Getting Hired

• You Aren’t On Social Media - If you don’t have a Facebook page at least then many employers will think that you are behind the times.  It doesn’t matter if you use it or if your are uncomfortable with it your future employers are looking for it.  You need to take a class and stay updated on the common social media outlets at least.
• Keep it Clean - Since people are looking for you social media profile you need to keep it clean and professional.  If you don’t want to people to see it then don’t post it online at all.  Any comment you make can be held against you because it is now in writing.
• Old Pictures - Many college students believe that the pictures they posted during the last four years have nothing to do with their career.  This is a grave mistake.  Many employers will look at your Facebook page or Flickr to get a feel for who you are before an interview.  So, if you want to appear professional get those drunk party night pictures off your profile and keep them in a personal photo album offline.
• Ranting about an Old Employer - This is tantamount to dissing an employer before you work for them.  It is usually thought that if you rant or make bad comments about former employers then you will do it again.  Keep your negative comments to yourself in private conversations with friend and family.

• Trash Talk - If you think that you trash talking about your boss or your fellow employees is ok online you are mistaken.  There was a court case recently where a teacher was fired because of a rather vague comment she made about being frustrated with her student’s parents.  The school didn’t look kindly on it and fired her when they read it.

Trash Talk got this person fired

• Privacy Settings - Many people think that if they make their Facebook or Twitter pages private then their employers can’t see it.  This is wrong because sometimes it is still picked up by search engines or if you have friended or followed people from your work then your employer can asked to see your page while they are logged in.  It happens everyday.  So, I recommend you still keep it clean.
• Using Social Media at Work - Check your employee handbook and talk with your lawyer friend because this can get you in a bunch of trouble fast.  Many employers have strict rules for using social media at work.  The may even have a social media policy that covers how to represent the company.  Also, if you login from your work computer they could be able to access your accounts too.  Just like high school where police could search your locker with school permission.
• Representing the Company - This is another situation where you need to check your employee handbook or talk with your Marketing Director about a social media policy.  Many employers will ask that you put a statement on your blog saying something akin to, “The opinions on this site are my own and have nothing to do with my employer.”  It keeps everyone clear about your opinions.  But realize you are always representing your company as soon as you list who you work for anywhere online.

Conclusion

Just remember that if you don’t want people to see it then never post it online.  You should also remember a different version of this for those who are employed, “If you wouldn’t say it to your boss then don’t say it online.”  It is a great motto to live by on social media.  If you need to vent then call up a friend or write a journal just don’t post it online.

Reuse

Many products have some powerful campaigns like the Geico customer service push.  This is a main theme they will always want to push.  I heard the same commercial for the last 6-12 months.  So, why make different audio for radio and TV?  If it is successful than find a way to reuse it.  There is no reason to make 2 different scripts for the same concept.

Length is a great way to reuse a material.  Make a 2 minute spot or the longest commercial you can for TV or radio.  Then you can take a little more time to edit it into many different 30 second spots with the same concept in mind that will fit in more spots that could cost less.

Reduce Costs

Reusing doesn’t have to stop after one year-long campaign.  I also recently saw a spot from Frosted Mini Wheats celebrating the 2011 school year.  I thought, “Wait…I’ve seen this before.”  And in fact I had.  Last year.

<iframe width=”560″ height=”349″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/zsdCS7mgUDc” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen>

I bet I am not the only one that thought it was odd to see a commercial 2 years in a row but if it fits then use it.  I don’t see them loosing profits because of a repeat commercial.

Plus this isn’t the only commercial that is repeated on a yearly basis.  Coke use to do it all the time with their Santa Claus commercials.  They maybe came out with one new one but you always expected to see the old one at least once or it wasn’t really Christmas yet.

Do you think it cost them money to show the commercial again?  Probably quite a bit less because all they had to pay was for the time on TV.  No production costs, no actors, no agency.  Just the same commercial with the same purpose.

Recycle

If your goals are good and your ideas sound then why not recycle the idea or the goal.  As long as you do it in moderation, so not to annoy your customer, there should be no problem.

