Entries Tagged 'social media' ↓

Are you utilising social media marketing to promote your business?

Applications such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogging etc., are making it easier for businesses to build relationships with potential clients. Plus their marketing can how reach parts that traditional marketing simply couldn’t reach.

But blindly interacting through these applications without monitoring them is a bit like driving a Ferrari blind folded – your message is getting out there quickly but you could be about to hit a brick wall any second.

Once upon a time the only way you found out about a problem with your business was when you either received a letter of complaint or suddenly lost customers. By that time it was often too late to do anything about it. But with the advent of social media marketing you can now jump on problems and solve them before they get out of hand.

So why is monitoring a good idea?

• You can measure your effectiveness
• Find out what people are saying about you and your business
• Identify problems/opportunities and react quickly
• Discover who are the leaders in your industry and what they are saying

How to monitor what people are saying about you

I use two methods to find out what people are saying about me online.

Google Alerts

This is a great tool to find out what people are saying about you on the web. You can easily set these up to monitor any phrase – I use one on my name (Sally Ormond) and another on my business name (Briar Copywriting).

By simply completing the fields above, Google alerts will email you whenever your search terms are found on  the web. This is a brilliant way to find out who is talking about you and what they are saying. Then, should anything be derogatory, you can act immediately and make a potentially bad situation good.

Social Mention

Social mention offers you real time social media search and analysis. It’s a bit like Google Alerts but for social media. Basically if anyone mentions your sepcified search term within social media, you’ll receive an email alert. This will help you measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns, alert you to any comments being made about your brand or company or even about you.

Again, Social Mention is very easy to set up. Just complete the fields with the information you want to monitor and create your alerts.

Why do you need to know this?

If you are going to use social media marketing to boost your business, it pays to keep one eye open. Numerous large companies are utilising applications such as Twitter to find out what people are saying about them and their brand. As soon as someone uses twitter, forums, blogs etc to tell the world about the problem they have encountered, the company is alerted and can act immediately.

This proactiveness is what will make you stand out from the crowd and show your customers you really do care.

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Many companies are now beginning to find their feet with social media. They’re getting their heads around tweeting, Facebook. Google Wave and all the other weird and wonderful platforms out there. They are discovering which social media platform to use, they just don’t know how.

But for many, finding customers is still a big issue. Until they can qualify their time spent tweeting etc., with an increase in business they remain sceptical about its uses in the business world.

The key thing to remember is that just because you are using social media doesn’t mean customers will come flooding to your door. It doesn’t work like that. As a business you have to follow customers across the social web.

I came across a blog post the other day that will help you achieve this. Convince and Convert’s “4 Detective tricks to find your customer in social media” will help you understand how to use social media as part of your business.

Sally Ormond - freelance copywriter

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Social media marketing has revolutionised the way businesses interact with their customers.

In the good old days, new clients were found through cold calling, leaflet drops and word of mouth.

Today, you can use Twitter, blogs, Facebook, Google Wave and all manner of Web 2 properties to engage with your audience and win new customers. But all that social media activity can take over your time if you let it.

One of the biggest reasons some businesses don’t use social media is time. Granted, if you’re not organised you can waste an inordinate amount of time Tweeting and blogging. But, if you are disciplined, you can gain great results.

Make social media work for you

If you want to get the best out of social media, you must be strict with yourself and follow these simple rules.

1. It’s not your full time job

It is true that for social media to be effective you must do it regularly. This is because it is all about building relationships with people. The more you talk and engage with them, the more they will grow to trust you. But, never lose sight of the fact that this isn’t your full time job.

Social media is an enhancement to your marketing arsenal. Build it into your weekly work schedule and set aside a specific time for it. Getting into a routine like that will help you keep it under control.

2. Set a time limit

The most addictive and time consuming of all social media is Twitter. It is very easy to trawl through your followers’ tweets – and once you get engrossed in the stream, you may never find your way out again.

If you are going to tweet, make sure you specify a certain amount of time to it and don’t go over it. You can also automate tweets or funnel your blog RSS feed into your Twitter account so you are contributing to the Twitter world without actually being there.

3. Set goals

If you are going to utilise social media as a marketing tool, you must ensure you have specific goals in mind. If you know what you want to get out of it, you’re more likely to achieve results and you will be more likely to use it in a constructive way.

Every blog post and article that you write should have a purpose. They will be used to attract a certain audience, increase traffic to your website or boost your exposure as an expert in your field.

4. Prioritise

The key thing to remember is that your social media activities are secondary. Your primary aims should be your daily work. Therefore as a freelance copywriter my primary aim is to complete the website copywriting project,, brochure, case study or email for my client. Social media is my secondary objective so only when my primary goals have been completed do I make time for blogging, article writing and Twitter.

When using social media marketing always keep an eye on your results. Much of what you do will be measurable so make sure you check the effectiveness of all that you do.

The main thing is that you enjoy social media – it’s about engaging with people, talking to them and sharing information. It is the perfect way to display the human side of your business.

