Increasing Employee & Client Engagement

Here is the 10 Absolutes of Social Media Strategy

1. Determine Your Audience… make it as narrow as you can – better to be a champion of a small niche than just another face in a big one.  If you have multiple audiences then segment out and give different messages to each.

2. Fish Where the Fish Are… now you know your target audience, determine where they are.  What forums, communities, platforms do they visit, get their info.  If you are hunting in the wrong place you will guarantee not to see who you are looking for.

3. Develop Topics That Will Give That Audience Massive Value… You know your audience, you know where they sleep, now talk about those topics that keep them awake at night.  Show them you know them, understand them, and more importantly can help them and solve their problems.

4. Engage Your Audience…  It is a communication tool, just like email.  Embrace it. It is a 2 way and multi-directional tool.  Talk to your audience, let them talk to you and more importantly ensure they can collaborate together.

5. Be Social… Make it about them.  Use the same rules you would in a normal situation.  Get to know them, ask them questions, and give them information that will help them.  People do not care about you; they care about themselves, so talk about their favorite subject.  Listen and learn as much as you can so you can provide solutions.

6. Make It FUN…  First it is fun.  It is just conversations with existing friends or making new ones.  Do not try to make it more than it is.

7. You Will Get Out What You Put Into It…  Like most good things in life.  If you put sustained effort into it, you will get results.

8. Be Yourself… Be human.  Be Real.  Create dialogue.  Do not talk like a logo or a brochure.  Talk and Write like you speak.  Re-Read #6

9. Listen…  Just like in real life, God gave us two ears and one mouth.  Listen as much as you talk.  You will get better data from Social Media then possibly anywhere.  People want to be heard.  They want you to know their likes and dislikes.  So hear what they have to say.  Make adjustments to your products or services based on the feedback.

10.  Put Quality First…  Quality relationships, quality content, quality time, quality strategy.   Be a real value in everyway.

If you are passionate and truly engaged, people will be drawn to you and it will not feel like work at all.  The list is not exhaustive, but please share any others you feel are Absolutes and share if you agree or disagree.

Now that we have created interest and garnered their attention… we have to engage them and get them involved.  Check out the last article about the 5 Things You Need to Do to Get a Good Foundation Set Up For People to Share Using Twitter http://bit.ly/1DCZY8

1. Use Twitter to survey your niche audience…  You can pose questions about site selection, content, speakers or other details about your event.  A great way for immediate feedback prior to setting up event or feedback after the event.

2. Use Twitter for Hub of Info Updates… this will help create buzz and excitement around your event.

3. Create a chat around your event or topics around your event…  This again creates buzz and excitement and can help grow the number of people who know about your event.  Use the #, set up a time and have preset questions that you can ask.  It will allow your attendees to give you feedback but even better is that it will get them to interact.

4. Promote on every signage, website, email etc… what the Twitter Handle is and the #hashtag.

At the event
1. Have the attendees tweet about the event…  Have screens throughout the event showing a live stream of what the attendees are saying.  It will be fun and engaging for attendees.

2. Use it as a way to ask questions to the speakers…  This can be done by attendees at the event and ones who could not make the event.

3. Use it as an “info central”…  for any updates, changes to the event to keep attendees informed up to the second.

4. Organize a TweetUp mixer around the event…  This can be before the event, at the event or after the event.  Embrace the tweeple.

Now get out there and use Twitter for your events.

Other Twitter Articles
Twitter is Most Powerful in Social Media Syndication - http://bit.ly/m1QXb
Twitter Set Up Basics - http://bit.ly/ojb20
Twitter Basics – Terms & How to Communicate - http://bit.ly/hFn4Z
Twitter’s Power Comes From Ease of Sharing & Interaction - http://bit.ly/JIBjw
10 Ways to Build Your Network on Twitter http://bit.ly/QrD6j

We have been talking about Twitter over the last few weeks.  Here are some of the articles we covered:

Twitter is Most Powerful in Social Media Syndication - http://bit.ly/m1QXb
Twitter Set Up Basics - http://bit.ly/ojb20
Twitter Basics – Terms & How to Communicate - http://bit.ly/hFn4Z
Twitter’s Power Comes From Ease of Sharing & Interaction - http://bit.ly/JIBjw
10 Ways to Build Your Network on Twitter http://bit.ly/QrD6j

Lets take it a step farther and talk about how to use it to increase exposure, attendance, and engagement at your events…  Twitter’s power shines in promoting events.  Why, because it is a communication tool and enhances word of mouth.  It is an easy way to share before the event, during the event and between attendees.

There are several things we need to do to begin our sharing. 

