You must first complete Number 1: Let’s Start with Where you Are before viewing this Lesson

First, while social media can essentially be a huge and cheap focus group, let’s be clear on its limitations. As a marketer, you can basically do three things using social media:

  1. Listen
  2. Engage
  3. Respond

The first two can help you discover your value proposition. The third one is basically customer service.

Next, let’s get on the same page about exactly what we mean by value proposition. The way MarketingExperiments defines value proposition is – the primary reason why your ideal prospect should buy from you rather than any of your competitors.

Now, to the Twitterverse…

How to listen

The great thing about social media is you can be what message board aficionados derisively call a “lurker.” You can passively observe the way your potential customers talk about your overall industry, your specific business, as well as your products and marketing campaigns behind your back.

Before social media, most of this information was secret. Someone bragging over a new way to use your product (and thus a new value that you never thought of) over beer at a barbecue. A dissatisfied customer complaining that your competitor doesn’t serve a niche that you fill so well but rarely communicate. Social media has brought all of these conversations out into the open.

Here’s a few ideas about how to listen for value proposition triggers using social media:

  • Set up searches for your brand and product names on Twitter, the same for your competitors, as well as searches about key hashtags and words customers might use to describe a problem your product solves or category your product is in. You can do this manually in Twitter, but more easily in free programs like Tweetdeck or HootSuite.
  • Join LinkedIn Groups and/or Facebook Groups that your ideal customers might use. How can you find these groups? Start by asking current customers what groups they are members of. And don’t forget to join your competitors’ groups or “like” their fan pages to see what their customers are saying.
  • Don’t overlook Google Alerts. You can set up alerts using the same type of keywords as you did for Twitter in step #1. Pay special attention to the “Type” field. Blogs, video, and discussions can be especially helpful. But the realtime search will likely be of limited value since Google dropped Twitter from that search – which is why the first bullet point is important.

Resources:

You don’t need to look at all of these at once. Just when you feel like you are looking for more ideas.


 

Your Challenge:

  • Create your 1 to 3-month social marketing plan that allows you to:
    • Engage with your community – use social media to keep yourself top of mind with your current and prospective customers.
    • Increase your sales – create posts with pictures and videos to increase sales
    • Consider a creating a newsletter as part of your plan
  • Next lesson will be on writing your own blog posts

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Back to: Heart and Soul Marketing Mastery Program

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