Business Cards Don’t Make Connections!

Jan25
6 Comments
Brand You Social-Print & Grain

Print & Grain Card Designs

Business cards don’t make connections.

We get 2000 of these things printed. Our worst fear – that embarrassing moment of pretending to look for a business card we know doesn’t exist. So we stock up. Cards in hand, we’re ready, but for what? I think many of us fail to contemplate the part of our business cards that actually creates business? Most of us assume as long as we’re whittling down our card supply we’re making progress, but is that sound logic?

Last networking meeting I went to, a chiropractor hands me 5 cards, “1 for you and 4 for your friends!” This guy was way ahead of the game. Of course he forgot to ask me if I needed a chiropractor, or how his services would benefit me. All logic came short to his networking goal: Hand out business cards.

Whatever the prize was for making zero connections with the most amount of people at a networking event, I’m confident he either won, or placed top 3. His case might fall into the extreme scenario of bad networking skills, but think about this, how many times have you handed someone a business card with complete confidence you made a meaningful connection.
 

If the person doesn’t thoroughly understand:

1. What it is you do
2. Why you’re the best at it
3. How they can help you
4. Why they should care

you’ve wasted your time. Usually #4 hits us the hardest. Really – why should a complete stranger care if you’re successful or not? Do you have a good reason? If you’re scratching your head that’s a good sign, gears are working.

It’s easy to draft points #1-3, it’s all about you, but #4 is a little different. #4 encompasses your ability to communicate and build trust. It’s how you not only plan on adding value, but delivering on it. Simply, #4 is about how you create relationships that can eventually create business.

Honestly, nobody wants a business card. What people want is the simplest way to connect with awesome people they’ve met, and if their cards look good – well that’s just a plus.

5 Mistakes That Ruined Your Facebook Fanpage

Jan18
4 Comments
brand-you-social-media-marketing-top-5-mistakes We’ve seen many brands make distinct moves to implement Facebook into their marketing strategies. Why? Because it’s the most visited, and used site in the U.S, not to mention a slew of other countries. To many Facebook has become synonymous to the internet, and brands are catching on to that. The fact that a growing number of brands are even considering new media is exciting, because we’re experiencing a historical shift in communication between businesses and consumers. However, many brands are finding it difficult to implement Facebook into their marketing plan. You can jump on Facebook right now, and find more then your share of failed attempts, brands who broke cardinal rules of communicating effectively in this space. If you’re wondering where your Facebook page went wrong, is it possible you’re doing something on this list?

Here’s The Top 5 Mistakes That Ruined Your Fanpage

  1. Your strategy for Facebook is “Get on Facebook”: Being on Facebook is not a strategy, it is a tactic. It’s your reaction to the change in the marketplace and how you’re customers are now shopping. A strategy is your long term plan on how you will perform on Facebook, and making sure they align with your goals. 2. You use it only for advertising deals: It’s a one way street, and there’s you, with a megaphone screaming at the end of it “20% off this weekend!” Yes, this can work depending on the audience, but if you’ve been posting these blast messages for weeks and getting no response, it’s most likely because it’s not the way your audience shops for your products or services. 3. You fail to engage…every time: Someone writes a comment or question on your wall and it goes unanswered for days. The next post you see on top of a customers complaint is a post for another deal you’re offering. (Teeth Grind) 4. You bought non-targeted fans: You were clever enough to buy fans to establish social proof on your Facebook page, but you immediately counteracted that intelligence by forgetting to implement a strategy to gain targeted fans that would actually buy your products/services. 5. Your brand is generic: Like all the other companies in your industry you do nothing to stand out. What can you offer your Facebook community that competitors aren’t? It all leads back to your USP (unique selling proposition). Here’s another article that you can weigh our article against Top 5 Facebook Mistakes. Also be sure to read 5 Components of Successful Facebook Marketing.

Don’t Get The Wrong Impression. The Value Of The Weird Facebook Metric.

Aug02
, 2 Comments

"Impressions Facebook"

To jump start this post we’d like to introduce the 3 most important questions Facebook marketers have regarding their status updates, which are…

  1. Who saw my update? 2. Where did they see it? 3. How many times did they see it? The weird Facebook metric we’ll cover today does absolutely nothing to answer these questions, but it’s still important to understand, and we’ll show you why.

There Are Two Popular Metrics Attached To Our Facebook Update Reports

"Impressions Feedback Facebook"

1.”Impressions” (The Weird Metric)

2. “Feedback”

  Of the two, the “Feedback” metric  is the easiest to understand, because it only measures physical interactions. We understand physical interactions on Facebook updates as comments, likes, shares, and tags. Feedback is a tangible number. Something either happened, or didn’t. End of story. Impressions on the other hand, play in a league of their own.
Someone once asked me, “What the hell is an impression on Facebook? What is its worth? and why do we need it?”
There are more then a few social media managers, enthusiast, and consultants who would be utterly stumped if you asked them these questions, but being who we are, we thought we’d give it a shot ;)   So if you don’t mind, we’d like to start at beginning, which labels exactly how impressions are calculated. Ingeniously, if we figure that out, we end up at point where we start to understand their value.

Welcome To Facebook Impressions 101

Impressions on Facebook are composed of two components.

1. Things we can prove "Facebook Impressions Brand You Social 2. & Things we can’t prove (we’re sorry if you’re just finding out.)

