My PR Insider “Go To Girl!” – Another Helpful Article By, Marsha Friedman Owner of EMSI Public Relations.

How Can I Supercharge My Social Media Efforts?

Now that is a great question author’s ask me all the time. And it is why I have a page here on my blog for author’s to use to know where to be on social media to promote your books effectively. But Marsha is an expert in this area and so I wanted to have her give us all that advice from a more PR perspective. So let’s get right to it!

Why You Should Use Social Media to Build Your Opt-In Email List!

By now, everyone knows that social media is a key component to any marketing campaign. At least if you’ve been reading these newsletters you do. But aside from the obvious benefits of outreach and awareness, there is something else you can be doing with your social networking campaign that can supercharge all of your efforts: build an opt-in email list.

I know from my own experience that social media marketing has enabled me to increase my email list by thousands, with those on the list continuously receiving my newsletters that carry my advice, my tips, and my message.

My newsletter helps my social media contacts remember me and what I do, not because I am actively selling and promoting myself. Like my social media strategy, I use these pieces to add value to the lives of the people on my list. My formula is simple – if some of you like what you read, when you have the need and the resources and are considering using a PR firm, you might consider my company. And that’s it. What’s more, I know it works, because I’ve used this formula to build a thriving 27-year-old business.

Adding value for my clients is the real reward I have enjoyed by combining my email and social media marketing efforts. So how can you do this? Let me share a few actions that we find are successful.

• Join Targeted Discussions and Post Valuable Content. Within your social networks, stay abreast of trending topics and discussions that your target audience will find relevant. Become part of these discussions using valuable content, making use of trending hashtags when possible to demonstrate your professional expertise and drive people to your website. Take care to make your posts short and interesting. Making the headline a question can encourage responses, or use words that contain phrases like “tips for” or “strategies for.” If your content links back to your website, tease the information that will be available once they click through to encourage better click-through rates.
• Make Sure Your Website is “Opt-in” Friendly. Make sure your opt-in form is prominent throughout your website, with a message telling visitors that when they sign up for your list, they will receive helpful information as opposed to junk mail. You can also include incentives to help encourage people to opt-in. E-books or whitepapers work nicely.

  

• Invite Everyone – But Don’t Pester! On some networks – like Twitter and LinkedIn – you can directly message new followers or connections and invite them to become part of your newsletter. Make these messages short, but friendly and try to maintain a tone that doesn’t seem one-size-fits-all. This can help increase your signup rate significantly. On networks that don’t offer the same level of access, weave signup call-to-actions in your content calendar. Try to limit this activity, and be sure to avoid being overly promotional. Again, ensuring your site is opt-in friendly will allow you to encourage signups just by sending followers to content on your site.
• Be Consistent in Your Social Networking! The key to making points 1 – 3 above really work is to stay active in your networks. If you are only an occasional visitor, you might as well “stay home.” In order to reap the rewards of these strategies, post often and wisely, and pay attention to your group members.

That’s how it all fits together. Social media is not the next big “thing.” It’s now part of the foundation of a good marketing campaign, as intractable as advertising and public relations.

Hope this helps!
Marsha

P.S. If you’d like professional help getting interviews with the media, we’ve been arranging interviews for our clients on radio and TV, and obtaining editorial coverage in newspapers and magazines for more than 26 years. We also offer a comprehensive social media marketing program for select clients, where we do it all for you. If you’re interested in our help, please call us at 727-443-7115 Ext. 231 or  (800) 881-7342 or send me an Email: info@emsincorporated.com We’d love to hear from you!

Please take a visit to my friends and see how they can supercharge your Public Image at EMSI Public Relations Firm!

Author, Catherine Townsend-Lyon

New Featured Article & Guest on ‘Book Marketing Tools’… Best Place for Authors.

