Insights

Putting the I in Social Media

Whenever I used to meet with a potential new client that was interested in a social media program, I always used to take a piece of paper with a little drawing on it.

The surprise on their faces was always entertaining when they’d ask for my ideas for them, and instead of presenting a huge multi-slide PowerPoint, I’d show them this piece of paper and the four words on it.

The reason for keeping it simple was simplicity itself – if they couldn’t see the benefit of each point, they probably couldn’t see the benefit of social media.

I’ve since upgraded that piece of paper a little, but the message of the four points on it still works today.

Identify

There are so many different social media tools and applications that it can often be like trying to work your way around a maze. So many different turns to take, easy to get lost with all the options available ? which is why it?s important to take the time to identify what will work for you. Decide what you want from social media and then use the appropriate tools.?

Identity

Having an easily identifiable brand is key for anyone both online and off. Although this is usually applicable to business, personal branding offers an invaluable way of building a reputation as someone to go to for a certain niche. So your identity should be the same across whatever platforms you use ? from bio, to profile, to picture, to logo ? keeping the same identity across social media platforms will help people remember you more easily.

Invest

There?s an old saying that says, ?You get out of it what you put into it.? While this can be used for most topics, it?s particularly true of social media. It?s not something you can dip into now and again ? it changes too fast for that. Instead, to really see the fruits of your labour, you need to invest time into it.

A big part of social media is all about building relationships ? and just like relationships in real life, the best ones take time to foster. Use this mindset with social media, place proper investment into it, and you?ll see the benefits fall into place.

Interact

It may seem an obvious thing to say, but there are only two words in social media and one of them is social. Yet still so many people ? businesses, usually, more than individuals ? are missing this key fact. Instead of simply broadcasting yourself, interact with the community and actively take part in social media.

Read and comment on blogs, both inside and outside your niche; converse on Twitter instead of just spamming your latest blog post or affiliate deal; share helpful news with people instead of keeping it to yourself for your own benefit.

Social media can often be a difficult thing to navigate, with different uses for different people. One thing it is to everyone, though, is a wonderful opportunity for all parts of you or your client’s business.

How are you helping others understand their opportunities?

photo credit: Eva the Weaver

Prelude…

Facebook Fan Page Evaluation Fun with Vitrue

One of the reasons I set up a Facebook page was to offer an outlet where folks that were more comfortable on Facebook could connect and interact.

Yes, my blog is my home space, and then there’s also Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and other social profiles where we can connect. But not everyone likes reading blogs; not everyone’s on Twitter; some folks don’t like to get too involved with LinkedIn, and so on. So, making an outpost available where you’re most comfortable was a no-brainer.

So far, it seems to have worked pretty well. There’s a good mix of extended blog posts, shared resources, exclusives and connections, as well as folks that add comments or make suggestions of their own about resources that may be interesting to those that like my page. And I can’t ask for much more than that.

However, it’s always cool to see how anything we do online is perceived. After all, if we’re not measuring (or at least evaluating) our progress, how can we see where we’re going wrong and correct, or what we’re doing right and build upon?

That’s why something like Vitrue’s Social Brand Evaluator is so interesting.

At its heart, the evaluator is a simple method to see how your Facebook page rates for interaction, social value, and the potential for future marketing or monetary worth.

It also highlights some of the best practices for growing your page, as well as give you a breakdown of page value history (so if you’ve had your page a while, you can see if you’re going in the right direction or not).

While it’s not a direct replacement for proper metrics and measurement, it is a solid enough little app that can show you how you compare to others in your niche or industry. So if there’s someone you really admire, then Vitrue’s evaluator will let you see where you need to be headed to get closer to that page’s social value.

The main problem with it as it currently stands is that it doesn’t really tell you what these figures mean. For example, what does the Annual Page Value indicate – what the page is worth to advertisers, or how much you have the potential to make with offers to those that like your page?

The same goes with the Earned Media Value slider – again, is this for advertisers, page owners, a mix of both or none of the above? A little more clarification on the evaluator would be really useful (though maybe Vitrue is saving that for paid client work instead).

Either way, it’s a decent look at how your Facebook page is being used and viewed, and that’s always useful.

