Before your start on Social Media

Good Evening, Social Rabbit here with your guide to the world of social media.

Today’s blog will be filled with furry words of advice to help you have a fantastic social media campaign.  It’s all very much common sense, but often (this Bunny included) we get carried away with the excitement and addictiveness of Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn/Foursquare etc that we forget to start at the beginning.  DON”T WORRY!  It’s not to late.

You want to use a social network for business, your business, it might be a hair salon, real estate office, coffee shop, accounting firm, clothes store, product or whatever, the rules are the same for EVERYONE.  So you have decided which social networking tool or tools you want to use, now follow these steps;

1. What is the purpose of what you are doing? For your Facebook page what is the purpose?  Why are you setting it up (because it’s fun doesn’t count), I want real reasons, eg to build a relationship with my audience, to use it to find out more about them, to get my product awareness out to a wider audience etc – get the picture?  This is the same if you are choosing Twitter or LinkedIn you NEED a purpose, if you don’t have one, well it just won’t work as well, and you will find it harder to maintain.
2. What are your goals? Eg for your Facebook page you want to get 500 likers in the first month and increase the click throughs to your website by x%.  For Twitter it maybe that you want to be retweeted x number of times and gain x number of followers in the first month.  Whatever you decide that your goals are these are something that you can go back to and see how you are tracking and decide if it’s working.
3. What have you got to offer?  OR What value are you adding?  OR Why should people follow you/connect with you or like you? This is the old “what’s in it for me”.  This should interlink with your purpose, so if your purpose is to “be seen as an expert in social media” the value you add could be in unravelling the mysteries behind social media, helping people to understand it and use it to grow their business.
4. What are you going to promise? I have said this before that your followers etc have memories like elephants – they never forget.  So if you entice them to your Facebook page with the offer of free ebooks or the chance to win prizes or a daily tip, when they don’t get it they WILL rebel.  Rebelling in the social networking world means de-friending/unfollowing/disconnecting, which when you have worked SO hard to get them is not what you want.

The idea behind following these steps is that when you get stuck and think “oh no what shall I blog about, post, tweet etc.” you know what your purpose, values and goals are so it makes it easier for you to deliver.  PLUS it helps with the consistency of your message, if people know you as a social media expert, then you suddenly start rambling on about how to make apple tart, it’s kinda confusing…  They won’t know what’s happening, they will lose a bit of trust and faith, who is this flaky person that yesterday was telling us how to get more likers on Facebook and now is talking about how to get the pastry just right on an apple tart…..

If you already have your social networking set up, it is NEVER too late to go back and revisit what you are doing and why, and don’t think you have to stay with what you decide forever.  However don’t change your mind daily, but often it can take a while to find your niche that both you and your readers are comfortable with, so by all means try out a few things, but let them know.  For example, when I decided to start Mental Monday’s on this blog to review books, I said that I would see how it goes, but I am not doing it daily, only once a week.  So if say 50% of you guys don’t like it I guess you don’t tune in on Monday’s, but no one has complained yet!  But if you want to make a comment do, I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVE comments positive and negative.

Tell me below what you think or on the Social Rabbit Facebook Page.

Is a Facebook account a new milestone in life?

Good Evening, Social Rabbit here with your guide to the world of social media.

According to Facebook’s rules you need to be 13 or over to have a Facebook personal profile.

My question today is: Is getting a Facebook profile becoming a rite of passage?  Similar to looking forward to getting your ears pierced (I had to wait until 13) or getting your first mobile phone or being allowed to go out alone with friends in the evening?  With social networking becoming more and more part of our lives I would venture to say “yes”.  Similar to your first pair of heels (girls or boys, lets not be biased) or your first razor this is another way for teens to express themselves, and really a rite of passage is what expressing yourself is all about.

I was thinking that growing up back in the day before the internet we used to look forward to….

• Reaching 11 to go to secondary school
• Reaching 13 and being able to be called a teenager
• Reaching 14 to be able to get a job
• Reaching 16 to learn to drive
• Reaching 18 to be able to legally drink (sorry any Americans reading this!)

