eBook: Social Media vs Social Business

SOCIAL MEDIA

Social BusinessA short guide to getting started with social

media for business

A Publication by

VS.

TABLE OF

CONTENTSIntroduction…………………………………………..3

Part 1:

Social Media Platforms Used to Trigger Social Action

Finding Mr. Right Site……………………………….5

Twitter…………………………………………………6

Facebook……………………………………………..7

LinkedIn……………………………………………….8

Pinterest………………………………………………9

StumbleUpon…………………………………….....10

Part 2: Engaging Your Audience

Starting Conversations……………………………...13

Negative Feedback……………………………….....14

Outsourcing………………………………………......15

RareAgent | www.rareagent.com | 678.855.6879 | @RareAgent

INTRODUCTION

Everywhere you go, there are signs of ruined attention spans. Noses buried in phones, people taking pictures of every dish placed in front of them in restaurants. Fingers are constantly flicking across touch screens and if one more person walks into you on the street while they’re trying to type a message, you’re going to break out into a yoga pose. It’s enough to drive you crazy!

Don’t let this technology infested world frighten you, though. In fact, you should be ecstatic! You have enough mediums at your disposal through the world of social media to lift your business off the ground with your bare hands. Marketing has never been so readily available, or effective, but it takes time and patience to learn the tricks of the trade and make social media work for you. Remember, a big aspect of making it big in today’s world is how well you play your hand at being not just a business, but a social business.


Part

1Social Media: Platforms Used to Trigger

Social Action

Finding Mr. Right (site)

Ever wish you were a mind reader? Of course you have. It’d make dating, working, and passing a math test 100% less stressful.

The best part of navigating social media is being able to see what your customers THINK and FEEL. There’s no better medium to gain and retain clients/customers/business partners. When you pinpoint which sites can give you the most information for your own goals you’re on your way to an excellent start.

Though social media can be a great tool, it can be a little nerve wrecking and time consuming if you’re not careful. Choosing the correct sites for your consumer base/clients helps you avoid wasting valuable time and money.

A site such as Pinterest, with a user-base that is 80% women, would be amazing support for a boutique or bakery. If you throw in a bit of wit and are great with catchy lines, Twitter can be the cookie crumbs leading consumers to your door. And Facebook has a user base that pretty much crosses the board and can be combined with other social media to engage and enthrall your potential clients. People like to feel involved. There’s nothing better than liking an event, page or even link that shows your eccentric tastes on a public platform.

Your Pinterest customers would be less influenced by a catchy line on Facebook or Twitter. Your StumbleUpon users would rather see whole sites than interesting links. You’re working with a wide array of knowledge that can be hard to soak up if you’re not picky and well informed.


TWITTER

There are 9,100 tweets a second. Approximately 554, 740, 000 active users exist in the Twitterverse (according to Statisticbrain.com). There’s a lot of talking going on and a lot of people watching and listening, as approximately 40% of Twitter users only utilize the site to read tweets and never contribute anything of their own. The amount of noise and racket to sift through to find your consumers alone is enough to make you grit your teeth. There’s also the harrowing 140 character limit. Not everyone has the wit, skill, or the literary genius to make use of such limitations. What could you say to cause double takes and direct as many people as possible to the ‘Follow’ button?

Having a personality goes a long way when it comes to such a small amount of characters. Just like a short story, you have to pack a real punch to get your point across and put your hooks in people. Humor is an amazing way to attract eyes, ears, and then a genuine following. In fact, being interesting in general is a key to building followers without having to slave away sending link after link all day long.

Taco Bell has a pretty invasive but hilarious marketing campaign that’s truly a tough act to follow. They engage their customers in conversations, pick at celebrities (in an innocent way) and even rouse up competitors! This strategy won’t work for everyone, of course, and sometimes it’s easier to know your audience, what they’re looking for and how to catch their attention instead of relying on gimmicks alone .


FACEBOOK

Whether or not you’re an active user, there’s no getting around the popularity of Facebook. There are very few things you can’t ‘like’ out there in cyber space. When it comes to social media there’s nothing that bridges generation gaps better. There are about 1.11 billion people utilizing Facebook every month. In all, there are 665 million active users every single day. Chances are you have nieces, grandparents, kids, even old teachers and flings that have their very own profiles. The opportunity for growth on Facebook is immense, whether it be from well placed ads or your own page for your business that people can like and subscribe to.

Enough likes on your Facebook page leads to a world of possibilities. It’s essential to know that people like to be a part of something big. Seeing that their friends, family, and even co-workers like what you’re putting out there is the best way to get someone to take interest in you. Their inner circle is comprised of who they trust most, after all, and they’re more likely to give you a shot if you’ve pierced that wall.

It’s not as simple as putting your company name on a page and waiting for the likes to pour in, though. You have to give the people something they can get behind! Facebook is unique in its ability to combine with other social media to create the perfect storm of engagement for you and your business.


