by Ace Concierge | Virtual Assistant | Nov 7, 2013 | Small Business, Social Media
Image credit: http://www.mikemccready.ca
Your social media efforts have probably gone through several evolutions since you first began developing your online presence. At the onset, you may have jumped in with both feet while discovering the ins and outs and proper social media etiquette. It was and still is a learning process. The rules change, people maintain different ideas and policies but all the while the main premise still remains, it is about nurturing and growing relationships. It isn’t all that much of a mystery. Unmask your potential, share remarkable content, be authentic and build your brand.
“Tweet valuable content and don’t get caught up in numbers…get caught up in building great relationships!” Lisa Malcom, The Social Suite
In the midst of all of this, is the quest to be on top, showcasing your talents, your knowledge, and business acumen. We all want to be heard, seen and have a voice. What I have noticed over the years is the tremendous increase in the amount of noise and sometimes an unfortunate decrease in engagement. Building your relationships, instilling loyalty and trust within your community is at times forgotten with the push of content and URLs or the blind retweets only because you trust the source.
Proving you’re a reliable thought leader is significant, however willy nilly digital diarrhea can be overkill. Info excess is crushing – our brains are on overdrive attempting to filter all of the data thrown at us and we miss out on personal relationships during the digestion process.
“Activate your fans, don’t just collect them like baseball cards.” Jay Baer
- Mix up your content
- Don’t just post links
- Share posts of your followers and networks
- Add in some inspirational quotes
- Use dynamic images
- Spark the conversation
- Listen, truly listen
- Visit the profiles and websites of your network
- Take a REAL interest because you care
- Learn about your followers and fans
- Give credit where credit is do
- Share more than you promote
BEFORE you retweet, actually read the article.
If you care enough to share it, you should know what you are sharing with your trusting audience. Yes, it’s kind and generous to give back, but blindly posting for the sheer sake of it is almost meaningless. Does the content resonate with you? Spark any thoughts? Do you agree or disagree? What was the catalyst for sharing??
Invest the time and energy to know what you are reposting. Wouldn’t you like it if people actually read your content before they did the same? Speaking from personal experience, after having thanked someone for an RT, I have also asked a question about the post. Some respond and others don’t. Those that don’t could fit into one of 2 categories, they aren’t all that social in social media or they didn’t read the post and didn’t care to go back to it when I posed the question. Of course, there is always the chance that didn’t see my inquisitive tweet??
“You can never go wrong by investing in communities and the human beings within them.” Pam Moore
Take an active role WITH your online universe, getting to know and engage with your followers. You never know who you will meet or where the road may lead. It is a fascinating world when you invest the time and passion to mindfully participate.
by Ace Concierge | Virtual Assistant | Oct 25, 2013 | Entrepreneur, Small Business, Social Media
Can you just imagine the explosion of growth of your online world since its inception? Even reading all of the facts and figures, it is probably much greater than we can even comprehend. Millions and millions of people are online every day, searching, communicating, connecting and networking.
Jeff Bullas recently published a post 46 Amazing Social Media Facts in 2013 stating:
- There are over 10 million Facebook “apps”
- Twitter’s fastest growing demographic is 55-64 year olds
- 60% of Twitter users access it from their mobile
- There are over 343 million active users on Google+
- The +1 button is served 5 billion times per day
- 67% of Google+ users are male
- There are over 3 million LinkedIn company pages
- More than 16 billion photos have been uploaded to Instagram
- Food is the top category discussed on Pinterest at 57%
- There are over 1 billion unique monthly visitors on YouTube
Just mindboggling numbers!!
Keeping all of this in mind, your social media efforts have the potential to reach your infinite target audience almost painlessly. Almost being the operative word.
Social media does require time, planning, tools and energy. You don’t become an overnight sensation just because you created a few accounts and maintain a website. Quality lead generation, customer acquisition, partnership development or your other social media goals are all attainable. You need to actively engage with your audience. Know where they hang out. What they want. What drives them.
Know what your customers want most and what your company does best. Focus on where those two meet. Kevin Stirtz
People devour news and content like it is their last meal. If you want to satiate their hunger pangs, then serve them remarkable content, authenticity, real connections and top quality service. The same that you expect from your network and vendors. There are no short cuts to creating long lasting relationships.
