Some dos and don’ts for using social media in business

Whether you’ve already started using social media as a business or if you are ready to take your first steps, the thought of “sharing” all can be quite daunting.

Used well, social media can be a great marketing tool for us and we shouldn’t be put off by its open nature.  Before you start it helps to have a few ideas of what you’re trying to achieve and who and how you will do it.

For example, which social media do my customers and potential customers use – is it Facebook, Twitter, YouTube?  Maybe it’s something more specific to your sector and LinkedIn is the most appropriate place to start.

Once you know where your audience is, it makes the next bit simpler.  How will you use this medium to communicate?  Examples include:

• News and events
• Marketing promotions
• Customer service
• Exclusive discounts and offers
• Market research
• Sharing content/expertise

Some businesses find it easier to define this early on so that it’s clear which purpose each channel has.  For example:

• Twitter – we’ll use this exclusively to share discounts and offers
• Facebook – we’ll share events and exclusive content
• Blog – we’ll provide insight and comment into developments and successes in our sector

After that it’s usually more straightforward to decide who will write the blog, look after Twitter and update Facebook.

Whichever social media you choose:

Do

• Research first.  Sign up and get an account if you need to but spend at least a couple of weeks seeing how your competitors use these media before you start tweeting, posting or blogging.  Doing this means you can see what makes good or bad content and decide how to position your business.
• Have a social media policy, particularly if you employ people to do this.  The nature of social media is so instant that mistakes are out there immediately.  Having a policy and guidelines means that everyone is clear on what they can and can’t say.
• Keep going.  Once you start using social media it’s really important to keep it up to date.  Out of date and poorly maintained profiles reflect badly on your brand and it’s another good reason to spend time researching and looking before you begin.

Don’t

• Ask somebody to do it for you and never check it!  Even with a policy you need to make sure that the messages are appropriate and in line with your marketing plan.
• Delete negative comments unless they are inappropriate.  Social media can be great way to demonstrate customer service.  Deal with negative comments by responding politely and then follow up off-line by telephone or email if necessary.  Dealing with customers well sends positive PR about your brand.
• Start using social media unless you’re prepared to stick with it.  If you’re really not sure, carry out the research phase for longer before making a decision.  Social networks don’t all work for every business so you need to be sure your target audience is using the media you choose and will respond.

Once you're underway you may be surprised at how successful you can be.  Social media brings us the opportunity to engage with our audiences in a much closer way than ever before, good luck!

Karen McNulty

Using recommendations and referrals to win more business

The best free marketing you can ask for is when somebody recommends or refers you to somebody else. It’s usually free (which is great) but most importantly you’re getting a qualified lead that already trusts you because their contact has endorsed what you do.

We spend a lot of time getting our marketing message right, anxious to make sure that people believe what we’re telling them because we know how good our products and services are. But you know that advertising is never as powerful as somebody recommending a business to do business with.

Five reasons why referrals are good:

1. They’re usually free

2. Referred customers often spend more than those who come to you by other means (you’ve got the “trust” established from the off, so no time wasted)

3. You can ask for them confidently and easily if you know you’ve done a good job/sold an excellent product

4. Referrals give your business credibility

5. You can turn them into testimonials (always ask first) which you can add to your website, other marketing literature and newsletters.

The growth of social media has seen user-generated content become more important than the copy that marketers publish. Now when people have an opinion they can publish it online instantly and we believe reviews because there’s usually no hidden agenda (unlike the marketing copy written to make you buy their product). This means that we have to be prepared to be more open and share and likewise, accept that others will say what they think.

Many e-commerce websites now include reviews and comments on products they sell and there are lots of websites specifically devoted to reviews like TripAdviser or TopTable. This is especially relevant if you target consumers (the general public) and The Yellow Pages is even now inviting and publishing reviews for location-based businesses.

Then there’s LinkedIn – you can invite recommendations and usually people who have worked with you or used your services are happy to provide them.

How do you make sure you get people to recommend you?

