Social Media Archives

2012 — The Year Ahead

Sunday, February 12th, 2012 at 10:49 pm  
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This is a reprint of my TinyLetter.com article written on January 2, 2012.

You all know that I haven’t produced a Tiny Letter in quite some time. I went on what was supposed to be a short hiatus and it turned into weeks/months. I completely understand if you want a refund. I would. I’d ask for one myself.

But I’m going to do my darnedest to get you back on my side :)

This first Tiny Letter of the New Year (2012 edition) is an introduction into what I have in store for this little newsletter for the upcoming months. I’ve fully taken on the idea that I should be planning–not for the entire 12 months–but for the next 90 days.

It’s easier to manage, easier to come up with real SMART goals, and it’s easier to correct when things go awry. And they always do, right?

So I’m going to throw out some topics that I think will be important–if not to do something about but to learn what to expect and not get caught with our collective pants down.

Social media will become even more important and take an even bigger chunk of your daily life and business budget. Now that the search engines, led by Google, have embraced social media and your connections to make personalized search pretty darned relevant, it’s high time to start paying attention.

And please don’t do what many do–set up a Facebook page or twitter profile and never make any posts. That’s such a waste. Let’s endeavor in this first quarter of the year to get really good at ONE social media site (choose Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube). Specialize in it. Read a lot. Do a lot.

Get it DIALED IN!

Then, in the 2nd quarter, go whole hog on another. By the end of the year, you should be very competent in the 4 biggest social networks there are (right now).

Speaking of right now, don’t be surprised if another social media network starts taking “eyeball share” from Facebook and Twitter. It could be Google Plus (another one to keep an eye on, for sure) or somebody else completely different. Don’t forget that before Facebook, My Space was the king of social networks and now, just a couple years later, it is totally insignificant.

I do think that perhaps there may be 2 big things in social media this year: 1) Consolidation and 2) Upcoming social networks will be really “niched down”. Meaning, there may come into prominence relatively little social networks that concentrate on rock music or basketball or collecting cars. I think things may get very granular.

And at the same time, the bigger networks may see some shrinking, not necessarily in terms of users, but in terms of number of big players in the market. Think what could happen if Google bought Twitter. Ponder a transaction like that for a moment.

Don’t despair, though–if this sort of consolidation occurs, all your work probably won’t be for naught–even if it is one of your networks that gets gobbled up. I have confidence that the folks doing the consolidating will do their level-best to keep current customers; keeping customers will require that they integrate any merging of disparate systems in a very seamless manner. Otherwise, people will really jump ship–in droves.

No social network can afford to lose members. None of them.

Obviously, I think social media should take a little more of your effort this year. It’s only going to get bigger.

Next up is mobile. I’ll talk more about it in the next Tiny Letter. Suffice it to say that I think mobile may even be bigger than social media, especially for “brick and mortar” businesses.

Because of the above two emerging trends (social media and mobile), I think that search engine optimization (SEO) will take on even greater importance in marketing your business’ goods and/or services. Many would lead you to believe that SEO will take a backseat.

And it could.

But I don’t think it will. There are a lot of smart people involved with SEO (and it’s not all–or even a little, really–scams)…they’re too smart to NOT figure out how to optimize webpages for on- and off-page SEO.

SEO will be HUGE in 2012 as the SEs give more attention to social media and mobile.

Of course, video will grow, too. Right now, video seems to be like the Old West, where things are wild, unpredictable, and exciting. Once in a while, you run into people who have it “all figured out.” Hopefully, I can turn you on to some of those people :)

Next up, we’ll talk about the second emerging trend in 2012: Mobile and its implications. Until next time…

Thanks for sticking with me!!!

Bill

Twitter Me This

Friday, July 1st, 2011 at 6:04 am  
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This is a brief post, for the benefit of my Meetup group, that talks about Twitter.

Twitter is a very popular website with millions of registered users. Businesses, celebrities, aspiring superstars, and just "average" folk are on Twitter and making "tweets."

