The list of social sites that I use is getting long:

Twitter

Facebook

Google+

LinkedIn

Spotify

StumbleUpon

This Blog

SparkPeople                                                                                                                       * image by Patrick Hoesly

Goodreads

 

Believe it or not, each of those sites offers individual benefits, and I use them to meet different needs. If you were so fanatically impressed with my amazing writing skills that you wanted to connect with me in all of these different places, you would rarely, if ever, see the same content duplicated. I do provide links to my blog from several other sites, in the hopes more people will come here, but that’s about it.

 

You may be thinking, “That’s a LOT of content.” You’re right, it is, and sometimes I struggle with what to post where. Would this link work better on Twitter or Facebook? How many more people are likely to respond to this question on Google+ than on LinkedIn? Where should I share this in order to provide maximum exposure?

 

The thing is, I’m not really normal – in the way that I use social media. It is part of my job to offer my clients insight and advice regarding these various platforms. If that weren’t the case, I’m not sure I’d be active in quite so many places. Also, if I had a job that didn’t involve marketing or social media at all – if I were still a teacher, for instance – I would certainly be slower to get involved.

 

This run down of my own social media habits has a point: Any normal person would be overwhelmed.

 

That overwhelm usually leads to a handful of reactions. People link their feeds together so that the same status update or link or whatever appears everywhere at once. Sometimes, business owners simply ignore the latest and greatest and stubbornly stick to whatever has been working for them (know anyone still relying on the Yellow Pages?). Other folks just hire it all out to an agency.

 

Linking your profiles and pages together is a bad idea, for several reasons. One is that you miss out on the particular benefits each platform offers. The reason all these sites can coexist is that they don’t do the same things. The jokes and chatter that work perfectly on Twitter fall flat on LinkedIn.  I’m certainly not the first person to offer this advice, but I do think the temptation to link accounts will grow along with the number of platforms that could be linked.

 

Not taking the time to even learn how the next big thing works is a mistake, too. You need to at least have some idea of what each of these sites can do before you can decide where your business should be. Twitter might not be right for your business, but if you never check it out you will never know. Lots of businesses have found new customers through Twitter that never expected to be able to. Lots of others have tried and flopped – either because the people they were looking for weren’t there, they lacked an understanding of how that community works, or they were inconsistent or impatient.

 

Hiring an agency might seem like a good idea, especially if you listen to a well written and delivered pitch. But, unless you or someone who is extremely knowledgeable about your company works closely with the agency, it could be a disaster. In order for marketing through social platforms to work, you have to be personable and responsive to what your customers want. A representative from an agency cannot do that nearly as well as someone who lives and breaths your business. I’m not saying that an agency is NEVER the right idea, but you (or someone you trust) will have to spend time making sure the agency knows your company well enough to represent it.

 

I’m curious as to how the people who read this blog handle the overload. Do you wait to see how everyone else is going to use the latest new thing, or do you jump right in? Do you link your profiles together? Do you use different platforms to share different sorts of information or is one place as good as another?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Yesterday I was pleased to attend an event hosted by the Social Media Club of Chattanooga.  It was at my favorite coffee house and lots of friends were there, so it would’ve been fun regardless of presenters or speakers or whatever. However, it would be hard to describe watching a “live” (by Skype) interview with someone like Guy Kawasaki as a bonus.

 

The interviewer was John Martin of the Small Business Round Table, and he conducted the interview for his Internet radio show SBR with John Martin. Each week, John interviews small business owners, successful entrepreneurs and others who have wisdom to share with those of us working to build profitable businesses. John asked Guy questions about failure, venture capital and much more as we all looked on, listened and learned.

 

Guy Kawasaki is successful and excellent at what he does. He also seems to be a genuinely nice person who is interested in helping people, sharing his knowledge and teaching others how to be…enchanting. I think, though, that some of the things he said during the interview should be put into perspective.

 

For example, John asked about the way that Guy uses Twitter. Now, Guy has been scolded many times for posting too often, using a team to post under his name and other practices that some people view as “bad” or “wrong.” The thing is, it’s working. For Guy.

 

Guy has two accounts on Twitter, and if you follow both of them, you are probably seeing his name pop up quite frequently in your stream. He says that he posts each link that he wants to share four times a day – twice on each account. Now, if I re-posted things four times a day, people would get irritated really quickly. But Guy has something like 400,000 followers between his two accounts, and they are all online at different times. Some might check things in the mornings, others in the evenings – and that’s not to mention time zones. So, if you have 400,000 followers it makes good sense to share the same thing four times a day.

 

But if you don’t have that many followers? If you only have a measly couple of thousand? You are probably alienating people by repeating yourself so frequently, particularly if you are posting links to your own stuff (Guy doesn’t do that, by the way). Most of us can get by with posting something twice, but that’s about it.

