Toolkit Tuesday - 5/8/12
It seems as if every day a new Social Media tool is introduced that promises to make your life a lot easier, your community-building a lot more effective, and your analytics more precise. There are a lot of great tools out there but it could prove to be a full time job to keep on top of all of them and figure out which ones to test and which ones to forget about.
As a marketing consulting firm we use a number of Social Media tools every day and are constantly testing new ones. To help you select the best and most helpful ones we are introducing a new weekly blog entitiled “Social Media Toolkit Tuesday.” Every week we’ll introduce a few tools that we have tested and that we like (or dislike!). Some are brand new discoveries, others we’ve been using for awhile. But we’ve done the testing, so you don’t have to!
Here are this week’s featured Social Media Tools:
1) PinReach
PinReach is a brand new tool designed to bring analytics and reporting to businesses on Pinterest.
PinReach assigns each Pinterest profile a score (from 1 to 100) based on influence. This number reflects a number of metrics: amount of pins, re-pins, likes, comments, and followers. The data is categorized by which of your pins and boards are the most popular and who are the most influential pinners who follow you.
PinReach lets you see which of your pins and/or boards are getting engagement, compare that to your goals, and adjust. The takeaway here is: keep pinning more of what’s working and re-think the boards and pins that are not performing well.
2) Tweepi
Tweepi is a great tool that helps you efficiently build a Twitter community. Its features enable you to find like-minded people based upon who they follow and who follows them. In addition, you can sort Tweeters according to their location, when they last tweeted, their ratio of followers to following, and more. It also allows you to easily see who you have followed who has not followed you back (you can then choose to “flush” those folks!), and even reciprocate and follow people who you haven’t followed back. The take away: a legitimate, un-spammy way to build a community fast and efficiently.
3) SocialMention
SocialMention is an analytics tool that helps you to find out what people are saying about your brand on Social Media, in real time. SocialMention aggregates phrases that include your brand or business name in Twitter, Facebook, and blogs, then compiles those mentions into several categories:
SocialMention also attempts to measure sentiment, which is an important element that is very difficult to measure. We don’t really use this metric from them, but we do find that their other features, such as Top Keywords, Top Users, and Top Hashtags can be very illuminating.
The Take Away: SocialMention is a good way to dig a little deeper into your company’s Social Media footprint. For a free tool, it is useful.
If you have questions about PinReach, Tweepi, and/or SocialMention: Just Ask Betsy! Email us, subscribe to our blog, or comment below:
Every week I speak to business people who are facing the same dilemma. They keep hearing that they should be using Social Media* for Business, but they have no idea WHAT that really means. Facebook? Twitter? YouTube? Blogging? And even if they did know HOW, they don’t know WHEN they’d have the time for it.
And even if they knew when, the biggest question of all is WHY?
There are as many answers to How and What as there are different kinds of businesses. But the answer to WHY? is always the same**:
To Increase Revenue
This is the first in a series of posts that address just this issue. I will attempt to answer the question WHY? for different types of businesses.
BUSINESS TYPE #1: BUSINESS DEPENDS UPON REFERRALS, NOT MARKETING
“Our business depends on referrals for all of our new clients. We never market or advertise. Our stellar reputation is why people choose us. WHY should we use Social Media?”
Imagine this Scenario:
One of your current happy clients tells a colleague how your company has done a fantastic job for her. The colleague writes down your name (or your company name). Remember, your best clients aren’t walking around with a stack of your businesses cards, as much as you wish they would!
The colleague (this person could be your dream client!) has no other choice but to do a Google search for your company in order to find your contact info. What will she see? Get into the head of that potential client and perform that same Google search for yourself. What appears on your screen is pretty much what she sees.
Is your website the only listing on the page? Does it tell your company’s story in a way that the potential client will see value in hiring you? Is there anything else appearing on the screen that conveys the message that you want this client to see?
If your answer is NO, then you have a wonderful opportunity: Social Media (I use the term loosely) is the way to increase your business profile on the web and moreover, make sure that your story is told in the way that will make a potential client sit up and say “This is exactly what I am looking for!”
Research shows that people use search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing) more often than any other research tool as the #1 source of information gathering in preparation for a purchasing decision (even when they have been referred!).
And it’s only natural. Everyone wants to get a little bit more information about a company before they pick up the phone and call, and the Internet has made it possible to research quickly and easily. I’m sure you’ve done it yourself.
What we don’t know is how many potential clients have searched for your company after having been referred and DID NOT CHOOSE YOU because your Internet presence did not convey that your company provides exactly what they need.
WHY? Because Lost Opportunity results in Lost Revenue! That’s Why! Now…HOW, WHAT and WHEN are easy! Let’s talk.
