I am sitting here looking out of the window on holiday and remembering a time when there was no social media and there was no internet. In fact I was also remembering when there were no mobile phones. And I think I preferred it. Do you remember those days when you could go on holiday and no-one could get hold of you unless they had the name of the hotel you were staying in? Total switch off!
It sounds good, but actually now that we have the connectivity, I find myself getting anxious if I go somewhere where there is no “t’interweb” and still have to check my social media several times a day – when in reach of the web. Well, I guess I do run a social media business after all, but still….
And it made me think. Because we are continually connected nowadays, do we sometimes have unrealistic expectations of our social media. For example , on a personal level, do you think that everyone you are connected to sees your FB posts? Would you be shocked to know less than 20% of your connections see it the lovely picture of your dinner you just posted (oh, you don’t do that? Just me then lol).
But seriously – when most businesses start ‘doing’ social media they have entirely the wrong expectations from it. Here are some of the fallacies many people believe about social media
All my friends will connect with my business account
All my business contacts will connect with my business account
I need to be on all the social media
If I spend loads of time on social media I will get loads of enquiries
Social Media is free so lets do it
There are loads of others. Social media is not a quick fix, or a cure all. It should be part of a well thought out marketing strategy. It should have a purpose and a main goal. That could be customer service, it could be brand awareness, it could be product launch, it could be lead generation. Unless you know what the main purpose is you will never achieve it.
For example – in my recruitment business – my main purpose was positioning. Most of my clients for that business have always come through networking and referral. But I also know that in almost every single case – BEFORE someone who was recommended to me rang me, they checked out my social media. People expect you to be there, to look congruent with what they expect to see and to be responsive.
So – if you are not sure your social media is working for you, if you think that perhaps it is not aligned with everything else you are doing or possibly your expectations are unrealistic, then book one of my free monthly 30 minute strategy sessions. I have 3 or 4 of these sessions available a month, and here is what you will get out of it.
A clear understanding of what is working and what could work better on your social media
Which channels you absolutely must use for your specific business
How to get the outcome you want by identifying the main purpose of your social media
At least 3 things you can implement straight after your session that will improve your results.
Here is what a couple of my clients have said about their strategy calls:
Thanks for our Skype call yesterday. You gave us a lot of insight on what we must do to get people to engage with us.
Just a little note to say thank you for all your totally honest and real business advice.
You can create a buzz – Get the word out about your products and services in a way that promotes online conversation and increases engagement.
Build relationships and become more personal – (expanding on the first point) Use a variety of social media, and you’ll build relationships with customers and potential customers. Trust comes through honesty and sincerity.
Branding – It is extremely important for a small business to create a recognizable identity for your product or service. This is the way the customer perceives you, and what better way to do this than the use of social media?
It opens up the line of communication between business owner and millions of potential customers – Millions of people who could possibly become customers? You could not have this easily in the offline world. Thank you social media!
Social networking with potential clients and customers from all over the globe – With social networking sites such as Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter (among many, many others) you can hold personal conversations with each of your customers. Tell them about new products, sales and coupons, suggestions and tips – the topics are endless!
Small businesses can compete with the large companies – In the past, this was very difficult with the advertising and marketing budgets of large companies. With the right type of viral social media, you could potentially get an immense amount of traffic which keeps coming for a long time.
Online reputation management – Social Media is a good way to keep an eye on what other people are saying about your name, company, or brand online – and if any problems or complaints arise, they can be dealt with.
Social media is much cheaper than traditional marketing and advertising – Social media marketing shouldn’t cost a small business nearly as much as traditional advertising. If you do it yourself it might not cost anything at all. It will however cost you time. This is why it is a good idea to hire someone to help with the social media marketing.
Find out exactly what your customers want – Social media is amazing in so many ways, as you can see from the last 8 reasons. But, maybe one of the most amazing things about it is that you don’t have to wonder what your customers want. You want to know what they want? Just ask them!
It provides another way for potential customers to find you – If you’re not high enough in the search engines for potential customers to find you, don’t worry they can still find you through social media. Even if you’re not on the front page of Google, it doesn’t mean you can’t receive traffic.
So there you have it. All small businesses should take advantage of the benefits social media can provide you with, it’ a no-brainer!
Follow our Twitter for more tips on Social Media @StrategySMedia
How important is your online profile? It turns out: very.
Facebook
Just last weekend on a drunken endeavour, somebody took a picture of my group of friends in a club. We’re all generally quite unphotogenic anyway, but the one person that stood out was my friend who somehow managed to look like he was getting his ugly mug punched in the face by an invisible entity. He was cross-eyed and looked extremely pained, maybe even as if he was getting electrocuted. Everyone else found this hilarious of course, but not him. He literally snatched the phone with the picture on from my other friend’s hands and deleted it before it had chance to reach any social media platforms.
When asked about his over reaction, he did seem to have quite a valid reason, to be fair. He had recently started a new job at quite a respectable company and didn’t want to jeopardise his reputation there with a drunken picture on his Facebook profile. A year ago I would have laughed at him and told him not to be silly and that nobody cares about your Facebook and nobody’s bothered about a silly picture, but working for a recruitment company for the past 10 months has taught me that this is WRONG, and how you appear online is very important when it comes to getting hired and your reputation.
Companies use social media to do a background check on you before an interview. This makes sense, as you are far more likely to show your true colours on Facebook. Whereas on your CV or Linkedin you’re going to big yourself up as much as possible. Whilst doing some research into this I came across an article about how you should present your Facebook when looking for a job. It said you should show no links to your personal life, you shouldn’t have pictures of your children/family and your profile picture should be smart/casual. For Linkedin this is spot on, but the article was talking about Facebook for crying out loud. I thought it was a bit extreme. In my opinion as long as your profile picture isn’t of you surrounded by half naked strippers whilst you down a beer bong, you should be fine. Just be mindful of the content you are posting. Ask yourself, “If I was an employer, would this put me off employing someone?”
This applies to status updates as well. “ERRRRRR gonna get soooooo mortal later!!!!” = not appropriate.
Linkedin
Your Linkedin profile is also of vital importance when it comes to your online persona. (If you haven’t got Linkedin yet… what an earth are you playing at? Go sign up, right now.) I like to think of it as the Facebook of the business world… but without selfies and status updates about what you’re having for tea. Now obviously you’re not going to post inappropriate materiel on here (unless you’re very, very stupid and have no ambition to be successful) BUT, there are some very easy mistakes that people make without realising it or considering it a big deal. Mistakes that could potentially stop someone from hiring you, such as:
• Having incomplete information on your profile
• Having no profile picture .This just looks as if you can’t be bothered to make the profile presentable, and also – this is online NETWORKING people. You wouldn’t turn up to a networking event with a bag on your head. People want to see who they are dealing with.
• Having no contact information on there… what’s the point of even having the profile if people can’t contact you?
• Never posting a status or update… how does anybody know what you’re up to when you don’t let them know?
• Using the title of “job seeker” rather than putting your profile job title.
These are just small things but they really do affect how employers view you, so be wary of this.
Finally, we are living in a social media world. It is no longer the province of ‘the young’ – and what you put online can always be found. So – think about how you want to appear to the world, and proceed with caution!
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