#FiveTipsFriday Building Online Credibility

The word “relationship” is used a lot when describing how companies should approach social media marketing. You need to build relationships with your audience, relationships with your customers, and relationships with key players in your industry who might help promote your message. Relationship can be a tricky word to understand in a business sense, however, especially in a business context. What exactly does “build relationships” mean? We think perhaps social media marketing success may seem more accessible if we shift the verbiage a little. Instead of talking about building relationships, how can companies build credibility online? Our five tips today offer advice on how you can build your company’s online credibility.

1. Be clear about who you are

This is especially necessary on Twitter. Are you tweeting as a company, as a representative of a company, or as an individual? Your avatar and your Twitter bio can go a long way towards clarifying your online identity for others. Once you make that decision, try to maintain a consistent tonality, particularly if you are tweeting on behalf of a company.

2. Do not share unvalidated information

This can be tricky when your desire is to share as much information as possible as quickly as possible. Margie wrote about the perils of sharing information too quickly on a post for Razoo. The problem is that information you share, along with however you introduce it, can spread to others in  your network very quickly. If it is discovered that you shared incorrect data or information, your credibility can be called into question. This can be a hard blow from which to recover.

3. Do not share without checking what you are sharing

Getting hacked is a common problem in the online world. You don’t just need to worry about your accounts, although obviously that will be your top priority. You also need to make sure that trusted sources around you aren’t sending out bad links. Many times we can fall into patterns of simply sharing content from trusted accounts, but that can backfire badly, and it can impact your credibility in very serious ways.

4. “You might be wrong. Be humble.”

There is a picture that has been floating around on Pinterest with words to this effect. In an effort to build credibility, it can be tempting online to say things with certainty, or to indicate that if someone does not do things your way they are less intelligent. Leave yourself some wiggle room in case someone offers an alternative perspective or new information you may not have known when you made your initial comment.

5. Avoid drama

If you are using online tools for fun as an individual, engage in emo drama till the cows come home. However, if you are trying to build your company’s online credibility, it’s usually a good idea to try to avoid the drama that can spring up in the online world. Not only can drama bring out the most unattractive side of an individual’s personality, but if people see a corporate account engaging in drama, they may well wonder why that company isn’t busy actually doing real-world work. It can be a slippery slope, so as always our advice is, “If you aren’t sure, probably best to err on the side of caution.”

Building credibility online is a tricky thing, and usually there is not a clear way to measure how you are progressing on this path. It is important to follow your own compass, and of course if you are online to represent your company, make sure that everyone in your company is on board with talking points, company voice, and more.

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vagawi/3155400274/ via Creative Commons

The Social Media Boom and Bust

Normally, “boom and bust” or “bubble” is used to describe an economic phenomenon. Think of the dot-com boom and bust or the more recent housing bubble. As a review, a boom and bust or a bubble happens because people appraise companies or houses or other things at a higher value than what those companies or houses or other things really are worth. There is a mad grab in purchasing, prices skyrocket, but then, suddenly, outside forces  bring everyone crashing back to earth. The bust happens. The bubble gets popped.

We may see an economic boom and bust where social media is concerned. Consider the price that Facebook recently paid for photo-sharing platform Instagram (one billion dollars) or how much Yahoo paid for blogging platform Tumblr (just over a billion dollars). However, our focus is not as much on this facet of what is happening in regards to social media use for marketing. Our concern is whether the “boom” in recommending social media as a means for, well, everything for companies may bust some time in the near future and how that would impact companies.

The Boom

For us, it seemed like the “boom” phase for social media really began in 2009. Perhaps we are unduly influenced by the “social media revolution” video that launched that year. Social Media is not a fad, the video assures viewers. It will change and is already changing everything in the world. It also is worth noting that PC World called 2009 “The year of the social network.” As a marketing agency, we were excited about the potential of social media as a tool our clients could use, but we started seeing advice that did not make sense. For example:

This article on well-trafficked social media site Social Media Today, which proclaimed that if your  business was not using social media, you were behind the 8-ball.

By 2010, businesses, especially B2C companies, were being admonished that they desperately needed Foursquare, a geo-tagging platform.

In 2011, well-known social media strategists like Jeremiah Owyang and David Armano were preaching the benefits of Q&A platform Quora.

