Tag Archive for Social Media

Adam Babcock | June 30, 2011
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Building An Online Community: Part 2 – Growing Your Community

Welcome back to the NxtGen blog and our series about building an online community.  Last week we started things off by explaining the importance of choosing the right social media platform in order to build your community.  Now that you have done your due diligence, and decided what platform you are going to use to broadcast your message, we are going to look at the next step of the process: Growing Your Community. Below are some key areas to focus on when starting to build your community.

Act Like a Host

Picture this.  You get this amazing invitation to attend “the party of the year”.  It promises to be filled with a ton of people, and all kinds of fun and entertaining events.  You decide to go to the party, even though you don’t know anyone else going.  When you arrive, nobody greets you, or introduces you to any of the other partygoers.  You walk around for a while awkwardly introducing yourself to a few people trying to figure out if you have anything in common.  A half hour into the party, you are so bored, you end up sneaking out while nobody is looking.  Sounds pretty awful right?  Well how is that any different than joining a group online, where they promise you all kinds of great stuff in order to get you to join, and then once you do, nothing!  No interaction.  No engagement.  No perks.  Nothing!  When trying to build an online community, you have to act like a (good) host.  Be courteous to members.  Thank them for being a part of your community.  Introduce them to other members that they have common interests with.  Offer them unique and exclusive content or specials.  Make sure they know you are there for them and that you are happy to have them!

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Category: NxtGen Thoughts, Small Business, Social Media | Tags: , , ,
Adam Babcock | June 22, 2011
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Building An Online Community: Part 1 – Choosing a Platform

I am sure you are sick and tired of everyone telling you that you need to start using social media for your business.  Hopefully by now you’ve read all the articles, seen all the numbers, and are ready to jump on board the social media train.  If so, good for you!  In order to help you get started, I have put together a 3 part series on how to build an online community.  This week, we are going to start off with maybe the most important element in your social media plan: Choosing a Platform.

I am lucky enough to have had the pleasure of seeing Scott Stratten, author of the book UnMarketing, speak a couple of times in the last year.  In his speeches, as well as in his book, he talks about the importance of picking one platform when starting out in social media.  Scott says, “Build a small stage-your platform-that you’re going to stand on and get people to come to.  Pick one place where you want people to find you and play your best “show” there for as long as it takes to build a solid following”.  This advice really stuck with me, and is something I always recommend to people who are starting out in social media.  Especially small business owners, who already feel like there isn’t enough time in the day to do everything they need to get done.  The last thing they need is to have to commit to updating several different social media sites.  People tend to jump onto multiple platforms right away (whether it be Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, LinkedIn, etc.), and then expect to have a huge following just because they are “on social media”.  The reality is, unless you are a huge, recognizable brand, this is not going to be the case.  However, if you choose one platform to really invest your time and energy in, you can create a really great, engaged, and interested community, that in time will allow you to expand into other platforms as well.  So, how do you know what platform to start with?

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Category: NxtGen Thoughts, Small Business, Social Media | Tags: , , , , ,
Noah Babcock | May 12, 2011
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Common Sense Social Media Etiquette

Over the past week, there have been a few incidents of poor Social Media etiquette by some famous tweeters. First Rashard Mendenhall shared is feelings about the death of Osama Bin Laden, then later this week, Reggie Bush made a comment about his time off during the NFL lock out, then when he was ridiculed by his followers, said it was a joke, and everyone should have known it. What is most troubling for me about these incidents are that I am sure that Reggie Bush and Rashard Mendenahall both have highly paid PR consultants, who should have given both a lesson on what is appropriate and what is not on Social Media. In today’s Social Media world, whatever information you put out, has the chance to be picked up pretty quickly, and could have major repercussions. So how does a small business walk the line between giving their opinion while not causing a bad public relations mark on the company?
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Category: Social Media | Tags: , , , , ,
Adam Babcock | May 2, 2011
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Why Small Business Owners Should Not Be Afraid of Social Media

As we move further along in 2011, more and more companies, especially small businesses, are beginning to realize the value that social media can add to their business.  According to a recent report put together by Michael Stelzner of the Social Media Examiner, where he polled 3,342 business owners and analyzed their experiences with social media, more than 90 percent of marketers surveyed responded they view social media as being important to their business.  And of that 90 percent, no-one has benefitted more than small businesses.   Here are a few quick highlights from the report that show areas where small business owners saw greater benefits than their peers:

  • The self-employed and small business owners were more likely to report new partnerships, with at least 59% noting a benefit.
  • Small businesses were twice as likely to find qualified leads than other types of businesses.
  • Forty-eight percent of self-employed and small business owners saw improved sales as a direct result of their social media efforts.
  • The self-employed (59%) and small business owners (58%) were more likely than others to see reductions in marketing costs when using social media marketing.

Even with all this data supporting the benefits of social media, I still find a lot of opposition when speaking to small business owners about their use (or non use) of social media.  Below you will find a few reasons why I believe small business owners should NOT be afraid of social media.

Reason #1: All good things take time

There are two objections I often hear about time, when it comes to social media.  The first is that there isn’t enough time in the day, and the other is it takes too long to see results.  Let’s take a look at both of these objections a little closer.

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Category: NxtGen Thoughts, Small Business, Social Media | Tags: , , , ,
Noah Babcock | June 9, 2010
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Update: Social Media Strategy

After my post yesterday, I found this case study on how not having a full thought out strategy can really be disastrous.  In my opinion Pizza Hut came up with brilliant social media campaign in Ireland.  They tied into the worlds biggest sporting event, World Cup which starts in a few days, with a fun way for their customers to use their passion to win free pizza.  They did an amazing  job coming up with this campaign.  Except they dropped the ball, because it does not tie into their whole marketing strategy.  They neglected their website, and lose much of the greatness of their campaign.

Read the full case study writen by Simply Zesty.
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Category: Social Media | Tags: , , , ,
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