LINKEDIN

LinkedIn is, by definition, a platform for professionals, by professionals. Building professional relationships is a large part of business and LinkedIn understands that. The relationships you gain here are pivotal to success and knowledge of your own industry. It has a more serious feel than any of the other sites mentioned and is not for humorous posts or clever puns. It is the world’s largest professional network with more than 259 million members and counting. For the more business-oriented and minded out there, this site is probably the easiest to utilize and navigate.

With LinkedIn you can build a professional identity, spread your already growing one, and find various business ventures to become a part of. 40% of its users check the site every day. If your consumer base is mostly professionals and students straight out of college this site is essential to your growth and networking.

Other professionals can also vouch for you and your skills in their own words, which is a beautiful way to prove that you’re worth the trouble!

Let your resume and even samples of your work speak for itself.


PINTEREST

If your main consumers are women with children, Pinterest can only steer you in the right direction. Trying to sell homemade wares and goods? Step right on over to Pinterest. Just looking to boost enthusiasm for your family recipes and small diner? Did I mention Pinterest?

The whole idea behind Pinterest is to share what you want (photo wish-lists of sorts) so it’s an essential if you are selling a product directly. 69% of Pinterest users find items they want to buy through the site, compared to 40% on Facebook. With an account you could be on your way to steering your consumers in the right direction!

With the use of boards (pages that you pin different items with different topics), you can separate your own wares from your interests and desires. Show people your style with a Clothing Board. Engage them with your knowledge of amazing scenery and landscaping. Enthuse your audience with gardening blogs you love or just show off your own. There are plenty of ways to get yourself noticed on this eclectic site.

The number one category of content for Pinterest is food. Have a bakery, a new restaurant or a local pub? Taking engaging photos and featuring them on the site is an amazing idea. You can also engage possible customers by posting the photos to blogs on your own site and sharing them through Pinterest. Anything you pin on your boards will link back to the original source (meaning traffic for your own site)!


StumbleUpon

StumbleUpon is a monster all its own. The half-life of a link found through StumbleUpon is 16.5 days. That’s more than Facebook and Twitter combined! It’s the easiest way to get people hooked on a new site. With the click of a button (after pinpointing your interests) you’re randomly thrown to a webpage in the topic of your choosing. And then, of course, you rate how much you liked the site.

It seems simple but it’s actually really influential and powerful in the grand scheme of things. What makes StumbleUpon so unique is its ability to drive website traffic. StumbleUpon is the most used social network for website sharing and bookmarking. If you’ve already established a pretty impressive site and really need to get the numbers up, this is definitely worth a shot. Like most other sites you can also show off your own likes and interests- or rather, your company’s likes and interests- and let your personality speak for itself.


“ Social Media isn’t

something that you

“do”. Instead, you

have to “be” social.”- Peter

Thomson


PART

2Engaging Your Audience

Starting Conversations

On any social media site the biggest tool you have is your ability to get people talking. Word of mouth is by far the best way to push the ability of your business to get things done. You want to spread as much good news and info about you as possible. Brand recognition is another perk of so many social media sites. If done right- and consistently- eventually you become a household name!

It can seem hard to start conversations on social media sites. It probably seems even harder to start a conversation about a business. It can leave you feeling corny and out of date when no one seems interested in learning the basics of company growth or consumer feedback. No worries! There’s a better way to get conversations going about you and that’s to let people talk FOR you!

Your customers are the ones who have the loudest voices when it comes to showing how much of an asset you are. With the combined efforts of engaging them (contests and surveys), showing personality, and knowing who your audience is and why, you will have a conversation going in no time. People want to talk about what makes them happy and that, of course, is you!


Negative Feedback

Of course, the one thing people like to talk about more than what makes them happy is what makes them furious. You have to be very careful not to end up on the wrong type of list when utilizing social media. Sites such as Yelp, Facebook and even Twitter can ruin your business with bad publicity if you’re not careful. You’ll have to watch all your hard work crumble down around you from enough comments about terrible service, bad attitudes or shoddy products.

It’s really important to take any negative feedback seriously. Never brush something off as frivolous or exaggeration because, most likely, interested readers won’t. You need to be at your best 100% of the time. Sometimes you’ll have to apologize and string together an amazing explanation even when you did nothing wrong. Bite your tongue, swallow your pride, and make sure you look good even through the bad. Hey, it’s better to show that you’re absolutely serious about treating customers with the utmost respect than getting into petty cat fights with them and possibly losing an entire audience.

Remember, you’re not an angry teen celebrity. You have a business to run and, without customers, you’re nothing but a storefront.


Outsourcing

Of course, you don’t always have the time to sit at the computer, pop out your cell phone or even pull out that Ipad to get the most efficient tweeting, status updates and pins done. That’s where streamlining and outsourcing comes in. Having someone handle all the ‘dirty’ work of social media while you grind out the bigger parts of your workload can be a life saver.

Think of it as having a teacher’s assistant to your business. Get your priorities in order while someone else makes you look and sound good and gives your customers the engagement they need.

Think of all these tips and more when you’re setting up your social media. And remember, social media is your best route to marketing!


Contact Us Today!

Check out our website for more information

on building your brand through Social Media!

Or

Call us at 678.855.6879

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Date post:	19-Mar-2016
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