Social Media Marketing for Beginners is a regular column on this site, in which we discuss the fundamentals of marketing in the world of social media for businesses. As the name suggests, this is a column for those looking to get their toes wet for the first time, although even if you’re already experienced in the social marketing world… well – despite what they tell you – you certainly can teach an old dog new tricks. To keep up to date with this series, be sure to subscribe to our free updates.

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Social Media Marketing for Beginners #3: How to find relevant conversations on Twitter

Here’s a quick post that will give you actionable advice for Twitter that you can employ today. So read this, and then go do it… don’t wait!

A lot of people have read my “Listening and Brand Monitoring” post – which was part one in this series of “Social Media Marketing for Beginners” – and as a result, I’ve received a lot of feedback on what worked, or didn’t work, for individual businesses. One of the questions that I’m asked most often is:

We’re listening on Twitter for our brand name, but not enough people are talking about us yet. How do we find conversations that are relevant to our business, but that don’t mention us specifically by name?

If this is you, then fantastic! I love the fact that you’re ready to proactively go out there and look for conversations that are relevant to your business, rather than just reacting to those that are out there already. The great news for those utilising Twitter in their social media outreach, is that it’s actually incredibly easy to go out and find conversations relevant to you and your business.

First off, we’re going to use our old friend, twitter search, which can be found here: search.twitter.com. If you’ve read the “brand monitoring” post, you should be familiar with how this works already: basically, you enter in the desired terms that you want to search for, and twitter search will return tweets that mention the relevant key terms. Easy, huh?

Now, here’s where a bit of lateral thinking is called for. Instead of simply entering in your brand terms, start thinking of questions that people might ask that are related to your business, and – importantly – how they might be asking them. Here’s an example of what I mean…

This is a search, on search.twitter.com, for the query: “anyone know” plumber.

Twitter search

You see what we’re doing there? We’re looking for people who obviously need an answer about plumbers. And, as you can see, there are plenty of people that need help right now. Could your business be the one to help?

Of course, you’ll want to make sure your time isn’t wasted, so be sure to include either a geographical term within the query itself (such as “Melbourne”), or used the advanced twitter search to add a locality to your query.
Now, a caveat to this post… don’t expect to be blown away by the number of results here in Australia, at least just yet. For example, if I run a search for the query “anyone know” london hotel as opposed to “anyone know” sydney hotel, you can see that the London query returns several results, while the Sydney query returns none… it’s all about adoption rates at this point.

But, just to prove that it still could be of use to businesses here in Australia, take a look at the search results for “anyone know” melbourne…

People in Melbourne need help!

Look at all those people who need help in Melbourne… do any of those cries for help apply to your business?

This week’s task

Spend some time brainstorming how people might phrase questions in conversation, and how you could monitor this in channels like Twitter. Some examples to get you started would be queries like:

• “anyone know” melbourne hairdresser
• “can anyone help” sydney plumbers
• sydney dentist help

Of course, the list goes on… it all depends on how creative you get, and – more importantly – how your customers think. And, you know that… right?

If you enjoyed this post, why not sign up for our free updates? Packed full of social media tips and SEO copywriting advice, it’s a great way to keep your business up to date with online trends!

Social Media Marketing for Beginners is a regular column on this site, in which we discuss the fundamentals of marketing in the world of social media for businesses. As the name suggests, this is a column for those looking to get their toes wet for the first time, although even if you’re already experienced in the social marketing world… well – despite what they tell you – you certainly can teach an old dog new tricks. To keep up to date with this series, be sure to subscribe to our free updates.

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Social Media Marketing for Beginners #2: What’s the point, really?

Ok, ok… that’s a bit of a strange headline to see on this site, I know, so let me clear this up: of course I’m not questioning the potential value of social media marketing. What I am trying to do, however, is drive home one of the most important – and all too often, overlooked – aspects of social media marketing… what is the point? Specifically, what’s your point?

