When we meet with clients who want to use social media to grow their business, our project plan includes these 10 steps. The “strategy” that results is often very different, but that’s OK because no single solution works for every business. If you know you want to get started, but don’t know where to begin, start with these Ten Steps:
Educate yourself on the latest tools and techniques in Social Media
Define your business objectives
Identify your target market
Decide how much time you have to spend on social media
Decide who will manage your company’s social media
Choose the social media channels you will use
Develop a strategy to achieve your objectives
Set up your social media channels
Engage with your audience
Manage your campaign and monitor your progress
This is an over-simplification of the process, but it outlines the major steps you should follow to be successful. If you have questions or get stuck on any of these steps, call us. We can help.
Finally. Here in Southeast Wisconsin it looks like we’ve got temperatures going into the 70’s next week. So, Spring, although late, has officially arrived.
And with Spring comes Spring cleaning. Yep, out with the old – in with the new. What, particularly, does that mean for us? Well, there are several things on the horizon within our household – including a remodel anticipated to start in a week or two and, of course, the landscaping. It also means that I am going to try and make a “renewed” effort to blog more often (admittedly a weak spot). But in addition to that, we’ve had to clear a little dead wood from the business.
This past week we had to fire a client. Yes, fire the client. It was a tough decision. You know the feeling you get when you purchase something that you’re really excited about only to realize that it isn’t going to work? It’s a not-so-warm-and-fuzzy feeling. This same thing goes along with gaining a new client only to realize that they’re not a fit for your firm. And rather than deliberate too long and try to make that new purchase/client fit, sometimes you cut your losses, return it, and move on.
Spring is a time of renewal. It’s a time for new grass and flowers, the touch of a wonderful breeze through your windows and the warmth of the sun on your face. It’s a time of looking forward to a fantastic Summer with its upbeat momentum. And it’s a time to clean the closets and remove things that are old, worn or just not a good fit to help usher in those positive, uplifting, productivity enhancing feelings.
Here are a few tips to keep your business closet free of clutter:
Give your clients a grade. We use an A,B,C scale like this one:
A – Excellent - This client is easy to work with, pays on time, gives clear direction for what they need and appropriate feedback. They return calls promptly, realize the value of your time and service offerings and are the consummate professionals. They are clients you send gifts to and offer special deals to because they don’t demand anything, are consistent and reliable, and they are a joy to work with.
B – Good – This client is someone who is steady and mostly reliable. They have a pretty good idea of what they need but need some hand holding. They might complain occasionally but they pay their bills in an appropriate billing timeframe and periodically contract for additional services as their budget allows.
C – Fire Them – Although this can be a tough choice sometimes. These clients will suck the life out of you. They expect everything for nothing, won’t pay on time or at all, complain about everything and need constant hand-holding and deals to keep them interested. This is the “dead wood” that needs to be cleaned out periodically. If you get an impression on a first meeting that you might be looking at a “C” client, run. Many times they are wolves in sheep’s clothing. They will drain you and try to take your self-worth with them into their quagmire of negativity.
Go through your social networks and do a little housecleaning there. Remove stagnant Twitter followers and Facebook friends so you can make room for those that share and that you would like to pay more attention to.
Liven up your website and blog content. OK, I know it’s a little bit of a Pot-Kettle-Black here, but hey, I’m writing this blog aren’t I? And I am seriously in the process of designing our new website.
Refresh your logo or get one done. Brand or re-brand if you need to step things up a notch.
And now that you’ve cleaned your closets and spaces, you have room for new things. New clients, a new Spring line of apparel, new followers, new grass, new attitudes. What are you waiting for?
We’ve said it many times before; more than 70% of consumers are using the internet to find their goods and services. Your goal, as a business owner, is to get as high a ranking on search engines as you possibly can so that you broaden your exposure and drive more traffic to your website or blog or Facebook Page or…wherever. If you think consumers are still picking up the Yellow Pages you’re fooling yourself.
There is still a need for offline promotional media however. I just gave a presentation on Social Media Marketing to a group of business owners. A majority of them had a LinkedIn profile, but most only used it sporadically. Less than half used Facebook for personal reasons and less than half of those had a Facebook Business Page. When I asked about Twitter, only a few people raised their hand. I expressed the importance of having an online presence and gave examples of how they could use Social Media to strengthen their brand and attract new customers.
I also told them that traditional marketing activities can still be effective but that whenever they hand someone a physical marketing piece, whether it be a business card, brochure, flyer, or advertisement on paper, include a URL pointing them to other forms of online advertising and information. Say you have a restaurant napkin; it could include a link to your website, a promotional offer or a loyalty rewards program. A new type of offline-to-online link is called the QR-Code (Quick Response) which is a specific matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code), readable by dedicated QR barcode readers and camera phones. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background (see picture).
