How to Climb the Social Media Mountain

If you’re a small or medium-sized business, social media is likely a topic that raises many questions. “What is social media? Isn’t it free? How do I use it? Does my company need it? Where do I begin?” These are all questions that we’ve heard over and over again, and the answers are always simple.
Social media can be used by companies as a free-form of marketing and promotion. It’s a way to communicate messages to the general public and create a dialogue between a business and a consumer base. You can build company pages on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter quite easily, however, getting people to actually listen to your messages is an entirely different animal. Twitter is now averaging roughly 50 million tweets per day. That’s 600 tweets per second.  Overwhelming, isn’t it? But if your business isn’t in the social media sphere, you’re probably missing out. Some businesses see incredible results using social media marketing, while others see very little difference at the end of the day. This is due, in part, to the nature of your business AND how effective your social media skills are.
If you’re a business that sells products or services to the public, social media is a great marketing tool that can very easily impact your sales. However, if you’re a B2B company or are selling products or services to retailers or distributors, social media will most likely have little impact on your sales. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be actively involved with social media, because it still serves as a great tool for brand awareness. However, don’t expect bottom-line results.
The other part of this whole debate is the effectiveness of your social media skills. Not only is it important to build a relevant following, but companies must build a network of followers that will listen to your messages and even pass them along to their own followers. The companies that use social media with success find that the less you talk about your own business, the more your followers will take up an interest in you. The best social media strategies offer followers a mix of informative and relevant messages on your industry, links to articles, an occasional message about your company, and of course adding a humor element never hurts. Social networks are also a great launching pad to get the word out on any contests, promotions, or sales that you’re having.
Here are some key statistics provided by iStrategy2010:

• 79% of the Fortune 100 are present and listening, using at least of one of the main social platforms to communicate with their customers.
• 20% of Companies are using all four of the main social technologies (Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and Blogs)
• 82% of the Fortune 100 update and engage with customers on their Twitter account per week.
• Fortune 100 Companies on average post 3.6 wall posts to their Facebook page per week
• 50% of the Fortune 100 have a YouTube account and upload 10 videos on average a month

At the end of the day, converting your social media followers into customers is not an easy task. It takes time, patience, a blend of excellent and relevant content, and a great social media strategy. Rome wasn’t built in a day, but if you have an interesting company or business and utilize your social media efficiently, you’ll see results!  If social media is a marketing tool you want to utilize but don’t necessarily have the time or resources for, there are great resources and experts out there who can help you develop a customized social media strategy and launch/manage your campaign.

Companies that don't use social media are losing out

A study from the Yankee Group for Siemens Enterprise Communications has revealed that companies who fail to use social media to interact with their customers do so "at their own peril".

The poll questioned 750 people, of whom 70 percent agreed that consumers want access to company experts and support via social media channels as well as trusting company information provided to them via these networks.
The survey also showed that 60 percent feel that "company outreach" via social media would improve their brand loyalty, as they feel many firms would be monitoring their social media streams for feedback and consumer satisfaction.
It was also revealed that customer satisfaction with current businesses using social media is only 65 percent, allowing room for improvement and those firms that have yet to implement any form of social media policy to do so.
Shockingly, one third of companies have no formal social networking policies, do not allow the use of it at work or aren't aware of their company's participation in social networking.
Right tools for the job
Setting up social media streams and groups is one thing, but maintaining it is quite another. As such, 70 percent of employees questioned said they felt they needed better tools to track and manage social media for business, and would like the ability to initiate a Web conference automatically from a chat discussion at work, inviting people from within their social and work networks.
A lack of proper tools was deemed to be responsible for a loss of opportunities to drive customer collaboration and employee productivity, Siemens noted, just as they announced a new service enabling companies to weave both public and corporate social media tools into enterprise customer call centres.
In another survey, which questioned people on the social media tools they used in business to reach new prospects and generate greater business awareness, 53 percent said they favoured LinkedIn. Facebook garnered 39 percent of responses while Twitter got 27 percent.