I think if anything reminded us of moderation then it was President Obama’s spam-ish campaign to get Congress to compromise.  Recycle but make sure that it is relevant and do a little research if you are worried that your audience has, “heard this before.”

What Did I miss?

Do you know any other examples of an ad campaign being reused?  I would love to have more examples.

I don’t see a problem…

I am sure many of you are probably on the Google+ band wagon and I can’t blame you.  We all want to get to the product early and make sure that we have a foot hold before our competitors do.  However, there is no need to have a foot hold in a one hit wonder.

Take the Test

Look at your Google+ newsfeed.  Really look.  How many people do you see updating on a regular basis?  5? 10?  I know the number will vary as to how many people you follow.  But I am betting that the number is considerably lower than other social networks.

Next, look at the active users.  If they are anything like the people on my Google+ then they are the communications junkies.  They are the professors from my journalism school, thought leaders and random sales people that slipped through the cracks of my excited adding.

Why?

You may be confused by the results of your test compared to the hype around how awesome Google+ is suppose to be.  The reason? Because we all don’t know how to use it yet.  It isn’t the basics that we are confused by.  Many of us know how social networks work after years of logging into MySpace, Facebook and Twitter among others.  However, this is a new network.  The question here is the one that hauts all social networks,

What am I going to say here that I haven’t already said?  How is this any different?

The problem with any new product or service.  Why do I need this?

Page Rank?  Really?

To be honest, the only thing I have seen consistently that people say is a huge benefit is SEO and Page Rank.  Why? BECAUSE GOOGLE OWNS IT!  This is Google doing what it does best.  It will make us use their social network to get good rankings.  This reeks of monopoly.

Personally, if this is the only reason people can present with then I have to respond, that isn’t good enough.  I use the social networks to connect with people.  Facebook is for family and Twitter is for the world.  What is Google+ for?  What void is it filling other than making my name for noticeable in a Google Search?  I thought I did that by having good content not an update a day on a pandering social network.

Rant Time is Over

I know I sound like a crazy little girl but I am tired of being sold on page rank.  I would rather be a person, a connection.  That is what I love about social media.  It isn’t about a sale, it is about a relationship.  Relationships take time.  Google+ shouldn’t be used to make it seem like you are connecting with customers with higher search ranks.  I think PR in Your Pajamas said it best today with this:

Marketing is a marathon, not a sprint.

Don’t let the page rank fool you.  Count your interactions and compare them to sales.  It takes time to see the change but if you are having true conversations it should show.

Disagree?

Let me know.  I would love to know if my ideas are misinformed because I can always learn from mistakes.

1) Facebook on Speed

Many people say that either they don’t get Facebook or they find it pointless.  This denotes a little bit of fear of the unknown.  Most people have just taken a look or have been given information from friends.  Many of them haven’t tried it or if they had they have made the common mistakes.

I encourage you not be afraid of Twitter.  Why?  Because Twitter is merely a Facebook newsfeed on Speed.  Instead of only following your friends and family you can follow major news organizations and companies you like.  This keeps you up to date on the world around you and not just your friends and family.  Since you can follow more people and organizations then there is more information.  So, the newsfeed gets updated faster.  That is all.

2) Don’t Just Sit There

This isn’t telling you to go out and do social media before you know how it works.  This is for the people who go out and create a Twitter account just to hold the name.  Then they keep the placeholder until they feel like their company is ready to start using Twitter.

It’s a bad idea because if people do a search for you company and find this placeholder they won’t trust it in the future.  They will think it is a spam bot of some sort that is just trying to get clicks on links.  It is better to have to buy a user name or come up with a different user name than to lose the trust of you customers at the start.

3) Blanks

Many of us have found the placeholder pages and will just move on with out a moments notice.  But if we find content we will often stay to see if it is really is the company.  However, if you background is the generic background and you haven’t changed your profile page we can’t trust that this isn’t a bot either just retweeting everything your official page says.

