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What Social Media Strategists Don’t Know About Growing Your Business

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Less Is More

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Recently, after a long introductory phone call, I received an email from a client about how he thought I might help his business. The list included almost every facet of online and offline presence and interactions with customers, vendors, and employees.

I was flattered and also bowled over by his commitment. I had to tell him that I needed him to participate equally in making those things reality.

I started to write a response that turned into this blog post.

What Social Media Strategists Don’t Know About Growing Your Business

Social media — the tools and social networking sites — have come to be looked upon as some sort of “industry.” But it’s not. in the same way a mechanic’s Craftsman tool kit and his classes in who to use it aren’t why we hire him, our fluency with tools and knowledge of sites we use aren’t what grows businesses.

The art and the science of a social media professional is understanding your business and helping you choose the right tools and sites that will connect you to the customers who love what you do.

Our experience, our expertise, and our ability to build strategies and tactics that move businesses forward are what can bring, but they’re limited by what works in general. The answer for you isn’t a “general go do these things.”

Strategy is a realistic and practical plan to gain ground over time. It’s sets the plan of campaigns and tactics that will gain you visibility, traffic, brand identity, and loyal customers and fans. Upon meeting you and working with your business there are five things every social media strategist doesn’t know … (though every strategist should know these things about his or her own offering.)

  1. Is your business culture fit ready to participate and make relationships that last beyond a single transaction? A social media strategist can help you choose and learn how to use the tools to do that, but only you can follow through and make the relationships.
  2. What do you offer that no business like yours offers? How have you removed what customers don’t like and enhanced what they love? That single clear message is what your social media strategist can amplify, magnify, and help you connect people with.
  3. What is unique about the customers that you’re reaching out to? If you reach out to everyone, you’ll look just like the thousands of other businesses doing the same thing. Find that one group who needs what you offer and tailor all you do to make their lives easier, faster, and more meaningful. A social media strategist can help you find those people using the speed and the reach of the Internet.

A social media strategist can help you build tactics to reach goals and grow your business the ways business have been growing since business started … with relationships that stand behind your work and your products and services.

Yet no social media strategist can know whether a business is willing to invite the people who help it grow to participate, collaborate, and be part of what makes that business great.

If you’re a social media strategist, how do you find out whether a business is ready to grow? If you’re a business how do you know you’ve got the right social media strategist?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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What My Boss Doesn’t Get About Social Media

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My Failure to Sell SOBCon2010 to My CEO
A Guest Post by Old Lady Swenson
(not her real name)

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I’m coming off of a failed sale of SOBCon2010 to my CEO. I thought I had done a stellar job of selling the event and investment by outlining the ROI from the last event I attended, providing detailed event information and correlating it to his business, writing a blog post as part of BlogItEarnIt to get a discount and even facilitating a phone discussion between my CEO and Liz. With all of this, his response was, “I just don’t see the direct benefit to the company.” As the result, the lovely Liz Strauss asked me to share a bit about “What my Boss Doesn’t Get About Social Media” anonymously. It goes something like this.

I’m marketing communications manager at a small company and formerly occupied agency roles at two different integrated marketing agencies. I’m a practitioner and eternal student of social media (as part of broader strategy); have developed and implemented various social media activities for clients in both B2C and B2B markets, as well as the organization in which I currently work.

When I was recruited to my current position, I had not yet had the pleasure of working for the entrepreneur. This excited me because of the promised opportunity to innovate and own a big chunk of the company’s mar comm responsibilities. Social media implementation was a large part of the discussion during the interview process and the CEO played very excited about exploring this new territory.

What came to be shortly after my hire was the elimination of the president (my champion and broad thinker within the company), a modified compensation plan that revolved around non-innovative tactics and an overall unsuccessful road that would ensure failed marketing execution and poor quality leads for the sales people because of the CEO’s one-track vision of how to bring home the bacon.