As advice like this has continued to crescendo over the years, we end up with more recent articles that suggest that if you studied classical marketing, your expertise is no longer valued (that from Forbes). Then of course there is the 2013 craze, content marketing. You can learn why content marketing is more beneficial than traditional marketing , why content marketing is an “absolute must,” and why traditional marketing techniques don’t work on millennials (via HubSpot).

In addition to all of this advice that pits social media against more traditional marketing tools and approaches, some social media marketers have branded themselves so successfully online that they themselves have become self-proclaimed celebrities (a definite sign of a bubble). Take this recent comment pulled from a blog post regarding a new initiative from blogging platform Triberr:  “Having a celebrity endorsement is a tremendously effective way of promotion. And bloggers are the celebrities in the online world.”

Social Media “gurus,” people who have been making their living offering social media consultation since, in some cases, 2007 or earlier, have done a superb job promoting two things; social media platforms and themselves. As a full-service marketing agency, this does not help us do our job better. If you work in the marketing department at your company, it probably does not help you out a lot either. While information about new social media tools and platforms is important, our guess is that right about now, as we emerge from the “Great Recession,” you are looking for meaningful advice about how to use all of these great tools to build your brand and cushion your bottom line.

The Bust

After the dot-com boom and bust, the concept of online marketing did not disappear. Rather, expectations and perspectives regarding these new tools became more realistic. Companies began to look at online opportunities as potential tools rather than super sexy silver bullets. When we talk about a social media bust, we are not talking about Facebook or Twitter dying. What we are talking about, however, is that eventually, and we think soon, the gloss of social media will begin to tarnish. Companies, marketers like you, are going to increase the call for more actionable advice. Rather than “write awesome content,” companies are going to be asking, “And then what?” New social media platforms will still be interesting and exciting, but instead of jumping on board right away, companies may start asking, “Well, ok, will this help us increase sales MORE than what we are doing now?” Companies will start looking at what social media marketing consultants are basing advice on, and conferences and webinars designed (it seems) solely to sell books will no longer be deemed worthy of investment.

There are signs that this process has already begun. Consider this post by Tom Webster of Edison Research, which acknowledges that content marketing could fast be approaching a saturation point. The development of the new Content ROI Center we mentioned last week is also a step towards more actionable, real-world advice.

We have always offered customized advice to companies that approach us for marketing assistance and have never been on board with the concept of saying that any one marketing tool, social media or otherwise, is ideal for every single company. During the tough economic times the world has been through over the last few years, a sense of desperation, high unemployment, and the rise of new technology combined to create the “social media is all you need” bubble we are seeing now. It will be a tough transition for companies and individuals that banked everything on the social media “revolution.” The end result for those who can withstand the storm will be positive, however. And companies will get stronger for having endured the social media boom and bust.

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinkpurse/5291302347 via Creative Commons

Manage Your Marketing: Getting the Most Bang for Your Buck

John Wanamaker, a famous merchant of the late 19th and early 20th century, is quoted often in today’s modern marketing world because he famous said these words: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” Often times this quotation is used to demonstrate the modern sentiment that “traditional” marketing tactics like advertising should be replaced by social media marketing and associated tools and tactics. Truthfully, any marketing campaign manager or investor could experience the same quandary as good old John Wanamaker if proper caution is not taken. The question, the bottom line mystery, will always be, “How can I make sure that what I am investing in for my marketing is working?”

How can you get the most bang for your buck with your marketing? This is a huge question and indeed, it can even seem a little overwhelming. Breaking it down a little can help.

What does “the most bang” really mean?

It’s easy to make a clichéd statement like, “I want our marketing plan to give us the most bang for the buck.” But what does that REALLY mean for your company? The following are possible interpretations:

1. We want to see a sales increase of x%

2. We want to feel like our brand awareness has increased

3. We want to strengthen our distributor network

Once you know what you want your “bang” to be, it can be much easier to ascertain what tactics can get you to that goal most most effectively and efficiently. There are certain marketing tools and tactics that would be ideally suited to help your company reach specific goals. Looking at the objectives we delineated above, what kinds of marketing tactics would work best?