1. The first thing we need to do is determine our audience… Who are you targeting? Who is your unique audience? How are they going to find this info?  Who in that group has a huge influence in your target group and can help you spread your message?

2. Create a # Hashtag… which we learned earlier is a way to aggregate info about a topic, which is basically a keyword that ties everything together.  I have several but I am the head of Atlanta Bloggers and we use the #atlblog – so everybody that communicates about the event uses that # so that you can search for it and see all the conversation that surrounds the events.

3. Do a search on Twitter http://search.twitter.com (I prefer the advanced search so I can search by area) for certain keywords that may encompass and surround your niche market.  Type in keywords and see what people in your niche are talking about.  Who they are and follow them.  Engage them and let them know about your event.

4. If the event is big enough and ongoing.  An option may be to think about creating its own Twitter Handle.

5. Get your current network and followers to RT(forward) and share the invitation with their followers.  Give them a discount code to share with their group.  It gets them involved but also added value to their network.

This list is not exhaustive and many other ways to amplify your message on Twitter.  Would love for you to share some more thoughts, ideas or insights.

1. The best way to build your network is by following people.  Find interesting people, people in your industry or niche.  Listen to what they are saying.  Engage with them.  Provide quality content and they will want to follow you back.

2. Tap Into Your network – Find everyone you connect with regularly on other social media sites, face to face networking events, clients, prospects, etc.

3. http://Search.twitter.com - Type in different keywords and see what people are talking about in your niche and follow them.

4. www.twellow.com - this is a yellow pages for Twitter.

5. # -hashtags around certain events – follow people who use it.

6. #followfriday – most popular hashtag, this is a way to give a shout out to people you think your followers should follow.  These endorsements are a great way to find new people to follow.  I always check out who I follow endorses on #followfriday

7. I follow a lot of blogger friends – I have my Twitter handle on my blog so people can easily find me.  Most bloggers do.  Go to blogs you like and get their handle and make sure if you blog that you have yours easily accessible.

8. Watch who you follow engage and reply to

When they Respond to people - @swfrost – thanks for the RT of my blog post
                                                      OR
Respond to many people – Great Tweet Up @swfrost @toddschnick @marisasharpe @leekantor @stephaniealloyd @rachelwriter

anytime you put an @ in front of someone’s username, it automatically becomes a link to that person’s profile. This feature makes it easy for you to check out those people’s profiles and follow them & engage with them as well.

9. Market It – put it on your website, your email signatures, business cards

10. Tweet Up – This is a networking function for people of Twitter. – Collect as many names as you can.

This is a small list of ideas.  Hope this helps you build your network.

Other Related Twitter Articles

Twitter is Most Powerful in Social Media Syndication - http://bit.ly/m1QXb 
Twitter Set Up Basics - http://bit.ly/ojb20
Twitter Basics – Terms & How to Communicate - http://bit.ly/hFn4Z 
 Twitter’s Power Comes From Ease of Sharing & Interaction - http://bit.ly/JIBjw
Twitter Strategy Revolves Around High Valued Content

The question that is behind the existence of twitter is “What are you doing?”
The absolute WORST question in the world for business or professional use.  That is too literal.  Twitter needs to be thought of as an educational resource.  Not a journal of meaningless events.

Since Twitter is a form of blogging, you are creating content…  Content is king and you will only be well received with great content.  Twitter does not require you to connect back to followers.  This is important.  So when you are creating content with strangers, you have to be so valuable & incredible they will want to tune into what you have to say.  More importantly is where the real power is… sharing it with their followers.

Facebook until recently… required you to be friends to share info with anyone other than friends with status updates.  Even with the change, Facebook is sharing more personal things, it is more lenient about content because the relationship is deeper and allows it.

Biggest mistake is forgetting Twitter is still Social Networking…  It is very easy to use this as a broadcast medium.  It is almost set up that way.  The people who really get it though, understand this is an awesome 2 way medium.  

Like anything it is all about balance…  You need to do maybe 50% of broadcast tweets.  30% need to be engaging with your followers or new people & 20% need to be direct.

I think one of the biggest tactical errors is doing to many tweets…  I have said the more visible you are the more invisible you become.  It is great to recognize people publicly.  This shows your followers you are engaging and participating, but after one or two public mention messages, then take it private.   Your followers do not get to see both sides of the conversation, so it can be frustrating.  Everyone has that perfect # that would be the most in a given day.   Is that 6, 10, 20 etc?  It depends on who you are, possibly quantity of active followers, value of content etc.

You need a consistent copywriting strategy to include useful tips, links to your articles and reports, positve messages, and interaction.

