How often you speak is as important as what you say and how you say it. Digital media offers the ability to remain constantly in view of your market, partners and competitors. This availability should be used as a strategic asset. The temptation to seek complete control, to over think and over edit, needs to be tempered against the potential to overflow with information, especially on a platform like Twitter.
There’s a lot of give and take when it comes to how many posts are appropriate to put up in a day. Complaints abound over Twitter feeds filled with “hot dog” posts; those posts that announce some innocuous detail of daily life like “I’m eating a hot dog…” and do very little to with communication or relationship development.
Your Time in the Room
Think of Twitter as one big room and your posts are your presence in it. 1-2 posts every 2 hours seems to be ideal for keeping momentum and development going on personal accounts. This can be adjusted depending on the goals of the Twitter feed. For example a business account can continue momentum with fewer posts. 1-2 posts every 3-5 hours seems to be ideal for keeping momentum on business or organizational accounts.
If the account is merely targeted towards providing a point of contact for PR or news updates 1-2 posts per day or per week is possible. Keep in mind, unless you are representing a business, organization or brand that already has a loyal following, remaining quiet will limit the development of your presence on the Twitter platform.
Setting It All in Motion
This may seem overwhelming, you may be thinking “I can’t even update my blog once a month…1-2 posts every 2 hours!” But that’s where reciprocity comes in. You’ve heard it’s better to give than to get? Well on Twitter this motto helps you maintain an active presence and develop relationships while mitigating the amount of time you spend on the platform itself.
Applications like Hootsuite and Tweetdeck allow you to schedule and monitor your posts, as well as create sets of key word searches to find other accounts posting within your target audience. Set a specific time during the day to schedule posts for the upcoming day/week/month. This takes as little as 15 mins–1 hour, depending on time period you will cover.
Everything that happens in digital media builds precedence for future activity. When dealing with media that has immediate global reach and can be logged, searched and accessed in the future it’s wise to have a plan for what you’re putting out.
Keep It Focused, Keep It Loose
Setting aside a block of time to schedule posts helps support a cohesive focus for your account and also helps you strategize. Make sure to leave room in the schedule for posting “real time” information as needed. Keep blocks of time open where you can post free form information or responses while keeping your feed uncluttered.
It’s best to check back and monitor every 1-2 hours for re-tweets, mentions, and direct messages. Each event is an opportunity to engage. If someone re-tweets your posts, it’s an opportunity to thank them or strike up a conversation; a mention where someone asks a question or comments on a Tweet presents an opportunity to begin a conversation. Direct messages are the most ‘intimate’ form of engagement on this platform and allow for private conversations.
Key word searches can also provide areas for engagement. By conducting regular key word searches on brand related or interest related topics you can conduct business intelligence, monitor mentions of your brand, company, or organization, and develop relationships with new people through targeted conversations.
Cultivating genuine value from business relationships requires more than well branded sales slicks, promotional emails, press releases and the occasional “reconnect” call. At the highest point of the Ars Venditiones (Art of Sales) the client seeks to connect without prompting and urges others to do the same for a very simple reason:
To continue a good conversation…
Marketing is the term used to describe the craft of creating this conversation. The most skilled practitioners carry on disembodied conversations with captivated audiences that can include millions of participants. The marketer effortlessly encapsulates and heightens a few key commonalities and sculpts a conversation that can reach across the most stalwart cultural and synaptic barriers.
Why then has the image of the marketer become so tainted? After all wasn’t Shakespeare in some sense merely hocking valuable cultural capital when he wrote Julius Caesar? Et tu Guy Kawasaki?
Molecule and Model
The difference is one of art and technique, of a molecule and a molecular model. The best contemporary sales and marketing professionals are technicians and cultural fashion designers of the highest order. They are not artists. Efficient technique and the living embodiment of an art form are two different playgrounds.
Shakespeare was a successful Elizabethan propagandist whose PR work became a center point of English literature. Even as a solid politico for Queen ‘Liza and her ladies, he was still a highly evocative, illuminated and urbane Enlightenment playwright. Shakespeare knew the art of conversations well and was a master at selling his audience.
Performance Art
Contemporary marketing professionals can’t boast this kind of reputation. No one is, nor will they be, performing Guy’s blog posts in public parks and it’s highly doubtful that anyone getting info off Alltop is experiencing the heights of existential expression. (Actually this might be a good idea for avant-pop college thespians to get some viral traction on YouTube…but is it worth it?)
