Three social media watchwords

Three little words that make all the difference...


Genuine

Be yourself, even if you're representing a company. The occasional foray "off corporate script" to talk about everyday minutiae is a good thing - especially on Twitter and Facebook. Admitting you like chocolate spread on your toast isn't going to bring your business to it's knees! Chatting (being social) builds relationships, which is what social media is all about.

Original

Plugging some RSS feeds into your account and then automating the content across all platforms is  - undoubtedly - quick and easy. It is also bland and without personality. Creating new, good quality content takes time. Whether you opt for blogging, YouTube, Flickr or Pinterest the content you create reflects on your business. This makes it a powerful way to build reputation and credibility.  On the other side of that statement, poor content reflects poorly. It's worth putting time and effort into this side of social media and getting it right.

If you're integrating your content with an SEO campaign then create interesting content that is then optimised. If people like what you put out, they'll look at it and share it far more than they will a generic keyword heavy offering.

Generous

Share other people's content. Offer assistance. Make supportive comments. In other words, do the things that you'd like people to do for you! My only proviso would be that you choose to share content that adds value to your social media community.

If you're selective with what you share, then your community will recognise your posts as being high quality and worth reading. Then when you post your own content, people are more likely to look at it.

Sales are not the only metric

So if you're not measuring "bottom line sales" how else can you measure your social media?

Whilst it's interesting to know how many followers/likers/contacts you have it's not the best way of measuring how effective you are and what impact you're having. If you have 40,000 followers on Twitter the chances are you're all following each other because you all automatically follow back. There's no engagement, no reputation gain and even fewer sales. 

My advice is to keep it simple!

Try adding some of these to your metric mix and see what story they tell you about what you do.

Facebook Reach

This is available from your admin panel on your business page. It allows you to see the number of people that have had the opportunity to see each post you make. I find it really useful as it enables me to hone the content of a page so that it's interesting  - and therefore gets more likes and shares.

Twitter mentions

How many people have talked to you or about you? Personally I don't count automated content, such as the daily paper tweets, as they require no real time input from a human being.

Posts (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn)

How often have you posted each week? 

If you've altered your post frequency, how has it affected your statistics?

What do you need to do now?

Clickthroughs (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn)

What was the clickthrough on any links you posted? 

Where did you get most success? Even if the link wasn't to your site or blog, the content of the highest clicked links can inform you of  the type of content your community want to read.

Referrals (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn)

How many people recommended you this month? I don't mean in a bulk #followfriday on Twitter or a courtesy name check after networking. I'm not knocking these, but they are in the category of mentions rather than referrals.

 

Blog comments and followers

This is one area where the built in statistics package really is your friend. Blog hits are a good way of seeing how much you're being read, and where those readers found you. Monitor your content, see what sparks interest and write some more, or at least use the same style. Comments are, mostly, good news. Just make sure your spam comment filter is set up correctly.

There are so many different ways of measuring social media, these are just a few of my preferred metrics. I haven't even touched on evaluation by algorithm such as Klout or Kred. I don't use any of the sites that purport to measure "reach" and "influence" as I disagree with the way the algorithms are set up. Perhaps I should write my own...

Spring clean those profiles!

When is the last time you actually read your own profiles and bios?

Many businesses that have Facebook pages are currently transitioning to the new timeline format. There is much discussion online about cover pictures and other marvels. However, how many of you are taking the opportunity to review the original company information that you entered? If you've had a page running for a few years the wording will undoubtedly need a refresh!

How about Twitter? Does your bio still encapsulate you and your company?Just a hint here: try copying and pasting your bio into a word processor if your browser doesn't spell check. I've come across 3 people in the last week who have misspelled their county or town...

Linked In is another one to check. Does your description of your current role need a refresh? Could you make more use of your previous experience to enhance your credibility?

Finally - and perhaps most importantly - was the picture you're using taken relatively recently? Does it present you in the way you wish? Is it time to have some photographs taken by a professional?

Keeping profiles up to date is an important part of social media - so have a Spring clean!

You don't need to do everything!

Here's an exclusive industry secret for you. (Tongue firmly in cheek) You don't have to be on every social media platform going to get great results for your business!

• Can't stand Facebook? Try the more "grown up" LinkedIn. 
• LinkedIn too stuffy and formal? Try Twitter
• Love visuals, hate writing? There's YouTube, Flickr and now Pinterest
• Enjoy writing but don't have time to check what's going on? Blogging could be the answer.
• Want to hang out with the cool kids? Have a go with Google+

You'll get far better results by doing one or two things really well, than having loads of platforms to update that you actively dislike. Your lack of enthusiasm for what you're doing will come through in your posts. Even worse, you may get fed up of the whole thing and stop doing any of it. Time is something we all need more of, so choose something that you want to do - or at least don't dislike!


Whatever platform you choose to engage on there are some "golden rules" to abide by:

Once you start, keep going!
Nothing looks worse on your social media footprint than an abandoned blog or an unresponsive Twitter feed. What impression does a static Facebook page give of your business?

Don't just sell
Remember to give back to the community you've joined. Be helpful, be pleasant, be informative and the rewards will start to flow for you.