"Facebook Marketing Brand You Social"

Here is a list of things we can prove that count as an impression on a Facebook update.

  1. Likes 2. Comments 3. Tags 4. Shares (Have you heard of these before?… slowly nod your head, yesss, and let’s move on) By the way, we refer to these 4 as hard metrics. Physical action has taken place, and been recorded. But here is where it gets weird. Here are the things we can’t prove that also count as impressions. 1. When updates show in a fans newsfeed "Impression Facebook Marketing Brand You Social" 2. When fans visit your fan page and see an update

"Facebook Impression Brand You Social"

3. When a page with your update on it is refreshed (big one) "Facebook Marketing Brand You Social" We refer to these as soft metrics. (We thought hard about including a joke here, but it probably would be inappropriate) Simply, we know something happened, but have no clue what. The annoyances of impressions updates are caused by soft metrics. The Unknowns. Because…

1. Being In the newsfeed does not equate to being seen.

"Analytics Facebook Brand You Social"

2. Fans visited your page great! But how many??

3. Someone refreshed their newsfeed, but again did they see your update? and how many times did they refresh the page?

  But when a billion dollar company decides to give us grade “E” measuring tools, we don’t break down, or throw a tantrum. We’re smarter and tougher then that. Instead, we set out to find the hidden value of what this data is worth.

The way we see it impressions can tell us 1 of 2 stories

1. High impressions can be an effective indicator of when our fans are most active on Facebook.

Example: If we send an update out at 1pm and have a higher impression rate, as opposed to when we posted an update at 10am the day prior, that bit of evidence is telling us something important. With impression data, predicting our fans peak activity times on Facebook is far from a wild guess.

2. Impressions conveys how interested our fans are with our updates.

Example: You have 2000 impressions that do not include the hard metrics (likes, comments, shares, tags). This would tell us you either don’t have a targeted fan base, or your style of marketing messages fails to appeal to your fan base. We’re sure there are other creative ways impression metrics are being used on Facebook, and when we get the low down, we’ll be more then happy to update this post.

Question: What do you use  to track your metrics on Facebook? or do you even track them?

No Advertising Budget. No Results. No Thanks.

Jul12
No Comments
"Brand You Social Facebook"It’s true, Facebook Pages can take forever to grow organically. Organically meaning, without spending any money on advertising. I’m seeing a growing number of business owners concerned about the growth and interaction on their pages, and an equivalent reverse trend when it comes to promoting via ads on Facebook. There are multiple ways to use a Facebook Page for business, but usually it will fall somewhere between these three categories: 1. Customer Relationship Management Tool 2. Sales 3. Branding If you’re a business owner and you’re goal falls between category 2 and 3, you’re fooling yourself if you think you’ll notice significant, or even moderate growth without some sort of paid advertising. The Gritty Bottom Line: Pay up! If you’re serious about the benefits your service, or product has to offer, invest in it. If you’re skeptical, or have a light pocket try starting out with a micro budget of $50 to $100 a month for Facebook Ads. From experience, something is always better then nothing. Get into the habit of advertising your online brand, it’s a skill you’ll eventually have to learn anyway, so why not now?

Child’s Play Marketing…No Not Chucky

Jul06
4 Comments
Marketing Your Business Brand You Social

The Short Story

4 years ago, I had the pleasure of participating in one of  the hottest summer seasons you can experience in Tallahassee FL. Walking home from a mid afternoon class, I could feel every pore in my body pumping out massive amounts of sweat as I trekked through a concrete jungle. Half way home, I noticed something peculiar in my traditional route. At a point where there should’ve been more sun baked cement stood a white stand with a sign that read “Ice, Refreshing, Lemonade.” A little girl, and younger boy stood behind the stand, paper cups ready, to pour a tall cup of artic chilled confection (I love these metaphors by the way). The price $1. Years have gone by, and I’ve never had an opportunity to spot a billboard that grabbed my attention like that lemonade stand’s sign. Those two fun sized geniuses created a product that wasn’t only appealing, but was placed in the right location, at the right time, with bold signage that said it all. I thought about the multitudes of students being crucified by the sun, who would cross the path of  the refreshing lemonade stand, and pay a justified fee of $1 per cup. I thought about the senior marketing majors who couldn’t put together a strategy as effective as these two elementary school adolescents, and had a short laugh.

Targeted Marketing Works

These kids found a niche, or problem in a system they could easily find a solution for.  Problem: “Students are hot and thirsty” Solution: “Provide an ice cold drink”. After that it wasn’t to  hard to find a place with a descent amount of traffic, and not a lot of stores (competition). Another factor I liked about their business model is that they kept their marketing message incredibly simple. Though they did have additional products for sale like candy bars, and chips, their message highlighted the core of what they were offering, which was everything that spells relief during a mid summer scorcher. Some business owners, complicate their slogans to a point where it’s original message is watered down, and vague. When it comes to delivering a marketing message to your target audience, remember to always keep it stupidly simple, and at the core of what you’re really offering. Think of slogans like Debeer’s “A diamond is forever.” Overall, maybe your business is a bit more intricate then an elementary run lemonade stand, but the lessons are still there to remind of us of how streamlined our businesses should be. So Kudos to those two kids who taught me a life lesson 4 years ago, maybe they’re millionaires now. If so, I’d love to revisit them and get a cut of my initial investment.

Our One Last Thought

What’s the most memorable roadside business you’ve ever encountered?
Sidebar