Going Social

Four Rules for Winning in Social Media

Editor’s Note: I heard Larry Bailin, author of Mommy, Where Do Customers Come From? speak on “Using social media to drive traffic to your blog” at BlogWorld Expo in Vegas a few weeks ago. I was impressed and asked him to pen a piece about how online advertisers can help build relationships with their customers and supplement their Yahoo! Search Marketing campaigns using social media—not just blogs, but sites and tools like MyBlogLog, Flickr, del.icio.us, MySpace, Facebook and so forth. He outdid himself, and came up with four immutable rules of relationship-building that apply even beyond media.

Being from New Jersey, it’s hard for me to associate the term “traffic” with anything positive. In fact, the word “traffic” sends the wrong message and is counterproductive to the thought process needed to succeed in social media.

If you are to truly succeed in the competitive social media landscape, you need to remove “driving traffic” from the top of your goals list and replace it with “driving customers.” In short, you need to stop measuring visits, and start measuring victories.

Offline business rules have always applied in the online space. It would be a safe bet that the social rules we all grew up with—the ones our loving parents (hopefully) drilled into our heads—would also apply when used in online social situations.

Social Rule No. 1: Choose Your Friends Wisely
It seems that building a large number of friends is the goal for most online socialites. The more friends you have the more popular you are. In an offline situation, a good example of this is high school. The less popular, nerdy types only had a few friends who happened to be other less-popular nerdy types with similar goals and interests.

By grouping together, sharing ideas and staying hyper-focused, this social solidarity seemed to always achieve levels of success later in life that most of us could only dream of (Bill Gates, for example).

The Take-Away: No, the first rule of social media is not “Don’t talk about social media.” Quite the opposite, in fact. But you will want to be picky about who you talk to and what to talk about. A smaller group of like-minded individuals allows you to spread your message through a more targeted audience. Large groups of broad targets and views will muddy the waters and stop you from achieving the results needed to succeed.

Social Rule No. 2: Remember the Golden Rule
“You get what you give” is a rule that has stood the test of time. You cannot expect people to do for you unless you do for them. If you are to make a mark on the social scene, you first have to do for others. You need to participate, comment, visit and support others if you expect them to do the same in return.

The Take-Away: By participating, you become part of the community. People start to recognize you and appreciate your efforts. These efforts will not go unrewarded. I started my blog [ConnectedCustomers.net] eight months ago. I spent the first six months visiting other blogs in the marketing category and commenting on them. I added some to my blog-roll and even sent personal messages to a few that I really liked. The result was that others responded in kind. Within eight months I developed a following of more than 15,000 readers.

Social Rule No. 3: If You Have Nothing Nice to Say, Don’t Say Anything at All.
This one is simple. Bashing and negativity runs rampant through the social scene. I’m not talking about negative comments—if you don’t agree with something, you should post your opinion.

Bashing someone is something totally different. If you are nasty or tend to post inappropriate negative comments all the time, it won’t be long before a community labels you a jackass and no one will take you seriously. Obviously, this is counter productive to your goals.

The Take-Away: Take the time to think through your comments and actions. Try to give constructive criticism as opposed to a negative view. Choose your words wisely, and it will showcase your expertise as opposed to your dark side.

Social Rule No. 4: If You Keep Doing that, You’ll Go Blind.
Whether it is a website, blog or MySpace page, put your users’ interests first. Lots of renegade code, widgets and advertisements will not only slow down your site, but may even crash a browser or two. Take the time to think about how every element will be seen and reacted to by your potential customer (which is what a visitor is). Will it have a positive or negative impact, and does it enhance or detract from your message?

The Take-Away: Take the visitor experience very seriously, because this is where the rubber meets the road. Make things that you want viewed easy to access. When a site is cumbersome to use, people will stop using it and they will become blind to your existence.

Wrap-Up
Following these rules can help you achieve higher levels of success and create your own personal set of rules to socialize by. But remember: Social media is a two-way street, and the oncoming traffic can either help you or kill you. The choice is yours.

—Larry Bailin, CEO, Single Throw and author of Mommy, Where Do Customers Come From?

