Social Media Purpose and Tactics – The Truth About Content and Engagement

Recently eMarketer released a new report that purported to cover Social Media Tactics and which work best. Though the report has a lot of valuable information, most is based on a highly misguided view of social media to begin with. In this post I am going to outline two of the points in the report and attempt to give you some straight talk about them that is intended to help you adjust strategy and be more effective.

Engagement:

Early in the report there was a statement that stood out to me as a huge red flag:

“the greatest percentage of respondents from both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) companies considered customer engagement to be the primary purpose of their social media marketing.”

With so many marketers seeing engagement as the primary purpose for their social media marketing, it is no wonder why the respondents answered the way they did on other segments in the report. Engagement should simply be a part of the process within social media marketing, not the goal or purpose for it. The goal or purpose should be a clearly defined objective that is different for every business, but that should include things like increased sales, revenue, customers, traffic, etc. Real results and measurable metrics that make the time-consuming activities in social media worth while.

Content Creation:

A huge misnomer in the report is the repeated theme of the content creation requirement. Yes creating content is required. Photo’s, graphics, articles, blog posts, etc are optimum drivers when focused on the interests of your audience and delivers real value to them. However, there are two issues that need need to be dissected about this segment:

1) Average Small/Medium Businesses – Content creation can be an effective tool for driving social media marketing results, but the hard facts are that most SMB’s do not have the staff, resources or budget required to constantly create fresh creative content. In fact in most cases establishing a budget for this purpose for most SMB’s would not result in anything close to a return on investment. Larger companies and bigger brands are able to leverage their previous branding, resources and huge budgets without the need for real measured results and this is highly skewed in this report.

Most Difficult Social Media Marketing Tactics

2) Content Sharing – Since the overwhelming majority of marketing professionals that responded, reported that the top tactics of “content creation” were also the most difficult to execute, this leaves many scratching their head for what to do in their social media marketing. Not once in this report was a reference to content curation, aggregation or sharing, let alone a strategy around sharing. The average business must have a content strategy that involves posting content that others have written; content that is interesting and relevant to their target audience, provides value to that audience and starts conversations.

Reports like these can be incredibly insightful for the largest brands out there, or those that work with large brands, the fact is that small and medium businesses just don’t have the resources to execute social media this way. Furthermore, many of the larger brands do social media marketing in direct contrast to how it should be done, therefore spending most of their efforts pitching their products, not responding to their audience and producing content that are more liken to commercials than content that adds value to their audience.

If you are not a large brand, don’t let this report discourage you. Use the information to establish an effective strategy of content sharing and do what level of content creation you are able to, focusing on delivering value to your audience and building real relationships. THESE are the tactics that actually get real results.

By Robert Caruso
@fondalo
http://fondalo.com
Founder/CEO – Bundle Post

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Multi-Select Content Options And Content Date Tagging Goes Live

As we finalize the next big Bundle Post Pro user feature this week, we decided to go ahead with another feature set enhancement release for all user levels. This new feature set delivers additional efficiencies to our overall social content management system, making content selection from feed channels faster and more accurate.

There are two main features in this system enhancement that we think you will really like.

1) Multi-Select Groups – Starting today, all Bundle Post user levels are able to select the most recent content in a feed channel in groups of 5, 10, 15 or 25 in a single click. When a group option is selected, the system automatically selects the corresponding number of most recent content from that feed channel and readies it to be moved to your export table. Users will still have the option to manually select the content they wish to share through their social media channels, as well as deselect any posts that are checked via the group selection option.

Our team has been begging for Multi-Select for some time and have been really excited about it during testing. Our testing realized an additional 10% time savings while managing content posts, but we think it may end up being even more than that.

2) Content Date Tagging – Included in this feature set release are content date tags which denote the date that each piece of content was aggregated into that feed channel by the Bundle Post system. The date stamp function on the feed channel content select window will be exceptionally helpful for niche feed channels that don’t have regular new content added.

