A couple months ago, I had the pleasure of attending an interactive conference called OMS. It was a whirlwind – two full days packed with conversations about social media, QR codes, SEO, marketing, content strategy, engagement and design – plus some wonderful side conversations between official sessions in which I gleaned equally relevant information. It’s taken me a while, but I think I have finally been able to wrap my head around everything discussed that day. Here were my big takeaways:
Show the Human Side
Over the past five years, the word that’s come up in almost any conversation about social media is transparency… and recently, the lines between social media and more traditional websites have started to blur – that word is now prominent in web discussions of all kinds.
People don’t buy from websites, they buy from people. They look at the reviews from real people to decide if yours is a good product. They click on the “about” page far more often than you might think. They want to see who runs the company and who hides away in the server room. They want to ensure you’re not destroying the world with their money. And if they find out you’ve been misbehaving, they will jump online and do their darndest to ensure it goes viral.
So talk like a person, not a machine. Show photos of your building, your staff, the people you’ve helped. Include information about community service efforts and success stories with details and photos. People want to support great businesses and the people behind those businesses, so stop hiding online – just because you’re not face-to-face doesn’t mean it has to be impersonal.
Integrate Everything
It’s no longer a viable option to work in only one medium. Mobile has opened up infinite possibilities for tying the real and online worlds together. If you place an ad in a magazine, include a QR code that allows them to download a free song. If you’ve got a blog, make a contest asking people to photograph all of your billboards. There’s no longer any excuse to leave Facebook, Twitter, etc. off your homepage – there are tons of gadgets out there to help you integrate and endless tools for using Facebook likes, etc. within your actual site. And best of all, most of it is free or inexpensive. You’ll get more out of that ad or billboard with a QR code and be able to track a portion of an audience you could only guess at before. It’s an exciting new world – play in all of it, online and off.
Be Specific and Tell Them Why
You need to have strategy behind everything. If someone clicks on an ad featuring someone biking, don’t send them to a page about runners. Keep with the biking theme – by clicking on your biking ad, they’ve told you something about themselves. Don’t let that lead go to waste by sending them somewhere generic like your homepage. Create targeted landing pages featuring specifics about what you want them to do when they do arrive and make a very clear call to action – a form, a download, a share button. When you’re creating a campaign, define your audience very specifically and decide what you want of that specific group.
And don’t forget the Why. If you have a QR code or ad or Facebook page, tell them why they should scan or click or like you. What are they going to get out of it? If you’re just sending them to your homepage, they’ll likely not bother. Add value – like a free download – and you’ll see your campaigns becoming even more successful.
Stop Making Excuses and Get Online
Social media is not a fad. It’s not a department. It’s a multi-channel component of growth and innovation. How your brand is being lived out there is now what counts. It’s a free tool available to everyone – an invite to the party, where customers wait with the potential to go forth as brand ambassadors for you. So if you’re not there, you need to be. Stop making excuses and start.
Come up with a policy laying out the obvious rules – Best Buy has made theirs public if you need inspiration – and dive in. No one is going to remember your first tweet or post, so don’t dwell on it – just try something, then try something else. In a month, go back and look at what got retweets, likes or replies and try to figure out why. Adapt your strategy, try something, and try something else again. Social media is an endless game of guess and check. Everyone’s making it up – even those with millions of followers… promise. Start following other people to see what they’re doing. Retweet or share what others are saying. (And don’t forget the transparency piece from #1 – be human, don’t just share links. Share something human like an opinion too).
If someone asks you a question or comes to you with a concern, don’t be scared. Just deal with it in the same way you do offline – empower a customer service representative to engage directly with that client on behalf of the company. You’ve been running your business successfully for years – only now it’s 140 character press releases, customer service 2.0 and free branding. Stay transparent, respond in a timely manner, apply your business sense online, and you’ll be just fine. Really.
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