Sales Increase

If you are looking for a rather swift increase in sales, social media marketing/content marketing may not be your best bet. While these channels can drive sales, it can take time to build credibility and relationships, and even then, you may not find a direct correlation between your relationship-building and sales for a year or more. Print advertising may also not be the best investment depending on how you usually convert leads to sales. If your goal is to increase sales, your company may want to look at opportunities like webinars or white papers, which can incentivize potential customers to visit your company website. In these instances it is important to have a mode of conversion, not just a means to drive the traffic to your site. Make sure there are clear calls-to-action.

Increase Brand Awareness

Brand awareness can be hard to measure unless you use online tools like Social Mention to track “positive’ mentions in the online space. Given that it can be difficult to measure solid progress in reaching this objective, getting the most “bang for your buck” in this scenario could mean investing in opportunities that are more economical than something like a webinar. Social Media marketing can be effective in this instance, as can a strong print advertising program in  key publications. The key is to target your desired audience carefully. If you begin a company Facebook page, for example, remember that your goal is not to get a lot of fans. Your goal is to increase brand awareness in the minds of people who may eventually become your customers.

Strengthen the Distributor Network

If you sell through distributors, it is essential to create market pull so that distributors have a vested interest in selling your products. This can be tricky because while you want end-users to be aware of your products, you need to clarify that they will not be able to buy from you directly. Perhaps your company would want to look at increasing your trade show presence at key industry shows while also advertising in publications that reach your industry’s key distributors. Social Media is probably not the best mechanism for reaching this objective because the relationship could be hard to clarify in the online environment.

Determine your overall budget, then how you want to segment it

Of course, the other elephant in the room when trying to get the most “bang for your buck” is how much you can truly afford on any one marketing tactic. Your company needs to have a serious discussion about how much money can be allocated for marketing, and from there you need to decide how many objectives you can realistically try to meet given that overall pie.

Do not lament if you feel like John Wanamaker about your marketing. If you are wondering what part of your marketing is working, or if you are wondering how to get the most bang for your buck, simply break down what you would define as a success and work backwards from there. And as always, if you need any assistance,  you know how to reach us!

Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinkrejci/6263853991/ via Creative Commons

#FiveTipsFriday Five Blog Mistakes To Avoid

If your company is contemplating a jump into social media marketing, beginning with a blog may seem like a sensible first step. Writing a blog post is not done on the fly (hopefully) unlike a tweet or a response to a Facebook post. You are in a more controlled environment. If you want, though we do not advise it, you can start out with moderated comments so that you can get used to the idea of two-way communication. Blog posts enable you to showcase some of your expertise along with your company’s “voice” or personality, too. We would not argue with any of those points, but we would caution against simply running into the blogosphere without a full understanding of what is considered inappropriate blogging behavior. A couple of weeks ago we talked a little bit about blog etiquette. Today we are going to talk about some mistakes we’ve seen that you definitely want to avoid.

1. Do not use your blog site to publish news releases

We see this quite often on company blogs, unfortunately. In some cases you can tell that the copy for the news release was simply copied and pasted into the site. We understand the logic behind this tactic. It’s relevant content, it’s already been written (and proofread), and there are likely good keywords that will help boost SEO. However, people do not (usually) visit blog sites so that they can find out what you want to sell them. People visit blog sites so that they can get an answer to an important question. Posting a news release to your blog shows a lack of understanding about how the blogosphere works and may incline people to think your company is lazy or lacks important knowledge about how to run a blog effectively. Don’t let that happen!

2. Do not forget to give proper attribution to sources

The world of blogging is highly competitive, and companies are understandably protective of their content. At the same time, blogging is just one of many tasks you have on any given day and in a rushed state you might forget to put that hyperlink in to the source you referenced. This can cause a lot of problems for you and your company because you may be accused of plagiarism. Whether you building on another person’s idea or quoting them directly, double check and make sure you have given them proper credit. If you are not sure that formal credit should be given, do it just to be on the safe side.

3. Don’t use a misleading headline

Oddly, I have seen this tactic more with experienced bloggers than with new bloggers, but it is still worth a cautionary note. The headline of your blog post is sort of like a handshake. You are greeting your reader and setting an expectation for what he or she will be reading about. Suddenly shifting your focus or moving in an unexpected direction can feel like a betrayal of trust to your reader, especially if your headline leads them to believe they will be getting information but what they get is a hard sell. I have seen blog head lines that seemed interesting only to discover it was really a pitch for a book the blogger was trying to sell. “Bait and switch” is not a good blogging strategy.

