Twingr: Create Your Own Twitter? Micro-Micro Blogging

I am a huge advocate of applications that allow you to create your own personalized community. In my opinion Ning has perfected the system of geographic or niche social networks. What better way to start my day than read about a new niche Micro-Blogging application out on the net. Thanks to Zee over at The Next Web for making me aware of a new system called Twingr.

I have stolen the Twingr demo video from Zee. I don’t think he will mind.

I haven’t quite figured out how a small business owner could use the Twingr application. Web 2.0 conventions and seminars could definitely take advantage of this tool by connecting the attendees.

I am still waiting for an application that solves the “ROI” problem of Social Media. I am getting tired of new applications being launched that are simply tweaks to older, more successful programs….

If you ask me… that sounds like a blog post.

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The TRULY CARE Factor: It’s What You KNOW Not What You Think!

I read a post this morning that rocked my world and I wanted to share it with you. Isn’t that nice of me?

Brad Ward of Butler University has become an extremely influential member of social media marketing professionals in the education arena. He is also someone that I try to talk to on a regular basis to share information and learn from each other.

He has a post entitled, It’s NOT What You Think. The post talks about a Seth Godin quote relating to using the tools to capture user attention, people who truly care. The quote:

It’s not about what you think the students want or want the students to want.  It’s about creating and assembling a collection of tools that captures the attention of people who truly care.

What a great quote! Brad breaks down the quote in relation to the education world in his post but I wanted to break it down for the small business world.

1) It’s not about what you think THEY want… We would all like to think we know what people want. What does my client need… want… desire? The truth of the matter is to not rely on your own understanding. In this communication driven world… just ask. Ask your client base what they want! Send out an email and ask what people desire and need. How can THEY help YOU understand?

2)…or want THEM to want. You can plant the seed but it better be a good seed. Nourishment is key to growth. You can’t WANT them to WANT but you can create the environment to help it grow.

3) It’s about creating and assembling a collection of tools… What does your target market use in terms of communication tools? Do they read blogs? Do they have a facebook or myspace account? Maybe they just use email? God forbid it is a direct mail campaign. You need to KNOW what they use and take advantage of the medium.

4) that captures the attention of people who truly care… This is a great line to remember as we are testing this new “fad”, this new form of socia marketing. You cannot force people into blogging or reading your blog. You cannot force a group of clients onto a social network when they do not TRULY CARE about communicating online.

Wouldn’t you rather have clients that truly care about your product and service? I would.

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Get a Drink and Join the Cocktail Party

I was browsing my Twitter feed to try and find some new topics to write about and I came across this post from Marketing Profs, Anne Handley:

It was an intriguing TWEET and so… I decided to check it out.

@GapingVoid is actually Hugh MacLeod from GapingVoid.com. He has a great post entitled: The Cocktail Party Rule.

In the post Hugh talks about the concept of NOT being egotistical and self-centered when approaching your Marketing Directive. From this post:

I call this The Cocktail Party Rule- what’s true at cocktail parties is also true in marketing: “If you want to be boring, talk about yourself. If you want to be interesting, talk about something other than yourself.”

He relates this idea to a story where a competitor blogger posted a “Welcome to the Neighborhood” post about her competition and actually supported the competitors product! There were some angry individuals in the company but they eventually ignored the post and went on with their daily lives.

There is a great lesson to be learned from this post. Many small business owners worry constantly about competition. Are we competing in the push marketing drivel that is taking over mailboxes and in-boxes? Should we buy that billboard?

We always try to talk about ourselves. This happens most of the time through networking and marketing alike. We are there to sell, sell, sell.

The truth of the matter? We are all in the same boat. Try not to take the egotistical side of the equation and talk about yourself every chance you get.

Also from Hugh’s post:

It’s human nature to want the benefits of this brave new world of ours, without wanting it to have to actually exist, without having to do anything differently themselves. At least at first. Education is expensive.

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Social Media? Networking? Good For Small Business?

