Collaborate for Social Media Success
March 10, 2011 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
When it comes to social media and small business, we’re all figuring it out, really. (Figuring out how to drink from the fire hose and not get drenched!) 
Three words set dramatically different action parameters:
Abdicate: to give up formally
Delegate: to entrust to another
Collaborate: to work jointly with others
Consider these words as they relate to social media.
Every business owner I know is talking about some failed foray into social. In most cases, abdication played a part in the failure. For example:
Abdicate
Like many employers, Sheryl (not her real name) prefers to abdicate when social media comes up. She rolls her eyes and tables the discussion. “Let’s get on the street,” she snaps. And with that phrase she shuts the door on progress.
Leroy is more understanding. He listens as his second-in-command makes the case for social. Then, decisively, he says, “Assign it to the new intern.”
In reality, both Sheryl and Leroy are abdicating a position on social media. Leroy has just prettied it up.
Small business owners wear entirely too many hats to be 100% in charge of their business social media plan.
So, one option is delegate the duties to someone trustworthy in-house. There are several advantages to delegation:
Delegate
Cost-effectiveness. Social media duties can be absorbed by someone in the organization. No additional monies need be paid for this responsibility.
Accessibility. Because the CEO or top company officials are available, decisions can be made quickly, over a water cooler conversation if necessary.
Flexibility. If necessary, tactics can be changed quickly.
Although this option works for any number of organizations, I maintain it’s a bandage.
In my opinion, the most effective solution is collaboration with a professional who brings an outside perspective to the question. Consider these advantages:
Collaborate
Eliminate overwhelm. Solidify your strategy and assess your options with someone who knows the medium.
Add a partner. Few subordinates can completely grasp the CEO perspective. Hire someone who “gets it” and can quickly translate your ideas into actionable tactics.
Develop a plan. Time put into planning your social media foray will result in a systemized, stronger presence.
Set goals. Your professional should be able to help you set measurable goals and develop tactics to achieve them.
Move forward. Check references. Look at track records and determine the person you hire can truly collaborate with you and your business. (Finding the right person is a whole other post.)
The crux of social media offers your business the opportunity to authentically connect with an audience. Don’t abdicate your chance to make a terrific impression. Don’t delegate it either, unless you’re confident that your employee has the time and expertise to make it happen.
First, collaborate. What’s worked for you?
Got Social?
February 1, 2011 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
Social? Or, socially adverse? Or, prefer not to say?
Do you pump out message after message inviting people to buy?
Seriously. Describe your last five social messages.
Many businesses who previously engaged in traditional media now shout out in social channels. You’ll spot this in their posts/status updates:
“Buy my book…”
“Don’t have time to tweet? _____ will do it for you.”
“New listings at my ___ shop.”
We do (fill in the blank). Learn more at our website”
What do you do?
Have you stopped to assess your social strategy?
No worries if you choose not to answer that question. A report by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services says only 12% of the companies they surveyed felt they were currently effective users of social media. We’re all learning as we go.
In a post for Victor Lopez at NMSmallBiz.com I highlighted ten simple ways to increase your social quotient:
- Set goals
- Involve your employees
- Integrate advertising and social media channels
- Converse
- Provide timely information
- Make some rules
- Avoid overwhelm
- Not just on Facebook
- Develop a core message
- Measure results
Read “Drowning in the Social Media Pool.”
Does Your Marketing Suffer From Shiny Object Syndrome?
November 12, 2010 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
Ever watched a child play? Toys are strewn about, discarded when a flash of brilliant color or a special shape or a new sound captures attention. It’s shiny object syndrome. And it’s not just for kids anymore.
Consider the current shiny-marketing-object of social media. BIG attention. Little planning.
In my experience with local clients, the all-consuming Facebook page dominates thoughts. Instead of strategic questions, the owner asks:
“How many fans did we get today?”
“Are we at our goal of 500 fans yet?”
“Did you post on Facebook this afternoon?”
It’s not much different with Twitter. Again, I hear non-strategic comments:
“Build a following. We’ve only got nine people.”
“Did anyone retweet your comments about Black Friday?”