Once again loosing valuable customers because you aren’t taking the time to invest in Twitter fully.  This is usually a few extra minutes on set up that make the whole difference.  Make sure you have a good graphic designer to help with a non-obnoxious background.  Then just find the right size of your brand logo for your profile picture.  Finally, fill out your bio.  It helps make you real to your customers and not a spammer.

Remember, to include a link to you company’s webpage because Twitter can only bring you leads when you make it easy for them to make the next step in the sales process.

4) Follow Whom you Like

This doesn’t mean follow everyone.  It means follow other Twitter users you actually like reading.  This means actually reading their updates.  If you like what a user writes about then follow them.  If you follow everyone back it becomes a problem of too much spam on a personal feed. It makes it so you don’t want to read Twitter any more because it is full of useless information to you.

For a company this is a little more complicated because you need to get followers to be trusted.  I recommend following customers in your area that you believe would actually use your product.  Be honest and don’t pander.  Then follow thought leaders in your industry and competitors.  I know it sounds strange to follow competitors but then you know what they are doing without being a threat.  This way you stay up on your industry news and are still enjoying Twitter.

For both, remember Twitter will seem boring and weird until you get into the groove of the right people.  This I see happening when people follow around 100 people.  At that point you are following news and information you like and it updates quickly without too much wait time.

5) You Won’t be able to Read Everything, Don’t Try

Twitter is the Facebook newsfeed on Speed.  I have trouble staying up to date on my friends in Facebook trying to read everything.  If I tried to read everything on Twitter not only would I not have enough time for life but I would go crazy.  Twitter is meant to be scanned.  You look for people you like to read, interesting phrases that make you curious and hashtags.  Hashtags were created on Twitter to be a sort of theme tagging so that you know what the link or tweet is about before you read all of it.

Just try to scan Twitter and you will be fine.  Sometimes it takes a while to learn to scan but just give it a try so you don’t go insane.

Twitter is What You Make It

These are the lessons I remember but the one I will always tell people who think Twitter is a waste of time is that Twitter is what you make it.  If you follow pointless people and spam it will be a waste of time.   If you follow thought leaders and people with information you care about then it will be an instant update to your world.

The point is to take the time to make it worth something.  Even if you have a few issues at the beginning take the time to learn from them.  Twitter is a resource that can help you if you give it the time to grow.

Lately I have been seeing people writing how-to articles for Google+ and other new sites.  Then they start to talk about how businesses can use new sites to advertise.  I feel like this is all a little too early.  The how-to articles are one thing but you need to read more than one to get the eccentricities of new products that different articles might miss.  But, the advertising tactics when a medium is so young is a bit premature.

Advertising too Early

Don’t get me wrong, finding ways to advertise on new mediums is great but you need to give the medium a little time to grow.  With Facebook we had random groups, events and business creating personal profiles.  Then Facebook opened the banner ads and the business fan pages and we all got into the groove of what was acceptable advertising on it.

Twitter had the same grace period that it is still working through a bit.  We had sponsored tweet from people like Paris Hilton but we figured out that popularity was nothing when the product didn’t fit the person.  Now we have promoted tweets based on popularity in the masses and sponsored tweets that are labeled so you don’t feel tricked into retweeting it if you like it.  But we have seen the odd trust that has built from that.

Experiment, No Really 

Many companies are testing out strategies right now for these new platforms.  I just don’t think that they have had enough time to build a solid case.

I am not saying don’t experiment.  In fact I encourage you, yes, do some experimenting and try writing a case study but don’t tell me that you have done all of the strategy, goals and metrics in less than a week.  I want to see how different people use the medium before I try to go in and persuade them to buy a product.  I think that we can find ways that businesses can succeed but we need to have people succeed first.

Play with It

In my opinon we need to play with it as people first.  Get use to how you use it.  Even if the product is just new to you.  Get an account and see how your friends use it.  Social media is nothing without friends or collegues to share it with.  Once you see how you use it then you can understand how often you would want to be advertised to and how you would feel about different approaches.  Think of that like you were the customer and then go from there.

