Why Moving Too Fast On Social Media Can Lose An Audience

I learned a very valuable lesson as a result of my last blog post, and it might just be one that I won’t read too much about in the ‘how-to’ articles and e-books on social media. This is a lesson you have to learn by making the mistake.  But, maybe my blunder can help you avoid this social media pitfall.

I was very proud of my last blog post, entitled “Finding Success On Twitter”. If you haven’t read it, I ran down the functionality of Twitter and the strategy I employed to quickly gain some followers and make some great connections. I was so proud because I had mastered the tool. My very triumphant-sounding blog post was full of the terms and jargon that I had learned, and I cut right to the core of what you have to do to find success on Twitter.  I sounded like an expert (at least in my mind!)

So, what mistake did I make?  Two days ago I was having a conversation with my father-in-law about my blog.  He is a very accomplished entrepreneur who is also in the process of learning and embracing all that Marketing 2.0 and social media has to offer for business.

He said to me, and I paraphrase, “John, your blog is great.  I enjoy reading it and I am learning a lot.  But, your last entry about Twitter was so full of jargon that I couldn’t follow it and I learned very little.  If I wasn’t your father-in-law, I probably would have stopped following you.”

Talk about a wake up call!  Upon re-reading the ‘Twitter’ blog post, it was painfully clear that my approach did not take into account the audience who I had originally set out to attract.  Someone who knew very little about Twitter would not have received any benefit from that post.  Two weeks ago, I wouldn’t have learned everything from that post because I had no idea what things like a “hashtag” or a “mention” were.  I wasn’t mapping my route to learning social media like I had set out to do.  I was just telling everyone what I learned and expected them to just understand how I got from point A to point B.

Ultimately, what I learned from this exchange is this: as easily as you can find an audience, you can lose them if you don’t bring the type of content you promised.  It is apparently very simple to get off track and confuse your audience.  I was thrilled to have so many new followers to my Twitter feed and my blog.  So thrilled was I that I forgot to give them what they were looking for in the first place!  If they were customers, I would have seen them walking out my door as quickly as I saw them walk in.  If I was to employ this kind of strategy with my non-profit, the plan would probably fail.

So, now it is time to get this blog back on track.  My next post will interpret my previous post about Twitter.  And, future posts will focus less on being an expert and more on becoming an expert!

Many thanks go to Tom Wolf at identityanddestiny.com for the valuable feedback.

Finding Success On Twitter

Having had some nice responses to my blog by way of my LinkedIn activity, I decided to spend the last two days trying to wrap my head around the world of Twitter.

As I explained before, getting yourself, your blog, or your business noticed using LinkedIn is as easy as joining a group and adding some good content to a new or ongoing discussion. LinkedIn undoubtedly has more to offer, which intend to figure out soon. But, for now, I think I have the hang of it.

Twitter was another story.  Before this week, I had found around 60 people to follow and had in the neighborhood of 30 people following me.  I had one or two people mention me in their tweets and had one re-tweet.  To say the least, I wasn’t making an impact.  So I put the pedal to the metal and found  more people to follow who were talking about my subject matter, especially those who were blogging about it, too.  If I learned something from their blog, I thanked them using the ‘@’ functionality.  Many times they added me, some of them even listed me.  Success!  This drove traffic to my blog, which brought on some very nice feedback.  Like I said before, if I was a business I’d have the potential to monetize these relationships as customers (or even donors as a non-profit).  I doubled my following in two days, and now show up on 5 lists.  Not bad for a few hours worth of hustle.

Here is a rundown of some other tips I picked up along the way:

• As I said before, acknowledge everyone you follow or who follows you in some way.  Mention them in a tweet by thanking them for the content they shared, re-tweet their link to a blog or article, or direct message them to let them know you appreciate the attention.  These actions set off a chain reaction of new contacts.

• Download a program like TweetDeck.  This type of program automatically shortens the links you post, so you can get the most out of your 140 characters.  It also has some instant message pop-up functionality so you don’t miss anything.  You can also index your feed, your mentions, re-tweets, and direct messages on one screen in real time.  Great tool for multi-asking.

• Look for people who are having live discussions about a topic you are interested in.  The leader usually will announce the discussion and will give the hashtag.  This is a great way to share your content with people out of your following in real time.  They can be tough to find, but they are out there.

• Scour all of the tweets you can find and write down the hashtags you see being used to relate to your business or blog topic. The next time you have a tweet about your topic, use those hashtags and you’ll be directing your message to the people who might be interested.

I’m sure I only scratched the surface.  As I learn more, I’ll be sure to share.  If you’re reading this, and you have a tip to add, please do so!

Thanks for reading.

Committing to Social Media is Key

Now that I’m in full swing, I’m seeing some fantastic things in the way of response to my project. Over 150 people have visited my blog since I moved to WordPress and some 150 more have viewed my pages on Tumblr. Sure, some are duplicates, but the fact remains that anything you write can and will have an audience. If I was selling a product, I might have over 300 potential customers and maybe a nice boost in business.