While by no means an exhaustive list, these are some of the things my boss doesn’t ‘get’ about social media, marketing and business that make my job and success very difficult:

He thinks his products and services are God’s gift and that everyone should want them. What my CEO doesn’t understand is better said by my buddy Chris Brogan, “No one cares about your dumb thing.” My CEO believes that pushing one-way messages out is very effective and will get leads in the funnel. Sadly, at one time, this was true because the communication model in place supported a one-to-many distribution. This is no longer true or particularly effective in most circumstances. What is completely unapparent to him is that the quality of the leads obtained in this way are significantly less valuable than if we created a central communications hub and supporting distribution channels that make the user experience simple and actionable for a wide range of users.

Conversations yield. People no longer have to be talked at. The people have the power because we now live in a world of democratized communication. The people have the same publishing tools and more robust communication means than most professional media. The CEO uses these tools himself (EBAY to purchase his vehicles, Trip Advisor to plan trips, Consumer Reports to source for information, etc.), but doesn’t realize that others use these tools similarly to determine their potential purchase of his product or service.

Content, not SEO reigns supreme. The main communication strategy (set in place before my arrival) is to have two Web sites in the top five of Google. While successful in that criteria, the conversion rate is horrible because the sites are optimized for the company and product, not people and what may be most useful to them. When people search and land on any Web site, they are able to make decisions based on the content provided, ease of use and the ability to easily take action. If they don’t find these things they will leave and find it elsewhere. Choosing to be number one with few conversations, rather than give your customers the most simple and effective path to your solution is silly.

This is a much longer story and there is so much more that ‘my boss doesn’t get about social media,’ but what’s been a great take away for me moving forward is:

Social media as it pertains to the organization, is not about the tools and what can be done, but about a culture that has; a sincere desire to learn, grow, be uncomfortable, potentially fail, want to truly connect its customers, and above all, the continued willingness to do these things to deepen connections and relationships that yield. Upon this, something great can be built.

I look forward to finding that place someday.

A big thanks to Liz for spending 30 minutes on the phone with my CEO trying to educate him on the value of my attendance of SOBCon and for everything elseJ.

—–
Old Lady Swenson (not her real name) works as a social media director for a midwest company that’s trying to grow through lead generation. As you might guess, her job is difficult.

Thanks OLS for the insights into managing up!


What doesn’t YOUR boss get about social media?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Buy the ebook. Learn the art of online conversation.

Register Now!! for sobcon-vmc

9 Truths About Social Media Big Business Wants Us to Know and 2 Proofs They Want from Us

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Let’s Start Over with Them in Mind

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It’s a typical conversation. Try to explain why the conversation with with customers has changed and often the person listening will tell you why he or she can’t listen. It might sound something like this.

Chief Marketing Officer: [confused, frustrated] I don’t understand why this doesn’t work. I’m an intelligent person. I should be able to do this. Why don’t customers behave? Legal will never go for this.

Social Media Practitioner: Let me tell you what to do …

Chief Marketing Officer: [Not listening] But I have a business to protect and employees that I care about. I know my market and I’m fairly sure what they want. I have to manage up. Where’s the ROI?

Social Media Practitioner: Let’s start over. … Let me listen first. What are your goals?

That last bit is the moment at which you will get the attention of a big business.

9 Truths About Social Media Big Business Wants Us to Know

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Take a minute to to tap into the the CMO’s feelings of confusion, disappointment, and frustration. Everything that has made him or her successful is being challenged by social media and the Internet. Some of us find that exciting, invigorating, and inviting, but at times when we see our friends without work, it’s also downright perilous. Every marketing manager is being asked to succeed at things that have never been tried.

We sometimes act as if what big business needs is to learn from us. That’s where the misconceptions start. Here are some cold truths every big business wishes every social media marketer realized. By now it’s getting to a point where …

  1. Big Business “gets” that social media is not about broadcasting. They get that it’s about listening to customers. Great CEOs listen long before they make suggestions.

  2. Big Business brings an entire culture to the social media playing field. It’s a problem of training and re-processing, not just un-siloing and re-tooling.

  3. Big Business understands that we need to connect with individual solutions. Great social media practitioners offer a unique strategy to each company — one tailored to their goals.

