Tag: facebook

My Talk on Proven Ways to Use Social Media to Market Your Toy Business

**The following was first delivered as a seminar topic at ToyFest West trade show in Vegas.** Note that the examples below pertain to companies in the Toy Industry but rest assured, these tips will work with ANY business.**

In today’s digital landscape, when people aren’t stalking exes, reading about the Kardashians or watching cat videos, people actually use the internet for research. Now more than ever, social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, Pinterest are an intrinsic part of this research process.
Consider these stats.

• Consumers are 71 % more likely to make a purchase based on social media referrals. (Hubspot)
• 38,000,000 13 to 80 year olds in the U.S. said their purchasing decisions were influenced by social media (Knowledge Networks)
• 81% of US respondents indicated that friends’ social media posts directly influenced their purchase decision (Forbes)

Marketing consultants will tell you that people purchase things to do the following: solve a problem or increase pleasure or enjoyment. In the toy industry, while toys mainly provide pleasure, sometime in the case of educational toys, for example, they can solve a problem (i.e. learning colors, numbers, ABCs)

So the best way your company can sell your product is to find a way to influence the consumer to make a buying decision by showing them how your product can either solve a problem or increase their enjoyment or pleasure. How do you do this? Well, one way, would be to establish a presence online especially on social media. This is because, according to a recent study by Forbes, 81 % of US respondents indicated that friends’ social media posts directly influenced their purchase.

But enough about that. I am sure that through your own personal experience, you know that what you see on your Facebook feed or see on Pinterest informs your own purchase to a degree.

Here are 4 Reasons Why your company, brand or store should be on Social Media:
1. To deliver better customer service (use social media to listen to what your customers have to say , whether it’s in the comments section, a direct message or a review site like Yelp.)
2. To build your brand (use social media to create your own personality and make an emotional connection with your fans and followers, who are ultimately, your customers – for example are you funny, inspirational etc.)
3. Because Social Media helps increase trust in your brand (this can be accomplished by truly engaging with your fans and followers, ask for their opinions, answer their questions etc.)
4. To drive traffic to your website (social media mentions and links do send positive signals to Google and affect your SEO)

Now are you convinced?
I promised I would share with you Proven Ways to Market Your Business via Social Media.

So first, let me ask you, how many of you have a Facebook Page? Instagram? Twitter? Snapchat? Periscope? Show of hands, please.

By now, you’re probably asking – what? Do I have to be on all those channels? My advice: No. First, you must find out where your audience is, where your demographic is playing, and where they hang out online. Some may say moms rule social media. As a mom active on social media myself, and as a mom blogger (I know that makes some bloggers who happen to be moms cringe); I can say that it true! But I only bring it up because as a business owner, you know this little fact is important. After all, it is usually moms who make most of the purchasing decisions, right? That said, it is essential that you learn where your audience of purchase-decision makers are most active online. Where are they posting, reading, connecting?

For now, let’s concentrate on Facebook – and the reason I say Facebook is because it has the most users. By the end of 2015, Facebook had 1.581 billion monthly active users! So that’s not something you can ignore.

I started this post/talk by telling you that I was going to share Proven Ways to Market Your Business Using Social Media and I am happy to share with you these 6 concrete things you can do to market your business using social, by the time you finish reading this:

1. Create your presence on the channel, in this case, Facebook – Make sure to complete all the necessary fields such as “About,” a description of your business or product, hours, location etc.
** Note on Facebook, you can actually use a “call to action” button like Shop Now (which you see on here)

2. Share relevant content that connects with your audience and reflects your personality or establishes your brand voice.

Samples:

3. Engage with your audience by asking questions, or providing prompts.

For example, in this Pokemon post, they ask people to TAG them with #Pokemon20 on other channels. Note: they have added a link that goes back to their website.

4. Use your page to make product announcements. Example: Arriving at our store in Spring etc. – post a photo or link an article. Even better, post a video.

5. Create a contest or do a giveaway to engage your audience.

6. Boost a Post or Create a Facebook Ad (with easy to use tools and target marketing, you can get the most bang for your back on boosted posts or Facebook ads, for just a few dollars a day you can reach EXACTLY who you want to reach –you can pick the age of your customer, their hobbies, their likes, where they live etc and target them with your post or ad)

Sample.
Post with no boost.

