If Facebook where a country, it would be the 3rd largest in the world, population-wise that is. It now surpasses the population of the United States — men, women and children. That’s a lot of eyeballs. So if your marketing mix doesn’t include the Big Four (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube), you are going to have to peddle pretty fast to catch up in the coming years (months, really).

To help you put your social media stake in the ground, here are some insights that will help you get your stake sharpened.

Don’t start unless you have a plan. Why exactly are you getting into social media anyway? Too often I see companies jump in with a Facebook fan page and no real plan. Then they flounder around for a while until one day they scratch their business heads and say, “What exactly are we suppose to be doing? What are we going for here?” So first assess your needs, then figure out your short and long term goals and create a social media strategy, and plan of action to meet them. Marketing is marketing.

One toe first. If you are just beginning with social media marketing, pick one channel first and work it. When I first started with Twitter, I spent a month or two just listening to tweets and watching trends. I followed some of the social media rock stars (and met some of them too at digital conferences) and carefully examined their conversations –  what they were saying, and why they were saying it. Very enlightening. I saw what worked and what didn’t, and I followed and unfollowed some tweeters regularly. Before I knew it, I was being followed back regularly. Which brings me to the next point…

Content is still king (or queen, in my case). Creating and sharing great content will always rule in social media. I have been hearing this for years, and yes, it’s still true. Whatever your business is, make it a priority to religiously deliver compelling content and I promise, your fans and followers will come back for more (and tell all their friends too). To develop great content, brainstorm subject ideas, follow trends in your industry, set up Google Alerts with targeted keywords that pertain to your business and interests, and follow other people or businesses that have something relevant to say. Watch what gets tweeted, liked and passed on. See my Facebook fan page Women Of Green to see what I mean. It’s a mix of original content, inspirational quotes, relevant news stories and great conversations around the subject of women and sustainability. By doing this, we very quickly became a “go to” place. You can too.

Serve, don’t sell. Nothing will turn off a follower or fan more than an overt advertising pitch or sales talk. It’s no mistake that social media has the word “social” in it. It’s about creating relationships. It’s about engaging your friends and fans. It’s about helping. It’s about serving. If that doesn’t sound like marketing-as-usual, it isn’t. That’s why you need to listen first. It’s a whole new world out there. Now, that doesn’t mean you cannot make an offering now and then. Businesses do it all the time. But remember, it’s not what you do, it’s how you do it (as my mom would say).

Mix business with pleasure. What I mean by this is show your fans who you really are. Let your personality shine through. What are you interested in besides the product or service you sell? Share that. Social media is about human beings, not corporations or machines. Even Dell knows that. Their Twitter guy is Jim, and people love him. When Dell customers have a problem or an issue, “Jim at Dell” has been known to stay up in the wee hours of the morning handling it. And he does it with all of the love in his heart. Really. I met Jim at a conference. I could tell.

Consistency is the name of the game. There is nothing worse than starting a blog or creating a Twitter account and then stopping after a few months. It sends a message that you are either not committed or not up on your industry or business. In my opinion, it’s better not to begin at all than begin and stop mid-stream. So if you can’t commit fully to your plan, don’t do it –  or get help. If you chose the latter, social media managers or assistants can help you create a presence, build a network and keep you on track. Shameless plug: call me if consistency or stage fright is creeping up for you. I will help you build it, and they will come.

Got an insight you’d like to share?

Bookmark to:

I am on Facebook and Twitter a lot these days and growing my audience on Women Of Green. What fun. We’ll be at 5000 “likes” in no time. Our goal is 10,000+ by the end of the year. I know we’ll be there. It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of growing an audience. But remember, when you put your information out there, it’s out there. You may have written the post, or taken the photograph, but your content is now public, and as Mitch Joel of Twist Image says, it’s “shareable forever”. There is no such thing as privacy if you’re online. (I learned that the hard way).

Yes, I know, Facebook has its privacy settings but they can change at any time — and they have. The bottom line is if you are online, you’re public. And if you are public, you’re not private. That’s the truth of the matter. For more truths (brace yourself), here’s an excellent post by Mitch that is straight forward and sums it up nicely. Here are his highlights:

What you need to always remember about the Internet.

• It’s a business. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc. are not social organizations created to help the better good. They are businesses and they are corporations. Their main focus is all the same: they are here to make money.
• Terms of service. Before signing up to any service, you have to sign and agree to their terms of services. Simply put, this is a legal document created so that the company can’t be sued… for anything. It’s a document to protect the company (and in doing so, it does not provide that much protection to the consumer – that’s you and the brands you represent).
• Your content is (probably) yours. While you retain the rights to the text, images, audio and video that you post online, always consider that the content is now public and shareable forever.
• Money. Money. Money. While there are many tactics to how online social networks can make money, there are really only two overall strategies. Strategy number one: they sell the value of the network (the size and reach) along with the personalized data (geographic, psychographic, etc…) to advertisers who can then send those users more targeted messages. Strategy number two: they are looking to grow the company to the point where it becomes a valuable acquisition property, and then sell the company (and all of the data that comes with it) to another company.
• It’s out of your hands. There are countless groups of people trying to fight everything I’ve Blogged about above. These people feel like they have rights to the data and information and should have choices in terms of what their data is being used for. In a perfect world, I’d love to agree, but if you go back to point number one above, this is about business.
• There are no “copies”. Thinking about your pictures and videos in terms of someone else having a “copy” is a mistake. This is the same mistake that many traditional organizations have when looking at WikiLeaks. There are no copies.
• You can’t have privacy. If you want privacy in any digital channels (and this includes your own email!), don’t be in a online social network. It’s just that simple.