I am always honored to be asked by my good friends over at Book Marketing Tools.  It is the best place to be if you are an author. They have many tools to help self-published authors learn to book promote and advertise with them as well. So I was invited to write and share MY opinion on the best places for a “New Indie Author” to learn How and Where to promote their books throughout social media.  Here we go!! *Author, Catherine Townsend-Lyon*  🙂

                           ( Courtesy of Book Marketing Tools )

How and Where to Promote Your New Book

Authors, you just published your first book. Congratulations!

Now your publisher tells you they only will send out a press release announcing your new book and that’s it for book promoting.

So, now what? How and Where do you promote your book?

You could hire a book promoter like me but you have no money left after paying for publishing costs.

I am here to help you learn.

Where and How to Promote

Many authors can’t afford to pay big bucks for mainstream media advertising. And quite frankly, my book promotions business is booming all through social media! Promoting throughout social media sells books, and you receive book reviews in return. Social media has changed the landscape of promoting one’s book through places like Facebook and Twitter as they have enhanced their services for authors to promote books with cost effective ad’s. Here are my social media picks I use to promote my author client’s books with impressive results.

Goodreads

Goodreads is known for bringing authors and readers together to benefit them both! Readers can find good books, follow their favorite artists, even ask authors questions in real time! The Goodreads Author Program is a completely free feature designed to help authors reach their target audience — passionate readers. This is the perfect place for new and established authors to promote their books. Authors get a host of tools to use for promoting your books, do giveaways or promos, and you get a free blog too on Goodreads Author Program.

Here are some of the benefits that come with being in ‘The Goodreads Author Program’:

• Add a picture and bio. Share your list of favorite books and recent reads with your fans! Write a blog and generate a band of followers.
• Publicize upcoming events, such as book signings and speaking engagements. Share book excerpts and other writing.
• Write a quiz about your book or a related topic. Post videos.
• Add the Goodreads Author widget to your personal website or blog to show off reviews of your books.

Here are some of the promotional tools available on Goodreads for Authors:

• Sign up to advertise your book to the Goodreads Community—50 million readers! List a book giveaway to generate pre-launch buzz.
• Participate in discussions on your profile, in groups, and in the book group forums for your books.

So all you do is go join free and follow the instructions for ‘The Goodreads Author Program.’ You can add friends and readers by using your Facebook account or even your Email list. So make sure you explore thoroughly.

Twitter

My next pick is Twitter. I love Twitter for book promoting. It can be a challenge as they only give you 140 characters to work with, so you have to be more creative and learn quickly on how to abbreviate. For book promoting or promoting your brand as an author, Twitter has come a long way! You can share your books, and the book covers with a tweet by using your Amazon or Barnes and Noble links to post and share. Twitter has enhanced their services to help you reach more readers. Start by opening a free account, then build a following by interacting and engaging with readers.

They follow you, and you follow back. Look for book and reader groups and book clubs, other authors and writers as they will be helpful by retweeting what you post. Your followers will retweet what you share about your book, and you get the benefit of reaching ALL their followers. “Word of mouth” promoting by one little retweet.

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Here are some new tools Twitter has rolled out to help get your new book in front of readers. Yes, some cost money, but you can set a low budget limit to try it out to see if you get good results.

How Twitter Ads Work:

Choose your target audience:

Reach the right audience by targeting based on interests, geography, gender, device, or users similar to your followers. Also, maximize the relevancy of your message by targeting by keywords in people’s Tweets.

Amplify your message and get discovered:

Get your Tweets and your account in front of more people who are interested in you.

Set a budget and pay for what works:

Only pay when users follow your account or retweet, like, reply, or click on your Promoted Tweet. You’re in complete control. There’s no minimum spend, and you can start and stop at any time. So open a free Twitter account to started. Then visit their Twitter Ads advertising to see what works best for your book promotion budget.

Facebook for Book Promoting

My last pick on social media is Facebook. Again, I read my several email newsletters from Professional PR firms, and they all say that having a social media presence is a crucial to all authors in promoting their books. I have been promoting my books since 2012, and I am a firm believer that social media is where your readers are. But engagement and interaction are what makes the “magic” happen between readers and authors. And that is how you sell books and gain book reviews.

