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Posts Tagged ‘social media marketing’

Social media allows for something that’s never been available to businesses using traditional marketing in the past.  Social media allows you to connect…to talk…to create…an ongoing dialogue with your target audience!

Unlike print ads and direct mail outs that are static and limited in their information or even networking events that are one time meetings…social media allows you to “talk” with your audience…24/7. 

This creates incredible opportunities to be visible and responsive to your market!  But if you’re not careful, social media can be very overwhelming and distracting.  There are the social platforms, the tools (applications, widgets, plugins, etc),  social media etiquette, connecting and engaging with viewers, and the time involved…time can be a big factor!

One of the biggest mistakes practices make when starting in social media is they just jump in with no clear objectives or strategy.  They aren’t sure about what they what to do and how they’re going to do it.

They’ll set up their social sites, Twitter – Facebook – LinkedIn, and maybe even a blog, but they don’t know how to connect, how to listen, and more importantly…how to engage effectively. Then after a few posts, their sites just sit there and begin gathering virtual dust. I’ve been to many dental sites on twitter and noticed the date of their last tweet was months ago. 

In using social media, to be effective in attracting and engaging quality followers, you must have these elements in place:

Know your target market and which social networks they are using the most

• Let’s put this into perspective:  If you work out of 3 Treatment Rooms and your patient is seated in TR 3 and you’re seated in TR 2 waiting for that patient, you aren’t going to get anything accomplished, you’re not where your patient is.

So if you’re on Twitter and your target is on Facebook…see the importance?  Go where the “eyeballs” are…know and be seen where your target market is.

Know and be clear about your objectives – goals – or outcome you want from social media

• What are you wanting social media to accomplish? Do you want to gain your targeted audience’s attention?  Drive traffic to your practice, blog, or website? Enhance your practice’s patient services?  Maybe you want to grow your practices email list

What are your objectives – what is it you want to accomplish with social media?

Create an engagement plan for using social media

• Once you’ve determined and joined the social network sites your target uses, you’ll need to determine how you are going to connect, engage, and communicate with your viewers.  How often will you “tweet”, post, or update. What are your core messages you will deliver?

Social media is all about connecting, engaging, and effectively communicating which in turn empowers your viewers.

Create a social media policy for your practice

• How will you and or your employees handle social media in your practice? What’s the right way and wrong way for your employees to use social media?  Who is going to be responsible for managing and overseeing your overall social media marketing? 

Whether handling in-house or outsourcing to a third party, you need a social media policy in place. 

One last point to bring is Safety Online:  Remember:  Once you’ve said it on the Internet, there’s no taking it back.  A few good rules to follow:

• Never post anything you don’t want your Grandmother or children to read
• Never give out sensitive information like account numbers or social security numbers
• Never spam – you’ll be un-followed and dropped like a hot dental instrument

By creating and having your social media strategy in place first:

• You’ll know your social media objectives
• How you’re going to achieve your objectives
• An overall plan for implementing your social media strategy

 These are the top elements needed in creating a winning social media strategy.  What additional elements have you used in your strategy?

This article first appeared in Dental Heroes.

Technorati Tags: create social media stragety, Create social media strategy, Dental Marketing, engaging and connecting, How to create a winning social media strategy, Internet Marketing, Livvie Matthews, social media marketing

Social meda is a powerful marketing tool, but if you’re not careful it can be time consuming and can become overwhelming.

Invitations to connect, invitations to events, join this group, attend this meeting, use this application and the list goes on and on.  It’s no wonder after awhile many social marketing sites just sit there gathering virtual dust.  The key?  You must learn to stay focused.

When first entering the social arena, you might only want to join one of the social platforms, maybe Twitter or Facebook.  Then as you get comfortable with that platform, move on to the next.

But if you’re going to be or are already using several of the social platforms, there are some short cuts you can use to help on days when you’re pressed for time.

The biggest time saver for social marketing is to automate using the  following: 

• Schedule Tweets to post in the future using HootSuite.com or SocialOomph.com
• Write and pre-load your Blog content
• Set up searches and alerts
• Link up feed content to RSS Feeds
• Create email autoresponders
• Use plugins like Tweetmeme.com for viewers to be able to “Tweet This”

The “Lists” you can create in Twitter help you follow certain people easier and your lists can be added to HootSuite making it much easier to locate certain people you like to RT or respond to.

These are just a few time saving shortcuts but whenever possible, take a few hours a week to maintain your social platforms for making contacts and building those all important relationships.   This is social media so the more posts and tweets are seen,  the better.  Remember, it’s all about connecting, engaging, and communicating.

What time saving shortcuts can you share?

Technorati Tags: Blogging, Building Business, Dental Marketing, Internet Marketing, Livvie Matthews, social marketing shortcuts, social media marketing, social media short cuts, time saving shortcuts for social marketing, time saving shortcuts for social media

Social Media Examiner is an excellent source of information for using all the social platforms.  This article written by Cindy King is another good example. 

