Category Archives: Social Media

The Concept of Social Media Marketing

December 18, 2014 Mitch Mitchell 7 Comments

The concept of social media marketing is one that’s missed by a lot of people. Some people assume it means trying to sell products online by sending out a lot of spam email. Some people believe it’s related to those late night TV gurus who tell you that they’ll have you making millions of dollars within weeks if you learn their system.

Mo Riza via Compfight

There are a few differences between social media marketing and internet marketing, which is what a lot of people might be thinking of.

With a lot of internet marketing, there is little attempt to actually make a connection with someone. The idea is to push products, whether they’re products created by the marketer or not. Their push is to try to get big email lists of addresses and pound the masses to earn their 1 – 3% of sales and live off that. Some internet marketers do really well with that concept, while others fail because they were too late into the marketplace to truly be effective.

Social media marketing is much different. Its purpose is to establish a long term relationship with an audience in some fashion and hope to drive those people to them. If you have a traditional business location, social media marketing can help get people to come through the doors if done properly.

It can help you reach an audience who might have never heard of you. It can give you the opportunity to show some expertise in your field that people might relate to and thus help you build sales. At the same time, since it’s mainly done over the internet, and can be much more comprehensive, being known as an expert by more people works better.

How can it do a lot of these things? What kind of purpose can it serve? I’m going to say more, but first I’m going to share some links where I talk about social media marketing in some detail. Here are 5 links to articles on social media marketing in general terms that might help you understand what it’s all about.

Using Social Media To Grow Your Influence

What Is Influence?

Social Media And SEO

SMM – Audio And Visual Options

Social Media Marketing Won’t Work If…

Here’s what I see more of unfortunately. Though things might seem slightly better than they were in 2009 when studies showed that Twitter was mainly blather, spam, aka advertising, seems to have caught up, or possibly is just slightly under. It depends on what category you want to put advertising one’s own content, blog or otherwise in. Much of the automation that’s out there is to get the word out for an individual or specific company.

Just last week someone who’s known as a big time player on Google Plus actually posted the same link 6 or 7 times an hour between 6 and 9 in the morning (unfortunately I was up; ugh…). He did share a couple of things from others but in my timeline he was kind of irritating. To me, that’s spam to the nth degree.

On the other side, there are people who retweet others all day and never share anything they do; is that less irritating? In the last month I’ve dropped people I was following who only do that, or only post pictures or only post quotes. Is that engagement? Is that social media marketing?

I’m certainly not going to say I’m perfect at it but I think I’m pretty good. Over the past couple of weeks I’ve started sharing a lot more of my present and past posts from this blog and my business blog, as well as some quotes I’ve made in blog posts over the years from my business blog that I think might be motivational. I’m also sharing some of my video links. But I share as much content from others, moreso than my own stuff, and I add a comment to at least half of that, which sometimes leads into conversation.

To me, that’s what social media marketing should be about, adding in the concept of social media engagement. If you’re not giving yourself a chance to talk to your audience then why not just stick to email campaigns? Do you really think anyone is reading your posts on Twitter or Google Plus or Facebook if they know that you’re never reading any of their stuff, or that you’ll never respond to a comment they make back to you in those spaces?

Of course, this is my opinion. I ask you now, do you agree with any of what I’ve said, do you have your own thought on it? Let me know; I’d love to hear it.

Social Media

4 LinkedIn No-No’s

December 15, 2014 Mitch Mitchell 8 Comments

LinkedIn is a social media platform specifically for businesses. It offers a way to connect with people who not only could be potential customers and consumers, but people who were in the same industry. Yet, almost every day I see things happening that are irritating to the point that you just want to slap somebody. Okay, that might be a bit over the top, but they make you mad. And some of those people trying to reach out to you which makes it even worse.

Leon Fishman via Compfight

All of you know the saying “you only get one chance to make a first impression”. Well, there is a of bad first impression. I’m going to name four of them, and hope that none of them are you.

1. Connecting with someone new but not changing the default description. This is probably the most irksome because the default description says that someone has indicated you are a friend. Every once in a while it says I find you a trusted person. The thing is these people don’t know you, and you don’t know them, so who can trust who?

Don’t be a lazy first connector; if you’re looking to meet someone at least right something different, even though you don’t get a lot of space to do it. You’ll be more memorable and people will be more likely to connect with you there.

