What About Some Lessons?
Many CEOs/CMOs have been persuaded (some dragged kicking and screaming) to the value of social media and other inbound marketing techniques. However, being persuaded of the value and knowing what to do are entirely different issues. It's overwhelming. It's a bit like persuading your "unmotivated" teenager of the value of a college education and then getting them to actually study. You have successfully persuaded them of the long term value, but the short term work it is going to take is a different story.
An excellent primer, "Platform" by Michael Hyatt, explains what to do, when to do it and more importantly, exactly what steps need to be taken. Hyatt even includes the type of video production equipment he has purchased and what email vendors and website services he has utilized. The book goes through everything from blogs and Facebook pages to speaking engagements and media kits. It also spends time on Twitter and for the purpose of this blog post, we will concentrate on it.
Since I do work with professional service providers, like lawyers, accountants, real estate agent and consultants, I will use this group as an example.
Are they on Twitter?
Some are, some aren't. More people in real estate and consulting practices are already using it, but lawyers and accountants aren't far behind.
What do you do first?
Set up a twitter account. Include a brief biography. Put together a 90-day plan. Example: 6 tweets a day, Monday through Friday.
Where do you get the tweets?
Since we are using the example of professional services firms, think about what would be of interest and value to them. At most, tweet about yourself and your product or service 15-20% of the time or one tweet a day. The rest of the tweets must be relevant to them and not about you. I read the WSJ, Forbes, and many blogs and find articles that benefit them. Sometimes I include a general leadership or culture article. This one talks about what blog posts are most interesting for people looking for law firms.
Top 10 Best-Read Topics for Lawyers to Write about in a Blog shar.es/tvw4E via @sharethis
— Barbara M Fowler (@barbfow50) July 11, 2012
When to Post?
I do most of my reading in the early morning when very few people are awake so if I tweeted them all then, I would have few readers. There are several services you can use to send them out at different times of the day. I use buffer.
What Next?
Followers. "If a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, does it make a sound?" At this point, you have committed to the goal, but you have no, or almost no, followers. That's okay. Get a bit more comfortable that you can do it. Check for a couple of weeks that you are finding good content and comfortable with sharing it. As I mentioned in the first paragraph, many business owners are feeling overwhelmed. The first step is getting started. Then we will work on the follower strategy.
Topics: Digital Marketing Tactics, Customer Intimacy, Social Marketing Strategies, CEO Choices, Marketing Strategy
Mon, Jul 16, 2012Related Articles