Now becoming a teenager and joining a social network is a milestone in life.  Obviously there are those rebels who lie about their age and join aged 8 or 9 or 10 or 2 (yes, well his Mum joined him!), similar to people who lie about their age and drink in bars.  But as parents start to get more concerned about privacy on Facebook I am sure they will police their child’s usage more and more.

According to the Facebook ad stats there are 118,880 Australians aged 13 on the network, and 1,928,180 Australian teenagers (aged 13 – 19), this is out of the approximately 2.5million teenagers in Australia (Australian Bureau of Statistics, September 2009).  Therefore by my, rough back of an envelope don’t quote me, calculations about 80% of all Aussie teens are on Facebook!!!

Back in 2009 we saw social networking overtake email in terms of popularity, now in 2010 will social networking overtake learning to drive?  No need to learn, I have a web cam and all my friends are online…. or getting a job? I can get one online….

Much as I love social media, it sometimes alarms/excites me the rate that things are changing.  I wonder how much my children (which I don’t have as yet….) will ridicule me for saying “back in my day” like some old lady when people no longer use email, and faxing well isn’t that a dance move?

(PS this isn’t me!)

Anyone else worried/excited about the pace of change in the online world?  Would love to hear your comments either below or on the Social Rabbit Facebook Page, but please don’t email me – it’s sooooo passe darling!

Mental Monday:Tribes by Seth Godin

Good Evening, Social Rabbit here with your guide to the world of social media.

Today being Mental Monday it’s time to review a book related to social media, today my choice is Tribes by Seth Godin.  Now I should let you know that I am a HUGE Seth Godin fan, and regularly read his blogs, but a close friend of mine had read this book and said it was nothing new, so I was a bit reluctant to read it.  But readers I committed to you to read a book a week, so here I am.  I know you may think, but this isn’t on social media, well you’d be WRONG.  Why?  Tribes is all about leadership, Seth defines it as “a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea”.  This reader is what social networking is ALL about.

Your Facebook page is all about an idea, you are the leader, on Twitter you tweet out ideas and thoughts as the leader and you have followers – see what I mean?

So for me this book is one that instead of talking about Facebook etc, gets right down the grass-roots and talks about leadership, what it is and what it takes.  If you want to create a community then you are a leader, this book is one that stands out for me in terms of defining what a leader should be doing, and how ANYONE can be a leader it just takes faith.  My favourite bits from the book are (these are all direct quotes):

• Leadership is about creating change that you believe in
• Marketing is the act of telling stories about the things we make – stories that sell and stories that spread
• Leaders make a ruckus
• Great leaders create movements by empowering the tribe to communicate
• It only takes two things to turn a group of people into a tribe: 1) a shared interest, 2) a way to communicate
• Leadership is a choice.  It’s the choice not to do nothing.
• Showing up isn’t sufficient
• Through your actions as a leader you attract a tribe that wants to follow you
• Great leaders don’t try to please everyone
• The lesson is that one person with a persistent vision can make change happen, whether climbing rocks or delivering services
• Changing things – pushing the envelope and creating a future that doesn’t exist yet (at the same time you’re criticised by everyone else) – requires bravery
• Tribes are the most effective media channels ever, but they’re not for sale or for rent.  Tribes don’t do what you want; they do what they want
• The challenge for the leader is to help your tribe sing, whatever form that song takes
• Caring is the key emotion at the centre of the tribe
• Part of leadership (a big part of it, actually) is the ability to stick with the dream for a long time
• There’s a small price for being too early, but a huge penalty for being too late

But beware… “you can’t have a tribe without a leader – and you can’t be a leader without a tribe”.

