Use It (all) or Lose it. Each Social Media Site.

So how many of you CEOs and business owners gush all hearts a twitter, I mean boast to all your friends and colleagues that your company is on  facebook, twitter, linkedin, google plus, stumble upon, pinterest, wordpress, quora and the list goes on and on?  The question is you may have an account or a presence but are you really on there?  Do you know the difference?

Wear another hat for a moment; that of the consumer, your customer or potential customer.  When you are looking at a social media site and you view a companies' information, what is your impression if they don't have a detailed description, pictures, content and the like?  You may pause.  Ok, you give them the benefit of the doubt; maybe the company just started that new page.  But what would happen if you came back in a couple weeks and there was nothing new?  Would you make a quick decision and ignore them further? Would you take time to find their website or other social pages?  How has your perception of the company become?   I know what you are thinking and yes we are on the same track.

Perception affects consumer behavior and can influence it in either a positive or negative manner.  Negative thoughts in the beginning are harder to overcome. 

So why would you even let your business create a new 'page' somewhere without going all in ? It would be best if you only setup new pages on these sites properly or not at all.  Use it all the way or (lose it) not at all.  Don't leave bad perceptions to chance.

Do you know if you have setup more than the basics?  Besides asking the employee who has done it; wear that other hat again. How do you perceive the new page? Ask a few customers how they like it, ask for suggestions.  Consult with an industry professional, read blogs, comments and other information that is available. There are always better and more effective manners for  accomplishing the task, just like there are always opinions on the methodology to get there. But you need to get past the smell test, and you need a reasonable quantity of quality content on each of the pages you implement AND you need to have scheduled additions to this information adding to its' freshness.

Quality beats quantity would it be better to tell you colleagues that you are only on 3 or 4 places and they are driving an increase in sales and customer service plus you can field their follow up questions about your activities there or would you rather say we are on 20+ places but you really don't know how it all works?

You are the leader of your organization, you set the table and detail how you want your strategies implemented.

Robert

Are You On Google Plus Yet?

Ok, so it looks like Google Plus is here to stay.  The numbers are just too compelling for a marketer and a business not to be there.   If you take a look at a traditional Google search for your company, you may see results for your web pages, LinkedIn account, blogs, press releases even a Facebook page.   You want to have as many results show up for your business or search term because it will squeeze your competition off the results page with you.  Of course I assume that you  already have all those other pages and even if you don't I will say that I believe that you must have a Google+ page for two primary reasons.

If you have a Google+ page you will be able to provide fresh data from a highly valued source that links to your website and guess who that source is?  This helps your overall search result rankings.  Secondly, you can search out people that have interests that may lend them to be a potential customer.  You add these people to your circles and they are thus introduced to you and if you have your personal profile setup properly they learn about your business + page.  The resultant effect and a bi-product of this is that you get to interact with your clients and potential customers, create new fresh data (the #1 trend for Search Engine Optimization, SEO, as required by Google) and you do all this without spending advertising dollars.

As with any new marketing initiative, there are best practices in the implementation of said program and so it is with Plus.  It certainly makes no business sense to do something half-way.  So if you are jumping in, don't just stick your toe in the water, go straight to the deep end. There are a lot of good blogs and posts out there that help you get started; what are you waiting on?

Are you on Google Plus yet?

Robert

What's The Hub, Bub ? What's the Center of Your Web Universe?

What is the centerpiece of your web universe? Is it your website, a blog or facebook page? Where do you want to conduct most of your business. Where do you want to drive customers? This center is the hub of your universe. You then will build any and all other things to support this hub, the spokes if you will.

You will have different tacts or approaches on the various destinations, your spokes, and if you can you should still try to capture that person into your sphere of influence or clic. Have a call to action in your social media, request sharing of blog posts, participate in polls, enter contests as well as giving that person a reason to go to your hub. As people move along all your various spokes and your hub you have many opportunities to call them to specific actions; take advantage of those opportunities. Some places you will have to be more subtle others you may be overt. But read their policies, see what others are doing, ask questions, emulate others, measure results and repeat successful patterns.

Create your hub and all of your spokes with a design and process. For example, we use, Brand, Build, Market, Measure or B2M2. Define your brand, image, set your goals. Build the components that will portray your brand in the marketplace; websites, pages, blogs. Market your components that builds upon your brands reputation and spreads it to your target consumers. Measure the results of your marketing effort, make adjustments and repeat the process shall we say repeatedly.

What’s your hub and what are some of the spokes you use? Are you having success with some but not others?

Robert

Branding on the Web, Do's and Don'ts

In building your brand, the concept of "big" on the internet does not mean better. Better means better. So with that in mind, I have compiled some of the biggest mistakes that people and companies make as well as some must do items to give your web application, site, blog or page the best opportunity to succeed. A lot of things are common sense, but when executing, many people leave common sense on the sideline.