StumbleUpon is an internet surfing engine also known as a “discovery engine” that takes users to websites based on their preselected preferences. I discovered this interesting form of search engine during college and lost many hours of studying to the art of “stumbling” across the internet. However, I recently found out that StumbleUpon has reached 1 billion stumbles per month and was shocked. I thought this was a mindless product that had gone the ways of Digg and Reddit to disappear in to the forgotten Internet.

What exactly is StumbleUpon

Wikipedia says, “StumbleUpon is a discovery engine (a form of web search engine) that finds and recommends web content to its users. Its features allow users to discover and rate Web pages, photos, and videos that are personalized to their tastes and interests using peer-sourcing and social-networking principles.” Basically this means that StumbleUpon takes you to websites that you have approved by your category selections when you first signed in and what other people have recommended on the StumbleUpon network.

How do you use StumbleUpon?

Most StumbleUpon users stumble as a hobby. It is best described as channel surfing online because we don’t do it for business but for pure entertainment reasons. Think about surfing (in the ocean), do you do it to find customers? I know I don’t surf to find customers or business. Now, I don’t actually surf but I imagine you would do it to relax and be entertained. For internet surfing , I use it to find entertaining information but if I find something informative in the process then it is a win-win situation.

Good for Business

I wouldn’t recommend putting your full website on StumbleUpon. If you have already done this don’t worry, it still works but not as well as other programs. Personally, I feel that StumbleUpon will work best for a company blog. A blog is a great place for people to get to know your business and they are more likely to read a blog post for entertainment purposes.

Where to Start

Putting each blog post into your StumbleUpon account with specific category settings will help you rank your website with users and on Google. Adding blog posts to StumbleUpon may get you traffic and syndicate your information but it will not necessarily get you business immediately. If you need help with qualified traffic to your website contact us or visit our services page.

I know that many salespeople will tell me that the Sales Funnel is alive and well. I know even more that they will tell me they walked a customer through the process last Thursday. However, I have to disagree because the Sales Funnel has now evolved to become what I like to call the Sales Net. But I am getting a little ahead of myself. Let’s do a review of the Sales Funnel.

Sales Funnel Basics

I’m sure we have all seen the graph below. It is basic version of the sales funnel but every company names the layers of it a little differently. The New Opportunity or Initial Contact is basically the first time a salesperson interacts with a potential customer. Then there is some Fact Finding or a Sales Lead when someone will continue to vet the new potential customer so see if the company in question has any services that might solve their problem. If the customer is moved to the next step, then a solution is developed for them because the need has been identified. Next this solution is presented to the customer to see if the customer believes the product or service in question really will solve their problem. Then it is obviously evaluated by both the customer and the business depending if it needs to be modified.

Finally, if everything is still working out, there is a negotiation on price and time of services rendered. After all of that a product or service is purchase. At the end you see Account Maintenance but I believe that is only done to restart the funnel for a different product or service from the same company or to evaluate the service used.

What’s Wrong with This?

This is the million dollar question. I believe that there is something majorly wrong with the old Sales Funnel. It isn’t just the titles or the colors. The fact is, we don’t know exactly when any of these touch points are happening.

New Media Makes Tracking Sales Harder

There are problems tracking on almost every level of the funnel caused by new media:

• New Opportunity & Initial Communication could start on social media. A New Opportunity could be discovered on Twitter with an Initial Communication on Facebook. You may say this part is easy to track and on occasion it is. But 9 times out of ten, people don’t have the same Twitter Handle as a Facebook Profile name. So, how do you know you are working with the same person?
• Fact Finding is usually done by the customer without consultation from the business. The customer usually does some fact finding on their own by doing a Google Search on a product or service they are curious about. This can sometimes be tracked by PPC or SEO results but that doesn’t pinpoint the customers specifically.
• Develop Solution can’t really be traced either because customers sometimes contact a business through social media or a contact page on a website to say that they need a solution to ‘x’ problem. Most of the time a customer knows the solution for their problem but they may be checking to see if there is a better solution through their friends on Facebook and Twitter or merely asking in person.
• Proposed Solution Here we have the first actually traceable part of a sales process because this is when a customer goes to a store to talk about what kind of solutions they believe will help their problem. Sometimes a customer just wants a few more suggestions but most of the time they have come to your store with a purpose of either purchasing or questioning a real live salesperson.
• Negotiation & Purchase Order If you are lucky the customer likes either their own solution or your proposed solution enough that they will continue to negotiate a price and finally purchase.

