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Huge Social Media Numbers Don’t Always Help You

By "Professor" Benjamin · Comments (2)

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

I will be honest. I am sick of the magic bean marketing that some people are pitching in order to help you “grow” your Twitter followers or for winning a large group of “friends” for apps like FaceBook. There are so many things that I see wrong with this approach and why I dislike this idea of selling magic bean stalks to businesses or people willing to listen.

1. Can you really call people friends when you’ve never really met them? I don’t accept ANY friend requests unless I know a person or they come as a recommendation from someone I trust. I think in some ways we’ve made it too easy to connect and I am more interested in “real-ationships” than a body count. Not to mention, people do business with people they trust. How can you do this if you don’t know them?

2. Does having thousands of followers really matter? I think the idea of building a massive follower list is just like those childish, school popularity contests where those with the most friends wins. Where are your friends now? We should be more concerned with building quality friendships over shallow quantity ones. Plus, using trickery to build your list doesn’t equal qualified leads or good friendships…but maybe that’s just my Gen-X cynicism speaking.

3. Can you honestly keep up with them? Many bloggers or books say the proper etiquette is to friend or follow a person who does the same for you (and can also a magic bean tactic). This is a great theory and very kind, but highly impractical. You can only keep up with a limited amount of people. And if you are only doing it as a courtesy, doesn’t that cheapen the deal? I follow people because I care about what they are saying or doing, and at 227, this is very difficult to do!

4. What is the real purpose? I understand the power of reach and that having a large list of people can increase your odds at being heard, but there is a huge difference between earning the right/trust/privilege to be heard (or followed) as compared to marketing tactics to bait you into a relationship. If your reason is to create true community then it has to be done with authenticity.

5. Isn’t Social Media about getting results? I’ve been reading Social Media Metrics by Jim Stern and it’s challenged me to go back to my old school reasoning of the ROI (Return on Investment) of using the social media apps at our disposal. In the Introduction, Jim states that you must measure the effectiveness of social media and that there are “The Big Three Goals” in business:

Increasing Revenue,
Lowering Costs, and
Improving Customer Satisfaction

He writes, “they are all that matters in the long run. If the work you do does not result in an uptick in one or more of those Big Three Goals, then you are wasting your time and spinning your wheels.” Stern also talks about how shallow relationships don’t usually generate good ROI. If we take his information as truth, then we must come to understand that the huge social media numbers game really doesn’t help us out and that smaller, authentic communities do.

Bringing it all together…

Many of us know that trusted relationships with our clients, customers, or community will help us with our business or venture. Most of us, if we are being honest, would admit that we don’t use social media just for the sake of having fun – but for the purpose of business. If these are all valid statements (and I believe they are) then shooting for a mass influx of friends, followers, or buddies will not benefit us and therefore making the magic beanstalk worthless.

My advice is that you build your following organically or because you are remarkable. Then your social media numbers will mean something and have real value.

So how do you feel about these thoughts?

Comments (2)

Categories : Social Media

Tags : credibility, Facebook, relationships, Social Media, Twitter

Getting Started: 2) Planning

By "Professor" Benjamin · Comments (0)

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

Getting started with a website is a big first step. It takes guts, determination and a lot of smart thinking. We can help with that. This is the second in a series of five posts on getting started with a website.

As you’re trying to sort out the timing issues, what you really need is a plan. You need to think through what exactly you’re going to do with a website and how you’re going to do it.

What do you hope to accomplish with your site?
What’s the end goal?
What’s it going to cost? And does the goal justify that cost?
How’s it all going to work?

You’ve got to ask the big questions and you need to come up with serious answers. Just like your business, you’re going to get out of a website what you put into it. If you don’t put any thought into how it’s going to benefit you, you’re likely going to get haphazard results. But if you come up with a solid plan, you’re much more likely to succeed. You came up with a thorough and detailed business plan for your business (hopefully)—so likewise you need to come up with a detailed strategy for your website.

