Social media: DIY or outsource?

Social media seems to be a bit like Marmite.  Some people love it and are happy to spend time uploading pictures, making video, posting the latest snippet of info, sharing interesting posts and more.  Others think it’s a massive time-eater, is hard work for questionable return and is impossible to keep up with the rapidly changing filters, rules and regulations.

The challenge for businesses is that social media is here to stay.  It’s no longer a fad, a five-minute wonder or only for teenagers, it’s a powerful business tool.

Without a social media presence, you could find your visibility suffers, your reputation isn’t as good as it could be and you’re dropping behind competitors.

I know people who have tried to get to grips with it and have decided that it’s never going to happen and pretty much given up.

I know people who love Facebook to chat with friends, but don’t get on with LinkedIn at all and can’t see the point of Twitter.

I know people who have the best of intentions, but find it’s always at the bottom of their to-do list – so never gets done.

Do it, delegate it or dump it

If you want to harness the power of social media the secret is to choose one platform – ideally the one where your potential clients are most active – then learn how it works.

TIP:  Put time in your diary to do social media e.g. daily 12 noon for 

15 minutes and Friday afternoon for an hour.

Choosing just one social media platform avoids overwhelm.  Scheduling time in your diary will help to ensure you take action.

Once you’re comfortable with one platform you can always add another.

If you know you’re just not going to get around to it, delegate it to either a member of your team or a virtual assistant or social media agency.

Bear one thing in mind – unless someone knows you very, very well and shares your expertise, they can’t be you.  They can post on your behalf, they can monitor comments and engage with other members of the platform, but they can’t answer questions, respond to enquiries or provide your expertise, so there’s likely to be times when you’ll simply have to grit your teeth, go online and respond.

If you decide you just can’t face social media in any shape or form then dump it.  By dump it, I mean take your profiles down, remove or close your accounts.  There’s nothing worse than people doing a search and finding accounts that aren’t maintained.  There’s a subliminal message that you can’t be bothered and don’t take your marketing seriously.  It’s better to not have an account at all.

Before you take this radical action consider that most business people use the search engines to check out potential suppliers, possible customers, people coming for business meetings and potential candidates.  Social media platforms are so active that, if you have an account on LinkedIn, for example, that will probably come further up the ranking than your About page on your company website.

It doesn’t have to be as onerous as you think – it just takes a little planning and you might find it easier than you think.  If you get really good at it, you could find social media an excellent source of leads and third party recommendations.

To blog, or not to blog; that is the question!

I love writing – not surprising for someone who earns a living scribbling away.  However, lots of people find it hard to write to order.  That’s good for me as some of these people delegate their writing to me.  I do what I love and they do what they love!

For anyone who isn’t into writing, blogging is an area that has a big ‘NO ENTRY’ sign on it.  After all, it means writing and if writing a page of narrative takes you all afternoon, it’s probably not the best use of your time.

The dilemma is that the World Wide Web is content driven.  The more content you have out there, the more access people have to you and your expertise.  Of course, you could create video material if you’re more comfortable talking than writing, but you’ll still need to plan your message so you don’t just ramble for a couple of minutes!  Bear in mind that we speak at about 120-150 words a minute.  So one A4 page is only about 3 minutes of video content.

What’s the problem?

I know some people just struggle to get their thoughts out of their heads and onto paper/screen, but you have lots of valuable information inside your head.  Only by sharing some of it will you demonstrate your expertise to potential clients.

Is it time, fluency, focus, blank screen syndrome or something else that’s causing the problem?

Once you know what the problem is, solving it gets easier.

If you’re time poor and feel you write slowly consider delegating or outsourcing the writing to someone else.  You might be surprised at how little time you’ll need to invest to talk through your thoughts to give someone enough to write a short article.  You can do this face-to-face with a member of your team or by phone with a professional copywriter.

If you find your thoughts don’t come fluently try mind mapping your article.  No matter what order your thoughts come in, a mind map will get your thoughts organised into a structure so you can write a well-put together article.

If focus is a problem you need somewhere to start – at the least a subject to work on.  I often find that picking either a problem your clients have that you can solve or something you’re often asked about is a good place to start.  Imagine you’re explaining an issue to someone – use conversational language and you’ll have a very readable blog.

Even the best copywriters get blank page syndrome from time-to-time!  If every time a blog is needed you sit there with a blank screen (and a blank mind), help yourself to get started by listing all the services or products you offer.  You might be surprised at how many there are, but this will give you a list of subjects to write about.