Here’s my social value. If you have a Facebook page, check out the evaluator for yourself and see where you currently sit and where you could either change or improve interactions. And I’d love to hear what you think of the tool and its use.

Coming Soon…

photo credit: trovster

Community, Loyalty and the Power of Give

Last night on Twitter, I was part of the?#sbt10 chat, part of the Start Blogging Today project (disclosure – I’m a partner in the project). As usual, there were a ton of great topics discussed on how to make your blog work better for you.

One of the conversations that arose was how to reward loyalty – i.e., how to make sure that your blog community knows you appreciate them.

Michael Schechter asked how you’d go about that, and I suggested exclusive content as one option (similar to what I did with my free Facebook marketing ebook).

Of course, that approach on a blog would mean that to really benefit from exclusive content, your readers/community would have to be subscribed to a newsletter or email subscription. Which would then negate the rest of your readers that don’t subscribe this way, but still show loyalty by coming back time and again.

So what ways could you reward on your blog, for both subscribers and everyday visitors/readers?

Loving Your Blog Community

Face it, without a community a blog is nothing more than a broadcast platform. Your community nurtures the growth of your blog; it helps share with others; it defends if needed; and it keeps you growing as a blogger by sharing great insights in the comments.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a personal blog or more business-oriented – community is the real king (sorry, content lovers). For business blogs, community is the relationship to the sale – look after it and look after your business.

So what are some of the ways to reward a loyal blog community?

Exclusive Content

As I mentioned earlier in the post, this would normally be via a newsletter or email subscription, so may negate some of your readers (although it’s a great way to build an even more loyal community on subscription too). Some of the things you could offer could be:

A free ebook;
White papers;
Solid business advice not normally seen on your blog;
Discounted offers on affiliate programs.

There’s a lot you can make exclusive to really say “thanks for being part of my community”. You’ll have a better idea of what would appeal to yours – all you need to do is put that into action.

The Freemium Model

Because exclusive content needs an exclusive outlet to really make it work, you run the risk of excluding the readers that visit every day, comment and are as just as important a part of your community as subscribers.

So how do you make sure that you’re not ignoring them and focusing on your exclusive content?

Episodic content. This can work in two ways. You can either write a series of educational posts on topics your readers would find useful, or you can offer the first chapter of any ebooks that exclusive content subscribers receive. That way, “normal readers” still receive value and can decide whether to expand into the subscription option.
Actionable content. Want to be seen as a thought leader or serious blogger in your space? Then offer action points that anyone visiting your blog can take away and make work for them.?John Haydon does this all the time for Facebook strategies, while CopyBlogger offers solid tips on writing for search engines. Help others; help you.
Highlight your community. Another way to reward your community is to give them some reader love. By coming to your blog every day and commenting or sharing you, your community is helping you grow awareness of you. So do the same for them. Have them guest post on your blog, or post about someone from your community frequently. We all like to feel appreciated; make sure your blog community knows you appreciate them.

Protecting Your Community

Growing your blog community is the first part; but it doesn’t stop there. Just as your community nurtures you and helps you, so you need to do the same in return, but take it to an extra level – by protecting them.

Think about it – if someone’s taking the time out of their life and schedule to read and share their thoughts on your blog, the very least you should be doing is making sure it’s somewhere that they want to hang out, and feel comfortable doing so.

Make it clear you won’t tolerate abuse to your community. One of the best things about any blog is the comments section – so many great thoughts and ideas can come from here, and new friendships can be made. So making it a safe haven is paramount – protect your commenters, protect your blog.
Have a comment policy. Currently I don’t have one, purely because I’ve been really fortunate in having commenters who pretty much respect each other’s point of view. But it’s an idea I’m thinking of, and it can help you set both guidelines for new visitors, as well as assure your current community you have their best interests at heart.?Ari Herzog has an excellent example of how a blog comment policy could look.

These are just some examples of how you can use your blog to reward the people that make it what it is. There are a ton of other things you could do (and we discuss a bunch of them over in the Start Blogging Today forums).

You could use some of them; you could use all of them – the main thing is you’re at least doing something to reward your blog community.

After all, they reward you just by stopping by each time – thanking and looking after them is the least you can do, no?

photo credit:?jammcm
photo credit:?Kelly Schott