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Nine Social Media Rules
- 1. Nine Rules +1 SocialMedia
- 2. Are You DoingWhat’s Right for Yours? The BIG 3: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Everybody who’s anybody has a profile in each. And it seems everybody is preaching The same thing: • You HAVE to have a Facebook Fan Page • You HAVE to be on Twitter • You HAVE to join LinkedIn and participate in groups But, do you really HAVE to do any of his? Will Your business fall in the water if you don’t?
- 3. Are You DoingWhat’s Right for Yours? The answer depends on your target audience. Remember, your target audience determines where you should be and how you spend your time. If your target audience spends their day on Twitter, then that’s where you should be engaging with them. While it may be a little challenging to have a full-fledged conversation, you can still interact and find out what their challenges are, participate in the conversation when they are looking for solutions and become a trusted adviser.
- 4. Are You DoingWhat’s Right for Yours? The same could be true if your target audience hangs out on Facebook. Maybe they prefer to interact there because there’s no character limit (like the 140 characters on Twitter.) They may like the back and forth conversation of posting comments on each others wall and seeing their updates throughout the day.
- 5. Are You DoingWhat’s Right for Yours? The same could be true if your target audience hangs out on Facebook. Maybe they prefer to interact there because there’s no character limit (like the 140 characters on Twitter.) They may like the back and forth conversation of posting comments on each others wall and seeing their updates throughout the day.
- 6. Now That YouKnow What Network is Right For Your Business
- 7. Social Media Rules Socialmedia has changed everything about the Web. It has changed the way people communicate and even the very fabric of our society, both online and off. And, social media has changed the way we do business. Recent valuations of Face book's worth have reached $50 billion — proof not only of social media's worth in its entirety but also the potential for businesses of every kind to profit from Facebook and the rest of the social Web. Be it a recommendation from a friend, a viral ad campaign or simply a way for a consumer to communicate with a brand, “social” has become a mission-critical business objective. And it should be embraced.
- 8. Participation is Mandatory The Webis a social place and it will remain that way. It is not a question of whether your consumers and prospects are socializing on the Web, rather a question of where. The first rule of social media is that “participation is required”. For the rest, we get a little help and inspiration from some people who know quite a bit about achieving success.
- 9. “If you wantto gather honey, Be Cool don’t kick over the beehive.” — Dale Carnegie, Author It can be tempting for any business to dive head-first into a social community, make as much noise as possible and assume that they will be heard, that their message will go viral and sales will skyrocket. But that can be a big mistake. Instead, take the role of the worker bee and help build and maintain the community. Success on the social Web requires that your business becomes an added value, a partner or a resource for those with whom you are trying to connect and influence.
- 10. Serve the Community Asa business, you are attempting to enter a network of social circles. You are a guest. And like a good guest brings an appetizer or a bottle of wine to a party, you too must bring something to the table. The best way to ingrain your business with a community is to offer value. That might be breaking news stories, informative articles, entertaining videos, discounts and special promotions or anything else that particular community finds interesting or useful. The trick is in finding exactly what that is.
- 11. Serve the Community, continued OnFacebook, look for posts with plenty of comments or “likes.” On Twitter, look for trending topics (both globally and locally) and updates that have been re-tweeted frequently, or simply search for key terms and find out what’s being shared. Set up Google Alerts for keywords important to your industry and check Google Trends for peak seasonal activity for those keywords.
- 12. Serve the Community, continued AllTop.comis a social media aggregator, of sorts, that keeps track of top stories on various social websites in different categories. AllTop can be used to find out what’s hot in your industry, then that information can be used to craft informative updates, tweets, blog posts, etc. PopUrls is a similar site. •Reddit.com and Digg.com let users vote on the most interesting stories, and can be sorted by category and regency.
- 13. Follow the Leader “Avote is like a rifle; its usefulness Depends upon the character of the user.” — Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States Of course, Teddy Roosevelt wasn’t talking about social media when he uttered these words. But they are particularly useful for our purposes.
