Social Seven - Do You Value Your Social Media Fans?

Do You Value Your Social Media Fans?

Special Guest: Melody Jones of Social Media Management Services, LLC

This week we discuss the challenge of showing your social media fans how much you value them. These great tips help keep your audience in the front of your mind and marketing efforts.

Having fans and followers is so important because social media is such a social experience. One of the main complaints about brands is how they don’t pay attention to their fans. However, social media is all about relationships and conversation and not about how many fans you have.

Some basic ways you can show your fans that you care. One of them is to pay attention to what your followers are saying and comment back. Respond. In whatever way you need to, depending on the platform. Retweeting and thanking people on Twitter is often the way to go. Some brands will call out friends and followers by name. It is that easy to value your fans. But it does take persistence, patience, and daily monitoring.

What if your accounts are lacking in engagement? For example, when you are in a classroom and no one wants to raise his or her hand or go first. Having a tribe helps encourage followers to engage more in order to be a part of the tribal activity. Give them something to jump onto and participate in.

People like to be recognized whether it’s saying thank you or mentioning them. They liked to be called by name. Responding and replying is essential. It would be considered rude to ignore someone in person who asked you a question, why do it on Social Media?

In valuing our social media fans, what’s the appropriate amount of time? The quicker you can get to it the better. You need to respond to your fans on a daily basis. If you have a large brand and lots of activity, you may need a team of people dedicated to responding to followers. With a team it will be a lot easier. Create a marketing tribe.

Does response time vary by platform? There are stats available online for what fans expect in regards to response time on different social media platforms. Twitter is often less than an hour, while other platforms are more flexible.

What about negative comments? Everyone is going to get negative comments occasionally. The #1 mistake is to delete them. You need to respond as quickly as possible and give them a venue to continue the conversation offline. There are two reasons for that. One, deleting the comment or post will make the user angry. Also followers are watching how you handle the situation. If you manage to make it right, you could convert that customer into a fan.

These are some great reminders about the value of our fans. Appreciate your customers and your audience. Take the time to make that a part of your daily routine. It’s so worth it. You will keep your fans and followers and continue to grow as a brand.

Learn more about Melody and her company by visiting: http://socialmediamelody.com/

Think this might help you with staying on top of your social media? Follow us on social media to find out when our Social Seven podcast is streaming live!

Join us each week as Erin Cell of Socially Powered and Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor dive into conversations about Social Media Tools, News and Guests in the Social Media World! 

3 Benefits of Learning How to Market using Facebook

Facebook Marketing has been the topic of conversation in Social Media Marketing in recent months for many reasons.  Many successful businesses have built their business using Facebook strategies in the past few years, but the ever changing platform has turned the tables on what “traditional” marketing standards look like to something more grassroots, but cost driven.  How can a business thrive using Facebook … on budget, with engagement, increase visibility and get registrations or purchases or likes???

There are a few strategies that hinge on the success of business within the platform

Engagement goes the Distance!

Facebook was created as a platform to cultivate engagement (which in simple terms means likes, shares and comments).  Thought provoking, opinion driven and attractive posts will generally drive the most traffic. BUT the algorithms they have built play a huge factor. If you choose to not engage with a post by liking, commenting or sharing, your post will fall out of the feed of your viewer (on Personal Profiles and Pages). So how can you get the most bang for your buck if you will??  Post things that people are interested in seeing.

• Is color more appealing to you as a viewer?
• Do you read more text or scan images?
• Are you likely to click on a video?

Budgets Drive Specific Traffic

It is no secret that Facebook favors paid customers vs nonpaying customers.  It makes since to determine a budget that works for you and stick to it

• Pages have options for many paid solutions to increase likes, post reach and click throughs.  
• Pay or not to pay = grow or not to grow?
• Expand reach or are you fine with the followers you have?

Visibility and Reach Can Go Viral

Influencers in any industry will tell you that whether you believe you have an audience in a platform or not, chances are, your viewers will know over 150 people they know who may be able to use your product or services.  Reaching them is the key factor.

• Due to public like, share and comment visibility in Facebook, items can go viral if they are the right types of posts for your audience
• Native (in Facebook) videos have higher click through than Non-Native (outside of Facebook)
• Ask your audience what they want to see - Be a user of the platform, and not just a “poster” hoping to catch someones eye

Be present in your marketing and your audience will notice your activity, your responses and your influence.

~ Social Media is changing the way people do business.  Don't get left behind ~ 

Hollie Clere, of The Social Media Advisor is a "Be Awesome" Developer, Social Media Brand Builder, Conent Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+ , YouTube, Pinterest and the tools to manage them. Click here for her Social Media Workshops, Classes and Seminars

Curious on whether your social brand is built properly?  Get your Social Media Analysis today. 
 

Attending Channel Partners Expo 2011 in Las Vegas? Schedule a Meeting with a Social Media Specialist!

5 Sites where you should have presence:

LinkedIn
Facebook
Twitter
Slideshare
Youtube

For consulting, support or ramp up into these spaces with optimized SEO, SMO and key placement, our team has developed a process to quickly get you up to date, active and searchable on these major sites. Build your client portfolio, grow your business and stay in touch with your customers on a weekly basis using customizable tools to manage your spaces. Just having a business card or website isn't enough anymore to manage an effective retention base.

Call us today to learn how we can help you grow your Agency Business.

Our availability during Channel Partners is as follows:

Monday 03/14/2011
8:30a-9:30a breakfast meeting
10:00a-11:00a
11:30a-12:30p
1:00p-2:00p lunch meeting
2:30p-3:30p

Tuesday 03/15/2011
9:00a-10:00a
10:00a-11:00a breakfast meeting
11:00a-12:00p

Please let me know which 3 times may work best for you. We can allocate 30 or 60 minute meetings.

Direct: 303-927-7398
Email: hclere@clerecomm.com

Time Management for Social Media – Part 1

You have created your social media presence, your branding is consistent and you find yourself spending hours each day on any given social media site scrolling, searching, reading and posting for hours on end. But the question begs to be asked, is this how the social media world was intended or is there a better way to coordinate your time in these spaces?

Check out my post on the topic here:

http://www.integratedalliances.com/social-media/winning-with-social-media/time-management-for-social-media-part-1

Hollie Clere, The Social Pro is a social media manager, trainer and author in the LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog and social media world.