However, I wouldn’t say that social media is a fad. The social platforms that are gone now have only been replaced by better ones. The fact is social media is here to stay, and not just because it’s a fun way to connect with friends and family, but it is another marketing tool to put in your arsenal. People by nature need to feel connected to each other and to something bigger. There will always be people pushing the envelope on technology and communication. So if you haven’t been listening to us and the rest of the marketing world. It is time to pull together a social media strategy. A lot of business owners haven’t done this yet because they have objections and fears about social media. Can we show ROI? Can we control our message? Is it a waste of our time and Money? But these objections are killing your ability to generate leads and new customers and ultimately killing your business.

Let’s take a look at some of these objections and discuss the reality of using social media in your marketing strategy.

1.  You can’t calculate ROI on Social Media.

What is the ROI for your phone?  If you don’t have a phone or a website or a social media profile, you do not exist on the business landscape of your customer. That doesn’t mean that you just throw money at social media and hope it delivers results. Use sound business principles. Set business goals and start comparing the investment you currently have in getting and keeping customers with new social media tools.

2.  This is a waste of time and money.

This is another ROI question. If you currently make cold calls, send sales reps into the field, go to networking events, travel to trade shows, gather business cards, make sales calls, make appointments, drive to appointments and make more appointment to generate a new sale, and then you might actually be saving time and money by using social media tools. Face to face meetings will never replace social media. But using social media to break through barriers and engage with potential customers that you may not otherwise have met is crucial. Serendipitous business opportunities abound in social media channels and it is crucial you get out there. Cultivate relationships online and then have those face to face meetings. Or use social media to stay connected with leads you have met at networking events or trade shows.

3.  There will be no control over our message.

Yes you can. The way you control your message with social media is by putting it out there in the form of blog articles, guest articles, Twitter posts, Facebook updates, LinkedIn updates, answering questions and simply being present online. Also investing in sound search engine optimization (SEO) strategy will help to get your website and your social media profiles on the top pages of search rankings. This all helps to enforce you message, your name, your brand!

4.  Privacy does not exist on the internet

You will lose as much privacy as you would by sharing information at a networking event or a customer presentation. Social media is a sales and marketing tool—the last thing you want is privacy! Worrying about privacy is like sending your sales rep to a trade show and saying, “Don’t tell anyone we’re there.” You wouldn’t do that at a trade show, why do it online?  Maybe you’re stuck on the Twitter idea that people share what they’re having for breakfast.  That might have been true in the early days, but overwhelmingly Twitter is a place where conversations happen about brand.  There are marketing research tools out there designed to pull and analyze what products and services people are talking about.  They wouldn’t do that if it wasn’t there and important.

5.  We will be vulnerable to legal problems.

This is a valid concern, especially for companies that are in heavily regulated industries like financial services. Instead of saying that it’s too difficult, get legal advice on what is acceptable in your industry. In 2009, the Federal Trade Commission issued general guidelines for social media that will help you start thinking about what the best way is for you to address your social media strategy. I recommend coming up with objectives and plans for your social media marketing strategy and THEN consult your legal team. This way you will get them to think of ways for you to achieve your objective instead of focusing on what you cannot do.  Finally, create a social media policy that clearly states what’s acceptable and what’s not for your organization.  Create social media identities for those employees who are eager to promote your brand online and be clear about how they are to represent your brand.

Don’t let uncertainty or doubt overcome the need for your business to gain new leads, prospects and customers.  Instead of approaching the world of social media with an immediate “no” and then finding excuses as to why it’s not for you, start with “yes” and see what benefits suddenly open up for you.

The Discovery Communications Group is an award-winning, fully-integrated marketing agency located in Salem, NH, that specializes in professional web design, search engine optimization, and social media marketing strategy. DCG also provides printing and mailing services to meet every advertising need, servicing clients throughout New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

As stated by Lisa Barone, co-founder and chief branding officer at Outspoken Media, “Your corporate social media policy is a set of guidelines that employees will be able to turn to when navigating unfamiliar situations. Because, as commonplace as it may feel, Facebook, blogging and Twitter isn’t normal or comfortable for everyone. Conversing with customers, colleagues and contacts in the confines of 140 characters is often something that takes a little knowledge and skill.”

The purpose of a social media policy is to give employees the knowledge of what is and what is not acceptable, and how to handle situations when your company or the employee themselves may be insulted. Think of your social media policy as a customer service handbook so they know the right actions to take and can avoid hairy situations like Kenneth Cole and Gilbert Godfried recently got themselves into.

Before you get started, it is useful to brainstorm all the areas that need to be addressed in order for your employees to feel safe and comfortable engaging with social media. Below are some ideas adapted from Lisa Barone to get you thinking about your policy.

What is social media & what is your purpose for being there?