  4. Big Business “gets” that content and networks connect. Yet, a social media strategy and the tactics that draw from it has to fit naturally and move slowly through a business culture that will execute it or the strategy will fail.

  5. Few big businesses undervalue their customers. That’s how they got to be big companies. The older and larger the company, the more they value and want to protect what they have. That they want to mitigate risk is a good thing. To value their hesitance can raise our game.

  6. A social media strategy is a business deal on which people’s jobs, people’s products, and customer’s satisfaction depend. Great social media marketers never lose sight of that.

  7. A business that already understands its community and it’s brand message knows more about how to lead a social media plan than we usually give them credit for.

  8. If you’ve not worked inside a company and talked to their customers, it’s naive to act as if we better understand how best to serve their national or international market. We can offer new options, choices, and opportunities that might suit them. We see from outside the system that’s our value and our flaw.

  9. Businesses dream about social media folks who do their homework, know the competition, and come to the process ready to join a working relationship.

“Great” social media strategies don’t mean much, if the company isn’t built with the processes to sustain them. You can turn a house into a houseboat without investing time. Great social media starts with understanding how a company functions and what is possible within the culture and the people who drive it.

The 2 Proofs Every Big Business Wants from a Social Media Mentor

So what does it take to get get the confidence of a big business?
You can overcome these cold truths with two proofs.

  1. Prove that you can connect with customers in ways that make the big business a hero, make the customers lives easier, faster, and more meaningful.
  2. Prove that you can listen long enough to understand the business, you’ll be pleasure to work with, and bring value to the process.

Want to teach social media to big business? Are you willing to prove it?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Buy the ebook. Learn the art of online conversation.

Register Now!! for sobcon-vmc

3 Serious Benefits of Social Media for Entrepreneurs Testing the Tools

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A Guest Post by Brenda Harris

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We live in a social world, one that has not only completely redefined terms in the English language, but also invented new ones to fit the changing face of communication. “Friends” now refers to people who barely know you but connect on your social network page. “Tweets” refer to communications sent out using Twitter not the sound from a bird, and “unfriend” is now a legitimate English word that describes the process of removing someone from your list of friends on a social networks such as Facebook.

In short, social media is taking the world by storm, and if you haven’t jumped on this bandwagon, you can bet you’re going to be left far behind.

The atmosphere is less informal. The people on your pages are called your friends or followers, but that does not mean that entrepreneurs and businessmen can discount social media. They do so at their own peril. Taking advantage of social media is a powerful and inexpensive way to promote and market your business. Social media tools help business keep a finger on the pulse what’s happening in the world.

Entrepreneurs can gain three serious benefits by tapping into the power of social media:

  • Visibility: When businesses establish a presence on the Internet and actively use social media tools, they become more visible to both current and potential customers. They customer relationships, awareness, and knowledge, which in turn can get customers interested in their products and services.

    Social media is takes time in order to reap its immense benefits as a marketing tool, but as you develop relationships, your customers become part of your effort. They talk about you and your products when they become fans of your page or follow you on social networks. Sometimes they talk so much the ideas go viral …they get others to view your pages and decide if they want to jump on the bandwagon too.

  • Awareness: When entrepreneurs make the effort to find and meet their customers on social networking sites, entrepreneurs are able to keep abreast of what people are saying about their business. Whatever people are saying, good or bad, the entrepreneurs can be part of the conversation. They’re aware and can respond to correct the misinformation, fix the mistake, or change the situation in ways that build stronger relationships.
  • Relevance: Social media is a great way for entrepreneurs of all ages to stay current and keep their finger on the pulse of the business world. Information about new tools and trends is readily available. Entrepreneurs can move quickly to modify products and services to cater to changing needs of their customers. In other words, social media makes it easier to stay current.

Social media tools are more than just new communication tools – when entrepreneurs harness the people power behind the tools to connect with customers in the right way, small businesses grow and reputations are made.

If you’re just starting in social media, what scares you?

—

Brenda Harris writes on the topic of online executive mba programs.

