Social Media Evolution

By kphmc July 22nd, 2011 Have More Clients, marketing strategy, social media No Comments

What’s great about the internet is that you can find most things on it and usually for free. And, the growth in social media channels has really helped that.

But, what’s really going on?

On one hand we have the technology developing and bring applications that enable people to communicate differently. Is technology driving the cultural changes or merely a catalyst?

Social Media hasn’t just arrived but has emerged over a 20 year period and, don’t just take my word for it – the technology evolution is discussed here.

There is another shift that’s been happening alongside this. It’s the shift in marketing from pushing your messages out there to demonstrating your leadership through content. And, this is affecting all companies – global, local, large, small. No one is immune!

People are changing the way they consume television, newspapers, books, how they keep in touch with friends….and, there’s the blurring of the business with the social. All these things have an impact on how people choose to make purchases.

Take a listen to this audio prepared for subscribers of MaxWeb on how technology, society and marketing created now!

So, instead of pushing sales messages, you market through information. Enter – Content Marketing. The concept has been around for a while with the white paper, conference papers, the ebook, the book – but, with the technology the ways content can be produced is booming.

Now, that’s great news for everyone, for you can cost effectively deliver material in different formats and Junta42 gives 42 ways. The big advantage of this is that your prospects and clients are receiving the material in the format that best suits them.

So, you know the different formats and that social media is here to stay, what will you say? And, from working with clients and our own marketing, this can be the most tricky aspect.

It’s not necessarily what you find of interest that your market will find of interest.

Content Marketing is about knowing what will appeal to your market and where you want to lead them and how they will get there.

What’s a real issue with content marketing is setting up a system that will enable you, your business to effectively lead people through your content to buy from you and have an ongoing relationship without flagging in your material.

I know there are pundits out there that say, don’t wait just do it! And, I can see where they are coming from. But, from our own experience, it is better to gather, trial, create your content strategy and system and then go live!

Please remember social media marketing is in addition to what you do offline unless your market is completely online.

Let me know what your experience of content marketing has been.

Social Media Trainers – 5 criteria to choose the best one for you

By kphmc July 12th, 2011 Networking, Promotions, social media No Comments

With Social Media being the thing of the moment, all of a sudden the world is awash with experts. So, here’s the criteria for helping you to distinguish between the wannabes and the people who may be able to deliver results.

Social Media is about content marketing Check their website and/or do a google search for the content they’ve   produced. The content can be white papers, ebooks, audio, videos and  articles.

1. How does their website, blogs, profiles reflect their social media expertise?
2. When did they start using social media? For twitter you can see this from their profile in Tweetdeck. If you can’t  see it for other sites, contact them and ask them for their credentials.   Or, just look at their linkedin profile.
3. What success have they had in social media? It’s easy to talk about it but to make sure you getting a proven system,   ask them what they’ve delivered
4. Does their offering just revolve around the mechanics of the different sites  and media? Make sure it covers how to do content led marketing as well as how to use the different media.
5. What is their background? Look at the various profiles. Linkedin is a good one as it shows a more professional picture than some of the others. Make sure the person has lots of experience  in your area and check whether their web presence is something you would  like your company to have.

All criterion are important and together will give you the piece of mind to take part in any training.

You want to learn from people who are doing it – have a system for doing it for their business and with clients.

You owe it yourself to build the business you know is inside you without going down too many rat holes

The Content Grid

By kphmc July 1st, 2011 business growth, Have More Clients, Promotions, social media No Comments

Found this and just had to share, the Content Grid

The next time I meet with clients to talk about social media, this is grid is coming too.

Its is so simple yet covers so much ground.

Now, you can go to the grid, see the steps a prospect would go through and plot their path to closing the sale and it shows what to monitor according to each objective.

Whilst the social networking site is listed, it presumes you have a blog/website that will be able to process visitors receiving their whitepapers, booking a webinar or writing a testimonial as three examples.

Looking at the middle section of the KPIs, there’s funnel conversion. This is where the prospects moves onto the next activity and this is known by monitoring what they do next through email marketing system and/or web analytics. See the Worked Example below.

Explore this and how you can use it in your business. As always, happily answer queries and insights  you have.

Worked Example

The term Unknowns relate to people who haven’t yet purchased from the company.

Knowns are those people who have made an enquiry, current client and those who’ve purchased sometime

An IT support company has a client base of small businesses and wants to expand in this area could do the following:

Unknowns

Create a curated list of the Top 10 Backup systems for different IT configurations and requirements. It would be available on the website and people informed of its availability through social media and off-line marketing.

Preparing Whitepapers can be the next stage of taking the “unknowns”  to the next stage of the buying process.

Unknowns and Knowns

Webinars and demo videos sharing expertise on an IT topic like business continuity and apps for the company to monitor systems remotely.

E-newsletters are the glue by which people are informed of the latest information available and be given a link for downloading.

