I always think that no matter how busy my schedule is it’s worth taking time out to learn, with this in mind I took myself to the Measurement Conference in Dublin last week. It was worth the time out, I was sucking in information all day long, I also got to meet a lot of people, both those I’d communicated with online in the past and lots of new people. Here’s the top tips I picked up on the day.
Learn What To Count And How To Count It – Laurence Veale
It may seen obvious but I find that one of the biggest challenges for small businesses is to define the goal of their social media activities. Lots of us start using Facebook or Twitter without an objective in mind and it’s often those who don’t define these that find it hardest to see the benefits of their campaigns.
Laurence Veale suggested a list of business objectives for using social media including:
Generate sales
– Maximise lifetime customer value
– Creating leads
– Reducing costs by offering self service
Take a step back, decide what you want to achieve and work out what metrics you need to know if you succeed – Dena Walker
Yes this means the same but it’s worth repeating. It’s such an essential part of marketing and always the first thing I ask my clients. I asked Dena at the questions and answers session how she would apply this to small business and she suggested some metrics that could apply including footfall and increased consumer spend.
Fans and followers are a massive ‘so what’ – Dena Walker
The days of counting your followers on Twitter or your Likes on Facebook are gone. It can be a hard mind set to get out of but they no longer have as much relevance as they once did. You have to recognise that the people who ‘Like’ your page will only be a small proportion of your target market, this is why it’s important to foster word of mouth, engage the audience you do have so that they recommend you to others both on and off social networks.
Your Facebook page is not a community – Mat Morrison
Mat showed us some really great analytical examples that prove that Facebook business pages offer far more two way communication that community communication. We talk to our Likers, our Likers talk to us, there is very little chat Liker to Liker. This is partly due to the way that Facebook pages work, we no longer get a notification when users reply to a thread on a business page we’ve been active on unless it’s from the page admin. I can see why this is the case, we don’t want to be flooded with notifications from a popular post but it does inhibit community and fosters one to one communication between us and the brand/business.
Although it’s hard to argue with Mat’s analysis I have seen plenty of community interaction on small business pages. Maybe this is because the customers of smaller businesses are more likely to know each other?
People will not unsubscribe to you if you never post – Mat Morrison
The question about how often we should post to Facebook comes up all the time. We fear we’re going to loose Likers if we post too often but we want to make sure that we’re posting often enough to keep people engaged. The more we post the more our ‘Talking About’ score will rise yet we risk unsubscribes. However as Mat says if we never post we’ll never loose subscribers.
Conversation is already happening online, brands have nothing to lose by engaging – Georgina Bowes
I find that one of the most common concerns that small businesses have is that by embracing social networking they’ll be encouraging negative comments. This is why I’ve picked this particular quote from Georgina. People could already be online talking about you, they will do so even if you aren’t online. By having a social media presence you are able to respond to complaints or negative comments. Customer service and responding to negative comments must form an important part of your social media strategy. Done well it gives you the opportunity to showcase your customer care and turn dissatisfied customers into brand advocates.
Photos are more social than video as there is no barrier to viewing
This came up during the panel discussion. Photos on Facebook are by far the most engaging content, even more so than video. Video requires a further action and an investment of time by a user where as image can be digested and reacted to quickly. If you missed my videocast last week on how to use images to encourage more engagement you’ll find it here. I’d steer away from only posting images as a variety of content will encourage different users and different types of interaction.
Were you at the Measurement Conf? Or were you watching online? What was the top tip you picked up on the day?