Final Thoughts

Considering all that we've learned and reviewed over this quick semester of social media madness, I have a few summary learnings.

1.  There is always a new media bandwagon.  Ultimately, the decision on what media to utilize (traditional vs. online media) comes down to which media delivers your target audience best.  Social media has great targeting tools, but not everybody is on the social networks.  If you are looking for a 65+ rural male in middle America...my instincts tell me that social media is likely not the best media vehicle to reach that target.  Whatever your business is, you have to understand your target audience first, and determine what media works best for reaching them.

2.  Play to your strengths.  If you know you are not good at posting regularly and distributing content, don't attempt to keep up in those realms.  You'll burn out on content and the attempt to market your business will backfire because your social media tools are stale.  Hire someone to blog for you, or use other online tools that have less content demands - such as Google Adwords/Ad Network.

3.  First Impressions Count . If you go to the effort to build out a business Facebook page, or a website...make it quality.  If a customer goes to look at your page and it appears cheap, poorly constructed, or unprofessional...you are negatively marketing your brand.

4.  Face to Face Still Matters.  If you think you can build a website - pop up a Facebook page, run some Google ads and collect revenue without having to deal with people... you are wrong.  If you don't like dealing with people and that's your driver for an online business - prepare to be disappointed.  Businesses require customers, and for the vast majority of customers - they are expecting some level of personal interaction before they hand you their money.  If you have no desire to deal with people, get ready to spend a large amount of time defending your business on Yelp.  Business ultimately comes down to interacting with people - customers, suppliers, media and a host of other stakeholders.  Social media is a wonderful new medium, but nothing can replace personal interaction for customer acquisition and retention.

5.  Does the Real Business Match the Online Business?  On the personal social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook and Google +, all the personal content and postings we see are hyped up, trumped up interpretations of our lives.  People generally post the good stuff and minimize the bad stuff.  When we switch to using social media for BUSINESS, it's important to keep it real.  If you have a hyped up site that doesn't match the reality of your business (for example overreporting number of clients, hyping results, overstating claims of success)...it will catch up with you.  We can hype our personal social media, but in business...credibility and authenticity is built one satisfied customer at a time.  Be careful not to over-promise and under-deliver.

For me, I plan to keep it simple.  Invest in the social media platforms I feel comfortable that I can maintain momentum with.  It's a brave new world!  Thanks for the learnings.  N8



 

Week 14 - Post 2: Future Strategy for Manvolution

Looking back at everything we've learned and practiced, I've decided to maintain a focused social media strategy, utilizing just a few of the key tools for my business - Manvolution.  The five tools that I will use are highlighted below, followed by an explanation of why I selected each tool:

ONLINE TOOLS:

1. Website (built on google web app)
2. Blogging as Email Bait
3. Facebook business page & advertising
4. Google Plus (Hangouts)
5. Yelp

1.  Website

This piece is not built yet, but the focus will be on a quality landing page with links to my SMN platforms.  The website will also host my online seminars.  I plan on using either google's free web page platform, or hiring a designer to build me a site on Wordpress.

2.  Blogging & Email Bait

My primary marketing vehicle will be my blog content.  As a holistic nutrition, wellness and fitness coach, weekly blog content will be the vehicle I use to market my business.  My free weekly blog will be used as email bait to capture email addresses.  Blog content will be distributed weekly, and will be posted on my Manvolution website with linked posts on my Facebook business page.  This tool 

3.  Facebook Business Page

The goal will be to capture fans, and convert those fans to blog subscribers, thereby capturing their email addressess.  I will also be using Facebook advertising to target my audience - men 45+ who live in North County San Diego and are looking for a personal fitness and nutrition counselor. This tool is selected to build relationships with prospects, and as an advertising vehicle to reach my target.  

4.  Google + & Google AdWords

I will use Google + Hangouts to conduct live coaching calls with my clients.  I will use google ad words to advertising to prospects who are searching for men's fitness and nutrition coaching in my geographic area.  This tool is selected to help with my SEO results. 

