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Evaluating Your Social Media Efforts

5/12/2014

 
social Media Management
There are a lot of great reasons to use social media for small business. The one that immediately springs to mind is marketing to a new audience. That leads to an approach that is very focused on numbers. How many people Like your Facebook page?

​How many Twitter followers do you have? Are you engaging your colleagues on LinkedIn? Those are all things to consider when evaluating your social media presence, but what else should you keep in mind?

Don't Evaluate Social Media Success on Audience Numbers Alone
Perhaps the greatest function of a social media presence for your brand is the ability to connect with your customers, your peers, and members of your industry at large.

Having 1,000 Facebook likes seems great, but if you’re not able to “talk” to someone who has a real question about your products or services, it’s not a terribly effective measure of your social media efforts.

If you focus solely on the numbers, then you might miss the great sense of community that can come from a small but loyal following, and that would be a shame. 

Grow Social Media Following Organically
Remember that point, lo 10 seconds ago, that said don’t focus on the numbers too much? That doesn't mean don’t focus on them at all. Talking to yourself and the Twitter account you set up for your cat probably isn't the greatest use of your time, so you’re going to have to spend some time growing your following.

Virtually every social platform offers some sort of premium service that promises to do just that for you. But those are often expensive and the effectiveness of the resulting fan base is suspect. 

Go ahead, use fertilizer in your garden. But when it comes to growing your following on social media, you might find organic is the way to go. Do the time, talk to the people who engage with you. Thank new followers and those who re-tweet your content on Twitter. Acknowledge every post on your Facebook wall, with a thank you if you can or just a click of the Like button if you can’t. Keep in touch with your peers and former colleagues on LinkedIn to do more than ask them for favours after you strike out on your own. 

Growing your social media presence organically takes longer than running a campaign on Facebook or promoting a tweet, but it keeps you closer to the very people you’re trying to reach. If you find it hard to grow a social medial presence AND your business, consider engaging the services of a company to help connect with your following – NOT a click farm - a business that specializes in creating meaningful relationships on your behalf. 

Where to start?
There are dozens of social media properties and hundreds of services to monitor your reach on those sites. But when you’re just starting out, your time is limited and sometimes so is your budget. Start one social media account for your business, preferably on one you already use a lot in your personal life. You’re familiar with the site’s layout and can capitalize on your connections to get a head start on building your following. Then, when you’re ready, add another one.

​Make a note of your web traffic the day before you share a link on one site, and then wait a day or two before sharing it on another. See which has the greater impact on your web traffic and then focus your efforts on that site. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

Getting attention and building a community for your business using social media doesn't have to be exhausting. You really can do it one day and one post at a time. If you need further guidance to get started, you know who to call!

#PRfail Demonstrates Rules to Live By

1/31/2014

 
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I'll admit it, I love watching a PR train wreck unfold. Oh, sure, I feel bad for the people who have to manage the fallout because I've been in those shoes and they're dreadfully uncomfortable. But sometimes laughing at the jaw-dropping stupidity behind some of the biggest PR fails of the year is just too much to fun. 

When you're done laughing, it's time to start thinking about what you would do differently. After all, what good are lessons in disaster if nobody learns anything from them? Here are some great lessons from a few of this year's biggest PR disasters:

1. Once is a mistake, twice is just dumb
You'd think Kenneth Cole would have figured out not to blithely pile on to hashtags after the Cairo fiasco. But no! They did it again! If something goes terribly wrong the first time you try, don't do it again to make sure it doesn't work. 

2. Listen to Your Advisers
Full disclosure: I live in Toronto, so I've been watching the Rob Ford disaster with a weird mix of giddiness and shame. I think most important lesson to come out of this debacle (other than the obvious one, "don't smoke crack") is listen to your advisers. When the scandal was breaking last spring, there was an opportunity for the mayor to control the conversation and restore public faith by admitting his mistakes and going to rehab. But he said no, no, no and the rest is history. Don't hire people for their expertise and then ignore them! 

