by Bruce Newman

Largely because of its extensive reach and low costs, social media has rapidly become an important tool for social causes and non-profit organizations. Through the use of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, email marketing, and numerous other platforms, organizations are able to target and reach huge numbers of potential donors and followers.

Being able to reach such a wide audience can also be a two-edged sword. Particularly in these financially troubled times, social causes and non-profit organizations are inundating a target audience who is increasingly becoming less responsive and more thick-skinned to their postings. This in turn requires that each of these organizations develop and implement an effective strategy designed to meet their specific goals (which can include increasing awareness, fund raising, attending a conference, etc.).

I recently began working with several organizations including Vassar Hospital/Dyson Center, Mid-Hudson Workshop for the Disabled and Kiwannis Club of Poughkeepsie in the following promotion which we posted as a Facebook event (scheduled for March 31^st of this year):

Leukemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow which many children are dying from. You know what’s sad? A LOT of us can help them. A simple cotton swab of your mouth to collect DNA can register you as a donor and a simple procedure can extract your bone marrow to save a life. Consider the HUGE impact you will have if you are a match for someone with leukemia!

(This event is scheduled on Thursday, March 31 from 3-7 pm at Vassar Brother’s Medical Center/Dyson Center for Cancer Care)

As we plan on making this an annual event, here are some more ways that we plan on promoting it using social media:

1. We will be visiting the www.facebook.com/causes app which currently has over 21 million active users. We will also be visiting the causes exchange (exchange.causes.com). This Facebook app will allow us to interact with many people and groups while enabling us to reach out to our Facebook friends.
2. We will probably also create a simple blog on Tumblr because it’s quick and easy (and free).
3. Since there are already numerous organizations involved with Leukemia and DKMS (“where Leukemia meets its match”) – with whom we are already working, we will enhance their Facebook and Twitter efforts by enlisting support and followers. This includes the loading of pictures onto their websites. One thing we don’t want to do is be in competition with anyone while still getting out our message.
4. We also won’t be doing any videos at this point. Although they can be highly effective, if you don’t have a reasonable budget, thousands of fans or a celebrity, they may not generate many completed views or results. Besides, for our specific cause, videos already exist including one by Shaquille O’Neil. If you do decide to use videos, I strongly recommend that you create several of them while making sure that you maintain a consistent theme across every video. (A consistent thread is crucial to a successful social media campaign.)
5. Discussions are also very useful. It’s a great way of building relationships, strategies and followers – particularly if it involves good, thoughtful content. This can be done on Facebook or on a site that promotes groups such as Yahoo Groups or Ning which primarily focuses on the development of a community. The reason why we probably will not use Ning is because we can’t donate the necessary time it requires to maintain and grow a group. Nevertheless, it can be a highly effective platform.
6. We will also use an email campaign to maintain contact with people who have expressed an interest in being a donor. This may include invitations to events, discussions, etc. throughout the year.
7. One thing you should always use social media for is to request help from others. We will be asking all of our friends and contacts to forward or retweet our message to their friends and followers. Remember, it’s social media; it’s supposed to be social and this is for a good cause.

In short, I will be participating in a social cause to help people suffering from childhood leukemia. I have included several of the steps in the social media campaign we recently started as a guide for anyone who would like to work with us or any person or organization looking to promote a social cause.

Bruce Newman is the Vice President at The Productivity Institute, LLC. An expert on social media, Bruce constantly writes and gives talks on many facets of social media including branding, social media strategies and policy.  He has developed winning social media strategies for companies of all sizes along with several well-received social media courses, services and products. Bruce is also the editor of the Productivity Institute Newsletter, a free content-is-king newsletter and thought leader. Follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and the Productivity Institute blog. Bruce can be reached at bnewman@prodinst.com.

by Bruce Newman

This article was originally published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter

Developing a social media marketing campaign has become more demanding as social media technology and popularity continues to evolve.  This seems counterintuitive at first since there are more tools and more people.  However, it also means that there are more people trying to reach and influence each other.  It therefore takes knowledgeable and effective strategizing to create an effective social media marketing campaign.  In short, it requires the 4 S’s – Social, Sharing, Sustain, and Strategize.