4. Don’t assume your readers will be using a computer

Increasingly, people are accessing blogs using smart phones. If your blog is set up on WordPress you can add a plug-in that will ensure your blog is mobile-friendly. Even with that set up, it is a good idea to access your blog the way your readers will. Subscribe to your own posts and see how they come through. Make sure everything is easy to read. Perhaps this might also encourage you to use a “read more” tag on posts that are longer than about 500 words so that people on a smart phone can opt to continue scrolling.

5. Don’t use your corporate blog to “call out” other brands or people

If you are an individual blogger not tied to a specific organization, your blog posts are your own, and although people may disagree with your approach, you are free to use it how you will. If that means that you want to berate people or “call out” companies, that’s your prerogative. Things are a little different if you are blogging on behalf of your company, however. As a company, if you “call out” other brands or people it can make you seem unprofessional or like you don’t have anything better to do. More to the point, these kinds of exchanges can spiral out of control fairly quickly, creating a bad PR situation that might be difficult to fix. We don’t see a good reason to risk it.

Those are our top five “Do not do” tips for blogging. What would you add?

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffhester/5633383557/ via Creative Commons

Is There Still A Case For Print?

This post is by Larry Clayman, president of our agency.

As we embark on what we affectionately refer to as “the planning season”, that time of year where we start to prepare the marketing recommendations we present to our clients for the following year, I know what we will hear again this year.

“Is there still a case for print?”

Why would our clients not ask this question? They have seen what has happened to their local newspaper. They have watched their venerable weekly news magazine Newsweek go digital. They have watched the periodicals aisle at Barnes & Noble get smaller. So the question certainly makes sense from that perspective.

But there seems to be another side to this discussion. All print is not created equal.

While there are now numerous online options for your daily, national or global news and opinion, finding good content for niche markets is not quite as easy as going to CNN.com.

There is also the question of credibility. Does your ad online carry the same weight as your ad in a print publication? If it does, why is print advertising much more expensive to purchase? Yes, some of it may be the fact that it was always priced at a certain level and it didn’t make sense to cut the price by half just because the publication now also had an online presence. What’s more, the costs associated with producing ink on paper and mailing it out were still there. But since print does cost more and since most people understand that, does your print ad carry more weight because the audience innately understands that you paid more to place that ad in print vs online? Joe Pulizzi, founder of The Content Marketing Institute, recently surmised in an article for Crain’s Cleveland Business that it might speak to the old adage, “if someone invested enough to print and mail it, it must be important.” That would speak to print media, traditional direct mail, etc.

Mr. Pulizzi went on to posit, “Traditional print magazines are not ceasing because people aren’t reading print . . .it’s because advertisers aren’t supporting the medium.”

So what we have is a classic chicken or egg argument. Is print dying simply because advertisers are abandoning it for what are largely illogical reasons or is print dying because online presents better options?

It may come down to what you are trying to accomplish. If you want to track results, nobody could argue that it is more difficult to track print results. Sure, there are ways to do it (QR codes, /URLS, etc.) but simply clicking on a link is way easier.

However, if you building your brand, nobody can convince me that print is still not king.

As a board member of BPA Worldwide (the company that audits the circulation of many publications (both print and online), I can tell you from personal experience that many publishers in niche B2B categories are still doing very well with their print product.

So when you get ready to ask “Is there still a case for print”? think before you immediately say “No”. Depending on your objectives, there just may be.

Manage Your Marketing: Don’t Paint Yourself Into A Corner

Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, has been in the news quite regularly over the last year or so. Already a high-profile woman as one of the few high-powered female CEOs in Silicon Valley, Sandberg’s personal profile began to dominate the spotlight in March 2013 when she published her book, Lean In. As you can tell in the 60 Minutes Interview Sandberg did in June 2013, the book has drawn plenty of mixed reactions. Many women feel, for example, that Sandberg’s wealth prohibits her from being able to offer general advice to all women, regardless of lifestyle and pecuniary situation. Other women, in contrast, have begun using “Lean in” as a battle cry. Through it all, Sandberg has strongly indicated that she has no desire to back down from her own powerful claims in Lean In.

