Entries Tagged 'social media marketing' ↓

Social media can be useful for every part of your business.

It’s not and should not be used solely as a tool for self-promotion. If you do that you’ll be about as popular as a skunk in a broken lift.

In the good old days the only way customers could get in touch with you was by phone or letter. If they were disgruntled they would moan to their friends about your service and products and you’d probably be none the wiser.

But now, they won’t just talk to their friends. Social media has given them an incredibly loud voice so if they’re unhappy about something, it won’t be long before the whole world knows about it.

How to use social media to your advantage

Monitoring social media channels can help practically every part of your business.

People love to talk and if you listen carefully you can learn a lot about their habits, their likes, their dislikes and their needs.

1. Sales

So let’s take a look at how social media can help your sales department.

The ideal time to sell to someone is when they’re ready to buy. But that’s not easy. Say you were a local electrical retailer and were looking to push a new line of washing machines. Monitoring social media channels will help you identify people who are asking advice about which washing machine to buy or those who are moaning because theirs has just broken etc.

By responding, making contact and offering advice puts you in the right place at the right time – when they’re ready to buy.

2. Marketing

Can it help with marketing?

Oh yes. Listening to your target market will give you an idea of whether what you’re saying and what they think are aligned. Do your marketing materials answer the questions they raise? Are you speaking the same language as them?

Many companies have the odd idea that they have to speak in a language all of their own. Their words have to sound impressive and convoluted – they think that’s what their customers will be impressed by.

Wrong. Customers want straight talking. If you’re a window cleaner call yourself that rather than a vision technician.

3. Customer service

As for customer service, that one speaks for itself.  I’ve already mentioned how useful social media is for disgruntled customers so make sure you’re listening. If someone has received bad service, make contact straight away and put it right.

This rapid response shows you as a company that cares about its customers. So you could turn a bad situation to your advantage.

4. Development

You’ve probably got your R&D boffins locked away somewhere trying to come up with ways to improve your products.

But surely it’s your customers you should be listening to?

Social media channels will let you eaves drop on their conversations about what they would really like your products to do. You can even ask them directly to do a bit of customer research.

5. Human resources

Yes, social media can even help your HR department.

How?

Well social media users have profiles showing their skills and experience. You can search for specific talent that your company needs. You can even see what connections they have. Head hunting has never been so easy.

So as you can see, social media can help practically every aspect of your business. These online channels are a direct link between you and your customers so use them.

Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter, blogger and social media addict.

One of the most vital aspects for any individual or company looking to boost their profile is getting involved with social media. Since starting out as a freelance copywriter I’ve embraced social media channels to ‘get my name out there’, offer advice and drive business my way.

But if you’re a newbie, where so you start?

There is a social media language that many find impenetrable – what do you do? Should you Tweet, Facebook, go with LinkedIn? Once you have set your profiles and accounts up, what then?

Well to help you get started I found this great post on socialmediaexaminer.com on How to Create Your Personal Social Media Brand which features a video interview with Mari Smith, author of Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day. Mari talks how to create yourself as a brand and how to monetize your personality on social media.

By watching the video you’ll learn how to build your own brand equity with social media plus some amazing tips for both the self-employed and people who work for large companies.

Here are some of the things you’ll learn in this video:

• Why you need to carve out your position and brand equity
• How to start branding yourself on social media if you don’t have any brand equity online
• Why you need to use your name on social media
• How to brand yourself on your Facebook business page
• How Mari brands herself and what she does to craft the brand she represents

So grab a coffee and take a look – it’s only takes about 6 minutes.

[Chair scrapes across the floor as she gets to her feet]

“Ahem, hello, I am a copywriter and a social media user.”

There, I’ve said it – yes, I use social media and I’m proud of it.

It’s a great way of making new connections, finding new clients and generally interacting with fun people.

But some social media users fall into the trap of using it just to market their businesses. They constantly tweet promotions, news, what they’re doing, a few more promotions and before they know it they’re losing followers because they are beginning to look rather ‘spammy’.

Yes social media is a marketing tool:

• You can encourage newsletter sign ups
• Promote eBooks and give-aways
• Promote offers and use a call to action to send them to your website
• Give information that points to particular products

But if you only use it that way you’ll really hack your followers off.

Social media is also a tool to connect with other people:

• Listen to what people are talking about, you might be able to help them
• Find out what they’re saying about you (great for customer research)
• Engage with followers to find out what they are looking for
• Build relationships with people you wouldn’t normally come across
• Give advice and ask for help

You can also use social media to promote other people. If someone’s helped you out tell people. If you come across someone who can help another follower, put them in touch.

Social media is about marketing, connecting and reciprocity.

Use it wisely, be generous with your information, connect and build relationships—that’s how to get the most out of social media.

