The 3 ‘P’s Formula for Social Media Success

I’m often asked what the secret is to attracting customers to ones social network sites. Sorry to say there is no ‘secret formula’ but there is a Success Formula that if put into play, will perform. The first thing to know is that before you dive into Social Media place some thought into what your PURPOSE is. Why do you want to set up sites on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn? How do you want to use YouTube and Blogs for your business? Do you want to build relationships, talk about key services, expand your reach or perhaps build brand loyalty? Use caution, as your actions may either build up your brand or weaken it! Without determining your actual PURPOSE, there is no need to go any further.

Once you have determined your PURPOSE you then begin developing your PLAN, without established objectives in mind how will you know if you’ve achieved success? When strategizing, chart how you are going to approach the Internet by exploring what others are doing. Decide what social platforms to use by finding out where your audience is hanging out; this is why it is vital you know who your client is! Choose what tools you are going to use to measure your Social Media campaigns. Having a PLAN of action in place to measure your successes and catching your errors will help you to meet your goals.

You have your PURPOSE and your PLAN, now what? The first two steps are absolutely necessary ingredients in the formula but without this third step the PLAN will not work, it’s all about the execution of the POST. You must determine who you are talking to, what you will communicate, how you will say it, how much time you’ll allocate to each social network, establish if it is about you or them (I wisely recommend you realize it’s all about them), and then begin engagement. Creating relevant, interesting and engaging content that is keyword rich will bring you online visibility and generate profitability. The POST is the secret in the Success Formula.

What’s the ‘Google Plus’ buzz all about?

If you haven’t heard about the newest and hottest social network launched by Google, you most likely don’t use social media. Google+ was developed to rival Facebook and Twitter. It’s currently in field-testing mode which means you need to receive an invite and must be over 18 to be able to gain access plus you will need a Gmail account to login.

The most asked question is should you jump on the Google+ bandwagon?
If you like to be an early adapter and have plenty of spare time to play, by all means do so. But if you are looking for a social network that you can use for business with the intent to make money on, then I recommend not at this time. You need to decide if the time spent playing in a new site is worth it to you or if the investment of your time is more valuable spent focusing on income producing activity for your business. 

Yes, I believe Google+ could be a game changer and I have set up my account to test it out, but despite its impressive growth (latest estimate shows Google+ at 18 million users); right now it does nothing too drastically different than Facebook. It offers excitement with the newness and a few enhanced features but it doesn’t allow businesses to set up brand pages at this time, and at the end of the day the cycle of posting a status update, commenting on friends posts and sharing links is the same on both.

What ever you decide, check out ‘Google+: The Complete Guide’ for more information. If you would like a Google+ invite, email me at clm@wcninteractive.com with ‘Google+ Invite Please’ in the subject line.

Make it a great social day!

Facebook Business Page vs Personal Profile

There seems to be some confusion about how to set up your business on Facebook. Some folks set up their actual profile account in their business name which is against Facebook’s terms and conditions (read 1-4 under Registration and Account Security) and in so doing, risk having their account removed. That could be a hardship if you have built up a hefty friend list that you are engaging with. But there is good news, Facebook recently put into place a way for you to migrate your personal profile into a business page.  When so doing, your profile picture and all your friends will move to your business page, however all other content on your profile will be lost so it is recommended that you go into your account settings and download your profile before migrating. You will use the same email and password to login to your account after it becomes a business page and you will no longer have a personal profile. For more information visit Facebook’s Help Center.

You may be wondering what the benefits are to having a Business Page vs a Personal Profile. The biggie is that you can have unlimited ‘Likes’ (fans and pages) compared to only having 5000 connections (combination of friends and pages you like) on your personal profile which can be very limiting to growing your business. Other features on a business page are the many business applications that you can download and begin using to enhance and promote areas of your business, customizing pages such as a ‘Welcome’ page which can make you stand out above your competition and assist with lead capture, run ads and/or campaigns plus, it is the only feature on Facebook that Google indexes.

Yes it is more difficult to connect with individuals on a Business Page vs a Personal Profile because you need to attract people and pages to come ‘Like’ your page whereas on a personal profile you request friends and you go ‘Like’ pages; I believe that is the main reason businesses create their business as a personal profile. But when they do so they not only risk, as I mentioned above, being removed from Facebook but they also risk offending others because it is obvious the only reason they are on Facebook is to promote their business. Facebook is a Social Networking site and people are on there to have fun, talk with people and choose who they want to do business with. That’s why they go ‘Like’ a page, they expect to be marketed to, but they also expect the business to provide them value.