Expertise Is Overrated

June 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Everyone wants to be The expert in their industry, especially on social media. I’m talking about the person who shares any industry news the second it’s released.  They study the information and regurgitate it to the world with their opinions plastered all over it. This is a great strategy to use if you want EVERYONE TO IGNORE YOU.

The hard truth is that you are no more an expert than most of your competitors, and even if you are, your customers don’t care. They don’t care about your industry. They don’t require an abundance of technical jargon and explanations and they don’t care about the newest tools, features or software upgrades happening in your industry. All they need to know is that you’re good at what you do and you don’t usually prove that through social media.

In short: You’re wasting your time. 

Disclaimer: I’m not saying you shouldn’t keep up on your industry. I’m saying you should share it internally with the people who actually care. 

 So now that you have all of this time free time what are you going to do with it? Pay Attention, this is the important part: Spend Less Time Being The Expert And More Time Being Interesting. Grab your customers’, and your followers’, attention and hold on to it for dear life! It doesn’t matter if you’re a B2B business or a B2C business, you’re dealing with people. Your goal is to give them food for thought, fuel for conversation and mental breaks from their daily grind. Here are a few ideas to help you become a little more interesting.

  • Make People Laugh

  • Make People Cry

  • Talk about life, not just business.

  • Find out what’s important to your following.

  • Be Human

  • Make friends, not just followers.

  • Show interest in other people.

  • Ask questions.

  • Listen more than you talk

  • Use your imagination

  • BE MORE VISUAL

Mike Bal

Hi, I studied advertising, I have a passion for creativity and I love working in social media. I try to write about the combination of traditional marketing, branding, and advertising strategies that can apply and work affectively with social media. I also enjoy music, batman and life.

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Filed Under: Being Interesting, Social Media, Social Media Tips Tagged With: , , ,

You’re So Vain, I Bet You Think This Post Is About You…

June 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Well… It is.

We’re all a little vain. Some, more than others but we all fall into the common trap of thinking everything revolves around what happens to us, what we do and what we like.

Think about any relationship you’ve ever had. Have you ever had a good relationship with another person that solely revolved around you? The correct answer is no. Any relationship goes both ways.  You talk about common interests and also individual interests. You don’t shoot the other person down every time they talk about something you’re not passionate about, you listen and try to understand. You appreciate other people’s passions and you admire their individuality.

These are the very basics of interpersonal communication. It’s something that hasn’t changed since people started communicating with each other. It’s human nature. All of history’s greatest leaders and innovators understood this and you’ll notice that all of the most successful brands and businesses do too.

We talk a lot about providing value, but we never really explain what “value” really is. When you’re looking at something that is as vast and complex as social media, it’s almost impossible to define value. Especially when you consider that social media is the first form of mass media that actually revolves around relationships. One thing we know for sure is that giving value to others can not revolve around you.

There’s a big difference between talking and having a conversation. Conversations motivate people to act and inspire them to think. Simply Talking only motivates people to move on to something else.

Too many companies are spending too much time talking on social media. It’s time to converse. 

Be More Like The Giving Tree

If you have never read The Giving Tree by Shell Silverstein, stop reading and go buy yourself a copy NOW. This tree understands what its child (customer) needs and provides in any way it can, for its entire life. Think about how valuable a lifetime customer is to your business. If you can give like The Giving Tree your customers will never leave you. Now, this idea doesn’t only apply to social media, but it’s a great place to start. Here’s the number one thing you can do to make this happen:

Understand Your Customer!

Give to them through conversations. Just because they are your customer doesn’t mean they are only interested in your industry, your product or your business. Talk about something else! Your customers have lives outside of their relationship with you and anything you can do to make their life easier will not go unnoticed or unappreciated.

The second your brand steps into the world of social media it becomes human. People connect with people, so you need to be someone your customers can understand and someone who understands your customers.

Here are a few quick action items to get you on the right track.

  • Start by thinking about what your service or product tells you about what’s going on in your customers’ lives.
  • Share content (links, pictures, videos, etc.) that might be relevant based on your previous observation.
  • Ask your customers what they need help with or what’s going on in their lives.
  • Remember that all work and no play makes your brand unlikeable.
If you’re looking for more ways to succeed in social media, you should start by figuring out what you might be doing wrong. Click on the image below to download our complimentary ebook to learn the 5 BIGGEST mistakes that companies are making on social media. 

Mike Bal

Hi, I studied advertising, I have a passion for creativity and I love working in social media. I try to write about the combination of traditional marketing, branding, and advertising strategies that can apply and work affectively with social media. I also enjoy music, batman and life.

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Filed Under: Being Interesting, Social Media Tips, Understanding Your Audience Tagged With: , , , ,

What The Ninja Turtles Taught Me About Social Media

June 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment

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.

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Mike Bal

Hi, I studied advertising, I have a passion for creativity and I love working in social media. I try to write about the combination of traditional marketing, branding, and advertising strategies that can apply and work affectively with social media. I also enjoy music, batman and life.

More Posts - Website - Twitter

Filed Under: Social Media Branding, Social Media News, Social Media Strategies, Social Media Tips Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,