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Best Ways to Engage Your Customers on Facebook
Nov 14th
Selling shovels to miners was a very profitable business in the gold rush days. Selling data to Facebook Page owners might be today’s equivalent. You can buy ads on Facebook, just like you can on Google’s pay-per-click advertising network. You can do friend and fan campaigns.
But what creates true engagement on Facebook? What can help you extract the meaningful data that helps you do a better job than your competitors?
Most of us think we know the answer, but a recent study and new analytics platforms are giving small business marketers the deeper insights that help them create stronger relationships. Here are some data points from a recent survey by Roost, a social marketing platform that evaluated more than 10,000 Facebook and Twitter posts by small businesses from over 50 industries. (Read my product review of Roost.)
Not All Posts Are Created Equal
Beyond the standard Likes, Comments, Shares and Retweets, this survey determines which posts yield the highest levels of interaction amongst local business fans and followers. As a semi-related aside, some marketers have decided it is better to buy followers or fans with ad campaigns. If you’ve contemplated that, read this 2011 Wall Street Journal post that shows ad blindness is on the rise (which means click-throughs are decreasing).
Photos Rule on Facebook
The two greatest engagement tactics on Facebook are Likes and Comments, with Likes leading the charge. Roost finds that the best way to achieve Likes is through photo posts, quotes and status updates, with photos providing 50 percent more impressions on average than any other post type, and quotes providing 22 percent more interactions when compared to all post types.
Asking Questions Increases Engagement
Findings also show that questions generate almost twice as many comments as any other post type. The second most popular way to get fans commenting is through a compelling business status update. Facebook Shares are a great way to disseminate business and product messages across fans’ networks, and links are 87 percent more likely to be shared than any other post type.
Roost also evaluated Twitter usage and found that quotes drive 54 percent more retweets than any other type of tweet, with status updates being the second highest driver of engagement. So if you’re more active on Twitter, start sharing more quotes. In addition, a different study from Optify showed how the use of Auto-DM (direct messages) on Twitter decreased follower rates by 245 percent. (Read Optify’s blog post titled Auto DM Use Led to 245% Increase in Unfollow Rate.)
The Roost study essentially allows a small business to figure out which type of post drives engagement. As on many social network sites, visual options such as a photograph or video will spark more interest in the Facebook community. Selling shovels is definitely profitable, but most small business owners would rather be standing on the gold mine along with their customers.
Best Ways to Engage Your Customers on Facebook
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
3 Ways to Use Twitter to More Deeply Engage Influential Prospects
Oct 3rd
3 Ways to Use Twitter to More Deeply Engage Influential Prospects
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
Amidst all the talk of Google+ and the new, new Facebook, Twitter has a lost a bit of its glow.
_DaniloRamos via Flickr
But, it’s still a very powerful and useful tool for marketers and in some cases the communications vehicle of choice for your best prospects and customers.
Today I want to talk about a couple of ways you can use your Twitter routine to more deeply engage customers and prospects.
If they are active Twitter users, then the following tips may help you gain insight about them and give you some ideas on how to create the kind of value for them that builds trust and opens doors.
Just to be clear, however, these are not meant to be used to manipulate or create a fake show of interest, these are just practical ways to get the most out of your Twitter use while also focusing on targeted users and creating good content for your followers.
Scan the favorites
Once you’ve identified prospects and customers on Twitter there is a tool that might help you learn a little more about what’s really important to them rather then just monitoring their entire stream. You should have customers and prospects in Twitter lists so you can easily monitor their activity in a tool like TweetDeck, but you’ll also want to scan their favorites.
This tip isn’t 100% foolproof, but many times people will mark favorite tweets because they represent the things they really like and care about. It might be their own tweets about their most important topics or those of their most influential friends – either way it can be great information.
You can find a list of favorites by adding the word favorites after a username – my friend Jason Falls is going to be in Kansas City this week to promote his new book, No Bullshit Social Media, so I’ll use him as an example. You’ll find Jason’s favorites here – http://twitter.com/JasonFalls/favorites
Retweet the best of the best
Another way to provide great content for your followers and also show up in the streams of those you want to get to know better is to Retweet their tweets. I know, duh, but here’s where I add a tip that makes this something more strategic. Don’t simply RT everything they write, it’s not very effective and won’t do a thing for your followers.
Go to Topsy and find the best Tweets from your customers and targeted prospects and RT those. Depending upon who you’re targeting, their best tweets are likely ones that have been RT’d by lots of other folks already.
You can find this on Topsy with the search query – from:twitterusername. So you could find my most popular tweets with this search – http://topsy.com/s?q=from:ducttape (You can also create email alerts for your searches.)
Filter targeted search
I’ve always touted the use of custom filtering and aggregating of content as a great way to add value to the world and, more specifically, customers and prospects. The idea here is that you set up all kinds of searches that automatically feed you information that could be useful to a prospect or even to your own education about a prospect’s world and then package that information in a way that’s useful to your prospect.