Did you notice that only the last 3 or 4 steps are measurable by traditional tactics? How do you work with a contact that you don’t even know is looking at your product? This is why I created the Sales Net idea.

Sales Net

The Sales Net states that you need to have a broad marketing message so that your customers will find you when they decide to go out and look for your product or service.

You should think about the Sales Net like fishing for customers online. You want to cast a wide net to catch the most interested customers. The idea of having a wide net shouldn’t scare off local customers; in fact, your net only needs to be as wide as local search marketing.

Businesses need a Sales Net because as you have seen above, New Media has made it so we don’t know where a customer starts to enter our sales process till the end. So, you want to be out where your customers are searching for a solution and then take them where you want them to be, i.e., your business.

What does this mean for your Business?

Since about 70% of people look for businesses online before they look at the YellowPages, think about your businesses’ online marketing strategy. A good internet marketing strategy is key to having a successful Sales Net to catch all of your customers. A business should be in industry forms, customer forms, and on Facebook and Twitter (if necessary). A primary need is having a strong website full of user friendly descriptions of your products and services. A strong website must also be easy to crawl by the search engines because if you can’t rank then you can’t bank on business.

Finally, I recommend that you not only get online and make it easy for everyone to find you but go out and make friends. This doesn’t mean start a Facebook page and wait. It means that your business needs to be in the directories and that you need to market your Facebook and Twitter Pages to current customers. If you don’t market you new Website it will be like having a store location no one can find. How will anyone know you have a great website or Facebook page if you don’t tell them?

If there are holes in your marketing strategies then those are customers that are escaping the net quickly.

Seems like a lot…Where do I start?

If you are thinking this headline then you should definitely start by looking at your website. For instance, if you have a Flash website then that is a HUGE hole in your Sales Net because these websites are hard for search engines to crawl. Also, it’s important to get your business listed in directories because if the search engines can’t find your website, at least they can find your business through a related keyword.

Your thoughts?

We would love to hear your thoughts about this concept. Leave us your comments below.

Did you know that 2/3rds of Americans search for local business online and most NEVER use theYellow Pages? Higher than you thought? Think about it, how often do you pick up the Yellow Pages, or any print directory for that matter, to search for a pizza place or a plumber? Not often I’ll bet.

Remember when…

I remember when my parents would look up everything in the phone book. My dad is still uncomfortable with the computer enough that he uses the phone book to find local numbers. However, my mother, the tech savvy one, does almost all her searches online. I know that most people my age have a stack of directories somewhere in there house or holding up a table.

I always imagine doing the Yellow Pages test from Mythbusters every time I see a stack of them in the recycling bin (which is quite often). But I don’t have the equipment ready to try it. During an episode of Mythbusters they tried to figure out if when you put two phone books together pages by page (overlapping), if you would then be able to pull the two phone books apart again.

It is everywhere

I believe the Internet won the directory battle because it is everywhere. It used to be that you could find a directory on every corner in the phone booth. However, with the advent of cell phones, phone booths have practically become extinct. So, finding a phone book is just as hard as finding a phone booth outside your house.

The Internet is such a huge part of our lives it has even come into schools to the point that some children have to turn in assignments online rather than in the classroom. Computers are at work and at home. We play on the Internet and use it for a large portion of our jobs. So, since I am already at the computer for a large portion of my day then why not look up a place to go to lunch or buy shoes or get my car cleaned, etc.

