How Do You Find the Time Without Going Crazy?

Posted by admin on Thursday, March 31st, 2011 , Posted in Blog, Facebook, social media marketing , No Comments »

Someone asked me this past week for tips on how to get your social media marketing done without driving yourself crazy. Here is my overview answer:

1. Use your WordPress website as the hub of your marketing efforts.
2. Write at least one post a week on your site. Two is better. Try for every Tuesday and Thursday. Consistency is key. Make a goal and stick to it. Be personal, be provocative, and be informative. Why do they want to read this from you? Make them care. Keep writing and you will find your voice.
3. Have your posts automatically show up on your Facebook page and your LinkedIn site. You can then just respond to people if they comment there (make sure you are set up to receive e-mails from those sites when people leave comments so you can get right back to them). People hate automatic tweets, so send out personalized tweets with links to your blog posts so people will be compelled to open them.
4. Use HootSuite and set up each of your social media sites to have their own streams. Have at least three streams for Twitter: the feed of all the Tweets of the people you follow, a stream of @yourname so you see when people mention you or send you a public message, and a direct message stream of tweets that are private messages to you.
5. If there are people in your streams that you do not like, un-follow them and find some more people to follow that are in your niche. You want your Twitter stream to be really interesting to you, or really why bother.
6. Get on HootSuite at least twice a day. Once in the morning for a half hour or so and once in the evening for the same time. If your feed is set up with the right people, you will get lots of news and see posts that are very informative and give you food for thought. Retweet them or respond to the person with a message. They will notice and most likely follow you back. And then when you send out a tweet saying that you have written something, they will see it and possibly retweet it. Keep doing this and jumping in and commenting to someone when you see an opportunity. Don’t just lurk.
7. When you find posts from your Twitter feed that you like, leave a comment. People notice. Find several people you would love to know. Follow their blogs and interact with them on a low key basis.  Keep doing this. They will notice. You will be setting the groundwork for them to notice you and your work.
8. Once you have something to say and are doing the above steps consistently, make a commitment to send out an e-mail newsletter on a schedule you can maintain. The type of content depends on your niche. But I have found a personal touch with valuable content is best. Make sure you include links to other articles you have written on your website. Even your family will forget to go to your site if you don’t remind them.
9. This is like fishing. First you see other people catching fish. Hmmm. How are they doing it. What bait are they using? What is their technique? So you start to fish and put your line in the water consistently and keep trying slight variations. Then, you will get your first little bite when someone retweets one of your posts, or suggests that others follow you. You start to get it, and you want more, so you keep it up. And then if you do, you will get a big hit, a retweet that goes viral or a post that gets 800 page views in a day and then you will be hooked.

So get busy and let me know how it goes!

Think Social Media Is Only For Gaining New Customers? Think Again.

Posted by admin on Tuesday, March 29th, 2011 , Posted in Blog, social media marketing , No Comments »

In most industries, it costs 3-5 times more to gain a new customer than it does to keep an existing one. And yet, when we talk to most business owners using Facebook, they see it solely as a platform for gaining new customers. They aren’t to blame. Using social media, Facebook in particular, is largely regarded as a great way to generate new leads and, thus, new customers. But if you only use these platforms for acquiring new customers, you’re leaving a lot on the table. There is a great opportunity with social media to keep the customers you already have. By keeping the relationship alive, interacting with those customers regularly, and addressing their questions and concerns, you can retain their business much easier than before. Let’s say one of your customers has an issue with your business. Before social media, unless they came to your business and told you about it, you would most likely have just lost them. Now, that customer would likely go to social media to voice their opinion, giving you the opportunity to rectify the situation and possible keep that person as a customer. You don’t have to do all of your customer service via social media, but if you have created an environment in which customers can easily communicate with you, you’ll be in a much better position to keep them from jumping ship