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5 Steps to Building a Social Networking Strategy

The Economic recession has been one of the unseen forces driving growth in social networking for business. The explosion in social networks is a response to the desire to find new routes to a more competitive market. The decline in performance of traditional SEM and e-commerce generally and the seduction in the perception of “free” marketing all helped to drive the social networking revolution. These were by no means the sole drivers of this shift and the confluence of technology and a critical mass of users were also major factors. Social Networking is here to stay and businesses need to make good use of it.  It is nonetheless a complicated and for the new entrant, a daunting prospect. There are a few easy steps which will help you develop a social networking strategy and prioritise it as a route to market.


To build a strategy you need to ask yourself a number of questions.


Step 1 Do my customers have a footprint on the Social Media Landscape?


This is a fancy way of asking am I likely to find my target market using social networks. Well it tends to vary by sector. Social Networking is well suited to businesses which have intellectual capital, so consultancy, finance, and to a lesser extent accountants and solicitors are good examples. Social Networking is also an excellent platform for selling to products to consumers and small businesses.


So what’s not well suited? Well engineering and manufacturing are obvious candidates, as are businesses that sell large ticket business to business items be that capital goods or say software.


Social networking works best for markets that have a short sales process and low ticket items where you can get ready access to the decision maker. Geographic concentration is also an important factor the bigger the geographic spread of potential customers the better suited to social networking.


Step 2 What are my objectives?


Brand Recognition, Customer Service, Sales, Improved customer feedback, New product development /verification, Developing Expert Status.


May companies use social medium to improve their relationship with their customers and have a more conversational customer support relationship, so let’s not prejudge and say that sales is the most important or indeed only objective for social media marketing.


I accept that much of the hype is around the incredible sales opportunities Social Networking presents, but let’s not forget how at the turn of the century the “dot.com” boom got so out of hand that even experienced business people forgot the basics. That is, underlying each model there has to be a sound business case.


Step 3 Which is my best Social Media Mix?


There social media market is a complex topology covering Wiki’s, Major Social Networking sites, Micro blogging sites, Forums, Blogs, Article Sites, Photo Sites, Podcasts, Video sites, Social Bookmarking and many more.


Faced with this bewildering array of options how do you proceed?  There are two aspects that are important, firstly you need to take into consideration where your customers are most likely to to be residing in the social media landscape and especially if you are a smaller business what areas of social networking you find interesting. If we remember that much of social networking is about building trust and developing a community it is very, very, hard to do this through a medium you dislike.


Step 4 How do I manage my resources?


What resources do I have available? How much time can I dedicate to this effort? Is this for internal and/or external networking? How much maintenance effort is there?


Maintenance work is one of the real hidden costs in social networking, which is by and large time intensive. As most people and indeed businesses are time poor this is a significant issue.


Now I know particularly with twitter there are “bots” you can use to automate much of your postings you need to spend “face time” to build conversations and relationships. A simple idea is to build a social network diary which sets out which social network will be accessed on which day(s) and how much time will be spent on each. Think not of now when you have the first flush of ideas, but rather 1 year down the line when you’re into you 50th blog posting and 1000th plus tweet or Facebook entry.


I regularly see businesses over invest in Social networking only to have to pull back because they have significantly underestimated the ongoing effort needed.


Step 5 How do I measure progress?


What Metrics work best? Hits per site? Growth in followers? Reduction in complaints? Increased conversion rates? Feedback process to change what is not working?


Any kind of strategy implementation needs a review and change cycle, so it is with Social Networking. The advantage is however that online activities it is relatively easy to quantify and the results of your efforts. This makes the management of your social networking strategy much more effective as numbers don’t lie, 50 hits is 50 hits, not as many as us optimistic would say; well I think its nearly 100.


This precise measure enables you to take quick and appropriate action to improve your performance. This in turn leads to you having a much greater chance of success, which is, of course, what we’re all trying to achieve. 

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July 11, 2011 Articles , ,

How to Take Your Social Networking to the Next Level

How to Take Your Social Networking to the Next Level

One of the issues I run into with social networking is that most of the businesses who have heard about it are focused on it primarily as a way of getting business. And when they don’t get business right away they get disheartened and feel that it isn’t working for them. Or they decide right away to use social networking as a way to advertise their business, but don’t really engage the audience.


