Whenever I view a blog, I like to feel captured, and feel as if I must finish reading the text in its entirety. I really love articles and blogs that make me feel like I am a more intelligent individual once I have completed the reading. That is my goal while typing out these blog posts. I want you as a reader and potential blogger to trust that when you visit my site, you are going to leave feeling like a marketing expert. I also like to incorporate humor as much as possible, because why not?

In this blog post I am going to talk about social media management. Social Media is awesome and booming. If you have not read the post that I created last week, please do. I packed in a bunch of valuable information that I believe is quite powerful and will be beneficial to your company (or for personal use). But this week I am covering social media management and the importance of growing your online community,  the do’s and don’ts of social media etiquette, Klout, and Tumblr.

I did some research on a social media management website by the name of, HootSuite. Hootsuite is pretty radical. You can monitor all of your social media platforms in one place, schedule when to post things, check out what people are saying in your communities, get certified in social media management, and much more. If this is your first time hearing about HootSuite, then I encourage you to check it out (after you have read this blog post of course).

Growing your online community

As you probably know, an online community is a group of people rallying around a shared, common interest, value, or goal. This community can take place on any social media platform, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and more.

When you invest time into your community, it benefits it your company in many ways…

1. It allows you to build deep relationships with people who are in your industry, share interests in products, services, or expertise.
2. When you add value to your community, it creates brand loyalty among your community. They feel like you have invested your time into them, so they want to return the favor.
3. Don’t frown upon negative feedback. All feedback is good feedback. This gives you a chance to fix the problem or at least apologize for that problem. A lot of the time the customer just wants to be heard. They want to know that you are truly sorry for whatever happened.
4. Engage in conversation with them. When you interact with your community, they love it! When A$AP Rocky starts responding to his followers on Instagram, his fans go nuts. It becomes a huge discussion and everyone tunes in.

Below is A$AP Rocky. He is a pretty cool dude, and will be releasing his sophomore album this year (album title TBD).

When you are growing your community it is important for your brand to have a personality that is consistent. No one wants to interact with brand that is bi-polar. It could be entertaining from an outsiders perspective but it would not be too inviting for the people who would want to interact with you as a brand.

Leverage your community. You can use this community as a way to figure out the strengths and weaknesses of your company. A way to do this is by having quizzes. Quizzlet offers great survey systems that are quite easy to use, and offer lots of user-customization. Ask good questions, and record the data. You can use reverse innovation to figure out what your company should invent next. Or even having a net promoter score system where you ask a simple question like, “Would you recommend our company to a friend or family member”, they would then rate the company on a 1-10, where 10 is highly likely, and 1 is not likely at all. The world is yours.

Engage with influences and advocates. If you are able to get in contact with an influencer, then you are golden. For instance, when Kanye West co-signs clothing brands and wears them around town, that clothing brand blows up. All of their clothing sells out faster than you can say, “Yeezus”. Find influencer’s in your community. One way to do this is through Facebook Search Graph. This is a very interesting tool that I had no idea existed until I researched Hootsuite’s website. Essentially what you can do is, type into the search bar, “Bloggers who like Supreme”. Then it will list every blogger that likes the clothing brand Supreme. You can use this to your advantage. Find influencers that have liked your brand and reach out to them. Don’t be annoying though and expect them to promote your brand for free, a lot of the time you will have to entice them in some way. Give them something for free, or pay them!

Brand advocates can be just as good as influencers. Brand advocates are people who love your brand, and talk about it on social media. It is important to give these people recognition. Give them a favorite, or even reply to their tweet explaining that you appreciate their support. This will build a relationship with them and most likely get really excited that you communicated with them. When people who I follow get re-tweeted or mentioned by someone famous they tweet instantly right after something along the line of, “@KANYEWEST JUST MENTIONED ME”. Interact with your brand advocates, it pays off in the short and long run.

