How to: Integrate Social Media in Business Using Blogs (Part 2)

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December 15, 2010

Now that you’ve understood why blogs are vital to your business instead of having a traditional website, you may have in mind to make full use of them to sell your products and services, perhaps even going to the extend of writing 1-page sales pitches that may have worked for you in the past.

Unfortunately, sales pitches does not work on blogs – especially when you’re just getting started.

Why Don’t Sales Pitches Work?

Blogging, or rather, social media is not about sales. It’s about customer engagement, it’s about relating and listening to your target audience and to have a human presence. Customers today do not want to be sold to – they want to be heard. Writing a full fledge sales pitch will only drive people away than to convert them.

Err.. But Isn’t It All About Making Sales?

That may be true for your business but on social media, I personally believe that sales is secondary. Yes, you would ultimately want to convert customers and make sales but upright sales pitches would do more harm than good. There are, after all, various ways and techniques of conversions on social media.

How to Make Sales With My Blog? Here are 3 Steps to Get You Started!

#1: Give and you shall receive

“What? I thought we’re talking about making sales!?”

Yes, we are – the long term yet effective way and blogs are just the right medium to do it. Provide value to your readers consistently to establish your own presence first. Write about what you do best, industry updates and share your experiences with past clients.

During this stage, you’re actually creating a platform for your business to reach out in the future – take time in doing this as it is your biggest asset!

#2: Create exposure

“Oh come on, get on with the sales already!”

Blogs can give your business an exposure beyond traditional means. With the amount of blog syndication tools out there and with search engine optimization (SEO), the amount of exposure is massive. Now, all you need to do is to create opportunities (or window opportunities) for sales to happen.

Some use exclusive offers, contests, VIP passes, weekend giveaways and more to gain more exposure AND create an opportunity for your audience to get to know you better through your products. In other words, you’re creating leads for sales!

#3: Promotion

“Are we there yet?”

There are various ways of promoting your products / services through your blog and one of the common ways of doing so is by producing an e-book. An e-book allows you to pack more of your expertise to your audience, benefiting them and at the same time, creates an opportunity for you to upsell your products. It can be a seminar, workshop, demo sessions, trials and more.

So, What About Sales?

As you can see, social media is an excellent tool to drive sales and increase conversions, especially with blogs. If you’re STILL looking to make plain sales out of thin air for your business, then perhaps you may want to consider other alternatives :)

How to: Integrate Social Media in Business Using Blogs (Part 1)

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December 8, 2010

| Jan Wong

If I had to pick which social media tool is the most beneficial for businesses, I would say BLOGS will come first. Nevermind whether it is Blogger, WordPress or the likes – blogs, in general is perhaps one of the most important social media tool for businesses today.

Your business may have an active Facebook or Twitter page going but like it or not, Facebook and Twitter are great engagement tools and not necessarily the best tool in disseminating information and content, especially chunky ones to your customers.

3 Reasons on Why Your Business Should Blog:

1. It is your HOME BASE

Traditional websites are slowly moving into a blog environment because businesses see the value in providing consistent updates and additional value to their customers instead of having a well designed, static information website.

Having a blog (or in this case, the centre of content) can act as the primary place of information for your business where you can share what’s happening behind the scenes, updates on upcoming plans, interesting news and even insights in the industry your business is in – basically content that adds value to your prospects and customers.

Combine this with your engagement tools such as Facebook and Twitter, now your fans and followers will be able to find out and benefit more from you. This can easily be done by including a link to your blog on tweets and status updates.

Find out more about having a home base here!

2. Expert in the field

Now you may think that you can also establish a home base with a traditional website. True, but one thing blogs triumphs is that through your sharing of content, you are able to change the perception of your prospects and customers towards your business.

How so? A traditional website focuses on designs to create an impression. A blog focuses on content to create an impression. Which lasts longer? Blogs. The more valuable content you put out, the more your target audience will be able to know you and that builds a relationship that your competitor may not have with them.

If you are in business, chances are, you have tons of knowledge and experience in you. If you’re able to share them, that alone will make you an expert in the field – especially in the eyes of your customers. Customers value valuable content and transparency as it also influences buying decisions.

