Hello,
Today's post is all about sharing a little of what I know about social media because there have been some big changes for businesses that use facebook pages lately - and not for the better!...
Having spent a few years regularly posting
updates to my facebook page (pictured above) and gathering a loyal following, I’ve watched my
page post’s average organic reach drop to below 20% of the number subscribed to my
page. Equally, over those years I have
also liked and followed many, many, many other pages that I enjoy seeing updates from
and have interacted with, yet recently most of those pages seemed to have
disappeared entirely from my newsfeed only to be replaced by sponsored posts for things
that don’t interest me at all. I
understand that facebook is a business and that they need to make money for
their shareholders – but their current strategy is spoiling the experience of
being a facebook user. It has got me
thinking about how better to spend my time when it comes to using social media
to promote my business and discover other wonderful businesses to network with.
So, rather than sitting around wringing my hands and
worrying about the situation, I put my experience as a former ad agent to good use and decided
to do a bit of desk research (as any good advertising or marketing exec would)
to see how it would be best to divide up my time spent on online marketing and where
and how should I be pouring my energies.
At the end of the day, I have very little budget I can spend on paid for
advertising, so what little I have would have to work extremely hard for me.
Knowing that I am certainly not the only business in this situation, I will now share with you some of my findings from my research in the hope that it will help other’s make better plans for their small businesses too...
 |
| Source: Breaking Copy - breakingcopy.com |
A little while ago an image was being circulated online
(originating from Instagram and a man called Douglas Wray) of a whiteboard with
‘Social Media Explained With Donuts’ - which is why this blog post will be illustrated throughout with my little doodles of donuts (mmmm donuts!).
My research started with asking who are the leading social
media networks? who is the face behind them? and whether they own other
networks? how big are they in terms of
users? Who are the most popular sites at the moment? Then for each I looked at
what they offer me - what their benefits are? basically their pros and cons.
This is a summary (all be it an epic sized summary) of
what I found out. Hopefully it will gather all the information in one, easy to
find place...
(User stats sourced from an article on www.viralheat.com May
2013, other info gathered from Wikipedia)
So, it's no surprise that at No 1 is...
Facebook:
Facebook Inc, A Public company, Chair – Mark Zuckerberg,
Facebook Inc also own Instagram.
Number of Users: circa 900 million
Businesses can create a page on facebook and then post
updates, images and links to other online content in order to grow a following
of ‘likers’ and promote their brand.
Facebook provides stats to page admin users so they can assess their
page’s performance for each item posted, whether that’s organic (not paid for) or
sponsored (paid for).
Facebook is still currently the most popular network, despite
noises that its younger users are turning elsewhere. I don’t suppose that
worries facebook too much, with a web savvy aging population and its massive
user numbers, facebook has an extremely long way to fall.
Facebook’s recent changes to their user feed determines
how often posts get displayed and were introduced to encourage businesses that
use facebook to market their brands to purchase sponsored posts.
The key sentence in that article that stands out to me is
this one (from the author of the article):
“In other
words, the main reason to acquire fans isn't to build a free distribution
channel for content; it's to make future Facebook ads work better.”
Makes stark reading
doesn’t it? And with my organic reach
now so low, it really makes me question the
amount of time I invest in my facebook page anymore. That doesn’t mean to say I won’t be keeping
my hand in as it’s still clearly the largest social media network. It just means, that I shall be choosing to
spend more of the time I allocate to market my business on other social
networks.
So let’s look at the
others...
Google Plus:
Google Inc, Public
Company, Chair – Eric Schmitt, Google Inc also own Blogger, You Tube, Picassa
amongst many others.
Number of Users: circa 300
– 350 million
The article I discovered
detailing the user stats placed Google plus as the second largest social
network! Which I found surprising as my experience of Google Plus is there are
some great functions for profiles and pages, but it feels like you are a lone
voice shouting in an empty concert venue over there. It looks like lots of people have
been there but no-one is around, they all seem to be elsewhere!
And that’s all I have to
say about Google Plus!
Twitter:
Twitter Inc, A Public
Company, Chair – Jack Dorsey, Twitter Inc also own Vine.
Number of Users: circa 300
million
Twitter is the most
popular network for mobile, smartphone and tablet users at the moment and it’s
popularity is growing steadily.
It took me a bit of
getting used to twitter with its language of hash tags # and RTs
(re-tweets). Also, the other off putting
thing is the number of dodgy looking fake accounts that swing by and follow you
– don’t be too hasty to follow back unless there are genuine links to other
legitimate websites, or if it’s someone you know – as it could be a someone up
to no good eg. hackers and scammers.
I have warmed to twitter
over the years, I still don’t totally ‘get it’ but I do like the way you can unashamedly
do business on there – it’s very direct and with only 140 characters, there’s
no time to mince your words so say what you mean and mean what you say. The other thing I like about it is it enables
you to connect with the people and topics you are really interested in as you
can search for them on key word terms (hence the hash tags). Which makes Twitter a great place for sharing
targeted information (a marketer’s dream!).
