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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Independent Blogging Compared to Corporate Blogging
I follow the writing of many of the staff at Compendium Blogware, a local company here in Indianapolis offering an extremely trackable and orangic seo based blog software. I was reading through a post by Megan Glover called Is Blogging In Your 2009 Marketing Budget?, and happened across a powerpoint presentation about measuring, tracking, and adjusting your corporate blog. You can view the ppt by clicking here: measure-track-and-adjust-webinar.
In the webinar they had a graphic from Google Analytics that show where the traffic to their blog was originating from (image below). Of course being a search and keyword driven blogging platform you would
imagine that the majority of the sites traffic would be from search engines. I decided to check out my analytics to see if I was completely opposite, in the middle, or the same.
Below you will see my traffic sources from Google Analytics. Not surprisingly most of my traffic is driven through referring sites. It got me to thinking about the value of blogging and the underlying reason of why I am writing this blog. Without hesitation I can say that the main reason for blogging is my love for social media both here and in Indianapolis. I love the concept of building community on the web. I have met some wonderful people through my dealings i
n Friendfeed, Twitter, and Smaller Indiana.
The other reasons can be contributed to my social media marketing and design company and becoming a trusted adviser in the city of Indianapolis. A blog is a great way to build credibility among your peers and collaborate with many individuals on a global scale.
Of course, another big reason for blogging is the organic search engine optimization I gain through posting and linking. I don’t know if I should be worried that my lowest referring center is search engines. I have been contemplating a way to switch that tables and even out my traffic sources. Any ideas on how to do that?
It is interesting to see the sources of traffic of certain blogs both on a personal and professional level. I would gather that the majority of corporate blogs have a higher search engine traffic rate than most independent blogs out there.
Do you find referring sites more valuable or search engine traffic? Maybe you find direct traffic the most valuable of them all? I guess it is all based on the goals and aspirations of the blog strategy itself. Any tips on blog strategy can more than likely be found at Chris Brogan, Chris Baggot, Hutch Carpenter or Louis Gray’s blogs.
BlueLock: Leading the Way in Cloud Computing
BlueLock is a local company here in Indianapolis that is leading the way in the innovative technology of Cloud Computing. They were recently highlighted at a conference in Las Vegas and featured on WishTV. You can watch the video below.
Cloud Computing has been a major topic in the world of blogging:
1. Info World: Will the Downturn Accelerate Cloud Computing
2. bMights: Running Your Business in the Cloud
3. Lorraine Ball @ Indy-Biz: New Developments in Cloud Computing
4. Blogoscoped: Richard Stallman vs Cloud Computing
5. Dan @ itToolBox: Big Trouble Coming for Cloud Computing
Whether you have a distate for the cloud or you love the concept, I thought it was awesome that an Indianapolis company is making headway with this technology.
I know that most of the time I am either talking about social media, social media marketing or social media in Indianapolis but I thought it was awesome that BlueLock was being featured in the technology arena. I encourage everyone to watch the video below to get a small taste of what BlueLock is offering.
A Good Way To Ruin Social Media: Thank You WMDukeofEarl
I was just about to leave to enjoy a frosty brew at a local establishment here in Indianapolis. I decided to check the inbox one more time before leaving a found I had a new comment on my blog! COOL! I opened the email and read down the message:
Author : WMDukeofEarl
E-mail :
Comment:
Build your Linkedin network quickly and easily by inviting open networkers to connect.I am offering 1250+ Linkedin ( Linked in ) connections, or in other words, a list (in Microsoft .CSV) of 1250+ e-mail addresses ready to be uploaded on LinkedIn and to which you can instantly send invitations to connect. All of the individuals whose e-mail addresses are on this list have been screened and are self-declared open networkers and should be trusted to accept all invites. Please visit my auction on ebay! http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320309384428
Talk about ruining my night. No, I don’t want to bid on your LinkedIN contact book. No, I don’t want to turn an awesome social community platform into another worthless, waste filled, email marketing wasteland. I would appreciate it if you would respect the concept of relationship building, as well as, the idea of open collaboration between individuals. Maybe you should try and form a relationship every once in awhile instead of doing a friend train and then ruining your 1250+ connections you have gained.
This is one example of how certain people are ruining the world of social media. You can use it as a marketing platform but don’t turn it into a InfoSeek USA.
I am going to go drink because I feel like I was just gassed with poisonous BS fumes.
And no I will not approve your comment and quit spamming my BLOG!