Social

The first rule of social media is to be social.  Your communications must be positive, knowledgeable, incisive, thoughtful, etc. It is okay to provide some negative comments provided they are appropriate.  They just must not be nasty, racist or insulting.  Think of when you go to a party and meet new people.  The appropriate behavior you display is similar to your online behavior.

When you are building and maintaining your social networks, you must be social.

Sharing

The purpose of social media is sharing; “pay it forward”.  By providing information and good, relevant content, you provide the basis building up your contact network and branding yourself as an expert of your particular specialty.  Since each social media platform has its own “personality” and followers, it is important to distribute your content across numerous platforms.  In this era of proliferating social media platforms and subscribers, it is important that you utilize social media sharing to share your information with as many people as possible.

Sharing of information that helps brand you as an expert and increases the size of your networks should be provided across multiple social media platforms.

Sustain

The rule in advertising is that people need to hear, read or see a product seven times before it makes a lasting impression.  In social media, this number is impossible to track and largely irrelevant.  What it does denote, however, is the importance of remaining in front of your target audience.  This is accomplished by providing a sustained and consistent effort.  Blogging once a month is insufficient.  One of the key components of a sustained effort includes scrutinizing various analytics to determine which strategies are effective and which are not.  (Scrutiny can almost be considered as the “5th S”.)  Optimally, a blog post created twice a week coupled with sustained effort commenting, asking and answering questions on several social media platforms is far superior.

Sustaining your presence on multiple platforms will help enhance your social media presence, the size of your network and your credentials as an industry leader.

Strategy

In the past few years, the social media realm has grown from a small number of participants to hundreds of million people, many of whom use it daily for extended periods of time.  Given the ease of setting up an initial account and the huge number of subscribers, the difficulty of achieving an effective – and sustainable – social media presence has rapidly increased.  It’s nice to fantasize that a campaign will somehow go viral.  Unfortunately, it’s becoming increasing unlikely as that percentage continues to diminish.  In place of this dream is a campaign that incorporates SEO, possibly some type of paid advertising, blogs and social media to achieve a client’s specific goals.  An effective social media strategy takes significant planning and time to implement.  It does not happen overnight.  However, if effective it will provide substantial and recurring results, usually at a far lower cost than traditional media campaigns.

Utilizing an effective social media strategy across multiple blogs and social media platforms will achieve specific goals.

By adhering to the rules of the 4 S’s - regardless of the product, service or goals you are promoting, you can help ensure the success of any social media marketing campaign.

Bruce Newman is the Vice President at The Productivity Institute, LLC, a leader in locating, evaluating and matching the specific areas of expertise of consultants to the needs of its clients. An expert on social media, Bruce constantly writes and gives talks on many facets of social media including branding, social media strategies and policy.  He has also developed several social media courses, services and products including: Social Media Policy, Social Media Starter Pack, and Maintenance and Management (available through the PI website or by clicking here). In addition, Bruce is the editor of the Productivity Institute Newsletter, a free content-is-king newsletter and thought leader. Follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and the Productivity Institute blog.

by Bruce Newman

This article was originally published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter

Coupons have been around seemingly forever. In social media, however, they have now taken on a new incarnation: groupons.  What’s a groupon?  A groupon is a coupon that requires a predetermined minimum number of people to use it before it becomes effective.

