Every week I speak to business people who are facing the same dilemma. They keep hearing that they should be using Social Media* for Business, but they have no idea WHAT that really means. Facebook? Twitter? YouTube? Blogging? And even if they did know HOW, they don’t know WHEN they’d have the time for it.
And even if they knew when, the biggest question of all is WHY?
There are as many answers to How and What as there are different kinds of businesses. But the answer to WHY? is always the same**:
To Increase Revenue
This is the first in a series of posts that address just this issue. I will attempt to answer the question WHY? for different types of businesses.
BUSINESS TYPE #1: BUSINESS DEPENDS UPON REFERRALS, NOT MARKETING
“Our business depends on referrals for all of our new clients. We never market or advertise. Our stellar reputation is why people choose us. WHY should we use Social Media?”
Imagine this Scenario:
One of your current happy clients tells a colleague how your company has done a fantastic job for her. The colleague writes down your name (or your company name). Remember, your best clients aren’t walking around with a stack of your businesses cards, as much as you wish they would!
The colleague (this person could be your dream client!) has no other choice but to do a Google search for your company in order to find your contact info. What will she see? Get into the head of that potential client and perform that same Google search for yourself. What appears on your screen is pretty much what she sees.
Is your website the only listing on the page? Does it tell your company’s story in a way that the potential client will see value in hiring you? Is there anything else appearing on the screen that conveys the message that you want this client to see?
If your answer is NO, then you have a wonderful opportunity: Social Media (I use the term loosely) is the way to increase your business profile on the web and moreover, make sure that your story is told in the way that will make a potential client sit up and say “This is exactly what I am looking for!”
Research shows that people use search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing) more often than any other research tool as the #1 source of information gathering in preparation for a purchasing decision (even when they have been referred!).
And it’s only natural. Everyone wants to get a little bit more information about a company before they pick up the phone and call, and the Internet has made it possible to research quickly and easily. I’m sure you’ve done it yourself.
What we don’t know is how many potential clients have searched for your company after having been referred and DID NOT CHOOSE YOU because your Internet presence did not convey that your company provides exactly what they need.
WHY? Because Lost Opportunity results in Lost Revenue! That’s Why! Now…HOW, WHAT and WHEN are easy! Let’s talk.
*I use Social Media as a catchall term for content marketing, blogging, and using Facebook, Twitter, etc.
**Disclosure: every now and then I do work with a client that does not have a revenue producing agenda, but instead is looking for pure visibility in her or his field.
It's very exciting that Be Visible Associates' client Dr. Michael Sinkin was featured in print and web in the New York Daily News yesterday.
The article is about how small businesses are seeing success by using Social Media marketing. Dr. Sinkin has increased his practice by using Facebook, Twitter and Blogging. Don't think a sole medical practitioner can use Social Media effectively? Think again!
Read the article:
Word of mouth: Scores of businesses are joining the conversation with Twitter, Facebook
Photo: NY Daily News
I have a client whose Twitter account I manage. For this account, I need to pretend that I’m a man. That has led to two interesting issues: for one thing, I’ve discovered that guys tweet differently than women, and for another thing, it turns out that I make a very charming guy!
At the start, I attempted to convince my client (a national brand) that if I they wanted me to tweet for them, then the Twitter persona should be a woman, because I am a woman, and because the majority of the target market are female and would relate better to a woman.
But the company has a great mascot that’s male, (let’s call him “Mike”) and the company’s marketing department was very adamant about making Mike” the “tweeter.” So, I went on to develop “Mike’s” Twitter personality.
First problem: As I anticipated, I really have to think very carefully about how I phrase things on Twitter. Women and men tweet differently in general, but I didn’t realize how much until I started tweeting for this client. For example, instead of saying: “Thank you so, so much for the RT. Welcome to our warm and loving community” I will say “Thank you for the RT. Welcome to our gang!”
I could be way off in thinking that I need to “masculinize” my tweets to be effective as a guy tweeter, but it has been working like a charm. Women are engaging with the brand and don’t suspect that it’s a woman who is tweeting as “Mike”.
