Garr Barr Group

You are here: Home / Archives for twitter

By 6 Comments

SPRING CLEANING THE SOCIAL WEB

Over the course of this month, I have been cleaning out the clutter from my online world. Consider it a form of weeding, making room for my important relationships to grow and new relationships to take root. Here’s what I did:

1. Unfollowed most Tweeters who don’t follow me back on Twitter.
2. Used the “Hide” option on the Facebook Pages I “fan” because their message is irrelevant to me, personally and professionally. I was trying to help them get enough fans to secure their unique name but I know I will never buy their products and/or they send me too much marketing.
3. Deleted LinkedIn contacts I do not know who have only sent me invitations to social media webinars. Decided to reconsider my open invitation status on LinkedIn and ensured all my contacts there were private.
4. Checked on all the FB friends whose status I have hidden because their marketing or Farmville activities were annoying. If all they do is market, I consider “unfriending” them or kept them hidden. For Farmville fans, I unhide the friends and hide Farmville – thanks to FB for providing this ability.
5. Unsubscribed to Blogs and RSS feeds that clutter my Google Reader and Netvibes dashboard.
6. Canceled all Google email alerts except essential alerts which require immediate attention.
7. Unsubscribed to all the email newsletters I never read.
8. Withdrew from LinkedIn and Facebook groups that long lost their value.
9. Unsubscribed to paid membership forums that I never visit.
10. Deleted profiles on a few social networks I never use so I can focus on just a few communities.

I feel better already but plan to take a few more steps in the coming week:

1. Create Twitter Lists to make it easier to support and appreciate my important relationships.
2. Organize groups of friends on Facebook so I can be certain to check the status of key people in my network and engage with them.
3. Update my social marketing planning calendar to make sure I prioritize time for essential communities and people. Now that the weeding is done, my important relationships have room to grow and I have more time to nurture them.
4. Create a set of guidelines for deciding whether or not to join groups, fan pages, communities, and social networks in the future.
5. Create an email address dedicated only to web subscriptions. Many times, I give my name and email address to someone in return for a report or e-book, etc and end up on the mailing list. I will only give out my daily priority email addresses to people I meet in person or want to meet in person.

How about you? What can you do to weed out online distractions to focus on your most significant relationships and profitable activities?

By Leave a Comment

Cheating the Customer?

After speaking recently at the SN4BW Online Global Training Event, I was asked if I recommend small businesses hire Virtual Assistants to respond to business tweets on Twitter. My initial reaction was a strong negative. I reasoned that outsourcing your social interaction on Twitter is equivalent to sending a secretary in your place to a cocktail party or a networking event to which you have been personally invited. The value and the beauty of social media as a marketing tool is that business participation in the media feels personal to the customer, makes the customer feel special and valued. I suggest that the use of “auto-tweets” while generally used for promotion and information, are not good practice for developing relationships or enhancing the value of your brand to a customer.

I tried to think of how and why you would want to outsource responses to your tweets if you are a small office/home office so I decided to consult with Carle Henry , CEO of Chrevian, Inc. and a TeleWeb Service Consultant. Carle is one of the first executives I worked with whose focus was on looking at the business from the outside in, viewing everything in the business from the perspective of the customer and then designing processes and systems around the customer’s perspective and needs. Carle has worked with companies like Harrods, Eddie Bauer, Monster.com, and Sealy to create multi-channel customer experiences. He pointed out several issues with the concept of having a VA respond to auto-tweets.

“The whole cache of social media, what makes it cool and clever is the personalization of the customer experience. My first reaction is that it is way too personal an interaction to outsource. Essentially, the challenge is that most cannot keep a VA knowledge base up to date for traditional inquiries. Once you apply this concept to the Social Media world, it’s as if you’ve put the somewhat acceptable flaws on steroids. The result will be an obvious, exaggerated ‘cheat’ on what should be an intimate, personal experience.” Carle went on to say, “The knowledge base is the most relevant point. If a customer gets a bad answer from a VA, they will search your website for a 1-800 number until they find a way to contact a real person to respond. In other words, customers who interact with you using twitter want a personal exchange: knowledge bases won’t cut it.”

