One Social Media
Social media success does not happen overnight, and that is always worth remembering. Just like in real life, relationships and bonds between you and your customers can take a long time to build.
I’ve witnessed too many businesses leap into social media marketing with gusto, only to give up shortly afterwards because they did not have the 1.6 million Facebook likes and a ton of sales after their first week.
Be patient and work your strategy for the long run.
Have you ever asked: What type of video content should I share?While video is increasingly the prime channel for content marketing, businesses are struggling to come up with creative content ideas their audience will find interesting enough to pay attention to.
In this video below, I give you one simple video tip you can implement today for your business using video as your content marketing channel.
Still not convinced you should be using video in your marketing? Here are some recent online video facts to consider:
In the US, 181 million people watched more than 39 billion online content videos during September 2012, according to comScore.
eMarketer reports 87% of US brands use video for content marketing initiatives.
A study from Unbounce shows explainer videos can increase conversion rates by a whopping 20%.
Including the word ‘video’ in the subject line of an email will boost click-through rates from 7-11% and emails that contained an embedded video achieved a 21% higher conversion rate according to Business 2 Community.
Isn’t it about time YOU start using video in your content marketing efforts?
Did you know 1/3 of social networking users are “silent?” It’s shocking, I agree. It’s hard to believe so many people are active on social media, but NEVER post.
(Source: Edison Research, Social Habit Project)
The pressure is on for marketers to come up with fresh content, consistently each week. It’s particularly challenging for business start-ups who want a fast start social media presence on Twitter, Facebook and their Blog.
What should you or your company be blogging about? What will be informative, interesting, educational or entertaining enough to attract them? What content will your community actually enjoy seeing posted and engage in? Perhaps you should just ask them.
To give you a head start, here are some quick tips for creating fresh visual content.
1. The Expert Interview. Record an interview with an expert in your field and post it to your blog. You can do this via telephone conference or via video conference using Skype. Recommended resources: For phone interviews try FreeConferenceCalling.com, for Skype: try Ecamm.com (mac) and Camersoft.com (windows).
2. Create a step-by-step guide on how to do something in a screencast, how-to video tutorial, or show the steps in a series of photos. Resources: Camtasia, Screenflow, Screencast, Jing, Prezi, Snap Guide (mobile).
3. Do a simple case study about one company, or offer a few visual examples of how other companies do something successfully. In a recent blog post, I visually showcased brands using social media well and how some were using it poorly to talk with their customers.
4. Poll your community on Twitter with Twtpoll or on Facebook with a Facebook Question and post the results on your blog.
5. Give your community visual choices. Here are two examples of this:
Example 1: One of our clients asked their community which of the author’s books is their favorite. It quickly became the most popular post for that Facebook page since it started with over 200 Likes and over 200 comments.
Example 2: We asked our community to choose which one character Mike most resembled that day.
Visual content is the hottest trend, and it’s not going away. The popularity of Instagram alone should be waking people up to this. And video content will rule in 2013 and beyond.
When thinking through your social media content strategy, think about what content will add value and/or attract prospects to your blog or social media sites. Attracting them is only the first step, but it’s perhaps the most important as you refine how to convert and then analyze the results to see which of these ideas works best for your brand and audience.
;
It’s becoming an epidemic. More and more businesses are using social media as another mouthpiece for their promotions. They somehow skip over learning how to use it to connect with potential customers, or how to us it to earn customer loyalty from their existing customers. We don’t give big brands our loyalty nowadays. They have to earn it. Social media is their direct link to us.
Unfortunately, some brands insist on just using social media poorly to just promote and broadcast. The cartoon below is the result.
For example, I’ve been watching Office Max waste their time on Twitter for nearly two years now. When they do Tweet, it’s usually just for a promotion or some special savings. There are often more than a hundred tweets a day that that mention “Office Max” in them. They just haven’t figured out how to use Twitter yet to get engaged in these conversations and talk to their customers. Instead they tweet promotions, asking these same customers for their money. Promotions once in a while are ok, but every tweet is annoying and a misuse of Twitter.
I happen to like Office Max, I just get annoyed with their behavior on Twitter. And they aren’t alone (e.g. Old Navy).
