With celebrity tweets about botched Botox, personal agony over the tanning bed tax and Justin Bieber as a trending topic, it is sometimes hard to see the legitimacy of using social media as a way to communicate with your prospects. While it’s easy to get frustrated with the noise of social media and give up on it entirely, it is a cost-effective and engaging way to communicate with prospects, customers and technology partners.
The question we’re tackling today is, “How do you establish a strategy that enhances your brand — without ruining your street cred?”
Don’t Cry Wolf
Do you have that friend, colleague or family member that talks just to hear themselves talk? One important thing to remember about inbound marketing or social media is to be purposeful. Don’t just publish content for the sake of getting something out. Don’t tweet just to tweet, and don’t blog just to blog. When your message is diluted due to too much noise, your important messages that you truly want to stand out won’t.
Kill Two Birds (relax, we love birds…it’s just a euphemism)
When tweeting, face booking, LinkedIn-ing (is that a word?) etc., not only should you add relevant content, but you should also be sure to have your search engine optimization thesaurus handy. Disseminating content that is not aligned or optimized with your SEO goals are missed opportunities to cross-reference other sites, articles, etc.
Play Nice
It pretty much goes without saying that if you find joy in putting down others, you truly don’t believe in what you’re bringing to the table. This concept holds true for businesses and professional organizations. Calling your competitors out on the carpet won’t make you look any better, and it could potentially have very negative effects. So, play nice just like Mom said…or you might get your butt kicked on the social media playground.
Rinse, Wash, But Don’t Repeat
Remember that charming, yet crazy uncle who told you the same story over and over every time you saw him? Well, while we grin and bear it from our elders, your audience of potential customers won’t. Posting the same blog, tweet or update over and over again in a short time period does not get you anything but booted off of the inbound marketing island. Without cookies.
A No-Brain Brainer?
It’s almost embarrassing to have to add this tip, but we wouldn’t include it if we didn’t see it happen. Now that most of us are grown ups, we realize that putting career-limiting photos up on the World Wide Web can be just that…career limiting. Organizations should also follow this unwritten law. Your prospects don’t need to know that the Christmas party included one of your inside sales associates belting out, “You’re So Vain,” even though karaoke wasn’t part of the evening’s festivities.
By following these tips and using your own good judgment, you’ll attract the “right” kind of attention that should drive quality brand recognition and augment your inbound demand gen strategy. Happy Face-Twee-Link-Book-ing (that’s not a word either, right?)
