This is a belated post for Blog Action Day that fell on a Sunday this year. I’m rarely online on a Sunday and even though I had a nagging feeling that I was missing something I couldn’t pinpoint it until today. So apologies for my tardiness, but this is what I would have said.
The economic slow down in Ireland has affected the food industry here in many ways. We’ve seen restaurants close down, a resurgence of nostalgia foods – most recently old-fashioned sweets – and a whole host of new artisan producers rise. Cooking has become a massive pass time. People may not be eating out as much but there is more cooking going on in the home. I’m not sure we can blame all of this on the re**ssion but maybe there are positives we can take away from it.
Social media and blogging have become a great cost effective way for food producers, venues and enthusiasts to communicate with their customers. Sites like Any Given Food and the Irish Food Bloggers Association have sprung up and events like Savour Kilkenny have become massive social media events as well as physical events.
So how can food businesses leverage social media?
Venues
Restaurants and cafes have the opportunity to engage customers on premises. Mobile applications like Foursquare and Foodspotting may not have a huge reach in Ireland, but the users they do have are pretty passionate about utilising them. Both of these applications can be linked to Twitter and Facebook so users have the opportunity of spreading the love beyond their fellow food geeks and into the Twittosphere. By offering deals for checking in or becoming a mayor of the venue you are encouraging more visits and more shares from these hardcore users.
Incentivise your customer to stay in touch. Have you dropped your business card into the bowl in Wagamama? I know I have and I’m always delighted to get the deals that arrive in my inbox because of it. But can you be more creative? I love this example from Jay Baur’s Convince And Convert blog of a sandwich bar that uses QR codes to get you signed up to Facebook whilst waiting in the queue.
Food producers
Recipes are hugely popular online. And what better way to promote your product than sharing recipes that require its use. Text recipes are great but putting a face on the brand by making a video could be even better. As often as possible include a photograph as this will get your followers tastebuds working.
Incentivise customers to Like your Facebook page by offering exclusive taster packs in a competition. Take a look at Keith Bohanna’s Irish Artisan Food Producers Facebook page for a collection of really good giveaways. (If a little out of date).
Feature the suppliers of your product and link to their Facebook pages, twitter accounts or blogs.
Tell the story of your product, what inspired you to create it, people love to hear stories and will feel more connected with you and your brand if you share.
Ask your fans to review the product – have a competition for the best review or recipe including it. Again this gives your potential customers some ownership of what you do and they will be delighted to see their recipes featured on your Facebook page or blog.
Food writers
Recipes again! give a way a little bit of what you have to offer. Blogging and sharing recipes from other social media users is a great way to connect with people and give a taste of what you do. I’ve always loved Kieran Murphy’s Ice cream Ireland blog. The recipes are mouth watering and when I saw Murphy’s Ice Cream shops start to appear in Dublin I was straight in to try some of the flavours he’d been talking about. Two food writers Mona Wise from Wise Words and Marian Hearne from Dairy Free & Spelt Living are launching cook books and their Facebook pages and blogs are great advertisements for what will be inside.
My Top tips
Connect with as many other Irish food businesses as you can; through Twitter, through Facebook business pages, through blog comments and anywhere else you find them online.
Tweet during as many food events and TV shows as possible. #rtemc (RTE Masterchef) for example was a great way to connect with other passionate foodies.
Share – don’t just post about yourself, share the love, link to other foodie Facebook pages, share their recipes and their blog posts. Interact and converse to become part of the community.
Recipes, recipes, recipes! People love recipes so whether they are your own or someone else’s you are sharing, make sure people know that your page or blog is the place to come for the best recipes within your category.
Do you have any tips to add? I know that I must have missed some. I’d love to hear what has worked or not worked for you.
I found an interesting post on Inside Facebook today about using Hootsuite to post to Facebook. Those of you who have been following my blog for a while will know I’m a big fan of Hootsuite (affiliate link). I rarely use it for Facebook but from time to time I need to schedule posts if I’m not going to be around, It’s important to be consistant and Hootsuite scheduling allows me to do this even when I’m with clients or teaching a course.
