Blog
Need Advice On Being More Likeable?
Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga and Lil Wayne. What do they all have in common? They all have an incredible amount of influence in the social media world. They can take a bite out of an apple, post a status about it, and get a stupendous amount of ‘likes’. Now I’m not promising total devotion from the 800 million Facebook users, but I can give you a few little tips on how to update your page, acquire a few more fans and be more likeable.
Get to know your target audience! Gain trust and credibility by answering questions and acknowledging comments. If you can find out what else they’re interested in, you can use it to your advantage and create statuses that will attract hype.
Always have an eye catching status AND try to include an image or link with it. Include pictures and links to your status updates that will appeal to your audience and can somehow be linked to your business. Whether it’s some incredible image or a hilarious video, you need to get their attention.
In 2011 Oreo (made by Kraft Foods) set out for the Guinness World Record for ‘most likes on a Facebook status’ in a 24hr period. Within that 24 hours, they received 114,619 ‘likes’ for their status and were awarded the title. However just a few hours later rapper Lil’ Wayne attempted the same record, and received an astounding 588,243 ‘likes’ in just 24 hours. While Oreos may taste better than Lil’ Wayne, he cheekily used the same status and kicked their, well, icing I guess. This goes to show how much influence one person can have after building up a loyal fan base.
Check out the story here… http://mashable.com/2011/02/16/lil-wayne-facebook-record/
As Facebook has advanced, businesses should take advantage of the ‘share’ button. Like I said before, try and post an image or video (memes are great!) along with your status. If even one ‘friend’ sees it, ‘likes’ it and ‘shares’ it, you may receive a whole new boulevard of traffic. Another incredibly easy way to do this is to tag people and places on your profile. People will relate to your page as you’re showing that hey, you too are just a human being, sitting behind a computer and hanging out with your friends (unless you’re Rebecca Black in which case you only hang out with your friends when you’re ON a computer, and of course, when it’s Friday).
Creating awareness for your business through social media can be lots of fun. Don’t try and use fancy lingo to impress, you’ll most likely just annoy and bore. Just ask yourself, what would you enjoy reading?
Imogen Barton – Resident Wordsmith
Social Media Team
www.socialmediateam.com.au
What’s The Fuss About Google+ ?
Are the dwindling days of Facebook fast approaching? Or will users remain loyal and dismiss the new release from Google called Google Plus (or Google+ to be exact)?
So many of us have become comfortable and settled into our Facebook accounts over the years; our friends lists have expanded, our albums have been published and photos tagged, our profiles established and we’ve adapted to and familiarized ourselves with the constantly yet ever-so-slightly evolving interface… why should we leave years of work behind to start afresh on a new social media network that seems to be offering alarmingly similar features?
Curious about social media in all its shapes and forms, taking a proper look at Google’s new “project” was a must. Googling reviews on Google+, Google’s overwhelming presence and influence leapt out at me in a moment of clarity. This wasn’t just another social media network – this was Google, where internet users go every day to find the answers to the most and least obscure questions, to find images, websites, information, people, places, videos and news. I’m sure that many would have trouble pinpointing the site they most often visit daily – Google or Facebook.
So, with all that in mind would Google+ be the easier option?
Google+ has a range of features, most of which liken to Facebook’s. It has a Stream, which is just like Facebook’s newsfeed, Messenger and photo uploading. For gamers, the gaming notifications are kept in a separate, closed-off section to the rest of their activities. It’s also taken the aspect of “socializing” a little further and has created Hangouts, which are video chats where up to 10 friends can converse at the same time. Facebook has, though, announced an imminent arrival of video chat to their list of applications.
Another practical feature of Google+ is Circles – literal circles into which users can drag and drop their different friends and acquaintances and through which they can limit and censor the information available to each group. This could be handy when it comes to hindering the activity available to your parents-in-law or boss! It also makes it easier to find your contacts in their organized categories. However, this grouping can also be done through Facebook. It’s probably a slightly more tedious operation, but there’s no question that Facebook will now up its ante with its new competitor rearing its googly-eyed head.
Google+ is also linked, of course, to the Google search engine, and the function “Search in Google” allows users to search for information to which Google will source from the web, as well as other posts and users on Google+. And, conveniently, it’s connected to our Gmail accounts.
So, what’s the verdict? Fancy new Google+ or trusty old Facebook? It’ll certainly be interesting to see how it all pans out.
Amy Rudaizky – Wordsmith
Social Media Team
www.socialmediateam.com.au
Is LinkedIn The Missing Link In Your Social Media Strategy?