See how “shareable” that was. Is there something you would like to share about this subject? We’re listening.

Bookmark to:

We had a lively conversation with Joey Shepp on how social media principles align with sustainable business principles, and how sustainable business is perfectly positioned to take advantage of this disruptive technology. If you missed this Green Marketing Masters Teleseminar, here’s the audio link: Leveraging Social Media for Sustainable Business.

Here are some of questions we addressed:

1. How is social media good for sustainable business?

2. What is the best way to promote sustainable products without preaching?

3. How can I best use Facebook as a marketing tool?

4. How do you increase your fan base on Facebook?

5. How would you leverage social media in a business to business environment?

6. Is the press release still a viable part of social media marketing?

7. How might I best proceed in setting up and beginning to publish a blog?

Links Referenced in Teleseminar

Electronic Press Kits by Earthsite: Your Garden Show, Social Network for Gardeners; The Ki, Smart Living Event

FTC Disclosure FAQ and Type of Disclosure

Greenwashing: 7 Sins of Greenwashing Report

Presenters

Joey Shepp – Joey Shepp is the Founder and Principal at Earthsite, New Media for Sustainable Brands. Joey believes that social media is the tipping point for sustainability. He is an Internet entrepreneur, professional speaker, and sustainability consultant, and the founder and CEO of Earthsite, a New Media Agency for Sustainable Brands. Joey is also the founder of GreenMaven.com, the world’s largest Green Search Engine. He holds a degree in Ecological Design from UC Santa Cruz, an MBA in Sustainable Enterprise from Dominican University of CA.

Carolyn Parrs – Carolyn is a Co-founder and Principal at Mind Over Markets, a dedicated green marketing communications company that specializes in creating effective messaging in the maturing green market. As part of her passion to help green companies grow, she co-authors the Green Marketing Blog, a definitive, thought-provoking guide to marketing success in the green products world. She is also the Creator and Host of Women Of Green, a multimedia blog and community about turning up the volume of the feminine voice on behalf of the planet and future generations.

November Teleseminar

Join us Wednesday, November 17th at 10am pst / 1pm est when we talk PR with Sandy Skees, CEO and Founder of Communications 4 Good, and Irv Weinberg, Co-founder of Mind Over Markets.

Bookmark to:

One of the Ten Commandments of Green Marketing we preach is “Thou Shall Be Transparent.”  Now it seems that is a Golden Rule for the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) too. They have just  issued a ruling, according to Chris Brogan, a social media guru I follow, that basically says , “If you get something and decide to write about it, you have to disclose that it was given to you and/or whether you were paid for the review.”

The reason for this is simple. It’s the FTC’s job to make sure advertisers (and now bloggers, podcasters, etc.) are telling the truth. More specifically in this case, it prevents people from masquerading as being independent when they are not.

So much communication is floating around the airwaves today that it is vital to be able to tell news from commentary, paid opinion from fact.  All of us support free airwaves and the free flow of information, but along with that goes a responsibility for transparency. It’s not that any view should be regulated in any way, it’s that these views should be presented with clear authorship and clear lineage. If it’s opinion, we should know whose opinion it is and if it’s paid advertising, it should be presented as such (think health care debate).

I believe this rule should go doubly for the marketers of green products and services. But sadly last year alone, of 1,753 environmental claims reviewed, researchers found all but one made claims that are either false or misleading. (Source: State of Green Business 2008).

Now that green is getting some real traction, it’s more important than ever to keep it real. Because if you don’t, you’ll see, especially in this passionate market, green eyes are watching. Just look what they did to poor Kermit.

Bookmark to:

Word of mouth has always been the most effective form of marketing and advertising. Today it’s word of mouse. Never before has there been a more potent opportunity to track, listen to and communicate with green consumers. Even more amazing there are legions of Influencers out there who are speaking about what you make and what you do.

Are you listening in? Monitoring their blog? And their tweets on Twitter? If you’re not, you should be. Once you know what they’re thinking and what they’re saying you can reach out to them. If it’s positive, give them heartfelt thanks and appreciate their efforts on your behalf. If it’s negative, communicate with them and let them know you appreciate their concerns and are working to rectify them. Word of mouse is a powerful thing.

To prove the point, just a couple of weeks ago two Domino’s pizza employees posted a video on You Tube of them spitting in a pizza (and doing other nasty things). The ripples went out faster than a case of swine flu. Within hours, thousands and thousands of people downloaded that video which put the international pizza delivery chain in crisis. Imagine that. That’s how fast a situation can be spread by the click of a mouse.

On a more positive note, Blendtec, a company that makes super duper blenders at a super duper price ($399.00 and up), created an “extreme blending” video series called “Will it Blend?” and posted it on video-sharing sites like You Tube. The first five videos cost $50.00 to make. Imagine that.

One particular video featured a bright and shiny new iPod being pulverized by a well used Blendtec blender. When the company posted a link on Digg after setting up the video on their site, it spread like wildfire which soon led to appearances on The Today Show and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Soon the views for Blendtec’s video series reached 60 million and increased their sales by 20%.

As some traditional media loses its audience and its clout, social media is the way to go. It’s not only cost effective, its brand effective. It’s a new world out there, use it or lose it.

Bookmark to: