your Fans, which is activity that in turn goes out into the News Feed.  The more activity on your Page then, the more attention to your Page you have a chance of attracting.

5) The fifth way to leverage Fan Pages is to use them to drive traffic to and from your blog or website. To do this, you definitely want to list your website in the Info section, and you also want to share links in your updates to your own site. You can also use an application like Notes to enter your blog feed so that it pulls your posts into your Page. You also want to add your URL to your email signature, and use the free badges and widgets Facebook provides that you can add to your website.  You can check out faceboook.com/facebook-widgets for those. Once you have something like this on your site, visitors can just click on it and they will land on your Page where they can become a fan.

So, if you don’t have a Page yet, head over to facebook.com/pages/create.php and start one now.  If you do have one set up, use these tips to help make your Page stand out, get noticed, and become a helpful destination for all of your raving Fans.

You may have heard of RSS feeds, but you might still be wondering exactly what they are. RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication.” RSS itself is just the format for delivering regularly updated web content. Blog feeds allow readers to keep up with the newest information posted on different sites, and people “subscribe” to the feeds of their choice.

For example, there are 20+ blogs out there that I really enjoy reading on a regular basis. I want to keep up with them because they help keep me up date with all of the latest information in my niche. However, I don’t want to have to go out to the web and pull up each blog individually every day in order to see if they have been updated. The solution to this is to use a “feedreader” to see all of my favorite blogs’ latest content all in one place. Feedreaders allow you to access new content in two main ways: in the actual reader itself or by email updates. One of the most popular feedreaders and the one that I use is Google Reader.

Why is this important for marketing? Two reasons: 1-It is a great way to stay current and educated on the things going on in your market or niche through blogs, and 2-It provides a simple way for people who are interested in you and what you have to offer to stay informed. You want to remain on people’s radars consistently so that even if they are not ready to buy from you now, you are able to stay top of mind for them when they are ready to. Just as an email newsletter helps to build and continue a relationship with its subscribers, a blog does the same with those who subscribe to its RSS feed.

By its very nature, social media allows content to be shared and spread far and wide across the web, resulting in more exposure for you and your business. Therefore, being able to share your blog’s content through multiple channels is crucial. For example, many social media services and platforms such as Facebook require you to provide an RSS feed address in order to syndicate your content.

Blog platforms such as WordPress come with feeds already built in and it’s pretty simple to find the RSS feed of your own blog. Just type the address of your site into a browser and add/feed right after it. I use a service called Feedburner through Google to manage my feed and give me detailed statistics on my site’s traffic and subscribers. I suggest you “burn” your feed as well to keep track of your subscribers at feedburner.google.com.

Now you know a bit more about RSS feeds and why they are such an integral part of having your own blog-or keeping up with the ones you like to read the most.

As your social media blogger, I thought I’d share some info on the upcoming free 60 minute teleseminar I’m holding on 10/21 at 8pm Eastern:

“The Top 7 Ways to Leverage Facebook Pages for More Buzz, More Visibility and More Sales!”

The call is Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at 8pm Eastern.  If you can’t make it live, no worries, you will still be sent the recording.

However, only those on with me LIVE will benefit from the Q & A at the end of the call—as well as be eligible for the special offer I will be introducing!

I know firsthand that Fan Pages are one of the best ways to bring attention to your business and generate more clients, customers and sales. However, there seems to be a lot of confusion among small business owners about how to use Pages effectively. On this call, I’m sharing all about how to make them work for you–and anyone who has been on my calls before knows I always give a TON of meaty, actionable content!

All you need is a phone to join me, so register now for this FREE teleseminar.

Register here: http://communicatevalue.com/fanpagecall

Two of the biggest components of effective marketing are reach and frequency. Reach refers to the number of people you “touch” with your message; while frequency refers to the number of times each person is reached on average. Frequency is a way to build trust and drive your particular message home.

In the marketing world, it is often said that you need to “touch” a prospect 7 to 11 times before they buy. Online, someone needs to hear your message at least that frequently-if not more–before they will be ready to spend money with you.

We know that social media is great for building relationships, but what about outside of that? Just as there is more to the Internet than social media sites, there are many other ways to grow and strengthen relationships with potential prospects online. Here are three of the most effective ways to do that:

1) Build a list of email subscribers. It is important to build a list of targeted subscribers to market your products or services to. You want a list that’s responsive and your job is to keep in touch with them regularly so that you remain top of mind for them. Most people won’t be ready to buy after only interacting with you a couple of times on a social site or visiting your website once or twice. It’s the building of trust and the relationship that makes it more likely they will make a purchase down the line. Having permission to contact them on a regular basis means your emails do the heavy lifting.

2) Maintain a blog and build a list of blog subscribers. What makes a blog a blog and not a website is the fact that it’s updated frequently. When people visit your blog and see that it has consistent, fresh content, it’s likely they will keep coming back for more. The goal here is for those visitors to become subscribers of your blog via RSS feed or email. This allows them to be notified as soon as your blog has a new post published, either in their email inbox or their favorite feed reader.