If you think your LinkedIn is just for posting general information about you or your business, think again. A few measly sentences about your business with a couple of pictures of your employees just won’t cut it anymore. The social media network for professionals has decided to join its contemporaries – LinkedIn has made some major changes that can really affect the influence of your business. LinkedIn has acquired the communicative features of Facebook, meaning you’re now being given the chance to voice yourself in a professional social media setting.
From your business’s professional LinkedIn profile, you can now post status updates, post links, post photos that are attached to links and share or comment other people’s statuses or comments. Additionally, your statuses will appear on your followers’ homepages and on your company’s overview tab. Followers can then share, like and comment on your updates which, as on Facebook, will appear on their homepages to their followers and networks.
As you can see, LinkedIn is rapidly transforming into a social media network rather than merely remaining a one-way profile of information.
Your business’s status updates must be posted by admins who you’ll allocate in the “Designated Admins only” setting and can be up to 500 characters long.
It gets better! One day after you publish your status, you’ll receive two sets of data. Each calculates the amount of activity produced by the status: Impressions, which shows the quantity views of your status update, and Engagement, which measures the contact and engagement (comments, likes, views, shares) from your status. Each day this data will update.
Remember to engage with your followers with relevant and interesting information, but be cautious of over-posting – this will be notified and assessed by LinkedIn, and you could jeopardize the existence of your profile.
Lastly, don’t think that now that you’re socially networking through LinkedIn you can forget about the other mediums such as Facebook and Twitter. You’re reaching specific audiences through each network, not all of which are accessible through every one. You must combine this account with your others and keep your professional and intended image intact through each one.
Happy Linking!
Chester Garcia – Managing Director
Social Media Team
www.socialmediateam.com.au
Social Media Etiquette – Do’s & Don’ts
How effective is your representation of your business through its social media profile?
Is it something you’ve been taking as seriously as you should be?
If you haven’t already, it’s time for you to accept the importance of the online presence of your business. Getting in touch with the do’s and don’ts of your image through social media is equally as important as face-to-face communication with your clients. Don’t be fooled – it’s not as simple as posting a few wordy status updates and tweets every hour. Following the accepted conventions of social media marketing could take your business to a new level and reach audiences you may have never even considered.
Below are a few guidelines that will take you from amateur to media-savvy in a matter of minutes.
Don’t get over-excited – keep ‘em keen! Maintain a constant presence, but an overload of posting could quickly destroy your credibility. There isn’t a specific number of posts you should make per day, but it will vary between mediums. Every single post must be quality. If you’re tweeting it’s acceptable to be more frequent but beware of useless, boring updates – only post if it’s something people will connect to and care about. There’s nothing worse than the boring status update about your new pair of socks. On Facebook, limit posting to one per day, and make sure to vary the content. A single post could either attract or deter prospective or current clients so don’t get lazy!
With the above tip in mind, some ways to keep it exciting are to include different kinds of information and links, such as YouTube videos, images, articles and websites, as well as tips and ideas that your followers will benefit from and keep coming back to. If you’re posting thoughts and suggestions that are genuinely interesting, remember that your followers will share them with their friends and followers which will ultimately link back to your page.
Be reachable and available to your clients and followers. Your online profile is an interactive one. If there’s been a negative or positive comment posted on your page, make sure to publicly respond. Your page is a great forum for displaying your fantastic customer service and prompt reactions. If someone’s incessantly dishing out the dirt, you may need to resort to privately messaging them.
Ban the spam! Leaving spam on your page is totally unacceptable. It’s like keeping a hedge untrimmed – there’s clearly nobody tending to it. It’s essential to keep your page clean and professional and in doing so, your content will be easier to find and read. On that note, make sure your own text doesn’t look like spam. Steer clear of tacky dollar signs and capital-lettered phrases sprinkled with exclamation marks, or the only thing that’ll be missing will be a booming male voice announcing not to skip this ****$$$!! TERRIFIC SALE !!$$$*****.
Be professional – you might be on Facebook or Twitter, but you’re not chatting to your friends. You’re representing a business, and must maintain an appropriate voice. Do not use any language you wouldn’t otherwise use with clients at your workplace.
Following these golden rules and your own intuition, you’ll find an effective voice for your social media image.
Chester Garcia – Managing Director
Social Media Team
www.socialmediateam.com.au
Social Media – It Won’t Happen Overnight
Here’s the thing about social media. With the right strategy, it can yield great results but you need to be ready to roll up your sleeves and commit to it. You may be fortunate enough for your content to go viral but for the most part social media is a long term strategy. Don’t expect immediate results.
