5 Steps to Using Social Media for Lead Generation

Why is it advantageous to use social media as a lead generation tool?

Yesterday we talked about a new way of thinking for the marketing professional… thinking of your customers as people first. So why does this matter? Why is it beneficial to start communicating directly to your consumer base in a peer-to-peer environment instead of mass marketing?

In my opinion… the sell can be made easier.

We (business professionals) are all searching for ways to better market to our consumer base. How can you be creative and produce advertising that will catch the attention of a passerby? How can you create a brochure that will pull people into the folds and sell them on a product? Using social media can help bring the guard down of a consumer. We all exist in walled gardens… holding our purse strings tight to our chest. It is very rare that anyone or anything will ever get into our mind to sell us on a process. We tend to listen to our peers more than anything else.

Social media (especially blogs) can help in building trust between an individual and a brand. Let’s use social media to build that trust.

1. Tell customer and personal stories on your blog. If you currently have a blog for your company be very sure that you are telling stories and not regurgitating industry information. How are you setting yourself apart from your competition? You are more likely to garner leads (in the long term) if you are telling stories with personality and flair. People will latch on and relate with stories about other customers.

2. Utilize LinkedIN now and forever. LinkedIN is a powerful tool. If used correctly it can open up huge potential for networking with like minded individuals. Your current customers and likely to be connect to other individuals that could be powerful referral sources for you. Do not underestimate the power of your current customers.

For more tips on using LinkedIN: 10 Ways to Use LinkedIN,

3. Connect to a Local Social Network. In Indiana we are extremely blessed to have the local networking site of Smaller Indiana. Smaller Indiana has over 7000 professionals across the state who are willing to talk, debate, and share information among each other. We have used SI to connect to hundreds of individuals and business owners. By sharing in experience and then connecting offline you have a great opportunity to build trust.

4. Track local users on Twitter. If you are currently using Twitter to share information it is extremely important to connect with potential customers in your area of influence (Do you see a trend forming here?) You have the ability to search over different keywords while using Twitter. If a user is talking about a topic that is central to your business… communicate with them!

5. Encourage Your Peers to Share. One of the more powerful parts of social media is the ability to share content over a wide-spread group of people. Encourage your connections, customers, and friends to spread your story out across the masses.

You should always keep traditional marketing in the mix whenever possible. Social media is not the end all of the marketing kingdom. However, the tool will give you the ability to connect with individuals on a completely different level… building trust… and eventually the sale… in the process.

Customers Are People First. Marketers Are Fundamentally Flawed.

I have been reading the influential book Getting To Yes by Roger Fisher and William Ury. The entire premise of the book is based around negotiating and how to reach a desirable outcome. While reading through the beginning of the book I came across a section titled: Negotiators and People First. It had me thinking about social media and how we are fundamentally flawed as marketers when reaching out to the desired consumer.

A basic fact about negotiation, easy to forget in corporate and international transactions, is that you are dealing not with abstract representatives of the “other side,” but with human beings. They have emotions, deeply held values, and different backgrounds and viewpoints; and they are unpredictable. So are you.(pg 19)

This first thought hit me like a ton of bricks with more of a mental pain than a physical one.. of course. If you replace negotiation with the word consumer it is easy to see where we are flawed as communication professionals. Social media is opening up the world of peer-to-peer marketing and the single customer. How can we play in this world while using strategies from the past?

They have egos that are easily threatened. They see the world from their own personal vantage point, and they frequently confuse their perceptions with reality. Routinely, they fail to interpret what you say in the way you intend and do not mean what you understand them to say. (pg 19)

We assume that our customer profiles and survey groups are defining a subset of the population. We assume that the demographic profile handed down by the marketing department is not just a generalization but absolute fact. We design multitudes of campaigns around consumer types based on personality profiles.

And then… we spend hundreds of millions of dollars on marketing campaigns that technically work because they are driven down the throats of the public.

Shouldn’t we be examining the people problem? Customers are people first and buyers second. What is the best way to communicate? Use the tools afforded to you through the Internet to reach a desired outcome: communication.

We are truly in the age of communication. Your customers are using social media tools on a daily basis to communicate their thoughts, ideas, pains, needs, and wants. I cannot see a better way to find that perfect customer than communicating with them on their turf… their home base.

When you are building your strategy plan for 2010 or trying to fill out the end of the year ask yourself, “Am I paying enough attention to the people problem?”