The best advice about twitter I’ve found is tweet often, keep it short,
helpful, relevant and interesting.
Twitter will be seeing a
bit more of me from now on – especially as my average organic reach on facebook
has now dipped below the number of twitter followers I currently have. Which is a question that I think every
facebook page owner would benefit from asking themselves, ‘is my average organic
reach on facebook less than my following on other social networks?’ And if it is, then really your time and
energy would be better placed spending more time over on those networks.
Linked In:
Linked In Corp. Chair – Reid Hoffman,
Number of Users – circa
175 million
This is basically your
online CV or Resume (depending on which side of the Atlantic you are on). It’s a place to network with employers,
clients, colleagues, suppliers and associates past and present. To me it feels like a virtual boardroom
stuffed full of suits speaking corporate jargon and showing off who knows who.
In its beginning, from
what I understand, it was fairly ‘elitist’ with members having to be ‘invited’
to join by other members. Now it’s a far
more open network which allows freer access to industry groups and knowledge
sharing. It also allows you to share other social media and showcase current
projects. Its main benefit, I think, is
to get recommendations and endorsements from other linked in members to help
validate the skills you claim you have. Also, if you are linked in to members from a
wide variety of industry sectors (I’m linked in to a number of people in the advertising,
IT and finance sectors as well as lots of creative folk), it gives you lots of
insights and information that you may not get from other social networks
where you tend to zone in to your specific interests.
Instagram:
See company details above
– Instagram is owned by Facebook.
Number of Users: circa 100
million users
Instagram is picture
sharing pure and simple, using mobile internet networks and has grown to be one
of the most popular ones. It is rapidly
rising in popularity since expanding the platforms it can be accessed on.
I am very new to Instagram
having only recently purchased a smart phone (I know, I was in the dark ages –
but needed to be convinced that I had a real need for one as I highly value my
‘unplugged’ time). The rise of
Instagram’s popularity over the past year persuaded me to get a better
phone and get onto Instagram.
So far, so
good – I really like it, it’s like twitter in that it cuts to the chase. Content
that interests you can be easily found by searching hashtagged keywords. The thing that is most appealing is it’s all
visual and has a certain intimacy as it’s great for giving little behind the
scenes glimpses of your business and work in progress – ideal for creative
businesses and enabling users to develop a more personal relationship with
their followers and those they follow in a way that others don’t. Instagram feeds well into other social
networks and I find it works nicely linked with twitter. I just need to get to know more about how to
use it as I’m still finding my feet over there.
Pinterest:
Ltd Company with 140+
Employees. CEO – Ben Silbermann
Number of Users: Circa 25
million users.
Pinterest is a virtual
pinboard for inspiring things found on the web.
When you find something you love whilst surfing sites, by using a pin
tool you can pin it to a board on your pinterest profile just as if you were
sticking a cutting in a scrapbook.
With
pinterest allowing you to click back to the original source, it’s a bloggers
delight, where you can share engaging links to your blog with your pinterest
followers. I read that 95% of the images on pinterest are pinned by users from
elsewhere on the web. So, by making sure
your images and content are irresistible and that your site has a ‘pin’ button,
your followers will help create more traffic to your site for you when they hit
that pin.
Pinterest is fairly new
compared to other networks but is growing rapidly. It is the fastest standalone site to reach
over 10 million monthly users (source – webtrends.com)
The drawback to pinterest
is, days can be lost on pinterest, especially for creative types as the source
of inspiration is never ending, quite frankly, it’s overwhelming and highly
addictive, so self decipline and restraint on time spent over there is vital if
you want to have a life!
That said – pinterest is
my favourite because pictures speak a thousand words and seeing one person
select to pin a particular image or group of images speaks volumes about who
that person is without a single word being exchanged. I find that totally fascinating and often
think that there are people I follow on pinterest, who I’ve never met, but feel
I could easily be friends with as we have very similar taste in pins – almost
like kindred spirits.
Whilst searching for
information about social media, I found a great article on Social Triggers
site, that sets out some tips on what you
need to do if you rely on your facebook page for your business. Here it is:
It suggests that we should tell our fans
what’s happening and where they can also find us on the web or subscribe to our
email lists so that they can get updates that they can see. I think that’s a great idea and here’s where
you can subscribe to my email list to get my updates:
One final thing, I think the
social triggers article is spot on about ensuring you are building your own
email list so that your business has a database that you are in control of, so
here is a link to mailchimp.
It’s who I use to manage
my email list and I find them excellent for what I need.
If you don’t have an
email list set up and you have a business that you market through online social
networking, then I urge you to have a look as it, it would be the best marketing
strategy you will ever put in place for your business. Something so important
to the future of your business (your customer database) should never be placed
in the hands of something that you have little control over.
I hope you found my little
bit of research helpful and informative.
I’d love to hear your views and comments about using social media to
promote your business, what works for you?
Best wishes
