How to Reduce Churn With Social Media Customer Success

Social media is a Customer Success Manager’s dream tool. As customers become more aware, leveraging the growth of SaaS, marketing professionals need to keep up. While obviously, building brand awareness and acquiring new customers is crucial, what businesses fail to do is pay attention to the churn. And this is a colossal slip both in terms of branding and finance because 32% of the customers don’t return after one bad experience.

So, before we go into summarizing the steps you should take to manage churn, let’s first understand what customer success for social media means.

How does social media help manage churn?

Social media is extremely crucial for any SaaS business. If the data from Sprout Social Index is to be believed, social media is the top choice for customer support among consumers. That is to say when a brand connects with its consumers on social media platforms, they are more likely to use their products. 65% of the people even say that it increases their loyalty toward the brand and are likely to share their positive experience with their community.

What is customer success for social media?

For a layman, customer success can be thought of as a dynamic model of customer service — its goal is to relieve the pain points before the problem even arises. If your social media success strategy works, it should prevent negativity from being sowed deep in your customer’s mind and make available resources that your silent customers can use to find success with your product. That’s how you’ll retain your customers.

Let’s now take a look at how you can use social media efficiently to reduce churn.

1. Identify the reasons behind churn

There are various reasons why most businesses have to face the terror of customer churn. And while you’ll have to identify it yourself, here are some of the common reasons:

You attract the wrong crowd 

Oftentimes, people sign themselves up for something they don’t completely understand. Soon they’ll come to the realization of how they don’t need your services, and they’ll leave you for a competitor. So, ask them the right questions in the very beginning.

Your customer support is in shambles 

Even the most tech-savvy customers can sometimes get stuck on minor roadblocks, and it can become a big issue if they take a loss by the time you arrive on the scene. In other words, poor customer service can lead to unprecedented churn, which means you should consider upping your social media game. Learn from brands like Nike. Even if your inbox overflows with customer mentions, you address everybody.

Your customers think your product is over or under-priced 

It’s all about perception. If your customers believe you’re cheap, they’ll underestimate your ability to solve their problems. Whereas at the other end of the spectrum, if your offerings seem overpriced to your buyers, they’ll almost definitely go for someone who has their prices optimized.

Since obviously there can be various other reasons, including credit card expiration, shrinking CLV, more downgrades than upgrades — you should probably keep an eye on your competition and evaluate why your customers might go for someone other than you.

2. Invest in the onboarding process by leveraging social media

Social media platforms are where people get together and nurture relationships, so much so that currently, 49% of the world is on social media. It’s only fitting that you do the same for your customers. It requires you to develop a social media customer success strategy that gets you new customers and helps retain them.

If you already have an email campaign in place, it’s all the more efficient to make the best use of your social accounts to fortify your message. Say, when a customer registers on your portal, you collect their handles on platforms where you have an unfailing presence. Later, you can send them a welcome message on these platforms and point them in the direction you want.

You can send them links to your webinars, FAQs/knowledge base, guides, and other helpful resources, or perhaps a simple message telling them that you’re glad to have them on board. It makes the customer feel valued, not marketed to.

3. Invest in live chat software for real-time support via social media

Retaining customers is a top priority for businesses since winning new ones is a whole different ball game. By investing in a world-class live chat software application, you make yourself and your business available 24×7. It is one of the ideal ways to sort out your customers’ problems, collect their feedback, and hence improve your services to prevent churn.

Studies even suggest that almost 63% of customers are likely to return to a platform where they used a live chat software service. Almost 38% even make a purchase. But more than triggering the visible decline in churn rate, live chat software is the most effective communication channel for your customers. No one wants to be put on hold, and as companies are expected to provide support wherever they have a presence, it’s important to note that it’s not mutually exclusive to use live chat with social media.

Now, you can easily integrate, say, Messenger, and handle messages from your users on Facebook by using a third-party live chat agent. Your replies can be quick, media-rich, and you can integrate multiple Facebook pages on a single platform.

4. Integrate FAQs and knowledge base to social media customer success strategy

The market is crowded, and the customers are confused. Everyone wants answers immediately, and if the savvy ones are looking to help themselves, why aren’t you on it already? Since customer support is critical to your customer success strategy, it’s time you integrate an exhaustive knowledge base, more so if you expect unprecedented growth in the near future. 

When we talk about a knowledge base, we imagine a centralized and organized database with user manuals, FAQs, product updates, troubleshooting guides, and the like. It serves as the placeholder for a 24×7 help desk, and developing one can free up your customer support representative’s time for all the frequent and common issues.

There are certain things you should keep in mind, though. Since the knowledge base is where your customers will be redirected from either social media or web search, you need to cover all the bases and make it exhaustive. It shall require you to collaborate with all the departments to generate business-specific content. Again, as you progress operations, you’ll have to ensure that the knowledge base stays updated.

5. Invest in social listening

This may be the fifth point we address, but knowing your customer requirements and expectations should be the top priority for your brand. The best way to get that information by leveraging something called ‘social listening’.

Social listening tells you what your customers think about you in their personal conversations on social media. It gives you perhaps the most honest versions of their opinions for your products and what they expect from you in the future. If there are negative opinions, there you have your pain points that potentially cause the churn. Some tools like IFTTT, HootSuite, or something as simple as Google Alerts can help you keep track of social media mentions.

The next step would involve you using the insights gained from social listening and creating engagements that deal with your customers’ woes and desires. Even adverts can be designed to efficiently target a given demographic using the same insights.

6. Offer incentives and rewards via social media to increase retention

Customer churn is a big issue faced by businesses, more so if your offerings are digital in nature. If the switching costs in your industry are embarrassingly low, you have all the more reasons to be vigilant. So, apart from all that’s mentioned above, there’s another tactic you can put to use that focuses on retention on a more psychological level — the reward system or a loyalty program.

For example, you can offer your best-lost customers incentives like a trial for a premium product, or time-sensitive discount codes in exchange for a survey or feedback. It makes the customer feel you want them to stick with you for a lifetime.

For social media, you can work on a creative that notifies your potential customers of your reward program. For example, they get reward points for creating an account, and these points add up with every purchase and can be used for freebies or discounts.

7. Publicly address issues and move to private channels

Very few customers will be vocal about their opinions regarding your brand. Of these opinions, the complaints that you may receive will be the tip of a much bigger iceberg. Almost 96% of the unhappy customers never complain, and most of these will leave silently, never to return.

The solution here is to address the few complaints you receive publicly through social media. This will demonstrate how your brand actively listens to the woes of the hoi polloi and will set benchmarks for the service you provide.

You can approach using a more direct channel of communication if the matter is delicate, but it’s always advisable to make your stance known publicly.

Customer success through social media  

The cost behind retaining customers is far lower than acquiring new ones, even though some may argue it demands more effort. Nonetheless, leveraging and integrating social media in your customer success strategy is one of the best steps you can possibly take to keep your churn rate in check.

3 Steps to Successfully Market Your Business Using Social Media

COVID-19 has made sure that everyone is engaging with social media. People from all walks of life have hopped on board, whether it’s to stay up to date on current news or merely as a way to kill boredom during the lockdown. And with 70% of the U.S. population owning at least one social media profile, business owners know that this is a good time as any to build relationships with consumers and boost brand awareness.

Moreover, there is an undeniable power in numbers. With a whopping 3.8 billion social media users around the world, you know there is a considerable potential behind social media marketing (SMM). Unfortunately, merely throwing a few things together and hoping that your social media profile will magically connect with your customers is asking far too much.

People are pickier than ever. They won’t settle for anything but the best. And if you want to get ahead of the competition, you’ll have to do more than you already are.

So are you ready to discover some great ways to market your brand on social media effectively?

Let’s dive right in.

1. Write a plan

The world of digital marketing continues to develop and grow. And there are multiple aspects that you need to take care of; social media is just one of them. Akin to all aspects of life, you need a well thought out marketing plan in order to be successful. And social media marketing is no different. By doing so, you will have covered an essential part of digital marketing. 

You’ve probably already read this piece of advice a dozen times, but I’ll repeat it. You need to start by writing down your plans. Whether it’s on paper or your laptop, stating your goals and objectives can make them feel relatable and realistic. 

So make sure that you cover the main points, which may include the following:

What do you want to achieve by being on social media? 

A list of objectives can keep you on track. Knowing what you want to achieve can help align your team members’ efforts.

Who is the target audience?

You need a clear understanding of who you want to reach. If you aim to target everyone, your message won’t reach anyone.

Which platforms do you intend to use?

The list of social media platforms is lengthy. Knowing where your customers are and identifying a budget helps make it easier to choose how many social media accounts are actually beneficial for the brand.

What content do you plan on sharing?

There’s a variety of content you can use, including blogs, videos, images, memes, GIFs, infographics, webinars, and podcasts. What do your consumers prefer? What can be effectively promoted on your selected social media platform? 