Advertising used to be much more straightforward: a convincing spiel from the creators of the product or brand paired with equally convincing images that generated trust and anticipation within its audiences, ultimately gaining consumers. However, with the rise of social media and other public forums where products are discussed, criticised and praised, consumers have quickly turned to the opinion of the customers – the people that actually use the product, rather than the people selling it.
Of course, advertising still has its place in the world of consumerism and can certainly draw your initial interest to a product. Yet these days, with unlimited resources at our disposal, you’ve got to have a screw loose if you’re considering a purchase and haven’t Googled, Amazon-ed, or even Facebooked reviews by other customers. You’d rarely book a trip without consulting with TripAdvisor first and you’d almost always choose the restaurant recommended by all your friends than blindly choosing one you’d never heard of, so why buy a product solely based on an advertisement without hearing what the real people have to say?
This is why it’s exceptionally important to build a loyal customer base through the public forum of social media and to think of new and innovative ways to engage and involve your followers in your business.
Strengthening and expanding your following won’t happen overnight. It takes knowing your audience and how to connect with them, growing your client base and followers, and maintaining a reliable, exciting, inspiring and connective image.
The first thing you want to do is hook in your existing customers.
Offer incentives like freebies or discounts so that they’ll keep following you and sharing your profile. By providing these motivations you’ll be encouraging your clients to become increasingly involved in and loyal towards your brand. In doing so, you’ll also be attracting new customers.
Remember, you’re constructing relationships – long-term, not one night stands! Make sure there are reasons for people to keep coming back to your profile. A pretty face won’t be enough for consumers; variety, enthusiasm and anticipation are keys to your customers’ commitment.
Once you’ve cultivated some loyalty, your followers will become your voice. They will form a community which will drive your name and reputation. They will be the ones that prospective customers will trust. How they review your product will matter the most.
You’ll have also developed a band of devotees who will have grown deeply positive opinions of your business and who will stick by you through inevitable glitches and issues. This will be reassuring to others when their faith in your business is publicly displayed.
You will need to personally connect to your followers. By talking and responding to them, you’ll be creating a level of intimacy between you, making your customers feel significant and heard. When you’re seen addressing an issue or even acknowledging a positive comment, you’ll alter your image from corporate and unreachable to personable and approachable.
The bottom line is, you have to be willing to talk and connect. Building relationships are difficult, so be prepared to commit, stay true, keep it exciting and be eager to please.
Chester Garcia – Managing Director
Social Media Team
www.socialmediateam.com.au
Less Talking And More Engaging
You might be a magnificent writer, have impeccable spelling and grammatical skills, use the appropriate amount of commas and colons and have a vocabulary that exceeds the synonyms lists on Word, but are you engaging?
Let’s get something straight: your audience on social media networks is not a cluster of your old poetry, English and literature professors. Always remember that you’re writing to entertain, to inspire and to connect.
The first thing you need to think about is traffic and followers on your pages. The reason that you’re posting is to maintain and gain followers. You may have a large following in a certain demographic, but through social media you are given the opportunity to reach out to different audiences. To take advantage of this, you must consider the different ways to provide information. Don’t underestimate the effects of videos, images and links to other articles and sites; each unique post will reach a different audience. Not everyone enjoys seeing words on a page, and nobody can overlook a captivating image. And on the topic of variety, don’t forget about the myriad of social media outlets through which you can express yourself in a range of ways – blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn – the possibilities really are endless!
In this new age of connectedness, it’s rare to find a good product or brand that hasn’t been reviewed and credited by different users, associates and clients. It gives you instant credibility to have testimonials and reviews from your clients, as well as interviews and discussion forums. Include these on your pages in obvious and accessible ways. Your audiences will trust these sources primarily, making them crucial evidence of the value of your business.
Keep up with all relevant news; your followers will rightfully expect you to be as up-to-date as the internet itself with anything that relates to your business or brand. News is immediate over the internet, so you must continually research and keep current as any other news source would. Staying relevant adds credibility and not only creates trust within your audiences, but generates reliance on your page and brand.
Remember, you’re not just telling; you’re conversing. Social media is anything but a one-way street. You are there as a voice, to connect and talk to your followers and clients, and to hear their comments, criticisms, ideas and questions. Keep your posts simple and interesting; lengthy and irrelevant ones will not just deter people but may also lose you some followers.
In short, ditch the prose and start connecting. Speak to your public, not at them.
Chester Garcia – Managing Director
Social Media Team
www.socialmediateam.com.au
Build Cred And Get Much Respect (On Twitter)
You would be forgiven if you mistook an online discussion regarding the influence one bears over certain social media platforms with lines from a gangster rapper’s rhyme book. Social media marketing vernacular is fast resembling the language utilised by those who grew up in less fortunate circumstances. It’s all about clout, cred and respect. Here’s a quick, no-nonsense guide to ‘keepin it real’ on the mean streets of Twitterville.