 

Guy does something else that probably wouldn’t work for the rest of us: he uses social media like a billboard. He broadcasts on Twitter, which is why he wants tons of followers. For him, a follower is a set of eyeballs that might click on a link and look at an ad – and might even click on the ad.

 

He almost never retweets anything, mostly because he says he pays no attention to his stream. He is not using Twitter to engage in conversations. This works for a man who is hanging out on the NY Times Best Seller List, owns a couple of companies and is a respected authority in his field.

 

It probably wouldn’t work for you, and it definitely wouldn’t work for me.

 

Small business owners need to be having conversations on Twitter and Facebook. We need to be talking to people, and participating in useful discussions. You know, being authentically ourselves and stuff. For the business owner with a small reach and even smaller budget, real conversations with real people who spend real money are the power of social media. We can talk to people, make them love us, find out exactly what they need then sell it to them.

 

I would never presume to say that someone like Guy Kawasaki is doing it wrong. I will say that most of us cannot hope to do it the way he is and be successful. Do you follow Guy on Twitter or like him on Facebook? How do you feel about his tactics? Would you ever try to replicate his success using his tactics?

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Last Thursday, I was lucky enough to have time to participate in the Hub Spot webinar, The Science of Email Marketing. I say “participate” because Hub Spot did a great job of integrating Twitter into the experience, encouraging people to comment and ask questions using the hash tag #emailsci.  The information presented challenged much of what I have learned about email marketing, both through experience and from other sources.

For example, way back, a whole 2 years ago, when I first started writing email newsletters, the company I worked for presented statistical evidence that the best day to send marketing email messages is Tuesday. Mondays are too busy, they said, and on Fridays everyone is bored and tired of working, and obviously, no one is working on the weekends.  Hub Spot, though, surveyed 95 million email users and found the highest click thru rates occur on the weekends.

In my experience, the best day to send your email is different and it totally depends on  your audience and your business. For example, I have one client who builds custom furniture and sends out a monthly newsletter. His open rates are much higher if it goes out on the weekend. However, I have another client who sells plants wholesale to garden centers, landscapers and the like. He sends out a weekly newsletter. His open rates tend to be better during the week.

It should be noted, however, that the Hub Spot statistics focused on the click thru rates, not the open rates. Obviously, if your recipients are clicking on your links, they are more engaged and that is great.  But my own experience – personal and professional – tells me that it’s the open rate that is more important here.

Personally, I read lots of emails but don’t always click the links in them. Professionally, I send email newsletters for a wide range of businesses and some of the most successful sales campaigns have happened through newsletters that didn’t get a lot of clicks. Of course, my clients generally have very small lists so my observations apply to really small companies. Hub Spot probably consults with much larger companies.

Another interesting conclusion of Hub Spot’s survey was that 88% of those surveyed do not separate work and personal email, which seems connected to the previous statement about click thru rates on the weekends. I don’t care how many people they surveyed – I doubt the veracity of this one.

People who work for corporations, as administrative professionals, or other sort of “regular” jobs do not like working on the weekends, even if that work is opening emails. I know this because I’ve had a good many of those jobs. When I was an administrative professional, I spent the weekend trying hard to forget about the office entirely. As a teacher, I worked on the weekends, but it was grading papers and writing lesson plans, and definitely NOT checking work-related email.

Finally, Hub Spot showed statistics that seemed to say there is not much risk of sending out too many emails. My issue with this one is purely personal. I will unsubscribe from any list that over-sends. The only exceptions (for me) are LivingSocial and Amazon. With LivingSocial, I knew I was signing up for daily emails, so that makes it okay. As for Amazon, I want certain things and to get them I have to put up with receiving a whole bunch of crap I do not want – especially at Christmas.  And to tell the truth, I delete 95% of the email I get from those two companies without looking at it.

One of my clients suffers from serious email overload. He wakes up to 100s of emails just about everyday, and feels that just about the only thing he has time to do is respond to email. In order to get that person to read your marketing email, you better be offering something he needs desperately. It seems rude to me to send something “just to keep your name out there” to people like him weekly or even daily.

What are your email behaviors? Will you click all the links? Do you separate your work and personal email? Do you prefer weekend emails? Is it possible to over-send to you?

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Smiling Tree Writing, like most businesses, is constantly evolving. When I first started, I only wanted to write newsletters, and my rates were just about laughable. I quickly discovered there is a much larger market for writing services than email newsletters, and that my time and knowledge are valuable, and adjusted accordingly.

