Social Media Marketing - Keeping it Real

Greetings my fellow social media gods and goddesses. Are you ready for yet another adventure into the world of social media??? So let's pack our bags and venture into this very REAL world and explore how to keep it real.

Social Media Marketing affords you the opportunity to express yourself and share your unique perspective. No matter what it is that you post, you, your personality and perspective shines through. You have the opportunity to express you through your marketing. Ask your self, what is my current social media marketing saying about me, my business, my product, my service?

You maybe reading and hearing of some technique or taking a free webinar that is offering all sorts of tips and ideas that you can be doing for your social media marketing. Have you ever really thought about whether what others may be suggesting is really good for your business??

You may hear that Twitter is great for offering a coupon...and you may hear what great results others are getting by doing this. So you create a coupon offer, place it on your website and tweet away..... you may get a lot of people looking at it or not....but no matter how many seem to have clicked through you do not get many or perhaps nobody at all using your coupon. In other words your measurable results were a far cry from what you heard you should be getting.... so you give up and say Twitter did nothing for you...Really???  If people do not know who you are or anything about your business then why would they use a coupon?

Now I am not saying don't use a coupon but I am saying do not expect the same results that larger and more nationally known companies are getting. You have build a name, a reputation so that when you do present an offer, people will already know who you are. People also have to be looking for what it is you offer and it is also possible that for whatever reason, not enough people were in need of your offer at the time you presented it.

Another scenario that sometimes occurs is that you do have a successful coupon offer and got very encouraged by the results. So several months later you present the same offer but the results were not the same. Less if any at all took advantage of your coupon.  So once again you become discouraged.

Social Media is fickle...and you have to find what works for you. Do not try to do everything all at once. A solid social media campaign involves building a following first. Your content needs to be fresh and engaging and not just promotional. A, what is called, "call to action" can be included. A "call to action" is a way of directing or asking your followers to do something.  You want to educate, promote, ask, engage so that your content is always fresh.


To keep all this real, you want to stay true to your business, your ethics and your vision.  You want to  put "you" into your content. Keeping it real will get you noticed more than a splashy offer and keep your followers engaged so that they keep coming back.

I hope you enjoyed your journey into this fast paced and ever changing world of social media.

Where would you like to journey to next? 

The Facebook Adventure Begins

Greetings my fellow social media gods and goddesses. The Social Networking Express is now arriving at our next destination: The World of Facebook. We are going to be visiting this world for awhile so unpack your bags for day 1 of our visit. Today’s tour takes us to the Land of Posting on Facebook so that you can be familiar with what to post or not to post there.

The World of Facebook, where there is a thin line between personal and business, is perhaps the best social networking site so far. It has so many bells and whistles that one can get overwhelmed easily with what to do with it all.

So many got into Facebook to just keep in touch with family and friends and it is understandable when it comes to personal pages you would want to keep it that way. However, when it comes to your professional life you may not want to mix the two and this is where the fine line is drawn. The rule of thumb is personal page for you, business page (aka fan page) for your business but as your business page is linked to your personal page it is easy for that line to get blurred and fuzzy. What is best to remember here is that you are your business, the face of and the person behind it. You can use your personal page as a way for not only people to get to know you but for you to reach out to others. Here are some things to remember when posting.

Keep your personal page posts personable but not personal. Do not share anything on there you would not want to read in a newspaper if your posts were to be published there. Think about what it is you are posting for you are not only sharing a piece of you but it also gives people reading it something to relate to. People do business with others they know and trust. So post things of interest to you. Do you really want to post that you and your spouse are fighting? If you are posting a picture of your dinner, then say something about it. If it is something you made then talk about that. If the picture is from your favorite dining spot, then post information about that. Remember you are talking to people when you post and not at them. Would you email a friend a picture of a dish you just made without telling them more about it? Probably not, then don’t do that on facebook. When people read your posts they are listening to you. What are you saying to them?

When posting about such things as the news, weather etc make it inevitable so as to engage in a conversation with those listening to you. Negative posts end a conversation. If you post something like “I hate the rain”, where is the conversation in that? If you were instead post….Wow look at all that rain, how is it effecting your day? That invites people to respond. While you will want to express your own personality in your post, I am sure you get the idea.

The key to successful posts is to remember that you are conversing with your readers. This also applies when posting about your business, products or services. Would you post “Lunch Special 5.99 today” or would you post something more like. “You are invited to (insert business name here) for our lunch special of the best hamburger in town with fries and choice of drink all for 5.99” and then post a picture of your special. Another way would be to post “Are you going to be in Cape Coral for lunch today? Well you are cordially invited to join us for our 5.99 lunch special of and then talk about your lunch special. Think of it as inviting a friend to lunch. You can apply this technique to just about any business you may have. Think about how you talk to your friends about what you do and then apply that to your posts.