5.  Yelp

Yelp is tricky to get quality reviews posted without them being screened or blocked, particularly when getting started.  However it is an important credibility tool when prospects are searching for recommendations for fitness/nutrition coaches.  

TIME:

I think initially I will be spending 30 hours a week building out these online tools - particularly the website, the calendar and archive of blog content, and building facebook fans for my business page. Also building my Yelp positive review process will probably be an additional 10 hours a week (see further below for detail).  

The remaining 20 hours a week will be devoted to PR activities:  speaking engagements and submitting articles to target publications.  Speaking engagements will be targeted toward men's organizations in North County, and article submission will focus on publications with readership comprised of men 45+.  

SIX MONTH STRATEGY:

• Month 1:  Content development.  Write blogs, build out content calendar, schedule blog posts using hootsuite.  Shoot video seminars for 12 week training program.  
• Months 2 & 3:  Build out website, Facebook page and Google + page. Shoot photography.
• Month 4:  Beta-test online training portions of website.  Test Google Hangouts feature. Capture feedback.  Start content calendar and blog posts.
• Month 5:  Get yelp account and reviews started
• Month 6:  Begin advertising on Facebook and Google Ad Words.  Start booking speaking engagements - targeting local corporate clients.  
• Month 7:  Run first group of men through 12-week program.

CONTENT CALENDAR (STARTING MONTH 3):

As I get up the learning curve, my blog work will get quicker.  Initially, I will budget 4 hours a week to develop and post and schedule/distribute my blogs.  By May, I expect my weekly blog activity to average 2 hours a week.  By June, I want that number down to 1 hour a week.  

MARCH, 2014
Week 1.  Breaking Patterns.  How to Get To Fit & Happy
Week 2.  Finding Time.  How to Get You Back on Your Calendar
Week 3.  Common Side Effects of a Bad Diet
Week 4.  Ten Foods That Will Make You Feel Twenty Again
Week 5.  Animal Vs. Vegetable.  Nutrition Showdown

APRIL
Week 1.  Protein Punchout.  Fact Vs. Fiction
Week 2.  Sex and Diet.  It Matters.
Week 3.  Eat Your Way to Ripped Abs.  
Week 4.  Pantry Raid.  What's Your Kitchen Score?

MAY
Week 1.  Salt, Sugar, Fat  The Axis of Evil
Week 2.  Getting Your Head Right
Week 3.  Stop Stressing Dude
Week 4.  Summer Bod.  Getting It Tight

JUNE
Week 1.  Open Your Mouth and Say WTF?
Week 2.  Bathroom Breakdown.  The ABC's of # 1 and #2.
Week 3.  Kill Your Couch.  Burn Your TV
Week 4.  Permanent Lifestyle Change.  How to Get There

YELP ACTIVITY:

Having positive Yelp reviews is an important link in my online credibility chain.  However, getting positive Yelp reviews on a new business can be a bit tricky to work around the Yelp algorithm.  Yelp screens out the best and worst reviews on business sites.  Also if you just started a yelp account - your reviews will mostly likely be screened out.  Or if you have not been active for awhile - you will be screened out.  

To get around this, it requires gaming the Yelp system a bit.  This involves setting up several email addresses, and then setting up Yelp accounts for each email address (gmail).  Then you must confirm the account through the email addresses.  Then you have to become an 'active' yelper.  This involves checking in on each Yelp account (Yelp mobile).  However posting reviews cannot be done via mobile, so this is a two-step process of first checking in, and then later writing the review.  

All of this initial Yelp activity to get me to the stage where positive Yelp reviews are landing on my business Yelp page...will probably require 10 hours a week initially.  

That's my initial game plan :-)

Blogs I commented on - Week 14

I commented on the following blogs

• Sergott, Ann
• Sjursen, John
• Smith, Robert
• Specor, Alexandra

I couldn't actually SEE my comments when I published them...not sure if they require a 'moderation' step before they go onto the blogger's site.