It is easy

It is so easy to search for something and then add your location to the end of the phrase so that you find local products. It is quite a bit easier than flipping to the right page of a phone book when the pages are so thin.

I don’t have to wade through the pages of information to find a nail salon that can do a touch up for less than $10. I can type that exact phrase with a location to see if I can find it in my area. Why? Because all of that information should be on their website and you better believe that I expect a business to have a website.

It is mobile

The Internet is also easy to use because I can search on my phone. I never walk around with a mini phonebook in my pocket because I use the Internet on my smart phone the same way I would at home. Not only am I saving some money and a tree but I don’t even have to type in the phone number now I just click on the image of the phone in my mobile browser search.

When I first left for college my father told me to keep a phonebook in the car. At the time they were making tiny phonebooks to keep in your car, but I never did. It was just easier to get a number online and save it on my phone.

Where do I start?

Since people don’t use the Yellow Pages anymore, many business owners wonder where to go to be found online. First, it is always good to take a look and make sure your website meets search engine quality standards, because if it doesn’t then you won’t be found. More importantly, if you either don’t have a website or are waiting for a website redesign then I would recommend getting listed in all the major online directories.

Online Directories

When a good website is having trouble getting traffic, directories are a great option to get that initial boost. Since people have moved online to find information, they still need to have easy access to the basic information about a business including an address and phone number. This is why the Yellow Pages created a free online listing feature call YP.com.

However, this isn’t the only or the most important online directory. There are hundreds of online directories that are tailored to specific kinds of businesses or just for local businesses or just give people a place to review your business.

The tailored sites some people already know are sites like eLocalRoofer.com to find a roofer in your area. Many contract workers have probably heard of Angie’s List and it is a great place to be listed.
Directories for local businesses are sites like Google Places or MerchantCircle where businesses list their information and communicate with other businesses. It is also a good place to talk about special offers.

Finally, the directory people are most familiar with is review sites. Yelp and Consumerist are just as important for local businesses because you should already be listed there or an angry customer might fill out the information for you.

Being found isn’t the only benefit

The major benefits of using online directories over printed directories not only include being found online by potential customer but the fact that you can dominate categories and keywords for your business. When you search for you business name on Google now you may find a few links to your business. After being listed in these online directories, you can dominate the first 3 pages for the same search

P.S. For those of you that, like us, immediately toss the Yellow Pages into the recycling bin, here is a link to a post on eHow that contains instruction on how to stop receiving phone books and Yellow Pages.

Every day I see people and businesses write things online that are losing them customers and friends. I see businesses that repeat themselves or owners that talk on their personal pages constantly about their business. In this post I hope to tell you how to avoid alienating your friends by talking up your business on your personal page or saying all the wrong things.

Digital Deja Vu

The problem I see most is owners that eat, pray and breathe their business. This is great for the business but not for their personal life. I have friends that are so involved with their business that their business and personal pages are synced; they have the same information going out at the same time. So, what do I see in my newsfeed but an update from the owner’s personal page with the same update from their business page immediately after. This is where you lose followers. I, and many others, will hide your business if you do this too much because I am seeing the same thing twice. I will follow my friends over their businesses.

This same issue can also get you in trouble with Facebook and Twitter directly. A person treating their personal profile like a business page can have their account suspended because even Facebook and Twitter believe that business information should be separate from personal information. If you are lucky they will contact you about the information for a business page. Most of the time they will just suspend your account without warning and then it is really hard to get it set up again.

Rule #5: Don’t Mix Business with Pleasure

I know this is a cliché but you really should avoid mixing business with personal on social networking sites. Your friends and family know what you do and how your job works, so unless something particularly special happened this week about your business they don’t need to know.

If you find yourself talking about your business a lot then it is time to open up a Fan Page where you can drive customers to your information. You’ll be using your time more wisely for free marketing.

