They are not the only small business to miss the potential that social media has to build sales, says Rebekah King, principal of ReBiz Works in Irvine, a one-person shop that specializes in social media marketing and training.

Social media sites, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, and online communication tools, such as Twitter and the content-update utility Ping.fm, could raise TNT’s profile, introduce it to new customers and provide an easy way to keep in front of its growing community. Also, content on social media sites is counted in search-engine results and can move a business higher in result rankings.

To be effective, a business needs a plan.

“Any social-media program has to have a focus, a purpose,” says King, who works with small businesses and advertising agencies. “They want to book more business. Social media can show people who they are and help drive potential customers to their website.”

Check out the article on latimes.com for the full step-by-step program we outlined for TNT Dunk Squad

What Dell’s doing on Twitter is one of my favorite stories, and is explained best by a Stefanie N, a dell employee herself:

I started tweeting for the U.S. Dell Outlet in June of 2007 based on a suggestion from a colleague who learned about Twitter at the SXSW Interactive conference, and the response had been very positive. But I knew we could do more. So I started tweeting more regularly and doing more Twitter-exclusive offers, which created more buzz and helped us to grow our follower base (we’re now over 600,000). Our followers responded by re-tweeting @DellOutlet messages to their followers, and our numbers rose even more. The chart below (click on it to see more options) shows our growth over the last 3 months—right around the time we began introducing more exclusive offers, when we were at about 11,000 followers. … we’ve actually eclipsed $3 million in overall sales.

Did you catch that? $3 million in overall sales since June of 2007… that’s only 2 years!

How do they do this? There seems to be a few basics I find in common for many twitter success stories:

1. Connect with your audience - Import databases, publicize your twitter profile, follow the people who talk about you and/or your product… general stay-in-touch stuff.

2. Listen and Respond to what the community is saying about you – use twitter tracking tools like search.twitter.com to keep track of what the general public is saying about you – not just the people that are following you.

3. Give your followers what they want when they want it – which for companies like Dell is answers to service issues, help finding product, and the deals that apply to them.

Always keep in mind what you are trying to accomplish, and use whatever tool it is to accomplish your goal. For Dell it’s keeping their customers satisfied in the products and making it easier for them to get the service they want. This thoughtfullness has generated over $3million in revenue for them. How could you be more thoughtful for your clients? Would twitter social networking be able to supplement this? These are the questions you need to ask, not just of yourself, but of your clients – conduct a survey, try out the software.. there are a myriad of ways to put your toe in the water and find if it’s right for you

Social Media = any kind of media that creates a social or community experience for the audience. Facebook lets people do this by sharing photos and videos and news with their friends.

New Media or Emerging Media = The exciting (and confusing) part of technology advancement is we don’t always know what to call it. That’s this stuff. Currently this includes social media, online communities, mobile marketing, and a bunch of new tools and platforms we’re learning how to use.

1. YOU MIGHT BE A SPAMMER IF: you compulsively send strangers connection requests and not jut the people you met once, but the folks you’ve never ever met…

Yes, LinkedIn is a place to connect with colleagues, references, past co-workers, and prospective clients – but stalking people has never been a pleasant experience for the stalk-ee. If you are reaching out to someone you don’t know for a good reason, then tell it to them. I’ve reached out to many people I didn’t know, for work purposes or client projects, but in the subject line will say “you don’t know me, found you on LinkedIn” and start off the message by saying why I’m emailing. The result? About 4 times more responses.

2. YOU MIGHT BE A SPAMMER IF: you join lots of groups and post your sales pitch in them over and over and over and over and over..

LinkedIn Groups is your destination to find and join communities of professionals based on common interest, experience, affiliation, and goals. Stay in touch with organizations, schools, and companies that you are and were a part of, network with professionals with similar interests and goals, and collaborate in a professional community online.

Groups are typically organized around a company (IBM or Apple), a trade organization (AIGA or APA), or a special interest group (Mac Users, Blackberry Users). You apply for membership and the group owner can either accept or decline your request for membership. Once accepted, you have access to discussion boards, job boards, news feeds, and the ability to submit news articles to the group. Being involved in the community (posting answers to questions, sharing news articles relevant to the community) is a way to increase your visibility, credibility, and esteem within the community. Trouble seems to be – this takes time. Rather than spend this time, many seem to post their sales pitches as discussions over and over again…. my guess they think this visibility makes people think of them – and it’s true… but thinking of you as an intelligent authority or just the pain-in-the-keester newbie?

It’s totally appropriate to get out there and try new things – try the groups, try posting comments, try inviting connections – but if no one posts comments, and your invitations aren’t accepted take the hint that you may be coming on too pitchy and not enough of a human being. People like people, much more than salespeople….