If there’s an owner question at all, it’s this one:
“You don’t think our audience is on Twitter, do you?”
Informal tests conducted by my mastermind group confirm audiences spend more time planning a vacation than planning their marketing.
We avoid planning because we don’t know how to plan. No one teaches the art of planning. No one encourages you to hold the enthusiasm, get the plan down. Instead, the word “plan” causes a freeze in thinking and analysis paralysis sets in.
I think of plan avoidance as shiny-object syndrome. Playing with a shiny object is far more gratifying than planning, at least on a short-term basis. It’s easy. It’s entertaining. It’s fun.
A shiny-object, like a new app, makes the present all-consuming, and lets one avoid thinking about the end result, the consequences of current actions.
While a plan doesn’t provide all the answers, it certainly outlines a path and lets you measure and track success or the lack of it. Your plan could begin as a series of milestones, fairly detailed for the next month or two, less detailed for the following quarter, and merely outlined after that.
Give yourself permission to avoid shiny-object syndrome. Build a simple, one-page marketing plan.
This seven sentence Guerrila Marketing plan from Jay Levinson, the father of Guerrilla marketing offers some good choices:
- What is your marketing asking people to do?
- Which benefits are you going to stress?
- What is your audience?
- Which marketing weapons will you use?
- What is your niche or positioning in the marketplace?
- What is your identity?
- What is your marketing budget?
Take just a moment to reflect on your last 12 months of marketing. Suffering from shiny object syndrome?
Need a different approach to your marketing? Today’s topic is day thirty-six of a 45-day step-by-step marketing master plan. Choose to take your business to a new level topic by topic, day by day, with specific actions, based on clear worksheets. Act now to maximize your time and return on time invested. As a result, you’ll be in an entirely new position this time next year.
Autopilot Anyone?
October 28, 2010 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
I put off writing a post about automating your web presence because I have a love/hate relationship with automation.
When it works, automation goes unnoticed in my life. Oh, don’t get me wrong. I appreciate the fact that posts show in Google Reader, for example. I enjoy using a single dashboard, such as Ping.fm, to conveniently post to several social media sites. I don’t give a lot of thought to the mechanics of how it happens: it simply works.’
But, when automation doesn’t work, it’s beyond frustrating: Facebook pages with feeds that fail to update, automated notifications that never get through, emails that never arrive, software that doesn’t sync, auto unsubscribes that won’t. I could go on and on.
Once I give my attention over to what’s wrong, I can’t help but imagine dozens of additional problematic scenarios before it’s fixed. I named this process “terriblizing.”
Many people spend more time terriblizing than the time it takes to move a project forward. (Count me guilty on that one if technology is involved.)
As I considered the list of terribles, I realized another side of automation causes me to think twice about using it: I’m referring to the robot portion of automation: autopilot.
Yes, I know automation can augment your presence on the web. But misused, automation is worthless, insulting and ignored.
How many updates do you see repeated in multiple channels? Read it on Facebook, then on Twitter, and then LinkedIn too. Is there a real person behind the message? Does it make sense to say the same thing multiple times?
Are you scrambling to do everything? Guilty of beginning a blog and then dropping it for a full 30 days with no post?
Does automation bring you focus and then overwhelm as a result?
Are your sales messages automated?
Do you tweet questions when you’ve no intention of responding?
Once I realized the “why” behind my nagging sense of unease with automation, I started making some changes.
As of today, my Twitter account no longer sends a canned automatic message when someone follows me. I promise to look at my new followers and engage the ones I relate with.
My Ping.fm group is no longer selected by default to post on the big three social media networks. Instead, I promise to more carefully consider my updates and post them differently for each channel.
I haven’t tackled Facebook yet, but those automated postings that don’t update are going away soon!
I’ve only just begun. In fact, I just reorganized my Google reader with some new folders!
There are dozens of tools to help you automate your web presence. Just don’t forget, it’s all about people and your relationships in the first place.
Need a different approach to your marketing? Today’s topic is day twenty-eight of a 45-day step-by-step marketing master plan. Choose to take your business to a new level topic by topic, day by day, with specific actions, based on clear worksheets. Act now to maximize your time and return on time invested. As a result, you’ll be in an entirely new position this time next year.
