Four Things To Do If Social Media Is NOT Increasing Sales

I won’t pretend to have some secret formula for Social Media ROI for franchises or any other types of organizations. I’ll leave that to the software companies who have recently popped up and discovered how huge the franchising industry is and want to build your Facebook page…

What I will tell you is this: you need to measure Social Media activity against your bottom line.

Is there a correlation? Is SM making an impact on sales, leads, customers, or your other most important metrics?

Social Media ROI — Is Social Media Making an Impact on Your Sales?

If Social Media engagement is increasing your numbers, then keep going!

If not, then you need to do one of these four things:

1. Increase Social Media activity

2. Change Social Media tactics

3. Improve the content

4. Stop using Social Media

I don’t advocate #4, but it may be the right thing for some organizations. Let’s focus on the other three.

1. Increase Social Media Activity

How often are you engaging in conversations with consumers on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and all of the others? How often are you updating your blog(s) with something other than marketing materials and ads?

Too many organizations rely on the Field of Dreams method of social media places: build it and wait for them to come. Sure there are 600 million users of Facebook, but how many actually run to your fan page once a week?

Best Practice: Post engaging content to your pages three times per week to set a cadence.

2. Change Social Media Tactics

Maybe you’ve been posting to a Facebook Fan Page but getting no conversion of fans to customers. Perhaps your targeted consumers aren’t “living” on Facebook; they may be more apt to engage you on Twitter, a blog, or a LinkedIn group. You must cover all bases and try all avenues to find your community.

Best Practice: add a new platform or channel every 60 days for the rest of 2011. And, try setting up individual Fan Pages, profiles, or blog sites for each store, location, or franchisee.

3. Improve the Content

Is there value for others? Or is there value in this content for only you and your organization?

Here’s a good test: Take a quick look right now at the content on your blog(s), Facebook pages, or Twitter account. Is it all press releases, announcements about your company, promotions, and broadcasts about products and how you’re better than the other guys? Guess who’s going to engage with you over this content? No one (except your co-workers and maybe some current customers who are being kind).

Best Practice: include marketing content in one out of every ten posts. The other nine will draw consumers into the conversation about the industry, lifestyle, or other information in which they see value.

Why Being On Facebook Is A Mistake

Today’s guest blog post is by Thomas Scott, CEO of Brand Journalists, a firm that is creating breakthroughs for several franchise companies using a mix of content and Engage121.

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Why Being on Facebook is a Mistake

Almost every session I attended at this year’s International Franchise Association conference in Las Vegas touched on social media. No matter what the subject matter, the dialogue eventually focused on the impact of social media. Just as in past years, there was standing room only space for social topics and several times the crowd spilled over into the hallways.

Throughout all the conversation, a disturbing trend emerged as a best practice: Facebook is where you should focus your social media efforts. The message to franchisors: when it comes to social media, it is a Facebook world.

On many levels, this makes sense. Facebook is growing at amazing rates and has quickly become the most popular social network. Our customers are all over Facebook and we feel the pressure to be where our customers are. Our franchisees want to be on Facebook and we are struggling to develop a plan makes everyone happy and produces results.

This is a mistake.
I’m not saying that you shouldn’t have a presence on Facebook; at Brand Journalists, we do a ton of Facebook work for franchisors and franchisees, both of which have a large opportunity to connect with customers via the popular network. I believe in Facebook and we are always looking for ways to coax a return out of our marketing.

The mistake is in thinking that all your social media efforts should be focused on Facebook.
Franchisors today need to exploit four areas of social media. They are all important but not all equal. Some are easier to use and some are better for driving sales. In our experience managing social media for several franchise brands and individual franchisees, Facebook is the least likely social activity to drive actual sales and revenue.

Here are the four areas of social media listed in order of importance and impact on your sales:

1. Blogging – every day, millions of people search for billions of things on Google. Despite Facebook’s size, Google is still many multiples larger and growing. Your customers are looking for you and your services on Google; the humble business blog is the best social media tool to help you get your content in front of your target customers. The business blog is the most overlooked social media tool and by far the most underused. Companies that get good returns on social media are heavy bloggers simply because the blog allows creation of optimized content that gets in front of people who want what you have to sell. A good blog leverages emotionally compelling stories and relevant keywords. If content is truly the backbone of a successful social media campaign, it needs a place to call home and its home is your blog.

