Social media marketing | Liz Hover's Diary of a Web Gal

Something occurred to me yesterday after writing about why you should be using social media.

The phrase ‘social media’ is a redundant term. We should really be referring to the ‘social web.’

Most of us think of ‘social media’ as a thing. Something for marketers to learn maybe. Something to add to our ‘marketing mix.’ A collective term to describe a number of websites.

But social media is not media at all in the traditional or marketing sense.

It’s an online behaviour.

Because the internet has changed so much in the last few years, the way we use it has also changed. What we publish to the internet is no longer a one-way street.

What social media really is is a more open method of communication across the internet.

Social media is commenting on a blog post or news item on your local news website, sharing photos with your friends and family on Flickr, connecting with folks on Facebook, sharing video on YouTube, microblogging on Twitter. The list goes on and on and on.

It’s a way of behaving on the internet that’s active not passive.

Social media is anything on the internet that involves two way (or many way) communication.

If you really want to ‘get into social media’ you need to change the way you interact on the web.

Don’t just be a consumer of information. Be a creator. Be a commentator. Be a sharer. That’s what social media is really about.

UPDATE: Since writing this post I got to thinking a lot about the term ‘social media.’ So I wrote about it in a post called Defining social media – the wrong term?

When I write about folks using social media what I’m really saying is people need to change their behaviour on the internet. The web is no longer a one-way street. Social media is a totally redundant term. What we should be referring to is the ‘social web.’ To embrace ‘social media’ is to start using the internet in a different way: interacting with others. Plain and simple.

And so it really does amaze me that folks are still slow to adopt a new way of behaving online which will clearly benefit their business. I’ve changed this post to reflect my new way of thinking.

In the nicest possible way it amazes me that there are some folks still questioning whether or not to embrace the social web.

Inspired by a recent tweet (that’d be ‘comment’ posted on Twitter for those of you who aren’t familiar with the term) from @SeanDonahoe (Can social media help your business?) I felt compelled to write about it.

I worry about the folks still pondering whether or not to dip their toe into the social web. That’s like saying, ‘Can talking to your customers/clients/friends be any good for business?’ Isn’t it obvious?

I’ve said this before but I’ll say it again: if all this socialising on the web is new to you and and you’re not sure how it will help you get over it. Yes, there are umpteen experts floating around the internet trying to preach their rules to you about how to handle ‘social media.’ Some of them are brilliant. Some of them are not. Whether you choose to listen to advice from them is your decision but for God’s sake don’t let apprehension stop you from kick-starting a marketing strategy that will enhance both you and your business.

Maybe you’re wary about the hype around sites such as Facebook and Twitter and think they’re just fly-by-night websites destined to fail and without any real value.

You’d be wrong.

We live in a society that constantly changes, yes. But ignoring the social web is a mistake. Again, how can talking about your business or industry with other like-minded people be bad?

Maybe you’re intimidated by the phrase ‘social media.’

Don’t be.

It’s just a label. Boiled down it really just refers to the fact that we’re social beings with an inherent desire to communicate with others. But now we do it a lot on the internet. Oh, and some clever people built some websites so we can do it all in one place. And other folks have adapted their websites to allow us to have a conversation with them.

At work today one of my bloggers – Nova Scotia filmmaker Eva Madden – suprised me with a new post. She hasn’t written one in a year.

Her post was inspired by a meeting she had with a couple of LA screenwriters who told her, essentially, to stop thinking and start doing.

That advice doesn’t just apply to screenwriters or ‘creative types.’ It applies to every area of life. And since we’re on the subject, it also applies to how we use the internet.

If you’re reading this post because you too are wondering how social media can help your business, stop thinking and start doing.

Twitter is touted as a social network. We share conversations. We share links. We share joy and sadness.

One of the most unexpected things for me has been the sharing of death.

It’s not something you think about when you sign up to Twitter. You don’t consider that in addition to sharing mighty fine links and getting to know people you’ll also share in people’s sadness.

This week one of my Twitter pals lost a good friend of hers. And my dog Sadie Shih Tzu lost a kitty pal called Oscar.

My reaction was unexpected too.

I felt genuine sadness. Even tears.

Twitter lets you interact with folks that you might not otherwise know. And suddenly you’re swept into another world: you get great links to information that helps you in work and play. You hear which hockey teams are the favourites; you learn what folks love and hate; you hear about crappy meetings; disappointments; but death? I wasn’t prepared for it.

People are using Twitter for many different reasons. I’m a website manager and connect with lots of marketing folks. The first thing on my mind when I follow new people on Twitter is usually what I can learn from them.

And in a way I suppose learning to cope with death has become one of those lessons.

But it wasn’t something I ever thought about when I joined Twitter.

Folks that are hoping to sell their product; create a buzz or network for business (and I’m one of them) should remember that Twitter is called a social network for a reason.

With contacts and knowledge also comes emotion and pain. If you want to ‘connect’ with people you should be prepared for the good and the bad. And reaching out to those folks that you’ve never met can sometimes be difficult. But you should expect it as a part of Twitter if you want to have meaningful relationships there.

My heart goes out to Liz S and Oscar the cat‘s mom Angie.

Photo courtesy of ittybittiesforyou via a Creative Commons Licence

Highlights of an interview from seventh edition of D: All Things Digital. Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg talk to Twitter co-founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams. Originally posted on All Things Digital.

Over at Mashable, writer Adam Ostrow asks if social media is making corporate websites irrelevant.

Remember the dotcom era?

Websites were the thing. And then it all went arse up.

Adam wonders if corporate websites are still useful today with the rapid growth of spaces such as Facebook and Twitter. More and more brands are using those sites to market their products and push their message. Should we even bother with a website?

