Just Starting to Use Social Media for Marketing?

Are you or your company in the early stages of social media marketing. Here are some tips that might be helpful.

Develop a plan. The plan will help you focus on your goals and, in turn, will help you achieve those goals.

Start slowly. You don’t have to do everything at once. If you did, you would be overwhelmed and have no idea what is and isn’t working.

Testing is important. Nothing is more frustrating to the end-user than broken links or non-working buttons. Test. Test. Test.

It’s okay to lose friends/followers. Not everyone is really interested in what you have to say. Wouldn’t you rather be talking to 500 people who want to hear from you than 1,000 where half of them just don’t care?

Look, listen and learn. The average person on Facebook follows 25 brands. Take a look at the big guys (Starbucks, IKEA, Pepsi) and see if their campaigns could translate into something you could use. Don’t reinvent the wheel. You want your brand to be one of the 25 that people want to follow.

Did you make mistakes when you first started marketing using social media?

5 Most Helpful Social Media Articles of the Week (August 21-26)

My top 5 social media articles for this week:

5 Myths Employees Believe About Facebook

How to Combine QR Codes with the Power of Facebook

Facebook Begins Rolling Out New Left-Hand Navigation

How Social Media Marketers Can Make the Most of Monitoring Tools

8 Tips for Small Business Homepage Design

Read an interesting article this week? Please share a link.

QR Codes on the Restaurant Tabletop? Awe Inspiring Idea!

Happened in to Freedom Deli in Clarksville, TN a few days ago. The reason I selected this venue was because I was looking for a place to kill a couple of hours and use their WiFi to do a little business while I was waiting. I was tired of Panera Bread and Starbucks and this fit the bill.

Take a good look at the tops of the tables. These are advertisements for local establishments, complete with QR codes. I chatted with the owner about this and he explained the advertising program. It made a lot of sense and those who know me well, had to know that the wheels in my brain were turning and trying to think of all kinds of uses.

I returned to my event planner roots and thought of many ways that you could make sponsor and exhibitor listings more interactive. I thought about fundraisers and centerpieces and digital displays. The possibilities were endless!

Have you found a unique way to use QR codes? Are there pitfalls that should be avoided?

Things I Wish I Had Known Before Blogging for Someone Else

It’s been no secret that I have been blogging for one of my clients for the past few months. It has been a successful venture for both of us but not without challenges and opportunities.

A few things I wish I had known before I started –

How much fun it was!
I learned so much about the weddings industry that I did not know. I was blessed with a son but no daughters so I was able to think and dream of all the weddings I could have assisted with if I had. I also learned that most of the items that weddings are made of are that — just dreams.

How hard it is to speak in the company’s voice when you are not a part of the day-to-day operations.
In my initial client meetings, we talk about how hard remote blogging is but I never dreamed how HARD it really is. The people who work at my client’s company are hard workers and produce amazing work and have fun doing it. I think my posts came across as stuffy and without feeling.

How important communication between you and the client is.
I had the luxury of having a terrific proofreader within my client’s organization to read over everything prior to my posting to the blog. She kept me from saying things about the client that are not true and it was extremely helpful with the industry jargon. It helped that my ego doesn’t bruise easily and her edits made the blogs even more awesome — and I got all of the credit. (Shout out and thanks to Shelly!!!)

Have you blogged on topics outside your area of expertise? How did it go?

5 Most Helpful Social Media Articles of the Week (August 14-19)

The top 5 social media articles that I read this week:

Bury These Deadly Search Myths

3 Great AdWords Tools You’ve Probably Never Heard Of!

4 Reasons Google+ Brand Pages Will Be Better Than Facebook’s

How to Build Links and Good Karma

How B2B SEO Fits Into Lead Management Optimization

Have you read any good social media articles this week? Please feel free to share a link!

Top 5 Suggestions for a Successful Facebook Business Page

I met yesterday with a client that has a unique situation — most people think they are out of business. The past 18 months have not been good for this small business. They were wiped out in a flood and the insurance company refused to pay. The owner suffered a life-threatening illness and a key employee passed away suddenly. Unfortunately they have had nothing but bad luck, however, the picture is much more encouraging for the future. We discussed ways they can quick-start their image campaign.

1. Develop an active Facebook presence. Start by promoting your businesses shamelessly. Let everyone know you are open for business and ready to meet new clients.

2. Involve your current and previous client base. In this case, the business lost all of their portfolio in the flood so they have very few examples of their pre-flood work. Facebook followers will be invited to post photos of work the company has produced for them.

3. Be positive. Don’t focus on the past. Look toward the future.

4. Flaunt your team. Promote the fact that the team can function just fine if one of the principles are out of commission for a while.

5. Showcase current endeavors with photos, video, blogs — whatever it takes to get the word out.

What is your one most valuable hint to maintain a successful Facebook business page? What has worked for you?

5 Most Helpful Social Media Articles of the Week (August 6-12)

The top 5 social media articles that I read this week:

Free eBook: “How to Use Facebook for Business: An Introductory Guide

7 Sneaky Ways to Use Facebook to Spy on Your Competition

5 Essential LinkedIn Apps for Sales Teams

Klout Adds YouTube Activity to its Scoring System

Should Bloggers be Nervous About Google Plus?

Have you read any good social media articles this week? Please feel free to share a link!

5 Tips to Corral Your Company’s Social Media

I recently volunteered my services to a non-profit to assist them with their social media needs in the coming year. There was a Facebook account with numerous admins which is set to automatically post to their Twitter account. The problem is that nobody knows the login info for the Twitter account.

Here are some tips for non-profits when formulating their social media plan:

1. Have one email address for social media. Something along the lines of socmedia@yournonprofit.org or yournonprofit@gmail.com would do the trick. Have someone monitor this email account for notices which might be important to your organization.
2. Start a notebook with all of the information which is crucial to your organization’s social media efforts, including email addresses, login information and passwords. Forward this information along to the next volunteer. Know who has access to what.
3. Develop a social media policy and procedures. You would be surprised at the simple social media policies that guide some of the largest  corporations in America. It should  not be a time-consuming project that takes a lot of committees to approve. Make it easy to amend if changes should be made.
4. Search all of the top social media sites for your organization’s name. There are apps to do this or you can manually search. Accounts should be set up to preserve your organization’s name.
5. Be prepared for change. Social media is in constant flux and you never know when the next big thing might be right around the corner (do you hear the sound of Google+ coming at you?).

What are your favorite ways to keep up with social media for your organization?

Guest Blogging for Main Event Productions

For the past couple of months, I have been guest blogging for Main Event Productions. I will continue my duties for August and, hopefully, they will have someone who is capable of blogging from the “inside” who can give more insight into the Main Event Productions family – A Catered Affair, The Bake Shoppe, Fantastic Flipbooks, Events @ 1418 and Legacy Farms. Click HERE to read more about the company, events and weddings. It’s been a blast!

 

Top 5 Most Helpful Social Media Articles of the Week

These are some of the most helpful and most popular links that I have tweeted this week:

The Pros and Cons of Moving Your Business Into the Cloud

Buffer Schedules News You Want to Tweet Without Annoying Your Followers

HOW TO: Successfully Run a Social Media Contest

Think You’re A Social-Media Guru? Take This Quiz

Google Puts Business Profiles on the Fast Track

Do you have a link to a good social media article to share?