For example, if a user has an RSS feed from a blog that only puts out new content once or twice a week, the date tag will make it easy to identify what content in that feed channel is new. Additionally, very niche Google Alert feed channels also presented a challenge to identify when there was new content. The new Content Date Tagging in Bundle Post makes this a breeze.

Both of the new features are now live in the Bundle Post System and we have activated them for all user levels. Though this is not the big Pro User feature release everyone is waiting to hear about, we think the efficiency advantages warranted an early activation. Pro users can expect the next major system upgrade anytime within the next two weeks as we take a big leap forward in social media management for our users.

By Robert Caruso
@fondalo
http://fondalo.com
Founder/CEO – Bundle Post

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Pro Users Get Content Sorting Randomization

As the Bundle Post user base and community has continued to grow, we have been fortunate to get an incredible amount of feedback from our very loyal users. Being Pro users of our Social Media Content Management platform ourselves, we also have a huge list of must have’s and wants that we require as the technology continues to grow and expand. The great thing about social media and software, is that they are continually changing and growing. Bundle Post is no exception.

Today Bundle Post, The Social Content Management System, is announcing a significant feature upgrade for our Pro users. We call it the Auto Sort function for the export table. This new function removes the time consuming task of mixing up feed channel and topical content sets manually via drag and drop. Now Pro users of the Bundle Post app can click the “Auto Sort” button at the top of the export table and randomize the scheduled posts on the screen to mix up content of various topics and from various feed channel sources. A huge jump forward for efficient social media management and content scheduling.

How the new Sort feature works:

When clicking the Auto Sort button on the export table in Bundle Post, the system will automatically mix the content you have merged with a schedule on the screen. The function uses an algorithm to quickly and randomly mix the posts via feed channel sources and reschedule the content automatically. Users are able to click the Auto Sort button as many times as they wish to achieve a desired mix of content from various feed channels, then fine tune by dragging and dropping posts further to move specific scheduled posts to a different date and time slot.

The new auto sort feature is one of the most requested features from Pro users and staff alike and we are thrilled to finally be able to deploy it system-wide. During testing internally, our team realized massive additional time savings over the drag and drop manual mixing previous required. The time we spent managing a 100 post export from Bundle Post was cut in half, which is no small benefit! We also found that multiple clicks of the sort button gets the best initial mix of content for smaller quantity exports, while larger exports with more feed channels used typically requires a single auto sort, followed by additional dragging and dropping for complete control.

Since Pro accounts are able to manage and export 100 posts at a time, instead of the 50 posts of Free and Expanded account types, the Auto Sort feature is exclusively being added to Pro user accounts. Free and Expanded users may upgrade to Pro for the additional volumes and feature enhancements announced today and in the near future!

Let us know if we can help you get started with the Bundle Post Social Content Management System to be more effective, efficient and profitable with your social media and content marketing efforts.

By Robert Caruso
@fondalo
http://fondalo.com
Founder/CEO – Bundle Post

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Focus On A User View Analysis Of Your Social Media Presence

Many social media marketers and even social media agencies spend a tremendous amount of time on tracking, analytics and reporting. Much of these activities give some insight into the reach and effectiveness of a social media program. However, some of that activity often ends up as “make-work” time-wasting that does not lead to actionable information of value.

One of the evaluation activities that is often overlooked is user-view analysis. User-view analysis is the viewing and evaluation of your total social media presence from the perspective of your target audience. You know what you do, the services you provide and the products you make, but does your social presence, profiles, graphics and messaging reflect that accurately to your community?

Now is where you get completely honest with yourself. Step back and pretend you are your prospective customer, then view your social media marketing from their perspective:

1) Review your feeds – What are you posting? If you were a follower or fan, would you find it interesting, fun, something you would share or comment on? Are you pitching too much? Is what you are sharing, posting and including in your various feeds relevant to the interests of your target audience?

