Dear Directors – a social media letter

Dear Directors,

You are ignoring social media at your peril. People are talking about your company right now and it’s not all good. Some of your staff are seeing this but they’re afraid to step in because you don’t have a policy which protects them if they do.

Do a search on your company name, it only takes a second. Try a service like Social Mention. It couldn’t be easier.

See what’s out there? Can you imagine what it would be like if you could get involved there and start to influence how your brand is perceived?

Why haven’t you done it yet? Are you:

• Worried that it’s a fad?
• Suspicious that you won’t see a return on your investment?
• Concerned that you have nothing to say?
• Short on time?
• Unwilling to spend invest in something that’s free?
• ..or just in the dark about where to start?

If you don’t fix this situation right now your competitors will be tearing past you quicker than you can imagine. In many industries the social media space is virgin territory. Stake your claim now to get a head start.

That’s what I’d do.

Yours Faithfully,
Barry Dewar (Social Media Strategist)

Basic proposal template

I moved client side about 8 months ago. One of the things to most surprised me is how I miss writing proposals.

Honestly.

I even dug out my old proposal template to make myself feel better.

Then I thought, maybe people might find it useful . Maybe you have been asked to write a proposal. Maybe you write proposals all the time and you’re nosy to see what I put in mine. Maybe you are just wondering what a proposal is.

For whatever reason. Here you go. My proposal template:

Vision
An outline of the overall aims for the project and a description of what the end product will be and how it will function.

We will deliver:

• Summary of Key Deliverables
• Broken down into Bullet Points
• e.g. a redeveloped website in line with new brand guidelines
• e.g. A user friendly CMS
• e.g. Social media sharing tools
• e.g. Effective Search Engine performance and improved traffic

Introduction
Introduction to Mystery Co.

Project Description
Services
Deliverables

Project Plan
Roles and responsibilities
Timescales

Project Details
Front end
CMS
Additional Requirements
Hosting
Site Marketing
Social Media

Accessibility

Development Tools

Licensing

Methodology
Initiation
Scoping
Wireframing
Design
Build
Testing
Rollout

Costs

Appendix A – Hosting
Appendix B – Risks and Constraints
Appendix C –  Credentials

The power of bread and butter.

What do you do when you don’t have time to do whatever it is that you do?

It’s not easy. Things change, that’s inevitable. That roadmap that you had, it’s kind of pointless. You may well reach your destination but the actual route is ALWAYS going to change.

When change comes, you have to devote a lot more time to the fallout. You have to make new plans, deal with consequences, and pick some new routes.

It doesn’t leave you much time to do the stuff that used to make you tick. But you have to have a plan. It’s important that you set yourself a base level of activity and stick to it.

When it comes to social media, there are some stark choices to make. Work out where you can maintain the highest profile with the least effort. If your audience are funky young things who hang out at the Google+ party, then make sure that you are keeping them entertained there. If they are gobshite Tweetheads, then don’t drop out of their stream entirely. Or if they’re on Facebook, you might want to consider a bit of advertising.

Look for maximum interaction. Use the limited time you have to focus on plans which promote sharing. Don’t pontificate about yourself, give them something that makes them use a bit of their own self to spread the love. Now is the time to be rolling out your polls, competitions, offers. The sharable stuff.

It’s not the big picture. It’s not following all the smashing advice that I’ve been laying out here. It’s almost crass. But it’s bread and butter promotion and it works.

Then, when the dust settles. You can get return your social media hatchback, and get back on the road.

4 flavours of social media

See when you’re reading blogs that tell you about how you should be using social media? First thing you should do is think about whether they are really talking to you or not.

See, there are a lot of different uses for SM and they require fundamentally different approaches to the medium. They each have their own flavour, blended from vastly differing sets of ingredients.

Are you, for example, a well known brand?

If you are then you are duty bound to protect the reputation of that brand by  communicating with your followers. You need to listen to what they are saying and act on what you hear. Tailor your content to be interesting and interactive. Don’t just feed it your offline stuff.