Some businesses literally grow on referral marketing alone. Think of solicitors and accountants, alternative therapists and hairdressers. Without recommendations they would have to market much harder because these are all areas that are sensitive to the individual and require some element of trust for us to spend our money. These are our top tips on how to get referrals:

• Ask for them! You’d be surprised how many satisfied customers really don’t mind recommending you to somebody else. We’re all looking for excellent service and a positive buying experience so just a bit of encouragement to pass it on is all that’s needed. On LinkedIn for example this is quite easy to do as you can ask for a recommendation.
• Offer an incentive. For example a 20% discount on their next purchase or cash back (have you noticed the banks doing this if you recommend a friend?)
• Follow up your clients after a purchase for feedback and then ask if you can use either a testimonial or if they will refer you to somebody else (whichever you feel is more appropriate)
• Use your marketing literature. When you pass out a business card, give them several so they can pass them on, or if you send out an email newsletter make sure you’ve got a “forward to a friend” button.
• Consider adding review functionality to your website or using a third party system like “Revoo”. Alternatively be brave with social media and allow people to leave comments and interact with your brand on platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

Whilst getting good reviews is a real positive, it’s important not to forget to monitor mentions of your products and your business (quite easy online with Google Alerts and saved searches). Reviews can of course be bad too and you need to be aware when this happens so that you can respond.

Think now about how many of your customers would recommend you – we bet there are a few. Time to put a plan into action!

Ten Email Marketing Dos and Don’ts

As a marketing method, email marketing is excellent and it’s easy to see why so many of us have adopted it as part of our marketing mix. But because it’s so easy and low cost to set up and run, it’s also easy to make mistakes so we’ve chosen our top five dos and don’ts to share.

If you haven’t tried it yet, have a look at some of the popular online email services that you may have already heard of, such as Constant Contact, Mail Chimp and AWeber. Most of these ask for a monthly subscription to store your email lists (contacts) and send your emails usually dependent on the size of your contact list.

Email Marketing Dos

1. Do tailor your emails to different target audiences. Most email marketing software will let you manage more than one list so you can send one email to potential customers for example and a different message to existing customers. Or different messages based on what they’ve bought before. Either way, segmenting is really important and the more bespoke a message is, the more likely your customer is likely to take action.
2. Do read the stats. Once you’ve sent a promotional email to your list you should see reporting on who opened it and more importantly who clicked through onto any website links that you put in the email. If they clicked they are a potential lead and should be followed up.
3. Do use email marketing to sell. Email newsletters and bulletins are ideal to promote special offers, price incentives, new products and services. This is acceptable as your target list has opted in (see tip number 5) and email is a quick way for them to hear about your products and services.
4. Do test your email format every time. Email message layouts are just like web pages and should be tested to see what gets a better conversion rate. An example would be, if you have a total list of 1000 contacts, prepare two versions of your email newsletter. Before you send to the whole list, email one version to a sample of 50 from your whole list and the second version to another 50. Measure the results and the one that wins, usually based on a good conversion rate (to sale or maybe to click through to view a product or service on your website) is the one that goes to the rest of the list.
5. Do make sure your target lists have all opted in. If they’ve purchased from you previously there’s an automatic opt-in unless they tell you otherwise. If somebody makes an enquiry there is an implied interest but it’s always best to ask them if they would like to receive your emails as data protection is quite strict, particularly if your target audience is members of the general public. Otherwise you can also add a “sign up” box to your website available with most email marketing programmes so interested parties can choose to be added to your list.

Email Marketing Don’ts

1. Don’t send promotional emails out to your contacts using standard email office software like Outlook. If you send anything in bulk from office programmes they are likely to be treated as spam by the recipient servers. This is because the server you will use to send from will not be a recognised authenticated system for email marketing. Email services like the ones we mentioned at the beginning use “white-listed” servers so they can send large quantities of emails without being blocked as spam. If you are blocked you may find that all of your emails form then are blocked from some systems which can cause a real headache. It also doesn’t look very professional!
2. Don’t use a service that doesn’t allow you to have an “unsubscribe” link on the bottom of your emails. Nothing upsets people more than receiving emails they don’t want that they can’t stop.
3. Don’t just use images, as most email clients will not display them automatically. You should also have text only version available if this is likely to cause your recipients problems or the option to view the email online if it won’t display correctly in their email browser. Here's a good example of what can happen:

How the email should look:

This is how the email arrived in my Inbox:

4. Don’t forget to personalise but get it right! Email marketing gives you the opportunity to use the name of your recipients very easily so if you have them, it makes the message much more likely to be opened. Have a look at this how not to do email marketing example from Tesco.
5. Don’t think that email marketing is the marketing answer to everything! We receive lots of these in our Inboxes so yours should always be professional and useful. Sometimes the personal telephone call or face-to-face meeting is exactly what’s required.