First come up with some goals. What do you want your site to accomplish? Your goals should be big picture:

A restaurant might want more diners.
A realtor might want to sell more houses.
A nonprofit might want more donors.

Next figure out some strategies to accomplish those goals:

A restaurant might offer coupons to lure in more customers.
A realtor might use educational marketing to set themselves up as an expert and draw more customers.
A nonprofit might use storytelling to get their message out there and engage more donors.

Now you’re getting somewhere. But how are you actually going to make these things happen? Come up with some specific tactics:

A restaurant might use Twitter and Facebook to post coupons.
A realtor might launch a blog and post three times a week to start educating potential customers.
A nonprofit might create videos of the people they help.

Finally you need to come up with some objectives to measure everything by. How do you know if you’re succeeding if you don’t have some measure of success? This can be tough because you need to be realistic but fair. Results might be slow to come at first.

A restaurant might want to see one new customer per week using the coupons.
A realtor might want to see steady growth in traffic over the first month, hitting 500 unique visitors that first month.
A nonprofit might want each video to be seen by 50 people.

And the questions and goals and objectives can keep building on each other. Blogging might be the tactic you take, but how are you going to get 500 people to visit the site? You need to keep refining and clarifying your plan with detail after detail. You’ll get those 500 people by posting three times a week, e-mailing all your friends to spread the word, asking a well-known real estate blogger to do a guest blog post, etc.

You can quickly see how much planning and thinking you have to do to pull this off. But that’s what you need to do if you want to succeed. The web isn’t the place for casual or sloppy marketing. If you’re going to get started with a website, you need to do it right. Be intentional. Think it through. If you manage to do that you’ll be doing more than getting started with a website—you’ll be on your way to succeeding.

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Categories : Marketing

Tags : Blogging, Getting Started, strategy, Twitter, Video

What’s Your Strategy?

By "Professor" Benjamin · Comments (0)

Sunday, December 6th, 2009

We love to push a lot of top-notch web and social media tactics for small businesses. Those are well and good, but the truth is you can’t simply jump on board whatever new tactic comes along. If you’re going to have any success that new tactic needs to be worked into your strategy.

That strategy needs to come first. It should drive which tactics you employ and which tactics you don’t touch. The strategy should explain why you use the tactics you do.

A restaurant may opt to use Twitter because sending random updates from a cell phone on the fly is a lot easier than finding time to sit down at a computer and draft a blog post. The tactic is appealing. But strategically finding a quick and easy way to deliver coupons and discounts to an army of fans is what’s important. That’s the goal. Twitter is just the tactic.

A consultant might turn to blogging as a way to capture and broadcast their expertise. The strategy is to employ educational marketing to inform their audience and establish themselves as a voice in the field. Blogging is just one of many tactics that would accomplish this goal (and a particularly good one).

A hip and eclectic music shop might see Facebook as an ideal way to connect with their crowd. The strategy is relational marketing. It relies heavily on the personality of the shop and demands a tactic that’s going to communicate a lot of personality. Facebook would be an ideal tactic to execute that strategy—it’s a perfect place to exude style, opinion and fun.

Before you get too carried away with the latest new tactic, make sure it fits with your overall marketing strategy.

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Categories : Marketing

Tags : Blogging, Facebook, relationships, Twitter

Get Into Your Website

By "Professor" Benjamin · Comments (0)

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

If you want your website to be effective, you need to put yourself into it. Your blood, sweat and tears should be worked into the navigation, content and code of your site.

I’m not saying you need to be a web expert and do everything yourself. But if you don’t take a personal interest in your site, your customers won’t either. More than ever websites are a conversational piece of your marketing plan. They’re no longer about broadcasting your message, they’re about interacting with your audience. And that interaction is something you can’t fake or outsource. By all means bring in help to do it right, but if you’re not engaged and putting some of your personality into your site, it’s not going to work. If the people actually running your site aren’t empowered to give it personality, it’s going to flop.