Maybe you’re a celebrity?

Ah. Now. That’s a bit different. Your social media content if you are a public figure is entirely based on your character. Maybe you are fiery and controversial. Maybe you’re all knowing and smug. Maybe you’re an expert at something.

If you’re a well known face then people are following YOU and simply want to hear what you think. Be honest with them and don’t try to water yourself down. If you do deign to actually speak to any of them, they will faint.

Or are you a social media beast?

There’s lots of them about. If your following has been grown by a series of purposeful iniatives. If your existence in people’s timelines is simply so they get to hear what you’ve got to say about types of differing  social media user. Well then you’ve made a rod for your own back.

You have to keep dreaming up new ways to say the same thing. Y0u have to keep in with other experts in your field. And you have to keep reading and thinking so that you can filter the industry news through a knowledgeable lens.

You might be none of the above

I know it sounds crazy, but you might just be an ordinary person. Just someone with a Twitter account and a Facebook page. If that’s the case then don’t bother reading this. Don’t waste your time with blogs about how you should be using social media. Just go on posting your updates and chatting to your friends.

You may well find that your stream is the best of all.

Image credit: Piotr Bizior

Google minus

Infrequency is the new black.

 

3 months is a long time between updates. Much longer than I had intended but I have been busy.

 

Today, however, fuelled by good coffee and free wifi, Imma post something.
Since my last post there has been one very significant change to the social media landscape: Google+. It’s long been predicted, denied and debated and finally it’s here. But is it any good?

 

Well, frankly. No. It’s not.

 

It does bring some nice video-conferencing tools to the table, and makes photo sharing much easier (maybe too easy?). But I was really hoping for more from Google.

 

I know that it’s all about the marketing but the first thing that bugs me is the terminology. Circles? Really? Just as the world had got the hang of following, friends, groups and lists Google wades in and crowbars a new term in there. And you can have different types of circles. And those circles can intersect.

 

Sorry Google but in trying to simplify a complex issue, you’ve made the problem worse. The reason for Twitter’s early success was it’s simplicity. Ditto with Facebook. They both loaded up on users because their initial offerings were very easy to use. Google+ looks user friendly with it’s big icons but it’s trying to to do much.

 

I can’t help thinking they would have done better to conentrate on the bits where they can gain a competitive advantage. The Google+ button is one of those. Maybe if they’d started with a kind of virtual bookmark sharing system which is easy to use then people would understand it better. The reason this is important is because the main issue, in my experience, is with getting people to sign-up in the first place. Why would anyone want to sign up to Google, requiring yet another password to be committed to memory when they are being offered the same thing as they get already from Facebook? Would it not be better to encourage people to sign-up to a service that is genuinely new and useful. Then, when they are on-board, start to add the tools that they get elsewhere and try and keep them there for longer.

 

That’s what I would have done.

 

I really am barely using Google+. And I do this for a living.

 

Would love to hear your thoughts.

The flowers of your labour

I’m still here by the way. Just haven’t been blogging.

I’ve had a big change of clients recently which has caused some changes in my work patterns but I think it’s safe to say I’m back. I made it to #EdCM last week for the first time this year (I KNOW!) and I’m finding time for Twitter again after putting it on the back burner.

It’s been a long time since I was actively building my network, creating content and engaging with people.

But you know what?

It didn’t matter.

When I re-inserted myself into the social media matrix it was as if I’d never left. The foundations that I’d spent so long building actually held the whole thing up. This blog is still getting good traffic, people still email me with enquiries, my friends are all still there on Twitter and the burritos are still good at @illegaljacks.

So there’s a lesson for you. The work that you put in at the beginning of digging your digital plot, the strategy work and planning. That’s never going to be wasted. It’s what roots the whole thing. After that you have a very fertile foundation on which to grow your digital garden.

I’m off to water the flowers.

Image credit: Robert Michie