Social Media for Small Business

Do You Have What it Takes to Be a Success in Social Media?

By Christian

social-media-strategy-for-business-success — What does it take to be successful in social media? I hope to offer you some helpful thoughts in this post. Let me know what you think!

I’ve spent time with a number of you by now. I’ve had a great chance to learn a lot about my own business and how to grow, but I’ve hopefully learned a bit about how I might be able to help as well. One thing I’ve encountered more than anything else is insecurity. A lot of people out there feel social media marketing for their business is not something that’s going to work for them. Sure it works for Gary Vaynerchuk, and it works for Brian Clark, and it works for Michael Martine, and it works for thousands of other business owners, but it’s not going to work for YOU.

If this sounds like you…if you feel you may not have what it takes to be successful using social media to grow your business, I’d encourage you to look at the facts.

Social Media For Business: Fact #1

A lot of my clients shy away from social media for business marketing, because they fear an exorbitant time commitment, but this is a huge misconception. Yes, you can waste time with social media…you can waste time doing ANYTHING. Fear of wasting time is not a reason to avoid a valuable tactic for growing your business…it’s simply a reason to make sure you do it effectively. Does this makes sense?

Social Media For Business: Fact #2

Social media is a constant learning experience. That’s what this is…a constant learning experience. It’s true for you and me, and it’s true for everyone out there. There is no such thing as a “social media expert”, and if you come across someone claiming to be one, run in the other direction. Someone who actually knows everything there is to know about social media…are you kidding me? Twitter has only been around for a very short time…there not been enough time for anyone to become an actual expert. Find people who’ve had success, people you want to model. Learn from them and find your own path.
One thing I’ve seen holding people back is the idea that they want to get everything figured out, and then they’ll dive in. It’s unlikely that will happen, because the platforms and rules are always changing. The way to get results is to just get started.

Social Media For Business: Fact #3

Social media is a magic bullet. A really slow bullet…

Can social media change your business inside out? Yes
Can social media open up new revenue streams you never even thought of? Yes
Can social media make you more effective, in less time than ever before? Yes
Can you accomplish all this in a short amount of time by paying someone else to “take care of it”? Nope.

If there is one concept that many people need but don’t like, it’s accountability. The success of Chris Brogan’s Trust Agents is a perfect testament to this phenomenon. Fact is, building a social media network means building trust. And trust is a funny little bugger. It simply cannot be manufactured. Can’t be done. It has to be built. One tweet at a time. One post at a time. One comment at a time.
I get asked to “do social media” for clients somewhat regularly. Yes, some clerical tasks can be delegated, but social engagement cannot be diverted to someone else. You’re either accessible to your community or you’re not. If you’re not, you’re missing out on huge opportunities, and social media tools allow you to leverage your time considerably, so you CAN be helpful and accessible to your audience. It’s a win-win.

Social Media For Business: Fact #4

You have what it takes! Can you do it? The answer is “yes” 🙂

It doesn’t require a high degree of techiness or nerdiness.
It doesn’t require knowledge of html, or any of that web programming crap. They have tools now that take care of all that.
It doesn’t require that you even know what Twitter is. Just a willingness to learn.
It doesn’t require that you have any expensive equipment. If you’re reading this article (unless someone printed it out for you, lol), you already have what it takes to get started and go quite far.

And here’s a bit of what it WILL require:

Paradigm shift, plus go ahead and put your seatbelt on, because you’ll have another total paradigm shift real soon. I experience one at least once a week.
A realistic budget. I really struggled with putting this on the list. If I’m being honest with you though, approaching a totally new and very dynamic marketing strategy and expecting to do it for free (as many do for some odd reason…go ask your local newspaper for a free ad, and see how far that gets you) is not a strategy I advise. Many of these tools are free to acquire. Acquisition is one thing. Effective implementation over the long term is an entirely different thing. Social media highly effective? Yes. Free? Not usually, unless you’re a veteran and highly, highly competent. And even the vets in this industry get help and use premium tools daily.
Time. Yes that’s right! Social media is not a space ad. You can’t slap something up and get results. It’s about networking, building relationships. Results will come, and they can blow your mind, but they will not come overnight.
Willingness to learn new skills, consistently.
Help. This relates to “realistic budget”, but not all help needs to come from an outside consultant. Much help can be obtained through free sources like online forums and reading other blogs. Looking to others for solutions…people outside your immediate organization, will need to become a regular event.

Can you afford to ignore the fact that almost all your customers are online looking for you already…talking about you? Stepping into the conversation is welcome and encouraged, and that’s all social media is in a nutshell. It’s just people talking.
Do you have what it takes? The answer lies in your social competency. Have you ever shook hands or had a nice conversation with someone? If the answer is “yes”, then yes…you too can be successful at social media marketing!
Does social media marketing scare you? Have you implemented it in your business yet? How is it working? Are you getting the results you want? Post questions or comments…in the comments! I’m happy to respond and will even cover questions in future posts if called for 😉

Get Harder Rocking Results from Twitter

By Christian

Twitter remains a mystery to a lot of business owners unfortunately. It’s a pithy and convenient communication tool, and it’s a great way to get traffic to your site as well. But a lot of people have reported that they do not get the results they want, so I wanted to take a stab at offering you some potential solutions.