Thanks, Brenda!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Buy the ebook. Learn the art of online conversation.

Register Now!! for sobcon-vmc

Social Media List: Tweets, Business and Getting Started in a Career

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A Weekly Series by Teresa Morrow

I’m Teresa Morrow, Founder of Key Business Partners, LLC and I work with authors and writers by managing their online promotion. As part of my job I read a lot of books (and I love to read anyway!).  I am here to offer a weekly post about one book I am working with and one book I have put on my reading list. The books will cover topics such as social media (Facebook and Twitter), organization, career building, networking, writing and self development and inspiration.

#EntryLevel Tweet: Taking Your Career from Classroom to Cubicle

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This week I would like to start off with a book I have read and working with entitled #EntryLevel Tweet by Heather Huhman.

When asked why she wrote #EntryLevel Tweet, Heather replies, “Hiring managers expect young professionals to be job hunting experts. And there’s a strong need for quick, easy-to-digest
information about entry-level job searching.”

When I was reading #EntryLevel Tweet I found myself shaking my head in affirmation because many  of the things stated in the book are right on. Such as:

~You need to choose a career that makes you happy and excited about going to work, but remember that not every day on the job will be fun. —>there is some part, it may only be 1% of your job, that you will not like doing as part of your job.

Also, she adds, Don’t beat yourself up for not making the right choice at first–most of us don’t! —>How true this is! I was going to be a marine biologist, until I went to college and found out I was not as good as math and science as I thought I once was in this subjects.

Huhman then goes on to discuss how the world for those seeking their first job out of college has changed. “Even in a candidate saturated market, there are many more (and better) ways to get in front of hiring managers than there used to be. —>Oh, yes, this is certainly true. There are people who can do a video resume for you. *Actually that is how my niece landed her first job as a reporter.

She continues to help recent grads by providing them stepping stones to secure the proper tools to obtain in order to be more successful at landing the job.

About the Author:

Heather R. Huhman is a career expert and Founder of Come Recommended, an exclusive online community connecting the best internship and entry-level job candidates with the best employers. As an experienced hiring manager and someone who has been in nearly every employment-related situation imaginable, Heather knows and understands the needs of today’s employers and internship and entry-level job seekers.

Her expertise in this area led to her selection as Examiner.com’s entry-level careers columnist in mid-2008. The daily, national column educates high school students through recent college graduates about how to find, land, and succeed at internships and entry-level jobs.

You can pick up your copy of #EntryLevel Tweet here.

@collegegrads read this #book if you want a quick, easy-to-read guide on how to go from a confused graduate to a confident entry-level worker.”
Dan Schawbel, @danschawbel, Author of ‘Me 2.0:Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success’

Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant

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Now it is time for me to share with you a book I have not read but it is on my reading list. My choice for this week is Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne and published by Harvard Business School Press.

Blue Ocean Strategy provides a systematic approach to making the competition irrelevant. In this frame-changing book, Kim and Mauborgne present a proven analytical framework and the tools for successfully creating and capturing blue oceans. Examining a wide range of strategic moves across a host of industries, Blue Ocean Strategy highlights the six principles that every company can use to successfully formulate and execute blue ocean strategies. The six principles show how to reconstruct market boundaries, focus on the big picture, reach beyond existing demand, get the strategic sequence right, overcome organizational hurdles, and build execution into strategy.

About the Authors:

W. Chan Kim is Co-Director of the INSEAD Blue Ocean Strategy Institute and The Boston Consulting Group Bruce D. Henderson Chair Professor of Strategy and International Management at INSEAD, France.

Renee Mauborgne is The INSEAD Distinguished Fellow and a professor of strategy at INSEAD. She is also Co-Director of the INSEAD Blue Ocean Strategy Institute.

“Blue Ocean Strategy will have you wondering why companies need so much persuasion to stay out of shark-infested waters.” — BusinessWeek, April 4th 2005

You can purchase your copy on Amazon.

