Social Media Strategy for Small Business – Part 3

Posted on 08. Feb, 2010 by in Blog

Social Media Strategy for Small Business – Part 2 was a discussion about managing your 3 Paradigms and implementing a simple methodology of addressing those 3 Paradigms called 53 Steps to Growing Your Social Media Presence.

Plan your work... Work Your Plan

Previously Phizz discussed the 3 Paradigms and ways to communicate within those portions of your client/prospect base.  Now Phizz will discuss the consistency you and your organization need to have with these interactions.  It’s difficult sometimes for people to grasp the idea that Social Media has a heavy emphasis on the “Social” part.  With this being said think of how many times you interact with people on a daily basis.  It’s probably too many to count and for that reason you should treat your social networks and paradigms similarly.  This doesn’t mean you need to constantly be checking your Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter accounts, but it does mean you need to be consistent and present.

So let’s look at it this way…  If you know you need to be implementing your 5 Cubed approach then the next question is with what frequency, right?

Phizz believes you and your team need to decide upon a schedule, and then grow from there.  Some businesses and their teams are ready to jump in and participate hourly, while others are ready to do so once or twice a week.  The main idea is to develop a plan and stick to it, once you’ve mastered that schedule then move forward and increase your participation.

How about the analogy of the novice weight lifter versus Arnold Schwarzenegger.  If you’re in great shape and lift everyday you may increase your resistance and reps at strenuous rates and with frequency, but if you’re just starting to work out it’s a good idea to work into a routine and then gradually increase until you’re body is ready for the next step.  Eventually you’re in great shape and you dynamically change your workout as you see fit.

Here’s a very simple routine to start with…

View more presentations or Upload your own.

The Single Most Important Tool for Efficiency Ever!

Posted on 05. Feb, 2010 by in Blog

Phizz recently started using Evernote to organize anything and everything that came up on a daily basis.  Photos, handwritten notes, video, text…

Anything is notable with Evernote!

What a great program, thank you to the developers and all the rest of the Evernote team, you’ve made our notes Phizzy!

Social Media ROI: The Yin & Yang Prospective

Posted on 20. Jan, 2010 by in Blog

Social Media ROI is something Karen O’Brien of Crimson Consulting Group has obviously spent time researching and blogging about.  After reviewing Karen’s Blog and the archives it’s apparent she has a knack for outlining the process of executing a Social Media marketing campaign (see Karen’s White Paper).

In Phizz’s previous post, Social Media ROI:  What to Measure, the discussion revolved around measuring ROI using traditional methodology (i.e. CPI/CPM, CTR, CTC vs PPC & CPA).  These formulas numerically define benefit (if any) a business receives in terms of overall branding and ultimately can be linked to monetary value.  This is extremely important to any business with a desire to focus their marketing budget on activities which reap monetary reward.

In the following text Phizz will help define analysis as it relates to Monetary ROI and Relationship ROI…

Social Media isn’t just about Monetary ROI, it’s about Relationship ROI as Jill Foster explains so well in The Gabby Geek and Replacing ROI’s Old Monetary Vision.  Phizz believes both are important to businesses because in a traditional sense all businesses run on relationships owned/managed as well as the cost to grow and nourish these relationships.  Monetary ROI and Relationship ROI are the Yin & Yang of Social Media.  The basic principle of Yin & Yang according to Taoist philosophy is that Yin & Yang exist as opposite equals; basically a harmony or balance between completely opposite forces are a requirement for existence.

It’s useful to apply this thought process to your Social Media analysis when it comes to Monetary ROI and Relationship ROI because both are essential, but in many ways opposite.

3 Yin & Yang Social Media Tips

  1. Measure Your Monetized Investment in Social Media as Units of Time
  2. Define How Much Time You’re Willing to Spend to Achieve a Defined Number of Relationships
  3. Determine How Many Relationships It Takes to Achieve a Monetary Goal

Here’s a visualization…

In closing, all Phizz is trying to explain is this:

Monetary ROI and Relationship ROI are intertwined and important to understanding overall Social Media ROI.  You cannot have one without the other!  You’re business most likely requires earning equity with clients and building their trust (Relationship ROI) as well as increasing profits through directed, intentional investments of time and money in marketing and growth (Monetary ROI).  The Yin & Yang Perspective is a harmonious cycle that’s neither new or groundbreaking, but is key to understanding how ROI works in Social Media.

Social Media Strategy for Small Business – Part 2

Posted on 18. Jan, 2010 by in Blog

Social Media Strategy for Business – Part 1 introduced the “3 Portions of Your Social Media Paradigm”.  As a business you’ve always had these portions to deal with and now it’s time to translate them in an online social environment.   Traditionally you or your sales team sets goals or builds campaigns to manage follow up with past clients, prospects and to find new opportunities.  The good news is…  It’s no different in your 3 Social Media Paradigms!