Your posts either personal or business should have value, should be conversational and invite responses. This is a skill set that you will develop and get better at the more you do it. Have fun with it. Enjoy it as you do when you socialize with friends or network your business.

Day 2 of our tour of The World of Facebook will take us to the destination of the Land of Interaction. So till then you are free to tour The World of Facebook on your own. Enjoy your stay!

Social Networking 101

Greetings, my fellow social media gods and goddesses. Today our adventure is taking us into the world of Social Networking. So hop on board the Social Media Express as we dash towards our first destination…. Social Networking 101.

I am sure many of us have been using social networking in some form or fashion for some time now. Even if you are new to this form of marketing you might just want to have a better understanding of what this world is all about and why you are doing it and what it can do for you. Have you read all those articles that say how much money one can make using social networking? I find them rather entertaining in respect to some of the outrageous claims. The truth is this world is new to everyone using it and the waters remain uncharted but there are some principles and practices that are effective for networking purposes. 

Networking is about building relationships. The key words here are building and relationships. So often at networking events I have seen people who approach others just to share their information, take a card and dash off to the next one. I have seen people talking where one or the other is scanning the room for the next one to talk to and not paying attention to the person talking with them. I have seen people try to target market by zeroing in on somebody they think is a good connection and ignore everybody else. I am sure you have your own share of stories of your experiences in networking. The point is, how is this building relationships? How is this helping you get to know a person to build a connection? 

So why is it when using social networking for marketing we expect it to be any different than face to face traditional networking. It is not any different. It is about building relationships. The difference being you may not have even met the person or if you did it was briefly and you are furthering the connection through social networking sites. 

Social networking sites are not just for you to promote your business to others. It is a great way to get to know people that you may not have met yet and see how you can help each other, share resources, give referrals and so much more. Before any of that can happen you have to use these sites for that purpose. Certainly you want to share your content but do not stop there. You want to reach out to others in a personable and relatable manner. 

Adopt the mindset that social networking is about communication, relationship building, interactions and then using methods that reflect that mindset will do more for you than you can imagine. 

Our next stop on the Social Networking express will be about just how to do that using Facebook.

Making Sense of Social Media/Social Networking

 Back towards the end of 2008 the terms Social Media and Social Networking held absolutely no meaning to me. I had no clue what they were, what value they had and what was the difference between the two. From what I was hearing it seemed like a lot to learn and was going to take up way toooooo much time. I think most of us started in that very same place. Funny how things can change so fast for once I understood what this type of marketing was all about, the light bulb went off.


Navigating the uncharted waters of social media and networking can be fun, lively and engaging once it makes sense. There are very few guidelines and rules but that allows for much creativity. Some of the standard ways of self promotion and marketing do not translate very well into this fast paced, fickle and every changing world of social media and networking. 


If you just beginning and even if you have been doing this for awhile this may help you have a clearer vision as to what you are doing and why you are doing it. So lets begin with the difference between social media and social networking.

Social Media is......according to Wikipedia

Social media is the use of web-based and mobile technologies

to turn communication into interactive dialogue. 

Social Networking is....according to What is Social Networking.com 

 Social networking is the grouping of individuals into specific groups...

When it comes to online social networking, websites are commonly used. 

These websites are known as social sites.

Social networking websites function like an online community of internet users. 

 Scratching your head now aren't you? When I first read things like this it was....okay...and this means what??? So let's make it simple... Social media you share information/content in an interactive way....things like blogs, internet radio, newsletters and YouTube are all types of  social media. Media meaning writing, radio and video that all are internet based as opposed to more traditional types of media such as magazines/newspapers, TV and radio. Think of it as translating the traditional into the online world.

Social Networking site would be things like Facebook, Myspace, Linkedin and Twitter to name the most common ones. There you have people who you can engage in conversations with through the sharing of your content. The concepts are based in some the same things as traditional networking is only here again it is translated into the world on the internet. This makes it a whole brand new world where you can network with people you have not actually met. Oh what great possibilities there are in that.

The really cool thing is now most social media sites now can be linked to your social networking sites so that you have this stream of interactions going on.  Now that is exciting....you can write your blog and it is shared automatically on your facebook and twitter... think of the possibilities there....think of the fun in that.

So my fellow Goddesses and Gods of the social media world..there will be much more coming to help you really enjoy your social media and social networking experiences. 

See you on Facebook....