How To Succeed With Social Media

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How To Succeed With Social Media

There is no secret for succeeding with Social Media. Anyone who tries to tell you any different is:

A.) Trying to sell you their service

or

B.) Trying to sell you their service

There are four things you need to develop to succeed in Social Media. First you need to know what Social Media is. Second you need to develop a Social Media Presence. Third you need to tickle (Entertain) your customers until they can’t help but share you with their friends. Fourth you have to a Measure and Manage your assets to make sure you are getting your desired results.

Social Media = A Relationship With Your Customer

To understand Social Media you have to understand relationships. Social Media is all about building a strong relationship with your customers. Great relationships are built on trust, consistency and charisma.  An old adage says, “All things being even, people want to do business with their friends.” This being said the only thing you need to do now is develop your Social Media footprint.

Social Media Footprint

Social Media is evolving at a rapid pace. So fast in fact that most people have know idea what Social Media assets to develop. My advice is simple. Go where the masses are. The point is to get your brand on Main St. As of today 4.3.2011 you need. 1.Facebook  2.Twitter 3.You Tube. Now this is a very basic foundation. But if you are starting off this is where you should focus and then experiment with other Social Assets like Flicker, Digg, Quora etc.

Entertainment

It does not matter what business you think you are in, at the end of the day you are in show business. I know some of you really don’t want to hear that but it is true. If you do not entertain you customers, they will find someone who will and tell their friends about them. Geico knows this, Old Spice knows this and now you do too! Entertainment does not just have to be about producing funny videos. Well written pieces and pictures go a long way. It also helps to have a Social Media Manager with a sense of humor.  At PHILO when responding to people via Twitter, PHILO Man (our loveable TV) likes to send them videos highlighting a point he is trying to make in the Tweet.  Derek Picone is on top of the PHILO leader board. He asked PHILO Man about something pertaining to the Kids’ Choice Award event we were doing with Nickelodeon.  The conversation is below.

This is the link that was sent to Derek http://ow.ly/4oRMS. Need less to say it made his day.

Measure and Manage

Like a carpenter Social Media Directors need a box of tools to get the job done. I use Hoot Suite and Tweet Deck for management. For measurement and analytic I use Google Analytics and Chartbeat. Chart Beat is awesome because you can see what is happen on your site in real time instead of waiting for Google Analytics to load your data.  Hoot Suite also has solid analytic capabilities.

This was a brief introduction to Social Media. If you have any questions, leave a comment or shoot me an email mr.chichester {at} Gmail.com