Kwik Dry Systems

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Social Marketing

Much like other social networking platforms your social marketing can be a blend of direct obvious, paid advertising, which can be sourced into the Facebook Ad Network as well as equally profitable social selling.

Advertising is easy with Facebook, but like many of the other social platforms the ad networks are immature and still wrestling with effectiveness. In contrast, the simple things you can do to broadcast and target your marketing message organically within the Facebook application may give you even bigger results.

Facebook as a social marketing platform is maturing quickly. The organization of information, volume of social connectivity, and growing affluence of the demographics is making Facebook a serious contender for business marketing focus.

Social Selling and Lead Nurturing

Social selling and lead nurturing are really the secret arts to be learned for big marketing bang from Facebook. Joining the conversation is the foundation, but creating a process flow that automates the pumping in of value, while alerting you to opportunities is the key to execution.

Here are some simple ideas for marketing with Facebook while automating your social selling and nurturing process:

• Connect your feeds from other social networks
• Create a group and organize physical and virtual meetups
• Share photos of your business in action: office, employees, and clients
• Keep information flowing with statuses and social feeds

Facebook is becoming a serious tool for decision makers and powerful networks–make sure you have a social marketing strategy to seize this 100 million person opportunity.
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Setting Up Your Page
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Once you’ve logged in to Facebook, scroll to the bottom and click on Advertising. (at the very bottom) Then click Pages (at the very bottom) and Create a Page. Select the type of business you own and start filling in all the details. The more info you add, the better your page will be (and remember: Google thinks highly of Facebook in its search engine results).

Make sure to include your company logo, any RSS blog feeds that are relevant, videos, images — the whole nine yards. Once you’re satisfied with the Page, publish it, then get ready to dive into promotion.

Promoting a Page
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The tricky thing about Facebook Pages is that you can’t friend someone the way you can from your profile. People can elect to become fans of your Page, but only if they know about it. So you’ve got to spread the word organically (and keep doing it) to introduce people to your Page and to your company.

First identify contacts from your profile that are either business connections, people working in a field related to your business, or who would otherwise benefit from the information your company provides, and invite them to become a fan of the Page. Send a short note explaining what you want to offer from the Page (remember, people are thinking “what’s in it for me?”) and include a link to the Page.

You should also promote your Page elsewhere online by putting a Facebook Page button on your website to help others find it, spreading the word on Twitter if you’re there (and you should be), sending out an email notification, or putting a link on your business cards. Do whatever it takes to help people know that you’re on Facebook and you want them to become a part of your community.
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Get the Most Out of Your Page
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” Post updates weekly, if not daily and point your fans to any off-site promotions, such as giveaways hosted on different web sites.
And keep it fun! Nobody likes straight up business all the time! Zappos, for example, has crazy videos and posts that aren’t related to shoes, which is why their fan base is well over 21,000.
It will take time to build your fan base, so remember to keep sending out invites to new contacts asking if they want to become a fan of your business Page. Constantly promote the Page in any way possible, and keep your content fresh — give people a reason to check in on your page regularly.

Check your analytics: before long you should see a large portion of your website’s referrals coming from Facebook!
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Wrapping it Up
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Your Facebook efforts will be ongoing, so plan to dedicate a few hours each week to getting new fans and updating content. You’ll quickly appreciate the instant ability to connect with customers and future customers through this social media tool!

What is Twitter?

“Are you in to bird watching or something?” asked one of my Facebook friends once as I made a Twitter post about my 1,000th “tweet”.

Twitter is a free social messaging utility for staying connected in real-time.

Wikipedia describes it this way:
Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service, that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.

Before I get in to too much detail on why twitter is such a great part of online marketing, I want to teach you how to set up a twitter account.

Step 1: Go to http://twitter.com.
When you get to Twitter.com, you’ll see this page:

Step 2: Click the Join the conversation! Green Box
This page will appear:

Step 3: Create a Username.
If you are using this twitter account for brand management for your business, I’d recommend using your domain name minus the dot com/net/etc. (ie. http://twitter.com/mollermarketing) If it’s just for fun or personal use, use whatever you want as the username.
Add your email address, personal or business.
Type in the security code then click “I accept, Create my Account” (if you want, you can read the Terms of Service too).

Step 4: Start connecting!
As you can see by the picture below, Twitter asks for your email information. They state very clearly that they don’t use or share your information anywhere:

We don’t store your login, your password is submitted securely, and we don’t email without your permission.

I get plenty of spam in my email inbox, but I’ve never tracked it back to Twitter so don’t worry about giving up “personal info” (this is just my advice, not legal mumbo-jumbo so don’t blame me if you get your identity stolen or something ) If you’re really concerned, set up a new Gmail email account that’s just for your twitter account (I feel like you’d be waisting lots of time doing this).
Here’s what the next page will look like:

What’s cool is that Twitter goes through all your email addresses to see who is already registered with a Twitter account. You can hand pick which of your new “Twitter Friends” you want to add.

There’s also an option where you can invite non-Twitter users to set up Twitter accounts – it looks like this:

If you plan to use Twitter for business and you already have a pretty big database of names and emails, this could be a great opportunity to show your clients you care by connecting with them in a new way. Twitter can be a great way to communicate and deal with Customer Care issues too!

Step 5: You’re now an official Twitter User!

Important questions to ask at this point:

Do you need a Tweet Plan?

What about setting goals for Twitter?

Darren Rowse from TwiTip.com has this to say:
Being successful at something is very hard if you don’t know what you want to achieve. It’s much easier to hit your target…. if you know what it is.

I really do think the sooner you have a purpose for Twitter, the better, but since this is a “Getting Started on Twitter” tutorial, just add some friends!

The easiest way to get started with Twitter is by interacting with people you already know – aka: use your email list and see who’s already using Twitter.

The best thing about this is, if you have friends that have a lot of experience “tweeting”, they can give you tips, tricks, and even connections that will help you grow your reputation on Twitter.
I’ve been using Twitter since April of 2007 and it’s been a fun ride so far. I’ve found that, the more direction and focus I have, the better use I get out of Twitter for business networking.

Own a profile that truly represents you.

• List your current and past positions & education along with your tenure there. This helps the right people and opportunities find you.
• Add a profile photo– people never forget a face!
• Add a summary paragraph. Think of it as your professional elevator pitch.
Ensure your connections represent your “real-world” network.
• Use webmail import to see, in seconds, all the people you know who are already on LinkedIn. You can then select who you wish to invite to join your trusted network.
• Upload a contacts file from Outlook, Palm, ACT!, or Mac Address
• View our list of your colleagues and classmates that are already on LinkedIn.
Leverage the power of your LinkedIn network!
With a profile and connections that truly represents you and your “real-world” network, you’re all set to get the most out of LinkedIn.
• Post a question on Answers and tap into the experts you’re connected to and the entire LinkedIn network. With a professional community of over 100 million, this is the perfect place for those tough questions.
• Look up someone’s profile before you meet with them. Learn their background and see who you know in common to get off to a fast start.
• Search for Service Providers and select based on trusted recommendations from people in your network. Anonymous web searches to find providers are a thing of the past.”