Facebook is another fantastic place to promote your books, authors. Here you are not limited to how you can post all about your new book. I like being creative when sharing my client’s books on Facebook. I produce fun book cover photos to share; I can share book reviews of their books right from Amazon or Barnes & Noble and so much more. And just like Twitter? Facebook has rolled out some new advertising tools authors can use to help promote your book or brand as an author. And yes, you can join Facebook for free. Here are things you can do to enhance your book promoting through Facebook.
Create an Author page separate from your home Facebook page here: Facebook Advertising

Creating a separate ‘like page’ for yourself as an author allows you to use that space to promoting your book. You can schedule events—giveaways, book tours, book trailers and release dates—connect to your readers in a professional space, and use the page to link to your website or blog. If you gain enough “likes,” you can also use Facebooks ads.

Facebook Ads:

Facebook has a whole host of new advertising methods to help you promote your books or brand. You can visit Facebook Ad Products for Business to explore all your paid or free options of advertising through Facebook. And like Twitter, they have a “pay as you go” option to see if you get results before spending a lot of money for ads. They even have tips on how to write your ads and proper images to go along with them. So join today and get started.

If you need more helpful advice, tips, and some good listing book sites to share your book through just like here on “Book Marketing Tools,” then come to Lyon Book & Social Media Promotions tips and advice page today. I got authors covered!

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Catherine is a best-selling TKG author of “Addicted to Dimes”, available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. She is a freelance recovery writer/columnist for “In Recovery Magazine, and “Keys to Recovery newspaper,” and an ‘Expert blogger of Gambling Addiction Recovery on Addictionland’ recovery.

Another passion is her Book Promotions business called, “Lyon Book and Social Media Promotions.” Catherine has fast become well known in many addictions and recovery communities and book promotion & reader communities. She has a large following on social media. You connect with Catherine onTwitter, Facebook, and Goodreads. She lives in Phoenix, Arizona with her husband and 3 cats.

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John White Is Back! CMO & Founder of Social Marketing Solutions Guest Post.

Is Your Company’s Social Media Expert Really an Expert? Here’s How to Know? By John White

 

 

 

( Credit Image: Getty)

.“So, You hired a social media expert for your business. But how do you know you hired the right one?”

It would seem that there are a lot of “social media experts” out there today.Social media arose quickly as a prominent way for businesses to showcase their brand. Anytime, a product or service enters into the marketplace quickly there are opportunists that move into space and become largely self-proclaimed experts. Hence, the rise of the social media expert.Just last week I had a college senior reach out to me over email about working at my social media marketing agency, Social Marketing Solutions. When I checked this person’s LinkedIn profile, there was no profile picture and it looked like it had been pieced together in between games of beer pong. Yet, when I scrolled down there it was, social media was listed as a skill.

Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of true experts within social media marketing. Many of whom I’ve met, been mentored by, and had the pleasure of seeing their work up close. These are the true experts that let their work speak for itself and their reputation as a guru spreads organically.

I’ve also come across my fair share of pretenders or self-proclaimed social media experts. These people talk a big game about their social media prowess but don’t back it up with results.

The problem is many entrepreneurs are unfamiliar with using social media as a marketing tool for their business. So, they may not be able to tell the difference between a true social media expert and someone who is hoping to fake it until they make it.

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Can’t we just hire an intern for that?

Whether your company is going to hire someone or bring on an agency to do your social media, there are specific things to consider to make sure your social media expert is indeed an expert that can deliver results for your business.

What were they doing before becoming a “social media expert?”

It has been my experience that the best social media marketers have a background in something related to marketing or business development. People without it, have a harder time understanding ROI. They may not have the analytical skills needed to monitor the metrics that directly affect the company’s bottom line.

If you’re hiring them to support social media campaigns in a B2B environment and they don’t have B2B experience, it should raise a concern no matter how great that person claims to be at social media.

