Ted Rubin

1 – You are NOT Your Customer—Do Your Research

2 – Frequency Isn’t a Bad Thing

3 – Story is Important

Ted Rubin is a leading Social Marketing Strategist, Keynote Speaker, CMO of Photofy, MC/HOST of Brand Innovators and their monthly Marketing Summits, and Co-Founder of Prevailing Path.

In March 2009 he started using and evangelizing the term ROR, Return on Relationship, hashtag #RonR.

Here are Three Key Marketing 101 Lessons that never go out of style and all Small Business Owners need to remember:

1 – You are NOT Your Customer—Do Your Research

One of the most important lessons every marketer should remember is to market to your target audience—not yourself. Yet how many times does your inner voice tell you “They’ll never buy that…?”

Don’t spout information YOU THINK your market wants to hear.

Listen to your prospects first—and social is just about the greatest listening tool ever invented. It’s focus groups on steroids!

Use social media to listen to who your ideal customer is and what she wants before you start messaging.

2 – Frequency Isn’t a Bad Thing

Social reach and frequency are tangential to good marketing, as long as your content is relevant to your market.

How many times does a potential customer or partner need to see your message before they convert? You might as well ask how many licks it takes to get to the centre of a Tootsie Pop (remember that old TV commercial?).

Some will bite after a dozen licks; for others, it’s three—depends on where your audience is in a given moment when they see your message.

And remember, you’re not just talking to one person here—you’re getting in front of your audience’s friends and their friends as well. The more the merrier.

So do not forget about good ole “reach and frequency.”

3 – Story is Important

Remember the power of storytelling, and use it in your communications.

People can’t resist a good story.

It’s an emotional connection bridge that is built into our human DNA. Social enhances it by allowing more consumers to share more stories about more of the products they see, buy and use.

Another thing to remember about stories is that people are already having a conversation about your brand, and you can’t necessarily control that.

Companies who try to stem the tide of a bad story by trying to control the message find this out the hard way.

However, you can INFLUENCE the kind of stories that are told about you by being involved in the conversation, transparent in your use of social media, and responsive to the needs of your customers, both online and offline.[bctt tweet=”One of the most important lessons every marketer should remember is to market to your target audience—not yourself. Yet how many times does your inner voice tell you “They’ll never buy that…?”” username=”feedalpha”]

Ian Anderson Grey

1 – Use a Social Media Tool

2 – Go Live

3 – Don’t Just Say Thank You

Ian is a Confident Live Marketing consultant and founder of Seriously Social. He’s an international speaker, trainer, teacher, web developer, and consultant. He has a passion for making the techno-babble of live video and social media marketing easy to understand.

Ian is the co-founder of Select Performers – a family run web agency. As well as being a geek, husband, and dad to two kids, Ian is also a professional singer and lives near Manchester in the UK.

1- Use a Social Media Tool

Invest in one or social media tools that will help you become more efficient and save you time.

Avoid Shiny New Tool Syndrome and just choose a decent social media management tool that will help you post and schedule your content quickly as well as engage with your audience.

2 – Go Live

It’s easy to hide behind your corporate identity.

It’s safe there!

But, people like to interact with other humans. Getting in front of the camera and going live may sound scary to you, but it’s an amazing way to connect with your audience in a transparent, fun and powerful way.

And you’re giving your potential customers access to you. It doesn’t need to be perfect – so just get on and do it!

3 – Don’t Just Say Thank You

There’s one thing just as bad as being a one-way communication machine on social media – just saying thank you.

The important word there is “just”.

Don’t just reply with one or two words – go the extra mile.

Make your audience’s day. Make them smile. Come up with your own “thank you replacement list” to get ideas on how to engage with your audience using video replies, fun emojis, gifs questions and more.

[bctt tweet=”Make your audience’s day. Make them smile. Come up with your own “thank you replacement list” to get ideas on how to engage with your audience using video replies, fun emojis, gifs questions and more.” username=”feedalpha”]

Chris Strubb

1 – Listen to your Customers

2 – Make sure you use Video

3 – Be Authentic

Chris Strub is a forward-thinking, authentic social storyteller and millennial keynote speaker with an optimistic, ‘why not?’ approach.

As the first person to live-stream and Snapchat in all 50 U.S. states, Chris is passionate about helping businesses, especially nonprofits, establish and sharpen their digital storytelling skills. As the author of ’50 States, 100 Days: The Book,’ Chris has been featured by FOX 5 New York, ABC 6 Philadelphia, Newsday, The Lansing Journal and dozens of other news outlets.

1 – Listen to your Customers

Above all else, listen to your customers. Your content marketing strategy could win an Academy Award, but if you’re not responding to and engaging with the audience that it is drawing in, you’re completely missing the point.

Prioritize being responsive over being creative.

2 – Make sure you use Video

Video, video, video. By 2019, 80% of all internet traffic will be video, and according to Social Media Today, 90% of customers say video helps them make purchasing decisions.