When are you going to share?

There is no one-size-fits-all solution. The best time to post depends significantly on your audience. Studying the behavior patterns of your target audience can help you devise a posting schedule that has the most engagement.

How are your competitors driving engagement?

From keyword research to competitor analysis, you need to be on top of your game 100%. Being aware of what’s going on in the industry and keeping track of current trends can get you ahead of the competition. 

As always it’s best to start this process by creating or reviewing your business plan to help determine what works for your business. For an in-depth guide on how to leverage your business plan, check out this guide on Lean Planning.

2. Create high-quality content

This is one of my favorite topics. What you post on social media creates an image of your brand. And we all know that bold, eye-catching visuals define the world of social media. So depending upon the platform, you intend to use, create content that attracts and engages your target audience. Therefore, posts must be:

  • Relevant 
  • Valuable
  • Unique
  • Shareable across multiple platforms

But one of the crucial aspects of your content, no matter which types you create, should be to build a consistent visual brand image across all networks. To help you achieve this, consider the following points:

  • Ensure you use colors and fonts in your images, graphics, and videos that reflect on your brand.
  • Logos, banners, bios, social handles, etc. should be consistent on all channels.
  • Post regularly.
  • The content should align with audience preferences as well as your brand.

The key to creating exceptional content, however, comes from knowing how to use different social media platforms for marketing. Honing in on the unique features that each platform has to offer can make your campaign that much more effective.

3. Establish and measure KPIs

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. This law holds true for SMM as well. The only way to identify whether your campaign is bringing in positive results is by monitoring and analyzing the right metrics. With accurate insights, you can refine your strategy and target the audience better.

But because each social network has a different audience demographics, brands need to identify the right KPIs. Once again, the metrics you choose will depend on what your business and social media goals are.

Here's an example of what social kpis could look like

There are thousands of daily interactions across social media platforms. But in order to develop a relationship with consumers, increase brand awareness, and improve ROI, you will need to be active and responsive. Keeping track of key metrics such as shares, impressions, CTRs, conversion rates, traffic from social channels, etc. will allow you to get the most out of your social media marketing campaign. 

It takes time to develop a strong presence on social media. Even renowned brands like Nike are where they are today because of consistently being aware of their audience. Implementing the right strategies will help you improve your brand online.

Final thoughts

This may seem like a basic plan, but it’s often the simplest things in life that have the greatest impact. So if you want viewers to latch onto your brand, working on the essentials is the perfect way to build a strong base for future growth.

Sometimes, even with extensive planning, things don’t go as we want to. But that’s okay because it is from these very mistakes that we learn the most. All you need to do is take a step back and evaluate the situation. Assess and adjust your current strategy and dive back in. Giving up on your brand is not an option.  

Ready to give your social media your best shot?

How to Create Perfect Custom Images for Your Website, Blog, and Social Media


Create custom imagesUsing high-quality images on your website, social media channels, and blog posts not only makes your brand more appealing—it also drastically improves conversion rates. In general, humans are visually focused, and much more likely to read and remember an article with compelling visual accompaniment than one with a huge block of text.

But here’s the catch: decent stock images can be costly, and while some businesses have the luxury of being able to afford a graphic designer, it’s not an option for everyone.

Below, I’ll cover how to source and alter your own custom images, as well as how long you should spend on them, and the occasions where splashing out on a designer is worth it.

Source stock images that aren’t terrible

Terrible stock photos are rife on the internet. In fact, there is even a subreddit for this stuff:

Create custom images

So, what makes some stock photos so terrible? Namely:

  • Irrelevance
  • Poor taste
  • Over-the-top studio lighting
  • Scenarios that have no relation to the real world
  • Implausible models and events
  • Poor aesthetics
  • Artificial poses and props

Bad stock photos tend to look and feel artificial, and they don’t resemble anything you would see in real life. The classic stock photo fare includes women and men randomly smiling and pointing at things in generic office settings.

Finding good stock photography and imagery for your business

Having said that, not all stock photo imagery is bad. In fact, there are plenty of ways that stock photos can be used as part of visual storytelling campaigns.

When used appropriately, free stock photos are an effective way to bring your content to life. A beautiful image has the power to hold attention and significantly improve engagement; Facebook posts with images see 2.3 times more engagement than those without. If you’re like me, you’re always on the hunt for free or inexpensive stock photo websites with authentic, original imagery.

The main problem with a lot of stock photos is that they’re not authentic or original—far from it. The web is saturated with business and lifestyle clichés, from “smiling woman wearing headset” to “suits gathered in the boardroom.”

Luckily, there are some websites that do better. My favorites for high-quality free stock photos are Burst and Unsplash. They both have images that break away from the dreary norm.

If you produce a lot of content for your blog and social media channels, finding new and interesting images to use on a regular basis can be challenging. Especially if you’re trying to illustrate something conceptual, like teamwork or growth.

In these instances, you have to be prepared to think creatively when searching for images—perhaps using word association or metaphorical representations.

Some image search ideas for content about teams and teamwork:

  • Team sports
  • Nature
  • Hands
  • The globe (if global)
  • Cables (networks)
  • Animals (herds)
  • Bees/ants

Some image search ideas for growth:

  • Plants
  • Children
  • Sunlight
  • Roads

A good way to start your image search is to use seed keywords, then explore at related searches and categories. Most photo sites have very good suggestions that will highlight related and similar images.

Here are some tips for choosing non-terrible stock images:

  • Look for authentic, real-world scenarios—avoid white backgrounds
  • Opt for those where the subjects look natural, not posed
  • Look for fresh, new photos that are interesting but avoid cliches

Improving stock images through customization

Next, you’ll want to alter your images to customize them for your website. And if you don’t want them looking terrible, that means having a general knowledge of best practices for font size and readability, and how monitors can display colors differently.

First things first, make sure that your on-screen colors are consistent by carrying out a basic monitor calibration. Here’s how to do that.

A lot of people choose to use Canva to customize images, and if you’re not a designer, it’s a great way to go. Canva is a free graphic design tool that uses a simple drag-and-drop format, as well as providing access to a range of photographs, graphics, and fonts. Probably the best thing about Canva is the fact that you can use their templates as a base and import your own imagery. This allows for a high level of customization.

Here are some good rules of thumb that most graphic design experts will stand by:

  • Don’t use too many different fonts, and try to think carefully about how you match fonts. You may want to stick to fonts from the same families in certain cases (known as typecases—Helvetica and Lucida are examples of a typeface).
  • Pair contrasting typefaces for maximum visual effect. Creative Bloq list 20 pairings, like this classic Helvetica Neue and Garamon duo:

Create custom images

  • Up the contrast by adjusting the brightness of your background—this will make the text clearer and easier to read
  • If in doubt, keep it simple. Every element should justify its presence in the design
  • Ensure that the most important part of your message is the most visually dominant
  • Avoid following trends and stick to designs that are in line with your brand’s style

Using tools like Canva, you can create perfectly nice, serviceable images. But remember, this is really for the everyday stuff—a blog or social media post. If you’re after something exceptional—something that you’ll keep on your homepage for a year, then you must be prepared to pay for it.

Graphic designers understand what an online tool doesn’t—how to use design to influence emotions and motivate action. If you don’t have a graphic designer in-house, consider hiring one using a service like People Per Hour.

How much time should you spend on images?

Creating custom images can become a real time drain if you’re doing it every other day—and it can be expensive if you’re outsourcing it to a designer. You want to get it right so your images look as appealing as possible, but at the same time, you have to strike a balance when it comes to how long you spend per image.

Using Canva, you can theoretically create images in a matter of minutes—unless you spend hours faffing with them and experimenting with different variations.

How long you spend should depend on how much value you’re likely to get from the image. If you’ve spent a lot of time—several hours, perhaps—on an interesting and compelling image, it’s an absolute waste if you only intend to use it once on social media.

But if you can also include it a few other places in an article, an email blast, or elsewhere on your website, you’ll get a much better return on your investment. Even with all the time and resources in the world, single-use graphics are rarely worth the effort.

Images have the power to improve your visitors’ experience and extend the amount of time they spend engaging with your content. To create your own custom images, find the best free images at your disposal and edit them wisely—within a reasonable time limit. And, if it’s something important that you’ll use again and again, consider getting a professional designer on the job.

How to Use Social Media to Find the Perfect Employee for Your Business


Whether you run a well-established company or are a budding entrepreneur, you’ll likely experience growing pains while building your team.

At Bond Street, we’re experts in term loans, but we cover just about everything related to small business, including how to hire the perfect employees for your new company. For small business owners, committing to a new employee’s salary is daunting. It can swallow precious resources like time and manpower, and can put a serious strain on your cash flow. Yet no matter who you are, it’s critical to invest in your business’s most important asset—the people.

So, how do you say “we’re hiring” in a cost-effective way that gets the right people through the door? For small businesses, it’s leveraging a tool that you use to market your products, promote Small Business Saturday sales, or to show off your new location—social media.

