by tradesmeninsights | Oct 7, 2009 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
I recently put on a Webinar on how social media could be used by B-to-B, and one of the most common questions is what tools should I use? Should I concentrate on Facebook, LinkedIn or is Twitter the best for me? When I ask them why are they doing social media, I get a silent pause. One of the first things we talk about is the “Why” you want to participate in the social media scene. If you can’t answer the Why, then the How doesn’t matter. Don’t get into social because you think it’s cool or that this will be the “silver bullet” that will save your business. You need to treat social like any other marketing program. Define expectations and outcomes. Adopt a phased approach to meet these business objectives. Here are some questions to answer to better understand your goals:
- Why are you participating?
- How can social media improve your customer relations?
- Can social media help you build/reinforce your brand?
- Do your current customers use social and which sites do they frequent?
- How do you define success?
- What kind of metrics are you going to set in place to monitor your success?
- How can social media help you gain more knowledge?
- What kind of social media policy do you have in place?
Like any other program, success is based on developing a plan and then implementing it. If you want to be cool and hip, do your homework and you’ll find out that people respond when you have a plan.
What are your thoughts?
by tradesmeninsights | Jul 30, 2009 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Social Marketing
Before you answer that question, you first have to have something to measure it against. Set expectations and goals, then make a plan, execute it and then monitor it. Why are you even playing with social if you’re not looking to reach new prospects. You first need to identify your audience, make them aware of who you are and then engage them. Use metrics to keep you on track but don’t get obsessed with them.
Use measuring devices first of all to help you monitor what you’re doing and secondly to fend off the bean counters as to what are we getting out of this. Are you reaching the people? Are you engaging them and building a relationship? If you have a blog, how is your audience embracing your message? With social you have numerous tools that will help you monitor your progress from Google Analytics to Twitter Search, Technorati or BoardReader.com. With my blog, I know immediately if I’ve hit a home run with a post. With Twitter, you can monitor what people are saying about you or your competitors. LinkedIn lets you participate in groups that gives you the opportunity to gain visibility and credibility and hopefully start engaging new potentials.
Several folks have got their own processes in place. Bill Seaver has a L.A.C.E. method which stands for – Leads, Awareness, Customer Service and Engagement. Tarla Cumming’s method is called M.O.M. – Monitor, Outreach and Measure. The point is everyone’s circumstances are different. Try something and if it doesn’t work or it needs to be revised, then do it.
I’d like to hear what others are doing to measure their effectiveness and whether you’re doing it as a quality control issue for your content, or if you’re doing a numbers thing for management.
by tradesmeninsights | Jul 22, 2009 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
I continue to be amazed sometimes as to which of my posts do better than others. Sometimes there is no rhyme or reason. Just as you check the other metrics on how you’re doing, I think it’s important as a part of your own self discipline to review the low performers and see if there are ways to improve. We are all guilty sometimes of not putting our best foot forward and our audience lets us know it. Darren Rowse, in a recent post titled, Why did your last blog post fail? 13 questions to ask, outlines a pretty good checklist for evaluating your posts. I’ve highlighted 5 of the most important ones that I make sure I use.
- Post title – Did it have enough zing to get people to stop? I’m in the ad business and no matter what medium you’re using, you only have a fraction of a second to get someone’s attention.
- Opening lines – Once you stop them with a great title, you’d better tell them quickly “WIIFM” (What’s In It For Me).
- Was the post to the point – Did you stay on point and make your point easily understood.
- Was there enough meat on the bones – Did your post have sufficient depth (both from content and links)
- Did it fulfill a need – Why would someone want to read it?
I’m sure you have other thoughts and I’d like to hear them.