To elucidate further by use of an example, a store offers a coupon for 60% off of some item. However, since this may be a drastic reduction, it needs to make a minimum number of sales for this promotion to be cost effective.  It sets this minimum and the percentage off for the product when creating the groupon.  Using the groupon, a buyer will purchase the item at the reduced price with their credit card.  However, the charge won’t be made and the purchase won’t be completed until the specified minimum number of groupons are used by interested buyers.  For this reason, buyers are encouraged to use social media – such as Facebook, Twitter and mobile – to tell other potential buyers about the sale.  The seller wins because it gets a lot of publicity and – potentially - moves a lot of merchandise. The buyers win because they get a large group discount and Groupon wins because its user base continues to increase.  In Groupon’s first nationwide campaign which just ended, it partnered with the Gap by offering $50 worth of apparel for $25 (a 50% groupon).  This resulted in 441,000 groupons and over $11 million in sales.  Did the Gap make a profit on the sale? Probably, but more importantly, it generated a huge audience and brand awareness.

Since the software behind this popular group model is rather simple, a growing number of sites are also offering group coupons – usually with a twist or specific market emphasis.  Some of these sites include: livingsocial, adility, 8coupons and even Zagat.  The food and restaurant industry is very intrigued by this model.  Baskin & Robbins used this model (in part) to help build their fan page to over 722,000 fans.

Increasingly, the goal of many social media campaigns is to build community and enhance brand recognition.  Chris Gayton, Gap’s Senior Director reported that it uses social media to reach people and direct them to Gap’s website where 70% of them make a purchase at a Gap store.  So, while the 441,000 groupons were generated by the Gap’s promotion, the real benefit was probably the number of people who were directed to their site.

Many campaigns are starting to emphasize brand exposure and effective campaign strategy.  As a test, on April 16th of this year, McDonald’s ran a campaign on Foursquare that involved the random offering of 100 gift cards in denominations of $5 and $10 to people who checked in through Foursquare.  Although the entire campaign totaled less than $1,000, it was able to increase McDonald’s foot traffic nationwide on that day by 33%.  Success stories also abound for restaurants with only one location.

Social media is rapidly gaining in importance to most businesses.  It has greatly increased connectedness to levels that will only increase as additional social and mobile technologies are developed.  It can greatly enhance brand and company recognition while deriving significant additional business and since this technology is horizontal, it is applicable to most businesses regardless of their size.

Not all companies can sell 441,000 groupons but most would happily settle for a 33% increase in traffic in exchange for a minimal time and financial expenditure.

Bruce Newman is the Vice President at The Productivity Institute, LLC, a leader in locating, evaluating and matching the specific areas of expertise of consultants to the needs of its clients. An expert on social media, Bruce constantly writes and gives talks on many facets of social media including branding, social media strategies and policy.  He has developed several social media courses, his latest course being the Social Media Starter Pack. In addition, Bruce is the editor of the Productivity Institute Newsletter, a free content-is-king newsletter and thought leader. Follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and the Productivity Institute blog. Email: bnewman@prodinst.com

by Bruce Newman

   This article was originally published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter

Social media is constantly evolving.  With over 400 million Facebook users alone, it has rapidly become the most common activity on the Internet.  Yet, many companies are either unaware or have decided to ignore the two-sided nature and power of social media.

People are greatly influenced by what they hear from other people.  For example, if I want to buy a new car and several people I know tell me that they have had a terrible experience with the type of car I am considering, they will influence my decision and my thought process even if I decided to go ahead and purchase that particular car.

We can readily extend this scenario into the social media realm.  Now, when I tell the world about the car I am thinking of buying, literally thousands of people can weigh-in on their experience – or purported experience and in all likelihood influence my decision.  And that’s the power of social media – for better or worse. 

People are readily influenced by what they read about in social media.  A recent survey reported that 68% of people can be influenced by what they read online.  Furthermore, if they read something negative about a product or service they are considering, 53% of the readers will look into a competitor’s offering.  A second study found that 67% of Facebook fans and 51% of Twitter followers were influenced by comments made from other users on those respective platforms.  It is therefore important for companies to quickly respond to negative – or positive - comments on social media.  It doesn’t matter if they are realistic or not, a prompt response is important.