Social media consultants, in the meantime, stress authenticity and genuine engagement, but also again focus primarily on how social media will provide more business to a business. In fact, it seems that what social networking really boils down to is finding ways to get business from other people on social sites, while disguising that by being “genuine” and “authentic”, whatever that might mean.


There’s a key element missing from all the hype on social networking, and it actually pertains to the word networking. What’s missing is that people on social networking sites are so focused on trying to get business from social networks that they are ignoring the concept of networking and how that applies to social networking. In other words, they primarily treat social networking as a feed, where they get lots of clients, but don’t care as much about the networking aspects involved.


It’s certainly true that social networking can be used to market your services and products to other people, but if we only focus on that, and ignore the networking aspect of social networking, we’re not fully utilizing social networking sites. So how does networking apply to social networking? First, social networks connect you with people you either know or are interested in getting to know. Second, as you get to know people and discover what their needs are, or discover what someone in their network needs, this can pave the way toward you helping them. Sometimes how you will help them simply involves referring them to someone else who you know is qualified to help them. With that concept of networking in mind for social networking, the following tips are meant to help you take your social networking to the next level.


1. Comment on what other people post or tweet about. If you want to network with people, you need to interact with them. Spend some time commenting on other people’s news, tweets, and posts. By doing so, you show you are interested in them, and you can even portray yourself as a resource they can draw on, if they need to. Additionally, this lets them get to know you as well, and you may seem more interaction when you post as a result.


2. Pay attention to what people need. A lot of people will post about something they need or a situation they are in. If they do so, try to think of who you know in your network that you can connect them to and then send a private message offering to connect the people. This is a good way to be helpful and will help not just the person in need, but also anyone you direct them to. Additionally, this shows that you are paying attention to what people are posting about and helping them out, even if it doesn’t bring you a profit. Conversely, don’t be afraid to post about what you need. I’ve gotten some great responses from people, when I’ve asked questions about something I wanted to know about.


3. Post about some interests or fun facts. While people may not necessarily want to know about what you ate for dinner (unless you include a link to the recipe), they may find it interesting to learn about the latest book you’re reading or a fun hobby you do, because it shows them that you have more going in your life than just business. It creates opportunities for interaction, lets people in, and the conversation can sometimes take you into some useful directions for your business, while also creating enough of a personal connection that people find you interesting to follow.


4. Think of people you can connect to each other, based on mutual interests. I always really appreciate it when people connect me to other people that share similar interests. I also appreciate it when people connect me to someone who might need my services. When you first start following someone, ask them who they’d like to be connected to, or after you’ve read some of their posts and tweets, think about someone you could connect them with. By making those connections you can help people develop a strong network of referrers and possible clients, which is always appreciated.


5. Don’t come to on social media sites with an expectation that you’ll automatically get business. This last tip is probably the most important. If you come on to social networks only looking to get business, this will become apparent to people fairly quick and will ultimately alienate you from them. Treat people as people, not potential clients or customers you want money from. I’m not saying you’ll never get business from social networking sites. I’ve gotten business from social networking sites, but it’s taken time and a willingness to get to know people and not perceive them from the getgo as potential marks or clients I can get income from. And that’s exactly what you need to remember. Don’t go with a specific objective of getting business. Sign up and join in because you want to share some information and learn from other people. Continue participating on a regular basis and let people continue to get to know you. And eventually you might get some business with people you know and will actually take care of, because you know them.


Social networking is still networking. If we remember that and approach it as a networking activity, we will actually get much further with it, than if we are just trying to get business from it. People want to be treated like people and communities want to feel like they are engaged with, as opposed to sold to. Keep the above tips in mind, and you’ll create a strong online network that supports you, even as your in-person network does the same.

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July 10, 2011 Articles , ,

Can You Make Money With Social Networks?

Social Networks gather people with common interests and many people enjoy being part of a large network of friends and future friends. Social networks actively promote people to join so that they can increase their clout with online advertisers. These Social Networks make large amounts of money from the advertisers that want to get their products and services in front of all of these people.


This is why most Social Networks provide splendid high tech features such as discussion groups, video email, online social games, photo albums, contests, and many more exciting things to come. They create a virtual mall of fun things to do so people will not only visit but stay for long periods of time. The longer a person stays on a website, the more opportunity there is for the advertisers to place their ad in front of more people. This is referred to as the “Stickiness” of a website.