Ruthless Reading Saves Time
October 26, 2010 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
No shortage of content exists: books, magazines, white papers, newspapers, case studies, websites, and more stack every office and most homes. Unless you read ruthlessly, you probably feel overwhelmed. What does ruthless reading look like?
Pare the magazine to what interests you. Tear out the articles you think you may want to review. Cancel subscriptions that no longer interest you.
Read with a highlighter – splash color across paragraphs that may be of interest later. Write in the margins. Use post-it flags to draw your attention back to your notes.
Scan indexes first and read only articles of interest.
Read a book out of order; read first the chapters that relate to your topic.
A good bit of business information continues to be written in pyramid form: lead paragraphs contain the most important details. Read those and get the overview of the article. Ignore the rest.
Set aside time to read for fun and read anything that you choose for that purpose.
Finally, read to better yourself. Facebook? Read the profiles of those you admire. LinkedIn? Same thing. Read, not to copy, but to upgrade your own efforts.
What are you ruthlessly reading today? And why?
Need a different approach to your marketing? Today’s topic is day twenty-six of a 45-day step-by-step marketing master plan. Choose to take your business to a new level topic by topic, day by day, with specific actions, based on clear worksheets. Act now to maximize your time and return on time invested. As a result, you’ll be in an entirely new position this time next year.
Facebook Business Pages Mean Business, Personal Pages Not so Much
September 28, 2010 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
Not so long ago in a my town, a savvy business owner chose to insert her business name into her
Facebook account. So, even though she had a personal account, her business “friended” people. Because she worked it, her friends expanded and expanded. She sailed past the 800 mark and found herself exhausted by the stream of information and notifications and unsure of the effectiveness of her work.
“I hate Facebook!” the entrepreneur moaned.
The moral of the story: Facebook personal pages aren’t meant for business.
“Why?” you ask?
Personal pages, as defined by Facebook terms and policies, are for individuals. Businesses cannot use a personal page. Fan pages serve business.
Advantages of Facebook business page vs. personal page for business:
SEO Indexing. If you’re looking to increase your web presence and visibility, you want to be found. Search engine optimization, SEO, increases the likelihood people not already your customers will discover your business. If, however, your business is listed on a personal page, it becomes more difficult for new people to find you.
Unlimited friends. A personal page limits friends to 5,000. New friends depend upon your personal authorization. Fan pages have the advantage of being more viral. Fans can suggest them to others. When a person likes a page, you show up in their stream or newsfeed.
Multiple administrators. Facebook makes it easy to add administrators. In the case of our savvy business owner, she can easily make her two employees administrators and create a sense of teamwork for both store and page. In addition, with the help of her employees, Facebook work gets easier.
Loyalty building tools. You can build separate landing pages for different products, so it’s easy to like the business page for usability. In addition, you can message fans, driving business with discounts and/or product offers.
Disadvantages of a Facebook business page:
No alerts. As administrator, you do not automatically get alerts when someone comments on your fan page. No alerts, no notifications, no newsfeeds. You, like fans, must visit the page to see what’s happening.
Strategy needed. In order to grow your fan base, you’ll find it necessary to plan. Developing a welcome page takes thought. Gathering testimonials encourages you to talk with customers. Presenting a coupon page means discussing pricing. How will it complement your website? What parts of your website will you highlight or duplicate on Facebook? In short, your page(s) won’t just happen.
(Which leads to the next point…)
Ongoing work a must. Facebook fan pages take work. A fan page is extremely easy to set up and maintain, but attracting and engaging customers takes ongoing commitment. Before beginning, be sure you’re up for the challenge.
Use Social Media for Local Business Conversations
September 7, 2010 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
“It’s great to know about this stuff, but does it bring a customer in?”
Pause. What can you say to a busy retailer who asks that question? I went for it.
“No, social media alone won’t create a customer. It takes a relationship to do that.”
People visit a store for a variety of reasons but mostly because they want/need/choose your product or service. Look at it from another perspective and consider:
Would 50% off encourage you to buy a bike helmet if you didn’t bike?
