February15
Some people say to use a contest for building your lists. And while that is a great idea, it isn’t always necessary. You can quickly put together a tool to start building your lists today in just an hour. This tool also double duty, it gets you important information!
1. Go to www.SurveyMonkey.com and choose their FREE service. Make a 5-10 question survey about your product or service. Make the questions things you absolutely do want/need to know. Things you want to ask people who don’t use your product or service. For example, you have a salon or spa? Ask what is most important in their choice of where to go…price, proximity, quality of service. Ask what they think of your services…put in a rating, ask if they have heard of you. Ask where the last service they received was from. Realtor? Ask how they choose their agent. Ask fun questions too (remember the Cosmo Quiz?) Gather information. It is important. Make sure to include a comment field on your questions. In the survey, make sure you ask for their email address and ask them to follow you on Facebook or Twitter. My survey looks like this: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/F9DYLC3 .
2. Send this survey to 10 friends/colleagues/coworkers/people who like you and ask them to forward it to 2-3 other people who will take the survey seriously (this is important). Make sure to include an introductory paragraph about how much you value the insight and opinion of those who take the time to answer. Have a one-time gift or discount ready for those who respond and let folks know they will receive a special thank you in return for their time. Twitter the link to your survey. Put it in your Facebook Status. Do this once a day, every day for 3-5 days. Once a day is not annoying. Repetitive yes, annoying …no. People need to see things more than once. Put different messages to the link each time and make them funny so people will be interested enough to click. You can also ask other people to send out the survey for you more than once, but ask different people!
3. Follow up with those who have given you their contact info. Say thanks and also ask for sales. Here is my secret mystical Toad sales mantra, “Do you know anyone who might be interested?”
You use this phrase because if the person you are following up with is interested, then they will say so. But you’re not being pushy. If they are not interested then they might really truly want to help you still and might give you a contact to follow up with. Be sure to discover if they are really truly thinking that their lead is interested or not, don’t be afraid to ask for a hot-warm-cold rating or why they might be interested, because you really don’t want to waste anyone’s time.
Now remember, if you make the survey public, you will get folks who do not answer truthfully, or take it seriously. Watch for that. But this can be a fun way to get some feedback and interaction and help build your lists.
February9
I feel a little sick. I don’t even think I should have to write this post. But I had a client… a client who I care about like a little brother, call me a little while ago. He told me about two different people he has heard of, they are “Doing Great” with Twitter, selling, making contacts… and they are outsourcing their social media. He is going to do the same.
Someone else is doing their tweets. This is totally different than outsourcing training/consulting. They are outsourcing the relationships. This guy has never even seen Twitter and he is going to hire someone else to do it for him.
There are 90 million reasons this is a bad idea. Anyone who uses social media and leverages it will understand this. People who are noobs with social media will be preyed upon because they do not know this. So I’m going to list a few reasons here, taken with thanks and gratitude from this article: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/outsourcing-social-media/
External people do not have all the facts
You could be locked in or even held hostage
Outsourcers are not empowered to make decisions or take action
Company culture should be communicated accurately
Industry terms and details can confuse outsourcers
A large benefit of social media is networking
They don’t have your passion.
I don’t think I’m going to convince this guy of the mistake he is making and that makes me literally sick, because I care so much and want to see him succeed. Maybe it will be okay and he won’t get hurt by doing this, I hope so. But I feel like I’m watching him jump off of a cliff. It hurts. I am a little sickened that someone would even offer to do it. It seems to me at best, naive and at worst, unethical.
Outsource your filing, your appointment setting, your SEO, your typing, data entry… do not outsource your social media marketing. Ever. Let an employee do it, a high level employee who is invested in your company like you are.
August26
Baby Step number two with Twitter. If you have a blog, integrate it with Twitter to automatically post when you blog.
How?
With WordPress you’ll need Twitter Tools, it creates a two way street between Twitter and your blog.
If you use Blogger, add a widget
Again, why do you do this? it is to streamline your process and take you less time in putting information about you on the web of course, putting you on multiple platforms in minimal time…but ultimately you do this because…..
People will research you when considering using your product or service. Giving them things to learn about you (ie your brand) helps them to make the decision of whether or not to trust you as a vendor. They’re getting a sense of who you are.
And remember…If you write everything in GeekSpeak, using your technical jargon for your particular field, you might miss folks who need you, simply because they cannot understand what you’re saying. Put yourself out there, but also remember to speak to people who might know nothing about your products or services, speaking as simply and as plainly as possible. Never assume.
Okay, I’m taking my own baby step with this post and since I already integrated Twitter with Facebook, this one blog post will show up in both other places.
Cool.
