Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/119220
MARKETING CONSULTANT Three Key Objectives For Your Social Media Marketing BY SCOTT STROUD Last month I asked a question: Is social media a waste of time? Answer: Not if used properly, purposefully and strategically. So let's begin exploring how to create a social media strategy that serves a useful purpose, i.e. to (a) attract new customers or residents or to (b) enhance the relationships we already have. In last month's column we covered the various objectives you might have, so let's get down to brass tacks and talk about time, investment and ROI. Follow these steps to begin: First, define what you want to happen. "I'm investing in social media because I want______." Stephen Covey calls this "beginning with the end in mind." Skip this step and you'll quickly get lost, or at least lose traction. I would suggest you begin with these objectives: A. Build brand awareness; B. Enhance your sense of 'community'. C. Attract onsite visitors so you can begin converting sales. Social networking is the perfect platform for all three of these goals. 'Social' means that people get together, albeit online, and chat about things they feel are interesting. They share stories, photos, and ideas that they like. (It's no accident that those three italicized words are the foundation of what Facebook is all about!) A. How to build brand awareness. 1. Create a Facebook page for your business or community. APRIL 2013 22 THE JOURNAL Tell Facebook that you're the page you're creating is for your business. Facebook treats business pages differently from personal pages, and they have different rules for each. (They also want to know who is likely to spend advertising money with them, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.) 2. Start a Pinterest and a YouTube account. Photo and video sharing is huge. YouTube is second only to Google for the number of searches performed. And Pinterest for photos is catching up fast. 3. Claim your Google Maps page and optimize your profile. If you do a Google search for your company name and/or address, you'll likely find that there is already a listing there for your business. (It's often shown as a red 'balloon' placed over a map.) Google got that from the business phone listings and various other sources. However, there are many companies that have never 'claimed' their listing. Don't be one of them. Why claim your listing? So that you can add detail that will attract more traffic and so that Google (do the same with Bing and Yahoo) will list you for multiple search results, such as manufactured homes, home retailers, mobile home communities, manufactured housing communities, etc. Google, Bing and Yahoo don't know unless you tell them. You can also add or solicit comments from your happy residents to be included on your listing. This is called 'optimizing' your listing and it can do wonders for building awareness and getting found. 4. Register your business with Yelp! and Foursquare. Yelp.com and Foursquare.com are review sites – your residents or visitors can log in and leave a review of your business or community. They can also 'check in' and let their online friends know that they are there. Like Google Maps, you likely already have a listing created from your other business listings and Yellow Pages. So, it's important that you at least claim and monitor what's listed there so you can see and have some input over what's being said about you. Which brings up a key point: You're probably going to find that people will talk about you whether your active online or not! You can't stop people from talking, but you can be engaged in the conversation and manage your online reputation! To illustrate, I worked with an RV resort out west that had no idea that their guests were leaving reviews of their park online. And be-