Check their personal pages for signs of influence

I’m always surprised by how many companies don’t actually do research into the person or agency’s social media pages. If your company is hiring someone to manage your Twitter account, and that person hasn’t tweeted in a month and only has 200 followers. Here are some red flags:

• Their posts have low engagement levels. If they have low engagement on their posts, how will it be different for the posts they do for your company?
• They don’t have many followers. If you are hiring them to grow your community and they don’t have one themselves, it should be a big warning sign.
• They don’t have any recommendations on LinkedIn from clients for the services you are hiring them for.
• They have a ton of Twitter followers but when you click on to see who is following them, they have a lot followers that are egg heads (no profile pic). This is a sign that they have bought their followers. They may lack the skills needed to create an authentic online community.

What do their client’s pages look like?

Also, ask to see examples of their client’s social pages. If they have examples of clients either in your industry or a parallel industry it is even better.

Read Their blog:

“Chances are if you are hiring a social media manager, they will also be doing some content creation for your company as well. Make sure to read their blog posts and get examples of content they’ve written for clients. Ask about where they’ve been published beyond their personal blog and where their clients have been published.”

Content marketing is not a fad and has disrupted the advertising world in a big way over the past few years. Your social media expert must be able to create compelling content that gets read.

Companies know that they must have a social media expert on hand within their marketing department to compete in today’s market. However, clearly, not all social media experts are created the same. The person or vendor you hire will make or break your company’s online presence  .  .  .

 

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John White is the CMO and founder of Social Marketing Solutions. He is also a brand ambassador for Bebee (a startup social media site based on affinity networking with 10.5 million global users). White writes at the crossroads of social media, entrepreneurialism, startups, and marketing. Last year, he completed his MBA in marketing. White lives with his wife and two daughters in Fort Collins, Colorado.

 

PUBLISHED ON: June 23, 2016,  Written by John White of  Social Marketing Solutions  … Follow John on Twitter @juanblanco76

 

Presented By “Lyon Book & Social Media Promotions” 

 

 

 

Guest Article Share~’Beware of These 5 Social Media Mistakes.

Hello and Welcome Readers, Authors, and Writers,

“I always enjoy sharing helpful articles I come across about book promoting and social media. And my dear friend Marsha Friedman from The PR Insider of  EMSI Public Relations always has fantastic tips and advice on how to use social media to our advantage.

I also teach my authors I book promote for just how important social media is to promote their books through. It is about engagement when using social media.
Building a following also builds your readership. Here is what Marsha suggests to us about social media.”

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Don’t Make This 5 Social Media Mistakes

Social media sites have become a powerful way to market your brand, but anyone who follows the news is aware they present pitfalls as well.

Companies end up apologizing over ill-advised tweets. Individuals create controversy with Facebook posts they thought were innocuous – or perhaps knew would be controversial but didn’t anticipate just how controversial.

If you’re like me, you probably have more than enough headaches without adding a social media blunder to the list! So to help you avoid some of the more common mistakes that businesses and individuals make, I asked EMSI’s social media team to chime in.

Here’s how they say many people go astray:

• Treating every platform the same. Social media sites are different and you need to approach them differently. Facebook, for example, is the most consumer-friendly and the first place most people go, whether they want to share photos of their grandchildren or learn what others have to say about their experiences with a business. LinkedIn is better for business and professional purposes. Twitter, with its character limit on messages, is the high-speed, information-now site. It’s a great place to check news updates. You also can get away with posting more often here than you can on other sites.

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• Posting too frequently – or not frequently enough. You want a happy balance here. Some people flood their followers with Facebook posts. It becomes too much of a good thing and your followers’ eyes glaze over as they scroll quickly past your latest post – perhaps thinking, “Oh, no! Not him or her again!” On the other hand, out of sight is out of mind. If you rarely post, then your followers forget about you – and that’s not good either.

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• Failing to use hashtags. When you are on Twitter or Instagram, you are trying to become part of the conversation. The hashtag allows more people to see your contributions to that conversation. For example, if you were on Twitter and tweeted something without a hashtag, only your followers would see it. (Unless, of course, they re-tweeted it to their followers.) But if you use a hashtag, any number of people could end up being exposed to what you have to say.

