Getting people to like you... on Facebook

Image via CrunchBase

Someone sent me this after seeing it on socialmediatoday, so I thought I would share. As it turns out, though I'm sure some of us have had the inkling all along, earning Facebook likes for your business isn't exactly rocket science.

5 Tips to Getting More Likes on Your Facebook Page

What I learned?

• Be fun, people like fun
• Content, content, content
• Ask questions
• Self promote
• Put your Facebook URL on everything

If you have anything to add, let me know in the comments below!

Building Trust through Social Media: Crisis Management via Tweet

Image via CrunchBase

I ran across this article on Bloomberg Businessweek.com about how Comcast communicates with disgruntled customers over Twitter. There is a lot of literature on the web about crisis management over social media, and Comcast follows the general rules that most of it swears by. But the really great thing about this article was that it followed around Frank, "Comcast's Twitter Man," as he interacted with customers. Essentially, we got to see him in action. Here is how Frank goes about his day:

1. Searches Comcast on Twitter many times daily
2. Reads all related Tweets that turn up
3. Responds directly to the customers tweeting about Comcast

Seems really simple, right? And though Comcast is a large company, similar strategies for handling crises directly and publicly over social media can work for smaller companies and credit unions as well. Some tips that I picked up from the way Frank communicated with customers:

• Respond quickly.
• Ask questions to be sure you understand the problem, and that your customer feels that you are listening.
• Be friendly, and help as best you can. If further communication is needed, DM the customer and ask for their phone number or email address.
• No matter what the complaint is, even if it doesn't seem legitimate, respond with the same level of care.
• Use punctuation carefully. Don't be afraid of smiley faces and exclamation points, but use them only when appropriate.

Do you have any experiences with handling crises over Twitter, or social media in general?

Cyborg Anthropology

Amber Case: We are all cyborgs now | Video on TED.com
Huh?

That was my first reaction. But as I listened to Amber Case talk about her fascination with human connectivity--I started to make some connections of my own.

At any one time we have access to any of the number of people in our cell phone--we can stand on one side of the world, whisper something, and it can be heard on the other, she says. This ability doesn't just make the world a 'smaller' place, but it also makes us more human.

"We are co-creating each other all the time," says Case.

Does this apply to businesses as well? Absolutely it does. With the advancement of social media, businesses are being co-created by their clientele. In fact businesses start to take on their own 'second self.' An online presence becomes an interface that consumers interact with. Brands become more human, developing personalities.

And as a result, cohesive branding is now more important than ever. A business, when interacting with customers, needs to have a consistent personality that grows with its client base--not ahead of it. Social media allows businesses to create functioning relationships with consumers, but in order to prosper they need to build trust.

How does an entity, like a business, build a trust-based relationship with consumers?
This will be the focus of my next few entries. For now enjoy this video, and let me know what you think!

Is email marketing dying?

Tying into my theme of social media, is the string of media channels that have to adapt as social media develops.

Does your business make use of e-newsletters, or mass email promotions? More than likely would be my best guess. It feels like nearly every time I visit a website, store or restaurant, I'm asked to sign up to join their 'super-savers' or 'VIP' club--and somewhere on their form they ask for my email address.

I used to think seriously before giving my email address, but it limited so much of what I could do online or prohibited me from having access to great discounts, so I usually caved. But I, and many of my friends, have out-smarted these email marketers. I give them the address to a dummy email account that I created. It is a real email address, but I only check it every few months (if at all) to clean it out. I maybe read 5 out of every 100 emails that I receive on that account. I loathe sorting through them; it's all junk and while the coupons might have been valuable, they weren't as valuable as the time it would have taken to sort through them and print them off.

So I have to ask--if say 1 in every 4 consumers gave a dummy email address like I do, how effective is email marketing really? Is it a waste of money?

A blog I ran across by a man named Scott Kraus predicted the death of email marketing--well not exactly. Rather, he predicted the death of email marketing as we know it.

I tend to agree. As social media becomes more social, and more interactive, one-way mass email communications from a brand to its consumer become less relevant. In fact, as fast as people are subscribing to email lists, they are unsubscribing--citing reasons like being emailed too frequently, receiving too many un-relevant emails, or receiving too many repetitive or boring emails.

The answer it seems is not to send more emails, but to send targeted, relevant emails to a more specific niche of comsumers.

Check out the blog here for more information.

Social Media and Gender

As the media landscape changes, so does the way we approach age and gender groups in our media planning. People no longer fit into neat categories by age and gender (not that they ever really did!), so we must approach our goals and strategy differently as a result.

This recent post on TED.com further discusses the implications of these changes.