Brogan, Rowse, Lacy, Sanders: A Collaborative Effort, Version 2
There has been quite a bit of collaboration lately on the idea of social media described in terms of Home Bases, Frontiers, Outposts, and Communities. If you have not gotten into the discussion and thrown in your two cents I would encourage you to read the following posts and discuss:
1.The Founding Father: Chris Brogan: Using Outposts in Your Media Strategy
2. Darren Rowse of Pro-Blogger: Home Bases and Outposts, How I Use Social Media
3. Steven Sanders: Home Bases, Outposts, Frontiers and Communities
4. My Post on the matter: Home Bases, Outposts and Frontiers Using Social Media
Steven talks about adding on the concept of communities to the mix of home bases, outposts, and frontiers. In his post he talks about the concept of communities:
If you look at Kyle’s picture of his social media model, you’ll start to notice that it resembles what could possibly be a persons house or lifestyle. The different areas are the different things a person runs through everyday.
So If you look at this chart belonging to an individual person, then it makes sense that there are similar charts being used by others that help to build your “Communities“.
I like where Steven is going with the concept of communities. Below you will find his version of the concept of communities:
I decided to take it a step further and call the communities concept Borders. To be honest with you it is the same concept at communities but I wanted to keep with the wilderness theme. Here is my reasoning:
According to Wordsmyth.net borders can be defined as:
The area close to or the dividing line between two countries or political regions.
To me the border defines the outlying area where we still influence and coexist among our neighboring communities. We have out home base, our outposts, the frontiers, and then the border where we wander out and coexist with other communities in the form of communication and collaboration. The only downside to the definition of border is that it means a dividing line. In no way are the borders of our social media “bases” a dividing line but more of place for the facilitation of online relationships and information sharing.
My concept in visual form:
The purple area represents the borders we define in our social media experience. It is an open territory where we cross into other users boundaries and share information. It could be defined as an open border.
Any thoughts? If there has been any more thoughts shared in the matter please let me know. I would love to add it into the mix.
Social Media and Traditional Advertising Are Similar and Different
Lorraine Ball has an excellent post today talking about consistency in advertising, blogging, and social media. She talks about the similarities between social media and blogging compared to corporate advertising. She cites Mitch Joel when talking about the best practices in social media.
1. “Repetition, repetition, repetition”. His point was simple, if we wanted to get noticed, we could not take a one shot approach to our marketing. Multiple ads, multiple pieces of direct mail would be required to break through the clutter. And the same is true today! Using blogging and social media as an integral part of your marketing mix.
2. He also makes a great point about creating a consistent online image. Just as you wouldn’t consider changing your brand color or font every time you print a new brochure, don’t change your identity when you blog.
It made me think about my own paradigm when it comes to push marketing, bomber marketing strategy, and traditional advertising. I have come to despise the constant bombardment of direct mail and email blasts. There is something to be said of a company who can connect with a niche group of people of an emotional level. It is true that repetition and consistency is key in traditional advertising, as well as social media. I wanted to take it a bit further and explain why social media is an upgrade to the traditional advertising platform.
There always needs to be repetition and consistency in social media but not necessarily in terms of “repetition” in the advertising world. In my opinion, repetition in advertising means creating a marketing strategy for a large demographic base and then trying to hit that base as many times as possible with that message (bombing). Social Media has a way (wether you like it or not) to create an extremely niche listener base in your community outlets.
Friendfeed is a great example of this. When you “like” something on Friendfeed you are paired and grouped with people who tended to “like” the same thing. If you are subscribed to a person and he/she likes another post, you will see it in your timeline. This creates a network of niche individuals who share a certain connection in terms of information.
It is hard to pinpoint a specific niche market in your daily social media meanderings because you truthfully have little to no control on how your listerner base in built. That is the difference between social media marketing and traditional advertising.
We choose what we want to read. We choose what we want to see and experience. There has never been such a powerful consumer centric platform in the history!
Yes, you need to be repetitive and consistent in your social media use but if you don’t tack on the content your clientbase wants to read… you might as well be dropping bombs on yourself.
Home Bases, Outposts, and Frontiers: Using Social Media
Chris Brogan and Darren Rowse have been discussing the concept of home bases and outposts to describe the use of Social Media in their daily routines. Darren talked about the concepts of homebases and outposts in his post: Home Bases and Outposts: How I Use Social Media in My Blogging. From the post:
A home base is a place online that you own, that is your online ‘home’. For me my home bases are blogs but for others they will be other types of websites.
Outposts are places that you have an online presence out in other parts of the web that you might not ‘own’.
Chris Brogan also talks about the concept of Outposts in his post, Using Outposts in Your Media Strategy. Chris explains that an outpost is another way to define a social media service that brings awareness to the homebase, much like an outpost in mulitary terms.
I decided to go a step further and add in the frontier. Dictionary.com describes frontier as:
A: the part of a country that borders another country; boundary; border.
B: the land or territory that forms the furthest extent of a country’s settled or inhabited regions.
My social media definition of frontier: a website or service you have a presence on but rarely go. This is a site where you may have an RSS feed plugging your most-used social networks (Twitter) or your blog. The concept of frontier can be compared to Chris Brogan’s idea of a passport but shed in a little different light.