Boosted Facebook post sample. With a small budget for a boosted Facebook post, you can increase your reach.

** Of course, this was all I had planned to say at the Social Media seminar but what actually happened was more interactive and free-flowing. It was great to hear the seminar participants’ own experiences with social media. My goal as a speaker and social media consultant is to help YOU use social media to market your business. Everyone is different and each business has its own set of goals. But it is only through engaging with your customer, planning a strategy and executing the plan that you can make any headway with your business using social media marketing tools.**

April 6, 2016
Lost Facebook Likes

It’s not you, it’s me. No, actually, it’s Facebook. You may have noticed a small drop in your Facebook Likes Count. You see, over the weekend, Facebook started removing two types of accounts from your fan count: memorialized accounts and voluntarily deactivated accounts. So basically the great Facebook purge is doing you a favor by deleting accounts that are dedicated to loved ones long gone and people who have left Facebook voluntarily by deactivating (not deleting) their profiles. Remember that this affects Pages not Personal Accounts. For Business Pages, this is supposed to be meaningful because it can help businesses truly understand what their followers care about.

Changes in Facebook are part of the game. Sometimes they announce the changes, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they clarify things such as what you can or cannot post. You can visit the latest community standards here.

In the larger scheme of things, what do the number of likes really mean? And what would happen if all that time and effort you put into posting content in order to gain likes, were suddenly to disappear? Here is what I always tell businesses and brands I work with, in the end, you do not own these social media platforms – Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube et al. What you do own is your message, your product, the original content you create. These platforms are but tools to help you distribute your message. They are a means to an end.

I read this article by Rachel Rofe , who experienced being banned from Facebook, and what she did about it. That’s a tough lesson but that is one of the good things about this digital age – being able to learn from other people’s mistakes.

Now if you’ve noticed a drop in your personal friends count, you can’t blame that on Facebook. People could be unfriending or unfollowing you for whatever reason. Check your posts and frequency of posts. Better yet, if you’ve lost a real-life friend on Facebook, perhaps it’s time you picked up the phone and gave them a call or met them for a real-life chat.

Here is the official Facebook update: http://facebook.com/business/news/page-likes-update

March 17, 2015
Don’t You Wish You Could Quit Facebook?
For social media managers like me, Facebook is a necessary evil. Most days, I just want to quit Facebook. As far as social networking goes and marketing, I personally think it is a dead end. A part of me still loves it though, because it keeps me connected to friends and family near and far. Who would’ve thought that I’d know what my Kindergarten classmate or my college professor was up to halfway around the world, even after all these years? Thanks to the News Feed, we can keep abreast of the latest news, good or bad, personal or celebrity-oriented, and of course, the latest means.

“The Problem With Facebook,” according to Derek Muller aka Veritasium, is that “Basically, it chooses what you can see… ” His video explains this in detail as he experiments with his own sizeable following.

For content creators, like Veritasium, and writers like me, Facebook just doesn’t make sense.

You create content and then you have to pay for people to see it. It’s like making a newspaper and instead of selling the paper, you pay people to read it. It used to make sense, everyone and their grandmother was on Facebook, so if you wanted to get a message across to everyone and their grandmother, you posted on Facebook. Alas, the “algorithm” doesn’t work that day and just because you posted it on Facebook, doesn’t mean your intended audience will see it. Even your actual friends may not see it!

As Veritasium said: With YouTube, we are all creators and YouTubers get paid by advertisers for every view. However, with Facebook, you the creator are also the advertiser; and you have to pay for your content to get views.

To answer Derek’s question, of course I’m seeing what he is seeing! Unless you are willing to “boost your post” or “promote your page,” your content on Facebook will not reach anyone. I will say however that to have a successful Facebook page, you still have to combine organic and paid means – you need to create a community that will engage with your content and with others in the community.

Unfortunately, that essence of social media, wherein the user gets to control what they see, who they interact with, when and how, seems lost on Facebook at the moment.

And it doesn’t end there…

Facebook Fraud

In this next video, Veritasium/Derek Muller reveals what he discovers when he DOES advertise his page. Watch and see how it involves click farms in Developing Countries and fraud.

It’s enough to make you mad and quit Facebook forever, right? And yet the first thing I did when I saw the video was to share it on MY Facebook page.