Tweet to the Street: Balancing Social Media and IR at http://ping.fm/DpOhs IR

Customer Satisfaction - Consumers Speak Online

A new study by MarketTools revealed that 94% of companies do not yet use social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter to gather customer feedback, despite consumers' growing engagement with these mediums. The study found that the most common ways companies gather customer feedback are email/online surveys (51%), formal phone surveys (28%), and informal phone calls (28%).
Justin Schuster, vice president of enterprise products for MarketTools, Inc., said "... few organizations are equipped to take advantage of social media channels this channel... organizations that... incorporate feedback gathered through social media channels are able to uncover richer insights to help them improve customer satisfaction..."
A growing number of consumers are turning to social media channels to share unsatisfactory customer service experiences. In a recent research report, shared by MarketTools, Forrester found that 16% of customers have vented about negative customer service interactions through social channels, such as online customer reviews, Facebook status updates, or blog posts. Forrester also cites "integrating social media monitoring" as one of the major trends that characterize leading-edge voice of the customer (VOC) programs.
Schuster also notes that "...(companies) need to use this unsolicited feedback to... address the concerns of the individual customer... (and) to uncover insights to help improve business processes that lead to higher overall customer satisfaction... "
The MarketTools study revealed a disparity in the way companies think and the way they act in regards to customer satisfaction. Although 92% of respondents believe that satisfied customers are very important or extremely important to their company's bottom line, only 42% solicit customer feedback on a continuous basis, and 22% solicit feedback only once a year or not at all.
Some additional highlights from the survey include:

• 39% of executives surveyed said that their companies increased focus on customer satisfaction in 2010 versus 2009, with 21% stating that they invested more in customer satisfaction-related products and services in 2010 versus 2009
• Despite the importance given to customer satisfaction, 14% of executives surveyed said their companies don't solicit customer feedback at all
• 46% of the executives surveyed rate their company's performance on customer satisfaction in the top 10% when compared to their peer companies, and 93% rate themselves in the top 50% of peer companies
• Still, 56% of all respondents said their companies do not have, or are not sure if their companies have, a formal voice of the customer (VOC) program
•  Nearly one out of every four executives said that they seldom or never use customer feedback to change a business process 

How Small Business Can be Big Online

For small businesses, looking “big” online isn’t so much about appearing as a large company when they’re not. Its about being a big resource for prospects and customers.  As the popularity of content marketing and brands as publishers heats up with large companies, many small businesses still have the advantage of being nimble and adaptive to new ways of engaging customers.  That ability to experiment and implement quickly as well as creatively can be a big advantage.
Here are a few ways small businesses can use content marketing in combination with some SEO and Social Media Smarts to be a “bigger” resource for their  online customers.
1. Blog – A blog is an easy to use content management system that also offers numerous social and SEO benefits. For example, our client Marketo started a blog as soon as they launched their website and start-up business. That one blog has now grown to 4 blogs and a dominant position in Google and social search results for the solutions their customers are looking for most. In part by using a blog as a useful resource for prospective and current customers, Marketo is attracting business at a faster rate than most of their larger competitors with a 10 year head start.
2. Newsletters & Email Marketing – Email newsletters are great ways to connect directly with prospective customers and stay connected to current customers. Newsletters can be published as blog posts for discovery via search engines and can provide a great segue from social relationships on social networks like Facebook or from a blog to more commercial relationships with prospects. Newsletters provide a way to offer useful and targeted information to nurture leads and provide opportunities to find out more on products and services.
Our client J&O Fabrics has been providing customers with an email newsletter about fabric for many years offering tips, how to articles and information about new products. That newsletter was the inspiration for a very popular fabric blog which led them to implement other social media efforts through Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
3. Media Coverage & Contributed Articles - Word of mouth is priceless for all businesses, especially small businesses. Getting mentioned in the local business media and trade publications can boost awareness, credibility and directly generate new business. Make a list of local business publications, writers and editors as well as popular trades and bloggers. Send them relevant news about your company in a concise and compelling format.
Getting an email directly from the CEO or a VP of a small business creates a direct connection that many time pressed journalists appreciate.  If they blog, make comments that add value, then follow up with more detailed, useful information. Provide “hooks” that give perspectives and insights not normally thought of. Stand out and tell a compelling story. Follow up but don’t stalk! Many of the relationships we have at TopRank Online Marketing with journalists came as a result of sending an email offering 1-3 abstracts for potential contributed articles. Now many of those news sites contact us for quotes.
4. Resource Center - One way small businesses are beating their larger competitors in search and in building authority is to be a better resource for customers through useful content. Common formats for helpful information about buying, using and related information on products and services include articles, videos and podcasts.  PRWeb (a TopRank client) has one a great job building up a news release resource center that has generated a very nice footprint in search engines.
5. Social Networks & Media – In the way that customers expect a toll free number, web site and blog, they’re beginning to expect the brands they buy from to be social. That means having a presence in the social networks that are most relevant to customers. It doesn’t need to be a lot of time, but a small amount of time consistently spent on interaction and relationship building can go a long way at developing a community.
The key is picking the right platform. It might be a LinkedIn group, Facebook Fan page, a Forum added to your site or creating a niche social network of your own using a service like Ning.com. Content created on the newsletter, blog and resource center can be cross-promoted with social networking and media sharing. While it’s new and a work in progress, Imagine Lifestyles, a TopRank client that rents exotic cars, luxury homes & yachts does a good job at cross promoting blog content on their Facebook page and YouTube channel.
6. Events – Networking for small businesses is as old as word of mouth marketing itself. Events are a great way to connect with prospective customers, marketing partners, new employees and influentials in your industry. They’re also a great place to create content. We’ve shared many insights into how to get the most out of attending conferences, especially when it comes to content creation.
Liveblogging, interviews via video, audio or text and photos are not only great content to be shared after the event, but more importantly, serve as an excellent ice breaker to connect with others during the event. That content can be used in many of the tactics listed above.
As a small business, should you do all of these things? No, of course not. Wearing many hats and slim resources means all of these tactics won’t be practical. But you can start small and adapt with more or different content according to what’s working vs. what’s not.

