Social Media Strategy and Myth Busting With Jay Baer

December 5, 2013

Have you evaluated your social media strategy recently?

Do you think new fans and followers should equal tons of new customers?

This week on the Social Media Social Hour, I’m joined by New York Times best selling author Jay Baer as we talk social media strategy, social media marketing myths, and more. I also share with you a great tool provides competitive social media reporting and benchmarking.

About this show:

Social Media Social Hour PodcastThe Social Media Social Hour is a podcast for marketers and entrepreneurs looking to get on the social media fast track. The podcast is an interview format, where each week I get up close and personal with top brands and influencers to talk social media, tech and online marketing. Each week I also share tools that I personally use to help me with social media management, sales, marketing, account management and productivity.

In this episode, here’s what we’ll cover:

  • Tech Tool of the Week: Scoreboard Social
  • Jay says he started out in the online world to help market his friends’ internet company.
  • Friends of his had started the first internet company in the history of Arizona in 1993.
  • Jay now has been in digital marketing for almost twenty years.
  • Jay talks about the process of evolution and maturity for social media.
  • Jay addresses the myth among businesses that all new Facebook fans and Twitter followers are new customers.
  • He says the notion that social media is inherently a customer acquisition vehicle is dangerous and untrue.
  • Jay asserts that what we like on Facebook (or anywhere else) is only what we like in real, everyday life.
  • He reports that 78% of Facebook fans for a business page are current or former customers of that company.
  • Social media participation is a trailing indication of purchase.
  • Jay looks at the similarities of email and social media such as the purpose of keeping a company top-of-mind.
  • Jay suggests that the same person (or people) should be doing the email and social media for a company.
  • When you realize that your followers and fans have already bought from you, the messages need to offer information that is not selling what they already have.
  • Social media needs to foster relationships with current and previous customers.
  • Jay says content is fire and social media is gasoline.
  • He gives the example of the program on Hilton Hotels’ Twitter called @HiltonSuggests that helps their community members by strategically listening.
  • Social media strategies should adopt the SEO style of using a broad range of search terms to be able to engage in more conversations.
  • Jay talks about the difficulty many people in the social sphere have with feeling the need to be everywhere online but maybe not having the resources to do so.
  • In terms of a company responding to negative comments on social, Jay says it is important to always respond to respect the customer and uphold the customer relations aspect of the company.
  • One of the basic questions businesses should be asking themselves when it comes to building their social media strategy is what the point of using social media is.
  • They first need to find a clear, strategic imperative and then see how social media will tie into their business objectives.
  • There are no tools or softwares that can bring about the perfect answers or strategies when it comes to social media.
  • Jay’s book, Youtility, started as a presentation that proved successful as a keynote.
  • He used Speechpad to transcribe his presentation as well as his phone interviews.

Jay Baer’s Social Media Six Pack:

  1. What was the last social network you used today? Google+
  2. What smartphone are you using? iPhone 5
  3. What was the last app downloaded on the iPhone? zeebox
  4. What was the last Facebook page you liked? Audience: Marketing in the Age of Subscribers, Fans & Followers
  5. Promoted posts or promoted tweets? Promoted posts
  6. How many times do you check twitter on a given day? 6-10

Items mentioned in the show:

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