Follow The Right People
The immediate value of following the right people on Twitter is inspiration and access to collective thought. Everyone has someone that they look up to and are inspired by. In fact, most of us have numerous people that inspire us for a variety of reasons. Following these people on Twitter gives you a quick glimpse into their thoughts and ideologies. Think of everyone that you follow as another pair of eyeballs or perspective on an area that is important to you. Another benefit is that you give potential followers a feel for you and your personal brand. Who you follow has an impact on how you are perceived by others so as a general rule… more Biggie Smalls and less NeYo. The simplest way to find people in your niche is by using Twitter Search https://twitter.com/search Oh, as a bonus, some people have an auto follow attached to their Twitter account so by simply following someone, you can automatically gain a follower.
Get Your Tweet On
And your blog on for that matter! It’s no secret that valuable content is rewarded by shares, retweets, likes, diggs etc. Get into the habit of understanding your audience and regularly providing them with something worth reading albeit limited to 140 characters on Twitter. To get real cred, you need to go beyond 140 characters and attract users to your hub of information (read: blog). You don’t have to let everyone know what colour socks you’re wearing, however, discussing the commonalities of life (i.e The Metro trains running late again) give people easy access points in which to open dialogue with you. Stay regular and stay relevant.
Understand The Lingo
Like everything on the internet, Twitter has a language of its own. You need to understand the significance of @, #, DM, RT lists, via etc, to be able to communicate effectively in this world. It’s easy once you get the hang of it so take the time to learn the jargon, understand the etiquette and talk the talk. Here’s a simple guide to get you started https://support.twitter.com/groups/31-twitter-basics/topics/104-welcome-to-twitter-support/articles/215585-twitter-101-how-should-i-get-started-using-twitter
Tell Don’t Sell
Once you have established a loyal following don’t get tempted to start sounding like an infomercial. It’s OK to articulate the benefits of your product/service and communicate special offers, however, it must be done in a considerate way. Don’t bombard people with sales pitches. Your pitch is not more important than sharing relevant information and providing readers with value.
The whole ethos of social media is about building relationships and having meaningful conversations. The way that you interact with others has a direct impact on how you are perceived. Be courteous and respond to others. Be helpful and answer questions. Be generous and share information. Reference people and give credit where it’s due. Be sincere. These types of behaviours will help build trust and credibility in any aspect of life, let alone in the social media realm.
Chester Garcia – Managing Director
Social Media Team
www.socialmediateam.com.au
Social Media Is Not The Future Of Marketing
It is also the past and the present. Humans have always been social. It’s pre programmed into our DNA. Back before the Industrial Revolution and mass marketing, how do you think people decided which products and services to purchase? They’d seek the advice of their friends and peers.
“Hey Tom, I’m in the market for a new coat and yours is looking rather dapper. Where’d you get it from?”
“Oh, this old thing? I got it from Joe the tailor on Bourke St. He’s a wizard on the sewing machine.”
Purchases were made based on recommendations from trusted sources. If you ask any salesperson what their favourite type of lead is, their answer will be simple. A referral.
Now picture this. Imagine that the majority of leads that came into your business were referrals from people endorsing your product. How would that affect your bottom line? After all, the conversion rate on referral business far surpasses any other type of enquiry. That is the whole ethos behind a good social media strategy. ‘Word of mouth’ on steroids.
Gone are the days where you can take out a full page ad or a billboard and shout at people to buy your product. The world of marketing is no longer linear. It is no longer a one way street. Connectivity and technology have changed the behaviour of consumers. The power is no longer in the hands of those with the biggest marketing budgets. The power has gone back to where it rightfully should be. It is back in the hands of the people.
Now let’s take a quick snapshot of the way businesses continue to spend their marketing budgets. Untargeted broadcast email marketing campaigns have an average conversion rate of 1.1%. What about a direct mail campaign? 1% for a well executed campaign. Businesses still rely on this because the return can be easily measured.
There is a smarter way!
What if you chose to really understand your target audience and communicate with them on their level? What if you answered all of their questions and concerns in a transparent and positive manner? You would build trust and create ambassadors for your business that will promote you to everyone within their network… and with the advent of social media, that’s a hell of a lot of people. The challenge now is to change the way that you think about marketing. Stop selling and start engaging.
Chester Garcia -Managing Director
Social Media Team
www.socialmediateam.com.au