You want to acquire followers that are going to engage with you. You don’t want a ton of followers that never mention you, or comment on your posts. I always find it funny when I stumble upon someone’s Instagram account and they will have 12k followers but only 50 likes on each photo. They either bought those followers, or they post content that sucks.

If you find that a lot of your target audience is not on social media, reach out to them offline. A good way of doing this is by interacting with customers and asking them to follow them on Facebook. This might spark their interest into setting up an account, and when they tell people why they decided to get on Facebook, they will say because of your brand, and in return check you out. Another way to reach that community that is not online is through events. When you are at trade-shows or farmers markets, talk to your community. Bring them to the world of social media. You can even host contests to entice them to join Facebook. For instance, when I first made Bellingham Marine an Instagram account, we hosted a contest. This contest was for the first 50 followers. If you were among the first 50, then you got a free prize. This triggered their curiosity and made them sign up for Instagram and follow Bellingham Marine.

The Do’s and Don’ts of Social Media Etiquette

Be yourself. As cheesy as that sounds, it’s really true. Don’t feel like you have to change the way you communicate. But at the same time, be mindful of your audience. You might not want to get too comfortable and post pictures of you and your friends partying on the weekend.

Be Transparent. Everything that you post online is forever available. My Mother always told me, “If you would be embarrassed of it being on the front page of the NY Times, then don’t post it”. This is important, especially for a business.

Play by the rules. It is a public environment and you don’t want to annoy people. Be conscious of what you are posting and don’t over post. Don’t forget the 80/20 rule.  Also check out the rules on Facebook, Twitter, and so on. Your company probably has rules about social media, so make sure to be up-to-date with those as well.

Listen Frequently and Engage. Listen to your community. Converse with your community, this is a great way to get your voice out there, especially if you want to display authority on a given subject. Consumers love and trust brands that display authority. Figure out what they like, and you can use that as a way to market to them

Be Respectful. Miscommunication is not uncommon on social media. I can be very sarcastic at times and find myself refraining from using it on social media. It can be hard to tell if someone is sarcastic online, even over text message. You want to remain courteous. If you are not, you can come off as cyber bullying. This would be a nightmare for a brand, and could create a community that would do everything they can to make sure that you don’t stay in business.

Do you have Klout?

Klout is pretty cool. It is a service that measures how influential you are online. It basically collects all the engagement you get from your social media platforms and rates your on a 1-100 scale. For instance, the image below is a Klout score of President Obama and Justin Bieber. Obama and Bieber are very influential people offline, and online.

Klout can benefit you in two ways:

1. Klout is a great way to measure what content resonates with your audience. This is useful because you can figure out what content gets you the most engagement.
2. Klout does a thing called, “Klout-put”. Klout-put puts you in contact with companies that want influential people using their products and basically gives them free merchandise. For instance, RedBull gave me a free subscription to their RedBulletin, because of my Klout score.

Storytelling on Tumblr with Ari Levine

Tumblr is booming as a social media platform. Hootsuite got in contact with Ari Levine, who is the Brand Strategist for Tumblr. Mr. Levine talked about Tumblr and why it is so great. I am going to summarize some of the key takeaways for you…

• Tumblr is all about creativity. When you design your site, you have the freedom to do whatever you want. Creatives love Tumblr, because it allows them to explore and showcase their creativity skills.
• Experiment and have fun with it. Mr. Levine thinks creating GIF’s are a great way to do this.
• Tumblr users are highly engaged. On average, a person who goes on their dashboard to view pictures, GIF’s, videos, and etc, spends 18 minutes. Mr. Levine compared this example to TV. Tumblr users would rather spend 18 minutes online then watching a TV-show.
• You create an audience, and you are part of an audience. Find people who love the same things you do, and use that to your advantage.

That concludes this blog post. I hope it was very engaging, and you feel like you are ready to grow your social media community, practice proper social media etiquette, boost your Klout score, and engage on Tumblr. Until next time…

 

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