The following steps will outline how you can best use social media—in particular, Facebook and Instagram—to hire for your small business.

Step 1: Know yourself

The age-old maxim “know thyself” is not only the marketing guru’s best friend but also the savvy recruiter’s mantra. Before you open your computer, you need to be able to answer the following:

  • What do you offer as a place to work?
  • What differentiates you from competitors?
  • What profile and skills will be successful here?

Your hiring messages will be based on your answers to these questions, so take the time to gather feedback from your team and assess your working culture. Write out three cohesive statements in response to each.

What you offer as an employer doesn’t need to be limited to salary or employee benefits. People are increasingly looking for purpose in the world of work.

For example: Mentorship and apprenticeship with the founders of our family-owned bagel shop.

The next step is digging deeper to uncover what sets you apart from the sea of businesses competing for talent.

For example: We’re a New York-based jewelry company that turns women in developing countries into entrepreneurs.

Finally, understanding the personality profile and skills needed to succeed in your business will help you target the right audience on social media.

For example: College grad with a strong understanding of the ecommerce landscape, with excellent communication skills and attention to detail.

Step 2: Choose the right social media channels

When it comes to recruiting on social media, not all channels are created equal. Just as customers visit your Facebook or Instagram page for different reasons, the same goes for potential hires. As a general rule of thumb:

  • Facebook tells the story of the people and culture of your business
  • Instagram paints a picture of your working environment, products, and visual identity
  • Twitter aligns your business with industry influencers and updates your network

When it comes to hiring on social, Facebook offers several benefits that make the platform stand out. Its budget-friendly advertising and exceptional targeting functions make it a recruiter’s best friend. In addition, Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram means you can advertise on both platforms seamlessly.

Step 3: Set up your ads on Facebook Ad Manager

To start advertising open roles on Facebook and Instagram, you’ll need to set up a Facebook Ad Manager account. This is your command center to create, manage, and track how well your campaigns are performing. Follow these instructions to set up ads, and look to the following best practices to help get you started:

  • Clarify your goals: Are you engaging potential hires through comments, or driving applications to open roles through a clear call-to-action?
  • Keep it short: Know that the majority of all content is consumed on mobile, so keep it short and sweet.
  • Determine your target audience: Dig into details such as location, age range, gender, interests, and so on of the audience you want to reach.
  • Pay to play: Set a daily budget of $20 for two to three weeks to start.
  • Optimize, optimize, optimize: Monitor your ads daily and tweak text or images to improve performance.

Step 4: Craft your message and select visuals

Did you know that every time you log into Facebook, there are about 1,500 available posts, videos, or photos waiting in your News Feed? With the overwhelming amount of material out there, the pressure to create compelling content on a regular basis is on. Depending on your goals, there are two main types of content you can create: sponsored posts and sponsored ads.

See below for a quick side-by-side comparison:


Sponsored posts get additional reach in Newsfeeds among fans, followers, and your target audience. This style aims to increase awareness of what it’s like to work at your business through authentic imagery and text.

Sponsored ads entice your target audience to learn more or apply to open positions. Keep it short with an authentic headline on what you offer, what differentiates you, and what skills you’re looking for.

Remember that people are more likely to apply to a job if they hear about it from a personal connection. When creating your content and selecting imagery, be authentic—this is your chance to begin to build a relationship with a potential hire!

For detailed specs and additional guidelines on creating ads, you can read more here.

Step 5: Go live!

Once you have set up your ads on Facebook, it’s time to hit publish. In Ads Manager, you will have full transparency into how your ads are performing (reach, clicks, comments, and more) throughout the campaign.

Set a reminder at the same time every day to check in on your ads, and confirm all is running smoothly. If you’re not getting any traction after three to five days, start tweaking the text or images. If results are still low, change your target audience or increase the daily ad spend to $25.

The small business owners’ best new recruiter

With over 75 percent of internet users on social media today, there are very few other platforms where you can find and engage with future team members in the same way.

As a small business owner, social media not only allows you to hire in an agile and budget-friendly way, but it also empowers you to showcase why your business is a great place to work.

How to Calculate Social Media Marketing ROI for Your Small Business


Gone are the days where social media marketing was merely an experimental marketing tactic.

It has become a core part of any business’s marketing strategy, and it needs to support your business goals, and prove its value in comparison to other channels for resources, budget, and executive buy-in.

If you’re struggling to measure ROI for social media, you’re not alone. Over 60 percent of marketers identify measuring ROI as one of their top social media marketing challenges.

There’s a tremendous amount of work that must go into social media marketing for it to be effective—and it’s often underestimated by business leaders. Financial investments are precious to startups and small businesses, so it’s extremely critical that social media marketing efforts can be validated as to how they’re contributing to the business’s goals.

Sure, a financial return is a priority, but never forget that you first need a solid foundation to build your marketing efforts on. You must invest in the resources, tools, and technologies to measure and track your social media ROI. This will allow for you to allocate more resources toward what is working, and improve what is not. The ability to take such a proactive approach to ensure that paid efforts are as effective as possible is an enormous value-add to modern day businesses.

Here are several strategies you can do to easily track social media marketing ROI for your business.

Identify your business goals

We can practically hear the collective “duhs” through the interwebs. While it may seem obvious, it’s a step that’s often skipped by business owners and marketers alike as we’re scrambling to keep our content fresh.

Despite our heroic intent, the lack of planning results in scattered messaging, inconsistent posting, and—drumroll please—a lack of reportable metrics!

We’re not here to talk about vanity metrics such as likes, retweets, shares, and so on. We’re talkin’ real goals that prove their value by supporting core business objectives.

The most critical question to ask is: How are your social media marketing efforts supporting your business goals? According to SimplyMeasured, over 50 percent of marketers identify tying social media activities to business objectives as their second most challenging social media marketing task. Could it be chalked up to a lack of clearly defined goals?

Comb through your business goals one by one and identify opportunities for social media to support them. The answers you come up with will define how to use social, the type of content you need to create, how you distribute it, and the reporting metrics to measure success.

Next, create tangible goals. For example, say you need to increase the number of top-of-funnel leads for your B2B company. Consider developing an offer such as a whitepaper or an ebook, and create a campaign around it to incite email sign-ups. You’ll develop a beautiful landing page that begs for conversions, create ads tailored to your selected social channels, and continue to manage and optimize the campaign. Now, you have brand new contacts for your upcoming email marketing campaigns and can begin to move them down the sales funnel.

Define your social media metrics

Using your business goals as a guideline, define the metrics you’ll be measuring and reporting. There are several different metrics you can use to track your progress against such as:

  • Reach: the number of people who have seen your social media posts
  • Site traffic: the number of people who’ve visited your website
  • Leads: the number of people who have filled out a form on your website
  • Sign-ups and conversions: the number of people who’ve joined your email list, or downloaded premium content
  • Revenue generation: the amount of sales generated from social media marketing

Bonus: Use S.M.A.R.T goals to help you truly define how your social media metrics will support your bigger business goals. They’ll need to be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely. See the S.M.A.R.T goal framework to create yours.

Know the role and impact of each metric

Let’s go through each metric and define when it’s a good idea to measure them.

Engagement

If one of your goals is to increase social media engagement, definitely keep track of the number of likes, shares, comments, and retweets.

Reach

Is one of your core business goals to increase visibility and brand awareness? Track the number of people you have reached in your target region.

Site traffic

If you’re looking to increase the number of visitors to your website or remarket to visitors, measure the number of URL clicks and traffic from social media.

Leads

Generally speaking, you’re going to want to track the number of organic and paid leads that come in through your website and be able to attribute their source.

Sign-ups and conversions

If building your list of qualified leads or emails is a part of your goals, you’re going to need to track the number of sign-ups or conversions.

Revenue generation

You’ll need to see how many dollars were generated from your social marketing efforts. It’s important to compare the spend versus sales to identify the cost-per-acquisition.

Validate your ROI

Hooray! You’ve defined social media goals and are acting upon them—now what? It’s time to prove the value of your efforts. Over 50 percent of marketers struggle with tying social media activities to business outcomes.

Additionally, a study conducted by Altimeter outlined the reasons why several organizations avoid focusing on social media ROI because of:

  • An inability to tie social media to business outcomes—56 percent
  • A lack of analytics, expertise and/or resources—39 percent
  • Poor tools—38 percent
  • Inconsistent analytical approaches—35 percent
  • Unreliable data—30 percent

We say no more, compadre!

It’s critical to identify and implement the tools and processes required to measure your social media ROI once you’ve established your social media goals. This will more than likely involve UTM tracking codes to monitor where traffic is coming from, building custom landing pages, and more.

