The other night, my friend Jonathan Senger and I got to talking about who we connect with, on what platforms, and what our general rules are for connecting on social media tools (we both agree that we do not connect with “just anybody” on Facebook, as that is primarily for personal use).  He told me about a recent situation whereby he wanted to contact a person that was connected to one of his direct contacts on LinkedIn. When asked, Jonathan’s direct contact replied that he did not know that person very well and felt uncomfortable, if not inadequate, about making the introduction.  Jonathan solidified a dormant belief I’ve had about LinkedIn when he said that participating in LinkedIn that way completely defeats it’s purpose.  Connections with vague or very casual acquaintances for the mere sake of having “big numbers” means that nobody will have trusted relationships.

I Want My LinkedIn Connections to Know That They Are Trusted and Can Count on Any of My Other Connections

In the past I accepted, and even sought, connection requests from pretty much anybody on LinkedIn.  My thought was “what can it hurt to be connected with tons of people?” And luckily my LinkedIn participation had been cold until recently, and I did not concentrate on building connections as much as I did with my Twitter following, (281 on LinkedIn as of this post, versus 36,000 on Twitter).  Nonetheless, I have begun cleaning up my connections by removing people I don’t know very well or that I wouldn’t be absolutely comfortable with in a referral situation.

Use LinkedIn the way it should be used and the trust factor will be restored for all of us.

Pluggio, one of the tools that we utilize for social media, has a “friend suggestions” feature that will provide potential people to follow based on keywords, location, etc.  I noticed today as I was perusing my suggestions that there are an awful lot of “consultants,” and “social media enthusiasts” marketing themselves on Twitter.  Honestly, it’s a bit overbearing to see just how many people there are in the same markets as Smeester & Associates.

I got to thinking… One of Seth Godin’s books, Purple Cow, explores the analogy to being on a road trip and seeing countless cows, but if you were to see a purple cow you would probably stop and take a picture.  Today it is so very clear to me what being a purple cow means.

Regardless of what your business is, there is somebody else out there offering something similar and/or competitive.  So how do we combat this?  The answer is very simply in being authentic and unique.  No matter how special we are, it is important to constantly revisit the concept of being that purple cow and standing out from our peers and competitors.  The most successful businesses and business people are usually ‘crushing it’ by embracing their niche and working hard to articulate the invaluable traits that make them and their products so unique from the rest.

Many people might be intimidated, sad, or disheartened when faced with the realization of how much competition there really is out there.  But, true success will follow those that take the revelation and use that to focus, energize, and drive their professional position.  The most important thing to remember is sticking with your goals and dreams; good things will come to those that work hard and maintain persistence.

Smeester & Associates helps businesses rediscover what makes them professionally purple. Contact us for more information.

NOTE:  I reference Brad Gosse‘s blog post “Could Facebook end Google’s search monopoly?”

Almost 200% increase in conversion rate.

While working with one of our clients, Planet Urine, we have been experimenting with new landing pages and have exceeded expectations with some of the endeavors.  Below are BEFORE and AFTER screenshots from a landing page they use to encourage dialogue from a prospective buyer (always good).  The original landing page (BEFORE) yielded a 9.2% click to lead conversion rate, while the remodeled (AFTER) page has a 17.6% click to lead conversion rate.  What is your opinion? Why do you think that the AFTER page is doing so much better?

BEFORE

AFTER

Any ideas that you have would be incredibly useful as to why some practices work better than others.  Looking forward to your comments to help us continue to refine our services and products.

After a Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce group meeting today, Scott and I spotted a Wahoo’s Fish Taco restaurant right by where we had parked.  We added a few quarters to the meter and I offered to treat my good friend to a little piece of flavor heaven.  We ordered our tacos (also had a charming short conversation with the cash register operator), and waited for them to be brought to our table.  As we sat down I immediately noticed the displayed information standing in the center of the table, it read “FREE STUFF FOR FACEBOOK FANS.”

As soon as we got back to the office I looked them up on Facebook; I was happy with what I found.  I thought to myself, this company is really “getting it”. The Facebook fan page had exclusive offers (out of day mother’s day coupon), Colorado locations, menus, summer food suggestions, catering information, and more!

