A blog is not a magical cure all. Neither is twitter, facebook or youtube. Social media tools were created in order to make conversation easier and more effective with a larger network of people – not to sell stuff. While they can be used to help your business grow, understanding the right way to use these tools is the only way to make that happen. Just like traditional marketing, it takes time and a lot of touches before you will turn someone from a watcher to a listener and then into a buyer. You can’t push someone too quickly or they will just push back. Social media allows messages to send faster, but that doesn’t mean we need to be faster with our pitches. Let’s take the magic and mystery out of the equation, and start thinking about them as tools. To use social media properly you must:

1. Share content – not sales pitches.
2. Be involved in the conversation.
3. Create quality not quantity.
4. Offer help and advice without expecting it in return.
5. Look for the right people to follow based on your industry.
6. Do not send spam messages.
7. Ask for help in sharing, but don’t be overbearing.
8. Give people credit – never steal someones ideas.
9. Be consistent in your message.
10. Write and share often, but don’t be a blowhard.
11. Use your instincts – branding is the same everywhere.
12. Don’t say something you’ll regret.
13. Learn to respond with your brand in mind.
14. Ask questions, it encourages conversation.
15. Take time every week to re-evaluate what works and what doesn’t
16. Not give up. It takes time for people to listen
17. Be honest. People can tell when you are just slinging fluff.
18. Create a consistent profile. Being the same brand throughout all media makes you easier to understand.

What other tips can you share that take the mystery and magic out of social media?

Every (for profit) business has an offering, whether it is a service or a product, there is something that they are going to make money off of. But, that service or product is not always (actually, rarely is it) the key marketing tool for a business. Coca Cola sells soda, right? But what is their key marketing statement? “Open Happiness”. AllState sells insurance, but they don’t use that as their marketing statement do they? They tell the consumer “You’re in good hands”.

A lot of times, this key statement is considered a tagline, but I feel that is a misnomer. A tagline makes it sound silly and pointless, just more words that mean nothing. In reality, the tagline should be called your key marketing statement. This statement is used as your  overlying sentiment that you want to portray to your customers every single day. This should be your mantra both in the office, with employees, and out of the office, with clients. This is the key to your success – and needs to speak volumes about who you are as a company and what it means to work with you. When you approach someone and they ask you what you do, you should give them your key marketing statement, then more details. Your business card should have the key marketing statement prominently placed, as should your website and all marketing materials.

When you are considering a key marketing statement there are a few things to consider:

1. What is it that you want to be known for?
2. What can you offer that no one else can?
3. How are you proving you are unique?

Using the answer to any of these questions should help you to form your key marketing statement.

What is your companies key marketing statement?

Does it actually get followed or is it just empty words?

One of my favorite shows on TV is House, and last night, the case to be solved involved an interesting blogger. The show overall was good, the case solving unique and what you would expect from House…what I want to discuss is the way that they portrayed the blog world.

If you missed the show, the blogger is a woman who shares every detail of her life with her readers, from her fights with her boyfriend to her food choices, and later on, her medical choices as well. As soon as something new happens, she must blog, and tell the whole world (or at least her readers) what has changed. She explains to her boyfriend that if she chooses what to share, and censors what she says, she isn’t being honest, and the readers expect honesty. In one scene, she finds she needs a new liver, and blogs about it. One of the doctors later informs us that they received a call from Singapore asking about how to donate for the blogger. Basically, the show paints her as a woman who isn’t herself without her trusty laptop and blog. So what is the big deal?

My frustration with the show was the fact that they chose to take blogging as only one thing. There was no discussion of blogging other than the type that this woman did – considered ‘life journal-ing’. First, yes, there are probably plenty of women who have blogs and use them just like the woman in the show. They share every detail, some very personal, and use it for publicity. Unfortunately, this paints a poor picture of the blogging world and makes it difficult to help people to understand the other sides of blogging. For me,  this type of blogger is nothing more than a bored woman who can’t deal with intimacy in her own life so she chooses to share it with the rest of the world instead. By the end of the show, I was not only irritated with the woman, but disappointed with the show itself in that it would allow such a poor version of ‘bloggers’ to be broadcast to millions of viewers. Blogging obviously can be just a journal of your thoughts, but that is a stereotype that I fight against every day. When we discuss blogging, most of our clients (and unfortunately friends too) think we mean the type of blogging portrayed in the show. They have a hard time separating the fact that while there are ‘life’ bloggers, that business bloggers are just as important, and can make a huge impact in their industry with the right strategies. In fact, were one of the top business bloggers to share that they needed a liver, they would probably get the same response this woman did. You make connections with your readers through your writing, but that doesn’t mean it has to be personal writing.

On a side note, I found it funny that the blog service she used was a fake – I figured wordpress, blogger or typepad might have jumped at the opportunity to be featured on a hit show…wonder if Fox even reached out to them…

Did you see the show? What do you think about the way it represented bloggers?

