social media

Salmonella Social: Half Baked Social Media Isn’t Worth Serving

You wouldn’t serve a half baked dish to your guests. It might taste bad, or even make them sick. But many small businesses regularly serve half-baked social media to their clients or audience. It’s not on purpose. Nobody is setting out to serve up salmonella-esque social. People just don’t know.

Here are 9 (or 10) Indications that a Company’s Social Media Strategy Is Not Fully Cooked:

1. Social media accounts that lay dormant, with no posts since they were initially set up.
2. Accounts that re-post or share and never post original content.
3. Accounts with no images and copy-only posts.
4. Accounts with no copy and image only posts.
5. Social media that ignores customer engagement.
6. Generic posts that have no connection to the location or target audience.
7. Ill-timed posts;
– either posts at times of the day that don’t fit the audience
– posts that don’t take current events account (such as posts about frivolity during a crisis news event)
– posts that don’t take the environment into account (such as posts promoting local beach fun during a snow storm)
8. Social media accounts that never say anything personal about the business
9. Accounts that direct prospects to websites without capturing emails for further outreach

Perhaps one of the most common problems isn’t in the list above because it’s just so big it deserves its own paragraph. Strategy. There actually has to be a strategy. It’s hard to believe, like bang my head on a wall hard to believe, but many companies don’t actually have a social media strategy at all. (Maybe I’ll blog soon about how many companies don’t have a marketing strategy at all…hmmm…). Social media won’t manage itself or just blossom on its own. Sadly, neither do the plants in my house. A lame or limping social media channel may be better off non-existent. It looks bad when a social media account is dormant and it is criminal to let customers go unacknowledged when they reach out via social channels.

Business owners get busy doing their “real jobs.” I hear it all the time. That’s why the strategy matters. Plan before you invite the guests to dinner. Will you have enough time to put the roast in the oven and get it cooked before everyone is seated? That kind of thing matters. Thankfully, while being poisoned at someone’s dinner table is hard to forget, social media mishaps may be easily repaired. Social media strategies can be developed and employed at any time. There is hope and a solution.

Slip and Catch

So often clients connect with me when they are in a skyrocket mode…shooting up and fast, everything is clicking/working and they need the tools to be ready for when the emails start coming in and the phone starts to ring. It’s such an exciting time for them.

There are many times though when a client comes to me, either after that skyrocket moment and they feel the lull of regular business, which feels slow compared to the exciting and fast rocket time. I also meet with clients who begin their first conversation with apologies. They know they don’t need to apologize to me, but they are really apologizing to themselves.

“I have let my blog slip.” – Guilty here.

“I have not emailed my client list enough.” – So guilty here.

“I haven’t redesigned anything on my social media in forever.” – Guilty.

“I don’t use all of the social media channels I could.” – Guilty too.

A favorite was when a new client said, “I haven’t cleaned my house in months.” Not part of the business discussion…but she needed to unload. And by the way — Guilty too.

Yes, there is a level of therapy that can be part of the client relationship. So much about business and marketing is about relationships and interactions after all. So, whey the guilt about her home? People hold themselves up to unrealistic standards about running a business and a home. They get intertwined in our self-assessments – I find this especially true for women vis-à-vis their homes.

It is not only women. A male client told me that since he started his business his personal life had suffered, and he was hoping that as I took over some of the marketing responsibility, it would help him and his family carve out more time together. That was a priority for him because he felt like he was missing out.

However – NO guilt necessary. No self-blaming. We are a Love Yourself business. First of all, nobody succeeds and sells as well when they are depressed, self-loathing or negative. Secondly, when someone slips in their own business goals and knows it, they have likely caught themselves before too much damage has been done. So, a business that starts out with a healthy and regular blog schedule that slips and falls off the routine for a bit, but notices it and reaches out for my help before it’s gone on too long, can usually get back on the blog wagon and fix it.

Did they lose possible business during the down time? Probably. Does it mean the business is not savable? Unlikely.

When the guilt is about not taking all available opportunities, such as not using all available social media channels, or not using all possible sales channels, again – no guilt needed. Not doing enough, but doing some or a lot is still doing. It is a great platform from which to build. There are times when a client will tell me in a hushed voice about what they have not tried. That’s ok. In fact, it’s great. It means we have a starting point to assess and perhaps work from.

The bottom line is that we focus on the achievements of our clients and on their inroads towards success as much as possible. People catch themselves and we create support to help catch them.

Life is full of Slips and Catches. We all slip and then catch ourselves. Expecting perfection and no errors is unrealistic and doesn’t lead to much more than stress and disappointment. I think a goal of near perfection and no errors is great, as long as we understand that as people we are inherently engineered to slip sometimes. It’s more than ok. It’s just great. It’s real life. It is what gives us opportunity to reinvent ourselves, to try again, to work harder next time, to train more, to build, to learn.