But that leads me to my second problem:
I have been so charming as “Mike” that some lady followers of the brand have developed crushes on me! At least four of them consistently DM me wanting to know if I have a personal Twitter account and how they can get in touch with me in private. One even said, “I’d like to have a piece of you!” (That’s sexual, right??).
So far, I’ve chosen just to ignore their advances, but I am a little worried about it.
Your thoughts?
How brands and businesses use Social Media has everything to do with how the decision makers use Social Media themselves. People in business who have grown up using Facebook, for example, understand that the Social Media is not just a useful tool, but it’s the way people define themselves in front of their peers. And people want to be associated with Cool, including Cool Brands.
Although Facebook has just reached the 500 million-members marker, it has just begun to define itself in terms of business. So, it’s up to each company and brand to figure out how to use it effectively. When I consult with a client, I often ask them to spend time on these 3 questions:
1. Who is my target market?
2. Where do they hang out on the Web?
3. What would make them want to identify with my brand in front of their audience?
In other words, what can I do to make my brand “Cool”?
Old Spice is the perfect example of how an “uncool” brand found it’s “Cool Factor”. The aging brand has been around since the 1930s, a dinosaur in the men’s grooming and cologne market. But they decided to use Social Media as Generation Y does:both as a conversational tool and as a way to define a new public image. Actor Isaiah Mustafa created a dashing spokesman character-wearing only a towel-who responded to users comments through a series of witty short videos, each taking less than seven minutes to shoot.
The series not only created a bond between users and the brand, but also suggests that the Old Spice customer is similarly funny and cool. On Twitter, Isaiah Mustafa’s Old Spice character is acting just as any young person would: posting random musings rather than Old Spice info: “I can’t stop thinking about axes and mountains and wolves and football. And old steam tractors.” Rather than set up a conversation between the customer and the brand, the Social Media team at Old Spice mimicked the Social Media voice of their ideal customer. Check out Old Spice on Facebook to see what they are doing.
If you are in the position to make marketing decisions for a company or brand venturing into Social Media, spend some time identifying your “Cool Factor” before you get started. Even if you don’t have the budget of an Old Spice, taking this one preliminary step with make the rest a lot easier.
When the now-infamous LonelyGirl15 began sharing her video diaries to the world, she became an unlikely YouTube star—until it was discovered that the seemingly-average girl-next-door was actually an actress hoping to get noticed by site’s millions of users.
LonelyGirl15 has since disappeared off the pop culture radar but more and more budding young artists are getting noticed on the Internet, first by the public, and then by entertainment execs.
With nearly 90 million channel views at the time of this writing, the Fred Channel is one of YouTube’s biggest stars among younger audiences. The channel is the creation of Lucas Cruikshank, a Nebraska teenager and is videos are centered on Fred Figglehorn, a fictional 6-year-old with a dysfunctional home life and “anger management issues.”
MTV Network’s subsidiary Nickelodeon picked up on the hype, and created a movie featuring Fred that will air later this year; they have already committed to a sequel that they expect to be part of a larger franchise.
The 16-year-old singing sensation Justin Beiber also began as a YouTube star. Hip-hop manager and marketing exec Scott Braun discovered the young Canadian’s singing by accidentally clicking on one of his YouTube videos, which Beiber’s mother posted for family and friends.
Braun arranged a meeting for R&B singer Usher, who helped Beiber sign with Island Records. Beiber’s first album went platinum in the US and Canada, coming in at #1 on the US Billboard Hot 200; he was the youngest artist to do so since Stevie Wonder.
In 2003, after graduating from college, Justin Halpern moved to Hollywood to work as a screenwriter, without much luck. He was forced to move back home. He decided to keep a record of his dad’s quick one-liners, and began posting them on Twitter under the handle Sh*t My Dad Says.
The Twitterverse embraced him and after only a few weeks, his account had over 100,000 followers. Result: a bestselling book and a television series starring William Shatner airing in the fall.
This is what is so cool: Today the possibility of success is more accessible to artist, regardless of whether they are in Hollywood, NYC, or in a basement in Nebraska.