It is in this context that the news broke last week that Sandberg’s organization, LeanIn.org, appears to be hiring unpaid interns. As Slate Magazine summarizes, the controversy arose on Facebook (ironically) when the editor for the organization announced an opening for an unpaid internship. The title of the Slate article was far from neutral: “Lean In Hypocrisy: Sheryl Sandberg’s Organization is Hiring an Unpaid Intern.” The Washington Post reported on Friday that the organization has back-tracked on the whole situation, but to us, the interesting part of this whole crazy scenario was watching how easy it is for a brand to find itself painted into a corner. In this particular case, the disconnect was not in marketing or promotion, per se. Rather, there was a contrast between the overall mission of the Lean In organization versus a random Facebook post by an individual organization employee.

If your company does not have a solid established brand and mission statement, if information does not flow through your organization seamlessly, or if your marketing campaign bears a striking resemblance to throwing spaghetti against a wall, the case of the Lean In organization should scare you a little. There is the social media element to ponder, for one thing. An individual’s decision to use a platform like Facebook to post something about your company can have powerful ramifications for your business. Are you ready for that? Do your employees know that if their account is tied to the company, they are on the clock 24/7 in the public’s mind? Do they know how to best represent your company? Is your sales team sending out messages contradicting your marketing message? Does HR know what skills your new employee really needs to possess in order to help the company?

In the case of the Lean In controversy, it is important to remember that the can of worms was opened not by a corporate blog post or by something on the company web page. Rather, the entire situation began because of one person’s post to Facebook. Even if your company is not “doing” social media, the new world of business can impact you if you do not plan carefully for all possible scenarios. Everyone in your company needs to not just know what your corporate mission is, but they need to be on board with it, and you need to trust that they are.

We do not want this story to paralyze you. Rather, we are hoping that this story inspires you to act. Work on that brand statement. Work on tearing down those silos. Work on making sure that every single employee from top to bottom in your company knows the company line and company identity. It’s not just a marketing issue. It’s a corporate issue. But it’s also a very preventable problem.

Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/charlie35/8747344904 via Creative Commons

#FiveTipsFriday To App or Not to App

Were you in business when Foursquare first came on the scene? It was (and is) a geo-gamification tool that retailers and restaurants especially have been playing with over the last few years. If you’ve seen people “check in” to various locations, you’ve seen Foursquare. When Foursquare first launched, countless bloggers exclaimed, “You need to start using this now! It’s for business. It’s for fun. It’s for everyone! When Pinterest became popular, the same thing happened. If your company wasn’t pinning pictures to the rapidly growing platform, you were like a cave man. The same thing is happening with mobile marketing. If you are not on top of mobile marketing, so the saying goes, you are already behind the 8-ball. Again.

When we talk about mobile marketing there are a few things we could be talking about. We might be talking about text message campaigns. We might talk about creating a completely mobile-friendly website. Most likely, however, what we are really talking about is the app.

Before you worry about how far behind your company is because you haven’t developed 17 apps and uploaded them to Itunes, let’s talk a little bit about how to consider whether you should “app” or not.

1. Are your customers using smart phones?

This may seem like a silly question, but we still know of companies that are handing out Blackberry phones to their sales team. We also know of plenty of industries where mobile phones are simply not used very often, at least on the job. Think about people working CNC machines in a manufacturing plant for example. If you don’t have a good feel for how much your customers use smart phones – ask them.

2. What would your objectives be in creating an app?

There are two major obstacles in the way of experiencing success with an App. The first is that they can be expensive to design and produce, so you need to make sure you’ll be able to get a healthy return. The other problem is that people want apps on their phone that are fun or extremely useful. Think about the apps on your smart phone, if you have one. You might have games you like to play, perhaps a weather.com app to keep you updated on the weather, or other apps that you use on an almost daily basis. Your customers are no different. If your objective in creating an app is to build your corporate brand, you may not experience a lot of success.

3. How could you help your customers solve a problem?

In his book Youtility (not an affiliate link), author Jay  Baer, a leading social media speaker and consultant, describes several companies that have created apps that are truly useful. He mentions a hospital, for example, that created an app that helps you pick the perfect and most safe car seat for your child. An oft-mentioned app is Charmin’s “Sit or Squat,” which gives you reviews of restrooms near you.  These apps are extremely helpful and are used by thousands of people, but the usage of these apps does not guarantee (necessarily) more business or sales for the companies behind them. If your company is willing and able to invest time, money, and resources into a long-tail effort to build relationships, how would you do it?