Social Media is a contentious topic that continues to divide opinion. People tend to fall into one of three camps:

• They love it
• They hate it
• They just don’t ‘get’ it

From my point of view, I love it. As a freelance copywriter it has helped my business hugely. I tweet (@sallyormond), I blog, I dabble in Facebook and I use online forums, social bookmarking sites etc. They have all helped me gain greater online exposure, gather wonderful clients,  find amazing people and help when I’ve needed it most.

Before you ask, yes I do get out occasionally seeing real people. But being a writer is a solitary profession and I spend a lot of time at my desk therefore social media provides me with a link to the outside world while I am working.

Are you social media phobic?

Are you one of the people that says…

“I can’t see the point in all this social media stuff.”

“Why would I want to waste my time reading about what someone had for lunch?”

“It’s a complete waste of time; it’s not as if anyone reads that stuff anyway.”

“My customers don’t use social media.”

It always makes me smile when I hear these objections. They make social media sound like some sort of alien concept that has no place in society and yet it’s been happening for years albeit in a different format.

Social media is all about being ‘social’ – it’s chatting, building relationships, being interested in other people.

In your line of work, how do you interact with your customers?

Do you just take their order, give them what they want and then move on to the next person? If you did they won’t think much to your customer service.

First up you probably have to build some sort of rapport with your customers before you can get them to buy. You’ll spend time investing in your relationship with them but offering them information and guidance. Once you complete the sale you’ll keep in touch, make sure everything is all right.

To market your business you probably go out and network. That means you chat to people unrelated to your business learning about what they do and what they need. You might even put people in touch with others who need their help.

All of this you’ll do as a matter of course in your daily business life.

Hello? That’s what social media is all about it just happens on a different platform—online.

To get to grips with social media all you have to do is transfer the skills you use in your everyday life to the online community.

Give it a try—you might surprise yourself. If you do decide to dabble in a spot of blogging or tweeting give it a chance to get going. Miracles won’t happen overnight so don’t give up after a week just because you’re not seeing any benefit.

You have to give to the online community to get something back. Persevere with it, engage with people—you could surprise yourself.

Once you get to grips with Twitter, it seems to be the easiest thing in the world to use.

All you have to do is squeeze your message into 140 characters and away you go.

You can tweet to thousands of people instantly which is why you need to make sure you are not making the 5 classic Twitter bloopers.

Social media has transformed the art of communication. Now customers have a very loud voice so you must make sure you convey yourself with dignity at all times—because if you don’t, that’s when you can get into trouble.

5 Classic Twitter Bloopers

1. You talking to me?

There is one thing you must accept—not everyone is going to like your company.

Twitter is a powerful outlet through which dissatisfied customers can rant. But don’t get drawn into an online slanging-match.

Arguing the toss through Twitter may be entertaining to some, but it will do untold damage to your reputation.

Your other followers will watch to see how you deal with the situation (and that will tell them a lot about the type of company you are).

Diffuse the situation quickly, resolve their issue and apologise.

2. Autofollow

Some people on Twitter are obsessed about amassing huge numbers of followers.

Why?

For example if you 40,000 followers and yet only follow 600 people, unless you are a huge brand  name or a celebrity, you’re going to look like a spammer.

My advice is to follow only those people you want to follow. Don’t use the autofollow feature. By all means when you get an email telling you someone new is following you take a look at their profile. If they look interesting and tweet great stuff, follow them. But if they don’t, don’t follow—it’s as simple as that.

Also the more people you follow the harder it gets to keep up with what’s happening. That’s when it’s a good idea to create Twitter lists – you can set one up for best friends, business contacts, celebrities etc., to help you keep track of what’s going on.

3. Tweet carefully

There are plenty of users out there who only tweet about their business, constantly linking back to their website.

If you just do that, you’ll be viewed as a spammer.

Twitter is all about conversations and sharing. If you read a great article, see a funny video or hear something in the news that’s interesting, share it with your followers. Be seen as someone who adds value to the Twitterverse.

4. Have a personality

Many corporate tweeters make this particular blooper.

If your tweets are boring, mundane and lifeless, people aren’t going to follow you.

Twitter is something you can have fun with—use it to show your company has personality. When engaging with other tweeters it’s important to make sure you show your human side. It will make you appear more approachable, a company that cares and that is prepared to listen.

5. Listen

Using Twitter isn’t all about what you can cram into 140 characters. You also have to listen to what people are saying.

Monitor it and track any mentions of your company. If someone has experienced a problem engage with them, find out what went wrong, apologise and sort it out.

If you’re on Twitter and you don’t do this, people will see you as a company that doesn’t care—and news like that will spread fast.

Twitter is a great tool for your business. It will help you engage with your customers, attract new ones and solve problems should they arise.

Just make sure you use it wisely.

This post is brought to you by Sally Ormond, freelance copywriter and social media queen.