Ideas to tweet about
•Link to Something, An Article You Are Reading or Video Your Watching
•Engage With People By Chatting With Them
•Promote Content You Have Created
•Create Buzz Around Upcoming Events You Know of, Are Hosting or Going To
•Customer Service Tool
•Retweet (forward) Someone Else’s Content
•Track What People Are Saying About You

I hope this gives you some value to incorporate into your Twitter strategy, but check out these other Twitter Articles

Twitter is Most Powerful in Social Media Syndication - http://bit.ly/m1QXb 
Twitter Set Up Basics - http://bit.ly/ojb20
Twitter Basics – Terms & How to Communicate - http://bit.ly/hFn4Z

After reading my first article about Twitter… http://bit.ly/m1QXb and agree that you need to look into Twitter.

If you are not set up on Twitter, then you will need a username or referred to as your Twitter handle… 
Mine is @chadrothschild  - I just did my first name and last name.  Make it easy, memorable etc. 

I would advise against the underscore, but depends on your situation.   My first one had an _ between my name and it did not fit with the rest of my URL’s  and got rid of it.  It is not standard.  I would not use multiple numbers in your username either.  However, there are no hard and fast rules. 

If you are tweeting for your company..,  OK to use company name, but try to make it as personal and human as possible.  Maybe put picture of person like @comcastcares  has. 

Bio – This is very important.  I determine who to follow based on this information.  It is a very short synopsis, so use it wisely.  I put mine in word so I could add the symbols and then pasted it into Twitter.

I like people who put their location in there…  I don’t mean EARTH, Global Nomad, but put city and state in US.  Yes we live in a global economy, but Social Media is based on authenticity.  By not putting somewhere makes it feel like spam or your hiding something.  The more info you put to make it feel real & personal  the better.

I really like to connect with people in proximity.  I can let them know about events etc

URL – absolutely have, so people can connect with you further.  Use your blog, Your company website, your linkedin profile,

Put a photo…  This is important to me.  I want to see who I am communicating with.  It makes it feel more human and personal. 

 
As with everything… for everything pure about social media, there are spammers and people who try to take advantage of it and you have to make sure you separate yourself from them.

Other Twitter Articles

Twitter Basics – Terms & How to Communicate - http://bit.ly/hFn4Z
Twitter’s Power Comes From Ease of Sharing & Interaction - http://bit.ly/JIBjw
Twitter is Most Powerful in Social Media Syndication - http://bit.ly/m1QXb 

Twitter could be the most powerful social media tool…
It has the ability to create conversations better than any other with complete strangers. However, Twitter is the most easily dismissed. 60% of people who get on Twitter get off. It is probably the easiest platform on the surface, but by far the most misunderstood. I have done panel discussions and workshops and 80% of questions surround Twitter.

People either love it or hate it. There doesn’t seem to be an in between.

Most people I talk to think Twitter is a lot about nothing…
Hopefully, I can dispel that. I believe Twitter is becoming the most powerful method to syndicate your message.
· It is one of the best prospecting tools 
· It encourages interaction.
· It is one of the best ways to promote events.

Let’s start with the reason for being…
Twitter was created to compete with texting. Short bursts of information. It is a micro-blogging service. Posts of 140 characters or less. Facebook and LinkedIn have status updates that were added due to Twitter. They function in the same method.

Why would someone want to be on Twitter?
· Connect with friends, colleagues, prospects
· Keep people informed of what you are doing
· Be a trusted resource
· You can share content you create
· Share & discover news
· Share & discover events
· Customer Service
· Find out what people are saying about you, your company or brands.

This is a little background for Twitter.  Over the next couple of weeks we will dig deep into Twitter and why you have to cement yourself into its power and more importantly how to use it EFFECTIVELY.

You can follow me at @chadrothschild 

If you do not use or like Twitter please let me know why in the comments.  If you do use it, please share which ways you feel it works best.

Other Related Twitter Articles
Twitter Set Up Basics - http://bit.ly/ojb20
Twitter Basics – Terms & How to Communicate - http://bit.ly/hFn4Z
Twitter’s Power Comes From Ease of Sharing & Interaction - http://bit.ly/JIBjw

I get this question all the time…  How much time do you spend on Social Media a week. OR What is the magic number to spend on Social Media to be successful.   I do not have a magic paintbrush, magic beans that grows a magic beanstalk, a goose that lays golden eggs or a magic crystal ball.

First, I am biased because I love it… The issue I have is, I see the power from my own personal standpoint and I wish I could increase the time I can spend. So time is relative.

What if I was able to tell you that for every minute you spent…, you were able to connect with one new person in a positive manner, would you want to spend 60 minutes or 1440 minutes a day?

I am not sure I can answer that any more than…, if you want to be good at golf or any activity for that matter. As a former golf professional I know what type of time commitment it takes to be able to play golf well and why only a very small handful get to that level.

