I think there are many companies who have got to this point, and it’s probably the worst reason to get involved with Facebook, Twitter and social media in general.

Let’s press the pause button and consider …

-          Your business goals

-          How will social media help you achieve them?

-          What does success look like?

-          What’s your strategy to get there?

If you’re struggling to answer any of these questions, then do give us a call and we can help through the process.

Once you’ve answered these questions then it’s time to implement, but do keep referring back to keep yourself on track with your strategy.

People often ask me this, and the answer is simple. Yes, you want to broadcast some messages relevant to your product or service, as this will increase your search engine rankings, but you need to mix it in with some run of the mill chitter chatter too. It’s called social media, so it’s important we keep it social.

Join in with other people’s conversations, answer questions and re-tweet others who have posted something of interest. Make general day to day comments; the kind of mundane conversations you’d have with the person standing next to you in the supermarket queue.

Don’t over-think Twitter – it’s just a conversation. For most people you can just tweet what pops into your head. People will forgive your spelling mistakes and bad grammar – as long as that isn’t a part of your service, e.g. if you’re a copy writer your tweets need to show your talent. If you manufacture widgets, the fact that you’ve missed a comma or mis-spelt a word really isn’t the end of the World.

I’m often asked by industrial manufacturing businesses if there is any benefit to them using social media. The short answer is yes, the longer answer is…

Well, for a start – are you sure? It’s still early days for social media in the industrial manufacturing sector, so your customers may not have a Business Page yet, although many do, but are you sure they don’t use Facebook or Twitter on a personal basis?

In the UK there are 30 million people on Facebook, around 12 million on Twitter, with 8 million using LinkedIn and I find it hard to believe that your customers don’t account for some of these huge numbers …

However, if I’m wrong, does it really matter? Every post on social media is indexed by search engines, so as long as you use your keywords, you have a chance of a search engine finding that tweet or update when a potential customer is searching for a product. Isn’t that reason enough?

Here’s a really cool infographic from onlinemba.com on social media demographics. There’s data for Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Linkedin, Reddit and digg, so make sure you keep this information in mind when  you’re creating your social media strategies.

Via: Online MBA Resource

Creating regular blog posts can be challenging when there are so many other jobs that we also need to do. I write blogs for clients and I keep on top of those – after all, if I don’t, I won’t have that client for very long – but keeping my own blog updated… well, that’s more difficult. If I don’t write a blog for my website one week, or even one month, what will happen? Well the world won’t end. Some of my followers may notice, but they may not. The worst that would probably happen is that my website will sink lower and lower in Google, but I doubt I’d notice this for a few weeks.

So, in order to remain focused on Blogging – which definitely has a positive effect on your business even if the negative effect of not doing it takes a while to show – we need to make it easy on ourselves. The graphic below should give you some pointers when inspiration is low…

Like this infographic? Get more content marketing tips from Copyblogger.

Account hacking on Twitter seems to be rife at the moment, and has been for some time. People often ask me what they should do if this happens to them, so here are my suggestions…

1/ Log-on to Twitter and change your password. Try to make this password as difficult to guess as possible – random characters works best.

2/ Now go to settings and click on apps to review all the Applications that you have allowed to have access to your account. If there are any that you don’t recognise or you no longer use, then click on “revoke access.” If you’re someone who regularly plays with new apps, it would be a good discipline to do this on a regular basis

3/ Now go to your profile and scroll through all your recent tweets deleting any that you didn’t send – this will stop anyone else from clicking on a link that will cause the same thing to happen to them.

4/ Finally, it would be polite to send out messages to your Followers explaining that you’ve been hacked and apologising for the direct messages that they may have received.

I hope this helps, should you be unlucky enough to be hacked.

First Steps

1. Build an account and immediate start using Twitter Search to listen for your name, your competitor’s names, words that relate to your space. (Listening always comes first.)
2. Add a picture. We want to see you.
3. Talk to people about THEIR interests, too. I know this doesn’t sell more widgets, but it shows us you’re human.
4. Point out interesting things in your space, not just about you.
5. Share links to neat things in your community.
6. Don’t get stuck in the apology loop. Be helpful instead.
7. Be wary of always pimping your stuff. Your fans will love it. Others will tune out.
8. Promote your employees’ outside-of-work stories.
9. Throw in a few humans to interact with.
10. Talk about non-business too.