Tips for Online Content Marketers

1. Make my website (systems and content) my largest marketing investment in 2011.
2. Treat my website like it was my storefront. First impressions count.
3. Use less of the stock imagery that every other site uses and invest in some original or altered imagery that differentiates your story from everyone else’s story (we just tried to do this on the new Junta42.com home page.
4. Remove all moving text, scrolling text or counters from my website (I know, hard to believe that this still is happening).
5. Develop consistent “how-to” information in the form of a blog or article series to both deliver to my customers and attract new customers through search engines.
6. Send out an opt-in enewsletter to my customers, and include those helpful blog or article posts, linking customers back to my site for more information (here’s some enewsletter stats that may help you).
7. Spiff my employees a couple dollars for every opt-in email address they get to sign up for the enewsletter.  Make it a competition.
8. Follow all my customers on Facebook and Twitter. I will include those helpful articles on my Facebook and Twitter accounts so people continue to follow me and appreciate my expertise.
9. Develop an “INSERT YOUR INDUSTRY NICHE HERE Playbook” as a trusted guide for my customers. I would make it available for download on my site, but also make some printouts to take on home visits or to pass out at shows (for an example, see the Content Marketing Playbook).
10. Start experimenting with some “how-to” video and integrate those with my blog posts.
11. Take video of my customers communicating their biggest pain points and post to it to my blog/Facebook with their permission.
12. Have an analytics report sent to me every week. Notice where my traffic is coming from and figure out why it’s coming from there. Focus on conversion statistics, not just bulk traffic.
13. Keep a list of the top 20 keyword variations that drive people to my site and consistently know where I am on Google at all times.
14. Figure out how to use FourSquare for my business.
15. Make sure to ask my customers for positive reviews on Yelp (if I focus on local business).
16. Do a press release at least every month on something going on in my company or my involvement in the local community. In that release I would link to specific keywords, which would help my search engine optimization (SEO) rankings.
17. Make sure I have a solid Google Maps listing.
18. Create Google Alerts (or use my reputation management system) for my brand name, my competitors and anything related to my products or services in my area. Make sure I assign people to champion particular keywords and respond when necessary.
19. Start looking into Quora and how my content evangelist can assist with customer/influencer questions.
20. Take my advertising budget, cut it in half, and invest the rest in assets (content) that I can use to attract customers to my website for a long, long time.

Social Media Marketing - Just Listen

• By listening, reading, and participating, brand marketers have an opportunity
to make their brands more approachable and shareable than ever before.
• Most Social Media Marketing initiatives have started with the tools first…
o Brands opt to engage using the most popular tools and networks to attract
relationships instead of going to where their existing or prospective
customers are congregated.
o They didn’t observe or listen prior to jumping in.
• Many have incorrectly viewed the process of social media as “build it and they
will come.” 
• Companies simply create profiles on Facebook and a Blog, accounts on
Twitter, uploaded videos to YouTube and images to flickr, and simply hoped
for a mass wave of friending and interaction.
o We can’t simply walk into a public square or park, plant a sign behind
us with our name, interests and affiliations and expect real people to
come up to us for meaningful and long-term dialog.
o This is the equivalent of setting up camp next to a village because you
have the tools to do so and expecting the village to integrate you into
their society.
• Conversational marketing requires observation, which will dictate your
engagement strategies.
• It starts with a combination of social and traditional tools to discover, listen,
learn, and engage directly with customers.
o It helps us find where the conversations are truly taking place.
o The goal is to help them make decisions and also do things that they
couldn't, or didn’t know how to do, before.
o Build relationships through conversations without objectives.
• It’s about gathering intelligence.
• It removes the tendency to “market at” people and instead naturally shapes a
more honest, meaningful, and informative approach.
• It helps us humanize our story in order to create loyalty and earn customer
business and ultimately their respect