2) Review your bio’s and profile content – If you didn’t know you or your brand at all and you looked at your twitter, facebook, fanpage or Linkedin accounts. would you understand what you do? Would it be interesting or enticing? Is the bio part human, part business or simply a cold, drab incoherent rant? If you were your target audience would YOU follow the account, like the page or accept the friend request?

*I highly suggest that unless you are a larger established brand, include YOUR or at least A name in the name field of your Twitter account.

3) Review your graphics - If you’re a solepreneur, a startup or new in social media marketing, I highly recommend that your twitter account contains YOUR picture, not just a logo. People build relationships with people, not brands and logo’s they’ve never heard of!

4) Continuity – Does the message on all of your profiles, website and blog contain the same branding, message and continuity? Once you are sure you have the proper messaging, take the time to ensure that all connection points across the social graph reflect the similar value propositions and voice.

Here are the hard facts about neglecting to walk through these steps and look at your social media presence as your target market does. What you don’t know will hurt you. Most won’t tell you how bad your profiles are or that they are not following you because of this issue or that. Nobody is going to tell you they won’t do business with you because you are poorly handling your social profiles, content and strategy…

THEY’LL JUST LEAVE!

By Robert Caruso
@fondalo
http://fondalo.com
Founder/CEO – Bundle Post

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Google Reader Shutting Down Leaving Huge Curation Gap For Marketers

Yesterday Google announced on the official Google Reader Blog that on July 1, 2013, they will retire Google Reader. Originally announced on the official Google Blog that same day, the excuse given was that usage over the years had declined and that the company is focusing its efforts on other products. As I read and researched the effects that this decision by Google has on social media content curation, I was compelled to pull a late night and write a post about it, in place of my originally scheduled blog post.

What does this mean for social media marketers that rely on Google Reader and other readers for social media content aggregation,  discovery and sharing in the social graph? It may be more of an initial inconvenience for some, as there are many other RSS readers on the market. Many other readers do use Google Reader for their syncing though and that will cause even more wide spread RSS reader issues. This change is also signaling that for social content aggregation and curation, scrolling through readers, scheduling content one by one manually or with browser plugins like Hootlet and Bufferapp, is definitely going away and frankly it must.

Efficient, reliable and effective means of content discovery, scheduling and management has to be done differently if social media marketing time spent is going to be able to realize profitable returns. Done properly, social media agencies,  marketers and brands must have enough interesting, relevant content in their streams every day and they know that. Content is where everything starts. It’s what creates conversations, develops thought leadership and influence, all of which are required for real results.

With old school content discovery and management methods going the way of the dumb cell phone, one must consider where social media content management is going. Where it has to go and what that looks like. Let me show you…

Though we rarely write about our own technology, this market changing event by Google compels us to do so this week.

Originally as an agency, we had the same issues you do. Searching, finding, editing, scheduling, hashtagging and posting enough relevant, valuable content for our clients target audience across all of the social network accounts they had. And doing that 7 days a week. Efficient? Not so much. Consistent? Near impossible. Effective? Let’s not go there. Profitable? We all know the answer to that. We knew that if we did not spend the hours every day on content management, all other social media management functions, results and metrics would fail. Something had to be done differently…

Bundle Post is the first Social Content Management system designed to solve the enormous time challenge of content management within social media. We designed it for us and had no intent on making a product. That changed quickly as the results increased on every client program, we saw huge efficiency gains and profitability climbed massively. We knew we were soon to become a social media software company.

So what is Bundle Post? The system efficiently handles 5 of the time-consuming back office functions related to social media content.

1) Aggregation and Curation – Attach Google Alert and RSS feeds where all content is ingested four times per day and saved as social media posts. You can view, edit and delete content you wish to use from every feed channel.

2) Legacy Content Management – My Social Content serves as repository folders of you and/or your clients legacy social content posts. Their website, videos, fanpage, interviews, photo’s etc. Legacy content can be merged with curated feed channel content and together be scheduled as individual posts for your newsfeeds.