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Digital is Killing Traditional

If you are familiar with the Did You Know 3.0 video… you can appreciate the importance of videos that portray the fundamental belief that social media/online communication is taking the forefront in the business mind.  Okay that was a wordy sentence.. I apologize. The creators of the excellent Did You Know 3.0 video have now released a new video that details the growth and expansion of digital distribution compared to traditional media.

You will enjoy it. Believe me.

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Creating A Strategic Communication Plan

Today’s guest about is by Manunya Nookong. I met Manunya through the social networking site, Smaller Indiana. I had an excellent conversation with her about strategic planning and I asked her to write a guest post.

When people hear the term “strategic planning,” they think of something rather complicated, intimidating or time-consuming, and it makes them lose interest. I am a big fan of strategic planning. I use it because it really works and is highly effective, I just want to see if there’s a way to make people think that it is not that hard to do. All it needs are strong attention to details and determination to improve business.

Of course, strategic planning takes time, but think of what a business can gain after it’s done: a new way to do things around the organization that helps employees to perform better. The result of their planning effort is invaluable. Employees will learn more about their business environment and what impact the business’ productivity.

A strategic plan brings business a clear direction and strong sense of purpose. Employees get to be creatively and effectively involved. They will learn what they need to do, how exactly they can contribute, and when their tasks need to be done. At the end of each strategic plan, employees will be able to see and evaluate the result of their effort.

Now, what is strategic planning? Strategic planning is a management process that includes direction and a series of steps that helps a business do things to achieve their goals.

A strategic planning model can be broken down into four different phases.

Research and Analysis

-Analyze business situation: Understand what goes on in the situation. Find out what the issue is.

-Analyze organization: Find out where the issue started, internally or externally, and who is responsible for it.

-Analyze key audiences: Key audiences are people who closely interact with the business’ issue. Find out who they are, define them in the plan and see what they want or expect according to the issue, what their relationship with the organization is, and what their communication involvement with media and society look like.

Strategy

-Establish business goals and objectives and a position of the organization (or its products or services): Develop realistic, specific and measurable objectives that identify business’ expectations. For example, in company A, its use of corporate blogs increases the number of visitors 25% during the first two quarter of 2009. An objective can be to increase (change in behavior) Web visitors (audience) 15% (level of change) through the use of corporate blogs by the end of 2009 (timeline).

-Create action and response strategies: Create action plans and direction for the organization activity and key messages.

-Use effective communication: Find key points about the organization and communicate those through new key messages.

Tactics

-Choose communication tactics: Consider all communication channels (face-to-face, internal media, advertising media, news media, etc.) and find the most appropriate channel to use with each key audience for the organization’s current issue

-Implement strategic plan: Develop time-line and budget to implement the strategic plan.

Evaluation

-Evaluate strategic plan: Assess whether business objectives have been met, and see if they need to be modified/revised, or can continue with the current plan and activities. Measure the effectiveness of each chosen tactic according to the business objectives.

These nine steps will help strategic planners and employees become more organized in their planning and execution. A strategic plan does not have to be complicated. Start with a simple one and get familiar with the idea. Before long, it will become second nature. Employees will start to think and work strategically and they will certainly see improvement in their organization.

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5 Ways to Track Your Competitors Using Social Media

My post on Tuesday talked about the growing trend of social media being used in order to gain more lead generation and marketing potential in businesses across the nation. You are going to need to be online. You are going to need to have a voice in this world of social communication.

Can we talk about another reason to be on social media? Are your competitors using it? This should be a deciding factor in whether or not you get involved. So where do you start? The first thing is to investigate.

1. Sign up for an account at Competitious.

Competitious is a cool tool that allows you to track, organize, and solidify data from your competition. Right now the beta is a free account… jump on over… sign up and try the tool. It also allows you to share and collaborate on different forms of data internally inside of your company.

2. Use the search tool SocialMention.

SocialMention is a keyword based search engine that aggregates different forms on content from across the web. You can search on microblogs, blogs, comments, events, and images (to name a few). Receive free daily email alerts of your brand, company, CEO, marketing campaign, or on a developing news story, a competitor, or the latest on a celebrity.

