Rohit talks about how to put personality back into your company to tell a better story about what you do, get people to believe in your company and tell everyone about it.

Be sure to check out the takeaways below after you watch the video.

Personality matters because people matter. Here are some of the things you’ll learn in this video about how to humanize your company:

• What you can do get personality back
• Where to focus your attention to humanize your company
• How to identify the employees who are your “accidental spokespeople”
• How to cultivate these people to become a voice for your company
• Why Innocent Drinks has a great personality
• How to find the right backstory model for your company
• How to humanize your brand

Find out more about Ogilvy on their 360° Digital Influence blog. Connect with Rohit on his Influential Marketing blog and download a chapter of Rohit’s book at Personality Not Included.

How do you humanize your company? What tips do you have to share? Please share them in the comment section below.

You’ll discover the steps needed to build your own brand equity with social media, along with some great tips for both the self-employed and people who work for large companies.

Be sure to check out the takeaways below after you watch the video.

Here are some of the things you’ll learn in this video:

• Why you need to carve out your position and brand equity
• How to start branding yourself on social media if you don’t have any brand equity online
• Why you need to use your name on social media
• How to brand yourself on your Facebook business page
• How Mari brands herself and what she does to craft the brand she represents

Connect with Mari on Twitter @MariSmith, on her Facebook page and check out her blog.

What do you do to build your brand equity?  How has your branding helped you? Please leave your comments below.

Although there’s a lot to consider when growing a successful Facebook page, the rewards of brand exposure, loyal fans and increased revenue are well worth your time and effort!

One way to streamline the time and resources that you put into your Facebook page is to assign a community manager. A community manager is an admin of your page who is responsible for managing the page and making sure it’s running smoothly. If you have multiple admins on your page, the community manager is ultimately responsible for managing them as well.

Most small to large businesses that have a Facebook page should consider assigning a community manager. The community manager should be aware of the company’s Facebook marketing plan and be well-qualified to execute that plan on a daily basis on your page.

A good community manager is key to building a strong community.

To help you find the right fit for your page, below are three tips to guide your decision.

Tip #1: Personality Counts

When looking for the right community manager for your page, you want to make sure his/her personality is a good fit for your audience. Here are six personality traits of a superstar community manager:

• Natural communicator
• Problem solver
• Enjoys people
• Good listener
• Professional
• Positive attitude and enthusiastic

Tip #2: Know Your Audience

You need a community manager who can connect with your audience.

Also consider your ideal audience and make sure your community manager is comfortable connecting with your audience and is able to build rapport with them easily.

Remember, Facebook marketing is about connecting and building relationships with real people, not brands. Choose a community manager who is a great representative for your company’s mission.

Tip #3: Evaluate Skill Set

You need a community manager with the right skill set.

In addition to personality traits, there are also some necessary skills that you want to make sure your community manager possesses. They are:

• Solid understanding of social networking
• Social media savvy
• Infallibly committed to helping people in social channels
• Ability to multi-task and think quickly
• Understands online marketing
• Ability to grasp how social media activity aligns with business goals

Questions to Ask Before Assigning a Community Manager

To help you make the right decision, here are some important questions you want to ask before you make your final hiring decision for a community manager:

• Does this person show the ability to be social online?
• Does this person show a genuine interest in connecting with our clients/customers?
• Can I trust this person to be professional and respectful at all times?
• Do people naturally gravitate toward this person?
• Will this person actively contribute new ideas to grow the page and make it better each day?

Because your community manager will be interacting with your fans daily, it’s paramount that you take the time to choose this person wisely. More often than not, you’ll find this person already on your internal team because they know your brand and your clients better than an outside source. However, this is not always possible and if you do need to hire an outside source make sure you train him or her well and monitor activity closely, especially in the first few months.

Expanding Your Facebook Marketing Team

In addition to assigning a community manager, it’s also wise to assign multiple admins to your page. Having a few admins manage your page is one way to optimize time and effort. Putting together an admin team is a smart strategy because your admins can divide and conquer.

