Posts Tagged ‘linkedin’

The four truths of social media: It’s about communication

Friday, May 21st, 2010

Social media is a lot like polygamy.  Now, before you write me off for the loony bin, hear me out for a second.  I’m a huge fan of Big Love on HBO and, in the show, one husband has several wives that he must care for and attend to.  He must communicate with them and encourage them to communicate with each other in order to ensure the marriages work.   Personally, I have trouble keeping my one girlfriend happy so I can’t imagine doing this for multiple women at once, but that is for another day.

The fact of the matter is that social media is set-up much the same way as a polygamist marriage.  Whether you are promoting yourself, or a brand you represent, you play the husband role.  As you grow your community, which we talked about in the previous post, it becomes your responsibility to care for and attend to your followers.  Each one of your followers is a “wife” with their own needs and desires.  It is your job to foster each one of those relationships to ensure you meet their needs and desires.

As just about any relationship expert will tell you, the key to a good relationship is communication.  You have to be able to start conversations, listen to what people are saying and respond accordingly.  If you do not start conversations, it is not communication.  If you don’t listen to what people say, it’s not communication.  If you do not respond to what people are saying, it’s not communication.  And if you’re not communicating, you’re not going to have those relationships for very long.

Now, I’m a realist and I realize that businesses are not going to use social media to simply build relationships.  As I have said all along, social media is a tool to grow businesses, which is exactly why communication is so important.  If you are properly communicating with you followers, you will be able to address any concerns that would prevent them from buying from you.  If you are properly communicating, you will enable your current customers to encourage other followers to buy from you.  If you are properly communicating, you will have proven to your followers that you are the business they should buy from.

Proper communication starts by simply addressing the problems your community has that you fix.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I invite you to checkout last week’s blog.  Once you start communicating with your community, it is a simple matter of dedication, which will be covered next week.  Until then, start communicating with your wives, it’s what a good husband should do!

This is part three of five in the four truths of social media series.  To catch-up on the posts you have missed, or to sign-up for the remaining posts, we invite you to visit timeforarebel.com/blog and put us on your RSS feed.

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The four truths of social media: It’s about community

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

There he was, smack dab across the table from me.  As much as I like to play the cool and confident type, it was hard for me to not show my excitement.  This was IT!  This was the chance to sign my dream client.

As nervous as I was, I knew I was prepared for the meeting.  I had researched everything I possibly could about the company, and its leader, before I even dared to step foot through the door.  I was prepared and was able to answer all of his questions before he even opened up his mouth.  I knew that he had problems in his business and I was just the man to solve them, all I had to do was prove it to him.

This is the scenario that I ask my clients to think about when they start their social media journey.  By thinking about the dream client, or customer, we are able to start defining who that person is and where they are located.   The simple demographic and location information is pretty easy to figure out.  However, the true definition of that dream customer is not who they are but what they want.

And this is how we start to form a community.    You define who that dream customer is, find out where they are located in the social media realm and then figure out what problems or desires they have that you can address.  It is their problems and desires that will become the basis of your community.  From there, you simply provide them information and tips about how to solve their problems or achieve their desires.  It’s as simple as that.

Okay, maybe simple is an overstatement.  In all reality, defining and creating a community can be very difficult.  However, if you start by thinking about what value you can offer to your dream customer and then offer bits and pieces of that value on a daily basis, you will be well on your way.  And do not fear about loosing business to your own social media campaign.

By creating a place of value for your dream customer, you will be the first person on their mind when it is time to purchase your service or product.  And, as much as we hate to admit it, selling stuff is the entire reason we built the community in the first place.  But, if you do want to sell stuff, you’ll have to have a community.

This is part two of five in the four truths of social media series.  To catch-up on the posts you have missed, or to sign-up for the remaining posts, we invite you to visit timeforarebel.com/blog and put us on your RSS feed.

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I hear Facebook will be dead in 5 years

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

I was reading an interesting blog post awhile back that was discussing whether Facebook will even be around in five years.  It seems that social networking sites are unable to find a business model that translates into profits.  Being that my business revolves around social media, this started to concern me.  But then I realized: who cares!

My epiphany came in the realization that social media is not at all a shift in technology; it is a shift in the way we communicate.  No longer are we dependent upon a single source to push out a message through a given medium.  Although television, radio and magazines will almost certainly continue in some form, their impact has already begun to dwindle.  Large conglomerates no longer dictate what information we should know; we have become a water cooler society.

What I mean by water cooler society is that our information is now distributed casually from person to person, just like rumors at the office water cooler.  Yes, we can learn about the Iraq war from the massive amount of television coverage or we could read the blog of a soldier fighting on the front lines.  Yes, we can get a recap of yesterday’s news from the newspaper or we can hear it from our friends in our news feeds.

Although it may seem like it, this water cooler society did not arrive on our doorsteps overnight.  Since the advent of the internet we have been moving in this directions.  Forums, chats and groups paved the way for what we now call social media.  Forms of blogging have been around since the mid-nineties and modern social networking sites since the early 2000s.  Granted, this is a quick timeline in the sense of changing how information is passed from person to person, but is by no means instantaneous.  Society has been striving for a new way to communicate for sometime now.

