How to Use Blog Lists for Your Social Media Strategy
My recent post 52 Cool Facts About Social Media seems to have been a bit popular.
Hopefully it helped show some of the reasons why social media is a platform that all businesses should take seriously, and at the very least investigate whether they should be active or not.
One of the things I saw as a result of the post were a few emails that said, “Great stats, but how would you use information like that for your business?”
Now, it’d be tempting to say, “Easy – hire my company!” but instead here are a few ways on how you could use a stat from each platform.
- Stat: The average Facebook user is connected to 60 Pages, Groups and Events.
- Strategy: It’s clear that Facebook Pages or Groups offer a great opportunity for your business, either by having one or targeting those where you could both benefit. So build a Page and then offer a clear call-to-action on why folks should connect with your page.
Or use Facebook Search to find Groups or Events that your business can help, and get to know the folks involved. Can you sponsor an event and give special offers to attendees? Can you offer your expertise to groups that have questions about your industry, and then offer free or discounted samples/reports/service to Group members?
Think of what you can offer to receive.
- Stat: Over 60% of Twitter use is outside of the U.S.
- Strategy: Where are your customers from? Have you carried out an audit recently to see where your main market is today? If it’s outside the U.S., how are you using Twitter to be more specific to that audience?
Consider hiring a multi-lingual team to connect in the native language of your audience on Twitter. Look at cultural holidays in these countries and see if you can offer a promotion that ties in with it. Have dedicated landing pages on your website for your different audience, and tweet direct links to it in the language needed. Once there, have a call-to-action purely for that nationality.
- Stat: Recruiters account for 1-in-20 LinkedIn profiles.
- Strategy: How does your business recruit? Does HR use an outside agency or is it via newspaper ads? What’s the cost involved here? Think of how much you’re spending on recruitment and then check on the recruiters that are on LinkedIn.
Taking away heavy ad costs or agency costs when you can utilize a recruiter connection (paid, of course) could save you tons in the long run.
They’re also better-suited to your recruitment needs as they’re monitoring folks themselves on LinkedIn, saving you potential employee searches. And the savings made can be re-invested in other parts of your business.
YouTube
- Stat: Over half of YouTube’s users are under 20 years old.
- Strategy: When you consider that could equate to around 1 billion Gen Y views per day, that’s a shitload of potential eyeballs. So why not utilize them? If your business is for Gen Y’s and you’ve got a product to launch, what better way than actually being able to see it and get the lowdown from trusted sources?
Use a social search platform to find who the key Gen Y users are on YouTube and then approach them to see if they’d be interested in taking part. Note the “taking part” description – don’t try and force them to be who they’re not. Keep it honest and real.
Offer a vanity URL that viewers of a particular YouTube channel can click through on to buy the product at a special launch rate. You could then give that YouTube channel owner an extra thank you “reward”, as well as make them part of your trusted promotional team for future launches.
Blogging
- Stat: More than half of all bloggers are married and/or parents.
- Strategy: Ever carried out a blogger outreach program? If not, you might want to start considering it. If you take the stats that there are more than 133 million blogs out there, then it’s more than likely your audience is reading some of them.
If you don’t have a blog yourself (and if not, why not?) then use the existing bloggers in your industry. If you provide diapers, search for the parent bloggers and offer free samples to try and give their readers too. Same goes with kiddie toys or books.
Or if you’re in the wedding industry, offer tickets to an upcoming wedding show in a blogger’s city and have the “winners” as guests of honour. All the blogger has to do is write about the experience – you use it to improve for the next show.
There are a ton of things you can do with statistics and information like the 52 cool social media stats list I put together. All you have to do is think how they affect your business.
How about you? How are you using statistics for your social media strategies, and what successes are you seeing?
photo credit: Eric Fischer
photo credit: woodleywonderworks
35 Responses to “How to Use Blog Lists for Your Social Media Strategy”
For sure, Josip, and that’s where the audit would (should) be used to define who you’re going after.
Funny thing about millenials, Twitter (or much of social media, outwith their known networks) doesn’t seem to be a big thing for them at the minute.
http://www.lifewithoutpants.com/social-media/popping-the-social-media-bubble/
So something to keep in mind when thinking of marketing plans.
You’re so very in the money, Danny. I loved the way you interpreted the stats for us – and weaved them into a strategy.
I am convinced that everyone, either as an individual or as a business, will benefit from doing an audit of their social media strategy on 5 parameters – channel selection, demographics, content/message relevancy, effort and leverage.
Each one of their parameters can actually map back into the blog lists you provided, and be an objective mechanism to tag a number to a particular social media strategy.