Ricardo Bueno has an excellent post at Ribeezie called Social Networking: Is It Good For Small Business?  He piggbacks off of a Seth Godin quote from the Amex’s Open Forum:

“Networking is always important when it’s real and it’s always a useless distraction when it’s fake. What the internet has allowed is an enormous amount of fake networking to take place.”

This quote hit me simply because I have been debating on how to make social media more effective in a marketing environment.  The small business marketing world in Indianapolis is a buzz with the concept of using social media marketing to drive revenue. So how do we go about using social media to drive revenue? Brand development? Pure enjoyment?

Ricardo and Seth hit it right on the head: Genuine Relationships.

When using social media it is extremely important to take time in developing your network on a personal level. The concept is the same with Offline Networking in a group like Rainmakers Marketing Group. Offline and Online networking are extremely similar in many aspects when it comes to mutual respect between individuals.

Respect me. I will respect you.

Add in a personal thing or two. Do you have kids? What do you enjoy most out of life?

I would rather not have posts constantly talking about your new blog post or new product offering. Tell me something that makes it personal.

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They Will Remember You in the Bust Not the Boom

Seth Godin has a great post today talking about customer service in the boom and in the bust. It is a short little piece called a Friend In Need. I am going to go ahead and post it in the blog to give you the full experience:

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Small Businesses: Pay Attention to Social Media! You Don’t Have a Choice.

There has been a few discussions surrounding my post about the terrible customer service I had received from my local bank in Anderson, IN: Independent Federal Credit Union. You can read the original post at: An Example of Terrible Customer Service: IFCU.

Ontario Emperor over at Mroontemp (dot) com has a great post talking about the value of businesses living the way of their tag-line or mission statement. The post:

When the messaging doesn’t agree with the actions – Independent Federal Credit Union of Anderson, Indiana

After reading Ontario’s post, I started thinking about the value of businesses following the conversations and messaging being discussed about them on the Internet. What finally sent me over the edge to write a post is the fact that Ontario and myself have the top stops on Google searches about IFCU.

Let me restate because I don’t want this to be forgotten. We wrote two posts about bad customer service and have the top spots in the following google searches in TWO DAYS:

IFCU Anderson, IN, bad experience IFCU, experience at IFCU, and customer service IFCU.

Now, whether or not you agree with the fact that people are going to be searching online for the following terms isn’t the point. Many small businesses have not taken the necessary steps to start monitoring their content and name online.

I don’t care if you don’t agree or believe in Social Media as a promotion tool. You should be paying attention to the conversations being developed and whether or not you are part of that conversation. You cannot afford to ignore the Web 2.0 world anymore.

Independent Federal Credit Union has not made strides to monitor their presence online. If they were taking proactive steps, Ontario and myself would have comments on our blog.

Small Business Owners should learn from IFCU’s mistakes and take steps to add a social media strategy into their PR or Marketing plans.

You could choose to follow your current model and NOT monitor the Internet. Go ahead and ignore it completely. If that is the case, do me a favor and dust off that resume (or retire) because you are being ignorant.

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Part 4: Social Media Marketing for Small Business: Mentors

It is time for a roundup and the last two parts of the Social Media Marketing for Small Business posts.

Here is a look back at Parts 1-3.

Part 1: Prioritize, Plan, and Execute
Part 2: The Circle of Life
Part 3: Attention to Action

We have touched on many strategy elements when it comes to small businesses using social media for marketing and promotion. I wanted to talk quickly about the importance of having “social media mentors.”

Some of us are entrepreneurs with small business start-ups and having mentors to help with everyday occurences should be a strong part of our business routine. Andrew Hyde of StartupWeekend said it best on Chris Brogan’s blog:

Find Great Mentors. I think I have said this before, but it is slammed into my head by TechStars. It is the best thing you can have as a startup. Find them early, and listen as much as you can.

We should all have mentors. The same applies to social media use. Find a couple of industry leaders, as well as, local leaders to follow and ask questions. This should be applied beyond hiring a social media marketing company or a consultant to guide you in your social media use.

