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What actions should a green industry professional take to benefit from social media marketing? Here is a simple game plan. It's a Science In earlier Lawn & Landscape columns I’ve commented on strategy and culture as two vital considerations for making social media work to your advantage. Strategy and culture should be on your mind before, during and after the implementation of your initial plan. My tip is to approach social media marketing as a science. The first three letters of the word science will serve as a reminder of an appropriate game plan. You always want to start with strategy, be alert to the culture of the respective networks and then follow with your implementation - SCIence. The Primary Communities If you think of social media sites as communities, your marketing job will be much easier. Communities overlap, so get one started on one site and then introduce that community to the next networking site. That’s one approach. Another is to keep your communities defined by criteria you preselect. For example, you could limit one site to colleagues, another to friends and another to clients. This may not be the best approach because this is a social network and the idea is to build relationships that cross those boundaries. The point is you have the flexibility to do what works best for you. Yourblog.com Blogging is the most effective activity for building a sustainable Web presence. The search engines love blogs because they are frequently updated with relevant news. Every blog post you make is a living breathing document that is indexed by Google along with everything that is connected with it – which includes your company Web site and all of your social media networks. They all synergistically work to make you visible to new customers in your market. LinkedIn.com This is your “corner office” where you maintain a professional networking database. I’ve found that people who typically guard their identity, such as corporate executives, can be found on LinkedIn. You can choose whether you allow those you are connected with to see your connections, though most do. After all, this is the idea – to extend your community by linking to others through your connections. You can search for people and join groups to network with those who share similar interests, and also survey your connections for feedback on a number of things, such as a project you may be working on. Facebook.com Think of Facebook as your “family room” where you let your hair down and network mainly on a personal level. Since people like to do business with people they like, this is a great opportunity to show everyone who you are and what you do when you are not doing your professional work. You can choose to be purely social and freewheeling with your Facebook presence, or take this opportunity to showcase both your personal life with a glimpse of your work. This is how many of us use it. YouTube.com YouTube is your personal television station. Let’s face it, people love video! This is why YouTube gets so much traffic and why it is a great tool for promoting your business. Video makes your message come alive and that makes you more believable. My recommendation is to create a three- to five-minute video that highlights your company’s best work. Make it a “How To” format because that is one that is searched for most often. Your videos don’t have to be slick. In fact, I believe when a video has a raw quality its credibility is even greater. Once you get a video on YouTube, it’s a simple matter of cutting and pasting code to add it to your blog. Twitter.com Twitter is a micro-blog that takes minutes to get started with, but months to truly understand the strategy and culture. Think of Twitter as your “interactive message board” – something like those digital message boards you may see outside a bank, high school, or church. This is how you use Twitter. You give people fresh news from your life, celebrate successes, and generally share your expertise and perspective of what’s going on in your world. Like all of the other social media sites, you first set up a very brief profile that is a slice of who you are on many levels. Then get into the conversation by sending a message called a Tweet that is limited to 140 characters. You do this by following people you find interesting, and typically they will learn about your shared interests and follow you back. The concept is what I call “socially acceptable stalking.” Every Tweet is like a blog post; it creates a larger footprint on the Web that helps you get found by new friends and customers. Keeping it Real You will quickly find that social media networking and marketing mirrors reality. If you are a giver who is readily available to help, then you will make many friends online who will be there when you need them. All you have to do is develop a social media strategy that is aligned with your business objectives, choose social media sites that best fit your strategy, and build community within the social media platform so you can leverage its power. Jeff Korhan helps companies maximize marketing results by strategically building communities of fans and loyal customers. He is the author of Strategic Social Media Marketing for Entrepreneurs. Jeff can be reached at 630-774-8350 or speaker@truenature.com. He blogs at www.jeffkorhan.com. |
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