Some Yearend Thoughts on Social Media Marketing – ‘EEE’

It is axiomatic that social media are the most efficient, effective and economical vehicles to quickly reach a mass or targeted audience. As a result, it behooves small businesses, non-governmental organizations and their chief executive officers regardless of their formal titles to begin making plans to enter cyberspace.

With an average of 236 million active monthly users, Twitter by itself can help with your outreach. If you add other social media, then you will increase your chances of promoting your mission, projects, goods or services to all corners of the Internet.

As I have written in the past, social media is too powerful of an outreach tool to allow teenagers use to for their youthful exploits. Actually, 22% of Twitter users are over the age of 50. That’s almost 52 million people. Do you see a potential audience in that space?

If you haven’t yet begun tweeting, here are a few ideas about what you should do.

Sheena White, a copywriter and social media consultant, suggests that you should update your Twitter profile with the proper keywords. What is your claim to fame? What is your mojo? What is your expertise? What will your legacy be? Tell your audience what your tweeting mission will be. What will you be promoting?

“It’s perfectly fine (even recommended) to share personal details about your life or interests, but it’s essential to tell Twitter users exactly what you do (assuming you want them to find you for your products and services, that is),” White wrote.

While some experts advise that you create categories for your potential tweets, the serious work of NGOs and small businesses does not require such a procedure. You already know your mission and business plan so focus on promoting them. However, what you should do is track the hashtags that are favored and monitored by your audience, marketplace and shareholders, as well as those who have liked or retweeted your content. Both steps will help you build and nurture your cyber community.

White also offered ideas on how to build a community:

“Start by following the people who follow your competitors or other industry leaders (or similar nonprofits). You can also do advanced keyword searches to find people according to the kinds of things they’re tweeting or find people who have certain keywords in their bios.

“It’s going to be necessary at some point to unfollow people or else you’re going to hit a cap at 2k Twitter accounts. (To go beyond that, you can only be following 10% more people than are following you in return.) Just make sure that when you unfollow, you don’t do so quickly that they don’t have the opportunity to follow you back.”

Engage your audience, marketplace or community with your tweets and ideas. Ask them to join your conversation and don’t forget to join their conversation. When they retweet what you’ve tweeted, their followers have the opportunity to read what’s top of mind for you and thus you boost your outreach even farther.

While you shouldn’t be afraid to promote your business or civic work, also remember to address issues that are of importance to your followers. Offer ideas and advice, and retweet what others have written on the subject. In this way, as I have suggested in earlier posts, CEOs can become thought leaders – the person who will be sought for his or her sage observations. However, don’t polemicize. That is liable to turn off more people than attract new followers. Stay above the fray by showing your expertise rather than your bickering skills.

You should also reply to inquiries and observations about your small businesses or NGOs. Twitter is especially suited to this application because of its real-time character.

Joe Wadlington, another social media adviser, noted: “Twitter is a natural fit for customer service. It moves in real time, making it simple for customers to ask you questions, celebrate your business, or reach out if they need support. This season, a lot of people will be shopping on a deadline — making swift, easy customer service more important than ever. In fact, after receiving a positive response from a retailer, 77% of people on Twitter feel more positively towards that business.”

Send your examples

Join the conversation in cyberspace in the New Year and let us know your impressions. If you have examples of creative usage of social media to boost outreach, let me know about it and I’ll help you spread the word about your success.

I’d also like to invite you to visit my Thought Leadership website:

http://thoughtleadership.yolasite.com/

Fundraising

Fundraising is an important facet of the work of NGOs especially during the Holidays. Here is an earlier post about this important topic: http://boostingyouroutreach.blogspot.com/2015/01/fundraising-tips-forngos-fundraising-is.html

In case you missed this resource bonus

Here’s a bonus resource for NGOs and small businesses that has been popular. It is undoubtedly beneficial to use illustrations or photos to get your point across. You can take your own photo or draw your own picture. Hiring professionals to do so would be expensive as would be subscribing to a stock photo agency. But these websites of photos for your promotional or marketing campaigns offer free photos. Yes, free. Enjoy browsing these sites. Some offer paid premium alternatives.

Negative Space

http://negativespace.co/

Death to the Stock Photo

http://deathtothestockphoto.com/

Picjumbo

http://picjumbo.com/

Stokpic

http://stokpic.com/

Kaboompics

http://kaboompics.com/

Startup Stock Photos

http://startupstockphotos.com/

Freerange

https://freerangestock.com/

Libreshot

http://libreshot.com/

Fancy Crave

http://fancycrave.com/

Unsplash

https://unsplash.com/grid

StocksSnap.io

https://stocksnap.io/

SplitShire

http://www.splitshire.com/

Life of Pix

http://www.lifeofpix.com/

Pexels

http://www.pexels.com/

HubShot

http://offers.hubspot.com/free-stock-photos-business?_ga=1.185006825.1574500821.1478096542

Gratisography

http://www.gratisography.com/

Jay Mantri

http://jaymantri.com/

ISO Republic

http://isorepublic.com/

New Old Stock

http://nos.twnsnd.co/

Pixabay

https://pixabay.com/

Twitter Again Tops Social Media for Outreach

If you’ve haven’t been keeping up with latest statistics about Twitter usage or haven’t conducted your own reality check on Twitter based on your and your associates’ rapid-fire tweeting, then here’s the latest analysis that you can tweet.

