9 Quick Tips for Successful Social Media Marketing

Although everything has been said about it, one gets still surprised by the number of people who have no clear idea about ​​social media marketing.  The only thing that people are starting to realize is that it is not a walk in the park to initiate a social media campaign. A good and effective social marketing offensive is definitely as complex as any other media advertisement campaigns.

Primarily, it is not about commercial campaigning, but sustained presence. This leads to new contacts and new opportunities for companies, as well as strengthening their existing customer relationships and branding effects. The following 9 tips for successful social media marketing may contribute to a better understanding.

1. Stay on Top and Update Regularly!

One of the most common mistakes is that businesses euphorically build their profiles on any given platform, are thrilled by how many people “like” it or follow them, and then turn around and concentrate on other things which seem more important at the time, apparently without realizing what kind of damage they do to their reputation and their brands. You don’t have to write a new blog post every single day, but I think it is not too much to ask to update your status on Facebook,Twitter & Co. on a daily basis.

People fail to realize that these messages are the foundation of their relationships in the social networks and that they leave an impact on potential customers who may visit the profile in order to gain an impression of the provider. Irregular or infrequent updated profiles may indicate unreliability or inactivity. And never forget that your competition is just a click away , waiting to convert these potential customers into regular clients.

2. Do Not Pitch!

As already mentioned before, social media is about building relationships and not about troubling some random contact with your newest business idea. Direct advertising is frowned upon and how you get in touch with someone has also something to do with respect. 

Not everyone who is interested has an immediate requirement but may keep you in mind for future projects. A pitch in social media is totally inappropriate and destroys more than it could ever achieve.

3. Communicate!

You don’t have to comment on every single post or respond to everything which is being said on your profiles. But to turn a blind eye also doesn’t cut it. It’s like in the real world; How can we possibly come in contact with somebody without communicating?

Get involved, reply to comments (where it seems appropriate), contribute to some interesting discussions if you have something to say and time permits.

4. Think First, Then Post!

What you write on the Internet is public and it will be there forever. Keep this always in the back of your head before you post something instead spontaneously posting everything which crosses your mind.

5. Handle Criticism with Style!

We all have a bad day every now and then and it will happen that somebody posts something negative on your profile. Let it be there and do not delete it! Unless there is something you have to correct, simply ignore it.

One should also remember that everyone makes mistakes and not every criticism is unjustified

or undeserved. React to legitimate criticism with humility and merely explain your position, OK?

If there are several critical comments, it is not necessary to respond to every single one individually. Give a well thought-through general statement and show your followers that you really care about them. And then, and that’s really important, analyze what mistakes you made to prevent them in the future.

6. Share other Content!

Rather than always to post your own content, you can and should also link to post created by others. However, the problem remains that you have to consider first whether the post is relevant. The posting you consider to link on you pages must be related to your own sphere of expertise as well as relevant to your audience. Prevent to be perceived as just another “Retweeter”.

7. Do not just share Business Content!

There is no reason to hide the human side of your company, to the contrary! Is there a BBQ or something extraordinary in everyday life which was photographed or filmed by your employees?  Publish it! Such content always conveys a positive image.

8. Set a Weekly Trend!

To share something once a week at a given time will set a trend that will be rapidly picked up by your followers. This could be for example a specific content or an “offer of the week” if you run a retail establishment. Trends always spread and will bring traffic and increase customer loyalty.

9. Guide Users to your Profiles!

It’s great to promote yourself through social media but it shouldn’t stop there. It is equally important to draw attention to your platform from the outside. A great way to do this is to create an e-mail signature with direct links or to put QR-Codes on letterheads and business cards. There is also nothing to be said against a “like us” link on your website.

About the Author: Foxfang Digital Solutions is the leading provider of online marketing solutions in India, well known for running highly popular and effective campaigns across all platforms. Have a look at our website: www.foxfang.com or contact us directly: info@foxfang.com

Follow us!

FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/Foxfang.consultants

LINKEDIN: http://www.linkedin.com/company/foxfang

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/FOXFANG_DIGITAL

YOUTUBE: http://www.youtube.com/user/foxfangdigital

Seven Golden Rules for Facebook & Co

SOCIAL CODE OF CONDUCT

By now, Social Networks are part of our daily routines like the cup of coffee in the morning. In the past, if you wanted to stay in touch with friends and family or wanted to track down old acquaintances, you had to grab the telephone handset or hire a private investigator – Thanks to Facebook, Google+, MySpace & Co. these days are definitely over!

But as with all social interactions there are behavioral codes: Who ignores them can ruin his image faster than a loose lipped politician.

It goes without saying that you have to refrain from using insults, racist remarks and random threats of violence. The Internet forgives and forgets nothing, that’s a fact. This is why you should keep an eye on personal information and correct conduct. For many employers it became a routine part of their evaluation of future employees to check the social networks to make sure they got the right candidate. See below some very important codes of conduct.

1. Use Your Real Name

At least in business networks such as Linkedin or Xing you should avoid using pseudonyms. I know that this probably causes an uproar with people who are really conscious about privacy concerns. But the use of nicknames such as “cuba_libre” or “bangkok_john376” is unprofessional in the professional world. Not to mention that it makes it harder if not impossible for potential employers or business partners to find you. There is also the big advantage that you think twice before posting something online when you use your actual name.

2. Keep Your Cool – Insults and Abusive Language are Taboo!

Did you have a bad day at work? Is your inflexible department chief going on your nerves or did you get criticized by your boss? Everyone is frustrated every now and then, that’s normal! It’s not normal though to blow one’s steam off on social networks. Never forget that social networks are more or less public! You wouldn’t be the first one who’s lost his job because of rash comments on Facebook. Ensure that it doesn’t get personal when you express your opinion. Especially when you come back from the pub on a Friday night and had a few after a hard week in the coalmine, better go straight to bed and don’t log in to you preferred social platform.

3. Be Careful with Pics and Vids

If you use your Photoshop expertise to paste your bosses head on the body of a monkey, please don’t post the resulting artwork online! It will be only funny until your boss gets tagged by a jealous co-worker. Also do not get too enthusiastic about video content – Not everybody can laugh about everything! On one side it’s great to have pics of yourself posted on Facebook, Myspace & Co, but pay attention to what these pics project and who else is to be seen on them.

4. Release Information targeted

Use friends lists (on Facebook) or circles (Google+) to filter who sees what. There is also the possibility, if this is to complicated and time consuming, to create different profiles on the same platforms for private and official use. 

5. Arrogance is out of Place on Social Networks

“Be humble” my parents and grandparents used to tell me; to be honest, they had a point there! But there are many users who think that this rule doesn’t apply to the internet and its social networks, To continuously boast with your successes and (existing or imaginary) expertise is not well-received by most other users. If for example somebody posts a question in a forum, the “use the search feature”-answer or RTFM (use the search featureJ) is not only rude but outright offensive. If the question was posted and answered before, guide the new user to the respective thread and do not offend him/her, OK?

6. Be careful with Online-Dating Sites

Online-Dating is either a great thing or a total disaster. Most of these sites are built similar to Facebook but the big difference is the profile pics. The picture on dating sites is in average 10-15 years old. If you follow this trend and also upload ancient photos because you looked more attractive 20 years ago, you might get more response but the actual date will be rather short. In each case you have to be very careful with dating sites; do not give up too much information about yourself and realize that not everybody on these sites is there because they seek eternal love or a lifetime companionship.

7. Always keep your Job in Mind

It’s none of your bosses’ business what videos, pics or comments you post online? WRONG! Let’s say you have direct customer contact and the said client knows you by name…. this and many other facts you should always keep in the back of your head because to a certain extent you always represent the organization you’re working for.

You don’t want to ruin your image or provide too much information to data collectors, do you? My advice: keep you digital footprint as small as possible. You don’t have to be registered on EVERY single social network! Keep your personal data organized and don’t divulge too much about you. Use your common sense and think about if you can still stand behind what you post today in 5 years from now. Always apply the golden rule: think first, type later! Because the internet forgets nothing……

.

New Facebook Buttons!

Mark, give us a Care-Button!

