Turn Up the Charm

Social media today is all about how well you are charming your audience.  A company, be it large or small, can not proceed with the same persona that it had even 5 years ago.  Customers are now wanting to engage in conversation with businesses that they enjoy patronizing.

Unfortunately, many of the larger corporations are still a little slow to come to the social media playground.  Some of their reasoning may be justified because it is easy to say the wrong thing and end up in a media fiasco that could have been avoided.  For the small business owner, it may simply be a time issue.  How do you successfully run a business and have time to properly manage your social media presence?  Your social media presence should personify your brand and that may require some strategic planning to make it happen, but it can be done.

You must have a well thought out plan before diving in to social media.  Determine what it is you are hoping to gain from your efforts. Decide on the mediums that you would like to cover and then dive in!!  If you decide to join Twitter, take a look at some of the twitter chats that happen daily.  A simple search on your topic of choice will yield a great list of chats and individuals for you to follow and engage.  If you decide on a Facebook page, create your page and then determine about 2 weeks worth of updates that you would like to post.  It is easy to schedule these posts using a site such as Hootsuite. The Facebook page is an excellent way to offer specials for anyone that may ‘Like’ your page.  I know, we are making it sound very simple, but it really is a ‘learn by doing’ activity.’  Once you have created your first Facebook page Twitter page, or your LinkeIn profile, take time to explore what others are doing.  Learn from others that are in your same industry.  Think about what type of strategy they are using (especially if it is working for them).  Do not be afraid to mimic what is working!

Once you are onboard, it is all about your social media charm.  Figure out ways that you can help people fill a need.  Then, interact and engage.  Or, as Guy Kawasaki would say….Enchant!

Get out your Social Media Yard Stick

In marketing, we all know that you are going to hear the phrase, “what is my ROI?”  What is the return that I will get for placing my money into this form of advertising?  It is a hard question to answer when talking about social media.  I am wondering if we are deep enough into social media to be able to properly measure the tool.  I think there are many that are doing a great job at generalizing the data that they receive.

One important factor that companies, be they small or large, need to realize is that social media is for the point of being social.  You can not continue to push the same old information that you have pushed in traditional media.  In order for social media to be successful, one must jump in and engage with an audience that may very well already be talking about your brand.  If your brand is not being discussed, think of ways to get on the minds of your possible customers.

In actuality, there are many tools that can be used in combination to figure out if you are hitting the mark with your current social media campaign. In researching ROI tools for our clients, here are a few that we do not mind recommending:

Radian6 – This tool is not the cheapest for a small business owner or a nonprofit to use, but it is extremely useful in all that it is capable of measuring.

Lithium Social Media Monitoring – This one is really easy on the eyes because it is based on the look and feel of Google. Lithium measures a variety of negative and positive signals that can give you a great overview to deliver in any upcoming presentation.

Trendrr – Many consider this to be very web 3.0 in its make up. This gives the user real time data that it gathers from microblogs, searc, social, and even video.  Many that we have spoken with love the location based specific data that they are able to obtain almost instantly.

If you have any ROI tools that you are successfully using, please let us know.  We love to share this information with our readers in the hopes of helping those that may be in a rut with showing their return on investment.

Survey Monkey is Winning!

I am so impressed when I see big companies that are truly paying attention to their social media.  Recently, I tweeted about Survey Monkey.  Here is a look at my tweet:

Selsi_Ent Nicole Henderson

Developing a survey on @surveymonkey ! Great tool and super easy to use. Looking forward to the results. #communication#measurement

I did not do it for a response, but I was surprised when I did get one.  Take a look at the tweet I received:

SurveyMonkey SurveyMonkey

@Selsi_Ent Thanks for using us! We’re glad it’s working so well for you

I think that small and large companies can learn a thing or two from SurveyMonkey.  Now, don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of companies doing some great things with social media.  Many companies are still lagging behind in taking social media seriously.  When a company responds to a random customer on Twitter, to me it says they really want to make sure that their customers have a great experience with their product.

Marketing Nugget: Do not be afraid to engage with your audience.

This will allow you to create fans for a lifetime.

Have you included Social Media into your Marketing Mix?

Social media is a facet that many in business may ignore. Some see social media as a vehicle for teenagers to communicate. This is not the case. Social media sites are an excellent place to catch people online in an environment that they are not trying to tune out constant advertisement.

Depending on the type of individual that you are attempting to target, you can pretty much create an inexpensive way to socialize with your potential customers. MySpace, FaceBook, Twitter, and YouTube are some of the most popular tools that one can use. There are also more targeted social sites such as LinkedIn, ITtoolbox, and Minyanville Exchange (a financial social networking site).

Developing a strategy to obtain a holistic approach to your marketing and media campaign could change the volume of business that you do in less the one year.