Social Media Fail?

I took a webinar online last week featuring Albert Maruggi founder of Provident Partners, a public relations and social media consulting company. He had a tremendous amount of stats and data and impressive examples of successful social media campaigns. The 13 minutes I spent on the phone with him this afternoon was much more valuable. He took the time to answer a few of my questions and cut through all the social media hype and gave me some real advice. While many of the social media mongers are preaching it to be the second coming you really have to do your homework to find out if it's the best use of your marketing minutes. If you are a techie and online all the time, you think everyone else is right? Remember what Holly posted in the chat room last week? That out of a class of 40 plus attendees only a handful had pages for their business? You might think well they are behind the times and the technology train has left the station without them on board. The fact of the matter is that maybe you really don't need to be on social media if your clients or potential clients are not. A lot of the social media gurus would have you believe that the entire world is going social media, but Albert states there are certain parts of the world that are very heavy into social media and other parts that are not. He says they are not necessarily behind the times, they know what Facebook is and they have elected to not participate. Some people are just anti social. He also believes some of the hype of the Facebook frenzy is overblown and I can see that, especially now with the IPO on the horizon. So do your own research and find out if your community is active online. He shared a neat trick on how to find out if they are. On your page there is a link called create an ad in the sponsored ads on your feed. Create a "test" ad and follow all the instructions. In this ad you can choose country, state, city or by specific zip codes, you can add as many as you like. You pick the age, sex, and interests, I chose between 25 and 60 both male and female and in family status I chose baby boomers, away from hometown, parents all ages, there is an age range to choose from. I also chose health and well being and pop culture, all mobile. In retail shopping I selected Beauty products, fashion and Luxury goods. So my grand total of possibles is whopping 42,640 people. That's a pretty significant number to go ahead and run an ad. Your area may be different but just for kicks do it for yourself and see what your number is. You also have to have the right personality for social media and many people just aren't suited for its demands. Albert shares that a lot of people look at social media like you are placing an ad in the newspaper, it's not, it's about your personality. If you don't have an outgoing personality the question isn't should you be on social media more like should you be in this business? We also talked about Groupon and how the salon and spa business has been burned by this discounting mentality. Think about it, It's not rocket science to figure out you can fill your salon with 50% off deals. I asked him what would be the best bang for the buck in our industry. HIs recommendation is to create something unique about yourself, your service or your salon. Also some good old fashioned business 101 stuff like try and connect on another level with your client outside the beauty world, maybe a common interest in cooking, reading, bowling, something to cement your bond. Otherwise there is nothing else to base the relationship on other than the service. Clients will look around if you don't give them a real reason to stay. Maybe a new place opened up that is more convenient or has better hours. What's keeping your client from jumping ship to that salon? What it boils down to is marketing is marketing whether it is on or off line. You still have to put in the same due diligence you would with any other aspect of your business. Connect with your clients and create a dialog, not a monologue. Customers don't want to be talked at they want to be engaged in your business. So be engaging, both on and off line. For all my blog posts check out Nail Talk Radio To purchase marketing products go to milliehaynam.com