It’s Everywhere!
Over the last couple of years, social media has gone from a minority interest to being everywhere. You can’t move for articles and books selling you the benefits of “social media strategy”, “Twitter for business marketing”, “Facebook must haves for companies” etc.. The worry is that somewhere along the way, the naïve and the hopeful began believing that all you need is a social media strategy and then you can sit back and watch the wealth roll in.
Don’t be Seduced!
At the moment, social media is sexy; but don’t let it seduce you into believing that it’s the be all and end all of marketing. Your on-line marketing campaign needs to include appropriate branding, a web site designed for accessibility and ease of use, Search Engine Optimisation and most important of all, high quality content and products/services.
This last point is important – you can use every technique available to drive visitors to your site but if there is nothing to inspire the visitor to linger and to return, it’s wasted effort! I realised this recently, and am embarking on a complete rebranding project to make all of my marketing, including the website, visually exciting and consistent.
Do You Have a Strategy?
Why are you online? What are you trying to achieve? What does success mean to you? What message are you trying to convey? How are you tracking progress? Is your site focused on you and your offering or on the customer experience? Many sites end up confusing visitors and losing the site owner business. Are you doing the design yourself or have you brought in the experts? (If you want help with branding, contact these people.) Are you working hard or smart?
If there are any of the questions above that you can’t answer immediately and confidently, you may be wasting time and money. And with the last question, if you work or yourself and are trying to do it all yourself, it can be extremely time consuming. Add in the rest of your business life and it’s easy to spend so much time on-line and working that you can put important personal relationships at risk. I fell into this trap and found myself working 12 hours a day, 6 days a week; building an on-line presence is a long term commitment, not a one night stand, and it can quickly become ‘the other person’ in the relationship. I found out just in time… you have been warned!
What can you Outsource?
It’s easy to get drawn into the argument that social media is free, it just takes time. If you run your own business, and actually, even if you don’t, TIME COSTS MONEY! There is always an opportunity cost (what you are not doing with the time you are devoting to your on-line presence). What can you outsource to the specialists to free up your time? Look at your current activities: what are you doing you don’t like to do? What are you doing that someone else can do quicker/better? What are you having to spend time learning that you could have someone else do?
If you run a small business and are thinking “that’s fine but I can’t afford to get someone else do it”, think barter. Approach someone who has the skills you need in a particular area and see if they need what you might offer in return.
And for all of the altruistic talk about Giving before you Get, there has to be some return on investment. Even if that return is not financial, the question to ask yourself is “Is the time I have spent moving me forwards?” It’s up to you how you define forwards but “Maintaining relationships” isn’t a valid answer. Think of it like this; if you were employing a salesperson, if they kept telling you that they hadn’t sold anything but they were “maintaining relationships”, how long would you put up with the situation?
Challenges
There is a challenge here; for all of the pundits pretending that they have all of the answers, these are still early days in the social media and networking world. Gaining and retaining on-line customers is still as much an art as a science, particularly when it comes to timing – you build relationships but when/how should you make the sale? We don’t have the body language of the customer to give us an indication of when the time is right.
Another challenge is that social media gives the customer power again – they want a personalised approach and social media can help us to put the customer at the middle of our business again. They want conversation, they want to know who is, and who is not, to be trusted. They will Google you, ask friends about you, ask on-line, read everything you’ve written and still want a personalised approach from you; quite a challenge!
It’s Best if it’s in your Blood!
Huh? What does that mean? What it’s getting at is that we are not all equally gifted at video blogging, pod casting or writing. Use the method that’s in your blood – it will be much easier for your expertise and enthusiasm to shine through if you use the medium you are best at and enjoy most.
Remember
Social media is just one element of an on-line marketing strategy. It can be a very powerful component but you need to ask yourself: what other on-line marketing strategies are you using to support it? Are they all giving a consistent, congruent message? And are you singing your song with your voice? If you are imitating someone else, you will quickly be seen through.
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Online marketing is not merely for the contemporary product, producing a website or for letting customers purchase items ongoing. Online marketing can also include how a business owner can engage a work team. The measure of people who are examining computers, web design, and learning to host websites proves just how booming online marketing can make the employer, the employees, and the independent contractors. And with a comfortable Internet savvy team, your business profits can increase too.