I am running a more comprehensive post addressing these five parameters on Social Media Notebook today.
Kapil Apshankar recently posted…. Surveys And Their Value- 3 Ways To Gain More Value From Surveys With Social Media
Hey there Kapil,
Just read your post (and commented) – great way to extend the conversation, and love the ideas you put in place for your readers too.
Cheers!
Thanks for the note, Danny.
Social media works best when everyone contributes thoughts, feelings and ideas to melting pot with all their passion!
Kapil Apshankar recently posted…. The Shyness Factor In Social Media – 5 Ways To Jump In And Thrive
Hi Danny
Great follow up post. Stats without insight are useless and your insight is pretty awesome!
I was on a conference call the other day where a guy introduced his spiel by quoting stats from the YouTube vid “Social Media Revolution” – (which is now slightly out of date) but then he never put those stats into context or used them to illustrate the power of social media, they were merely stats and the call was all down hill from there! All the data in the world won’t help unless you’re able to put it to use…so thank you for what you’ve done here.
I also love the way you gently introduced your company – I now understand what your post with just the image of a bonsai tree was about. Love the name for you company too – very cool. Please do keep us informed on any milestones you have in growing Bonsai Interactive.
Sam Schuurman recently posted…. All The Resource You Need To Start A Pimping Business Facebook PageThat guys sounds like a superstar in the making, mate – sign him up!
It’s funny – I see a lot of blogs that share some great info on the surface, yet don’t really dig down into the undersoil. Fine if you want to keep that all for paying clients – but how will they ever know if you can follow through on the easy stuff?
Oh yeah – they use soundbites from YouTube videos to impress…
Danny,
This post is a goldmine! Thanks for providing such practical tips for marketers.
JenAgree. This post might as well be titled “Social Media Profile Goldmine”.
As someone who is new to social media, I found this post and also the 52 cool facts article immensely helpful! Thanks a lot!
This is exactly why creativity is the single most competitive edge. It’s creativity that allows one to look at Stats and figure out how to use them for their business, how to use Facebook status updates to increase their retention, and use video to sell blenders.
Business owners need to develop the ability to interpret stats – as you have – or they should just hire you.
John Haydon recently posted…. How to promote your new Facebook Page with emailAgreed, mate. Staying up-to-date with your competitors is all well and good – but wouldn’t it be nicer to be the one your competitors are staying up-to-date with?
And agree – they should just hire me…
“wouldn’t it be nicer to be the one your competitors are staying up-to-date with?”
Sure, but then one would need to become a Danny Brown for that to happen!
“And agree – they should just hire me…”
Tell me your rates mate.
Ha, not sure anyone would want to “become me”, bud – unless they’re keen on haggis and speaking slowly so folks can understand you
Awesome post with practical applications!
Much appreciation!
Respectfully,
Paul Castain
Paul Castain recently posted…. Jumpstarting The Performance Culture-Another great post with great advice my friend.
Cheers,
Sheldon, community manager for Sysomos
Your willingness to continue to share clearly communicates that if hired, your company will not be the type to nickel and dime its customers through the process.
Besides, what you have shared here is only the spirit of how to apply these stats to your company’s social media strategy. When the rubber hits the pavement, it can be difficult to figure out how these stats relate to your business and how to make the smartest decisions based on those relationships.
In fact, you have just encouraged people to give it a try, only for some to realize how much they really do need you. If they are savvy enough to do it on their own, you have just created a follower who will come back more grateful than ever. Sounds like a win for everybody!
Jeremie Brecheisen recently posted…. Lost Opportunities in ChinaHey there Jeremie,
Thanks, sir. I think there’s room for everyone to open up some of their practices, don’t you?
Hey Danny, loved the way you interpreted the statistics..and that is some SOLID advice! Will definitely keep that in mind.
Thank you!
Sanchita recently posted…. West through my eyes-You mentioned,
“Or use Facebook Search to find Groups or Events that your business can help.”
I don’t think I know how to do that. Do I?
@PaulaLeeBright If you use the search option on Facebook, and filter the keywords you’re interested in, it’ll bring back the results you need, Paula.
Then it’s “just” a matter of introducing yourself and seeing how you can help. Which then can lead to new customers or leads.
“More than half of all bloggers are married and/or parents”
Interesting stat, but I am not either.
Guess I am in the minority group, LOL. 
Great stuff Danny! But I would add one more thing to everything above. And that is the strategy used to address generational differences, since the majority of the younger generations already live online (96% of Millennials are connected to social media) but the fast growing segment is 50 and above. Everything seems to involve a combination of the “old” with the “new” in more senses than one.
Josip Petrusa recently posted…. The Influence Project- A Social Media Experiment