Far too often, brands can fall into the “cool kids” trap. You’ll know you’re headed for dangerous ground, if you start hearing conversations around the office that basically boil down to…

“Set up a Facebook page for us, because all the cool kids are doing it… we need to keep up!”.
“Let’s get on Twitter, start setting up a nice custom profile for us! Why? Because the cool kids are doing it, that’s why! Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”.

Ok, so maybe I embellished on that last part. But the fact remains: too many brands jump into social media because they think they “should”, rather than having a clear objective.

Before you dive into social media marketing, decide what you want to achieve

Look at it this way: without goal posts, you’ll never know if you’ve scored a goal. It really is that simple. In other words:

• Without goal posts, measuring results goes out the window.
• Without goal posts, that thing we call strategy? Yeah, that’s out the window too.
• Without goal posts, social media isn’t about business returns. It’s a time sink.

I like to keep this series simple. In the first installment, we learned simple ways to monitor what your customers are saying about you, and how they’re saying it. This week, however, is a far more complicated affair… because it’s something that only you can answer completely. But, to get you started, here are some questions you can ask yourself:

• Are you entering into social media marketing as another sales channel?
• Are you entering it as a means of market research?
• Are you entering into social media as another customer service channel?
• Are you hoping to use it as a form of collaboration with your customers?
• Is it a branding exercise to increase brand recognition?
• Are you going to use it to demonstrate thought leadership?
• Is it simply a networking thing?
• Is your aim to increase customer loyalty?

It’s not a “one size fits all” solution

The thing is, social media marketing can involve all of these, none of these, or a mixture of all of these, depending on your business and what you’re after. But, at the very least, you should know which of these – if any – apply to your business model. Because these are the type of objectives that are measurable… you’ll be able to show the sales you’re generating, the customer service issues you’re solving, an increase in brand recognition, and so on. And, once you have an goal – and only then – you’ll be able to work out how you can get there.

This may seem the type of post that you can skip over. And I know a lot of you will, because a lot of you are here for the “doing” posts. Don’t worry, we’ll get to those too. But I strongly urge you to pay close attention to this week’s lesson. Make sure, before anything else, you’ve sat down, and clearly outlined your business goals as they relate to social media… because if you don’t have that locked down, everything that follows is on some seriously shaky ground.

This week’s task

Sit down, and map out a few things; namely, what does your business want to achieve? And I’m not talking strictly in the “social media sense” here. I mean, in a general sense, what does your business really want?

Once you’ve settled on that, then you can refine that question to which of those objectives can be achieved using social media… bearing in mind that we’re looking for natural fits here. Remember, we don’t want to simply “get into social media” because all the “cool kids” are doing it… we want to get into it if it makes sense in light of our business goals.

Finally, work out how you’re going to measure the impact your social media outreach has. And then actually report on that impact.

That’s this week’s task. It may look like a lot of “thinking”, and not a lot of “doing”, but trust me on this: if you nail this step, everything that follows it will be all that much easier. Once you’re clear on your objectives as a brand, then you’ll be able to start mapping out how it fits into social media.

Oh, and if you’ve already decided what you want to achieve as a brand, and now you’re looking to work with someone who has experience with social media marketing to see how those objectives can be met… well, that just so happens to be one of the services I offer, so why not drop me a line?

Update, 16 April 2010

I’ve updated this post to include the below video of Olivier Blanchard speaking about social media integration. The first half of this video speaks, almost directly, to the point of this post… and the rest is worth watching too.

Social Media Marketing for Beginners is a regular column on this site, in which we discuss the fundamentals of marketing in the world of social media for businesses. As the name suggests, this is a column for those looking to get their toes wet for the first time, although even if you’re already experienced in the social marketing world… well – despite what they tell you – you certainly can teach an old dog new tricks. To keep up to date with this series, be sure to subscribe to our free updates.

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Social Media Marketing for Beginners #1: Listening and Brand Monitoring

Before a brand even thinks about entering into the social media marketing world, a lot of questions need to be answered:

• Are our customers even using this service?
• Is it relevant to our conversations?
• What is our end goal here?
• Should we really even be involved here in the first place?