The information encoded can be text, URL or other data. More common in Japan, this type of “offline-link” is becoming popular in the U.S. for many companies. Imagine the effectiveness of marketing when someone can use their smart-phone to “read” the offline QR-Code from a paper ad and it sends them to a site on the internet.
I may be getting ahead of myself here but you can see the possibilities. The bottom line is this; put URL’s on everything, no matter what form it happens to be in. Use them to direct your customers to things such as special offers, email newsletters, sign-ups for free products…etc.
Whether you’re an offline business that’s in denial and avoiding the online world, or you’re an online business that thinks your next customer is only a tweet away, you’ve got to remember that with a healthy blend between the old and the new techniques in marketing, your business can find people where they are, not just where you happen to be more comfortable.
Many business owners have a Facebook Page and are using it to grow their business. Quite a few of them, however, don’t totally understanding how to utilize it effectively. Here are a few key points to keep in mind:
Don’t just Advertise: Create a community-of-sorts. Generate conversations with your network. Ask for input, find out what your customers want and give it to them.
Google indexes Business Pages which means you get more exposure and SEO benefits by having a Facebook Page.
Facebook’s Apps: A few good ones include:
Static FBML: Allows you to create some great customized landing pages
Events: Allows you to create events such as webinars. you can invite your Facebook connections to attend and even ask for comments on your event
Selective Tweets: You can use your Twitter account to send selected tweets to Facebook by using the hashtag #fb.
Join our mailing list at My Virtual Project to get the latest in Social Media news and tips.
The critic’s ratings for “The Social Network” were the highest for any movie thus far in 2010. This was based on reviews by 40 major critics who rated the film an average of 97 out of 100. WOW, since this is our area of expertise, this has to be a MUST-SEE movie for us.
We decided NOT to go to the premiere night, thinking there would be a mass of social media crazies waiting in line. I had visions of the last “Star Trek” movie and the huge crowd of “Trekkies” waiting for that one to start – no thanks.
So instead, we went the next night, and decided to attend the earlier 6:30pm showing, thinking the lines would be less of an obstacle. What we found was a surprise. We parked in the front row (okay, we arrived 25 minutes before the start of the movie), there was no line, we walked right in (we had even pre-purchased our tickets online in preparation for the crowd), we got our popcorn and soda, and headed to the room where our movie was playing. There were maybe 10 – 20 people in the theater so we had our choice of prime seats. By the time the movie started, the theater was still only about half full.
Susi and I both thought the movie was excellent. I occasionally (okay, usually) nap once or twice during movies unless they completely hold my attention. This one did. The basic story is about a college student who develops “The Facebook”, a social network that allows college students to share information and communicate with each other. The big question in the movie is whether he steals the idea from two other students who asked him to help them develop a similar site. I thought the acting was very good. Jesse Eisenberg played Mark Zuckerberg, a narcissistic and arrogant Harvard sophomore (and genius, by the way) who wanted to be “accepted” by the school’s elite. Eisenberg used just enough “eccentricity” in his character to be believable.
I was also pleasantly surprised at Justin Timberlake’s acting skills (although I don’t particularly like his musical stylings). Timberlake played Sean Parker, the founder of Napster and a real go-getter. Some would say he was “full of old flannel” (the English saying for full of crap). He was a mentor to Zuckerberg in the early days of Facebook before going on to become president of the company after conspiring to oust (some would say) Zuckerberg’s partner Eduardo Saverin (played by Andrew Garvin), who ended up suing Zuckerberg for an undisclosed amount of cash (and winning). Timberlake portrays Parker surprisingly well, at least in my opinion.
The movie was very entertaining and informative (although I believe there was some “artistic license” taken with the story’s characters to make it more engrossing). We all root for the underdog and Jesse Eisenberg (Zuckerberg) played this to the hilt. His intelligent and witty-yet-sarcastic repartee with the attorney was very funny and you actually felt good when he got in an appropriate “zinger”.
I know the critics rated this movie right up there with The Wrestler, The Hurt Locker, The Incredibles, Sideways, and Finding Nemo, but that may very well be because social media is so prevalent in today’s society. No matter how high The Social Network review scores are, the bottom line is that just like with social networking, it’s ultimately up to the people, not the critics. Time will tell.
MVPSusi: Interesting post. As one with multiple interests, I cheer it on.. 3 days ago
HollandsOneHour: @MVPSusi No problem Susi, we hope it's helped! We're more than ready for an A/C tune up for you :) Have you heard the radio commericals? 4 days ago
