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.

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

Onward!

N.