3) Send a regular email newsletter. Once you’ve begun building a list of email subscribers, your job is to provide value to them on a regular basis. It’s not enough to send emails that only promote your offerings or ask for the sale. The members of your list have given you the privilege of contacting them because they have decided they want to hear what it is you have to say. An email newsletter is the perfect way to give them valuable content while staying on their radar screens. A newsletter does not need to be in HTML or be especially long. A few tips, a top ten list or some recommended resources are fine. The key is for your list to see your information as useful, and to keep you and your business in front of them.

Once you’ve attracted people into your community and begun furthering that relationship, be sure to take good care of them. It can pay off handsomely in the end.

With so much buzz today about social networking, and with my own business experiencing such a growth in business because of it, I thought I’d share my latest article on social networking.  I hope you find it beneficial.  One thing … social networking does take time, no doubt about it.  But when you start selling more books or landing more clients, you see that it’s so worth that time.  Share your thoughts on social networking.  Have you seen it increase your business? Any tips you’d like to offer.  Diana Ennen / Virtual Word Publishing, www.virtualwordpublishing.com

Social Networking Changed Everything – The New Marketing & PR Model
It’s pretty obvious that the marketing of today has changed.  You have newspapers going virtual/web only, Twitter and Facebook replacing postcards and phone calls, and potential clients now being the main target of your press releases as opposed to editors.  It’s all changing and to do PR today, you need to change with it.  The good news is that it’s never been easier. The bad news, you need to learn a new way to do things. Fortunately, there are tips that can make it easier and I’m here to show you a few.

First, no one can deny the power of social networking.  And those that do are just plain wrong. I’ve been in business since 1985 and I liken this to way back when emails became a way of life.  Many still contended they wanted to do it the old fashioned way and nothing would beat a letter. (I know it’s hard to even imagine this today.) It wasn’t long until they realized their error, but by then their competition was way ahead of them. Don’t make the same mistake now.  You absolutely need to get with it and get on board. I can practically guarantee you within weeks you’ll be hooked and wondering why you ever hesitated. It’s so easy, and the potential so great, you need to start today.

Let’s break it down.  Twitter first.  Forget all the “I don’t care what they ate for lunch excuses,” that’s where your competition and peers are and you do need to be there too. Sure you do have a few tweeters who will update you on the latest hot dog they ate, but that’s rare.  What you do have is more and more businesses networking and connecting with each other in ways never thought possible.  It’s also more than just networking back and forth, you can have chats, host events, get more publicity for your articles and press releases & even announce your seminars and radio shows.  And that’s not even the half of it.  There are entire books written on this, so my first recommendation is to get them.  Why struggle and find your way around when you can easily read the tips from those who know exactly what you need to succeed.

Also, while you are getting your feet wet, don’t jump in and start posting and selling and ranting and raving.  Take it slow.  Sign up, take a sit, remain quiet for a short time and read what others are posting.  Follow the leaders in your industry and take advantage of their knowledge.  It can almost feel like walking around with them all day and looking over their shoulders for their secrets.  What’s cool is they give their tips freely, why wouldn’t you want to take advantage of that? As an example, if someone were looking for information on starting a virtual assistant business or getting publicity for their business, they could follow me at Twitter.com/dianaennen

Now the key many forget is that not only do you need to follow them, you need to listen earnestly to what they are saying.  Go to the sites they recommend.  Actually do the things they suggest.  And most importantly, if you have the opportunity to contribute and honestly have something of importance to say, do!  Even if they aren’t following you, once you list their twitter name @name, it will go to them.  Best yet, you might get a retreat or even better a RT and follow back.  As many say, those are the ultimate compliments.

Now it’s important to learn the social media  lingo – Hashtags, Retweets, Fans, Follow Friday, this is just a few of the many names you need to know to do business better.  It can be overwhelming.  No, in fact it is overwhelming.  However, if you keep it simple and take it a step at a time, you can do it.  When you see a term you don’t know, look it up right then.  Write down your interpretation and do the investigating to find out more about it.  Here are just a few to help you on your journey.

What’s a retweet?   That’s when you find somone’s information useful and you want to pass it onto your followers.  So basically RT (retweet) is good content that you pass on.  Many RT just to RT.  Don’t be one of them.  You know your followers and what they want and need, that’s what you should be RT’ing.  We highly recommend signing up for TweetDeck for ease in doing this.  A click of a button and you are there.

Next you need to know about Follow Friday.  This is definitely one of my favorites. Think of Follow Friday as your day networking at a business get-together, only better. You get to stay in the comfort of your own home, and you get to immediately make the connections, not when you get home with a handful of business cards.  Try and plan your week so you can participate.  Remember this can be even more effective than a Chamber meeting or an expensive business seminar.  So plan a lighter load on Friday whenever possible.  You want people to mention you so mention them.  Also, don’t just list 20 screens of twitter names that you want people to follow.  Tell your followers why they should follow them.  What do they offer that your followers would be interested in?  Remember to put #followfriday in your posting.  (By the way, see that # in followfriday.  That’s what is called a hashtag.  Cool huh!)  And finally, you want people to retweet your followfriday postings, so keep your count to 120 instead of 140 so they can easily do this.  In fact, do this for all tips or postings you wanted retweeted.

