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First Social Media Step is Offline

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Social media is the Great Equalizer

In a prevous article, I talked about how your actions outside of your business can affect your social media like the GoDaddy CEO killing the elephant.

This article addresses your service and products.  Your actions at your place of business will be talked about in Social Media whether you have a Facebook Fan Page or not.  In fact, we offer Social Media Management Services and I am here to tell you, your service offline will drive your Social Media.

We can build you a fancy Facebook Fan Page and help you determine what type of content to put on the page regularly, but your customers conversation about you is the most important of all.  Using Social Media to market your business is great and you also need to respond to those occasional customer complaints.

They are already talking about you…the question is…are you entering the conversation?

You have probably heard that one unhappy customer will tell 10 people about your company and 10 happy customers may tell one person.  That used to be true.  Now it is more like- one unhappy customer tells thousands.

Look what this customer did when an airline broke his guitar.

 

Over 10 million views of this video and if you count the number of blog posts, Facebook updates, etc.  This was one unhappy customer.

Be honest, have you ever wanted to voice your opinion to the world about an unpleasant experience with a business you visited? Let us know below.

Your Social Media Plan Should Not Include Shooting Elephant

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Your Social Media Plan should not include shooting an elephant like the Godaddy CEO.

When developing your Social Media Marketing Plan you have to take into consideration your actions outside of business.  Social Media has made businesses human.  Humans and their actions can help or hurt business because their actions may be amplified through Social Media.  If you do something upsetting to a large number of people (even if it has nothing to do with your business) it may cost you.

Consider the GoDaddy CEO who recently shot an elephant.  Elephants are animals that human beings love.  As far as wild animals go, elephants rank near the top.  Children ride elephants at the zoo.  Then there is Dumbo, the flying elephant animation.  You see elephants helping people in third world countries by moving trees and brush.  

The CEO of GoDaddy shot and killed an elephant. He’s been defending himself ever since.  People are attacking Bob Parsons and it is spreading through social media faster than you can say, “racy, sexy television ads that have nothing to do with domain names.”

The bigger you are, the bigger your company, and the more important you are to your company, the more your actions can hurt you even when it has nothing to do with business.

The GoDaddy CEO claims that he was helping save human lives.  People are starving in Africa where the elephant was shot and killed.  Mr. Parson claims the elephant was trampling the crops and people would starve.

One interviewer suggested the CEO killed the elephant for sport and after the Social backlash he is trying to defend himself by saying it was to save human lives.  The interviewer asked Bob Parsons if there were any other pictures of him and his gun sitting next to another big game Dead animal. 

Maybe he did save some crops by killing this elephant but the way in which Mr. Parsons has handled it…is not good.   People on Facebook, blogs, and Youtube are saying, “Ban Godaddy and take your service elsewhere.”

Believe or don’t believe the Godaddy CEO…but know this.  You are a human now and not just a business.   The actions you take as a human can affect your business.

One of the companies that I work with is a competitor of GoDaddy and they  said that their business has increased and some of their new customers came over from Godaddy because they were upset with Bob Parson’s actions.

In more than one interview I saw with Bob Parsons, he was sarcastic and did not help his cause.  The interviewer was fair in asking the questions that the GoDaddy CEO answered defensively and agressively.

The probable truth about the CEO shooting an elephant

  • It may have saved human lives.
  • Bob Parsons did it for sport and that is why he plays rock music and posts pictures straddling his big game trophy kill. 
  • The people of Zimbabwe think Bob Parsons is a hero…but they don’t buy any domain names.

If the GoDaddy CEO handled the interviews with less sarcasm and he demonstrated understanding of why people are upset, he may have built his fan and customer base even bigger. 

As part of managment and leadership training your company should consider media training and Social Media training.

Let us know how you think Bob Parson handled this situation below.

Hire a Social Media Marketing Employee No Thanks

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Should you hire a full-time employee specifically for your Social Media Marketing?

The options are:

  • Do it yourself
  • Let the current marketing person handle it
  • Hire your 16 year old niece
  • Hire a part-time employee
  • Hire a full-time employee
  • Hire a professional consulting company

Your Social Media Marketing Strategy should be ongoing.  It is not a billboard you put up next to the interstate and wait for the mad rush of customers.  To effectively market your business using sites like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube, you should be adding content regularly.

Another big question to answer is, “What is my budget for Social Media”?

The answer to this question as well as who you should hire depend on the type of business you are in and the size of your company.  Most businesses can benefit from implementing a marketing campaign that utilizes Social Media.  If your product or service is purchased by humans then there is a good chance your potential customers and current customers spend time on Facebook and other social sites. 

“Go where the eyeballs are.”

The following statistics are from Facebook:

  • More than 500 million active users
  • 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day
  • Average user has 130 friends
  • People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook

What type of businesses can skip the social aspect of marketing?  Maybe a corporate attorney…maybe… morgue owner…there are not many.

If your business provides a social type of product or service your marketing budget should be significantly in favor of Social Media. 

A bowling alley, golf course, and a restaurant all fit into this category.  Your customers may actually help you populate your own social space with user generated content.

Here are some quick tips regarding all these questions:

  • If you are doing it yourself…who is running the business?
  • If you let your current marketing person handle it…they are probably not experts in this area and they will need training.
  • If you hire a part-time employee…expect shoddy part-time work unless the person has  a passion for your industry, your company, and your product.
  • If you hire a full-time employee…make sure they know what they are doing.  They do not qualify to be a social media manager just because they have 10,000 Myspace friends or 5,000 Facebook friends.  It proves they like to spend time on those platforms but it has nothing to do with writing great content, enticing copy, recording engaging videos, and analyzing and testing various marketing metrics. 
  • If you want to hire a consulting company…good for you.  Just make sure you are not tied into a long-term contract.  Probably the #1 over blown hyped up business to start this year is a Consulting business with a focus on social.  People are hurting for money and looking for ways to pay the bills and next thing you know, they are a consultant.

Look at their website and determine what type of content they provide.  Do they provide valuable content?  Do they beg for business?  Do they allow you to pay month-to-month because they are confident you will continue to use their services?

While you are considering all the questions above watch this video from CBC News about social jobs.

Then check out our Social Media Marketing Services page for a more in depth look as well as one of the most powerful and informative videos online.

Blog For Profit With Your Small Business Blog

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Business Blog Versus Website

Most businesses have a static website.

The information on the site is the same as it was 12 months ago.

Consumers today want fresh information.

A blog consists of a series of articles also called posts and if you are blogging regularly your potential customers will get the fresh information they crave.  Think of your blog as a newspaper.  Who would want to read about the news from 3 weeks ago?

Your current and potential customers also want to give you their opinion by making comments and a blog easily allows them to that.  At the end of each article viewers can make comments and you can reply back to them for some interaction.

Business Blogs Allow Interaction With Customers

This interaction gives them a voice and a sense of community especially when you combine your blog with your Social Media.

Another reason you should have a blog for your business…

Blogs can perform well in the search engines so potential customers find your business online.  Search engines such as Google like whatever the consumers likes and they like fresh content and media.

Take a look at the screenshot from the official Google blog.

You can see in the highlighted paragraph it states,

  Searchers want to find the latest relevant content…

It also states,

Content on the web is blossoming…with the advent of video, images, new, and real-time updates…

Blogs are also built to add media like video and pictures fairly simply.

To understand everything you need for your blog watch contact us for a free tip sheet.