Enchanting - minus the fairy tale... (Part 2)

This is a continuation from our previous post, Enchanting - minus the fairy tale part 1 - an overview of Guy Kawasaki's tips on how to be enchanting with social media.

His sixth tip on how to enchant people is to always be disclosing. Be transparent in everything you do. Let everyone know who you work for and your partners are and those you advise. A lot of people may think that this will eventually reduce people's interest in those brands/organizations but Guy thinks otherwise. He says that the logic behind this is that your followers will be even more interested in the brands or companies that you mention because you have mentioned them. It would make them wonder why you've mentioned or complimented them and if they see that you work for that particular company, they will become even more interested to find out why you have mentioned your thoughts. This will therefore create more interest from your followers, making you successfully able to enchant your followers.

On Twitter, Guy says that you must always remember to repeat the good stuff! Tweets sent only once might not be seen by people living in different time zones. For example, if you live in the Philippines, then the US is almost half a day behind from your time zone. This is his seventh tip - repeat your tweets about 5 times a day to ensure that everyone around the world will get to read them. Kawasaki does mention that it might irritate a few of your followers since they would come across the same tweet more than once, but that would only mean that they spend way too much of their time on Twitter.

His eighth tip to be enchanting is to remember to be subtle. You need to earn the right to promote your content. If you have created it - then you have the right to keep repeating it :)

"Twitter is a link economy", says Guy as he describes his ninth tip, which is to always be linking when you tweet - this helps create interest. Now the question is, where do you get content for the links? Guy answers this too by recommending a few websites of his choice:

• Stumbleupon.com
• Smartbrief.com
• Alltop.com 

These three websites are only some of the many good sources for good information for your Twitter 'linking' needs.

His tenth tip is also directed towards Twitter and he says that you must always be monitoring. Pay attention to what your competitors say about you, and what your fans and followers say about you as well. For Macintosh users, he recommends Hibari - a simple yet effective application that blocks unwanted tweets and filters your friends tweets so you can see only what you wish to see.

As Guy describes Twitter to be a link economy, he describes Facebook to be a picture economy. His eleventh tip is if you want to enchant people on Facebook, you must always be taking pictures and sharing them. Don't forget to be cropping your images though, so the unimportant or irrelevant parts of the image are separated from what's important in the picture.

His last tip that concludes his daily dozen for enchanting people is to always be commenting on Facebook. Thank people who have liked your posts and ask them questions; welcome people who have given you thanks.

Do YOU agree with Guy's tips on how to enchant people?

Let us know in the comment box below if you have any questions or suggestions as well ;)

Ayna Gonzales
Marketing Executive
Drive Social Media

Enchanting - minus the fairy tale... (Part 1)

Guy Kawasaki, the author of Enchantment, gives us a few tips on how to enchant people with social media.
 
He says that there are three pillars to observe when engaging with social media and the first of which is to always be a likable, friendly, positive person when talking to your audience. As in the real world, you would pay more attention, or in his terms, be more enchanted by a person you actually like.

Being likable involves an appropriate smile, something like a duchenne smile, as Guy describes it. Another thing that could make you seem more likable is to dress appropriately. Everyone likes looking and talking to people who are smiling and well dressed.
 
The second pillar is to be trustworthy. Show people you can be trusted by showing them that you trust them, and they will in turn, trust you back. A company that Guy mentions here is Zappos, an online retail company that pays for shipping fees for their merchandise, both ways! By having this unique policy, they have earned the trust of many as when their shoppers are dissatisfied with their products, they can simply send it back for free.
 
The third pillar is for all your products and services to have the DICEE characteristics; which stand for: deep, intelligent, complete, empowering, and elegant. To greater emphasize this, let's take a look at Macintosh. As compared to Windows OS, Macs bring out the creativity in someone and don't hinder their thinking with complex applications and tools; in other words, an example of a deep, empowering brand.
 
Another example is the Ford Mustang; it is described intelligent and complete because of their special 'key' features. Certain keys specifically designed for the youth so that the car can only accelerate up to a certain speed that the parent sets for it.
 
Once you have established these three pillars, then you can start taking note of the other key points for enchanting an audience using social media. They are as follows:
 
You should always be answering, especially on Twitter. This is the fourth tip to pay attention to when engaging with social media; it is one of the easiest ways to enchant people. Make sure to reply to everyone, whether that somebody is a nobody or Brad Pitt. Remember that the 'nobodies' of yesterday are today's somebodies! Replies ensure that you pay attention to your followers/fans and make them like/trust you :) The fifth tip that Guy mentions is to always remember to say thank you. Growing up, our parents always reminded us of the simple, yet very powerful act of thanks; the same goes in the lines of social media. A simple thank you to everyone who praises you will definitely go a long way.
 
Are we at Drive Social Media enchanting? We would love to know!
 
More soon :-)

Ayna Gonzales

Marketing Executive
Drive Social Media

20 Great Ways Social Media Can Help Your Football Club

John McGrann

If you are involved with a football club at any level you may be wondering how social media can help your club.
 
We have thought of a few ways and hope you and your club gain some real benefits.