All of these are vital questions, and we’ll be looking at them in the coming weeks. But there is one thing that I think every business should take advantage of in the social media world – regardless of the answers to those questions – and that is listening.

If there is one thing that any business should be actively doing, it is listening to their customers and the general marketplace. For some, it may be too much to monitor the market place for general terms related to your industry, but at the very bare minimum, you should be monitoring online media for mentions of your brand name, if not more generic terms.
If you’re monitoring the web for mentions of your brand name, you’ll not only be able to identify possible brand evangelists, but also identify issues within your business. It can be both a rewarding and sobering experience to see exactly what customers are saying about your business, but it is undeniably an important one.

So today we’re going to discuss ways for you to monitor your brand’s presence online.

Now, first of all, yes, there are paid solutions for this. And yes, most of them offer great service. If you’ve got budget to burn, check out Radian6, Alterian, Scout Labs or Trackur. To be honest though, most of those solutions – excepting possibly Trackur – are going to require far too much financial investment for those businesses who are just looking to dip their toes into this world. Don’t worry though… the options we’ll discuss today are ones that you can set up today – in just a few minutes – that won’t cost you a cent. We’ll start off with a step-by-step option, and then a “one-step solution” at the end for those people who simply don’t have a spare second.

One thing to bear in mind before starting this exercise: social media monitoring can be a major time sink. If you start off too broad, it’s the classic example of “information overload”. You’ll have too much information coming in, that you’ll find it hard to actually pick out actionable items. Which is why I’d suggest starting off with simply your brand name, and possibly one or two generic terms related to your business to begin with. Once you’re comfortable with sifting through that information, you can expand your net… but make sure you’re not overloading yourself to begin with.

Now that the preamble is out of the way, let’s dive into today’s activity: monitoring the online web for mentions of your business.

Step 1: Set up an RSS Reader
To streamline the process as much as possible, we’re going to be using an RSS reader. Never used an RSS reader? Never even heard of RSS? No problem. Here’s a quick run down: RSS stands for “Really Simple Sydnication”, which basically says it all; RSS is simply a way for readers to subscribe to web-based content, and have updates delivered to you when new content is released. We’ve got a bit more on that on our “What the heck is RSS?” page.
An “RSS reader” provides you with one central location to read all those “RSS feeds” that you subscribe to. There are quite a few services that you can try, but for our example, we’re going to be using Google Reader. If you don’t already have a google account, you’ll be prompted to create one on that page… don’t worry, it’s free and takes about a minute to do. So create the account, and you’ll have your very own brand-spanking new RSS reader!

Step 2: Search Blogs for mentions of your business name
This one’s nice and easy. Head over to our friend Google again, to their handy “blog search page” which is found here. Type in your business name, and hit the “search blogs” button. You’ll be taken to a results page, that lists results for your business name… and, would you believe it, offers an RSS option for those results. I’ve highlighted this option in the image below.

Now, click that RSS button, and it will allow you the option to subscribe with your brand-new Google Reader. Once you’ve subscribed, you’ll be alerted with every new mention of your business found in the blogosphere. Easy, huh?

Step 3: Search online news for mentions of your business name
This step is pretty much a replica of the previous one, except this time you’re searching Google News for mentions of your business. First off, head here, and again, type in your business name (bonus tip: if your business name is a “phrase”, then type in your business name within quotation marks… eg: “your business name here”). Once that’s done, you’re again taken to a results page. There is again an option to subscribe to the results, although – just to make things confusing – Google place this at the bottom of the page, not on the left-hand side as we saw previously. Here’s an image to point it out to you…

Again, simply click on that RSS option, and you’ll be able to subscribe to a feed for those results. Every time a new item is found, you’ll be updated.
Obviously, unless your business has some buzz going on, this may not provide you with too much information right away… but it’s nice to be prepared, isn’t it?

Step 3: Subscribe to Twitter mentions
I’m sure that most of you would have at least heard Twitter mentioned by now, even if you aren’t an active participant. Regardless, Twitter is a fascinating beast for the insights it gives into customer service. And if your business is being mentioned on Twitter, wouldn’t you like to know what’s being said? Again, this is a simple process. Just head over to Twitter Search, which can be found here. Enter in your business name, as we’ve done previously, and hit enter.