Even if Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn all fall off the face of the earth tomorrow the way we communicate is unlikely to change.  In their void will come new technologies that allow us to continue our water cooler society.  Gone are the days of one-way communication and here to stay is an era of word of mouth conversation.  So, die if you must Facebook, it wont effect my business none.

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The five things you must know about social media

Friday, September 11th, 2009

I’ve been suffering through a bit of writer’s block lately.  It seems like everyday I learn new things about social media but when I pull up to my computer at the end of the day, I end up drawing a blank.  Since I’m sick of staring at a blank screen or getting half way through a post and hating it, I decided to try a recap of sorts.  My idea for this post was that if I could only tell someone five things about social media, what would they be?  Here’s what I came up with:

  1. It’s not your daddy’s marketing: This stems from a major pet peeve of mine.  It seems like there are a good number of people that think social media is just another way to push their features and benefits onto customers.  What they fail to realize is that since we receive 3,000-5,000 marketing messages a day, even the best-worded pitch, is still that, a pitch.  Get out of the marketing mindset and start thinking about conversation.  What kind of conversation do you want to have with your consumer?  Where do you want that conversation to go?  Once you discover the power of conversation you will never think about returning to that cool marketing copy again.
  2. Life is about who knows you: I always said life isn’t about what you know but who you know.  I was close, but the real measure of success is who knows you.  Take a moment think about who you want to know you.  Whether that person is a business owner, marketing manager or lowly college student, find out where they are.  More then likely they are somewhere on the social media spectrum.  Once you have them cornered, go after them from all angles.  Join groups they are a part of, connect with their friends or ask mutual friends for an introduction.  If you notice, I never once suggested sending them a message about what you want from them.  As soon as you do this you are just another pitch.  Get them cornered and then start your conversation.
  3. Be a jabber mouth: Constant consistency is the verbiage I like to use with my clients.  We have all heard about the vast growth of social media recently.  Yes, this is a great opportunity for you but it also means you will have a tough time standing out.  To get past this you need to be engaging multiple times a day.  You will note I said engaging, as I alluded to in the first topic, if you are constantly and consistently polluting the social media realm, you will see no return.  Your constant engagements need to be relevant and meaningful to your customer.  On the flip side of that coin, even the best conversation starters will get lost in the shuffle if you are not staying at the top of everyone’s news feed.
  4. Brace yourself: I try to warn my clients of this all the time but it still seems to come as a shock when it happens.  When you enter the realm of social media you are fair game.  Anything you say, do or allude to will be used against you in the court of social media.  As long as you stay away from the feature and benefit pitch you should be okay but people will still say whatever they want.  The key is to use each criticism as growing point and not respond emotionally.  Instead, see it as a chance to prove your point and intelligently defend yourself.  If you believe your company’s worldview is correct then you can absolutely defend that as long as you are not being defensive or offensive. 
  5. Have fun:  Don’t worry; this isn’t some pep talk about how this is supposed to be fun, so you should just do it for enjoyment.  If that were the case no business owner would make the time for simple enjoyment.  What I am referring to is that social media is supposed to be about personal connections and bonding.  Think of it as a party.  If you go to a party and try to engage everyone in constant serious conversation you will get the party pooper stigma.  However, if you go to the party, tell a few jokes, make fun of yourself and look like you’re having a good time, people will want to party with you again.  Therefore, keep your happy face on, make some jokes and make people want to be your friend.   And that is the key, making people know who you are.

 

Five simple things, follow them and see success.

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The “why” of social media

Friday, June 19th, 2009

For those of you that are sick of hearing me talk, here is what some other people have said about the power of social media:

 

Social media is not a fad. It is not going away. It is not just for teenagers. It is fundamentally re-engineering the way we communicate with consumers, with each other and the way we promote and sell our goods and services. If you are not making this a part of your business and marketing plan, know that your competitors are. The social media train is picking up steam. If you don’t get on board, you’ll be left at the station.  (Chuck Schuele)

Social media is transforming marketing as we know it. Marketers should first of all listen or read what consumers are saying about their brand within these social networks before doing anything. They’re powerful communication tools and are becoming an essential part of successful marketing strategies.  (Geri Weiland)

I use social media for networking and to reach additional groups of people that I may not otherwise have access to (those that are located in different states, etc).  (Steffany Caputo)

I first got onto it out of necessity, as social media has become normal business practice. I’ve found that LinkedIn has allowed penetration into areas I would not have had otherwise.  (Sue Rhodes)

If I don’t, I feel left out.  (Scott S. Seroka)

I think it gives power to readers/audiences. They can come together and form communities either in support or against of anything. (Nitin Walia)

From a business, brand and internal alignment point of view, I/we use social media for relevance. Relevance for demonstrating truth behind a value proposition, relevance in demonstrating thought leadership, relevance in promoting/creating relationships and community interaction. (Lou Thurmon)

I have been using LinkedIn first and foremost to get connected and build a business network outside my physical area and secondly to use it to take the pulse of what is going on in with businesses–basically to see what the predominate thinking is on sales, marketing and the state of business these days. (Holly Rotman-Zaid)

Inbound marketing. From a business perspective, devoting a percentage of the marketing plan to allow for your audience to come to you, instead of you going to them. (Pete Iacovazzi)

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who put effort into describing why they choose social media.

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