Review of the 3 Paradigms

1. Recognizing the Past
2. Keeping Up With the Present
3. Moving Into the Future

Each portion represents a section of normal relationship management and is similar to how you always deal with the client cycle, right?  Traditionally we stay in touch with our past clients to continue to earn their business or get referred to a new prospect; we stay up to date on our industry and consumer needs so we can provide value to past clients and clients we’re currently prospecting; and we work toward earning new relationships through cold calling, drip marketing, branding campaigns, etc.  What’s so wonderful about Social Media and the inter-connectivity of the Paradigms within Social Media is much of this is accomplished very simply.

53 Steps to Growing Your Social Media Presence

Here’s how it works in words.  You need to accomplish 5 Actions in each of the 3 Paradigms in All Your Social Media Arenas and do it Consistently.

Example 1: 5 Actions > 3 Paradigms In a Traditional Sense

Past – Write 5 thank you cards to existing or past clients
Present – Send out (via email, print or by phone) 5 advertisements to let past and potential clients know of your services
Future – Obtain 5 new prospects to build your pipeline

This results in 15 actions and covers the paradigms of your traditional sphere.

Example 2: 5 Actions > 3 Paradigms > 1 Social Media Arena (Facebook)

Past – Comment on 5 friends wall/photos/status updates
Present – Update your wall/add a photo/start or join a group in any combination that adds to 5
Future – Via your current relationships or by searching, invite 5 people to be your friend

Again this represents 15 actions, but the powerful part about these actions lay in the fact that not only did your brand get noticed by the intended client, it got noticed by many of the client’s friends and family.  Basically, your company just automatically took care of the Future Paradigm by addressing the Past and Present Paradigms.  Also, as this progresses your Future Paradigm will grow legs of its own by shear participation in the Past and Present Paradigm.  You can imagine what would happen if you applied this to other communities like LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube or any of the others available online.

Stay tuned for Social Media Strategy for Business – Part 3 where Phizz will address consistency aspects of the 53 Steps to Growing Your Social Media Presence…

Dosh Dosh Does It Again…

Posted on 14. Jan, 2010 by in Blog

Phizz thinks Dosh Dosh has some serious Phizzyness!

Check out the last few blog posts:

How to Create Successful Product Websites that People Love

11 Ways to Influence People Online and Make Them Take Action

How to Achieve Your Goals by Changing the Way You Surf the Web

There’s so much more at www.doshdosh.com

Social Media Strategy for Small Business – Part 1

Posted on 11. Jan, 2010 by in Blog

A key part to your Social Media Strategy is your Social Media Paradigm.  This presence is gained by many things, but none more important than your ability to manage conversation.  Let Phizz start with this…

Just the other day a client said, “Oh so you mean it’s back to good old, face to face interaction?  Without the face to face?”  With a sense of relief and a puzzled look on his face he made a break through about what needed to be done.  What provoked him to come to this conclusion?  What was this conclusion and what did it have to do with his social media presence?  Through the conversation we discussed these concepts which helped him arrive at this epiphany…

3 Portions of Your Social Media Paradigm

1. Recognizing the Past
2. Keeping Up With the Present
3. Moving Into the Future

Let Phizz explain what this has to do with your paradigm.  Search Engine Optimization is important, and in this ever changing world of the mysterious Google Algorithm you’re going to need fresh content, link to fresh content and be relevant.  I know there’s plenty more to Google SEO (check out the SEO Starter Guide), but let’s not confuse the fact that Social Media Paradigm is about your online conversation with real people and their response to that interaction (and vice versa).  Remember what the client above said, “Oh so you mean it’s back to good old, face to face interaction?  Without the face to face?”

Recognizing the Past

The “past” portion of your Social Media Paradigm relates to established relationships and maintaining past clients.  No matter what medium you use (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.) you want to make sure and acknowledge your past associations.  Acknowledgment can come in many different forms, it basically means treat past relationships with an attitude of gratitude.  For example, you could comment on someone’s wall in response to one of their photos or status updates, maybe it’s posting a photo or video of that client and sharing it with them, on the other hand you might want to write them a wonderful recommendation or reTweet one of their Tweets.  You’ll start to think of more as you implement this as you practice.  People and clients love it when you recognize them and take interest in what “they are doing”, in turn they’ll recognize what “you’re doing”.

Keeping Up With the Present

The “present” portion of your Social Media Paradigm relates to establishing your brand’s personality.  This is derived from your current endeavors and keeping up with current events as they relate to your industry and services.  This should be an easy task once you put your content goggles on.  In your daily routine you and your company are generating content all day long; as an expert in your company’s field you’re already doing research to stay competitive, provide better service and a myriad of other things.  Guess what?  Your client cares about these things, especially if they’re going to make a decision to buy.  You want to share this content with your audience regularly within a schedule so your audience comes to expect it from you.  People and clients love it when they can watch “what you’re doing” as it relates to a product or service they require.