For consumers that are new to your business, a blog will be able to reflect your knowledge and experience in a particular field and in some cases, how active your business is by looking at when was your last update.

3. Low Cost

Guess what, you may already have been blogging and you just do not know about it. You may have been ‘blogging’ on advertorials, press releases, media write ups, newspaper columns, magazine columns and etc to position yourself in the market.

If you’ve been there, you should know that chances like that do not come by very often and sometimes it may cost you. If you’ve haven’t been there, you should also know that such opportunities may not be easy to find and that it will also cost you.

By having a blog, you have these opportunities every single day, at no cost! The only evident cost is your time. Your time to put together your thoughts, research, pen it down and to publish it online. Other than that, it’s literally free!

So, Why Blog?

Given the benefits, why NOT blog? I strongly believe that every industry will be able to benefit from having their very own blog. After all, wherever there is knowledge to something, there is definitely something to share from it, and blogs are the place to share them.

Have blogging been beneficial to you or your business? Do share them by commenting below! :)

Is It Possible to Hire a PR / Young Person to Manage Your Social Media Presence?

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December 1, 2010

| Jan Wong

I’ve been noticing this as a trend lately that’s happening in many companies and businesses within Malaysia. Young grads are being hired for a specific job to find that they are given an additional job description – to manage the company’s social media accounts.

Is this really a smart thing to do?

A young person usually spends their entire day on Facebook, Twitter and blogs therefore they are great candidates to manage the accounts, isn’t it? WRONG. Though it may be true that they are technologically savvy, this does not automatically makes him or her a social media expert with the required capabilities to take on your company’s social media presence.

Likewise for PR Managers, they may be really good at what they do but this does not automatically makes them a social butterfly online. Plus, PR Managers generally have extrovert personalities so keeping them behind a screen to socialize may not work as well as you think it would.

Insisting on using them?

I would not go down this path but if that’s the only choice you have, consider looking up their backgrounds or throwing them a test before adding it to their job description. Check out their Facebook, Twitter and blog accounts to see what they usually talk about (you may even find that they are active only on Facebook games).

If you find that they are actively participating in chats, sharing informative contents, retweeting, creating content and etc – Congratulations! You’ve found your man (or woman)!

If you find that they are actively chatting casually, sharing random contents, talking about the bits and pieces of their life, mostly participating in games and etc – You may not want to bestow them your company’s social media accounts.

What should be done then?

The best for the job is definitely a social media manager or consultant that specializes in social media. One that does not only have the knowledge, but also with the experience to generate ideas, execute and creatively engage with his / her network.

There are tons of articles out there listing the various areas to look for in a social media manager so I won’t go into the details but most of them concur that he / she must have some past experience in the field. It can be personal experiences, various projects / campaigns or past / present clients.

Also, do not hesitate to probe questions to test their knowledge in the field as knowing these can give you an ease of mind and somewhat gauge the potential results thus evaluating whether he or she is worth your money.

So, is it really a ‘no’ to hire a young person / PR to do the job for me?

Never :)

How to: Integrate Social Media in Offline Operations

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November 24, 2010

| Jan Wong

“Is online / social media alone the way forward for your business?“

Being a huge believer of the importance of INTEGRATION instead of implementation, my answer to that is NO. Businesses today are too caught up with the ideology of social media but fail to realize the huge potential social media can bring when integrated into traditional marketing efforts.

It is important for businesses to realize that social media integration does not mean that by having social media presence everything will fall into place. If you take a look at same of these real life integrations of social media with Facebook and Twitter, you’ll find that these companies are successful online because they managed to integrate it into existing OFFLINE business operations.

Here are some integration ideas for you to maximize your marketing potential:

#1: EVENTS + SOCIAL MEDIA

Have an event coming up soon? Whether it is an exhibition, launch or a regular meetup / happening, explore how you can spice up your event with available social media tools. You can use Facebook to share photos leading towards the event to build hype and organize giveaways; use Twitter to share real time updates on what’s happening on the scene and behind the scenes, facilitate tweetchats or setup a Twitter wall at the event with a contest mechanism to build followers; rewarding visitors that check in to your venue on Foursquare or even a treasure hunt!

