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Five Social Media Tips for Business Women
Copyright 2011 Marketing Pathways, Inc.
Cindy Neky
• Cindy Neky is a seasoned marketing and public relations consultant, coach and speaker. Her consulting firm, Marketing Pathways, provides a wide range of hands-on, tactical and strategic marketing services for small businesses. She is a sought after speaker experienced in topics relating to marketing, public relations and social media.
Did you quack? Or was that a tweet?
• Did you hear what happened to the AFLAC duck? The man that was the voice of the famous AFLAC duck was fired recently for tweets joking about the earthquake in Japan. That is the down-side of Social Media.
Be careful…
• The upside is you get to know people you might not otherwise have met. Just make sure you don’t make a mistake that will cost you business.
Let’s talk about the major sites most people are connecting in:
• Facebook• LinkedIn• Twitter• YouTube
Facebook- Primarily for selling to consumers, however if you are developing contacts, and what I call centers of influence, this can be useful. But if you are selling to other businesses and don’t have a great deal of time, use other forms of social media.
LinkedIn- Primarily for connecting with other business people. Members of LinkedIn are business decision-makers you want to connect with if you sell to other businesses.
Twitter- Good for either B2B or consumer. Many businesses use twitter to get out short bursts of information. If you are going to use this for business, keep the information and discussion on business or something you wouldn’t be embarrassed for people to know.
For instance, I have someone I follow that is a huge twitter user and is an expert in it. He often tweets about things he is cooking because he is an amateur chef. This helps me understand who he is and makes him fun to follow. Usually you want to stick with good, business related content, but don’t be afraid to put something a little lighthearted in it too.
You can tell people what you had for lunch if it is relevant to who you are. Perhaps you went to a business luncheon and had a terrific meal. Yes, it’s OK to tweet that. Remember though, that this should be sprinkled in and not considered to be part of the regular twitter diet.
More Twitter
You Tube- Second largest search engine in the world. The majority of people in the world process information visually, so YouTube is a good place to tap into the visual aspect of your business.
YouTube
Goal in Social Media
Your goal with social media is to make connections, develop relationships and help them understand you are an expert in your field.
1. Repurpose Content
One of the fears many people have about social media is the daunting task of providing fresh content. Lots of good content is what keep people coming back to your site(s) day after day. Those that are most involved with social media know that once you write something, no matter what it is, you use it in every way possible.
Where do I reuse it?
Write a blog and then tweet it, add it into Facebook, or make it into a slide presentation and post it on YouTube and SlideShare, and link to it in LinkedIn. One thing that hasn’t changed in buyer behavior is that it takes a large number of impressions before someone will actually buy from you. Plus, the chances of someone seeing it on all of those sites is slim, unless they are a real fan.
Management Tools
To make this easy, use one of the social media management tools, such as Hootsuite, ping.fm, Social Oomph, Tweet Deck, or CoTweet. Put it in once and it goes out to all of your sites!
2. Connect with everyone
Unless it is someone you are wary of, such as a twitter follower that gives you the creeps or someone on Facebook that tells you he likes your picture.
Other than that, don’t limit yourself to someone just because you don’t know them. I am connected to many people on LinkedIn that I have never met in person, but I am learning about them.
3. Use apps as much as possible
• LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter all have a number of apps that provide either design capabilities or ways to improve the experience your connections will have.
• LinkedIn allows you to add SlideShare, Amazon
books, and your tweets, just to name a few. Facebook has apps available, but with the changes made to Facebook in March, not all are available on your personal account.
4. OMG! cn u blev she wd do tht? ttfn
Don’t use text-speak if you are tweeting or posting in discussions for business. Using social media for business is still more formal than personal usage. It takes more time, but the results are worth it.
By the way, the above reads: Oh my gosh! Can you believe she would do that? Ta Ta for now.
5. Post Content When Your Connections are Listening
If you are tweeting, starting a discussion, or commenting on a discussion on any social media sites, make sure it is sent when people will be reading it. Don’t try to communicate with business connections over the weekend.
The best time to start a discussion on LinkedIn is Monday through Friday. That would include posts on your Facebook Fan Page and tweets as well.
Follow Cindy & Marketing Pathways @
MarketingPathways.comBlog: Marketing-Pathways-Tidbits.com
LinkedIn.com/in/CindyNekyTwitter: @mktgpathways
Facebook: Facebook.com/MarketingPathwaysYouTube: YouTube.com/MarketingPathways
