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By the numbers |
83
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Percentage of people
who trust the opinion of their friends or acquaintances who have used a product
or service. And 60 percent trust
consumer reviews by people they've never met on a retailer's Web site, according to Forresters. |
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Keeping It Fresh
The influence of social
media channels on behavior continues to grow. In fact, a recent Beresford Research survey "Use of Online Social Networks"
reports 50 percent of social media users consider information shared on
their networks when making a decision. Among users ages 18 to 24, this
increases to 65 percent.
The findings are
summarized in a recent eMarketer brief, which also points to a survey
earlier this year about actual purchase behavior. The Knowledge Networks survey in March
reported between 10 and 24 percent of US social media users relied on
social networks when making purchase decisions.
It appears marketers are getting the
message. If you work with retailers in any capacity - whether they sell your
products or you consult on their businesses, expect social media to be part of
the conversation. According to a recent MediaPost article,
the "Community and Social Media Study" from The e-tailing group finds both brands and merchants believe Facebook is the
"single most effective tactic in mobilizing brand advocates and
influencers to spread the word about products/services."
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Quick Tips:
Building Your Online Community
The time in the early life of social
media has come where people are beginning to question if it's valuable. Many of
our clients, friends, and peers have mentioned to us that they don't see it
working and are about to give up.
But wait! Don't give up yet!
The one thing we see in common
with those telling us social media doesn't work is they haven't yet built their
community. Community, you ask? Why do I need a community?
What is the first thing you do when
you go to a networking event? And don't say get a drink...that's assumed. If you know someone, you walk up to that
person and let them introduce you to the people with whom they're talking,
right? You find something in common with
those people and you engage in conversation. At some point during the
conversation, you decide if these people are going to refer business to you (or
vice versa), if you're going to do business together, or if you are going to
become friends.
The same philosophy works in social
media. You are building your community in order to gain referral sources,
prospect for new business, recruit talent, and find like-minded people who help
your knowledge base and wisdom grow.
Take a look at Gini's Twitter stream. See how she is having conversations (as
evidenced by the @ reply) with different people, but then she also throws in
some news that she wants people to discuss.
Each of the people she's conversing
with fit into one of three categories: Vendors, potential talent, or referral
sources. Even though it may look like chitter chatter to you, she's building
the relationships with those in her community, just like she would in an
offline social situation.
The blog circled above is centered
around an ongoing discussion about the FTC guidelines released last week for
bloggers. The guidelines change how
communication professionals and bloggers work and she's showcasing expertise
and thought leadership by continuing the conversation.
So, in seven minutes (or less) she has
continued building a relationship with a person we're interested in potentially
hiring, created an ongoing dialogue about something affecting our industry,
thanked a vendor for a cupcake delivery, and stayed top-of-mind with eight
people who consistently refer business to us. And notice she's done it all without
being self-serving.
With direct precision you can find your target
audiences, your competitors, or industry experts. Following are some tools to begin to build
your community, by finding the right people to follow.
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Twellow is a directory of public
Twitter accounts, with hundreds of categories and search features to help you
find people who matter to you. Once you register, you can update your profile
and categories, add links to your other social media profiles, and create an
extended bio. You also can search for people in your city, state, region,
industry, or by job title.
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With
MrTweet you can discover people, enhance your existing relationships, and be
discovered by other people who are naturally relevant to you.
- If
your target audiences are business owners and leaders, then ExecTweets is the
tool for you to use. It allows you to search by industry and follow people who
are on Twitter that are good targets for you.
- WeFollow
allows you to type in different tags that help you find people who are great
targets for you. For instance, you can search by company, industry, title, or
interests/hobbies.
- If you haven't already, download a desktop
application, such as TweetDeck, Peoplebrowsr, or Hootsuite. As you begin to
follow people, you'll create groups to keep track of them. Your groups may
include competitors, industry reporters, employees, referral network,
clients/customers, vendors, and/or industry organizations.
By using these tools, following 10-30
at a time (then, after they follow you back, follow another 10-30), and
beginning to network, you'll be building your community one day at a time. Most people say to us, "But no one is paying
attention to what I'm saying!" Then we go to their Twitter stream and see that
everything they're posting is all about them and there aren't any conversations
happening.
If you look at this less as a way to
get the word out about the great things you're doing (initially) and more
as a way to network and find new relationships
in order to meet your business goals, you'll see the value of social media in a
month or less. You'll be building a community of friends who want to help
spread the word about the great things you're doing.
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PR in practice
Gini is a brand new blogger at
AllBusiness.com under their franchise section. Her monthly column, "Unleashing
the Power of Social Media" debuted last week with social media. Read more here.
The October issue of Franchise Times covers building a
community with some additional thoughts, tips, and tools. Read it here.
Gini is on the road speaking at industry
conferences and CEO groups, hosting workshops, and doing social media
consulting. If you'd like to have her visit you, please contact Diane Blazek at
312 787-7249, dblazek@armentdietrich.com.
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