Let’s look at it another way.

Corporate websites need to do much more to pull in functions from social media sites that add value to their own online space. A company always needs a home base. It’s where you can find all the bits. This is such an exciting time in website and marketing development. Companies should be clawing at API (application programming interface – that’s the thing that lets you and and me build stuff on our websites using bits of Facebook or Twitter or myriad other cool social media sites.)

One problem with the social web is the fragmentation of everything. At some future point we’re probably gonna want to reign things back in. Just a little. API and our corporate websites are where we’ll do it. Sure, corporate websites will go through some transformation along the way but ultimately we’ll want a tidy place where we can find all the parts without going all over to find them.

A website is still key to your brand and probably always will be. Your portfolio of online space will get bigger but ‘the website’ gives it all a home.

Liz Hover writes: I met designer Grace Smith on Twitter.  I was immediately attracted to the way she tweeted for two reasons: first, she’s friendly and second, she tweets some damn fine links.

I found out more about Grace and it was obvious that she’s social media savvy; She runs her own design company and has leveraged social media to help build that business.

I asked if she’d share some of that knowledge with you and provide tips and guidance on how small businesses can use sites like Facebook and Twitter to strengthen their presence online.

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Effective use of social media means focusing on building your brand and your reputation. Many small businesses hear the buzz surrounding sites like Twitter but don’t know where or how to start using social media to develop their brand.

This list hopes to compile five of the core ways small businesses can start using social media to brand their business, engage with their customers, build trust in their brand and position themselves as a valuable contributor to the community.

1. Build powerful profiles

Building consistent, strong profiles across your chosen social media sites will help people gain familiarity with your brand and they will begin to seek you out and follow you via your site or other profiles.

Your social media profiles can help your brand create a powerful presence and allows users to put a face to the brand name. It’s therefore important to craft a strong bio and consistent avatar across any social media sites you participate in.

This creates brand recognition which is one of every business owner’s core goals. Brand recognition will enable you to become instantly recognisable and developed properly will eventually lead to brand preference and loyalty.

2. Listen, engage and converse

Signing up to social media sites and setting your profiles on autopilot isn’t going to cut it if you want to establish your brand and grow your business. You need to build a profile, connect with others (most importantly with your target market) and join in the conversation.

Social media is about building and strengthening relationships, listening and interacting with others. It’s called ‘social’ media for a reason, you have to create a valuable ongoing dialogue with others around you.

In essence by adding valuable information, good creative content and engaging with others you will prove your brand is a consistently valuable resource and a thoughtful contributor to the community. This not only builds trust in your brand but people will also relate your brand with quality.

3. Be genuine and provide value

One of the core principles of using social media is to expand your network and provide value to build awareness, trust and reputation in your brand. For small businesses this means developing ongoing, genuine and valuable interactions between your target market and your brand.

By genuinely and sincerely engaging others you will develop friends and contacts who will also begin recommending your blog or website to others. From this you will see your overall traffic increase organically as people link to you and promote your content because you have proven to be a valuable source of information.

Social media is not a get rich scheme; giving the hard sell and continually pushing your own agenda will get you nowhere. Rather by regularly participating and proving to be a valuable person in peoples’ networks you will be rewarded over the long term rather than just visiting when you think you can benefit.

4. Develop an authority blog

Blogging removes the barrier between your brand and your target market by pulling the conversation scattered across your various social networks to one place where you can develop a deeper, focused conversation with your readers and potential consumers.

It also increases your reach within the online community and gives you a place to share your interest and passion for your niche, product or service.

Through a blog you can begin the process of positioning yourself as an expert and credible content producer which not only acts as an extension of your brand but helps reinforce it. In turn it will help people develop a trust with your brand, ultimately helping your business.

Essentially a blog is a representation of you online so carefully crafting your content so it supports the key messages you wish to convey is at the core of building your brand.

5. Personalise your brand

You are the CEO of your brand and it won’t survive if it’s stale, boring and outdated.

Does your brand have a personality? Or is it just a name on your business card and letterhead?

It shouldn’t be.

Your brand should be able to stand on it’s own with a unique personality that you can carefully craft with the help of social media.

As a small business your brand needs to have human characteristics which people can relate to. Your ‘brand voice’ should reflect the personality traits of your brand, for example if your brand is extroverted and edgy, does it reflect this or does it sound quiet and plain? If you are your brand (i.e. as a freelancer) then you need to be authentic, express your personality and provide value.

Spending time working on keywords which summarise the characteristics of your brand will help you develop an individual and unique voice which consumers can relate to and recognise.

In conclusion…

Engaging in social media can be an extremely fun, informative and profitable experience. It’s also an invaluable branding tool which can help to grow your network and interact with people you wouldn’t have access to otherwise.

By effectively using social media sites I have been able to craft a strong personal brand which I have been able to translate into my business – Postscript5.

You can’t however be active at every social site in a consistent valuable way, so choose just a few where your customers are and concentrate your efforts there.

It’s important to remember that engaging in social media shouldn’t replace your other promotional activities or affect your actual workload. With that said, it can be a key tool to build your brand and your business if used correctly and effectively.

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Grace Smith is the owner of Postscript5, a small design studio based in Northern Ireland, UK.

Grace has a passion for Web Standards and User Interface design, and enjoys working with a variety of entrepreneurs and small businesses throughout the UK and USA.

She enjoys using her abundance of creative energy to create and develop a variety of personal projects, including CSS Loaf.

Her newly established blog at gracesmith.co.uk has been hugely successful within its short life span and she continues to write with a passion on design, social media and technology.

She also has a love of huge sunglasses!