Social Media Marketing Institute

There’s an old saying “When God gave us two ears and one mouth, he was trying to tell us something”

Listening is important - there’s no denying it. Its half of the online conversation. In fact, judging by the number of people that just read and lurk, listening is arguably the most important part of the conversation. It is easily more important for businesses in today’s world than ever before, because more people are talking and reacting in public than ever before.

The value of listening is obvious to brands according to Forrester Research. Though only 50% of brands responded that social media  was a core function of their marketing program, nine out of ten have some form of monitoring program in place. Eight out of ten respond to customer feedback online and almost 70% incorporate customer ideas to their business process. Brands as well as consumers are constantly watching Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social channels to determine what their customers think and how they are expressing their satisfaction- or the lack of it!

With the ROI of social media still an elusive concept for many businesses, there seems strong agreement that the key to determining the value of your social media efforts is to be found through the listening process. But differnet industries use different channels as part of the process.

Here’s a great infographic from our friends at ColumnFive and GetSatisfaction about how brands listen in the online space.

Building relationships and influence online is really about influence and relationships. Word of Mouth Marketing is really the core of  what we started calling social marketing as technology allowed the online conversation amplify our ability to communicate our pleasure and displeasure with brands, services, and products.

Here’s a great infographic about the impact of word of mouth marketing created by our friends at ColumnFive for the Word of Mouth Marketing Association  (WOMMA) .

What are people saying about your brand?

Social media Gurus and experts seem to be peeking out from every bush and tree trying to sell you books and courses filled with social media advice. A little while ago I wrote a post called “Five Tips From the Social Media Expert You Called Mom”, because I felt that your Mom already taught you a lot about social media theory and interaction. But Mom didn’t raise you alone, so let’s give Dad a little credit for what he taught you about reputation management.

1. You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression – When you first join a new social site, you have choices to make that will impact someone’s first impression of you. Can they see your face? Did you choose to be represented by a business logo, a sports team’s mascot, a pet, or a landscape photo? Does your profile express who you are in a creative and engaging manner? If you didn’t know you, would you want to meet you face to face? If we have interests and express them in a genuine and engaging manner, other people with similar interests will want to connect with us. If we seem self-absorbed and self-interested, others will have no interest in connecting with us and learning more about who we are.
2. You will be judged by the company you keep – If your community is made up of multilevel marketers, or people who spend their time spamming the community with their commercial messages, people will assume that their interests reflect yours. If your community is based more on size than engagement, the lack of interaction will probably not be attractive to people who are looking to connect to others with similar interests. Its better to choose a smaller group and become evangelists for each other than to assume that people are lining up to get into an online relationship as someone’s customer.
3. Its better to think before you speak than to speak before you think – Everything you post online, in whatever venue becomes part of a permanent record. The first introduction to you that most people will have on the internet are the aggregated things you “said” yesterday, the day before, last week, and months ago. With Facebook’s new timeline feature, many of these things are placed before your public without context, leading people to form an opinion of you that may not be what you wished, if you didn’t think first. Another good thing to remember? Abraham Lincoln’s statement - “Its is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than speak out loud and remove all doubt”
4. Answer me when I ask you a question! – We live in a society where instant gratification is the norm. You build more social capital by responding to your community members. If someone shares your link, retweets your comment or likes your post, a response will build your relationship and personalize the experience. Ignore others at your peril, for they will surely respond by ignoring you when you have a need to share. Even worse, when a consumer is stressed or needs a response to a question, your failure to answer quickly and comprehensively can destroy everything you did previously to build a relationship based on trust.
5. I don’t care who started it, You stop it! – Arguments and disagreements can happen on line, and can make emotions run high. If you find yourself in the middle of such a situation, you need to remain objective, stick with the facts, and be willing to either “agree to disagree”. If you need to take the discussion off line to come to a resolution, but being the bigger person online will only benefit your reputation online.

That’s all for now, but remember, Dad may have taught you everything you know, but he didn’t teach you everything he knows! There just might be more to come in the future….

Photo Courtesy of Lance McCord

In social media, like anything else, there are far more ways to fail then there are to succeed. With a little thought however, you should be able to avoid shooting yourself in the foot before you even get started being the next great thing on the Internet . Here’s a quick list of the 10 most common mistakes I see small businesses and professionals make in their social media engagement.

