THE NO NO'S OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Let’s start with ENGAGEMENT…

You create a facebook business page. You enter all your company information, you post content then sign off.  The next day you sign on, post content and sign off again.  Meanwhile, people are responding to your posts but you are not there to reply.  What message are you really sending to your followers? …  For one you’re telling them that you really aren’t social; they aren’t worth a reply; or that you are too busy to be bothered.  Either way, it’s NOT helping you to brand yourself or your company product/service.  ENGAGEMENT is essential.  It’s not always about what you say or how you say it but how you make someone feel that leaves a lasting impression.

Self – Promoting

You do not want to self promote and annoy people.  Occasionally, it’s ok to post about your product/service.  You don’t want to come off like a pushy salesperson.  People will block, unfollow or unfriend you.  Promote others before yourself 10 – 1.

Sharing

Be careful what you share and with whom you share it.  You certainly do not want to share photos of you and your friends on a drinking binge especially if you are actively engaging in employment opportunities.  You may also want to be careful about letting the world now that you are going on vacation and that no one will be home for a week or two. When sharing content you must use common sense.

Reacting

Do not react with anger when someone posts something negative about your company’s product/service.  Instead, wait until your emotions subside and think how you can turn a negative into a positive. This is an opportunity for you to show great customer service. Take advantage of it.  You do not want to look confrontational besides it’s a fact that when you act out of anger your I.Q. drops.

Cross Linking

Please do not put your tweets to your facebook – it is quite annoying to the people that do not use twitter and see hashtags and @ signs popping on their facebook walls all the time.  You can add your facebook page to your twitter feed but keep in mind that twitter only allows 140 characters.

MAKING SOCIAL MEDIA JUST A LITTLE BIT EASIER WITH MANAGEMENT TOOLS

In today’s day and age all businesses need social media presence but how they can manage their social media while running their own business?  

To have an effective social media strategy it requires time and the more time you put in the more return you will get.  Your business can’t afford to not to have a social media plan in place.  If you are not going to outsource to a social media marketing company, then you should know that there are many social media management tools that can help make it a little easier.  For instance, you may have a facebook business page, a twitter account, and a linkedin account and you need to post on all the sites several times a day or week but don’t have the time to keep going in and out of each account so what do you do?   Below is a list of a few of the more poplular  social media management sites that allows you to post on one site while providing you the ability to send to several sites.

• Hootsuite:  Hootsuite allows you to monitor and post to multiple social networks, including Facebook , Twitter & now Linkedin using the HootSuite dashboard. You can schedule when you want your posts to be sent (day and time) and to which site you wish to send it to.  They offer a basic plan which is free but limited and the pro plan which is 5.99/mo.  It is easy to set up and only takes a few minutes.

• Ping.fm:  Ping.fm is a simple and FREE service that makes updating your social networks a snap! It pushes the update to a number of different social websites at once. This allows individuals using multiple social networks to update their status only once, without having to update it in all their social media individually. Ping.fm groups services into three categories – status updates, blogs, and micro-blogs – and updates can be sent to each group separately. 

• Sproutsocial:  Sproutsocial integrates with Twitter, Facebook Fan Pages, LinkedIn, Foursquare, Gowalla and other networks where consumers are engaging with businesses and brands. In addition to communication tools, Sprout Social offers contact management, competitive insight, lead generation, reporting, analytics and more – all in a package that's intuitive and easy to use. Their pricing goes from 9.00/mo. to 900.00/mo.

• Tweetdeck:  Tweetdeck is a desktop application for Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Google Buzz, Foursquare, and MySpace (for the few of you left that still use it).  As of May 25, 2011, TweetDeck was bought by Twitter.

Each Management Tool has a different feel.  You may want to play around with a couple to see which one or two works better for you.  If none of these feel right – Keep Searching.  There are many more out there to choose from.

Articles of reference:

Social Media Management Tools Keep Updating: So Be Informed

Social Media Saturday: Management Tools

WHY IS SOCIAL MEDIA ALL THE RAGE?

You see it and hear it everywhere… T.V. & Radio commercials are asking you to follow them on Twitter or to become a fan on their Facebook page. What does this all mean? We are in an era of Inbound vs. Outbound Marketing. It’s now a consumer’s world (a permission based world) vs. Traditional (shove it down your throat) Marketing.

Consumers can now tune out the traditional marketing methods with devices like DVR’s or Caller ID. When a consumer is ready to make a purchase or look for information they turn to their computers. You see, the world has found new ways to communicate and the way we gather our information has forever changed.

Fortune 500 companies have always spent very large amounts of money pushing their products through outbound marketing techniques like: Inside Sales, Telemarketing, Print Advertising, Direct mail/email, Radio & TV ads. Now they are including Social Media in their marketing budgets.

• Outbound Marketing pushes out messages to consumers. People are getting
  better at blocking these messages.
  
  
• Inbound Marketing brings the consumer to you.

There are many experts (and I use that term loosely) that say Outbound Marketing is a thing of the past and the future is all Inbound Marketing. In my opinion, they are both necessary in today’s marketing efforts. Some of the techniques of traditional outbound marketing are being used less and inbound techniques are being used more and more. But if used properly, they can complement one another. As you see happening now!

So, Why is Social Media All The Rage? Because, Social Media is about being social, interactive, listening to what your peers have to say about a product, service or company. Social Media is a 2 way communication. Social Media will amplify your message and can do it in real time.

Outbound Marketing pushes out messages to consumers. People are getting better at blocking these messages. Inbound Marketing brings the consumer to you.

• SOCIAL MEDIA DOES AND WILL GENERATE GREAT EXPOSURE BY BUILDING BRAND AWARENESS
  
  
• INCREASES TRAFFIC TO YOUR WEBSITE
  
  
• IMPROVES YOUR SEARCH RANKINGS
  
  
• HELPS TO GENERATE QUALIFIED LEADS
  
  
• And more….

—Did you know that 71% of marketers using Social Media increased traffic to their website and 51% generated qualified leads’ and 42% improved their sales all through the use of Social Media (According to the Social Media Examiner 2011 Marketing Industry Report)

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