We “like” things on Facebook like there is no tomorrow. But let’s be honest: Even primates are more versatile in expressing themselves. It’s time for new buttons! Here’s a little mind game and some creative suggestions.

“We don’t just like things, we do more than that!” was the outcry of more than 20’000 groups on Facebook. But nobody is listening. For many years millions of users declare “All they want us to do is to like things, we want to dislike!”.

Even the scientific community is angered about Facebook’s bloody-mindedness when it comes to introducing new buttons. Felix Stalder (Professor for Digital Culture and Network Theories at Zurich University of Arts) recently warned us about the pre-formatting of our internet communication:  “Facebook is guiding us in a direction which is beneficial only for them and refrains of introducing a Dislike-Button for fear of negative comments”. But this is no secret, Facebook even admits it openly: “Positive comments fit better in our philosophy than negative statements”.  Facebook is worried about their cozy virtual world because their users mostly log in to feel good and Facebook doesn’t want to provide a stage for cranks and sourpusses.

Grooming Talk: We are like monkeys

Fact is: Even monkeys have a bigger repertoire than the virtual human when it comes to social graces. Gorillas, chimpanzees and Barbary apes love to sit in groups, ruffle each other’s fur and delouse one another. Basically they are like us, at least when it comes to social interaction. It’s all about the exchange of niceties and social commitments.  Obviously humans don’t sit together in small groups and fondle each other anymore (even if it is a nice thought), our evolution pursues a different, more economical way. This is why we invented the language, more specifically small-talk. Mostly senseless babble, like delousing without lice, but not entirely pointless: It binds us together.

Then came the internet and brought us many new “friends”, 130 each Facebook user has in average. It would require a lot of time and nerves to send emails to all of them or to place nice comments on all of their walls: we all were in desperate need for something new and the solution was the “Like”-Button! 

What fondling is to monkeys, the click on the Like-Button is to us. Each one of us already “liked” 80 things in average, that’s a staggering 66’800’000’000 Likes till date! This shows that we are living in the age of a real “Like-Inflation”. We like irrelevant stuff like childhood pis of colleagues of friends or “funny” status updates like “I think I have another beer” and so on. And there exactly is the problem: Thumbs up, thumbs up! Facebook doesn’t give us a possibility to express sorrow, dismay, preferences or sympathy. There is nothing in between an elaborate comment and a simple “thumbs up”.  The Like-Statement is not just for what you like anymore and this can cause confusion.

Suggestions for a new Button-Culture on Facebook

I have to admit, I “like” a lot of things – 334 till date. But I actually don’t feel embarrassed about my generosity – not at last because this button has a very limited significance nowadays. A boost in importance of the Like-Button would really make sense, don’t you think? How about a “Love-Button”, constrained to a limited amount of let’s say, 10 per year? Or a “Care-Button” to supplement our digital communication vocabulary?

The question remains – Would the users be satisfied with a couple more feel-good-buttons or would they want more? Anyway, the system will protect itself as it know to be the case: tomatoes won’t be thrown on Facebook anytime soon.

(this post is based on a Tagesanzeiger article by Roman Hirsbrunner, CEO of Maxomedia)

The Ultimate Twitter-Etiquette Guide

Twitter Do’s and Don’ts 

Aaaah, Twitter! How else would we know what the Dalai Lama really thinks or what Richard Branson had for dinner or if Rashida Jones apologized to John Travolta for asking him to come out of the cupboard. Even Barack Obama is tweeting again and thereby joining the crowd of more than 100 million persons, companies and organizations who use the world’s most famous Microblogging service.

The whole Twitter-Etiquette in just five points! This sounds great, don’t you think?

1. The Twitter Self-Presentation

Your Twitter Account is your digital business card. The possibilities for your electronic self-presentation concentrate on 3 things:

Your Photo

Recommendable is a pic that shows you clearly and ideally gives a hint of your personality. Don’t try, come hell or high water, to be funny or original and don’t change your pic too often as this might give the impression that you are too ambitious or trying too hard. And I personally would refrain from wearing sunglasses... the eyes are the mirror of the soul, right?

Your Bio

Use your real name; there are already too many anonymous weirdoes online. In case your name is already taken because your are really famous or your name is John Smith, adjoin a short and unique addition. The old Greek proverb “keep it simple, stupid” is also has validity for the characterization of your persona.