Businesses of all sizes should be developing an Instagram Stories strategy, as well as looking at how to incorporate live-streaming video into their digital plans.

3 – Be Authentic

Strive to build bridges between your online and offline personas.

Be exactly the same online as you are offline, and make a conscious effort to encourage your customers in real life to connect with you on social media.

When you’re being authentic on social media, it will be a very natural transition for them — and make them want to come back to see and purchase from you in real life again soon.

[bctt tweet=”Your content marketing strategy could win an Academy Award, but if you’re not responding to and engaging with the audience that it is drawing in, you’re completely missing the point.” username=”feedalpha”]

Jeff Sheehan

1 – What’s your USP

2 – Set Goals

3 – Who is your Target Audience

With over 40 years of high-tech global sales, marketing, and advertising experience with many Fortune 500 companies including Intel, Apple Computer, IBM, Hewlett-Packard and AT&T, as well as many others, Jeff is now an IBM Influencer | Futurist, social selling and marketing consultant, podcaster, and job search mentor, as well as the former volunteer director of the Holy Spirit Catholic Church Career Ministry in Atlanta.

He is also the co-author of the book: ‘HIRED! Paths to Employment in the Social Media Era.

1 – What’s your USP

Before you do anything on social media make sure that you take an introspective look at yourself or the company make a determination of who you are and what unique value proposition you bring to the world.

Make sure that you write this down and align it with all of your written and verbal communications.

2 – Set Goals

Define your goals and objectives and write them down.

What do you want to do?

By when?

How?

Most people overlook this when they’re starting out in social media.

3 – Who is your Target Audience

Who specifically is your target audience?

This needs to be clearly defined and everything you do should be focused on servicing the needs or addressing the problems of this clearly defined audience You can’t be everything to everyone and state that your audience is anyone.

It’s not!

[bctt tweet=”Define your goals and objectives and write them down. What do you want to do? By when? How? Most people overlook this when they’re starting out in social media.” username=”feedalpha”]

Tamara Mc Cleary

1 – Solve Problems

2 – Stay on Brand

3 – Understand Hashtags

Tamara McCleary is the CEO of Thulium, a global marketing and digital consulting agency specializing in social media, brand amplification, and influencer marketing.

Tamara also serves as a unique advisor creating brand thought leadership and executive-level influencer status, consulting to a variety of leading global technology companies such as Verizon, IBM, Mercer, SAP, Dell EMC, AWS, Huawei and Ericsson.

1 – Solve Problems

Don’t share the message about your product or service. Instead, share the message about how you solve your target market’s problems and make their lives easier.

2 – Stay on-brand

Be clear about who you are, what your story is, and what makes you different. Keeping to these brand basics, your messaging should always be on-brand and always sharing a cohesive message of the same story.

3 – Understand Hashtags

Understand the power of hashtags and why they are important to use very strategically. Don’t use hashtags to be cute, clever, or brand-centric. Hashtags are there to pull in outside eyes and cast a wider net.

Hashtags are at their weakest when used to support the echo chamber, (a.k.a. inside joke, or company-facing, because outsiders don’t follow company facing hashtags.)

[bctt tweet=”Be clear about who you are, what your story is, and what makes you different. Keeping to these brand basics, your messaging should always be on-brand.” username=”feedalpha”]

Damien Corbet

1 – Do some Research

2 – Engage with your Followers

3 – Be the Face of your Brand

Damian Corbet is a freelance writer and social media specialist. He is also the founder of The Social C-Suite, which aims to educate and inspire leaders to embrace social media.

He regularly interviews CEOs for his #SocialCEO blog series and is currently in negotiation with a publisher for The Social CEO book, which will include exclusive contributions from many leading CEOs from around the world.

1 – Do some Research.

Get your business all over social media! As a small business owner, you probably don’t have the budget to make a big splash with advertising, you need a different approach, and social media allows this.

This means your business needs to be on the most appreciate channels for your audience – be that LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest. Do some research.

2 – Engage with your Followers

Being on social media isn’t enough. You need to be seen and heard – that means you need to engage with your followers – relentlessly. Thank them for following you, thank them for mentioning your business, retweet them. It also means sharing useful tips and advice for your audience. They don’t want to know how well you’re doing or how successful you are – that’s not why they follow you. They want to help make their lives a little bit easier, so make sure you share lots of useful content that they’ll benefit from. If you do that, they’re more likely to keep following you and to share your content with their own followers.

3 – Be the Face of your Brand

As the owner of the business, you should also be active on social media yourself, too – in addition to having company social media accounts. Never underestimate the effect on customers and potential customers of seeing the owner/CEO/founder of a company they like being a social media regular.

Not only does it humanise your brand – it also adds another level of trust and authenticity that’s hard to beat. You can mirror some of the output of the ‘official’ social media accounts – but you can also add your own take on things. Perhaps share insights into the wider industry you’re involved in. Mention your employees – champion them! And yes – you can even share the odd post about things that interest you personally, be that sport, a hobby, whatever.

