Ok hands up, Facebook was never entirely free, it’s always taken time to generate content and maintain your presence on Facebook. And time = money.

One of the most appealing things about Facebook is that most of the Internet using population is on it and if you could folks to click that ‘like’ button, well, you had ‘em.

Things have changed, a lot.

Over the last couple of years, many changes have occurred to business pages (sorry, timelines) – moving to the timeline design, losing the tab format, losing the obvious landing page to name but a few. And don’t forget there are just simply hundreds of millions more users on there than 2 years, you’ve got more noise to compete against.

But the biggest change? Visibility – thanks to Facebook’s algorithm, Edgerank, which dictates what percentage of the people who like your page actually see what your post.

2 years ago – you could expect 80-90% of your followers to see your posts.

Now - for small businesses you’re looking at 30-40% visibility, for larger businesses that percentage goes down to a paltry 15%. Eek….

Unsurprisingly, many businesses aren’t happy about this. Some now employ the tactics of the ‘share this post if/like this post if’ quick engagement post (although I understand it, it’s lazy marketing in my book) to try to boost their Edgerank. Others have just wondered why their engagement rate has dropped through the floor.

And the rest?

They pay. Using the Facebook advertising model, they hand over cash on a regular basis to Facebook to promote either their page or individual posts. Those ads show up as an advert or a sponsored story – you’ll have seen them filtering through your stream by now I’m sure.

And there’s a problem with those sponsored adverts. I’m starting to see the same brands advertising on Facebook in the same way, all the time. And it’s annoying, to the point where the brand is potentially devaluing itself to it’s target audience.

(Image courtesy of Darren Dean)

Oops. Handing over cash and not helping their brand in the long-term (even though they get some short-term hits). Sainsbury’s and Aviva are both guilty of this recently for me.

Should all businesses be spending money on Facebook Advertising?

Yes, if:

➢ Your business is suited to Facebook (most B2B business aren’t, in my view)
➢ You want to boost your engagement and visibility of your posts.
➢ Your content is good/engaging/creative etc…

If you’re not using Facebook advertising but Facebook is a major part of your social media marketing, it’s time for a rethink.

You need a balance of consistent, compelling, creative content and then use advertising for certain posts where you want your reach to increase towards 75% of your followers (and others). Where you use advertising, don’t run campaigns for too long otherwise the same users may see the same adverts time and time again, and that may well not do you any favours when they just want to see what their mates are up to!

What do you think: are you running a Facebook page that’s producing a return, has high engagement and reach without advertising? I’d love to know!

Are you considering starting using Facebook advertising this year? There’s a good article here with some tips.

Jan

The post Facebook: No longer a free social media tool for business? appeared first on The Net Advantage.

1. Consistency

Are you guilty of not planning what you’re going to post and when?

The result: adhoc, irregular updates/blog posts that doesn’t build trust with your followers, the likelihood is it will start to annoy them (if it doesn’t already).

The recommendation: Space your content out, rather than 6 Facebook updates in the space of a few hours (I see it a lot!) then nothing for a week, schedule 6 updates one a day for 6 days, either the same time (if your audience is online at the same time every day) or at different times (if your audience is wide enough that they use Facebook at differing times).

2. Content

You’ve heard it screamed from the social media industry rooftops “CONTENT IS KING”. It’s still true, without good, compelling content (look, another C!) you’re going to find it hard to keep your audience entertained, there are other brands out there paying a lot of money for such content.

So, what can you create about your business/industry/personality that’s going to grab the attention of your audience on a consistent basis?

3. Context

The other ‘king’ is Context. Interesting content is one thing, tailoring it to be relevant to your audience is another.

So first things first, do you know who your audiences are? Are they male, female, what are their interests, age, location – all have a massive impact on the context you can give to your content.

Most businesses I see churn out every press release they do on every social media channel with a ‘let’s just chuck it out everywhere and hope it sticks somewhere’ approach.

The result: lower engagement, more disengaged followers as you create more noise and less tailored, relevant content.

The recommendation: pretty obvious, you need to get to know and understand your audience better. Look at e.g. Facebook insights, their hobbies/interest – even, gasp, ask them!

4. Competition

Call them competitors (or potential colleagues/collaborators as I like to call them – more C’s!) but if you don’t know what they are up to online, you’re missing a trick.

Where do you come in a Google search versus your competitors, what social media presence do they have, what content are they putting out, do they get good engagement from it? Just a few of many questions you should be asking.

It’s out there in the public domain; use it to your advantage.

