Here are a few quick tips and reminders about how NOT to use social media (that is Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, LinkedIn, YouTube and the like) when promoting your locally owned, independent small business. If you want to upset customers in your store – ignore them. The same goes for the web. Your customers REALLY don’t see a huge difference in the reality of the web and the brick and mortar… maybe you still do, but I promise – they don’t. So, use the web to leverage your time and your customer relationships. And by all means – don’t turn your back on anyone at the party. It’s not nice…

Here are some specific tips. Let me know what you think and add your own in the comments section!

Do NOT Use Social Media as…

• An outlet for traditional media – For example, don’t post the graphic from your recent direct mail campaign blindly and expect that people will care.
• An online billboard – Don’t constantly announce and scream promotions and push an offer or even a subtle marketing message towards your fans/followers exclusively. This is not a billboard for you to spit out information and no one to talk back to you.
• A 100% free tool – While New Media TOOLS are often free to use, the time, strategy development, and even some elements of advanced use cost money. The point is that $100 goes a long way on New Media—web sites are cheaper and more social; strategy development is more straightforward; and the results are all but immediate. For FAR less investment, you can gain impressive and quick returns.
• A magic wand – It’s not a “build it and they will come” sort of media any more than a web site is. You must promote your social media presence elsewhere and engage in its use strategically or your use of the tools will fail. It’s more about HOW you use it – just being “on” social media doesn’t mean you will improve your results.
• A place to ignore other humans – Rude is no more popular or socially acceptable online than off. It’s still rude to ignore someone standing in the same room with you or to slam a door in someone’s face. The same applies on social media. Whether you know them or not, kindness and respect for other humans is always in good taste.
• A platform to be distasteful – Don’t post or allow employees to post anything negative towards other humans or anything that is distasteful. If your grandmother would have so much as given you a sideways glance, don’t post it. Big personalities are welcome – as long as they’re clean personalities.

Social Media: A Sprint AND a Marathon

For the past couple of weeks Andy and I have been rolling out an exciting local social media strategy and engagement campaign for a local restaurant management group here in the Jackson, Miss. metro area. It has been a BLAST to work locally and to work with such a passionate client who is ALL in – and totally get it. It’s a rare treat to get to play in our own backyard, so to speak, and tonight the treat was all ours.

After a day out of town to work on-site helping a brick and mortar boutique launch their new e-commerce project, Andy and I opted to take our middle daughter out to dinner at our clients’ cafe (one of three restaurants in the group). For this particular restaurant, we are six days into the launch of a Facebook Page presence with a goal to increase guests IN the restaurant during this immediate push. We were looking for immediate results – so the past week has been a sprint to get that initial boost. Our fan base topped well over 1,000 today (celebration all around) with interactions between ownership, staff and guests along with rave reviews from guests exploding all over the Page wall almost continuously. But that’s obviously not our endgame. Our endgame has everything to do with measuring a bottom-line increase, right?

So, tonight we walked in, and the typically slow dinner hour (this is definitely a place primarily known for breakfast and lunch) was bustling. By bustling,  I mean that most tables were filled at 5:45 pm. By the time we settled in and walked up to the counter, two registers were three deep in customers. A few minutes later, the tables were full, the order counter was filled with happily networking guests, the restaurant was filling orders quickly, busing tables efficiently, and serving up the most beautiful fruit salad that has ever landed on my table anywhere (Did I mention there was yellow watermelon in my salad?).

As I watched, the enthusiastic shift manager skillfully navigated and managed his staff through a much busier than expected Tuesday night crowd. He led by example by filling needs where they happened: working the cash register, order window, kitchen AND not missing an opportunity to sell (out of) day-old and “after 6″ discounted pastries, take-out and much more. When we left (they needed our table, or we would have watched until the end), all tables in the main restaurant area were full, there were people ordering and the food looked amazing. The manager texted us later to let us know that tonight was a “major improvement” over the previous week. (Yes, that’s text messaging, and yes, we text with our clients all the time. It’s part of our accessibility motto – we also Facebook chat and Tweet). P.S. It was a RAINY/STORMY evening this week!

So, the sprint was a winner… The initial boost appears to have happened… And for us, it was definitely a runner’s high.

But here’s my point.

Sure, we won the sprint. But we’re also staring straight into the miles and miles of marathon that lie ahead. You see, launching social media right means launching with a sprinter’s attitude. Go big or go home. Cross promote off-line, draw a crowd, grab attention – all the while, be thinking LONG TERM. If you don’t continue to deliver that promise long-term, keep it relevant, keep it valuable and most of all, keep it REAL, then over the long-haul, social media will kill you. (Why? Because you will have done the worst thing: you will have disappointed your customers because they thought you were going to do something – that you didn’t.)

