maine web development, web design, internet marketing

We have been talking about Social Media a lot here over the last few years. We have covered tips on your strategy, tools and measuring. There is something I am not sure we have covered in depth yet… succeeding in social media and getting truck loads of business from it takes a lot of work.

Kasi and I are training for a half marathon in April, neither of us consider ourselves runners but we made it a goal to achieve during these cold winter months. We are following a formal half marathon training program. Up until now, the training has been relatively easy – running 3 days a week 3-4 miles each time. We got that down! From this week forward it starts getting really hard, more running and longer distances.

Running 3-4 miles 3-4 times a week can be done with little effect on my daily life. You can do that time on a lunch break, before work, after work, you can miss a day and make it up the next etc. If our goal was to only be people who ran 3-4 miles at a time we could rest comfortably right here without making any additional effort that would never really cause us any discomfort but, that is not what our goal was/is. Our goal is to run a whole half marathon (13.1 miles).

To complete our goal we need to really schedule our runs, keep track of time and pace, plan meals accordingly, as these runs get worse longer – we need to schedule recovery time and in some cases full half days need to be blocked off. This is going to be hard work from here on in.

Really succeeding at social media is work

Like our 3-4 mile running program, if you just want to be seen on social media and dabble you can sign up for Twitter, make a Facebook fan page, join LinkedIn, etc. If the goal for your business is to really succeed in social media (the whole 13.1 miles), you can’t just join social networks and wait for something to happen.

To really succeed at Social Media you need to:

• Set concrete goals and milestones for your social media presence (make a million dollars with social media is not a good goal to have here). You need actual tangible goals and to set a time-line for tracking your progress to these goals.
• Schedule time each day you are going to participate in this space. Social Media cheerleaders will tell you how great social media is and it is free. Signing up for most social media sites is free but it takes time to use them effectively. If you are going to be available 3 days in a row and regularly striking up conversations with your network, what happens when you take the next four days off? You need to set expectation for what people will get from a relationship with your business online and you need to stick to those or you will leave a trail of confused and possibly frustrated people online trying to keep a conversation with you going.
• Be dedicated to seeing this through and making it work. You are not going to be an overnight success. This is going to take time. You need time to build trust with your network and make useful connections online.
• You may need to reallocate resources and cut what is standing in your way. As with our running example, if I have a 12 mile run on Saturday – it is going to affect what I do on Friday. I may not be able to attend social events Friday evenings because they will conflict with the milestone I have to meet the next day. You may need to reallocate resources, personnel and more to make sure your needs are being met in this online space.
• Track what is working and what is not. Keep track of what you are doing online and see what is working and what is not. If something is not working (a specific site is showing no inbound links to your website, no one is interacting with your content et. al), then stop wasting your time in that space.

Social media is great. It is a really neat space that I am happy to be a part of. It has helped many businesses with their online marketing. Social Media has helped people find jobs, experts, answers, relationships, business partners, vendors and more. The real true people who are finding success with social media are actually working really hard. This didn’t just happen by accident. So let’s set up the Twitter account, Facebook page, LinkedIn group and blog but then let’s really get down to business…

Photo Credit: ilevin

Perhaps you are just now getting to signing up for a Twitter account. More likely is that when you joined Twitter, you were not sure what you were going to do with this space so you chose a name you are less than excited about now. Many people choose a nickname or a confusing combination of numbers and letters, and find that it’s not appropriate to be using for marketing their business.

So what happens when you find a username you want and someone else is using it? Even worse, what happens when someone has your company name and they aren’t even using the account?

Name squatting is against the Twitter rules. Unfortunately there is little Twitter can do about the inconvenience unless you are covered under the terms of service or if someone is impersonating you. If you have your name trademarked you can email terms@twitter.com to let them know that you own the trademarked name. With any type of interaction like this you should provide all documentation you have and perhaps screen shots of the account you are discussing.

Before making your claim, it is important to understand what you are asking for. For more information about the difference between name squatting, impersonation or trademark infringement read this post from how-to-blog.tv, which also includes Twitter’s snail mail address and fax number.

Twitter is always working on releasing all usernames attached to accounts that have been inactive for more than 18 months. An account is considered a squatter if the account hasn’t been logged into or updated for 6 months. An account that has no activity, followers or people they are following can be immediately removed because they are considered squatting. Finding and ousting squatters is a manual process and can take weeks for Twitter to implement.

If you think you deserve a username that looks like it’s being squatted you can submit a request for someone to review the account.

Taking matters into your own hands

In some circumstances people feel it is best to take matters into their own hands. If you want you can contact the user and ask them to drop the name (politely of course). Send them an @ reply or DM (direct message) pleading your case. If you don’t hear from them on Twitter, try following the link to their website and see if there is a better way to talk to someone there.