Ideas About WHAT to Tweet

1. Instead of answering the question, “What are you doing?”, answer the question, “What has your attention?”
2. Have more than one twitterer at the company. People can quit. People take vacations. It’s nice to have a variety.
3. When promoting a blog post, ask a question or explain what’s coming next, instead of just dumping a link.
4. Ask questions. Twitter is GREAT for getting opinions.
5. Follow interesting people. If you find someone who tweets interesting things, see who she follows, and follow her.
6. Tweet about other people’s stuff. Again, doesn’t directly impact your business, but makes us feel like you’re not “that guy”
7. When you DO talk about your stuff, make it useful. Give advice, blog posts, pictures, etc.
8. Share the human side of your company. If you’re bothering to tweet, it means you believe social media has value for human connections. Point us to pictures and other human things.
9. Don’t toot your own horn too much.
10. Or, if you do, try to balance it out by promoting the heck out of others, too.

Some Sanity For You

1. You don’t have to read every tweet.
2. You don’t have to reply to every @ tweet directed to you (try to reply to some, but don’t feel guilty).
3. Use direct messages for 1-to-1 conversations if you feel there’s no value to Twitter at large to hear the conversation.
4. Use services like Twitter Search to make sure you see if someone’s talking about you. Try to participate where it makes sense.
5. 3rd party clients like Hootsuite and make it a lot easier to manage Twitter.
6. If you tweet all day while your co-workers are busy, you’re going to hear about it.
7. If you’re representing clients and billing hours, and tweeting all the time, you might hear about it.
8. Use the URL shortening tool that Hootsuite offers, or one like bit.ly. It helps tidy up your tweets.
9. If someone says you’re using twitter wrong, forget it. It’s an opt out society. They can unfollow if they don’t like how you use it.
10. Commenting on others’ tweets, and retweeting what others have posted is a great way to build community.

The Negatives People Will Throw At You

1. Twitter takes up time.
2. Twitter takes you away from other productive work.
3. Without a strategy, it’s just typing.
4. There are other ways to do this.
5. Twitter doesn’t replace customer service, but it can complement it.
6. Twitter’s only a few million people. (only)
7. Twitter doesn’t replace direct email marketing.
8. Twitter opens the company up to more criticism and griping.

Some Positives to Throw Back

1. Twitter works well as an opinion poll. Twitter can help direct people’s attention to good things.
2. Twitter at events helps people build an instant “backchannel.”
3. Twitter breaks news faster than other sources, often (especially if the news impacts online denizens).
4. Twitter brings great minds together, and gives you daily opportunities to learn (if you look for it, and/or if you follow the right folks).
5. Twitter gives your critics a forum, but that means you can study them.
6. Twitter helps with business development, if your prospects are online.
7. Twitter can augment customer service.

You can check out the original article here.

It’s a pretty obvious statement, isn’t it? Have you ever even heard of someone trying to saw sawdust? I guess not… The wood has already been sawed, the sawdust is the result. You can only work with the result and no amount of wishing or worrying is going to bring that wood back, so you can so something different with it. Maybe next time you get some wood you’ll choose to do things differently…

Here’s another phrase for you –  there’s no use crying over spilt milk. It’s the same thing isn’t it? You’ve spilt the milk, there’s nothing you can do about it. The milk is gone. Maybe next time you won’t leave the milk bottle on the edge of the table, but right now, you need to accept that the milk has gone and move on.

I’m not telling you anything new here, am I? So why is it that when something goes wrong, it can be really difficult just to accept it and move on? Often we waste hours worrying about what happened and wishing we’d done something different, but ultimately, we can’t turn back time, so we need to find a better way of dealing with it.

How about this? If something goes wrong…

• consider if you could have done it differently to achieve a better outcome
• do all you can to minimise the impact of the current situation
• learn from your mistake
• move on

It’s the last one that causes most people problems but there really is a simple solution. Your mind can only focus on one thing at a time. Yes, we can multi-task, but if you have something that you need to really concentrate on, then your mind will be fully occupied with that. So find something that completely absorbs you, gardening, painting, working, decorating, reading – what works for me, may not work for you, so you need to find your “thing”.  When you find yourself worrying over something that’s already happened, get busy with it, and you’ll be so absorbed with the present that you won’t be re-living the past.