How can you determine how much time do you have to spend to be good?  The first thing you have to define is what your goals are. Everyone is going to have a different time requirement. Flip the question, How much time do you have to devote to growing, maintaining and insulating your business?

I always tell people to start with the end in mind and work backwards… If you tell me you want to reach 10,000 people a day and you only have 15 minutes a day, then I think it will be a challenge to meet that goal. Especially when you are just getting started. It is like anything, the more you do it, the better you get, the more efficient and effective you can be.

What I have found is the more you do it… The more meat you get on the bone. The more success you will start to see. It is like planting. You have to till the soil, you have to plant the seeds, then water and through time, you will start to see the sprouts.

If you have heard or read me before…, you know I am all about quality and not quantity which definitely helps reduce time commitment because you are able to focus your time & energy on the right audience which will more than likely be smaller. So throw your net over a group you can cover, engage and interact with.

The less time you have…, then reduce the number of platforms you are trying to use. This only makes sense to prioritize. Better to be a master of one than a master of none. Decide to have laser beam focus. Put on the blinders.

So if you are reading saying he really didn’t answer… It is because I can’t. Develop your goals, define your audience, list your resources, prioritize your platforms. Then you will back into a time commitment.

It is just like love, in the eyes of the beholder.   Like anything in life.  You will get what you put into it.

Other Related Articles
10 Things Social Media Is Not… http://bit.ly/uqcMq
Top 10 Social Media Myths  & How To Overcome Them - http://bit.ly/6d3Fa

Here is the 10 biggest myths and things I hear on a daily basis.  So I also give my thoughts on how to overcome the obstacles.

1.  I Am Not a Technology Person … This excuse does not work anymore.  First, it is very user friendly, but there is so much free training.  You do not have to be a CIO to use Social Media.  This is an investment because this is not going away.

2.  Just sign up and think you are “on social media”…  Being on Social Media is a 2 way dialogue at a minimum.  It is about conversations and creating relationships.  Like any relationship it requires sustained effort.

3.  Doesn’t Require a Plan or Strategy…  Almost every person I speak to says they are on Social Media, but have plan or direction in which they are trying to increase their value on it.  If you do not have a map and any goals, then it will be impossible to judge if you are on the right platforms.  If you could do certain things better.  Everything in life worth doing deserves the time to plan a strategy.

4.  I Do Not Have Time…  If you want to maintain, increase and insulate your business, you better MAKE time.  This is here to stay. It is too important to keep on the back burner because I promise if you are not conversing with your clients, your competition is enjoying that engagement.

5.  I Do Not Have Anything Interesting to Say…  I hear this one.  Everyone has something of value to bring to the table.  Think about the topics that keep your clients up at night.  If you personally do not have any solutions or thoughts, then go online and find articles and topics of interest and share those.  The converse I hear daily is why do I care what food someone is eating. First, those people do not get social media.  There needs to be value.  BUT, do not dismiss a tweet as simple as what food someone is eating either.  If it is a prospect, that might be a conversation starter.   “That is great that you love Chinese food, I do too, I know the best Chinese restaurant in the city, how does your calendar look next Wed for me to take you…”

6.  It is about you, your products & company…  This is the fastest way to get shut out of Social Media.  It is the number one mistake I see.  Nobody cares about you.  I cringe when I see it because I know how much I get turned off.  If you just talk about you, then you will be even more invisible than that TV commercial that everyone just DVR’s by all the time.

7.  You will not have control… You do not and never had control anyway.  The conversation is going on with or without you.  We had this same conversation with email.  Your best bet is to engage and get involved.

8.  I am just one person and cannot compete with big companies…  As Seth Godin said, “Small is the New Big” – and with the internet you can have just as big as reach.  Your goal is to have remarkable products and raving fans that talk about you and it will spread horizontally.

9.   Why would I want to hear about bad things people are saying about me…  This may be the dumbest one.  This is the greatest opportunity you have.  This is your chance to turn sour grapes into wine.  Use this as an advantage and a chance to engage with customers.

10. This is a fad and doesn’t work…  The question we should not be asking ourselves any longer is does the medium work, because it is the medium.  Rather the question should be how to better utilize it and customize solutions that will work.

Hope these help.  If I missed any, then please add to the comments and we can discuss.

Building your network is one of the most important assets you can have…
LinkedIn was the only social community that was started for business. Facebook, Myspace, Blogs & Twitter were not designed for business specifically.

If you are not on LinkedIn and you are a business person, get on there…  It is free to join and requires only an email and password to get started.There is over 40 Million People on LinkedIn and 90% are professionals and over half are decision makers for companies.
Read the rest of this entry »