Social Media Scene: Success on Social Media

In other words, your conversion point is different than theirs. For the bloggers' conversions to happen, they need traffic, any type of traffic. Internet marketers need people willing to make a change for themselves and their business.

You, however, need someone to come to your website that who your service.

How do you build a social networking and content plan that pulls the right people to your door?

Social media isn't all about advertising; advertising on social media is all about advertising. Social media is a channel, and not just a marketing channel. You can use social media for collaboration, networking, learning, and of course, marketing. If you do the first three well, the fourth is actually more effective.

Below, we explore these four areas of your social media strategy. But before we do that, there is something we have to take care of:

Your Website

Your house has to be in order before you start inviting people to visit. Your website needs to quickly display your area(s) of expertise, build a level of trust with your ideal clients by answering questions they may have about your services, and provide a painfully simple method to get in contact with you.

In other words, your website should focus on converting visitors to clients/leads/prospects. How does this tie into social media strategy? Your blog. Maybe you need one, maybe you don't. Maybe your website is 100% focused on the sales conversion process, while a blog (that advertises and channels visitors to learn more about your services) is hosted on a separate part of your website.

Now, as you develop your social media strategy, you have something to check against (conversion) when driving people from social to your website. If you need resources for building a better, smarter website, look for articles on landing page design, conversion optimization, and understanding analytics.

Collaboration

Before marketers came onto social media, the various channels were used by friends, family, and colleagues to connect and stay in touch. These networks are built to be social, and in order for you to see a return on the time you spend on them as a marketer, being social should be a core part of your strategy.

Collaboration via social is really quite amazing. Think about it: You have the opportunity to connect with peers, industry leaders, media sources, and even clients, in a way that fosters growth for all. The tools on these networks are free, fast, and cross-platform. Google+ communities, events, and hangouts, for example, can bring people together from across the world to meet face-to-face and talk about issues. LinkedIn and Facebook groups have similar features. And, of course, each network has the openness of the user-generated content (status updates, posts, etc.) that we can connect on publicly, to expand on the original post's thought and create a more complete thought for all to learn from.

Collaboration, especially in a public setting, allows you to demonstrate your subject matter authority. In the end, this leads to trust and recommendations by your peers and the community as a whole. Which brings you more business.

Networking

Being active on social media doesn't always have to be about bringing in new clients. In fact, platforms like Google+ are incredible for networking and building new opportunities among peers. What's more, as you strengthen the relationship between peers in the same space, you are now in a position to serve a potential client even better. That builds trust. Trust builds more recommendations. More recommendations put you and your company in a more authoritative position with search engines.

There is plenty of business to go around, especially when your company serves a local area. For example, if you serve the Washington, DC, metro area, but come across a fantastic article about your area of expertise from a similar company in Portland, OR, what is stopping you from sharing it? The likelihood of losing one of your local visitors to that company across the country is slim to none, but in the meantime, you are providing value to your audience about your subject matter, which they will remember. Your selflessness will also be remembered, and you may even be able to work out an arrangement with this other company to send business to each other. Everybody wins.

Learning

We blasted “content for the sake of content” earlier in this article, but that refers to your need to create content for the sake of content. The fact is, there is a wealth of information available online that you can use to learn from, and pass along to your clients. Social networks, Google+ in particular, are slowly beginning to identify those who are most authoritative in various topics, so when you search for information, you do not have to sift through low-quality sites.

So, use your presence on various social networks differently. For example, your target audience might be on LinkedIn; use Google+ to find content and relationships that you introduce to them. Use your existing network on LinkedIn to develop video programming that you can take to the community on Google+ (and YouTube). Keep tabs on industry activity and keyword monitoring on Twitter. Each network has unique features and strengths, using them will save you time and make your experience more effective.

Marketing

Now that you have built a framework for yourself to demonstrate your subject matter authority through collaboration, networking, and learning, you can put some energy into marketing your business to drive traffic to your website. Ads are an obvious choice here; remember that social networks have tremendous amounts of data on their users, and can let you get more targeted than on other advertising platforms.

But, if you prefer to go the “free” route (free in quotes because your time is money), you are now equipped to create content that has a higher probability of resonating with your audience and driving quality traffic to your website.

In the interim, make sure your profile pages, graphics, and messaging across all the content you create on social speaks to your brand and subject matter authority. And when you share something on social media, be sure to have a call to action. Now is the time to start listening to those bloggers … those people know how to drive traffic to their websites.

The result: a more effective social media strategy.

You are in a very advantageous position right now. Consumers across the web are expecting less noise, and a more personalized experience. Social networks, apps, and search engines are all moving toward meeting those expectations, and are frantically trying to find the firms and content to recommend to their users. You want to be that recommended content, right? The strategy we laid out above will do just that.

Stephan Hovnanian is a web strategist who distills information about online marketing and web design, and makes it applicable to small business. He is also the author of the Google+ Pro Tips series of ebooks (available on Amazon). Connect with him at http://stephanhov.com.

If you look up “social media strategies,” chances are you will find tips from bloggers, consultants, and Internet marketers on what it takes to be successful on social media:

Blog twice a week. Share content from other people. Create infographics. Basically, create content for the sake of creating content, and blast it out across every possible channel.