2. Google Places – in several IFA sessions we asked if franchisors knew much about Google Places and few understood this important tool. Google Places is Google’s business directory and one of the most important social media platforms. Search for a business or service in your city and you’ll see Google place pages for your local franchisees. This is a mini-website that provides basic information about your business, showcases user reviews and gives business owners spots to update statuses and upload media such as photos and videos. Potential customers who are ready to buy your product or service are influenced more by Google Places than any other social media. If you want to drive sales, spend time claiming, optimizing and managing each of your local franchisee place pages. Spend time to train franchisees on how to manage local pages and gather positive reviews. You’ll get an immediate return.

3. Social Loyalty Programs – Don’t know what social loyalty is? You are not alone. This is a very new field of social media and it holds immense promise for building repeat business and generating referrals from existing customers. Social loyalty programs tap into point of sale systems. Similar to a grocery store customer card, you issue your customers who register online a swipe card. They indicate which social networks they use and give you their email. Why would someone hand over this information? People respond to incentives. If you are a yogurt shop, they agree to post positive messages about your brand and earn points for every posting. Once they reach a set number of points they get free yogurt. When a loyalty customer swipes the card in the store, the program checks them into foursquare, posts on Facebook and even tweets. Every posting has a coupon or promotion for others so you just turned your customer base into a guerrilla marketing sales force. Not only do you entice customers to visit more often, they build brand loyalty within their networks. Talk about word of mouth on steroids……

4. Facebook – last but not least, Facebook is not to be overlooked. In this list, however, Facebook is the most difficult way to generate a direct sales return, but that doesn’t mean you should avoid it. Facebook is a closed system. That means your content stays within the Facebook network. Facebook wants it this way to encourage sharing and eventually tap into a lucrative ad market. For businesses, this means creating a business fan page. The best advice I’ve heard is to think of your fan page as a business website with similar functionality as your main company website. Don’t use Facebook as it comes in its default mode. Don’t have people see your wall when they click on your page. Do get help customizing your Facebook tabs and think about ways to serve up blog content, store locators and Facebook-only deals on custom – built tabs.

As franchise companies, social media has become part of our integrated marketing strategies and it’s a good thing: we have tremendous opportunities to build brand awareness and leverage fans. For the first time, companies are really beginning to show solid track records using the social media tools above to drive sales. If you are trying to tackle social media, start at the top of this list and work your way down — you’ll get a much better result and your franchisees will thank you.

If you don’t know where to start, outsource or get help. You won’t be sorry.

Brand Journalists is a content, PR and social media firm based in Nashville, TN that uses Engage121 with all of its clients to help manage content on social networks to create marketing breakthroughs and drive sales.

www.brandjournalists.com
Twitter @brandjournalist
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/thomscott
Facebook: facebook.com/brandjournalists:

To Friend or not to Friend? What Small Business Owners Should Consider

Welcome Guest Blogger Jillian Gile from Pounding the Pavement with some Facebook advice for small business owners.

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few years, you know that Facebook is the hottest social media tool for small businesses. Facebook can be the tool you need to make that personal connection with customers that is so critical. There are many reasons to use Facebook in your marketing campaigns, but there are also a few pitfalls you should be aware of.

Pros:

It’s the ultimate word-of-mouth

Facebook is where people go to post what they’re having for dinner, what they think about their favorite TV show, and yes – even where they shop. Having a Facebook presence means you can be personally involved with getting your name out there. If one customer “friends” you, all their friends will see your name, even if they don’t actively post about your store.

Big returns on a small investment

Maintaining and updating a Facebook page does not take up large chunks of time, and Facebook is free, so any return is a huge profit. You can even sign up to advertise your business on Facebook, and ad packages are affordable for even the tiniest budget – think $5/day or less.

Facebook – it’s everywhere you want to be

Smart phones are almost ubiquitous – and with these mobile internet connections, Facebook is mobile, too. Customers running errands may see your well-timed status update and be influenced to stop by your store while they’re out and about. This has happened to me on more than one occasion, when my favorite consignment store posts a photo of a dress or jacket I just have to have, right now.