As time goes on, I am learning more about the problems businesses face that I can solve. More importantly, I am learning more about who benefits most from my services. It’s one thing to read about how important it is to find your RIGHT people, or to learn about addressing all of your business communications to your ideal customer but it is entirely another to actually find a couple of those folks.

In the first few years after college, I applied for hundreds of jobs. I could visualize myself working happily in any of them – from managing a retail store in a mall to working in an office, answering phones. I imagined that any decent paying occupation would suit me just fine. It took a long time to realize that is not the case.

In a similar way, when I first started Smiling Tree, I imagined that I could work with just about any client who was honest, had a business that needed stuff written and would pay me. It did not take long to realize working with clients is similar to finding a job where you can be happy. Most often clients who have found working with me boosts sales and saves time are business owners who:

understand the value of great content.
know a bit about content marketing and establishing relationships.
enjoy sites like Facebook.
are perfectly capable of doing what I do themselves, but
respect my expertise.
are willing to relinquish a modicum of control, once trust is established.

I have worked with other writers, for sites like Textbroker and for people who just need one article written or who just want a little advice. None of those are bad, but I have found that when a small business owner allows me to work with them as a partner, in an intense way, I have fun and they sell more stuff.

I now have two clients who fit the description of “ideal.” In each case, the business owner has begun by hiring me to provide just one or two services, felt good about what I brought to the table and hired me to work more as a member of a team.  Both have chosen to pay me on a retainer basis for a set of services that I provide monthly.

In 2011, the business model for Smiling Tree Writing is changing. Instead of simply writing proposals and endlessly marketing my services, I am going to accept 12 retainer clients. Each one will get 1-2 full days per month of my time, plus be able to contact me as needed for consultation.

Limiting the number of clients I accept will allow me to provide stellar service, and will leave flexibility in my schedule so that clients can contact me when they need to. Depending on what is needed, I will write blog posts, web content, articles for print publications, newsletters, set up and maintain business Pages on Facebook, help you understand if Twitter should be part of your strategy, or whatever else comes up.

Retainer clients can expect help in developing and executing a marketing strategy that includes fantastic written content. I have already filled two of the 12 retainer spots. That leaves space for 10 Special People.

Are you looking for a professional to work closely with you? Someone who cares about your business, yet sees things from a more objective viewpoint than an employee? Are you aware of a business that could use some help with putting together a marketing plan?

These retainer spots will fill quickly, so if you are even vaguely interested, please contact me. I will be happy to talk with you about your needs and my services.

email: davaleestewart@gmail.com

phone: 423-886-1170

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Last week, I had the genuine pleasure of meeting with Jon Moss to talk about his ideas for a site he started called businesschatt.com.  Jon asked if I would like to be a contributor to the site, and told me a bit about what it hopes it will become. Keep your eye on it, Jon has some great ideas.

Over the course of the conversation, we talked about networking in general, events we’d both attended, online magazines, social networking and the divides we see among different groups of professionals. At some point, Jon said, “My motto is ‘collaboration is the new competition.’” He was quick to point out that someone else said it first, but the quote speaks to how he tries to run his business. As it turns out, Jon and I have a similar approach to work.

Some of my clients are quite concerned about what their competitors are doing and particularly about other people stealing their ideas. Sometimes I will meet with a prospective client but decide not to work with him because of that sense of fear.  It’s impossible to effectively use social media for marketing if you afraid to say anything.

Fear is pervasive in our society. New cars have doors that lock themselves because people are terrified of being carjacked. Students in schools practice “lock down” because administrators are afraid of armed intruders. You name it, there is someone who is afraid of it. I have my own share of irrational fears – getting food poisoning comes to mind. I worry about it every time I eat food from a restaurant.

A couple of years ago, I watched a movie that was set in London during World War II.  I don’t remember the name of the movie, but I do remember one scene where all the characters were at a dance. In London. During the war. The characters made jokes about the sound of bombs falling, but they kept dancing.

Residents of London in 1946 had something to fear, yet they still managed to have parties. Perhaps we would behave the same today, faced with a similar set of circumstances but it doesn’t seem likely.

Of course, being afraid the business across the street will steal your idea and being afraid you will be attacked are different, but in some ways they are the same. If fear stops you from doing something you want to do or that you need to do, then it doesn’t matter what you are afraid of because the result is the same. Paralysis.

Being afraid of your competitors shouldn’t hold your business back.  If you are afraid to have a Facebook Page because you think your competitors will go through the list of people who “like” your page in an attempt to “steal” your customers you have bigger problems than marketing.

There are times when secrecy is necessary, such as prior to a big launch, or during the development phase of a new product or service. But that secrecy should not be born of fear. There is much to be gained through open conversation with customers and with competitors.

ps

If the title of this post made you want to hear the song, here you are: Let’s Work Together

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