But, for the last few days views and visits are down to just about zero per day. I have not posted any new content since last week. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that if you’re not posting new and interesting content, then people aren’t going to pay attention to you. On that we can agree.

But, I’m discovering a very important lesson here, and I know for a fact that some companies out there are ignoring it.  The lesson is:  If you aren’t 100% committed to a strong social media campaign, then you’re not going to get the return you seek. I don’t care if you’re a for-profit, a non-profit, or an informational blog – you can’t dabble in social media when you feel like it and expect results.  Common sense, right?  Sure it is.  But, when you’re a small business or a non-profit, social media may shake to the bottom of your priorities list.  Your blog, your Facebook fan page, your Twitter feed, and your LinkedIn activity can lose momentum fast if you’re not staying on the radar of your audience.

The current conversation the communications and marketing team at my company is having is all about allocating resources.  Who can we commit to social media and how best will the bet used.  This is a big part of the strategy that smaller for- and non-profits must have and must get right, or a great deal of time and potential could get lost in the shuffle.

Social Media Success Comes By Doing

Welcome to everyone who followed me over from my Tumblr blog, and to any new followers. Knowing that people are interested in this project, and are interested enough to give me feedback, makes this so much more fun.

The last few days have been a tremendous learning experience for me as a social media marketing newbie. I’ve seen very quickly how vast the potential of platforms really can be.

I’ve been pounding the Internet, specifically on LinkedIn and Twitter, just raising awareness of my project and testing out the platforms for when its time to launch my company’s strategy. I targeted like-minded groups on LinkedIn and searched around Twitter for people talking about social media in respect to non-profits, small businesses, and getting started. This activity has driven some modest traffic to my blog, and generated some feedback via e-mail. I’ve had visitors from three countries, as well as had some very accomplished marketing professionals express some interest. To say the least, it has been fun and interesting.

One very surprising thing I have noticed from the analytics is that the majority of my traffic is coming by way of LinkedIn. I would have guessed that Twitter would have sent me the most traffic, but I was wrong. Thus, I will continue to focus efforts in the LinkedIn world and will look to adjust what I am doing on Twitter. My guess is that when it’s time to launch my company plan, LinkedIn will be my best asset for professional connections and talent recruitment. But, when it comes to fund raising and general brand awareness, Twitter will be on of my go-to spots.

Here is a brief rundown of how I have positioned my blog, for those of you who are looking for tips:

• I began my blog on Tumblr.com. While I liked how easy and intuitive Tumblr was, they do not offer the option to have followers subscribe via e-mail. I don’t expect many of my followers to sign up for Tumblr just to get my blog, and RSS feeds get cluttered and messages get missed. Bottom line for getting your blog started: test them all out. Find out what options work for you and if they are offered for free (or at all). Worpress looked like a good fit for me, so here I am.

• As I said before, I began to get involved in open discussions on LinkedIn. The easiest way to do that is to join a group and browse the discussions that group members are having on the group’s page. You can chime in on one, or start your own. It seems to be a great way to build personal credibility on an issue, and pick up some great contacts and awesome leads on information.

I did the same thing with Twitter, via the search.twitter.com tool. Amazing amounts of people are talking about anything and everything related to what your line of business does, does well, does poorly, and all things in between. Find someone you think is interesting, and add him or her to your network. If they add you, too, then you can begin a dialogue via the direct message or the ‘@’ functionalities.

LinkedIn is working better for me right now in terms of responses and ideas. You may find that Twitter is better. Just try it all out.

• I plan on involving Facebook in my strategy very soon, so that will be good fodder for a future blog. I see Facebook as the main player, so I want learn some more about how to approach it before I approach it. Also, I want to be careful to keep separation from my personal presence on Facebook and what would be a professional presence as I try to help my company develop a strategy.

All in all, I think I am really starting to devise a strong plan of attack for my company. The relative success of my blog (by my standards!), in a very short time, leads me to believe I will be able to attract a following and turn those followers into business partners, donors, clients, and supporters. I’m pumped!

Why Just Being At The Social Media Party Isn’t Enough

OK, so you’re a small (or even a large) business owner. You realize that your company should have their hat in the social media ring because it is the direction in which marketing and advertising efforts are shifting. Great…that puts you one step ahead of every competitor that is still ignoring it.

Your next step is to assign an employee to set up a Facebook fan page for your company. Maybe a Twitter account, too. This eager employee fills out a profile with a bevy of great information and a nice, full-color shot of your logo. The Facebook updates map right to the Twitter feed for instant, on-the-go updating on both platforms. After a few “Follow us on Facebook and Twitter”-type updates, you see a sprout pop up from the soil. Everyone in the organization friends the fan page and begins to Follow your company on Twitter. Maybe some of their friends do, too…and maybe even some of your customers join in on the fun.