Johanna Blakley is the Deputy Director of the Norman Lear Center (a media-focused think tank at the University of Southern California). She studies the impact of mass media and entertainment on our world.

A blog about blogging: Part 1

NOTE: I'm turning over the reins a bit here. As we work through our list of social media topics, we're going to be covering over the next few weeks, I'm letting Sara (our assistant writer and PR specialist) weigh in on the topic of "blogging" for this particular post. Please feel free to leave comments for both of us here!

Blogging is perhaps one of the oldest forms of social media. A blog can be a great tool for sharing knowledge and building relationships with family, friends, consumers and other businesses.

This entry is part I of a series about blogging that I will be linking to various articles/blogs on the subject.

What is a blog?

Blogging is writing a few paragraphs every few days or so and posting them online and hoping that someone will stumble upon it, read it, and find themselves interested in your business, or at least your expertise, right?

WRONG! There's a lot to blogging that a lot of beginning bloggers (and some veterans) don't consider. Some of it is technical--they don't know how to use the tools that their blogging platform provides for them to reach out to new readers. That, I will cover later. Right now we are going to consider the most basic blogging blunder, which in addition to terrible alliteration, is publishing unfocused content.

The articles you publish on your blog are what your readers come to read. But it is important to recognize that you want to attract a faithful audience that will return to your blog frequently to read and comment on posts. To do that, you need to focus on a specific audience that you want to attract the attention of, and gear your content toward their interests and needs.

What questions are they asking on Twitter? What topics are they most interested in? Write about it. Even if you are hoping to attract a broad and diverse audience, you need to start small. If you get a group of followers that are regularly reading your blog, rely on them to spread the word and link to your posts.

Also, remember that blogging is as much, if not more, of a learning process for the blogger than the reader. Constantly be looking for new information to share. The more you read, the more of an expert you will become on a topic and the easier it will be to establish yourself as one.

Thirdly, create boundaries. These boundaries will keep you from publishing articles outside your area of expertise, and keep your blogs short and reader-friendly. One rule I like to follow: The mini-skirt rule. Make sure your blog entries are long enough to cover the subject, but short enough to keep it interesting.

For more info, check out this blog from buildabetterblog.com:
http://www.buildabetterblog.com/2010/09/3-secrets-of-great-content-creation.html

You can contact Sara and Elisa at: bigideas@kearley.com for more information.

Social Media Policies - Getting Started

Before you to get in the game of social media, my suggestion is to spend some time as an organization discussing strategy and policy behind these initiatives.

Here's a good starter list I found on mashable.com that will give you some ideas as you begin the process of defining a social media policy for your particular organization.

1. Introduce the purpose of social media
"...All policies need to address what’s in it for the reader/user — what should the reader take away after reading the policy?"

2. Be responsible for what you write
"... Your organization and its representatives need to take responsibility for what they write, and exercise good judgment and common sense."

3. Be authentic
"...Consumers buy from people that they know and trust, so let people know who you are."

4. Consider your audience

5. Exercise good judgment

6. Understand the concept of community

7. Respect copyrights and fair use

8. Remember to protect confidential & proprietary info

9. Bring value

10. Productivity matters

I've condensed the list for this post, but click here to read entire article.

Start by defining your purpose, then take steps to set up a social media policy for the organization. Because social media is a relatively new arena for some industry sectors, I think a good approach is to have some stuff defined and clearly articulated, but to recognize that your policy is subject to develop organically in reaction to situations.

I mentioned mashable.com previously - it's a great resource for web and social media news and info. You can also do a quick search on "Social Media Policy" and find a number of resources as well as view a variety of organizations' policies.

Lastly, try and establish a policy that echoes your brand. Tom's TOMS shoes would probably approach differently than an American Airlines. So you want to ensure your policy, and therefore your social media efforts, are in-line with your brand and your brand messaging.

A Look at Social Media from Two Different Perspectives

A friend of mine sent this to me. I actually hear comments along these lines from people not too much older or younger than myself, so I'm not sure it's generational as much as personal preference. I think a number of people share this view.




The flip-side of that view: I thought this video was a cool way to explain the role that social media plays for consumers.






A couple thoughts on social media for those looking to enter this area. When choosing what social media you want to use, consider how you would use it. Only use as many as you have the resources to keep updated, and only use the ones that best serve your purposes. Are you looking to network with other businesses or business people? Try LinkedIn. Are you looking to interact with consumers? Try Facebook. Are you looking to share knowledge or keep consumers aware of what's going on within your company? Try blogging or Twitter. But you want to appear active and involved no matter what social media outlet(s) you choose, so do not overextend yourself.

Tell us - How are you using social media for yourself or for your organization?