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• Using poor spelling or incorrect grammar. I don’t want to become the Punctuation Police here, but it’s important to project a professional image. Misspelled words and problems with subject/verb agreement create the opposite effect. That means you need to remember what Mrs. Schubert taught you back in your high school English class. If you are unsure about a word’s spelling or the grammar in a particular sentence, look it up. Your computer can help some here, but don’t let those computerized spelling and grammar checks become a crutch. They don’t catch everything. For example, they will skip right past it if you use “their” when you should have used “there.”

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• Posting offensive or inappropriate material. You can ruin years of goodwill in an instant if your social media sites are used to post something that many people find offensive. You would think that’s easy enough to avoid. But not necessarily. Sometimes it might not be clear to you that a particular post or tweet could strike people the wrong way, so be careful out there. Here’s an example where a careless moment resulted in social media backlash. During this year’s Oscars, Total Beauty, an online publication, tweeted how delighted it was to learn that Oprah Winfrey has tattoos. Just one problem. The woman in the Oscar photo accompanying the tweet was Whoopi Goldberg, not Oprah Winfrey. Critics pounced on the publication, and some mocked the mistake by posting their own tweets mixing up white celebrities. Total Beauty apologized.

Ouch! Yes, there are potential downsides if you’re not careful about what you’re doing. But such blunders aside, social media is a powerhouse marketing tool.

That’s why I maintain that the biggest social media mistake – by far – is not to be on social media at all. Go visit The PR Insider Marsha Friedman Today for more tips!

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About Marsha Friedman
Marsha Friedman launched EMS Incorporated in 1990. Her firm represents corporations and experts in a wide array of fields such as business, health, food, lifestyle, politics, finance, law, sports, and entertainment. She consults individuals and businesses on a daily basis and is frequently asked to speak at conferences about how to harness the power of publicity.

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My Featured Article on Book Marketing Tools ~ Best Place For Authors!

Hello and Welcome Authors, Readers, and New Friends,

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My good friends RJ and the gang of Book Marketing Tools invited my again to contribute a new article for their fantastic blog and website. So I put together a little post that is now featured on their blog about my favorite free or low-cost places I add my book promoting clients/friends books too.  Here is a partial preview, and highly suggest all authors go sign up for free at Book Marketing Tools, and start learning how and where to promote all your fine books!

 

Fun, Free or Low-Cost Book Promotion

Are you looking for some ways to promote your book that do not cost a lot of money? In this guest post, book promoter Catherine Townsend-Lyon shares some of the tips she uses for clients of hers.

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“So, you are a brand new author and just released your first book. Now What?”

Many new authors seem to be promised the world on a silver platter when a publisher is courting them to publish their books with them, and as a new author you are so excited about your book being out in the world, you don’t remember half of what the publisher has offered you. I hear all the time from my book promoting clients how they were verbally promised everything under the sun including promoting their book. Sadly, if you don’t get it in writing in your publishing contractor agreement? Authors are holding the bag of promoting your books and at your cost! And you just broke the bank already with all your publishing costs.

Now that you have spent most of your budget on publishing costs, you also have no idea how or where to promote your books. Well, I am here to help you do that and more. I am Author, Catherine Townsend-Lyon, owner of Lyon Book Promotions. It is why I started my online book promotion business. I wanted to help new and seasoned authors learn how and where to promote their books for free or at very low-cost! But first, we need to know a little of the differences between say a Literary agent, Literary publicist, and Book promoter.

 

Literary Publicist: A person who publicizes, especially a press agent or public-relations consultant. an expert in current or public affairs. An expert in public or international law.

Literary Agent: A person who represents writers and their written works to publishers, theatrical producers, film producers and film studios, and assists in the sale and deal negotiation of the same.