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There are millions of Twitter users out there, but how many of them are using it effectively?

How about you? Do you tweet, and if so, how do you tweet?

How do you get from being a solo tweeter, to a tweeter with a constantly growing number of followers?

Twitter = Conversation

That’s it really. Twitter is all about starting a conversation. It’s not about gathering as many followers as possible in the shortest time. It’s not about sending out constant sales messages.

What is it is about, is talking to people and engaging with them.

As a copywriter I use Twitter a lot and have put together a list of the top ten ways you can engage with people and become seen as an interesting person to follow.

1. Tips and facts

Don’t just send out a constant stream of 140 character adverts for your business. If you do, people won’t follow you.

Give out tips and facts that you think others will find useful. If you’re browsing the web and come across an interesting article, tweet about it and include the link.

2. Retweet and acknowledge

If someone you follow says something interesting or tweets a link you like, retweet it and add your own comment.

3. #FF

The Follow Friday hash tag has been around for a while but it’s still very useful. If you like someone #FF them. If people you follow have #FF someone, take a look at their profile and if you like what you read, follow them.

4. Respond

Always take the time to respond to tweets. Engaging and starting a conversation can lead to friendships or even a new client! If you can help with advice, give it – be generous with your knowledge.

5. Talk about a subject

If someone sends out a tweet about a subject you’re interested in, reply to them. Generate a conversation and encourage others to join in.

6. Introduce yourself

When you get a new follower, introduce yourself to them. You can set automatic responders to new followers but there’s no substitute for the human touch.

7. Pick their brains

Twitter is a gold mine of information just waiting to be tapped. If you have a problem ask for their help. You’ll be amazed at the response you get.

8. Say thank you

Such a simple thing to do and very effective. If someone retweets you or answers your plea for help, say thank you.

9. Ask a question

This is the best way to stimulate a conversation. Ask for opinions and respond to those who tweet back. After all, what’s the point in asking a question if you can’t be bothered to continue the conversation?

10. Put people in touch

If you are following someone who you know will be of interest to others, make an introduction. This way you’ll add value to your network and show yourself as a considerate tweeter.

Twitter can be such a powerful tool, everyone should be using it. Many people still ‘don’t get it’ but that could be down to their not using it properly.

Tweet about what you’re doing, feed your blogs into Twitter, talk about interesting facts, link to fascinating information and start a conversation.

Twitter helps you bring a human touch to your business, so use it.

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Social media marketing is something that every business should be doing. It doesn’t matter what size you are – SME or a large multinational – social media is the way to promote your business.

But it’s not just about PR, social media is also an effective way to monitor your brand and improve your customer service.

So why aren’t you out there doing it?

My time is precious

Although social media marketing isn’t expensive in the traditional sense – you don’t need to invest in large quantities of hardware or software – it is a drain on your time resources.

“I can’t afford to spend that amount of time playing with social media.”

That is the attitude of many businesses. But can you really call it ‘playing’ when you weight up the benefits it will bring your business?

How many other things offer you:

• Unlimited PR opportunities
• Direct contact with your customers to gain insightful feedback
• A way to constantly monitor your brand
• The opportunity to respond to negative feedback in an instant
• The chance to ‘talk’ directly with your customers at any time

But if you still think you don’t have the time to adopt or develop a social media marketing strategy, just think about how life in the office has changed over the years.

Once upon a time people could only phone you at the office, now they can get hold of you anytime thanks to mobile phones. At one time you would find yourself wading through a pile of mail every morning and dealing with all your clients via post. Then came along that new-fangled thing called email – now, you can’t function without it.

Social media marketing is simply the next stage in the communication development.

Embrace it and win

Learn to make time and your business will benefit hugely from this new technology – listen to me, ‘new technology’ – it’s hardly new anymore so why aren’t you doing it?

Work out what you need to do within your company. Which is going to be best for you? Blogging, Twitter, Facebook, article marketing? Probably a mixture.

Then plan who will be dealing with this. This is your opportunity to talk directly to your customers. And remember, the responsibility for your social media marketing strategy doesn’t have to fall solely on one pair of shoulders.

Although you may want just one person dealing with your Twitter account (continuity of voice helps to generate a strong bond with followers and potential clients), there is no reason why you can’t share the blogging responsibilities.

Many companies are tempted to ‘farm out’ this kind of work. As a copywriter I would be happy to help you, but remember that blogging is your opportunity to get your opinions out to your readers. You are trying to build a relationship with them, so using someone outside your company may make this difficult.

By all means use guest bloggers as this can often bring in fresh ideas which you could use to further develop your blog.

There are a huge number of posts out there about using social media, probably telling you similar things to this one. So why are you still ignoring them?

Don’t get left behind. Your competitors are using social media to keep ahead of the game – they know what their customers want (and don’t want) before you do, they know if there is any negative feedback about their business and can deal with it before you know about it. By using social media they will remain one step ahead of you so isn’t it about time you took the initiative to redress the balance.

Social media marketing will help you stay one step ahead of the game or at least remain on a par.

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