- 14. Follow the Leader Whenit comes to interacting with individuals in Social media, what you really want is to recruit Brand advocates. And the best advocates are those with the most influence. Identify those individuals who command the attention of the community in your industry and work to befriend them. You might be surprised by what happens. When you get the attention of an advocate, more will follow. Treat these people as your most valuable constituents and return the favor. Offer to help them with their goals, as well.
- 15. Watch Your Back “Ittakes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” — Warren Buffett, Investor, Philanthropist Monitor your online reputation in five minutes per day — learn how by scanning the bar code here, or visit http://wsm.co/fPNSmH
- 16. Watch Your Back Oftena situation can be rectified quickly and easily and your brand can even benefit from solving a problem. But if the problem festers it often goes beyond repair for the individual user, much less all of his friends who will likely never see the resolution. For restaurant and local business owners, check Yelp.com reviews and Google reviews (found in search results after searching your business name) regularly, if not daily.
- 17. Watch Your Back Afew other tips:
- 18. Have Fun Social mediais not all about business. In fact, for most of the population it’s about everything outside of business. Remember that people are on these websites, in large part, to be entertained. Of course, as Mr. Buffett warns, be cognizant of the business’ reputation. But go ahead, have a little fun. It humanizes your brand and helps users feel a genuine connection with the people behind the logo. This is a good reason to enlist individual members of your team, even the CEO, to participate.
- 19. Never Assume Anything Notweet, status update or link should be posted in any social environment without first considering the goal behind it and then measuring its success. Social analytics still leave a lot to be desired but there are some basic tools to help website owners see exactly what’s working and what needs improvement.
- 20. Never Assume Anything •URL shorteners are key to understanding how certain links posted to Twitter (or anywhere else) perform. There are several from which to choose, and full social media management services like Hoot- Suite and TweetDeck come pre-loaded with shorteners and basic analytics. • Facebook Insights offers page administrators an excellent view into how users are interacting with the page and even each post.
- 21. Never Assume Anything •Simply search. Find where your brand is being mentioned and join in. • There is no substitute for your own site’s analytics. Use them and find out what social networks are resulting in page visits, time-on-site and conversions. Then, build your presence on those sites for even better results.
- 22. Seal the Deal Makeno mistake; social media is all about sales. You are online to make money and to look at social media as anything but a means to meet that goal and improve your ROI is a colossal mistake and a waste of time and resources. Keep in mind that every online social interaction has a goal attached to it. That might be driving traffic to your website, building a new audience for a brand, educating people about your industry or selling a product(s).
- 23. Work, Work, Work Socialmedia success doesn’t just “happen”. Like any other business initiative, the more effort put in, the better the result. Those who have experienced success with the social Web will tell you that they didn’t become social sensations without a hefty amount of hard work.
- 24. Work, Work, Work Whatare the Top 50 Social Media Resources for Web Professionals? Scan this bar code, or visit http://wsm.co/fx3Jdc
- 25. The Rest ofthe Rules for Social Media 1. Communication is Communication Both On and Offline 2. Know You Audience 3. You Don’t Need a Million Friends 4. There’s Always a Reason to Communicate 5. Not Everyone Follows the Rules 6. Build a Great Profile 7. Not Everyone Needs a My Space Page 8. Have Username That Reflects Your Business 9. Meet with Customers Virtually
- 26. The Rest ofthe Rules for Social Media 10. Get a Real Email Address 11. Use Your Own Media (there are some exceptions) 12. Know Your Social Media Platform 13. Learn to Evolve with Technology 14. Your Social Media Page is not your Website 15. Real Customers are More than friends 16. Be Findable 17. Flaunt it With a Podcast 18. Link like there’s no tomorrow 19. Spoon Feed the Press 20. Blog Your Best Blog
- 27. The Rest ofthe Rules for Social Media 21. Advertise with Social Media 22. Maximize your Online Directories 23. Make a Killer Virtual Portfolio
- 28. Contact us todayfor your free Social Media Consultation. [email protected] Ruby Sprowls Marketing Your Product for Profit 315.543.9189 www.marketingyourproductforprofit.com