The Rules of Engagement: How Social Media Has Changed the Landscape

Brand awareness and loyalty are critical pieces to the marketing puzzle for every small business. Consistent efforts to engage can result in lead generation, customer retention and long-term growth. However, so often the branding focus gets lost in the mix and companies become online billboards, focused on sending out messages while forgetting about the importance of real, true engagement. Are you doing what it takes, as a small business owner, to reach the right demographics through a system of targeted engagement? Do you have a process or are you throwing things out hoping something catches on?

Social media should play a large role in external branding efforts. It makes sense; chances are high that the public any given small business owner is looking to reach is spending the majority of their online time on multiple social networks. They’re looking for connections, they’re looking for information and they’re looking to engage. Most companies understand this and have started to at least build company social network accounts and pages, but, what about taking it one step farther?

Many larger companies have designed internal and external Enterprise Social Networks or ESNs: networks designed to foster connectivity, communication and knowledge sharing inside a branded community structure. Internal ESNs focus on employee connectivity while external ESNs reach out to targeted publics, a perfect structure for small businesses looking for growth and solid online ROIs. In fact, according to a recent Deloitte study, by the start of 2014, 90 percent of Fortune 500 companies will utilize an ESN in one way or another.

The Statistics

It’s become apparent in recent years that targeted engagement is the best way to increase growth.Towers Watson revealed that companies with highly effective communications – like those encouraged by ESNs – demonstrated a 47 percent higher return rate for shareholders over the last five years than those without.

Increasing External Engagement

Chances are that your target markets spend time on social networks. The usage rates can be surprising at first glance: there are over 1 billion Facebook users and 500 million Twitter users, the average online users spends one third of all online time on social networks. Seems like a great way to engage right? But, what about the distractions?

The larger, more traditional social networks were built to connect individuals; businesses were an afterthought. While businesses can and should create accounts to build connections on these sites, the ability to truly engage is limited by distractions. The problem? Because users are exposed to so much information at a time, their attention is spread thin. Even if you get a friend or follower to check out the information you posted, you’re likely to lose them to a friend’s status update, a link to an external site, a photo tag or an advertisement. Social networks are meant to be distracting, this takes the focus away from your company and limits the effectiveness of a social media strategy.

This does not, however, change the desire of your customers and potential customers to engage through social media. Customers want to learn about the brands they do business with. They want to sense that they are seen as important and they want to know that their opinions are heard, recognized and valued, especially by the small businesses they start relationships with. The need for engagement exists in a real and urgent form, but the traditional forms are inherently limited, sometimes even counterintuitive.

Instead of turning into a real lose-lose situation, small business owners can use the paradigm to their advantages. If your potential customers are spending time on social networks, they understand how to communicate effectively through them. They know when they are expected to respond, how to reach out and how to connect. Why not integrate social technologies into your own branded environment?

Social media tools that can be incorporated into customized social communities, or external ESNs, allow brands to set up social networks that are open to the public, allow for instant communication and sharing coupled with relevant, helpful content marketing/blogging. Creating an environment that puts the focus on your small business, without external distractions, using formats that your customers are already familiar with (and can be integrated into traditional social networks) allows for the creation of brand ambassadors who spread your company’s message on their own.

Building a Community of Engagement

Are you ready to take your engagement tactics to the next level? To be a leader among small business owners and your competition by creating an inviting online environment where you can direct the focus? Now is the time to get started.

Look for online blog templates and platforms (Social HubSite, for example) that allow you to upload your company logo and encourage connectivity. To take a more integrated approach, search for a local web designer who would be able to work toward your specific goals.

Create an atmosphere where your customers and potential customers can come to ask questions, learn about specials, gather information related to your industry and to get to know more about the brand you’re building or have built. Engagement fosters connections, connections foster conversions, the link cannot be overlooked. Put effort into marketing your community and consistently give reasons for users to return. Because of the importance of consistency, working with a high quality virtual provider to manage your ESN may be something to look into for long-term success.

Creating a custom ESN is a new yet proven way to shift the branding focus away from the distractions of traditional social media and toward your brand, exactly where you want it to be.

Larger companies have caught on and switched the focus in this way. Sephora's "Beauty Talk" allows fans to gather to discuss trends and to get access to exclusives. Startup Revolution created a networkfor business owners to connect, share ideas and find information easily. Each of these examples allows users to create profiles, like traditional social networks, offering a different experience than a traditional blog.

Branding matters now more than ever, focusing on building internal brand ambassadors may be an important and effective initiative to make this happen. The time to try something new, to think outside of the box and to build a community that functions in a way that allows you to engage your target market like never before, is now.

Marketing on Social Media: Tweeting in 2014

It can be the thing of nightmares for anyone managing a social media account: your Twitter activity has screeched to a halt.  After a few minutes of panic, you have come to realize that it’s all your fault. If you are anything like me, you may start diving head first into books or articles to learn more about marketing on social media, and then feverishly start trying to implement something new.