Is it possible for the big brands to talk back to their customers on Twitter? Some notable big brands are proving it’s possible such as:
In all of these examples, they are talking back to their customers. They are engaging. They are conversing in real-time online. Think about it. If these big brands can find a way and the time to talk back to their customers (and they have thousands), any size business can and should.
Using social media for business isn’t rocket science, it’s human relations 101. [TWEET THIS]
What are your thoughts? Do you believe those brands that aren’t actively engaging with their customers on social media are going to suffer in the long-term and that it’s just a matter of time?
So you want to use social media to generate leads for your business? If that’s true, then you must also be willing to take the steps necessary to put your business and brand in a position to attract leads online. And those steps may take some time.
Social media is a powerful tool, but cannot stand alone as an online marketing solution. Social media marketing comes after you have discovered your voice through blogging and have a key word strategy in place.
You can’t expect to put your business online and expect the online buzz to suddenly rocket you to online social media stardom. Leads won’t fall from the sky either.
Generating a lead is the end result. And while Stephen Covey has taught us to “Begin with the end in mind,” you must first focus on answering the question, “How can we be valuable to others, consistently over time, so we organically attract people to our business online.”
Then you must have a plan to create the valuable content people want to read, share and comment on. Content people will share and will lead others to you (traffic), who will then want to learn more about how you might be able to help them (conversion) so you can then have a qualified prospect (lead).
You do this from blogging. And how often you blog matters also.
The Impact On Lead Generation
The Impact On Customer Acquisition
Every week I speak to a business owner who thinks his/her business doesn’t need to blog at all, let alone a lot. Thinking that way is similar to thinking back in 1995 that your business wouldn’t need a website. Blogging is the new SEO, and it’s an important part of consumer culture so you better start capitalizing on it.
B2C Blogging Works!
B2B Blogging Works Also!
Ranking high on the search engines (particularly Google) is no longer optional, it’s critical. The more keyword rich content you create (and blog), the more search engines will find you. In order for Google to find you often, you need a lot of pages that link to your site. You can control this by blogging often and making sure to use the keywords that will lead people to you.
Are You Showing Up?
More Blog Posts = More Indexed Web Pages
That you need to generate as much (keyword rich) content as possible, before your competitors pass you by. Social Media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ and YouTube all give you the platform to share your content in different ways, but you have to generate the content first. And oh yeah, that content needs to be interesting. The leads will follow.
The great business management guru Peter Drucker’s most well known quote is “The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.” Social media can certainly help you create and keep a customer. But you have to be willing to do the work [online] that it takes to get there.
I’d enjoy hearing your thoughts (contribution, feedback) in the comments below. Also, be sure to check out my upcoming Webinar for an in-depth training expanding on this post on “How to Use Social Media to Generate Leads.”
It may sound alarming but just stick with me for a minute. Social media has not just given us the ability to spread content to the masses instantly, it’s set an expectation that it will be done. We don’t consider anything “viral” until we’ve seen it with our own eyes. Everything from clever memes to funny videos and profound thoughts can reach millions or billions of people around the world with the push of a button.
Now we spend countless amounts of our resources trying to master and understand what it takes to make something go viral. The truth is that no one really understands what makes something viral worthy. Quite often it’s a combination of a clever idea, strong execution and well planned distribution. If you don’t get all three of those right you tend to end up with something not much more than mediocre. Even when you do have all three of those elements perfectly in place there’s nothing to guarantee the success of the project.
The biggest variable here is human nature. You can understand it to a point, but there are so many external factors playing a role in every individual’s decision making process that your chances of making an accurate prediction aren’t much better than playing roulette. After watching and studying a variety of content distributed to an even bigger variety of people I have found one thing to be true…
No matter what business you’re in or content you’re distributing you will have greater success if you present it with passion. When you look at the brands who have really succeeded in spreading content “virally” you’ll see that they are all passionate about what they do and what they say. These brands don’t rely on one piece of content to carry all of their campaigns or to build the following for all of their channels. They create, share and distribute “viral” content to their following every day.
To make it simple would you rather be the Eifel 65 of your industry or The Beatles? A one-hit-wonder with a short lifespan or a legend?
