We're less than one week away from the launch of A Small Business Owners Guide to Social Media…and the release can't come soon enough!
I plan to post my final Developing a Product blog next week. Today, I would like to share excerpts from some of the modules.
Thank you for taking this journey with me. Until next week...
Module 1
By playing to your strengths, you can leverage the social media channels that fit what you do best. For example, if you're a strong speaker, YouTube may be an outlet that you can embrace without having to do much more work. If you're a strong writer, perhaps a blog would be well-suited for you. Facebook is perfect for all of you "social butterflies" out there as the medium is based on friendships and fans.
Module 2
I consider audience building to be the red-headed step child of social media. Social media consultants will tell you to generate strong content, but many don't do enough to emphasize that the content is useless if no one is listening (if you have only 12 Facebook fans, for example). At the same time, if you have 20,000 fans and horrible content, it simply means you have a large audience that isn’t engaged and isn't of much value to your business.
Module 3
In my experience, I've found that many business owners fail to realize their full social media potential because their goals are simplistic, misguided or unrealistic. My favorite example is the goal you’re probably thinking about right now: grow sales. Let's make no mistake, growing sales or attracting new clients is fundamental to business success. Sales growth is also one of the many benefits to running a successful social media marketing campaign. But in order to achieve that goal, I highly recommend taking a deeper dive to identify specific targets that will lead to this end result. Here are a few examples of better goals to have when crafting your social media strategy…
Module 4
Creating powerful, engaging posts is as important as anything you will do with social media. Remember the three keys to social media success that I outlined in the introduction: building your audience, posting consistently and posting great content. While the first two are vital, content separates the good from the great.
Module 5
Engagement is the online conversation with your audience that gives social media a life of its own. For businesses, the most important thing to remember is that you should ALWAYS respond to comments. If your fans and followers are listening and taking the time to respond, it's important to let them know you value them by keeping the conversation going. For those of you who have relied heavily on traditional media to market your products or services, this may be an area where you find yourself charting new territory. Traditional media is a one-way communication to the audience. Social media is a conversation with the audience.
“Developing a Product” Blog Archive:
October 24: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
October 18: An Inside Look at Content
October 11: The Pre-Launch Webinar
October 3: Navigating PA's Required Sales Tax for Online Purchases
September 26: Marketing & the Affiliate System
September 19: Lessons Learned from My First Self-Hosted Webinar
September 12: Brain Drain is in Content
September 5: Marketing & List Building
August 29: Marketing & Content
August 22: A Fun Ride
