{"id":6356,"date":"2017-08-09T16:23:01","date_gmt":"2017-08-09T16:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/?p=6356"},"modified":"2017-08-09T16:23:01","modified_gmt":"2017-08-09T16:23:01","slug":"how-small-business-can-improve-their-digital-and-social-presence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/2017\/08\/how-small-business-can-improve-their-digital-and-social-presence\/","title":{"rendered":"HOW SMALL BUSINESS CAN IMPROVE THEIR DIGITAL AND SOCIAL PRESENCE"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A conversation with\u00a0Magnificent Marketing\u2019s David Reimherr<\/a>\u2026<\/h3>\n

David Reimherr: Ted, to dig in, what do you feel is the first thing a small business should do before they start their digital and social strategy?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Ted\u00a0<\/strong>Rubin:\u00a0<\/strong>The first thing a small business should do is listen.<\/p>\n

Pay attention.\u00a0<\/strong>Watch customers when they either come in the store or see what they\u2019re doing online, talk to people, talk to friends, go to people\u2019s pages. I mean, what I see happen is, a lot of people they read books, they read articles, they ask experts\u2019 opinions, sometimes they even hire a small agency, but they don\u2019t really pay attention themselves to what\u2019s going on, what\u2019s happening in their business. They need to know, are their customers even interested in social media? Is it a place that they\u2019re at? I mean I would say in general these days probably everybody is there, but there are certainly people who have businesses where social media might not even be that relevant. That doesn\u2019t mean they shouldn\u2019t be paying attention to it, but it might not be where they want to put most of their time. So, just to summarize that in one simple word: Listen.<\/p>\n

DR:<\/strong>\u00a0You mentioned good old fashioned talking to your customers, but on the digital frame, in the digital world, are there any good tools or even a good strategy you can use to help the company with their listening on social?<\/strong><\/p>\n

TR:<\/strong>\u00a0Forget about tools and just start\u00a0going to the platforms themselves<\/a>. The best way to learn how these platforms work is to actually go on them and use them. So, now I\u2019m not saying you have to go on to Twitter to be an active tweeter, but get a Twitter account, start watching the feed, follow people, see what they write, spend a lot of time doing this. And remember, there\u2019s Twitter, there\u2019s Facebook, there\u2019s YouTube, there\u2019s Instagram, there\u2019s LinkedIn. This can take up a lot of your time in your initial let\u2019s say research side of things. Another huge mistake I see people doing other than just not listening is not participating.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t tell you how many small business people I see hiring \u2013 it can either be an intern, or they\u2019re hiring a local practitioner or a small agency, or they\u2019re just getting a friend or family member. It could be their kid, and very often it is \u2013 and by the way I don\u2019t say that in a negative way, I mean I use the word kid just because that\u2019s the way I talk about my children \u2013 but taking their twenty-two-year-old son who works at their restaurant to start doing their social, but they don\u2019t bother understanding it themselves.<\/p>\n

They would never hire a cook and not understand what goes on in the kitchen. They would never hire a bartender and not know how to pour a drink themselves.<\/p>\n

Before you worry about the tools, understand the platforms. Understand Instagram, understand Facebook, understand Twitter. And again, look, I don\u2019t have a full understanding of these platforms, and I\u2019ve been doing them for years, and I work with companies doing them, and I use them aggressively in my own personal brand because I don\u2019t know everything about them. I learn things, I use things that work for me, very often I learn new things. I use something called Hootsuite to manage multiple Twitter accounts and different social accounts. You can use a free version. The version I use, I think it costs me twenty dollars a month, and I have twenty Twitter handles, and two other people helping me some of that stuff. So, that\u2019s not a very big expense for a small business. I use Buffer on occasion. I don\u2019t do a lot of scheduling of tweets unless I\u2019m working with a brand that requires it and asks me to, and I don\u2019t do a lot of that kind of work, but I do periodically.<\/p>\n

Buffer adds some\u00a0additional functionality<\/a>\u00a0in addition to what Twitter does.<\/p>\n

DR:<\/strong>\u00a0Now, you\u2019re listening, but when starting your social strategy, or for sure your digital strategy, a lot of focus in the past, and currently, is keyword research. How much does this play a role in developing your strategy? And then on top of that, any tips or good tools that you\u2019ve used to accomplish this correctly, to give some people a direction in regards to the SEO aspect of all of this?<\/strong><\/p>\n