Keeping it fresh
It takes time to create or source new content. Make sure you're willing to put the effort in before you get started. Recycled content gets very dull very quickly.

Remember you're a business
Social media is fun and more than a little addictive! You can get so caught up in the talk that you can easily forget that you're there to be a business, as well as an individual. Online behaviour is a very important part of your reputation. A momentary flash of irritation and a thoughtless comment can scupper all the good work you've put in.

Keep doing the other stuff too
Social media isn't a replacement for face to face conversation or traditional marketing. It works with, and enhances, your networking and promotional activities. You may even want to consider having a plan...

Self promotion or narcissism? Where's the line?

Let's start with self evident statement:
However chatty and interactive your social media presence may be, you're still promoting yourself and your  business.

If people are following you because they're interested in you and your business this shouldn't be a problem. Balance is essential in social media and a good mix of social interaction, interesting information and an occasional direct business post is sometimes tricky to achieve, but it's well worth the effort.

There is a model of self promotion on social media that I don't advocate. (Hence the title of this post) This is the overly insecure need to repost every mention  - even auto generated mentions from sites such as YouTube, Klout or Paper.Li.

If someone has said something truly exceptional about you then by all means repost it. (I'd suggest this is done in moderation and coupled with a thank you for the testimonial.) If it's something as generic as an auto-generated follow Friday on Twitter, ask yourself what value retweeting that will have to your followers.

So, how do you make capital out of your mentions on social media? Here's an example

If you get 7 notifications that someone has liked your YouTube video how about saying "good to see our video getting some likes" and link to it again. You've accomplished the self promotion aspect and directed people to your information without clogging up their feeds with 7 anodyne reposts.

Take a look at your last 50 tweets. (Some people will be back as far as yesterday, other will be back 6 weeks or more!) What does the balance of your Twitter output look like? Is there a good mix of content? Too much coffee and cats? (Guilty as charged!) Too much retweeting? Or, are you not talking to people enough?

Now look at your LinkedIn and Facebook pages. Do your posts encourage interaction, or are they "for information".

If you have a social media stream full of reposts about you then you're tending towards narcissism and it's time to change. It's all about adding value to the people that interact with you on social media. Quality - not quantity - is the key.

A checklist for outsourcing social media

There's been a lot written about the PR meltdown caused by Ocean Marketting (sic) Ocean Stratagy (also sic) and (currently) Ocean Deep Sea or Ocean Distribution. They treated their client's customers in the most appalling fashion. You can read the origins of the storm on Penny Arcade here and here.

Understandable the Client N-Control wanted to sort out the mess very quickly and have hired a new PR company that are doing a great job. (see the press release they issued)

There are a whole host of blogs doing the rounds about the fine detail of the events, but my attention was caught by this excerpt from the press release:

• N-Control immediately proceeded to extricate Mr. Christoforo’s access to their email and social media accounts, a process that is still ongoing

In July last year I wrote a blog alerting folks to the need to ensure that if they're outsourcing their social media then they own their own feeds and content. You must have to have access to your own social media! Misuse by a third party is rare, but if the proverbial bus takes out your consultant then how do you get access to your stuff and talk to your customers?

Do you really want your company posting things like this? (from the former official feed of N-Control)

A checklist for you:

• Do you have the log-in details for all your social media platforms?
• Have you tried them recently? (They may have changed!)
• Are the email addresses that the accounts run from accessible to you? 
• Have you actually read your own feed(s) lately?
• Can you access all the correspondence being conducted on your behalf whenever you want to?
• Do you own your domain name?
• Can you prevent your outsourced partner from deleting your website?

If the answer to any of these questions is "no" then you may have a problem...

Let's stop "crying wolf"

We've all seen the posts haven't we? Massed capital letters - usually copied and pasted complete with spelling mistakes. Something like this one:

ATTENTION!!!!! IF ANY OF YOU GET A PADLOCK ON TOP RIGHT HAND CORNER OF FB HOME PAGE SAYING YOUR SECURITY IS LOW.. IGNORE.. DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT ANSWER THE QUESTIONS.. IT IS SO HACKERS CAN ACCESS YOUR ACCOUNT COPY & PASTE PLEASE!

Or the ones that are appealing to your softer side:

BIKER DOWN!! MAY I ASK MY FACE BOOK FRIENDS, WHEREVER YOU MAY BE, TO KINDLY COPY, PASTE & SHARE THIS STATUS FOR 1 HOUR TO SUPPORT OUR FRIEND GEORGE WHO WAS IN A MOTORCYCLE ACCIDENT, LET HIM KNOW THAT PRAYERS ARE SENT HIS WAY. Do it for all of us, unfortunately no one is immune. I hope to see this on the wall of all my friends! JUST FOR MORAL SUPPORT!!! I KNOW SOME WILL...THANK YOU!!!

I'm making a plea for people to check out the validity of these "warnings" and " appeals" before they post them on their social media pages.

There are a number of excellent sites where you can find out if you're crying wolf if you post the information:

Hoaxslayer

Facecrooks

Snopes

Apart from reducing the sheer number of false alerts, it should reassure you that most are just idiots trying to see how far they can get their hoax to go.

93% of people won't bother to check before they post - will you be one of the ones that does?