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4 Ways Brands Are Still Getting Social Networking Wrong (And What to Do About It)

By now everybody (unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 10 years) is aware of how relevant social media is to brand-building and brand awareness. Not everyone has yet embraced its usefulness, but each day, more and more people get onboard. Facebook alone now has 1.5 billion users. Just think about the potential reach! If you’re not using social media to generate brand awareness, you’re not doing yourself any favors.

That being said, if you are using social media, but not using it effectively, you’re wasting your time. Here are 4 ways that brands are doing it wrong – and how they/you can get it right…   

1.      Boasting & Hard-Selling Rather Than Engaging

Stop being so narcissistic! People don’t care about how wonderful your products or services are nearly as much as you think they do. At least not if you’re shoving it down their throats at every given opportunity. Take it down a notch. Engage with your social networking audience. Post things that are relevant, interesting, fun, engaging and most of all, useful. Not just things that tout your brand as being the best thing since sliced bread. You know the old expression, “If you build it, they will come”? Well, build your brand by engaging your audience and making them want to engage with you – and customers will start rollin’ in. Remember, people don’t like to be sold to – they like to be intrigued and informed and entertained.

2.      Trying to Make Use of Every Social Platform Known to Mankind

There’s such a thing as overkill. Are you aware of just how many social platforms are in existence today? It’s not just Facebook and Twitter anymore. Not by a long shot. Here’s a list of just 21 of the most popular – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. No matter how large your staff is, you couldn’t possibly have the resources to keep an engaging social media campaign going on each and every platform. Sure, your brand would be represented on all of em’, but not well and not effectively. So, focus on the sites where your most of your customers are – Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are good bets, but do your research – and limit your social networking endeavors to the sites that will bring you the most traffic.

3.      Not Responding to Customer Comments – the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Ah – now this is a biggie! What’s the good of being on social media if you’re not going to be social?? When a customer or prospective customer comments on one of your posts, whether it be on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or your blog, whatever you do, RESPOND! And not just to the positive and happy comments. And none of that automated bull that so many brands like to make use of. Social networking is for being human – not for being a brand stuck somewhere in the vast cyberspace. Remember the part about engaging? Well, it’s a two-way street. If someone says something glowing about your product or service, or even just makes a nice comment on one of your posts, thank them and tell them that you appreciate their input/insight. And if someone posts a comment that’s not quite so complimentary or that voices a complaint or opposing view, thank them and tell them that you appreciate their input/insight – and then (if it’s a complaint), let them know that you’re sorry that their interaction with your brand wasn’t as positive as it could have been and offer them something that will hopefully rectify the situation. But whatever you do, don’t ignore people on social media. And double whatever you do, don’t engage negatively on social media. Telling someone to take a flying leap because they were less than satisfied with a service you provided isn’t the way to make social media work for you.

4.      Creating Boring, Useless Content Rather than Helpful and Fresh Content On Facebook, you know the guy who constantly posts what he had for breakfast or that his new baby just learned her fifth word? Well, don’t be that guy. No one wants to engage with that guy. No one, other than his mother, cares! What you want to post is useful content - helpful content that’s relevant to your brand and to your industry. Can you post the odd joke or general interest story? Of course. No one’s saying that you have to be all business all the time, but for goodness sake, don’t start boring the stuffing out of people, or you’re not only going to lose your social networking audience, you’re going to lose your customers due to lack of credibility – and boring people to death. Keep it fresh and upbeat and engaging and useful. Answer questions, offer solutions and keep people coming back to read your posts because they’re acquiring information there that they’re not going to get elsewhere. If you’re not already blogging, consider starting a blog – it’s one of the best ways there are of imparting relevant information to an audience who’s going to appreciate it. Don’t know what to blog about? Well, what questions are you asked by your customers? Most of those will make for wonderful blog posts that will be read and enjoyed.

Social networking isn’t rocket science, but it’s certainly something that requires attention, research, time, thought and strategy. And when done right, the rewards to your brand can be exponential.

The Insanity of #BlackFriday

Are you one of the gazillions of people hitting the malls and electronics stores today? You know, I thought about it, but then remembered that I value my sanity more than I love to save money. Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking it - if you have the stones to get in there and fight the throngs of pre-Christmas shoppers (most of whom would be willing to sell their own mothers for a break on a new laptop or iPad), then by all means - have at it!