While it may be hard to look back at your Twitter stats for 2013, with just a few tweaks and a little strategy, you can make a New Year’s resolution to bring your sluggish Twitter account back to life.  Here are some ideas for getting the engagement you’re looking for.

Create and Share Quality Content.It’s great to retweet other user’s quotes, images and articles.  What’s better? Creating your own quotes, images and articles.  Social media users follow brands because they are either seeking deals on a product or information about a topic.  By sharing relevant content that your users find interesting and useful, you will be seen as an industry leader – a trustworthy and reliable source.

Make Like My Toddler and Be Polite.
My 19-month-old tells us thank you all of the time: when we give her something, when we do something for her, when she hands us things, etc.  All. The. Time. I love good manners and such courtesies have a place on Twitter.  Handing out a thank you or responding to a tweet is an easy way to engage with your followers. Another bonus: you look less like one of those automated robot accounts.

Change Up Your Style.
What do your tweets look like? How many characters are you using? Do you include pictures or links? Tweets that are repeatedly too similar in style are going to bore your users to death.  They may even get so bored that they do the dreaded and unfollow you.  What can you do to liven up those tweets?

An easy way to make any tweet more interesting is to add an image.  According to Quicksprout, engagement for tweets with images is 200% higher than those that don’t include images.  If you aren’t using links, that’s another way to increase engagement for your tweets.  There is an 86% retweet rate for tweets with links and 92% of engagement of a brand’s tweets came from link clicks.  Another way is to keep your tweets under 100 characters – easy peasy.

Timing Is Everything
There isn’t much point in posting on Twitter when your followers aren’t even there to see your posts; this will ultimately prevent you from getting the retweets and @mentions you seek.  It’s good practice to know the best posting times and when your followers are most likely online.  There are several tools you can use to track this information, such as Tweriod or Buffer.  There are also lots of handy infographics on the topic, like this one.

A new year is a clean slate and a chance to make things better.  If you experienced a slow-down in your Twitter engagement during the holidays, changing up your method could be all you need to see the results you want.

Story as Strategy: How Social Storytelling Leads to Business

Do you use storytelling in your business?

Are you wondering how to use stories in your social strategy?

To learn how you can use stories to sell, I interview Gary Vaynerchuk for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast.

More About This Show

The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner.

It’s designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.

The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting).

In this episode, I interview Gary Vaynerchuk, author of Crush It! andThe Thank You Economy. He’s also the CEO of VaynerMedia. His newest book is Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy World.

Gary shares why storytelling is important for your business.

You’ll learn how to discover deeper data and why analytics are an essential part of your social strategy.

Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below!

Listen Now

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, Stitcher or Blackberry.

Here are some of the things you’ll discover in this show:

Story as Strategy

The story behind Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook

Gary explains how he had an epiphany that he might have let people down by over-indexing the act of giving in The Thank You Economy. Although he knew his readers would understand that to give is great, they wouldn’t necessarily understand that at some stage you have to ask.

The book title, Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook, stands for Give, Give, Give, Ask. You have to remember to give value, which eventually leads to putting out a good call to action, which leads to business. Gary says that even some of the best social media people don’t know how to ask for business.

Gary's new book Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy World.

The idea behind the book was for it to be a utility for people. It looks at individual pieces of content as case studies.

You’ll hear why Gary wanted to write a how-to book and why the title is a boxing metaphor.

Listen to the show to find out why Gary looks at social media as a science.

What boxing teaches us about social media marketing

Gary explains that it’s the crossroads of the analytics and being creative to create business results.

He feels like a lot of social media experts don’t put enough effort into analyzing data. Gary didn’t put in the effort either until he started VaynerMedia. Now he has seven full-time analysts. This has given him a much deeper insight into the black-and-white of it all.

VaynerMedia on Facebook.

There are also people who think it’s all algorithmic. They underestimate the value of the human touch and creative, which is the art. Analysis is the science. It’s the crossroads of the two.

Most social media marketers don’t look deep into their analytics because of time or capacity. Most are consumed by speaking, consulting and selling content. Gary feels that it’s time and money that hold most people back. This is why he wanted to share his ideas.

Gary recommends that you use Facebook analytics to test for deeper data. It’s a great tool that has a ton of uses.

You need to think about and test what you put on your Facebook page and Twitter.

Listen to the show to find out why Gary likes to isolate himself into ‘doing’ versus ‘consuming.’

Common traps marketers fall into when it comes to social media

Gary advises that you need to be careful and be able to back up what you say.

He believes that he gets away with a lot of stuff because of the huge success he has had with Wine Library TV. Plus VaynerMedia is an eight-figure business already, where the number of employees has grown from 25 to 300.

Gary has had huge success with Wine Library TV.

You’ll find out why self-awareness is important and what else you need to consider when you want to help people.

Listen to the show to find out why execution matters.

Why storytelling is important

Gary says that storytelling matters because stories are powerful and everlasting and they are what turn a commodity into a business. He believes that a story matters more than anything else.

It’s brand equity. It’s why we buy name-brand products. It’s why fashion works. It’s what cool is about. It’s our sense of place in the world.