Passion is infectious. It’s something that everyone actually wants to spread and it’s what focuses people’s effort and energy. If you can ignite passion in your following than you’ll be “viral” by any standard. Your reach will grow and spread like the plague, but a good plague. Here’s what you can do to spread your own infection around social media.
Step One – Choose Your Passions – You can’t (shouldn’t) be passionate about everything so choose your battles. If you are using social media to connect with your customers then you should start by identifying some of their interests.
Step Two – Find and Create Your Content – Don’t just regurgitate what other content curators and publications are sharing. Study and understand the news and put the effort into adding your own thoughts and creating your own content.
Step Three – Share With Passion – Even when you’re limited by 140 characters people should be able to tell that you really care about what you’re sharing. Describe how you’re feeling and make your opinions clear. Don’t just make a plain statement about what you’re sharing.
Step Four – Engage - A lot of brands are guilty of stopping at step three. You need to go one step further and seek out other people who share your brand’s passions. You also need to take the time to start and maintain conversations with them and any other followers you have. It’s okay to be a thought leader and to provide ideas and content to spark a conversation but it’s great to be involved in those conversations. This step is what will really ignite your following and spread your content.
Step Five – Don’t Stop – Many ad campaigns have a lifespan. THIS IS NOT AN AD CAMPAIGN. You are developing relationships with people and more specifically customers. You can’t decide to just stop doing it without suffering some serious repercussions. People will take it personally and it will affect your brand and your bottom line.
If you’re looking for more ways to improve your social efforts check out our FREE resources page. It’s loaded with ebooks and articles that will help you succeed online. Click on the image below to go there now.
The world of social media is a little crazy these days. What started as a handful of social media platforms has rapidly exploded into hundreds. For a business just testing the waters and trying to figure out which platforms to use and how to use them, it can seem like a daunting task.
Think about it; For a business attempting to finally get involved in social media they have to:
The main thing to keep in mind is that just because there are a ton of social media sites and services out there, doesn’t mean your business needs to be involved in all of them. If you are just getting started, you should focus on the big ones like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, or Google +. Which platforms you will focus the majority of your efforts on depends on who your audience is, what your business has to offer, and what your goals of your social media efforts are. If YouTube doesn’t make sense for your business, don’t spend your time on YouTube.
The infographic below will help you get a better understanding of the major social media platforms and might even give you some ideas of how you can use them for your business.
Thinking about working on creating or improving the social media strategy for your business over the weekend? Not sure where to start? Let me take some time to share with you some of my favorite resources. In my professional opinion, the best way find success on social media is to:
The resources below will help you with both ways. Enjoy!
Recommended E-Books:
How To Master Facebook Timeline and Ads
Strategies For Effective Facebook Wall Posts
Strategies for Effective Tweeting: A Statistical Review
Top 10 Ways To Engage Your Fans
The Essential Step-By-Step Guide To Internet Marketing
The 15 Imperatives of LinkedIn
55 Brands Rocking Social Media with Visual Content
How to Attract Customers with Twitter
How to Use Pinterest for Business
The Essential Guide to Writing and Launching eBooks that Generate Leads
120 AWESOME Marketing Stats, Charts, & Graphs
Places To Go To Get Started:
Create a Facebook Page
Create a Twitter Profile
Start Using Instagram
Sign Up For Pinterest
Create a LinkedIn Company Page
Create and Participate in LinkedIn Groups
Create a WordPress blog
Create a Tumblr blog
The world of social media is more diverse than most people realize. It’s not just about posting on all of your channels, which takes a certain skills-set of its own. You need ideas to create and share interesting and valuable content. You need analytics to see what’s working and what’s not. You need leadership to create conversations and establish your brand as a thought leader in your industry and with your customers. And you need to take a few risks to make sure that you’re not missing any opportunities. This is what brings us to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles…
This is a team of diverse and dedicated talent that can really handle any situation. At least in theory. Sure they’re fictional, but that’s not the point. The creators knew that different personalities would relate with different characters. The same is true about social media. The same strategy won’t work across every channel. You need to mix and match the different elements and skills to come up with the perfect mix for each situation.
