Why Having Your 15 Year Old Nephew Set Up Your Social Media Could Absolutely Ruin Your Business (or how to effectively outsource your social media)

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1 Why Having Your 15 Year Old Nephew Set Up Your Social Media Could Absolutely Ruin Your Business (or how to effectively outsource your social media) On The Webb Social Media Services 1

2 Notice: YOU DO NOT Have the Right to Reprint Or Resell this Report! You Also MAY NOT Give Away, Sell or Share the Content Herein! If you obtained this report from anywhere other than you have a pirated copy. Please help stop internet crime by reporting this to: Shelley@OnTheWebbSocialMedia.com 2

3 Copyright 2011 Shelley Webb & On The Webb Social Media Services. All rights reserved. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: No part of this publication or any in the series shall be reproduced or transmitted in whole or in part in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or recording means, or otherwise, including, but not limited to, information storage and retrieval systems, without written, dated and signed permission of the author. Illegal sharing of this material may result in a fine up to $150,000 as stated in Title 17, Chapter Five of the US Code Collection 504. DISCLAIMER AND/OR LEGAL NOTICES: The information presented herein represents the view of the author as of the date of publication. Because of the rate with which conditions change, the author reserves the right to alter and update her opinion based on the new conditions. The report is for informational purposes only. While every attempt has been made to verify the information provided in this report, neither the author nor her affiliates/partners assume any responsibility for errors, inaccuracies or omissions. Any slights of people or organizations are unintentional. If advice concerning legal, medical or related matters is needed, the services of a fully qualified professional should be sought. This report is not intended for use as a source of legal, medical or accounting advice. You should be aware of any laws which govern business transactions or other business practices in your country and state. Any reference to any person or business whether living or dead is purely coincidental. 3

4 Introduction It is fascinating how otherwise intelligent business people look at social media and see something that anyone could handle. It is also incredibly tragic! The truth of the matter is that social media has become one of the most integral parts of marketing to a tech-savvy crowd. But just because your fifteen-year-old nephew has a Facebook page and a Twitter account does not mean that he should be handling your social media marketing. Consider this: your nephew is making money at his paper route and he s wisely decided to start his first savings account. This does not mean that you are likely to enlist his aid when it comes to accounting and budgeting! The first thing that many people do not realize is how important social media really is. When you meet people these days, it is incredibly common for them to ask where they can find you online. An isn t going to cut it anymore. Instead, they are going to want to see your Facebook page, your Google Plus page, your LinkedIn account or your Twitterfeed, and that means that you have to have something to give them. Many people believe that these platforms are only for entertainment, and while plenty of people definitely use them as such, the truth is that there are also many savvy businesspeople that are using them to promote their businesses. 4

5 Think about the basic marketing axiom that states that people have to be able to find you, or in other words, that it is all about location, location, location. This is definitely true for foot traffic, and it is also true for the Internet. Having a corporate newsletter sent out via and a cute webpage are no long enough to keep you competitive in this cutthroat marketing world. Instead, you are going to need to be everywhere your customers are. The more social media that you have reaching out to people, the more likely it is that people are going to be able to find you and work with you. Take a look at any social media site, no matter what it is based on and why the people go there. The thing that you will notice almost immediately is that there is a great deal of conversation going on. Any good social media site is going to provide a lot of back and forth between the users. Now think about what it would be like if even a small portion of those people were talking about you. This is something that allows you to put your name on a lot of different people s tongues, and it is not something that you want to leave to the haphazard skills of an amateur. Not only will being available on a number of social media networks allow people to find you, it will also allow people to talk with you and for you to respond. The key word in social media is social, and you want to be just as professional and friendly as you would be in real life. This is a place where you have the chance to intimately connect with your customers, and to convince them of what you are doing and why they should work with you. 5

6 One of the problems with social media networks, however, is that they take a while to get the hang of. Many people choose one or two that they like personally and then never move on, which may be fine if the two are appropriate for your type of business...but they may not be. Many business owners are not sure which social media sites are going to have the most impact for their particular business. When you consider the time that it takes to learn more about specific social media platforms, and to figure out which ones you should be on, you might realize that you have wasted a lot of time that could have been focused on more productive areas. This is where professionals come in. Social media managers are professionals who are deeply invested in getting you the social face that you need. They are skilled at constructing social profiles, and they know how to maintain them. Managing your social media can be a full time job if you are not adept at it. Putting up a Facebook page can take a matter of minutes, but once constructed, there is more work to be done. The page must be updated frequently and in a meaningful manner. It s important to assure that people who ask questions are answered in a prompt way. I recently asked a small business about their offerings for New Year s Eve and got no reply after three days. Needless to say, we made plans at a different venue. Had they been more responsive, they might very well have had an additional 4 customers. 6

7 Interestingly, outsourcing your social media management should be done for the same reason that you were tempted to ask the talented teen to do it for you. Simply put, if you are running your own business, you have better things to be doing. You may have products to ship, designs to test, and clients to corral. Unless you are actually in the business of designing and creating social media presences, then your time is better spent elsewhere. Outsourcing some items allows you to focus on what you do best. The solution then, if you feel less than comfortable with social media, is to outsource it to a reliable firm. There are areas of business where you want to make absolutely sure that you have a professional, and this is one of them. Think about things that you have outsourced in the past, and then think about all the times that you WISH you had outsourced a project rather than attempted it yourself. For instance, I outsource all my technology tasks. Technology makes me VERY cranky! If you are a business, you have a budget, and if you have a budget, chances are that you have some of it reserved for marketing. Social media should be a part of that marketing. Take some time to think about what your options are going to be when it comes to expanding your grasp on the market. Social media, when deployed correctly, can reach many people in many different situations. The sheer potential is staggering, and whether you are a large business or a small one, there are benefits for you to reap. 7