Should you advertise?

Advertising is an interesting topic and it's still one of the main things that people think marketers do, probably because it's an easy area of marketing to understand. That's not all we do of course, but it's still an important element of the marketing mix. There are some other facts we think we know about advertising:

• It's expensive
• Big companies do it
• You mostly see advertising on posters, TV, radio, newspapers and magazines, and on the Internet.

All of the above are correct as far as they go, but it's surprising to learn that traditional advertising, like we see on the TV and in magazines has become more accessible as these media fight to compete with more cost effective advertising options on the internet. The other reason the costs have come down is that many of them are losing readership as consumers move online so have to compete harder for your advertising business.

As part of a marketing campaign or long term awareness raising, traditional advertising can still work. What doesn't usually work are one-off advertisements, especially in newspapers but this also applies online with banner advertising as once or twice is not enough time to establish your message with the reader or visitor.

Today, our customers are likely to consume information online as well as via traditional media so like most other marketing a mix is a good idea. Here are our favourite tips to prepare for advertising:

1. Ask yourself how can you measure it? Traditional advertising may mean you need a code on the advert to track its success, or a use a unique phone number so you know the advert generated that enquiry, not another medium. If you use online advertising you can also measure conversion rates using visitor statisticss and tracking an "action" like completing a sale or signing up for a newsletter.
   
2. Before you decide whether to advertise or not, find out where your customers are. If they're Daily Mail readers at least you know your advert will be seen by the right people if you advertise with the Daily Mail.
3. Off-line, negotiate. Most printed media, radio and TV are desperate to bring in more advertising revenue. Online, look at low cost bids and long-tailed search terms to get more clicks for your budget, although bear in mind that longer search terms tend to get less volume, which is why you pay more for the short, popular ones.
   
4. Whichever medium you choose, have more than one advertisement over a period of time and make sure your adverts are seen/shown regularly.
5. Never say yes to a one-off advert in anything, no matter how cheap it sounds! If you're tempted, spend that money on another form of marketing where you get longer exposure.
6. Have a clear call to action. What do you want the person who sees or hears your advert to do next? Telephone you, visit your website or do something else? This also helps you to tack the success of your advert.
7. Seriously consider trying online advertising methods such as pay per click on search engines like Google or in social networks like Facebook. If your customers are looking in these media. It's a way of getting straight to them when they login or search. The biggest advantage of nearly all online advertising is control. You can control budgets instantly and have constant access to performance stats and conversion rates.

The Internet has made it easier for small businesses to dip their toes in the water with advertising as it's not only affordable but highly measurable. As always, it still has to meet your criteria for spending marketing budget and guarantee you a return that you're happy with.

Karen McNulty
www.MarketingPlanWiz.co.uk and www.BusinessPlanwiz.com

How to write a social media plan

Yes, there's a plan for everything! If you create a marketing plan it's likely that you'll include a section on Internet marketing anyway, but social media as an area of internet marketing is big enough to warrant its own strategy.

We're defining "social media" here as online social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, social bookmarking websites such as Delicious and Technorati, YouTube and other video sharing networks, picture sharing sites such as Flickr, also blogs and podcasts.

One of the reasons for writing a social media plan is that it's so easy to start using these media, because they're quick to set up and before you know it you've lost momentum or direction. Social media is like any other marketing, a set of marketing tools to help you achieve your objectives but there's a lot of choice so a strategy is advisable. This becomes critical when more than one of your team is using social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn to promote your brand.

A social media plan will also enable you to establish how you will measure the effectiveness of your social marketing activity. Measuring social networking is quite possible but using different sets of criteria to traditional marketing, such as "engagement".

