SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING FOR ENTREPRENEURS

By:

JASON DELA ROSA

Co-Founder, One Network eCommerce, Inc.

APRIL 2015

Published by:

h t tp : / /www.onenetworkecommerce.com

Copyright 2015 One Network eCommerce, Inc.

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Social Media: Fast and Vast

When it comes to marketing strategies for online entrepreneurs, social

media, that is fast and vast, is simply very tough to ignore. According to

eMarketer, because of the proliferation of inexpensive mobile devices and

affordable fast broadband access, the Internet will hit an estimated 3 Billion

users this 2015, and nearly half of the world’s population will have access

to the World Wide Web by 2018. Presently, over 80% of web users are

driving the traffic for popular sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Google+,

Pinterest, Twitter and LinkedIn (for more professional interactions).

Roughly about half of this demographic search, research online and study

comments of other netizens before actually paying for something or giving

out their credit card numbers. Because of the non-personal nature of social

networks, about 30% of these buyers prefer to chat on social media

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instead of the phone. In the case of individual freelancers and

entrepreneurs, over 90% of them use social media as an advertising

medium because it does not require a humongous corporate budget and

it’s essentially more direct to their target market. Definitely, the world has

grown a lot smaller, allowing people from across continents to share

information and exchange goods.

This eBook discusses general strategies to effectively and personally

market your own products and services through social media as an

individual. Our core teams have summarized an effective strategy we have

been exercising with our own endeavors creatively called “Ninja Marketing”

because of its stealthy, precise and undercover attributes. It uses the same

principles found on this eBook. This is effective in amplifying your efforts in

A.M. or popularly called Attraction Marketing. Attraction Marketing is about

providing value to someone wherein you provide tips, experiences and

ideas about the industry you are in, causing interest to brew. You will also

find a concept called “Funded Proposa l Concept”. A group headed by

Social Media Strategist Edison Victorino, Calvin Clien Rosales, Gary Salas,

Paulo Ramos and Jonas Cosme formulated these methods of online

marketing and business building.

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As start-up entrepreneur, we understand that you still do not have the

financial powerhouse and the manpower of a giant corporation, yet. Social

media is your top choice for marketing your products simply because it’s

free and it’s easy to reach people you want to sell to. However, because of

the web’s massive, erratic and highly democratic nature, it also comes with

the danger of bruising your own online reputation, getting bad mouthed by

competitors, getting your friends and contacts irked because of your

annoying persistence and consistent spamming. News travels fast these

days, and one mistake has turned lives 360 degrees. That is why it is very

important to understand the different aspects of social media marketing so

that you will be able to market successfully without falling into the pitfalls of

being blocked or erased from someone’s contact list.

A great deal of the examples here revolves around Facebook as a social

media tool, since more than 50% of online marketers choose it as their

most important online marketing platform. In fact, 90% of paid global social

media advertisements went to Facebook. However, I would suggest that you

also spread out since Facebook is not the only channel. For more lifestyle

and consumer based products, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest are our

top choices. For more professional and high value services, you may try

using Google+, Linkedin or Twitter. Of course, there are other means of

getting to your customers such as Blogging, Google Ad words, Search

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Engine Optimization, Banner ads placed on high traffic sites, lead

generation tools, Mass Email marketing, SMS, video advertising such as

YouTube channels, short-form video such as Vine and mobile advertising.

Whatever concepts we discuss here, it can be applied to all of these

channels. It is really up to you how creatively you reach your potential

client. Each channel has its own strengths and weaknesses. For example,

small consumer products are best sold on Instagram because of its simple

photo-sharing tool, and high value real estate is best advertised on

Linkedin because of the presence of high net worth individuals.

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Advantages of Soc ia l Media Market ing

Exposure and Traffic. A very high percentage of online entrepreneurs agree

that marketing through social media has increased their exposure and

traffic, for the simple fact that there are billions of users on these sites.

Most of your friends, if not all, are on Facebook.

Engagement. In social media, you are able to interact directly with your

prospects through comments, private messaging and likes. Notifications

allow you to answer promptly to inquiries through all your devices.

Loyalty. You can also engage with existing customers rather quickly

therefore increasing loyalty. Loyal fans of your fan page will always wait for

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fresh new content. Make sure you post content that are relevant and

interesting so that you can keep them loyal as long as possible.