The best way to do it is contextually. His book includes 86 case studies that show individual pieces of content that are good and bad. Gary’s biggest goal for the new book is for it to be on everyone’s desk as a reference for when they want to put content out there.

You’ll hear why Gary always starts his talks with his own personal story and whyYouTube and Twitter were the two platforms that became important to him.

A recent New York Times article talks about how Gary and his team at VaynerMedia helped Nilla Wafers exponentially grow their business results with content only onFacebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The New York Times recently featured Gary and his team at VaynerMedia.

You’ll learn about what type of content works best for each platform and the importance of having respect for the context of the platform you tell your story on.

Listen to the show to find out what you need to ask yourself to turn a boring product into an interesting one.

What is micro-content? 

When it comes to storytelling, Gary explains that “micro” means fast. When you think about how quickly content is consumed on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr and Instagram from a mobile device, then you need to put content out there that can capture attention in about 1/100th of a second.

It has to be lightweight and can include memes, animated GIFs and Vines.

You’ll learn about the different types of stories you can tell and why it’s important totalk about your value proposition.

In Gary’s book, he talks about the formula, micro-content + community management = effective social media marketing. When it comes to the community management component, Gary says it’s the proudest aspect of who he is in the social media space. He says that 90% of his tweets are @replies. You don’t just throw your content out there, you have to engage.

You have to engage with your audience.

You’ll discover why Gary chooses engagement over consumption and entertainment.

Listen to the show to find out why Gary believes that Twitter is the one true social network.

How to use a story effectively to drive conversions and sales

Gary says it’s important to engage, engage, engage and create context, so when you ask someone to buy from you, they feel like they owe you something.

Listen to the show to find out why it’s important to continue to deliver.

The importance of effort

You have to put in the effort and the time. A lot of people know what to do, but don’t follow through and actually implement. Gary believes there are a lot of thought leaders who put out blueprint without doing what they are teaching.

It’s part of the opportunity for these leaders to separate themselves from the pack.

Listen to the show to find out why Gary’s latest book is still gaining momentum in presales.

This Week’s Social Media Question

Doug, who is starting a social media strategy company helping small businesses in the Orlando, Florida area, asks, “What is the most effective way to manage usernames, passwords and logins for my clients?”

The good news for the most part is that there’s no need for your clients to give away their passwords to all of their social media accounts for you to manage. For example, with a Facebook page, LinkedIn account or a Google+ account, it will allow you to add administrators.

However, Twitter is slightly different. You’ll need a management app such asSocialOomph or HootSuite, where within the app you can delegate control. Twitter doesn’t make it easy for multiple people to manage accounts because they have a single email address tied to every account.

With Pinterest, I don’t think they have as robust of a management strategy.

If you’re in a position where you need to share (or a client needs to share with you) an ID and password for a social network, I strongly recommend that you make sure whoever is managing your account uses a secure password management tool such as1Password.

1Password is a great password storage system for managing multiple accounts for clients.

Whatever you do, don’t use your web browser to store IDs and passwords. If your laptop gets stolen, someone can pull up the web browser and essentially take over your accounts.

If you have given away your ID and password, then change them. If there are quite a few of you who share the same ID and password, then 1Password is a robust password storage system that works great across every platform.

Call in and leave your social media–related questions for us and we may include them in a future show.

Listen to the show to learn more and let us know how this works for you.

Other Show Mentions

Social Media Marketing World 2014 is our physical mega-conference, which is set to return to San Diego, California on March 26, 27 and 28.

The conference is an incredible opportunity for small business owners and marketers who work for corporations. It features more than 60 sessions across four major tracks, including social tactics, social strategy, community management and content marketing.

There are a lot of big brands that will be presenting, so if you work for a brand, you can go nonstop from brand panel to brand panel. There is also plenty of non-brand stuff for those of you who are not part of a big brand.

Representatives from IBM, Whole Foods, Century 21, SAP, Citrix, Aetna, Experian, Intercontinental Hotels and Kelly Services PLUS moderators from Cisco and Price Waterhouse Coopers will be speaking or participating in the conference.

The list of brands is growing on a regular basis, so be sure to check it out.

Key takeaways mentioned in this episode:

• Connect with Gary Vaynerchuk on his website or Twitter.
• Check out Gary’s books: Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy World, Crush It! and The Thank You Economy.
• Learn more about Facebook Insights to help you dig for deeper data.
• Head over to Wine Library TV.
• Check out Gary on YouTube.
• Read the recent New York Times article featuring Gary and his team at VaynerMedia.
• Take a look at Nilla Wafers’ accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
• Check out SocialOomph and HootSuite as management tools for Twitter.
• Try 1Password as a secure password management tool.
• Contact Emily at emily@socialmediaexaminer.com if you are interested in corporate sponsorships for Social Media Marketing World 2014.
• Learn more about Social Media Marketing World 2014.

Help Us Spread the Word!

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What do you think? What are your thoughts on social storytelling? Please leave your comments below.