Social Media Tips for 2016

Companies vary in their usage and understanding of social media.  Some are just starting out, while others have been leveraging several social media platforms to listen to what the market is saying about them, engaging with their customers and finding new ones through social media.  For B2B and B2C companies, think of social media as the new “barbershop” or “beauty parlor” of the next generation.  In other words, it is a place where you can update friends and family on what is going on in your life, as well as to hear what is going on in their lives.  Unlike your local gathering place, social media is a network of millions of people who talk to each other about everything and you have the opportunity to hear what they are saying.

Here are some social media tips you may want to try in 2016.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is one of the best business networking platforms on social media.  This is the place where recruiters find new job applications, businesses grow their customer base by reaching out to prospects and customers, professionals meet other professionals in their field to share ideas and insight, and you can learn from people all over the world.  If you don’t have a LinkedIn profile, create one.  If your company doesn’t have a presence on LinkedIn, create a profile for them.

Some professionals don’t understand why you should create a profile on LinkedIn when you already have a website.  LinkedIn enhances your company’s visibility in several ways. Often customers use LinkedIn to get an overview of the company and to find key contacts at that company to build relationships with.  LinkedIn also provides a personable side of your business. If you want to show the world that you value what customers have to say about you, you need to be on social media.  LinkedIn is the central location where new talent is looking for work and where leaders of companies and corporations go to network.

Facebook

Facebook was originally created for college students, but has expanded to every age and background all over the globe.  As Facebook continued to expand, parents and family members of all ages began using Facebook as a place to post family updates.  Why is this significant for business?  Facebook has 1.19 billion active users every month.  Putting it another way, that’s 1.19 BILLION potential new customers.

Facebook ads continue to grow in popularity as a way to drive traffic to your website.  Facebook Groups are clusters of like-minded individuals so you can target whatever groups of people that you want to.

Twitter

Twitter is an outstanding medium for broadcasting short, marketing messages about your products and services.  You can announce promotions, discounts, and new products while drawing attention to the interests and knowledge of your company.  The power of Twitter is listening to the conversations on social media and adding to the conversation.

The proper use of hashtags (i.e. #StarWarsTheForceAwakens) can get your announcements and messages in front of the right people at the right time.  You need to monitor what is trending and determine if it makes sense to join into those conversations.  You can also just put a # in front of a topic that makes sense for your product or service, like #businesstrends, #digitalmarketing or #marketingtools.

YouTube

If you have corporate or product videos, post them on YouTube.  YouTube has over one billion users, almost 1/3 of the number of people using the internet.  Videos are a great way of demonstrating your products, telling your story or showing your company’s DNA.  Like the other social media platforms, you can advertise on YouTube or through Google Adwords remarketing, allowing your ads to show up when people visit your site, then go to other Google network sites like YouTube.

Pinterest

Pintererst is a social media platform where you can “pin” photos and videos on other people’s or company’s boards.  Think of it as an electronic bulletin board.  Like LinkedIn and Facebook, there are groups of like-minded people that share their interests, recipes, photos in interesting places, etc.  If you find like-minded customers, Pinterest is an excellent place to start conversations and relationships and to increase search engine optimization for your website.

Instagram

Instagram is a photo-sharing social media platform that focuses on your personal experience to a particular brand.  It is a great place to build brand awareness.  Your Instagram page can connect to your Facebook business page to help solidify your brand.

Instagram allows you to show your customers the personal side of your business by sharing photos of your products, team and services.  Customers are more comfortable dealing with people they can relate to versus cold, aloof companies.  Small businesses can effectively use Instagram to show their personal side and hopefully relate more effectively to customers compared to big businesses.  Instagram can really help your customers visualize your company.

Making An Impact Using Social Media

 I like to think of Social Media as the next evolution of communication where you can connect with anyone all over the world.  How do you leverage social media to help grow your business?

1. Make sure that you have dedicated people in your organization who are knowledgeable about and skilled at social media. Business people that suggest that companies only need a part-time social media person don’t understand the power of social media. If you could listen to what your customers say about your company, products and services 24/7, wouldn’t you take advantage of that? Social media allows you to set your company apart from your competitors.
2. Determine which social media platform works best for your industry. There are many social media networks beyond the ones that I mentioned.  Do some research and find out where your customers and competitors are congregating.  Figure out which media platform will best reach your customers and bring in new customers.
3. Once you get your social media team in place and identify your networks, now it’s time to build a social media strategy and implement it. I’m a firm believer in synchronized marketing – getting all of your marketing efforts including social media working together in harmony.  For example, if you put a product on sale in a flier, make sure it is also on your website and be sure to communicate the sale through email, Google Adwords and social media advertising.  You can do “Facebook Only” contests that aren’t offered anywhere else but your Facebook landing page so you can then drive traffic to your website.
4. Once you get your social media marketing machine in motion, you can then train your entire staff to broadcast messages about your company, new products, and services on several social media platforms simultaneously. Be very careful that your staff is fully trained.  Social media is a very powerful tool – when you broadcast a message, it can easily be seen by millions of people.  Make sure the message that goes out is monitored and presents your company in a professional and positive light. Imagine that instead of a handful of people sending out targeted messages through social media, your entire company can expand your message exponentially through careful implementation.