The majority of marketing leaders are simply technicians and creators of fast fashion. In the same way that a good mechanic can fix your engine, they are adept at fixing your messaging. He can tighten the bolts, diagnose problems and will give you the proper oil, but he isn’t going to break into universal sublimity. Marketing has fallen into the hands of fashionistas bent on prettying the outside at the expense of a deeper meaning. Mais ou sont les neiges d’antan?
Wise Words from the Departed
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) remarked that “fashion is the science of appearances, and it inspires one with the desire to seem rather than to be.” When food looks good people eat it, and you can make your brand look as tasty as you want, but when the people you feed start getting dysentery they’re unlikely to come back for more. Foster a conversation that lasts and encourages your client to bring others to the table. Don’t force feed them cardboard until they wise up and leave.
Take some time going into the new year and ask yourself…
Are you a conversationalist? Or are you just running a con?
Connecting with your audience isn’t complicated. The movie American Beauty, which won an academy award, earned a decent amount for its investors and gained the adulation of movie goers, was a calculated attempt at capturing the audiences’ and critics’ imagination. The writers, producers and creatives behind the production used a set scheme of symbols to invoke the reaction the movie received.
By playing on themes of vulnerability, overcoming vulnerability and the frailty of human existence American Beauty captured the imaginations of movie goers, satisfied its investors and convinced the Academy of its effectiveness in motivating culture.
Your Self Perception
So if it’s that mathematical why all the confusion?
The problem isn’t what you’re putting out, the problem is what you see when you look in. We like to see ourselves as independent, rational creatures; unfortunately this is simply not true. Divesting yourself of this illusion is one of the first steps towards becoming effective in business.
1 + 1 = x
If you trust that you are unmoved by the mathematics of marketing then you’ll flounder about trying to find some magic key, but admit you’re deeply affected and you’ll find ample market analysis in your own reactions.
If you solidly apply yourself to learning the very basic ideas behind projecting motivation through common cultural cues you’ll find success isn’t so hard to achieve after all. Production cost was an excuse prior to the availability of digital tools. Now the only thing holding you back is your vision of what is possible and your honesty about where you stand.
From 2003 – 2005 Google only had one electrical engineer designing its servers . If you’ve heard of the massive data center operation Google runs this might come as a surprise. It also might be surprising that this single engineer helped design one of the most energy efficient and stable data center operations in existence.
Small and medium size businesses often find themselves in situations where it seems there’s just too much to do and too few hands, heads and hammers to do it. There always seems to be something getting in the way or slowing down crucial projects.
If this sounds like where you’re at there might be something in those last two sentences you read over too quickly… the word “seems”.
Tear Out the “Seems”
It doesn’t take an army to run a business even if it “seems” that way. As we’re fond of pointing out, with today’s technologies all it takes is a clear head and a solid plan to operate an internationally relevant SMB.
The illustrator/consultant Hugh McCleod is developing the idea of “global micro-brands” to provide a model for this way of thinking and he’s just one of many discovering what Google discovered in 2003…even if it “seems” impossible, sometimes all it takes is one person.
Don’t mozy through the “seemingly” impossible day to day tasks of running a business, tear the “seems” out of your thinking and put your effort into the real task of stitching up a successful business.
Ask yourself, what’s makes the task seem impossible?
Are you focusing on something other than completing your current task? Prioritize what you are doing. It’s ok to be distracted, but be honest about being distracted and organize yourself accordingly.
Are you really working towards another goal? Don’t waste effort moving in one direction when you really want to be going somewhere else. Be honest about what you want and what you are willing to do to get it. Don’t try to eat the whole cow when you only want a burger.
Are you confident in your plans? Things move forward quickly when they’re motivated by confidence. Even if doubts linger it’s better to move forward confident in your actions than to stumble half hearted into failure.
Are you a dreamer or a doer? Some people like to read books about foreign countries, others like to travel them. The French poet Gerard de Nerval, upon visiting Egypt, remarked to an artist he knew “It is better that you stayed in Paris, there is nothing here of the Egypt we know, only the modern world…” Point being, it may be that you’d rather talk about success than work towards achieving it.