RSS technology is a great aid here so you can easily subscribe to or show your prospects how to subscribe to these custom searches. Unfortunately, Twitter decided to make it a little harder for just anyone to subscribe to searches via RSS. (Many services seem to be moving away from RSS in favor of their own custom APIs – so perhaps the Twitter Dev page is a place to start some advanced education.)
In the meantime, I’ve found a query that still produces an RSS feed for custom Twitter searches (no guarantees on how long this will work.) If you want to create an RSS feed, so you can subscribe to the updates via Google Reader for example, for the search phrase “small business marketing” you would create it like this – http://search.twitter.com/search.rss?q=”small business marketing”+filter:links – the key here is to add search.rss to the URL and then standard query stuff – ?q= – and then your search phrase. I also added +filter:links so that I would only get tweets that contained links to web pages.
Try this yourself and you’ll find that you can create RSS feeds for Twitter searches. Get creative and create some searches that you know will contain great content that your prospects would love and then start sharing bits with them. They’ll thank you for it.
View full post on Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing
5 Reasons to Engage Brand Advocates
Aug 4th
Yesterday we talked about the importance of connecting with influencers, people who have racked up enough social capital to be deemed “influential” to a certain sphere of audience. And while these influencers can help your business expand its audience and create positive word of mouth, they’re not the only folks you want to focus on. In fact, I wouldn’t even say they’re the main group you should be focusing on.
That honor goes to your company’s brand advocates.
A brand advocate is someone not on your staff who routinely shares your brand with their network in a positive way. Maybe they have 100 Twitter followers or maybe they have 1,000 – regardless, this person is a vocal part of your community and that makes them an important part of your community.
Why should you dedicate time to engaging brand advocates? Below are just five reasons.
1. Brand advocates are power sharers
In a world where business owners are always looking for new ways to encourage customers to share their content and messages, brand advocates are the people already doing this. In fact, you could argue that brand advocates, the segment of the population that LOVES sharing opinions, are the ones responsible for this social media revolution to begin with. By connecting with them and empowering them to share your blog posts, your eBooks, Facebook content, etc, you strengthen their voice and get them excited about the opportunity to share insight from the front lines.
2. Brand advocates are engaged
Brand advocates will have multiple Web presences that they maintain, thereby increasing their sphere of influence. For example, they may have a blog, a Twitter account, a Facebook account, and subscribe to multiple LinkedIn Answers threads. Because they’re heavily engaged and talking about you in their various satellite communities, it helps you create a presence on these sites without actually having to be there. Sure, you should check in and help navigate the conversation, but it means you don’t have to babysit these sites. You can rest assured that there is someone there singing your company’s praises and helping spread the word for you. And while they do that, you can focus some of your time elsewhere.
3. Brand advocates bring an established audience
Brand advocates are passionate people who enjoy sharing their insights about products and services with others. And because of that, it probably means they already have an established audience of people who are coming to them for this information, as these are the type of people that other social media users seek out. When you connect with brand advocates and bring them deeper into your company, you’re increasing the exposure you’ll have to their network. People who look to these advocates to get information and recommendations. They’re influencers in their own right, just with a smaller audience.
4. Brand advocates are loyal
With passion, comes loyalty. By reaching out to someone who has already shown an affinity for your company, you help make them a life-long fan. The result is that not only does that person continue to support you, but they continue to promote you to their network, as well. It also opens the door, down the line, to maybe bring them into the organization in an unofficial way – either making them a community monitor or soliciting their feedback when you’re about to launch a new service or even redesign part of your Web site.
5. Brand advocates already love you!
Before you invest time and resources trying to get strangers to talk about your company or share your on-goings with their friends, why wouldn’t you reach out to the people who already do? The people who love you for you and who can take some type of ownership of being the “first” to find you and share your brand with their friends. Because, as social media users, that’s what we love to do. We love to be the person to first discover a band, a Web site, a great company. And when we find them, we want to share them with everyone you know. When you’re hunting down people to help you promote your brand, don’t forget the people who already think you’re awesome!
While connecting with influencers is a great way to expose your content to a large number of new users, don’t ignore the people already supporting you on your home turf. The names and faces that have made names for themselves in your comment section or who you see regularly sharing your content in social media. Because these people already love you and want to share your content. Empower them and encourage them to keep at it.
5 Reasons to Engage Brand Advocates
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
4 Ways to Engage Your Customers in Your Green Efforts
Jul 8th
It’s great to be a green business. But even better is being a green business with customers who are highly passionate about your sustainability initiatives.
Many of today’s popular “green” brands – think Seventh Generation or Whole Foods – have found ways to get their customers involved with their environmental good work, whether it’s offering free parking spots to hybrid drivers or giving tips on how to be eco-friendlier at home. This is certainly not a quick process, but rather an evolution that involves thoughtful and ongoing communications.