So there is a huge potential customer base for your goods and services. But because Twitter is a social site, people using it may not necessarily be in a buying mode.

In fact, they probably are turned off by overt promotions.

That should not deter you, however. I propose that you still sign up for two Twitter accounts: One for your personal use and one for your business use.

Here's why.

First, people want engagement. They want interactivity. They want to find out things about you and your business. They also want the "in" on special deals you may be offering.

So, set up that personal account and surround yourself with "followers" (the equivalent of friends on Facebook). Then, set up an account for your business. Use your business name, if possible. Follow your business with your personal account. Then start tweeting on both accounts.

Tweet and retweet–cross post. For example, if you have a promotion going on (it is 4th of July weekend), tell the world about it on your business account. Then, go to your personal account, find the post, and "re-tweet" it (this means, pass it along).

Twitter is a "micro blogging" platform, so you use it like a regular blog–only you are limited to "posts" of 140 characters or less. So your copywriting skills come into play: Say more with less. Your posts have to have impact and brevity.

Follow industry leaders and peers with your business Twitter persona. You will find that some of the people you follow will follow you back; they will also begin to re-tweet your messages.

Now, here's the big secret. Don't oversell. Content is still king. Engagement matters. Give people useful but incomplete information. And make those "content Tweets" in a ratio of about 8 to 1 (content versus promotions) or more.

By useful but incomplete, I mean give your followers some good information but then tell them where to go to get more. An example of this might be:

Backlinks matter for search rankings. Here's how to get dozens of high-quality backlinks from a single blog post http://u-like.us/92-r9

What I did there was give a fact, followed by how to go find out more. I led my follower back to my website.

In fact, I almost always try to lead my followers back to my website :)

I want to engage you, but lead you back to a property that I control (my website) versus keeping them on a website that I don't control.

Give Twiter a try. I think you'll reap some benefits if you follow the advice in this post. Enjoy!

Social Media 101 (Step 3 of 3)

Monday, May 23rd, 2011 at 6:14 am  
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In Step 2 of Social Media 101, we talked about putting a plan together. It wasn't–and doesn't have to be–elaborate. Far from it. In fact, keeping things simple keeps you from feeling stupid (a variation of the KISS principle–Keep It Simple Stupid).

Social Media 101: Automation

Now that you have all of your social media accounts set up and you've learned how they work, you can move to the next step: Tying it all together. I have spoken about automating this before in the following two articles:

  1. An Introduction to Social Media Using Ping.fm and Hootsuite
  2. How to Get Dozens of High-Quality Backlinks from a Single Blog Post

Those are pretty detailed posts showing how to automate not only your social media marketing efforts, but also how to syndicate your own blog content to dozens of sites simultaneously.

If you don't want to go to the trouble of doing this yourself (it is a bit complex and does take a lot of time to set up new accounts), I can do it for you for a nominal fee. Simply go to the Internet Marketing Muscle Helpdesk and submit a helpdesk ticket (choose "Consulting" from the menu). Be sure to leave your name, email address, telephone number, and a brief description of what you would like help with (i.e., "set up social media automation").

Note that you will always want to write individual status updates for all your social media sites; you will also want to check in every day to see what's new (complaints, kudos, mentions, etc.). This cannot be automated, but it can be outsourced.

The beauty of automation is that it's scalable–as you add in more social media accounts, your social media marketing efforts multiply. Plus, as an awesome side benefit, you get hundreds of backlinks that help you tremendously with search engine rankings.

Here's that link again:

==> Internet Marketing Muscle Helpdesk

Social Media 101 (Step 2 of 3)

Monday, May 23rd, 2011 at 6:07 am  
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Back in Social Media 101 (Step 1 of 3), we talked about re-evaluating your social media assets and how doing so should be done with your customers in mind. That is to say, add value to your customers by interacting with them via social media, make it easy for them to talk about problems or issues they have, and take care of business by taking care of your customers!

In Step 2, we are going to talk about devising (or editing) your social media marketing plan.