Have you applied what you’ve learned? We read up on best practices, go to seminars, networking events, webinars, the whole gamut of preparatory actions, but rarely do we put into practice the core lessons. Make sure you’re getting some ROI out of all that training and not just overlaying new words on old habits.
Social media and what MIT’s Henry Jenkins describes as the “Media Convergence” are playing a decisive role in today’s entrepreneurial arsenal. For SMB’s the tools to connect with their communities and other local businesses are becoming easier and more accessible every day.
One of the biggest questions with all of these new technologies is how to fit them into a solid and actionable strategic plan. Thankfully it seems as the dust gets shaken from the system this question is finding an answer on its own.
The answer? It seems that the best strategy is to get out, participate, add value and realize that the results are reciprocal.
Moving With the Current
Jenkins’ work has shown that effective grass roots efforts quickly catch the attention of more established media outlets through the natural life cycle of social media. The various channels of mediated (public, private, corporate and governmental) reciprocity are being merged together, through 3rd party applications as well as the simple fact that the users themselves provide centralized nodes in the communications network.
This give and take goes for B2B communications as well. If there is a drawback to this convergence, as Jenkins points out, it’s only that each participant is now expected to act responsibly and effectively to bring value to the system. It’s up to entrepreneurs and business owners to be proactive with their own campaigns in order to reach the potential audience of collaborators that exist in the mediated web.
While Others Worry
While industry journalists worry us with tales of lost revenue, proactive SMB’s across the country are experiencing positive growth through their new media marketing efforts and the simple realization that honest and direct relationships really do matter.
The ability for small and medium sized businesses to remain maneuverable, and quickly scale their operations, works perfectly with the immediate feedback loop that these technologies provide. For whatever failings exist within the social media sphere, as soon as more effective means are found SMB’s can change course and correct themselves immediately.
Caution is a sensible reaction to change, but what are you doing as a business owner to turn your caution into a proactive plan?
Are you saving yourself from a fast fading trend or missing the bend in the road?
Here’s a helpful set of articles from CIO Magazine outlining ideas for how businesses can better utilize Twitter to help increase brand awareness, customer communication and marketing: CIO Magazine’s Twitter Bible.
It’s hard to imagine with all those tweets, FaceBook posts, LinkedIn status updates, emails and blog posts that the little mistakes really make a difference. What’s a few grammar errors, factual flubs or poorly worded paragraphs amidst the noise, right?
If you find yourself thinking this, it might be time to step back and reconsider your marketing plan. What exactly are you going for if the small details don’t matter?
Neil Armstrong’s famous words weren’t just an off the cuff remark, they were a well planned strategy to set the media stage for U.S. dominance of space during the cold war. When the public (and the international media) heard him announce “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” some were puzzled by what seems to be a redundant statement.
There was something missing, a little ‘A’ which would have helped the message make sense.
Radio Glitches
All it took was a radio glitch to turn a well placed media mark into a 40 year grammatical gaff. Everyone still remembers the line, but four decades of snarky grammar comments could have been averted with just a little more care.
This is a great lesson for businesses that use social media, if you’re spending time pushing content into the social media sphere why not keep an eye on the quality of what you’re putting out there.
A Few Helpful Reminders to Keep in Mind
• Matsuo Basho, 17th century poet and Haiku master, said that every letter should be written as if it were meant to last through the ages. This may be a high mark to set for your Tweets, but it’s better to keep it in mind than to forget it and end up regretting one of your 140 character outbursts.
• Editing is easy before you send something out, dealing with mistakes after the fact isn’t. This is something that’s been repeated so often it’s surprising there’s still a problem (I admit I’m not perfect in this regard either).
• Make sure your links work. I received an email invitation from a PR firm for a webinar on pitching that contained broken links and obvious editorial mistakes (half sentences that were probably meant to be cut). How likely am I to pay to attend this seminar?
• Remember relevance. It’s one thing to lighten your content from time to time; it’s another to float off into space. Keep things moored on solid ground and you’ll give people a place to go rather than an opportunity to miss you while they look at the stars.
• Context is more important than ever. When there is so much information streaming across the internet it’s easy to lose site of the past, don’t add to this problem by missing an opportunity to add valuable historical context to your social media efforts.