You can’t just throw something online and hope it works. But if you put yourself online, if you’re engaged in the process and care about what it says and how it says it, then customers will notice. It’s no longer just a bit of marketing, but it’s a connection.

If you’re not in your website now, change it:

Start blogging. Talk about what matters to you and your organization.
If blogging sounds too involved, try Twitter. Share your hopes, dreams and favorite tips in 140 characters or less.
Give people something of value. What about your business is incredibly valuable? Find a way to put that online. Whether it’s tips and expertise, coupons to entice people to come in and see the value for themselves, or something else.

Comments (0)

Categories : Blogging, Content, Marketing

Tags : Blogging, conversation, Twitter, value

Twitter, Google Search Deal Makes Twitter More Important For Businesses

By "Professor" Benjamin · Comments (0)

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

With the new Google and Twitter search deal, it means it’s more important than ever for your business or organization to be on Twitter.

This quote from the Google blog announcement hits it home on how this affects the Google search we come to love and rely on:

“That way, the next time you search for something that can be aided by a real-time observation, say, snow conditions at your favorite ski resort, you’ll find tweets from other users who are there and sharing the latest and greatest information.”

As I read that quote I thought that a flood of businesses with customers who want that type of real-time, breaking information better RUN to Twitter accounts if they haven’t already.

It’s obvious for ski resorts, of course, and makes a lot of sen. Each and every ski resort better be reporting snow conditions actively on Twitter.

But you can reverse engineer other real-time data people could be wanting … here’s a couple that come to mind:

Weather – (covered in the snow conditions mention) but people want severe weather alerts, temperatures and forecasts
Sports – scores, game schedules, injuries
Stocks – your company’s daily stock price and news that affects it
Travel – city news in particular, especially while traveling or researching
Conferences, Special Event – this is obvious maybe, but we’ve live blogged and tweet conferences like the recent Catalyst Conference; can also apply to major events like the Inauguration of the President
Political – major legislative bills, political candidate announcements
Health – flu outbreaks like H1N1
Seasonal – special holiday dates come to mind, particular Halloween
Entertainment – I’ve personally looked at Twitter search for who got booted off American Idol before; celebrity news is hot on search (see Google Trends for proof)
Any Breaking News – anything that can be considered a breaking new headline (i.e. death of Michael Jackson, who won American Idol, etc)

What else did I miss? And have you signed yourself and your business up for Twitter yet?

Comments (0)

Categories : Searches, Social Media

Tags : Google, Twitter

Making Twitter Easier

By "Professor" Benjamin · Comments (0)

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

There are a number of extras, tools and third party applications that can make Twitter a lot easier. The value of each one is going to depend on your own needs and preferences. Maybe you get everything you want at Twitter.com, but if not there are other options.

Shortening Links
Putting useful links in your tweets is always a good idea, but that pesky 140-character limit can cause problems. Twitter.com will often automatically shorten your URLs, but that doesn’t always help you cram as many characters into your tweets as possible. There are a number of URL shortening services out there, including Tinyurl, is.gd, bit.ly, ow.ly and more. Some simply shorten your links, but others will also provide stats and tracking.

Photos & Video
A lot of folks also share photos and video from their cellphone and post them directly to Twitter using tools like Twitpic, Twitvid, Yfrog and Posterous. They make Twitter on the go a much more visual experience.

Third Party Apps
There are a number of third party applications that let you take Twitter out of the web. Some of these are desktop programs and others are for mobile devices. Either way, there’s a slew of them and they’re constantly being updated and improved with various features. A quick sampling includes HootSuite (web based, multiple accounts and scheduled tweets), Tweetie (multiple accounts for Mac), TweetDeck (good organization with groups), CoTweet (great for shared accounts) and Tweetchat (for hashtag chats). Twitter lists even more on their site. You’ll likely need to experiment and figure out which set of features serves your style the best.