TR:\u00a0<\/strong>Well, Dave, I\u2019ll tell you, I don;t focus on that a lot, and it\u2019s not because I don\u2019t think it works. I think it\u2019s great. It\u2019s because we all have to specialize in things that we\u2019re better at, so I don\u2019t spend a lot of time with that, or I do my own keyword research mainly to find topics that are important, not to include keywords in things that I write. So, again, I\u2019m not an SEO expert. There are people that know a lot more about this than I do, this is not really my wheelhouse. What I think is more important is worrying less about the tricks that get people to see what you\u2019re doing, and producing a lot of great content, and then making sure it appears in a lot of different places.<\/p>\n

TR:<\/strong>\u00a0I emcee events for brand innovators all over the country, filled with brand marketers, and their biggest complaint is, \u2018Oh my god, it\u2019s so hard to keep up with all the content,\u2019 and I kind of look at them and go, \u2018Why is it so hard?\u2019 Even for big companies, it is a challenge, but for the small business, this is so important. First of all, start leveraging your employees. Now, granted, there are a lot of small businesses where it\u2019s just two people, or it\u2019s just one person, or you really don\u2019t have anybody doing anything other for you then maybe baking in your kitchen. But a lot of small businesses have additional employees who are smart people, who are capable of creating content. Start leveraging that. Give them a voice. Don\u2019t do it as, \u2018Here is an extra job function for you,\u2019 do it as \u2018Here\u2019s a way for you to help start building your brand because you\u2019re probably not going to be here forever. You might want to start a business like this yourself one day,\u2019 so why not help support and learn and then share their content.<\/p>\n

What I\u2019m trying to do is give these people the tools to realize there\u2019s so much more at their fingertips than they realize. Content \u2013 you walk into your office and you take a photo. Yesterday I\u2019m on the train, I\u2019m heading to visit my daughter in Philly to have brunch with her and her friends at the University of Pennsylvania, and I think about an ad on the wall from Blue Point Brewery out in Long Island. And the ad itself was a mistake. There\u2019s a mistake in it, and this ad is being posted everywhere. So, I haven\u2019t even posted it yet, but it was one of the many things I took a photo of that I\u2019m holding because I\u2019m going to put that out at some point and make a statement about editing your content before you post it all over the world. And that\u2019s for me, because I\u2019m a marketer, and I\u2019m a guy that\u2019s trying to teach companies to do things, so everywhere I go \u2013 I was at lunch and they served this amazing brewed, cold coffee in like a beer bottle that I\u2019ve never seen before. So, I take pictures of it, and I post it out with a comment. I tag the company, I talk about what an amazing product it is, and then I tag one of my business partners, my business partner,\u00a0John Andrews<\/a>, because I know he will love this, and what am I doing? I\u2019m talking about a product, I showed everything about it, but what I mean is, it\u2019s so easy to create content.<\/p>\n

And then here\u2019s another thing I think a lot of companies are lacking on, and it\u2019s really important to small business. You can use your content again, and again, as long as it\u2019s\u00a0evergreen<\/a>. So, if you write a post about next week\u2019s sale, or about the Fourth of July with something specific about an event this year, okay, that\u2019s a one-time thing or maybe a couple times before it goes, but if you\u2019re writing a post about how to bake the best cupcakes or a great place for breakfast, or here\u2019s a great meal to eat healthily and stay fit at the same time, why not use it again, and again, and again? I can\u2019t tell you again how many companies and normal people go, \u2018Well, we already posted that.\u2019 So? Why wouldn\u2019t you post it again? I mean so many companies are forgetting the basics of marketing, reach, and frequency. Number one is, you want to post it again, and again, and again so people get it. I get people at events all the time \u2013 somebody who doesn\u2019t get it will raise their hand and go, \u2018You know, Ted, you wrote that tweet the other day and I think I\u2019ve seen you post that five other times,\u2019 and somebody else will raise their hand and go, \u2018Yeah, I\u2019m so glad he did, because now I remember it.\u2019<\/p>\n

DR:<\/strong>\u00a0Or saw it for the first time.<\/strong><\/p>\n

TR:<\/strong>\u00a0Exactly. And then the other thing is, if you\u2019re growing your following, remember that every month you have new followers that have never seen what you posted. And don\u2019t think they\u2019re digging back into your blog a year ago when you wrote a post that\u2019s still totally relevant. So, what I do is, I\u2019ll take those posts, and I\u2019ll reformat them a little bit, I\u2019ll change maybe the title, I\u2019ll change a little bit of something, and then I\u2019ll post them again. I never run out of content, my problem is, I don\u2019t have enough time to post at all.<\/p>\n

DR:<\/strong>\u00a0That\u2019s a good problem to have, right? But you\u2019ve gotten to the point where you have a system where you now have just a plethora of content. It didn\u2019t start that way, I assume.<\/strong><\/p>\n