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9 Comments Add your own

1. Internet Marketing Book B&hellip | December 14th, 2007 at 5:22 am

[...] Written by Larry Bailin. Bestselling author of the marketing book, Mommy, Where Do Customers Come From? ® Writen for Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog [...]
2. DVD mania | December 14th, 2007 at 11:55 am

Heres a question about Social Rule No. 2: Remember the Golden Rule.

I don’t know if this is way beyond the pale but lets say you comment on hundreds, if not thousands of blogs relevent to your niche (in this case marketing)a , the only real way the readers will get to know about your blog is either in a signature or a direct link in your comment. So even taking into account your comments being relevant, when does this move from being an interested reader on multiple blogs to a mass comment spam / backlinking technique?
3. Larry Bailin | December 14th, 2007 at 2:16 pm

DVD Mania
Great question. First off you cannot effectively create awareness in thousands of Blogs. This is a Spammer play and my feeling is that it would not be effective. Choose the best areas to focus on. Find the top Blogs that have the best content and highest visibility in the space you are in.

Make a stand in those Blogs, become the, “Norm” (cheers reference) to those readers. As they start to see your name more frequently, read and relate to your comments they will start to hold you in higher regard. This will develop into the equivalent of customer evangelism as they will visit your site / Blog, link to you and help to spread the word, your word.

You have to remember one critical element, you are not selling your Blog you’re selling yourself. I didn’t promote my Blog I promoted myself, my expertise and the right people found the Blog, the website and the book.

I hope this helped with your concern, if not please let me know.
Best of luck

Larry Bailin
4. Online Marketing Resource&hellip | December 16th, 2007 at 7:52 am

[...] Going Social [Yahoo Search Marketing Blog] [...]
5. Spookilly | December 17th, 2007 at 12:01 pm

I especially like Rule #1. So many people I have come across simply try to add as many “friends” as possible. For what purpose? I always say to keep an eye on the company you keep! The ability to online network seems far more productive when you can share relevant experiences.

BTW: well done on the book! I did try to pick one up at the local Barnes & Noble, but they didn’t have it yet. Will it be in local stores or Amazon only?
6. Larry Bailin | December 17th, 2007 at 12:25 pm

Spookily

Social networking has its roots in traditional business networking and in the offline networking world we are very aware and particular with who we spend our valuable time with.

This staple of successful networking seems to have been forgotten about in the online space. You simply cannot keep up with the activities and doings of a large unqualified group.

In our clickable culture a large group will trample you on their way to the next big thing.

Thanks for the comment and the book is available online and off at most major booksellers (although most people just seem to go to Amazon).

Larry
7. Larry Bailin | December 22nd, 2007 at 2:39 pm

Cheryl, thanks for taking the time to comment and I applaud you for keeping your customers needs first.

You’re right, all my rules are customer focused because in marketing and in business the customer is the key to success. The more you know about your customers wants, needs and issues, the better you can connect with them. I have a saying, “we’ll get smarter as our customers make us smarter”.

My book (Mommy, Where Do Customers Come From?) speaks to the failing customer connection in most marketing (especially on the web). My hope is to change marketer’s mindsets and have them start developing campaigns from the bottom up as opposed to the old top down approach.

I think the design center approach is a great idea! It will be a great compliment to the furniture products site. One will feed the other and I guarantee your customers will appreciate all the effort and advice. Give a little knowledge and you will get much back in return.

Please email contact me as soon as you have the Blog up and running, I’d love to see it.
Have a wonderful New Year.

Larry
8. sachin | December 26th, 2007 at 6:32 am

simply said “What you give is What you get” and believe me that the oncoming traffic most of the helps you and it rarely kills you if you are harmless.
9. Larry Bailin | December 26th, 2007 at 10:48 am

Sachin, you’re right, another social rule is, “you give what you get”.
As far as the traffic goes and it rarely killing you, traffic is often a silent killer.

Your website or Blog is often a first impression. People accessing it for the first time will make an almost instant judgment call about your worth. If they feel you have nothing to share you have just made a negative impression, essentially you said, no” to them. Saying no to people leaves a lasting impression especially when a negative is their first impressions of you. Chances are when they need you they will not come back.

Blind unqualified traffic leads to lots of no’s, lots of no’s leads to lost future opportunity. Lost opportunity is a killer. Make sure you are not attracting the wrong people as it’s bad for both you and them.