At this point, social media in some form has been incorporated into most businesses. The most obvious way to use it is to incorporate social media into your sales and marketing strategy. But, you can also greatly improve your customer service in a variety of ways simply by posting on a social media platform.
Mike Gingrich of the Goshen News has some great examples of how social media can not only improve your customer service, but in turn improve customer satisfaction and brand loyalty.
Is your social media marketing strategy relying on so-called “vanity metrics”? Pageviews, Twitter followers, Facebook likes and even conversion rates fall under that umbrella, as Ivory Madison reports for Harvard Business Review.
Instead, you should be relying on “actionable metrics”. Relevant revenue, sales volume, customer retention and relevant growth are counted on here. To determine your success in these areas, you simply need to compare your company’s results with the involvement in social media in certain projects.
At the core of any good metric is a clear cause and effect. You should be able to translate the actions taken on social media and translate them directly into the success of your business.
Here’s an interesting story coming out of Latin America. Municipal governments are making themselves more transparent and more accessible to citizens thanks to social media.
In Luis Moreno’s article in The Atlantic, he describes the landscape in Mexico City, where the city’s mayor has made a considerable effort to respond to complaints by his constituents on Twitter. In fact, social media is being utilized in similar fashion all over Latin America’s burdgeoning cities with the most economic growth.
For politicians, there is an inherent risk in being able to hear citizens’ complaints but being unable or unwilling to act, but there is also a reward to reap for fixing a reported problem. For those citizens, they experience a new way to participate in government and help their community.
On Twitter, the use of hashtags has seemingly evolved from a good way to group content of a similar category together, to a messy way to group content or a good way to make a joke. Either way, that’s probably not how hashtags were intended.
Katie Rose, of Business2Community, seems to take particular offense to this “hashtag abuse”. There can be some value in using hashtags more properly, however.
The best nugget I gleaned from the above article is that, if you want your audience to congregate together, show them the way. Whether from your site, a YouTube video or even from your physical business place, suggest a hashtag for users to use when talking about you and your business. Otherwise, you never know all the various combinations people will create for essentially the same thing.
This makes it much easier for users to use hashtags, rather than Twitter’s search function.
I’ve discussed ways to use social media in your job search before. Not surprisingly, the tips for creating a successful social media profile for job seekers are not so different from the tips for small business owners.
Jane Turkewitz has a list of suggestions at iMediaConnection, but I’ll summarize for you here.
Just like a small business owner, job seekers should use Facebook and Twitter to make themselves sound like an expert. Be a part of the conversation and maybe someone will take notice. Also, target the people you want to be in business with, in this case, the people you want to work for and track their social media activity. Chances are, they’ll post something about job openings.
Don’t be desperate and overbearing. Your message gets glossed over if people are bombarded with it and you alienate the people you are trying to reach. Also, make sure you have contact info posted on your profiles so interested parties can easily reach you.
You should always remember that you can’t expect social media to find a job for you. You can’t simply tweet out a link to your resume, then sit back and wait. You have to be proactive, but social media can be a great tool for your arsenal.
Maintaining an entertaining and engaging social media presence can be great for your business. Unfortunately, there are a lot of potential missteps that can also severely hurt your business.
Lewis Howes has a full list of what to avoid on social media at Entrepreneur, but here are the highlights.
Mostly, just use common sense. Post things that are interesting and grab people’s attention, but never even flirt with the line and post possibly objectionable or offensive material. The idea is not to alienate any portion of your audience. That includes staying out of possibly damaging photos.
Basically, once you connect your business to your social media profile, it is no longer yours for personal use. You are representing your business and your brand, so be smart and conduct yourself as you would with your most important clients watching.
Also, be active. Reply to those that take the time to reach out to you and reach out to others. Give credit, comment, promote and generally be a part of the social media scene. Your profile isn’t attracting anyone just sitting there, it has to be doing something.
Anytime you have an industry where creativity meets business, you face the conundrum of who to target with your work. Do you want to make something exciting and fun that other people interested in design will like, or do you want to make something consumers will enjoy?
The good news is that web designers can do both. If you have just a bit of marketing knowledge and some strategy, you can make a solid design that was as fun for you to make as it is for consumers to explore. Any good designer should already be attracting their potential audience while making interesting designs. But what do you do if you aren’t?
The first step is to identify your target audience. If you can spot who your demographic is, everything else will fall into place.
Thankfully, identifying your audience has never been easier since you have tools like Google Analytics at your disposal. This isn’t to say this is a walk in the park, but pinpointing your customer base is much more simple and precise than it used to be.
