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

Twitter vs Email Marketing

Each week you break out that trusty email list and send out your latest collection of brilliant thoughts.  You have taken time to research and craft this wonderful newsletter to show your readers (and clients) that you have something to offer them, that you are different from all the rest who are bombarding their inboxes.  Is your message getting through?

How many emails are you sending?

How many are getting opened?

How many are getting forwarded to others?

Twitter can answer all of these important questions.

But how do I capture leads with Twitter?  I am using a subscribe button on my site to build my database of email addresses.  Your Twitter followers become your leads to convert into clients.

How to get started:

1.  Create a Twitter profile for your business.

2.  Add a Follow button on your site next to that trusty subscribe button and give your visitors a choice of how they want to receive your content.

3.  If you are not doing so, host your newsletter on your site.

4.  Include a Follow button within your newsletter.

5.  Utilize hashtags within your tweets to make them easy to find.

6.  Measure the following with a tool like Hootsuite or Google Analytics 

• Compare the click through rate for links within tweets to those that open your emailed newsletter
• Compare the leads generated (Twitter Followers), to month over month newsletter subscribers
• Follower growth, mentions, and retweets

Building a twitter following takes time and effort: measure your growth, engage those who reach out to you, and know that a large following will not happen overnight.  Twitter is a vehicle to show you are a thought leader because of your great content and it will allow your followers to become your brand advocates and share it with others.

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

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

Twitter My Way

If you believe twitter is for telling others you are “sitting on the patio,” get ready to learn something. These are 4 ways I use my 140 characters.

Learn
We all love to consume information and the internet provides a most awesome buffet. By following authors, columnists, bloggers, public figures, etc – the content comes to you and is always updating in real time. In short, twitter can be your personal library or newsstand. All this data is difficult to manage: utilize hashtags and lists to search and sort information quickly. Dashboards like Hootsuite and TweetDeck allow you to digest the data by sorting it into multiple columns. Your dashboard gives you a snapshot of data: who is talking about you, who is talking about your company, what are the latest news stories, etc – all continuously and immediately updated.  

Share
It is as easy to share data as it is to consume it via twitter; don’t keep all the good stuff to yourself. If you read a tweet you find interesting, retweet so your followers can enjoy it too. Maybe you visit a website or wish to share your latest blog, take the URL and tweet it. Tools like bitly shorten that URL so it can fit within the 140 character limit and help you track the activity on your link. Seesmic’s dashboard will shorten the link for you.  

Engage
This is the best part of Social – engagement. The days of pushing information without conversation are gone. Twitter gives your customers an in-road to you, don’t be afraid of it: listen to what they say and respond. A TweetChat allows you to engage and listen to many people at once while documenting the conversations. Idea-share, focus groups, and feedback sessions: it’s all about conversation. This blog by one of my Social mentors, Janet Fouts, shows you how to set up your own TweetChat.  

Promote
Sharing information or engaging others promotes yourself and your organization. People can see who shares what and the twitterverse responds favorably to those they like; if your followers find your content interesting, they may also research what company employs such an interesting person.

I hope you were able to take away something new – I look forward to your comments & feedback. Cheers Toby

Are you getting the most out of Social?

How is your property engaging with current guests, marketing to new ones, and getting those who love you to share their experiences? There are certainly excellent marketing opportunities available via social media.
1. Facebook
2. Twitter
3. Foursquare
Facebook
Not only can you talk about your property, but guests can join your page to share their stories and photos - think of this as an on-line version of your resort. Who is more believable than your satisfied guests?
Twitter
The reach of Twitter is vast and it is a quick way to communicate information as well as an in-road for guests. As guests check-in, they could be reminded to "Follow" your resort on Twitter to receive updates on daily activities as well as the concierge's tip(s) of the day. Twitter will also allow guests to talk about their experience(s) in real time - are they happy with their room, service, meal, accommodations, etc? Once they leave, the problem cannot be corrected.
Foursquare
Foursquare is based around locations, there could be a virtual scavenger hunt where guests (or their smartphone-toting children) can earn points by visiting places around the resort as well sites that surround your property. An example could be a prize for the guest who visits the most lighthouses during a week. Foursquare also shares information with Facebook and Twitter – as guests "Check-in" to your events or locations, they can share these experiences with other users (nothing like free advertising).
The biggest investments are planning your strategy and setting up your Facebook page - the beauty is once things are up and running, the guests do the rest. Get creative and have fun with Social.
Cheers,
Toby