tomoates.tv

“I just don’t get how this whole ‘Social Networking’ thing works.”

“Is this worth my company’s time?”

“When’s this fad going to end?”

We’ve all asked these questions. But what separate us are those who’ve found the answers and those still searching (by the way, this isn’t a fad and it’s not going to end.)

Attending a recent webinar on Using Social Networking and Business, I picked up a few tips on developing a business’ social network footprint.

Note: The webinar was hosted by the marketing folks at FastPitch, a business-oriented Social Networking site (although they didn’t tell the attendees this).

So besides the ulterior motive of promoting their site, here are some of the bits and bytes I gathered on how to manage and promote a business using social network platforms:

First, a couple of definitions:

Social Networking is the community you create; the audience you reach. This is the number of friends, contacts and/or followers you communicate with via MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.

Social Media are the promotion tools you use to communicate. This is the user-generated content you push/post/direct people to. On-line video content, blogs, microblogs hold the message/image you attempt to present.

Realize the most popular sites are designed to promote the individual, either for social interaction and sharing, or career/resume profiles.

Sharing with contacts and friends (the people in your Social Network community, or audience) is constant among most sites.

So which one to choose?

• Does your company need a Facebook page?
• What about a company blog on your web site?
• Should your communications staff be Twittering?
• Or are you better off by having your CEO host discussions on LinkedIn?

The best advice I’ve heard: YES.

The new media user has many choices, and they’re choosing to be everywhere; receiving information in many ways.

Cross-promoting is the best way to spread your message across your various Social Media tools.

Announce through Twitter the latest blog post (i.e. news release) you’ve posted to your web site.

Release a new YouTube (or other on line video platform) video, directing people to contact you on your company’s Facebook page.

You will find your audience will use various methods to keep in touch with you, so communicate across all your venues.

Note: make sure your message is clear and consistent with every format you use. You may have many ways to speak to your audience, but please speak with the same voice!

This means maintaining brand awareness along with consistent messaging!

So how can you best apply the Social Media tools to reach your Social Network?

Blog: treat the blog post as a news release, but also as a chance to provide direct communication ‘from the top’. Short messages from company leaders (either internally or externally directed) take the ‘filter’ away from the messages. Basically: NO MORE CORPORATE/LEGAL SPIN (readers pick up on this fairly quickly).

It is very important you use your other social media tools to promote your blog!

“The average blog has just one reader…the blogger themselves!”

-Eric Schmidt, CEO, Google

Twitter: First, decide how you will use the 140-character limit microblogging site.

1. Will you use it for Business news only?
2. OR will you have a ‘human/personal side’ to it.

This may cause you to create more than one account:

1. One for your CEO or communications staff to use to provide interesting (but slightly off-topic) notes to entertain or educate your audience.
2. Another account for your blog promotion, news releases, corporate announcements.

It is very important you use your other social media tools to promote your Twitter feed!

Links to your feed should live in your corporate e-mails, on your blog, on other sites/profiles you have. Invite people to follow – and follow them back.

Social Networking is not an Internet megaphone merely used to yell out your message.

Social Networking is a very large party; where many gather to interact and learn about each other, sharing ideas, media, and discussions.

E-mail marketing: Keep things simple.

One message per e-mail; we don’t enjoy reading pages full of text detailing your 8-stage operations model. Your sales staff has a “15-second elevator pitch” because they know their audience has neither the time nor patience to listen to a long story. The same audience doesn’t want to read the epic either.

Frequent messages (with a consistent theme) keep your image fresh in your audience’s mind, just don’t go too far beyond a daily e-mail. You want to be memorable, not annoying.

Limit the colors and graphics. Many ISP’s will block e-mails full of various coded elements, so keep the colors and pictures to a small number.

Search engines are your associate sales/marketing staff.

Seventy-five percent of social networking traffic is directed from search engines.

Grow your footprint across all networks; incorporate consistent keywords in your profile pages, tags in your blog posts, headlines in your news releases.

Those keywords should be what define your business, and if applicable your location. There are people who are looking for your services but don’t know you exist. Search engines make it easier for those folks to find you.

Creating and managing the footprint may take some effort, anywhere from 10-20 hours a month.

If you still have those three questions, and are wondering if you should dip your toes into the Social Media pool, think about this:

Mashable.com reported the one-year growth from Feb. 08 – Feb. 09 for 20 different Social Networking sites.

Eighteen of them increased audiences!

The Social Network community is growing.

Your potential audience of clients and customers are growing.

Fad or no fad, it’s time to jump on.

