The networked consumers know more than most companies about their own products and services. Whether the facts are good or bad, they tell everybody about what they know. Have you had this experience with networked consumers? Certainly motivates you to know about small business social marketing, doesn’t it?
“Social media” is a way for people to communicate and interact online. While it has been around since the dawn of the World Wide Web, in the last 10 years or so we’ve seen a surge in both the number and popularity of social media sites. It’s called social media because users engage with (and around) it in a social context, which can include conversations, commentary, and other user-generated annotations and engagement interactions.
Publishing content has become exponentially simpler over the last several years, which has helped skyrocket the use of social media. Non-technical web users are now able to easily create content on a rapidly growing number of platforms, including those that are owned (hosted communities, blogs, etc.), rented (social networks or third-party communities), and occupied (commenting, contributing, etc.).
“What’s that word again that you used for stealing content,” my newspaper editor friend asked me? “Curation,” I said, “and it’s not stealing content.”
It seems to me that at the heart of the controversy is a fundamental shift in the value of information. It used to be scarce, but now we’re drowning in it. That’s creating a fundamental shift in the economics of media. Therefore, the answer lies not only in product innovation, but business model innovation, which is even harder.
For businesses, the shift in web consumerism and an accompanying rise in social media brings excellent opportunity. The real magic lies in the ability to grow lasting and scalable relationships with your organization’s customer base through social media.
Whether your business is listening and engaging or not, customers are having conversations relevant to your operations. It’s better to be part of the conversation, right?
Why does my company need social media?
Whether you are running a small, local operation, or heading a global, enterprise-level effort, the statistics above make it clear: Your customers are online. They are interacting in social channels with their friends, colleagues, and other brands in search of information, recommendations, and entertainment. If your company is not around to answer, a competitor will be. In doing so, your competitor will quite likely take away the customer at hand, along with anyone else listening.
Using social media for marketing can enable small business looking to further their reach to more customers. Your customers are interacting with brands through social media, therefore, having a strong social media presence on the web is the key to tap into their interest. If implemented correctly, marketing with social media can bring remarkable success to your business.
Social media community engagement? What does it mean to your business? Dialog with customers for sure. What about reading your content and remembering? Appreciating your help? We believe it is all of these things.
Have you ever thought about how you should build positive social media community engagement?
This task starts with what customers want and need. Most people want to: feel needed, be valued, be appreciated, be fulfilled, share emotions, laugh and be happy, succeed and be inspired. Make them feel something that feels unique to what other brands are blasting at them. To do this you must know who your community is. You must know how to catch and hold their attention.
So let’s examine our recommended game plan to build a positive social media community engagement:
Social marketing examples …win the first impression battle
What are you doing to make their first 30 seconds on your platform useful and worth their attention? If you can’t answer this question, you need to start here. First impressions are everything.
Be human
Humanize your brand. Realize that your brand is everything about you from what you tweet to how you respond to comments on Facebook. Don’t hide your employees. Let them shine and be a living, breathing representation of your brand.
Small business social media marketing … Be patient yet persistent
You aren’t going to capture your community overnight or on the first day you launch any social media site. Building and launching an integrated online community takes time. Give yourself and your team the time to do it right.
Have patience and persistence. Slow down and do it right and at the end of the game, you’ll be the winner, guaranteed.
Connect emotionally
Make them feel. If you want to grab my attention on G+, make me laugh. Make me cry. Make me feel something, anything. When I have a super busy day and I am replying to posts I have no choice due to the amount of them and time constraints but to choose where and when I am going to respond.
It is an easy choice for me. I respond to the people who grab my attention. The people who are nice, who make me feel good. The people who are genuine. The people who make me laugh, playing the emotional card.
Focus on relationships
The life of social media is people. People like you and me. People who laugh, cry, get mad, go crazy, get married, divorced, have kids, lose family members, win jobs, lose jobs, get promotions, win new clients, get new opportunities, have fun, play hard and work hard.
Offer value to the people in your community with a goal of building real relationships. Offer value and knowledge.
Inspire them
Inspire your communities to connect with you with a foundational goal of achieving their objectives. Inspire, Connect, Achieve. To do this you must know their objectives and goals. You must know them. When you know your audience then you can know how you can help them be better.
How can you help them learn? How can you help them go faster? Work smarter? Be smarter? Share more valuable information with their colleagues, clients, partners, and friends? Figure these answers out and use them to help.
Teach them
What knowledge can you share with them that will make them smarter? How can your knowledge drive real efficiency in their life or business? Share your best stuff, not just the same old, same old you wrote two years ago that is overused and oversold, by everyone everywhere.
Make it easy
People want to connect. They don’t want to be spammed at every opportunity. Give them an opportunity to engage with you, your brand, and your team. Be available. Open up your comment stream on your blog. Listen and be relevant and responsive.