Feedback and Research. Social media allows you to get instant feedback

from customers, and test certain reactions to sponsored advertisements

you release. This allows you to improve the content and creativity of your

posts.

Partnerships. A huge chunk of partnerships were forged on social media. It

is easy to get in touch with other like-minded entrepreneurs and collaborate

on business projects.

Affordability. You can do Facebook sponsored posts or ads for as little as

one dollar. The affordability of doing advertising through social media

allows you to do test runs, trial and error, research, and full blast

campaigns without breaking the bank.

Increased Sales. Ultimately, your goal is to increase conversion rates. With

social media, after all the exposure, research, loyalty and leads generation,

you are able to efficiently lead them to the right product page, which

eventually leads to sales (and repeat sales). The more positive customer

feedback you receive, the more referrals you receive, the more sales you

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can rake in. Engaging in social media marketing has also seen increase in

search engine rankings and may funnel in more sales to you.

Def ine your Target Market

It is very easy for us to get carried

away and say we want to target

everybody on the web. That is

ambitious, and if you start

budgeting in trying to get them to

talk to you, you will know that this

is a complete waste of time. Niching is not sexy, but it is absolutely

necessary. It allows you to filter those who do not really care much about

what you have to offer.

Facebook, for instance, has a tool that allows you to filter those who will see

your posts or sponsored ads by age, location, gender, or interests. There

have been online reports that say 80% of those who will like or comment

on your page from a sponsored advertisement are fake accounts or useless

leads. True or not, there is now more impending reason to try and craftily

personalize your message and get authentic, potential prospects.

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Prof i l ing Your Potent ia l C l ient

Employers around the world take advantage of social media sites such as

Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin to conduct background investigations on

applicants trying to get a spot in their companies. Why? Because the

applicants’ posts, profiles, groups and friends’ comments tell us a lot about

their personality, trustworthiness and “hireability”. For example, a lot of

family photos can say that you put high value on family life. Consistent

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violent and immoral video posts on your wall raise warning signs. His

interaction with friends on his posts tells us about his social skills.

You can actually do the same when prospecting for leads. You can

categorize your prospects into Inner Circle and Outer Circle. Inner Circle

prospects include people within your sphere of influence such as close

friends, family and relatives. These are people who care about your posts

the most, and would most likely engage with you. They are more likely to

close a deal with you if you have a good reputation among family or friends.

They are also difficult to approach due to sensitive issues. Outer Circle

prospects include people you are not acquainted with, but believe that they

have some use for your products or service. They are not likely to close

with you based on reputation alone. This is not to pry into their personal

lives, but to get an idea on how to approach them when pitching your

product.

Check out these things when prospect for leads:

Their interests and passions. You will be able to see this on their status

messages or wall posts. For example, “I love going trekking. Going up again

this Saturday!” or “Painting is a way for me to relax”.

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Events they are going to. If they are going to an event created on

Facebook, you will get a hint on what type of activities they love joining.

Groups they are involved in and Personal Photos. A person being in a Dog

Lovers Group already gives you a clue what pets they like. You can easily

join groups on Facebook, and engage with people within the same group.

From here, you already have a first level of filtration of prospects, because

at least 50% of the group members are there because of the group’s

name, cause or purpose.

Influencers/Group of friends/Mutual Friends. Who do they hang out with?

Are they hanging out with influencers or do they follow? Check your mutual

friends if they hang out with other like-minded friends. You can also check

out their Linkedin groups because more likely, these are more serious

participants.

How do they post, their moods. You can see by their posts if they are

mostly happy, or just mostly indifferent. This will give you the right timing in

terms of initiating a conversation with them. If they post things like “I can’t

stand this person! He’s disrespecting me by posting an ad on my wall.”

Stay away and move on to the next prospect.

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What they bought or ate recently. A lot of people post what they bought just

to brag or to get attention. Checking this will give you a clue on their

purchasing power and the way.

Hashtags. These are small phrases that start with “#”. It is used to

categorize posts and messages. Clicking on it brings you to related content,

or posts of the same category. This gives you more clues about your

prospects, on their interests and activities.