Carle acknowledged he projects most customer service outsourcers of the future will include responding to Tweets (and some do already) from within large corporate customer service departments. The key to making it successful is to train the VA or outsourcing agency (with a long-term commitment in mind) in order to transfer relevant brand knowledge, product knowledge, and company culture and policy. Companies who do not properly train their outsourced service providers suffer the consequences of lost customers, reduced loyalty and brands with tarnished reputations. Some large brands such as Comcast are using Twitter and other social marketing tools to repair brand issues and poor customer service reputations.

If you are a small business, you have a natural desire to build your business with social marketing tools. But, if you are going to use tools such as Twitter, Facebook status updates and such to promote your business, think twice about the frequency and content of your status updates. Too much promotion comes across as Spam. So much self-promotion that you cannot respond to your own tweets is definitely Spam. Outsourcing your status updates and social marketing to a VA can be done ONLY if you have invested enough training so you trust the VA to represent your brand, your products, and your culture in a seamless way. Are your customer and your brand reputation worth the risk?

By 1 Comment

Claim Your Web Properties

Today is the first in a series of Ten Biggest Mistakes Small Businesses Make Preventing Web Profitability.

No matter how far you have gotten in developing your marketing strategy that includes using the internet as a sales and growth channel for your business, there is no excuse for not claiming your name. These are the 8 basic property categories I recommend every small business claim to begin the process of building a web presence. Almost all are currently free or very inexpensive and can be claimed with a few hours work.

1. Website: Believe it or not, I recently read that only 44% of small businesses have their own websites. Yet, recent studies indicate that between 65-80% of consumers use the internet to search for local businesses and over 2/3 of all consumers read ratings and reviews prior to making purchase decisions. At the very least, claim your unique name using an inexpensive service such as godaddy.com. Claim your personal name (if still available) and your business name.

2. Join several social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn. There are very easy user interfaces which walk you through the sign-up process and you are certain to find many of your current contacts and friends already there populating an instant network for you. Currently, Facebook has over 150 million users and LinkedIn has 12 million. Growth in social networks has been off the charts across all demographic groups.

3. Get listed on the big search engine directories such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, Yellow Pages, and AOL. It only takes a few minutes to claim and update your business listing (which may already be listed) and make sure it reflects your hours of service and a description of your business services.

4. Sign up for local community social networks such as MerchantCircle, Biznik and Konnects. This is a growing segment in the social networking landscape but one which holds benefit for small businesses targeting locals. Think of them as your virtual chamber of commerce. Speaking of the Chamber of Commerce, many local branches have business networks and directories on Facebook or Ning. Check your local newspapers, general as well as local business publications. Many of these media outlets are increasing their online presence with blogs, directory listings and message boards. In most cases, the basic fee to join these listings is free or minimal charge.

5. Business and Industry Verticals: Are there online directories specific to your industry? Many professional organizations and certification boards provide online directory listings: lawyers, doctors, dentists, real estate agents and other vertical industry boards allow you to post your profile and update it with your products, services, etc. Are there referral or certification boards in your field? Add your profile.

6. Rating Services: Ratings and ranking are already a part of some of the directories I have already mentioned (Yahoo and Google are notable) but there are new ones emerging every day. Check out Yelp and Citisearch to see if your type of business is listed there and claim your listing.

7. Microblogs: Twitter, Jaiku and Pluck are the companies in this space with Twitter currently leading the charge (over 1300% growth from Feb 2008 to 2009). Don’t be put off by the stream of consciousness of the worlds millions of Twitter users (see my post Twitterfied?). Remember when you had a chance to claim your own name in email 15 years ago and you did not and now you have an interesting email address like suebarr6667@xxxxxxx.com? At the very minimum, claim your name and/or your business name. When you become more comfortable with the medium and begin to see just how beneficial this tool can be for your business, you will be glad you claimed your real estate. Combined with pervasive mobile communications, Microblogs hold tremendous promise for small business to target promotions.