Here are four strategies for engaging customers in your green initiatives:
1. Use social media to talk about green. Social media can be a great tool for communicating your sustainability goals and achievements and making your customers aware of them. Use your blog, Facebook and Twitter accounts to let your customers know what you’re doing to reduce your environmental footprint. Of course, avoid “greenwashing” – or suggesting your company is green without demonstrating results. Whether it’s recycling, energy efficiency or locally sourcing products, provide specifics. Social media can also help spur your customers into greener behaviors. For example, you might offer a discount if they swing by your store on a bike or by foot. These types of challenges are also a great way to see how much reach and impact your social media really has.
2. Donate a portion of profits to charity. Let customers feel extra good about their purchases by donating a portion of your profits to an environmental cause aligned with your sustainability goals. This is also a good way to generate awareness about the environmental issue you’re trying to solve. Make sure it’s a reputable organization. Guidestar.org and CharityNavigator.org are great websites for researching a nonprofit’s financials and making sure most of the donations actually go toward the cause, not the charity’s employees.
3. Give customers an easy way to help. Find ways to let your customers play at least a small role in your sustainability mission. A recent study by the National Restaurant Association found that 85 percent of Americans adults sort their trash at quick-service restaurants when recycling receptacles are available. The takeaway: Customers are eager to help you meet your goals and become more sustainable — so let them help.
4. Inspire them to go beyond. Green communications has become more than just communicating your own sustainability progress. It’s about empowering your customers to take it a step further. You might suggest ways for them to be more eco-friendly at home or enlist them to help with a cause. One company that makes footwear out of recycled yoga mats, for instance, encourages its customers to support Surfers for Cetaceans, a nonprofit that promotes marine life conservation.
How you engage customers will ultimately affect how connected your customers feel to your sustainability mission. And that’s an important part of making it successful.
4 Ways to Engage Your Customers in Your Green Efforts
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
4 Ways to Engage Your Customers in Your Green Efforts
Jul 8th
It’s great to be a green business. But even better is being a green business with customers who are highly passionate about your sustainability initiatives.
Many of today’s popular “green” brands – think Seventh Generation or Whole Foods – have found ways to get their customers involved with their environmental good work, whether it’s offering free parking spots to hybrid drivers or giving tips on how to be eco-friendlier at home. This is certainly not a quick process, but rather an evolution that involves thoughtful and ongoing communications.
Here are four strategies for engaging customers in your green initiatives:
1. Use social media to talk about green. Social media can be a great tool for communicating your sustainability goals and achievements and making your customers aware of them. Use your blog, Facebook and Twitter accounts to let your customers know what you’re doing to reduce your environmental footprint. Of course, avoid “greenwashing” – or suggesting your company is green without demonstrating results. Whether it’s recycling, energy efficiency or locally sourcing products, provide specifics. Social media can also help spur your customers into greener behaviors. For example, you might offer a discount if they swing by your store on a bike or by foot. These types of challenges are also a great way to see how much reach and impact your social media really has.
2. Donate a portion of profits to charity. Let customers feel extra good about their purchases by donating a portion of your profits to an environmental cause aligned with your sustainability goals. This is also a good way to generate awareness about the environmental issue you’re trying to solve. Make sure it’s a reputable organization. Guidestar.org and CharityNavigator.org are great websites for researching a nonprofit’s financials and making sure most of the donations actually go toward the cause, not the charity’s employees.
3. Give customers an easy way to help. Find ways to let your customers play at least a small role in your sustainability mission. A recent study by the National Restaurant Association found that 85 percent of Americans adults sort their trash at quick-service restaurants when recycling receptacles are available. The takeaway: Customers are eager to help you meet your goals and become more sustainable — so let them help.
4. Inspire them to go beyond. Green communications has become more than just communicating your own sustainability progress. It’s about empowering your customers to take it a step further. You might suggest ways for them to be more eco-friendly at home or enlist them to help with a cause. One company that makes footwear out of recycled yoga mats, for instance, encourages its customers to support Surfers for Cetaceans, a nonprofit that promotes marine life conservation.
How you engage customers will ultimately affect how connected your customers feel to your sustainability mission. And that’s an important part of making it successful.
4 Ways to Engage Your Customers in Your Green Efforts
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
#TDGv Engage: The New Polymath, Vinnie Mirchandani
Sep 7th
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Filmed and Edited by… “Seasoned GenX Leader Capable of Leveraging the Technically Savvy GenY Knowledge Worker” Focus: Enterprise 2.0, Social Media,… |
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Engage: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web…
Apr 29th
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“Social media is changing everything about the way people relate socially, in commerce, and in politics. Engage gets you up to date regarding… |
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Dale Earnhardt Jr. finding new ways to engage fans on Internet
Apr 28th
| Jeff Filiberto, senior marketing manager for AMP Energy, said the site promotes the sponsor while satisfying the fans’ voracious appetite for… |
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