Social media is a breeze! You place all hands on deck for the onslaught of e-mails, phone calls, and walk-in customers. They’re going to flock and its all because you were smart enough to take on social media.

But, nothing happens. Where are the 400 million active Facebook users? Why aren’t they giving you their attention?

I’ve got news for you. They aren’t doing business with you now for the same reason they didn’t do business with you before: either they still don’t know you’re there or you still aren’t convincing them to do business with you.

From what I have learned, the most common misconception about social media is the belief that being at the party is good enough. Setting up a Facebook fan page is a great first step, but its almost pointless if you aren’t going after your specific audience and bringing them the new content they are looking for. Maintaining a Twitter feed is valuable to share news and events, but the act of producing content that your specific audience wants to consume is the key.

Tweeting out links to articles and re-tweeting other people’s content doesn’t set you apart. Sending out status updates to your friends, families, and current customers doesn’t generate you new leads or new business. Everything I read tells me that the key to a successful social media campaign is like going to a party and starting a conversation with someone you don’t know, while still engaging the people you do know. You’ve got to be interesting, or you become just another billboard on the highway. You have to have a point, or you are just a face in the crowd.

So get out there and mingle! And make sure you have a good story to tell.

Starting Slow, or A Slow Start?

It’s been almost a week now and I have yet to capture a single follower. I’ve been hitting a few forums and chiming in, I started following some social media enthusiasts in hopes that they would see my project and it would intrigue them enough to follow, and I’ve been actively contributing on Facebook in social media circles. Not. One. Follower.

Am I upset? Not at all. Why? First, the project isn’t about attracting an audience. My hope was that an audience would grow organically, but my goal doesn’t involve one. My goal is to become a social media expert. And to consider yourself among the best at anything, you have suck at it for awhile.

I’ve received a few e-mails from some people on LinkedIn. But, they were mostly trying to lead me to consultants and experts to help me and my company develop a social media strategy. While I’m excited that someone is even paying attention, that’s not what my project is about. Sure, I want to read, hear, and watch anything and everything that an expert has to say. But, I don’t want them to do anything for me.

So, that’s where I am right now. Sucking at social media. Writing a blog that no one in my family is even interested in. It might phase somebody. But, not me!

If you’re reading this, and you have some thoughts and stories to share with me about how YOU got started in blogging or building a social media empire of your own, please share! And, as always, feel free to tell me what I can do to improve!

Where to start the Social Media journey

The great J. Peterman once said, and I paraphrase, that the best way to get somewhere you’ve never been is to not know where you are going.

That’s where I find myself now. My quest is to become a social media expert. My plan involves taking the non-profit I work for and turning into an industry behemoth in the social media realm. How do I get there?

Well, I’ve decided that it starts with some buy in from my superiors. My company is a large non-profit. We have an annual operating budget of several hundred million dollars, over 6,000 employees, and 50,000 clients with special needs. So, needless to say, we have a lot of stake holders who may want to weigh in on our social media plan. The leaders of our Communications/Marketing Department have no fundamental opposition to social media. But, diving in head first is something that no one does easily around here. The inherent risk of exposure to negative banter, the risk of release of confidential information, and the staffing necessary to keep on top of a strategy has everyone hesitant to commit.

Our company does have a YouTube channel stocked with some aging marketing videos. We have a non-managed or updates presence on Facebook. We have a newly designed and attractive website, but it does not offer much in the way of Web 2.0 interaction. So, as you can see, we have some work to do.

What I am doing now is tons and tons of research. Reading every article and blog I can get my eyes on and connecting to every expert I can on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Every nugget of information I find goes into my notebook which will arm me with a rock-solid arsenal for when I plead my case to management to let me devise the perfect social media strategy. I’ll also share the best of what I find with you!

Please share your ideas, feedback, or advice. You can e-mail me at john.stone.01@gmail.com

The Making of a Social Media Expert

Welcome to my blog.  My name is John Stone and I am The Communications and Marketing Guy.  For the last decade, I have cut my teeth in the communications and marketing field while working for one of the largest non-profit providers of human services in the United States.

The last two years have proven to be monumental in the fields of communications and marketing.  Social Media is the wave of the now, and companies across the globe are scrambling to adapt the way they market.  Non-profits like the organization I work for have not been as quick to recognize and harness the potential of social media, for reasons like lack of resources, lack of time, and fears of negative feedback that would undermine their mission (among others.)  I plan on changing that attitude at my non-profit, and hopefully everywhere else that needs it.  And, I want to take you all along for the ride.

Over the next 18-24 months, I plan on turning myself from a successful Marketing 1.0 professional to a “Marketing 2.0 Expert To Be Reckoned With,” while convincing my company to embrace and utilize social media.  I’ll do the research, I’ll build the case, I’ll devise the strategy, and I’ll assemble the team to make it a success.  You can learn right along with me and become an expert, too.