A friend of mine sent me this video the other day and as I watched it I began to think about how important it is for all of us to be validated and feel good about ourselves. Times being what they are, it just seems so few people have the time or inclination to make the extra effort. People don't seem to smile at each other as much, servers barely make eye contact with you, no one holds a door for you or thanks you for your time. It's rare that others take the time to selflessly make others feel special or good about themselves anymore.
It then occurred to me that the same mindset was beginning to permeate the places where we spend a lot of our time...social media sites. Outside of an occasional (Thanks for the RT) or (a thumbs up on Facebook) how do we go about making our prospects and customers feel valued, special...validated? It seems to me when there is so much competition for sales and notoriety amongst marketers that customer validation has become something we overlook in a jaded attempt to make a sale or get the next client. Our responses often lack appreciation or feeling.
How can we make our prospects and clients feel validated and special in a way that makes them feel special as people as well as customers? What steps should we be taking to engage them on a humanistic level and not just as a number? And how can we do this in the context of a business environment?
Solutions, comments, ideas...? I'd love to know what you think or are currently using in your business. Watch the video and let me know if anything comes to mind.
1.Business Development & Revenue Generation Offering special sales or information to your followers can help develop your business and your following. The more followers the more opportunities to share your service or product. Post a special offer to followers on Twitter or Facebook and watch sales grow. The opportunities to leverage Twitter and other Social Media sites to drive revenue are endless.
The cost to do this, FREE.
2.Brand Communication & Awareness Leveraging social media platforms, both large and small companies can drive brand awareness and manage communication regarding their brand. Leverage various Social Media platforms to drive your brand awareness. Triangulate your efforts to drive traffic back to you website or blog.
Remember, 67% of Americans use Social Media networks in an average month.
3.Relationship Marketing Consumers can now have a voice with the companies they are interested in doing business with. Likewise the companies themselves can develop a relationship with their prospects and become a more trusted entity. People always buy from those they "Know, Like & Trust".
Develop a relationship mentality and avoid the hard sell.
4.Market & Competitive Research Social Media provides immediate access from a follower base (and virally, their followers as well) to gage customer insight and perspective. Social Media sites can be used to mine for data, research or solicit user-generated-ideas and monitor your competition.
5.Customer Service & Customer Insight Social media allows you to actively monitor for mentions, complaints and suggestions and to react swiftly, leaving customers feeling valued and empowered. Enabled customers become powerful evangelists for your product or service.
A recent survey showed that 14% of people trusted advertising but 76% trusted consumer recommendations for their purchase decisions.
Lately there has been a lot of talk about Google Wave but not everybody hearing the talk is sure what people mean. Google Wave is the next innovation in email, social media, sharing and connectivity all rolled into one. But as awesome as it is it can be confusing and take a little while to learn. Check out the video below to understand the e-mail function and then click here to get a more in depth explanation of how it works, terminology, usability and general know how. I promise this time next year it won't seem so mysterious.
Found this great video on YouTube and I wanted to share it with you guys. It really puts the importance of social media into perspective. Remember, if you're not doing it, your competitor is.
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Write A Great Profile- It's not enough to sign for a social networking site. Social networking sites rank well in the search engines so you need to take advantage of that fact by writing something that will entice people to friend or follow you, as well as encouraging potential customers to visit your website. Your profile has to sell you and is an opportunity to brand yourself to your product or services, so make it stand out. And don't forget people want to get to know the "real" you so mention hobbies, activities and interests as well. Make yourself approachable.
Go for Quality Over Quantity - While having followers is obviously important, don't overwhelm yourself by joining every group you find. Pick two or three major groups and spend time building your following. It's more important to have targeted followers (those that want what you have) rather than just picking up anyone and everyone. Remember your objective is to promote your business or service and create a community of like-minded people.
Take Time To Share- Once you get your profile completed and create your community, take the time to share what's going on in your world. Let your followers know what events you'll be holding, what seminars or workshops you're attending, places they may be able to meet you (like TweetUps) and something personal so you become more real to them. The objective is always to have people, "know, like & trust you" so they'll feel comfortable doing business with you. Take time to respond to posts and comment on other peoples. Share valuable tips, ideas and information with your group of followers and make them feel that you care. No one wants to be just a number.
Be Respectful- Avoid the urge to cross the lines into race, religion or politics (which can sometimes be hard). If someone messages you, be sure to answer. When asking for a friendship make sure to add a personal note, don't rely on the default message. And it goes without saying that cursing is never a good idea, even as a joke. You never know who is going to see your comments and be offended. This is a viral community and negative information travels fast and can hurt your reputation.
