Social Media and Having the Right Mindset

 SMEs, Social Media, Social Media Tips, Social Network Sites, Technology shifts  No Responses »
May 062013
 

As technology rapidly evolves history shows people struggle with the transition.  Social media is a case in point.  Completely different to traditional media having the right approach and mindset is crucial to get the best from it.

Social media centres around the user, not the product, so the established method of pushing a message in a one-way direction is not very effective.  Engagement, connection and conversation are the key to social media in the long term.

Here are some central things to remember when engaging with social media:

Social media is About People: build relationships, gain trust and have a conversation.

Experiment and Innovate: social media is a switch from a monologue to a dialogue. Businesses that best understand this will listen to their audience and interact with them

Connect with your Audience: ask questions, share thoughts and encourage conversation.  Provide information but don’t push sell your products or services.

Social Media is Difficult to Measure:  business is preoccupied with measuring social media.  But it is hard to measure conversation. This doesn’t mean the value isn’t beneficial.

Investing in social media is important, requiring new skills and approaches.  Those that don’t think outside the box will have difficultly gaining traction and those who maintain control of the message won’t succeed in getting any message across.

Experiment, share and have fun!

What have you experimented with social media for your business?  What works for you?

 

Thanks for reading!

Feel free to ‘tweet’ or ‘repost’ this article or leave your comments….

 Posted by on 6 May, 2013 at 12:13 pm

Which Social Media Platform is Best for Your Business?

 Online Marketing, Online Media, Social Media, Social Media Tips, Social Network Sites  No Responses »
Oct 082012
 

Social media is literally everywhere these days.  Lots of businesses are using it to connect, market and communicate.  As a tool, social media has the potential to reach potential customers and to let everyone know about your business.  Investing time and money is crucial and choosing the ‘right’ platform is even more important.  However, with so many social media sites which is the best platform to use for your business?

Firstly, business doesn’t need to have multiple platform interaction.  Starting off with only one or two platforms is a better strategy than investing time and money in five.  Once you have achieved success with one, you can add more but only if it will provide value to the business.

Secondly, determine what you want to achieve.  What are your desired outcomes?  Consider the variety of advantages and disadvantages of each social media platform and weigh these up against your goals, costs and likely results.

Thirdly, social media needs to be part of an overall marketing and communication strategy.  Social media shouldn’t be the only tool to use.  Use it as part of a larger communication tool kit.  Too often businesses rush in without thinking about the long-term approach because everyone else is using it.  This will not bring success, only frustration.

These three points are crucial to determining what social media platform to utilise.  Spend time at the beginning to consider what goals social media will achieve for your business.  Have a well thought out approach and then commit for the long term.

Bear in mind the three following key words: consider, plan and commit.  This will likely bring the achievement you are looking for and keep you flexible enough in a dynamic environment.

Give it a try and see what happens!

 

What has worked for others?

 

Thanks for reading!

Feel free to ‘tweet’ or ‘repost’ this article or leave your comments….

 Posted by on 8 October, 2012 at 11:17 am

Social Media Connections – are they the Right Ones?

 Social Media, Social Media Tips, Social Network Sites, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Sep 242012
 

A few weeks ago I wrote online in Dynamic Business about whether the social media connections you have are the right ones.  It posed the question whether individuals actually think about the connections they are adding to their social media networks.

As social media continues to immerse our lives both – personal and professional – it is important to think about the ‘likes’ or ‘followers’ or ‘connections’ you have.

So how can you get the most out of your connections?

The first place to start is by auditing your connections.  Have a look at those in your networks and see what benefit they are bringing.  Further, if you would like to connect with someone outside of your network ask for an introduction from your closet connection.

Here are some other tips:

Don’t Accept All Invites: establish whether the person who wants to connect with you has any association with your industry.  Think before you click ‘accept’!

Go Slow: Take your time in growing your connections. It is not actually all about quantity.  It is the quality of connections that is more important.

Inform, don’t sell: If you establish yourself as an information source, you place yourself in a better position to sell yourself the long run.

Shift your thinking to the modern two-way communication style of ‘conversation’.  Encourage an emotional and personal connection with those in your networks so that people can get to see who you are.  This is more essential than the quantity of connections.

What do people think? What has worked for others?

Thanks for reading!

Feel free to ‘tweet’ or ‘repost’ this article or leave your comments….