In the end, Facebook can do whatever it likes (pardon the pun). We all get to use it for free and are subject to its ever changing rules and experiments. I advice my social media clients to invest in creating content on their own sites and blogs. I say: Communicate with you true fans via email, text or even (gasp!) snail mail. When you have something of value to communicate, you know you will find ways and means to get your message across. As for your fans, they will find you – and it doesn’t have to be JUST on Facebook.
Note:
Veritasium is an educational science channel on YouTube, created by Derek Muller, with over one million subscribers.

Related articles
February 27, 2014
Facebook Chain Status Updates – the new Chain Letter

I remember receiving chain letters in the mail. There were those threatening ones that you had to send out to x number of people lest some awful fate befell you. And then there were those that rewarded you with something a sticker, stationery or something that you would only receive once you had sent out the same letter to the required number of people.

photo credit: donovanbeeson via photopin cc

As a sticker and stationery collecting kid, I never thought of it as a pyramid scam but of course that’s what it was.

These days snail mail may be dead but chain letters still exist in the form of chain emails or worse, Facebook status updates. You see your friends copy and paste the same status update, usually to promote a cause and sometimes, foolishly, a misconception or gross misinformation. Ah yes, the chain status update is the logical evolution of the chain letter.

I’m not a fan of chain status updates, but I do believe in the power of social media, when used for good, to spread a good thing.

And so when I saw my cousin post this “promise to make a work of art” on her wall, I dutifully copied and pasted, chain letter-style.

“I, Marcie Taylor, promise to make a small work of art for the first ten people who comment “I’m in!” on this post. A ‘like’ alone is not enough.

In turn, you must post this as your status update and make something for the first ten people who comment “I’m in!” on your status. No post? No art!

RULES

• It has to be an original work—made by you—and the recipient must receive it before the end of 2014.

• It can be anything: a drawing, photo, video, a piece of music, a bit of writing, a conceptual work or anything in between.”

While my cousin’s post was filled with takers, mine was slow to fill. Did no one want a piece of art by me? Did no one want to make something for other people? I thought that maybe my cousin’s offer had takers because she is an actress with many artist friends eager to take on the challenge. But I have artistic friends and social media friends too!

iPhone photograph with text overlay by Me. Voila Insta-Art

A few days after I posted my Facebook status update, I saw some friends, in person, who’d taken me up on my offer to make them a small piece of art. They too were surprised and saddened to see that few had taken up their offer. One friend surmised that people were afraid to commit to having to make something for other people – which makes sense. We’re not offering money, and making art ain’t easy. That’s a tough commitment for many, I suppose.

I’ve given up on getting more takers to my ” let me make art for you offer” and am gladly working on pieces for those who did comment “I’m in.”

Recently, I’ve started seeing a variation of the post slowly circulating. Here’s what it says:

To start the new year off in a positive way, I’m sponsoring a “Pay It Forward” initiative as follows: The first 5 people who comment on this status with “I’m In!” will receive a surprise from me at some point this year (anything from a book, a ticket, a visit, any kind of a surprise)! There will be no warning and it will happen whenever the mood strikes and I find something that I believe would suit you and make you happy. All I require is that you 5 people agree that YOU will commit and make the same offer in YOUR Facebook status and distribute your own form of joy to 5 others!

Simply copy this text into your profile status (copy and paste, don’t share) and see what happens. Lets do more nice and kind things for each other in 2014, without any reason other than to make each other smile!

Now that’s a chain I can get behind. Any takers?

January 26, 2014
Thoughts on Small Business and Social Media

Small Business Saturday is on November 30th and so it’s been on my mind lately. I love supporting my own neighborhood coffee shop, bookstore, restaurant, nail salon etc. And often, when I think about how I can help a small independent store survive and thrive in this economy, naturally, my thoughts turn to social media, which is my passion as well as it is my profession.

And so I meet the owner, shop keeper and we get to talking. There are those who embrace social media, there are those who are open to experimenting with it, and then there are those who are simply unconvinced about its value. What I’d really like to tell them is this:

Dear Small Business:

As a small biz owner, you have your hands full running your business. I know. I understand. You probably do not have time to understand social media, let alone, maintain a presence on the ever-growing social media channels.

Different businesses work differently on these channels. Perhaps Facebook rather than Twitter is a more effective marketing tool for your business. Perhaps Pinterest will lead more fans to your website than Facebook. The list goes on.