Caitlin Houston wrote in Market Watch that Twitter is the most important social media platform today.

Twitter shares have gained 2.6% in the past month, which is not merely based on purchases of its stock but also an indication of its vast popularity.

There are more than 300,000,000 people active on Twitter and in the US alone in excess of 88 million people visit Twitter each month. That means almost 40% of the adult population (more than 1 out of every 3 adults) are using Twitter here in the US alone.

In the meantime, Facebook has suffered under a tsunami of fake news and amid this debacle, Twitter is at a turning point. Facebook has recently come under scrutiny for the dissemination of fake news that appears through its news feed and the effect it may have had on the election.

Twitter has stayed slightly outside this controversy. However, it is in danger of reaching its crossroads with the banning of user accounts, including the potential to ban President-elect Donald Trump, according to James Cakmak, an analyst at Monness, Crespi, Hardt.

To combat its fake news problem, Facebook has suggested third-party verification and using artificial intelligence, reported the Wall Street Journal. But Cakmak said he’s concerned that fake news will still get through and that this could lead to a suppression of news as users report content just because they don’t like it.

On the other hand, Cakmak noted that Twitter is a more democratic platform, which gives you as well as all users and news sources a kind of megaphone to the world. Additionally, it stands out because of the extent to which Trump used it during the campaign and after the election. Indeed, Twitter has a lot of solid, albeit controversial information, as well as deceptive trolls.

“Twitter is probably the most important social platform in the world right now from a societal perspective as the fake news debate lingers on,” Cakmak opined.

Twitter has the power to ban accounts, and has recently suspended accounts of white supremacists and others who promoted hate speech. It said it would ban Trump’s account as well, if his account tweeted something that constituted a violent threat, hateful conduct or other content in violation of the rules, according to several reports.

If Twitter makes the unfortunate decision to block Trump by filtering content, Cakmak said its value will go down “from both a business and societal perspective.”

So if you are using Twitter regularly, take a moment to reflect on the power of that tool. As I observed at the start of my Boosting Your Outreach blog, whether you’re a business or a non-governmental organization (non-profit), you’re still a business and must behave in certain acceptable ways in order to succeed. Your success is based on promoting your mission and attracting new stakeholders or promoting your companies and attracting new customers. Twitter, if used properly, adds exponentially to the odds in favor of your success.

You may be wondering how do I reach even a small portion of those 300 million who use Twitter? Stephanie Nissen, a social media observer, said NGOs, small businesses and entrepreneurs should create and use eight lists in order to boost their reach.

Twitter Lists, as defined by Twitter, are “a curated group of Twitter users.” Nissen pointed out that as a Twitter user you have the ability to create your own lists of users that fit a specific criteria that you choose or to subscribe to a public list created by another user. I’ll explain how in a future post.

Nissen recommends the following:

1. Your Team

If you’ve got employees, contractors, consultants and other team members who are also on Twitter, create a list to keep up with them and retweet their tweets.

2. Your Customers

Your customers are the only way you stay in business, right? So stay connected! (The same pertains to your stakeholders and advocates, if you’re a non-profit.)

3. Industry Influencers

Every industry has thought leaders and influencers that help move us forward. This Twitter list will help you keep up with what they’re tweeting about, help you to easily engage with their tweets, and get on their radar if that’s a benefit to your company.

4. Your Partners and Affiliates

This would be another private list to keep but it’s an important one to make. Partners and affiliates that support your business should be on a list all their own so you can not only support their efforts but also look for additional ways to partner based on their tweets.

5. Your Competitors

We always want to know what our competitors are up to in the cyberspace. This list should absolutely be kept private and it’s not meant for you to engage with these profiles.

6. Networking and Event Attendees

Personally, I’ve had great success with networking and event attendees lists. Create a list of people you meet at a local networking group and also at large conferences. You always exchange business cards, don’t you? So don’t just chuck them in your desk drawer. Incidentally, does your business card have your Twitter handle?

7. Content to Curate

A Twitter List with content you can curate is a huge perk for businesses because it will help you to never run out of content.

8. People Who Retweet You

When people retweet your content, add them to a list so you can keep up with them. If someone has shared your content once, they are more likely to do it again.

As I have encouraged you to do, tweet, retweet yourselves and retweet what others have tweeted. Invite people to join the conversation. Soon, the message will encircle the globe.

Share your ideas about boosting your outreach and we can discuss it online.

Something to consider for your New Year’s resolutions.

For additional advice, I’d like to invite you to visit my Thought Leadership website:

http://thoughtleadership.yolasite.com/