Social Media Mentors can give you great tips and benefits of using social media on a daily basis. This will help you hone your craft on top of your daily routine.

There is so much information shared on a daily basis that it is hard to seperate the good and the bad. Personally, I rely on some of my mentors to do this for me.

I wanted to list the couple of people that I am blessed to call my social media mentors (whether they know it or not).

Douglas Karr

Pat Coyle

Social Media mentors do not have to be different than your business mentor (mine happen to be).They can be anyone you trust to lead you in the right direction through your new media use.

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Part 3: Social Media Marketing for Small Business: Attention to Action

We spend a lot of time talking about increased exposure for your company or personal brand in social media. We spend countless hours reading on how to gain attention to our content or service offerings. Personally. I spend quite a bit on Google Reader trying to stay ahead of the curve and consume the next big idea.

Many small business owners concentrate on one aspect of social media: the attention of the users. It is mainly the increased exposure to potential clients that starts the interest wheel turning in many owner’s heads. This is the old marketing strategy of the more you do the more eyes you will hit. We need to take it a bit further than just building brand recognition. It is hard to measure brand recognition in terms of return on investment.

Initially when entering into a social media marketing strategy companies need to think about the attention gaining concepts for the plan. Whether you are doing a contest, spending time in the networks, or launching a new platform it is important to initially focus on the attention aspect of social media.

What is truly important (in a business sense) is the action the user takes to buy and/or become interested in your product. You have all the attention you can muster! How do you turn the user’s attention into action.

4 Ways to Change Attention to Action

1. Free eBook:

Write a short book about your expertise. Are you an accountant? A business coach? Maybe you are a plumber who is just getting involved online? Write a quick page turner on some topics that will be beneficial to your readers. Offer it for a free download and capture their email address. This will allow you to build your database while already zeroing in on interested prospects. Chris Brogan has done an excellent job at this.

2. Blog or Email Subscription

In everything you do in social media it is extremely important to always have a subscription box for users to subscribe to your thoughts and offerings.

A great email tool for wordpress is Subscribe2 or the FeedBurner Email Subscription.

3. Promotional Banners or Links for your Profile

Always have a link present (image or text) that offers a discount on your services. You can also have a link directed to your company website that allows users to invest more time in learning about your services. This is a huge example of way to drive your attention users to your website and sell them on your services.

4. Gain Their Trust

You need to become involved in the communities that potentially may be a revenue source for your company. Take the time to respond to questions, ask questions, invest in writing great content, and helping people out. This is a huge aspect of changeing attention to action. The steps towards the buying pattern of a user has a lot to do with trust in the social media environment. Gain their trust and offer them something to hard to put down.

Gaining the trust of a user is the more important of the four steps listed above. User’s attention is not a bad thing but in order to measure your  ROI  you must take some of them to the action steps.

Always measure and document what you are doing. Time management is key.

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Part 2: Social Media Marketing for Small Business: The Circle of Life

Thanks to Lorraine Ball at Roundpeg for turning me on to Jay Ehret’s blog, the Marketing Spot.

I wanted to talk about some of the concepts Jay uses pertaining to the marketing circle of life. I wanted to relate his four pillars to social media marketing for small business.

Jay has a post entitled The Marketing Circle of Life. In the post Jay talks about the “four primary spots of the marketing circle of life: Branding, Experience, Conversation, and Promotion.”

Copyright Jay Ehret

According to Jay the first step of any marketing plan should be the Branding of your company. You cannot focus on any type of promotion until you have established your brand.

Experience is related to how your customers feels through every touchpoint your customer offers. To quote Jay from his post, “You cannot give people something to talk about unless they first have something to talk about. “ Makes sense to me!

Conversation is what happens after the customer experience. What is the message your customer is spreading? You need to figure it out!

“You should be using your Promotion to attract, not seduce customers.” Promotion should be used to advertise the top three choices. AND THEN we come full circle.