But there are other good reasons for people to use social networks as well. Networking is a way for business people to meet prospective clients, partners, and customers in a friendly social way and this has always proven to be lucrative. This is similar to the reason why many companies provide tee times for their employees who are entertaining clients – it is a way to personalize a meeting during a friendly round of golf. Thus if you have a business, being socially active can make you money.


These attributes of social networking have been very successful in recent times for increasing the number of people gathering on these social network sites. However, competition in this ‘niche’ is growing and will continue to grow. A new niche is needed.


Most business must spend money not only to start up but also to grow the number of customers they have. Social Networks do advertise in their infancy to gain members and this usually puts them further in the “red” until they can persuade enough people to join for companies seeking good advertising opportunities to pay them for the ad space. Many companies of all types commonly must spend upwards of 70% of their revenue to maintain and grow their business. If this money is paid to advertising agencies, it only benefits a limited number of people.


Enter the “monetized” social network. Since most businesses in the world are very happy if they can make a 30% profit, why not pass 70% of the advertising revenue back to the members of the social network? Base the amount of revenue each member receives on the amount of members they bring into the membership and you have a viral team of social net-workers who are being paid to increase the number of people in the network. Instead of paying for advertisements to get people to come to their website, the members become the advertisers and are compensated for their efforts. Also, since the advertisers who would pay this social networking site for hosting their ads is willing to pay the going rate for internet advertising, both the 70% share being passed back to the members and the 30% profit for the social networking site owners grows proportionally with the growth of the membership. If you can find a social network like this, wouldn’t you rather be a member there instead of Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace who keep all the profits for themselves and take advantage of the very lucrative services their members provide them?


The business model of this monetized social network could be structured to reward those who work the hardest to bring new people to the website. After all, this is how money is made on the internet. So imagine if you developed a method to track both how much each member views the advertisements on the website and how many people they have invited who join the network, how this could provide the basis of a commission structure that would be fair and equitable.


Consider a commission structure in a simple database that tracks who invites who and places the new people in a structure under the person who invited them. Assume that membership at this social network is free. Now imagine a common multiplication of people due to all being rewarded for bringing new people. Say Joe invites 10 of his friends to join and provides them with a link. These 10 friends join because they like Joe and they have common interests together. Each of these 10 friends have 10 friends who want to join them also. Now there are 100 people under Joe and Joe is being rewarded a portion of the advertising revenue for 100 people and he only invited 10 of them. Of course, those 100 people could have 10 friends each that they invite and the numbers of people now under Joe are 1000 and this continues. Joe only invited 10 but there is nothing to stop him from inviting far more and he continues to be rewarded for bringing new people to the website. This is the real power of social networking which will dominate the industry very soon.


Each member is paid based on the amount of time they spend on the social networking site doing the things we all do such as clicking advertisements (just window shopping), doing searches, checking our email, playing games, interacting with our friends, and making new friends. The social network could also provide volume discounts to its members through their advertisers so the members can save money on the products they buy. Thus each member shares revenue in one case by the time they spend accessing the website. The other stream of income is from a commission a member gets for bringing the new people onto the site..


You can do the math. For instance, just use 5% of the total revenue generated by Joe’s 10 (plus) people he invited himself, and use 2% of everyone they invited down to 6 levels below Joe. Using the example, if Joe’s group expanded to 6 levels, there may be 1 million people under Joe. Considering that there are over 1.7 Billion people using the internet and this number is increasing every day, how hard is that to believe?


Also, to get a group of more committed people to get involved, you offer a premium level membership to some. This is a normal business method to employ leaders who can help manage and promote the groups who will come. But instead of being free, you charge $200 USD so that you only allow people who can commit to an idea and make a sound decision to join in that level. Right at first, you will need many of these types of people but once they have established themselves, you would close this level of membership until the size of the groups demanded more leadership or training. So you compensate these special premium members with say, 20% of their directly sponsored member’s revenue and 6% of of the revenue generated by the people they sponsor down to 6 levels.


A plan such as this would expand the social network quickly and probably dominate the niche in just a short time.


So, can you make money with Social Networks? Yes, and Social Networking on the Internet is ripe for just such a business plan.

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July 9, 2011 Articles , ,
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