Social Media 101: Your Plan

We have all heard this: "Failure to plan is planning to fail." While I don't necessarily agree with that statement 100%, it is important to note that without a social media marketing plan, you could very well fall into the trap of spending a TON of time "doing" social media without really accomplishing much.

Therefore, at the very least, you should put a social media marketing plan in place; it need not be elaborate. In fact, the simpler the plan, the better because you will most likely follow through, stay focused, and see some success.

Too many people–small businesses especially–try to do too much and wind up being totally ineffective. Their business begins to suffer, too (remember, as a business owner, you are responsible for everything! Time wastefully spent on social media is time you could have used to improve your business.)

Let's set up an example plan. I like phased approaches–the gradual increases in complexity are easy to swallow and give you time to learn a social media site extensively before you move onto the next one.

  • Month 1. Get a Facebook account. Set it up as yourself. Poke around. Learn Facebook. Understand the terminology. Build up a friends list by–get this!–contacting your real friends already on Facebook and asking them to "friend you." Learn how the system works from an individual user's perspective. After all, the people who will be interacting with you in a little while are individuals and you should understand things from their perspective.
  • Month 2. Set up a Facebook fanpage for your business. It's fairly easy to set up a basic fanpage that you can use to promote your business and build a following. If you don't know how, check out this special ebook over at LivermoreFanPages.com. It tells you all about Facebook from a business / marketing perspective. Highly recommended.
  • Month 3. Customize your Fanpage. There are a ton of ways to enhance the user experience of your fanpage. Get the ebook mentioned in bullet #2 to learn more. Along with that ebook comes a very special offer that you really don't want to miss. Trust me when I say this.

    Learn all you can about what gets people to your page, what they talk about when they're there, and what methods you can employ to get more participation.

  • Set up accounts at Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube. You can accelerate through the steps above because you've already moved through the first (and most important), Facebook. Simply "get good" at using each system but don't try to "blast through it."

I suggest you do all of the above manually. Don't even think of automating any of this just yet. That comes in Social Media 101 Step 3 of 3. Don't miss it!

Social Media 101 (Step 1 of 3)

Monday, May 23rd, 2011 at 5:43 am  
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Social Media is the buzzword phrase that everybody seems to be talking about. While social media matters, it is important that you NOT stop running your business so that you can devote more time to posting Facebook statuses, "tweeting," and the like.

Let's face it: You are here because you want to learn more about social media and how to use it to market your business. Always remember, however, that those marketing objectives you wish to pursue must be adding value to your business.

Most importantly, any social media marketing you take on must have a positive return on investment. Think of it this way: Every moment you spend on social media sites, getting the word out about your business, is time you must take away from doing other things for your business.

So, any money you may have earned while actively pursuing your business objectives will be foregone while you "sit and tweet."

None of this is to suggest that social media doesn't matter. It does. It matters a lot. The point here that I'm trying to make is that you shouldn't be spending inordinate amounts of time on social media at the expense of actually running your business.

What's been said above can best be accomplished by taking stock in your social media efforts, evaluating whether they're meeting your business objectives, and then improving your results.

This really is Step #1 when it comes to social media marketing. If you haven't yet taken on any social media marketing, then you simply need to make a plan. Otherwise, do the following:

  1. Take a step back. Evaluate all of your social media "assets." What accounts do you have set up, which accounts get the most activity, and which accounts can you abandon? There's no reason to keep a MySpace account up-to-date if nobody's looking at it. However, if you're getting good interactivity on Facebook, you may consider spending more time on it and letting MySpace go.
  2. Step #2 can be found here.
  3. Step #3 can be found here.

Remember that the whole reason you're doing social media in the first place is to that you can build your business. Social media works best when you make it easy, fun, and / or productive for prospects and customers to interact with you and your business. In short, keep the customer in mind when contemplating any social media marketing endeavors.

Make sure you head on over to Social Media 101 Step #2. It builds on what we have talked about here.

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