Social Media For Corporates : Part Two
Yesterday, I shared the basic principles of running Social Media for corporates. That simply gives you an idea of how to look out of place and not bore people half to death with updates that make even the computer monitor yawn and lean to the side due to boredom.
Now that the basics are out of the way, let’s go to the more serious stuff; getting followers and likes...
If you did not read the first part, click here
Social Media for Corporates - Part 2: Gaining a Foothold on Social Media
The biggest question on Social media use for most corporates remains - How Do I Get More Followers on Twitter and Likes on Facebook?
This is really simple. Mention work-out, weight-loss, Viagra, Justin Bieber and sex in your tweets and robots will immediately start following and tweeting you. But that of course is not the kind of following you are looking for.
The kind of following you want is one that translates to leads/prospects or your existing customers. To accomplish that, the following four items are the most vital ingredients.
1) Be likeable
2) Be humorous
3) Display your expertise
4) Be engaging.
Simple and clear.
Most people expect rocket science formulas explained by a scientist with a funny accent, a disturbed personality and a lab coat that is a few sizes too big but it really is that simple.
To prove my point, I will again use your everyday behavior while using social media. Who do you follow or like on Social Media? Your friends and people you share interests with (likeable), funny people (humorous), people you look up to for their achievement or advice (expertise) and people who you possibly picked up a random conversation with while going about your ordinary everyday business on social media (engaging). We will ignore your weird relatives from up country during this post. Corporates don’t have weird relatives from up country.
Further, to emphasize the point above, look carefully at Facebook pages and Twitter accounts and tell me which groups of people have the largest followers. A simple research will show you that Celebrities, Successful Business People, Motivational speakers and Funny people have the highest numbers. Of course nudity and sex-mongers rank up there too but I do not think that is a line your corporate account may want to explore. Not publicly at least ;-)
a) Celebrities are likeable or have something likeable (music, art, movie, series and, in the case of Kim Kardashian, a huge backside)
b) Successful business people are mostly experts in their field of business
c) Motivational speakers are engaging on a very personal level and…
d) Funny people are ... well ... humorous.
You don’t need to look further. Just follow those pointers and you are good to go. Easier said than done you’ll say. Let’s break it down.
1) How do you become likeable?
Use the traits of the people who are successful in Social Media to mould a personality for your online presence that people will relate to and love. The personality you build must suit your business and fit within your goals of course. If you are selling fish for example and you start a fish selling account, let that fish account give people fun facts about fish. Let that account make fun of being a fish and everything fish. Putting up an update like - “Nemo. Show off! He still got eaten am sure. By a pirate I hope.” - will make more people notice you, like you and possibly follow you.
2) How Do You Become Engaging
Being engaging is the easiest. All you have to do is strike up conversations with people on Social Media and follow the conversation up naturally. A connection will obviously be created. Remember, engagement is not selling. E.g. If you sell fish and somebody asks to for information about fishing rods, do not tell them about your Tilapia. Instead, keep the conversation about the fishing rods going. Give them all the info they need and they will find out about your business if they feel the need to. The next time they need any information related to fish, you will be the first person they will most possibly ask and soon you have a lead who trusts you and will recommend you to friends/family without reservations.
3) Humor on Social Media
Humor is by far the hardest to use. Making people laugh is hard. If you can do witty updates about your products, you are at an obvious advantage because people absolutely love humor. Word of caution though, be sure before you post because a failed joke will cost you followers and fans.
Putting up a dumb update with an LOL at the end does not make it funny. Neither do smileys. And do not steal jokes and updates. You will do more damage than you would for using a boring update. Humor does not have to be purely comical, you can write an update about you product and put it with a light touch. E.g. again for the guy that sells fish "Good morning, we are back with our fishy updates"
Golden rule? Keep it simple
4) How to display your expertise?
Write articles about what you know. Basic writing skills are all you need to do this. You are in business because you are good at that specific thing you do. Open a blog and tell people things they don’t know about your line of work. Give them advice on how to get the best products or services that you offer without necessarily asking them to buy from you. Advise them on how to get the best value for money. In a nutshell be informative. If they get information that is helpful to them, you have yourself a potential client. If you in the fish business, blog about fish. Just make sure your posts don’t come out as fishy, to end on a light note.
So there is how to gain followers and likes on social media. Want to learn how trends work and how they can be used for your business? Watch out for part III coming soon.
