It is time to step up your social media campaign. I have been watching many people on twitter, their blogs and checking out their Facebook pages. And I have come to the conclusion that everyone is interested but few are maximizing their programs. They got no game……plan.
I believe that most people understand the importance and the power of social media as an advertising mechanism but are trying to manipulate the platforms to meet their needs (or desires) and are not just using the platforms for which they were intended.
And who do I blame for this? Us; the people who dedicate their efforts to teach businesses how to use these platforms. It has been us that have been misleading the public into believing that any one of these platforms can be your direct access to your market, your customers and your buyers.
In reality these platforms are social platforms. Social platforms. They are not designed to be used as the classified ad pages of the newspaper. Ok, I’m done ranting. Let me try to explain what I’m talking about.
Twitter, for example, has been described as a cocktail party. Well, let me ask, who is going to pay any attention to someone at the party that just keeps telling you how great they are? Or, someone who keeps telling you to read one news article, or opinion article, after another. This approach comes directly from us. “It is important to deliver value to your customers”, “It is important to keep your face in front of everyone all of the time”. Have you heard this before? Did it come from someone that supposedly knows how to use these platforms? Did it come from us? Probably.
Now, I will say the same things. It is important to offer value to your customers. It is also important to have many channels (locations) where you can be in front of as many customers and potential customers as possible. But, I will also say, the way I’m seeing is not the way.
Karen has just put out a good post, “Is Twitter Useless”. In this article she speaks about how to use tweets of other businesses within your area to: 1) Offer true value to your followers and 2) position yourself to new customers within your geographical area.
The Plan
As a business, you need to have a plan. You need to know who your customer is, where they hang out and you need to know how to communicate to them on their terms. Twitter is a wonderful place to have conversations. Facebook is a place to showcase your business and keep your customers informed. And a blog platform (or website, if you prefer) is the place to offer your value. Every business is different and every person running these businesses is different so how each of these programs and values are going to be different as well.
But the point is that there needs to be a program, a game plan. I believe many business owners that are involved with social media are questioning the value (ROI) of their efforts. This is a good thing. But to not have a complete overview of the landscape, a set of goals, with a map and some way to measure your progress; the measurement of your ROI is fruitless.
The social aspects of platforms like Twitter and Facebook can be enticing. A person can easily get caught up in the chase and loose complete focus on the goals.
So, let’s do a little thought experiment:
Let’s say your goal is to have a group of customers that you can talk with directly (sell to directly). Well the easiest way is to have them on an email list. Right? But how do you get them to sign up for your list? You need to offer them something that is worth them giving you their address. You need to offer Value. Maybe, it is as simple as discounts that no one else will have access too. Or maybe it is your top three secret recipes of your restaurant. Maybe it is financial 
management tips. It is dependent on what your business offers and what you can give to this select group for free.
Now the question is where is this email sign up going to be? I would suggest a blog (it could just as easily be your website, but we prefer the blog format because it is so easily changed and/or added too) or it could be your Facebook page. Now, how do you get people to your blog? This is where twitter comes in.
But instead of keep telling people to go sign up for your email at your blog, you should just be out there talking to people, interacting and letting them to get to know you. This is building your brand and when you have established yourself as likable, and/or knowledgeable, they will passively check you out from your bio (and they will).
Do you have a ROI? – Metrics
Now, let’s think about this. Your Return On Investment. We have outlined two goals; 1) How many people have signed up for your email list, and 2) What is the conversion rate of the offers to this list. Both of these are easily measureable and both have a defined offer to get your customer to take action.
The only thing missing now is the actual number of people you are affecting. There are tools out there, such as Google Analytics, which will show you how many people come to your blog by way of your Twitter feed or from your Facebook page. There are many of these types of tools that you can get for free to help you manage and measure your traffic.
When you begin to see the actual effects of your actions to move people toward your goal you can then know where changes need to be made to increase the conversions you are looking for. It is only by having a plan, setting goals, putting in place ways of measurement and then constantly testing and adapting will you ever actually have a social media campaign.
What do you think?
Are you using Twitter to promote others? Let me know how and how it is working for your business. Also, if you agree with what has been said, please tweet this post and we’ll see if we can turn twitter into a party-line telephone (showing my age) instead of the classified section it seems to be.
Photo by BadCat13
We recommend a WordPress blog. WordPress is free to use and is easily customizable. There are literally thousands of plug-ins that are also free to make the site do what you want it to do. You want the site to be SEO (Search Engine Optimized) friendly, there’s a plug-in for that. You want the site to have analytics, there’s a plug-in for that. You need a sign-up form for a mailing list, no problem, there’s a plug-in for that too. If you can think of it, there’s probably already a plug-in designed to it.