5. Creativity

On average, we actively follow just 9.4 Facebook pages and can build meaningful relationships with 100-150 twitter followers. As a business you are up against multinational brand juggernauts and pop stars and film stars to boot. How are you going to get your target audience to follow and engage with you?

Do you churn out all your latest press release where you just talk about your business? That would be a NO!

Do you make your presence more about fan-centred engagement where they feel part of a community and their opinion is valued as it’s more about them than you? That would be a YES ☺

Old Spice (yes, the aftershave your dad wore in the 1980’s!) is one of the best examples of turning around a brand (in the US predominantly) using social media, all it took was a little creativity.

6. Confidence

Whatever you do, do it with style/creativity/pizazz – bland and wishy-washy toeing the line stuff won’t work on social media, remember, you need to try to stand out from a phenomenally large crowd if you want your business voice to be heard online.

Adding personality to the brand is one way, some create characters (my favourite still is Wells Bombadier Ales on Facebook) and others just have a strong opinion and are confident enough to see it through.

This is especially true of blogs, you have to get off the wall and have an opinion (and a fairly strong one at that) to stand out from all your competitors.

7. Commitment

Linked to consistency above, there is a lot to be said for committing to a platform over a long period of time (I usually quote 12 to 18 months as a starting point).

Quick wins can and do happen on social media but the mainstay of your social media return will come from developing relationships over time. You don’t go to a networking event and expect to walk away with 10 new clients after the first visit do you…do you?!

Over to you, did I miss any important other social media ‘C’s’?

Is there anything you’re planning to do differently this year with social media?

Jan

Further reading: Why you should spend LESS time on Social Media…

Image courtesy of society6.com

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I’m delighted to announce more half-day training courses that I’m delivering through Shropshire Chamber of Commerce, we’re now into the second year of our partnership, time has flown!

So if it’s time to dust off your Twitter account, boost your Facebook and blogging efforts or poke your toe into the Pinterest or Google+ water, the courses below will cover your needs and get you right up to speed.

The courses have grown and have become longer (3 1/2 hours) to allow more time for the hands-on learning part of each workshop so you walk away confident to implement what you have learned.

Dates and course titles are below, booking and course details are available via the Shropshire Chamber website.

Wed 30th January – A Social Media overview
Wed 6th February – Using LinkedIn for Lead Generation (CPD Certified)
Tues 12th February – Twitter for Business
Wed 27th February – Facebook for Business
Tues 5th March – Blogging for Business
Tues 12th March – Google+ and Pinterest for Business
Tues 19th March – Social Media for Professional Services

All the courses go from a fairly introductory level through to advanced so are suitable for all levels of understanding. This cycle of course will be based at Stafford Park, Telford.

There will be more courses coming in 2013 in Telford and Shrewsbury, so as they say, watch this space! If there is a course you’d like that I don’t currently offer, just leave a comment below.

Any questions, just let me know. I hope to see some of you soon!

Jan

p.s. If you know anyone that might benefit from these courses, feel free to pass this on (and thank you!)

The post 2013 Social Media Workshops at Shropshire Chamber of Commerce appeared first on The Net Advantage.

Don’t get me wrong, I always advise clients on the need for calls to action (examples include: like if, comment if you agree, what do you think, has this happened to you…. the list goes on) when posting on Facebook – research has showed time and time again that if you include calls to action, you get more interaction, which is critical if you want more of your fans to see your posts.

On Facebook particularly, this need for engagement and interaction with your page is more critical than ever as Facebook are hell bent on getting all businesses to use it’s advertising model – all businesses will have seen a drop in reach over the last year thanks to changes Facebook has made to it’s Edgerank algorithm.

What’s Facebook Edgerank algorithm?

EdgeRank is the name of the algorithm which Facebook uses to determine what appears in their users’ news feeds. It determines not only which of your connections is the most important to you (and therefore what content from them you see the most) but also which kinds of content should appear higher than others.

There’s more in this eConsultancy article on Facebook Algorithm if you need it.

So what’s the problem with ‘Like this if’ posts?

Frankly, it looks lazy if a large part of your Facebook posts are so obviously geared towards getting interaction on the page – you’re not providing content of value, you’re putting up posts for the sake of getting interaction to push your Edgerank up. Every time I see larger brands (and the digital agencies behind them) joining in, I feel a little sad & a kitten dies

I think Social Media managers need to look afresh at Facebook before it become a post-fest of ‘like, share, comment if’ posts – it’s turned me off (but granted I see a lot) and I think other users will get to the same point. Just because you did it 6 or 12 months ago doesn’t mean it’s ok now, sure still use it but apply a heavy dose of moderation please!

