Selling online using social media – Live chat review

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.

Niall Devitt from Social Media Ireland also recommended the Social Media Examiner blog as a bible, it’s one of my favorites too along with Hubspot.

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.