 Posted by on 24 September, 2012 at 11:40 am

Social Media and Managing Your Online Brand and Reputation

 Online Brand Reputation, Online Content, Online Marketing, Online Media, Online Reputation, Social Media, Social Media in the Workplace, Social Media Tips, Social Network Sites  No Responses »
Jul 162012
 

Social media is an important tool for business communications.  Despite the positive aspects it brings, the nature of social media means that someone airing their bad experience online does so, instantly and potentially to a massive audience.

As the online environment becomes more crucial to business, and more people are continuously online, increasingly they will comment on their experience with friends via Facebook, blogs, Twitter and so on.  This emerges as a risk that all businesses need to manage.  Any negative comments from disgruntled customers (or employees) can potentially be very damaging to a business image if it goes ‘viral’.

Here are 3 steps for SMEs to be proactive in managing their brand and reputation:

1. Audit

This is essential to assess your brand and reputation and see exactly what people think about your business.  These conversations are happening with or without your presence so there is plenty of information out there.  Therefore it is vital for business to be a part of the online community and monitor what is being said about them.

2. Positive Content

It is unlikely that you will be able to have every negative comment or image removed from its original source.  Content which is hosted on a third’s party’s site is content that will be challenging to remove.  If you have been unsuccessful in asking nicely to have it removed, be proactive and keep publishing constructive content.  This can diminish the negative content’s visibility to the lower end of an engine search.

3. Track & Monitor

Think about key words or phrases that you believe symbolise you, your company, and your brand.  These can be typed into a search engine to see what comes up.  Better still, to be more efficient set up ‘alerts’ (i.e Google Alert) with your key words so that you are notified each time there is a post or tweet that mentions your key words.

Be cautious about trying to have negative comments removed as this may cause more damage as it alerts individuals to the content and suggests you are trying to hide something!!  Accept that the online environment is something you can’t control and that negative comments will always be part of equation.  Business can only track, monitor, negate and correct factual information.

Thanks for reading!

Feel free to ‘tweet’ or ‘repost’ this article or leave your comments….

 Posted by on 16 July, 2012 at 10:59 am

Strengthening Your Social Media Profiles

 Facebook, Online Marketing, SMEs, Social Media, Social Media Tips, Social Network Sites, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Apr 192012
 

Given the amount of time people spend on their social network sites, building their connections and growing their network, it is surprising when their profiles don’t get as much attention as they should.  If the aim is to increase your brand’s visibility, both personal and business, then having a strong profile is key.  A profile that ranks highly in searches is important to improving online presence.

Here are 4 ways to strengthen your profile.

Maintain Your Identity

With so many social media platforms, each with its own uniqueness, it is important to create and maintain a consistent identity or brand.  Use the same tone throughout each profile, as this will ensure that your profile is delivering the same message throughout.  If a potential client searches for you online through Facebook and LinkedIn the profiles need to say the same thing otherwise the message is not clear.

Something else to consider with your identify, is your photo.  Make sure that the image you choose is consistent throughout all your profiles and enhances your credibility not detracts from it.  That means you need an update to date and professional image, not one from a party last week.

Content is Important

What you write about yourself is vital so consider your profile a CV summary.  Tell people about the services you offer and the skills your have.  Sell yourself in a few short sentences so be clear, brief and to the point.  People need to be able to understand what you do immediately and the message needs to be the same throughout all profiles.

Although the aim is to be professional, allow your personality to come out so that people can gain an insight into your individuality.

Keywords

Keywords are important in your profile as social media profiles are highly searchable and have greater chance of being at the top end of search engine results.

It is, therefore, important to think about what keywords best describe what you do.  Ask yourself what keywords you would use to search for your business.  It may also be useful to ask other people you know what keywords they would use.  Then incorporate a mixture of words that are both specific and general so that you can optimise connecting with your target audience.

Consistency

Google loves regularly updated content so to be successful in social media consistency is key.  This means being active and having a planned approach with postings everyday or least every couple of days.  This way you can engage with your fans, connections or followers and stay regularly in contact.

Having multiple accounts is very time consuming so it is better to have fewer platforms than more if you can’t regularly post in all of them.  Choose the ones that you believe will connect with your target audience and start there.  You can always increase the platforms once you find a structured approach that works for you.

Today, social media profiles are more important than ever.  So when you create a platform, know that you are creating an identity.  Hopefully it is one that people will want to connect with so that the benefits will flow.

What are your thoughts?

This article was published in Dynamic Business.

 

 Posted by on 19 April, 2012 at 2:31 pm

Approaching Social Media with the Right Mindset

 Internet, Online Marketing, SMEs, Social Media, Social Media Tips, Social Network Sites  No Responses »
Apr 052012
 

You can’t approach social media with a traditional media mindset, or you’ll never see a return on your investment in the medium. Here’s how social media users expect you to connect with them.