3. It's not really a fine line between irreverent and disgusting
The c-bomb and nine-year-old girls do not belong in the same thought. Period. You know it's bad when The Onion faces an internet backlash so ferocious, they're forced to delete a tweet and issue an apology. 

A wise man once said, "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it." When you're managing your small business' reputation, remember you don't know what you don't know, and learn from the mistakes of others. And seriously, don't smoke crack. 

Developing Content for Small Business

12/5/2013

 
Your shiny new website is finally live. You have a spot for your company blog, a Twitter handle and a Facebook page. Great! Now what? Well, there's no time like the present to start developing your company's content. Your content strategy will differ from that of a big company with its own eager marketing and communications team, but that doesn't mean you can't build on the same principles. 
  1. Make an editorial calendar. Have about 10 (or 20 or 30) strong, simple ideas for topics you'd like to expand on. They can be about your business, about your industry in general or about hot trends you're keeping an eye on.
  2. Don't be afraid to course correct. If you started out with a conversational tone but that's falling flat with your audience, try something more formal - or vice versa. Try a few different tones to see where your audience is and what gets the best response. 
  3. Consider hiring help. If you're having trouble keeping up but you're not ready to throw in the towel, consider hiring help to generate your content. There is an opportunity cost associated with writing your own content, and it's probably higher than you think. 
  4. Stay updated. Once you get started, if you can't keep up just take your ball and go home. DO NOT leave a long-neglected company blog or Twitter account out there for all the world to see. It's too attractive to hackers and it's terrible for your image. 
Building and staying connected with your audience doesn't have to time consuming, and having a plan will help you spend less time staring at a blinking cursor on a blank screen.

Outsourcing Social Media

12/3/2013

 
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As a small business owner, you wear a lot of hats every day. You're also possibly wearing a chef's apron or a tool belt too. You may feel like managing your business is enough. It is. Your time and expertise are best spent doing what you do best - growing your business!

Did you know maintaining a presence on multiple social media outlets can help boost your company's search ranking? To be effective as a search tactic, your social media platform has to be updated frequently to let crawlers know it's a going concern. Customers also like having the ability to follow the brands they love on social media for news and updates.

You probably know why you should have a social media presence for your business, but that doesn't give you more hours in the day, or the expertise to handle a negative situation online. That's when you need to seriously consider outsourcing your company's social media efforts.

But before you hand over the keys to your social media kingdom, ask any company you're considering the following questions:
  • How will you build my following? You want real people following you, not bots. That's why you want a real person engaging with the online community. If the words "script" or "program" come up in the discussion, other than to disparage them, move on. 
  • Can I give a prize for Facebook "Likes" to get new fans? No. This is a violation of Facebook's TOS and this should be known by anyone purporting to be a professional online community manager.
  • How will you answer customer inquiries? A social media pro will get acquainted with your products and services and work with you in advance to develop answers to FAQs, rather than forwarding everything to you. Because that would defeat the purpose of outsourcing!
  • What will you do to address any negative feedback? A community manager should be experienced in the best practices of online reputation management. The should be able to produce an escalation chart and response strategy at the outset. If someone is being disruptive to your brand online, you don't want it to continue to escalate for three days while the social media management firm you hired dithers!
  • What monitoring tactics do you employ? Social media monitoring isn't quite a 24/7 job, but it's pretty close. Your community manager should be checking in after hours or on weekends and holidays. If they're only around during business hours, that's a red flag.
Outsourcing your social media efforts should make your life easier. If you get the sense that you'd have an easier time doing it yourself, the company you hired is doing it wrong. It's time to make a switch!

    Author

    Julia Warrender is a member of the Canadian Association of Marketing Professionals (CAMP) and a Hubspot Inbound Marketing certified professional.

    ​She is also the owner of PROD Communications. 

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