Getting started on social media as a business

It's been a while since I wrote about where to get started on social media. As you'd expect the technology has advanced and the platforms have developed so the advice has to change to keep up!

If you've not got any social media presence - at all - for your business there are 2 "must haves":

1. A personal profile on LinkedIn

• Use it to build up your online network of business contacts to complement your offline activities.
• Research which of your contacts knows the people you want to connect to. 
• You can be found by name online and can be easily contacted

2. A Google+ business page and up to date "map" information

• Critical if you have a premises. Important even if you don't!
• Google+ is an integral part of your maps presence so make the most of it!
• It's Google - of course you want your business information on there!

How much effort you put into maintaining these profiles will obviously have an effect on how well they work for you. Having said that, a little can go a long way on both LinkedIn and Google+. A few minutes a week can really make a difference.

Try looking at LinkedIn at least once a week (Yes, I know keen users will feel that's too little!) Here's a checklist of activities that'll take you no time to do:

• Like a few updates
• Find some new contacts
• Accept the contact requests you feel are valuable to you
• Put out an update that's business related

Ten minutes and you're done... Once you feel at home, look at who you can recommend and who can recommend you too.


With Google+ 5 minutes a week is all you need to get started

• Find people to put into circles
• Put out a business update - use a picture if you have one
• +1 a few updates
• Check your profile for reviews

Of course there is a lot more you can do with both these platforms. But you need to start somewhere, so what's stopping you?

The Marketing Jigsaw - and why "off message" is OK

When I did "corporate" work I was often prompted to ensure that the marketing I was carrying out was on "on message" with central marketing strategy. I occasionally have the same reminder when working with some very traditional marketing agencies.

Marketing campaigns are targeted at specific demographics. That means that the look and feel of the marketing jigsaw needs to fit together seamlessly. The whole package of print, website, social media and face to face needs to give the same positive experience with no jarring when swapping platforms.

But...

Social media isn't just about a demographic, it's about individuals too. Sometimes the people running the social media content need to have the flexibility to use their discretion. When you're dealing with an individual, the "standard" corporate approach isn't always appropriate. No matter how well thought out and planned your strategy is, it cannot fit everyone.

I always try and persuade managers that it's not only OK, but actually essential, to expect the social media person/team to occasionally veer "off message". I may have to start collecting pictures of the looks of alarm!

The objections are mostly down to a lack of trust in the abilities of the people delivering the content to judge the situation correctly. If you distrust their judgement that much then what on earth are they doing running your social media for you?

By all means issue pre-scripted responses to common problems, but trust the people you have put in charge of your online reputation to know when to be a human being. Better still, get someone to fix the problem so you don't have to keep addressing it.


Strategy is a necessary part of running a business, but sometimes you have to think outside of the jigsaw box!

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...

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.

5 excuses not to use social media

1. I don't have time.

Do you make time to go to network meetings? Or to design a leaflet? Then you can make time to "do" social media. Take a long thin slice through your week. Now you have time.


2. I don't know what to say.

Remember those network meetings & marketing leaflets you make time for? Use those as a basis for your initial few weeks. You know your business and the questions people want answers to. You have a lot to say. Your problem could, in fact, be selecting what to use!


3. My customers don't use Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn etc

Perhaps it's true that your current customers don't use social media. How many more do use it? More to the point, how many people that can refer you to new customers use it? Do you know, or are you guessing? How many of your competitors are ahead of you?


4. It's too risky & uncontrolled

So is all networking, you're just used to the ways of managing the risk in the more traditional formats. Transfer what you already know into the new arena.


5. There's no evidence social media works

Yes - there is. Quite a lot of it in fact! There are whole blog sites literally groaning under the weight of evidence. Good places to start are sites like Unmarketing and Social Media Today.