“Social Media is about the people! Not about your business. Provide for the people and the people will provide for you.” -Matt Goulart
Define your goals and strategy for your varied social media platforms. You will need to revisit and refine as time goes on, but your initial foundation is a starting point.
Stay current on trends, customer needs and pain points. Interests change and expand every day. Be informed. Give them what they want.
Be able to immediately address and troubleshoot any problems or issues that arise. Word travels fast in social media; don’t simply ignore or delete a negative comment. Step up and resolve it.
Investigate how you can expand your reach. If you are using only one or two platforms, consider where your audience may be spending more of their time. Are they on Pinterest, Instagram, Foursquare or YouTube? There are many options to choose from, however; if you are going to jump in, then you must play in the sandbox. Don’t just build a castle and walk away.
Be social, don’t just do social. Share valuable content and don’t spam. Keep it in the can. While self-promotion is acceptable, if you are doing it all of the time, it becomes obnoxious. Sorry, but yes. Share the content of other industry thought leaders, current topics of interest, news and some of your content.
Respond to comments, posts and RTs. Don’t ignore anyone. You chose to be out there and have a presence so engage. It is not only courteous, but it helps you to develop a rapport toward a long lasting relationship.
Create your community, your network of “real” people. They are invaluable in both personal and professional roles.
Whether you are B2B or B2C, social media is your prime opportunity to meet and greet. Open your arms, welcome your customer, your neighbor, your partner as this playground is here to stay and it will only continue to intensify your growth potential.
If you would like a little more insight, please click on the links below.
The Etiquette of Social Media
Should Your Business Blog
13 Tips to Humanize Your Brand
5 Sources for Social Media Content [list]
Content Marketing | Don’t Make it a Fatal Attraction
Free Social Media Tools | Analyze and Measure
Selling Value | 14 Common Sense Tips
Honest Communication | 30 Tips to Build Trust
Social media isn’t really that much of a mystery even though there are constant changes and updates to many of the perimeters. Simply put, be you. Genuine and authentic. Don’t be pushy and spammy. No one likes me me me. Post consistently. Listen, engage and respond. Yes, this is so basic but why over analyze and critique it down to a crazy science?
by Ace Concierge | Virtual Assistant | Oct 16, 2013 | Social Media
Social media has given us the opportunity to connect and network on so many levels and at a deeper capacity. We no longer depend upon traditional mediums for advertising, collaborating, creating partnerships or interacting. Opening the doors to communication, social media and the Internet has widened our reach and sent us global connectedness.
Along with this comes the inherent changes or erosion to our privacy. How many times per week does Facebook change their policies and search options? What about Google? Your Face May Appear in a Google Ad Soon
“Bradley Shear, a lawyer who specializes in Internet privacy and social media, said it’s a bad move on Facebook’s part. “Facebook has over a billion users,” he told ABC News. “Even though only a small number of users used this privacy option, that can still mean millions of users.” Facebook did not specify what percentage of users opted to use this privacy option, but confirmed with ABC News that it was a small percentage, within the single digits.” ABC News
Most of us arduously attempt to keep some things are little more private or at least away from the lurkers and stalkers. It isn’t always easy to maintain or stay up to date with the most current changes. Upon setting up our social platforms, we carefully click here and there to designate our wishes, but unfortunately, we need to monitor the news and adjust our perimeters accordingly.
WARNING: Facebook’s Graph Search Changes the Meaning of a “Like”
The Always Up-to-Date Guide to Managing Your Facebook Privacy
Reminder: Finishing the Removal of an Old Search Setting
Job-hunting? Time to scrub your Facebook page
Facebook privacy: Users should check these settings as new changes roll out
The Most Fun You’ll Ever Have With Facebook Privacy Settings
We use our platforms for a variety of reasons and on the business level, most of the changes will not affect us, but it is still important to be prudent about our right to privacy.
Image credit: http://geeksongrand.com
by Ace Concierge | Virtual Assistant | Sep 17, 2013 | Communication, Leadership, Social Media
When my daughter attended Montessori they had a plaque in the room that said: Be Kind.
So simple, yet so powerful.
Kindness is the basis for all relationships in the home and the workplace. Building long-term, mutual healthy connections relies on a few humble premises. Look at the people around you, past and present: do they resonate with your core values? What is their track record? Have they always been honest and forthright? Any red flags? Have you ever questioned their intentions or honesty?
