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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?

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Got Social Media Strategy?

Social Media is no longer optional. Including video, audio, and communities along with interactive and sharable content within your marketing strategy is required if you want to remain competitive in this business climate. A social media strategy is not a plan for collecting 1000’s of friends on Facebook or followers on Twitter. It is a well-defined series of campaigns planned to meet the needs of today’s customers who are ever-connected, ever-social, and ever-engaged. A winning social media strategy leverages the right combination of technology and content to create a unique customer experience with “buzzability”.

It’s not about the technology. It’s all about the customer!

1. They Are Looking for You. 4 out of 5 buyers are using the web to locate business and product information before they make a purchase yet less than half of small businesses can be found on the web. The location options for web real-estate are numerous, including platforms such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and a variety of other directories and communities. Your plan must ensure you can be found by your target market who wants to read and hear testimonials about your offer. Potential buyers are more likely to trust a business with customer generated reviews and ratings than one without endorsements. Your strategy must include a plan for generating fresh content with the purpose of educating the consumer and informing the buying decision.

2. They Want an Experience with You. You have less than a minute. Prospects will abandon your website or business profile within seconds if they are not engaged. Create engaging and informative content with the aim of evoking a response from your customers. Multimedia and interactive content such as pictures, video, podcasts and product reviews is affordable and easily created by businesses with modest budgets and minimal technical expertise. A planned series of campaigns which include a call to action and which integrate with traditional media (newspapers, radio, etc) will create a community of loyal supporters among your customers.

3. They Want to “Buzz” About You. Your customers want to spread the word! A growing number people on the web share content such as video, articles, audio, etc with their friends. Over 90% of people trust the recommendations of friends when making purchase decisions and less than 15% trust advertising so give them something to buzz about! Generate participation and enthusiasm. Create a call to action. When you create a buzzable social media strategy, prospects become customers and customers become loyal evangelists.

Creating a social media marketing plan is like creating a special family recipe. It is not accomplished with “out-of-the-box” solutions. Every social media marketing strategy includes a vision, brand message, web and social platforms, a content strategy, and a buzz plan. Be prepared to actively listen to your customers and allow them to co-create with you. Ultimately, creating a unique social media mix tailored to your customers will keep your evangelists buzzing and your business soaring.

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The Scarlet ‘E’ for Social Media Expert

Lately, the blogosphere has begun an outcry against the “social media experts”, mostly by other self-described “social media experts”. I recently found myself laughing out loud when one such expert claimed outrage in her blog, asking her readers to “out the fakes” by sending her their horror stories about fake gurus…an interesting approach to convincing others of her value, to say the least. Somewhere, someone is busy crafting Scarlet ‘E’s for the offenders.

I admit to having a natural skepticism of the words “expert” and “guru” – years of working in software engineering left me with a definition of expert which leaves few able to pass the threshold. In spite of my prejudice regarding use of the word, I think the current debate needs reframing. I find it more alarming to see such a preponderance of business consultants and experts who do not understand social media or worse, those who dismiss it as irrelevant to their consulting work. The issue is not whether there are too many experts. The real issue is that anyone who charges for products or services that affect the customer experience MUST be conversant in social media.

If you are a business owner, don’t ignore the debate about experts but don’t become dizzy over it. It is my belief that you should not hire any marketing professional or web professional who does not make it a priority to understand how your customers are using social media and how those same customers expect to interact with your business using social media. Such professionals must have a broad understanding of what is happening on the social web and how it affects consumers. Their priority must be on your customer and your business vision, not their obsolete process or proprietary solution.

How can a PR pro or an advertising consultant create an effective campaign for your business without consideration of social media? How can a website designer ignore how social networks can be utilized to drive web traffic to your site? How can a strategist create a plan for you without considering a content marketing strategy? In this day and age, ignoring social media is akin to professional malpractice.

So, how do you evaluate the self-described experts? Social media marketing is still a young field but most of us talking about it have a back-story. Before the advent of social media, what did the expert do? A resume should be available on their website or upon request. Are they bringing the perspective of an experienced brand marketer? A corporate executive? A successful entrepreneur? A technical website developer? A graphics or creative web designer? They must have more depth than a resume of 1000’s of Twitter followers or Facebook friends can avail.