3) Hashtags and Content Change – Hashtag folders for all campaigns can be created and house the keywords/phrases you want flagged for content changing in the text of all posts within Bundle Post. You designate the replacement hashtag or other text you want the system to replace. It automatically hashtags and/or changes the text of 100 social media posts in a single second.

4) Scheduling – Posting time schedules for all social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Google Plus, Groups, etc can be saved in Bundle Post and merged with content from 1 and 2 above. Easily scheduling 100 posts in less than 30 minutes.

5) Follow Friday Mentions – All Follow Friday posts can be managed in Bundle Post. Each post can be customized, twitter account names added or removed as you wish. With Bundle Post Follow Friday mentions on Twitter take 45 seconds on Thursday night instead of all morning on Friday.

What Bundle Post Isn’t? We are not a social media dashboard like Hootsuite, Tweetdeck or the many others. We do not do anything current dashboards do and they can’t do what we do, due to our 19 claims in a Pending Patent filed over 24 months ago.

Bundle Post is a back-office social media content management system that currently integrates with Hootsuite. Your scheduled social media content comes out of Bundle Post and uploads directly into Hootsuite.

You use Bufferapp or Hootlet to schedule content? That’s great when you come across a single article you want to share and schedule. But why would you spend hours finding, scheduling, editing and hashtagging enough content everyday for all your social profiles?

In 30 minutes our users manage 5 days of currated content, your legacy blog posts and your own marketing content. Yes, that’s right, 30 minutes. Not auto-posted content. Content YOU select and control. Nothing leaves Bundle Post to your social media accounts without you allowing it to be sent. Now you have the time to build relationships, get ROI and even handle more clients, all more effectively with better net results.

One more thing… You can share Bundle Post export files with others in your brands community and they can upload them into their Hootsuite, making your scheduled content reach even bigger. Have we got you thinking yet?

Welcome to Bundle Post. Want a live demo? Hit the website and click to contact us or just message me @fondalo or us @BundlePost on Twitter and let’s change the effectiveness and efficiency of your social media marketing NOW!

By Robert Caruso
@fondalo
http://fondalo.com
Founder/CEO – Bundle Post

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How To Use Your Legacy Social Media Content To Get Results

Assuming that you have a content strategy that delivers a consistent stream of relevant, valuable and interesting content to your target audience that is NOT about you or what you do through curation, you may need to take a closer look at YOUR content. Your legacy social content is an important additional component to your content posting mix. I find that marketers failing to effectively use their own content is one of the biggest overlooked opportunities within social media marketing. You need to know what you have available and mix it into your streams along with your other content, past as well as new.

Simply defined, “Your Social Content” is anything found on the web about your company that you can link to and/or share in the social graph.

A Few Examples Of Your Social Content Include:

1) Your website home page.

2) All of your other pages on your website.

3) Your Facebook page.

4) Each of the specific photo’s on your Facebook fanpage.

5) Your YouTube channel.

6) Specific videos on your YouTube channel.

7) Past articles you or your brand were mentioned in.

8) Your past blog posts that are timeless and still relevant to your audience.

The Role Of “Your Social Content”:

Your community is constantly growing, with new followers and likes happening all the time. Many long-time connections may have never even seen the original content when it was new or are not aware of what you do to begin with. Therefore, making use of past, timeless content in your streams is extremely important for your overall social selling effectiveness.

Utilizing enough of your social content will help with branding, click-throughs, and more. Be careful not to over do it though. Somewhere around 20-30% should be the maximum percentage of your content in your streams. That should be made up of new and archived content about you.

Know What You Have Available To Use:

Tracking the social content you have available to you to share about your brand can be a huge challenge. We experienced this quite frequently when we were a social media agency. Couple that challenge with the time to ensure you are including it as well as simply remembering to do post legacy content and the challenge gets even bigger. Those recurring struggles are a few of the reasons that led to the development of our Bundle Post software.