I’m talking about closing the sale of course. No smut on my blog!

If you have then well done you, but I imagine on most occasions it’s taken some to-ing and fro-ing. In fact there’s a generally accepted rule in marketing that says it takes seven points of contact before someone will buy from you.

What that means is your potential customer needs to see or hear your name seven times before they’ll be comfortable doing business with you. Sounds like hard work right? Or maybe not …

•          Start  blogging
•          Set your company up on appropriate social networking sites, e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Google+
•          Build a targeted, relevant following
•          Drive potential customers to your blog
•          Make sure your blog advertises all your social media pages

Bounce potential customers from Twitter to your blog, onto Facebook, then to your website, back to your blog – you get the idea? Before you know it a handful or more of your seven points of contact are covered, so when you do speak to them, they are a much warmer lead, and may already be well on the way to having decided to do business with you.

It’s that time of year when I really feel the need to plan. Are you the same? I love making new year resolutions and I’m world class at failing to achieve most of them. But just that act of attempting them, brings you closer to your goal. What’s that saying “If you aim for the moon, even if you fail, you may land among the stars.” Well, reaching the stars would be pretty cool, so I’ll continue making new year resolutions, knowing that they’ll bring me closer to my goal, if not all the way there. So, just in case you haven’t yet made yours, I’ve planned for you too – social media style, naturally :-)

1.  Claim your usernames. Your brand is your identity in business. Even if you don’t plan on using all of them, you may change your mind in the future. By claiming them now, you’re saving yourself a lot of potential trouble in the future.

2.  Pick two or three social media sites where you know your audience is and focus on them. There are too many social media platforms to be everywhere, so schedule some time each and every day to be effective in your chosen arenas. Once you get the hang of these, you might choose to spread your wings and try some others. By the way, I do mean “schedule” some time. It’s important, so slot it in your diary just as you do other important tasks. If you leave to to chance and plan to slot it in when you have some spare time, it just won’t happen..

3.  Commit to Blogging more. It’s often hard to find the time, or indeed the motivation to blog, but really it’s just a habit that you need to form. Create a blogging callender – jot down subjects to co-incide with special days over the year ie National Day of the “whatever”, if the start of summer means that people need to stock up on one of your products, then schedule a blog around that, would your customers be interested in how to make the perfect pancake for Shrove Tuesday? You know your business, just be creative and (apologies for the phrase!) think outside the box. When you have your “special days” completed, fill in the blanks by brainstorming with your colleagues. Callender created? Now you need to schedule blogging time in your diary.

4.  Most Facebook Fans expect special offers or discounts for “liking” a brand on Facebook. What exclusive deals can you offer your fans? Again, be creative and leave them in no doubt as to why they “like” you.

5.   I’ve left this one to last, but it’s by no means the least important. Promote your social media accounts. It takes time and effort to get them working for you, so it makes sense to do the easy stuff and allow your clients and potential clients to find you. Put your social media links on all printed and digital media, including your website, customer receipts, newsletters, email signatures, business cards, headed paper, compliment slips etc as well as putting a sign up in your reception area. Social Media isn’t supposed to be a secret, so shout it from the rooftops (metaphorically speaking, says she anticipating lawsuits for broken bones!)

There you are, five, powerful, New Year Resolutions for your business. What do you think? Can you commit to Social Media to move your business forward, or does it all sound like too much effort?

Over the years I’ve learned that in order for a goal to be achieved, you have to want it, which is significantly different to knowing you “should” do it. I think most businesses are aware that they should be embracing social media, but many haven’t yet found the motivation to make it reality.

If you’re in the “want to do it” bracket, then great – good luck and give me a shout on Facebook or Twitter if I can be of any help.

If you’re in the “should do it” bracket, then can I suggest that we have a chat. I offer a fully managed service, which means that you get the benefits without having to make time to work out what to do and how to find time in your already busy day. Just pick up the phone and dial 01462 615821, for a no obligation chat to see if we could work together on your business.