The disadvantage of using Hootsuite for Facebook according to the article is that Facebook penalises your content as it comes from a third party app. This means posts sent from it are less likely to appear in the ‘Top News’ feed of Facebook users and may get overlooked.
I do use Hootsuite scheduling far more frequently for Twitter, in fact I use it on a daily basis. Unlike Facebook there is no penalty for using third party apps to post on Twitter.
Whenever I mention scheduling it usually sparks a debate. There are advantages and disadvantages but used properly I believe it can help you create an effective social media strategy.
The argument against scheduling
The idea of scheduling makes some people prickle and I think I understand why, social media is social, users value authenticity and interaction, the perception is that if you schedule you don’t care, you are not there to respond. However I don’t believe we should all be chained to our computers or phones all day long to interact on Twitter. Scheduling doesn’t preclude interaction, it just guarantees you are able to reach your audience when they are online even if you are not. Those who schedule must respond and interact live too but if you schedule you can do this when it suits you without loosing your audience. In this respect scheduling tweets actually makes you more social not less so.
The advantages of scheduling
I find scheduling invaluable for many reasons. As I mentioned in my opening paragraph I can’t always be at my computer, If I’m out of the office I’m still able to share with my followers, I’m able to be consistent. If I kept my tweeting to when I had computer access I’d be in danger of flooding my followers streams with my tweets. There is nothing worse than logging into Twitter and seeing it dominated by a string of tweets from a single user. By spacing my tweets out I’m giving people time to digest them. As the tweeter this means followers are more likely to look at the links I tweet . The biggest advantage of all is that scheduling is a massive time saver and it helps me avoid those procrastination moments. I spend time in the morning scheduling and then dip in throughout the day to converse and engage.
How to schedule
Before you start scheduling I’d recommend analysing your followers using a tool like Tweriod or CrowdBooster, this will give you a rough guide to when your followers are online and you can create your content calender around this. Use Hootsuite (affiliate link), Buffer or Crowdbooster to schedule your tweets and assign timeslots during the day to check in on your account and read tweets from others.
Do you love or hate the concept of scheduling? I’d love to hear your opinion so please leave a comment below.
This week Domino’s Pizza made a really brave and innovative move by posting live customer feedback on a display in Times Square. The comments were edited for language and relevance but not for positive or negative opinion. This kind of transparancy has become one of the hallmarks of social media.
It made me think about how important it is to get real and believable testimonials from customers. It is no longer good enough to have a ‘Testimonials’ page on your website full of glowing, well thought out recommendations. People need to believe that they are 100% real. Social media gives us the opportunity to prove the validity of our customer feedback and although we aren’t all going to be as brave as, or have the budget of Domino’s Pizza there are a few ways we can collect convincing testimonials.
Twitter
If someone says something good about you on Twitter mark the tweet as a favorite. Once you have collected a few you can link to your favorites page from your website, blog, Facebook page or email signature. You can even embed the live stream of your favorites directly onto your website.
YouTube
If someone is speaking their praise direct into camera there can be no denying that it is real. Video testimonials can really work. Try to keep them short and to the point and most importantly in the words of the person giving feedback. Try not to put words into their mouths.
Channelship have done this really well as have the Kerry County Enterprise Board however I do feel the Enterprise Board could have benefitted more from a lot of short videos rather than editing them all toghther. Internet Video viewers have a short attention span and an 8 minute long video would be enough to put some people watching.
Blogging
We’ve mentioned Buyers Broker’s Blog here before. They use blogging to display customer testimonials, written in their own language and including a photograph. They are very believable.
Screen Grabbing Facebook posts
It can be frustrating if people compliment you on Facebook as even though they have gone out of their way to recommend you the post is only visable to people who visit your page, it will not appear on the news streams of people who like your page unless they happen to be a friend of the person posting it.