4. How will you keep up with changing platforms?

Once you have a successful app, you can’t just rest on your laurels. People who use the app will ask for new features. Smart phones will be updated with new operating systems. New smart phones will come on to the market and of course every update will require an investment. How are you going to sustain the popularity of your app for the long term?

5. Are you thinking about developing that app just because you feel like you should?

This is perhaps the most important question as you begin to think about app development. Are your customers clamoring for this kind of communication channel from you? Do you have room in your budget for starting something totally new? Would you be recommending this if people weren’t saying, “You’ve got to do this now to stay ahead of the game”? The worst reason to invest in any type of marketing tactic is to fulfill your feeling that you’re keeping up with other companies or that you’re staying true to what marketing gurus are saying. Every company is different. Companies will need different things at different times. Keep your own company’s objectives and needs front and center and go from there.

If you are considering an app, make sure you have answers to all of the important questions first. Consider any difficulties, and also consider what would happen if your app is extremely successful. Do you have the infrastructure to cover both eventualities? Start from the basics and then move forward.

Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/evilsciencechick/4552429931/ via Creative Commons

New Content ROI Center is Great News for Companies Creating Content

The CMO Council, as announced in B2BOnline.com recently, has launched a new website called the Content ROI Center. If you are a company that has been investing a lot of time and effort into your white papers, blog posts, and emails but have not experienced a lift in sales or positive relationship building, you will want to spend a LOT of time at this website.

The problem that the new website strives to answer was brought to our attention in part by a blog post we read. A few weeks ago we encountered a post by Tony Zambito, an authority in buyer personas, called Why B2B Content Marketing is Failing B2B Buyers. Zambito cites a study by the CMO Council (the group behind the new website) and notes that content marketing “has been a dismal failure for for B2B Marketing thus far.” What is the problem? Well, there are a few. The study, and the new website, note the following common problems:

Buyers in the B2B market are turned off by self-serving content

A lot of B2B websites are hard to navigate

B2B buyers are looking for content that will help them. If your content is fluffy or not really related to what your customers do (note, that’s what your *customers* do, not what interests you) you and your content will be swiftly abandoned.

The goal of the new Content ROI Center is to help combat these problems one-by-one. As Dave Murray, director of the new website, notes in the B2BOnline article, “Increasing the return on this investment should be a mandate for every marketing team.” This makes a lot of sense if you consider how much time needs to be invested (and hence how much in salary) for the development of a strong, content-oriented campaign. A weekly e-newsletter, a consistent blog program, a white paper – all of these things are time consuming if you are doing them correctly. Research is necessary, writing needs to be finished, proofed, revised, and polished, and that does not even cover the delivery and measurement systems that will be used. If there is not a positive return on all of that effort and time, companies are quickly going to find themselves in worse shape than they were in before they started generating their content.

We’ll be exploring this new website in detail for quite awhile and will keep you posted on new information and resources we find there. In the meantime, take a look for yourself and let us know what you think!

Manage Your Marketing: Social Media and the Intern Issue

Quite often, when we talk to companies about beginning to use social media marketing, we are told that they would really love to, but they just don’t see how they can incorporate that much extra time into what they are already doing. From there, regularly, we hear, “Maybe at some point we could hire an intern to do social media for us.”

Unfortunately, this seems to be a common sentiment among businesses. Twitter and Facebook especially are worlds where the young reign supreme. “It’s that chat thing,” we hear companies say about Twitter. “Why do we need to talk about what we had for dinner?” say still others.

If you work for a company that is expressing this kind of thinking, hit the pause button! Factually, hiring an intern to “do your social media” can create more harm than good for your company. Let’s talk a little about why.

Social Media represents your company

Your brand, how your company works, how your company treats your customers, and what your company stands for all can be gleaned from your social media presence. Even if you hire an intern who is a great communicator and who “gets” social media, they are going to need time to really become enmeshed in your company’s culture. For starters, they are going to need to learn your product line. They are going to need to learn what your customers or clients are like and how you prefer to interact with your customers and prospects. Moreover, you may find that as you try to pass along these types of information to your intern, your company hasn’t really solidified any of these points. Do you want an intern figuring it all out on the fly on public social media platforms?