I believe fundamental honesty is the keystone of business. Harvey S. Firestone
Communication styles vary from person to person, but honesty and truth should always take precedence, no matter your position, status, or relationship (business or personal). What we say and do is explicitly related to the measure of trust we have with others and they have in us. How you interact with someone is a reflection of your character and integrity. If you opt to forgo this most common sense trait, then you forfeit your reputation and connections.
Building credibility and trust requires authenticity, consideration, integrity, and intent. It is to be earned, not assumed. Reputations can be instantly destroyed, sales lost, partnerships dissolved. There is nothing more important than building trust; in your business, in your life.
Strengthening Relationships
- Engage in frequent honest communications
- Express gratitude
- Be well intentioned
- Demonstrate sincere interest
- Be present in the moment
- Actions speak louder than words
- Make sure your actions/decisions backup your words
- Say what you mean and mean what you say
- Transparency is key
- Listen and hear the other party
- Practice best behaviors
- Do what is right for the situation
- Always know the facts, don’t assume anything
- Never make presumptions about someone else’s decisions
- Don’t gossip and create unnecessary drama
- Keep your commitments
- Value and respect another’s time and voice
- Show compassion
- If you don’t know something, say so
- Relationships do NOT succeed on a need to know basis
- Ask yourself why you tend to omit information
- Re-examine yourself before you cast stones
- Clarity and understanding sets the stage – don’t close the curtains
- Vulnerability is a strength
- Spin your life from the heart, not for gain
- It isn’t all about you
- Act don’t react
- Be open to positive change
- If you want trust, be trustworthy
- Ask for feedback
What you get in your life is not a result of what you want, it is a result of Who You Are. ~ Marlon Smith
by Ace Concierge | Virtual Assistant | Sep 12, 2013 | Blogging, Marketing, Social Media
BOOM! Information overload. Noise.
Cut through the clutter – but how?
Searching for rich and valuable content to share or repurpose with your audience is a social media essential to creating trust, interest and loyalty. Remarkable content is written for your buyers and their needs not just as a self promotional tool. Be the resource that readers turn to for information and answers. Know and understand your audience to feed their social media content appetites.
Traditional marketing and advertising is telling the world you’re a rock star. Content Marketing is showing the world that you are one. Robert Rose
Where do you look? You probably already have your list of RSS feeds from industry thought leaders, Twitter lists, feedly, your trusted network, keyword searches and various other news feeds but what if you had a few other news aggregators to easily compile your interests and top trends into one place? How cool is that? It certainly saves time and weeds out the “blah” that isn’t truly of value.
Prismatic: displays articles based upon your network shares. It is simple to use. Sign in with Facebook or Twitter. Pick topics, publishers or exact matches. Share your comments or “likes.”
Tagboard: is a social media hub for hashtags. It searches through Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, App.net and Google+ for the hashtag you entered and presents you with the results, noting the platform. You can tweet, reply or comment right within the search results. You can also create your own personal Tagboard with a keyword and images.
Paper.li: Create your own daily newspaper in just seconds. The free version permits 25 resources to populate your content from your social media community. Paper.li processes more than 250 million social media posts per day. Personalize your paper with a custom title and tagline, set up a promotional tweet upon publishing and even add the news widget to your website. They also offer a bookmarklet to add to your browser to quickly add great content.
Inbound: Great source for content especially revolving around social media, SEO, and inbound marketing. Register with Twitter, submit content and join the conversation. Simple keyword searches deliver valuable content right to your fingertips.
Flipboard: Magazines on the web for iOS and Android phones. Curate from newsworthy sites, magazines and other uses to populate remarkable content to share with your audience. Browse sections based upon interests and categories. Choose and arrange the sections according to your interests and industry. Find, subscribe and share! #thatwaseasy
Now that you have a few places to curate content, share it with your community.
Tips:
- Make sure you tag the author’s Twitter handle.
- Use appropriate hashtags, but don’t overdo it.
- Schedule your posts using Buffer, Hootsuite, Tweetdeck or your tool of choice.
- Read about the best times to post.
- Track and measure the results of your efforts.