To share these comments with your Facebook likes you can screen grab them and post them as photos to your Facebook page.
You can grab recommendations from anywhere on the Internet forums and add them as a photo album to Facebook or even Google+.
What creative ways do you have of collecting testimonials from your customers? I’d love to hear your ideas so please leave a comment below.
There seems to be a lot of talk about crowdsourcing at the moment. It can be a great way to get input into your business, brand or product. This week I’ve been having a closer look at what crowd-sourcing is and how it can be applied to small business.
What is crowdsourcing?
Crowdsourcing is the outsourcing of a task to a wider community – in our case a social media community. This allows you to utilise the knowledge of a large group of people and apply it a specific problem, product or design.
Still confused? I found this great video from What Is Crowd Sourcing that explains it all in very simple terms:
What are the benefits of crowdsourcing
1. Getting your customer invested in your idea. By allowing your community to contribute to a product, design or even name you are giving them a sense of ownership of it, this will encourage them to share and actively promote what you are doing, they are also more likely to become a customer.
2. Talent. Crowdsourcing allows you to gain expertise from people you wouldn’t normally have access to. Other designers or expert opinion can help turn a good product, service or blog post into a great one.
3. Knowing your customer. When we are creating something whether it is a product, a new service or even a blog post it can be hard to know exactly what the customer wants. Crowdsourcing helps you understand your customer fully.
Examples of Crowdsourcing
The BBC and 3G coverage
It was this story about the BBC crowdsourcing UK 3G coverage that inspired this blog post. In this case the data is collected electronically via an Android phone app and is being promoted via the BBC. It will rely on a huge number of users installing and running the application and only an organisation with the reach of the BBC could provide this volume of people. The result will be a map of the UK with 3G coverage highlighted. This will be a fantastic resource as I have found the mobile carriers maps hard to navigate in the past.
Quirky and the Ice Scraper
It was a harsh winter everywhere last year. Social Product Development Company Quirky crowdsourced an impressive Ice Scraper for cars. The Quirky site is designed specifically to crowdsource products, users submit ideas and the community works on them. Users place orders up front and if enough people order it goes into production. So far the ice scraper has received 928 of the 1,200 sales it requires to be manufactured. There are a number of innovative crowdsourced products available on the Quirky website
Dell and Idea Storm
Idea Storm is a Dell customer driven website. It encourages users to submit ideas for products. This enables Dell to engage with their customers, get feedback and innovate new products or services based on customer ideas. Users are able to vote on ideas the most popular are implemented. According to the website out of the 10,000 ideas submitted they have already implemented 400.
How can a small business crowdsource?
Blog research
I use crowdsourcing a lot for my blog posts. This helps me develop ideas that may be based on my own experience I am always interested in how other people have found a service or what tips and tricks they have used. It can be hard to understand how others uses social media, I am so immersed in it every day I often have a very different view to consumers or clients. For that reason I often go to my Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin communities to get input. It can be a real eye-opener to get other opinions and views.
Naming products
When I sold hampers I used to get major writers block when it came to naming them. To help me I asked my Facebook fans to come up with some names and I picked the best of the bunch for new products. It saved me time and got my customers involved in the brand.
Discover what to sell
If you are a retailer deciding what and how much stock to buy can be a major challenge, asking your community what they want can help make sure that you have the right stuff and the right amount of it. It’s also a great way of finding out if there is a popular product you had overlooked.
Designs
If you’re designing a product or having your website revamped putting a number of solutions to your social media communities and asking them which they prefer can help make difficult decisions. Asking them what features they would like to see before you even start creating is even better at making sure you are creating a customer friendly design.
The Downside
1. You need a large community In order to get the full benefit from crowdsourcing. Getting input from one or two people is great but knowing which ideas are really valuable requires a mass of responses. This way you can filter the best ideas and ask your community to vote on the best ones. You will need to spend time building and engaging with your community before you can get results from crowdsourcing.