TR:<\/strong>\u00a0Exactly. When I first got into Twitter, it was the end of 2008. I discovered this platform that for me was like manna from heaven, because I think in 140 characters, and I\u2019ve never been a long-form writer. I started building a following, it was the early days, and then a mentor of mine said to me, \u201cTed, you have to have a blog. You need a place that\u2019s a repository for yourself, and it\u2019s a place that builds your brand, tedrubin.com.\u201d<\/p>\n

DR:<\/strong>\u00a0That\u2019s a great point.<\/strong><\/p>\n

TR:<\/strong>\u00a0And stop worrying about it being perfect. I\u2019ve got to tell you, the only thing I really worry about being perfect \u2013 I can take a day to get the right title. Not because I worry about the rules of title writing that you can read all these blog posts about, but just because I want it to make sense to me. But what I\u2019ve learned is that I stop worrying about it being perfect, otherwise they\u2019ll sit on your desk forever. Put it out there. First of all, remember something. You can always update your blog. You can always fix it.<\/p>\n

DR:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, don\u2019t have paralysis by analysis, and definitely listen. And on the listening part, we won\u2019t go into details on how to do this, but all these platforms have settings where you can get an e-mail in your inbox when somebody comments or says something, so if the listeners don\u2019t know how to do it themselves, get somebody who\u2019s vaguely familiar with these platforms, and there are easy settings that you can use so you don\u2019t have to be staring at the, all the time.<\/strong><\/p>\n

TR:<\/strong>\u00a0Yes. And here\u2019s a great piece of advice to small businesses \u2013 you really want to stand out. Answer people\u2019s comments on Facebook and Instagram. Nobody\u2019s doing that. The Fortune 500 companies ignore it because they\u2019re so into silo-ing their businesses. They\u2019re so siloed, that if you try to talk to somebody at an event who has the title \u2018mobile marketing\u2019, and you mention digital or traditional marketing, they go, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s not what I do.\u2019 Really? It\u2019s about your brand. But they\u2019re trying to silo social platforms, so what\u2019s happened is, Twitter has become the de facto place to comment, and respond to people, and have conversations, whereas the vast majority of brands \u2013 and I\u2019d say well over ninety percent \u2013 you can post all day long on their Facebook comments, or on the posts they put on, or write comments, and you will never hear back from them, and it\u2019s pitiful. Because the ones that do really make headway, and remember, you need to communicate where your audience, and how your audience wants to communicate. You have to stop trying to drag them to where you want to communicate.<\/p>\n

DR:<\/strong>\u00a0Those are great pointers, and to kind of circle back around, we\u2019ve talked a lot about communicating, and listening, and getting out there, but as much as this is talked about and repeated, it still bears repeating-Should a company or brand be talking about themselves, or their product service benefits, versus talking and communicating about general problems or questions that the industry has, and if it\u2019s a mix, what\u2019s your opinion on how much of each, or if it should be weighted in one direction?<\/strong><\/p>\n

TR:<\/strong>\u00a0I think people are over complicating. Contrary to popular belief, people don\u2019t sprout two heads when they sit in front of a computer screen or look at their mobile phone. There are important basic tools.<\/p>\n

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  1. Number one is, you\u2019re not your customer, so\u00a0do your research<\/strong>. Know what\u2019s important to them, listen to their conversations. You know I like to say that businesses are out there complaining every day that not enough people are coming to their Facebook pages anymore because organic search is dead. Well, how about going to their pages? How about stop worrying about who\u2019s coming to your page, although I can give you tips at some point, maybe another show, on how to make that happen more often instead of worrying about the Facebook, your feed, and organic search. But start going to their pages. You know whenever I speak to any audience, one of my slides is a fly on a wall, and I like to ask the audience, \u2018What is this?\u2019 Some of them say a fly, it\u2019s the proverbial fly on the wall, and you know the expression \u2018I wish I could be a fly on the wall in that meeting\u2019. But guess what? Every consumer in the world is inviting you into their living room, and nobody\u2019s going. Taking a few minutes every day and making it a part of your morning or afternoon to see what comments are out there- that\u2019s number one.<\/li>\n
  2. Number two is,\u00a0try all different things<\/strong>. You never know what\u2019s going to work. Again, use a little common sense, think about your industry, your people, the people you\u2019re trying to talk to, what their likes and dislikes are, and then try different things. I like to say that I\u2019ll try something, and then if it takes hold, I drive a truck through it.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    DR: What about using emotion and humor in your marketing. For some companies, it\u2019s a no-brainer, but do you see this as something basically all companies should give a go and see what sticks or what hits?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    TR:<\/strong><\/p>\n