Clearly without looking at your specific feed and attempts to get results from Twitter, I need to generalize a bit, but there are two most common mistakes I see out there in my own feed, so I will address those two.

If you have any specific questions, I recommend you comment the post or fire me an email with a specific question, and I’ll be happy to address in a future post.

Two Biggest Mistakes Using Twitter

Failure to Stand Out
Blatant Promotion Over Communication

Let me cover each in a bit of detail:

Failure to Stand Out

Bottom line, if you don’t stand out, your results in business (on Twitter and elsewhere also) will be zilch. Look at your own twitter feed…all the tweets coming in from the people you follow. Which ones stand out to you? Which are you compelled to click on? What traits do these tweets share? Use this information.

Fact is, there is ALWAYS a reason you’re not getting the results you want from any particular technique, and there is ALWAYS a way to fix it. It might require that you do something different. As a matter of fact, it most likely WILL require to change what you’re doing.

It’s not just a matter of getting more followers. If you’re not getting the results you want with 500 followers, you’re not going to get much better results with 5,000 followers or 50,000 followers. As always, it’s about quality, not quantity, especially if you’re operating in a niche market.

So after you’ve analyzed your own feed for a minute…what makes YOU want to click through on a tweet? It probably covers a topic that personally interests you, and it probably has done something to stand out. Put simply, you need to model this. Firstly, are you covering content that specifically interests your followers? Hint: if they’re not clicking through…maybe they’re not interested 😉 Secondly, are you using verbiage that commands attention? Hint: if you’re not getting traffic from Twitter…the cause for this is likely in here somewhere.

This may sound simplistic, but Twitter is a very simple tool.

There are certain words like “free” or “make money” that many people are just gonna gloss over. But still, the words you use matter. Pay attention to your verbiage. Certain words are going to stand out and perform better in tweets. Copywriters know this, and if you want to get better results and more traffic to your site using Twitter you need to pay attention to this also. Which tweet would you be more likely to follow?

Get 10,000 followers on Twitter in 30 Days! Check it doode!

-or-

2 Beautiful Things You Should Be Doing on Twitter That You’re Probably NOT…are you doing this?

The first uses overused, spammy language. The second offers a personal challenge to the reader on a targeted topic that is important to them, and it specifically asks for a response. Remember what I’ve said about asking for what you want? If your follower cares to respond, they pretty much have to click the link. Right?

How do your tweets measure up to this? Comment, and let me know what you think!

Blatant Promotion Over Communication

Amped up blog titles will get you a little distance. Titles like “746,000 Ways to Make Huge Money Starting NOW!!!”…they’re going to garner some attention from people in a general sense. However interruption marketing like this, while it has it’s place, will only get you so far.

Especially if a title like this is not backed up by considerable amount of substance, it will go nowhere. It’s also something to keep in mind that the more ridiculous your titles get, the more impossible it is to live up to expectations.

It’s important to understand that when you’re looking to get results from other people, it’s best to engage them, not yell at them.

A title like the example earlier is the web’s equivalent to yelling at someone. Yeah, it’ll get attention, but people are also experts at glossing over and ignoring anything vying for their attention. So being attention-getting is only one element. Don’t just get their attention, engage them.

A Lesson in Direct Sales

Coming from a sales background, I can tell you one fundamental way of engaging a buyer…ask questions. Personally engaging and thoughtful, earnest questions. Almost any question will do…people want to speak their mind and to interact with someone who understands them, especially on topics that are important to them.

More on the value of questions and how specifically to execute the use of questions in your tweets, blog posts and sales copy is the topic of another post…for today just keep in mind that engaging people and asking them to respond is key. Asking a genuine question is always more engaging than making a statement, no matter how kick ass the statement is or how much CAPS LOCK you implement.

Are you getting the results you want from Twitter? Do you have other or better ideas on how to get more traffic using Twitter?

How My Friends Handle Twitter Spam

By Christian

I get a lot of spam on Twitter. Maybe you do too? Ha. If I get one more “ray of sunshine” or “high five” from you guys, I’m gonna puke, alright?

If you spend any time on Twitter you know what I’m talking about. Not sure what the actual appeal is here or why ANYONE thinks I’m actually going to click on their link “How to Get 10,000 Followers on Twitter in 5 Days”, but nonetheless, spam is here to stay 🙂

That said, deciding how to deal with Twitter spam is a concern I wanted to put to rest for a bit. So I did something crazy…I asked all my friends on Twitter what they do, and I got some great feedback!

Since a lot of us use Twitter daily, I thought it would be worthwhile to share the results of my little quiz with you and let you in on how I plan to handle the spam I get on Twitter.

