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Be ghoulishly great with social media!
 
People often come to me for social media help but don't realize they have been using it for years.  One of the most powerful social media tools, has been and still is, email marketing.  The question then is "are you using it wisely?"

shoutingWhat is it for?
Ours is no longer a world where marketers can feed information to potential customers in a one way flow.

Marketing is a two-way conversation.  But are you still just shouting out to the masses hoping someone will listen?  Don't bother.

How to use it:  
Without going into too much detail here I'll try to map out an easy plan to use social media.

First - the newsletter.
I've been using Constant Contact for more years than I can remember.  It's absolutely imperative that you use a newsletter system and not just send out via Outlook.  Just stop doing that and take the leap.  You need to know who is signing up, who is reading and what links your readers like so that you constantly use that free feedback to provide even better content (keyword we'll come back to).

Second - Facebook is currently the hottest tool out there so make sure you are using it.  Any business who wants to grow by word of mouth should be posting good content (there is that word again) on their fan page.  Even more important, responding to fan posts!  Use that two-way communication.

Third - Blogging...please only do this if you have something useful and or original to share.  Your clients are busy people and while it's nice to show your regular human side, they don't want a play by play of your kids' soccer game.

Fourth - Twitter...again...useful/helpful info.  Otherwise just use it to keep up with friends.  If you have no great content to share don't waste your time.  You are a busy business person so make sure social media works for you, not against your already tight schedule.

Which now brings us to content.  That all important word whether you are using social media, print ads or other. Rich fabulous content!  If you are an expert at what you do, share your knowledge.  Be helpful to your clients.  Don't just tell them you have 20% off this, or a girls night on X day.  Give them a reason to like you, to follow you, to trust you.  Give them free advice (sort of like I'm doing here).

How to make it easy?
Use your newsletter system for starters.  Using a sophisticated yet simple system like Constant Contact can make it so easy because in a step you can share your newsletter on Twitter and Facebook automatically!  There are other tools out there like HootSuite and TweetDeck which will also help you do one post that auto post to both FB and Twitter. 

If you blog, set it up so that it auto posts a note to your Facebook fan page.  Use widgets to put your Facebook, Twitter or blog posts on your web site.

If you spent just a little bit of time one day making all these tools work together you will save hours and hours down the road.  Then you just need to stay consistent, provide good content, and communicate in a two-way stream with your followers.

See how I do it:

Give me a shout if you need further help/info.
Share this if you find it useful!

Cheers!
Jennifer

  
 
 
 
 
 
Jennifer Hermon, Owner   jennifer@hauteweekly.com
 
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