But this pretty much sums it up for me...

Happy Shopping!!!

Never Forget

HOW TO MANAGE YOUR TIME WISELY ON SOCIAL MEDIA

A very commonly asked question about using social media for business is:  “How much time does it take?”  Lots of people mistakenly believe that a good social media strategy for their business is a total time suck and not worth the effort.  Not so!  If you are one of the people living under that misconception and not taking advantage of what social media has to offer, you are missing out on important conversations and networking opportunities that can greatly benefit your business’ bottom line!            

                                                        

I’m not going to lie to you and tell you that it takes no time at all to implement, develop and maintain a viable social networking strategy, but I can tell you that it’s not as daunting an undertaking as you might think - the risk of missed opportunities far outweighs the risk of time lost.  And, you are in complete control of how much time you put into it.  Here are some tips to help you manage your time wisely on social media activities for your business:

First, focus on why you want to use social media.  Depending on industry and company mission, business owners use social media for different business purposes.  Do you want to use it for research? Networking? Sales?  Or, a combination of all of the aforementioned?

If research is your aim, you’ll want to source out blogs and relevant news sites that provide you with the quality information you require.  You can subscribe to their RSS feeds (news feeds) so that you can keep up with any updates posted that are of importance to you.  Imagine having all of that information literally at your fingertips?  If you ask me, it sounds like this will actually save you some time!!

If you want to use social media for networking, it’s imperative that you build a community or audience.  This is easy to do on sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Once you have created your accounts (a snap), it’s just a matter of building your communities by posting on a regular basis (again, this does not take a whole lot of time) and interacting with your audience.  Depending on how much engagement you’re interested in, this can take anywhere from only minutes a day to a couple of hours – not necessarily any more than that, unless you so choose.

If your motivation is sales and marketing, it’s important that you get your brand name out there.  You’ll want to let people know what your brand is all about – what services and/or products you offer – how these services and products can benefit people.  Again, engagement with your audience via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Blogging will be key here.  Social media sites are currently the most innovative methods of marketing your brand’s products and services.  They provide an unprecedented means of getting the word out.

Secondly, it’s important to develop a strategy to manage your time wisely.  Once you gain perspective on your purpose for using social media for your business, it won’t be difficult to determine how much time per day or per week you’ll require.  Here are a few ideas that can help:                                          

-          Create a schedule.  Set some time aside each day (at least at first) to check your Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn accounts.  Take a few moments on each account to post something relevant and especially to respond to any inquiries or concerns that people in your communities may have.  Make it a point to join in on conversations/dialogue wherever you can contribute something meaningful.  (Remember, it’ll take a bit of time to build an audience.)   If you decide to blog, ensure that you post something at least once every other week or so.  Blog posts take on average anywhere between an hour to a few hours to research and compose, but unless you’re a very ambitious, avid blogger, a post a week or every other week should suffice.

-          Focus on activities that will have the most impact.  A crucial thing to remember here is that you have to be where your customers/clients are.  If you have identified that they are mostly on Facebook, then by all means, concentrate a good chunk of your social networking time there.   But, you don’t want to neglect the other networks, as they are all beneficial.

-          Although you want to garner a wide audience, it’s not necessary to overdo it. You don’t have to be friends with or follow each and every person with whom you come into contact.  If a relationship will be mutually beneficial, you want to be connected to that person, if not, then don’t be afraid to be selective.  If you’re connected to absolutely everyone, you will be spending more time than you have to on social media.

-          By the same token, it’s imperative to stick to your purpose.  It’s easy to get sidetracked with irrelevant activity on social media (do you really have to watch that YouTube video right now??).  Stay focused on your business purpose and you will spend your time much more efficiently on social media.                       

                                                                 

If you use your time wisely and keep your focus in mind, you will find that you social media endeavors significantly pay off and that you actually enjoy your time spent with your connections. 

Need help putting together a social media strategy for your business?  We’d like to see you at our Social Media for Business workshop.  We can show you how to use your time wisely and effectively to make social media work for your business’ bottom line.  Please click on the link below for a schedule of workshops in your area.

https://escomputertraining.com/socialmedia