Blog

23
Aug

Social Networking for the Anti-Social

Have you ever leaned back in your chair after facebooking, blogging and twittering the afternoon away and wondered where the last five hours went? Me too. Ticked off that you have to work late to finish what you should’ve been doing while you were “socializing?” Me too. So much so in fact that social marketing has turned me a bit anti-social. So what is a busy person who knows the importance of social marketing to do?

Social networking doesn’t have to take up five hours of your time and it doesn’t require overcoming any anti-social tendencies. In fact, that’s the beauty of it. A sentence or two here, a post or blog there. As long as you choose the right outlet and method, social marketing has the ability to go a long way toward building your brand and increasing your business. Proceed confidently into that social marketing arena, introduce yourself, make the rounds, and stir up some conversation. And that parsley in between your front teeth? No one will notice.

“Radio didn’t cease to exist when television came along. Traditional marketing methods haven’t fallen by the wayside as social media enters the playing field. But it has changed the landscape of marketing just like television changed broadcast media. Though social marketing is relatively new, clients already have a sense that they are losing an opportunity without adding it to their marketing arsenal,” explains Paul Weber of Entrepreneur Advertising Group.

Social marketing outlets include blogging, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Do you have to engage in all of them to reap the benefits from social marketing? If the staff, time and resources allow, then sure. But for the majority of us, these things are commodities to be allocated wisely. Choosing which social networking “club” to join is key to how successful your social marketing campaign is.

Locate your target audience and run with that social crowd. Twitter, Facebook and the like all have reputations for attracting a specific type of audience and some are broader than others. However, uploading a video on YouTube for an older baby boomer market would probably miss the mark. But this demographic does use email so an invitation to read and subscribe to RSS feeds from your blog is the way to connect with them.

For B2B or service professionals, LinkedIn is the place you want to hang out. Reminiscent of chamber of commerce functions, this online version allows members to network with peers in their industries, past work places and former classmates. Ask questions, answer questions, give and receive recommendations, etc. Filling out your profile is often the most time consuming aspect of using LinkedIn.

Facebook and MySpace are excellent places to instigate a conversation and bow out quickly while the masses carry on without your presence. Build your friend or fan network, make a daily post and let them weigh in on your latest news. In all reality, what they say about your company or product carries more weight than anything you could say about it anyway. It’s an objective way to get their opinions and change your strategy accordingly.

Monitor your social status to ensure good things are being shared. Reputations are made and ruined on the Web in just a matter of hours. That housewife in Peoria who is raving or complaining about your customer service isn’t just talking to her neighbor. She’s talking to 550 “friends” around the world.

Regardless of where or how you engage your customers in social media, be meticulous about your spelling and grammar. Twitter’s 140-character limit doesn’t leave much room for error and mistakes reflect poorly on your business. Twitterers can also use applications with built-in spell check like Twirl. Proofread twice, read it out loud to yourself and make the subject relevant- a topic that will compel people to respond.

By Brenda Galloway

Share

Comments are closed.