Here are our tips on how to put together a social media plan (our version, so please feel free to add your thoughts and experiences by commenting):

1. Where you are now, a brief analysis of what you're already doing (if anything) with social media, and successes/failures using stats if you have them. This not only helps to set the scene for anyone using the plan but makes it clearer in your mind where to start from.
2. Social media objectives. This is valuable and helps to define why you're using social media as a marketing tool. Typical objectives can include: Engaging with your customers, reaching potential customers (raising awareness), positioning your business as expert in an area, enabling customers to talk to each other, a platform for enabling or encouraging reviews, building brand awareness and credibility.
3. The approach. How will you adopt social media, what will the tone of voice be, core messages and policies?
4. Positioning. Define how your online social marketing activity will sit compared to competitors. The key here is to differentiate yourself if you can. For example, the business arm of Dell chose to set up a social media forum on Facebook for small businesses to help each other rather than use it as a direct selling platform. And the Compare the Market "Meerkat" social media campaign engaged a phenomenal number of followers. Sometimes a bit of lateral thinking will provide a much richer method of engaging with your customers.
5. Specify the social media that you will use. By this point you'll have a fair idea of what's available that will fit with your objectives, approach and positioning. Here is where you can define the list of media such as a blog, Facebook page, YouTube channel and so on. Under each medium, outline how you will use it such as the theme, topics, direction.
6. Listening. I make a point of including this because engaging with social media properly means you have to listen as well as post. How will you monitor what others are saying about your brand in the social networks? Also listen to find out what's trending as this could provide good foundations for your next blog, and think about commenting on other blogs and social networks - engagement should always be a two-way process.
7. Dealing with comments and feedback. Outline a procedure for doing this, especially important if there are several people in the business involved with social media. Drafting a policy is useful if this is the case so that you can be consistent and avoid PR disasters. Above all, do plan to respond to comments and questions on your own social pages as they should never be left unanswered as that sends out the wrong customer service message.
   
8. Timing and regularity. Now that you know which media you will adopt, it's time to decide how often and who. Using Twitter for example should be at least daily, preferably several times a day whereas blogging might be once a week.
   
9. Measurement and evaluation. Include the methods you will use to track the success of your social media activity. There are a variety of ways to do this such as engagement - how many followers/fans/comments; traffic statistics using Google Analytics on the blog so you can see where traffic is coming from (referrals); tracking mentions using feedback from Google Alerts can also provide a picture of the reach of your activity.
   
10. To Do List. I find this useful at the end of any marketing plan. After you have decided on the strategy, what are the priorities, who is doing them and when by? You can add costs here too if appropriate.

You can find more tips on putting together internet marketing plans on one of our previous blogs, "10 reasons to put together an Internet marketing plan".

Happy planning!

Karen McNulty
MarketingPlanWiz and BusinessPlanWiz

Ten Marketing Tips for Attending Exhibitions and Events

Despite the explosion of online marketing tools now available to us, there are times when face-to-face is simply the best way to reach your target audience. In the UK, there are around 1000 national business exhibitions up and down the country each year and many more local and regional events that are on your door-step. You can find them on websites like exhibitions.co.uk - a real eye opener as there is an event for everything!

Marketing at an event is often outside of our usual marketing plan, probably because it tends to be a once a year or less type of occurrence, especially if you're a small business. For that reason it benefits from its own mini marketing plan, and these Event and Exhibition marketing tips might help.

1. Plan well ahead if you're exhibiting especially if you need a display stand. Event organisers will provide dimensions for your exhibition space to help. It's very hard to exhibit without a professional display unless you want to stand out for the wrong reasons, so it's worth spending the money on something you can use again.
2. What can you giveaway? Anything that's free, including gadgets, samples and even value added content like reports and white papers (good if you're a service-based B2B) - in exchange for email addresses, business cards and any contact details. Then you've got a database of interested parties for your next e-newsletter or communication.
   
3. Take plenty of your own business cards. One of the best things about business events is the opportunity to network with other businesses in your sector, even potential suppliers and of course any potential customers.
   
4. Organise in advance for producing special offers or specific information for the event. This could be a flyer, coupon or discount for a limited period around the event date.
   
5. Create a plan of action for the event. If there's more than one of you, who does what on the stand e.g. one to greet, the other to talk through product information. Always make sure there's little or no barrier to people coming into your stand. If it's unavoidable, one of you can stand in front of the table or barrier to engage with passers-by.
6. Before the event use your website and social networks to let customers know you're going to be there. Tell them where you'll be and consider offering an incentive for them to visit your stand. And think about taking a video camera for when you're there so you can post it onto your networks when you get back.
   
7. Find out beforehand if your event has already been allocated a Twitter Hashtag. This is a word or label on Twitter with a # in front of it so that Twitter users can follow a common thread. Find out more about Hashtags at Twitter. If there is, tweet while you're there so your Twitter followers can learn more and follow other delegates to get first hand reviews and thoughts as they happen.
   