In her article, 5 Simple Steps to Getting On Twitter,Cindy says: “Twitter is one of the social media tools most businesses want to learn about” and  walks you through, step by step, to setting up your Twitter account.  Read and enjoy Cindy’s article.

Have you created your online presence for your business? Twitter is just one of several social platforms for increasing online visibility, establishing trust, and building profitable relationhsip that ultimately leads to increased sales of your products and services.

Technorati Tags: Livvie Matthews, Setting up Twitter, social media marketing, Social Media using Twitter, Steps for setting up Twitter

Recently I was asked a great question: What were the top couple of mistakes made when using social media.  In my response, I only mentioned a couple, but it led me to think about several other mistakes to avoid with social media.

1) Trying to use social media for making sales.   This is the #1 mistake.  Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube are all about making contacts, opening doors, gaining trust and credibility, and building those all important relationships. 

Once you’ve gained your viewers trust and you have a relationship with them, you will be the one they turn to when they are ready to do business.  Wouldn’t you rather do business with someone you have grown to know and trust? Relationships first…business second.

 2) Going into social media without clear objectives.  What are you wanting to accomplish?  So many times, businesses will just jump in without knowing what their objectives are for using social media. 

Do you want to gain your targeted audience’s attention?  Drive traffic to your practice, blog, or your website?  Enhance our practice’s patient services?  Maybe you want to grow your practice’s email list…what’s your objective?  Know what it is you are trying to accomplish.   

3) Not knowing how to listen and engage effectively.  To attract and engage targeted followers effectively, you need to have several elements in place.  Here are a few of them:

• Be clear on your target market and be familiar with the social networks they prefer to use the most.  Let me put that into perspective.  If you work out of 3 operatories and your patient is seated in OP 3 and you’re seated in Op 2 waiting for that patient, you aren’t going to get anything accomplished.  You’re not where your patient is. So if you are on Twitter and your target is on Facebook…see the importance?  Go where the “eyeballs” are…Know and be seen where your target market is!
• You must have a strategy and a plan for implementing your strategy in place..FIRST. 
• You will want to have a Practice Social Media policy in place.  In other words, how will you and your employees handle social media in your practice?

Are you noticing how all of these are building on one another?

4) Becoming distracted.  Social media is a powerful marketing tool, but if not careful can be time consuming and become overwhelming.

Invitations to connect…invitations to events…join this group…attend this meeting…It’s no wonder after awhile many pages just sit there gathering “virtural dust”.  You MUST learn to stay focused.  Remember your goals and your objectives.  Stick to your game plan!

5) Spreading yourself too thin.  Knowledge of the difference social platforms, the different tools like plugins, applications, widgets, etc and the time involved.  Time is a BIG factor!

When first entering the arena, you might want to join one of the social platforms…maybe Twitter or Facebook.  Then as you get comfortable with that platform, move on the next.   Either way, there are some short cuts you can use to help when you are pressed for time. 

One of the biggest helps, is pre-scheduling your tweets using social platforms like HootSuite.com or SocialOomph.com.  Both allow you to schedule your tweets into the future. Hourly, daily, monthly…whenever.  It’s a great way to deligate some of the time involved.

Another is to link up content to RSS Feeds.  You can also set up and create Autoresponder messages.  These are messages you create  to go out at specific dates and times.  Sort of like having your business on Auto-pilot.

Well, we’ve made a list…hope you’re checking it twice.  What about you?  What mistake can you add to this list  to avoid when using social media?

Technorati Tags: Building Business, Internet Marketing, Livvie Matthews, social media marketing

Some very interesting statistics and insights were released in the 2010 Social Media Marketing Industry Report for 2010 sponsored by Social Media Examiner.  The number of participants more than doubled from last years study and the report shows a significant change in how people view using social media as a marketing tool to directly connect with customers.

Even a year ago people were not sure about social media, but make no mistake – Social media is here and it’s here to stay!  As Michael Stelzner of the Social Media Examiner says “Much like email and websites first empowered businesses, social media is the next marketing wave.”

Just look at this sampling summary for their primary findings:

• Top three questions marketers wanted answered:  (1) How do I measure social media return on investment? (2) What are the social media best practices?  and (3) How do I best manage my time with social media?
• Marketers are mostly new to social media: A significant 65% of marketers surveyed have only been involved with social media marketing for a few months or less.
• How much time does it take? The majority of marketers (56%) are using social media for 6 hours or more each week, and nearly one in three invest 11 or more hours weekly.
• The top benefits of social media marketing: The number-one advantage of social media marketing (by a long shot) is generating exposure for the business indicated by 85% of all marketers, followed by increasing traffic (63%) and building new business partnerships (56%).

The above summary is merely a sampling of the information in the actual report.  In addition to the sample list above, people also wanted to know about blogging and social media, generating traffic and leads, the tools needed for social media, and especially about the time commitment. 

This report also contains graphs, charts, and is packed full  of information on social media and how others are using it to market their businesses.   It’s a great tool to use in planning your own social media marketing strategies!

Click here to receive your Free copy of this revealing report

Technorati Tags: Internet Marketing, Livvie Matthews, social media marketing