Social Enchilada

Jun26

social media, strategy, word of mouth

Market with your four walls

It’s no secret, MindComet sells social media strategy as a service. Organizations come to us, not knowing where and how to start using social marketing effectively. We educate and help them, generally in exchange for money. But today, we’re giving away a freebie. It’s a very basic, two-fold strategy that, in my opinion, is one of the most effective strategies a business can employ.

Part one: Market with your four walls.

Four-walls marketing is not a new concept, yet it is really simple. If you can consistently deliver a unique and memorable experience to your customers, they WILL market for you. Top restaurants have been doing this for years. Do you think that the Cleveland-based chef and restauranteur, Michael Symon, spends significant amounts of money advertising his flagship restaurant Lola? No, his guests do his marketing for him - By the way, if you’re ever in Cleveland you MUST dine there. It is amazing - see what I mean?

So ask yourself, is your customer experience unique? Are you delivering something, whether it be a product, experience, or customer service, that you can reliably say you’re doing better, and not just marginally better, than your competition? Work on this until you can emphatically say yes, then move on to part two.

Part two: Encourage or ask your customers to talk about you on social media channels.

If you’re doing part one right, then you’re guests will already be talking about you to their friends. However, you’re goal is to have them talking about you in a public forum, like social media. Don’t be bashful, strike up conversations with your happy customers and see if they use social media. If so, ask them to post reviews on sites like Yelp, Urbanspoon, Twitter, Facebook, and their blogs. Sometimes people just need a little nudge and I guarantee that a good number of them will be happy to do it.

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Posted by Jeremy Hilton on Jun. 26, 2009

+ 0

Mar20

twitter, strategy

Three improvements to your company’s Twitter strategy

1. Stop using Twitter strictly as a broadcast medium

People are on Twitter to listen to others and to have others listen to them. Stop using Twitter as a way to broadcast out your marketing message and start having real conversations with your followers. No one wants a constant barrage of your marketing messages. Listen to what they have to say and provide authentic responses. You’ll build trust, loyalty and respect with your followers.

2. Share some knowledge with your followers

You don’t have to be a college or university to do this. Educate people about your products and services. Don’t go overboard though. Mix in selfless education about your industry, or hometown, or whatever. People grow tired of incessant self-promotion.

3. Have fun with your followers

Make Twitter into an interactive tool for engaging your followers in fun ways. Send out trivia questions, quotes and fun facts that are relevant to your industry. If people respond to your engagement, acknowledge their response. Try mixing a contest into your engagement. Offer a nominal gift for the first person that responds.

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Posted by Jeremy Hilton on Mar. 20, 2009

+ 3

Good points! Social media thrives on relationships!

Posted by Ben Komanapalli on 03/21/2009 07:48 AM

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Jeremy Hilton