8. If your space allows, target specific existing customers for some corporate hospitality before the exhibition to visit your stand for a glass of champagne/cup of coffee/whatever is appropriate and use the time as an opportunity to catch up with them.
9. Event "goody bags" and programmes - if the organisers provide visitors with a pack or goody bag, can you provide something to go in it (voucher/or incentive to visit your stand) or is there an opportunity to sponsor a part of the event so your name is on the programme? This is often less expensive than you might think but great for exposure.
10. Stand location. The earlier you can choose your space the better as it can make or break a successful event. It's often a higher cost to have a more prominent stand (near the entrance for example, or by the refreshments so you're the first stand visitors see when they come in) but worth considering if the footfall is likely to be worthwhile.
    

When you get back, don't forget to follow up leads and do some quick analysis on the return on your investment. Measurement this time will help you to make the right decision next time an exhibition opportunity comes up and help to plan ahead for future marketing activity.

Karen McNulty
www.MarketingPlanWiz.co.uk and www.BusinessPlanWiz.com

Business Networking Tips for Success

Hands up - who hates networking?

The very thought of meeting strangers and making small talk with people we don't know can send even "marketing people" running for the hills. But of all the marketing tools that I use, networking is still the one that often surprises me as the results can be quite amazing.

When I say "networking" I mean off-line for the moment. Online social networking is great, but it doesn't beat face-to-face relationship building, at least in the first instance. By all means continue business relationships online and meet lots of potential customers and suppliers, but it's invariably the people that you know that you build long term bonds with.

Traditional business networking involves either joining regular business networking groups, or attending events, launches, AGMs, training, exhibitions, trade fairs, even golf days. The networks that suit you will depend on who your target audiences are.

For example if you're selling to the general public, events, sponsorships, trade fairs or launches all offer the opportunity to network with potential customers. Sometimes, even business events will generate consumer opportunities as we're all consumers outside of our business lives.

I was at a business networking event recently with a fellow networker who was launching a perfume business and she was questioning whether a "business" network was appropriate as her customers were not other businesses. But when it boiled down to it, there were quite enough of the right target audience in the room who may need to buy gifts for wives and girlfriends and plenty of females who wanted to buy for themselves. People really do buy from people and this is another reason why business networking works even for B2C - and I did buy some perfume that day.

Often networking isn't just to find customers, but to find other businesses to collaborate with, contacts who may lead you to customers or simply to share the experience of being in business and find solutions together. I've met plenty of other marketers through meetings like this, many of who I've done business with at some point, even if only to refer other customers to them because they have a particular area of expertise.

There are some golden rules which are worth noting, but my best advice is to be yourself as far as possible. It doesn't work otherwise as you can't build long term relationships being somebody else.

Good networking tips are:

1. Always take business cards. This is strangely easy to forget, probably as we're dashing out of the door we forget to check (spoken from experience I'm embarrassed to admit), but without them people can't get in touch or follow up.
2. Prepare an elevator pitch, less than 1 minute if you can about what you do, and what's different about your business so that you differentiate yourself from everyone else. For example, if you're an Accountant, what can you add? I'm an Accountant who specialises in taxation, or who provides a small business package for a fixed sum. And what are the benefits to the product or service that you offer? So you don't have to worry about getting your self assessment in on time... This might take a bit of practice and it might change over time, but it's well worth doing.
3. Have objectives before you enter the room. Are you there because you want business leads, somebody to work alongside, a new supplier? Or maybe you just need to meet some like-minded people. The clearer you are the easier the process is.
   
4. After the event make sure you follow up if you promised to do something. This is often the best start to a long-term business relationship as if you deliver it builds trust.
5. Don't forget that you can network anywhere. You meet people at the shops, in restaurants and at events - they're all great opportunities to talk to people. Just remember that elevator pitch when somebody asks "what do you do?".

To continue networking after you've met somebody face to face, make sure your business card also has your twitter identity, LinkedIn address or other social networking contact details, as well as the usual email address, website address and telephone number.

For further inspiration, there are also some excellent articles about business networking on the Business Link website, worth a read.

Karen McNulty

MarketingPlanWiz and BusinessPlanWiz
www.twitter.com/karenmcnulty