Above you will see an illustrated example of my use in Social Media. This is a mesh between Chris and Darren’s ideas, as well as my previous idea of the 4 Touch Points Model for productivity in social media.
In order to stay productive in Social Media I try to use four sites that cater to four different aspects of my life: education, social development, business interaction, and business productivity. You can read more about what these four sites mean in my being productive post. The four social media sites where you spend the most time would be categorized as outposts. I use the “home base” to center my four outposts and vice versa.
The frontier sites sit on a completely different level. Examples could range anywhere from Digg to Technorati or even Twitter. The frontier is a place where you have a presense (RSS FEED) but you have not cultivated the actually site in regards to your time. They also represent different combinations (overlaps) of the outpost sites.
This is a work in progress and I would love your thoughts. What should be added? How do you use social media? I am open for ideas! What is your outposts and frontiers?
Example of How NOT To Run A Web Service: Bloglines
In my blog reader infancy I used the Bloglines RSS reader service. I was pretty happy with the overall service until I discovered Google Reader , which is hands down better than BlogLines.
I had installed Bloglines as an add-on to my browsers and it had been pretty easy to subscribe to certain blogs I found valuable: you just hit the RSS button and it would direct you to the BlogLines website. This small producitivity tool soon became an annoying tool when I couldn’t figure out how to delete it from my browser. Of course, we could blame my ADD on the fact that I could not delete the service but my browser still redirects to BlogLines whenever I click the RSS button.
I wanted to delete my account so I tried to sign on and unfortunately (since I haven’t used the service in a year) my account needed a new password. The Bloglines service needed to verify my account and so they sent a verification email to my inbox. I have verified the account three times and have still not recieved any email from BlogLines.
I thought to myself, “Self. This is a web service company. Their customer support must be decent. You should try that.” I proceeded to email the customer support department and waited for the email.
and waited…
and waited..
and waited..
I have since asked for support three times through email to no avail. They have not contacted me and I have STILL not received a verification email for the account.
Does anyone see a problem here? Shouldn’t an RSS Reader Service be conscious of the ability bloggers and readers have in spreading a bad vibe/message?
I am extremely dissapointed in how Bloglines has completely ignored my requests for help in deleting their service. If I was in their shoes I would have (at least) responded with some courteousy in order to win back the account or keep the user.
This should be a prime example of how NOT to run a web service. The last thing I want to hear is that they have been busy with updates and a re-design. The last thing I want to hear is that I cannot delete my account and they would rather not help me uninstall the service.
So this is my rant about Bloglines. Screw it. If you want me to keep my account send me a stupid verification email! They are making it pretty easy for me to hate them right now.
Going From Wallflower to Butterfly in Social Media
I have recently subscribed to a local blogger in Indiana named Brad Ruggles. Brad has some interesting points and opinions on social media and I have really enjoyed reading through his recent thoughts. He posted on Thursday some tips to becoming a social media butterfly. I wanted to list two of the five that I found valuable and add a few of my own.
From Brad’s post:
1. Make Yourself Easier To Find
…one of the biggest mistakes I see people making on their blogs is failing to provide easy links to all their social network profiles. If you’re going to capitalize on networked relationships then make it easy for visitors to your blog to find where else you are online…
2. Go Deeper With Key Relationships
Don’t just limit yourself to “comment relationships” though. If you’re clicking with someone then shoot them an email, forward them a link you think they would enjoy reading. You may even chat with Skype or AIM.
There are three more amazing points on Brad’s blog which I encourage you to check out. I wanted to add a few of my own. It is extremely important to get the most out of social media if you decide to take the dive and utilize the tool.
1. Start A Blog About Something You Love and Be Authentic
I know the concept of authentic content has been thrown around here and there between social media experts. It is a common practice to write about the concept of authentic content and communication. Many people ask the same question when debating on starting a blog: “What should I write about?” Write about something you enjoy! Write about something you do on a daily routine. Do you enjoy collecting stamps? Do you enjoy watching soccer and following sports?
I write about social media because I love it. It is easier for me to write because of the joy I find in learning about all things social media.
Write about something you love and find other people who are writing about the same thing. Utilize google alerts to find the people who share the same interest. Brad has points on that, find it here.
2. Start Small. Join a Regional Social Network and Dive In.
We have talked about regional (geographically based) social networks before in earlier posts. I am a member of a regional social media community called Smaller Indiana. I have found that my visibility as a business owner and social advocate has greatly increased because of my use of Smaller Indiana. If you are trying to build a personal brand identity through using social media a local social network will give you amazing exposure to local people.
It is getting harder and harder to make a name for yourself on the Internet when you are competing on a global scale with millions of individuals. If you focus on a niche geographic community you will find that it is slightly easier to be recognized. In order to get the most out of a geographic community don’t leave your relationships on the web, go out and meet the individuals you are collaborating with. A cup of coffee will go a long way at facilitating the building of a personal brand between two individuals.