Prior to the Internet, when a customer had a problem with a product, he or she would just complain to the company or its assigned representatives – few other people, if any, were made aware of the problem.  That is no longer the case.  If someone has a problem with a product and tweets about it, the whole world can rapidly become aware of it.

Fortunately, social media also provides the means of rapidly responding to people’s comments and complaints.  Many large companies have set up teams that constantly search blogs and social media looking for some reference to their company.  One such company, Starbucks for example, has been known to issue coupons for free drinks for people who have tweeted with a problem or complaint.  This is not to say that social media can be used to rectify a problem, only that it can provide a (hopefully) friendly interface through which companies can rapidly and more inexpensively interact with their customers.

In preparation for a recent talk, I looked up a major computer company’s fan page to see what people were discussing and how that company was handling it.  Given its positive reputation and technical savvy, I was stunned to read the comments on the page almost unanimously panning its products.  In fact, one person even wrote, “Hey, don’t you want to do something about all of these negative comments?  Do you think anyone is going to buy one of your machines after reading this?”   (The company’s surprisingly latent reaction was to merely remove the fan page.)

Customer service can greatly enhance or detract from a company’s reputation.  Fast and helpful customer service will enhance the customer experience.  Considering the extremely high cost of customer acquisition and that existing customers will spend over seven times as much as a new customer, monitoring social media and creating an effective online customer service response – even for a small company, can greatly enhance a company’s reputation and sales.

Bruce Newman is the Vice President at The Productivity Institute, LLC, a leader in locating, evaluating and matching the specific areas of expertise of consultants to the needs of its clients.  An expert on social media, Bruce constantly writes and gives talks on many facets of social media including branding, social media strategies and policy.  He has also developed several social media courses, services and products including: Social Media Policy, Social Media Starter Pack, and Maintenance and Management (available through the PI website or by clicking here). In addition, Bruce is the editor of the Productivity Institute Newsletter, a free content-is-king newsletter and thought leader.  Follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and the Productivity Institute blog.

by Bruce Newman

   This article was originally published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter

Traditional marketing programs emphasize the importance of the 4 P’s (Product, Price, Place (distribution), and Promotion).  Utilizing various combinations of these components allow marketers to reach many different target markets.

The growth of social media transformed the 4 P’s into the 4 R’s (Review, Respond, Record, and Redirect). 
• Review – what the social media community is saying about you
• Respond – appropriately and accurately to any postings or comments
• Record – providing short videos that inform and educate
    Note: I prefer Recognize – brand recognition and its promotion/evolution
• Redirect – providing content across multiple sites to improve visibility and search engine rankings.

They are not as established as the 4 P’s but perhaps that is because of their “newness”; after all, social media has only been around for a few years.

Nevertheless, I think they can be improved.  As companies are increasingly viewing social media as both a networking and business tool, they need a foundation which espouses its key principles.

Recently, while I was working on a presentation that discussed the 4 R’s, my wife came over and asked, shouldn’t I use the 4 S’s for social media?  Upon reflection, I thought she had made a valid point and subsequently developed the 4 S’s.  As a test, I discussed both the 4 R’s and the 4 S’s during my presentation and asked the audience which they preferred.  The overwhelming response favored the 4 S’s.

The 4 S’s
• Social – being sociable and appropriate is #1
• Sharing – share your relevant content and profiles across multiple social media sites
• Sustain – your presence by consistently providing appropriate and substantive responses to any postings or comments
• Strategy – create and implement an effective social media plan

The 4 S’s exemplify the behavior and potential of social media. 

Social
Of primary importance is sociability.  If you’re not sociable, honest and conscientious, you will not be successful in this medium.  It is these interactions with people and communities that will form the basis for all subsequent communications. 

Sharing
While doing this, you should share valuable and relevant content – of any format - with peers and your community, sometimes across multiple social media platforms, when appropriate.  One aspect that is extremely important and yet frequently overlooked is the completion of your profile(s) on each social media platform since almost all of them have a personal and business component. 