Everyone says this: It’s NOT about numbers REALLY. It’s about long-term relationships. And that is all oh so true. But when you get together a group of folks who CARE about your business through a Twitter following or a Facebook Fan Page or some other method, you’ve gotten together a group of folks with whom you can engage, educate, cross-promote, convert – over and over and over again… They can talk, tell their friends, recommend you, participate with you and help you build your community. They will be more loyal, and your retention rates will go through the roof.

IF YOU STAY IN TOUCH.

What good are a bunch of followers and fans if you don’t talk to them? Carry on conversations (those work two ways), say thank you, reward them, engage them… Ask their opinions, give them exclusive updates and behind the scenes information. You certainly can’t do all of that in a week (the sprint) and expect it to last for the lifetime of a customer. Every week is a new week, and a new opportunity to be a better friend, a more valuable resource, a greater source of comfort, a more relevant alternative, the go-to guy, a more important connection, a more impressive experience…the first and last thing they think about in your category.

When you examine your social media strategy – and really, any marketing strategy – do you launch with a big, fast sprint that sets the stage for a win at the marathon?

What say you? What have you done to make the sprint successful? To maintain the discipline of the marathon?

Texting in Church...is it okay?

Editorial disclaimer: This is probably not the last post I will write on this topic, so if it interests you, stay tuned. I do want to insert the disclaimer here that I am by no means endorsing the idea constant connectivity is a good thing. It’s not. Hopefully some pastors and others will weigh in on this issue. I invite good discussion as we look for ways for our churches to use social media appropriately.

In case you hadn’t heard, Andy and I are born-and-raised Presbyterian turned Baptist (thanks to one Dr. Greg Belser and a church we now call home named Morrison Heights).

As such, we been watching the #SBC2009 (that’s the Southern Baptist Convention being held in Louisville, Kentucky) this week via Twitter and related video, audio, blog posts and transcripts. I’m excited about their focus on the Great Commission – spreading the Gospel, bringing others to Christ as a singular mission. All the rest will follow as it should (not necessarily as it has been) – in my opinion – not the other way around.

As such, I was thinking about the functions of the Church (not just Baptist ones) and our discussions of web sites and social media, etc. I asked myself… do these tools help us spread the Gospel?

It has often been said in marketing circles (at least during my career of ten years), that good marketers in today’s marketplace were really “evangelists” for a brand or product or experience. And as such, marketers have gotten very good at “spreading the ‘gospel’” of whatever they’re selling. One of the best and most influential books I’ve read in my career was Church of the Customer by the McConnel/Huba team which makes obvious analogies to the church and “spreading the gospel” and “customer evangelism.” It’s always seemed ironic to me that God, throughout the Bible, spells out good evangelism techniques quite clearly. And we (good marketers) apply them very well in the secular world of business marketing.

All the while, it seems like the church has been behind the curve in applying these same techniques to spreading the REAL Gospel.

For the first time tonight (Wednesday night), I sat in church and texted – not the entire time, mind you – but I exchanged 2-3 messages with Andy who was still away at a meeting. In the past, I have always gotten upset with Andy when he’s texting Eric in the sound booth or Dr. Greg or whomever while sitting in church. But tonight, I took a different perspective. It dawned on me while sitting there that it would be okay to text a friend far away that is struggling with life and share something encouraging that I just heard or learned. And it might just be okay to update my Facebook status from the pew and share scripture and let the world experience the inside of a church through my eyes – an experience they might not otherwise have. Or to encourage someone that wasn’t there or couldn’t be there, so they remained engaged and feeling a continuous part of their church community even in their absence. OR maybe I could even Tweet the pastor questions as I think of them during the sermon that he could clarify on a blog later in the week. I personally do a lot of public speaking, and I love the idea that folks could text me questions during speeches and seminars that I could answer at the end. There are a million possibilities – and I’m sure I’m not the first one to go down this road in my mind. But my mind is certainly full of possible opportunities at this point, and  it certainly seems like it’s time for churches on a broader scale to step up to the plate and apply our own medicine – and use these new tools to our advantage and quit being so frightful that the tools are of Satan – they aren’t. But the tools certainly can and will be used to do harm – because that’s what happens when a lot of people use anything. Social media is no different. But, oh wait, there’s another opportunity for the church to step in and turn the tide in our favor instead of leaving a void for evil to fill.

What do you think? What might this look like in your church community? What options have you used successfully in your church or ministry with success (or failure)?