Literary Book Promoter: A person who promotes, especially an active supporter or advocate or paid publicity organizer to promote one’s work.
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Now that we know the differences, I promote clients books and their social media sites so readers can not only read their books, but it is important for an author to interact and engage with the readers as well. That helps current and future book sales and gain book reviews. So here are a few of my “go to book promo sites” every author should know about. Again, many book promotion listing sites will let you list your books for free, and submit a free Author Interviews. They will also share many other book sites with authors on their sites too. Many will also offer low-cost advertising book ads so you can build your readership. Here we go!

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My #1 choice right now is the fine folks at Awesome Gang. You can list your books and submit an author interview for free. They offer you a guarantee listing for a charge? But all my clients books were accepted under the free option. It just may take them a few days to your listing up on the site. The also have a fantastic Facebook Readers Club you can join, then you will see your book being promoted.

Now go visit my friends at Book Marketing Tools Blog and read “The Rest of my Advice & Tips.”

Author & Columnist, Catherine Townsend-Lyon 🙂

Why Should Authors and Readers Engage & Connect With Each Other?

 Hello Readers, Authors, and New Friends,

Why should authors and readers connect? There are many reasons why for both sides of this topic. As a book promoter, I know how important it is for an author to interact and engage with their reader fans. It creates more excitement for the reader to know an author is “touchable” and they can learn more about their favorite writers, which helps authors with book sales and gaining more book reviews for books. And it seems I am not the only book promoter, social media PR firm and book marketing site that feels this way.

Here are two articles I came across this week that can give insights as to why authors need and should interact and engage with readers throughout social media and many book sites are exclusively for this purpose like Goodreads. I will share snippets as I would like you to visit and join free so you can be “In The Know” with many tips and advice on book promoting  . . .
OUR FIRST is at  http://www.bookdaily.com/authorresource/blog/post/1805275

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“This morning I received three emails.”

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One was from a lady in Scotland who read one of my books and joined my fan page. She wanted me to know how much she appreciated waking up and finding that I had responded to her messages.

The second was from a man in Australia who sent me a list of things he liked about Silent Witness. He highlighted sentences that he particularly liked, but at the end of his note, he said, “thank you for making Hannah so intelligent.”

The third was from the very first fan I ever had. We’ve been pen pals for 28 years. Now we communicate on the computer but every once in a while we still send one another a card, remember birthdays, the holidays and share information on grandchildren (hers since I only have a grand dog).

The point of all this is that what authors do is extremely personal. It begins with our characters. If we don’t feel them in our souls and translate that feeling into words on the page, our books will be enjoyed but not treasured. When we do make that magic happen and a reader reaches out, opening a personal dialogue with them will make a reader into a fan. In some wonderful instances, it also creates a friend.

Here are my top five rules of engagement:

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1) Know thou characters: Know the personal history and habits of every character in your book and write as if you live and die with them. If you do this, real people will reach out to you . . .

Please stop by the link above to see all of Rebecca’s rules of engagement.
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OUR SECOND is by Marsha Friedman CEO & Founder, of EMSI PR Firm

No one really needs to convince me how great social media is for connecting you to your customers (Readers)  – and keeping you connected – but the point was reinforced perhaps better than ever this week when I was chatting with Jay York, our senior social media strategist.

Jay was telling me about Datz, a restaurant near his home in Tampa, that has impressed him with its excellent use of social media as a marketing tool.
Talk about connecting! Datz has more than 12,000 followers on Twitter. It has nearly 8,000 on Instagram. It has 1,280 mostly positive reviews on Yelp. And, perhaps most impressive of all, more than 40,000 people “like” Datz on Facebook.
Those are remarkable numbers for any business. But especially when you consider that Datz is a local restaurant and not a recognizable brand name like McDonald’s!
So why am I telling you this? Because this social media success story prompted me to have Jay share tips on how small businesses ( and authors promoting their books) can make the most out of their social media to keep customers and potential customers thinking about them.