Sustain
Increasingly, companies are using social media for real time interactions with prospects, customers and interested respondents.  Sustaining a presence through new entries – often across multiple platforms – and quickly servicing posts and comments on a regular basis can help brand a company as an industry leader.

Strategy
Given the number of social media users, the large number of social media platforms, and its growing ranking relevance, developing and implementing an effective strategy to achieve your goals is rapidly becoming a necessity.  Just having a Facebook page for example, is no longer sufficient.

By following the guidelines of the 4 S’s, you will have the foundation upon which to build an effective and strategic social media presence to help achieve your goals.

Bruce Newman is the Vice President at The Productivity Institute, LLC, a leader in locating, evaluating and matching the specific areas of expertise of consultants to the needs of its clients.  An expert on social media, Bruce constantly writes and gives talks on many facets of social media including branding, social media strategies and policy.  He has also developed several social media training courses. In addition, Bruce is the editor of the Productivity Institute Newsletter, a free content-is-king newsletter and thought leader.  Follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter and the Productivity Institute blog.

by Bruce Newman

   This article was originally published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter

Who would have thought 140 characters would be so pervasive? Not I, I admit.  And yet, Twitter has in several ways simply overpowered the social media landscape.

It’s hard to believe this has occurred. When you consider that 58% of Twitter users generate less than ten tweets and that the top 5% of users are responsible for 75% of the updates, it becomes readily apparent that a relative few are driving this entire platform.  The attention that Twitter has generated, however, has greatly eviscerated these statistics.

On November 10, 2009, Twitter and LinkedIn announced an agreement in which recent tweets would now be available from within LinkedIn and recent changes to LinkedIn updates could become tweets.  Since LinkedIn is a highly successful social media platform targeted for business professionals, this agreement represents a huge – and at no risk or expense – step for Twitter in building its business appeal and credentials.

This follows recent agreements between Twitter and Google and Twitter and Microsoft to index twitter messages in their respective Google and Bing search engines.  The advantage for Microsoft and Google is that their searches will now include real time input.  How they will present Twitter search results and how it affects their indexing and search algorithms is yet to be determined.  Regardless, it provides additional credibility and relevance to Twitter and the need to even more closely follow existing search engine rankings.

It should be noted that the purpose of this article isn’t to disparage Twitter, only to recognize its ever-growing reach.  Twitter provides real time information and feedback that can be crucial to the functioning and perception of many companies. Some companies have implemented successful Twitter (and social media) strategies.  However, the majority of companies have placed more emphasis on other social media platforms or excluded Twitter entirely.

Most importantly, how will this affect an end user?  At this point, it’s hard to tell.  Just by the nature of its agreements, Twitter’s value has increased and it must be given more credence when plotting social strategy.  If you use LinkedIn, for example, you should continue to regularly update your profile since people in your network will be automatically notified.  How will it affect search engine rankings?  Again, it’s too early to tell.  However, since search engines are putting more emphasis on context, person information and social media activity, the incorporation of a strategy that includes Twitter has now assumed greater importance.

All of these developments in this rapidly changing social media world denote its fluid nature and what has becoming increasingly apparent; the need for companies to implement a comprehensive strategy that allows them to effectively utilize social media to achieve their goals.
 
Bruce Newman is the Vice President at The Productivity Institute, LLC, a leader in locating, evaluating and matching the specific areas of expertise of consultants to the needs of its clients.  An expert on social media, Bruce constantly writes and gives talks on many facets of social media including branding, social media strategies and policy.  He has also developed several social media training courses. In addition, Bruce is the editor of the Productivity Institute Newsletter, a free content-is-king newsletter and thought leader.  Follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter and the Productivity Institute blog.

by Bruce Newman

   This article was originally published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter

There are currently over 200 million blogs on the Internet.  54% of all bloggers post content or tweet daily.  34% of bloggers post opinions about products or brands.  The highest percentage of new bloggers are people in the 55-65 years old range.