Mistakes - Don't
Do not simply Build it an they will come. With the many people throwing around crazy money at times, it goes without saying that there are some pretty crazy ideas out there chasing that money. Overall, the concept of if we build this great site, page or whatever and people will find out about it and we'll get thousands if not millions of viewers and we'll go IPO in 6 months, etc. People, rephrased, some people have finally learned that lesson. It costs time and money to get viewers to a web application; and it takes time and money to get them to purchase or perform a task. And finally it takes time and money to provide exemplary customer service.

Do not build a completely 100% graphical home page or introduction. Give customers the opportunity to view a presentation, don't force some "commercial" on them when they hit your home page; consumers will do the same thing they do with the remote and their television sets at night.. They will click to another station.

Do not have your customer service representatives reply to queries with short curt remarks even if they are "yes", "no" to answer simple questions. Don't have them use form letter responses that don't answer the question that was in the query. It's OK to use some canned responses or to include other offer information, but be careful how you do so.

Good Practices (DO)
You must put text on your home page that tells the user what they will find at your site. And by text, I mean HTML text. Provide compelling text. Content is king and in the form of text.

If the purpose of your site is sales and you want to get them to call, have the phone number on every web page in a predominant location. Each web page should be devoted to a topic; the text and the HTML meta tags and page title tag should contain the topic. Now while some search engines may or may not use all these things, make sure your pages all have the basics covered for those that do. Target a specific audience with a page. Tailor the information to this audience.

Monitor your statistics on a monthly basis at a minimum. Exchange links and pages with other QUALITY sites. Create inquiry forms that may provide an idea of how quickly the consumer wants you to respond, and you tell them how much time it will take to answer their questions. Ask for testimonials.

Creating a Brand takes time and effort. You Must Provide, exemplary customer service, pertinent data and respond in a timely manner. Do it right the first time!

Robert

Think You Know Your Customers? Think Again

What they really like is beyond traditional demographics

I ask my clients to describe their typical customer. What I get is male age 40-55, median income $75k, US, homeowner, 2 kids, white, 50/50 married/divorced, job, job position, blah, blah, blah.  So I ask the question again and again.  By this time they are giving me this quizzical look  Sometimes I think they wonder, who is this guy?

With so many sources of available information and the proliferation of social media websites; more people are engaged and giving of their personal information, sometimes not knowing the implications; but I'll save that for a future discussion. So as a business owner or manager you need to dig beyond the traditional demographic. What you find out about your customers may surprise you.

How do you start to find out about your customers, ask them to help.  Develop questionaires to ask them about their attitudes, their interests, look at your sales data, inquire how they use your product or service.  You might also capture their viewing habits with regard to your website.  Now you can also use social media to determine some of their personal and professional contacts and interests.  For example, if they are on Linkedin, take a look at their profile; what type of groups are they a member, are they engaged or merely sideline participants.  If your business is on Facebook, has your customer 'Liked' you?  If so, can you access some of their interests and friends. What are their interests in music, books and much more.  Have you considered having an app capture a number of these items?   Are they engaged on your Facebook page? Do they respond to polls or other posts?  What can you learn about them with this information.

In today's marketplace, you need to know a lot more about your customer. Get started by learning more about your current customers, this will help you target new ones. 

What methods and metrics do you use to understand your customer mix?

Robert

Web Marketing 101: Committing To A Plan

The internet and web marketing is a very fluid environment and it can be overwhelming when trying to decide where and what to do at any one moment of time.   Expectations from the boss or client can be high; ok let's say maybe unrealistic, but that is not the focus of this writing.  This is about doing things with a plan, focusing on that plan and executing.    If the main focus of your marketing strategy is to get people to your website where they can purchase from a cart, read about your service or other action then make sure your website is the best it can be.   Get it built before you start marketing and promotion.

1. Plan, plan and plan. Establish guidelines, timelines, goals.

2. Create a nice visual design including your logo, tagline.

3. Have a distinctive and appropriate call to action.

4. Make it search engine friendly  (use a sitemap if it's more than 20 pages and you have changing content).

5. Create quality and quantity of content.

6. Make sure your pages are constructed with all the various tags and methodology for good search engine optimization (SEO).

7. Submit the site to various search engines, directories.

8. Continue to add and update your content. This could be new products, press releases and the like.

9. Measure your results.

10. Repeat steps 1-9, again and again.

This can be condensed to the following mantra: Brand, Build, Market, Measure (B2M2).

After you get your website rolling and it is a committed part of your business, then you are ready to do some more things in the promotion of your site.   Use some press release sites to distribute your news and announcements.  Start a blog. Create a Facebook, Google +1 and LinkedIn pages.  Use Twitter.  There are endless options.  But whichever one(s) you do, give them the attention they deserve.  Don't expect miracles or instant success but work them into the routine for your business and they will pay dividends.   Create and follow a plan for each. Commit.

What do you do when you start a new project to keep you committed to it?

Robert

www.SocialClics.com