To take a simple example, imagine that you were running a hotel. In looking to make your hotel the best one on the market, you could go onto a site like orbitz or expedia, and look at the reviews of your competitors, the other established hotels in your area and price range. However, by focusing on the lowest reviews, you could find exactly what customers didn’t like about the hotel, and find ways for your product to pick up on opportunities that were missed by your competitors.

You can do this in any industry, and with any type of business. It’s just a matter of knowing where to look, and how to properly turn the negative feedback into useful and constructive advice.

Begin by knowing where to look, and what to look for. This depends primarily upon your industry. There are hundreds of industry-specific review websites and social networks out there, some of them better known than others. Twitter and Facebook are obviously great places to start, as are social media sites like Yelp, provided that they are relevant to your industry.

To find additional review sites, just browse through what people are linking to on Twitter and Facebook, or do a Google search for “your industry + reviews.” You’ll be surprised just how many sites there are out there.

Once you find negative feedback, you’ll need to incorporate what you’ve learned into your business. So if you see a lot of customers complaining about a business practice that is common in your industry (even if the complaints are specifically directed toward your company), then you know to change that practice. For instance, if you see a lot of complaints about online marketers sending out too many useless emails, you might want to take a step back and think about whether you’re personally guilty of that sin.

On the other side, if you see a lot of people complaining about something that doesn’t exist, then you may have found a niche for your business to profitably expand into.

At the end of the day, it’s always good to know what customers are saying about your business, and the other businesses in your industry. And considering that people are 10 times more likely to post a negative comment than a positive one, looking for negativity is a great way to start.

Happy marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert - Motivational Speaker

Social Media Optimisation (SMO) is the new SEO and it can do wonders for your business in terms of generating more leads and increasing awareness of your brand – so how can you optimise your corporate social media accounts to get the most out of them in 2012?

Well, there are two basic components to any good SMO campaign. Firstly, you need to link your social media sites to your website and blog content through the likes of social media share buttons. By adding a Facebook “like” button, a “Tweet This” button or Google Plus’ “+1” button to your content your audience can easily share your content with others and give recommendation to your work, which any visitors to your site will be able to see through the number of likes and shares each your posts or pages have had.

The second component to a successful SMO campaign comes from the contributions you make yourself – by providing high quality content which continuously engages your audience, then sharing this to all of your social media platforms yourself so that all of your followers have regular updates to keep them interested.

It is also very important when creating improved SMO for your business that either you yourself, your marketing team or your company as a defined brand itself interacts with your audience directly, through posting comments on your own sites, interacting with your followers and engaging in discussion and debate on other relevant blogs and forums. Simply plastering your content all over your social media platforms is not enough – you need to engage your audience and interact with them in a way which drives discussion and sparks further interest.

In basic terms, in order to be successful with SMO your content needs to be engaging and up-to-date, and it needs to be made easy for your audience to share this content across as many social media platforms as possible.

SMO is just as important for your business as SEO has been, as not only can it drive traffic to your sites, creating increased lead generation and in turn boost your sales, but it is also aimed at increasing your direct contact with your current followers – which in turn will push your online reach out across your targeted markets and allow you to engage with more and more potential clients.

The main downfall with pursuing an SMO campaign is that it can be very time consuming, and if you don’t have a dedicated team to push SMO it can be very difficult to maintain a strong online presence for your business – so look out for future posts about some great online tools which can help streamline your social media efforts and increase SMO in one foul swoop.

Happy marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert – Motivational Speaker

So, what can you do to give your social media strategy longevity in 2012? Here are a few tips to help you consolidate your social media activity for the New Year and beyond.

1. Stop saturating and build your brand

Once you have really got to grips with using social media as a business tool it is very easy to overdo your efforts and start to saturate your social media platforms with lots of content, from each department of your company, and for each separate product or service that you offer. Whilst you might think this gives you a broader reach and a better web presence, you are probably just confusing your followers by making it too overwhelming to receive all the content you are putting out there.

So instead of saturating your social media platforms, start branding all of your company’s departments and products or services under one main name. You can still keep separate accounts for marketing, management, sales etc but ensure you only have one contact from each department and include the company name in all of their usernames. This will help to consolidate and group together your team and products under your main company brand.

2. Post for the platform, not for your own benefit

Each social media platform is different. The way your followers use Facebook in comparison to the way they use Twitter is different, and the reasons some of your audience chooses to interact with you on LinkedIn rather than on Flickr will be different as well – they are looking for different content and are expecting different interaction with you depending on which platform they are using.

You probably already know how to use each of the platforms for your own benefit, but use 2012 to really tune in to what your followers want from you on each platform.  If they’re friends with you on Facebook then they probably want to see a more personal side of you, if they are following you on Twitter then they probably expect regular and consistent updates about your new content and if they have connected with you on LinkedIn they are clearly looking to engage with you in a more professional way.

Consider what each platform is used for and research the way people on the site interact and then tailor your involvement to these conforms – you’ll be amazed at the results.

3. Schedule your posting in advance

It’s always good to think about what you’re going to say before you say it, and the same rule applies with posting. Is what you’re posting really relevant? Will it be of interest to anyone? I would hope it would be otherwise why would you be producing it – but it doesn’t hurt to ask the question every now and again!

