To read blog posts it would be easy to believe that making money online is easy, that all business and management is easy and that there is no business problem that cannot be solved in 5 easy steps!
But business isn't like that...business is the ultimate rollercoaster and this week I am going to blog some articles about business which addresses when business ideas don't go quite according to plan!
Today I am going to start with social media and persuading the boss that social media is a worthwhile way of spending business resources.
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Problem: My boss sees this as a touchy feely subject which is about workers wasting their time on social networking sites....
Always remember social media is like all other projects which need time investment and you need to think about the presentation in three ways
1) You need to present to both sides of the brain - here is an older post on creating a business case for social media
2) Social media in itself is a tactic and arguably...unless you get lucky a waste of time..UNLESS..you take your business strategy and link social media with the achievement of goals towards that strategy. The boss is bonused on achieving them! So make sure it is thought through on how social media will deliver the goals.
3) Social media has a core inherent benefit...it is measurable and trackable to sales. When you are outlining the business case it must say how success towards the goals is going to be measured, with measurement goals in place to review progress after 3, 6 and 12 months.
Problem: I am doing a lot of social media work but no one is following us?
Firstly social media is not a quick fix, if you want to promote an event then setting a twitter feed up with 3 days to go is a recipe for disaster! There are important steps to follow:
- Set yourself a target weekly for social media activity.
- Use the search features on all of the site or apps to find people who fit your customer profile.
- Create great content...saying try this or like me or have you seen our new widget is not how you would speak to a friend...and the clue is in the title ...it needs to be social. So write a list of FAQ's, top tips, how to solve their problem (rather than your solution) and then create content around them. It's no good talking about picture hooks, if people are searching Google on how to hang a picture!
- Reach out and find people to follow...show your desire to connect...retweet, share, link to great articles by others...show you are not there to shout but to provide value. Maybe set a daily target of new people to follow.
- Test different wordings, different call to actions to see which works....and use Google Analytics to measure there success.
- Remember unless you are following people no one will know that you are there! So the way to be noticed is..follow, share, respond.
Tomorrow I will look at other areas of business which you may be finding difficult - if you have a question you would like me to answer then email me, tweet me, google+ me, linkedin me or facebook me!
Always remember social media is like building a town - the bricks and mortar are easy, it is creating the community spirit that takes time