Social Media BookList: Let’s Talk Business, Tweets and Dreams

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A Weekly Series by Teresa Morrow

I’m Teresa Morrow, Founder of Key Business Partners, LLC and I work with authors, writers, speakers and coaches. As part of my job I read a lot of books. I am here to offer a weekly post about one that I am working with and one I have put on my reading list. The books will cover topics such as social media (Facebook & Twitter), organization, career building, networking, writing and self development and inspiration.

#DreamTweet

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This week I would like to start off with a book I have read and working with entitled #DreamTweet by Joe Heuer, aka The Rock and Roll Guru published by ThinkAha books.

Last night while watching TV, I began to notice the commercials were predominately about the Winter Olympics. I watched and listened to the athletes as they talked about what it meant to them to be a part of this worldly event. The described how much dedication it took for them to reach this goal of a lifetime but they wouldn’t have it any other way because it was their DREAM. It was so important to them, that no matter what, it was the one thing they wanted to do it was a part of who they are as a human being.

Well, this is the kind of advice, tips and inspiration you will receive when you read, #DreamTweet by Joe Heuer.

Here are just a few of the wise words from Joe in #DreamTweet:

  • Be specific in creating your dream. Clarity provides tremendous power. (pg 3)
  • Find people who are living their dream and study them. (pg 19)
  • You absolutely, positively gotta be the number one believer in your dream. No ifs, ands, or buts! (pg. 28)
  • Fear is your dream’s adversary. The most effective technique for casting off your fears is to bathe them in the
    light of love.     (pg. 49)
  • Each day spend time imagining your dream in all its resplendent glory, while feeling the rush of positive emotion that accompanies it. (pg 74)

And Joe is a great role model for his kids because they had this to say about their dad:

“Our dad is the perfect person to write ‘DREAMtweet,’ since he’s living his own dream as the Rock and Roll Guru!” –Alex and Rachel Heuer

What else more can I say? So Rock on and live your dreams!

You can order your copy of download a copy of #DreamTweet at ThinkAha website.

Joe Heuer, is known worldwide as the Rock and Roll Guru (http://RockandRollGuru.com ). An entertaining speaker, author, and full-time rocker, he shares the nuggets of wisdom he has gleaned from Rock & Roll with professional audiences throughout this third rock from the sun.

He believes that in addition to being a groovy musical genre, rock and roll is a way of life that has served as his constant companion and inspiration. Joe has lived numerous dreams, including a stint as the youngest collegiate head basketball coach in the country… who never played the game.

He has written several books, some of which have actually been published. Recent titles include ‘The NEW Idiot-Proof Guide to Customer Loyalty’ and ‘The Rock and Roll Guide to Patient Loyalty.’ He also has several rock and roll books in the works.

His wife calls him an idiot savant for his uncanny recall of obscure rock and roll lyrics and trivia.

Good to Great

Now is time for me to showcase a book I have not read but it is on my reading list. This week my choice is Good to Great by Jim Collins.

When I picked up this book off my shelf, I happened to open the pages to the beginning of Chapter 6, subtitled The flywheel and the Doom Loop. There is a image there of a flywheel which portrays a timeline of buildup to breakthrough and discipline of people and action. But this is not what caught my eye. The saying, ” Revolution means turning the wheel”  by Igor Stavinsky did.

Sometimes, it does amaze me how things happen they way they do. I mean how pertinent that the page of Good to Great would up to that saying. It is so relevant to living your dream. You can not start living your dream unless you start somewhere living it. Change can not happen without action.

If each day you take a step toward your dream, you are one step closer at achieving it. But if you don’t do anything, you are still where you are right now-wishing and waiting for the dream to happen.

I look forward to reading this book because each of us can always strive to improve something in our lives.

Jim Collins is a student and teacher of enduring great companies — how they grow, how they attain superior performance, and how good companies can become great companies. Having invested over a decade of research into the topic, Jim has authored or co-authored four books, including the classic BUILT TO LAST, a fixture on the Business Week best seller list for more than six years, and has been translated into 29 languages. His work has been featured in Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Harvard Business Review, and Fast Company.

You can pick up your own copy of Good to Great on Amazon.