Stats
It’s always helpful to have some metrics. TweetStats offers helpful graphs of your Twitter usage like tweets per month, day and hour. TwitterCounter has graphs of your followers and tweets over time.

Just for Fun
Twibbon lets you create and add ribbons to your Twitter avatar to support various causes. You can jump on a pre-existing bandwagon or create your own. Some are serious (Alex’s Lemonade Stand) and some are ridiculous (International Bacon Day. You can also have fun with Twitter by jumping on various trends, like Follow Friday or Music Monday.

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Categories : Social Media

Tags : services, Twitter, utilities

What Should I Tweet?

By "Professor" Benjamin · Comments (0)

Monday, September 21st, 2009

OK, you’ve got your head around Twitter (not really, but sorta), you’ve signed up and you’ve found a few folks to follow. It’s time to start tweeting. So now the big question: What should I tweet?

The obvious answer is whatever you want. But if you’re tweeting for your business then you clearly need to be more intentional than that. You need a good strategy.

What Do You Want to Accomplish on Twitter?
Are you trying to address customer service complaints or are you hoping to bring in new customers? Maybe you just want to set yourself up as an expert in your field and start making contacts. Any of these goals will give you your strategy:

If you’re tweeting to resolve customer complaints, you better start listening and tweeting helpful tips.
If you’re hoping to bring in new customers maybe you’ll tweet coupons, brag about your chef or highlight new features.
If you want to positioning yourself as an expert and make contacts, then you’ll post interesting and helpful links, share advice, and listen and respond to others in your field.

General Tips
In some sense you just need to dive into Twitter and see what works. Pay attention to what people respond to and do more of it. Here are a few tips to get you started:

Not everything has to be about your business. If something is interesting, share it. If it’s funny, share it. If it makes you cry, share it. You can take that too far, but a little personality goes a long way.
Offer real value—you should be providing something people can’t get anywhere else. Don’t just tweet your blog posts—give us something more: deals, extra links, behind the scenes scoops, photos, funny stories, etc.
Twitter is about relationships. The hard sell doesn’t work any better here. It’s fine to push your wares, but avoid the appearance of a spammer: Don’t cram every tweet with links to your stuff, don’t repost the same thing over and over, don’t @reply or direct message people with unrelated information. It’s not all about you. Show some interest in other people. Consider introducing yourself and telling them what you like about their tweets.
Ask questions. Especially as you gain more followers you’ll find that people respond. Ask what people like about your business, what they’re looking for, what they care about.
Give credit where credit is due. Many of your links, resources and interesting finds were found somewhere, so give them some credit. It’s not only common courtesy, it’s ethical and gives people a source to track down further information.
Twitter doesn’t have to be just text. You can link to photos or videos. A number of sites like Twitpic will let you post a photo from your cell phone and tweet about it.
Whatever you do, don’t Twitter something you wouldn’t want the entire world to know. Anything you tweet better be public knowledge. If there’s a certain someone you hope won’t read what you’re posting, then don’t post it.

In the end, have fun. Twitter is a pretty laid-back communications avenue, so if you’re stressing over it you’re not doing it right.

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Categories : Content, Social Media

Tags : Twitter

Getting Started on Twitter

By "Professor" Benjamin · Comments (0)

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

Last time we mentioned that the best way to figure out Twitter is to just dive in and get started. So let’s do it.

Sign Up
The first step is to sign up. The sign up process is basic enough, but take your time when it comes to picking your username. This will be both your Twitter URL (http://www.twitter.com/username) and your Twitter handle (@username)—the name you’ll be known by on Twitter. It’s what people will use to respond to you or to refer to you. It should be as short as possible, but it also needs to be memorable and descriptive. Yeah, that’s a tall order. You can change your username later if you come up with something better, but just like changing a URL you’ll risk breaking links to your feed and losing any inbound links.

Fill Out Your Profile
The next step is to flesh out your profile so people know who you are. These can be found under ‘Settings’ in the ‘Account,’ ‘Picture’ and ‘Design’ tabs.

