Facebook & LinkedIn

Now that we’ve spent a tremendous amount of time on Twitter, let’s move on to Facebook and LinkedIn.

Facebook

To promote Management Summit and the Solo & Small Firms Conference, I created Fan pages for both on Facebook and placed “Fan Boxes” for each on their corresponding websites. Now, every time I write on the wall of the Fan page, it shows up on the conference website. This is an easy way to keep fresh content on a stagnant website and to continually inform visitors of updates and exciting news. I have found our Facebook Fan pages to be the least active in terms of members (or fans); but nonetheless, I still love it for the Fan Boxes on the websites.

LinkedIn

Because LinkedIn is the #1 social networking site for professionals, this has by far been our most active social platform. You should definitely fill out a company profile and request that your staff link up to the profile, but this is not where the real value is. The real value is in creating groups and initiating conversations within the groups. What’s the best way to get members fast? Start by creating an Excel spreadsheet of your clients. After you’ve built your group page, while you’re in the group, click on “Manage” and on the right hand side of the page under “Manage Group” click on “Send Invitations”. You will have the ability to upload your Excel file and invite everyone to join your group. Many have accepted our invitation and now it’s our job to create compelling discussions and respond to anyone who has posted a response or sent us an email through LinkedIn.

You can also send Announcements to your group members, but don’t overuse that feature. If your members/clients begin to look at your communications as SPAM, they will remove themselves from your group. The key with social media marketing, and all networking for that matter, is to first figure out how you can help the other person before asking something of them. How would you feel if a stranger, or even a client, walked up to you and launched into a sales pitch? Turned off and tuned out. What if a client approached you with some knowledge or an introduction that would further your personal or professional goals? You would want to reciprocate. Keep that in mind as you reach out to your clients and prospects through these new media channels.

Budgeting Your Twitter Time

Wow! Time flies when you’re having fun, right? I planned to blog my way through TGP’s social media adventure, and it’s been too long since I last posted. So much has happened! Let me fill you in…

Twitter is covered; I walked you through our entire process. But things don’t always go as planned and very few of us are tweeting on a regular basis so far. Actually, my best tweeter isn’t even listed on our pages! I should probably change that; Melissa Whitmer, Client Partner, regularly finds interesting articles that she posts for our followers. I haven’t even been on ever day, I’m sorry to admit.

Someone asked me the other day how to budget your time on Twitter, so here is my process:

• Check “Followers” – As a rule of thumb, businesses should follow anyone who is following them, unless it is obvious spam. So I check my followers to see if I have yet to follow any of them and I do so.
• Check “@messages” and reply to anyone (if necessary) to anyone who has mentioned us in a tweet.
• Check “Direct Messages” and reply to anyone who has sent us a message; unless it is a canned “thanks for following me!” message. Sidenote: PLEASE don’t auto-DM. It’s insincere and it’s become a pet peeve of mine. The ONLY good one I’ve seen is Rick Telberg’s (@CPA_Trendlines) because his doesn’t sound canned; he actually asks how you found him which I think is interesting information to gather.

Once I’m caught up there, then I post a few tweets. I do subscribe to many RSS feeds (tweets) of the thought-leaders I am following, so often I scroll through their recent posts to see if there’s something I want to retweet (RT). Then, I try to post a message or two myself, whether it’s about an upcoming event (Solo & Small Firms Conference or Management Summit) or an interesting article I came across and wanted to share.

All of that should take you only about 15-20 minutes. If you can schedule this in twice a day, you’re golden with Twitter (I would suggest morning and mid-afternoon). Remember, tweets only get about 5 minutes of “air time”, so if it’s an important message, tweet it multiple times.

I’ve also set up our Facebook Fan pages (for Solo & Small Firms Conference and Management Summit) and LinkedIn Groups for both. Stay tuned for details on Facebook and LinkedIn!