Social Networking: Success or Failure?

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May 312011

Spending more time, money and resources tweeting, befriending, and connecting, but enjoying it less? Let’s face it. Not every company belongs in the social media stratosphere. The reality is there are 93 million 20 to 39 year olds on Facebook while only 9 million 40 to 59 year olds. People in their twenties seldom think about buying more life insurance while those 59 might well be contemplating that purchase. Here’s six ways to ensure your social media success:

  • Developing Meaningful Metrics – Each business will have to come up with their own set of meaningful metrics although many of the numbers will be the same. For instance, meaningful numbers might be: Monthly Recurring Revenue Added, Conversion Rate of New Followers or Connections, or Cost of Converting Leads. Spend some time really determining what numbers are the most important in moving the needle.
  • Analyzing Where You Are, Where You Want to Be and How You Intend to Get There – Perhaps your company is not in the social stratosphere at this time. Gathering followers and connections will be a first step, but not the most important one. How you motivate people to take action based on your participation is more critical. Develop a roadmap of all the likely social watering holes and rate them as to which ones you believe have the best potential. How you want to get to where you want to be will take nothing short of time, talent and tenacity. Put together the marketing strategies and tactics necessary to wage a good fight. Remember, it’s not all about you – it’s about them.
  • Prototype, prototype, prototype – Remember, not every one of your ideas is going to be good one. Not every idea, no matter how well funded or implemented, is going to produce the desired results. There’s a reason the Air Force still employs test pilots. Facebook may not be a prospect-rich community while Twitter may show more promise. Continue to tweak your social marketing campaigns until they produce the best possible results.
  • Are We There Yet? – Every set of objectives need milestones to make sure positive progress is being made. Milestones are not feelings, they’re hard numbers. Numbers attached to completion dates. People may be posting articles and tweeting throughout the day, but are the right objectives being achieved?

Allocate at least six months for your social media experiment. Relationships are not cultivated over night. Consistency is all important. Don’t be an on-again-off-again social networker.

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Be Found in All the Right Places on the Web

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May 232011

Using a shotgun approach to attract new prospects just won’t work on the web; it’s too enormous. To be successful there, businesses need to identify their ideal prospects, go to where they gather and then attract them back to the corporate watering hole. Put these five initiatives into practice and success on the web won’t be far behind:

  • Know Your Ideal Prospect – Everyone is not your ideal prospect. Let’s get real. Define your prospect in quantifiable terms. Are they young or old, men or women, well off or just starting out, entrepreneurs or working for the Man? Do they like the outdoors, travel by plane or car? Are they educated? Include personality traits of your ideal prospect as well. Are they self-starters, have high energy, their own boss, strong willed, workaholic or compulsively competitive?
  • Identify Their Gathering Places – Can you find them on iTunes, YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter? Do they subscribe to blogs or newsletters? Do they shop online? Are they Four-Square fanatics? Do they get some of their information from podcasts or webinars? Do they attend trade shows? Do they respond well to emails or text messages? Are they online givers?
  • Develop a Roadmap – First put all your venue possibilities in a spreadsheet. Next, answer this question: How much time, money and know-how will you have to expend in order to gain visibility in those venues? If you don’t have enough of one of these three resources, what’s Plan B? Then take a crack at gauging what you think the ROI generated for each effort will be. Don’t get hung up with creating the perfect numbers. Put something down in the ROI column, change it later as things start to develop. Last, and most important, keep good metrics so you can turn up what’s working and turn off what’s not.
  • Draw Visitors Back to Your Website – Creating good visibility in the right venues is one thing. Offering compelling content and attractive offers when they arrive there, is quite another. This makes all your efforts worth it. If creating compelling marketing messages and attractive offers are not your strong suit, then it’s time to bring in a hired gun.

Being seen in all the right places on the web will not happen overnight. Vince Lombardi once said: “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” Good luck letting people know you’re out there.