• Grow Your Brand – there are over 800 million users on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and many of them are footy fans!
• Free mini website – yes having a Facebook page is like having a free mini website! The standard functionality and Facebook applications can deliver much of what you get from a website and it’s free!
• Target sponsors – keep your social media points interesting and go find new sponsors. LinkedIn hosts many potential sponsors in your area or globally.
• Sell your merchandise – yes either on your Facebook page or via a link to your website!    
• Promote your match day offers – use Facebook as the hub and Twitter to target prospects in your area!
• Target talent – it’s a global world now so get the feelers out for new football talent! Get fans to upload video of potential talent!
• Target corporate fans – their CEOs etc. are all on LinkedIn! Go connect with them and build relationships!
• Join targeted LinkedIn groups and share best practises, knowledge and ideas about the football industry!
• Leverage your current fanbase and make sure your great content goes viral!
• Bring your club to life online! Engage your fans and followers!
• Connect with local businesses on Facebook and Twitter! Promote each other!
• Great content - post your fixtures, statistics and events!
• Great content – share all your latest news first on your Facebook page and Twitter!
• Great content – share great stories about your club! Share its history too!
• Great content – feature players, staff and fans! Get them on video too!
• Great content – ask questions and ask for help! Your fans will be happy to help!
• Great content – be a Thought Leader in your industry and raise your club profile! Get blogging!
• Great content – host quizzes and competitions
• Great content - Host discussions on forums – create real emotional attachment to your club!
• Great content – video the football action and match interviews of your club and load to YouTube! Then Share it on Facebook and Twitter!

We love the Beautiful Game so please join us on Facebook at:

Football Crazy World and Drive Social Media  

   

     

We would love to hear your suggestions and ideas so feel free to comment!

  Cheers!

  John McGrann

  CEO Drive Social Media

Prospects will be IN-TE-REST-ED...

John McGrann

“The truth is Mr Client you are so boring!”

That probably sounds a bit harsh doesn’t it? But in some cases it’s true. Some businesses are boring and lifeless. My guess would be less than 5% of them. They are in industries which attract little interest. I wouldn’t care to name them though. 

As for the rest, they have no excuse. They are interesting to many of their stakeholders.  Their products, services and people are interesting. So why do many of these businesses still complain that people are not interested in their Facebook page or LinkedIn group or blog, for example? In other words they are boring!  In fact, they appear boring – although in reality and offline they can be very interesting. Simply, they are boring online only – it is just their online content that is boring.

Great content is essential for success in leveraging social media for business. Yes you need a strategy and you need to be out there in the right places. Growing a large social media network is a must so you can connect with your targeted audience. But connections alone are of little value. You have to engage your connections – talk to them. Great content facilitates that engagement – now we have something to talk about.

Some clients are slow about opening up and that is understandable. They are cautious. That’s fine, as over time confidence will grow. When their content is shared online the benefits can be magnified many times as fans and followers share their content. 

So what is Great Content? Here is an aid my team use to generate it themselves and from our clients.

What do you think?

More Soon!

John McGrann

CEO Drive Social Media

The Final Steps

This is the fourth and final series of posts on business blogging initiated by the blog post:
‘Don’t make your blog a slog!’

The previous blog post shows you how to create your own blog and how to add content to it, but the next question is… How do you attract followers to your blog? You want people to read your posts, but how would you do this?

Always remember that people will be interested to follow you, if they find you interesting.

Writing insightful articles will help people understand what you, or your brand is about, and will keep reading to learn more about it.

Add other blogs from your niche - follow other blogs that you find interesting, and they will hopefully follow you back. Engage with your followers; converse with them so they can get to know you better. You could also refer to other similar blogs in your blog posts, and then comment on their blogs to inform them that you've mentioned them in your post.

RSS feeds, like Google Reader or Outlook, are also very powerful tools you can use to help you generate followers for your blog. RSS feeds (also known as Really Simple Syndication feeds) help you keep track of other blogs and let you know when they've posted new content, so you can easily read them and comment on their posts.

So are there any other ways of letting people know about my blog?

Social Media Sites are also very useful when you want to attract followers. For example, you could let your followers on Twitter know that you've posted a new blog post and encourage them to follow your blog after visiting it.

Use Linked In to update your friends and colleagues there about your blog posts. Don't forget to direct them to your blog by adding the URL in your update as well. Linked In has a lot of groups; join the ones that are in your field of interest and inform them about your blog.

Facebook is also very useful as you can post on people's walls and kindly ask them to share your update with their friends whom they think will be interested in your blog. If you have a Facebook Page, you could post the same message you posted on Twitter and Linked In to keep your fans updated on your blog.

NetworkedBlogs is an application for Facebook that when added to your blog and Facebook page, will automatically pull through your blog feed and post it on your wall. You will have a separate list of followers for NetworkBlogs too.

Another website that's useful for generating followers for your blog is Technorati - one of the most famous search engines for blogs and blog posts. Find and follow similar blogs and promote yours there too.

What are the business benefits of blogging?

Blogging certainly increases your credibility and lets everyone read about your passion and what you're all about. Over time, with an increasing number of followers, people will trust you more and this in turn, leads to an increase in sales for your business.

All your posts will always be available in your archives, so even new users, or new visitors to your blog will be able to go back to those posts to read about you.

Using social media sites correctly will ensure that people will be able to see your blog on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn.. etc. Good brand awareness leads to trust from your target audience and customers.

Any widgets that can help?

Google Friend Connect, LinkedinABox, My Blog Log, Feedburner and Shout List Icons are great widgets to add to your blog to make it easier for your readers to connect with you, so make sure to add a few.

If you have any questions, please feel free to let us know :)

Ayna Gonzales
Marketing Executive
Drive Social Media