Options of How to Deal With Twitter Spam

There are really only a few options, and I was surprised to hear that many people don’t seem to realize how they work, so I wanted to make sure we’re all on the same page. Here are your options:

Report the spam to @spam. This is highly recommended, and I was surprised that not one single person mentioned this. Are you aware of this option? I thought it was common knowledge 🙂 It takes just a second, and if you use Tweetdeck, it takes just two clicks.
Unfollow them. If you’re following the person, it’s simple to just quietly unfollow them. This doesn’t completely eliminate the possibility of receiving spam from the offender again, but it decreases the chances of it. If you’re not following them, at least they cannot send you a direct message. They can still send you replies though.
Block them. This actually may not accomplish what you think it will. I think blocking is not presented clearly on Twitter, because when you block someone, all that really happens is that they can no longer follow you. But of course, if someone wants to see your tweets, all they have to do is go to your profile, so blocking doesn’t really do much other than put a tally on the offenders profile. I don’t know what the parameter is, but word on the street is…if a spammer gets enough blocks, their account gets deleted. That’s how you sometimes end up seeing that cool page with an owl on it that says “nothing to see here…”.
Verbally assault them. Try to scare the crap out of them, so they’ll learn the error of their ways and never spam again. This is actually a great idea, and it usually works *sarcasm*. Some choose to engage in this pointless fun though. Hey, if it lets you blow off some steam… 😉

When Friends Spam You

There were mentions of a distinction when an actual friend (or just about anyone you talk with who you feel really ought to know better) sends you something that is technically spam. Like being a little tactless or overzealous about promoting their new landing page or MLM opportunity, etc. Most people including myself, tend to shrug this off. Between friends, what’s a little spam, right? Just as long as it doesn’t get too crazy. Even friends deserve a smack down from time to time though…am I right, or am I right?

How I’ve Chosen to Deal With Twitter Spam

When it comes in, and I don’t know the person…and it’s clearly spam. I report it to @spam…every time. This clears it from my timeline and gives Twitter a heads up.
Many of the stupid DM’s I get from friends I just ignore and laugh them off. Being light hearted as often as possible in life pays big dividends. It’s like when a coworker forwards me some stupid cat picture. Am I going to report them to their ISP? Probably not. As long as it doesn’t happen too often 😉
I’ve only ever blocked one person, and it was a situation where this user was actually being persistently obnoxious and almost scary. Screw that noise. If someone is actually making you physically uncomfortable…that’s block-worthy.

A Final Word

Don’t let spam get you down. It’s a minor inconvenience in my opinion when placed up against the huge advantages of using Twitter as a communication tool. If you have any questions about Twitter, place em in the comments. I’ll help however I can!

Talking to People is More Important Than Anything Else You Do

By Christian

There is so much concern about getting traffic to your blog. This is how you get people to your blog: Talk to people!

When you talk to people and become a valuable part of the conversation in your space…wherever that is, you will get traffic to your site. Now, KEEPING that traffic, getting subscriptions and actually selling, monetizing and so on and so forth are all essential elements as well, but the point I want to make here as succinctly as possible is this: Talking to people is the number one most important thing you are going to do to build the success of your blog.

So Where Can I Find These People You Speak Of?

People are everywhere, aren’t they? They’re not hard to find! There are a lot of tips I’ve read about where to go, and the TRUTH is that they ALL work…if you’re talking to people, you’re doing it right. The better the quality of the conversation, the more valuable it is for all concerned, the better it is for your business. You are branding when you talk to people.

You Are a Salesperson

It might seem scary, but you are a salesperson. Yes, YOU. You are in sales, and you may never have wanted to be in sales, but the world has changed, and to make it in business, you have to be able to make it online, and to make it online, you have become a good salesperson.

Lucky for you, I’ve been a sales trainer for years, and I have a very important fact I’ve learned that I hope will help you with this:

Sales comes naturally to very few people, but ANYONE can learn it. And with practice, EVERYONE can benefit massively from learning sales skills.

This the essence of why I started Next Level Blogger. To teach sales skills. I’m not about big media, and I’m truly not a techy guy. I’m a salesman, and I’ve learned how to apply sales principles to internet marketing. And one of the first things you learn in sales is that if you’re not face to face with a prospect, you’re unemployed. If you want to make it, you have to engage people.

Talking with people is key. It is absolutely mandatory. It doesn’t matter if you’re on Yahoo Answers, some Facebook group or a forum you just joined…it’s all essentially the same. Ideally, do them all! There is not one place that’s better than any other. The point is that you’re getting out there, networking and engaging people on a personal level as much as you can.

What Are You Doing Right Now to Grow Your Business?

Do you spend more time tweaking your site than you do networking? Do you spend more time creating content than you do networking? Do you spend more time reading about how to blog than you do networking? If so, you are doing it backwards!

The fact is that tweaking your site is important. So is creating content and reading content. I recommend all of them, but if you want people coming to your site, the number one most important thing you can do is to simply talk with people. A lot of them. Every day.