There is a timely article written on Mashable yesterday on this very topic with 5 ideas on how you can enhance your events with social media. Click on the thumbnail to check it out!

#2: ADVERTISING / PROMO + SOCIAL MEDIA

You have a new product or service and is wanting some follower / fan love? Facebook can be used to disseminate information regarding your product or to give out demo units; if you have an existing network, identify strong personas and request for them to review your product and service on blogs; use Twitter to it’s fullest potential by sharing exclusive deals or twouchers (vouchers) to start a string of retweets; perhaps the mayor on Foursquare entitled to a VIP-class treatment of your service?

#3: CUSTOMER SERVICE + SOCIAL MEDIA

I can’t stress the importance and the effectiveness of customer service using social media. The more active channels you make available for your customers and prospects to approach you, the better.

The 2 common mediums are Facebook and Twitter. If you can capitalize on these 2 you should be in the run of something good. Do not leave questions unattended for days, reply to every enquiry within 1-2 hours consistently and your customers will find GREAT value in your service.

One thing to note is that you should never, ever give out inconsistent / inaccurate information on social media as you could cook up a storm in a matter of minutes, especially if you have a huge network.

If you’re feeling adventurous, you can even use Twitter to take orders for your business like Coffee Groundz did!

#4: ON-SITE INTERACTIVITY + SOCIAL MEDIA

Who says social media are only limited to virtual interactions? Coca Cola brought the ‘like’ feature on Facebook to life! Check out the video below to see how it happened:

I agree that this setup can be a little too complicated for some to take on but it sure triggers some simpler ideas. A giant photo tagging wall or a mini wall in front of each exhibitor for visitors to ‘post’ on, the only limit is your imagination :)

Have you come across any interesting social media integrations into real life (offline) operations?

Do share them here!

How to Start Your Own Self Hosted WordPress Blog

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November 19, 2010

| Jan Wong

With new bloggers joining the blogosphere each and everyday, the demand of having a personal domain name (e.g. www.yourname.com) remains as high as ever. If you’ve always wanted this but do not know how, this article will be guiding you through a series of steps to get your very own self hosted WordPress blog up and running in no time!

Step #1: Get A Domain Name + Hosting Service

A domain name is your site’s address or URL and it has to be hosted before anyone can see it’s contents. To see whether your desired domain name is available, I use www.GoDaddy.com (for .com / .net / .org / international domains) and www.DomainRegistry.my (for .com.my / .my / org.my / local domains).

Most people get really confused with two things at this stage:

1. The difference between domain names (e.g. .com and .com.my)

Let me start by saying that having a .com does not make one more superior than a .com.my in any way, vice versa. The only difference is that a .com.my (Malaysia) or a .co.uk (UK) for that matter, is controlled locally by their respective country’s registrar for domains – which also means that you may need to have certain qualifications / requirements for you to obtain it.

For example, to qualify for a .com.my domain, you’ll need to have a registered business / company with SSM (Companies Commission of Malaysia) while a .my domain requires you to have a Malaysian identification card (IC) number.

“One thing to note though, is that .com domains may have a slight advantage over local domains on search engines but it’s not a huge set back at all if you’re into SEO”

2. The difference between hosting packages (e.g. how much space will I need?)

If you’re not very good with technical terms, never mind the long lists of functionalities given – but look out for the below:

a. Operating Systems – Usually between Windows and Linux. If you’re only interested in running WordPress on it, then either does not matter. However, some providers have their prices tagged differently (e.g. Windows more pricey).

b. Space – This is your storage space, some what like your hard disk space on your computer. If you’re not planning to upload tons of pictures and videos to your site directly, anywhere between 5GB – 10GB of space would last you for quite some time. To save space, you can always upload your pictures to Flickr while videos to YouTube and link them to your posts whenever needed.

c. Bandwidth – The larger the bandwidth, the more traffic your site will be able to handle. Usually hosting providers offer 2 – 5 times the bandwidth of the storage space in GBs (e.g. 10GB space -> 50GB bandwidth) which should be more than sufficient if your pictures are off loaded elsewhere such as on Flickr.

d. MySQL Databases – WordPress runs on MySQL Databases and each blog requires ONE MySQL database so make sure your hosting package has at least 1 (any more won’t hurt!).

