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.

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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.

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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

Why You Should Stop Worrying About Marketing

"Stop worrying about how your brand might look if you get marketing wrong!  The fact that you are trying and failing will do more for your small business' reputation than just about anything else."

When a big brand tries something and it doesn't work out - such as the Nationwide Superbowl ad or American Apparel's Challenger tweet (which just makes me feel old!) - there is a public outcry, their brand is damaged and they presumably lose sales as people decide not to buy from them.

However, when you put something out that doesn't work, not only is your audience vastly smaller (and therefore missing the macro affects that social media piles on the big brands,) people know that it's you - a human being trying something - and it's much easier to relate to and forgive a person than it is a brand.
 
I'm not saying you should go out and become a social media douche, publishing link bait crap just to grab people's attention, but I am recommending that you learn in public.

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Written while listening to:  Session 3 - 191 bpm playlist by music2work2

Image credit: What me worry by SL Snyder 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.

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

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

4 Minutes on How to Listen Strategically

You can't be tired of listening yet!  It's not even February!

OK - this week only applies to those who want to identify people who are interested in what you have to sell and who might be interested in sharing what you publish.

What you'll need:

• A Twitter account and / or a Facebook account
• A free Hootsuite account - go to http://hootsuite.com and follow the super easy steps, connect your Twitter account and arrive at the dashboard
• The following 3 minute 54 second screen cast (watch on full screen )

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Written while listening to: Session 2 - 191 Bpm by music2work2

Make This Small Change, See A Big Difference

You are still compiling your KPIs - Yes?

Here's something to try this quarter:

Change your tracking of social interactions from received to given.

In other words - stop recording how many likes, re-tweets, comments and shares you get and start tracking how many you give.

Do this

I treat each social network on a KPI document separately, for example, this is what the Facebook rows look like:

• No. of Facebook Friends / Page Likes
• Time spent on Facebook
• Likes given
• Comments made
• Shares given

Use the above format for each network you're active on: Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, etc.

Beware too much data

You could of course track both, given and received, but it's been my experience that the longer a KPI document is, the less likely it'll be filled in, so - for the next few months - just track your own behavior and watch the follower count, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Oh - and if you're not measuring your marketing efforts, maybe book a session and let's get you set up for the year!

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Written while listening to: Fly Away Pain - Development by music2work2

Image credit: Giving is receiving by Patricia Piolon on Flickr