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Soc ia l Media Market ing Essent ia ls

Be C lear on Your Object ives

What is your objective? Boost sales? Create awareness? Build a database

and gain new subscribers? Your strategy will be molded based on your

business objectives. Having clear, written and concise objectives will allow

you to put this side by side with your outcomes, and see if your methods

were effective when you test your campaign. Being clear on your objectives

will save you time and money.

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Be Prepared

You can’t go to battle without the right weapons. You have to be equipped

well or you would be dead within seconds. If you are selling beauty or

health products, be ready with before-and-after photos, the active

ingredients, FDA documents and testimonial videos. If you are into

multilevel marketing or insurance, be ready especially with return on

investment scenarios and product features. If you are selling real estate,

make sure you have the online map, loan options and the mortgage

computations ready. These have to be in digital format with visual content –

website, explainer videos, or PDFs – which you can easily send through

Facebook chat or email. Have a working demo that you have tested

beforehand if you are selling software-based products.

You have to know what you are talking about. Sometimes you get only one

chance in getting your prospect’s attention. Once he or she asks a

question, you should be ready with links to materials or answers off the top

of your head. You have to sound knowledgeable about your product. Be

ready with (1) your value proposition (2) your uniqueness (3) and your

advantage over other competitors.

It’s all about extreme personalization and customization. Do your research

about your prospect. Profile your prospect. They want to feel that you did

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your homework about their business or what they need. Knowledge equals

Trustworthiness – and being trustworthy is the first step in building up the

rapport to finally sealing the deal. Make sure you have links ready for cut

and paste, especially the link to the product page where he can immediately

purchase it online.

Know the Appropr ia te T iming

When you see a friend who

recently just lost his job,

would you go and borrow

money? Of course not.

You timing would have

been off. Knowing the

current mood of the prospect through his posts will allow you to time your

approach. Knowing the mood of a prospect allows you to get a more

positive feedback. How do you know the timing? There’s a lot to be

deduced from the way posts are written.

Facebook has a little convenient tool, which allows you to post your mood

such as “Feeling Happy”, “Feeling Sad”, or “Feeling Angry”. You wouldn’t

want to engage when that person is feeling something negative, unless it’s

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a personal message of comfort. If that person is feeling positive, LIKE or

COMMENT to initiate an engagement. A comment such as “Feeling the

same way! I’ve got a lot of things going. I’m happy for you” will start a

conversation. Once, you see a reply, and then you can respond quickly and

build up the theme of your engagement to lead to a sale. Whatever the post

may be - be it a celebration of moving to a new house, getting married,

raving about a new movie – you can always time your approach. The

ultimate goal is to lead the person into a private chat or a chat group you

have set up.

Delivering your messages on social media also require strategic timing. You

have to determine what time of the day is your target market actively

participating online. Is it during office hours or off hours? Weekends or

weekdays? Is it during lunch break or during coffee break? Daytime or

evenings? What time do they check their emails? What tools or social media

sites are being used during these times? This data can be gathered by

doing a survey or observing date and time of posts on your wall. Timing is

everything.

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“H i , I ’m Here! Ta lk to Me!”

There are three levels of engagement on social media. F i rs t leve l is to let

the prospect know that you are around. Be careful not be invasive. Just a

like, follow or small comment will do. See how the prospect will react to this.

Second Leve l is to do small engagements such as making a longer

comment or sending an introductory message. Always introduce yourself.

Do this second level of engagement if your First Level garnered some sort

of response. At this level, you may send links to different webinars you have

set up or an explainer video. During this stage, if your prospect is

interested, he will send you a response. Th i rd Leve l now engages you

with the prospect with the hopes of closing the sale. This engagement

involves more detailed chat sessions, demos, and email exchanges of

documents and sending of draft contracts. Prospect may also add people

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to the chat who he feels may benefit from your product. Getting from the

first level to the third level and how quickly you escalate requires sensing

the response from your prospect. Do not overstep boundaries or engage in

obvious private conversations.