Before the Internet, how could a talented kid like Lucas (Fred) ever get noticed? Well, first he’d have to graduate from High School, move to California, invest money in expensive headshots and agents, and wait on tables while hoping to get in front of the tiny handful of heavy hitters who control the entertainment industry.
Justin Beiber may have spent years trying to get noticed, and Justin Halpern may have ended up living at home for the rest of his life.
Today, the measure of success is talent and mass appeal, rather than who you know or what you can pay.
I wonder how big stars of the past would have been judged by the commenters on YouTube, or which talented people would have made it if they had the ability to be in front of the public instead of just a few casting directors.
Ultimately, opening the entertainment industry up to social media’s influence makes for a more transparent entertainment industry, where the public becomes the arbiters of taste, rather than a few studio execs in a closed room.
As Justin Halpern knows, even when the executives take a pass, they’ll think again when the masses disagree.
It’s a win for performers, it’s a win for the public, and I believe it’s a win for the entertainment industry.
When I was in college, I studied Anthropology. I guess you could say that the study of human nature is my first love. All these years later, I find that I am still interested in how human beings create communities and behave inside them. And I have discovered that Twitter is an incredible snapshot into American culture.
I spend a lot of time searching on Twitter for people who are mentioning my clients, their competitors, their type of products or the services they provide. In the course of this research, I have discovered that Twitter users (who are not marketers, but just regular people) Americans tend to fit into 4 categories:
- The Always Cheery: This tweeter is always optimistic and doesn’t tweet anything if its not nice. Many moms fit into this category (and people who say they are religious).
- The Complainer: This tweeter is always complaining, especially about having to go to work, to the doctor, and anything that doesn’t involve eating or sleeping. Tends to be high school and college students.
- The Curser: This tweeter uses the “F word” in nearly every tweet. And this tweeter is very active on Twitter. And has a lot of followers that are equally enamored with the F word. Is the F-word innocuous in some communities?
- The Always Cross: The angry tweeter. Every tweet is negative, brusque and annoyed. This tweeter is often a Curser, too, but a Curser is not always Cross!
Never before have we been able to easily glimpse inside the minds of total strangers. Questions come up: How does someone’s tweets reflect their true personality? How much of human personality is defined by local culture? What image do people have in their minds of their audience?
Do most tweeters understand that Twitter is a totally public platform? If so, then how do we interpret the fact that most people have no issue telling the entire world who they are, where they live, and what they are doing at any given moment? Will this new transparency that is taking over our culture neutralize the dangers of being so publicly exposed? How much lasting influence will Twitter and other public forums have on the English language? How much can one ascertain about American values from Twitter? Do people tweet the way they speak?
What do you think?
I spent the day yesterday helping my good friend Elizabeth Beskin at The Ultimate Engagement Bridal Event in Manhattan. Besides being one of the best friends a girl could have, Elizabeth is also a brilliant and inspiring business owner. She runs two flourishing photography-related companies, Fifth Avenue Digital and The Album Boutique, yet somehow, she also found time to plan, coordinate and launch (with Maya Kalman of Swank Productions) The Ultimate Engagement, too
My job was to tweet for @UltimateEngage, cover @ElizBeskin while she ran around doing her thing, and live blog for The Album Boutique. So, I got a little taste of what Elizabeth does every day: multi-tasking big time! But what really struck me is how real time online communication is changing the event world.
In the recent past, the only way people could find out what was happening at an event they didn’t couldn’t attend was by coverage through traditional media. Yesterday, by using Twitter and live blogging, I was able to communicate what was going on at The Ultimate Engagement in real time!
So, this morning, as I look through the Twitter hashtag feed (#UltimateEngage), I see that lots of people were following along. This one event on a rainy Sunday in NYC was actually being “attended” by hundreds, if not thousands, of people around the world!
I don’t think we have even brushed the surface of what real time communication technology can do. I am so excited to see how people use it once it becomes totally mainstream.
Insights from The Gravity Summit in NYC
I hear this all the time: “If Twitter doesn’t start making money soon, it won’t be around for very long.” Yes, Twitter is a great tool. I spend hours upon hours using it for my own company and for clients. But I don’t really care if Twitter is here to stay.