Here are some tools you should consider implementing:

  • Google Analytics. Track website traffic, sign-ups, and conversions stemming from social media campaigns.
  • A good CRM. Most CRMs allow you to see the URLs for incoming leads so you can determine the source of traffic and accurately attribute them. Furthermore, you’re able to determine which campaigns and messaging are working, and what’s not. The leads in your CRM are also a good way to verify the information displayed in Google Analytics. If you’re looking for something basic, Hubspot has a great CRM that is both functional and intuitive. The best part? It’s free!
  • Third-party social media platforms. Platforms such as Hootsuite or Hubspot have great built-in analytics. You should be able to effectively track reach, conversions, and more insights about your social media activities.

Calculate your social media ROI

You’ve set your goals and selected which social media tools you’re going to use.

Now you need to calculate your ROI. All your social media efforts should be trackable so you’re never scrambling to prove the value of a campaign. Here are some tips:

Build out reporting templates to track the metrics that matter most to you

There are two different ways to monitor and analyze data: manual or automated. If you’ve opted to use a marketing automation platform like Hubspot, there are visual dashboards that allow you to quickly view and analyze the impact of your social media marketing efforts and how they tie into your sales.

If you’re not using a marketing automation platform yet, you’re most likely going to need to use a spreadsheet to track the progress and impact of your social media marketing efforts. You can use the built-in reporting tools from Google Analytics, Facebook Business Manager, LinkedIn, Twitter, and any other social media channels you use to pull the data you’re looking for.

Then, you’ll consolidate and organize the data into your shiny, new marketing spreadsheet to determine the effectiveness of your social media efforts.

Check your social media metrics consistently

Doing this well help you analyze the types of content your audience is most engaged with, identify the best times to post, and gain a deeper understanding of your audience demographics across each social media platform. You may be surprised to find out that you’re speaking to different audiences on Facebook and Instagram.

Automate reporting where you can

Social media marketing takes a lot of time, and a bulk of it is spent analyzing and reporting data.

The ideal solution that saves time on manual reporting is a marketing automation platform; however, these are not always the most affordable solution for small businesses—especially startups.

If you can’t afford a marketing automation platform yet, Google Analytics allows you to create custom reports that display only the data that matters most to you. Although it’s not a complete social media marketing platform, it will allow for you to keep an eye on key metrics such as which channels are contributing to your website traffic, which pages are most visited, how long users are staying on your website, and much more.

Proving social media ROI has never been so easy as it is now. With the right goals, metrics, and systems in place to support your social efforts, you’ll be able to quickly identify its value, pinpoint what’s working and what’s not, and ultimately maximize returns.

How to Choose Which Social Media Platforms Are Right for Your Business


So, you know by now that having a presence on social media is important for your business. Not only that, you’re interested in the potential benefits of social media marketing, and you’re getting a sense of what marketing on the various social media platforms entails.

Maybe you’ve read my recent articles on marketing your small business on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and YouTube (and if not, check them out—I’ll be referencing them periodically throughout this article).

The trouble is, you can’t do it all. Unless you are planning on creating a position within your business for someone to take charge of your social media accounts, focusing on any social media marketing is going to come out of your time. As a small business owner, that time is precious, so it’s important to put it to good use.

Ultimately, you’ll have to choose which social platforms to focus on—you won’t be able to do it all. While you may intuitively know right away that some are a good bet and that there are others you’d rather avoid, I’ll go over a few questions to ask yourself before you pick.

There are a variety of ways to determine which platforms are right for you; I’ll focus on the role of your customer demographics, your bandwidth in terms of time to spare, the tone and personality of your brand, and—last, but perhaps most important—what kind of content you actually want to create.

Who are your customers?

Here at Bplans, we continually emphasize the importance of knowing who your target market is, and the necessity of doing market research. Having a clear sense of who your customers are plays a huge role in determining which social platforms will be most beneficial to your business.

Is your customer base predominantly younger (for example, the ever-coveted millennial group)? Instagram is probably a good bet. Are your customers mostly women? Pinterest users are more likely to be women, which would make this platform a good choice.

To get a sense of what each social platform looks like from a demographic standpoint, take a look at Sprout Social’s extensive breakdown of the social platforms by key demographic indicators like gender, age, and income. You know (or you should know) who your customers are, and this will give you a sense of where they fit in terms of the popular social platforms.

How much time do you have?

Could you choose to create a strong social presence on every social media site that your customers use? Sure, you could. But, chances are this would prove to be far too time consuming for the average small business owner.

The big brands that small business owners hope to emulate, the ones that put out great content on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and so on? They have a marketing team at their disposal, and more likely than not employ someone specifically to run their social media platforms.

While this seems obvious, it’s important to take a step back and look at how your business stacks up in terms of bandwidth. If you’re like most small business owners, keeping up on your social media profiles will likely be a matter of you personally creating content for them and running them by yourself (or perhaps with the help of another team member).

Take a look at how much time you actually have to devote to curating your social media presence. Some sites, like Instagram, are lower on the time commitment spectrum; others, like YouTube, demand significantly more time to produce content.

Also consider your existing content offerings; where can you repurpose them? Do you spend hours crafting fantastic blog posts? It might be a good idea to focus on a platform like Twitter or Facebook where sharing long-form content like this is encouraged.

What is your brand’s tone of voice?

Some brand personality styles lend themselves better to one social platform or another. Spend some time considering your brand and what type of brand personality you are trying to cultivate, and see where that brand personality fits best.

Does your brand focus on a strong professional reputation in your industry, and a more serious, helpful, informative tone of voice? A platform like LinkedIn might be a good one to focus on, or you could consider creating informative, useful videos on YouTube. A brand that hopes to cultivate a young, fun, snappy tone might take to Twitter, where pithy one-liners and retweeted GIFs are a common method of communicating with an audience.

This isn’t to say that, to continue the examples above, a brand with a serious personality wouldn’t be well-suited for Twitter, or that a more lighthearted brand wouldn’t do well on LinkedIn. But, it does make sense to spend some time evaluating your brand, and determining which platforms suit it best. The lighthearted brand might find success on LinkedIn, but they will likely have to work much harder for it, and in the end, the time expenditure may not be worth their while.

What kind of social media content do you enjoy creating?

I’m going to be honest—I am not a fan of creating YouTube videos. I tried it, and it just wasn’t for me. I like watching vloggers, but I don’t like doing the vlogging.

Now, I love Instagram. I get Instagram. I think it’s quite fun—even if my Instagram is just a mishmash of my recent outfits, purchases, or aesthetically-pleasing meals.

This brings us to what is, in my opinion, the most important question you should ask yourself when determining your social media marketing strategy: What kind of content do you actually like to make?

The best social media strategy is one that is consistent. Building up your presence on a social platform takes time, and it may be weeks, months, or years of posting to a certain platform before you see the results you are after (depending on what your goals are). Which platforms do you think you’ll enjoy putting this effort into?

Another way to look at it: What kind of content do you like to create, specifically? Do you enjoy taking pictures? A visual platform like Instagram or Pinterest might suit you best. Do you like posting a variety of types of content, and want a place to link back to your weekly blog posts? Facebook or Twitter might be your go-to.

Where next?

Clearly, there are multiple routes you can take to determine what platform (or platforms) are right for your business. There isn’t one correct way to figure it out; you may make a data-driven decision, based on demographics and size of user base, or you may simply focus on the platforms you personally enjoy most. Both are valid strategies, as long as you are tracking and measuring your success.

In terms of tracking the success of your social media marketing, it’s important to clearly define your goals, and make sure you have a system in place to determine if you are meeting them.

The tools you use will depend on both your needs and your budget; generally speaking, you can do some basic social analytic monitoring within each platform, but you may find that eventually you need to upgrade to a paid product to help you track your social data.

To get you started, I’ve curated a list of resources that will help you determine what to track and how to track it.

Do you have further questions about social media marketing for small businesses? Reach out to me @BrianaMorgaine and let me know.

3 Strategies to Inspire Your Social Media Marketing


Social media has become one of the most important outreach and marketing channels available to brands, which in turn means that it’s important to have a social media strategy as a core part of your overall marketing plan.

Social media channels offer businesses a cost-effective way to promote their companies, to increase brand awareness, and to generate customer engagement.

On the other hand, social media marketing is also still a very young discipline, and a rapidly changing one, which means that as a whole it is one of the hardest channels to consistently get right. Unlike TV advertisements or other types of advertising, there are no established rules and no real paradigms or laws that marketers can reliably follow. In this absence of rules, how do you know what to do?

One way to learn is to follow the greats (aka the big brands) who through trial and error—or careful planning—have enjoyed great success on various social channels.

In this article, I’ve spotlighted some of my favorite social marketing leaders. These pioneers are blazing the trail for us, innovating new marketing strategies in the ever-changing world of social media.

See Also: Social Media Response Flow Chart for Small Businesses

Brands to emulate

Oreo

From the makers of the Oreo, we learn the art of prudence. Oreo is a wizard of timing, able to leap out and seize real-time opportunities as they happen. This began with their now-famous response to the blackout in the 2013 Super Bowl.