2. No picture and no flushing out what you do. People trust what they can see and what they can read better than seeing almost nothing. There are some people who join the site and immediately start sending out invitations for people to connect with them without giving people a reason why they should even think about connecting.

Unless I know who you are, if I’ll see a picture I’m not connecting with you. If I go check out your page and all I see are three or four separate lines of things you’ve done in the past without saying anything about it, I’m not connecting. I know some people who will connect with anybody who reaches out to them, but the quality of your connections has to count as much as how many connections you have.

3. Don’t immediately start selling after someone connects with you. I’ll admit that I’m one of those people who look at the profiles of people who want to connect with me. I have found over the years, and I’ve been a member of LinkedIn for nine years, that people whose profiles have nothing to do with anything that I’ve listed on my profile only want to sell me on something or try to get me to help them do business.

Unless they’re local, or I see a number of people that I actually know who are connected with that person, I’m not connecting with that person because I know what’s coming. Trust me, a short introduction saying hello and telling the person you’d like to know more about them goes a lot further in networking that that person then immediately trying to sell them on something.

4. If you join a group with an intention to actually participate, don’t start off introducing who you are and telling people what it is you do. It’s always best to stay on topic, and if people are intrigued by what you have to say it will follow you back to your profile to learn more about you. And if you’ve taken the time to flesh out your profile (see #2) you’ll intrigue people and on their terms.

I’ve written before that every business should be on LinkedIn, but just being there isn’t enough to give you the opportunity for proper business networking. Work on some of the things I mentioned above and you’ll be well on your way.

Blogging, Social Media

The Difference Between Moderating Your Space And Censorship

November 28, 2014 Mitch Mitchell 6 Comments

Something that many businesses seem to struggle with is whether or not to moderate comments on their websites, blogs or social media pages and spaces. There are some people who believe that no matter what a person says, businesses should leave the comment there because it’s honest, whether or not the company agrees with it. On the other side, there are companies who believe they deserve the right to control the message, even if that means killing what someone else says so that only positive things show up on their site.

Art Crimes via Compfight

My take is that there’s no one specific answer to this, but there are circumstances that drive everything. With certain policies in place, whether everyone else knows it or not, companies and individuals can navigate the minefield that someone is going to call censorship.

First, always remember that if you’re paying for it that you get to decide the decorum in your space. If you want to allow bad language, it’s your prerogative. If you want to allow insults and spam messages and sales messages and the like, go for it.

However, most people don’t want that stuff in their space because, if it’s for business, you want to be represented in a positive light, and unless you’re selling bikes to drill sergeants, you might want to keep conversations civil and clean because you never really know who’s reading and how they’ll react. Anything that can drive business away like that is a bad thing.

Second, if you put a product out or provide services or you’re giving an opinion about something, you need to remember that everyone isn’t going to agree with you and that you can’t please everyone, no matter what you do. As long as the conversation is civil, if people disagree with you or don’t like your product for some reason, you should allow those things to stay in your space. These are opportunities in more ways than one.

It gives you a chance to hear what your potential customers want and what they might not like. It also gives you the opportunity to address your potential customer where others can see the type of person or business you are.

If you get your message correct, no matter what the issue is, other potential customers could be impressed enough to either try the product or service themselves or at least give you a chance because they see that your company takes the issues of its customers seriously.

Figuring out the difference between common courtesy and honest critiques can be challenging at times, and you might have a tendency to overreact; after all, no one likes criticism against what they do. If what you do is for the betterment of the community, do it. I think it’s always best to post your commenting policies so that if you do end up having to delete something, that person and everyone else can’t gripe because you followed a policy they didn’t. And if they do complain, it’s on them; the customer may always be the customer, but the customer isn’t always right, despite what some might say.

Social Media

5 Benefits Of Interviewing Others

September 29, 2014 Mitch Mitchell 16 Comments

It’s my bet that most of you wish you had more visitors to your blogs or websites. It’s also my bet that you’re not taking advantage of things you might be able to possibly do to help get your name out to the masses. What am I talking about?

Thomas Shahan (and a Salticid) on NBC's The Today Show!