More Info URL: Your website goes here. Don’t tell me you don’t have a website.
One Line Bio: Here you have 160 characters to tell people what this Twitter account is all about. Use them wisely.
Location: Add even more personality by giving your specific location. You are a real business, not just some ephemeral entity somewhere in cyberspace. Listing your location can also be helpful because many third party sites will aggregate this data and list Twitter accounts by locale.
Picture: This is the icon people will see next to your tweets. It’s how you’ll be visually identified, so you want something recognizable. If this is your business a logo is a good choice, but it does have the downside of being impersonal. Whatever you choose it needs to be recognizable even at a tiny size.
Design: You also have the option of changing how your Twitter page appears. This isn’t incredibly important since people will likely only see your Twitter page when they decide to follow you (even then, they don’t have to visit your page). But it is a chance to reinforce your branding. You can create something custom (do it yourself, hire someone or turn to a free custom site) or you can turn to any number of Twitter background sites. If you need a little inspiration you can check out the Twitter Backgrounds Gallery.

All of these steps to flesh out your profile are completely optional, but if you’re serious about Twitter they shouldn’t be. A custom design isn’t a necessity, but if you leave your bio blank or go with the default picture many people won’t give you the time of day. That’s equated with laziness or spammers. So take the time to fill it out and give yourself some easy legitimacy.

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Categories : Social Media

Tags : Twitter

What’s Twitter and Why Should I Care?

By "Professor" Benjamin · Comments (0)

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

Twitter is a free micro-blogging service where people share 140-character updates about whatever they want and follow other people and their minimalist text entries.

If you’re scratching your head right now, don’t worry. Twitter is a bit of a head scratcher. Most people don’t get it at first and it usually requires taking Twitter for a spin to discover its appeal.

Get Social
When you set up your account and post your first tweet (yes, Twitter has its own vocabulary) it’s rather anti-climactic. But that’s because Twitter is a social application and when you first log on you probably don’t have much of a network with which to socialize.

You “follow” other people on Twitter to have their updates delivered to you, and vice-versa. So instead of just talking to yourself, you have a whole stream of updates coming in from your friends and acquaintances.

You can also interact with this stream of updates by replying (public) or sending direct messages (private). Conversations quickly develop and networking is happening.

Anytime, Anywhere
One feature of Twitter that’s helped it spread is that it’s so ubiquitous. Despite what you might think looking at Twitter.com, you don’t have to sit at your desk and visit the website to post tweets. Twitter ties into the text messaging world, so you can send and receive tweets on your cell phone. You can also tie Twitter into Facebook or status updates on other social networking sites. There are also a number of desktop applications that plug into Twitter, allowing you to post updates without ever visiting the site. Your status updates can also be streamed onto a website, so your content isn’t limited to people on Twitter.

Suddenly Twitter is no longer just geeks tied to their computers. The world is at your fingertips—well 140-characters at a time anyway.

So What’s the Big Deal?
The reason Twitter matters is because people are using it. Go where the people are. It also happens to be a low-barrier way to communicate. It requires minimal investment: no website to set up, no money to pay and you can’t even type more than 140 characters. There are few marketing avenues you can try that have such a low barrier to entry. What do you have to lose?

And with Twitter’s 6-10 million users and roughly 20 million unique visitors each month, you have a lot to gain.

Sure celebrities are using Twitter to gossip, geeks are posting pictures and sleazy marketers are spamming people, but there are also businesses making good. Comcast is trying to save its customer service, Ford is reaching out, a Twin Cities pizza shop is offering coupons, a cupcake truck in Connecticut is reaching customers. These businesses care about Twitter and it’s working for them. (Twitter even has a getting started guide for businesses.)

You should care about Twitter because it’s an easy way to communicate with your customers. Sending a coupon or answering a question is as easy as pulling out your phone and sending a text message.

Check it out and give it a try. What can you do with 140 characters?

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Categories : Social Media

Tags : Twitter