If you just hate writing, talk to a recorder and get someone else to transcribe and edit it.  If you have a team working with you put together a rota and get everyone to write a blog.  You might have to grit your teeth and take your turn, but at least it won’t be as often as it would be tackling it alone.

If you’re still struggling – give me a call on 01245 473296 and let’s see if I can help.

Fail to plan … plan to fail

When you’re running a business, no matter how small or large, you need to plan to ensure your business flourishes and grows.

What happens if you don’t plan?

You get offered opportunities – and you don’t know if they’re right for you or not, because there’s no frame of reference to fit them into.

Let’s take an example.  A local publication offers you a rock-bottom rate for a display ad – let’s say that it would normally be £500 and they’re offering it for half price.  Is this an offer you can’t refuse?

With a plan you can:

• Look at your target audience, what the publications they typically read and what they are interested in 
• Check out the reader profile of the publication and decide if it will reach your audience
• Review your marketing budget and see if this fits into it – and what you might have to compromise on to make this investment

Without a plan your decision will be based on a knee-jerk reaction – after all, you’ll be saving £250, won’t you? 

Maybe, but not if your target audience aren’t reading this publication or if your ad doesn’t deliver what they want or if spending £250 will leave your cash flow depleted when you need it.

Seems obvious, but I meet business owners who haven’t got a proper marketing plan and budget and know how additional expenditure will impact on both.

The dominoes will start to fall

There’s another issue that is often overlooked.  What do you want people to do when they’ve read your ad? (You have included a call to action, haven’t you?)

Do you want them to:

• Visit your website?
• Pick up the phone and call?
• Go to a landing page and sign up to your marketing list?
• Buy a product or service?
• Book a free or reduced price consultation?

Are you prepared for them to take action?  Have you got the right information on the website to engage them?  Are you staff prepared for extra calls and know what to say?

If you need a landing page someone will have to create that, load it and put a data capture system in place.  This might also require the creation of a free giveaway document to encourage sign ups (nobody signs up to a newsletter these days).

If you’ve got an offer on, have you got sufficient supplies to fulfil the demand?  If you’re offering your time free or at a low price, how many appointments can you fit in?

This is just the beginning and all these have costs attached, so in addition to the £250 for the ad, what will it cost to deal with the response?  Your marketing budget may be struggling to keep up if you haven’t considered these things.

It may be a cliché, but fail to plan … plan to fail!  A simple plan, with some numbers attached, reviewed at least quarterly will make a big difference to your decision making.

You don’t have to write a book …

Just because you know stuff doesn’t mean you have to become an author, so why do so many marketing people recommend writing a book as a promotional activity?

Being an author does carry a certain kudos.

• It says that you have enough wisdom and knowledge to help other people.  
• It’s a good way to show potential clients the wealth of expertise you can put at their disposal.
• It may get you invitations to speak about your topic at conferences and business events.

But if the idea of labouring over a whole book of at least 40,000 words makes you rush to the fridge for comfort food (or whatever your preferred displacement activity is) don’t worry, you DON’T have to write a book.

I’m not suggesting that you outsource it to a ghost writer – there’s nothing worse than not being intimately familiar with your ‘own’ book.  Maybe Robbie Williams can get away with admitting that he hasn’t read his own autobiography, but it won’t do you any favours to follow his example.

What to do instead of writing a book

• If you don’t mind writing, then write blogs.  Share your expertise in short bites of 300-1000 words to help your readers to learn something that will help them.
• If you hate writing, but don’t mind talking, create podcasts.  You can have a podcast channel or simply load your audio file onto your blog.
• If you are comfortable in front of the camera, get yourself a little tripod and set up a video recording (there are ways of doing this with your mobile phone – but probably worth investing in a plug-in lapel mic for decent quality).

Sneaky ways to write a book anyway

Give your blogs to an editor and ask them to edit them into a book.

Give your podcasts or videos to a transcription service and ask them to transcribe them – and then give them to an editor to edit into a book.

Start small and write a short ebook around a specific topic – again you can edit a handful of blogs into shape for this.  An ebook doesn’t have to be any particular length so it could be 3,000 words or 30,000 words or anything in between.  Most people have a short attention span so short is good, as long as it’s got a strong message and really useful tips with your narrative alongside them.

Remember that you may not have any new ideas, but you have your spin on things.  Your experiences and case studies will bring your tips to life.

So you don’t have to write a book – but you could create a book over time writing or speaking your ideas in short bites.