Conversations on Website Conversion discussion

I really like the “watering hole” analogy of social media. The people are already there, all but waiting to learn about you and your business. The extreme density of users allows for incredibly quick viral transmission—if one person becomes a “fan” of your page, you are make visible to all of their friends, and (depending on their profile settings) their friends’ friends. The workload of maintaining a social media site is not too high—while users do expect you to update frequently, the volume of those updates (in the form of status messages) can be rather small.

What do you think a good mixture of these updates would be? This question also applies somewhat to blogs—what seems like a good ratio of articles, links, blogs, and videos?

For me it has been a slow migration to social media tools... I'm not transitioning easily from e-mail to Twitter and Facebook - I'm still much more comfortable with one-on-one or small group conversations than putting things up on my Facebook page or Tweeting about it. On the other hand - getting articles or blogs written and up either on our website or out on the web has been a priority. I think video is very important but figuring out something "remarkable" to talk about on a video is still eluding me - but it's something I'm thinking about alot ... I love listening to podcasts but sort of seize up at the thought of producing one every week. Maybe it's like so many things - out of all the possible Social Media portals - you pick and choose based on your customer's preferences, your company's goals and then what you find easy and natural...

I tried out Twitter for personal use, turned it off one night to go to bed, and have forgotten to turn it back on for a month or more! I use text messaging to talk to people directly, publicly broadcasting still seems a little bit weird to me. It’s a difficult transition, I think. Sometimes it’s nice to be out-of-contact for a little bit. Just think, people who want to talk on the phone or send handwritten letter may be this generation's definition of anti-social!

On a more serious note, I think that you brought up a good point, Marty. Basing updates on your customers' preferences is definitely the most important thing. I think that you should look at what people respond the most to, and then keep doing it! About video—you could write a remarkable article and then present it on webcam, or record it for a podcast.

Good idea Hope - I never really thought of writing a remarkable article and then presenting it in video format - I've been trying to come up with video ideas & that's a great one

Social media is still such an under-utilized tool by many businesses. It amazes me! If they only knew all the benefits it can bring to your sales and customer relations. It definitely is a time commitment but they phrased it well in the book, "Devoting time to fostering social networking pages may be a bit of a challenge for a small business with limited resources, but it's a worthwhile investment." It really is.

A tip that I am going to start using right away that they recommended is to set up RSS for LinkedIn Questions to receive updates for your area of interest or skill.

Marty-A simple idea for video would be to do a weekly "Quick Tip" Video (Time Length: 2 minutes) People love tips! And tips they can get quickly are even better! Shorter than a ‘how-to’ video this type of video focuses on some aspects of your topic that can be learned or improved upon quickly. Ex: 5 Quick Tips for Converting Leads into Customers, 7 Tips to Making Your Website More Interesting/User Friendly. Use text overlays to highlight key words or points.

Shelby - it's a great idea - Carl & I have been talking about video - mostly him doing the video & me asking questions & filming....but as far as text overlays to highlight key words or points...I'm not there yet....what do you know about it?

I heard a podcast this morning where Mitch Joel the author of Six Pixels of Separation was being interviewed - and he made a really big point of listening 1st - then act. His feeling was that too many companies get out there - try something or several things & abandon them before they gain traction - either because they didn't really fit with their target market - or they didn't fit well with the medium - His sense was that consistency was far more important than just about anything - that it can't be sporadic or you'll never develop an audience - so listening first & then developing a strategy for your company would give you the best results possible.

He said that lots of big brands may not look like they're participating on the social networks but they really are - they have very active listening programs - they're on google alerts and twitter search and when they see anything that effects their brand they respond quickly - they're not doing it like Comcast or Dell where it's highly visible - but they're behind the scenes monitoring the channels actively.

Marty wrote: "but as far as text overlays to highlight key words or points...I'm not there yet....what do you know about it?"

There are options in simple programs like Windows Movie Maker to do all kinds of things like this. You can specify when they appear, and for how long. You can even decide how they should come in and fade out! There are a lot of fun options to play with.

Marty-At the end of the video you could add a quick text recap of the most important points. You could use Windows Movie Maker, Apple Movie Maker, or I have Adobe CS3 Creative Suite that I could use to help you. Can't wait to see the videos once they make it to YouTube!