The internet used to be a place where I connected with old friends (my favorite book marketer, now in N. Carolina), and loved ones (my cousin in Sarasota). I showed pictures of my cats on my Facebook page, and wrote about my miserable cold on Twitter. LinkedIn was the place I’d throw out any immediate business challenges (like someone took over our website, how do I get it back?) Youtube was where everyone showed their kids first steps.
People are still using it for all of that, but it has changed. Now, it’s an open forum for people to talk about products or services and create followers and most companies are branding themselves in this huge arena of people. But, how are they doing that?
For the most part, they’ve relegated a techie person to craft the Twitters, the Facebook pages, and Youtube. They’re really missing the boat, I think. They should get their best salesperson, their best communicator and make that person their “unique voice” :
1. The voice should sound like real human being, and actually be one. That means he can talk about the company, but also add some personal things about his life, and maybe even some “inside stories” about the company.
2. The person should answer questions that people are asking about their company.
3. The person should not be an advertisement. He should just talk about people using their product or service (and maybe throw in some funny stories).
Most of all, there should be a strategy for the social media. Are you sending people from Twitter to Facebook, or Youtube to your website. I’ll talk about that more in my next Tip of the Week.