This is a simple and amazing model from Jay to help small business owners understand their marketing plan. I know… I know… How does social media marketing fit into this marketing model? I decided to take Jay’s model and readjust it to show visually how social media supports this model.

The four social media marketing support structures for the circle of life are productive planning, design/content, community involvement, and investment.

Productive Planning

When you are adding social media into the mix of brand building you need to make sure you are planning, setting goals, and mapping out time management.

Planning is essential to building your brand online. Before and after you develop your brand identity you should be constantly revamping your brand strategy. Social Media should be a part of that brand strategy.

Design/Content

Design: You should try and use the same user name, a personal picture, data (both business and personal), and your logo/colors. Users should experience you (and your company) the same way over many different platforms.

Content: Content is key if you are wanting to enhance the user experience to your social media marketing. This is most important if a blog is a part of your SMM. Create meaningful content and add personality into what you write. Authentic communication is key when using social media. Keywords and linking are both extremely important.

Community Involvement

This is where the time management aspect comes into play. It is extremely important that you become involved in the social media communities. The same concept applies to offline social business networking. If you don’t show up all the time… People are going to forget you. Believe me, it is even faster on the web. Get involved. Add some comments. Join in the conversation. Start building some name recognition.

You will also learn some stuff along the way.

Investment

First off, investment is different than involvement. By becoming involved in a social media community your are enterting into a conversation with potential clients or referrals to the potentials. Investment means you are constantly reinventing how to keep readers to your blog, spicen up your profile pages, creating new meaning content, building your brand, and re-designing your blog. It should be a combination of the three previous steps.

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Part 1: Social Media Marketing For Small Business: Prioritize, Plan and Execute

We are constantly selling.

Whether a sole proprietor or a multi-employee company, small business owners are constantly selling themselves and their service/product. Most of the time the two go hand in hand.

From traditional marketing to email marketing, there are a multitude of ways to go about marketing your products and services. Social Media has just recently come to the limelight in the small business circle. There has been a recent push to utilize the world of social media to

Image via Wikipedia

take advantage of the multitude of eyes and ears in this space.

At Brandswag we talk a lot about using social media for your small business marketing strategy. The biggest hurdle in explaining social media is the issue of weighing the benefits against the time spent on social media platforms. If you are thinking of social media in terms of a sales cycle you should stop. Let me say that again…. Just stop!

By looking at social media as a sales cycle it keeps you from seeing the absolute value and benefits of using platforms like Facebook, Myspace,  Twitter, and LinkedIN (to name a few). If you view your use of social media as an instant ROTI (return on time investment) you are going to become frustrated and give up before the magic happens.

Social media takes time. There needs to be sense of importance and goal setting when using social media for your small business. You need to be able to set aside the time every day to check your social media sites and update your blog.

If you have goals set and a plan laid in place to utilize social media you will succeed with creating brand awareness, organic search engine optimization, and becoming a trusted adviser in your local industry.

It is extremely important for you to prioritize, plan, and execute. Execute. Execute. Execute.

Prioritize

Take some time to travel in and out of the different social media platforms. Figure out which sites make sense for you to spend some time. Check out a previous post of mine (in collaboration with Brogan, Rowse, and Sanders) on how to be productive and choose the right social networks.

Find four to five social media platforms that cater to what you are wanting to accomplish.

Plan

Figure out how much time you can committ to using social media. If you want to set aside 30 mins a day to take care of your sites.. DO IT! By all means, the time involvement is important but frequency is just as important. Community users want to know you care and are active in the site.

Execute

Follow Nike when they scream JUST DO IT through all of their advertising. Execute your plan with perfection, create meaningful content, and communicate with your friends online. You can prioritize, dream, and plan all you want but if you do not execute…. well, I wont have anything to say to you.

By executing and joining in the conversation you are developing your brand every single day you spend on social media.

This is part 1 of a 5 part series on how to help small business owners understand, utilize and become successful using social media.

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