To support this idea with a little nonfiction, Facebook just opened up new admin roles for pages. This gives different admins different levels of access and allows them to focus on different aspects of the overall project. (See Image Below)
What that tells us is that social media, not even one channel, is not meant to be managed by one individual. No matter how diverse and talented that person is, they won’t be able to execute nearly as well as a team of specialized individuals. If you want to see real results from your social media efforts you have to make sure you’re doing EVERYTHING. The best way to ensure your success is to find a team comprised of the four personalities/talents listed below.
The Creative aka Michelangelo – This person never stops coming up with ideas. They are also the person who will ask the questions that no one else is asking. They may not always come up with the million-dollar idea but they will play a role in the thought process. Use their perspective to help put a creative spin on the strategies you’re already doing and to identify opportunities that you might be missing.
The Technical Analyst aka Donatello – This person pays attention to all of the details. They can tell you what’s working and what’s not because they have a knack for understanding analytics. This person is the rhyme and reason behind what you’re doing. They can tell you if that “great idea” was as great as everyone thought it would be and they can tell you where you need to adjust your strategy. They can also help translate industry-related research and understand how it affects your goals and strategies as an organization. Without this person on your team you are essentially just guessing.
The Risk Taker aka Raphael – This person isn’t afraid to fail. That may seem frustrating at times, but it’s essential to your future success on social media. If you never take any risks you’ll miss your window of opportunity because in social media those windows don’t stay open for long. This is the person who will make you the first to do something different and that’s what you really need to do in order to gain attention and respect.
The Leader aka Leonardo – This is the person you can count on to look at the big picture. They will make sure to keep the team working towards the main goal. This is also the person who is best at representing the brand through conversation. They’re confident and well-versed in everything related to your brand. They understand your audience and are best at starting and maintaining conversations.
Now, when I think back to watching countless episodes of this childhood classic I remember one very important thing. That every challenge the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles faced required a different balance of each member. Sometimes they would rely heavily on Leonardo to get them through a problem and sometimes Donatello would crunch the data to come up with the solution or ideal strategy. Michelangelo could pull an idea out of thin air that was just crazy enough to work and Raphael would sometimes take the problem head on and find the opportunity needed to succeed. The one thing that remained clear is that they would never be able to succeed on their own.
If you’re looking for more ways to succeed online download our complimentary and Essential Step-By-Step Guide To Internet Marketing by clicking below.
I was recently fortunate enough to pick the brains of one of the most respected names in branding, Marty Neumeier. Marty has authored a series of three “whiteboard overview” books, titled THE BRAND GAP, ZAG, and THE DESIGNFUL COMPANY, which have been hailed as breakthroughs by Fast Company, BusinessWeek, and Harvard Business Review. ZAG was recently named one of “The Top 100 Business Books of All Time.”
You might be thinking that branding doesn’t have a lot to do with social media. If that’s the case, you’re wrong. Your brand is incredibly important to every aspect of your organization and especially to any touchpoint you have with your customers. How you look, what you do, what you say and how you say it should all line up with your brand’s core beliefs, especially on social media. The relationships you build with your customers could last a lifetime… or they could be forgotten about tomorrow. It really depends on how much thought and energy you decide to put into your brand.
All of Marty’s books are highly recommended by our team as their ideas and principles can be applied to every aspect of your business. Marty and I had a great conversation, but instead of me just giving you the hour long chat from start to finish, I decided to break them up into shorter videos that focus on one question at a time. Check out the playlist below to get ideas about what your brand might be missing and how you can make it stronger.
If you have any more questions you can always shoot them our way by tweeting us @onesocialmedia or me directly @creativeithink. If you’re looking for more tips on branding and specifically on social media check out our free webinar by clicking below.
Our social media webinars cover a wide range of topics sure to help your marketing team get better results using social media marketing best practices. Visit the webinar page to sign up for any upcoming webinars put on by one of our social media strategists.
Read more
FREE EBOOK: How to Enhance Your Internet Presence with Social Media Download Now
“It is a pleasure working with the team! Your insight and strategy have truly helped put us ahead of the game. I appreciate your creativity, efforts, and wonderful positive energy…” –
Terri Sjodin, Author of the New York Times bestselling book, Small Message, Big Impact: How to Put the Power of the Elevator Speech Effect to Work for You
