distilledmessage

So you want to get into social media? Get holistic.

Posted on May 30, 2012. Filed under: marketing, Social Media |

You’ve got a small- to mid-size business. You’ve got a pretty cool niche. And all you’re hearing is that companies need to be “in” social media to succeed.

OK, sure, you can talk about your service. Or product.

But what if you couldn’t use the words “my, I, mine, our, we or us”??

That’s when you have to figure out what your prospects are talking about.

It’s not your product; it’s not your service. It’s their problems, their dilemmas. Their goals and aspirations, even their successes!

So then what? Start by asking some questions, and using some cool (free or cheap) tools to help you along the way.

Let’s say you have a business consulting on unique spaces for meetings.

So…who is talking?

• Your customers, their co-workers and bosses, the competition,  and “alliances”

What are they talking about?

• Your customer says “I need to plan a corporate “team building” event” and needs a place, a theme, materials, food, transportation…
• You should be asking why and what
• Do your keyword research at Google Adwords and Insights
  • A quick search shows about 33 search terms containing the words “team building.” If we drill down we discover how popular or competitive this term is as well as related search terms.
  • Search on “team building consultants” and you get about 16 million results.
  • “Team building venues” gets you 1 million results. Choose keyword where you can compete. The Grape Escape uses paid ads to get to the top of this list, but according to Alexa this is not a top organic search term for them. In fact, there are not many venues (nor consultants!) high up in the search results. Therefore “team building venue” would be a good search term for you to monitor and use.
  • As an added bonus, use your chosen keywords in your content for an SEO boost!

And to whom are they listening?

Trusted sources and alliances (who could you align with? Follow / connect with them!)

• Peers
• Workplace psychologists / human resources
• Event planners
• Transpiration companies
• Caterers
• More….

How can you get in on the conversation?

• Monitor the conversation
  • Sign up to monitor conversations based on your keywords on Google Alerts or Socialoomph
  • Answer questions
    • A Yelp user asked  a question!
    • LinkedIn has a question and answer forum, search “Answers” for your keywords and find a question to answer.
    • Monitor the competition
      • Alexa lets you see which search terms visitors use to find a web site
      • Participate and give
        • Be altruistic – what can you contribute? How can you help?
        • Join Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
          • Hootsuite is a great tool for managing your posts, plus monitor your social “mentions”
          • Follow your followers’ followers! (they may follow you back.)
          • Blogs and articles
            • Start a blog on wordpress.com or blogspot.com
            • Submit content to alliance’s’ web sites and publications
          • Case studies and stories

User generated content (UCG)  – get your customers to talk about their experiences!

And so we have gone full circle. The integrated element of social media makes it a holistic process. Ooooohhhmm.

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