With multiple admins, your community manager can assign roles and responsibilities that are aligned with the admins’ skills and strengths and your page will be more consistently managed with multiple people watching over the day-to-day activity. For the Social Media Examiner Facebook page, we have three admins. This allows us to keep engagement high and support our fans impeccably by responding to their posts and answering their questions.

To add an admin to your page, just go to the “Edit Page” link under your profile image on your Facebook wall. Once inside your Facebook page dashboard, click “Manage Admins” and you can type a name or email to add an admin to your page.

Once you're inside your Facebook page dashboard, you'll have the option to add (or remove) admins.

Any admins of your page have the ability to do the following:

• Admins can post status updates on your wall as the page’s identity, not the admins’ profile identity. What this means is that when you’re an admin of a page, you can only post as that page, and never as your own profile. To post on the company’s Facebook page as your own personal profile, you would need to remove yourself as an admin first.
• All admins can edit the page. This means that admins can add photos and videos, change out the profile image, remove posts, and add new tabs.
• Any admin of your page can add or delete admins. Due to this function, it is essential that you can trust all admins of your page to act respectfully and with integrity.

There is no way to limit the admins’ access and functionality on your page. This means that when you add an admin, it’s all or nothing. Make sure to choose your admins wisely!

Your community manager will want to make sure to assign each admin clear tasks so there’s no overlap or confusion on your page. The best way to do this is to create a set of rules and guidelines for your page to make sure everyone is clear on the expectations.

Here are some guidelines to consider as you coordinate posts and strategies:

#1: Decide how you want your admins to post on your page

Here are some questions you want to ask about your status updates and posts on your wall:

• How often will you post updates to your page?
• What will you post about?
• When will you use text-only versus links?
• Will you use third-party content to add value?
• Will you mix up the media and use video, audio, photos?

#2: Determine a communication strategy

There’s a fine balance between monitoring your page and allowing your fans to interact with each other and come to their own conclusions with questions or feedback you might ask from your posts. Decide how your admins should manage this important balance.

#3: Assign roles and document them

One admin might be responsible for posting one third-party article a day while another admin may be assigned the task of uploading company videos throughout the week. Other tasks might include posting questions, uploading company photos to a photo album, monitoring and responding to all fan posts or posting on fans’ pages to increase overall engagement. Whatever the task, make sure your admins are clear on their duties so there’s no confusion as you get going.

#4: Create guidelines

Every Facebook page should have a “dos and don’ts” list. Make it very clear what’s allowed and what you won’t tolerate on your page. Include what can and can’t be discussed, including company-related content and personal content. Decide how often you’ll promote your programs and services and what acceptable promotion looks like.

Think about your company, your mission and your goals and carefully craft your guidelines around all three. The time spent here will save you a lot of headache in the future!

Facebook continues to grow quickly and smart marketers are continually finding ways to use this platform as a new way to engage with their prospects and create stronger relationships. Consider putting together a Facebook team to optimize your Facebook marketing strategy.

Now it’s your turn! I would love to hear your thoughts on how your company manages your Facebook page, so feel free to share your ideas or add a comment in the box below.

All photos from Shutterstock

But engaging in a conversation requires trust.  And just as no newsletter sign-up form or invitation should be without trust-building assurances and privacy statements, no social media invitation or landing page should be without its own persuasive and trust-building cues.

While looking at Adam Cohen’s recent rundown of social media landing pages (think landing pages that convey social media options for customers), I was struck by some observations.  Consider these four cues to incorporate into your social media landing page and campaign designs:

#1:  Provide Visual Indications of Connection and Instantaneity

Take a look at this eBags “Steal of the Day” offer, as taken by Rishi Rawat.

Notice that eBags not only points out how many bags are left, but how many shoppers are also being offered this deal right NOW as you are looking at the purse yourself. Is this really social media?

No, but it does show how instantaneity brings the human element into an otherwise “sterile” e-commerce experience.

Similarly below, on the Windows social media landing page, the ability to see the current forum comments and questions is powerfully persuasive.  The combination of transparency and perceived instantaneity create the desire to dive into the “conversational stream” that we see passing before us.

Microsoft gets it right!  The instantaneous Twitter feed makes us feel connected and lends credibility to the site and comments.  Putting the Twitter pics and names next to comments provides more credibility cues and a humanizing touch.