N.

Week 14: Post 1 - Likeable Social Media

This post is one of two in regards to achieving the week 14 blog posts requirements.

In reviewing ALL the different social media platforms we've worked, some seemed better suited to my business than others.  The ones that seem to integrate the best with my service-oriented 1 on 1 personal coaching business are:

• Blogging (weekly)
• Facebook
• Yelp
• Google +

I found twitter to be too labor intensive for me.  I could not keep the momentum required with tweets to keep this site productive.  Additionally, my target is men ages 45+ , and they use Twitter less frequently than women.  With my target group, I can lean on the 'traditional' social media sites to maximize results.

Daily Use Pattern:

Frankly, I don't see myself posting daily, primarily because my target audience is not consuming social media at that rate.  I am focusing on a weekly blog cycle, which translates to 52 blog posts a year.  If I were going after a daily use pattern, I would choose Twitter.  The short, punctuated content format of this social media site lends itself to frequency, and that's what 'tweets' are all about.

Weekly Use Pattern:

1.  Weekly blog posts
These will be delivered on a Monday morning, fit nicely with my health and fitness-oriented business idea.  Blog content will be delivered to subscriber emails.  I envision a 'Monday Motivational" that sets the tone for the week for my subscribers.  Whether I use Wordpress.com or Blogger.com, my blogs will be once a week.

2.  Facebook fans
'Like' my Manvolution Facebook page to receive the recipe of the week.  For the  weekly blog article, I will be asking for emails.  I want the blog to be used as email bait.  The weekly blog content will have specific content each week with regards to diet plans, workouts and an inspirational message.  Facebook advertising will be used to capture more fans and then convert those fans to email acquisition via free blog subscriptions.

3.  Yelp
This will be a slow-build strategy as customers are acquired.  Yelp is vital for my credibility.  My initial strategy is to make week 12 of the 12 week program free in exchange for a positive yelp review from customers.

4.  Google +
Specifically, google hangouts will be used to conduct my weekly personal coaching call.  Google Hangouts lets me conduct a live chat with up to 8 people.  I will also be using Google Ad words to capture clients via keyword searches.

##

This concludes part one of my week 14 blog post.   Part two will cover specific tools and strategies in more depth.

Onward!

N.

Facebook Posts - Analytics Review

Now that I have enough likes to trigger Facebook Page Insights, I've noticed some interesting trends regarding myFacebook  posts.

1.  First off, clicks on my facebook posts remained pretty strong in the first four weeks, but my last post, which was a longer post that talked about a PLANT BASED diet, did not resonate and my clicks dropped way down, in fact all the way down to ZERO :-)  Previous posts were trending about 15 - 25 post clicks.  I think the lack of a snappy title, and some follower wear out, caused the clicks to go down.  Lesson learned:  Keep the titles snappy and the posts short.

2.  Second, the pictures accompanying the post need to be specific to the content topic.  My last post used a generic 'Manvolution' picture, and people were not interested.  My previous post "Pantry Raid" had a picture of my actual pantry, and a catchy title.  Same for the previous week's post showing a picture of me surfing a a charity event.  Lesson learned:   Use your own pictures and make sure they are directly related to the content topic.

3.  Engagement is still happening.  Since I don't have an actual business and I'm not calling prospects to action with an actual email offer or discount, I'm encouraged to see I'm still getting engagement - mostly likes and comments.  This tells me I need to keep updating my content regularly, as ongoing likes and other engagement activities will help my SEO results.  Lesson learned:    Keep issuing content, and include links to other topic leaders on Facebook to improve comments, likes and shares.

N.

Google Analytics - Tools for Manvolution

Looking at google analytics, I kept having to pull my jaw off the desk.  There are sooo many tools, all of them valuable.  The achilles heel of marketing - measuring effectiveness - has been been healed.  Or at least a cure has been found for those who want  the medicine.  Simply put, google has an impressive array of tools, neatly categorized and easily explained.  