These are amazing numbers and statistics.  They indicate the importance of blogging for both business and personal reasons. Blogging for business allows companies to gain attention, enhance market share, announce new products and be branded as an industry leader.  Positive buzz is extremely important, particularly since so many bloggers will readily post their opinions about a product or brand (which also denotes the need for a solid social media policy).  Conversely, blogging for personal reasons is often simply because people feel the need to write or to be heard.

With this huge number of blogs and new content, it is becoming increasingly difficult to stand out from the din.  Increasingly, a strategy must be employed for a blog to be successful.  Being a very good writer is no longer sufficient – unless you work for the New York Times or are very famous.  If you’re not in these categories, here are five important keys that will help your blog be successful.

1. Know your goals and target market

Determine the goals of your blog.  Is it to generate attention for your website or brand you as an industry leader?  Is it mainly to communicate with others?  Do you just want to provide information or use it as a political platform?  There are many different goals.  Select only one as your main goal and if applicable, several secondary goals which, when achieved will help you reach your main goal.

You must also know your target market – including your competition.  The more you know about how people are reacting to other blogs and what is triggering their reactions, the better idea you will have concerning what actions you must take to achieve your goals.

Knowing your target market also includes determining the keywords that you should scatter in all your posts and include in your titles.

2. Plan a mix of posts

Just straight text is not sufficient.  Augmenting your posts with videos or pictures will enhance their value.  It will also provide a basis for content distribution (as discussed in point 4, below). What is most important, however, is that you supply excellent content, for it is this content that will continue to drive people to your site and follow you.

Writing great headlines will also attract attention.  Since searches by keyword are extremely important, make sure to include them in both your headline and content.

3. Publish regularly

You must publish regularly.  If you stop publishing, the world will go on without you and you will be quickly forgotten.  No matter how loyal your readers or followers are, unless you write regularly, you will lose them.  The best solution is to establish a writing schedule. Twice a week is good, three times is even better.

4. Spread it around

Remember, your world does not revolve only around blog and maybe a handful of social media platforms.  Twitter and Facebook are important, but so are many other relevant blogs and sites - particularly if the target market of your article matches their specific niche.

5. Listen

Comments that reflect your article content are great. Definitely respond to them.  It will help develop a dialog that will attract more subscribers and attention.  Unfortunately, too many people respond with inane comments such as, “I learned a lot” in order so they can generate back links to their websites.  You can ignore them, set a no-follow flag so they don’t get credit for their links or review all the comments before allowing them to display.  My personal preference is that people who provide thoughtful feedback should get back links (if they want them).  They should be rewarded for their thoughts and I enjoy read and responding to their comments.  I’ve started some great dialogs and made some good friends as a result.  But, because I do allow back links, I must approve (or ignore or spam) each comment first before I allow it to be published.

Blogging is an important part of any social media campaign.  By following these five steps, you significantly enhance its success.

Bruce Newman is the Vice President at The Productivity Institute, LLC, a leader in locating, evaluating and matching the specific areas of expertise of consultants to the needs of its clients.  An expert on social media, Bruce constantly writes and gives talks on many facets of social media including branding, social media strategies and policy.  He has also developed several social media training courses. In addition, Bruce is the editor of the Productivity Institute Newsletter, a free content-is-king newsletter and thought leader.  Follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter and the Productivity Institute blog.

by Bruce Newman

   This article was originally published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter

The lure of social media is very strong.  Every day, we hear new statistics about its growing popularity, some YouTube video going viral or someone’s tweet (or response). Social media is now the most popular activity on the Internet and its appeal crosses all age and gender demographics. But that doesn’t mean that we should assume it’s the wherewithal for everything.