Post Re levant , Meaningfu l and Or ig ina l Content

Did you ever wonder why your wall posts are only getting one or two “likes”

and a few comments from friends? Only a very small fraction (I suspect

even less than 1%) of your contacts will be able to actually see your post,

because of algorithm changes of the system in displaying wall posts. You

can’t possibly expect Facebook to show

millions of posts on your wall. One way of

improving your visibility is to improve your

content, making it more “likeable”,

“shareable” and “commentable”. The more

engagement a certain post have, the more

visible it will become.

One of the main purposes of posting some content on your wall is you are

expecting it to produce “likes” and “comments”. Another way of putting it

is we want to induce meaningful engagement. When I scan through all the

wall posts on Facebook, I notice that the ones getting higher number of

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likes and comments are meaningful posts such as a new baby, a wedding

proposal, or about a new job. The post must mean something to people,

and this will lead to engagement, the more chances of it getting more

visible on other people’s walls.

Interesting photos and videos get more engagement than just plain text

because they take up a lot of space on the wall, especially on a mobile

phone. A post that requests for action, such as an interesting puzzle to

guess or a trivia, get a lot of engagement points as well. Usually, viral

content contain humor such as Memes or spoof videos, so you have to get

good writers to come up with a funny post. Be entertaining. Be excited.

Posting a message that shows your excitement about a product or what

you have been doing can attract people to comment or like, which will lead

to an opportunity in closing the sale. If you have the budget, offer a prize,

and lead them straight to your page or site. Vague and unclear posts

usually don’t get any engagements. You can also post testimonials from

other people to give you additional credibility. You also have to take into

consideration that most emails/posts are read on mobile phones – so it’s

best to be concise so that it can be understood even on small screens.

Most importantly, make sure your content is original and unique. The top

three for us are original written content in post or blog format, original

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video or photo, and originally curated content (content from a third party

source, but you provide original insights).

Respond and React Quick ly

If your content is good enough, people

are going to like or comment

on it. They might even

send you a private message.

Don’t forget to engage and respond

quickly so you can capture them at the

point when it’s still fresh on their minds. Send a private chat because

people appreciate personal messages. Seize the moment. Respond Quickly.

Personal messages make people think that you have thought about them,

or what they need. Don’t forget to thank them for giving you the

opportunity to share your product. If the feedback is negative, you have to

react quickly as well through reassurances, product adjustments and good

customer service. Give feedback to your customers as soon as possible.

Estab l ish Cred ib i l i ty

Your profile page or website alone should establish your credibility. Do not

post anything that will discredit you or will drop your trustworthiness. For

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sure, the first thing that your prospect will do is check out your profile and

do the same profiling you have doing to them. Prepare your credentials,

documents, past work, CV and website if you have any to add to your

credibility. Have a way for your clients to contact you by email, mobile

phone or landline. Another effective way of establishing your credibility on

social media is to post photos or videos of you with credible people (and

no, not stolen selfies). You may also ask your reliable contacts (those with

reputation or a contented buyer) to post testimonials or reviews on a

prominent portion of your page so that people may notice them. A website

with your own domain name adds also authority, especially with visible

security features such as SSL (Secured Sockets Layer). And nothing ruins a

legitimate website than poorly written content that did not go through

spellcheck or grammar check. Proofread everything that you post, or better

yet, have someone else proofread it for you.

Fo l low up/Profess iona l Pers is tence

There’s nothing wrong with being persistent with your prospect, but you

have to do it in a professional way. Give some time between follow ups, and

do not use intimidating words such as “Have you thought about it?”, “Can I

follow up my proposal?”, “Are you ready to invest?”. You have to make

sure it’s all about listening to your prospect. Be direct but ask the prospect

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if he needs to know anything else. By the way, know when to stop and move

on. If a prospect clearly does not want to hear from you, don’t waste time

and shift to the next prospect.

Sense of Urgency

Creating a sense of urgency allows you close the sale faster. A lot of online

promos have limited time offers that ends after a certain time or date. In

order to create a sense of urgency, buying earlier must have a specific

advantage than buying at a later date.

Test , Implement and Focus

Unfortunately, most people don’t know how to come up with their social

media campaign’s return on investment. To determine how successful your

campaign was is challenging. Before you can measure the effectiveness of

your post, as mentioned earlier, you must first be clear on your objectives.