A repository of your social content in a central location that can easily and quickly be inserted in with the rest of your content posts is highly important. Spreadsheets and Word documents are great, but very cumbersome to manage, especially with multiple team members as with agencies. Relying on memories to include content and tracking what you have available needs to be efficient and effective for best results.

Make content aggregation, as well as repository posting of your legacy social content a priority to see new gains in your social media marketing efforts.

By Robert Caruso
@fondalo
http://fondalo.com
Founder/CEO – Bundle Post

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Pro Users Now Double Social Media Content Schedule Ability

Today Bundle Post would like to announce a new upgrade to Pro user accounts. Previous to this upgrade, Free, Expanded and Pro users of Bundle Post had an export maximum of 50 posts out of the system for bulk uploading into Hootsuite. Today marks the second of several upgrades to the system that expands the functionality and capability for our users.

Today’s upgrade is already functional. Existing and new Pro users are now able to export up to 100 scheduled and hashtagged social media posts and bring them into Hootsuite using the “Bulk Message Upload” function available to upgraded Hootsuite users. This expanded functionality for Pro users gives them more control over posting frequency and longevity of relevant content in their streams and even more time to focus on engagement, relationship building and ROI. In addition to today’s upgrade, it’s important to note that Pro users also get free one-on-one set up and training, as well as unlimited lifetime support.

Bundle Post is the first social content management system for social media marketers.  The powerful system automates the time-consuming process of searching, finding, organizing, managing and scheduling your social media content in a powerful social content management system.  Content aggregation, repository, editing and scheduling functions reduce the back office social media content management time required for effective social media marketing, freeing up time to focus on ROI.

Agencies: Our social media agency Pro users will see incredible effectiveness and efficiency value add to what they are already doing with the tool. The ability to increase content volumes at appropriate levels without spending any additional time is a no brainer.

Marketers: Anyone using social media marketing that is struggling to ensure they have enough relevant, valuable content in their streams, should really take a look at Bundle Post.

Integrated with Hootsuite’s Bulk Message Upload function, Bundle Post supports all major social network platforms. The system has built-in hashtagging, Follow Friday and scheduling functions that make managing content posts extremely efficient, effective and profitable.

What Bundle Post is NOT:  Bundle Post is not a replacement for engagement, single posting or day to day management of social media accounts.  It does not replace services like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck.  It simply makes all the other required back office functions of social media content more efficient and effective.

We are excited about this additional system upgrade and the many more that are soon to follow. If you have questions about Bundle Post, feel free to connect with us. We are happy to get you a demo and answer any questions you may have.

For a full-length recorded webinar, click here.

By Robert Caruso
@fondalo
http://fondalo.com
Founder/CEO – Bundle Post

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That’s Not YOUR Content Strategy, It’s Someone Else’s

Before I dig fairly deep into this subject, I want to be very clear about a couple of things:

1) There are no steadfast rules about social media marketing, with the exception of: DO NOT spam.

2) My intent is to guide my readers toward improved effectiveness and real net results based on my results, not a theory that generates blog traffic to sell my book about something I have never really done.

3) I largely write for a specific audience that consists of the social media marketer, the small to medium brand or the social media agency, not particularly for the enthusiast. Please recognize that this post is directly focusing on those using social media for marketing.

Literally hundreds of times per day, I view the feeds, walls and pages of people I am connected with. I am looking to RT (Retweet), share and otherwise promote them. The unfortunate truth is that a large percentage of the time even with several scrolls of the page, I am unable to find anything they have posted themselves. I don’t mean blog posts they have written, but content that THEY find and post. No blog post of their own, no news, articles or relevant information that is valuable and deserving of a share. Just an incredible amount of RT’s of other people’s social media content posts.

