by Marianna Muscat | Mar 21, 2012 | Social Networking
Larger networks and wider company participation in social media helps you reach more people and create a bigger social platform and will generate more business opportunities. It also means it’s more important to have context around the relationship with social customers.
- How will different team members know what has been said to a certain person on Twitter over the course of long periods of time?
- Should the Marketing team know that a certain member of your network has talked to your Customer Care team multiple times on social channels before responding to new questions they ask about your brand?
Having context around each of these interactions helps you understand patterns and desires of each individual in your network and also helps ensure your communications are informed and tailored to the needs of each person. Usually a core part of social media management systems, notes and conversation histories should be captured to help your team have a centralised location for this interaction that can be accessed by all team members. So you need to understand where you can extract RELATIONSHIP HISTORY out of a CRM or BI system
IDENTIFYING AND EMBRACING ADVOCATES & INFLUENCERS WHO CAN INFLUENCE BEHAVIOR & DRIVE CONTENT ENGAGEMENT – Identify ways of
- monitoring organic conversations
- following dialog about your brand
- tuning into industry trends
- tracking content engagement with regard to @mentions, retweets and comments
NEXT STEPS TO TAKE: Have a plan in place to monitor and assess
- What is being said about your brand?
- Tracking conversation histories of your network members?
- Providing feedback and posting replies and information based on the feedback you are receiving
by Marianna Muscat | Mar 14, 2012 | Social Networking
The behaviour of those you want to be in your network, provides the key to how you can better connect with them. For most companies, sharing content becomes all about them and won’t help you create meaningful connections that lead to engagement and relationship building.
Keeping a pulse on the social conversations and actions of your audience can help inform whether or not your company is actually important to them, as well as help drive your social initiatives.
There are a number of important customer issues that you should take into consideration when publishing on social media channels.
- What value are they getting out of your initiatives?
- What messages resonate best with them?
- And do you have the context to know the full extent of your relationship with these people and to identify who is helping spread your social messages?
To start, some of the keys to comprehending your audience’s behaviour and motivations lie in:
- Tracking what content you are sharing to understand what gets the most engagement to better inform and optimise your content strategy in an ongoing way
- Following what’s being said about your brand, your competitors and industry trends
- Monitoring general conversations about you taking place in your current network to identify what conversations are happening organically
- Monitoring activity from industry leaders, thought leaders and analysts to stay on top of key issues in your space
by Marianna Muscat | Mar 9, 2011 | Social Networking
If you’re old enough you most likely remember the 1990’s, when JR, Sue Ellen and Bobby had to be watched in real time for animated discussion the next day with your colleagues and friends. We didn’t have Facebook or BlackBerry yet. At the advent of email and VCRs (and for that matter, ATMs and cell phones), a miracle occurred. We evolved from having to do things when other people made it possible for us to do them, to answering email, returning phone calls, watching movies and programs, and doing our banking when it worked for us. We moved from the tyranny of real time to the freedom of My Time.
Ironically, the technology, as it improves, drives us back to real time
Texting exists because the cycle of voice-mail–return-calls is too slow. YouTube can get a video out to millions right now. We watch revolutions and earthquakes as they happen (and then wonder why rugby viewership is down). Creditors want their money electronically deposited before noon today. We are not a people known for our abiding patience anymore and the pace continues to get quicker and quicker.
This state of the union of always-on and ever-connected has not been lost on the companies that are moving toward customer centricity
More than simply adding a Twitter logo to their ads, companies that want to become part of the daily lives of their customers are calculating the way to each customer’s iPhone or Blackberry It makes no sense to a customer to send an email query Saturday and get an answer “when our office is open Monday.” And if you want to invite a customer to try your competitor, make sure your online chat is down during the very off hours your customers are most likely to be free to interact with your website.
What started as a low hum of social networking is already a loud buzz
We will never be less connected, only more. And the reality is that customer connectedness and “customer empowerment” is synonymous. Your customers are already talking about you — whether you know what they’re saying or not. The rebound of “real time” means is that somebody has to be listening all the time to the social conversation. It’s not just about getting people to talk to us through the new network, but rather it’s a way of joining the conversation.
by Marelise da Silva | Aug 24, 2010 | Social Networking
The most important aspect of starting any new business is to network with other business owners. Networking allows you to not only promote your products and services to others, but it also allows you to educate people about the unique aspects of your business and enrol them into finding you new prospects and leads.
Business networking becomes easier with online “social networks” like LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. Online social network sites are web-based services that allows individuals or groups to construct a public or semi public profile within a bounded system, articulate a list of other users and groups with whom they share a connection, and view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. The nature of these connections may vary from site to site.