8. Groups: I use Ning, Facebook, and LinkedIn and have begun to use Ryze for groups. Look for groups in your industry that are active and welcoming to new members. Look for groups where your customers hang out so you can begin forming relationships and getting to know their needs for your business. Create your own groups, fan pages on Facebook or in Ning and invite your followers to join. Start your own group under your company name.

Think of your web presence as if it is a big virtual game of monopoly. When you first start going around the game board, you buy all the property you can afford. Over time, you figure out which properties can be leveraged for the most profit. You build on the most profitable (just like adding hotels in monopoly) and you weed out the unprofitable properties.

I think it is very early in evolution of the social media game. Some social sites will emerge as clear winners and some will disappear. Some businesses will adopt early and succeed and some will crash and burn. Some late adopters will arise to wow and surprise the markets. The only mistake for your business is if you don’t get in the game – your customers are expecting it.

By Leave a Comment

Twitter-fied?

I must admit I was a little perplexed. Everyone was talking about Twitter so I had to check it out. Twitter is a social networking utility that allows you to join and invite friends and colleagues. Twitter provides you with a profile page and the capability to broadcast a 140 words or less to the entire “twittersphere” of members on the Twitter site. I began as a complete lurker with a non-descript logon id so I could watch the action and I never linked to my professional email. Initially I thought this was a tool that would be more interesting for social networking among the under-24 age group. I was hugely skeptical about the application for my clients and my own business. To be honest, I thought being on Twitter was like getting junk mail ALL DAY LONG!! I wasn’t ready to put myself out there.

But I watched and learned and began to see how Twitter could fit into my short and long-range marketing plans. I started to see how others were using Twitter for business and I began seeing the possibilities for my clients. I took the plunge and found some tools and techniques that I suggest you adopt as a Twitter-newbie.

1. Sign up at twitter.com and set up a profile. Link to your business website.

2. Invite colleagues and clients to follow you.

3. Search for topics that interest you at search.twitter.com. Watch the stream of “tweets” and you will find people who are interesting to you so add them to your follow list. I follow small business, social media, local cities, news outlets and favorite bloggers, positive people with good vibes, political pundits and other topics that catch my interest. You can also see the top trending topics and follow along.

My favorite day of the week is “Follow Friday” when you will see a stream of tweets with the hashtag of #followfriday. It is a great way to give a shout out and recommend folks you think others should follow as well as a way to start following others recommended by the masses.

4. Join chats that are of interest. By watching keywords that interest me, I learned of several “tweet chats” on small business topics. I join the chats at Tweetchat.com and have met some great people who I network with on Twitter and my other social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn.

5. You don’t have to watch Twitter all day long and catch every conversation. I use Tweetdeck and check it a few times per day for items of interest. Tweetdeck allows you to follow your favorite people, phrases and topics. It helps create a more organized approach for me so I don’t get caught up in the constant stream of consciousness.

6. Once you understand how you plan to weave Twitter into your marketing strategy, offer information to your followers in the form of tips, referrals, links and content that your target market would find beneficial. Don’t spam but do make your followers aware of targeted special promotions and products. Ask yourself, “How can I add value?”

7. If you google Twitter, you will find an array of products and classes available over the web. Here are a few sources I recommend to further your Twitter education.

For a quick guide for the beginning and intermediate Twitter user:
http://johnjantsch.com/TwitterforBusiness.pdf

For a brief screencast video with tips for small businesses:
http://smallbiztrends.com/2008/10/how-why-twitter-small-businesses.html

In my own business I see Twitter as a great way to participate with and serve my target market. I find it invaluable for researching my brand, my competitors and industry leaders. I have made great contacts and hope to use Twitter to identify new markets, identify potential alliances and business partners.

Did I mention you can follow me on Twitter @garrbarrgroup? See you in the twittersphere.

Let’s Talk!

We'd love to hear from you! Please send questions or comments via email to admin@garrbarr.com

Social

Follow Garr Barr Group: