Posts Tagged ‘Using Social Networks’
Social networking v social media marketing
Social networks and marketing
If you run a small business you may have accounts on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or other social networks. If you haven’t, you’ve probably been told many times that you should have.
Why? I bet you’ve been told that, with millions of people in these networks, it’s a good place to market your business. And it is, but maybe not in the way you’ve been led to expect.
When these social networks started people joined to network – socially. Then people who spotted the opportunity joined just to market their businesses – but nobody — *NOBODY*– has ever joined a social network to be sold to.
What this means is that there are thousands of small businesses using social networks in a way that actually turns people off and works against them
Despite all the psychological research that shows the importance of a profile picture having a face that people can relate to, smiling and with good eye contact, there are thousands of small business owners on Twitter lurking anonymously behind their logo and business name and spouting out the equivalent of an elevator pitch.
Why would anyone handicap themselves like this when nobody wants to be sold to?
There are people auto-posting their own blog links in multiple LinkedIn Groups under the disguise of discussions and displaying desperation by ‘liking’ their own submissions with the result that members are flagging them as inappropriate because nobody wants to be sold to.
Facebook is littered with unloved and unseen business pages as, even if they’ve liked them out of politeness, no-one sees the posts because nobody wants to be sold to.
The problem is that everyone is using the term ‘social media marketing’ without fully understanding what it means. SMM is an art and a science used to great effect by big brands and specialist agencies that use complex tools and algorithms to decide where to place adverts and where to create engagement with their fans on social networks. It is not simply broadcasting a marketing message at people who don;t want to hear it.
This begs the question, if you run a small business; can you use social networks for marketing?
The answer is an emphatic ‘yes’, but you need to adopt different strategies. Instead of social media marketing, concentrate on becoming an expert social networker. I’m guessing that as a small business owner you are already pretty good at face-to-face networking so you already know the basics.
You wouldn’t turn up at a networking meeting with a bag on your head with a business card stuck to it, so don’t do that in social networks.
You wouldn’t burst into a room and blurt out a sales pitch – or worse, send a recording of your sales pitch to be broadcast at scheduled intervals at several meetings at once, so don’t do that in social networks.
You wouldn’t ignore people in the room who spoke to you until you found time to reply to them a couple of days later, so don’t do that in social networks. Show up regularly.
How does social networking work for small businesses?
Imagine visiting a prospect in their office. You’d see what books they read, pictures of their family, certificates they have on their wall. Imagine taking them out for lunch. You’d get to know their likes and dislikes and maybe their hopes, dreams, disappointments and achievements. Connecting with them in social networks can be just as revealing if you take time to get to know people and make *them* the most important part of the conversation. As Dale Carnegie said in his book How to Win Friends and Influence People; “You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”
But first you have to meet the PERSON.
The second important aspect is to have good content. Whether its a Twitter stream, a Facebook page or a blog, the content is what people will look at, sign up to and come back for. All of these things should draw people in, make them want to be part of the conversation or discussion and want to comment.
There are lots of great ways to make social networking part of your business growth strategy. If you want to have a chat about it, call or skype me on 07711 705038 or leave a comment below.
Coming next: Are you influential or just popular? Sign up to get updates delivered to your in box and you won’t miss a thing!
Ann Hawkins is a business mentor, founder of The Inspired Group and presenter of The Business Hub Radio Show. If you’d like to talk to Ann about how to take your business from OK to Excellent call her on 07711 705038
Posted in Social Media | 
Tags: Algorithms, Business Account, Business Name, Business Pages, Complex Tools, Desperation, Disguise, Elevator Pitch, Eye Contact, Facebook, Good Eye, Linkedin, Networking Marketing, Politeness, Psychological Research, Small Business Owners, Small Businesses, Social Marketing, Social Networking, Social Networks, Specialist Agencies, Submissions, Twitter, Unloved, Using Social Networks, What This Means | 
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Are you an influencer or a manipulator?
Audience by Adam Hawkins http://anodiseproductions.com
How influential are you? (really?)
I got into trouble recently because I was having a rant (as I do from time to time) about people making a fuss about how influential they are on Twitter according to a dubious tool called Klout, (which, incidentally, recently gave a perfect 100 score to a celebrity I’ve never heard of who had had an account for only a week).
What got me going was this whole idea of ‘influence’.
You see, in my book, and that other more famous one, the dictionary, to influence means to be a compelling force on the behaviour or opinions of others.
Now, I am often entertained, informed and helped and sometimes, even provoked and infuriated by people on Twitter but I don’t think I’m often influenced by them to the extent that I’ll change my opinions or alter my behaviour.
Do you make a difference?
Getting excited about being recognised as an ‘influencer’ is understandable. Most of us want to make a difference in our own way and using social networks to influence behaviour and opinions has worked really well in a number of cases like the backlash against The X Factor at Christmas, the subversion of the Daily Mail ‘hate’ polls and most famously, the way emergency services were mobilised by Twitter participants in the plane in the Hudson crash.
However, in these cases it was the medium and the viral nature of the message that was important and not the person who started the campaign.
Becoming a real influencer takes more than gathering followers, fans or arbitrary scores. It’s not about the transitory nature of celebrity or seeming popularity but about establishing a reputation and becoming the person that others turn to when they want information they know they can trust.
In business, its probably the most valuable thing we can achieve but influencers don’t set out to deliberately become influencers, its something that happens as a by product of the ‘real’ work they do, when others start to seek them out or recommend them and they gain very little from it directly.
Are you an influencer or a manipulator?
When someone asks your opinion do you give it honestly or are you afraid of upsetting people? Do you only give your best when you are being paid for it? Do you deliberately build a large following so that you can brag about it and use it to your own advantage? (This is the opposite of building a following organically because people are interested in what you have to say.) Do you do deals for commission before recommending a product or service? If so, you’re a manipulator rather than a real influencer.
If you feel the need to try and measure your influence, you’ve already lost the plot. If you need to shout about it on a social network that touches a tiny fraction of the 6 billion people on the planet, there’s no hope.
Influence is about the number of people who trust your opinion, not the number of people you collect and those who join social networks as a vanity exercise are missing not only the point but most of the fun.
Posted in Social Media | Tags: Backlash Against, Crash, Daily Mail, Dictionary, Emergency Services, Extent, Followers, Fuss, Influencer, Influencers, Manipulator, Popularity, Rant, Reputation, Subversion, Transitory Nature, Twitter, Using Social Networks, Viral Nature, X Factor | No Comments »
