Great Advice on Social Media Marketing - providing Content and using a Network?

One aspect of the member survey carried out in March was the need to encourage a significant proportion of members to engage in pro-active activity by advocating the benefits of social media marketing and networking. This is the first in a series of blogs and articles which will do this. Please feel free to comment on this and contribute to this discussion.

The following has been adapted with permission (and thanks) from an article Jason Peck wrote on social media marketing www.jasonfpeck.com

Social media marketing takes place when professionals, practitioners, researchers, organisations take a human approach to marketing by participating in conversations with their audiences - those who you want to connect with, be it other professionals, funding providers, potential clients/customers or research groups.

It’s about engaging such audiences in an authentic way to provide helpful information, solve problems and build relationships (networks) to achieve business goals and get ahead of the competition. In the past this was difficult (and it’s still not easy), but the tools and platforms that are available now have made this a more viable option…and a necessity in many cases, depending on your audience and goals.

Here are six ways to achieve this:

1) Share
Share interesting articles, pictures, videos, links about you and your sector, business or research specialization. Give to get. Give some more. Give and share your time, attention, expertise, questions and insight with the individuals you want to connect with. The more you do this, the more relationships and trust you will build. Your audience will appreciate this, and that’s good for business.

2) Reward
If people are taking the time to interact with you online, why not reward them (and in some cases, you may have to reward them). Reward your followers with exclusive content, access, discounts and promotions.

3) Participate
Participate, don’t promote. If all you do is say, “Look how great I am, look how awesome my product(or reputation) is” people will get tired of it really quickly and stop listening. The whole point of social media marketing is to participate in conversations with your audience, not just talk at them. You don’t have to start with a huge splash; little and often is better. Participation is the key.

4) Listen
Work out who you want to connect with, be it other professionals, funding providers, potential clients/customers or research groups -  this is your audience. Work out where they are and what they’re saying about you (and if the're not saying anything why not), work out what your sector is and who your competitors are before attempting to insert yourself in conversations online. Learn the various unspoken rules, guideines and dos and don’ts of the communities you are part of or thinking of joining. When you do start participating, listen to your audience and figure out what they like. Involve them in idea generation and product creation. Use social media platforms and tools to provide customer service on steroids. It’s about them, not you.

5) Engage
This has a dual-meaning. Part of social media marketing is engaging your audience on their own turf. Your goal may be to get people to come to your website, but what really should matter is engaging people (they way they want to be reached) to build relationships. The other part of this is providing and creating content that is engaging. If it’s not interesting or helpful or entertaining, people aren’t going to care or pay attention to your efforts. Put yourself in your audience’s shoes. Is whatever content you’re producing something that is interesting and good enough to share? If not, then you should re-evaluate your efforts.

6) Enable
Based on your research and listening, you can probably identify some people who are already talking about the sector you are in. These people are great to involve in your efforts, so you should empower them and give them the content (blogs, articles, news, events etc) to become an even bigger advocate for you. This also includes enabling people to share your content with their friends or colleagues, and maybe letting people take your content and create new content from it in the form of remixes, mashups, and videos. Give people ways to feel ownership of what you do (or your brand) and they’ll get closer to it.
Lastly, empower and enable your network to get involved in your efforts.