Share what you know with millions of people
Focus is the best place to turn what you know into remarkable content
0
What do you post about on your small business social networking sites (Twitter, Facebook, Blogger)
What do you find is the best way to interact with your customers? I've read a lot about not pushing sales too much. So what have you found works well for you. What gets the best reader response?
Events
- Dos and Don'ts of Small Business Marketing May 29 @ 11 am PT
- Lead Nurturing 202: The Next Generation May 31 @ 11 am PT
- The Tricks to Paid Media June 6 @ 11 am PT
- Display Advertising for Brand Awareness June 20 @ 11 am PT
Related Activity
12 Answers
With all of my social media presences I like to be 100% transparent, so I tend to focus on sharing information that I find interesting that my audience will also be interested in. With that said, it is mostly informative articles on social media, online marketing, cooking and some pop culture/news.
In terms of a social media marketing approach, I firmly believe that it should be around 80% pull and 20% or less push. As social media is not direct response advertising, it is important to build conversations - not point and click sales. This is a relationship building platform and not a sell, sell, sell used car lot.
With that said, I have to say that over the past year or so I have seen an encouraging change from companies yelling and screaming for sales to a more gentler, engaging way of communicating with their target market. I'm hoping this trend continues, as in the end it does create the highest levels of success.
It certainly depends on the platform. For example, blogs can be used to address common client challenges without typical sales speak. Try ending blog entries with a question(s) rather than blatantly ranting about the benefits of your product solutions. This technique can prompt engagement in comments. Remarkable content is the answer to engagement on most social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and others. I share news stories, marketing tips, team announcements, and client milestones on both of these sites. Especially look for the content that is truly interesting, and try not to sell. Interested clients will seek you out on these types of posts. Also, consider contests and special deals on Facebook and Twitter if engagement is urgent. Requiring visitors to Like your Facebook page or provide email addresses to enter is a great way to expand your customer base. Visitors can also propogate contest opportunities to their friends via Facebook. Run a special one day only deal to your Twitter followers and watch what happens.
I try to share the following:
1) Useful people, whether they're in my company or not. I make introductions via Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn frequently when the time is right.
2) Useful information - Sharing a link to relevant information is one thing I do all day long on Twitter, and something I do at least once a day on LinkedIn and Twitter. These could be technology tools or tips, articles explaining how to be a better manager or provide better customer service, or other information I've been asked about by someone at some point in the past.
These 2 things make up about 95% of my sharing on social networks. 5% of the time, I post self-promotional things that could directly benefit my business. Of these, I share
3) Articles I have written or am mentioned in
4) Events I am speaking at, I am hosting, or I am attending.
My goal is to engage my customers and potential customers in conversation or to get them to call me to help them plan and/or implement a solution I've shared, often from someone else's article or tweet.
Some time ago, I made the effort to increase the number of contacts on LinkedIn, which I believe functions as a "business Twitter." Through LinkedIn you can speak to persons that actually know you and might react to what you post.
I try to use this "business Twitter" to announce things that I am doing as a consultant, seminars I am giving and other interesting things. Mostly my business activities. I find that people do read it. I post no more than once per week to avoid overload which I constantly see from many others and seldom read when I do. I also post the same to the real Twitter for those followers there.
I also post the same information on Facebook, but since this is a friends rather than business website, the usefulness of this from a business point of view is limited.
Don't sell - educate.
I look at Social Media to be a sales tool. That means either one does a hard overt sell or a soft indirect sell and the area of grey in-between.
Hard direct: We perform this type of service
Soft indirect sell: The IRS will never send you an e-mail
Soft sell: Tweets/blogs, etc about industry or general topics of interest (to someone).
All three for different reasons will drive traffic to you, and more traffic gives you more of a chance to convert a lurker into a prospective lead, yada yada yada...
Veronique,
I'm with you - no selling. I strive to provide "value in advance" of sales opportunities. In other words, I practice giving to receive. Frankly, there are far too many people using social technology as a way to "spam" a larger audience. Too much of what ends up being posted is the same boilerplate, come by what I sell garbage that is largely about the company selling and isn't focused on the person/people receiving the information.
-Given my business focus, I post and share information that falls into 3 areas: sales, social media/technology, business.
-I promote people/companies/products/services that I like.
-I promote and share information from clients. For example, if a client pops up a new presentation on their LInkedIn profile or hosts a new video on their company page, I share that with my network.
-I blog about topics related to my work and I DO NOT sell my services.
-As for Facebook, I keep my posts a mix of business and personal, but I don't go too deep personally. Again, it's about our professional brand, so I am consistent across all the platforms with respect to the type of information that I post and share.
By the way, I do mix in announcements about free webinars that I'm offering, but because I'm always hosting guests, I promote them, and I naturally gain visibility. I will talk about places I'm speaking, but the promo information about Barb is pretty minimal. I strive to provide great content that people like and will share with their networks. My strategy seems to work for me, because I receive about 65% of my sales opportunities as a results of my social media and email marketing approaches.
Excellent question - great dialog!
Fantastic answers here, I think it's importance to get a balance. I ask as I have seen both extremes, as a company we have been putting new products on mainly, but are trying to put in more information related to what we do, rather than selling. Facebook I find the most informal, but also the best platform for interaction between us as a company, and our 'fans'. We have also found this to be the most successful platform in regards to bringing in new business.
This is a great conversation, very useful, thank you for all of your responses!
I share as much as I can that is automated -
i.e. articles or blogs with built in sharing tools so if the info resonates with me or I think are of value to my market I can quickly share it.
posts to sites like Focus with a built in sharing tool
I have my blog set up to auto share
A few tidbits about me personally - like photo's from my hikes/nature, the occassional cooking adventure and the like.
At this time, we use social media as more of an informational avenue and not a consistent communication tool. Our goal is to post all press releases, newscasts, video's, commercials, pictures, and information that would be of interest to clients, employees, and potential business partners.
It's great to have a mix of:
Questions
Conversations
Relevant Links
People like answering questions about themselves, so find questions that are relevant to them. Essentially you want to provide value to your followers.
Don't sell - engage.
Answer This Question