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I was beginning to wonder whether I was alone in my rant about lazy ‘like if’ posts – thankfully not, I stumbled across a brilliant sarcastic and satirical Facebook page set up to name and shame companies taking the short cut route to interaction with their fans – thank you Condescending Corporate Brand Page for making me feel less alone!

So let’s get back to doing what Facebook users want – interesting, refreshing & GENUINE content that adds value to their stream, not pandering to the restrictions on visibility Facebook’s algorithm places on your posts – get an increase to your Facebook advertising budget, or get more creative … please, just for me?

Thank you

Jan

p.s. If you like this post, why not share it?

p.p.s. If you’d like a copy of future blog posts delivered to your inbox, just fill out the sign-up box below and I’ll do the rest!

Avatar image courtesy of blogs.independent.co.uk

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We’re also getting busier and busier and the chance of getting a written recommendation is getting harder.

Now you have a choice, go the ‘old-fashioned route’(!) and get a written recommendation OR you can now be ‘endorsed’ for individual skills or expertise – one click, with suggestions made when you stumble across a connection’s profile. On your profile it now looks like a scorecard against the skills or expertise you claim you have.

The ‘Skills & Expertise’ section, with the new ‘scorecard’ one-click endorsements

So that ‘skills & expertise’ section that was added to your profile about a year ago (and many people still don’t use within their profile) has become very important.

Is the new Endorsements feature any good?

Well, yes and no.

Yes in that it does highlight in a quick, more visual way that people rate your skills (and thereby your services/products).

No in that you may end up being rated for skills you don’t want so high on your profile (anyone can add a skill to your list to endorse it – you will get to approve new ones) or your skills get skewed – let me give you an example:

I manage at any one time a small number of long-term strategic clients (say 8) – large businesses. I also deliver hands on social media training to a large number of (normally) small businesses in a workshop format. I would prefer ‘social media strategy’ to be my ‘top’ rated skill but it’s actually ‘small business’ that comes out on top purely because I delivering training to a large volume of small business clients. It’s not that bad and I’m not complaining about any endorsements I’ve received, they are all warmly welcomed!

No in that when someone comes to my profile, they will see a few of my skills plucked from my list at the top of the screen with the encouragement to endorse me (but it picks the most popular already endorsed ones from what I’ve seen so far thereby exacerbating the ‘small business’ issue highlighted above).

People will either ignore it entirely, endorse a few of those pre-selected ones or if time add their own, which means my total ‘skill set’ may become unmanageable and worthless if I accept all the new ones people suggest – I’ve had to cut my skills list down twice already and ‘lose’ endorsements to keep it manageable (a good problem to have, I know!).

And finally, No in that you thought it was hard to get written recommendations out of clients before? Now it just got a whole lot harder….

My advice:

1. Go and review your ‘skills & expertise’ section, pronto – I’ve seen some very strange ‘skills’ popping up already from some of my connections. You need skills that sound relevant and right added onto the sentence ‘Is [Joe Bloggs] good at xxx?’. Relevance and context is KEY here – we all have plenty of skills but which ones are relevant to your role now – what do you want to be known for most?

2. If you’ve already collated some endorsements, consider losing any skills that have no endorsements (unless they are a core fundamental skill), otherwise it can start to look like you don’t have those skills (the reality being LinkedIn just hasn’t suggested them to anyone yet). Your connections can still add them in when they want to endorse you. Aim to have 10 to 15 ‘skills’ max (we can’t be a master at everything).

3. Review what endorsements you have received – does your connections perceptions of your skills match what you thought people knew about you? If not, maybe there’s a little PR working there to be done….

4. Get endorsing - selectively. PLEASE don’t go and endorse all your mates and or people you know through networking (I already fear endorsements will become a ‘who has the most mates’ feature). Make your endorsements count – who do you work with/for, who are your suppliers, who have you heard speak or done work with in some way. If you endorse and people can see you are endorsing, you’ll have far more chance of getting endorsements for yourself.

5. Ask your clients/co-workers for endorsements – these are the people who matter, so why not send then a quick email, explain you’d like to get some endorsements on your page, provide them the link to your profile and ask them to click away if they have 30 seconds (it really is that quick). While you’re at it you could give them choice of endorsing you or providing a written recommendation – think about what is more useful.

What do you think of this new endorsements feature?

Jan

p.s. If you like this post, why not share it?

p.p.s. If you’d like a copy of future blog posts delivered to your inbox, just fill out the sign-up box below and I’ll do the rest!

Image courtesy of http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jamie-Oliver-Youre-Great-Mug/dp/B002DUCJCW

The post LinkedIn Endorsements: have you checked your skills? appeared first on The Net Advantage.