My business is currently just an idea, with only a facebook page to drive people to.  As such, some of the google analytics like Bounce Rate would not apply - since I only have a one-page facebook page.  Same for goal conversion.  At this stage, I'm not prompting for any call to action from my customers - the site is theoretical only.  However, if I were to capitalize on google analytics, I would focus on the following three tools:

1.  Traffic Sources.  This tool tells you where your customers came from.  Did they come from an organic SEO search, a social media site, or from a paid advertisement?  Traffic sources helps you find out what path your customers took to get to your site.  This is invaluable, as it let's you know where your customers are, thereby making it easy to focus your content efforts and  advertising vehicles toward the right vehicles.

2.  Campaign Measurement.  Hard to believe that google gives you these tools for free!  Campaign measurement compares your different campaign messages, such as two different google ad words campaigns, so you can measure which one is more effective.  This helps you define what keywords, what offers, what messages, resonate most with your customers and drive traffic to your site, or goal conversions depending on what your goal is.  

3.  Search Engine Optimization.  What keywords are customers using in their search to get to your site?  This helps you refine your keyword strategy, which can help drive your content development.

That's the tip of the iceberg.  As with most social media options, there is no shortage of options.  The key is maintaining focus among all the choices, so you can have a clear idea of what is working and what is not. Thank you google analytics for giving us some excellent tools to improve our social media efforts!

Coupon Offers for 'Manvolution'

My coupon offer will be an email bait offer, meaning in exchange for receiving the prospect's email address, I will give them some free content.  I don't want to water-down my prestige price point by discounting my services.  My coupon offers (email bait) will be along these lines:

Email Bait Offer:

"Add yourself to our member list and you'll receive my complete menu, recipes and shopping list for a healthy and Tasty Holiday dinner".  Simply click on our newsletter link and input your email so I can send out these mind-blowing healthy and tasty holiday recipes".

Referral Offer:

"Buddy Up Discount.  Know some other guys that want to lose weight and get fit? Pull together a foursome and you'll all receive 20% off my 12 week program, and you'll have some built in training and accountability partners :-)"

N.

Four Additional Social Media Tools

No doubt, there is a smorgasbord of social media tools out there for small businesses.  I feel like social media has really democratized the entrepreneurial field.  With a bit of internet savvy, now almost anyone can launch a business.

In reviewing the additional tools, two stood out as additional vehicles appropriate to promote 'Manvolution'. I know this assignment asked for four, but with some many SM options available, I feel like focused efforts on specific platforms will yield me better results versus a shotgun approach.  To that effect, I will explain why I didn't pick some of the SM options, and then explain how I will incorporate the ones that I did select.

Not Ready for prime time...

Groupon.  The deep discounting requirements of Groupon would water down my perceived value.  If I start off with Groupon offers, I've already discounted the reference price for my service to a level that inhibits my ability to execute a premium-priced service.  I also feel like Groupon works best for retail locations that are looking to drive off-peak business traffic.  No go on Groupon.  Same approach for Living Social.  I don't want to start off my business with discounting. 

LinkedIn.  Granted, there are personal trainers (about 1,000) and individual nutritionists (about 7) on LinkedIn.  But I don't feel this is where my customer is going to find a personal trainer/nutritionist.  People come to LinkedIn to find business-related contacts.  Personal Training and Fitness is outside of the business sphere, as it is a personal service an individual chooses for themselves - like cosmetic laser surgery or even plastic surgery.  

There are some fitness / nutrition groups I could join on LinkedIn, but I feel like the better places to connect are the industry-recognized organizations such as the American Council on Exercise and the Center for Integrative Health.  No go on LinkedIn.

 

Add to the Mix...

