Social Media Guide

Yes, I said “Less Followers”. It’s not a typo. I’m not crazy and it’s not a clever headline for a post that will turn into the opposite in the third paragraph.

Let me first do a formal introduction, this is the second installment of the “Striking Six” Blog Series that involves 6 online mavericks sharing knowledge on how to craft an inspirational and powerful online presence. Each one of these awesome and mystery bloggers are revealed on each post when it’s published so you have to keep up with the series. Exciting isn’t it?

The first installment of the series was revealed a couple of days ago by Mars Dorian with his edgy style and message to change the world. Here is the link to The Guerrilla’s Guide To Attracting Your “Right” Audience.

Back to our topic in hand… and why “Less Followers” is the new “More Followers”. I’m inviting you today to disregard all those posts you’ve read about how to build huge communities, get more followers and likes, including mine. This has nothing to do with administration of all those Twitter followers and how hard it can be if you have too many because it’s clear that with the appropriate tools we can easily manage and filter information however we need.

Influence doesn’t spread by getting huge numbers. Audiences are built by truly connecting with individuals, one at a time, getting your message across and making people fall in love with it.

Community Growth

Community growth is usually part of a social media strategy for brands. Metrics and tools are setup in order to measure, benchmark and do projections. This should NOT be your case. As an entrepreneur/blogger you should put your focus elsewhere and with patience, communicate with individuals on a regular basis.

If you are able to craft remarkable content and products, and promote them, your audience and online community will grow organically. There is nothing healthier than that. But I hear you say “there is nothing new about that”, let me explain…

We are used to getting mixed messages, we’ve talked about this at SocialMouths. The people that tells you to stop worrying about numbers lists every single counter on their blogs and on the other side of the fence, people telling you to get more followers. We create pressure to be seen as successful, we worry about social proof. Those mixed messages only deliver more confusion.

So what happens now? The difference is that we are starting to embrace those small audiences. Now building tiny communities is cool, it’s appreciated. Today “Less Followers” is the new “More Followers.”

Following People Does Nothing

Let’s be honest, following people on Twitter is a vicious circle that ends at “you follow me, I follow you back”, we’re happy to have a mutual connection but there is never an exchange of words between the two.

What do you think would happen if you stop taking the initiative of following people? do you think people would follow you because what you put out there is plain awesome and they’re interested, or do you think your growth will suddenly dry?

Let me share a story with you. Earlier in my life I was lucky to get some extensive sales training that, at the moment I thought it sucked and I did it just to earn more money. Most of it is just a blur now but among the things I still retain is this: If you want to close a solid sale, try to unsell it at the end, give your client the opportunity to change his/her mind before processing the order.

At the time it sounded like I was gonna make less money and probably get fired. See, most people buy on an impulse and by doing this I was taking that out of the equation. It’s like trying to only make meaningful sales. Crazy, right?

Later in life I had the opportunity to have a business with a great product and service that allowed me to be confident enough to run a call center without written scripts and shady selling techniques and made a killing for 7 years. It happened organically. I didn’t have to go knock on doors or try to push something that people didn’t want.

The point is that if you focus on connecting with the right audience, as Mars says, your tribe will be solid and open to receive more of that magic you deliver week after week.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you should hide or make it hard for people to find you. You should connect with people and you should promote your content and services. Regularly.

A New Breed Of Fearless Bloggers And Digital Entrepreneurs

Do you think you will still be able to be build an audience by just delivering who you are? Without having community growth be a task? It sounds to me like a good exercise to see if you are actually dropping pure awesomeness on a regular basis, because that spreads out on its own.

I’m a big observer of the internet and, let me tell you what I see today. Besides the bloggosphere growing like there’s no tomorrow, there is a new breed of bloggers and digital entrepreneurs that not only spread awesome shit but are also willing to take creativity to new levels, are ready to break all the rules and are not afraid to build one relationship at a time.

I’m not afraid of mentioning people and recognizing when they kick ass. Here are a few people you should pay attention to if you wanna know what I mean, you probably already know them but just in case: Srinivas Rao from The Skool Of Life, Jonathan Wondrusch from By Bloggers, Fabian Kruse from The Friendly Anarchist, Ashley Ambirge from The Middle Finger Project and Thom Chambers from In Tree Houses among others. These people don’t sit down in front of their computers to randomly follow people, they are building amazing audiences one relationship at a time and focusing on crafting epic shit to put in front of those communities. It seems to me like they even keep those audiences small on purpose.