This masterstroke of timeliness became so widely reported that analysts even estimated the number of “impressions” it had received offline—in print. That’s right, it was a social media effort so successful, it exploded right out of the internet and into the real, physical world. After that, the hits just kept coming, culminating in the “Daily Twist,” an Oreo-inspired take on the news, every day.

Screen Shot 2015-02-17 at 12.06.12 PM

Oreo’s key to success: Keep the entire marketing campaign in the office for high-profile events and streamline the approval process in order to take advantage of opportunities as they arise. Above all, respond rapidly.

Old Spice

In the space of a year, Old Spice went from being, well, old, to one of the hippest and most interesting brands on the market. How did they do this? It started with one man: The Man Your Man Could Smell Like. Played by former NFL player Isaiah Mustafa, the shirtless athlete speaks directly to the “ladies of the audience,” asking them to buy Old Spice for their man while staring into the camera, first from within the shower, then on a yacht, and finally on horseback. After the video went viral, Old Spice took the time to answer questions from key influential people on social media, ensuring that each bespoke video response got maximum coverage.

Screen Shot 2015-02-17 at 12.08.42 PM

Old Spice’s key to success: Be surprising and funny—don’t worry, you don’t have to create fancy videos to do it. Use influential followers to your advantage.

See Also: How To Use Google+ and Facebook for Customer Segmentation

Taco Bell

Taco Bell takes the personal approach—they talk to each and every fan as if they’re the most important person in the world. Their irreverent, yet super friendly approach to social media is perfectly suited to one of their biggest audiences: high school students. This demographic has historically responded well to retweets and interactions from brands and celebrities they follow, which works to Taco Bell’s advantage.

Whether or not you agree with their approach, it’s a formula that has worked for them. Using a snarky mix of English and menu-Spanish, Taco Bell sent encouraging messages to their fans, and sometimes more—in one case going as far as to send one 17 year old fan who engaged with them a poster of a Beefy Crunch Burrito. This is a great way to make a fan for life, or at the very least a brand advocate.

Image of Ana Lai with her poster, via skyrocketgroup.com

Taco Bell’s key to success: Get personal, and make friends with your fans in a generous, public way.

See Also: I Increased Our Facebook Traffic 300% While On Vacation

Masters of social media

There are a lot of ways to succeed on social media. Each of these brands brings its own special pizzaz and skill to the party, using tactics that are different but each successful in their own way.

If there’s one thing to take from this, it’s that if you do make social media a key part of your marketing strategy, you need to stand out. Do something different. If you do the same thing as everyone else, you’ll be lost in the stream of conversation.

A Nonprofit’s Ultimate Guide to Social Media Marketing

You can set the perfect tone right from your own office.


This article is part of our Nonprofit Business Startup Guide—a curated list of articles to help you plan, start, and grow your nonprofit business!

When it comes to marketing, nonprofits have a few things in common. First and foremost, every nonprofit relies on marketing efforts to attract donors and volunteers. Every nonprofit, no matter how well staffed, could use more marketing resources. And, last but not least, there are never enough hours in the day to accomplish every task on the marketing to-do list.

I’ve noticed these common threads in every nonprofit that I have worked with as a marketing specialist. I’ve watched leaders and volunteers work 14-hour days, stay open late to accommodate clients, and network their hearts out to make sure there is enough money in the bank to keep their lights on. With so much going on, it’s no surprise that marketing sometimes takes a back seat.

However, when it comes to marketing, social media is an excellent tool for nonprofits. Social media can reach donors and volunteers, it doesn’t require multiple staff members to manage, and it doesn’t require a big time commitment.

To help nonprofits get the most out of social media, I’ve created this guide that nonprofits can use as a social media playbook. Whether you’re new to social media, or a veteran, this guide is full of tips to maximize your time and exposure.

Frequently asked questions:

Like any nonprofit, you probably have some questions. Here’s a quick list of the most frequently asked questions that I hear from nonprofits:

Which social media sites are best for nonprofits?

Nonprofits have had great experience with all kinds of different social platforms. Facebook and Twitter are the most common. If you’re just starting out, I would start with one of these two.

If you’re a social media veteran, you might want to try Jelly. It’s a new Q&A platform that lets you interact with a large following of people.

How many social media sites should we use?

You can use as many social sites as you’d like, but don’t over commit. Time is always a factor for nonprofits, so keep that in mind as you sign up for various social sites. If I had to give you a number, I’d say two social media sites is perfect.

How often should we post?

You should post at least once a day to every site that you run. If you can post more frequently, go for it. However, the key to social media engagement is consistency, so set a frequency schedule that you can stick to.

How often should we promote ourselves?

In the social media world, you want to adhere to the 80/20 rule. Eighty percent of your posts should be interesting content that’s relevant to your nonprofit; the other twenty percent can be promotional. You don’t want to go overboard with promotions because you’ll sound too desperate, which turns off your fan base.

What to post:

Wondering what kind of post are the most useful? Well, wonder no more. Here are five kinds of posts that every nonprofit should have on their social media sites:

1. Show people how you help

Help your audience make a connection with your nonprofit by sharing a story about those you help. Whether you assisted a family with medical care, provided food for the homeless, or helped stray animals, it’s important to show your audience how they help. Here’s a great example from the Animal Humane Society:

Story

2. Try a reoccurring theme

You’re probably familiar with Throwback Thursday, right? For Throwback Thursday, every Thursday your friends post a picture from their past on their Facebook page. Well, you can try something similar. Think of a reoccurring theme that fits your nonprofit, and schedule posts ahead of time. For example, the Animal Humane Society has Success Story Saturday, and the Red Cross has Fire Safety Friday:

Theme

3. Share news updates

Share news articles that pertain to your nonprofit. It’s a great, unbiased way to keep your audience informed about changes that impact your organization. Livestrong, for example, shared this article from CNN on its Facebook page:

News

4. Say thanks

Social media gives your nonprofit the chance to publicly thank or acknowledge supporters. If a volunteer reaches a milestone or you receive a big donation, turn to social media and say thanks. It’s always nice to be recognized, like this tweet from the Susan G. Komen foundation does:

Thanks

5. Promote events

When you host an event, use social media to get the word out. You can even set up an event on Facebook so people can register with ease. If you don’t know how, this short tutorial explains it in three easy steps. Here’s how a food shelf promoted an upcoming event:

Event

In addition to these five posts, you can also share statistics about your organization, tie posts to upcoming holidays, share pictures of events as they happen, offer small historical tidbits about how your organization got started, and highlight volunteers. The options are endless.

Tips to grow your following:

The success of your social marketing relies on attracting the right fan base. Don’t get hung up on the number of followers. You’re looking for quality over quantity. Five hundred followers who have an interest in your organization and are willing to contribute to your success are more beneficial than two thousand followers who aren’t engaged with your nonprofit.

Here are some tips to attract your target audience:

  • Share content from other nonprofits. Share the social media love. If you share content from another nonprofit, they might do the same, which exposes your nonprofit to more people.
  • Tag others. Anytime you can tag others, you should. Again, it increases your exposure. So, when you’re thanking an organization for a big donation, or if you just teamed up with a new business, include them in your post.
  • Put social media buttons in emails. Links to your social media pages should be embedded in your email signature. You should also include social media buttons in any email correspondence that you send out.
  • Run a contest. To boost your fan base, you could host a contest or a giveaway. By asking your current followers to share links to the giveaway, you can boost your following quickly. Check out this post on HubSpot to learn more about running a successful social media contest.

Timesaving tools:

You don’t have to log into your social media accounts every day and create posts. There are several apps and online tools that you can use to juggle several social media sites and schedule posts ahead of time.

For example, with a management tool you can access your Twitter and Facebook account from one dashboard. You can post to both sites, schedule posts ahead of time, and keep an eye on your feeds—all from one place. Here are three of the most popular management tools:

  • Use a curation tool (see below)

You’ll also want to share interesting content from other sources on your page, but who has time to scour the internet for articles, infographics, and videos that are relevant to your audience? To save time, use a curation tool. These tools scan the internet for content based on keywords that you supply. You get a list of relevant content, which you can share instantly or schedule for a later date. Here are two options:

Final thoughts:

Social media is a marketing tool every nonprofit should have in its toolbox. It provides access to donors, volunteers, and even clients who may need your support.

How does your nonprofit use social media? Has it helped your organization? Tell us how you utilize social media as a marketing tool, and share your tips in the comment section below.

Social Media Response Flow Chart for Small Businesses


Have you ever discovered a mention of your business on social media and thought, “How should I respond to that?”

If the post is negative, you may be especially anxious to answer that question. Should you delete negative comments, respond with a counter-argument, or ignore them altogether?

The following flow chart offers a helpful way to evaluate social media posts, and provides a response strategy for each. Remember, what goes online stays online, and your response to posts on social media should positively reflect the mission and values of your small business. Before you respond to any negative post, use this flow chart as a quick reference to help cooler heads prevail.