Yelp.  Let's face it, any savvy shopper of services is going to check them out on Yelp before purchase.  Having a presence on yelp is more of a mandate than an option.  If you are a service-oriented business, there is nothing to keep customers from reviewing your business.  Restaurants, haircuts, spas...all are on yelp and all of them know the importance of maintaining high review standings on yelp.  Being in the service business (personal training / nutrition), my standing on yelp matters.  The quality and objectivity of yelp reviews (being that they are self-reported) can be disputed.  I would likely test some advertising on Yelp as advertisers seem to fare better on yelp review scores.  I could also further integrate Yelp into my social media strategy by encouraging customers to post positive reviews of my business - perhaps by offering a free swag item such as a branded water bottle.  

Google Plus (Circles).  Google Circles is a great tool that can assist me with creating an online community of support for my clients.  Using Google Circles, I could add value to my personal training services by offering weekly call ins where clients call in, perhaps doing a weigh in, and then fielding a Q&A forum on that week's call-in topic (ex:  how to eat healthy while dining out or traveling).  Limiting the google circle forums to 15 minutes would enable me to rotate more customers through (10 max each forum).  In an hour, I could conduct four forums and connect with 40 clients.

Regarding google maps - right now my business is home-based and operating out of a PO box.  I don't want to placeholder a location that is not a physical business.  And I don't want to use my personal home address for privacy reasons.  So for now, no google maps location.

##

N. 

Using Social Media without spending A dime!

Here's some quick tips on how you can use social media without spending a dime!

• Instagram:  Free to post
• Facebook:  Also free to post.  You can engage when people comment
• Twitter:  You can post, retweet and send direct messages
• YouTube:  You can post videos for free

I think the key is to get the customer acquisition where they step off the social media site and interact with you directly.  Capturing the prospect's email ensures a direct link to the customer and removes the reliance on the third-party SM Network to interact with the prospect.  N

Social Media Ads I responded to

Here are the SM ads I responded to:

Jessica Ipina
Gracie Morgan
Becky Beamer:

Nathan Scharff

1 second ago  -  Shared publicly

 

Great visuals!  Well written.  I do think this blog post might be a bit too long for an advertising piece.  But then again, I'm no expert.  Maybe a tighter target audience to start would help you focus your message further.  What type of business vs. final consumer demographics are your target?

Nathan Scharff said...

Jessica, perhaps for the holidays you could have an add on green ways to do Holiday Lighting around the home. Sponsored ads with the right keywords could be effective here. N

1 comment:

1. 
   Nathan ScharffNovember 14, 2013 at 6:27 PM

   Hi Becky. I think there's a niche for small business owners who are not social media savvy. I think FB likes are a good start. The trick is going beyond likes and getting the prospect's email so you can market to them directly. Maybe some email bait like a free marketing tip for their small business if they give you their email....

   ReplyDelete

Week 11 Likeable Social Media

Playing around with Facebook was a fun exercise.  I've seen my fiance have great success with Facebook advertising as a way to generate attendees to her special events (health and nutrition training seminars).

For my business idea (Manvolution), I'm going to focus on Facebook.  Their ability to segment and target your customer is unmatched by other SMN's.  To that effect, I created two sample ads, which are posted further below in this post.

Reasoning:  My target is family men ages 45+ who want to regain their mojo, lose some weight, and feel vibrant again.  Since I am in the personal health coach business, I will be targeting my immediate area (Encinitas).  The zip code I will pull from is 92024.  I will only target MEN, ages 45+, with families.  I will pull activities and interests that signal they have children (YMCA members or friends of local school facebook pages).

Timing:  My ads will focus on healthy eating during the holidays.  Ad one will offer a "Free Pantry Raid", where I will make a personal visit to the client's home to educate them on healthy shopping and meal planning.  Ad two will be email bait to capture the prospect's email.  This ad will offer a free guide on how to eat healthy during the holidays.

Budget:  I will spend $10 a day for 2 week periods - testing each ad offer to see which has a higher response rate.