Our tools allow us to eavesdrop on public conversations inside of twitter, myspace, facebook, and linkedIN, bringing back information like:

• Who are your ideal clients?
• What are your ideal clients talking about?
• Where do they go to have these questions answered?
• How do they want to learn about your product?

And with this information we can then develop a marketing program tailored for your business, to provide the greatest return in the most effective way we can. Often this process will not only provide research, but also sales leads from within the social media environment.

Read a Case Study of Sales Results from Social Media via Twitter

The Definition: Social media is simply a buzz word for any type of media that has a social component – sharing, posting, commenting, messaging, discussing etc. These are social practices you would be more inclined to see at a group gathering, or coffee shop, than you would traditionally have seen online. The media used in these communities can be primarily text, video, or photos, but the most engaging are typically using all three.

The Tools: When someone talks about social media we often think about tools like Myspace, Facebook, and LinkedIN, but there are over 80,000 different social media platforms around the world. Ning, Xing, Bebo and Orkut or a few examples of different social media tools. Typically it’s easier to get started on the more common applications, but the most strategic marketing plans focus on reaching out to the niche communities that best match our client’s target audience.
EXAMPLE: Tony Columbini @ Egge Machine & Speed Shop doesn’t do much on Facebook/Myspace/LinkedIn, but is extremely active in car enthusiast communities. They’ve seen a direct relationship between sales and this online community involvement.

The Business: Many social media platforms make their money from display ads on different parts of the site, or by charging people for advanced access or communication ability. One of the basic tenants of social media is the most simple membership be free, so many people can join – to create the community and bring enough people together to keep the site engaging to the audience.
EXAMPLE: LinkedIN charges for advanced communication, like InMail or number of introduction requests. Twitter is often a topic of conversation, because to date the founders do not have a revenue model for the tool, leading many to believe it may not last forever.

You can find Loic Le Meur at www.twitter.com/loic and his product at www.seesmic.com

But, I digress. My tangent is distracting us all for the point of today’s rant.

Pointless, cheezy, salesy, uninvited emails via facebook.

I recently received this from someone in one of my groups:

When Britains Got Talent start Susan Boyle took the stage in front of the three judges, it was all the audience could do to stop themselves from laughing. In front of them stood a 47 year old woman with an unpolished appearance who was certain to humiliate herself in front of millions. Then she did something extraordinary. She sang “I Dreamed a Dream” from the West End musical Les Misérables so beautifully that she received a standing ovation and is the talk of the UK. Her audition which has since been put on Youtube has received tens of millions of views.

So what business lessons can Susan teach us?

1) Don’t judge a book by its cover.

Susan was written off before she’d sung a note. But not everything is always as it seems, sometimes it’s worth giving people and services a chance before writing them off. They may just surprise you.

2) A book is always judged by its cover.

The audience’s reaction to Susan was hardly surprising. Were we all being cynical? Well yes, but that’s human nature. Even though your product or service may be outstanding, people tend to make quick judgements. Is your website, packaging or marketing conveying the right message?

3) Be extraordinary

Susan isn’t a huge hit because she sang the best version of” I Dreamed A Dream”, there are better versions around if you care to look. She’s a huge hit because people were not expecting her to be so good. The fact that she exceeded everybody’s expectations made her performance extraordinary and something that people want to talk about. Is your company creating things worth talking about?

Finally a big congratulations to Susan who will continue to chase her dream. Something we should all be doing.

DO YOU SEE HOW LONG THIS IS?

And it’s not even from a friend. I don’t know who any of these people are. This some yodle esposing yodle-um for (who’s exactly?) benefit. I don’t get it.

1. FACEBOOK IS NOT A BLOG

your blog is a blog. posting a link to your blog is cool. I can read it if I want. It doesn’t clutter up my facebook page. that’s cool.

2. FACEBOOK IS FOR FRIENDS

I have friends that ask me questions about my business on facebook. I answer them.  That’s it. if it’s more than one paragraph I call them or email them offline. Every business owner I know and respect handles this the same way, so you might want to also.

3. FRIENDS DON’T LET FRIENDS SEND SPAM

And you shouldn’t either.

R

1. Look for your contemporaries

I get asked nearly every day “why would I want to use twitter?” which is kind of silly, because no one person can tell someone they’ve just met what social media tool will appropriately connect them to their consumer. I don’t know you – I don’t know what you sell and I don’t know how you sell it. I don’t know the things that will kill you online: like being lazy, or having terrible customer service (when your csr hangs up on them you can bet they’ll twitter you about it), or having a terrible product. These are all things my clients and I talk about, and find the best course of action. Of course you probably want to see what your competition, kindred companies, and clients are doing – so a tool like Tracking Twitter makes that very doable. I am sure I’ll be using it to watch brands grow in their strategy, and see what their results are once these profiles have been active long enough to gain measureable results.

