Find The Good Stuff, Share The Great Stuff

Twitter is a fantastic tool for listening, promoting, and gathering information about your brand, but how do you do these things in the most efficient way?  Utilizing a dashboard like HootSuite will help you listen to your Twitter lists, but I need a more efficient way to uncover the best and share it.
Flipboard is a social media aggregator that brings the content of your choosing to you to your tablet or smartphone, then allows you to easily share it across any social network you use.  It is not only a sharing tool, but an customer engagement method as well.
Create your own magazine and fill it with relevant content aggregated by Flipboard.  Now you have a content marketing piece to share with others.  You may even invite customers and brand advocates to curate the magazine with you - keep them engaged with you and your brand.

Happy Flipping!

Cheers,
Toby

Giving Away the Good Stuff

Technology has given companies targeted reach to consumers they never had before, but it has also made it easy for potential customers to ignore them.  Companies are trying to prove they are different while connecting with potential leads that matter.

Content Marketing has been successfully utilized since 1895 and provides a way for a company to demonstrate it is an industry thought leader by delivering helpful, free content to its current and potential customers.  White papers, eBooks, and infographics are current examples of content marketing and they do a wonderful job of providing value, creating leads, and giving calls to action, but they miss the mark in one place - human touch.

A TweetChat allows you to engage with and listen to many people at once while documenting the conversations and capturing contact information. Idea-share, focus groups, and feedback sessions: it’s all about conversation.  Lead the conversation and answer questions: you are able to provide insight and promote your brand without mentioning it.  Because your twitter profile is your mini-resume, those who you exchange information with are able to see who you are and even click on a link to your personal or company's website.

As with any content marketing vehicle, a tweetchat takes time to organize and promote, but because they are real-time, they allow true connections and provide these potential customers insight to you and your brand.

As always, I look forward to your feedback.

Cheers,

Toby

Don't fear complaints - embrace them

These Big Companies Are Abandoning Twitter And Facebook For Customer Service

Good morning all,
The link above take you to a piece in Business Insider.  As I read it, the thoughts started flowing and I kept asking myself why?
Every company has needed to do more with less and streamline their organization, but Social for Customer Service helps you do just that. Even if your tweet or facebook post is not responded to right away, it is better than being on hold or navigating a phone tree.
Is this bigger than efficiency? The fear of complaints in public? If that is true, I answer the decision maker: "it is no what the customer said, but how he is responded to." I also ask: "Is the customer right and our process wrong?"
Are we too afraid to hear from those who consume our products?
Companies must learn not to fear the negatives, but learn from them, improve their product or service and create advocates.
Don't respond to the troll who howls at the moon, respond to the objective lurker who is your fan.
Looking forward to your comments.
Best,
Toby

What is your Social Strategy - What tools are you using?

Social media is a powerful group of tools that can help your company with everything from Sales to SEO.  Before setting out please use this as a guide to get you started.


Social Strategy

1. What is your goal?
2. What are the tools available?
3. How will success be measured?

Goal

What are you trying to achieve?  SEO for your company's site, create a community, enhance customer service, promote a blog or press release - all can be accomplished through Social.  Once you determine what you want you accomplish, you can choose the right tool to reach your goal.

Tools

1. Linkedin - SEO and Community
2. facebook - Community
3. twitter - Give your Marketing campaign reach
4. Pinterest - just like twitter, Pinterest spreads the word and brings memories alive with pictures.

Measurement

1. How many have joined the Linkedin Group and do the comments and discussions look like?
2. How many new posts hit your facebook pages?  How many new "likes?"
3. How many twitter followers, re-tweets, and mentions are you getting?
4. How many followers and re-pins are you getting on Pinterest?
5. Here is the hard one - can sales be tied to these efforts?

I have named my four favorite Social channels, but there are many out there.  It is important to experiment with a few and find what you are comfortable with and to also remember that less can be more. It is easy to think about the reach Social can deliver; don't lose sight on the importance of engagement.  Without discussions, a community is only a list.  

Cheers,
Toby