Trend Reports prepared and supplied to those people who are already on the company marketing list. This gives them information on how IT is moving and what effects could be on their business continuity and employee satisfaction. A call to action within this report would be to have an appointment to discuss in more detail the impact on the particular company.

Speaking at Seminars would give that additional exposure of seeing and believing. The important thing is for there to be staff available to talk to interested people and make an appointment.

ROI Calculator available to determine the cost of doing or not doing various elements of IT support.

Knowns

Ask them to provide testimonials on LinkedIn and organise for a video production company to film various testimonials. This could be done whilst running a seminar. Videos would then be hosted on Youtube and embedded on the company website and various directories the company is registered with.

there are lots of ways to do this. I’ve given one example. The final choice would depend upon the time and skills of the employees.

Make it easy to post comments

By kphmc June 30th, 2011 Have More Clients, social media No Comments

I originally posted this in Oct 2009 and I include the comments received then. What can you add?

It’s really sad when there are so many blogs that have absolutely no comments.  Afterall blogging is part of your social media presence. It’s about two way communications so have a gander down this list and see how you whether you have all these or most of these elements.

Oh, and please add to the list… it can’t be complete

1. Leave some things out on your post so people can add to your list or ponderings
2. Be sure to thank everyone who leaves you a comment so they feel welcomed and will spread the word
3. Try to keep some balance on the comments left. Having a list of argumentative and negative ones may scare off others
4. Respond publically to comments made so new readers can see that you are engaging in the process
5. Make it easy to comment. Let your readers just hit the return key. If you create a barrier by asking them to sign in, they will probably leave it
6. Create new content so people can see something of you rather than just a rehash or what’s already out there!
7. Post in the positive. Negative posts make you seem scary
8. Your final sentence or question makes it easy for people to respond
9. What about reasons 9, 10 and beyond….?

Here’s the risk, will there be any comments…lol

Here are the comments received in 2009:

What comments have you got to add?

Fast Ways to Have More Clients

By kphmc June 2nd, 2011 Have More Clients, Promotions, social media No Comments

There are five easy, no cost ways to have more clients. You may read them and think, I know these already. And, are you doing all these?

More buyers arrive when you are out there, making contacts with people of your client profile.

 

For each way, ask yourself:

1. Which of the ways are bringing in clients regularly?
2. Which activities bring in high value lifetime clients?
3. How much does it cost to gain these clients?

So, onto the five ways

1. Talk those people who already love you. These people will be a combination of clients, suppliers, prospects and people in allied professions.

Ask them what they particularly love about you and who, in their network, would also benefit from working with you.

By having this conversation you learn more about how they perceive you as well giving others the opportunity to be helpful and increase standing in their network.

This is such a fabulous way to attract buyers. You simply keep in touch with people. In doing so, you show appreciation and that feeds the next lot of referrals.

2. Approach companies serving your market with different products and services. There are a number of options here. Make sure you are clear what you want and can offer.  Presenting a win:win makes it an easier proposition.

Three options include:

• joint email promotion where they send an email to their list with one of your offers and you can offer to do the same.  Be prepared to disclose the size of your list and the responsiveness of it.
• deliver a seminar to their list where you present high value information of interest to their email base. Depending upon the list and your topic, this can either be a webinar or face to face. If there is a charge, list owner may want to have a higher than 50% share of the revenue.
• they become an affiliate for a service or product. You add a revenue stream to their business where you offer a percentage of each sale as commission.

3. Use Social Networking Sites to spread your sphere of influence. I am an advocate of social media. It really works, yet, requires time.   When considered as part of your marketing rather than something separate, it becomes manageable.

Look at the different sites and use the ones where your clients and market  are already. Keep an open mind on where you go. Many people say Facebook is just for consumers and LinkedIn is for business to business. Remember everyone is a consumer. People search for information and entertainment. So, if you can offer these on a Facebook Fan page, then set one up.  this is a great way of building a relationship up with new contacts. There are statistics showing people who a like a business page buy more and are more loyal than non-fans.

There is also cross over in the content presented to the social networks. Consider which are the drivers and deliverers for your market and business.

4. Remember the people in your network who like you. They may never buy but they can spread the word about your sensational services. Better still, ask them who in their network they can refer.  Simply ask them when meeting up whether they have the contact details with them. Can they make the contact now! There’s no better time to take action.  Similarly, you do the same for them. Reciprocity is a great bonding agent.

5. Approach networking groups and offer to deliver a high value talk at one of their gatherings. Plan your talk so you offer them more material in exchange for their email address or, better still, have a low cost product or service on offer at the event. People are already inspired by you, they are more open to buy than when they receive an email or phone call.  

Be bold, schedule time in your diary to complete each of these tasks over the next two weeks. Track what happens. Make changes to what hasn’t worked well. Do more of what did work.

While there is spare capacity, marketing activity should take up between 50 and 80% of the time available.