• Are you clear on what your social media strategies should be?
• Have you tried it and been underwhelmed by your results?

Yes? Maybe?

I had a chance to interview one of Northern Ireland’s most celebrated social media strategists, Bill McCartney; and here are his top tips on what it really takes to get noticed online:

Bill, what are the most essential things SMEs need to do to get more out of social media?

Good question. But before you start or do anything – it’s important to establish what social media is ‘not’ about.

1. It’s not a quick fix – it’s going to take time and effort
2. It’s not digital marketing – it requires different skills
3. It’s not about selling – it’s about influencing

Makes sense, but why do you believe social media is about ‘influencing’?

It’s like a phrase we use all the time in a business-networking group I chair – “Givers gain”.

Social media offers a plethora of online networking forums. And the people who do best from these tend to have 2 traits:

• They engage through conversations
• They display and share their expertise, helping others in the process

And the ‘being helpful’ bit is absolutely vital.

If you take the tack of making what you do all about yourself, you’ll get nowhere. But if you give freely of yourself, others will respond in kind.

Related: How To Build A Social Media Business Strategy That Delivers Traditional Business Returns

In addition to focusing more on giving than taking, what else makes a difference in social media?

Speak in your own voice instead of corporate speak. Show your personality and be enthusiastic.

Just like when you meet people at a function, social media users enjoy spending time with people who have ‘something about them’.

Someone with opinions is always more interesting than the guy who just agrees with everyone but doesn’t add to the conversation.

So don’t be afraid to speak up. And get involved.

How much time does it take to get involved and make an impact through social media?

This is a common question and it’s important people don’t think they can do social media in 5 minutes a day – that doesn’t work, any more than a fitness product that promises you a flat tummy in just 5 easy minutes a day won’t work.

If you’re going to get involved in social media, you need about an hour a day to make things happen.

But when people ask me where they’ll find that time – I tell them to look at what else they do to drum up business.

See if you can’t substitute time spent on things that aren’t doing much for you – like cold calling – and spend that time on social media instead. You shouldn’t feel you have to find extra hours in the day.

Related: Why Social Media Are Not a Strategy

One more thing - in addition to online actions, how important is it to work on offline presence as well?

Vital. You don’t live online.

You do business with people and there’s nothing like meeting people face to face to strengthen relationships.

And if you get the chance to speak to your target audience – using the kinds of skills you teach at The Reluctant Speakers Club – you really have the chance to build Advocacy.

In fact, that’s really what it’s about online and offline – you’re building a network of people who advocate each other and generate word of mouth.

Over to you

What tips would you share about what it takes to succeed in social media circles? What has worked for you and what would recommend SMEs avoid?

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The post Interview With Bill McCartney: 5 Steps To Getting Noticed Using Social Media appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.

... course, the real questions is: ‘what was wrong with the old tricks in the first place?’

Do you ever get reminded of old ideas and instantly realize that with a modicum of dusting off or general tweaking that maybe you should revisit them?

Probably.

I was recently rooting through some marketing books and reference material I hadn’t opened for nearly 20 years (looking for quotes I might use in a book I’m writing on public speaking); And I came across a training manual from the early 90s on advertising.

In opening it, I saw an acronym I had scribbled in big bold print and underlined with red ink; it was a well known copy-writing formula: AIDA.

Ring any bells for anyone? It did for me.

Just in case you don’t know, AIDA stands for:

• A = Attention (Awareness)
• I = Interest
• D = Desire
• A = Action

Related: Nine Ways To Market On A Shoestring – Without The Internet!

In Olden Days All Marketing Was Personal – Have We Gone Full Circle?

I had in my head that this formula had been spawned in the 70s or 80s, but was surprised to learn that it actually dated back to 1898 – when it was coined by an American advertising advocate, E. St. Elmo Lewis.

His copy writing principles captured the journey individuals took as a preface to making a decision to buy something as a consequence of advertising - some 100 years ago.

Of course, in his day (arguably outside of politics), there was no such thing as national communication campaigns – everything was about localised ‘bring to point’ marketing.

So what?

What we term traditional advertising (aka interruption marketing) has increasingly become less effective and more costly. And notwithstanding almost all of us scour online tools when thinking about potential purchase decisions...

...are we are returning to a point where we need to get local and personal again?

In a previous article, I spoke to what it takes to break through the clutter today – overcoming less effective advertising tools, diminishing attention spans and information overload.

I asked the question whether ‘it’s time to get back to more old fashioned methods, like public speaking and face to face communication to connect more effectively with your target audiences?’

And in thinking about Mr Lewis and his AIDA formula – it struck me that his model still has validity today if you add just one word: Credibility

Whether you’re communicating online or offline (or better still, integrating all your communication efforts for a multiplier effect) we still need

A = Attention

I = Interest

D= Desire

A= Action

But the underlying condition you must satisfy to pass through each step is trust. And make it personal.

Bolster great products and services with investments in personal brands, an increasingly important determinant of whether you and your company will earn the credibility you crave.

So thanks Mr. Lewis for the reminder – who says there isn’t life in the old dog yet?

Over to you. What marketing models (old or new) do you use to drive your business forward?

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Image: “DJ with table and Club Lights in the background/Shutterstock“

The post Is It Time To Give Old Ideas A New Spin? appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.

At a time when information overload is spiraling out of control…

…we find ourselves filtering the gazillion messages competing for our attention - just so we can function.

And in the process, many of us are reverting to more old-fashioned approaches when making purchases.

• We are relying less on mainstream advertising (aka interruption marketing) and more on word of mouth, direct experience and perceptions to make our buying decisions.

• We are placing greater store on sources of information we trust more – our friends, peers and selves.

What’s the point?

Help prospective customers to place more trust in you as well as what you offer.

How do you engender more trust in your company?

• In addition to offering great products that meet or exceed expectations – consider investing time and energy in your personal brand.
• In the same way that investors place as much (if not more) reliance on their assessment of those seeking investments as they do to what they propose; customers are increasingly drawn to the credibility of the people they buy from.

In fact, for many smaller businesses – the credibility of the promoters of a business and the business are one and the same thing. They are joined at the hip.

Related: A Fine Line:’Personal Brand’ Vs. Personal Achievement

The lines between your own reputation and those of your business are becoming increasingly blurred. Knowing that – boost credibility in your personal brand by:

# 1. Becoming more visible offline and online

• Make it your business to be seen and heard where your prospective customers are.
• Give people reasons to associate you with your company brand and the value you offer collectively.

# 2. Becoming known for something

• Become the ‘go to’ person for topics that matter to your prospective customers and can complement what you want your business to be known for.
• As Dan Schawbel put it during a recent interview in Forbes about owning your brand space:

”The best CEO’s are able to leverage their authentic personality in order to attract attention to their company…A brand personality   delights consumers and makes them more interested in what your company sells".

Put simply – lending your personal credibility to that of your company can make a world of a difference to the level of trust prospective customers may place in your business.

Related: The Rise Of Social Celebrities

Over to you

What’s the best example you’ve seen of personal brand being used to boost the fortunes of a business? Why did this work so well?

Image: “3d small people worshipping to a gold idol./Shutterstock“

The post Boost Your Personal Profile To Grow Your SME Business appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.