The Zen of Social Media Marketing. Shama Hyder

by the time they are ready to talk to you, they will be armed with information about your company, its people, and its products.

      Benefit from this new buyer behavior by engaging with them as they search for answers. Deliver content that is relevant and compelling in their search for solutions. You can do this before they ever call you or walk through your front door.

      You become the expert your future buyers can count on. Your content engenders a trusted relationship that makes it easy to buy from you. That’s what content marketing is all about.

      Newt Barrett,

      coauthor of Get Content. Get Customers

       How Does Social Media Marketing Fit When It Comes to Conversion?

      Let’s be completely honest about what social media rarely does—lead to instant clients. For example, if you are looking to put up your LinkedIn profile and immediately get swamped by client requests, you may be disappointed. I won’t say that social media marketing doesn’t ever lead directly to clients because it does happen, but this should not be your goal. If you want to gain clients quickly, there are better ways of achieving it.

      What social media is great at is turning strangers into consumers. It’s the perfect channel for allowing people to get a taste of your product or service—it’s sampling made easy.

      AHA! Zen Moment

      Social media marketing works best as a tool for attracting traffic and attention. It doesn’t work as well for converting strangers into clients. It’s better suited to converting strangers into consumers (i.e., blog readers or newsletter subscribers), if simply because “free” is an easy sell. Free works! And over time, it can and will lead to business.

       What’s the Best Conversion Tool?

      Your website! There is no getting around this one. You shouldn’t be engaging in social media marketing if you don’t have a website first. Every time I speak on the subject of social media marketing, someone inevitably asks me, “Can’t I substitute a social media profile (say, on Facebook or LinkedIn) in lieu of a website?” The answer is always no.

      Why should you have your own website and not depend on social media profiles?

       • You own your website. You don’t own your social media profiles. Your profile (and your hard-earned contact list) is owned by the social media site itself. If it goes “poof” tomorrow, then so does your online presence.

       • Social media profiles are limiting. You can convey only so much information on your profile. Although it may (and should) intrigue someone, it isn’t enough to make a sale. Remember, social media is not a selling tool! It is an attracting tool.

       Transform

      Once you have mastered the art of attracting and converting, you must transform your successes into attraction magnets. This brings the entire online marketing process full circle.

      People, especially strangers, crave social proof. Social proof is the theory that we are more likely to do something when we see others doing it. This applies even more when the others in question are similar to us. We often decide what to do (including whether to buy) based on what others are doing. This isn’t the only factor in our decision making, but it is a major one.

      Social media is built on social proof. Because of this, social media is a great way to transform past successes into new attention for your company.

      There are two parts to transforming:

       1. You have to do a good job. If your service or product just doesn’t deliver, you are out of luck. You can’t transform a bad experience into an attraction tool. Let’s say you sell a blender and it breaks. The customer tries to return it, but your overworked employee says you just don’t take returns. Sorry. And good day! This is not an experience you want amplified. On the other hand, if you do a great job, it makes for the perfect story. One of our clients is K9Cuisine.com. They sell premium dog food online. Nothing too glamorous, but their customer service is amazing. They go above and beyond just delivering an order. If a client orders regular shipping, they upgrade it for no extra charge. If a customer says his dog didn’t like a specific brand, they swap it out and help him find something that his dog will like. They’re more than just a dog food seller; they become trusted dog nutrition advisors who care about your four-legged friend.

       2. You have to use your success to attract more success. This goes beyond just regular testimonials. This involves telling your customers’ story—the story of what they achieved through your service or product. When K9Cuisine.com receives an email thanking them for helping Jack, the loved golden retriever, start eating again after a long illness, they ask the customer if they can share their story with others. The story then makes its way onto their Facebook page and into their tweets. Soon, lots of people know about how K9Cuisine.com helped Jack. Next time they think about Fido needing dog food, they will think about K9Cuisine.com. If they have a great experience, they may tell their friends. The cycle continues.

      Traditional marketers didn’t worry about who controlled the message. Online marketers today engage an empowered customer. For this reason I ask my clients to keep two principles in mind at all times:

       1. Make it easy to buy. This involves telling the right story, exposing the real benefits, and making your shopping cart a one-click affair. It helps keep you focused when you are creating your online presence and figuring out how you will construct your marketing message.

       2. Pick tactics last. This ensures that you won’t get distracted by the latest shiny object fad before you have your essentials in place. Once you do, you can focus on picking the right tactics to really hear your customers.

      Stephanie Diamond,

      author of Web Marketing for Small Businesses

       What Does Social Media Marketing Have to Do with This Step?

      Everything! Whereas social media may not be ideal for converting strangers into clients, it’s an excellent platform for sharing stories. Stories establish your expertise, attract fresh consumers, and even help convert faster.

      The following are possible tools for transformation:

       • Testimonials from customers and clients

       • Case studies that showcase how a customer found a solution to his or her problem (ideally the solution is your service or product)

       • Video interviews with clients

       • Audio interviews with customers

       • Pictures of smiling clients with your products

      AHA! Zen Moment

      Social media platforms are a great way to showcase past and present success stories. By letting the customers speak for themselves, you can leverage social proof to attract more prospects.

       Overview of Online Marketing Tactics and How They ACT (Attract, Convert, Transform)

      The following table presents several online marketing methods and how well they accomplish each step of the ACT process. (Note: Search engine optimization [SEO] involves increasing the traffic to a website from search engines by causing the website to appear higher in a list of search results. SEO is discussed in more detail in Chapter 2.)

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