If you own a small business, your business is not your brand. You are your brand. People are coming to you for advice and support because of who you are and what you have done, not because of the product itself. Most services are sold by more than just you, so make sure that you are able to stand out above the noise and work to build conversations, not just talk. Your brand should be more than just a what your business is but who you are, and what you bring to the table. People do not want to be part of a fly-by-night company; they want history, experience and the trust that the product is effective and worthwhile. During all conversations, you need to focus on the facts, not speculations. We only promise what we can deliver, and we create a consistent message through all channels. By using this method, your followers, fans and readers will trust that they can come to you for help and advice.

When you create your profiles on each social media site, make sure to always use the same name, same picture, same url and same details. You want people to be able to find you easily, and making them consistent will help with searches, as well as strengthen your brand. Also, on sites that allow you to pick colors/designs, try to stick with the same theme as your main website. Visitors like consistency and when they see the same things on all sites, they will feel more comfortable and willing to connect with you. Finally, make it easy to contact you. The largest part of your brand is what you do after people have used social media to find you. If they can’t figure out how to call or email you easily, they won’t. Don’t give away all the time you’ve spent building relationships by not giving them the opportunity to take it offline.

Do you have a brand or just a business?

Let’s start with a quick list of the most popular marketing tools:

• Print marketing in magazines and newspapers
• Television ads
• Radio ads
• Social networks (twitter, facebook, linkedin, youtube)
• Blogging
• Web (adwords, banner ads, etc)
• Direct mail
• Cold calling

The marketing tools you should use are directly correlated to what you want your marketing to do. By this I mean, if you want millions of people to see it, you need to make a statement and money is no object, TV ads may be for you. If you have a budget and need people to understand more about you, to learn before they buy, blogging and social media are probably a better solution. If your services only benefit a very specific group of individuals, combining direct mail and cold calling may be just what the marketing doctor ordered.

Today, we want you to take a step back from your busy schedule for just 5 minutes and answer these 5 questions about your marketing strategy.

1. Which tools do you use to market your business?
2. Are those the most appropriate for your business strategy or are those just the tools you’ve been using?
3. Are they bringing you more business than you can handle?
4. Do you wonder what else is out there to market your business?
5. Should you choose a new strategy or tools?

Don’t forget to share your results in the comments!

Twitter, Blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn…It’s all a bit much isn’t it? At first, it may be, but as with anything, creating a strong social media presence takes time, effort and a plan. Without a strategy behind social media, it is just a time suck that no one can afford. Done right, using these 4 tools can shape a strong marketing strategy with an even stronger ROI.

So, how do you manage them correctly? For each business, it will be slightly different, but here are 5 steps for each tool that we use in our strategy:

Twitter

1. Find 5 new people to add to our followers list every day. Also, look at the people that have followed us and determine whether or not to follow back. There are auto tools that can do this, but we find a personal approach is better in the long run for building a strong network.
2. Reply to at least 5 questions/comments with actual answers, something that adds value to the conversation.
3. Send out 5 interesting links that can benefit our community as a whole. Add my thoughts with the link so that my followers know why I am sharing. Read at least 3 links that are sent out by my followers that are pertinent to my business.
4. Spend a total of 1 hour on chit chat throughout the day to make sure to keep the connections strong
5. Tweet 5 times from my own personal/business thoughts to start conversation

Blogs

1. Write. Jot down ideas and create drafts to work on later. I strive for 3-5 posts per week.
2. Read through your current comments and respond to anyone who has made a strong point or asked a question
3. Comment on 3 other blogs that you read, with genuine thoughts, not just “good post”.
4. Stumble/Digg/Share at least 1 interesting post from another blog author
5. Look for 1 new blog to subscribe to. Remember, it is okay to subscribe to some blogs just for fun.

Facebook

1. Check if any of your friends are having birthdays. I recommend sending a tweet or email, it shows you took a little extra effort
2. Update your business page with any new information or changes
3. Respond to any new wall posts – make sure that it is a quality response.
4. Send a message to at least one connection whom deserves special notice
5. Comment on at least 5 status updates

LinkedIn

1. Comment on at least 1 status update
2. Answer at least 2 questions that are pertinent to you. Pose 1 question per week.
3. Look through recommended connections and add anyone who is interesting
4. Check on the forums in your group and respond to any inquiries
5. Update your own status.

If this list seems like a lot of work – it is. Nothing worth doing is easy, and it is definitely worth doing right. Remember, just doing it for the sake of doing it doesn’t benefit anyone. It needs to be done right, participated in correctly, and planned accordingly. It is as easy to ruin a brand in social media as it is to improve it, especially with the number of people watching. But, the work is worth it when it pays of with a strong community network that not only respects you, but can turn into prospective clients.

What strategy do you use to manage your social media – or are you still missing that piece?