Entries Tagged 'social networking' ↓

Does that sound familiar?

Come on, be honest, I bet at some point you’ve muttered those 4 words.

You’re not alone; it is the most frequently proffered excuse for someone not to do social media (closely followed by “I don’t understand all that stuff”).

Blogging, Facebook and Twitter (amongst others) can and will do wonders for your online marketing. They are the tools to use to build your credibility, offer advice, become an expert in your field and get to know other business owners and your customers.

Most people understand they need to do it but, at the same time, they say they don’t have the time.

Marketing time

If you have avoided social media marketing let me ask you a few questions:

• Do you go out networking?
• Do you spend time writing and submitting small adverts?
• Do you do call/warm calling?
• Do you send out mailings to attract business?

I’m sure you do at least one of those activities regularly. So if you can build those into your working day, why can’t you slot in some social media time?

At the end of the day social media is just another tool in your marketing armoury. But it is a tool that can carry your voice a lot further than an advert or phone call. Blogging, Facebook and Twitter help you reach your audience directly. You can start conversations with them and interact with them.

One thing a week

Get yourself started by doing one task per week.

It could be writing and scheduling a few blog posts, write an article, submit your website to an online directory, post to Facebook or getting to grips with Twitter.

By breaking down your marketing into manageable chunks, you’ll find it easier to cope.

Before you know it, you won’t have to pay a small fortune for a tiny little ad that’s surrounded by your competitors in a magazine with only a small circulation. You won’t have to make those cold calls anymore and you can say good bye to those tedious and unfruitful mailings.

You will only get something out of social media if you’re prepared to put something in – your time. We’re not talking hours – just a few minutes a day will make a difference.

Come on, make your time work harder for you and get cracking on your social media marketing strategy.

If you’re already ‘working it’ leave a comment and share your experiences with us. Tell us what worked for you and what didn’t. Have you had any successes? If so tell us.

Plus, stop by and say hi on Twitter and Facebook.

Social media is great for marketing your business and raising your profile – every one knows that.

But it’s also a great relationship builder and customer service tool.

Monitoring your name and brand on the various social media grape vines helps you identify what people are saying about you, alerts you to any potential problems (such as customer service issues) and also tells you when you’re receiving a big thimbs up from your customers.

The problem is hearing all of that through the background noise.

You can use Google Alerts (although they are limited in their effectiveness) or use various paid tools that are available.

But wouldn’t it be great if you could build your own tailormade social media listening device for free?

Well you can.

Tony Ahn has written this incredibly useful post and how-to guide on Social Media Examiner which takes you though the steps required to create your very own social media listening device.

Now you too can monitor social media to find out what people are saying about you.

Take a look now and learn How to Build a Free Social Media Monitoring Dashboard

Thanks Tony!

A new wave of marketing is taking over.

OK, to be honest it’s not that new but it is changing the way you do business.

Cast your mind back to the way it used to be done. Marketing your products and services involved paying vast quantities of cash for newspaper or magazine articles – one little add competing with hundreds of similar ads.

You sent cold mail shots or put inserts in your local paper…which usually ended up in the bin or used as an impromptu coaster.

Finally you unleashed your secret weapon – the cold call. Every day you would sit with your list of phone numbers crossing them off one by one as you doggedly dialled them in the hope that one day someone would say ‘yes’ rather than ‘**!~~~@@#####’.

“But it works!” I hear you cry. Does it really?

Do you love having your evening interrupted by an unsolicited call trying to sell you double glazing? Do you enjoy your working day being interrupted by a persistent stationery salesman who just won’t take no for an answer?

I didn’t think so.

And is the one sale to the person who said yes (just because you happened to phone them at the exact moment they were considering buying an entire set of Encyclopaedias)really worth hacking off the other 299 people?

Forget ROI and think ROR

Social media marketing has opened up a wealth of new opportunities for businesses.

Now you have the opportunity to listen, engage and converse with a massive market place. You can tweet with people and offer advice when they are in need of your help. By helping them and giving them tips you’ll build trust which could land you some serious sales.

So what’s stopping you?

Many businesses are obsessed with ROI – and the one thing that’s very difficult to measure through social media is your ROI. But you can’t think of it that way. What’s far more important to your business is the ROR – return on relationships.

Listening and talking to people is worth its weight in gold. Giving timely advice when people need it will show your company as one that cares, that wants to help, and that’s open and approachable. In other words, your company is one that will be good to do business with.

As a freelance copywriter I use social media a lot. By listening to my followers on Twitter (and others through searches) I can step in and offer advice and guidance when they need it the most.

What have I gained from it?

• New clients
• Great friends
• Help and advice when I’ve needed it most
• More traffic to my website and blog
• Service providers
• A lot of fun

So what are you waiting for?

Get yourself online and join in the conversation. If you need some pointers follow me (@sallyormond) and I’ll be happy to show you the ropes.

Most people today (in business or otherwise) know how powerful social media is.

Millions of people are participating in it in some shape, way or form every day – you can’t ignore it any longer because it’s here to stay.

If you’re in business yourself you are probably already using it to widen your market appeal, find new customers, market your brand and find new suppliers.

But what if you’re not a business owner? What if you can see the obvious potential it could have for the company you work for but the bosses aren’t having any of it.

• It’s too much like hard work
• We don’t have time for that
• Our customers don’t use social media
• We can’t monitor its effectiveness

Do those excuses sound familiar?

Well, if you can see a case for using social media within your company, it’s up to you to make your boss see the light and drag him out of the Jurassic age.

This great post on socialmediaexaminer.com helps you do just that. It looks at 7 tips for selling executives on social media to help you come up with a cunning plan to show your bosses exactly why they need to get social media savvy before they get left behind.

Show them:

• What it means in their terms – i.e. remove all the jargon to make it accessible
• How it will impact on sales
• That it’s measurable
• You’re serious by making a plan

Provide them with that type of information and how can they possibly say no?

What have you go to lose? You know social media is the way forward all you have to do is make them see it too.

Try it out and then come back and tell us how you got on.

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

You may have been trying to ignore social media but whether you think it’s for you or not, it’s here to stay.

Leveraging the social power of the internet is vital for any business today regardless of industry. Understanding how to use it correctly is the key to success so you must come up with a strategy before you dive in.

The most important aspect of any social interation is listening. Without listening you won’t know what your customers are talking about, what’s important to them, or where they’re hanging out. After all, what’s the point in using visual channels such as YouTube and investing a shed load of cash in video marketing if your audience use Twitter and Facebook?

Listen – Content – Socialise – Measure

Those four words are the key stages of any successful social media strategy as identified by Lee Oden in his post 4 Steps to Social Media Success on toprankblog.com.

If you want to develop a great strategy that works it’s well worth a read. Lee helps you understand the importance of listening to identify where your market hangs out, the importance and types of content you can generate, how to socialise effectively and, most importantly, how to measure your effectiveness.

This basic structure will help you develop a strategy that will promote your brand, develop relationships with customers and potential business partners and generate content that will also help make you stand out in the search engine rankings.

Social media is here to stay. It will constantly evolve so now’s the time to get on board.