Let’s say you do have these pages set up, you’re probably frustrated that you don’t have enough fans or followers. But do numbers really matter? Yes, but not in the way you think. More fans do not necessarily translate to more engagement, or more importantly to more sales. More often than not, a smaller more devoted fan following is better. A smaller targeted audience can impact your business more than a large following with an unengaged audience.

In the end, you’ll have to admit that a social media presence is essential to any business striving for success in our increasingly digital world. And while the channels may be free of charge, it takes time, strategic planning and effort to make them work for you.

***

Below is an infographic by Get Satisfaction that shows How Small Businesses Can Use Social Media. (Maybe this will help convince you of Social Media’s importance?)

According to this Get Satisfaction infographic, it’s not enough for small businesses to solely use social media for their immediate marketing needs. It shows how small businesses need to integrate social media into their business strategies and discover the benefit of social media beyond marketing. Click on the image to enlarge.

INFOGRAPHIC SOURCE: Get Satisfaction

November 13, 2013
Connect, Teach and Share at OC Social Media Summit Today

The 1st Orange County Social Media Summit is taking place today, Friday, May 18th, 2012 at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest. Nearly 600 people are expected to attend the day-long event focused on Social Media. Topics covered feature everything from blogging, to making videos to posting tweets and Facebook updates.

I caught up with one of the organizers of the event, Rochelle Veturis Coles @rochelleveturis and asked her a few questions:

MT: What made you decide to organize the Social Media Summit?
RVC: “We wanted to give some of our wonderful social media friends the opportunity to share their skills and talents with the community – because they do it so well, and so effortlessly. I learn a lot from the people on stage, and thought it was time to share them with the world.”

MT: Who are the people behind the OCSMS?
RVC: “My sister @HaleyVeturis and I are the volunteer co-producers of the event. Headliner @TedNguyen is not only speaking, but co-hosting and leading the social good and media relations efforts, as well. The Saddleback Church Communications team has been a huge help and support with the graphics, signage, multi-media components and production of the event. Irvine-based ProGroup donated printing of the programs and the Step and Repeat. Our wonderful keynotes have served as an advisory board – and all speakers, spotlights, and panelists, have been gracious enough to help promote. It’s been a team effort, and we appreciate and thank each and every individual who has contributed to making this occasion an all out success.”

MT: What ONE thing do you want attendees to leave knowing?
RVC: “They can do this. They are special, loved, and unique. There is no one like them and tapping into that uniqueness is going to set them free in the socialmediasphere. If they need help, they can contact anyone on stage – we love new media and are passionate about seeing others “get it,” and succeed.”

Follow along on Twitter hashtag #ocsms. Or catch the LIVE WEBCAST here.

May 18, 2012
Will you be my friend?

When you see it like this, you realize that our Facebook life can be quite absurd. Thank you www.twoboysopera.com and Paige for first posting this on YOUR FB wall for me to find…and now share!

June 23, 2011
Social Media is NOT a FAD

Here’s an oldie but goodie. Right here, right now. It’s time for YOU to ENGAGE. From the good people of www.socialnomics.net
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8]

July 6, 2010
HOW TO: Organize Your Contacts for Networking Success

Ah yes, summer is knocking at our doors and I’m not even halfway done with Spring Cleaning in real life! Thankfully, my online world is a little more organized – thanks to articles like this one.

Excerpt:

“Managing your online network is critical, whether you’re looking for a job, trying to advance in your career, or you’re starting a business. Think of the Internet as a global talent pool that has more contact information than the White Pages. In fact, 80 percent of available jobs are never even advertised, with more than half of all employees finding their jobs through networking, according to BH Careers International.”

Continue reading.

HOW TO: Organize Your Contacts for Networking Success.

June 3, 2010
Advertisers flocking to Facebook quadruple from last year | VentureBeat

So much for Quitting Facebook. Geez, I remember when the only reason to be on Facebook was to make friends, communicate with faraway friends/family and reconnect with old school chums. Of course, when I had first heard of social networking -it was Friendster (back in 2002) – and I thought it was some kind of dating site (which I suppose it could be or probably is to some) then came MySpace (2003). The social networking landscape is ever-changing. Who knows what’s next.

Advertisers flocking to Facebook quadruple from last year | VentureBeat.

June 3, 2010