Building relationships *is* important

Even though you are likely hoping that your social media marketing efforts will increase sales, relationship-building is still a key to social media success. Whoever handles your social media marketing will bring with them their own distinct way of communicating, even as they communicate on behalf of your company. They will build credibility (hopefully) over time. If you rotate this task amongst several different interns over a certain period of time, it will probably be difficult for people to feel that they are talking to one cohesive company, especially if the styles of those interns varies widely.

Training takes time

If you have ever trained someone for a marketing task – regardless of what it might be, you know that it takes a lot of time. If you are training a person who is going to be responsible for your social media presence, you need to cover important details like how to react to a negative comment, how to balance promotion with other sorts of interactions, and more. It’s entirely possible that by the time you finish truly training this intern, their time with you will be up and you will have to start all over again. In this scenario, even though you are aware your company is short on time, you are spending more time training than it would take to begin to build the social media presence yourself.

Social Media often is compared to a telephone. The only difference is that many people can “call” you at one time, and the ways in which you respond may differ slightly from person to person. Because phonecalls are not public (or so we think) you may feel more comfortable letting an intern begin to answer the phones rather quickly. You can listen in, correct mistakes, and take over if things get hairy. Social Media is communication at a more advanced level. It is not just talking about “what I ate for dinner.” There is an art to it, especially if you are a business.

Consider carefully whether an intern is the right person to handle your social media presence. Don’t think about the actions of tweeting or updating a Facebook page. Think about what your objectives are and who best can work towards those objectives.

Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nathanwells/4698410407/ via Creative Commons

#FiveTipsFriday Blog Etiquette

If you are new to the world of blogging, you may be wondering if some of the things you are doing fall into the category of proper etiquette or not. Like any social situation, whether online or offline, a lot of blogging etiquette is about what you feel most comfortable doing or not doing. However, there are certain things that are considered “best practices” in the Blogosphere, and if you approach those sorts of interactions incorrectly it can make people think poorly of you. Our five tips for today offer some insights into how you can show good blog manners.

1. Don’t over-promote your blog posts

It’s hard for people to read and like your content if they don’t know it exists, so sharing your content is important. However, you can easily cross the line into over-promotion, which some people may even call “spamming.” It is hard to define where that line is between appropriate promotion and overdoing it, and part of it is a comfort level. A good way to make sure you are not emphasizing yourself too much is to go back to that ratio concept. Every time you want to share your post, share the content of six other people or companies first.

2. Don’t link to your blog posts when they are not truly necessary

One day as I was leafing through Facebook, I saw that a person I was connected with was grieving the loss of a good friend. As I offered my condolences and scanned the comments, I saw that someone had actually linked to a blog post regarding grief. This is cringe-worthy. There are times and places for blog promotion. When people are going through “real-life” events, it usually is the wrong place and the wrong time.

3. Avoid the temptation to write “link bait” or “comment bait” posts

Often times, when a newsworthy event occurs, you will see marketers make mention of that event in their blog posts. While at times the intentions may be good, this also can very easily landslide into a post that is deemed heartless, cringeworthy, or just plain inappropriate. Sometimes, bloggers will also be tempted to write purposefully incendiary posts because they know these posts get a lot of links and comments (even if those comments are angry). These kinds of tactics are fairly easy to spot and never garner a positive reaction.

4. Don’t link to your own posts in a comment section

Almost always, this practice is frowned upon by other bloggers. If you are on someone else’s site and are commenting on their blog post, it is somewhat rude to try, in the comments section, to then direct people over to your site. If you have written something similar or related to the subject matter, a good way to approach it is to say, “I wrote something about this recently too, and I thought…” Almost always, your name in a comment will link people to your own blog site, so if people are interested in what you have to say, your blog post will still be accessible to them.

5. Speaking of comments,  we think you should reply to them

This is probably the most often debated facet of the blogging world. Some authors feel that comments are not even necessary, so they disable the comments feature. Others allow people to comment but very seldom respond to those comments. The third faction believes you should try to respond to comments as often as possible. We fall into that last category for one key reason. When a person comments on your blog post, they are not just saying they read what you are writing, but they also gave it enough thought to digest it and then make their own reply. Given how busy people are these days, that is a pretty big gift of time and effort. We believe it is important, as often as possible, to show some appreciation for that effort, and the easiest way is to respond.

Those are our five tips. What would you add if you’re a blogging type?

Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/krisolin/6861197374/ via Creative Commons