I Ain't No Follow Back Girl!

Your business should be using social media for two reasons:

1/ Brand Awareness

2/ Business Intelligence.

Brand Awareness we’re all pretty familiar with, the key metrics being how many followers you have and how much they interact with you.  With business intelligence it’s practically the opposite - you want to follow as few people as possible so the good stuff doesn’t get lost in the firehose.

The problem is, the fastest way to gain followers is to follow people because enough of them will simply follow you back - boom - everybody wins.

Wrong!

This completely defeats the purpose of what you’re trying to achieve.  People who follow you just ‘cos you followed them typically have no interest in what you have to offer - and if you’re just following people to gain followers you immediately dilute the potential for business intelligence.

Do this instead

1/ Ramp up the value of your networks by culling the number of people you follow.  Take your time - you can’t just unfollow everybody at once but you can use tools like followerwonk to get rid of a hundred or so a day.

2/ Only follow people who will add value to your life and your business - use replies, comments, re-tweets, favorites, shares to your heart’s content, but make the act of actually following someone a significant and considered act.

---

Written while listening to: Andy the Barman by music2work2
Image Credit:  Don't follow me by Frank Lindecke on Flickr

The Whole Social Media Content Strategy Thing

With social media marketing the more you publish the more visible you are.  This has rewarded quantity over quality and ultimately made it hard to find the good stuff.

I think we've reached a tipping point.

I think Google's recent deal with Twitter is a good indicator that just as with the maturation of SEO, social will eventually become about quality, not quantity.

What does this mean for you?

It means you've got to double down on quality - and not just in your blog posts but in everything you do online - what you share, what you comment on, what you re-tweet etc.

If that means you're initially less visible because you're more considered in your interactions, I think that's a solid long term strategy.

---

Written while listening to: 20th First Pass Development by music2work2

Image Credit: face of a boy who has just learned it is time for bed... by Sean Dreilinger on Flickr

Whodunnit? A Social Media Marketing Mystery...

So I client of mine was on Facebook recently and came across an article in her feed that looked intriguing.  Clicking out to read, she found it to be well written and informative, just the kind of thing her audience would appreciate.  Having shared the article with her followers she clicked through to the author's Twitter bio, scanned her last 10 or so tweets and decided to follow her.

What happened next

Within the hour the author had visited my client's Twitter profile, followed her, clicked through to her website, spent over 7 minutes reading several pages & finally contacted her through an email form on one of her case studies.  That contact turned into an email exchange which resulted in the author booking a strategy session.

Did you spot it?

What do you think was the most important element in this whole transaction?

• Was it the great looking website with concise & compelling content?
• Was it the professionally branded digital footprint with consistent appearance and messaging?
• Was it the blog posts, the tweets, the follow...

No.  Although they all played their part in converting the lead - the most important behavior in the entire transaction was that my client chose to spend her time reading an article by someone she'd never heard of.

The answer

When it comes to social media marketing, listening and reading is as important, if not more so, than production and distribution.

---

Written while listening to: Development track: 191 Bpm 31-01-03-02 by music2work2

Image credit: time to read by Chat Noir:) on Flickr

Why I Am So Freakingly Optimistic

I could be completely wrong but I believe that for the foreseeable future there isn't going to be a new network that you have to "get on".  I think that the current channels: Email, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Linkedin, Pinterest and Instagram have pretty much got it locked down.

I think all the new development is going to come in browser or app based tools - tools that if you already measure the performance of your digital footprint - you'll benefit greatly from.

What does this mean?

See all those scarily young faces at the top of this post?  Their job is to produce something that makes our businesses grow.  They get rewarded when people like you and me start using their products.

It means that all those marketing tools that looked cool and cost a fortune and were only for the big companies - they're now accessible - to our businesses - for peanuts.

Stop and think about that for a second!

The impetus of this post comes from the announcement that a website I have started to visit in the last few months just closed a $6.1 million Series A funding round.  If you don't know producthunt.com it's a website that keeps track of new "things" - new websites, new apps, new tools that you can use.

The signal to geek ratio is pretty high, but I've come across 4 new "tools" in the last week that I've sat and thought "you know - that's actually brilliant and I can see it growing my business!" - not only that - you can install most of them for free and try them out - see if they work for you.

I truly believe that if you're good and you have something that people will benefit from, life is about to get much better.

---

Written while listening to: Stampy's Lovely World 1 - Solo Piano by music2work2

Image Credit: ProductHunt by Ryan Hoover on Medium

---

Trust

You don't ever want to be in a position where you're asking someone to trust you.

Trust me,

I know.

;-p

Trust is not something you can ask for, it is something earned, it is something freely given.

If you earn your living from people  who find you on the internet, you'd better make damn sure that your digital marketing is a true reflection of who you are.

From your web address to the image on your about page, from your latest blog post to your most recent tweet, these are not just opportunities to earn trust, they're  huge opportunities to lose it.

An example

Here's an example of well written copy combined with great imagery that is designed to build trust in the visitor from the moment they arrive on the website.

http://www.elizabethmarshall.me

Do you trust yourself?

Take a look at your digital  footprint, do you believe it?  Would you go on a metaphorical magic carpet ride with your business?

Let's talk

If you'd like some help winning the trust of your online Princes and Princesses,  call me on 310 980 2499 or use the form below.

Contact Andrew

Trust

---

Written while listening to: Trust by music2work2

Image Credit: Do you Trust Me - Giphy

The Content Marketing Myth

I like this image - it sums up a lot of conversations I'm currently having with clients.

Some questions for you:

What are you doing to ensure you can consistently repeat steps 1 and 2?  Are you allocating enough time in your calendar or resource in your budget?

Also, if it takes several interactions with new clients before they think of purchasing, does your digital footprint make it easy for them to hear from you?

And, how do you get new visitors to choose to listen to you?  Should the front page of your website promote your product or should it promote your mailing list?

Do something

These are the types of questions you should be obsessing over and acting on.  Every business is different but you all have one thing in common - the ability to try different things and track the results.

If you'd like help answering these questions email me or call on 310 980 2499 and lets chat.

---

Written while listening to: Most Popular Playlist - music2work2

Image Credit: Unbounce.com

---