Let me say something very clearly here; If you largely RT and Share other people’s social media posts and/or Triberr content from others to fill your feeds with content, you are deploying THOSE people’s content strategy, not your own.

A few things I suggest:

1) Carefully select the posts you Share/RT from others.

Ensure there is a reason for the share that further’s YOUR content strategy.

2) Make RT’s and Shares around 10-20% max of the posts in your feed. 

If you are going to be effective with the social media content you post, you need to have a strategy and that strategy needs to be yours. Limit the RT’s and Shares in your feed and ramp up the content you find yourself that is inline with the topics that drive your audience.

3) You must have a content strategy.

If you don’t know what a social media strategy is, are struggling with it or need to make changes to your existing strategy, here is a simple Infographic that may help. Coupled with a social content strategy, you need to have an effective way to aggregate social content and manage, schedule and post that content.

Related Example:

I used to be in several “tribes” on Triberr with many big name social media people who had huge audiences. After sometime, I left those 10+ tribes with a 20+ million reach down to only 6 with around a 3.9 million reach. The interesting thing I have found is that our blog traffic has maintained the same traffic levels, our software user acquisition rates have steadily increased, and I spend WAY less time in Triberr, even though we are in smaller tribes with a smaller reach.

The right content is very important and where you spend your time obtaining content for your feeds is also. Many of the people who have large followings are not as influencial as you might think. In fact, my experience tells me that many of those described above that share your posts have followers that don’t even consider stuff they share as important or relevant, hence the same results with a much smaller tribe reach.

Don’t misunderstand, I am not a Triberr hater. I think it is excellent when used in conjunction with a clearly defined strategy.

The moral of the story here is that you must have your OWN content strategy that includes posting content YOU find, content YOU create, as well as shares and RT’s. These things work together to deliver value to your community and establish credibility and thought leadership in your space. Doing so will result in increased, meaningful conversations, deeper relationships and ultimately a return on investment for your social media marketing efforts.

By Robert Caruso
@fondalo
http://fondalo.com
Founder/CEO – Bundle Post

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How To Determine Topics For Your Social Media Content Strategy

Content is not the king of social media marketing, but it certainly is the starting point that drives conversations, action and results. Having and executing an effective social media content strategy is the difference between your brand being in social media and getting results in social media.

I have discovered that there are typically three to five main topics of interest that social network users are most attracted to. Those topics are typically different for everyone, so knowing what they are for your specific market is tremendously important.

I have also found that there are three basic steps that can help you determine the topics your social audience is most interested in.  Follow these steps and combine it with an appropriate volume of posted, curated, shared and your created content to get the best results.

Three steps to determine topics for your social media content strategy:

1) Know Your Audience – Knowing your audience is the most important step in the content strategy process. You need to clearly define who you are trying to reach, very specifically. Define them demographically (statistical characteristics), geographically (location or locations) and psychograhically (personality, values, attitudes, interests, and lifestyles).

*Don’t forget things like gender, age, income levels, etc.

2) Research - Once you have defined your clear target audience and know a few specifics about who they are, do your research. Here are some things to consider:

• Current Customers – Ask your current customers this question… When you are on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc., what content topics interest you the most?
• Competition – Investigate your competitors pages and social accounts. What topics that they post about get the most comments, likes, shares and conversations. Be sure the followers of those accounts are your target prospects also, or the information you obtain will lead you on a wild goose chase with your own strategy. Many brands social media marketing and content strategies are often focused on their peers, not their prospects. Don’t make the same mistake!
• Search Engines – Use your favorite search engine to find statistics and information about your target audience. The internet has a ton of information, government and private studies, as well as news reports that will easily point you to topics your audience favors.

3) Test/Measure – After you have narrowed potential topics down to 5-10, start sharing news, blog posts and other content surrounding these topics to your streams. Aggregate content around then topics and post them in your newsfeeds consistently everyday. Measure the engagement, clicks, likes and comment rates around the topics. This will narrow you down to the top three to five that your audience most responds to.

