It’s easy to get caught up in the social buzz. We love real-time engagement and the simple fact we can get a tweet, reply or retweet within seconds when we’re having a gloomy day or simply need an ego boost. Klout, Peer Index & Kred influence scores, tweets, retweets, likes, comments, shares, pins, Diggs, Google [...]
Tonight I had great plans for a productive Sunday evening. We spent the first part of the evening at Crossing Church for a rockin’ worship and message, sweet treat at Baskin Robins and then headed home and put kids to bed. It was just me, the laptop and hubby with the remote.
As I settled in for a few minutes on #BlogChat, the big plans of a productive night on social media inclusive of a new blog post slipped away into never never, never tweet land.
It is not news that Facebook just launched a big round of changes, yet again. One change is getting a lot of attention, which is the death of the Facebook default landing tab.
I have heard tons of complaints on the removal of the tab. I’ve heard online marketers say the death of the Facebook tab is the death of their online marketing strategy? What? Seriously folks?
There you sit in the executive conference room watching everyone nod their heads about the latest idea from the new executive on the block. He or she has a new idea that is going to “save the company.” It could be anything from a random LinkedIn group, social media campaign, planned “go viral” video” or who knows what.
The sad thing is nobody in the conference room has the guts to state the obvious… that there is no budget, time, or resources to implement the new random act of marketing or social media with any level of success.
So, everyone in the conference room nods their heads, takes notes and smiles as if they are excited about the project. Under their breath they are thinking “how on earth am I going to get this #$@$%@ thing done!??
With all this tech evolution it is important we not lose sight of why you are spending time on social in the first place!
As I wasted my night away in social slacker land with all my fellow slacker geeks I was amazed at how many people are simply losing their mind. I guess I am so close to all of it that I forget how many business leaders, entrepreneurs and consumers are still learning.
I saw everything from spammy Facebook, Pinterest & LinkedIn pages to a landing page that guaranteed me a first page Google ranking.
Many businesses feel like they are the last to get online. They decide they want to “do social” and all of a sudden it becomes an emergency.Often times the CEO or other executive attends a one off social media training event such as a class for LinkedIn or Facebook and next thing you know all corporate business priorities are put on hold. Within days there is now only one priority and that is “doing social.” Nobody really knows why other than that executive management said it’s the priority.
Approximately 80% of small businesses fail within the first year. How many of the people you know who have started a business have truly succeeded? How many of them put on a happy face yet are still at every networking meeting looking for business?
We’ve all seen the begging pleas of the wanna be social business:
-like me on Facebook
-I need likes, come visit my page
-I’ll like you if you like me
-let’s take the conversation to Facebook
-Many of us have at one time done them. The smart ones eventually stop such behavior.
What these people are not getting is that I must have a reason to “like you.” WHY should I like you? There are a million other pages also asking for my time and for me to like them. And take what conversation to Facebook? I am not having a conversation with you to begin with? Give me a reason to want to talk with you, please.
There seems to be a mad rush to get on the social band wagon. Even though you and your business have been without Facebook, Twitter, a blog, LinkedIn or Google+ for your entire life and business history all of a sudden someone in your organization who has authority has decided you need to “get on social media,” by next Friday.
Whoooaaa horsey, slow down!
Just because I trust you with my email or as a LinkedIn connection doesn’t mean you should spam me. As I enjoyed my Friday afternoon I couldn’t help but notice how my iPhone was consistently buzzing and beeping. I was receiving message after message from business leaders and entrepreneurs whom I have entrusted my email address to. The messages were coming from email and LinkedIn.
There were a few in particular that grabbed my attention more than others. Unfortunately it wasn’t because they were good. It was because they were complete spam.
It’s easy to get lost in never never circle, like, follow and link land. I recently wrote a post on this topic “I Google+ circled, followed, liked, linked, bookmarked you, now what?” I have a suggestion for the “what”! Get focused on your business and your audience my friends!
It’s important we don’t forget the reasons we are doing social media. How about the reasons you are in business? Remember those goals and objectives you set a short seven months ago for 2011? Well, guess what… you only have 5 more months to execute and achieve them.
Granny has been busy since she last stopped by. She’s been tweetin’ and learning about online relationships. She dropped by recently to share some updated words of advice regardless if we want to hear them or not. Check out Granny’s 40 Tips for Good Social Relationships.
So, you inspired me to click a link somewhere on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Quora, or who knows what platform. For the sake of this post we’re going to assume your link takes me to your website.
“WHOOAA” I exclaim as I tweet out of site. Your website looks nothing like your social media platforms, your tweets or the person you’re proclaiming to be in the world of social media. Within a few seconds, chances are you have 95% lost me. Chances are I will probably move on to more inspiring social pastures unless something grabs my attention to give you one more chance.
Let me hear it…
“I am a CEO and I am not afraid to tweet!
I am not afraid of a blue bird.
I do NOT have to share what I eat for lunch every day!”
You know who you are. You don’t dream of sweet little blue birds who will bring you positive ROI or make your phone ring with qualified leads. You have nightmares instead about a crazy ROI eating bluebird with fiery red eyes who want to grab every waking moment of your Marketing VP, Customer Service VP and even Sales leadership. You wake up in hot sweats after a dream of walking into the shareholders meeting and everyone laughing about the photo that had 2200 views on TwitPic of you at the neighborhood Christmas party last year.
So you are a self proclaimed social media expert, guru, community manager, analyst or anything with the word social media in front of it. You have been doing social media for at least a year. You are doing all the right things.
You have followers. You have likes. However, nobody talks to you about business, reads your blog and your phone is definitely not ringing with leads wanting to buy from you.
I recently wrote an article regarding my experience with Apple. To summarize, my point was that Apple provides a full yet simple brand experience. They inspire us to be inspired.
As I walked into Target a few days ago with no kids, husband or deadlines I couldn’t help but give a big “sigh” of peace. You know the ones I am talking about moms!
There is something about grabbing that red buggy and heading down the Target aisle that fills inner red and white mommy zone?
Listen up folks! It’s time for conversations, relationships, Twitter chats, and Facebook parties. Social media is one big relationship! You must tweet, post, like and talk all day. As long as you’re talkin’ you’re being social. Since you’re so social, you’ll do great in social media as long as you keep making friends, chattin’ and [...]
Social media is free, right? Simply sign up for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn. Enter some data for your profile, add a photo for your avatar, dump your email contacts and find connections and you’re set. All you have to do now is tweet, Facebook and you’ll be popular online and increase revenue 1000% because you’re “doing social media.”
I see many business leaders frustrated they aren’t seeing any return on their investment on social media. Usually when you do the “double click” to find out why the majority of them aren’t seeing results you find they lack goals, objectives, a plan, or forecasted return on investment (ROI) of any kind.
For those of us who work in marketing and social media it’s time we start eating ROI for breakfast. It’s time we teach our clients, colleagues and business partners to do the same.
When it comes to experiential brand and marketing, you either get it or you don’t. If you think all it takes is a pretty logo, Twitter background, branded Facebook page and matching business card is going to provide your audience a true brand experience, then sorry, you don’t ”get it.” Apple has the brand experience nailed. [...]
So you say you know your audience? You think you know what they need and want. You spend hours each week working on blog content, posts for Facebook, tweets and more. Yet, your efforts don’t seem to be providing a return. Your blog readership isn’t increasing. The number of fans on your Facebook business page increases yet it’s like a desert with nobody talking to one another. You post a question and nobody answers except your best friend.
What could possibly be the problem? You’ve learned the tools. You’ve taken the classes. You know a conversation is of most importance in social media. However, nobody seems to want to talk to you.
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