Listen to Peter and Jonathan discuss the social media flowchart on the sixth episode of The Bcast, Bplan’s official podcast (at 21:43):
Click here to subscribe to The Bcast on iTunes »

Note: there are a lot of variations of these kinds of charts online. When creating this flow chart, I used a personal internal document, and had direct inspirations for the framework and content from two sources, the Air Force Blog Assessment, and the Social Media Crisis Decision Tree (no longer available).

Social Media Response Flow Chart

Do you have an example of how you appropriately responded to a negative post? Tell me about it by posting a comment below!

4 Social Media Mistakes Your Business Should Avoid


When it comes to social media, many entrepreneurs are self-taught. You’ve learned your way around Facebook and Twitter with personal accounts, so you figure you’re good to go when it comes to a business account. Your experience will help, but there are some unspoken rules in the social media world that you might have missed while using the sites to dig up pictures of your old high school friends.

Whether you’ve just decided to launch a social media site for your new business, or already have a well-established social presence, it’s important to make sure your sites are professional. We asked Hannah Meuser, a social media strategist at the Portland-based marketing company Anvil, to point out common social media mistakes that every business owner should avoid.

1. Bad trending choices

When you’re posting to social media, it’s natural to take advantage of trending topics. However, it’s important to make sure your post is appropriate. Too many businesses try to capitalize on trending topics, and end up posting something insensitive.

For example, in 2012 after the mass shooting at the Century movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, the hashtag #Aurora was trending, as Twitter users discussed the event and voiced their condolences. Apparently, the person tweeting for this clothing store didn’t know why #Aurora was trending, and attempted to use the hashtag to promote a dress. Needless to say, the tweet came off as inappropriate and insensitive.

Clothing boutique posted an insensitive tweet after a tragedy.

Interacting with trending topics is a great way to generate social media activity for your business, but before attempting to utilize a trending topic to your business’s advantage, make sure to establish that the topic is relevant, appropriate, and not in bad taste.

2. Overposting

When it comes to posting frequency, there isn’t a hard and fast rule, but you don’t want to alienate your followers by being a chronic “overposter,” Meuser says. You’ll want to look at your engagement levels to help guide the number of times you post, but if you’re using Facebook, three to five posts a week is a good number. When it comes to Twitter, a tweet a day is a steady amount of content.

3. Failure to respond

The whole point of social media is to engage with your target audience, Meuser says. If you’re not interacting with your followers, what’s the point? Even if a customer complains, or says something negative about the company, you still need to respond in a timely and appropriate manner.

British Airways learned this the hard way: A customer complained about the airline’s service, and his response went unacknowledged for eight hours. To make matters worse, in this particular case the complaining customer actually paid to promote the tweet so it was seen by an even bigger audience.

Customer complains about bad service on Twitter.

British Airways finally responded, saying its Twitter feed is only open during normal business hours.

British Airways fails to respond quickly to customer complaint on Twitter.

That was British Airways second mistakesocial media is constantly up and running. If your business wants to establish a strong social media presence, be prepared to respond to messages outside of your traditional business hours.

4. Being overly promotional

You can mention an upcoming sale or advertise a new product on social media, but that shouldn’t be the only thing you’re serving on your sites. Use the 80/20 ruleeighty percent of your content should be engaging posts and information that your audience wants to read, while the remaining 20 percent should be promotional.

If your social media plan is to sell, sell, sell, you’re going to fail, fail, fail. You need to offer a diverse array of information on your sites. For example, if you own a clothing store, you could post links to fashion articles, ask for feedback on a hot new accessory, or post pictures of celebrity clothing trends. Diversity is the key to social media content.

Can you think of another social media mistake? Add it to our list in the comment section below.

5 Ways to Quickly Improve Your Social Media Engagement


If you run a small business, you most likely have started using social media. If you find that it isn’t working out like you hoped, this may be the result of lack of interaction with your followers and customers.

Here are five easy ways to improve your social media engagement:

1. Pinterest: create a group board

The first tip is related to using Pinterest. Pinterest, as you probably know, is a virtual pinboarding site. Users add a number of different images, or “pins,” including food and recipes, craft ideas, products, artwork, clothing and funny sayings. As a business, it is a great way to promote new products, tutorials and blog posts. To engage with others on Pinterest, start by creating a themed board on your account and inviting others to add pins to it. This lets you collaborate with others following the same interests.

2. Facebook: start highlighting your employees

Facebook is the most used social media site, very close behind Twitter. You absolutely should have a Facebook fan page for your business. One great way to improve your engagement with fans on Facebook is by highlighting your employees. It helps when your fans get an inside look into your business, such as showing what your employees are up to. Ask employees to share stories or personal photographs on the page.

3. Twitter: give glimpses into your office

To improve your engagement with followers on Twitter, start being more personal. You don’t need to share what you had for breakfast, but you can add a personal touch to your updates and the replies you leave on other status updates. Some ideas include shooting a video during your weekend and adding it to Twitter or sharing a funny story about something occurring within your business office. Don’t be afraid to add a little personality with your business Twitter account.

4. LinkedIn: join and promote groups

LinkedIn is a great way to network for similar businesses in your same industry, other business professionals and potential clients. Join LinkedIn groups that are related to your business or niche market, and begin participating in the groups. You can have the groups featured on your company LinkedIn page, to show where you are involved.

5. Foursquare: engage with customers who leave reviews

Foursquare is a site many business owners forget to use. Don’t just submit your website or business and leave it up to your customers to check-in. You should be engaging with people who are checking in to your business using Foursquare. You can use the site to answer questions or feedback, address concerns, and even add tips. If your business isn’t on Foursquare, it is highly recommended you add it. The app and site are becoming more prevalent now with the recent updates to the site.

Social media engagement is one of many ways you can improve your branding capabilities and the success of your business.

Utilize its benefits by not only promoting your business, but interacting with your customers and clients.

 

Can Social Media Marketing Beat Old-Fashioned Facetime?


The advent of social media marketing has unquestionably been a godsend for small businesses just starting out and operating within a limited budget. The capacity to reach millions of potential customers through networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google+, StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit, Yelp and others has allowed business owners to use the dollars saved in marketing costs to invest in growing their business in other areas such as purchasing materials or increasing inventories. Yet, despite social media’s awesome marketing reach, business owners are rediscovering and tapping into the simple power of real-world facetime.

A Marketing Case Study: Gail’s Glasses

In 2008 with the economy a mess, her hours and income dwindling and layoffs imminent, my talented interior designer friend Gail decided the time was ripe to launch a startup company. Gail created a line of elegant portion-control wine glasses. Working within a tight budget, she asked me to write a press release for her to which she sent to industry-specific magazines that targeted women, healthy living, exercise, weight control, nutrition, etc.  She launched an e-commerce website and created a presence on Facebook and Twitter, and she reached out to industry bloggers to help generate word-of-mouth buzz. Her efforts eventually paid off, and as a result her product was featured in a number of top consumer magazines, mentioned frequently in the blogosphere, as well as showcased on two health-related television shows (The Doctors and The Doctor Oz Show). Predictably, with each product mention, sales on her website skyrocketed, but she realized that if she wanted to create a more consistent stream of revenue it was time to connect with her customers and the industry in a more personal way.

For Gail, the product narrative for her line of glasses—the first of a product line that would later expand to include bowls and plates—was her own very personal weight loss journey, so putting herself out there made perfect sense. There is a reason successful companies use owner spokespeople (think Dave Thomas, Debbie Fields, Steve Jobs). Many small business owners have discovered the value in meeting their customers face to face.

Putting Your Best Face Forward

Although it might seem more cost-effective to simply continue using an effective social media marketing model to the exclusion of other marketing strategies, if sales have dropped or stagnated, it may be time to revisit a more traditional mode of interaction—trade shows. Trade shows offer a unique opportunity that social media does not: they allow your customers to personally experience your product or service. Likewise, the benefits of meeting your customers face-to-face provides an opportunity to obtain viable leads. Direct interaction helps you not only better understand your market and your customer’s needs, but gives you a chance to collect contact information from leads and use it to follow up and continue those relationships after the show is over. Building relationships based in both personal and digital realms leads to motivated followers.

Another benefit of exhibiting at trade shows is the opportunity to research your competition and to not only observe the marketing strategies they’re using to promote their products, but also see how show attendees respond to it. It is also the perfect venue for networking with other vendors with complementary products that you could potentially partner with in future cross-merchandising endeavors.

The real beauty of exhibiting at a trade show, however, is incorporating social media tools to augment product promotion in a real-time space. Use your social media outlets to promote the shows you’ll be attending and the events that will be taking place at your booth beforehand. Then, at the show you might include sending out live tweets, hosting on-site “friend” meetups, offering digital prizes in exchange for getting attendees to fill out your online lead forms, or posting QR codes that link to a contest. These “live” exhibits are also excellent venues for garnering customer testimonials and other materials for use in future marketing campaigns.