8 Would you hire a 15 year old to handle your marketing, your customer service or your accounting, so why your social marketing? Social marketing can make a huge difference to your company in terms of who sees you and who wants to hear from you. Choose a social media professional who is going to put your company on the map! The December issue of states that companies plan to increase their social media marketing in the coming year. According to the article, 47% of companies in North America currently use social media and 60% planned to increase its use. Some ways in which companies, large and small, use social media: Communicating with their customers Being aware of how their customers are perceiving their businesses Providing extreme customer care* Advertising Recruitment Right now, as you read this, your customers are on the internet. They are reading and writing reviews, commenting on good (or bad) service, and offering their own opinions, opinions that could reach tens of thousands of other potential customers! 8

9 In 2012, the social media landscape will become more crowded. While Facebook, Twitter and Linked In used to be regarded as the social media sites to target, we now have Google+, Foursquare, Yelp, Instagram and StumbleUpon showing good returns for business growth. And then there s mobile marketing where Path, a mobileonly social media network, is showing well. It will become essential to focus on the correct social network for YOUR business and that may not be one of the big three. A social media manager can help determine which social network will garnish the greatest results. How to Effectively Work With a Social Media Manager: Whether or not you choose to work specifically with us, and of course, we hope you will, the following items are important when working with a social media manager. 9

10 Things to Determine Prior to Meeting: Aside from increasing your ROI, what are your social media goals? Building your list? Increasing your Social Media Followers? Generating buzz before an event or product launch? Driving traffic to your website? Creating Joint ventures? Generating speaking opportunities? Providing better customer service by answering on-line feedback? Increase brand awareness? Sell your products or services on line? Reach people that you may not be able to reach within your brick and mortar business? Reputation management? Positioning yourself as an expert in your field? Choose 3 of these objectives to begin your social media focus. 10

11 Who is your ideal client or customer? Imagine yourself sitting across the table from your ideal client, enjoying a cup of coffee or tea. Is this client male or female? Does he or she have kids? What is his/her age? Interests? Hobbies? Income range? Appearance? (fastidious dresser? Overalls and tennies? Baseball cap and t-shirt?) Anything else that your clients seem to have in common? How much time and money do you currently spend on marketing and communications tasks? What will you share? Just because you ve outsourced your social media doesn t mean that it s hands-off for you. Your social media manager is still going to need content from you. He or she will need to know what s important for your audience to know. For instance, if you re a retail store, are you having an anniversary sale; if you desire speaking engagements, will you be speaking at an important event where you can be show-cased; is your new book being released in the next few weeks? He or she will need to know more about the face of your company. If your social media manager lives in the area, it may be wise for him/her to visit with you weekly. If he or she is at a distance, perhaps a weekly Skype chat would be beneficial. 11

12 How will you measure your results? Depending upon which social media venues, you are utilizing, you will want to know: The number of fans, followers, readers, YouTube viewers you have each month The volume of comments posted to your blog If your social media manager uses adtracker (we do), the number of click-throughs on the links in your FB, Twitter or Linked In postings The number of retweets or shares of your content Engagement reports Media coverage Web site traffic statistics Number of new qualified leads or sales Number of customer service issues handled satisfactorily 12

13 About On The Webb Social Media Services According to PushingSocial.com Stubborn community managers will spend 2012 searching for the link between engagement (in social media) and profit. The good news is that in 2013 they will find it. Why not be ahead of the game and launch your social media campaign NOW? At On The Webb Social Media, we bring your business into the online conversation thereby helping you build strong online connections with literally tens of thousands of current and potential customers. We believe that a combination of fan acquisition accompanied by fan engagement is important to the growth of your business and your return on investment. In order to simplify your marketing strategy, On the Webb Social Media partners with experts in the field of web development, graphic design, SEO, branding and copywriting. During the time it took you to read this, anywhere between one and a thousand people could have mentioned you, your product or company on a social media site, either in a positive or negative way. And while you may have missed it, their friends and the people they influence did not. That is the power of social media and precisely why you need to get involved immediately. 13

14 About Shelley Shelley Webb is the founder and owner of On The Webb Social Media. She brings her years of hands-on social media experience to help passionate small business owners navigate the oft-times confusing world of social media interaction. She has mentored with some of the top names in internet marketing, small business ownership and social media and because the world of social media changes almost daily, she continues to do so. In 2011, Shelley was a finalist in the Shorty Awards which honors the best of Twitter and social media. She was invited to attend the ceremony in New York which featured stars such as Kiefer Sutherland, Stiller and Meara, and Conan O Brien. She works very hard to keep up with and be educated about the latest social media trends. Shelley has also been a registered nurse for over 30 years and brings that sense of dedication and commitment to her social media clients, as well. Having founded The Intentional Caregiver, an online support group for caregivers of aging parents and loved ones in 2008, she dedicates 10% of all her profits to go back to support this important free resource. She currently resides in the country near beautiful Coeur d Alene, Idaho with her 2 dogs, 2 tortoises, 1 cat and almost 30 chickens! 14