Can you name three reasons why someone should like your Facebook business page? You are not required to answer it now. I want you to think about it, and come back and answer it within the next week. If you can not clearly articulate three reasons someone should like your page, then I can guarantee the chances of you seeing any real business benefit from Facebook short or long term is minimal.
So your company is great offline, your clients love you. Your partners love you. You have brand evangelists and a long list of customer testimonials.
However, you have just one problem. It is becoming increasingly difficult to engage, inspire and connect with your network of customers, partners, evangelists as you did in the old days. People seem more busy than usual. They are carrying around a smart phone, talking with one another in 140 character tweets.
You snooze you lose are what some are thinking after the grand finale of the 2012 Daytona 500.
As if rain delays, crashes and jet fuel fires wasn’t enough, we also got to witness a fluke accident with a service truck as well as a driver gain 140,000 twitter followers in just a couple hours.
The 2012 Daytona 500 happenings are an amazing case study and testament to the power of interactive, social TV.
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!??
There are some things in life and business that don’t need a long introduction or fancy brand story before cutting to the chase. This blog post is one of them. This week I received an email from a self proclaimed “social media expert.” I’ve been subscribed to her email list for quite some time. To [...]
What would you do if I told you that the only way to become a social business in 2012 is to not do social media? There is a big difference between “doing social media” and “becoming a social business”. There are plenty of self proclaimed social media gurus and experts ready to tell and sell [...]
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.
Influence is in the eye & heart of the beholder.
Can influence truly be 100% measured via any tool? My belief and answer to this question is no. Some of the peeps who influence me the most are the ones who make me think.
Yes we can measure what action is taken on the web that may or may not be a result of being influenced by an individual. We can measure if someone inspired us to click, like, opt-in. However, we can’t measure if we truly read, understand, relate or think.
So you’re finally starting to get the basics of online marketing. You have a website and a blog. You might have a Facebook account with some engaged fans. You may or may not have a Twitter account but you’re definitely on LinkedIn!
You keep hearing about mobile marketing and how you can leverage it to grow your business yet you aren’t sure where to start. Here are some tips to get you started with a zoom!
In the first post on this series I provided 10 reasons why social media is about he people. I talked about how important relationships are to success.
For the second post in this series I am going to focus on the planning and prioritization stages of social media.
Do you dream about the perfect social media plan? The perfect social media template? Many business leaders wanting to get social dream about it. They think they need it. The social media magic template. The one that includes the perfect strategy, tactics and themselves as the social hero of their company and social superstar of their market niche!
The question is does the perfect social media template or strategy for your business exist? A perfect strategy or template, well probably not! A good template and structure, yes!
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.
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.
As 2011 approaches business leaders are scurrying and hurrying to complete their business plans so their stockings of 2011 can be filled with lots of good treats from Santa.
For big business it often comes easy as it’s in the DNA of business leaders. It’s how we were educated, trained and simply wouldn’t be able to keep a job long in corporate America without a solid plan for success.
However, when it comes to small business, I see many business leaders and entrepreneurs struggling with not only developing a business plan but developing an overall strategy for conducting business. It gets worse when we add the internet and social media. What a recipe for disaster with random acts of marketing (RAMs) and random acts of social media (RASMs) if you’re not careful!
So, you click the “like” button. Now what? What does it really mean to “like” a Facebook page? Does it mean you really like the page? The brand? The product? Or are you just curious? Or might you even be guilty of lurking?
What did or would you have liked to see after you click like? Are you wanting to be inspired? What will inspire you to read a post? Click a link or a tab? Will you ever engage with the brand, or owner of the page you “like”? Do you remember the name of the product, service or brand?
The biggest question of all is, will you ever come back? Yes or No?
As a small biz owner and entrepreneur there is always too much too do and not enough time to do it. With BIG dreams, BIG ideas, BIG hopes and little budget, resource and stretched time… the BIG and LITTLE sides don’t always line up. Take time to enjoy the ride, the bumps, the big and little wins, the curves and the friends who drive up beside of you.
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