Moving Into the Future

The “future” portion of your Social Media Paradigm relates to building your online network.  This is no different than building your social sphere in real life.  Many businesses operate on the ever important “referral” and it’s widely recognized that referrals can be an extremely cost effective way to generate new business.  You’ve heard the saying, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.”  More than that, “It’s who you know and what they’re telling their friends about your brand/company.”  The same goes for you social media presence.  The future of your Social Media Paradigm ties to actively adding people to your network via the associations you already have.  Social media can do this for you in a very automatic way when you heed to the system of keeping consistent with the “past and present” portions of your paradigm.  (Nancy Baym, Professor at University of Kansas, does a good job of explaining the general idea in this write up)

Stay tuned for Social Media Strategy for Business – Part 2…

Social Media ROI: What to Measure

Posted on 31. Dec, 2009 by in Blog

Social Media ROI continues to be a highly debated issue among small to large companies and it’s apparent that measuring Social Media ROI is still somewhat unrefined and even mystical.  Actually, Social Media ROI isn’t necessarily unmeasurable.  Ben Stratley (CEO of Meteor Solutions) does an excellent job of explaining his company’s methodology for quantifying Social Media ROI with his presentation Is Your Social Media Program A Boom or A Bust? How to Use Analytics to Find Out What’s Working & What’s Not.

A marketing team has to convince executives or managers of the benefit Social Media has in terms of ROI.  Many times that’s the only language those in charge of managing the bottom-line speak.  In the current economic situation it’s probably for good reason.  Can you blame them?  After watching this hour long presentation Phizz felt it was important to re-visit a few basic internet marketing metrics to help with proving ROI for Social Media.

Putting your money where your mouth Tweet is happens to be paramount.  Let’s be clear…

Everything you do via Social Media will revolve around one thing:  Driving Traffic To Your Website!

Actions you and your team desire once the consumer is there must be defined before any Social Media campaign is launched (which is another topic of it’s own).

Darren Rowse said in How I Use Social Media to Promote My Blogs regarding driving traffic to his blog a.k.a. Homebase:  “[Social Media] is there to build and reinforce the Homebase.”  and “…Homebase is where I put my primary focus.”

Ben Stratley’s team likes to refer to a Homebase as Owned Media.

To attain Social Media ROI you must be clear about what you want to achieve with your strategy. The slide show along with the terms below help explain metrics that define costs for calculations of ROI.

CPI or CPM = Cost Per Impression or Cost Per Thousand Impression: This metric tells you how much you’re paying per impression.  Each impression is defined as a single instance of that ad, better yet every time the ad loads on a users screen, with certain exceptions.  A each person that receives your Tweet would be an impression.

CTR = Click Through Rate: This metric measures relevance of a topic discussed or popularity of the defined topic, but more importantly its a way to determine if what you’re saying is grabbing the attention of the people within your Social Network(s).  Do your friends, clients or prospects care about what you’re saying?

CPC vs PPC = Cost Per Click vs. Pay Per Click: This metric eludes to the marketing dollars spent per click.  CPC represents the expense incurred for each click through, but is more organically grown via Social Media.  PPC represents the expense incurred from paying your host every time a click through happens on a predefined keyword.

CPA = Cost Per Action: This metric represents the expense incurred on any activity generated by the click through, usually predefined, but typically a sale or an order generated.

These are some metrics you can use to determine your expense throughout a campaign, particularly by using tools like:

bit.yl
twitt(url)ly
Google Analytics
Alexa

There are plenty of other tools you can find with simple Google Searches for SEO Tools, etc.

Next time Phizz we be focused on strategy for implementing Social Media so you can start measuring your ROI.

Social Media Whitepaper… Oh my!

Posted on 05. Nov, 2009 by in Blog

http://www.whitepapersource.com/socialmediamarketing/report/

Phizz would like to take a second and comment on the link above.  As we’re working our way into this field and as we’re developing philosophies about what Phizz Media is, who it serves and how it serves them we’ve asked ourselves about what the industry is as a whole.  Some of the assumptions we’ve made about Social Media and it’s viability are more than reiterated in this report, but it also revealed more gold nuggets for us.

Phizz Media would like to say thank you to Michael Stelzner and his team for developing this report.

Where Phizz Stands…

Posted on 05. Nov, 2009 by in Blog

At Phizz we’ve been discussing our new ideas and collaborative thoughts.  We’ve realized a few things about our team and where we want to take Phizz Media.  Here’s a portion of what we’ve reasoned…

Honesty is Paramount: Spiritually, with family, with friends, in business… honesty is truly the best policy in all aspects of life and it gives you the ability to act freely.

Phizz Philosophy: Social media isn’t about “social” or “media”.  No we’re serious, it’s about the injection of a person’s thoughts, opinions and overall personality into a community of family, friends, colleagues and potential clients.

Open Book, Open Mind: Phizz Media isn’t the people that make up the team.  It’s about us letting our clients know where we’re headed with their online presence and most importantly about opening our mind to our client’s personality.  Understanding what makes them special in their field, what quirks make their business or product unique is the key; it’s our intention to help a client down this path.  Phizz turns this endeavor into an online personality that says, “Here I am, here’s what I do, here’s why you want to work with me” without specifically saying “Here I am, here’s what I do, here’s why you want to work with me”.  Makes sense right?

We know our value and we know where we want Phizz to be.  Our clients know their value and they also know where they want to be.  When we help people get where they want, we’ll be where we want.

If the Cheese Stands Alone…
…then the Phizz Rises to the Top.