Nothing Is ASAP

Building an audience doesn’t happen overnight, even if you go out there and take the initiative to follow people massively. No matter what social media “gurus” tell you. Sure, you get social proof when you display massive numbers on your blog or social profiles, I’m not gonna deny that but I think it has been proven that there is a lot more to it. People out there are able to create awesome without it.

Do yourself a favor and forget ASAP. Let your tribe grow organically.

The New Social Media To Do List

Wanna play the real game? Change your social media strategy, focus on creating epic stuff and let people follow you because they can’t get enough of YOU. The following To Do List will help you:

• Stop following people on Twitter
• Stop worrying about followers/following ratio
• Stop sending Facebook Page suggestions
• Stop using email opt-in popups on your blog

So how do you connect with like-minded individuals and start meaningful relationships that will eventually turn into raving fans? Good question. Let me see if I’m able to illustrate this and answer that with another question. Would you walk down the street passing out business cards? sure, why not (stupid question). Now, would you expect a meaningful relationship to be born out of that approach?

What happens if you introduce yourself as you would in real life? or if you complement somebody for his/her work? what if you turn your Facebook Page into a Q&A forum to help your audience?

The formula to play a bigger game is to:

• Be human
• Be creative
• Drop the random following

What Do You Think?

Thanks for reading, now it’s your turn. I know this is a topic with many different opinions, what’s yours? express your thoughts freely in the comments sections, disagreements are always welcome!

By now you may have heard of the popular online coupon marketplace known as Groupon. With Groupon, businesses can offer steeply discounted services or products to be showcased for Groupon’s vast following. A certain number of users must sign up in order for the offer to take effect, which spurs users to spread the word about your company.  By being featured on Groupon, your business can greatly increase its customer pool–although you will sacrifice profit margins and must share revenue with Groupon.

Groupon sounds like a pretty good deal, especially since businesses only pay for sales made, but is it right for your business? The following list outlines some situations in which it could be beneficial (or detrimental) for your business to try using Groupon.

When to Use Groupon

Excess Inventory

If you have a lot of finished product sitting around, Groupon could be your ticket to clearing the warehouse. Especially if it is costing you a significant amount to hold on to the inventory, you may as well use Groupon to clear it even if this lowers your profit margins.

Repeat Sales

Groupon is a great tool if you think discounted sales will result in customers returning for more at full price. In this case, you can think of the discount and the revenue you share with Groupon as a customer acquisition cost. Especially for new products and services, this can be a way to give customers a taste of what you offer  in hopes they come back for more.

Additional Sales

Even if customers don’t return after the initial sale, for some products they might be tempted to buy more at the time of the Groupon redemption. For example, if you offer two-for-one sandwiches at your restaurant through Groupon, the customer might also buy a drink or snack at the standard price. If you can compensate for the lowered Groupon profits with full-priced additional sales, then you’ve really won.

Excess Capacity

A good example here is a tourist service such as a cruise around the harbor. Any unfilled capacity you do not sell is gone once the ship has sailed. You could sell this unfilled capacity during off-season through GroupOn.

Keeping the Lights On

If your factory has excess manufacturing capacity in the form of equipment and personnel, you could use Groupon to sell that excess capacity in lieu of selling the equipment or laying off employees. Groupon could be just the short-term infusion you need to stay afloat during these tough economic times.

Attracting a Young Demographic

Most Groupon users are young (68 percent are aged 18 to 34). Therefore, Groupon is ideal for products and services targeting this demographic. There are several other heavily weighted demographic groups (77 percent are female), so be sure to check out Groupon’s user breakdown to see if it is a fit for your target market.

Generate Buzz

For a new or relocated business, Groupon can be the perfect way to familiarize a large group of customers with your product. Plus when someone gets a great deal they usually tell someone about it. In a new area Groupon can be a relatively cheap way to expose your product to new customers and then let word of mouth do your marketing for you.

When Not To Use Groupon:

Unprepared for Large Influxes

Be warned: Groupon sales have the potential to attract high volumes of customers. Depending on the size of your business, Groupon sales may generate demand that you may not be able to meet. Though there is usually a long time period for coupons to be redeemed, customers just might redeem all at once, and in that case you had better be ready.

When You Never Have Repeat Sales

The sales you generate from Groupon will be a lot less valuable if you cannot use the new relationships you create to drive additional sales. Since there is such a large discount when customers use Groupon, you need to make sure the investment will be worth the cost.

Have you used Groupon for your business? Are there other reasons that you can think of for using or not using Groupon or similar services?

Ref - Prasad Thammineni