Communications 101 Corporate Communications, facebook, LinkedIn, Social Media, Twitter

From LinkedIn’s Corporate Communication Discussion Board

Created by: Richard Berman

Making a Press Announcement: Sooner is Not Always Better.

There is a tendency to fall in love with a new product or service and to want to get word out to the press immediately. That tendency can often work against your best interests. Generally the press only gives you one chance to make an impression and if your offering is “not ready for prime time” there is little chance they will come back again. A better alternative is to wait until you have some happy customers who have tested your offering and will offer glowing testimonials. That is the time to make a big push for publicity.

My Response:

Often, marketing based on PR falls victim of being too insulated. Perspective has to be taken into account, especially the wider an audience you target.

Those who fail below expectations may also fail at preparing properly. Does anyone ask if their pitch will “play in Peoria” anymore?

As a political candidate prepares for debates (their PR/Marketing for a wide audience), they anticipate and practice answers to potential questions and pitfalls. Shouldn’t a corporate communications staff anticipate/prepare for a skeptical public/media?

I agree with the above. The more you test your product and gather testimonials, the better ‘armed’ you are to respond to the initial swarm of misconceptions or perceptions.

Communications 101 Corporate Communications, LinkedIn

Topic posted on Pay-on-Performance PR group’s LinkedIn discussion board:

Memo to media companies – you can only cut costs so far

Here’s an interesting AP article from a couple of weeks ago about the continuing layoff saga at many prominent media outlets. One thing’s for sure – they won’t be able to cut their way to market dominance. The way they deliver relevant, interactive content, however, must if they will survive, let alone thrive.

Belt-tightening in media squeezes more workers
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090218/ap_on_bi_ge/media_cost_cutting_1
By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Business Writer

SAN FRANCISCO – Thousands of workers at U.S. newspapers and broadcasters are facing more layoffs, wage freezes and pay cuts as their cost-cutting owners scramble to survive an advertising drought that has become even more dire in recent weeks…..

My Response:

Let’s also realize something. Rarely are we dealing with mere “Media Companies” anymore.

These are the media divisions of large corporations, whose roles morphed from ‘objective journalism & community service’ to ‘revenue-generating entities’.

These cuts were attempts to hold onto profit margins – all the while knowing the revenue streams were seeping well before the recession.  And what have we seen from many large corporations over the past nine months? The inability to predict or react to the current recession.

Smaller companies are trying to adapt; knowing their long-term success hinges upon flexibility and customer service (kudos to the earlier comment about reinforcing – or even growing – sales/marketing efforts).

It’s tough to turn the battleship around, but we are starting to see a shift in ‘mainstream media’. Efforts are growing by newspapers and broadcast networks to reach into the wider array of outlets consumers are moving towards. (see more: 10 Ways Newspapers are Using Social Media to Save the Industry http://tinyurl.com/blcs82)

Viewers and readers are still out there, but instead of reaching for the daily paper or the remote, the audience is now forcing the media to do the reaching.

Communications 101 audience, LinkedIn, media, pay-on-performance

LinkedIn’s Pay-on-Performance group posed a discussion topic:

Detroit newspapers – indicative of the rest of the country?

Both the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News are expected to announce, according to a Wall Street Journal article, they will stop home delivery of their print editions on four days of the week.  Only Thursday Friday and Sunday editions will be delivered.

Although the recession’s effect on the auto industry makes the economic impact more severe in Michigan than nationwide, does this move reflect a sweeping change across America’s newspaper industry?

My comment:

This was announced in Detroit a few weeks ago; newspapers have been trickling money for the past 10 years. As Craig’s List destroyed the classified ads, the newspaper industry’s unwillingness to embrace Interactive technology until other sites claimed the news/information market built the foundation Newspapers are crumbling under. 
Note: the entire media industry is also faltering at a record pace; local and network television newsrooms have become career ghost towns. 

Note: The Seattle Post-Intelligence, a newspaper whose existence can be traced back to the Civil War, is looking for a buyer…or could face extinction. 

Americans are not stopping their search for information; Americans have more choices and more venues. The more ‘established’ industries are dying because of an inability to adapt to new trends and technologies used by the American (and global) consumer. 

Dinosaurs once ruled the earth; scientists believe they died a complete and relatively quick death. If you want to learn more, chances are you aren’t picking up a book or a newspaper, and the TV won’t get turned on either.

A side note:

In full disclosure, the Pay-on-Performance group moderator and I share parents and are the first ones the other will turn to if we need a kidney.

Communications 101 economy, LinkedIn, media, Newspapers