People used to believe that all they needed to create an Internet business was a website and that prospective customers would be automatically drawn to it.  That turned out to be untrue.  Today, many companies utilize advertising, search engine optimization and campaign planning to help generate Internet business.  “Build it and they will come”, is certainly not a winning mantra.

Social media falls in that same category.  Just because you may have a Twitter or Facebook account does not mean that you will become a social leader or even that people will follow you.  It’s not automatic and it won’t happen overnight.

When using social media, it is very important to create realistic social media goals.  If you’re Oprah, having a million twitter followers is realistic.  If you’re Bruce Newman, it’s not.  (In fact, I wouldn’t even want one million followers but that’s for another article when I discuss quantity vs. quality.)

Rules to live by:

1. Set realistic goals. They can be as simple as writing two articles a week or achieving 150 first level contacts in LinkedIn.  How you reach these 150 contacts, how frequently and to what extent you communicate with them and the building of the relationships is crucial.

2. Create a feasible social media strategy. Depending on your goals, this strategy may be simple or complex but it must be reasonable.  Of key importance is the realistic determination of the amount of time – usually on a daily basis depending on your goals – that it will require.

3. Do not be enticed by large numbers of followers.  It’s easy to generate large numbers of followers.  Along with the development of many social media sites has come the onslaught of automatic marketing programs designed to increase the number of followers.  Interestingly, what these programs don’t tell you is that a smaller number of active people in your network (i.e. followers, true friends, etc.) will provide a far superior response than a much larger number of random people who you count as contacts or followers. 

4. Realize that it takes months to generate a sizeable following.  Building relationships takes time; it doesn’t happen overnight.  As an analogy, think of meeting someone new at a party.  You like them and want to become friends (or more).  It may happen, but will take both time and effort to occur.  The same holds true for social media except that these relationships are instead, digital.

5. Follow the rules of proper social etiquette – be respectful, helpful and authentic.  In short, be yourself.  And be helpful.  

6. Don’t get frustrated. Social media is not a race. Ever hear baseball players say that the baseball season is not a sprint, but a marathon?  Think of social media in a similar fashion, though maybe as a half-marathon.  If your goals are realistic and you don’t reach them, fine.  Adjust them.  That’s the normal sequence of any plan – create and constantly adjust as you move forward.  The key thing here is to not get frustrated and stray from your original goals and plans (provided they were indeed realistic).  Many potentially successful social media campaigns have been prematurely cancelled or extensively re-worked because of insufficient time constraints or frustration.

Social media has opened the world to a tremendously exciting and interactive means of communication.  By properly abiding by its rules, understanding its strengths and limitations and by setting realistic goals, you too can benefit from its enormous potential.

Bruce Newman is the Vice President at The Productivity Institute, LLC, a leader in locating, evaluating and matching the specific areas of expertise of consultants to the needs of its clients.  An expert on social media, Bruce constantly writes and gives talks on many facets of social media including branding, social media strategies and policy.  He has also developed several social media training courses. In addition, Bruce is the editor of the Productivity Institute Newsletter, a free content-is-king newsletter and thought leader.  Follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter and the Productivity Institute blog.

by Bruce Newman

   This article was originally published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter

The importance of social media in business is rapidly increasing.  In fact, Google has already started to include several aspects of social media in its page rank calculations.  What previously worked in achieving a high page ranking may be rapidly losing its effectiveness. 

The list below depicts many of the steps you should take to effectively utilize social networking.  By following some or all of these steps, you will help improve your page ranking while greatly increasing the number and quality of the people who follow you.  Merely signing up on several social media sites is no longer adequate.

1.  Join at least three social networking sites.  The top three are: LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.  All have strengths and limitations but most importantly, they have large, vibrant communities and groups you can join.

2. Always ensure that your profile is complete.  Update it regularly as many media sites will automatically publish that updated information.

3. Search for key people in your target area and closely observe their actions and the groups they belong to. This will supply you with insight as you develop your own strategy.

