Making Time for Social Media

Greetings my fellow social media gods and goddess…. Are you ready for another adventure into the world of social media???  So grab your bags and hop on board the social media express as we explore the land of time and social media. 

The one thing I hear most often is “I do not have time” in reference to using social media to market ones business. I use to think the same thing until I understood the power of using social media. So lets’ explore a different approach to this topic.

Many blogs have posts on the subject that share with you short cuts and resources that will help you post and monitor your social media resources. However, that is not the issue when one thinks they do not have the time to use social media. The real issue is not seeing the value, the power, the effectiveness of social media marketing and therefore not wanting to take the time to use these resources.

We all know we make time for what we perceive as important to us. We make time to network, to follow up on leads and referrals, to follow up with current clients/customers and all the other things we do to gain and keep clients/customers. Why, because we feel these things are effective. They are business practices that gain results. The same can be said for social media marketing when it is added into your normal routine of doing business.

Social Media is about building relationships and inviting conversations. If you have a facebook business page you now notice the insights now track your”reach” and people “talking about” your page. This is to show you the impact your posts are having. Why, because it is all about relationships and conversations. When approaching using social media this is the mindset needed. 

How important is it to you to keep your current clients engaged? How important is it to you to inform and educate your current and potential clients? It is not possible to personally do this through phone calls and emails. It is possible to have a greater reach, a greater impact through social media. 

Here is an example of how this can work for you. Say you are networking, you meet a potential client and you schedule a meeting. In that meeting you both talk about what you both offer and how you can help each other. So after the meeting what do you do? How do you keep in contact with them? How do you foster that relationship? This is where social media can help you. You can friend them, follow them, link with them and they can do likewise. You can comment on their posts and they can do likewise. You can further the relationship through staying connected through social media. 

Another way social media can work for you is, say that you have a great promotion that you know your customers would love? How do you let them know about it? Do you personally call each and every one of them? Do you place a coupon in the local paper? Social media will allow you to have a greater reach in getting known so that your promotion has a greater impact. Why? Because you current customers have the opportunity to share your promotion with their friends easily and quickly by one click a button.   

  

Are you beginning to see how Social Media can work for you and how easily it is to make time for using this powerful resource? 

If you have a success story you would like to share please feel free to leave a comment about how social media marketing has improved your business.

So my fellow gods and goddess until our next adventure….Happy Posting!

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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? 

Making the Most of Social Media

Greetings my fellow gods and goddesses of the social media world. Are you enjoying your journey through the world of social media or are you getting frustrated?  Do you find it mind boggling and you just can't wrap your head around it all? Well go get your favorite beverage, adult or otherwise, and get ready for an inside peak into how you make social media work for you.

The first thing you really need to think about is why are you doing all of this...tweeting, posting, writing blog posts, articles and such. If you are doing it just because you heard you should be, you might want to rethink that approach. Social Media marketing is an investment of your time. It is something you have to grow right along with your business. In today's world it is a part of your overall marketing plan. It is as important as networking and advertising. It allows you to reach another segment of your market that the others may not reach.


To make the most of your social media marketing, you want it to do the work for you. That is the trick to using this form of marketing. The real power here is in the way this form helps you with your branding, being seen as the go to person. When people need your service, they will think of you.


Social media marketing allows you the opportunity to get your message out which brings us to the next important point...your content. Your content is the most powerful tool you have. It is your voice, your personality. It can work for you if you allow it to. People do business with those they know, like and trust. you can build this into your content. I do have a word of caution here though, you must be real. If you try to fake it through your postings, people will see right through that. When posting you want to talk to your audience and not at them. You want to engage them in a conversation. You want to provide useful information and educate them in a personable manner.

Not all content works the same. What you post on facebook may not work on twitter and vice versa. So, it does take practice and a little thought to learn what works for you. It is an opportunity for you to express your thoughts in relation to your business.

You can make social media work for you. Take is slow at first and do not try to do everything all at once. Build a following in one of the resources first before you add another one. Take some to read what other bloggers are saying on the topic. When you invest time in learning, you are investing in your business. Just as you keep up with trends in your industry, you do the same with social media marketing.


I hope you enjoyed your visit to the World of Social Media Marketing...and perhaps this trip got you thinking a bit differently about social media and how it can be of help to you. So enjoy your adventures in the world of social media....

Are Social Media Results Measurable?

Greetings my fellow social media gods and goddesses. Are you ready to explore the world of measure-ability? This is an area where debates and discussions are currently going on and if you read a lot about social media it just may you leaving scratching your head.

Most traditional forms of marketing one can measure the rate of return on investment easily. Place an ad, the phone rings you get clients...maybe yes maybe no but either way you can determine easily the results of placing that ad in a short period of time.

In the world of social media it is not quite so easy. Most social media resources are free so the monetary costs are relatively low especially if you are doing your own marketing. You are however investing your time  Ahh that precious commodity of time where we ask ourselves how much is our time worth. Each individual will have their own answer to that question.The question is not really how much time to put into social media but to make sure that in the time you do put into it that you are working smart. That you are doing quality social media and not quantity and that you are consistent. It is not enough for people to just see your name but it is about how they are perceiving you. You want to be seen as an expert in your field, that you are giving value so that those who do not know you will use you as a resource when the time comes that they do need you. This is the power that is in social media.

There are some things to bear in mind when trying to measure your social media marketing results.

1. Do not read too much into things like click through numbers, readers of posts on a blog, email addresses you are capturing and such. These numbers are useful in showing growth and the impact your social media campaign is having.You are looking for growth and increased impact. If in the beginning you are getting only a few people clicking through and such do not worry about it. You want to look for increases and not at the actual raw data.

2. Another important factor is if your get an increase response to a certain post, that does not mean the next time you try something similar that you will get the same results. The world of social media is very fickle and every changing. You can however determine what your followers are generally interested in and from there you will need to provide even more information to hold their interest, not the same information just said differently.

3. Social Media users are very savvy these days. You need to respect their intelligence and educate them on who you are and what it is you offer and not try to sell them or trick them into something. Many will not share their email etc as they do not want to get a mailbox full of your product offerings, webinars etc. You do want to make it easy for them to contact you should they be interested. Empower them to choose you by providing good content that will peek their interest. Talk to them and not at them.

4. There is no substitute for good content. If you are not getting the results you desire, step up your content. Provide them with the information they are looking for. Social Media is about informing and educating your followers in a personable and interactive manner so that they will feel they know, like and trust you.

5. Results take time and you are looking to grow your influence and impact. Numbers alone will not tell you this. You need to determine how you want to be seen, what you want to be known for and gear your content in the direction. Your content needs to be a reflection of this in a consistent, personable and relate-able.

So my fellow social media gods and goddesses don't stress over all of this....the world of social media is so new that even the guru's don't have it figured out but they are sure trying and are having a real struggle in doing so. You can make social media marketing work for you and you can get the results you desire. Just remember to keep everything in perspective and be yourself. After all is it not you that they want to do business with?