Scheduling posts in advance also stops you from overwhelming your followers with massive amounts of content, or ignoring them completely due to the fact you’ve had no time to create anything that day. If you schedule a weekly or daily plan for what you will be posting about and what content you will be distributing on which platform, you will soon find you have a nice on-going structure for each site making the whole process much more automated and easy to follow.

A great way to schedule social media sharing is to draw up an editorial planner at the start of each month, which gives you a chance to plan the bulk in advance and then add in more topical updates at times when you have less scheduled content going out. This will give your followers enough to keep them interested and ensure you don’t overwhelm them with information and scare them off.

The best advice I can give you for 2012 is to reassess where your social media campaign is at currently and where you would like it to be by this time next year – then simply put actions to your words and make it happen. Ask yourself these questions:  If you were a follower of your company on each platform, what opinion would you have of them? Are you getting what you hoped you would from engaging with them in this way? And is there more they could do to keep your attention? Then make 2012 the year you give your social media plan real depth and long term value.

Happy marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert – Motivational Speaker

With only 140 characters to play with, some Twitter users tend to get carried away and try to saturate their page with second by second updates of their every movement. Others ignore the fact that the average shelf life of a tweet is no more than an hour and hardly post anything at all to keep their followers interested with. So, how do you get the balance right between just enough and too much? And more importantly, what should you be doing with Twitter to help boost your following?

Well, here are 3 big mistakes to avoid when managing a successful Twitter account.

1.       Avoid cheesy and stereotypical Auto-DMs

So someone follows you and then receives an instant Auto-DM saying “Hey, it’s great to tweet up!” – No, bad move! They have probably had the same message from nearly every single person they have followed…so what set’s yours apart from all the rest?

If the answer is nothing then you need a rethink. If you are going to use an Auto-DM, it should be original to you and should offer your new followers an extra little something as a thank you for following you. That first direct message is the first thing your new followers will see so you should make the most of that first introduction – even in the limited space. Don’t just send a generic “Thanks For Following” message, it’s unlikely to even be read.    

2.       What’s your ratio?

Twitter really is all about ratios, and your following to followers ratio is more important than you might think.  There are two ways you can get this wrong; firstly, following more people than you have following you, and secondly having loads of followers but hardly following anyone else.

With the first point it’s easy to see why having few followers isn’t a great idea, as the less followers you have the less people you are able to share your content with. However, it also doesn’t look good for any new followers who land on your page, as when you’re seen to be following loads of people it makes you look like your desperately clawing for followers – which is only made worse by the fact you have few followers in return, and it begs the question “Why aren’t people following this person?”. Not a good look.  

On the other hand, the issue with having loads of followers but hardly following anyone back means that you appear to be somewhat of a Twitter Snob; happy to share your content with all who want it but not interested in what others have to share. Again, not a good look.

The best way to keep the balance right is to regularly cull who you follow and get rid of anyone who you have followed for a while but who hasn’t followed you back. It may seem harsh but if you’re not gaining anything fantastic from them in terms of their content and they’re not following you back to receive your fantastic content then surely there is no point in keeping them on there? Having a more equal following to follower ratio will make your profile appear more neutral and follower friendly to anyone who lands on your page.

3.       What are you talking about?

As a business professional you are more likely to be Tweeting about events that are happening or sharing links to your content than Tweeting about what you had for dinner last night – but it is still so important to be clear and concise with your tweets. Using business jargon that only a select few would understand, or being very vague when tweeting  – for example, saying things like “Well that was an interesting meeting…” – will not go down well with your followers.

Although you only have 140 characters per tweet you should make the most of those if you want to get people interested in what you are distributing. Be clear, to the point and tweet something that will be well received by many rather than few.

These are  just a few ways in which you can help to keep up a successful Twitter account, by not only keeping your current followers interested but also striving to attract some new ones as well.

Happy marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

(Image by Rosaura Ochoa)

Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert - Motivational Speaker

Last year the appeal raised £36 million but this year organisers are hoping to smash this record by applying some very modern techniques to help boost the Poppy Appeal tradition.

To mark the 90^th anniversary of the Poppy Appeal, the charity has moved full throttle into the modern age of online interaction and are hoping to appeal to younger generations through their involvement with social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.

The Royal British Legion, who are behind the Poppy Appeal, have this year decided to enhance their traditional campaign of selling poppies in places such as big shopping centres and on the streets of our towns and cities, by moving online into the virtual world in an attempt to raise more money and awareness for the cause than ever before.

Supporters can now purchase their poppies online by logging on to the RBL’s interactive forum “Shoulder To Shoulder”, uploading a photo of themselves to the site, purchasing a virtual poppy to pin to their picture and adding a special message to their image. This option seems to have really appealed to the public, as the site has had nearly 18,500 pictures uploaded of people with their virtual poppies to date .

The public can now purchase downloadable Poppy Appeal wallpapers for their computers and add support buttons to their websites which link back to the RBL Poppy Appeal homepage. 

