Social Media Marketing Best Practices to Find & Keep Clients Online.

Social Media Marketing has truly hit the mainstream.

Everywhere you look people are inviting you to visit them on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and You Tube. And as a Social Media Marketing Specialist I am thrilled!

But, and there always seems to be a “but”…

Just because Social Media is new does not mean you can ignore standard business best practices. Good business practices will always win over shoddy ones for finding and more important keeping clients online.

For people to feel comfortable enough to spend money with you online they need to know you, like you and trust you as a person. Then you need to deliver what you have promised.

Here are the Social Media Best Practices at the top of my list

1. Be Consistent – I cannot impress upon you enough how important this is! All of your Social Media profiles should have a consistent picture of you and provide information about what you do and how you can help your prospects. If Twitter says one thing and Facebook says another that will make your prospects nervous and nervous people do not spend money.
2. Walk Your Walk – There is no excuse for the “cobbler’s shoes” argument. (remember the cobbler never has time to fix his own shoes) If you call yourself one thing and are marketing something else your prospects will be confused and confused people don’t often spend money online.
3. Check Your Information – Google your own name and your business name to make sure that the information that is reaching the top of the search engine is the information you want to be there. If it is not or worse yet, you don’t even show up on the first page it is time to create a plan to change that. Prospects don’t like suprises.
4. Follow Through Immediately! – Nothing will worry a prospect or new buyer more than silence. Because of the immediacy of the Internet, we expect contact NOW. After a purchase make sure you have an autoresponder that goes out as soon as the transaction occurs to explain what will happen next.
5. Provide Professional Branded Documents – In today’s world, there is no excuse for not providing your prospects with branded, tasteful receipts, proposals, or information products. You don’t even need to pay a printer. Just design them on your computer and print on demand.
6. Provide Excellent Customer Service – This is a no brainer. I am sure you have heard the examples of companies who have risen from the ashes because of prompt attention to a problem that was voiced online. This stuff works! Plus mediocre customer service may not get you slammed on Twitter but it will certainly put the brakes on the wonderful viral effects of word of mouth marketing.
7. Keep Your Promises – or better yet do more than you promise – Nothing makes a prospect or client feel unappreciated more than missed appointments or not providing expected information in a timely fashion. Let’s face it sometimes STUFF happens and you do miss an important call or deadline but if it is a regular occurrence your clients will be looking for somewhere else to spend their money.

Put these business best practices into place and then your Social Media Marketing Plan should yield the results you expect.

Social Media Success Strategy – Be Clear About Your Brand?

For  Social Media Success You Need to be Clear About Your Personal Brand

It is very important to be consistent and congruent with your presence in the Social Media Networks so you don’t confuse people about what you do. The main purpose of Social Media is to build relationships that can lead to increased influence and/or revenue.

When doing business online; the know, like and trust factor is very important if you want people to do business with you, so it stands to reason that if you confuse your prospects they won’t be comfortable doing business with you.

The fastest way to confuse your prospects is to be confused yourself.

Do you truly know what your personal brand is? I recently read this blog post from Ron Ashkenas on the Harvard Business Review Blog that addresses this question.

His advice was to ask yourself these 4 questions to get crystal clear about your personal brand.

• Question #1 What differentiates you from everyone else who might have a similar background or set of experiences?
• Question #2 What skills, abilities, knowledge and attitudes do you have (or are developing) that will make people want to work with, follow or “friend” you — online or off?
• Question #3 What value can you create for others as a friend, blogger, colleague, teammate, boss or subordinate?
• Question #4 What about you are doing will make you satisfied and fulfilled that you are indeed making a contribution?

These are thought provoking questions to say the least and I am going to really try and focus on the answers.

6 Important Ways Social Media Has Changed Us

How Social Media Has Changed Us. by Mike Laurie for Mashable

This is a wonderful Blog Post that lists 6 very important changes for good that have occurred in our culture due to Social Media.

It proves again what Gary Vaynerchuk, the bestselling author of “Crush It” said, Social Media is the biggest change in how we communicate since the invention of the printing press!

1. Child literacy is increasing

2.Ambient Intimacy The way in which social media allows you to keep in touch with people with a level of regularity and intimacy that you wouldn’t usually have access to, because time and space conspire to make it impossible.

3. Knowledge is Power and now it is easy to spread knowledge.

4. Increased involvement in Politics

5. Relationship Marketing or Word of Mouth Marketing

6. News by the people instead of news from reporters who have an agenda

Are all these changes good? You will need to read the complete post and decide for yourself. but I think they are.

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