Note that there IS a difference between MySQL and MS SQL databases!

e. Email Accounts – Fancy a [email protected] email address? This is what it’s all about. 5 email accounts will grant you up to 5 different email addresses and so on.

Total investment here: Varies from RM80 – RM350 (domain name + hosting) depending on the service provider, chargeable per year

Step #2: It’s Time to Work with WordPress

If you used to have a blog on WordPress.com, it’s time to abandon that and head over to WordPress.org instead and download the latest WordPress version (it’ll be in a zip file). When it’s done, simply unzip the file and rename it (if you wish).

Now, there are several steps you’ll need to do and this famous 5-minute WordPress Installation Guide will lead you through the entire process with a breeze!

If you’re wondering what is this FTP thingy mentioned in the guide, think of it as a way for you to upload your files to the server. You can do it either through a software e.g. FileZilla or WS_FTP. Either software will require your login credentials which will be provided by your hosting service provider.

Step #3: Recommendations and Configurations

Congratulations for making it this far! That wasn’t too difficult, was it? Before you go trigger-happy experimenting new themes, widgets and etc, I strongly recommend the usage of:

a. Pretty Permalinks – Changes the links of your posts and pages from www.yoursite.com/?p=123 to www.yoursite.com/something-that-makes-sense. Why? You’re telling search engines what your post is thus making you look good on the ranks.

To change your permalink format: WP Dashboard > Settings > Permalinks

I am using Custom Structure: /%postname%/ but you may want to opt for something else (see guide on permalinks here)

Note that some servers are not automatically configured to process pretty permalinks. Linux servers requires the Mod_Rewrite module while Windows servers requires the URL Rewrite module for pretty permalinks to work – contact your service provider if unsure.

b. Plugins! – There are tons of WP Plugins out there but the below are the bare minimum:

All in One SEO Pack – Because we all know that SEO can bring about organic traffic from search engines
Google Analytics – Insert your Google Analytics code to start tracking your visitors’ data
Sharebar – Allows visitors to share your posts across the social network with ease
Sitemap – Many bloggers overlook the importance of having a sitemap, it helps search engines crawl your site better
Database Backup – One of my favorite as it automatically sends the database backup to my email on a weekly basis. I do not need to worry about missing posts again!
WPTouch – There are more and more mobile browsers today than ever therefore having a mobile friendly version of your blog is vital

#4: You’re Done!

With all those in place, you are now free to configure your desired theme, import posts from your old WordPress blog or even get started on your very first post right away! Starting your own website has never been easier with WordPress and you should really have one if you have not already.

Too Complicated?

This site you’re on now (janwong.my) is hosted on a huge server with sarahtay.my as it’s only neighbor for now. It gets a little lonely here so if you’re interested, I can do all the steps above for you from domain name purchasing (.com), web hosting, installing AND configuring WordPress for a mere RM120 per year on a goodwill basis!

Note: This offer is only open to individuals wanting a self-hosted WordPress blog. Only less than 10 slots available for grabs! :)

What will you receive?

What will I get in return?

A new neighbor and no longer owning an under utilized server!

If you are interested or you have any questions regarding this service, simply contact me via email, a Tweet or simply by leaving a comment :)

Which Grills Faster? The Android, iPhone or the Windows Phone?

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November 13, 2010

| Jan Wong

Hello there! How’s your weekend coming along? Some weekend browsing allowed me to stumble across this and if you’ve always been wondering which of the 3 phones mentioned lasts longer on the grill, this video is made for you:

What’s interesting to note that this video is not made for sheer entertainment purposes – it is to promote a product called the EZGrill disposable grill. If you haven’t noticed, this video is going viral with about 9k views on YouTube since it was uploaded 24 hours ago. People all around the world are tuning in just to see 3 of the latest gadgets out there getting grilled helplessly.. and watching a live demonstration on how the EZGrill works!

