I recently finished reading “No Bullshit Social Media,” by Erik Deckers and Jason Falls. In full disclosure, Jason sent me a free copy of his new book on social media, but I would have bought it anyway. It is that good.
I read quite a few social media books, and I have never found one I would consider to have been a waste of my time. All the authors come at it from different directions and bring different examples. This book stood out to me because:
A. I have studied Jason’s lessons enough in Exploring Social Media, that I know he’s a marketing and public relations expert who knows a lot about social media. So he and Erik write the book from the perspective of marketers using social media, not the other way around. That is an important distinction.
B. They use small business examples. While I would have have liked to see even more examples of small businesses using social media successfully, the authors do a better job than most in showing how the small business owner uses social media successfully. That makes it very tangible and practical.
C. They lay out clear ways social media can be used in business, not fuzzy ideas on how to apply it.
That said, if you don’t have time to read the book, I did a summary of the seven major ways the authors say a business can use social media.
Social media:
1. Aids in brand awareness. Most business owners would like more people to know about them, so those people or their friends might conduct business with the store or company. Posting information that can help others, and simply being active online, using your Facebook page to promote issues or events relevant to the people who have “liked” your page, is one way to help build that brand awareness.
2. Protects your reputation online. People have always complained about bad buying experiences. Now someone can complain online to anyone connected with them. Often you can listen into those conversations if your business name is included, simply by setting up an alert on the business name via Google.com/alerts. Most small businesses are not going to find much to respond to, but the bigger your brand, the more important monitoring becomes.
3. Assists with public relations. Say you’re collecting winter coats. Social media can help you publicize the event far more rapidly than you ever could through people forwarding the news through e-mail. It also is an excellent mechanism for communicating with your customers, for example if your website temporarily crashed.
4. Builds community. Businesses generally have a core group of repeat customers, and the same is true online. A great way to keep top of mind with those customers, and allow them to build relationships with each other, is by providing online services for them. Pretend you manage a grocery store and you post a video online showing how to properly cut a melon. Then allow customers to ask additional questions about the technique, or request videos on other cooking topics, is a great way to stir up interest for your products, which in turn makes people feel more attached to your store. In addition, that helps people feel more connected to the store and brand. Often those who frequent a specific blog over time get to know each other as well.
5. Helps provide good customer service. This is often where I advise many business owners start forays into social media. Begin thinking of the business Facebook page as though it were a telephone. Let your customers know that instead of e-mailing or calling, they are welcomed to post questions on the Facebook page. This not only helps that customer, but you gain the status of expert for others stopping by the page. They can see you highlight your knowledge and care for your customers. In addition, visitors will sometimes see answers to questions they have. You in turn receive more mileage out of each answer than you would through e-mail. Some businesses that can take on customers from anywhere use answering questions on LinkedIn, Quora or Yahoo Answers as the primary method of bringing in new clients.
6. Aids research and development efforts. Even if your business does not routinely use focus groups for developing products, most occasionally have to research new potential vendors and products. Social media is a fantastic way to do this. A simple search on Google Blog Search, Facebook or Twitter will often bring up mentions of a vendor you are considering working with, or a product your company is considering buying. The best part is, you get to see what users actually thought of the products, not the sanitized pitch the company provides on its website. This is also a great way to research what people are saying about potential competing products, before you spend the time and money developing your own.
7. Drives leads and sales. While all of the benefits of social media outlined above ultimately feed into the goal of driving sales, I want to make it clear here social media can in fact be a place where you can sell, or begin conversations that six months or a year later lead to sales. I can personally track leads and partnerships that led to ongoing monthly income directly from these social networks. One quick example of direct selling comes from a story author Jason Falls tells in his book, of a local audio and video store owner who posted a Facebook message one cold morning about selling remote car starters. The business man was Facebook friends with a woman who ended up buying one that day, while another person bought three. The key was that the business owner provided a product at a time where that kind of product was ideal to have. Because this took place in a small town, there’s also a high likelihood the trio either knew of each other, or had met in real life, thus boosting the trust of the seller.
There’s no secret to using social media effectively, just a real need to work hard to figure out how it might be applicable in your business.
Still wondering if you should buy this book? Feel free to drop me a line via the contact button on the upper right of this page.
