Category Archives: social media

November 2, 2012
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Social media marketing and how to spot a faker

By | Established business, Marketing, New business, Sales, social media | No Comments

Social media marketing outsourcing

Social media marketing and how to spot a fakerFollowing on from my last post on how to establish your authority by using social media marketing, I wanted to concentrate on what to look out for when you're outsourcing your social media marketing, or employing someone to do this as part of your team.

Today, more and more businesses are looking to social media as a way to grow their business, promote their brand and engage with their clients.

However, businesses often have little experience with this new technology and consequently don’t really know how to tell if they're engaging with the real deal or a fake social media expert.

With the growing demand for expertise in this field, unfortunately there’s not enough supply of real talent. Gary Vaynerchu recently commented that 99.5% of social media marketing experts are clowns and sadly from what I’ve seen I’d have to agree. Not everyone who claims to be a social media expert is one. So, it’s important to be able to identify who’s a fake and who’s competant.  So, here are some key indicators to help you.

Social media marketing experts are…

Social media experts are experienced and active users of social media. In my opinion it doesn’t matter whether they’ve been consulting, training or managing social media for years. Let's face it, it's a new technology and not even a decade old. However, what does matter is that they're active users, engaging with their networks, and getting results.

You'll want to see if:

  • They've updated their profiles
  • They've completed their About page and it has hyperlinks
  • They're adding fresh, unique content daily i.e. posts, Tweets, pins and blogs
  • Their branding looks professional and isn’t breaking any of the social media platform rules
  • They're up-to-date with the latest social media trends
  • They're using the latest and most appropriate tools
  • They're engaging with their network promptly.

How to check engagement…

On this point there are a few ways to check. For example on:

  • Facebook, see how many fans are talking about their page. It will say this next to their profile picture.
  • Do they have apps installed?
  • Are they branded professionally?

On Twitter, you can see from their Tweets.

  • How often are they Tweeting other people’s content?
  • How often are they Tweeting unique content?
  • How often are they replying?  (Look for the @ sign)

On YouTube, check to see:

  • How many views they have
  • What's going on with their comments

On LinkedIn:

  • How many people are they connected to?
  • Have they set up user groups?
  • Are they a publisher that's publishing good quality content?

Social media marketing fakers are…

Social media fakers are well connected but lack quality connections. Whilst they may have lots of Facebook Likes or Twitter followers, they lack relevant followers and actual clients. They chose volume over quality every time.

On this note, it's worth knowing that you can buy hundreds and thousands of connections for as little as $5. You can also buy services to follow or add fans that are automated.

Social media fakers are poor at engagement. They don’t connect or get back to their fans. They're still operating push marketing strategies. They're inexperienced at converting prospects into ‘fans' and clients. And, they often lack a niche and insight into their clients. As a result they don’t have the knowledge to meet their clients needs.

To wrap this up…

Social media is a powerful tool for business development. However, it's not the only strategy that should be used for business development. Social media marketing should always be complemented by other elements of marketing. It doesn’t replace traditional marketing methods. Instead, it’s used to enhance them.

Always be wary of those claiming it’s the right strategy for every business. Whist there are many merits for employing social media as a tool to develop the business, especially for exposure, influence and ranking, determining whether it’s the right strategy requires careful analysis of the business and the context in which it operates.

Unfortunately it’s so easy for people to jump on the social media marketing bandwagon and say they’re experts when they’re not. Fakers give social media marketing a bad name and as a result many in business simply render the use of social media ineffective. However, when social media marketing is used strategically it's an incredibly powerful tool to support the business' commercial efforts.

Now I want to hear from you…

What are your thoughts? Are you a believer in social media as a technology to drive your business development forward? Have you fallen victim to a faker or been lucky to engage with an expert who knows their trade? What makes someone a social media marketing expert in your eyes?

Please share your stories and experience here, and if you’ve got a question, just pop it down here. If you want to contact me for a strategy call click here.

Thanks for being a sport and participating!

P.S.