Be wary of the expert who is selling you proprietary solution along with their social media expertise. There are countless solutions providers who mask “strategy” under the cloak of their proprietary software or advertising solutions. They ask leading questions which always direct you to their custom solutions with great promises of Google page rank. Local coupon sales, local ad sales, canned websites and FB pages, local online directories, software packages that “automate” your social media methods and new business networking sites are just a few examples of applications being sold under the broad umbrella of social media marketing. Such solutions should be investigated thoroughly to ensure the result applies to your unique business and whether other alternatives exist (possibly free), especially since many of the above require ongoing subscription fees or hefty up-front costs.

Keep in mind that profitable social media implementation is 80% strategy and 20% technology so make sure your strategy is well-defined before you sign on the dotted line. Stay focused on your goals and hire experts who share your commitment. Ultimately, the labels don’t matter as much as whether your goals are achieved by working with these folks.

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Facebook Land Rush: What happened to “Hello”?

You know how it goes in a face-to-face networking event. Someone calls you over and says, “Sue, I want to introduce you to Tim. Tim has his own printing company and I have worked with him for years. He is looking for a business consultant to help him develop a new strategic plan.”

Then to Tim, he says, “Sue is a consultant and told me she is looking for a new graphics and printing company to replace the standard solutions from the Big Box retailer…”

What a nice introduction and endorsement!

The same kind of courtesies should be extended on online social networks. If you want someone to become a “fan” of a business, shouldn’t you introduce them first? Are you being a good “friend”, “connection” or “colleague” when the only communication you have with someone on your contacts list is to spam them with requests that they endorse or “fan” another business? How about an introduction first? A personal note?

In a hurry to claim their Facebook vanity url’s that began last week, many well-meaning online networkers have made Facebook look like one of the Land Rushes in the late 1800’s. It was truly wild. I was inundated with requests and my status stream was clogged with messages about new Fan pages.

I am more than willing to help all my colleagues and friends, those with whom I have relationships, by “fanning” their Facebook pages or writing recommendations. I know them. We are in groups together. We email and we chat. We have coffee or plan to meet when in the same city. We exchange leads and information to help each other’s businesses.

Becoming a “fan” has meaning. It means you endorse the product, service or business owner. It means if someone calls and asks you why you are a fan, you can give them specific reasons. It means you would recognize them at a live networking event and introduce them to someone else and have a depth of understanding of their businesses and issues. Becoming a “fan” is equivalent to giving someone permission to send you marketing and sales messages.

What is your endorsement worth?

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Reputation Management: Are Negative Reviews Good for Business?

Great read this morning by Matt McGee at Small Business Search Marketing, “Five Ways Negative Reviews are Good for Business.” Matt suggests the benefits of negative feedback are:

They create trust.
They provide honest feedback.
They can improve your SEO.
They help you make better business decisions.
They offer a golden opportunity.

Matt’s post calls to mind statistics regarding growth in social media participation by consumers. According to Forrester Research Study (October 2008) on social media adoption, consumers who classify themselves as “critics” (those who contribute to ratings, reviews, blogs, etc) increased by almost 50% over the previous year to 37% of those surveyed. Anecdotally, I suspect the number has increased substantially since then. Many recent studies indicate that between 65 -80% of consumers search the web for local businesses and actively read reviews and ratings as part of their purchase consideration process. Consumers are adopting social media at increasing rates across all categories.

I agree with Matt McGee and recommend the following strategies given trends in consumer behavior:

1. Make engagement a standard part of your marketing plan. Develop a social marketing plan that encourages your customers to provide feedback. Include tactics as simple as asking a customers to complete surveys or as complex as creating a product information and rating system on your website. The truth is that most reviews are positive so encouraging engagement only serves to improve your online reputation and customer loyalty.

2. Develop a web presence on social platforms where your customers hang out. If your target customer is on Facebook, create a Fan Page and develop a plan to engage them there. If your customer is on LinkedIn or Myspace, engage them there.

3. Create a pro-active communications plan to address the customer feedback. I recommend my clients use a simple decision tree process. Include decision points to handle situations such as :

a. Customers with verifiable complaints
b. Competitors planting negative feedback
c. Customers with incomplete information or distorted versions of the truth
d. Customers with positive feedback

Matt McGee is correct in suggesting negative reviews provide an opportunity to improve your operations. The beauty of social technologies is that they place inexpensive tools into the hands of a small business owner to form a more personal customer relationship. The functions of these tools play right into the strengths of small businesses that are already heads and shoulders above large organizations in personalizing the customer experience. Responding to the negative feedback in a positive way demonstrates your commitment to the customer and your desire to improve their experience with your business.

Would you rather use negative feedback to improve your operations and service or lose a customer without knowing why?

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