2. Too many chefs spoil the broth. It may be a cliche but cliches often come from experience. By crowdsourcing you could get lots of ideas and lots of differing ideas, implementing every idea that is given to you could result in a hotchpotch of conflicting ideas. You need to make sure everything you implement is consistant and works well together. Filtering ideas and implementing the most popular and the best should help avoid this.
Have you tried crowdsourcing for your small business? Have you any tips I’ve missed or want to share? Let me know by leaving a comment below.
At the end of last week Google launched it’s brand new shiny social network Google+. I was cynical, after Google Wave and Google Buzz would G+ be good? From the outside I wasn’t impressed. It seemed to be just another Facebook but then I started using it.
When I started looking at what I liked about it I realised that I could learn from G+ . That in some ways I had forgotten the beauty of social networks and I should refresh the way I use Facebook accordingly.
So firstly what did I like?
1. It’s less complex than Facebook – Facebook has some great features but I think they confuse people. When I’m teaching people how to use it it seems like I could run a week long course on the topic and still not get through it all.
2. Content is good – Because it’s new and membership is still limited the content is really good. Mostly self generated and a lot less automated stuff… and even better NO FARMVILLE!
3. Excitement – It’s new and most people are finding their way around and sharing tips. There is huge positivity from the people who are posting and it makes you want to join in.
4. The people - G+ is similar to Twitter, you can follow who you want and they don’t have to follow you back. This means you can follow some of the top people in your industry on G+. For me that’s easy as I’m in social media so my industry influencers were some of the first there.
5. Choose who to share with – At first I couldn’t see how ‘Circles’ differed from ‘Facebook friend lists’. The difference is that you are required to enter who you want to share with on every post. Some posts are public and Twitter style, some you want to keep for friends, family or even individual users. This should stop news-feeds getting cluttered.
So how will this change the way I use Facebook?
1. Keep it simple - Facebook is complex and it’s easy to assume that everyone knows how everything works. Keeping updates simple and showing people exactly how to communicate with you – whether it be telling them exactly what to do to ‘Like’ a page or join a group is important. Never assume someone knows something, don’t use complicated jargon, make it easy to participate. Of course there is a fine line to tread between keeping it simple and being patronising so make sure you are also adding value, be careful not to talk down to people.
2. Provide compelling content – All of us at one time or another post something we may not have thought about properly. Whether it’s talking about having a cup of coffee or a digest of our daily activity we really need to wonder if people are really interested. Since I’ve been using Google+ I’ve gone out of the way to find compelling content to share. I’m carrying my camera with me everywhere again and only posting the best stuff I find on the net to my profile. With this in mind I’m going to be more selective on what I post to my Facebook profile – although I’m sure I’ll still post a bit of nonsense there.
3. Excitment - How can I make what I’m doing with my Facebook pages more exciting and innovative. I for one have fallen into a pretty tight Facebook schedule for Spiderworking.com and I sometimes forget to think of myself as a client. What clever and innovative ideas would I suggest to a client to get the most from their page and how can I make mine more enticing? I feel I also need to be more impulsive with my posting.
4. Am I connected to all the right people? – I have a lot of friends on Facebook but my stream moves so fast I don’t communicate with them as much as I should. I’m going to start using Friend lists again to make sure I’m not missing important posts from great people. I haven’t actively sought out friends on Facebook for ages and this is something I should be doing, who out there is providing great content through their personal or business pages that I should never miss? I need to find these people and pages and make sure I’m connected.
5. Be selective with sharing – Facebook friend lists serve the same purpose as Google circles. With new lists created I’m going to stop clogging peoples news streams and only send relevant content to relevant groups.
All of this should make me a better Facebooker, I know you’ll all be watching now to see if I fulfil my pledge!
Do you agree with these points? Have you used Google+ yet? I’d love to hear your thoughts too – leave me a comment below or join me on Google+ to have a chat.
