I have not found the magic yet.  I try to get on the conversations but they end.  No response or little.  That is why I wanted to try this site.  Maybe we can find it here.

its  helped  my  business in a  big  way…im  brick and mortar retail….and  sell to women   …my page has  grown out of our   customer  base and   works in hand with our website…. we  promoted it  to our  customers in person, our  database and   in all our mailings…. the  best thing is  our  customers  like our stuff and are already on  facebook  so its a great  fit……  i hear about it all the time in the store…. yesterday   a woman  came in for a  190$$  mirror she  saw on  the page…  that  happens   a LOT….  i put  a lot of   albums on   showing what just  came in…pictures of the stuff…. thats  very worth while….

we are kind of  a fun  business  selling to  modern  adventurous   people…who   are  already  on  facebook ……and  they like our pinterest  too….

i  usually  get over  30%  response on  my posts….or i used to….now i  still do on text posts  but not  my popular  picture posts….so i  am in a quandry….im  trying  to  make a  good  marketing  plot   that  fits  the new   facebook   reality.

we are  a regional store   ….3700  fans. 

Thanks for the repies

@donna-lavin This is a great place to learn about how to use Social Media and other business principals, especially when just starting out.

@annfurnivall Sounds like you have had good success with using the Social Networks for your business. Have given you a suggestion on my other post from this morning regarding the photos and reach….

@cindywatts I agree that trial and error is very much a part of using Social Media. I also recommend that clients do not spend too much time doing it, but rather concentrate on building a strong website with a lot of good content, then use Social Media to get traffic to it.

@iancampbell

Good question. Nothing is a “must do” for all small businesses, except delivering value for your customers.

Personally, I feel that if you’re going to use social networking for promoting your small biz, you need to do it tactfully. 

I usually break social media into two main categories: networking and content creation, although the lines are very blurry.

Networking is building bonds, and done on sites like LinkedIn, FB, Twitter, etc. 

Content creation is a soap box style of education and feedback, and done through a blog, video or podcast.

When “networking,” I don’t sell. The pushiest I’ll get is linking to a recent blog post or talking up an upcoming event.

When “creating content”, I strive to educate. That’s mostly about establishing my (and flyte’s) credibility in the market place. The more we share, the more business we get. 

As a web marketing and social media consultant, SMs been essential because I need to “walk the talk.” 

As the president of a small business (admittedly, one in the web services field), SM has been very powerful in increasing our online visibility and driving traffic to our site and blog. 

I have had good success with looking at forums of potential customers. For example, I offer business/large format printing. I hang out on several graphic designer forums b/c most designers aren’t that familiar with the fine details of printing. I try to be the source of all good info relating to printing and as a result, I have several really good clients from around the country now b/c of this. 

I recently joined a “real world” networking group for Realtors who are interested in technology. This could become a good source for social media clients.

When I am involved with these types of groups, I leave my salesman’s hat at home and focus on being an educator. I share my knowledge and let the sales comes to me.

and  one more thing….give  a great   product  that is  worth their money   so they  will  come  back  and or  give  your  thing  good  buzz…..

 and  make  enough  money  to   remain in  business….drop the dud  ideas…if they dont work  for you  try something else… ….

@iancampbell i started a forum related to my world 2 yrsa ago….  got  about  60  

members…but   too few   engaged inthe  conversations….it  ended up  me and   about  4  others..so i  gave it up…. ….  .  …….so hard!!!!   i think it was  v bulliten…easy to set up…. but  so hard to  get   many  talkers…..

im in  a  facebook  group  now  with lots of the same  people and its working  better…. 

Hi @iancampbell

Because I’ve been on the web for a very long time (since 1992) I figured out early on, as the search engines began to take hold, what worked and what didn’t for organic/natural search.  And I’ve kept up with changes all along.  As a sub-contractor I had a hard time getting my name out there.  But, my own businesses bring in most of the clients anyway and most of that is from natural search and word of mouth from one client to another. 

So, social media for me is an “add on” albeit an important one. You do need it and now it does serve a purpose – to let people know who you are so they feel comfortable hiring you – after all – they now know a lot about you – if you’ve been interacting, helping and educating all within the same process. 

One of the big money makers here is sub-contracting for grocery store “tear off sheets.”  I’ve done quite few now through Media companies that hired me to do the graphics work – no one anywhere has any idea that this is a job that I do as a sub-contractor.  I’ve also done some magazine ad layouts and stuff like that – with no website for that and no advertising whatsoever – I still have companies calling for that work.  And much of that is accomplished through social media and conversations about graphics in general. I do have one website for web graphics but that is an entirely different niche.

So social media is quite important to me, for no other reason but to have a voice about what I do woven into discussions about advertising.  The strategy is to keep my eyes open to posts (any kind, any where) where I can help with my experience, whether it is copy blogging, graphics, SEO, design, development or whatever. Having a wide range of skills makes social media easier to wrestle with too.  It seems fluid and seamless, most of the time.