When you talk about your company’s social media use, which sites are you referring to? Is it just Facebook and Twitter or are you also referring to your company blog, internal wikis and your in-house Q&A system? If you are, then you need to spell that out so everyone is operating under the same definition. Once that’s squared away, provide an explanation of what social media means to your company. Why are you investing resources in participating? What do you hope to get out of it and how are these tools helping you? That company mantra or philosophy will be invaluable in quickly leading employees out of murky water.

How does social media integrate into their job?

It’s important that employees are able to see social media as an extension of their position so they embrace and not resent it. Everyone from the CEO to the receptionist is an arm and a face of your company, and their interaction counts! One of the best ways to encourage smarter participation is to make someone aware of the larger goal and their part in helping everyone achieve it. Let them see how their interaction can be used to benefit the entire company.

Who are they in social media?

Your social media policy needs to make it clear who your employees are in the world of social media. Are they to identify themselves as being part of the organization? If so, how are they to do it? Should they create company-specific accounts with the company name in the username or will they be engaging from personal accounts? How do they handle sites like Digg, which are less open to marketing personalities? How much transparency should be used and is that site-specific?

Breakdown of common sites

Ideally, you’ll want to create a channel-specific rulebook for each social media network that you’ll be working to create a presence on, but it’s still not a bad idea to include some best practices in with your general document. Briefly introduce employees to the networks, your established accounts on each network, the purpose of the account, and some best practices for how they are to engage there, if at all. Think of this as Social Media Etiquette 101.

What’s really important is that you give your employees a quick overview of what the site is about and the key things they need to know about interacting there. If the employee will be responding to blog comments, you may also want to include some tips for how to respond to blog comments in a way that provide value, instead of more spam.

How to handle common occurrences

What should an employee do when they see a negative tweet about your brand? Who do complaints get passed off to? How do they handle an irate customer making threats? What topics are off-limits? How much personal information are they allowed to share? Wouldn’t it be nice to have the answers to these questions before they get started using social media on behalf of your company? Give them a road map and a guide to handling common social media occurrences. It will make that first negative comment far less jarring and give them the tools they need to best handle the situation.

Social media & NDAs, client/company confidentiality

It is a natural reaction when finishing great work for a client to want to tell everyone what you did. Sometimes that’s 100 percent allowed and other times it could get your company sued for millions of dollars. Just because someone signed a traditional confidentiality clause or non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with your company doesn’t mean they automatically assume that applies to social media conversations as well. Make sure they know it does affect social media, and that they know what they can and cannot say.

Social media & productivity

As great as social media is, it can also become a colossal time waster if not used properly and with clear intentions. There needs to be some mention of this in your policy. Personally, I have always taken the approach of treating employees like adults. A social media policy should address the fact that misuse of social media or negative impacts to productivity will not be tolerated and lets them know that disciplinary action will be taken if things get out of control. Other than that, I don’t recommend monitoring employees like children – if you are monitoring your social media metrics, you will notice when things aren’t going as smoothly as they should or if they warrant investigation.

That should get you started on the right foot to bringing social media into your business in a positive and, hopefully, stress-free way. By giving specific instructions and training to employees you will not only help them to understand the role social media plays in their professional lives, but you will develop a much better social media presence.

The Discovery Communications Group is an award-winning, fully-integrated marketing agency located in Salem, NH, that specializes in professional web design, search engine optimization, and social media marketing strategy. DCG also provides printing and mailing services to meet every advertising need, servicing clients throughout New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

To drive my point, I recently came across the 2011 State of Inbound Marketing from HubSpot. According to the data from their marketing research, small businesses are spending 14% more of their marketing budget on social media marketing than medium to large businesses. The reason for this trend is that the cost-per-lead on social media is significantly less expensive than with traditional media. In fact, the study showed that inbound marketing techniques like social media and blogging are 62% less expensive than traditional outbound marketing tactics like trade shows, direct mail and telemarketing. Furthermore, Google will soon be incorporating content on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook in their algorithm for ranking websites in search results. If you are confused, I will simplify it for you; if you are not on social media yet, you better jump on the bandwagon or you will be left behind in the digital dust!

With that being said, I find the most resistance regarding social media from small business is determining the value of Twitter. But Twitter is a powerful tool that should without a doubt be part of your digital marketing arsenal. Below are 5 reasons why your small business needs to get on Twitter!

Show you are “With-It”

Twitter is evidence that your small business is participating in this whole social media thing, and obviously a “with-it” kind of organization that people might be interested in doing business with. It’s just not enough to only have a website anymore.

Stay on top of the buzz!

Twitter let’s you see what others are saying. This type of constant information allows you to keep your ear to the ground about your industry, company and competitors. Business intelligence is priceless and allows you to tweak your products and marketing strategy accordingly.

Get the message out!

You can instantly get the message out with Twitter to existing and potential customers. You can use it to share upcoming events, new products or current deals. Also, you can use it for customer service!

It’s who you know!