Thomas Shahan via Compfight

I like to add interviews to my blog, whether they’re written interviews or video interviews. The reason I like doing them is because I think it adds a new dimension to my websites in general, as well as helps expand my presence in social media.

Right now I have 4 requests out to people who said they’d do the interview for me. I sent them the questions and I’m waiting… and waiting… and waiting. I had two people actually follow through on this, one for my local blog (who I also interviewed here, the other by my buddy Brian Hawkins, who also came through with a video interview.

On the first one, the guy asked me to interview him, and since I know him pretty well I did, and he did a little promotion and that was it. Brian came to the page, addressed all the people who commented on it, and even held a contest on his own blog in trying to help promote it. That was kind of neat and it proved a point.

Too many people lament that no one knows who they are, but they don’t step forward to handle the easiest things to help them along. Things like responding to comments on their blogs, writing comments on other blogs, promoting their missives or interviews on Twitter or LinkedIn or Facebook… Just asking, but how many of you have the link to your websites or blogs in your email signature? Yeah, I thought so.

This isn’t an invitation for you to write me asking me to interview you; truthfully, if you do that I’m ignoring it. I’ll ask those who I want to interview if I can do it. However, I’m always available for an interview because I know I can use it for “my” greater good.

Back in June I wrote another post about lessons learned via an interview I did with Cairn Rodriguez and I also shared the video. I followed that up last October later by sharing my own interview with Meloney Hall in a post talking about blogging and social media marketing. Meloney also interviewed me and posted it to her blog, which I found pretty cool, and I keep sharing that interview of me and other interviews I’ve done with others multiple times because, after all, they’re all a great representation of me.

The thing is that you have to be willing to at least try to do something for yourself if you’re looking to get known or to make money. People aren’t just going to find you; well, maybe they will, but if they don’t know you then why would they buy from you? What better way to help promote yourself than to be found on someone else’s digital real estate?

However, this post isn’t about you yourself all that much; it’s about adding someone else’s interview to your digital real estate. You’re probably thinking “I don’t want to promote anyone else on my page”. Trust me, you’re missing the point. How? Five points below:

1. Interviewing someone who does what you do can help confirm that you know what you’re talking about.

Strange as it might seem, some people who read what you have to say might not fully trust you, especially if they’re unsure of what you’re talking about. However, if someone else comes along and says the same type of thing, you start looking smarter. If you don’t believe this one just tell your spouse something, then have them ask someone else the same question. lol

2. Interviewing someone about aspects of what you do that you don’t talk about often helps highlight just how comprehensive what you do can be.

I did a podcast interview with a guy who does some group leadership training in Florida. In that interview I brought up some things that he himself doesn’t do, but he got it and helped to enhance it with his own words. It makes him look strong because even if he didn’t know anything about what I was saying up front his comment helped to show others just how difficult leadership training can be.

3. Sometimes you can interview someone who was a client and have them tell others how you helped them.

Talk about a coup! All of us in business have some sort of testimonials but you want to know a truth? I know quite a few people who actually write the testimonials themselves and then have someone sign them, making them authentic. Frankly that’s dismaying, and yet I’ve had the opportunity to do the same thing; I just couldn’t do it. However, having someone like that do a video testimonial while it being in the form of an interview… can you think of anything better to help enhance your business?

4. Interviewing someone on the fringe of what you do or are interested in can show you have some depth, thus showing you can be flexible.

I have done some social media consulting here and there. What I find is that depending on who you talk to they always think you talk about only one thing, yet each person has their own thing they’re thinking about. So when I’ve done interviews with other people I’ve expanded the conversation by having them talk about social media platforms in general, and invariably they’ll always bring up something I don’t use or I’m not signed up on. I’ve also interviewed people who have blogs but don’t consider themselves as bloggers; for instance one lady is a lawyer, another a 3D digital artist for media outlets.

5. This is the biggie; you have a major marketing tool that you can use over and over in multiple places. I’ve used my interviews on my blogs. Obviously the video interviews are on YouTube, but then I can embed them in blog posts and share them on every social media platform I have. I can also send links to people via email and, if I so chose to do, I could send out a link in traditional marketing mail and post cards.

There you go; how many times do I have to initiate conversation about interviews, giving them or interviewing others, before you’re ready to take the plunge? Maybe this will help some:

Blogging, Social Media, Writing, Motivation and General Stuff