Eileen 

@annfurnivall I agree with the fact that Forums are difficult to get engagement from for all but the most passionate of subjects. I too have been down that pathway and whilst it is easy enough to get members, it is not so easy to get them all talking. Interesting that your Facebook group, with the same people, responds so much better. I have not found this myself…

@iancampbell Not sure that I agree with the premise behind your statement—that people don’t want to respond. People DO want to respond when provoked in a way that is relative to a pain they’re experiencing or a risk they need to avoid or a goal they have set sights at achieving. They WILL respond if we take the time investment out of the equation. 

In my experience creating response (a lead) is less about people wanting to take the time to respond and more about US giving customers a REASON to respond in a way that’s urgent, relevant and demonstrates a clear path toward a problem they’re looking to solve or a goal they want to achieve.   

BUT… in a provocative way that tempts customers to take an action (sign up, download, Like to get access to) that they, deep down, want to take. 

@iancampbell Well said and agreed. Facebook *can be* rather passive in nature. That said, I know businesses (like http://www.jandofabrics.com/) where Facebook has proven to be far more beneficial (and a hotbed for interest, collaboration, engagement) to generating leads. 

What I learned from the above business is this: Leads can be generated in Facebook when customers/prospects are already behaving in a way that can be quickly & easily aligned with promotional concepts. In J&O’s case, photo sharing behavior “lined up.” Specifically, their customers were already sharing photos on Facebook. The business was able to, therefore, join in on that activity with a promotion that rewarded customers for doing something they were already doing anyway… since both the existing behavior and the promotion involved photo sharing. It ended up generating leads (and continues to based on all kinds of seasons… like football season, holiday season, etc.). I plan on blogging the complete details soon if you’re interested.  In my experience LinkedIn attracts a LOT of broadcasters and monologue artists… that seems to be their focus in most cases

Hi there!

I’m new here and would love to get into this discussion! I am the Digital Marketing and Media Manager for a small ecommerce business with 3 different brands, and my main project right now is social media. I spend a good portion of my time on Facebook, and blogging for our multiple sites. Other tasks I do throughout the day include commenting on relevant Youtube videos, EDMs, and some Twitter and Pinterest. We are having a hard time determining our ROI on the social media efforts, and I feel like we’re missing something. Does anyone have any suggestions for other tasks I could be doing, or ways to measure social media ROI for a very small business? 

Thanks!

Hi, @laurel-moring What’s wrong with measuring sales as ROI? This seems pretty straight forward to measure. Here’s the rub: Most marketers seem to be engaging with social media. Instead, I encourage people (and teach them how) to sell with it. Frankly, I think the debate around social media ROI is tired and built on a false premise:

Defining and measuring ROI in some kind of hokus pokus terms (ie. “return on engagement”) is somehow more important than tracking a business lead or a sale… and designing social media interactions to produce them.

I feel your pain. This is why I took a year off and got to work—researching WHO is selling with social media and HOW they’re doing it. What I found was shocking and exciting: from small businesses to global corporations those who are selling with social media are all using the same basic technique—the same success principles.

I met people like Amanda Kinsella of Logan Services who’s selling dozens of heating and air conditioning systems using Facebook. 

@jeff-molander — really nice article about generating sales at FB (re: Amanda). First Class.

My customers often ask me how to measure their ROI on Social Networking sites, but usually they are asking the wrong questions about it. For some reason I have found that a lot of businesses, even those that are successful in other marketing areas, seem to think that ROI on Social Networking is all about how many fans they have and what the level of engagement is…..

Whenever I get a new customer or lead in my business, one of my first questions is “where did you hear about me” and “what helped you decide to use my services. This gives me feedback on what is working and what is not and is the only real way I have found to check my ROI across multiple platforms.

My Facebook page for instance has under 200 “likes” and the engagement is not always that high according to the Insights on it. But I get quite a few leads per month from it and have worked out that the time I spend helping people through it provides an adequate (not great but alright) return. My weebsite however does most of the converting from leads into sales so this is where I am focussing my attention the most.

I do agree wholeheartedly with @jeff-molander regarding the “hocus pocus” that seems to surround the whole social media ROI equation. True Return On Investment can only be worked out by tracking where your paying customers originally found you or what in particular made then decide to buy from you (may have seen you on Facebook but your website may have been the persuader like my situation).

So my suggestion is to focus on finding out where your buyers found you and what made them decide to use your services, work out how to improve the best source and as Jeff says “sell with it” rather than just engaging…..  If you are spending 20 hours a week being “engaging on Facebook, but your actual customers are being converted by your website/blog/email system, then that is where I would concentrate my efforts the most.

Now I’m trying to promote my product which is called in thai ชุดนอนซีทรู, which mean sexy sleepwear. Nowadays, social networking and social bookmark are very important.  It can connect my site to customers updating news, trends, fashion and much more.