People are perfect, but not because they are not flawed or because they err. It’s our mistakes and nicks and dents that make us interesting and experienced and wise. You’ve slipped? Bring it on – we’ve got you!

Party Etiquette: Does Your “Push Marketing” Need To Be Pulled?

Until recently, most marketing was “push” marketing. Advertised sales and special promotions pushed consumers to act; telling us when, what, and where to buy. Products and services were pushed into the marketplace with the goal of an immediate boost in sales. Branding was based on product lines, not on the company culture. In the last few decades, the internet has fueled the rise of “pull” marketing; a subtler conversation with consumers that invites us in as friends, rather than demanding our attention.

Here’s why “pull marketing” should be a major part of your marketing strategy.

Be interesting…

Sit in a room full of puppies or children and shout, “come over here, come over here, come over here.” Odds are, they will ignore you, or even run away. But if you do something interesting, entertaining or otherwise engaging, those pups or kids will naturally gather around you – and they will stay as long as you continue to pique their interest.

Target is a prime example of a retailer committed to pull marketing. Their commercials are bright and colorful – lots of movement and music and fun. Target is promising just the sort of experience that room full of puppies or children would run toward.

Build a rapport…

With Millennials (now the largest generation) and Gen Z flooding the consumer market, “pull marketing” becomes even more important. These digital natives can instantly learn everything about your product – and do a price/feature comparison between your brand and others in seconds. They already know how to buy, where to buy and what it will cost. You don’t need to tell them that. All you can influence is “when” to buy, “why” to buy, and “what” to buy – and you do this by using your marketing to build a rapport that pulls them in and builds a relationship.

Be genuinely social…

One huge mistake business owners make is ignoring the “social” in social media. They feel that the purpose of social media is strictly to get their own message out – to talk at people. Who is the person you avoid at a party? Is it the one who seems interested in you, the one who entertains you and makes you laugh – or the one who talks only about herself all evening?

Case in point: Wendy’s sassy Twitter exchange with a consumer who accused them of using frozen meat – complete with a mic drop ending – went viral last January and instantly turned Wendy’s Twitter feed into a “must-read” experience.

If you blast out posts that are the equivalent of standing at a party yelling “look at ME, look at ME,” you’ve written yourself out of the conversation.

Social media marketers follow various ratio rules, such as the 80/20 rule. Twenty percent of your posts can be persuasive call-to- action pitches for your services and products, but eighty percent should be informative, entertaining, and sharable content. That’s how you build your brand, extend your reach and keep the attention of your audience. In Forbes.com, May 15, 2017 article “12 Of The Worst Social Media Mistakes And How To Avoid Them” the Forbes Communication Council wrote, “think of promoting your business as a “commercial break” among other content that provides value.” Yes, that’s a lot of work, but that’s how you get results. If your audience wanders off to talk to someone else at the party, you’ve lost your ability to talk to them at all.

Marketing has generally become more conversational and personal. Today’s consumers have high expectations and short attention spans. That calls for a fresh approach to your marketing strategy.

Marketing During the Big Blizzard

As I post this, a huge storm is bearing down on the East Coast. Back in Michigan, we are somehow warmed by the fact that today the sun is bright…even if it’s only literally 12 degrees…Fahrenheit, of course. There is no snow in the horizon, although there is still plenty on the ground, just not on the streets.

But, as I watched my social media accounts and received messages from relatives on the Eastern Seaboard, I noticed an extensive use of social media that was totally unpaid for by most businesses:

1. I saw a Facebook message about a well-known health food market with a picture of a line going around the block, filled with tired-looking people . The friend who posted described the store as “the Donner party”. Did not make me want to go there.

2. This reminded me of several posts I have seen this week from all over the country, complete with pictures of gas pumps. What were people touting? The cheap gas they had gotten, the location of the pump and any “tricks” to the cheap prices (Kroger rewards was one.) This made me want to go there.

3. Also yesterday, I saw a tweet with picture of a chicken soup being served for dinner at a friend’s house. The soup container had the logo from a nearby deli. The tweet mentioned the Big Blizzard and that they had all that they needed and the name of the deli. This made me want to make chicken soup or possibly purchase it.

4. I received a message from a friend about a new movie she had just seen and liked and she thought I would like it. She sent me the link to the theatre’s showtimes. I texted back with the movies I had watched at home on streaming Netflix this weekend. This interchange made us both want to watch more movies.

So, the message isn’t so surprising. Marketing doesn’t end with your marketing budget or even with your marketing professional. If the experience in your office, your store or your show is a good one, there is residual marketing. Of course, you can’t control the word of mouth…except to provide the best experiences you can and hope your clients and customers will tweet, message and post about it at some point.

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