Establish A Time Saving Routine - Once you join these sites, you’ll want to ensure that your content is always up to date, and that your friend requests, comments, and opinions are promptly attended to. When logging on to your preferred social networking sites, set aside a designated length of time to spend on each one. Have some specific goals in mind and set limits for yourself when visiting the site so you don’t get side tracked. When possible use time saving applications like Tweetlater, Friendfeed or Ping.fm
Traffic Tip #1: Article Marketing: This is by far one of the best free traffic strategies out there...Simply write original, content rich articles that contain useful information or tips and submit them to online article directories. Each directory has it's own publishing rules you must follow but you don't have to be a Pulitzer prize winner to submit your work. Some good sites to submit to are:
Ezine Articles , Idea Marketers , Go Articles , Articles Base , Article 99 Be cautious about submitting too many article at once. Generally 2-3 a week is enough. And be sure to re-purpose articles and blogs you've already written into new material.
Traffic Tip #2: Register Your Site With the Webs Top Directories: Not only will you get more visitors from submitting to these sites - you'll also get great inbound links that will help boost your rankings with the search engines. Here are some directories you can start with.
Traffic Tip #3: Issue A Press Release: Online press releases are normal press releases that are distributed online through various services, some free, some not. These services list your press release on their website and on a variety of partner sites. While the press releases it self won't improve your website rankings, they are an opportunity to be noticed by reporters and editors whose focus on you in a news story or article will generate tons of leads to your site. If you do decide to post a press release make sure it's news worthy or something people really want to hear about. Some good press release sites are:
Traffic Tip #4: Advertise on Free Online Classified Site: These are great sites because they will bring you people who are already looking for your services and in a buying mindset. In addition, being listed here will help create important inbound links to your site or sales page. Here's a few to start with.
Traffic Tip #5: Get Active on Social Networking Sites: So much has been said lately about social networking. I'm sure if your not already actively involved you know people who are. Social networking has become a way of building relationships with others who have similar interests to you, are friends or colleagues or more importantly, "your target market". But signing up and not posting to these groups will get you no where fast. Become involved by joining groups, getting involved in discussions and inviting new people to join. All of these services are free and easy to use. Several of the most popular are:
In addition to these don't forget posting on blogs and forums that you or your target market have an interest in as well. Remember that driving traffic to your website, blog or sales page is an on going process and takes time. You'll need to constantly check the effectiveness of the strategies you use and tweak them as needed. In the meantime keep coming back to learn more online marketing basics and feel free to ask a question or request a specific topic.
As I look back at my last few posts I realized I was letting you guys down. If you're here you obviously want to learn more about getting started in online marketing and while my last few posts may have been interesting or helpful I realize that I'm also getting a little off topic a bit, so to honor you and your time I'm going to do a series of post related more to the basics.
Today I'd like to talk about the most basic of all internet marketing questions. "How do I get traffic to my site?" You begin by determining who your site is targeted to. Who is the audience you want to attract? What group of people do you have a solution for? And I can hear you now... But won't that shrink the pool of people I market to? Yes, it will but it will also guarantee that the people who hear or see your message are the ones who are truly interested in what you have to say.
1. Be a big fish in a small pond. It's much easier to market to a smaller more niched group. You can try to be a small fish in a big pond but your results will not be targeted and therefore you won't be getting the attention of the people who can benefit most from your product or service. You do need to know the size of the target (pond) or niche market and by keeping it small you are better able to do that.
2. Don't try to be all things to all people. If you try to be all things to all people in the market, you'll lose focus and your efforts will be more scattered. You probably know much more about a specific area of your niche than you realize. That is where you need to focus. Be the expert in that area to start with. You can always expand later. Learn to say "no" to things that will dilute your efforts. It will help you in the long run.
3.Know your target customers and make sure that all your advertising campaigns are targeted them. This means that you must use all the necessary keywords which define your potential customers in all your advertising campaigns. If you are using Google Adwords, your marketing must specify the targeted customers. If you are writing articles as a way of promoting your website, your articles must contain the keywords for your target market.
Start with this in mind before you begin to expand your marketing plan. Knowing who your target market is makes it much easier to decide where you want to direct your marketing efforts, how to find your market and what tactics will work best with them. Make a list of all the characteristics that make up you perfect customer. You can even create an pretend customer if you want to get even more specific. Give this ideal person a name, age, job, ect... Where do they live? How any children (if any) do they have? What do they read? Where do they hang out? How much do they make? Did they go to college? Are they married? You get the idea. Put in as much detail as you can because this is the person you will be marketing to.
Let me know how you do. Post your ideal customer so we can discuss it and help you create the perfect target audience.
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