If you think it would be easier to reach out to the account owner on your own you should also be aware that any attempt to buy, sell or solicit compensation for a Twitter username is also considered a violation of policy and could be grounds for your account being suspended.

Lastly, if you have the people skills to pull it off, here is a Twitter list of staff members at Twitter. With a little time and networking skills you may be able to make a personal connection with someone in-house that can help you resolve your name squatter issue.

Few other things to remember…

• Try to get there first – Twitter will do its best to do what is right but the easiest way to avoid any of this hassle is to make sure you secure your name first. If you are not ready to take on a full Twitter strategy for your business just set up the account with your information, website, upload a logo and put one post up to secure your name and make sure you aren’t deemed a squatter. For a first post just say ‘Thank you for visiting us on Twitter. We are not quite up and running but if you have any questions please email us at email@company.com’.
• Keep your username short – Usernames can only be 15 characters long. The longer the username, the harder to RT someones content due to lack of spaces in a standard tweet.
• Pay someone else to secure your company name – It is possible to secure your company name on social networks with services like Claim.io
• Check the copyright of a name you want – Before you make a stink, check to make sure someone else doesn’t have the name you want already copyrighted. You can go to the United States Patent and Trademark Office and search for existing trademarks.

Social Media can be a powerful tool to add to your marketing mix; it is a great way to reach out and interact with your current and potential clients. Social Media is not a standalone action. To participate effectively for your business you need to tie it in with your other marketing initiatives.

One of the hardest (and most common) missteps I see are companies that want to treat social media as an event. People treat joining sites like Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook like it’s a quick fix. Deciding to participate in social media isn’t something you can try for a week or a month and then if you see no return you can just leave it. With every follower, friend or connection you are promising them you are going to provide some valuable information in this space.

An Audience of No One

When you start a social media campaign, you have an audience of ZERO! You need to earn them the old fashioned way – one at a time. So with an audience of zero how do you think you can effectively build a community, company buzz or site traffic?

Your online network will build slowly with your friends, coworkers, fans or other businesses but then it is up to you to provide content that makes people want to hear more from you. Hopefully they will then want to get to know about your business, products and services a little bit more.

Audience Comes After the Message

Unlike traditional media, your social media message comes BEFORE your audience.

In traditional media, you craft your perfect marketing message then you broadcast it out to an audience (billboard, print ad, television ad, radio spot, etc.).

In social media you have to create content, valuable content, to show people that your content is worth subscribing to.

You aren’t going to gain people’s trust in a week, you aren’t going to establish yourself as an expert in your industry in a month – all of this is going to take some leg work and some time.

My advice if you are thinking of abandoning your effiorts? Give it some time. Don’t give up too early. Scale back the amount of time spent working on social media sites but don’t abandon them. Schedule to send out one tweet or one post on your blog each week.

You can also scale back the sites you are using. Spreading yourself too thin with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn? Which site is showing you the most value? Cut back to just one and leave a message on the other two that people can connect with you on the one site you will be spending the most time on.

Want another take on it? Read Seth Godin’s The Reason Social Media is so Difficult for Most Organizations.

So you’ve created a really nice call to action graphic that you’re extremely proud of and it goes to one of the most important pages on your site that could generate a potential sales lead.

You check your analytics and goals and BOOM, nothing. A few clicks that might go to the all important contact form or freebie download, but not enough to make you too excited.  What can we do to gain conversion results?

Here are some ways you can spruce up your user conversion strategy to get the numbers you desire.

Take Action :

1. Rotate! – Switch sides, move a button in place of the other. Keep it fresh, a change of scenery might catch the eye of a returning visitor. Maybe they haven’t seen it before because it wasn’t in plain sight. Typically, sites have either a left or right side for clickable graphics. Make sure that the placement is correct so users don’t have to scour your site to get to an important page.
2. Wording – Are you conveying the right message within your graphics? Does your message portray an accurate description of the link’s destination? Why are you confusing your visitors? Keep it short and sweet too, a verbose call to action graphic is an ugly graphic.
3. Color/Image Change – Don’t be afraid to choose a complimentary color for your design, get creative about it provided it is in good taste. A change of image couldn’t hurt either, make sure it is appropriate and contingent to the message of your graphic. Rollover changes are important as well! This is more likely to capture a users attention and create awareness.

After you’ve made some changes, give it a little room to breathe, check your analytics after a few weeks and make a decision to follow steps 1-3 again or rethink your approach to your goal.

Make sure that these user conversion buttons/graphics are of great quality, this will keep your site users engaged and more willing to click.