Marketing with Social Media Tip 1:

Keep in mind that you should not be focused solely on selling yourself. Social media networks are largely about building relationships. In a rural area, it is likely that most of your targeted market knows of you, so take advantage of social media to let them know who you really are.

Marketing with Social Media Tip 2:

Find your angle. Some people use social media to link useful tools, apps or stories to their followers. Others use social book marking sites to promote niche topics. Some use social media mainly as a conversational tool. Once you choose your angle or style, be sure to stick with it. It is essential to your brand to have not only a consistent message, but a consistent presentation as well.

Marketing with Social Media Tip 3:

Remember how big the Internet is. No matter how small your local community is, remember that any social media messages you post or sites you promote, targeted customers in your small local area are not the only ones that will be able to see them. It is important to not get too casual or veer into unprofessional, which can be tricky with the free flowing, instantaneous nature of marketing with social media.

Marketing with social media is constantly growing in popularity. With no sign of waning, it is safe to assume that sooner or later, your small business is going to have to get involved with social media. Keeping in mind these three tips for marketing with social media is a good start, with many more resources available for your perusal as you get more comfortable with your social media presence.

URL shorteners are an amazingly simple and free tool that I now find it hard to live without. Ok, maybe I can live without a URL shortener, but I couldn’t WORK without one.

Why You Need a URL Shortener

You want to pass this article along to a friend in the email you are writing (or on Facebook or Twitter). If you don’t use a URL shortener yet, then you have to highlight it, right click-copy it, and past the whole thing into your document. Some can be very long, take up a lot of space, and are definitely hard to remember.

 How URL Shorteners Work

There are plenty of URL shortener options out there, but I usually use Bit.ly It is easy to use, and their new redesign makes the service even more intuitive for first time users. It is free to use Bit.ly, so simply right click-copy the URL you want to shorten, pull up Bit.ly, past it in the large space provided, and it will automatically give you a short URL that is unique to your link. You can use this link anywhere and whoever clicks on it will be taken to your intended (original) link.

See Bit.ly:

The long URL example from above is now shortened to:

I hope this was helpful and that you take a few minutes to give Bit.ly a try. Once you experience how easy it is to shorten your URL’s you’ll come to rely on this service frequently.

Need a great gift idea for that special someone in your life whose own life is encompassed by social media efforts? While an ergonomic computer chair is a great idea, I guarantee you that the best thing you can give them is the gift that keeps on giving.

I’m talking about writing an article on your blog or a guest article for someone else; no strings attached. Take your passion and writing skills, and donate a little time toward something that really matters. We’ve all had requests from others to write an article about this or that.  Think of your friends, clients, and colleagues; then go back through your notes or emails and follow through with a few requests.

If you haven’t had any recent requests for guest articles, then choose a few topics that you LOVE and write from the heart. Give a shout out or a link to someone who you care about who also has a common interest or expertise in that area. There is no better way of expressing your gratitude and best wishes for 2010 than to create positive, helpful, and inspiring content for others.

photo credit: smajee

PRESENTER’S DIRECTIONS

Amount of time needed:  20 – 30 minutes

Divide participants into 3-5 small groups.

Give each small group a scenario page and a pack of “tool/activity” cards. Each card has an amount of points labeled at the bottom; this signifies how much needs to be invested (time, money, etc.) in the tool/activity (the maximum amount of points they can use is 10).

Each small group should complete the scenario page and be prepared to report back to the large group. Give them 5 minutes to discuss, fill out the scenario page and prepare to report back.

Have each group report back.   Set a 2-minute time limit for each group.

Once all the groups have reported back ask a number of the following discussion questions to the entire group – as time permits.

1. How did your small group discussions go?
2. How hard or easy was it to decide on which tools/activities to use? Why?
3. What did you think of the choices or rational of any of the groups?
4. What did you learn from this activity?

Various Scenarios

• Raising Awareness
• Fundraising
• Event Promotion
• Advocacy
• Thought Leadership

Social Media Card Deck

• Social Media Card Deck

Additional material from the Convening can be found on the Resilient Organizations Fund website.

• Home Page:  http://www.resilientnonprofits.org/
• Materials:  http://www.resilientnonprofits.org/materials/
• About the Convening:  http://www.resilientnonprofits.org/convenings/

One of the main secrets of social media marketing is how social media marketing is not strictly limited to advertising, but also to establishing meaningful relationships with other people in your industry, as well as current and targeted clients and customers.  When building a presence for your small business on various social media networks and book marking sites, you have the chance to give your brand name its own personality and presence for interactions with the various types of people you will meet on these networks.

Create Your Persona

Whether you choose to create an extremely professional personality focused on customer service, a helpful persona with the best links and news to share, or even a funny, quirky attitude to give your small business a distinctive edge, a small, self-owned small business has an incredible range of freedom in this area.  Rather than being forced to stick to the company standard, social media marketing gives small business the opportunity to really get creative and unique in the way that they connect with customers and even colleagues in the same field.

Be Unique

Big companies have had years of exposure to a national market to create the feelings and responses related to their brand. A small business new to social media may be tempted to imitate what has worked for the big businesses that have come before, but doing so would be missing the best benefit that social media marketing can offer to small businesses. Creating a unique social media personality designed to elicit exactly the kinds of thoughts and feelings you’d like to associate with your brand is a fun, creative exercise and an experience that will benefit your small business hugely. A unique personality for your brand makes your small business more recognizable, as well as more likely to be recommended to friends and family of those you interact with through your social media marketing endeavors.

Get Rich Quick!

But when times get tough, we also start to look for that ‘silver bullet.’  That one marketing program that will bring an insane number of clients to your door step, create a plethora of new sales instantly, or encourage your existing client base to spend more with you overnight.  Before long, you find that you are taking a shotgun approach to marketing – rather than a focused program designed to produce specific results.  Time and money lost…

Stop That!  Draw a line in the sand.

What does it cost you to acquire a new customer?  Have you ever determined how much you spend to attract and retain a customer?  Most businesses have not calculated that price.  But they know the pain of not having enough income coming in to pay for all of their expenses.

You are probably spending too much money on marketing and advertising without realizing it.  Take out a piece of paper and write down everything you are doing to market your business and put a price on it.  A good way to do this is to take a look at the line items on your budget or better yet – your actual expenses.

Let’s draw a line in the sand.  Just for a moment.  Just for now.  Cancel everything you are doing.  Stop it!  Draw a line in the sand.  How much money would you save?  Put a number on it.  You will need that number for the next step.

Now let’s look at what you should be doing….

Domination with Three Tools

So, you have ‘X’ number of dollars to spend on marketing.  If there were only three things you could do in the next 9o days to marketing your business, what would they be?  This is where you need to spend that money.  Would you rather have mediocre results in a lot of areas, or outstanding results in two or three areas?  In my opinion, dominating a medium is much better than simply existing in that medium.  Once you are the dominate player, then add to your marketing mix.

Scary?

This blog post is all about focus of your time and your money.  It can be uncomfortable to try new things – even more uncomfortable to stop doing things you have done for years.  What are your thoughts?