Those are both examples of employing this first principle to good effect. Now here’s an example where these cues are not adequately leveraged…

Best Buy’s page lacks the feeling of connection that Microsoft’s page has.  There are no social media cues to reassure the visitor.

Notice that the Twelpforce box is below the fold on the social media landing page and there are no cues of:

• Instantaneity or connection. We don’t see the stream of tweeted questions, nor do we see a McDonald’s-like counter of number of customers served/helped.
• “People” behind the tweeted answers.
• A high signal-to-noise ratio—no displayed answers to show that the responses are better than trusting to Google, FAQ pages, or scrolling through the forums.

#2:  Show Signs of the Real Person Behind the Technology

If you look back to the Microsoft social media landing page, you’ll see that pictures are attached to all of the displayed tweets.  That cues us to emotionally attach the “real people” warmth to the streaming tweets and comments.  Remember, social media is about connecting with people.  So include as many “real people” cues as possible.  Common ways to do this include:

• Attaching pictures to blog comments.  Almost nothing says “real person” more than an actual headshot.  Seeing a face humanizes the person behind the comment.
• Pictures attached to testimonials.  In the same way that handwriting personalizes a note, a picture of the customer can personalize the testimonial.
• Voice attached to testimonials.  There’s so much information attached to inflection, emphasis, tonal quality, and so on.  We just feel we can spot sincerity when we hear it—and that works to your advantage when you’ve got sincere customers willing to record a testimonial.
• Video testimonials. This is the best of both worlds: you get voice and pictures!
• Providing live chat with someone specific. Try changing the picture within the live chat icon according to which operator is “at bat.”  Everyone likes to know whom they’re talking with.  When you provide an actual picture, you give visitors more confidence to initiate a conversation.
• Providing a group shot of your customer service or social media team.  Sometimes providing a picture of the individual service tech isn’t feasible, but providing a group shot is.  Best Buy could certainly do this and it would sync nicely with their current “Ask a Blue Shirt” TV commercials.
• Making sure your corporate social media initiatives have a personality behind them.  Bureaucracies don’t have authentic personalities. If projecting your authentic self is crucial to social media success, then a corporate-looking social media landing page is probably doomed from the start.

#3:  Show You Deliver Value

While social media holds out the promise of human contact and intelligent response, it also presents the risk of the knucklehead factor.  No-one wants to open themselves up to spam, troll-like responses, and a customer service rep whose only knowledge of the problem stems from the flow chart in front of him.

To engage more visitors with your social media efforts, you will need to include cues that indicate you provide value—many more intelligent insights, answers, and offers than selfish promotions and corporate PR-speak.

If Best Buy displayed the responses to tweeted questions, this would allow them to demonstrate the quality of their answers and a high signal-to-noise ratio.  Similarly, allowing transparency on Twitter streams, Facebook updates, and so on can allow the wary to see for themselves what kind of signal you’re sending.  This obviously overlaps a bit with the connectivity and instantaneity cues discussed earlier.

Showing your social media team’s pictures indicates that you hold them in high regard, which equates to a higher likelihood of intelligent answers, tweets, blog posts, and so forth.

#4: Use a Strong Call to Action

Social media doesn’t eliminate the need for traditional usability and conversion best practices.  Visually prominent and clear calls to action will continue to outperform subtle text-based links.  Compare the “See this Steal” and “Join the Conversation” buttons in the first two examples with Best Buy’s “Visit ____” text-based links.  Which is more inviting to you?

As with almost everything on the Internet, it always pays to test—both through user testing and A/B or multivariate testing.  As my good friend and mentor Bryan Eisenberg would say, “Always Be Testing.”

What do you think about social media cues? Are they valuable? Please add your comment below.

Social media is no more a one-off playground for brands than television advertising, direct mail campaigns or customer relationship management programs. It’s serious business and should be treated as such.

The following question then becomes relevant: “How do we think about social media strategically?” The good news is that it’s not that difficult, provided your planning team has an understanding of two things and a healthy grounding in another.