Of course, before you decide to take the trade show plunge, there are a number of additional factors to consider, including:

Budget: Determine your budget for costs of exhibiting at a show, the cost to rent the exhibit space, staffing, travel, hotel and meal costs, potential show services such as installation and dismantle and shipping.

Registration costs: Prices can range from $75 to as much as $4,000, depending on the size and focus of the event.

Choosing the right venue: Invest time in researching the trade shows in your industry to find the ones that 1) fit into your marketing budget; 2) reach your targeted audience; and 3) provide the best return on investment.

Etiquette: Entire websites are devoted to trade show etiquette tips:

  • What to bring
  • Professional attire
  • Do not overindulge
  • How to engage with potential clients
  • Using tall stools that create contact at standing eye level
  • No eating/drinking/gum chewing in booth
  • Smiling and making eye contact
  • Sitting only if you are with a client who also wants to sit
  • Do not cross arms or legs
  • Thanking attendees for spending time at your booth
  • Never enter the space of another exhibitor

Mixing specifically targeted trade shows with your social media efforts is a great strategy to grow your business’ profile. If you’re unfamiliar with trade shows, a virtual cornucopia of resources are available—from numerous print books on the topic to websites that provide detailed instructions. Here are a few to help you get started:

Everything Trade Show

Trade Show News Network

Conventions.net: An events resource with a searchable database by industry, category or location

 

The Secret to Successful Social Media


It seems like 2012 was the year of social media. Not only did we have even more new players, but there was more pressure than ever for businesses to get on the bandwagon of posting and tweeting to their market.

And just when it seemed that your average business owner managed to get their Twitter and Facebook accounts put together, Pinterest and Google+ showed up on their radar. Not to mention that Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn all had facelifts, meaning previous profiles needed a tune up.

Every time I spoke this year the #1 burning question remained the same – “How am I, the small business owner, supposed to keep up on all this stuff and how is it going to help me get more business?”

I would say that 2012 was more accurately “the year of social media tools maturing in the small business marketplace”, but 2013 is definitely the beginning of an Online Renaissance. A time when business owners can finally find their voice and yell their message from the online rooftops.

Stop worrying about where you should be online and how long a post should be. That will overwhelm you rather than motivate. Instead, start thinking of what your passion, your company and you can bring to the table to help your target market.

You have the ability to become the “new” media. You have the ability to influence people in a positive way. You have the ability to make a difference. Isn’t that really why you got into your business to begin with?

So what is the key to successful social media in today’s environment? Create a strong strategy instead of focusing or worrying about the tactics. Leverage social media.

As less and less people are turning on their television sets, or reading blogs and magazine websites in lieu of regular old print, the influence of traditional media is giving way to bloggers and what’s trending on Twitter. Start thinking strategically about what you want to post and not so much about which site that’s going to happen on.

How can you do this?

Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, authors of the New York Times bestseller “Trust Agents”, launched their latest book in 2012 called “The Impact Equation”.  They talk about the concept of pretending you own a TV channel, and building your strategy for social media by thinking about what types of programs you would air. Are you NBC, MTV, FOX News, Comedy Central, or Lifetime? Each channel is distinct—you tune in because you’re looking for a certain kind of TV show. That’s how your social media should work: Customers will tune in to you because they’re looking for a certain kind of content.

Maybe one program (or series of posts or categories) is “interesting clients”. Another might be a “how to” show. Yet another might be a talk show that shares conflicting opinions on a specific topic. How about the daily or weekly news?

The premise here is that if you focus on your passion and everything you can bring to the table to share that passion, the followers and customers will follow. Remember: people are smart and savvy shoppers. They will buy from you because they like and trust what you are standing for, not because what you’re offering is the cheapest.

So find that voice, get excited about it and get it out there and share it. People are dying to tune in and start watching!

How Much Time Do Business Owners Really Spend in Social Media?


My thanks to Hubspot for this great infographic: 43% of Small Businesses Spend 6+ Hours Per Week in Social Media [INFOGRAPHIC]:

(Via.)

It’s No Secret: Social Media is Going Corporate


If you’re on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest (or any other social media platforms), you’ve no doubt noticed the flux of businesses with an online presence over the past few years.

Today, it’s a crucial part of nearly every company’s marketing plan: it’s easy, effective, and free. According to this infographic, 94% of businesses use social media. If your company is still in that 6% that isn’t taking advantage of social media yet, maybe after reading this infographic you’ll be persuaded to change your mind.


Courtesy of:  mbaprograms.org

How to Incorporate Social Media Into Your Business Plan


(Note: This is reposted from the Industry Word blog on the SBA Community site. I first posted it there and I’m reposting here for convenience of our readers here)

Online buzz about social media for business owners seems to be moving from “Should I” to “How do I?” I’ve been working on this a lot lately as part of my work on planning, and I’ve developed this process for a specific social media plan for small business:

Start with strategy

Define how your social media serves your business. Usually that’s in the marketing area of the business related to branding and awareness at the top of the marketing funnel, but it can also be focused on other business functions. For example, airlines are using Twitter for customer service, food trucks are using it for delivery by tweeting locations, and consultants use follower and like counts to validate their expertise.

Strategy is focus, so you need to sort through the different social media options. Community management expert Megan Berry of LiftFive in New York says, “Facebook tends to be more personal, so if a product is fun and consumer oriented, then Facebook is really good. Twitter has the advantages of public searches, and business searches, so you can see how much a given topic matters. Google+ is mostly techies, photography, and people who work at Google.” I think of LinkedIn as more about careers than specific businesses, and Pinterest as great for photo collections. You can’t do it all and the fastest road to failure is trying to please everybody, or do anything.

For purposes of illustration, my examples in the rest of this post focus on Twitter and use the terminology of Twitter. That’s just to make the narrative easier to follow.

Add specific tactics

The strategy means nothing without specific tactics. In social media that means making some practical decisions. For sake of illustration, imagine a manufacturer of environmentally better construction materials selling to a local market looking at Twitter. Here are some tactics to work through:

  • What accounts to follow: In our example, of course we’d follow people tweeting about homes, green construction, construction materials, architecture, and the building industry. Maybe also small business, small business management, and local business. Gardening, landscape architecture? We should also follow people representing the old-fashioned methods our green construction replaces, and yes, all of our competitors. And we’d definitely want to follow industry leaders, the best blogs, and media people for our industry.
  • What content to tweet and retweet: In our example we’d tweet about green building, construction, architecture, and homes for sure, to build a content stream that would attract like-minded people. We’d probably also tweet about local events, local businesses, and local people to attract local connections. But we would never offer content promoting the old-fashioned ways or our competition. We would set up programmed searches for hashtags like #green and #greenbuilding, #homes, and #greenhomes.  (Hashtags are a Twitter feature people use to aid searching for topics. People offering content include them in their tweets, so people searching can find them).
  • What to watch out for: We should set up searches to catch any mention of us especially, of course. Also, mentions of our competitors, substitutes or competing products, and (as much as possible) local building issues.
  • When to reach out: We’d want to watch for media people and issues that could create media opportunities for us, like interviews with the founder, or reviews in blogs or trade magazines. Reaching out in Twitter means either tweets mentioning specific handles or direct messages to specific people.
  • How to reach out: We’d want to reach out correctly and respectfully, only for specific cases and specific people. Direct messages should ever look or feel or act like spam.

Add Specific Metrics, Milestones, and Tracking

Your strategy and tactics are of no use without concrete specific steps, measurements, and tracking.

In our Twitter-oriented green construction materials example, we’d want set objective and trackable numeric targets for how many:

  • accounts to follow
  • new follows to add each month
  • tweets per day, week, and month
  • retweets to send
  • retweets we want to receive
  • followers we expect to add per month
  • leads we should get
  • web visits tracking from our tweets, retweets, and Twitter profile

And for our review meetings, we’d want to start with actual numbers for each of these measurements. Then we’d review these results and discuss changes to the metrics, tactics, and strategy.

And that, all together, is a plan.

Pinterest 101: Making the Most of Social Media’s New Kid on the Block


Startups, small businesses and large corporations are all tackling Pinterest. Outbound marketing and PPC marketing aren’t the only ways to get people to your site. Inbound marketing and content drive tactics are some of the best ways to increase your brand’s visibility. The photo-driven social sharing site Pinterest has acquired millions of users, unique visitors, pins and repins. If you’re looking to get your business active on Pinterest, here’s the 101 on making the most of this up-and-coming social media site.

Cold, Hard Facts

If you have spent time wondering whether or not you should even be on Pinterest, stop now. The answer is yes. In case the appeal and ease of use aren’t enough to get you interested, the facts should be able to change your indecision towards a definitive “yes.”