Does a newsletter subscription automatically mean an additional sale in the long term or just more work for you in the short term?
How many stores do you visit just to be a nice person?
Retail operations, in particular, need traffic and good reviews in order to prosper. By adding social media to other digital tactics, a brick and mortar store can begin to direct more potential customers or traffic to its location.
Does that mean it’s complicated? Conversation – real conversation – is complicated as well.
The art of “social” requires conversation – talking as well as listening. A good conversationalist engages offering give and take on various topics. Seldom is “me, me, me” considered good conversation. So, why in social media would you consider it good form to sell, sell, sell?
Because it’s transparent, social media serves as a public demonstration of business relationships. What’s happening with your company?
In a transparent world, people watch how you process information. Recently, a prominent Albuquerque attorney was stopped for a traffic violation and then arrested. While local media was abuzz, there was nothing forthcoming initially on the attorney’s Facebook page about the incident. Why not shape the conversation? Tell the story from the company point of view.
Business is used to be a “controlled” world. In the old school way, a company simply bought more advertising and put its message before the public.
In today’s social world, it’s not so easy to say “We care,” and then add nothing to the conversation. You can’t engage only in the good parts of the conversation.
Social media technology makes relationship-building easier, but it’s not a substitute for relationships.
How well are your social conversations going? Are you building a relationship or simply using a new channel to push your product. How’s that working for you?
How’s Facebook Working for You?
August 23, 2010 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
When I’m asked to review social media, many businesses really want me to critique a Facebook page. More often than not, I ask, “How’s that working for you?”
While answers vary, I find many business owners are dissatisfied with their Facebook results but at a loss for how to change their outcome.
Here are 10 tips to increase your Facebook reach and effectiveness:
- Know your primary goal. Sample goals: build 500 fans, drive people to a specific URL, generate more visibility for a brick and mortal establishment, listen to customers, support a cause, energize a community. The goal clarifies what happens to your project.
- Add content to interest your followers. This can include links, articles, events, photos, videos and more. If you have a great forum on your website, consider posting an example of the discussion and inviting Facebook followers to join in. Similarly, invite followers to interact in other arenas such as Twitter. Compile your tweet feed on Facebook and encourage followers to add you to their Twitter list with the click of an icon. Add Facebook places, new to Facebook this month. Charlene Li says, “Facebook Places Completes the Picture.”
- Recruit Facebook followers online with links from your homepage, ads, other social media sites and special promotions. Put a fan box on your blog or on your website. I enjoyed (and you might too) the Grandma Mary Show post “How to Use Facebook ads to get More Fans.”
- Engage followers. Use “Share this” and “Like” widgets to engage your community. Occasionally add a creative poll and offer a prize for participation. (Don’t forget to read the Facebook rules for contests and promotional giveaways.) Blogger Aliza Sherman listed ten third-party apps in a post entitled, “10 Easy Ways to Enhance Your Facebook Page.”
- Recruit Facebook followers offline. Integrate your Facebook unique ULR on your ads and other marketing materials. Include a Facebook link in your newsletter or your email signature, for example.
- Thank people for liking your page. One local business owner announces prizes for “big” number goals such as the 100th follower. As she talks about the status, she encourages others to follow her page as well.
- Share your page with key leaders in your industry and ask them to comment, if appropriate. Include links to a larger community, or promote others who have done something significant in your area.
- Invite people to interact with your business on Facebook. But, before you do, be absolutely positive that your page offers value. Otherwise, the “suggest to friends” will simply be one more ignored alert. Mike Mueller says it much more eloquently “Want Me to Like Your Page?”
- Monitor your page daily, if possible, responding to followers. Set alerts so you know when someone has written on your wall. Set achievable goals for yourself, starting at a level you can maintain for the long term. If it’s not realistic for you to handle full responsibility for the posts, delegate the project. Post to Facebook frequently. Your fans need to be noticed, respected and made to feel welcome.
- Study the built-in analytics. Facebook offers a complete overview of your page, including page views, wall posts, discussion threads, photo views, and more. Download these numbers to a spreadsheet and track them to study your success track. Better yet, add Google analytics and learn even more about followers.