The two essential knowledge bases you’ll need are an understanding of the social media tools available (from blogs and social networks to wikis and beyond) and the philosophical foundations to be successful in social media (think share, not sell). The healthy grounding should be in the 5 essential pillars of a social media campaign.

This is the point in the post where most social media marketers would throw out a standard list of five things to guide your social media thinking that generally parallels the marketing mix variables you’re used to. Product, place, price, promotions and public relations can be a starting point. You can even define your product, your target audience, your competition, environmental factors and your metrics or measures of success.

But to take full advantage of your social media efforts and drive buzz, business or both, read on.

Social Media Examiner’s
5 Essential Pillars of a Social Media Campaign:

1. Connectivity

If you aren’t connected to your consumers, and conversely they are not connected to you, then social media success is impossible.

Whether you have customer service chat available on your website, a support forum, commenting enabled on the company blog or even a company presence on Twitter, you must have a connecting point for your customers to find you. Social media is about conversations. Conversations cannot be had if you’re nowhere to be found.

Being connected doesn’t just mean you throw up a form on your website, though. It means you have a person or persons monitoring conversations about your brand online, answering questions, even if the questions weren’t posed directly to them. Connectivity means not just being plugged in, but also being turned on.

2. Generosity

If you’ve read anything about social media on- or offline, you’ve probably heard the phrase, “Give to Get.”

Online social media is an almost identical environment to a social gathering offline. People gravitate to individuals, groups or conversations they feel they can get the most out of. By providing something of value to your customers, or potential customers, in your online activities, you earn trust. The more trust you earn, the more influence you’ll have.

Generosity requires a cultural shift, however, in the way most marketers think. You cannot be generous to others if your top priority is selling more stuff. That is selfish.

You have to approach the online consumer with the attitude that you have something of value to provide, free of charge. In exchange for that, you hope to build and strengthen relationships with others. Those relationships, over time, will equal a much higher return on investment than one-off, one-time customers.

3. Honesty

Have you ever heard a politician or professional athlete respond to a reporter’s question with, “No comment?” It appears as if they’re hiding something, doesn’t it?

If what you’re doing in social media is building relationships, you can’t build them without honesty.

If your product is made with a lesser material than your competitor’s, don’t hide it. Either get better material or find a positive reason it’s made that way (e.g., it’s cheaper, thus saves consumers money).

If the company makes a mistake and has to recall a product, simply say, “We made a mistake. We’re very sorry.” As long as you mean it, people will believe you.

And you don’t have to suddenly treat confidential company information with open records policies, either. The public is a lot smarter than you think. When sensitive information is in question, simply say, “I’m sorry. That’s information we don’t talk about outside the company for competitive reasons.” That answer is honest. “No comment?” Not so much.

4. Personality

If you had to boil successful communication in the social media realm down to an essence, it would be to be human. Consumers flocked to social networking sites and blogs to get away from one-way blasted marketing messages hurled at them all day.

By visiting only the websites they want to visit and finding like-minded consumers to share recommendations and conversations with in social networks, the public has created a new environment for communications—one that requires you, even as a company, to be human.

To put it simply, people want to talk to another human being when making buying decisions, discussing products and services and discovering new products and services. You cannot have a conversation with a logo, a building or a company. You have conversations with human beings.

5. Imagination

Social media is much like a social event. But after a while, social events or conversations with the same groups of people become stale and predictable. The conversations that last are those where at least one person always has something new to say, a never-ending stream of stories or jokes.

Approach your planning as if you’re the person who will keep the life in the party. Develop an editorial calendar for website or blog content and brainstorm a contest, promotion or game for customers and fans to engage with on a monthly or quarterly basis. Remember that you’re building relationships, but, like dating or even marriage, you have to be creative to keep the relationship fresh and invigorating.

Your Turn

If you think through the 5 Essential Pillars of a Social Media Campaign, you’ll at least be well on your way to success in social media. But these are meant to be guidelines, not rules. What other topics or areas have you found equally as important to social media success? How are you using your imagination to keep campaigns fresh and alive? Inspire your fellow readers with a comment.

“Photo Credit: ‘Supreme Court Pillars‘ (CC) by David Paul Ohmer on Flickr.”