4. Find specific groups that are relevant to your target area. Join them and become active.

5. Add value and content to the groups by blogging and commenting on both articles and forums.  Make sure your contact information and a link accompanies with your comments.

6. Ask questions.  Generally, the more specific the question, the fewer number of responses but they will be of a higher quality.

7. Make friend requests to people who make comments to you.  A direct reply is a powerful additional step you can also take.

8. Publish your articles in your blog and on multiple sites.  Ensure that it can be announced and bookmarked on other sites.

These steps will help generate a following.  They take more time and effort than just signing up for the numerous automated tools and groups that are available, but it will enable you to become a thought leader with a significant following and most likely, an improved page rank. 

Bruce Newman is the Vice President at The Productivity Institute, LLC, an acknowledged leader in locating, evaluating and matching the specific areas of expertise of consultants to the needs of its clients.  Bruce has started writing and giving talks on many facets of social media including branding, social media strategies and policy.  He has also developed several social media training courses. In addition, Bruce is the editor of the Productivity Institute Newsletter, a free content-is-king newsletter and thought leader.  Follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter and the Productivity Institute blog.

by Bruce Newman

   This article was originally published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter

There are two aspects involving traffic to your website and blog: attracting visitors and retaining them once they arrive.  In this article, I will focus on strategies that will bring them to your site.  In a subsequent article, I will discuss various visitor retention strategies.  Both sets of strategies denote the importance of social media and utilizing productive strategies.

1. Provide constant, informative content.  This can be done across a wide variety of media – blogs, video, podcasts, etc., with the key criteria being that it must contain good, relevant content.  And, it must be original.  People receive few accolades (if any) for retweeting articles on Twitter.

2. Make comments.  Find industry leaders and leave meaningful comments on their blogs and articles.  Omit such inane comments as, “I learned a lot from your article”, which are very common and of little value.  In fact, they might negatively predispose people towards you.  Instead, spend a few minutes providing some thoughtful response or even a simple but well thought out question.  People will take note of your comments and may respond directly to you.  Most importantly, make sure that you always include your contact information and a link with your comments.

3. Use keywords.  I can’t stress enough the importance of keywords.  Make sure your articles use them – particularly in the titles or in any paragraphs that use bold or italicized text.  Simply put, search engines love them.  If you are not currently using keywords, start using them immediately.  There are several good programs out there you can use.  There are also many keyword “experts” available but be careful - they can charge megabucks and not deliver much value.  The cost of a good keyword service should be around $500.

4. Use social networking.  Remember, it’s not designed to sell – only to inform.  You will get a lot better response by providing the quality content mentioned above than by saying, “Buy my product or service”.  Social media is defined as the sharing of information within groups or organizations.  Join these groups and become active.  The more value you supply, the more people will become aware of your presence and what you have to offer.

5. Join and participate in forums.  A good friend of mine constantly posted to a technical forum, offering quality suggestions and content.  As a result, he received several job offers from companies seeking his expertise – and they approached him.  (He’s also very good.)

6. Offer something for free.  It could be an e-book, a free consultation, information, a contest or survey results (if they participate), etc.  As long as people perceive - and receive - value, you will accomplish two things: first, you will generate buzz and help distinguish yourself as a thought leader and two, you will generate traffic and probably new business.

Building traffic to your website or blog can be a time-consuming and frustrating process.  Furthermore, it rarely happens immediately as it’s truly a gradual process.  However, if done properly and consistently, it should ensure a steadily increasing stream of traffic – and results.

Bruce Newman is the Vice President at The Productivity Institute, LLC, an acknowledged leader in locating, evaluating and matching the specific areas of expertise of consultants to the needs of its clients.  Bruce has started writing and giving talks on the power of social media and how to harness it to improve brand awareness and sales. He is also the editor of the Productivity Institute Newsletter, a free content-is-king newsletter and thought leader.  Follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter and the Productivity Institute blog.