Listen
The most important thing you can do to create a positive engagement is to listen carefully. Listen with a goal to understand. Bottom line, listen more than you talk. You’ll be amazed how much you can learn about your audience when you shut up and listen.
In summary, building a positive social media community engagement is very similar to making friends. Keep it simple and be genuine.
Small business social media marketing … use engagement to build relationships
And social media and commerce are all about building relationships. Social media gives a business or brand the ability to turn communication into interactive social conversations. Anyone eager to create an online presence can take static or one-way communication and turn it into a vibrant, dynamic and energetic conversation. Ones that trust and relationships are built from.
Social media opens the door to deeper, more meaningful conversations; allowing businesses to share meaningful, relevant messages consumers seek and all in real-time.
Before we get to these great ideas to create or improve social conversations, lets first review some frequent misconceptions about social media. Social media is NOT:
About being on Facebook. Or Twitter. Those are platforms and not the end state. The end state is about customer engagement.
About being a big brand. When creating social conversations, the size of the business doesn’t matter.
About being the first mover in adopting new technology. That has value, but is it what you want your customers to talk about? We think not.
In order to create meaningful social conversations, you must first open the lines of communication. Below are 15 ideas for creating social media conversations that captivate and inspire your online community!
Customer retention
It is less costly to keep existing customers than finding new ones. So focus conversations on current customers. They are not all alike either, so watch for your priorities.
Think stories
Think about the stories that you were told as children. They are etched into our subconscious. Use pictures and videos to tell your stories in creative new ways. Ways that will be remembered and talked about. Stories are sticky.
Think service
Always put your priority on your service, not your products.
Company culture
Every successful brand has a specific culture. One that relates to the brand’s personality. And yes, of course, a brand has a distinctive personality. Decide what personality you want for your brand and build your culture around it.
Keep it simple
It is difficult to be heard above all the noise in the marketplace. So grab attention and hold it with simple messages.
What do you want customers to remember?
Plan your conversation topics on the interests of your most important customers. It’s not about you and rarely about your business. Will your conversations be remarkable enough to be talked about? That is your goal.
Monetary value or conversation value?
Here is the question. Who are your most valuable customers? The ones that spend the most? Or the ones that create the newest customers for you? It turns out that both are needed. Target both.
Random acts of kindness
Nothing works better than a simple surprise act of kindness. Do something that will make a difference and be talked about.
Relationships are key
Social media is all about building and exploring customer relationships. Continually look for new ways to engage. Remember engagement is a two-way street.
Happy customers
Turns out that the happiest customers drive retention and conversations. Are you committed to making your customers happy?
Offline conversations
Remember that 80-90 % of conversations happen offline. So pay attention to customer conversations in the store.
Manage expectations
Do more than customers expect … but don’t go overboard.
Everything business is conversations
Create interesting topics that are conversation worthy. Plan ahead and stay up on interesting and current topics in the media.
Facilitate
Use techniques that permit customer collaboration. Ask for their explicit opinions and recommendations. Set up simple polls and opinion surveys on topics of customer interest.
Pilot projects
Try new ideas as pilot projects on a small scale often. What works build out in scale.
Employee traits and skills you will need
The most important part of social media marketing? It is being social … hands down. A difference maker for future success, no doubt.
What skills, though, do successful social media marketers have that put these individuals above the average social media user, and better yet, above the traditional marketer? Authenticity? Personality? Market knowledge?
Your personality traits have a lot to say about your social ability. Just as your personality as well as social ability have a lot to say about your social media marketing.
Our vote for the most important type of marketing? Word of mouth marketing, hands down. And the best channels to create word of mouth marketing? Social media, again hands down. A great way to get attention in a crowded marketplace. Seth knows.
To us, it’s clear that it takes a certain type of person to manage social channels. From managing attacks on your brand/company to interacting with people on a daily basis, being in social media requires some specific traits.
Here are 14 traits, skills, and/or characteristics of highly effective social media marketers and some tips to help you rock like them:
Curious
From constantly reading about new trends and happenings in your industry to learning about your audience, curiosity is key for a successful social media marketer.
In this type of position, it’s important to know as much as you possibly can about your brand, your industry and the audience you’re catering to.
Build trust
Be honest in your communications at all cost. Trust is very hard to earn back once lost. It is a basis of good relationship building.
Innovative
Innovation adds ‘flavor’ to your skills and makes them adaptable. Be innovative to stand out above the noise.
Sense of humor
Adding humor to marketing is a cool way of saying “we are a friendly business”. It makes your marketing memorable. Gives your brand a distinct personality and yields priceless results.
Patient
Never be pushy, and know the path to the social media community takes time. Be patient yet persistent with all your marketing goals.