1. Not having a plan - The concept of “Ready, Fire, AIm” is a sure way to waste time and effort without getting results to benefit your business. Too many people become fascinated with tools and soon burn out when they feel frustrated by too much effort and too little positive reinforcement
2. Doing it all at once - with the proliferation of online networks and social channels, its tempting to want to be everywhere as quickly as possible. But like most things, doing less, and being more effective is better than doing a lot of things poorly.
3. Hiring an expert who may not be - Before you decide that the next expense you’re going to bear is a new socil media expert, Google them. See where they interact in the social space. What’s their style? Is it consistent with your business? What channels do they use? What is the nature of their experience? Who have they worked with and what are their results?
4. Giving it to the intern- I know it seems easy, but they aren’t you, and they may not be the person you want to craft your company message. In addition you will need to  monitor everything they post and their interactions with your current,past, and potential customers. Not to mention the fact that you are at their mercy if they choose to leave.
5. Speaking before you listen- That old saying about God wanting to telling us something when he gave us two ears and only one mouth is never truer than in the world of social media. We need to listen to know the timbre,tenor,and tone of the online conversation so our contributions are timely and appropriate.
6. Making conversations one-way-  It’s really not all about us. Our needs and the messages we want to deliver have to be second to the needs and wants of our community if we want any chance to connect with people in a meaningful manner. Conversation must be a dialogue, not a monologue to be effective in our many to many communications.
7. Confusing size with quality- A lot of the “get great quick” social media schemes seem to center around creating large followings – but its not the number of people following you that make your interaction effective. It is more important to have meaningful dialogue and interaction with your community than it is to have any specific or gargantuan number of followers.
8. Not being consistent in your identity-  People need to be able to find you, but they also need to be able to recognize you when they do – don’t hide your lovely smile behind cute artsy shots, photos of your pets or children, or your company logo – people want to connect with other people – use that to your online and offline advantage. Wouldn’t it be  a great thing to have someone recognize you and say hello when you are out in your physical community?
9. Not being constant in your efforts- Its not enough to have a blog, you need to populate it with content. Having a Twitter account is neat, but not if you don’t use it to engage with members of your online community. You don’ t need to be tweeting and posting 24/7 but if people know they can expect a certain amount of content from you at regular intervals, they are more likely to look forward to it, and to engage with you more regularly. It would be better to write a blog post once a week , every week, than it would be to write 5 posts, , not write for a 2 months and then write another quick 3  posts. Television shows that get moved from might to might lose their audiences because its just too hard to follow them – your blog isn’t so inviting that people will work harder to find your content.
10. Not filtering enough- People need to know about you, but your reputation is not enhanced by over-sharing or sharing inappropriate content. Be thoughtful about what you (and your friends) post – that cute late Saturday night video or photo might not look as appealing in the harsh light of Sunday morning.

But the 11th Deady sin, the one you want to avoid at all costs is the sin of sloth – defined by Wikipedia as “ Reluctance to work or make an effort; laziness.” because social media is like the Lottery in one respect – If you don’t play, you can’t win.  Get out and get involved with whatever online community you want to participate in. Be giving and thoughtful and the best member of that community you can be and your social media efforts won’t go unrewarded.

The first time someone commented on one of my blog posts … oh my gosh, oh my gosh, OH MY GOSH!!! Excitement and fear overwhelmed me for a number of reasons. First of all, someone other than my mother actually read my blog. That in itself seemed like a miracle. Then the fear hit. What if the comment isn’t good? What if someone questions what I wrote? I can “what if” all day.

That was about 4 years ago and today I have a few more family members that read my blog posts. I make a concerted effort to reply to each comment with something thoughtful combined with a thank you. When there are multiple comments I address each one individually.

A few things I’ve learned when someone comments on your blog post …

1. Always respond. It’s lovely when a blog comment is simply complimentary, but sometimes the commenter wants to ask a question, share information and/or tell you how they feel.

2. Answer your commenter’s questions, thank them for sharing additional information and address their feelings.

3. When comments are not all rainbows and kittens – stick to the facts and keep your emotions in out of your response. See Chris Beadling’s post on addressing flaming here.

Remember that blogging is social media. Treat it accordingly. Be social with the folks that comment on your blog – especially the ones that are complimentary. I read post a few days ago from Pushing Social called Blog Traffic Secret:  Woo the Groupies (written by Stanford ) that I keep going back to … the author suggested that you engage the commenters whenever possible and across other social media channels. The people that are commenting and tweeting and sharing your posts are “your groupies” and they want to engage with you.  He has a whole section on “Groupie Seduction” that you must read.

For new bloggers, it can seem like forever until you get that first comment (from someone other than mom) so engage the person making the comment right from the start, be gracious and always say thank you.