Finally, try and post on Friday mornings.  I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’ll often go down my postings to find those I want to list.  I know I want to list them before hand so it’s not that I’m just going down my friends column, but often times I don’t have their information readily available.  By posting on Friday you are giving it to them.

Finally, sign up for Trilalerts for your keywords.  Start following those of interest.  For example, I’m a virtual assistant, so I’ve signed up for virtual assistant updates.  Now I can follow other virtual assistants easily.  I do the same for Publicity, etc. Who do you want to connect with?  That’s who you sign up for. Follow the media.  Sign up for Facebook and Twitter for the newspapers and TV stations in your area.  Look for business reporters who tweak and follow them.  Learn their style and what they are looking for in their articles.

Also, follow some of the owners of the many article and press release directories who tweet.  Some of the best are on there and giving away secrets to success left and right.

Facebook is pretty self explanatory.  The key here is to spend some time to expand your network.  Fortunately you get notices when someone responds to your posts, so try and go and follow-up as soon as you can.  However, be careful that you don’t get sidetracked doing this too often. Build relationships.  You can have thousands of friends and fans, but can you honestly connect to all of them.  I know I sure can’t. Twitter also now allows your tweets to be sent to your Facebook page too.  This is definitely a plus.  Just make sure that you don’t do this to all of your postings, only the ones you feel would interest your friends on Facebook.

Article Submissions, Press Release Submissions -  I also say you need to send out articles and press releases religiously.  Many question how some succeed with this and others don’t.  What’s the difference? The main thing is that they know what to do. They realize the difference that page ranking can make and don’t waste their time on sites that don’t get results.  They sign up for Google Alerts under their keywords and then check out the sites that frequently get spidered.  Then they send to those places and add those sites to their database.  We do have a fabulous  PR informational package that is free to anyone who emails us.

Marketing a business and social networking doesn’t have to be expensive if you just remember to network and use all the tools available to you.  In fact, it can be fun as you get to meet new people and develop new ways to sell you and your business.  Also, keep in mind if you don’t want to do it yourself, there are excellent qualified pros and virtual assistants available to assist.  You don’t need to do it all.  You just need to do it!

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Diana Ennen, specializes in publicity and marketing and is the President of Virtual Word Publishing, http://www.virtualwordpublishing.com and author of numerous books. Ready to jumpstart your PR campaign, then email her at Diana@virtualwordpublishing.com.  Free PR Informational Package available. Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/dianaennen . Article is free to be reprinted as long as bio remains.

Having a blog is a great step in the right direction if you are looking for ways to dive into social media. Conversations are at the core of what it’s about, after all. However, there is a lot more that you can do once you’ve got that blog up and running. You can think of your blog as a hub connecting all of your social media activities-and you’ll want to encourage visitors to interact with you socially in as many ways as possible. Here are some ideas that you can run with:

Social badges, buttons and widgets (oh my!): Why not advertise your social presence while you have your readers’ attention? There are many different ways to do this.

Facebook recently introduced Fan Boxes for those users with Fan Pages. These allow Page administrators to embed the most recent activity from their Page right in their website or blog. If you don’t have a Fan Page and want to let people know about your personal Facebook profile instead, you can also add a badge to your site provided by Facebook. Use the “Create a Profile Badge” link all the way at the bottom under your picture.

Facebook Connect is another option-this is a tool that allows software, websites, mobile devices and more to integrate with Facebook and send information between them.

Want to encourage your readers to follow you on Twitter? A simple Google search shows that there are many different badges out there to add to your site. Twittercounter.com has one of my favorites-the “big bird button” has a sleek design that displays your number of followers.

Finally, Google Friend Connect and MyBlogLog are two online services that allow web users to connect with their friends on different websites. These free services help foster community around blogs and blog authors.

Submission buttons: If you use the WordPress blog platform, a wonderful plugin to use is “Sociable.” This adds a row of buttons to the bottom of your posts for various social sites and tools such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon and more. This way, readers can easily submit your content to be bookmarked, voted on and shared.

If you aren’t a WordPress user, the ShareThis or AddThis buttons are a great alternative.

Share-friendly content: It goes without saying that you want to add content to your blog that provides lots of value for your readers. This is what builds your subscriber base and ultimately determines your success. Some content is more “shareable” than others.

As one example, people just love lists. “Top 10 tips on….” “7 Ways to….” -you get the idea. Consider adding these types of posts to the mix, because readers are more apt to share them.

It’s also worth mentioning headlines. Keep in mind what might be attention-grabbing when you write your blog posts’ titles. People will be more likely to not only read further, but to share it with others and have those people share it too.

These days, people expect to be able to interact with you when they visit your site. Make it super simple for them and they’ll be back for more!