Your turn. What are your favorite content curation sites?
by Ace Concierge | Virtual Assistant | Sep 10, 2013 | Entrepreneur, Small Business, Social Media
Social media isn’t merely about creating profiles on various platforms to broadcast your best content. It has become one of the cornerstones of marketing. It is your opportunity to build a trusted and loyal community. In this community exists partners, colleagues, collaborators, customers and friends. Treat them with the respect and courtesy they deserve and that which you expect in return.
Every day you read about etiquette, best practices and thousands of different tips to engage and build your following. What I find interesting is that much of this content is disseminated from alleged social media experts, marketing and PR firms or social media managers who don’t always follow their own suggestions. Their tweets and posts offer real life recommendations on engagement and proper “politeness” yet they do not care to practice what they preach. I am not sure why, but if they are writing and sharing the content, do they not believe they should follow their own advice?
Acknowledge the voice of your network.
If you want to build a credible authentic network, engage in conversations, thank people for sharing your content, ask questions, post rich and valuable information, don’t ignore anyone, unless of course they are bots, spam or porn.
Simple rule of thumb: treat others the same way you want to be treated. Sure, this is so cliché, but it is common courtesy. Would you just walk away from someone at a networking event or cocktail party after they asked you a question or tried to engage you in a dialog? I think not.
Since you have taken the time to be online, then make the time to learn about your audience. You have the potential to meet and greet some pretty incredible people but only if you choose to actively participate.
We are all a brand: whether it’s personal or business, we have an online reputation to develop and construct if we want a strong presence and ROI. Maintain your relationships. Be authentic. Be human. Be professional.
Sharing: refrain from overselling yourself and your products or services. Constant self-promo is a sure fire way to generate a mass exodus. Make your marketing mix diverse. Share relevant content that is of interest to your network. Solve problems. Be cognizant of trending topics. Repost and respond to the content of others. Share the love with a retweet. Always give back. Be a resource.
“In a recent article about brand identity, Digiday argues that brands need to loosen up and act more human instead of focusing on expertly tailored mass market messages.”
Provide the personal experience: interact with your fans and followers. If they ask a question or have a complaint, respond immediately. Find out what is wrong. Don’t ignore them. Troubleshoot, create trust and provide impeccable service. Social media is your conduit for making human connections. Acknowledge all contact.
“The absolute best way for companies to stay relevant in social media and to effectively engage their followers is to listen to what their fans are saying. Don’t try to steer the conversation; instead, listen to what customers are saying and respond. Reply to user’s feedback and jump into conversations that are already happening.” Lisa Parkin
“Stories that resonate on an emotional level, that put a human face on a global business, drive engagement and amplification.” Brian Pember.
Read: actually click on the links shared in your social media channels. Don’t just blindly repost them. You are probably missing out on some fabulous content. Be able to make a comment or engage more deeply regarding the article. Seriously, don’t just spew it because it is a “pay it forward” thing to do. If you are going to retweet or share, be real about it.
Invest: your digital footprint can be far reaching but it will only be what you make it. Consistency and frequency are two key points to remember. Don’t desert your followers. Be present and invest in the time to generate interest in your brand. You get back exactly what you put in.
Strategy: know your goals and reasons for creating your profiles. Who is your market and what do they need? Create your content and set a schedule for fresh ideas, retweets, quotes, contests and conversation. If you are all over the board, people won’t understand your brand or may question what you actually do.
These are some pretty staggering numbers from Jeff Bullas: 10 Social Media Facts, Figures and Statistics You Need to Know exemplifying exorbitant growth and opportunity to establish trusted relationships with your network.
- Facebook has over 1.15 billion active users.
- Google+ has 343 million active monthly users.
- Twitter has over 288 million monthly active users.
- LinkedIn has now reached 238 million users.
- YouTube has over 1 billion unique visitors every month.
- Instagram has now reached 130 million users.
- Pinterest has 70 Million users.
Don’t just create an account or promote yourself. Meet your community. Generate interest. Engage. Enjoy your network. Be personal – show your human side. Social media isn’t rocket science, although many would like you to think it is. A large portion of it is purely being social, not DOING social.
It is common sense, active participation and thoughtful interactions. Just like you would do in the “real” world.
Don’t trade off personal communications or hide behind a digital persona. Get out there, listen, shake hands, measure, and extend a virtual hug to your network. If you want to see the payoff, just be a human brand.