What is important is that Twitter represents the most significant shift in the way we communicate since the telephone was introduced. Twitter is short, real-time messaging and is changing the way we will get and share information in the future.
Twitter isn’t for just geeks; it’s being used by businesses to market, by fire departments to get to emergencies faster, and by charities to reach donors. Twitter is a breaking news channel. It’s the Yellow Pages on steroids. It’s a social networking site. It’s a research tool. In fact, it’s so content-rich that Google and Bing are now including Tweets in their search results. But, if Twitter disappeared tomorrow, not much would change.
There are hundreds of other platforms (some just as good, some even better) that are ready to replace Twitter in the blink of an eye.
So if you have been standing on the sidelines hoping Twitter will just “go away” it’s time to dip your toe in. Twitter may not be around forever, but this new form of communication will. Get started!
I was very fortunate last week to attend The Cool Twitter Conference in Brooklyn at The MoCADA (Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts).
I have attended a lot of Social Media Conferences lately, and at this one I spoke about how Social Media is changing the way businesses do business with each other. This conference really stood out as being something uniquely special.
Instead of the attendees being mostly from the business sector as is usually the case, there were people there using Twitter and Social Media in many inventive ways beyond business. Here are some of the speakers and what they are using Twitter for (follow them!):
@fourthfiction (Constantine Markides) Fourth Fiction is a blog-based literary reality show in which 12 contestants, writing pseudonymously, compete to complete a novella. What a brilliant idea! Follow him and see what happens.
@lifes_dash (Michele Mattia) Life, Career & Business Strategist. Writer. Lecturer. Guest Speaker. Motivator. Professional Observer. Michelle is a successful businessperson who is now teaching people how to use Social Media to create their personal brand. Michelle has more energy than ten people combined and creates a daily email that always inspires me.
@brooklynda (Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes & staff) The Brooklyn D.A. sent nine people to the Cool Twitter Conference including Mary Hughes, Confidential Assistant to the District Attorney who spent many sleepless nights learning how to master Twitter. The office has embraced Social Media in revolutionary ways from tweeting about domestic violence prevention and ways to prevent identity theft, to helping to keep kids out of gangs. Crime Prevention rather than strictly enforcement is their goal and they are doing it in new and innovative ways.
@akilaworksongs (April Silver) April is a PR and Communications professional, but she is so much more. In addition to using Social Media to promote her many clients in music and the arts, she also uses it as a platform from which to share and discuss “good news about colored folk” (and the discussions often get very heated indeed!)
Think about how you can use Social Media in creative ways. Got any great non-business Tweeters to add to the list? Send them my way!
All the marketing data we have points to the reality that most people buy what their friends or acquaintances recommend. That’s why online stores find it so helpful to have consumers write reviews on their products and why sites like Yelp are so popular. The same concept applies for B2B companies, too.
Case in point: today I decided to research some of the companies that provide detailed Social Media Measurement services for companies who are running campaigns using Twitter, Facebook and other Social Media platforms. I did a Google search, and discovered that there aren’t a lot of players out there. I knew that if I inquired directly to any of them, I would get a salesperson who needed to make a sale. I respect that, but I need to know that I am getting the best choice for my clients.
So, after I signed up for a demo with one company, I decided to find out how actual businesses were liking the services they offered. I did what any self respecting Social Media professional does…I tweeted about it! I asked if anyone is using a Social Media Measurement service and if so, how did they like it?
Guess what? I got a lot of responses. I asked a lot of questions, and I was able to identify the one service that seems right for me. Only one of the responses was from a salesperson, the rest were clients. The company’s clients were actually doing the selling for them.
How can you make this happen for your company?
- Treat your customers better than you want to be treated.
- Under-promise and over-deliver.
- Monitor what people are saying about your company.
- Engage your customers whenever you can (this doesn’t mean sending them an email blast every day!)
- Never assume their business, always earn it.
This is a lesson learned…there are conversations going on about your company that you don’t ever know about. Do your best to make sure they are positive!