About half of all online ad spend goes to paid search and Amanda Watlington discussed at SES New York what this means for executives and practical entrepreneurs unaccustomed to online marketing.
Managing search marketing has never been easy and Amanda spent time this year teaching courses for those with little to no understanding of the process, outlining not only what are the requirements for a successful campaign, but also how to manage it correctly.
One of the areas he covered was the use of social media as part of the marketing process and that’s a point I wanted to make in this post. Unlike paid search, it’s a long-term strategy that requires foresight and effort; Hopefully this article will help you understand it a bit more.
While services like Twitter and Facebook fan pages have taken off in the US, many businesses still don’t see any value in them or simply don’t know they exist. Europe and the rest of the world are further behind and are just starting to incorporate Social Media Optimization (SMO) into their marketing strategy: engaging with customers at their level by becoming part of their community.
If you consider yourself a product, you perform SMO every time you post a message on Facebook, make friends on myspace or tweet from your mobile phone; I think this is a point that marketing managers and entrepreneurs need to keep in mind when engaging in SMO. If you can do it every day without a problem, there’s no reason your business can’t.
However, before you sign up and start posting, ask yourself the following questions:
Is my target audience using this particular service?
Make sure of this, do some research, but if the answer is no, move on to the next one: find the people you want to connect with; don’t wait for them to find you.
Is it right for me to interact directly with my customers?
How are your customers likely to respond to you or your colleagues by personally posting thoughts/ideas/updates for them to see? Usually the answer is yes, but no one knows your business as well as you do, so make sure it works before you jump in.
If I was receiving this, would I be interested? Would it interest others?
If you don’t know, try getting involved in some networks on a personal level and see what others are doing. Are there any that stand out? Because? Could you use a similar strategy to attract your customers? Too often, a manager will follow their “hunch” only to find it doesn’t work, dismissing SMO as useless and not giving it a second thought. Remember, you’re interacting with customers at their level and interests that aren’t necessarily yours—find out what they are and how to attract them before you jump in.
Is what I am contributing to this network of value to other members?
(Simply posting self-promotional headlines and sales pitches It does not work)
By ‘of value’ I mean: does it provide me as a potential customer with something useful, stimulating or exciting? If so, I’m 100 times more likely to use it myself and pass it on. Viral videos work on exactly this principle: give the user something they enjoy and they’ll do the promoting for you.
Many businesses have signed up for these services and have gone straight to posting “latest deals” ads or sending marketing emails to friends they’ve connected with; there’s no faster way to get blocked or a surer way to hurt your potential sales pipeline.
So get out there and explore these services, see how they work and how you could use them for your business success. Ask yourself the questions above and trust that you understand how and when to get involved, but more importantly, you also understand when not to.