Being on Twitter will give you access to millions of people, many whom you may never have had the opportunity to meet. Some of these people may be the business contacts you have been looking for!

ENGAGE!

I can’t say it enough! The key to social media is to empower and engage your target audience. Twitter gives you the ability to engage with people right away. Twitter is a conversation, a two-way street. People like to be heard and acknowledged – what better way to build brand loyalty and a following than by actually engaging with you customers virtually face-to-face?! Get to know them, what they like and dislike, what they think about your company, where they like to hang out and shop, give them a voice!

So what is the point? Get out there! There really is no need to be scared! Go talk to your customers, see what they want and need and give it to them! You will thank me for it!

The Discovery Communications Group is an award-winning, fully-integrated marketing agency located in Salem, NH, that specializes in professional web design, search engine optimization, and social media marketing strategy. DCG also provides printing and mailing services to meet every advertising need, servicing clients throughout New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

Let’s take a quick look at some of the metrics you find on your Traffic Sources report and what they mean.

Direct Traffic: This is the number of visitors who typed in your URL directly or clicked on a bookmark in their web browser. These tend to be people who know about your business, and probably have been to your website before.

Referring Sites: Other websites that are referring visitors to your website are in this category. Whether is a link, a blog post about you, or a banner ad, these websites are linking to you and referring traffic. Identifying who is referring traffic to your website is vital. This gives you the opportunity to establish a marketing relationship with some of your best referrers.

Search Engines: This category includes two major components of your search engine marketing strategy, organic search and PPC traffic. Visitors who found your website through organic search went to a search engine like Google or Bing and searched for something related. Traffic to your site through Organic Search is one of the best types of traffic you can receive. If a visitor is able to find your site by searching for a related term, the chances of that visitor converting into a lead, sale or other desired outcome is much higher than most other traffic sources. The second component of search engine traffic comes from PPC or pay-per-click advertising. PPC is another important component of search engine marketing. It allows you to place ads on the search engine by paying for certain keywords. When visitors go to a search engine and type in one of your targeted keywords, your ad has a chance to appear based on your bid (we will be covering PPC campaigns in the coming weeks)

Other: This category includes traffic from sources such as emails or special links that you set up and tag with campaign variables.

By understanding what these numbers mean, you can determine how your marketing efforts are affecting your outcomes. Are you getting most of your traffic from email newsletters? Are they coming from social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn? Or are your visitors finding you on search engines like Google or Bing? These numbers can help you take action to either improve a campaign, tweak an SEO strategy, ramp up social media efforts, and to plan your next move. Learn what changes to make in Part 3: Taking Action!

The Discovery Communications Group is an award-winning, fully-integrated marketing agency located in Salem, NH, that specializes in web design, search engine optimization, and social media marketing services. DCG also provides printing and mailing services to meet every advertising need, servicing clients throughout New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

There are numerous ways to interact with your consumers, plenty of tactics to get better traction and promotion, but when it really comes down to it, people will friend, follow and talk about your company because they like what you have to say. Maybe it’s the way you speak on your blog, be it sassy and sarcastic, thoughtful and informative, funny and down-to-Earth or a thousand other ways; your audience responds to how and what you write about. Whatever you choose, be honest and be yourself. If you’re struggling to find your voice, this could be why you haven’t developed that following you were expecting when you first jumped into social media like a polar bear plunge event. Instead of being embraced by the water like you expected, the cold waves knocked you down early and you’ve flopped into the undertow, getting a face full of freezing, sobering water every time you try to find your footing to no avail.

Getting frustrated isn’t ideal, but it’s nothing to quit over. Social media marketing is about finding what works for you and making the most of it. Companies like Southwest Airlines have garnered success from crafting a voice and community that speak to their customers—in this instance, packing into a giant sky boat and traveling across the country or even the world and sharing that experience. Southwest is known for their customer service, community interaction and humorous, lighthearted blogging that eases their audience, especially about something as nerve-wracking as air travel.

A message, an idea, a voice, information or opinion, insight or expertise – whatever it is, people must see the value in what you’re supplying. If they don’t value you, their interest may falter. Your audience should help guide your message, but immediate success, or lack there of, should not curb your ambition. Find what works for you. Be upfront and tell your audience about what’s in the pipeline, tease them with upcoming events and add a little mystery to their day. Blog about your feelings toward something going on in your industry and explain why you’re passionate. Be creative and design a contest to develop a Facebook following, one that asks your community to open up and share, show off their wild side and reward them for their social bravery to bare the waters like you did when first submerging into social media.

Social media provides an audience waiting to be found. Everyone has already come out to congregate and it’s up to you to think of ways to make a name for yourself.

The Discovery Communications Group is an award-winning, fully-integrated marketing agency located in Salem, NH, that specializes in web design, search engine optimization, and social media marketing services. DCG also provides printing and mailing services to meet every advertising need, servicing clients throughout New Hampshire and Massachusetts.