2. Learn what works

@Jetblue (the twitter handle for Jet Blue Airlines) just rocks. The airline presence is fantastic and in addition to giving you a headsup on specials, they give you great travel tips that will make your trip easier (security tips) and less boring (answers to questions about what movies are playing). If you do any kind of travel service then you should learn from them. Really.

3. Get comfortable with your persona

The 2nd most common question I get about using twitter (and any social media really) is “what should i say?” my answer is typically “what should you say?”. It comes back to the who are you/what do you do conversation I mentioned earlier. For tech companies and b2b firms there is often a tendency to be authoritative, to provide information (which typically means to be as boring as you can possibly imagine). Burger King has an icon – the king – and that’s who is doing their twitter-ness (check out @burgerking). He’s hilarious, and totally in sync with their current branding. On the tech side check out @delloutlet and any of the other dell twitter-feeds – it’s estimated that dell’s done over 1 million in business via their twitter handles in 2008… take that those of you who tell me twitter is a total waste of time!

The biggest and most important thing I can tell you is to think – think about what your goal is on social media, what you want to accomplish, and who should be working toward this goal – then you will have the direction to make “what should i say” a simple question with an easy answer. ’cause that’s what it should be.

@rebekah_king

Deepening Customer Loyalty Through Social Media by Aaron Strout

When was the last time you said to yourself: “Wow, I’d recommend this product or service to a friend”? Within the last month? Six months? If you have to think about this question, you’ve already made my point. Over the last 50 years, outsourced manufacturing, poor customer service and an overall commoditization of products and services have served to erode consumers’ affections for most brands.

While the idea of diminished customer loyalty may be disheartening–after all, if customers aren’t loyal, they don’t rave about your brand to other customers and they certainly can’t be tricked into forking over a greater share of their wallet–all hope is not lost. In fact, smart brands like Dell, Ford and Sears are starting to see increases in brand affinity as a result of their social endeavors.

Before we talk about some of these examples, let’s start by reminding ourselves why loyalty is important. Arguably the biggest benefit is highlighted in an article by loyalty guru Fred Reichheld, titled “Leading with Loyalty.” Based on research Reichheld’s employer, Bain & Company, conducted last year, “companies that enjoy [the] ‘loyalty effect’ grow at better than twice the average for their industry.”

If doubling your growth rate isn’t enticing enough in and of itself, Reichheld also proves in his landmark book, The Loyalty Effect, that “as little as a 5 percent increase in retention can improve a company’s bottom-line profitability between 25 percent and 85 percent, depending on the industry.” Not too shabby, but also easier said than done.

Let’s take a look at how a few well-known companies are using social media to dramatically improve their customer loyalty:

•   Dell Computers: As recently as 2005, Dell was struggling mightily to keep its customers. Complaints of poor customer service combined with a scathing barrage of bad press stemming from stories of laptop batteries catching on fire led CEO and founder, Michael Dell to tap current “chief blogger” Lionel Menchaca to help right the ship. Through a campaign of open and honest communications via the Dell blogs and proactive participation by its employees in Dell’s support forums, customer satisfaction and loyalty have started to come back in full force.

•   Ford: It’s no secret that the auto industry has come under heavy scrutiny over the last 12 months. The big three in particular have suffered huge PR and sales hits during that time as they attempt to figure out what’s next. During that time, Ford made a giant leap into the world of social by bringing in social media head Scotty Monty. Through tools like Twitter, Scott’s blog and Ford’s Sync My Ride community, they have slowly begun to win back customer and influencer confidence. Ford still has a long road ahead, but they are reaping the benefits of being reconnected.

•   Sears: you’ll be surprised to find out that the company you used to know as Sears is not your father’s department store. In fact, you may be surprised to know that Sears launched its SKU community last summer, and now has more than 200,000 members.

According to VP of Community, Rob Harles, Sears is starting to see some little wins with their community: “Overall, customers are starting to feel that they are being listened to, core members skew toward being some of the most valuable/profitable customers and the ability to reach out to customers and solve their issues proactively is definitively turning around customer perceptions.” Rob mentioned that in one extreme case, the SKU community turned a client from “I would never shop with you again” to “I have put my store card back in wallet.”

If Dell, Ford and Sears can do it, why can’t you?

For anyone interested, here are a few steps to help get you started:

1.   Listen first – You may already know why your customers aren’t as loyal as they might be. If you don’t know, you should start by listening to what they are saying.

2.   Engage – Unless you are one of the lucky few brands that instill passion in your base, think about giving your customers a reason to engage with you. This is most easily and simply accomplished by offering compelling content that is not about your company’s products, but is germane to the customers’ lifestyle. Wrapping this content in social tools makes it more scalable and repeatable.

3.   Measure – If you are diligent about putting steps one and two into practice, make sure you measure. Not only will it help you gauge the effectiveness of your program, it can help you get more funding to fuel it–especially during tough economic times like we’re living through now.