Newsworthy
Demonstrate both the ability to make news as well as create effective curation; rarely be predictable yet always consistently adding value.
Unpretentious
Don’t create a feeling of ego. Be genuine and humble at all times.
Nurturing style
Avoid a selling style. Always aim to be relentlessly helpful to customers.
Engaging
Practice continuous networking, both online and off. Use many channels to connect. Your goal is to optimize relationship building.
Listener and learner
People usually have something to say, so listen and show appreciation or let them know you are working on it. Never put down or ignore negative feedback.
Listen, asks good questions, then listen intently some more. Continuously study and learn from customer insights.
Responsive
Recognize the consistency of engaging customers promptly. Right on it when customers ask questions or give comments.
Sharer
Stay open-minded and always eager to recognize and share the work of others.
Natural leader
Be the person that makes all the people around you better. Empower people to act. And build a tribe of like-minded professionals.
Newsworthy
Show your ability to make news, but also be an effective curator. Be a person who is rarely predictable and always adding value.
Most of these traits aren’t rocket science, are they? Create a checklist of these traits to keep in the forefront of your thinking.
Social engagement design usually center on efforts to create content that attracts attention and encourages readers to share it with their social networks. Company messages, stories, and helpful information spreads from user to user and presumably resonates because it provides relevant, interesting and/or useful information.
We think of social media as just another marketing channel when we need to instead think of it as the influencer of all channels.
To improve your social media design, you must improve social networking and customer engagement. We have found 9 ways to accomplish these improvements that we use with our clients:
Know as much or more than your audience … valuable content is essential
It is all about quality … quality is much more valuable than quantity
It is about building relationships … meaning conversation is required. Don’t add to the noise
A picture or image … is worth 1000 words. Visual marketing is growing rapidly
Keep you messages … short, simple, and relevant
Define … specific objectives for your campaigns
Measure your accomplishments … against your objectives. Learn and apply learning.
There are NO shortcuts … it requires time and energy
It requires persistence and patience … don’t give up
We are finding more and more businesses are defining meaningful initiatives to use social media. And guess what … the best uses aren’t to sell.
Let’s examine some of the more popular customer engagement design initiatives many businesses are using:
Soliciting Opinions
What charities to support
Asking favorite flavors or products
What they would like to see on social media pages
Likes and dislikes
Collaborating on product/service design
Voting on Most Favorite Things
A moment in Michael Jordan career
The scariest roller coaster
Donuts
New design features
Pictures of Customers with Products
New Application Introduction / Usage
Creating customized holiday cheer cards
Ordering products (even for local delivery)
Local store locator
Use of Videos
Live events, such as fashion shows
Product demo’s, do it yourself tips
Game clips
Local, regional activities
Promotions
Weekly giveaways
Coupons
Free products to entice Facebook fan signup
Special rates for Facebook fans
Content
Menus
New product introduction
Share product/articles from magazines
Targeted messages to customer groups/segments
Special business events
There is considerable creativity in the use of social media by many businesses, with very good engagement results.
If you are not taking advantage of social media marketing strategy for consumer engagement, you are missing a great opportunity to create/build customer relationships for you and your brand. Why not put some of these ideas to use and gain valuable feedback and customer insights?
Guidelines for staff
The greatest danger of participating in online social media? Just like Stephen Hawking says … it is the illusion of knowing what you are doing. And that can be very dangerous, yes? Therefore we believe it is critical to provide guidance to all employees by means of a social media employee handbook. Here we create some employee guideline tips for your consideration.
Every day, people discuss and debate our company and brand in online conversations. We recognize the vital importance of participating in these online conversations and are committed to ensuring that we participate in online social media with excellence.
This Social Media Employee Guide has been developed to help empower employees to participate in this new marketing and communications, represent our company, and share the optimistic and positive spirits of our brand. It is intended to outline how employees should be engaged in the online social media space and to guide their participation. , both when you are participating personally, as well as when you are acting on behalf of the company.
We encourage all employees to explore and engage in social media communities at a level at which they feel comfortable. Have fun, but be smart.The best advice is to approach online worlds in the same way we do the physical one – by using sound judgmentand common sense, by adhering to our values, and by following a Code of Business Conduct.
Remember that local posts can have wide significance
The way that you answer an online question might be accurate in some parts of the world, but inaccurate (or even illegal) in others. Keep that “worldview” in mind when you are participating in online conversations.
Don’t share business confidential information
Do not publish, post, or release information that is considered confidential or not public. If it seems confidential, it probably is. Do not discuss numbers and other sales figures (non-public financial or operational information), strategies and forecasts, legal issues or future promotions/activities. Do not post any merchandise pricing information or comparisons.
When in doubt, do not post
Employees are personally responsible for their words and actions, wherever they are. As online spokespeople, you must ensure that your posts are completely accurate and not misleading.