Become a part of the community

So much time and energy is spent making a business an integral part of a community (think yearbook ads). Facebook has been accused of replacing face-to-face social interaction, but you can use this substitution to your advantage. As part of Facebook, your business can gain a prominence that makes people support your business.

Obviously, Facebook isn’t all sunshine and roses. We didn’t need the movie The Social Network to show us that Facebook has some disadvantages, too.

Cons:

There is such a thing as too much exposure

Multiple daily postings about your latest deal, favorite brand, and current giveaway can annoy your Facebook friends and even make them unfriend you. Try to stick to one post a day (or every other day) and make these announcements count – coupons, funny anecdotes, community announcements.

Facebook isn’t business friendly

Facebook encourages businesses to create pages and advertise on their site, but they are very strict about protecting their users from fake accounts created solely for a business, and will crack down on anyone who has created multiple accounts for this reason. Stick to the Facebook page option, and play by the rules.

You don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies

OK, we’re not suggesting you create an advertising war to get to 500 million friends, but creating a vibrant community of fans on your page will definitely take some time and effort. Do not stalk your customers or force them to provide you with e-mail addresses so you can boost appearances. Be patient.

Facebook isn’t for everyone

I worked at a small town real estate office that tried to use its Facebook fan page to draw in customers with photos of homes and announcing mortgage rates. The problem is, their fans were all clients who had already purchased homes and weren’t in the market anymore. They had to revamp their Facebook goals, and become more of a source for community news, which made them a resource for clients and clients’ friends. When you start your own Facebook page, give some serious thoughts to what your customers need, and what will draw them to your page.

The point is – is Facebook worth the effort for a small business owner? My answer is a cautious yes. Think about what your customers need: Do they need coupons? A friendly reminder you’re still around? A place to find out what’s going on in their town? Establish what your business needs are, and don’t hesitate to poll likeminded business owners to see what’s worked for them.

Jillian Gile is a guest blogger for Pounding the Pavement and a writer on online career training for the Guide to Career Education.

How Drive Traffic To Your Facebook Page Using FANlet Polls

A challenge that arises after starting your own Facebook Fan Page is creating a continuous stream of content to drive traffic to your page. Many organizations have plenty of good info to share with current fans and customers, but struggle to regularly provide a reason for new consumers go to a new Fan Page.

One fast and easy solution is to create a poll. There are two good reasons why the social web is filled with polls: a poll’s topic can attract targeted users and the act of voting creates an instant sense of participation in a community.

Polls and surveys may be used as much more than a magnet to a site. Many use the power of consumers’ instant opinions as a fast and low-cost alternative to focus groups for product development. That’s a fantastic use of polls when you’re comfortable with the sample size, validity of questions, etc. But for now, I want to focus on a quick traffic-driver without having to consider the valid research methodologies needed to make sound business decisions about products.

For this exercise, let’s create a very simple poll that will drive potential fans, friends, and customers directly to your Facebook Fan Page. You can do this using Facebook poll widgets. I’m using the FANlet app developed by my firm, Engage121. I use the FANlet for four simple reasons:

1. It is the easiest thing in the world to use!
2. The creation and results are instant.
3. During creation, it automatically creates a tweet that goes out through your Twitter account with a link directly to the poll.
4. Clicks on that link are automatically tracked on your FANlet evaluation for instant and ongoing measurement.

From Engage121’s “Speak” page, I choose FANlet.

Begin writing a question and multiple-choice answers. My poll asks parents what’s the most enjoyable cartoon for them to watch with their kids.

After choosing POST, FANlet asks if you would like to Tweet this link to the poll via your Twitter account. Choose YES!

A check of my Fan Page shows the poll is up and already drawing readers.

On the Evaluate page of Engage121, notice that this poll can be added to our FANlet tracking. Not only can we track votes, but we will be able compare these votes with your website traffic or any other metric you pipe into Engage121.

If you are a managing Social Media marketing or PR and would like me to further walk through the above steps, reach me here:

@jackmonson

jmonson@enr-corp.com

312-658-0600

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