Part one of a two-part series. Part 2 here.
Do any of these social media maladies sound familiar in your business?
The Shotgun Wedding: the proverbial gun in your back to get your social media presences going.
The “Two Twitters and a Facebook” Directive: the boss wants to keep up with the competition and he wants it now.
The NTBE Bug: No Time, Budget or Expertise.
If so, you are not alone. Businesses are flocking to social media sites in droves, often in an urgent effort to be hip, to connect with customers on their own turf, or as a fresh way to engage them.
Your customers want something else. They want relevant information where and how they like it, a personalized view of it, and ways they can share it in their own web spaces.
To truly bridge the two, a well-planned social media strategy is important to long-term success, but in the meantime there is lots of tactical “socializing” you can do.
Five easy ways are: using social media to support search results; using it with your web site; within your email marketing; for your events; and in your loyalty programs.
These five tactics are a good start to getting you on board with social media, meeting some social customer expectations, and for curing that NTBE bug. Let’s look at two of them to start.
Social Media and Search
Search is key to your “inbound marketing” - that is, the way customers find you.
Hubspot finds that companies that have blogs get 55% more web traffic. And a recent study found consumers exposed to a brand’s social media were more than twice as likely to click on its unpaid search links, and almost three times more likely to search for the brand’s products.
Social media can work hand-in-hand with your search optimization by socializing your existing content (your white papers, presentations, videos, etc.).
Your Web content can be distributed onto social platforms, expanding the concept of your “Web site” to your “Web presence” – linking them all to each other and to your Web site. This creates more search results, more places for people to find you, and allows them to choose formats that fit their personal information habits.
For example, “socialize” that whitepaper by making it available on your web site, upload it to Scribed, summarize it in a PowerPoint presentation and upload it to Slideshare and Scribed, videotape a brief interview about the topic and upload it to YouTube and iTunes, embed the video or slide presentation into your LinkedIn profile. How about a Google Knol on the topic?
Don’t forget to “optimize” this distributed content with links to your website, choosing a clear title, including keywords in the description, and using any “tag” feature to enter words or categories people might associate with the subject matter.
Social Media and Your Website
An essential social feature is RSS – Really Simple Syndication. It is a small bit of web code that people use to subscribe to and receive your updated content in their personal news items. The easiest way to add it to your web presence is to publish your newsletter or updates on a blog. RSS is built into blogs.
On your website, invite social followers by placing icons and links to your distributed content, such as on Slideshare, LinkedIn, or YouTube. This helps visitors find your official social accounts.
Use social widgets to bring social content onto your website. Widgets are simple ”cut and paste” applications for this very purpose that require no programming expertise. Most social services offer you free widgets, but there are thousands available.
Some essential website widgets:
Cross-posted from my article in the Orange County Local News Network.
Do any of these social media maladies sound familiar in your business?
The Shotgun Wedding: the proverbial gun in your back to get your social media presences going.
The “Two Twitters and a Facebook” Directive: the boss wants to keep up with the competition and he wants it now.
The NTBE Bug: No Time, Budget or Expertise.
If so, you are not alone. Businesses are flocking to social media sites in droves, often in an urgent effort to be hip, to connect with customers on their own turf, or as a fresh way to engage them.
Your customers want something else. They want relevant information where and how they like it, a personalized view of it, and ways they can share it in their own web spaces.
To truly bridge the two, a well-planned social media strategy is important to long-term success, but in the meantime there is lots of tactical “socializing” you can do.
Five easy ways are: using social media to support search results; using it with your web site; within your email marketing; for your events; and in your loyalty programs.
These five tactics are a good start to getting you on board with social media, meeting some social customer expectations, and for curing that NTBE bug. Let’s look at two of them to start.
Social Media and Search
Search is key to your “inbound marketing” - that is, the way customers find you.
Hubspot finds that companies that have blogs get 55% more web traffic. And a recent study found consumers exposed to a brand’s social media were more than twice as likely to click on its unpaid search links, and almost three times more likely to search for the brand’s products.
Social media can work hand-in-hand with your search optimization by socializing your existing content (your white papers, presentations, videos, etc.).
Your Web content can be distributed onto social platforms, expanding the concept of your “Web site” to your “Web presence” – linking them all to each other and to your Web site. This creates more search results, more places for people to find you, and allows them to choose formats that fit their personal information habits.
Don’t forget to “optimize” this distributed content with links to your website, choosing a clear title, including keywords in the description, and using any “tag” feature to enter words or categories people might associate with the subject matter.
Social Media and Your Website
An essential social feature is RSS – Really Simple Syndication. It is a small bit of web code that people use to subscribe to and receive your updated content in their personal news items. The easiest way to add it to your web presence is to publish your newsletter or updates on a blog. RSS is built into blogs.
On your website, invite social followers by placing icons and links to your distributed content, such as on Slideshare, LinkedIn, or YouTube. This helps visitors find your official social accounts.
Use social widgets to bring social content onto your website. Widgets are simple ”cut and paste” applications for this very purpose that require no programming expertise. Most social services offer you free widgets, but there are thousands available.
Some essential website widgets:
- A sharing widget: let people instantly share your web page to their networks;
- Ratings, rankings or polls: insert reviews automatically or get input from visitors using polls;
- Twitter and Facebook widgets: bring your Twitter or Facebook posts onto your web pages;
- YouTube channel: website visitors can browse your video library without leaving your site.
Cross-posted from my article in the Orange County Local News Network.
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