Back in the day, you used to listen to the radio, watch television or you picked up the newspaper to see what is happening. Social networking has changed this so that anyone can communicate, broadcast and interact about “what is being said” and share it with others.
Social Networking according to Wikipedia
A social network service focuses on building and reflecting of social networks or social relationships among people, e.g., who share interests and/or activities. A social network service essentially consists of a representation of each user (often a profile), his/her social links, and a variety of additional services. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network_service
Business Social Network
A Business Social Network is a variation of the ever so popular social network service but it focuses only towards business networking, business opportunities, etc. It has become a very effective method for both small and big companies wanting to reach specific people internationally and demographically. With the help of a Business Social Network, businesses are given the opportunity to reach more people and have a bigger audience.
Just like networking in real life, the basic rule still applies – it is all about having the same interests. On the Internet, online businesses that shares the same interests would contact each other. If all goes well, they would forge a partnership or an alliance to boost their status.
Why Business Networking is important
The important part of Business Social Networking lies in the smart ways to link to people around you. On Business Social Networks you are not only linking to people but gathering knowledge about their business whereabouts. A professional Business Social Networking service attracts, aggregates and assembles prominent business-focused audiences by creating virtual, interactive and informative meeting places.
Business networking sites also allows you to showcase you or your company’s unique services, position and talents in the most positive way. In the past, your business dress created lasting first impressions. Now, a more realistic picture is formed through the web before any actual face to face meeting takes place. This means height, weight, etc no longer plays as important a role in business success as in the past– and we are all on a more even playing field.
Business Network Marketing
Whether you own your own business or work for a company, there are distinct competitive advantages for better understanding and using Business Social Networks to promote your products or services. There is a lot of information on the topic of Business Network Marketing, that it can be difficult to separate the good from the bad. LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, flickr, YouTube, Digg, Stumbleupon, Delicious, etc are just a few social networking sites to consider when planning your online marketing campaign.
Business Social Networking can be the answer for promoting your business, through the easy cost-effective marketing it is capable of. Clearly, social networking means are less expensive, more cost – effective, than advertising and other marketing plans although it takes time and dedication.
Business Social Networking provides the exposure every business dreams about. With this kind of exposure, new opportunities are not hard to get. People looking to invest in a business will look for a well reputed person, group or organization, the more your name is repeated, the more chances you get for new opportunities.
by Marelise da Silva | Aug 12, 2010 | Social Networking
Business networking is an important aspect for any existing and new business to grow. Networking can range from virtual online networking tools such as blogs, LinkedIn, Facebook and even Twitter to face to face meetings.
Which form works the best? I have found that a mix of real and virtual networking (social networking) is best. An important aspect to consider when networking is to research the age of your targeted customer. Once done, you can determine which way is best. Always match the preferences of your targeted customer with the networking strategies that you feel most comfortable with.
Determine the age group of your target customer that you would like to network with.
Baby Boomers
These are people in their 50’s and 60’s and will always prefer face to face meetings. They usually tend to be less comfortable with computer communication and they like to interact verbally and when possible, always in person.
Generation X
These are people in their 30’s and 40’s and they tend to be more comfortable with technology. They usually prefer keeping it simple and will most likely use LinkedIn and other business social networking tools to network with other people sharing the same interests.
Generation Y
These are people in their teens and 20’s and they are most comfortable in using all forms of technology. This is due to the fact that they have been exposed to technology most of their lives. They know what they want and they will find you. They usually have a good presence on Twitter and Facebook.
Targeting your message to your readers (business or social networking) is the key to growing your audience and reaching interested people. It may sound like a contradiction, but directing your message (sales pitch) to the people most interested will greatly increase the number of interested readers that will actually read your website or blog and respond.
How are you going to network?
Face to face networking
Face to face networking can include lead groups that meets your industry and niche. If you want to connect with senior level readers, attending a pricey plate dinner may be a better investment than attending a dozen networking breakfasts.
Many professional associations have terrific opportunities for face to face business networking.
Virtual Networking
There are thousands of good social networking tools and websites found online with new ones created every day. The best ones with some research, are those that can get you in front of your targeted customer. LinkedIn is a professional networking tool and it seems to be the most accepted internationally. Other popular tools includes Twitter and Facebook.
by Marelise da Silva | Jul 15, 2010 | Social Networking
Are you using LinkedIN for your small business? My last LinkedIN Blog Post generated some interest from WSI Internet Consultant Lou Unkeless so I hope this post helps him.
While you may have a LinkedIN profile, are you really leveraging the power of it? It’s great for small businesses for many reasons among them:
- Brand Asset Optimisation
- An excellent platform for service oriented professionals
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