By doing a keyword search in your analytics dashboard, you can also see what people are searching for, and what kind of people they are.
Another way to identify what your visitors like is by simply asking them questions. Blogs are a great platform for this, because you should already be trying to interact with your audience, and you can leverage to ask them what they think about different topics and to offer their opinions. It is also important to note, if you are struggling to interact with commenters because of spam overload, adding a simple Captcha is easy and rids you of most spam.
Social media also offers a huge opportunity to interact with your audience. It is easier to connect with readers on Facebook than it is to interact in the comments sections of articles. Taking advantage of social media also means your content is easier to share, which will attract more readers.
Once you know who you are designing for, you can find ways to make a great site they will enjoy, and you won’t hate making. Christian Vasile has great design tips if you’re having trouble getting started.
You don’t have to sell out and make boring websites because you are designing for a company. In fact, if you do, you are just making bad websites and your clients won’t be happy anyways.
I’ve written a lot about branding for your clients, but do you know that personal branding is just as important to your success as a designer?
You hopefully do, because personal branding is far from a new idea, but social media has made personal branding as available as ever before. It is also a much more competitive field now.
To make yourself a valued brand, follow this collection of tips. They will help you climb above the competition.
Above all, the secret to personal branding is the same for many things in life. Plan ahead, and follow through. If you put forth a solid, planned image to the public, and follow through with valuable content, people will come to respect your personal brand.
Mostly, I use this space to talk about concerns and tips for small to medium business owners. But today, let’s look at how the other half lives, so to speak.
When it comes to so-called luxury brands, which means companies who sell very expensive things that you don’t really need, all the rules and tips for social media marketing don’t apply.
Unmetric recently published their Luxury Fashion report to shed some light on how well-known labels like Dior, Burberry and Louis Vitton conduct themselves online. Erika Morphy has more on that at Forbes. What I learned is that those luxury brands don’t need to follow the rules.
You’re told to interact with your audience and make your business’s page a community. Some luxury brands don’t allow any consumers to even comment on their Facebook page and most others won’t respond. Some brands won’t even respond to tweets.
So let this give you something to shoot for. Become a globally recognized force in your industry and you won’t have to try anymore to maintain a profitable social media presence.
If you’re a college student, you’re using some form of social media. I say that with the utmost confidence because you’re reading this, so you know how to use the Internet.
However, the way you use social media should change the closer you get to graduation. Your profile can’t all be about last night’s kegger or foam party. Employers are not as impressed as they should be by that.
So, follow these 10 tips, as initially suggested by Meagan Cook at Business2Community.
1. Be you
I’m not suggesting you abandon all fun aspects of your life in order to showcase your employable attributes. You still need to come across as a real, multi-dimensional person. Just don’t eliminate yourself from contention for a job with questionable statements or pictures.
2. Connect with the pros
Just because you’re still in school doesn’t mean you can’t connect with those working in your desired field. Use Twitter to retweet them or ask them questions. Use LinkedIn to network with them and get career advice. The more familiar they are with your name and background, the better chance they’ll think of you after graduation.
3. Hunt for jobs
Follow recruiters on Twitter and respond to possible opportunities. Even if you aren’t quite qualified, you can ask for any similar internship or entry-level openings.
4. Ask questions
You can strike up a conversation with those already working in your industry by asking them about what you’re learning. You’re not trying to argue with them, but you’re also not a ‘yes man’. Have an intelligent discussion.
5. Speak English
Or, more accurately, don’t speak in text lingo. It doesn’t paint you as an intelligent, employable person. Typing out full words and correct spelling may be hard, but it’s way easier than unemployment.
6. It’s not always about you
Sure, you are hoping your social media presence helps you get a job. But, you can’t always talk about your accomplishments. Give credit to others when applicable. It makes you seem less selfish, more well-rounded and increases your chance to get mentioned by others.
7. Show-off
When you have a chance, showcase your expertise in proper forums. Establish yourself as a knowledgable, credible source.
8. Don’t work blue
You don’t have to pretend you’re in church all the time, but there’s no need for explitives in social media. You’ve got time to think of something more clever and something that employers won’t object to.
9. Plant seeds
The earlier you start the process, the better off you’ll be. You want to be able to allow the process to work, not rush it along. Gradually build yourself up and establish a presence in your field.
10. Stay in the discussion
Even if you aren’t knowledgable about a specific subject, you can still be a part of the conversation. Showing a readiness to learn is important so ask questions.