In spite of surging growth, Facebook is under-utilized by small businesses. Make it your business to understand as much as possible about how this tool can maximize your visibility and how a Facebook page can help you beat the competition.
Social Media: Chasing the Ball
January 26, 2010 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
“Yelp it!” encouraged my friend shortly after returning from San Francisco. “The restaurants we chose came from Yelp and our entrees were described in detail. I think we even got better service because the waiters saw me typing with my iPhone while we were there.”
Her enthusiasm was catching. I’ve since signed up although I have yet to write a review.
Maybe Yelp isn’t for you.
If you’re in business, you can hardly sit on the sidelines of social media.
But how do you pick? Where do you begin?
“It depends.”
Everyday there’s a new solution, an ‘opportunity’ that might make you millions, and will at the very least require some time to investigate. Rather than chasing the idea of the week much as a child chases a bouncing rubber ball, stop and think.
- What are your goals for your business?
- How do you expect social media to contribute?
- Do you have a long-term plan for social media?
In an article on open forum, consultant and speaker Amber MacArthur suggests five social media tools for small business:
- Nameck – discovery and implementation of names
- Twitter – promotion in 140 characters or less
- Bit.ly – shortening urls and more importantly, tracking the info
- WordPress – Yes for a blogging platform choice! (My choice as well.)
- Facebook – 350 million users can’t be wrong
Read the full article from this link: http://bit.ly/SocialMedia5. MacArthur demonstrates her grasp of the problem small business faces with her summary:
“Once you start to use these tools, assign someone within your organization to act as the community manager (if you’re a one-man or one-woman business, this manager will be you!). This person will control your online voice. With all social media sites, you get back from them what you put into them. In other words, it’s critical to start, follow, and take part in ongoing conversations. Finally, track your successes and take small steps to grow your social media presence as required.”
Disclosure: I ran across this article first on Alltop, a time-saving source for small businesses.
Publicize Now: Get the word out 10 ways
January 24, 2010 by Mary Ellen · 1 Comment
A service provider complained to me about marketing.
“Newspaper is too expensive,” he stated. “We did it once and got no results.”
I didn’t discuss what section he advertised in, what he said, or any of the specifics connected with the problem of doing something only once and expecting results.
Instead, I asked “How do you keep in touch with your best customers?”
“Call them?” he asked.
“PWOP,” I thought. (Person without a plan.)
When you consider keeping your customers and/or finding new ones, think about your systems. Here are 10 things you can do to get the word out with minimal systems and planning:
E-mail. Stay in contact with your best customers through email. Use Constant Contact, iContact, or one of the many other services out there to start and build your list.
Calendar your content. Think through your month and list four events. Write a specific email for each event to send later. HINT: Do it now before you get too busy.
Table tents, counter toppers, or other signage. If you have a retail establishment, find a printed way to engage customers while they wait. One local restaurateur, Myra Ghattas of Slate Street, added table tents so customers could review specials or upcoming events while waiting for their food.
Newsletter. Betty’s Bath & Day Spa sends out a chatty, newsy missive every month “Dear Bettyites.” The newsletter promotes specials and lets customers know about special happenings at the spa.
Use social media. Let employees know about offerings and ask them to help get the word out. WESST, a nonprofit, does just that. Nina Anthony regularly posts to her Facebook page or Tweets about upcoming events.
Publicize through traditional means. Clare Zurawski from WESST was quoted as a subject matter expert in an article on SEO, search engine optimization in the New Mexico Business Weekly. WESST regularly lets local media know about upcoming events through press releases. Do you have a system to do the same?
Advertise. Traditional advertising can be an effective way to get the word out if you’ve carefully targeted your audience. CPA firms, for example, might advertise in a local publication to get new tax return customers.
Network. If you belong to an association it may offer publicity options: include a blurb in the regular newsletter, provide announcements or flyers for a meeting and get the word out to dozens of people at the same time.
Collaborate and cross-promote. Take the time to form an alliance with a complimentary business. Let them distribute your coupon and you do the same for them.
Plan. Take a few moments to jot down your goals for this month and next. Then, list three tactics to make your plan happen.
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