Conclusion

In 2016, identify the social media platforms that make sense for your company.  Go where your customers and competitors are online.  Identify who in your company is responsible for social media, particularly in the marketing or corporate communications departments.  Make sure that you build a social media strategy leveraging other marketing platforms like print, web advertising, email marketing, Google Adwords, social media advertising and messaging.  Once you have tested your messaging and start building momentum, you can expand your social media messaging throughout the company under the careful direction of your marketing and corporate communications management team.

If you want to learn more about me, please visit my LinkedIn profile, my website and my blog.

Photo credit: Peter Ras via Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA

How to Acquire New Customers

The challenge that many companies face is acquiring new customers.  You can “shotgun” your marketing by mailing tons of direct mail to a large, untargeted database, but I recommend having a different tactic.

Profile Your Customers

Who are your customers?  Who is buying from you?  Have you looked at the types of companies that purchase your products?

Do some analysis as to the types of companies or consumers who are your best customers.  I recommend that you look at demographics, SIC codes, company size and other attributes. If you understand the profile of our existing customers, you can match their profile and find other prospects that look just like them.

Building Your Acquisition Database

There are several database management services that you can hire to pull company names, addresses, contact names and phone numbers. Some databases may have accurate mailing addresses, but contact information may be dated.  Utilizing LinkedIn is a good resource for verifying up-to-date contacts.  Find the supplier that can provide you with the best list to reach your target prospects and hire them.

Some database companies also offer email addresses, however it has been my experience that email databases for rent are unreliable.  A better way of capturing prospect and customer emails is to offer downloads on your website like white papers that web visitors can get by just entering their email address.  You will need to make sure that you offer an opt-out process from marketing emails due to CAN-SPAM compliance rules.

Create a Customer Acquisition Campaign

Some companies really like to use direct mail like postcards, letters and fliers to acquire new customers.  Others like to use email, banner advertising on other websites and social media, and Google adwords.  I am a strong believer in synchronized marketing campaigns utilizing multiple acquisition techniques. Certain programs may work better than others.  A/B testing is another great way of finding out what works and what doesn’t.  Keep doing what works and stop doing what doesn’t.

Finding New Customers Outside of Your Existing Customers’ Profiles

In addition to matching existing customer profiles with prospects and attempting to acquire them, there might be a group of prospects that you never thought would be your customers. Market research through surveys is a great way to find out what types of companies or end consumers buy your products or who want your products.  For those who have purchased yhour products, ask them to explain how they use your products, possibly even provide prizes for the best ideas. This information might help you target new customers.

You can also do some testing pulling contact information from other SIC codes and mail or email them as well.  Track the response and conversion rates for each test.  If you discover that a new customer segment is interested in your products or services, expand your reach within that segment through brand and product marketing using direct mail, email, social media and the web.

Conclusion

Profiling your customers to find new prospects, building the prospect database for both direct mail and email, launching the campaign to include the new profiled targets and testing new market segments are all very important steps in acquiring new customers.

If you want to learn more about me, please visit my LinkedIn profile, my website and my blog.

Photo credit: flazingo_photos via Foter.com / CC BY-SA

Set Goals Not Resolutions

It’s that time of year again.  Time to start your New Year’s resolutions and after the first of the year, if you are like me, you will have already given up on keeping your resolutions.  Why do we fail keeping our resolutions?  Making a promise without a plan or accountability is worthless.

Setting Goals

Think about all of the things that you want to accomplish in the next 12 months.  I recommend that you select 10 reasonable goals. The operative word is reasonable.  If one of your goals is to scale Mount Everest but you have never climbed a mountain and haven’t been training to do so, that’s probably not reasonable.

Write your goals down.  This will help you remember what your goals are and keep track of your progress achieving them.  To make your goals attainable, you need to create a timeline for each of them.  I wouldn’t make the deadline for all of your goals to all be accomplished the end of the year.  Schedule them throughout the year so you can celebrate each of your goals that are achieved.

Obstacles

It’s also important to identify the obstacles that could get in your way to achieve each of your goals.  There are always obstacles.  If there weren’t, all of our goals would be easily met.  Identify anything that is going to get in your way and plan to overcome those obstacles.

Assistance

 Often goals cannot be achieved on your own.  Most of my goals require help from colleagues, friends and family.  For each of your goals, make sure that you list everyone who you will need to help you.

Skills and Abilities

Sometimes we are aggressive with our goal setting, but haven’t completely determined if we have the appropriate skills and abilities to achieve those goals.  Research what you need to do to acquire those skills and abilities and do it.

Make Your Goals into an Actionable Plan

Once you have put your list of goals together with a timeline for each one, identified your obstacles, added the people who can help you, and received the skills and abilities to accomplish those goals, you can create and execute your plan.

The only New Year’s resolution that should be made this year is to never do New Year’s resolutions anymore.  Set reasonable, attainable goals and develop an action plan to complete them.

If you want to learn more about me, please visit my LinkedIn profile, my website and my blog.

Photo credit: jazzlog / Foter.com / CC BY-NC