*I use Social Media as a catchall term for content marketing, blogging, and using Facebook, Twitter, etc.
**Disclosure: every now and then I do work with a client that does not have a revenue producing agenda, but instead is looking for pure visibility in her or his field.
As a Social Media expert I am frequently referred to businesses that need my help. I work with large companies, online retailers, and marketing agencies. But I have many clients that fall into the “small but successful”, category, too. And, the majority of these “small but successful” businesses are owned by really smart, really fearless, and really dynamic people.
These really smart, fearless, and dynamic people seem to have one thing in common: They “hate” Social Media!
How do I know they hate Social Media? Because invariably when I first sit down to work with them, they start our conversation in one of these ways:
- “I know we should be “doing” Social Media, but I don’t know why.”
- “I’m really stupid about these things.”
- “I hate Facebook and I hate that my kids spend so much time on it.”
- “My competitors aren’t doing it; why should I?”
- “I am totally confused about Social Media and I don’t like it.”
- “How much does this stuff cost?”
First of all, I want to say that I completely understand why successful business owners in their 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s would hate Social Media. After all, they built their businesses without Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. And, if they use Social Media at all, they may use Facebook as a personal tool for keeping up with those people from high school that they hadn’t planned to keep up with in the first place!
However, the reality is that Social Media is in our world, it affects all aspects of our lives, and it has a huge impact on our businesses. We can’t live without it. But instead of approaching it as a drain on resources (time and money), I encourage clients to look at Social Media as a wonderful opportunity.
The opportunity is this: for the first time, you can have a big impact on how your business appears to the public by using Social Media. When you Google the name of your company you should see 1-3 pages full of links to content that conveys your business’ unique value and expertise. Why?
Because research has shown that Search Engine searches are used more often than any other research tool as the primary source of information gathering in preparation for a purchasing decision. And this is true for B2B as well as for B2C.
Social Media activities increase the links to your business on Search Engines and enable you to control what your prospective clients and customers see. That is particularly important if you depend on word-of-mouth to grow your business.
So, if you don’t like what get when you Google your company’s name, give me a call. I’ll teach you how to love Social Media (or maybe just “Like” it.).
It's very exciting that Be Visible Associates' client Dr. Michael Sinkin was featured in print and web in the New York Daily News yesterday.
The article is about how small businesses are seeing success by using Social Media marketing. Dr. Sinkin has increased his practice by using Facebook, Twitter and Blogging. Don't think a sole medical practitioner can use Social Media effectively? Think again!
Read the article:
Word of mouth: Scores of businesses are joining the conversation with Twitter, Facebook
Photo: NY Daily News
With Facebook Business Pages, unless you are running ads, you don’t get a ton of data to work with. However, Facebook is starting to deliver more analytics (called Insights) on status updates for Page owners. Here are some tips on how to use them:
Create an Editorial Calendar: Since I recommend that brands and businesses shouldn’t post Facebook updates more than once per day, it’s pretty easy to create a calendar.I usually plan updates 1-2 weeks in advance. That gives me something to post every day without having to create updates on the fly, but it’s a short enough time to be able to react to something in the news, great content I may find, or changes in the business.
Expand the Editorial Calendar into a spreadsheet. Your spreadsheet should contain these columns:
- Date
- Update (the content you will post)
- Post Time (i.e. 1:00pm)
- Impressions
- Likes
- Comments
- Total Feedback (what percentage of people who saw your post, actually engaged with it)
After about 24 hours, you will see analytics of each post such as Impressions, number of “Likes”, number of Comments, and total feedback. Then just plug those numbers into your spreadsheet.
Impressions: Of course, you are looking for the greatest number of impressions (meaning how many people see your update) and after a while you are going to see some patterns in what time each day you are reaching the most people. Compare weekends to weekdays and mornings to afternoons and evenings.
If some of your posts have links to your website or blog, you should add a column for those and get the data from your Google Analytics.
Make sure you take note what will affect your numbers, such as time of year, for example. If your goal is to reach teens, during the summer they’ll be on Facebook more during the day, whereas during the school year on weekdays, they’ll be on Facebook more at night. So, plan your posts accordingly. The analytics will tell you if you’ve guessed correctly.
“Likes” and Comments: Why is it important that your updates get lots of “Likes” and Comments? The obvious reason is: engagement with your brand or business. But there’s another really important reason! Stay tuned and I’ll explain in my next post!
Related: Why Businesses (Should) Love Facebook
Businesses and brands should love Facebook. Why? Because Facebook enables companies to talk to the people who are actually interested in what they have to say.
The old school of advertising was this: Blast out a message to an audience defined by geography and media consumption habits and pray you reach the right people at the right time and enough times, enough times that they consider a purchase in your category.