Here's the problem with that advice: The sources of these insights are operating differently than your business. They make money through ads on their websites, conference and membership signups, not inquiries or phone calls for your professional services.

In other words, your conversion point is different than theirs. For the bloggers' conversions to happen, they need traffic, any type of traffic. Internet marketers need people willing to make a change for themselves and their business.

You, however, need someone to come to your website that who your service.

How do you build a social networking and content plan that pulls the right people to your door?

Social media isn't all about advertising; advertising on social media is all about advertising. Social media is a channel, and not just a marketing channel. You can use social media for collaboration, networking, learning, and of course, marketing. If you do the first three well, the fourth is actually more effective.

Below, we explore these four areas of your social media strategy. But before we do that, there is something we have to take care of:

Your Website

Your house has to be in order before you start inviting people to visit. Your website needs to quickly display your area(s) of expertise, build a level of trust with your ideal clients by answering questions they may have about your services, and provide a painfully simple method to get in contact with you.

In other words, your website should focus on converting visitors to clients/leads/prospects. How does this tie into social media strategy? Your blog. Maybe you need one, maybe you don't. Maybe your website is 100% focused on the sales conversion process, while a blog (that advertises and channels visitors to learn more about your services) is hosted on a separate part of your website.

Now, as you develop your social media strategy, you have something to check against (conversion) when driving people from social to your website. If you need resources for building a better, smarter website, look for articles on landing page design, conversion optimization, and understanding analytics.

Collaboration

Before marketers came onto social media, the various channels were used by friends, family, and colleagues to connect and stay in touch. These networks are built to be social, and in order for you to see a return on the time you spend on them as a marketer, being social should be a core part of your strategy.

Collaboration via social is really quite amazing. Think about it: You have the opportunity to connect with peers, industry leaders, media sources, and even clients, in a way that fosters growth for all. The tools on these networks are free, fast, and cross-platform. Google+ communities, events, and hangouts, for example, can bring people together from across the world to meet face-to-face and talk about issues. LinkedIn and Facebook groups have similar features. And, of course, each network has the openness of the user-generated content (status updates, posts, etc.) that we can connect on publicly, to expand on the original post's thought and create a more complete thought for all to learn from.

Collaboration, especially in a public setting, allows you to demonstrate your subject matter authority. In the end, this leads to trust and recommendations by your peers and the community as a whole. Which brings you more business.

Networking

Being active on social media doesn't always have to be about bringing in new clients. In fact, platforms like Google+ are incredible for networking and building new opportunities among peers. What's more, as you strengthen the relationship between peers in the same space, you are now in a position to serve a potential client even better. That builds trust. Trust builds more recommendations. More recommendations put you and your company in a more authoritative position with search engines.

There is plenty of business to go around, especially when your company serves a local area. For example, if you serve the Washington, DC, metro area, but come across a fantastic article about your area of expertise from a similar company in Portland, OR, what is stopping you from sharing it? The likelihood of losing one of your local visitors to that company across the country is slim to none, but in the meantime, you are providing value to your audience about your subject matter, which they will remember. Your selflessness will also be remembered, and you may even be able to work out an arrangement with this other company to send business to each other. Everybody wins.

Learning

We blasted “content for the sake of content” earlier in this article, but that refers to your need to create content for the sake of content. The fact is, there is a wealth of information available online that you can use to learn from, and pass along to your clients. Social networks, Google+ in particular, are slowly beginning to identify those who are most authoritative in various topics, so when you search for information, you do not have to sift through low-quality sites.

So, use your presence on various social networks differently. For example, your target audience might be on LinkedIn; use Google+ to find content and relationships that you introduce to them. Use your existing network on LinkedIn to develop video programming that you can take to the community on Google+ (and YouTube). Keep tabs on industry activity and keyword monitoring on Twitter. Each network has unique features and strengths, using them will save you time and make your experience more effective.

Marketing

Now that you have built a framework for yourself to demonstrate your subject matter authority through collaboration, networking, and learning, you can put some energy into marketing your business to drive traffic to your website. Ads are an obvious choice here; remember that social networks have tremendous amounts of data on their users, and can let you get more targeted than on other advertising platforms.

But, if you prefer to go the “free” route (free in quotes because your time is money), you are now equipped to create content that has a higher probability of resonating with your audience and driving quality traffic to your website.

In the interim, make sure your profile pages, graphics, and messaging across all the content you create on social speaks to your brand and subject matter authority. And when you share something on social media, be sure to have a call to action. Now is the time to start listening to those bloggers … those people know how to drive traffic to their websites.

The result: a more effective social media strategy.

You are in a very advantageous position right now. Consumers across the web are expecting less noise, and a more personalized experience. Social networks, apps, and search engines are all moving toward meeting those expectations, and are frantically trying to find the firms and content to recommend to their users. You want to be that recommended content, right? The strategy we laid out above will do just that.

Stephan Hovnanian is a web strategist who distills information about online marketing and web design, and makes it applicable to small business. He is also the author of the Google+ Pro Tips series of ebooks (available on Amazon). Connect with him at http://stephanhov.com.