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Here’s what Jay had to say:

• Interact with customers. Engage your customers inside your business as well as outside it. Some of the most successful restaurant owners have mastered this, Jay says. They take the time to chat with and get to know their customers when they are dining at the restaurant, and they also interact with them on social media. Here’s where it’s worth remembering the “social” part of social media. These sites are all about having a conversation and people expect you to be involved in that conversation – or else they’ll be discouraged from interacting with you in the future.
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• Use undivided attention opportunities to promote your social media. There are a few ways to do this, Jay says. In-store signage that encourages you to follow the business on social media is the most obvious. Restaurants, such as, might drive visiting customers to their social media sites by giving 10 percent off an entrée if they follow them right at that moment on Twitter. Professional speakers can use the same strategy when they’re in front of a large audience by posting their Twitter handle on the screen behind them. The point is to take advantage of the attention of hundreds or thousands of people – all with mobile devices – who can start following you immediately .  .  .

  .Again, please visit the link above to read the Tips to use social media to promote your books and small business. No matter the product, readers want to interact with you and this is a crucial part of your book promoting efforts. I hope you find these articles helpful. 🙂

  *Author, Catherine Townsend-Lyon of Lyon Book & Social Media Promotions*

   

 

Social Media Is The Place To Be Promoting Your Books!

Hello Authors and Readers . . . Welcome!

Well my dear friend ‘Marsha Freedman’ from The PR Insider is at it again!
She has once again validated why I book promote throughout Social Media for my book promoting clients!

Social Media is where readers are finding more and more new fresh authors and their fantastic reads. So lets see what Marsha has to say on why to use social media as part of your Gourmet Book Marketing Stradegy . . . .

 ~ Give Your Social Media Efforts The Gourmet Touch ~

If you haven’t gone all in with social media by now, it’s time to make the commitment as you solidify your marketing plans for 2016.

Long gone are the days when you could afford to be a dabbler in social media. It’s developed into a full-fledged profession all its own, and many colleges offer courses and even majors in social media marketing.

Yet to this day I still see companies like book marketing firms and promoters for instance that do little with what should be a great marketing opportunity for their clients. Instead, they depend strictly on strategies that worked for them 5 or 10 years ago, with little or no awareness of the new digital tools that are available.

Frankly, even some companies that make the effort to embrace social media are missing its true value.

How far do some of them miss the boat?

Here’s how far.
Jay York, an EMSI social media strategist, just told me about a company that recently advertised a social media job opening. To Jay’s amazement, the company offered to pay the social media strategist a commission based on sales that resulted directly from the efforts.

Yikes! That’s a clear misunderstanding of social media and the role it plays in marketing. While social media certainly can lead to sales – especially for inexpensive items like books that people buy often – that’s not really its primary purpose.

“Social media is best for building a relationship with potential customers or clients, serving as a critical part of your overall branding efforts.”

Let me share a few steps to help you get the most out of your social media efforts in 2016.  .  .

Understand. Opportunities are changing on social media all the time as new features or options are added. Don’t be afraid to admit you don’t understand how it all works. Delve into it and learn all you can. Most social media platforms offer free tips on how to get the best use of the sites, and in some cases those tips are specifically directed to businesses. Plan. Study the different social media platforms and what each could do for you. For most people and companies, and especially small businesses, Facebook is probably the best place to start. Everyone seems to be on Facebook and they just expect that you will be, too. You also need to decide who in your organization will take responsibility for social media because someone needs to be the go-to person who posts new material, monitors feedback from followers and keeps up on trends. Finally, you will want to set a budget so you can get involved in social media advertising. Commit. Don’t dip your toe in to test the water for a few months, and then withdraw if there’s no quick reward. Social media requires a long-term commitment as it’s about building your brand over time and not trying to make a quick strike overnight. Ultimately, if you don’t have someone in your corner who understands social media and is on top of the newest platforms, the latest social marketing tools and aware of current tactics that have proven to be effective, you need to explore hiring a promoter or firm that can do it for you. Jay (one of our in-house foodies) likens it to the kitchen of a gourmet restaurant, where so much opportunity would go to waste without a competent chef to oversee the operation. “The point is, why limit yourself to heating a can of soup when the tools are there to prepare a glorious meal?”

Bon appétit!