Earlier today I received a phone call from a local company with whom I’m quite familiar. The salesperson opened by saying, “I saw you opened our email today, what interested you in the email?” The message I had read was advertising a seminar series the company has been aggressively pushing.
Admittedly, I was taken aback. I felt like I was being watched. I also felt that if I had been interested in the email, I would have signed up for the seminar or responded with questions myself. All in all, my feelings were equal parts 1) creeped out, 2) mildly annoyed and 3) strangely intrigued that this is how they were still marketing after all of these years.
It didn’t stop there, however. My limp response to his dead-on-arrival opener behind us, he kept firing:
“Can I interest you in a free ebook?”
“What’s the e-book about?”
“Secrets of Success”
“Sure.”
“Can I also interest you in a free coaching session?”
Waaaait-a-minute!
Here’s where I should have asked, kindly, “What’s the catch?” instead of “no, thank you.” Given how the call had already gone, in retrospect I’d have loved to hear him describe the coaching session.
Their entire dialogue and approach to initiating and nurturing a relationship was broken from the very beginning. He was all about features, saying nothing about how I would benefit from reading his email, his e-book, or attending his coaching session.
Email marketing is an excellent, cost-effective way to nurture relationships that turn into leads. The analytics that come with most all email marketing platforms give you very useful information about who is reading what you write and sharing it with their friends. You can use this information to grow your business, however, it’s best not to creep out your prospect in the process.
So, what can you learn from today’s awkward call?
Here are three better ways you can handle calls to your targeted email lists:
Give a legitimate and non-creepy reason for your call. After first asking your prospect if you’ve caught them at a good time, mention something your company is doing that’s of immediate value, and communicate that value immediately. “Next week we’re hosting a seminar on helping sell more widgets. People who went to last year’s seminar tell us they’ve more than doubled their widget sales after putting into practice our techniques.” Now you have my attention, and you’re leading with value, not a hook.
If you’re calling a web lead, only offer one premium. This salesperson’s two eager offers; the vaguely-titled e-book and the equally mysterious “free coaching session,” screamed desperation. Though they were determined to hook me with something, they didn’t believe in it (or me) enough to tell me how I would benefit from any of it.
Instead of tiptoeing around your point, tell the prospect what’s in it for you while communicating value to them. This can be easily accomplished by filling them in some context. Something like this:
“Of the 200 professionals we coached last year, those who stuck with the program the entire year doubled their businesses in 12 months while building systems that allowed them to work on average 25% fewer hours. Could I interest you in a complimentary session with one of our executive coaches to discuss your objectives and how coaching can help you reach them?”
Do you have an example of an exceptional sales call you’ve received? An exceptionally poor one? If so, please leave a comment below, we’d love to hear it!
Last December, Matt Linderman from 37signals came to our offices with a camera crew to talk to us about how we’ve used their CRM tool Highrise to manage XNet’s sales pipeline and existing customers. We jumped at the opportunity to go on camera as we’re big fans of their simple, straightforward approach to software. Since early 2007, Highrise has been our tool of choice to manage the day-to-day contact we have from the moment we identify someone as a prospect through the lifecycle of the customer relationship. It helps us stay on top of myriad details, track activities, and keep oriented toward the next step.
Have fun watching Arthur and Tim talk about how we use Highrise at XNet! If you are looking at a CRM and want to talk with us in-depth about Highrise versus others CRMs we’ve looked at and their plusses and minuses, don’t hesitate to call.
(Wow, what a great idea! Where did that one come from?)
As easy as it sounds, being thankful is easy to forget. We get trapped in planning, cooking, traveling, seeing our relatives, and eating. In the middle of it all, here’s a small challenge for you:
Whether you’re a business owner, manager, or employee, go out this week and thank as many people as you can. Don’t just do lip service by saying “thanks,” give a sincere reason why you are thanking them — even if you think it’s for something small or insignificant.
You’ll be surprised at the reactions you get. Very surprised.
It’s easy to forget to do this, everyone (including me!) should do it more often. Sincere gratitude is powerful.
Arthur Zards is the President and co-founder of XNet Information Systems. He is passionate about making the customer experience extraordinary. Arthur also enjoys carving Tiki Moai and jumping off of mountains.
Arthur Zards is the President and co-founder of XNet Information Systems. He is passionate about making the customer experience extraordinary. Arthur also enjoys carving 