One of the most common concerns for businesses thinking of embracing social media is what they should do if someone attacks them on their page. I always advise that you should put together a crisis management plan when you set on the path of social media and this should form part of the social media policy within your organisation.
Even if you are a small business it’s worth putting together guidelines for yourself on how you should manage negative feedback within your Social Media strategy.
Within BT’s social media policy is the following statement that I think is excellent advice for anyone:
Keep calm: don’t pick fights by escalating heated discussions but be conciliatory, respectful and quote facts to lower the temperature and correct misrepresentations. Never contribute to a discussion if you are angry … leave it, calm down, and return to it at a later date when you can contribute in a calm and rational manner.
When thinking about how to manage a crisis it’s worth considering how some other businesses have dealt well or not so well when something has gone wrong.
What advice would you give for dealing with a crisis within social media. Have you experienced a crisis yourself? We’d love to hear your comments, share your stories with us below in the comments section.
If you are looking for inspiration for your Social Media strategy look no further. One thing I love about social media is that techniques and strategy are easily transferred from big business to small business. There is something we can all learn from good campaigns.
This week I thought I’d share three of my favorite case studies as found across the Internet (Marmarati is my personal favorite).
1. Marmarati
This campaign for Marmite XO blew me away. I love the quirkiness and innovation built on a very simple structure. Sadly I missed my chance to become part of the second circle of the Marmarati but hopefully I’ll get my chance in the third circle.
2. Zappos
Whenever innovative social media marketing is mentioned ‘Zappos’ comes up. Their brave and innovative campaign allows all employees to become part of the process. Employees are encouraged to tweet and not just about sales. This is a lovely way of bringing traditional customer and shopkeeper relationships into online commerce.
This was one of the first brands that I became aware of on Social Media. I love the way that they manage to make such a big chain of stores feel personal and helpful. Each store has it’s own Facebook and Twitter page and you can connect and consult their cheese and wine experts via Twitter.
What’s your favorite social media campaign? Do you have your own success story to share? Let us know in the comment box below.
Last week participated in a live chat as a guest expert on Social Media Ireland’s Facebook Page. After a lot of nail biting I really enjoyed the session. Thanks to all who asked questions and contributed on the night.
Before it disappears from view on the Social Media Ireland timeline I’ve collated some of the questions and answers to share with any of you that were unable to attend on the night.
My reply: That’s a great question. I think people often make the mistake of diving into all social media at the same time. The best policy is to do some research, find out where your customers are and tackle those first. Spend some time learning one network at a time or it will get confusing.
My reply: Hi Jenny, I think you need to sit down and plan out your social media. Each case is different. You need to decide how much time you have to dedicate to it, and which medias are best suited to you.
Putting together a content calender is a great way to make sure you are being productive but not over productive.
Different people have different ideas about what is too much. I read a report recently that said posting on Facebook 3 times a day was detrimental to your fan base but I know that many successful pages post at least this much. As a rule of thumb I would recommend keeping updates on Facebook to one a day or two max, twitter is very different you can almost post as much as you want there as long as it’s relevant and good content.
Elaine Rogers from Seefin Coaching added: I would add about twitter tho – some people schedule their posts, and don’t take the time to space them out, then my timeline is full of 20 tweets by one person – I usually unfollow
Me: Great point Elaine. I hate that myself, I don’t want to log onto Twitter and have my whole feed full of one person. I also think if you are going to schedule tweets you still need to go into Twitter and communicate as much as you can. Twitter is a conversation and broadcasting alone will limit it’s effectiveness
And Frank Bradly suggested: It’s always a good idea to check how many times a person replies in the stream. An absence of @ replies means they don’t engage much.
My response: Good question! With social media it is even more important to not copy your competitors. I think you should look at what they are doing and then attempt something completely different.
Personality is the number one thing that will set you apart from them. Be yourself because no one else can be. Provide great content and content specifically for Facebook and prove that you are an expert.