3. Google Alerts never hurt anyone.

Google Alerts is an awesome tool that allows you to sign up for… you guessed it… email alerts when a keyword is used in any type of content on the web. I have setup keyword alerts for Indianapolis social media, social media, Kyle Lacy, Brandswag, Twitter Marketing, and corporate social media. Check out this tutorial on how to use Google Alerts.

4. Do some investi-ma-gative journalism.

This should probably be step number one but it seems pretty simple… go to their website. If they are using social media in the right way they should be listing the tools in which they use. Follow them… feed them.. watch them. You could learn a ton from the way they share information.

5. Use HubSpot to track down the competition.

Hubspot has plenty of tools that allow you to track and influence different levels of your competitors use of social media. They give you the ability to track conversations online and hook up with different influencers in your industry. This is a paid service but it can extremely beneficial to the long term success of winning over the competition.

Get out there and listen to the net!

Are there any tools you have used? I would love to hear more!

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Balancing Perception and Reality in Social Media

Is social media everything we really make it out to be? Is there an imbalance between perception and reality when it comes to social media? I would venture to say yes. Before we get into the underlying argument of the two terms… let’s define them (from dictionary.com).

Perception: a single unified awareness derived from sensory processes while a stimulus is present.

Reality: something that exists independently of ideas concerning it.

There is probably a universal argument of perception versus reality in terms of marketing. We are going to touch on that briefly. The majority of marketing communication exists in order to balance the worlds of perception and reality among consumers… among your clients. When it comes to social media  there is an imbalance of the two worlds. There seems to be more perceived value of the tool than the the actual reality (at this given moment).

We can talk about the growth of networks and the stats surrounding the baby boomer adoption of Facebook. We can talk about the growth of Twitter and the role it plays in international foreign policy. However, the fact remains that only 22% of the globe (350 million) has adopted social media as an  avenue for communication.

We are still in the infancy of this communication medium. That is the reality.

However, I am not discounting the value of perception. If a tool is perceived to have high value… it is my belief… that mass adoption is going to come much, much quicker than previously anticipated. What happens when perception turns into reality and your company is left behind because you didn’t change… you didn’t adapt?

There will always be the balance of perception and reality in any form of communications advancement. Did anyone really perceive the true value of television before mass adoption? What about radio? Newspaper? We tend to only leverage a communications medium after mass adoption.

It only makes true business sense to stay ahead of the curve. It is your job as business owners, marketing directors, and C-level employees to watch for the perception turning over to reality.

What do you think? Do we actually have an imbalance?

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Social Media is Not a Fad. Get Over It.

There is a new video on YouTube that takes many of the stats from the Did You Know 3.0 video and adds some new stats. There are some surprising statistics that keep the argument of the new social revolution burning red hot. We are experiencing a shift in communication whether you like it or not. With the video I created the list below of important stats that further support the notion of using social media for business communication:

1. Generation Y will outnumber Baby Boomers by 2010.

2. 96% of Gen Y use social media

3. If Facebook were a country it would be the 4th largest in the world.

4. 80% of companies are using LinkedIN to search for job applicants

5. Boston college quit distributing email addresses to students in 2009

6. There are over 100,000,000 videos on YouTube

7. There are 200,000,000 blogs in existence today

8. Over 100,000,000 blogs post content daily

9. 25% of search results for the top 20 largest brands are user-generated content

10. 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations

We are on the edge of a communication transition. 14% of consumers trust advertising… only 14%. Are you ignoring the changing landscape and risking the reputation of your company and brand? Is your PR company talking to you about social media? It is important to remember that new technology will always change the way business operates… and the new technology is here.

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Balancing Client and Social Interactions in Social Media

I was recently asked by Duncan Alney from Firebelly Digital on a recent Hoosier PRSA blog post to detail how I balance client interaction with social interaction in the social media realm. Here is the question:

“BTW Kyle – perhaps you should share with those that don’t know – how you balance client and your own social media interactions. I know how you do it (now) but clearly – there are others that are dying to know ”

With such a great question posed how could I not answer it? Duncan is a great guy and an awesome social media advocate. I would encourage you to check out the blog over at Firebelly.

I am going to take a stab at this question and form my own opinion on what Duncan meant by client and social media interactions. The idea of being able to balance personal social experience with client lead generation is a valuable commodity when using social media. It is extremely hard in the long run to balance both without taking to much time in both categories. I would venture to say that you shouldn’t try and balance the two… they should be intertwined.