Your Background

There is nothing to say against the classic Twitter background but if you want to stand apart try and customize your own! It just takes a few minutes and tutorials can be found all over the web. Or you could have a look here

2. Twitter-Courtesy

Social obligations always result out of the individual circumstances and the contiguousness to your acquaintance and the sum of these two quasi results in a Courtesy-Quotient - The new forms of interactive involvement on social networks of the virtual society have by far the lowest courtesy-quotient. This is also valid for Twitter and at the same time is a blessing and a course. For you this basically means that if somebody you don’t know contacts you about something you’re not even remotely interested in, you don’t have to answer him/her/it….. cool, isn’t it?

3. Twitter-Arithmetic

Never before it was so easy to precisely calculate the social rank of a person as now in the age of Twitter. After joining, just for a millisecond, we are all the same. After that, every individual will be valued by the conjunction of the following variables (Warning mate, don’t take this too serious):

Tweets (t) = the number of your own micro-messages with maximum 140 characters

Following (f) = the number of Twitter-Users who you are following

Followers (F) = the number of Twitter-Users who are following You

Only t and f can be directly influenced

This results in the following formula

t << F ==> prominent
t ≥ f ≈ F ==> in the Media or PR-Business
t >> f >> F ==> thirsty for glory or just plain narcissistic

4. The Twitter-Psychology

Well, it’s a known fact that we live in difficult times and many people out there feel already valorized if they receive a virtual fondle. But to brag about the number of followers on Twitter is equally  pathetic and awkward as to swank about your eBay-feedback-score or at least as measly as to crawl the search engines on how to tweet to get more followers… The best method to get more followers is still: GET A LIVE, PLEASE!

Twitter is, similar to Amazon’s “you might also like…”, giving you suggestions. Only on Twitter they are (mostly) not about products but about people. But never ever forget: Twitter is – despite of the hype – just a machine. So please don’t fall in despair if you mostly find profiles on the „Similar to you“-Page that you are absolutely not interest in or even fill you with a slight sense of disgust. But here’s a quick advice guys: If this keeps happening you probably should change something – On Twitter and in Real Life.

5. The Twitter-Taboos

Let’s face it: 140 Characters are enough for every banality. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to take part in the dumb-game. Tweet regularly, but no trash! And if you really feel the need to tweet trivialities, the at least do it in a witty way.

Be careful - Tweeting is no traditional small talk; the rules are a bit different. Even some “celebrities” had to learn this the hard way, here’s a short list, just for fun:

Russell Brand made the awful mistake of tweeting a photo of his ex-wife Katy Perry - with no makeup on. Yikes! He said it was an innocent mistake and that he never intended to publish to his Twitter account - followed by millions. Was this the real reason why the marriage failed?

Charlie Sheen made the ultimate Twitter mistake of direct messaging his mobile number to Justin Bieber - only for it to end up on his timeline. It was no surprise that Charlie's phone was ringing off the hook for days afterwards.

Piers Morgan: Remember the famous gagging order that prevented anyone from saying which 'high profile footballer' was having an affair? Well Piers Morgan ignored that rule, and revealed the man in question was Ryan Giggs. Oops! But we all knew anyway, didn't we?

Despite Sarah Palin’s frequent use of Twitter to fire off missives, Palin isn't as tech savvy as you think — or so she says. After she “favorited “ a photo tweeted by Ann Coulter that showed a church sign calling President Obama a "Taliban Muslim," Palin blamed it on the Blackberry. "I've never purposefully 'favorited' any tweet," Palin said afterward. "I had to go back to my BlackBerry to even see if such a function was possible. I was travelling to Alaska that day ... it was an obvious accidental 'favoriting.'" Anyone want to refudiate this?

Basically it is pretty simple: What doesn’t belong in public doesn’t belong on Twitter - Keep in mind that while the technologies are relatively new, the reactions to breaches in etiquette are still pretty much old-school.

Well, that concludes the 5 points of our twitter etiquette. Liked it? Tweet it! Didn’t like it? Tweet it as well!