Is it to gain more free subscribers and sales leads? It is to have more

conversions from click to purchase? Ultimately, we all want sales and

conversions. After you have determined this, then you can already

accurately and mathematically compute and compare numbers. Initially,

you have to test multiple strategies and messages. Release one paid or

unpaid post/sponsored ad then see the response. Release the second one,

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and see the response. It is a tedious exercise at the start, but it saves you

a lot of time and effort when you execute your actual marketing campaign.

After doing the math, then you can determine which message or posts was

the most effective, and retargets your efforts to that message, or create

similar ones. Check your sales as compared to the number of likes or

comments on the particular post. This is your conversion ratio. Further

breakdown your message and focus on that. Determine your best

customers and find more of them.

Social Media marketing, to be effective, requires discipline and a lot of effort

in building the most precise and effective message. Once you determine the

most effective message for your product or service, you can now confidently

commit more time, effort and money to it, making your social media

marketing campaign a more fruitful one.

Use a Data Capture Strategy

With all the chats, comments and messages that you will have with your

prospect, it is very difficult to keep track of your leads. Utilize a single data

capture page or website that allows them to register their information into

the system for your future reference. Give them motivation to sign up by

giving them free access to content or if you have the budget, a raffle prize

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to be given away. At the end of the day, even if you don’t close the sale, the

database is very valuable for future references. Integrate a business

intelligence tool if there are any, so you may know your demographics very

well. There are a lot of data capture pages available for free on the Internet

with you can set up with your own personal link which you can share to your

prospects when you engage with them. You should also have explainer

videos and content about your product or service on the capture page itself

before they sign up. Give your prospects incentives when they share your

capture page to their friends. This will widen your network with fewer efforts

on your part.

Teamwork

Sometimes, after sparking interest, you

have to bring in the prospect into a chat

group session where your team can help

you close the sale. In social media, it

doesn’t matter where they are as long as

they are online. Your team must consist of

three types of people: The Motivator, The Knowledge Expert, and The

Testimonial. Simply put, the Motivator “motivates”, the Knowledge expert

supports you in terms of information, and the Testimonial gives his

experience about the product or the service. These three or a mix of the

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three increases your chances of closing the sale. Make sure you let your

prospect beforehand that you will be inviting some other people to your

chat group.

Leverage

At the end of the day, it’s

really the bottom line that

counts. Your goal is to be

able to build your business

network online, increase sales

and build loyalty.

Leverag ing means being

able to accomplish something by replicating a process with less personal

time and effort. You only have a limited number of personal contacts on

social media, but if you multiply that amount with the friends of friends of

friends of your friends, that is a number that cannot be ignored. You can

leverage on this by cascading down the online tools and ready to use

documents/links to these people, so that it’s very easy and convenient for

all these people to share your information, write reviews and compliments,

give suggestions, and paste links on their chat messages. You should make

it easy for them to add or grab your products to their own social pages,

blogs or their websites, so that you become more visible on the web with

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half the effort. Giving them rewards or referral fees for successful sales is a

very effective way of replicating your effort. Leveraging creates sales

momentum.

Conc lus ion

The web is a vast and fast universe. There is no perfect strategy. It takes a

lot of trial and error, study, testing, and retesting. But if you want to cash in

on social media, you must know your objectives, be prepared, establish

credibility, zero-in on your target, keep testing before your implement your

campaign, determine what works and focus on that. That could be YOUR

effective strategy. Use extreme personalization, and deliver original,

meaningful message in perfect timing that talks to your customer intimately

and directly. Always be ready to respond and react quickly to feedback.

More importantly, be careful what you post all the time, since social media

is unforgiving and can quickly destroy your reputation. Keep these tips, and

you’re on your way in creating your lucrative market on social media.

Good luck on your endeavors!

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ABOUT ONE NETWORK ECOMMERCE

One Network eCommerce , Inc . is a social eCommerce company that

allows the entrepreneur to create on online super store with built in

thousands of products that is connected to each other, earning rewards

and rebates. We use social media and online marketing techniques for

exposure and sales conversions. For more information you may check us

out at:

1106 The Centerpoint,

Julia Vargas cor Garnet Rd

Ortigas Center, Pasig City,

Philippines

Website: onenetworkecommerce.com

Register for FREE: onesupershop.com

Email: info@onenetworkecommerce.com

Call us: +632 9978088