A costly idea? EZGrill will need to sell more than 200 units to recoup the cost spent on the phones for this ad.
Will it be possible? At the rate it is going, very much so.
Should EZGrill give the phones away rather than grilling them? Nah.. The grilling cooked up a huge opportunity for consumers to see their product in action the fun (for some) and dreadful (for some) way. The hype builds faster this way, too!

So, what does it take to go viral?

Looking at EZGrill’s ad, I managed to pick up 2 simple points:

1. Pick something that’s current: EZGrill used the 3 most talked about gadgets – the Android G2, iPhone 4 and Windows Phone 7 as the main catch. They did not say “See how my EZGrill works and how awesome it is” but to use current topics to capture the attention of the consumers, then show them what the product is all about.

2. Do something unusual / drastic: They pulled something drastic as opposed to IKEA that went for the unusual route. EZGrill used 3 current items, did something drastic and that captured major attention and interest (and shock). Grilled phones? We don’t see that coming everyday.

There are definitely more ways to go about viral videos but usually the above two does it just right. I am personally interested to see how far this video will travel.

Did I miss out something from EZGrill’s video? I would love to hear them :)

Till then, fancy a barbecue, anyone?

Why Online Social Media?

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September 18, 2010

| Jan Wong

How often have you wanted to harness the potential of social media but been too unwilling to commit to the changes required (i.e. still holding on to your previous mindset)? I managed to come across this Dilbert comic strip that somewhat resembles what we looked at previously about the mindset of today’s business owners and entrepreneurs in Malaysia regarding social media:

Although the comic strip may seem to have exaggerated things a little (especially when we now know most people associate social media with Facebook and Twitter) but it does carry some truth in it. Perhaps it may happen like this instead in Malaysia (adapted from above):

True, isn’t it? Most traditional businesses sees social media as merely a trend that they wish to participate in but yet unwilling to accept it fully. Little did they know that social media has grown beyond just a trend or a technology – but a lifestyle, an integral part in consumer engagement, extension of networks, and it is here to stay.

Still skeptical? Apart from just pumping you up with the potential reach of people you can be connected with, here are 5 simple reasons on why you should get started with social media for your business if you haven’t already:

1. Public Engagement

Now before you turn around click away saying that you’ve heard of this a million times already, listen to this once more: engagement builds trust, a bridge towards your brand, it creates a perception and an emotion towards it. This can become your brand’s distinguishing factor against your competitors. Like it or not, people already have perceptions towards your brand regardless.

If they’ve never heard of you before, chances are, you have to give it double the effort to convince them as compared to a brand that is already well engaged with the public and this is something traditional marketing (or advertising) can’t do.

“Traditional advertising is a 1-to-many, one-way relationship while social media is a 1-to-[1]-to-many, two-way relationship. It takes two hands for a brand to clap and that [1] makes a difference. That [1] is your tie to the mass, and also your brand advocate, your key for an applause.”

2. Earned Media vs Paid Media

Which do you prefer? People talking about you or paid to talk about you. Don’t get me wrong, paid media isn’t wrong by all means as advertorials, reviews and the likes DO WORK, even better if you have a strong influencer on your side but some business owners or entrepreneurs do have their hands tied when it comes to budgets, especially for a startup and earned media is well, free!

A little bit of time and effort will get you a long way. Think about it, where else do you have the opportunity to share your knowledge, thoughts and expertise in articles or in any other media form at no cost, with a huge base of potential non-geographically constrained readers? That’s the World Wide Web for you and all you need is just a little dedication to maintain and to promote your masterpieces!

“It is beyond just a ‘following’ online, but the credibility you build for yourself / brand / business along with it.”

3. Social Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Apart from just communicating with consumers, receiving feedbacks, support, sales and promotions, social media can also be used as an avenue for your customers to tell their story i.e. testimonials. Nothing beats a first-hand story, whether good or bad that comes from your existing customers as it will be able to attract new customers along the way!