 
Every time I’ve hit another 1,000 followers on Twitter, I’ve marked it with a competition to say thank you for following & supporting me. I recently hit 3,000 (engaging, fabulous, informative & entertaining followers – yes, YOU!) so it’s competition time again.

So what do I have to do?

It’s simple – tweet me your best social media tip (or tips, as many as you have!). Start the tweet with the hashtag #mysocialmediatip and include @JanMinihane somewhere in the tweet.

You have from 9am on Monday 8^th October until 5pm on Friday 12^th October 2012.

And if you fancy retweeting the competition tweet, well, don’t let me stop you

But what will I win, Jan?

I asked you for suggestions on Twitter and you said cake, chocolate and an advisory session with me (clearly the booby prize!). Well, if cake is involved, I’m happy to oblige

The winner will win a delicious red velvet cake, some yummy chocolate and a free 2 hour social media advisory session with me (in person or via skype).

What should the tip be about?

Your tip can be about any aspect of social media that you’ve picked up on the way, either about one particular site….

e.g. #mysocialmediatip be sure to use Facebook’s scheduling icon to space out your content @JanMinihane

….or an overall social media tip….

e.g. #mysocialmediatip do less, better. Concentrate your efforts on a couple of sites & do them well rather than be everywhere @JanMinihane

The more creative/insightful, the better!

I’ll then shortlist and retweet/blog about all the best ones and choose a winner from the shortlist.

I hope you’ll jump on board and share a little of your knowledge for everyone’s benefit – surely more of an incentive than the prizes

Go for it and good luck!
Jan

The small print:

• You can enter the competition as many times as you like.
• Your tweet must include both #mysocialmedia tip and the username @JanMinihane to qualify for consideration.
• The shortlist will be decided by Jan Minihane as the week progresses.
• The shortlist will be reviewed and the winners will be notified on Monday 15^th October.
• The winner must respond to the winning email notification within 72 hours or another winner will be chosen.
• No cash alternative.
• The prize is non-transferable.
• The prize is a cake & chocolate (chosen by Jan Minihane) and a free 2 hour social media advisory session which can be carried out in person or via skype.

Image courtesy of fan pop.com

The post It’s competition time … appeared first on The Net Advantage.

I’m diving straight back into work with new half-day training courses that I’m delivering through Shropshire Chamber of Commerce.

So if it’s time to dust off your twitter account and poke your toe into the Pinterest or Google+ water, the courses below should cover your needs.

Dates and course titles are below, booking and course details are available via the Shropshire Chamber website. There will be two cycles of these courses before Christmas.

Tues 17th Sept – Introduction to Social Media
Wed 25th Sept – Twitter for Business
Tues 2nd Oct – Facebook for Business
Tues 9th Oct – Google+ and Pinterest for Business
Tues 16th Oct – Using LinkedIn for Lead Generation
Wed 17th Oct – Social Media for Professional Services

Tues 6th Nov – Introduction to Social Media
Tues 13th Nov – Twitter for Business
Tues 20th Nov – Facebook for Business
Tues 27th Nov – Google+ and Pinterest for Business
Wed 5th Dec – Using LinkedIn for Lead Generation
Tues 11th Dec – Social Media for Professional Services

All the courses go from introductory level through to advanced so are suitable for all levels of understanding.

Any questions, just let me know. I hope to see some of you soon!

Jan

p.s. If you know anyone that might benefit from these courses, feel free to pass this on (and thank you!)

Image courtesy of zatchels.com

The post Back to [Social Media] School time … appeared first on The Net Advantage.

In the firing line this week … Supermarkets.

Last week I sent the following perfectly pleasant inquiring tweet to Morrisons twitter account:

Hi @morrisonsnews can you let me know if you give excess perishable food from your stores to e.g. homeless shelters? I ask because I saw …

— Jan Minihane (@JanMinihane) July 13, 2012

Now, I’ll give Morrisons their dues, they do state to call their helpine for customer services issues but didn’t say they didn’t answer all tweets; I could clearly see customers service tweets on their timeline so assumed they were open for business, so to speak.

So far, tumbleweed. No response whatsoever from Morrisons. And as a regular Morrisons customer, how do I feel?
A bit unloved and with the impression that Morrisons don’t care about food waste – oops. (I’ve since learned that due to the possibility of being sued by someone who gets ill from this food they can’t/won’t – not convinced by that, has to be a work around, I’ll leave that for another post!).

My regular blog readers will know I had quite the run in with Tesco at the start of the year after being stuck in their car park for 4 hours when the snow hit.