Seth also talks about creating a Micromovement (this is one thing that you as the leader believe in) and gives 5 things to do and 6 key principles:

Things to do:

1. Publish a manifesto
2. Make it easy for followers to connect with you
3. Make it easy for your followers to connect with one another
4. Realise that money is not the point of the movement
5. Track your progress

Key Principles

1. Transparency is really your only option
2. Your movement needs to be bigger than you
3. Movements that grow, thrive
4. Movements are made most clear when compared to the status quo or to movements that work to push the other direction
5. Exclude outsiders
6. Tearing others down is never helpful to a movement as building your followers up

So everyone out there with a Facebook Page, a Twitter account, a YouTube channel etc you are all being a leader and creating a following/tribe.  Have you noticed how the same points are raised again and again in regards to social media, eg the transparency, the caring and that it takes time?  In the rush to get x number of followers we often forget this.  So if you want to learn more check out Tribes, and consider your leadership of your tribe….

Got comments?  Please tell me below or on the Facebook Page.  F.Y.I. Just to confirm I was NOT paid to write this, it is a completely honest opinion.

Power Posting…

Good Morning, Social Rabbit here with your guide to the world of social media.

Today it is all about “POWER POSTS”.  What is a POWER POST?  Basically it is a post that gets results, whether you are posting it on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc. you get results.  How do you write a POWER POST? (PS you should be reading POWER POST in a kind of superhero style voice!)

13 Tips for a powerful POWER POST

1. The BIG P – which I’ve bounced over earlier, is all about planning, don’t think you can just spur of the moment come up with a great post, a great post is crafted 🙂
2. Short & sweet – we’re all busy, we don’t have time to read war & peace however interesting the topic, so “get to the point and get out”
3. Call to action – if you want them to do something after reading your post spell it out, eg visit our website, buy online here, write your comments below
4. Spelling and grammar – as someone who is BIG on this, make sure you spell check all your posts before posting, it looks unprofessional to have typo’s or grammatical errors, and can put readers off, as they get caught up in the details of the grammar and miss the message
5. Timing – When is a good time to post that your readers will see it, try out different times and see when you get the best response
6. Be Playful – don’t think you have to be conservative, have some fun with your posts and your audience will enjoy it too
7. Transparent – Tell people what you are doing and why, don’t try to catch them out with something, they WON’T love you for it 
8. Passionate – Get excited, people are attracted to passionate people, so show them how passionate you are about what you are doing
9. Interesting – Make sure the content is interesting to your readers, you already know who you are targeting and why, so make sure that you are telling them relevant info
10. Useful – Similar to interesting, make it useful, do your readers really want to know that you are buying a new printer, no.  If you are buying a new printer to be able to send out flashy invites to an event they might be
11. Educate – If your goal is to educate your readers then do it, and don’t just regurgitate other people’s info, have an opinion, it makes it much more interesting
12. Personal – Show that you’re human (I am making the assumption that you are!) people like to get to know the person behind the page/blog/twitter etc.
13. Have a point to it – think about what the aim of writing it is, if you are just filling in time or filling in a blank space or doing it because you feel you need to, then BORING FORGET IT!

So posters, get out there and get posting, plan what you are going to say, and excite your readers.  If anyone else has any tips for POWER POSTS let me know in the comments (note using tip 3 here).

Seems that everyone has their own networking site… Why?

Good afternoon, Social Rabbit here with your guide to social media.

Today this rabbit is confused…  Yesterday I got invited to join a social network for a women’s organisation, after joining (and becoming 1 of 130 members) I had to think why did they bother…  They could have had a group/profile/fan page on Facebook which has 400 million users, or a group on LinkedIn, why would people join a network with 130 members?  What benefit would I, as a user get from it? 
This what I thought of:
– localness of it, in that it is promoted to Australians
– less daunting with less members, because only a few people see your posts
– brand extension, offering current loyal members an additional benefit

I have to say that I completely understand why they have set it up, my view as a user is that there is a lot more info on LinkedIn or Facebook so why should I create another profile to maintain?  The whole what’s in it for me attitude…  Of course networks only work if everyone is willing to contribute.

All this comes back to knowing your audience,

What do they do? 
What do they want? 
How can you help them achieve it?  

Having your own social network is very cool, no doubts about that, but does it fit?  Is what you should be asking.

I will be interested to see how the network grows over the next few months, I hope it works for them.

What do you think?

P.S.  Join the Social Rabbit fan page for more social media goss