Time is a huge commodity when using social media. How do you take the time to truly use social media without wasting the day away… because we all know… time is money. When the importance of productivity is realized

The social world is beginning to change the way consumers look at brands. Are they viewing the brand as a logo or as an experience? In my humble opinion… the user is viewing the brand as a person… as an experience… as an extension to their daily lives.

I use social media to show my personal side… to show that life is revolving around more than just a balance sheet, an income statement, and an accounts receivable report. Social media is about giving a perspective into the daily lives of the individuals that make up a company. People buy from people and the importance of showing more than just a product is being lost by many individuals using the communication systems provided on the Internet.

When writing a blog, using Facebook, or connecting on LinkedIN… you should be making it a point to deliver a half/half balance of life as well as business. Your potential clients want to know about your knowledge in your given industry but they also want to know about your daily routine… what makes you tick.

I try to balance the two by using Facebook as my social interaction tool and my blog as my business side of my life. How do you balance the two? Do you even try to balance the two?

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What The Top 10 Banks on Twitter Have in Common

ComputerWeekly released a detailed list of the top 10 banks on Twitter and what made them valuable to the end consumer.  I made it a point to go through each of the bank’s Twitter pages and figure out (at least) one thing they had in common. This one thing is based around the overall usage of the Twitter tool and how the banks communicate with current and potential clients. What was the overall theme for most of the Twitter bank pages?

Customer support and communication. To be more specific: customer centric.

The majority of the top 10 banks on Twitter use the tool to support customers with Q&A, idea generation, and live feedback on account information. From my viewpoint… the top banks are actually using Twitter in the right way when it comes to communication. Customer support and service is a huge pull when viewing Twitter as a business tool (whether you are a bank… or not). What other points did I take away from the bank pages?

1. Communication is Key. Do not broadcast a message. If you are wanting to use Twitter for another RSS feed to share PR releases and company news, you have the wrong idea.

2. Listen to Customers and then Respond. It is important to take personal time and invest it in the use of the tool. If you are communicating with your clients it is important to reply back to their inquiries. The same concept applies to a missed phone call or email. Put major emphasis on replying back to questions and comments. Do not let any tweet go unanswered.

3. Every Follower is Important on Twitter. Let me rephrase that… Every follower is important on Twitter if they are REAL and actually MATTER. A Twitter user being real or fake is pretty easy to measure over the long run. We do not want to be communicating with spam accounts. You can tell is a user matters if they are actually sharing content and communicating a universal message to their followers. If they have something to be excited about (new content)… help them by sharing that content.

Take the top 10 banks examples and use Twitter effectively.. both for customer support and communication. Remember that social media is a two-way strategy… listen, speak, and then repeat.

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3 Steps to Being Productive in Social Media

Everyone loves social media. That is not the issue. There is really one huge issue that keeps individuals from using social media and that is time. Time can be an ugly thing if you are not productive with the tools and time given to you. How are you productive and manage your time effectively? I use the four-touch point model.

Step 1: Use the 4-Points Model

When using social media you should keep in mind the 4-points model. There are 4 points social media applications should touch in regards to your daily life: Business, Local Business Networking, Social, and Information. Choose four main networks where you spend the most of your time.

I use LinkedIn for business applications, Smaller Indiana for local business networking, Facebook for social application, and Twitter for information. LinkedIn can be described as my connection Rolodex. Facebook is to keep me updated on my friends and acquaintances from college and high school. Twitter is a wonderful information aggregation tool where you can follow influential people and the information they share. Smaller Indiana is a great place to connect to local professionals and share ideas on how to make Indiana a better place.

Step 2: Commit Yourself

You get what you put in. How many times have we heard that? When using social media commit to a set amount of time a week to using your applications. You will find yourself spending to much time on your applications if you fail to designate a certain amount during the week.

I try to designate an hour of each day to information sharing (writing blogs, commenting on blogs, perusing my Google Reader) and an hour a day to using my other networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, and Smaller Indiana).

Step 3: Be Authentic

I get numerous e-newsletter in my inbox everyday, most of them vary from mundane to outright boring. When posting on your social media applications, try to add some authenticity and personality to the information you are sharing. When I am reading blogs and posts on social applications the last thing I want to read is an impersonal e-newsletter. I want to know that the keystrokes behind the information is an actual person. Be personal. Be Authentic.

There are the three steps I use to get the most out of Social Media. Cheers!

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