Again, silence on Twitter and my Facebook post was deleted (!) And as a (at the time, no longer) regular customer, how did I feel? Angry, deflated and with a distinct impression that Tesco really don’t give two hoots once you’ve parted with your hard-earned cash – again, oops.

Twitter is literally littered with mentions of the big Supermarkets, most of which goes unanswered (I at least hope they are monitoring it!), such as:

@tesco shenfield poor service again. Fridges closed ten mins early, one guy on till causing queue as two others stand chatting #notimpressed

— Mark Peter Reed (@theatremark) July 14, 2012

Morrisons don’t have a dedicated customer services Twitter account. Tesco do. I’ve had bad experiences with both.

One supermarket which is impressing me so far (online at least!) is Sainsbury’s – they allow their social media team to respond as they think is appropriate to the tweeter, they aren’t stuck with rigid guidelines as to what they can respond to and how.

The result? A happier, more positive, personal service on their 2 main accounts, @sainsburys and @sainsburysPR.

So, what can we learn from these examples?

1. Be clear - if you offer a customer service offering online or not, be VERY clear about where you do it, what you do, and won’t do, and in what timeframe (e.g. ‘This is the customer service account for Joe Bloggs Ltd, we aim to respond to all tweets within 24 hours’ OR ‘We prefer to talk to you if you have a question about our business, not tweet. Call us on 0845 234 567 between 8am and 8pm 7 days; we’re waiting for your call a week’).

2. Be consistent – if you don’t offer enhanced customer service through social networking sites, then always direct inquiries to the website/helpline and don’t waiver from it, otherwise you’re putting out an inconsistent message about where/how to contact you.

3. Reply – I don’t mind being told you can’t answer my query as long as you actually make that effort to reply – not replying is the easiest way to make we want to escalate my complaint – nip it in the bud by being friendly, polite, helpful and informative. I’m sure there is this old wives tale that the customer is always right …

4. Be sure – do you want customers contacting you through social media? There have been some wonderfully embarrassing examples of big companies getting a hard time on twitter. Why? Mainly because their offline customer service isn’t good enough. Put it online too and you amplify it, not resolve it. Solve any offline issues first before considering diving into online.

And a final thought – the supermarkets wanted to become giants, some might say they want to rule the world – well with great power comes great responsibility (thanks Voltaire for that gem) – staff your online customer service offering adequately and do it well or don’t do it at all, the long line of disgruntled unloved customers is just getting longer, and more vocal.

Your customers are your brand advocates; treat them well and you’ll reap the rewards.

Have you had any negative (or positive) experiences with online customer service from the big supermarkets?

Jan

p.s. If you like this post, why not share it?

p.p.s. If you’d like a copy of future blog posts delivered to your inbox, just fill out the sign-up box below and I’ll do the rest!

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The post Hello? Is anybody there? ‘Social’ Customer Service appeared first on The Net Advantage.

I ran a poll on LinkedIn recently, about whether Shropshire-based businesses would be spending more or less time on Social Media over the next 12 months. The results were fairly decisive:

More time: 60%
Same time: 33%
Less time: 7%

What the results tell me is that there is still the feeling that a business has to be everywhere online – a Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+, Pinterest presence and a Blog at an absolute minimum.

IF, and it’s a big if, you have identified that all or part of your target audience (be it current customers, potential customers, journalists, influencers, suppliers, producers, stakeholders, investors – the list goes on) are on ALL these sites AND they actually want to talk with you there, then go for it … as long as you have at least 20 hours a week to dedicate to maintaining it all effectively.

Unsurprisingly, most businesses I talk to don’t have that amount of time that they are willing or able to dedicate to it!

So what to do? Two main choices:

1. Carry on having half-completed profiles, sporadic rushed posts, trying to talk to all segments of your audience on all these sites, thereby creating noise for your followers, not value.

OR

2. Do less, better (ta-da!) – look at what your primary online marketing objectives are, where the audience to fulfil these objectives are most likely to spend time (and where they want to talk to you!) and what time you can dedicate to it. Now you can really decide where to spend time, what you want to say, with more focus.

The result? A more niched online marketing presence that is portraying a positive business/brand image.

I know which I’d rather have – who wants to join me in the ‘do less, better’ social media revolution?

Have you decided to walk away from any of the main sites yet? If so, why?

Jan

p.s. If you like this post, why not share it?

p.p.s. If you’d like a copy of future blog posts delivered to your inbox, just fill out the sign-up box below and I’ll do the rest!

Image courtesy of www.youthedesigner.com

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