Finally, if you know someone who'd LOVE the insight from this social media for business post, please send them a link. You’ll find business owners, consultants and yes, even sales and marketing managers who manage people who'll be interested to hear about this.

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October 31, 2012
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Social media: How to be an authority in your niche using social media

By | Marketing, social media | One Comment

Social media to establish your brand

jane_frankland_online_marketing_and_business_developmentWhether you’re a suit-wearing city clad type, a designer fashion label lover, or a dressed-down, cool, arty type you can establish your brand as an authority in your niche and community very easily using social media. And, as there are only a few key elements to creating an authoritative online presence, as oppose to an active brand I've listed them here:

1. Know who your customers are
Starbucks has a killer reputation within the coffee retail industry because they know exactly who their consumer is. They know their customers’ culture, workout routines, concerns, interests, passions and goals. Reaching that ground where you know who your customer is on an emotional level will give you a huge upper hand in establishing your authority. Social media gives you the power to get familiar with your fans.

2. Build a quality network
Surround yourself with the best, including your influential customers, prospects who fit your demographic and even your competition. You can locate brands, users and relevant conversations happening within your niche by searching via traditional methods or by using networking tools. You can also crowdsource, which is an excellent way to see how people feel about a product, to measure overall sentiment about an industry or brand, and to jump into the conversation – further establishing yourself as the authority and expert.

3. Ensure quality control
Just as you wouldn't compromise the quality of your product, you can’t present a half baked social media effort. So, create an editorial calendar to ensure that you’re focusing on all aspects of your brand and maintaining consistency. Have a process for peer reviews and checking of content. Being a professional brand means going the extra mile. It means looks the part. It means delivering upon expectations, and more. In terms of consistency, you need to be posting between 3 to 5 times per day.

4. Unique social media campaigns
To be an authority in your niche you have to distinguish yourself from your competition and stand out to your customers.  Once upon a time just having a social media presence was enough. Now though, as more brands are catching on, the pressure to present dynamic and creative social media campaigns is evident.

Check out lifestyle brand, POE, and the campaign, #NameHer. This was developed to incentivize users to share the name of the woman who had most shaped their life for a chance to have a signature shoe named after her. This touched consumers on an emotional level, established a unique voice, and made it a place of community. It established POE’s authority among users.

Leveraging social media to become an authority in your industry makes a full circle back to your fans. If you’ve taken these steps above, you’ve created credibility, trust, and value for your consumers. That is the name of the game when striving to be the authority.

Please let me know which social media platform you prefer for establishing your brand and authority. Tell me how you're getting on with creating a new brand or revising an existing one as I'd love to hear. If you have any more advice, please just add a comment. Thank you, as always for reading and contributing here. If you found this useful, please share it with your friends!

With love and gratitude – as always,

 

 

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September 19, 2012
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Here’s a quick way to make your ‘new’ Twitter profile

By | Marketing, social media | No Comments

Twitter profile page change!

For all of you who love Twitter – I've got some exciting news. You can now change your profile pages and make them look more like those on Facebook and Google+. Here's how to do it.

First, go to your Twitter Profile Page i.e. the page that’s called “Me” on Twitter’s website and on your favorite mobile app. You can make changes through Twitter’s website (via https://twitter.com/settings/design) or straight from your mobile device.

Select the “Me” option from the left-hand menu bar.  Choose the “Settings” icon that appears under your profile image.  Select the “Design” option. Scroll down until you see the “Header” option. Select this and then upload the image you want to use.

Once you've uploaded image, you can move and scale it as you please. Image size cannot exceed 1252×626 pixels (with a max file size of 5MB).

Now your new header image should appear behind your avatar.  The great thing about the image appearing behind your avatar/profile photo is that you can, be just as creative as Facebook cover  and Google + cover images.

In the comments below, tell me how you're doing with your social media branding and what your biggest frustration or challenge is with it. Let me know if you have any more tips for creating a Twitter header image and what action you'll take as a result of watching or reading this post too. I'd love to hear.

Access Free Resources for social media guides.

Thank you, as always for reading and contributing here. If you found this useful, please share it with your friends!

With love and gratitude – as always,

 

 

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