Once you have determined your target markets three to five driving topics, you will want to slowly and steadily increase the volume of posts you are doing across the social networks you are focusing on. If you have properly identified the right topics of content to share, this will rapidly increase the amount of conversations, clicks and relationships you have in your community and more importantly get you on a path to improved results.

By Robert Caruso
@fondalo
http://fondalo.com
Founder/CEO – Bundle Post

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Social Media Content And The Social Selling Process [INFOGRAPHIC]

Content is so incredibly important in social media marketing. Many marketers and sad to say social media agencies don’t realize the true impact it has on getting to the all important return on investment results that are often missed. Social media content is a crucial part of the “social selling” process as well, so I decided to put together a little infographic on a process we use to show how content starts everything!

Of course every business and industry is different and some of the steps and details will need to be adjusted for your specific brand. The important thing to note is that content drives the social selling process. Content is what starts conversations with your target audience.

There are few important steps I want to point out:

1) Content – Where it all starts. You need to know the topics your audience are interested in, then find and post articles, news and information that is valuable to them. You need to have enough of that content posted throughout the entire day, so that whenever your audience is online, one of your posts is seen.

*the quantity of posts per day varies from social network to social network. For example you would post much more frequently on Twitter than your personal Facebook page. You would post much less frequently to your company Facebook page than your personal Facebook page. Then of course there is LinkedIn, Google Plus etc…

2) Conversations – These are what build relationships. No matter whether you are a BtoB (Business to Business) service company, or a local restaurant, people tend to do business with people they feel they know and like. Since conversations build relationships, this is key to the social selling process. The content you are sharing should be so relevant, interesting and valuable to your audience that they like, comment and/or share it. That opens the door to a thank you and a personal or business question or conversation.

*be sure to focus the bulk of your conversations with those that are prospects for your product and service. Spending time in conversations with a dad in Ohio, when you are a local beauty shop in Texas doesn’t further your sales efforts. That doesn’t mean ignore those that are not prospects, just use common sense and your time wisely.

3) Explain – When a follower asks about you or what you do, you are now in selling mode. This looks very different from one business type to another. Give a short answer and always include a link to your brief video, marketing piece or webpage that you have previously designed for this specific purpose.

Be sure to only do this with someone you know is a prospect for your product/service.

*be prepared with posts that are already written to cover the various questions you might get and edit them specifically for the person you are speaking to at that moment.

4) Next Step – Do you know ahead of time what the next step is or should be in the social selling process? If you are a restaurant, do you have a special to hand off to someone to get them to come in? Does your BtoB service company have a demo procedure you can immediately plug into with the person? Do you schedule time on your calendar for soft invites for “Let’s talk” or “we should talk” options right at that moment?

Know exactly what your options are and what works, then drive down the appropriate path with each relationship as the conversation lends itself.

5) Ongoing – Whether or not the person/company becomes a customer after going through the social selling process, you will always want to go back to monitor and engage. If you have established a relationship and know they are a prospect for you, monitor their activity for opportunities to share their content and/or engage in additional conversation. This goes for those that become customers and those that do not. I can’t stress this enough.

As you review the social selling process inforgraphic and the details I have outlined here, you should be asking yourself a few questions.

• Is the content we are sharing interesting to our audience?
• Are we getting frequent comments, likes and shares from our community every day, all day?
• Is the engagement we are getting from prospects for our product or service?
• Do we know which followers/fans in our community are our prospective customers?

If the answer is no to any of these four questions, your content strategy, topics, frequency and targeting is most likely off and needs considerable adjustment. Additionally, appropriate social CRM solutions should be immediately employed to enable you to better focus time and efforts on the right conversations with the right people.

P.S. – Don’t SPAM!  That is all… :-)

By Robert Caruso
@fondalo
http://fondalo.com
Founder/CEO – Bundle Post

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