Technology is rapidly evolving and growing and history shows that as new technology emerges, old techniques are applied because this is all that is known.

Currently, this is happening with social media which means marketers are misinterpreting its purpose and the expectations of its users. This misunderstanding mainly comes down to looking at social media with traditional media mindset – and this needs to change.

Social media centres around the user, not the product, so the established method of pushing a message in a one-way direction just doesn’t work. Incentives, freebies and giveaways will succeed in the short term but in the longer term if the user isn’t being heard and acknowledged, these will no longer hit the mark.

The catch is that although technology changes rapidly, people change slowly and as a result, social media is being approached in the same way as traditional media. Instead, we need to think in terms of traditional and social mediums merging. How does traditional media support emerging social media tools and help it to develop and grow?  And vice versa – what can social media teach us that can be applied to traditional media outlets?

If you think in these terms, you’ll come to understand social media as simply another tool to support business objectives, be it in a different way.

Here are some tips for approaching social media in the right way:

  • Social media is about people: It’s the subtle building of relationships. As you create relationships online, you need to gain trust first and then marketing comes later, much later. This is one of the most common mistakes made by marketers and advertisers – they want to sell straight away and when they don’t succeed they blame the medium.
  • Integrate social media with other marketing forms: Very few brands do marketing in isolation. Marketing activities need to be unified across all channels, and so social media needs to be included in your overall strategy rather than be regarded as a separate entity. It needs to be seen as just another channel, as the best results will be achieved this way.
  • Experimentation, innovation and uniqueness: Social media is a switch from a monologue to a dialogue, therefore consumers expect to be listened to and answered. Businesses that best understand this will experiment and innovate by listening to their users and interacting with them and finding the right balance between their values and market feedback.

History shows that people eventually adapt to new technologies. Investing in social media is important, but it requires new skills and approaches to be a success. Those that don’t think outside the box and rely on traditional methods will have difficultly gaining traction and those who maintain control of the message won’t succeed in getting any message across.

Experiment until you find what suits your business requirements.

What do others think?

 Posted by on 5 April, 2012 at 8:10 am

Anonymity Online

 Internet, Online Anonymity, Online Identity, Privacy, Social Media, Social Network Sites  No Responses »
Oct 252011
 

A recent article “Death of Anonymity Online Has Net Users Fuming” was an eye opener for the future of being anonymous online.  Another article by Lauren Fisher delves deeper into the complexity of the online anonymity debate, “Should We Allow Anonymity Online?”  and is also great reading.

It seems that anonymity on social network sites may be changing.  Users of Google+ (Google’s new social network site to rival Facebook) seem to be having difficulty in being able to using pseudonyms or mononyms (one word names) when signing up.  This is a controversial issue that is becoming more significant as we increasingly hand over our data to these sites.

There are reasons for and against anonymity online.  Being anonymous allows all to communicate freely, which may not occur if identities have to be revealed.  It promotes the right to free speech particularly for those who are afraid or who can’t be open and honest by using their real name.  There is also an element of privacy to be able to contribute to conversation without people knowing who you are.

On the other hand, there is the issue of law enforcement.  It is argued that less criminal behaviour would be committed online if individuals had to use their real names.  This is slightly unconvincing as in the offline world people still engage in criminal behaviour using their real names.  This occurs because not all people are law abiding.  Law enforcement agencies are still able to track down people using pseudonyms as technology is able to support this.  Anyone with the right skill set can trace someone through their IP address (if they are not using Internet cafes) so it is not as difficult as it seems.

There is a school of thought that says having anonymity online is dangerous and everyone needs to reveal his or her identities.  This assumes that people who want to remain anonymous online want to engage in criminal activity otherwise why would they what to be anonymous.  There are valid reasons why some people want to remain anonymous.  It also, however, presumes that people only have one identity which is not the case.  How people behave at home is not how they act at work.  There is a distinction and individuals would ideally still like to keep these identities separate.  Forcing people not to have a choice may mean that the move to have no anonymity online may backfire.

It seems to me that the Internet is becoming less about having choices and more about giving up our information to technology giants such as Google and Facebook.  It is in the interest of Internet companies for there to be no anonymity online.  This way they are able to collect and match our information much more easily.  So is having a “real identity” online basically about exploiting our information for more advertising dollars?

I would be interested to hear what your thoughts are.

 Posted by on 25 October, 2011 at 4:39 pm