Yes, this also means that your existing customers will be ‘selling’ your brand to their networks on your behalf, without having you to spend extra time and money to try convince everyone on the street on how good you are. It will now be customer-get-customer rather than brand-get-customer. Sharing – that’s how information travel on the social media, and it happens with just a click.

“They say sharing is caring. On social media, sharing is business.”

[PAUSE:] If at this point you’ve still been wondering:

1. On how this social media ‘thingy’ can actually do ALL of the above, or
2. Is the social media ‘idea’ too confusing? or
3. You find that I’m no longer speaking in English, then:

Check out this video I found on YouTube – explaining social media in plain, simple English and how social media can benefit you, your brand, your customers AND your prospects!

Hopefully that cleared things up better!
Okay, back to business: On to the fourth!

4. Measurable

Unlike traditional advertising, results can easily be measured on social media. With the availability and free access to various tools such as Google Analytics, Feed Burner, number of fans / followers / friends / likes and more, one can generate a detailed report about their reach as compared to traditional means.

For example, Google Analytics (to the left) will be able to indicate the amount of page views, average time spent on your site, where they are from, how did they managed to land on your site and other information that helps you understand your readers more. This is definitely one thing you’ll never be able to obtain out of traditional means. In other words, ‘success’ is now determined based on your influence rather than reach, quality over quantity (but then again, quantity is also achievable on social media).

5. It Works

Yes. It works! Businesses all over the world have implemented and integrated social media into their business modal do have results to show! Whether it is sales, higher traffic, enquiries or feedback, it worked for them. No reason for it to fail, if you’re committed in making it happen. And no, they did not pump cash to make it work. Social media made it work for them.

Want to know how others implemented social media in their business? Hang in there as I’ll be revealing some of them right here, at janwong.my in the coming days! You may be surprised to see how these brands and businesses used social media to drive results up their doorstep – powerful yet simple. Chances are, you may just be able to replicate their success in your business!

Conclusion..

There you go, 5 simple reasons on why social media should be implemented in business operations and marketing efforts. There are of course, even more reasons on implementing social media but in the end, the key is your mindset, perception and how far a brand is willing to go with it.
Remember, only you can determine whether social media makes or breaks your business… why go with the latter? :)

… many have made it, what say you?

How else do you see social media impacting your business / life?

What is Online Social Media?

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September 14, 2010

| Jan Wong

As you may already know, the Online Social Media or the infamous Web 2.0 / 3.0 is the marketing trend of today’s business environment. Marketeers are using it to their advantage world wide and social media does not seem to be putting on brakes anytime soon as in continues to evolve.. rapidly!

Malaysia is definitely not out of the picture. This Online Social Media ‘concept’ is also seen to be the IN thing for businesses and many have been (or at least, trying to) implementing this concept in their corporate strategies. As per every business execution, some made it and some didn’t.

Why, you ask? Let’s first explore the mindset of the business owners and entrepreneurs towards social media – I recently came across many business owners and entrepreneurs lately that seem to have their own interpretation of this ‘concept’ that has been reaping great results globally.

Here’s a summary of responses I manage to gather from the conversations I had with them regarding Online Social Media:

Although none of the above is entirely wrong, but as expected, terms such as ‘Facebook’, ‘Blog’ and ‘Bloggers’ came out most often and is found to be their very first reply e.g. “usage of Facebook and blogs…”. It would also seem that to some of them, social media means inviting bloggers to write about a certain happening / product / advertorial. Some says it is an additional avenue for promotion and sales, a tool to target the younger generation and the list goes on..

It is sad to see that many business owners today still have their own interpretation and mindsets, and has yet to come to realize and see the importance of Online Social Media in Malaysia, seeing it as merely a tool or an extension of their business instead of integrating social media as PART of their business. Hence, they see it as a only a ‘concept’, a ‘good to have’ but not a ‘must have’, a ‘trend’ but not ‘real business’.

How about you? What is your interpretation of the Online Social Media?

p.s. next post: “why social media?“