Exercise sound judgment and common sense, and if there is any doubt, DO NOT POST IT. In any circumstance in which you are uncertain about how to respond to a post, ask someone responsible for social media and communications.
The company understands that employees engage in online social media activities at work for legitimate purposes and that these activities may be helpful for the business.
However, the business encourages all employees to exercise sound judgment and common sense to prevent online social media sites from becoming a distraction at work.
Give credit where credit is due and don’t violate others’ rights
DO NOT claim authorship of something that is not yours. If you are using another party’s content, make certain that they are credited for it in your post and that they approve of you utilizing their content.
Do not use the copyrights, trademarks, publicity rights, or other rights of others without the necessary permissions of the authors.
Be mindful that you are representing the business
As a representative of the business, it is important that your posts convey the same positive, optimistic spirit that the company instills in all of its communications.
Be respectful of all individuals, races, religions, and cultures; how you conduct yourself in the online social media space not only reflects on you – it is a direct reflection on the company.
Fully disclose your affiliation with the company
The business requires all employees who are communicating on behalf of the company to always disclose their name and their affiliation. It is never acceptable to use aliases or otherwise deceive people.
State your relationship with the Company from the outset, e.g., “Hi, I’m Mike Schoultz and I work for Digital Spark Marketing.” This disclosure is equally important for any agency/vendor/partner/third party who is representing the company online. They must disclose that they work “with Digital Spark Marketing Agency.”
Follow the Code of Business Conduct and all other company policies
The Code of Business Conduct provides the foundation for these Online Social Media Principles: “As a representative of [the Company], you must act with honesty and integrity in all matters.” This commitment is true for all forms of social media.
In addition, several other policies govern your behavior as a Company spokesperson in the online social media space, including the Information Protection Policy and the Insider Trading Policy.
Let the subject matter experts respond to negative posts
You may come across negative or disparaging posts about the company or brand, or see third parties trying to spark negative conversations.
Unless you are a certified online spokesperson, avoid the temptation to react yourself. Pass the post(s) along to company spokespersons that are trained to address such comments.
Be conscious when mixing your business and personal lives
Online, your personal and business personas are likely to intersect. The business respects the free speech rights of all of its employees, but you must remember that customers, colleagues, and supervisors often have access to the online content you post.
Keep this in mind when publishing information online that can be seen by more than friends and family, and know that information originally intended just for friends and family can be forwarded on. Remember to be aware that taking public positions online that are counter to the business’s interests might cause conflict.
In conclusion, remember this:
The purpose for you to become more actively involved with social media is to find additional opportunities to connect with customers and share information with them that they enjoy receiving.
As a front-line salesperson, or any employee for that matter, this should just be another valuable tool that will help you further accomplish that goal—but it shouldn’t take away from the very important person-to-person contacts that you will continue to make each day.
Above all, remember to have fun and be yourself!
Responding to negative comments
Do you have a response strategy for customer crisis? It is logical that you occasionally deal with negative customers, no matter how good you are. How well you deal with these customers will determine whether you are dealing with a crisis or a non-issue. Response time in these situations is critical also.
So it is wise to prepare a response plan how you would respond before you receive any such comments. Note that part of the response plan requires action prior to receiving negative comments from customers. Here is the response plan we recommend to our clients:
Humanize your brand
Always create a personality through laughter and having fun in the workplace. Be able to laugh at yourself. Wear your enthusiasm and your passion at all times.
Related post: Social Media Campaign … How to Create an Eye-popping One
Listen and accept
Avoid censoring at all costs. Listen carefully and try to understand your customers’ viewpoints.
Respond directly
Respond directly and early response time matters. Time is critical and you have very little.
Be transparent
Always explain without offering excuses. Remain calm under fire at all costs.
Fix the problem
Fix problems if they are present. Acknowledge the issue and communicate your solution.
Funnel comments/concerns
Provide all information to your staff. Keep everyone in the loop and up to speed.
Build a community
Build followers of passionate defenders. Let them defend you with their views.
Create an opportunity
Try to turn the problem into an opportunity. Don’t neglect to spend time finding the opportunity from your adversity … it often will not jump out at you, will it?
Know when to walk away
If it is a lose-lose situation and you see you are not making headway, be prepared to walk away. When is the issue over? Sometimes it is obvious, sometimes not … but monitor closely for a while.
Your customers are not always right, but they always have the right to choose. And when they do, they will tell their friends about their experiences and their choices.
In conclusion, remember this:
The purpose for you to become more actively involved with social media is to find additional opportunities to connect with customers and share information with them that they enjoy receiving.
Need some help in capturing more customers from your social media marketing or advertising? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with your customers?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy innovating your social media strategy?
Do you have a lesson about making your advertising better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
More reading on social media design from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