Again, you’ll be taken to a results page, and again, there’s the option to subscribe to updates (man, this RSS thing is everywhere, isn’t it?)

You know the deal by now… click that, and you’ll have the option to subscribe in Google Reader.

Step 4: Search for what people are saying about your business on forums
The same principle applies here, except this time we’ll be using the forum search engine “Omgili”. Head over to their homepage, and enter your desired term. Again, your results page display an RSS option, although it isn’t immediately obvious…

Click on that, and once again you can subscribe to results in your RSS reader.

Step 5: Monitor. Listen. Act accordingly.
Without a question, this is the hardest part of the process. If you aren’t acting on the knowledge you gain from this process, then don’t bother. Seriously. This whole process can be invaluable to your business and how you view your customers… but only if you actually take that knowledge, and do something with it.

Still too much work for you? Seriously? Oh, ok, I’ll show you the one-step option. If you insist.

Looking for a one-step option? Well, there is one, sure. Why did I take you through that process then? Well, to be honest, because I wanted to teach you a bit more about these media online, and how you can use each one. And, to be honest, I have found that this one-stop solution can sometimes miss out on mentions of a specific term, which is why I like to split up my searches to make sure I’m not missing anything. But if you don’t even have the time to go through the above individual steps, then – as a beginner’s starting point – you can’t really beat Social Mention.

Now if you’re going to use Social Mention, I’m going to assume that you at least got as far as “Step 1″ above, and you’ve already set up Google Reader. If not… go back and do that first. We’ll wait.

Back? Ok. So first off, head over to Socialmention’s homepage. As we’ve discussed for all the previous steps, enter the term you desire to monitor. Now, the important thing to note with Socialmention is that you have the option to select which channels you would like to monitor. So, for example, you could select to search just news…. or just blogs… or just videos… or, handily, search all. Which is the option I’ll be taking here.

You’ll notice that the left-hand column of the results page displays some handy metrics such as “sentiment”, “passion” etc. While these are nice to look at, I’d take these results with a grain of salt. By all means, take a look at them, but I find the results questionable at times, and difficult to base action on reliably. That’s ok though, because we aren’t using Socialmention for their metrics on engagement. The main reason for using socialmention then? Because, it too searches for mentions of your brand, and offers an RSS option.

Click that RSS option, and you’ll be updated each time Socialmention finds a new mention of your brand online.

This week’s task

Take five minutes out of your day, and implement this for your business. Honestly, it is so easy and quick to do (and above all, free!) that you’d be doing yourself a disservice not to.

Listening to what your customers are saying about your business is vital to your success. So start listening today.

Any questions about this week’s lesson?

Image credit: iboy_daniel

In the “online marketing” blogosphere, there are three issues that are pointed out to me again and again, by businesses looking to engage their customers online. Namely:

1) All the sites I’m visiting talk in generalities… where are the specifics that I can actually action?
2) Most of these sites assume I know too much. Give me step by step instructions!
3) Quite frankly, most of what I’m reading is an echo chamber. Tell me something that my business can use, don’t just point towards other businesses.

And to be honest… I agree with all three of these points. Which is why I’m announcing the launch of two more regular columns here on Conversation Media: SEO for Beginners, and Social Media Marketing for Beginners.

Both of these columns will start with the very fundamentals in each topic… so if you’re just starting out, these columns will give you the grounding you need to successfully market your business online. And heck, even if you’re already au fait with both SEO and Social Media Marketing, you may just learn something along the way.

I’m really excited about these columns, and I hope that you are too. Even if you think the series may be too “basic” for you, perhaps someone you know may be interested; if that’s the case, then please spread the word, and let people know about this post.

Either way, whether it’s you, a friend, or a family member who’s interested: if you want to come along for the ride, make sure you subscribe to our free updates. That way, you’ll be notified about each new post and you’ll be able to keep up with each lesson.

This is going to be fun.

Image credit: iboy_daniel