Note:  My ads are simple - I didn't want to 'publish' my ads to my site so I have attached screen shots of the general concept.

Effectiveness:  I think these ads will be effective because they are hitting at the right time - the holidays.  I'm promoting offers that are compelling to my target during this holiday period.  My goal is to get either direct face time with potential customers, or their email so I can market to them directly.  These two ads pursue that goal.  Running each ad for two weeks and comparing which offer type is more effective will help me refine my advertising strategy as I go forward.  Limiting my budget to $10 a day for a two week window ensures I don't run over budget too quickly.

N.

Blogs I've Commented On (Week 10)

Fisher, Dee Marie

Webster, Mella

Spector, Alexandria

Hear Ye, Hear Ye! News, News, Newsletters!

I really enjoyed reading this lecture on email marketing / newsletters, and I see many applications for my 'Manvolution' business idea. I have some familiarity with Constant Contact as an email management tool, and I'm looking forward to experimenting with it.

I think email marketing is particularly important in the online marketing toolbox of strategies.  The simple fact is, until you have a prospect's email, you don't have a direct link to them.  All the social media 'likes' and 'followers' are through a third-party SMN site. Until you have that prospect's email, you can't communicate with them directly.

My email strategies will focus on Sales Generating and Relationship Building.  Frankly, I'm unconvinced about the power of a newsletter.  I've never read one and find them too voluminous for computer reading. But I'm open to learning!

To address the assignment questions, the specifics regarding my newsletter for Manvolution are as follows:

Information:
My content areas will follow the content platforms I outlined in my blog strategy:

• Nutrition
• Relationships
• Exercise
• Attitude
• Stress Reduction
• Local activities/events (San Diego market only)

Frequency:

Monthly distribution feels right.  That is a realistic frequency that I can execute.  Too often, and my subscribers will tune out.

Content Ideas:

See the list above under 'information'.

Good Blog Sites to Emulate for My Business (Manvolution)

After doing some research, I found the following blog sites to be good benchmarks to follow. All of them are in the health/wellness/fitness category.  Key components of their success include:

Personality.  The personality of the blogger is front and center
Pictures.  The blogger uses their own photography  instead of stock photos
Content.  The content matches and in fact expands their personality.  Fun, punchy copy and catchy headlines abound.

I want to follow these benchmark blog examples with my blog posts.

http://kriscarr.com/blog/

http://www.sarachristensen.com/

http://www.sproutedkitchen.com/

http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/

http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/

Blog Categories

Considering the proper blog categories for my Manvolution Blog (I've renamed my Nate Scharff blog to Manvolution to better align with my business identity), I came up with the following categories that will fit my business:

1.  Nutrition posts.                                                                                                                                     

This is one of the pillars of the Manvolution product offering.  Nutrition posts will include:

• How to shop healthy.  
• How to eat out healthy
• How to cook healthy
• Alternate solutions for cravings

These posts will help my business grow by providing opportunities for affiliate marketing and cross promotional links with restaurants, grocery stores, and food products that align with this category.  

2.  Motivational posts.                                                                                                                       

Another pillar of the Manvolution product offering.  

These posts are targeted strictly at my core customer, mature men 45+ who are looking to get back in shape and fix their nagging health problems through a holistic, diet and exercise approach.  Motivational posts will include topics such as:

• Learning how to cultivate a positive attitude
• Developing discipline
• How to let go of negative emotions
• Improving time management skills
• Building Patience

These posts will help my business grow by using keyword strategies to link these keywords to my articles, so that potential customers that are searching on these topics will be directed to my blog, and to my business.  

3.  Stress-Reduction posts.  A third pillar of the Manvolution product offering.  Similar to the nutrition post category, I will be using this post category to cross-promote with businesses and services that align in this category.  Additionally, I will have my own individualized post content . Topics would include:

• Getting a good night's sleep
• Meditation - how to do it
• Yoga - why it helps
• Anger management techniques
• Eliminating caffeine and other stimulants from your diet

4.  Relationships / Life Balance. posts. The fourth pillar of the Manvolution product offering.  I will again be cross promoting with leading authors and content providers in these areas.  This will be an SMN rich category.  A sample of appropriate authors would include:

• Wayne Dryer
• Tony Robbins
• Deepak Chophra

I will also have my own individualized post content.