The RBL has also taken their Poppy Appeal into the realm of social media and now have a Facebook page, a Twitter feed and a Youtube channel where supporters can gain to-the-minute updates on the campaign and share and contribute with each other in this online space. The campaign is even fronted by a virtual blogger called Poppy, who is the face of the appeal online and posts regular blog articles to the “Legion Live” forum for supporters to read, share and contribute to. 

With over 11,300 Facebook likes, nearly 12,000 Twitter followers and well over 520,000 views of their videos on Youtube it seems like the campaign has taken on a whole new lease of life. Although official figures for the total amount raised by this year’s Poppy Appeal have yet to be confirmed, it is obvious to see what a huge impact this first outreach via social media and other online platforms has made to the campaign.

It’s great to see such a well-established and long-serving organisation as the RBL looking to more modern and interactive methods to engage with the public and help raise awareness and funds for their cause. Personally, I feel this really shows just how important and influential social media interaction can be when you want to get your message out there and ensure that it is heard on a massive scale. The internet and social media is the way forward, so ensure that you are not missing out on its benefits when it comes to your business’ next big campaign.  

(Image by Paul Simpson)

Happy marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert - Motivational Speaker

Do you use Twitter?

If so, are you using it in the right way? If not, it can be the biggest waste of time ever!

And you don’t want to end up looking like a right Tweet do you?

In today’s social media frenzy world, whatever you leave on the internet sticks. When I say stick, I mean that a permanent marker and record of whatever you say remains on the internet for all to see.

So if you’re having a bad day and say something like “Just had the meeting from hell with a client” then that could potentially fall into the lap of:

A. That client!

B. Potential  clients

You need to be crystal clear about what you will and wont do on social media.

Sure, you want to come across as human but if you are using Twitter et al for business purposes then you shouldn’t bare all! So to speak!

So make sure that you Tweet right and don’t end up looking like a right Tweet!

Ok Tweeple, I’m done! Just make sure you tweet people in the right way!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert - Motivational Speaker

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The first is that if you are a salesperson, especially a newer salesperson, your prospects may have the foresight to do a little bit of research about you individually before deciding to make a purchase. If you use your real name instead of a pseudonym when creating your Twitter account your prospects are even more likely to find you online. If you’re careful about what you post they’ll see how professional you are – and how knowledgeable you are about your product.

The second interesting fact is that Google views Twitter with high regard. They also view each individual Tweet as a separate web page when ranking them on Google. This means that ever Tweet your post is increasing the amount of content your prospects can find on the web. It works even better if you occasionally include a link back to your main company website.

The trick, of course, is making sure your Twitter account contains valuable information. If you’re spouting off random music lyrics or pieces of useless information no one will care about what you have to say. Guaranteed.

Sean

Sales Expert - Marketing Consultant – Motivational Speaker

The concept is known as microblogging, though it seems as though quite a few people are taking advantage of the concept and instead of limiting themselves simply make numerous posts one after the other. But I digress.

There are a number of ways you can use Twitter during your marketing campaigns. Today I’d like to share 5.

1. Twitter provides marketers with a way to build up a “fan base.” Not everyone who is interested in what you do or sell will make a purchase upfront but they may in the future and they’re likely to recommend you to their friends.
2. Using Twitter is a great way to build a buzz surrounding a new product or service you plan to launch. You can leak small bits of interesting information to the public before the actual release date and your niche target group will have the information they need in advance.
3. Twitter gives you another tool you can use to build your company’s brand.
4. If your company already has a formal blog Twitter will give you the tools you need to further extend its reach. You can post links to your blog updates on Twitter as well.
5. Twitter followers may appreciate special deals or discounts. You can use the fan base you’ve created to offer loyalty discounts not found elsewhere – thus increasing your sales while keeping your fans happy.

These are, of course, only a sampling of the things you can do with Twitter. They key is to ensure you are networking with people who are really interested in what you have to offer – not just people who want to build up their own “friend lists” for their own benefit. More on how to do that later!

Sean

Sales Expert - Marketing Consultant – Motivational Speaker

If not, I really think you should be.

Why?

Because Twitter is exactly the kind of social networking environment you should be in. If nothing else, the opportunity to practice limiting your thoughts to a mere 140 characters is something truly defining. It teaches you to be succinct and engaging while making your point using nothing longer than a simple sentence.

Being an active member on Twitter will also give you the opportunity to meet two types of people:

• People who are in the same field, or related fields, as you are.
• People who are interested in the products and services you offer.

Now, there’s skill involved in building a good following on Twitter. You have to be active and engaging. You can’t just throw out a bunch of advertisements or links to your website and expect people to care. You need to show interest in what they’re doing, or somehow show them that you really want to offer them something of value.

I could go on and on about how and when to use Twitter, but instead I’ll leave you today with a challenge. If you are NOT already on Twitter, go check it out and sign up. Take a look at the system and think about how you could possibly use it to network or build your own prospect list.

Oh! And make sure you follow me on Twitter as well if you’re not doing so already! Once you have a few days to look at Twitter we’ll talk about some of the best ways to really utilize it in your marketing campaign!

Sean

Sales Expert - Marketing Consultant – Motivational Speaker