Month: Mar 2012

  • Is today a good time to outsource your social media activities?

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    “One cannot manage too many affairs; like pumpkins in the water, one pops up while you try to hold down the other”  is a very apt Chinese proverb for describing your normally busy Entrepreneur.

    As a business owner you are responsible for all the business processes, it can be quite difficult to keep on top of every thing that needs to be accomplished in order for the business to keep moving forward, eventually some of your responsibilities will suffer from due to lack of time.

    There’s no doubt that everyone running a business has the ability to run their own social media programme, it’s just finding the gaps in your busy work schedule to do your own social media justice . If you don’t have that time, you may as well mark a date in your calendar when you hope to accomplish anything of value for your business.

    We will now look at three different scenarios where outsourcing or training is a good option for some businesses.

    Beginner: When a business first starts using social media programme, it can take an enormous amount of time to identify who to follow, with what messages and what is the best time to promote your messages.

    Intermediate Account: If you have been running your own social media programme for a while and you are unhappy with the results you have been getting, is another time when getting some pointers from the social media specialists can be very rewarding, there may be a very simple message missing from your strategy; being too close to our businesses may hinder our view of what is important from the customer’s point of view.

    Mature Account: When a big business grows its online programme to the extent that they have up to twenty Facebook pages and the same number of twitter accounts, their social media interactions require that they outsource some of the work rather than disappoint their customers and followers.

    • In the business world we operate in, we need to focus on the foundation principle of economics “Focus on what you do best and let others focus on what they do best” the overall result is “everyone is more successful”
    • So therefore today is a good time to start outsourcing your social media programme because it makes good business sense!

     

  • Integrating your social media platforms is necessary

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    No man is an Island, we are all integrated into society, when we lose one person, society loses. The same can be said for using any of the digital marketing platforms. One platform’s message is weakened by not integrating it with the rest of your social media strategy.

    Integrating your social mediaA very good analogy for a social media strategy is “We shake hands on Twitter, have a conversation on Facebook, read a novel on the website and use email to send out special offerings to our loyal clients and customers.” That is the basics behind a good social media strategy. Each social media platform is used to deliver messages in the way a client or prospective client expects. Please note below how we use each social media platform,

    Twitter: Everyone using twitter knows that each tweet can only contain 280 characters and that is what they expect, short snappy sentences that will get their attention, if the tweet has the right hook they will click on the link that will bring them to the Facebook page.

    Facebook: Facebook allow us the opportunity to show what we share in greater detail, with the new Facebook structure visitors to our sites will get an immediate impression of what we can do for them, if your cover picture doesn’t get their attention they might never go any further. Providing there is enough good content on your Facebook timeline the prospective client will seek to know more about what you do and that is when they will click on your Website.

    Website: Your website will contain all the relevant data about the goods and services you provide plus evidence of where the company is now and where the company is going. The website will have a profile of the people who work with the customers as we all know people do business. There should be a link to allow people to subscribe to your monthly or weekly newsletters depending on the nature of your business and how often you want to interact with your customers.

    Email: Email is a great way of connecting with your customers and informing them of what you currently have on offer; for example if you are in a business to business scenario where your customers place a big order once a month the right time to send out your newsletter is approximately 3 to 4 days prior to the order being placed. In a Business to-consumer market the emailed newsletter might be sent out on a weekly basis.

    • Social media platforms are designed to work together, no one platform will give you the return on investment you shareholders would like. Make the most of your social media environment today and the clients you interact with will look after your business tomorrow.

     

  • A social media promotional strategy

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    “It’s better to speak with one prospective customer who wants to hear your words than a thousand people who are prepared to listen”. Quality over quantity should be at the forefront of your mind at the beginning of any promotional work for your business. The objective of your promotional work is to generate brand loyalty with your current and prospective customers and to create good public relations in the process.
    To develop our strategy, we have to determine the following:

    What objective is to be achieved? On any social media campaign, the outcome is to get more followers to listen to your messages on a long-term basis. An objective could be to increase your Twitter followers from 500 to 650 or increase your likes on Facebook from 500 to 750.

    Target Market: As in the opening line, quality is more important than quantity. Your target market is prospects who have a need for your product or service. A profile of your prospect could be described as a woman between 40 and 50 years old, who lives in Dublin, has teenage children, and is interested in cookery.

    The Prize: Once you have determined your target market, the prize will be easy to establish. Your target market will already be using your main product or service, so this is an ideal opportunity to put up a prize for one of your products or services where supply currently outweighs demand (stock items). The prize for any promotion should be something to drive your business forward, I wouldn’t put up a prize such as a weekend for two in a plush hotel unless you happen to own the hotel. Another reason is that I know of very few people who will not enter that particular competition and all you will get for your social media platforms are false likes that are of no value to you but will make your stats look awful. How many times have you seen a social media site with thousands of likes, and 10 people are actively engaging with the site.

    The Message: On twitter the 140 character limit will not leave you with much room to waffle, create about five different tweets that are related to the prize on offer and have a link to your Facebook page where the details of the prize will be outlined. The message is the hook to bring your prospective clients to your Facebook page, take your time with the messages, and make sure they’re compelling.

    Time Schedule: The schedule for the promotion should be in relation to the value of the prize on offer. A meal for two in a classy restaurant will get a better response than a meal for two in McDucks. The more valuable the prize, the more interested the prospects will be, and the chance of the promotion will go viral.
    Promotions are a great way of creating an interaction between you, your customers, and your prospective customers.

    Always ensure that you take into account long-term gains versus short-term wants, only promise what you can deliver.