Personality and My Blog

As the lecture advised, the level of your personality that you should let come out in your blog depends on your business, your customer, and the desired identity of your brand.

WHERE IT IS APPROPRIATE FOR MY PERSONALITY TO BE INCLUDED IN MY BLOG:

For my business (Manvolution), I am in the personal training and motivation business.  As such, my personality is a big component of the business identity.  My personal stories, particularly when speaking about my own health challenges and the rigors of disciplined exercise while working and raising a family, make me human, make me accessible, and adds to my credibility.

Since my target audience is men over 45, they don't want to hear about fitness from a twenty-something who  doesn't have family obligations, hasn't had any health challenges, and simply hasn't had as many miles on the road of life as someone my age. As such, I see several content areas where I can add in my  personal stories that my target will relate to.

• Balancing family, work and exercise commitments (I am the sole income generator in my family)
• Eating healthy with kids in the home (I have two boys 11 and 14)
• Surviving health challenges (I'm a cancer survivor)
• Motivation and language (I use language specific to men, including an occasional F-Bomb)

Alll of these content areas will not only relate my personal experiences, but I will attempt to use personal photography throughout to further drive the credibility piece.  Clients will see pictures of me heading to yoga at 5:30 in the morning, looking groggy.  Not all my photography will be glamorous selfies of me.  They will see the behind the scenes work involved with balancing work, life and health.  As advised in the lecture, making sure these picture files are appropriately named is a great strategy.

With marketing, you cannot be all things to all people.  With my personal training business, it's better for me to let my personality show in my blogs, since ultimately it is my personality that my target is hiring.  Anyone can eat right and exercise on their own.  They want a fitness buddy, someone who is going to kick them in the ass and motivate them to achieve their goals.   A ripped and narcissistic fitness model is only going to alienate these men.  They want a real dude.

WHERE IT IS NOT APPROPRIATE FOR MY PERSONALITY TO BE INCLUDED (IN FULL STRENGTH):

My blog content will be personality rich.  But if I am approaching corporate clients, I will be more conservative in my presentation to them.  The same goes if I am providing editorial content to publications serving my target.  No F-Bombs, and more information rich in content.

Twitter Followers

My twitter following strategy was similar to my facebook 'likes.  I wante,d people who are leaders in the holistic health category.  I started by searching 'men's health', but that was too generic.  Then I searched 'nutrition'.  Still too generic. Then I searched 'vegetarian', and got some ideas, but these were magazines.  I wanted actual people.

So I ended up going back to my facebook likes, and mining for names that lined up with these categories.  I found several robust health and nutrition 'celebs'.  David Wolfe, Dr. Mercola, Andrew Weil.  It was important for me to get credible men who were advocates for healthy diet, and not just muscle heads who were focused on workouts and protien.

Finding the categories that work (for example the Institute for Integrative Health lines up with my philosophy and has excellent content), and then letting twitter provide other suggestions based on those categories was helpful for finding popular individual tweeters to follow.

Nate.

Competitor's Social Media Activities - A Performance Review

I picked two local competitors to review - one being a personal trainer and the other a personal nutritionist.  Following is my review of the effectiveness of each business' SMN strategy:

Chris Keith - personal trainer in San Diego:

http://sdpersonaltrainer.com/

• Facebook:  1,055 likes
• Twitter:  No activity
• YouTube:  30 video clips; each with approximately 100 views
• Google+:  About half a dozen reviews - all positive
• Yelp:  Link doesn't work, but yelp reviews are all positive

Chris seems to have good cross-representation on the social media sites.  When googling 'personal trainers san diego', Chris comes up FIRST on the google page rank, without a paid sponsorship listing.  Chris's site is not high on actual content updates, other than the Youtube videos (which were posted awhile back).    