But with Facebook, it’s not simply age, geography and media consumption habits that define an audience; it is interests that define an audience.
On Facebook, when members complete their profile info, they enter their likes and interests such as:
• Activities
• Music
• Books
• Movies
• TV Shows
And, members add brands to their profile, too, when they “Like” Facebook ads that appear on their page or through updates shared by their friends,
So, for brands, on Facebook it’s as easy as pie to find the people who would be most interested in your message and reach them through Facebook Ads. And even for smaller businesses, with Facebook Ads, the playing field can be leveled.
For example:
• If you sell pizza, you can reach people who “Like” Dominos Pizza and Pizza Hut.
• If you sell children’s clothes, you can reach people who “Like” The Children’s Place, Pottery Barn Kids, and Toys R Us.
• If you sell beauty products, you can reach people who “Like” Sephora and Avon.
Your brand becomes part of the community of people who want to see your messages.
What’s even better, you can quickly and inexpensively learn by trial and error what your fans respond to by testing different kinds of updates and keeping detailed records of how many “Likes” and how many comments (and what kinds of comments) your posts receive. And, Facebook is providing more and more robust tracking information to help you analyze the engagement.
So, what do you do with that info? Stay tuned!
Related: Simply Put: Why People Love Facebook
How brands and businesses use Social Media has everything to do with how the decision makers use Social Media themselves. People in business who have grown up using Facebook, for example, understand that the Social Media is not just a useful tool, but it’s the way people define themselves in front of their peers. And people want to be associated with Cool, including Cool Brands.
Although Facebook has just reached the 500 million-members marker, it has just begun to define itself in terms of business. So, it’s up to each company and brand to figure out how to use it effectively. When I consult with a client, I often ask them to spend time on these 3 questions:
1. Who is my target market?
2. Where do they hang out on the Web?
3. What would make them want to identify with my brand in front of their audience?
In other words, what can I do to make my brand “Cool”?
Old Spice is the perfect example of how an “uncool” brand found it’s “Cool Factor”. The aging brand has been around since the 1930s, a dinosaur in the men’s grooming and cologne market. But they decided to use Social Media as Generation Y does:both as a conversational tool and as a way to define a new public image. Actor Isaiah Mustafa created a dashing spokesman character-wearing only a towel-who responded to users comments through a series of witty short videos, each taking less than seven minutes to shoot.
The series not only created a bond between users and the brand, but also suggests that the Old Spice customer is similarly funny and cool. On Twitter, Isaiah Mustafa’s Old Spice character is acting just as any young person would: posting random musings rather than Old Spice info: “I can’t stop thinking about axes and mountains and wolves and football. And old steam tractors.” Rather than set up a conversation between the customer and the brand, the Social Media team at Old Spice mimicked the Social Media voice of their ideal customer. Check out Old Spice on Facebook to see what they are doing.
If you are in the position to make marketing decisions for a company or brand venturing into Social Media, spend some time identifying your “Cool Factor” before you get started. Even if you don’t have the budget of an Old Spice, taking this one preliminary step with make the rest a lot easier.
If you are a business person and you use the Web, you are probably
1. using Twitter
2. wondering about Twitter
3. trying to ignore Twitter
4. scared of Twitter
This week I’ve had the privilege of talking to groups of business people about Twitter and its value to their businesses. Everyone seemed to fit into categories 2 through 4. So, my challenge has been how to de-mystify it for them. One of the best ways that I have found to explain Twitter is this:
“Think of Twitter as a way to send a text message to a whole lot of people at one time…most of whom you don’t know, but most of whom share your interests. And, people who are interested in what you are interested in will send you text messages, too.”
If you keep this in mind when you use Twitter, you’ll get a lot out of it.
Example: about an hour ago this blog was announced by someone I am following on Twitter. It is on the Marketing Pilgrim website. It talks about Twitter being a “search engine” and how it may become a real challenge to the mammoth Google. http://tiny.cc/iow9T
As a business tool, Twitter enables me to get up to the minute information like this about my industry that I can then share with my clients to keep them on the cutting edge of what is going on in online marketing.
So, if you are in business, and if you really want up to date information about your industry…twart tweeting right now!
Lots of people ask me why they should be using Twitter.
The New York Times published a great blog about using Twitter for your small business.
And here is a terrific video called Twitter in Plain English. Twitter seems to be a great way to communicate…and I want my clients to do more of that. But, keeping Twitter, Facebook and all the social media going is very time consuming. That’s why I am going to be offering Social Media Marketing services to my clients starting right now. I am helping businesses create buzz by using these new social media tools. Whether for branding or just driving relevant traffic to a website, it’s an easy, fun and free way to market.