Businesses that use social media can take a page out of Wahoo’s Fish Tacos’ book when it comes to Facebook.  Sure, I would like to see some more social media (they could benefit from YouTube like their parent site), but all-in-all they are positioning themselves well to start crushing it even more.  Above all they seem to realize the how-to and the why of leveraging social media right now.  Good work!

Smeester & Associates offers professional solutions for businesses to engage in using and leveraging social media. Contact us for more information about understanding social media and how it can benefit your business.

The DM (Direct Message)

Direct Messaging is just what the title implies; it is a private message between users only viewable between the sender and receiver.  DMs are increasingly worthless due to automated responses from users to their following.  Unfortunately many DMs are lost as their intended target may get hundreds of self-promoting plug messages each day.

The RT (ReTweet)

ReTweeting is an opportunity for users to promote good content from another Twitter user to one’s own following.  The RT is a prime example of how social media is GOOD for business, and allows word of mouth advertising to shoot through the roof.  Now, this does not mean that users should continuously shout their promotional plugs into the either and hope that somebody RTs; rather it’s a way to support remarkable content – if your content is remarkable… inevitably it should catch on.

The @Response

With countless users engaging in “auto-responding” DMs, the @response is the new form of direct Twitter communication.  One can @respond somebody by simply typing @[username] and then the message – for example tweeting: “@garyvee you rock and I loved your book!”  @Responses are public, and this should be taken into consideration when communicating through them, which means your following will be able to see with whom you are interacting and how those interactions take place.

The # (Hash Tag)

Hash tags are used to promote a public conversation; if several people are discussing the same topic and users want to follow a specific topic rather than individual users, then hash tags are the way to go.  To start a conversation or get involved users must simply include #[onewordsubject] – for example “#oilspill” is a common topic for May, 2010 – my thoughts on the topic will be promoted in the existing discussion stream with a tweet like this: “Ugh… I wish we could do more about the #oilspill in the Gulf right now.”

The #FF (Follow Friday)

Somewhere along the Twitter historical time-line, somebody start using Fridays as an opportunity to promote other users to their following.  It is not mandatory, but seems to be reasonable etiquette.  Users can effectively do this by personalizing the tweet as something like, “Hope everybody has a great #FF!  Check out @garyvee, @chrisbrogan, @scottsmeester  and @thesullybear they are helpful”

Smeester & Associates knows that deciphering social media can be an issue; we offer solutions to help manage your social media while educating and empowering you to do it yourself.

One half of the equation is how much content you pour into the stream, the other is how deep it goes.

Don’t Let Conversations Die

Too often I’ve allowed the depth of a Facebook or Twitter conversation thread to go only one level deep.  I love it when a thread gets active and two different people in my life converse in some way.  In the Facebook thread below, it turned into a conversation about whether or not there are Field Day’s in other states (comment below if your state has or hasn’t).  Just one more comment can keep the thread going, and shouldn’t we foster and grow relationships we already have?

Continue Conversations by Adding to Them

Online businesses can be a beast, especially when EVERYONE is doing it.  There are hundreds of differing opinions about “the best” way to increase your conversion rates and sell more products online.

It appears that most businesses would agree that either directing traffic to a strong landing page with adequate calls to action, or getting potential clients into an email funnel with free products are the two most effective ways complete the conversion process.  What makes a good landing page?  With so many auto-responder emails out there, is your business throwing money at automated emails that just get deleted?

Other professionals might argue that developing credibility online through various media is the best (though more time consuming) approach to making more sales.  So many people are using social media incorrectly, and filtering through all of the available information is becoming more and more difficult.

Ultimately, all of these methods have been proven to work for businesses, and there are numbers to support their success.  Every business is different, and different approaches work better for different products, services, price points, etc. With so much good information out there, we want to simply know what works for you and why.

Today, we are presenting you with a question: What do you believe is the very best way to convert your digital following into sales?

What to Understand About the CEO’s Business from Scott Smeester on Vimeo.