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Using Social Media
5:37 with Paul BoagSocial networks and communities are a great way to build contacts, but can also serve as a way to annoy people.
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So you can't talk about marketing and promotion
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without mentioning social media.
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It would just be wrong to these days
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with Twitter and Facebook and all the rest of it.
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Social networks and communities are great way of building up your contacts
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within the target audience you're trying to reach.
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But as I implied earlier, it's really easy to annoy people.
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You got to be so careful that you don't spam people
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or harass people or just get under their skin.
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You need to be participating in these communities
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but it's always important to remember some basic
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principles when participating in communities online.
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First of all, converse with people, don't broadcast them.
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Social networks are supposed to be about conversation, but so often
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when people are using them with marketing in mind,
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they just use them as a loud haler to shout at people
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and that's not at all the right approach.
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Secondly, be personal. All right. Talk about yourself.
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It's a really interesting thing when it comes to sales and marketing
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that people buy from people.
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All right. They don't buy from other companies. They are attracted to people.
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Of all things that are equal,
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people are more likely to buy from you if they like you as a person.
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If they feel that they know you in some ways.
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So be personal when participating in communities.
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Also, as I said in the last video, make sure you're contributing value,
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answer people's questions, point them in the useful articles,
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join in with the community, be a member of the community
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rather than just marketing, act the community.
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Also, if you get it wrong, you will get it wrong.
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You'll put you're foot in it at some point.
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When you do admit your mistakes, it really takes to win out of people's selves.
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If you've gotten in and you've accidentally been more salesy
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than you should have and people have gotten annoyed at you over it.
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If you go, yeah, hands up. You are entirely right. That was totally over the top.
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I do apologize. They got nowhere to go.
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So you can cover up a whole load of mistakes if you're just wiling to admit it.
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Also, please, please, don't spam. Don't post so regularly. You get annoying.
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Whether it be a forum or on Twitter or Facebook or whatever else,
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you really can annoy people if you are just posting so much content.
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One thing that people really do like when you're participating in social media,
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is when you share links, when you share content
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that you think your target audience might be interested in.
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And I'm not just talking about your content here,
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I'm talking about other people's content as well.
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It feels a bit weird sometimes when you post a link from one of your competitors
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but you actually really build up some respect amongst people
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and they think that you're not there just to sell at them
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because you're even willing to mention your competitors from time to time.
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And finally, ask questions. Questions are a great way of engaging a community.
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In the previous video, I mentioned about how
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we engage with the higher education community
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and one of the first things I did was ask questions.
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I showed an interest in the sector. I wanted to learn about it.
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And that was a great way to meet new people and engage with them online.
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So, if you want to promote your own stuff,
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there are all times and places where you can do that.
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Of course, there's no point of participating in a community
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if sooner or later you can't mention your own stuff.
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Yes, you can occasionally mention links to your own content
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but you could also use things like profiles and signatures to do it.
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People will go and look at your profile if they what
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if they're interested in your services, if they want to know a little bit more about you.
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So make sure that you make good use of your Twitter and your Facebook profiles.
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If you're participating in forums,
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a lot of them allow you to insert signature at the bottom,
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and it is perfectly acceptable to mention your own site on there.
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If you're going to do anything more than that, however,
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make sure you ask permission of the community leader.
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So when I joined that higher education community I mentioned,
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the first thing I did was go and write to the community leader
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and I asked his permission to join in, to make sure he was okay
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with this evil corporate person joining his higher education community.
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And actually that worked really well.
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He allowed me to join but he made me promise
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that I wouldn't contribute to the community,
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that I would just listen and learn.
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So that's what I did and I took part in that community in a completely passive role
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for a long time until a question came up that I felt I could answer.
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And then I went back to the community leader
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and I asked that community leader's permission to answer the question
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and he said--Sure, just don't sell your stuff.
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So I answered the question and little later, there was another question.
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So I repeated the process and I repeated it again and again
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and eventually, the community leader said, no, just post what you want,
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just don't be too salesy.
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So earned trust there and that's what it's all about
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when you're thinking about social media.
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It's to build up trust, build up credibility in the audience you are trying to reach
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to the point where they'll eventually accept you as their own.
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