  • Statista conducted a study that showed of all social media sites, Pinterest ranks third for time spent on the site behind Facebook and Tumblr.
  • The number of Pinterest users to visit the site daily has gone up 145 percent since the beginning of 2012, according to Internet Marketing Inc.
  • Pinterest accounts for 3.6% of referral traffic. Don’t think that’s a lot? Twitter is just barely ahead of the newcomer at 3.61%.
  • The percentage of all social media driven revenue that comes from Pinterest is growing, and as of Q1 2012, 17% came in from Pinterest. Pinterest ranked second behind Facebook and ahead of Twitter.

Some Extra Stats

It isn’t just referral traffic to websites or the number of users that make this social media site enticing for businesses. It’s the engagement and demographics that have companies swoon. Women, who are often key household decision makers, are very active on the site. Companies want to reach them and Pinterest is one way to do it.

  • A large number of pinners live in the Midwestern region of the United States.
  • Nearly three quarters of Pinterest users are women and the majority of Pinterest users have at least some college education.
  • Over 80% of pins are repins. Don’t just pin your images. You need to repin the images of others and encourage them to repin yours.
  • Most pins are fall under one of these four categories: Crafts, Hobbies, Interior Design or Fashion.
  • Top corporate boards include Whole Foods, Nordstrom, Etsy, Birchbox and Better Homes & Gardens .

Pinning for Success

When you get on Pinterest, you’re looking to boost site traffic, engagement and overall sales. The keys to performing well on Pinterest aren’t constantly flooding the site with your products or being on all the time with a steady stream. It’s about balance, brainstorming and a killer strategy.

  • Create boards focused on lifestyles. Create visually appealing boards that show who your brand is and a board that shows where your company is headed. Centering boards on a specific feeling or style, whether it includes your company’s products or not, will be much more effective than boards aimed directly at sales.
  • Visit http://pinterest.com/source/yoursitename.com/ to see how well your pins are doing. You can see which are getting the most likes and repins. This is essentially your Pinterest specific and image specific analytics site.
  • Use captions and hashtags for every pin and repin. Use trendy and popular tags that relate to each pin to ensure your company’s pin appears in the right searches. They have to relate though, otherwise your company pins will seem like a sales pitch.
  • Create collaborative boards. Creating boards where your company and top users can contribute increases engagement. And if others are contributing to your board, their followers where see that the pin is going to your board. There is a good chance followers of contributors will click through to your profile to see what the buzz is about.
  • Make your website and blog content “pinnable.” Use high-quality, interesting images that encourage users to share the information. Having a PinIt! button on your pages also asks people to share your information directly to Pinterest.

With the traffic that Pinterest has been getting along with the amount of referral traffic it creates, every business should be using Pinterest. Pin and repin for a successful marketing campaign. Encourage users to share your content on the site and share the images of others to increase engagement. Best of luck, pinners!

 

5 Social Media Marketing Myths Debunked

scyther5 / Shutterstock.com


Excellent! Read Evanne Schmarder’s 5 Social Media Marketing Myths: Busted on the Huffington Post yesterday:

Myth 1: Social media marketing is free.

Yes and no. It’s true that you can sign up and create a profile on popular platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Tumblr, and Pinterest for free. However, a monetary value must be placed on the time spent to develop the platform and the creation and implementation of an online social media strategy.

The truth is that time is money, and engagement takes time. Your persona needs to be developed and nurtured and constantly tuned and pruned.

Myth 2: I’ll get a neighborhood teenager to handle my social networking, they know the ‘net.

Your social media communications plan must be as carefully crafted as any of your other marketing efforts. Not only should you not cede responsibility of your social media messaging to some young hipster that goes to school with your kid, you should tightly monitor all social media messages that come from your business or your brand.

Kids are great for coding and setup and such. But your online business persona is you and your business combined. You need somebody with judgment and experience if you aren’t going to do it yourself.

Myth 3: If I get involved in social media marketing the ‘haters’ will hijack my marketing message.

Guess what, whether you are using social media or not, people are talking about their experience with your business. Creating a social media presence allows you to monitor what’s being said and offers you the opportunity to publically respond to less than favorable comments, winning the customer (and others that may have been swayed by the negative post) back.

The problem is not being there engaged in the conversation doesn’t mean they aren’t talking about you. It does mean that you don’t know it. Evanne cites the 2011 Harris Interactive/Right Now Customer Experience Impact Report to say that what matters is how you handle complaints more than the fact that people are complaining.

Of the dissatisfied customers that post a complaint and receive a response, the study showed that 46 percent were pleased and 22 percent went on to post a positive comment about the business.

Myth 4: I built a Facebook page therefore I’m a social media marketer.

My response is a sarcastic “yeah, right.” And a blog post titled Social Media is Littered with Business Carcasses. Evanne says:

Social media marketing — on Facebook and elsewhere — is not a ‘set it and forget it’ tool. It takes commitment, tenacity, time, and strategy to identify the best platforms for your business, consistently engage your target market, and develop business-driving relationships.

Myth 5: Using ‘friend-farms’ to buy ‘likes’ and ‘followers’ will build my business.

Fat chance. Evanne says:

It’s the same as sending a promotional email to an unqualified list. It’s dead on arrival, no matter how many addresses you send it to. You’d be much better served building your following by sharing relevant content, interesting news, and an occasional marketing message.

Social media is a powerful tool, fun, and worth the effort. But it’s also a great generator of myth.

Do you use social media to market your business?


Most experts agree that social media is an affordable, easy way to communicate with and engage your current and potential customers. But how many small business owners are really using it, and what are they getting out of their efforts?

Let’s find out.

 

Three Ways to Expand Your Social Media Influence in 3 Days


When it comes to social media, many business people are overworked, overloaded and just plain over it.

I get that and I feel their pain.

Social media has a lot of moving parts and it’s very easy to become confused. That’s why I always try to provide actionable suggestions that are straight-forward, easy-to-implement and easy-to-digest. I mean, it’s great to read a blog post like this with loads of high-falutin’ ideas only to find yourself lost in technology soup when it comes to actually actioning any of the ideas.

So, let’s keep it simple, shall we? Here are three things you can do in three days to expand your social media influence:

1. Offer to write a blog post for another blogger. For right now, they don’t have to be the most “popular” blogger in the world, the main thing is to take yourself out of your comfort zone.  Sometimes when we’re writing for someone else, we have a different feeling of purpose and duty and that’s when our best work bubbles forth.

When you write that post, make sure you Tweet the link a few times the week that it goes live and once the week after.  Remember, not everyone reads everything you write all the time. If you spread your Tweets across the week, more people will be able to see the link. Don’t overdo it though; you don’t want Tweet spam.

2. Make a concerted effort to reach out via Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter, to someone whom you’ve always wanted to meet. And, not the easy person, either. You know that person I’m talking about…the person who makes you a little nervous? Actually take the time to read their Tweets and blog posts and when the time is right, contribute. Give them a digital high-five by retweeting them. Heck, send a smoke signal, just DO something (sane) to get on their radar.  So many people don’t want to be perceived as a “stalker” so they don’t do this. Here’s the deal, if you were a stalker, you’d know it, so stop making excuses and take action.

3. Interview someone. If you have a telephone or a pen, you can interview someone.  Here’s the trick, take the time to think of a REALLY cool interview angle for them. Make it an offer they can’t refuse. Show them that you’re smart and that you don’t want to interview them about the same old topic.

The same thing you did in tip #1, do the same thing here. Tweet it and make sure you include the interview in your newsletter, too. And, guess what your interview subject is going to do? You guessed it…they’re going to Tweet and Facebook it, too.

BONUS TIP:  Get the interview transcribed, edit it a bit, add a cover and bundle it together with the audio and you’ve got a GREAT lead generation tool!

All three of these things are totally do-able. So, get going and come back and let me know how they worked for ya!

Lena L. West is an award-winning social media consultant, blogger, speaker, journalist, technologist and the Founder of the Authentic Influencer Braintrust, a high-level, social media marketing membership program for business owners and Real Women Do Social Media, the only social media training initiative created exclusively for women business owners.

AvatarLena West

Lena L. West is the leading expert on how women entrepreneurs can monetize social media. She is also the founder of the Influence Expansion Academy, the only social media mastermind program created EXCLUSIVELY for women entrepreneurs.

549

2024

Starting or Growing a Business? Check out these Offerings.

LivePlan Pitch

One-Page Business Pitch

Write A Winning Business Pitch In Just 60 Minutes

Write My Pitch

Start for $20/mo

LivePlan Dashboard

Management Dashboards

All the Insights You Need to Help Your Business Succeed

Start Free Trial

Works with QBO & XERO

Business Plan Writers

Business Plan Writers

Investor-Ready Business Plans Written In No Time

Get Plan Consulting

100% Free Quote

LivePlan

LivePlan

Full Business Plan in Half the Time— and Double the Impact

Start My Plan

Save 25% Annually