It’s best to avoid talking about politics or controversial social issues though – or getting into arguments on social media – as you’re bound to alienate people.

And finally – never, EVER go on social media when you’re drunk.

You may be tempted, but the consequences can be disastrous.

Just don’t do it.

[bctt tweet=”As a small business owner, you probably don’t have the budget to make a big splash with advertising, you need a different approach, and social media allows this.” username=”feedalpha”]

Amanda Webb

1 – Use social like a non-marketer

2 – Ask how can you help

3 – Brand yourself

Amanda from Spiderworking has been working in digital marketing since 2009.

She works with small businesses in Ireland, the UK and beyond helping them develop and implement strategies and campaigns.

In 2017 her blog was named one of Social Media Examiner’s Top 10 Social Media Blogs an international contest she also won 2 awards at Blog Awards Ireland in 2017 including Gold for B2B Blog.

1 – Use your social networks like a non-marketer

Make time in your schedule to engage with your non-business friends. How are they using social? Are they still on the networks you use or have they migrated to another network? You’ll learn as much from them as you will from the worlds best marketers.

2 – Ask how can you help your audience

It’s easy to get carried away producing content and to forget about our audience. Always think about how you can help your audience and change your content to involve them in the process. For example, ask questions, create polls, give them an opportunity to talk about themselves and share their own work. They’ll remember you for it.

3 – Brand yourself

There is so much content online that it’s hard to get noticed. If you do, you want to be remembered. To increase the chance of this make sure you have consistent branding. Visually use the same colours and fonts. Verbally define a style that describes your online personality.

[bctt tweet=”It’s easy to get carried away producing content and to forget about our audience. Always think about how you can help your audience and change your content to involve them in the process.” username=”feedalpha”]

Samantha Kelly

1 – Perfect your BIO

2 – Share Knowledge / Add value

3 – Surround yourself with experts

Sam Kelly is an internationally-recognised Twitter Expert, Social Media Strategist, Author, and Speaker. Known as the “Tweeting Goddess”, she is also the founder of the Women’s Inspire Network – a global support network for female-led businesses, with a social media following of over 13k.

Now recognised worldwide as a digital influencer, her charismatic yet down to earth speaking style means her audience always leaves feeling educated, inspired, uplifted and of course, believing in the power of Twitter Magic!

1- Perfect that BIO

Make sure your bio is perfect. For Twitter, add a great professional headshot. Add a header that shows what you do or makes you look approachable, shows the team behind the scenes and includes your logo and make sure your website is in your bio. Twitter is a great driver of traffic.

2 – Share Knowledge & add value

Be yourself, just share your knowledge, assist others with Retweets and sharing, and be kind. Share great content and give value.

3 – Surround yourself with people like you

Connect with like-minded people. Don’t underestimate the power of Twitter search – find others like you, reach out to leaders you admire. They are also human you know!

[bctt tweet=”Be yourself, just share your knowledge, assist others with Retweets and sharing, and be kind. Share great content and give value.” username=”feedalpha”]

Gary Evans

1 – Understand your Customers

2 – Share content that works

3 – Branding is Everything

Gary is a founding director of the award-winning Digital Agency Yourweb.ie that serves local and international clients across the Globe.

As a published writer for Forbes and an active member of multiple mastermind groups, Gary provides thought leadership in the areas of Social Media, Internet traffic analytics, online revenue generation, and conversion rate optimisation.

1 – Understand your Customers

Social Media is fantastic for reaching customers all over the world, but, you need to understand these customers before you start. There is no point in putting out pointless posts or updates if you are not connecting and delivering the right message.

Ask plenty of questions, conduct polls, and surveys. By getting insight into what customers actually want, you can now really start to add value to the conversation.

Stick to your core message and stay on-brand as much as possible.

2 – Share content that works for your audience

If you have identified your target audience then give them something they want. Don’t just try and sell to them all day – that doesn’t work anymore.

I have an 80 / 20 rule for content that I stick to.

80% value and helping others

20% max talking about my own brands.

The more you help people online the more likely they are to remember you and buy something from you when the time is right.

Try Facebook Live videos to educate and add value. Be authentic and answer real problems with tips and tricks – this works really well at the moment.

You can also download facebook live videos (step by step guide) and add them to a Youtube channel. This way you can repurpose this awesome content over and over again.

3 – Branding is Everything

I can’t stress this enough.

Your Brand is key to conversions online. If you run a business then that Branding should flow through to your Social channels.

If your Brand is You then make sure you present yourself in a way that is professional and approachable online.

Think of it this way – would you do business with yourself online?

[bctt tweet=”Social Media is fantastic for reaching customers all over the world, but, you need to understand these customers before you start. Top Tips from the Experts.” username=”feedalpha”]