Communicate!

Helping you win loyal friends through your communications

“What Social Media Should I Use?”: The Answer

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People hear that I’m a communications consultant and they immediately ask, “What social media should I be using?”  Here is my single, definitive, expert and unalterable answer:

It depends.

 

Seriously.  And anybody who tells you different is wrong.  I’m sure about it!

What does it depend upon?  Before you decide which social media to use,  consider the following questions:

  1. Am I ready for social media?  Is my website up to date, easy to use, and full of content people will want to see?  Do I blog?  Do I collect people’s email (with their permission) and send them information that makes them like and trust me?  If not, take care of that before you worry about social media!
  2. Are the people I’m trying to reach on social media?  Don’t assume they’re not–people over 65 are the fastest growing group on social media–but don’t assume they are.  Find out.  If your audience habitually reads mail, or listens to Spanish-language radio, then maybe that’s where you should put your effort.
  3. Which social media are they on?  We know some broad generalizations. For instance, LinkedIn is more male, Pinterest more female.  But those generalizations may have nothing to do with your specific audience.  Search for them online.  Do a poll.  Or just ask them.
  4. What’s the best thing I can share?  If you have a lot of great video, Youtube might be the way to go.  For photos, Pinterest, Instagram, or Tumblr.  Facebook is great for a mix of brief thoughts, links to longer posts, and images.  Twitter is fantastic for pithy saying and links to your blog posts (or other people’s content that you want to share).  Use what you have–or learn to create what you can use.

Still not sure?  That’s fine: better than being too sure too soon!  Drop me a message at [email protected] and we’ll see if I can help you.

You Can Make Me Glad I Saw Your Ad

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When I watched the video “The Power of Words,” I cried.  Then I shared it on Facebook and Twitter.  A lot of the 18 million people who saw the video did the same. And it’s an ad!

How did Purple Feather make me and millions of other people around the world say, “Thank you, I’m glad I saw that”?  They used the principles of content marketing.  They gave the people what we want.

People like stories.  In a minute and forty-eight seconds, “The Power of Words” tells a complete story–one that includes a triumph at the end.

People identify with characters.  When you watched the video, did you identify with the blind man, the young woman, or the people who at first passed him by and then stopped to give generously?  Or, like me, did you identify with all of them?

People want to feel.  At the end of the video, I hadn’t done anything, right?  I only sat in my chair and looked at the screen.  Yet I felt as if I had been though something life-changing.

People are curious.  When the blind man asked the young woman, “What did you do to my sign?”, I was leaning forward in my seat to find out the answer.

People get it.  When the young woman answered, “I said the same thing, in different words,” and her rewrite of the sign came onto the screen, no one needed to sell me on Purple Feather.  They showed me the power of words.

I felt in my body how big a difference they might be able to make.

I wanted to thank them…and hire them.

And because I do communications, I wanted to write something as powerful as they had.  I hope I will.  I hope I do.

Let’s share some other examples.  What marketing message have you read or seen that made you glad you’d seen it?

What I Learned at Social Media Manager School

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Have you heard the saying, “There’s no such thing as a social media expert”?  It’s true.  Social media are changing too fast for anyone to know it all.  But Andrea Vahl and Phyllis Khare come close.

Along with a few hundred students from around the world, I enrolled in Andrea and Phyllis’ Social Media Managers School this fall.  They have a wealth of practical experience and they shared as much of it with us as they possibly could.

I learned a lot more than I already knew about:

  • Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google+, and Pinterest
  • Top tools for managing multiple clients’ posts on multiple social media
  • Analytics you can use to measure what matters
  • Producing webinars and Ebooks
  • Finding clients, online and in person
  • Setting expectations and actually doing the work

I came to the course with a well-developed sense of strategy, the writing skills I needed for content marketing, and long familiarity with social media.  What I knew less about was a) advanced social media tactics and b) running a business.

Phyllis and Andrea took the mystery out of it.  With patience and good humor, they led a varied group of wanna-bes and already-ares through the course.  The Facebook group for participants was a great bonus: there were some days when I learned as much from the other students as I did from the teachers.  That’s a sign of a great course.

If you are interested in managing clients’ social media for a living–or if (like me) you want to add social media management to what you can offer your clients–then you cannot do better than to sign up for the 2014 Social Media Managers School.

Just don’t call yourself an expert.  Let your expertise speak for itself.

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