Niall Devitt said: as part of the standing out theme, I’d recommend customizing your FB page
My response:
Hi Sarah And Brian
I have a quote I got from BT’s social media policy yesterday that I think is the best possible way to respond:
“Keep calm: don’t pick fights by escalating heated discussions but be conciliatory, respectful and quote facts to lower the temperature and correct misrepresentations. Never contribute to a discussion if you are angry … leave it, calm down, and return to it at a later date when you can contribute in a calm and rational manner.”
Their full policy is online here: http://richarddennison.wordpress.com/bts-social-media-guidelines/
These are just a few of the questions that came up on the night. I’ll be revisiting some of the other issues raised in future posts. Don’t forget to keep an eye on Social Media Ireland’s Facebook Page to find out when the next Live Chat is on.
I’d love to hear your input on these discussions, do you have anything to add? If you do leave a comment below.
Monitoring your brand and industry on social media channels should be one of the most important parts of your social media strategy, yet it is something that is often overlooked by business owners.
Amongst other things Social Media monitoring can help you:
1. Gauge the reach of your social media efforts – are people talking about you and if so what are they saying?
2. Keep you informed about what your competitors are up to.
3. See what the current trends and sentiments about your industry are.
This year, for the second year running Spiderworking.com will be attending the Monitoring Social Media conference in London. Last years event provided us with lots of useful tricks, tips and info that we were able to share with clients and we are looking forward to learning more again this year.
Topics this year include:
Social Media Monitoring Tools and Services
Brand and Reputation Management
Sentiment Detection and Analysis
Data Quality and Filtering
Identifying and Connecting with Influencers
Beyond Listening: Measurement and ROI
The Future of Social Media Monitoring
Case studies and Best Practice
We’ll report back here after the conference, sharing any wow moments and tips we pick up but if you can’t wait till we get back watch our Twitter stream on Monday (22nd November) or follow the twitter hash tag #MSM10.
Christmas used to be my busy period, in the days before Spiderworking.com I ran a gift hamper company and October – December would usually see me buried up to my elbows in packing straw. It was my experience selling Christmas gifts online that led me into the soical media business. Here are my 5 hot top tips to promoting your seasonal business through Facebook.
1. Christmas up your profile image
Changing your profile image for the season will make people think of Christmas every time they see your updates. It also keeps your page looking fresh. You could add a Santy hat like Hairy Baby (pictured above) a sprig of holly or mistletoe.
2. Be Christmassy – make people smile
What do you love about Christmas? Tell a story about Christmas relating to your business. If you sell warm clothing talk about snowballs, if you sell books talk about lazing by the fire after Christmas dinner.
Can your community contribute? Ask them to relate their favourite Christmas moment or poll them on what part of Christmas day is the best; opening presents, dinner or the post lunch stupor? The more interaction on your page the more it will attract new people in as they see what their friends are doing.
3. Tell your community about the benefits of buying from you
Facebook isn’t about selling but in reality that is what you are there to do. As long as you are giving relevant content to your community it’s OK to talk about what you sell. Tell your ‘Likes’ about the benefits of buying from you, tell the story behind your product. One of the most popular blog posts from Feelgood Organic Hampers was the story of why we chose to package our product the way we did.
Always include a call to action in these posts, tell your readers how to order, give them a discount or bonus code to use on your website when buying.
4.Promote your deadlines
Facebook is a great way to ensure your customers know your deadlines, when is the last order day for Christmas delivery? If you ship overseas make sure you alert people to their specific delivery deadlines.
5. Let your customers do the selling
Are your customers happy? If so ask them for a testimonial, ask them to send in photos of themselves with your product and post these on your page. Again this sharing will attract more people to your page and your product.
We’re offering free one hour consultations to businesses trying to sell online for Christmas. To book a consultation contact us or give us a call on 01 442 9410. We’ll look forward to talking to you.
01 442 9410