Saying all the wrong things

Now there are times when I have seen businesses talk about politics and religion, but most of the time they are businesses that are either political or religious in nature. For instance, your clients don’t need to know what your political stance is on smoking in bars if you are an accountant. I don’t feel like I need to know if my child’s math teacher is Buddhist. It shouldn’t affect the way these people do their business. However, knowing a person’s political or religious beliefs can change the way we look at them because they are highly emotional topics.

Rule #6: If you wouldn’t say it on a Sandwich board, don’t say it online.

It is best to play it safe. I say that you shouldn’t bring up topics about religion or politics unless your company is explicitly part of it. For instance, here in Oregon City many companies are talking about a political push called the River’s Project. Since this affects the community then it is ok to talk about your thoughts on it. However, you should always consider how some of your customers will feel about the subject before you post it.

At InstallLogic Social Media we all agree that if you don’t talk about politics, religion and other highly emotional topics then they are out of sight and out of mind. A good rule of thumb is that if you wouldn’t put a phrase on a sandwich board outside your business then you shouldn’t say it online. Keep in mind that you are publishing your ideas to the world and not to just the people you like.

Did we leave anything out?

Let us know by leaving a comment and be sure to check out the other posts in this series to see if your query is covered there. Stay tuned for next week’s post about Automation and Repetition.

The New Guy

First I must concede that I have seen social media still be a fad to those small businesses that haven’t used it yet.  For those who are new to the media it will always feel like the new guy in town.  The new meat theory is something I remember making after seeing  the movie Someone Like You.  I grew up in a small town where people rarely moved to town after our lumber mill was closed.  So, when a new guy came to town all the girls thought he was the hottest thing around for about three months.  Then after that he settled in the high school hierarchy as needed.  It was pretty consistent.

I feel like this is exactly what is happening with social media.  When social media is the new guy in your advertising or public relations plan then you will use it because it is new. It may also continue to be a fad to everyone who has never used it before in a communications plan.

From Fad to Mainstream

Now that I have conceded that there is a fad to some I would like to get back to my point.  Social media is part of almost every marketing plan I see today.  Yes, I am a bit bias as I work in social media currently however, I see more businesses and agencies encouraging their clients to use some sort of social media.  It is becoming a go to media for most companies in one form or another.  The thing is that when people write about social media being a fad it is because businesses use it for the wrong reasons, with no goals or strategy or without doing research to see how it can help their business.  Many businesses say, “I just need a Facebook page,” or “I just need to start a Blog,” without doing the planing and research is needed to make it work.  Plus they could be using the wrong social media platform to reach their goals, if any.

Social Media Channels

People talk about social media channels but never really explain it.  Social media channels, in my opinion, is like comparing social media to television.  There are many different types of social media to fit the varied interests of people just like there are 100′s of cable channels that people can subscribe to when buying cable.  Each channel is targeted to a specific group, local channels are more general, HBO for people who like movies, History channel for people who like history, Golf channel for, well, I think you get the point.  Social media is the same way if you look at it as a mainstream media like television.

Social media channels can vary from family, news, or business.  Family is more of a Facebook channel.  Tailored news and information could be a Twitter channel.  For more of a business and sales focus you would use the LinkedIn channel.  These are changing rapidly as new social media outlets become available.

What’s the Right Channel?

As you can see not ever channel is for every business.  Each business needs to figure out where their customers would like to meet them and go to that place.  Just because everyone is on Facebook doesn’t mean I want to meet my Doctor or Contractor on Facebook.  I will look for them in appropriate channels like Angie’s List.

You need to think about how you as a person would want to be approached by a business.  You don’t want someone doing door-to-door all the time.  Sometimes you just want an answer to a question on Quora, others you want a business connection to help both your endeavors grow.  You need to think about the right approach and then find the channel that fits that mindset.

Mainstream channels

Social media when used correctly with the right goals and research is a mainstream medium.  However, when used ‘willy nilly’ it is still a fad because you aren’t engaging business or sales, you are just yelling into the void.  Social media can help almost every communications plan.  It just has to be used for good and not evil.  What is evil you might ask? Trying to Friend me on Facebook when I don’t know who you are or care about your business.