Based on Chris' google page rank, his facebook followers, and his positive yelp reviews, I would give him high scores on SMN results.  He appears to deliver as promised, and will be a good competitor to follow and emulate.

Sweet Beet Nutrition - San Diego based Personal Nutrition:

http://www.sweetbeetnutrition.com/

This personal nutritionist ( Amy Carson) focuses on special-needs based diets, such as gluten free and other dietary restrictions.  Her SMN lineup is as follows:

• Facebook:  193 likes 
• Twitter:  29  followers
• LinkedIn:  Informational only

Sweet Beet's results are not as robuts, and Amy's site ranks SIXTH on the google page rank.  However, the other sites are nutritionist centers, and Amy's site is the only real individual nutritionist that ranks in the top ten. 

In summary I think facebook is a required cost of entry SMN site for a business, as virtually every business I explore has a facebook page.  Additionally, for my business (Manvolution), I think Youtube would be a good site to add video training content. 

Visual Networks: A Comparison of the Big Four

What I found interesting while comparing these visual networks is the data about men versus women.  Men are more likely to watch videos, and women are more likely to look at static videos.  I personally have not found that to be true with the women in my life - all tech users, but for the sake of my business (Manvolution), I'm going to assume this data is still true.

Following is a quick comparison of each visual network, and then my recommendation as to which of the four would be best for my business (Manvolution).

Youtube:
Many companies are using youtube business channels to get additional exposure for their commericals (apple) or to provide product training and product ideas (apple, bed bath and beyond).  Being under the google 'brand', youtube's stability as a social media network is guaranteed.  Also, their user-base is very strong.  Men are more video oriented, so for my male-oriented business, this would be a good social media network (SMN) for me to consider

Instagram:
Instagram started primarily as a cell-phone photo app, and has expanded to be a photo-sharing site competing with other visually based SMN's.  Primirily user content (photos).  This could be a good site to augment my business content with on-the-go video posts related to the healthy lifestyle, with pictures of activities, food products, and restaurants.


Tumblr:
Tumblr is another blog site.  I would probably hold off using this site until some clear category leaders come forth in the blog arena.  There are so many choices here, and there is much crossover with most SMN's offering some type of blog platform (ex:  Facebook scheduled posts can function as a blog).

Pinterest:
Pinterest has been the fastest -growing media site.  Setup as a virtual online scrapbook and clipboard site, it is completely visual and the majority of the users are female.  Because so few men, particularly the mature health-focus males that I am focused on, are using this site, I would likely not use it as an active component of my SMN  strategy.  I would, however, have a pinterest page to improve my SEO.  For pinterest I would pin pictures of me exercising and healthy meal options, with the hopes of re-pins improving my SEO.  I don't expect to have male customers come in directly from pinterest pins.

Which one for Manvolution?

Of these choices, my top choice would be Youtube.  Men are more video-oriented, and Youtube allows me to post short exercise and cooking clips that can be used as a call to action to acquire email addresses of potential users.  I would use free Youtube videos as bait for addresses, and then market to those respondents.  Because Youtube links to facebook, this is a good SMN to work with.  Since I don't have a webpage yet and am focusing on my facebook page to drive business, Youtube makes sense. 

My second SMN that I would use would be Instagram, simply because it is such an easy and powerful tool to keep my content, particularly video content, relevant. 

Facebook Scheduled Posts

This is my first of three scheduled posts for 'Manvolution'.   My audience is men ages 45+ with household income of 75K plus, who are feeling burned out and want to improve their health and mental vitality.

This post is about how commtting to an upcoming 'fitness event' can motive one to exercise.  This post is engaging to my target because they KNOW how to exercise, but need new ideas on how to get MOTIVATED to exercise.  This posts will distribute on October 20 at 8 am.