Do you manage a Facebook page for your business? Social media is a free way to stay in contact with your customers. (Most of which probably don’t visit your website very often.)

Facebook provides a great way to get people interacting with your business from a platform they’re already using on a daily basis. There is a method to managing your Facebook business page and we have a few tips that will help build your fan base and elicit interaction on posts.

Post relevant information
Your posts should be industry specific. If you sell computers, an example post could be details on the new Apple iOS 5 operating system. Not all posts need to contain information about your business but they should be applicable.

Poll your audience
Free tools like the “Questions” application allow you to survey people who “like” your page. If the question is a good one people are more likely to contribute and share the question on their own walls for more eyes to see.

Media adds depth
Adding a photo is rather simple and increases the likelihood that people will view your post. If you have several photos from an event or a conference you attended, create an album.

Pat yourself of the back
Use your Facebook page as a PR tool. Tell your fans about accomplishments and customer success stories. Did your business just win an award? Take a picture and put it online for everyone to see. Success instills customer confidence and customer confidence equals more business.

Have a contest
These contests don’t have to be formal. It could be as simple as saying, “the first 10 people to like this post will get a coupon for $5 off their next purchase.” If people know you are prone to offer deals they will be more likely to visit your page without being prompted.

Bonus tip: Try to use proper punctuation and spelling whenever possible. You should also avoid smiley faces and excessive exclamation points. It’s great to be excited but too much schmooze could make you look like a jerk.

5 tips for gaining impressions and interaction on your Facebook page is a post from: RSA Blog

Pissed off ghostwriter

Hiring a ghostwriter can be an attractive approach to social media, if you’re a business owner or marketer with little time on your hands to devote to keeping up with social updates on multiple platforms.

There can be some pitfalls to this approach, however – not the least of which is the perceived in-authenticity of the person who has someone else speak for them.

In the case of Mark Davidson, it would appear this morning that he’s been utilizing several ghost writers for his Twitter account, and one of them was just fired. The problem is this person still has access to Davidson’s account, with amusing results. For example:

And all the funny stuff that @markdavidson wrote, that was all me. The other 2 ghostwriters are really boring. Good luck, bro…

This situation taken on first look, the feeling I get (besides the ache in my gut from laughing) is that Davidson has been a little deceptive – or is it apathetic? While I understand the reason Ghostwriters might be used, knowing it still shifts my perspective to one of caution and distrust regarding this particular person. I have to wonder if this is true for all his followers.

Now I’ll admit, this could be a stunt. It could be fake. Maybe his account was hacked and someone is lying. Maybe he’s just having fun (in that case, well played, Mark). There’s no way to know at this point, but the lesson is clear: be careful when hiring ghostwriters – it could cause more problems than it solves.

What do you think?

Hiring Ghostwriters for Social Media is a post from: RSA Blog

This is how we feel about your mission statement.

Let’s be frank, here: mission statements are boring. No one reads them, no one cares.

Alright, “no one” is an exaggeration. There’s got to be someone out there who cares, otherwise people would stop publishing mission statements on their websites, right? So, do you have one on your website? It probably sucks.

Look, for most organizations the mission statement is not for the customers. It’s for the employees. It’s for you. It speaks to a vision you should all have and operate from. This keeps things moving smoothly in one direction, ensuring a consistently positive customer experience.

In this case, you wouldn’t put your mission statement on your website. It’s that simple! Frame it and put it in the conference room or break room for internal staff to see.

Admittedly, though – in some cases an organization’s mission statement is relevant to its customers and the public. Maybe that’s you. In that case, follow these guidelines to craft a mission statement that doesn’t suck:

Vague, generalized mission statements suck

Yours should be specific. A mission statement must be tailored to your organization’s specific purpose and goals, otherwise it’s useless. See this example of a completely useless mission statement (hit cancel on the popup).

Puffery in a mission statement sucks

Don’t fill your mission statement with buzz words that are vague and meaningless. Just get to the point and be clear about it. Test it on your employees – if they can’t specifically relate to your mission statement, then your customers can’t be expected to back you. See the above link for an example of “vague.”

Confusing mission statements suck

How many people were in on the development of your mission statement? Too many cooks in the kitchen can make the mission statement confusing. If your organization has a clear goal, make sure that is reflected in the mission statement. Otherwise it’s probably not ready for public viewing.

Boring mission statements…that’s right, they suck

Try asking strangers if your mission statement makes sense. Do they understand what it says? Is it memorable? Does it make them care or get them excited? If not, it needs work. Make sure your mission statement tells a story and sparks an interest among your customers, or it’s useless to you and them.

What do you think mission statements are worth? How do did you craft your mission statement? Share it in the comments!

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Photo courtesy of gonzalomerat

Your Mission Statement Sucks is a post from: RSA Blog

Robert Sharp & Associates was fortunate to attend the first annual MarketPlace event in Huron, SD.

The event, which is scheduled to take place the next two years, was hosted by the Center for Rural Affairs and the South Dakota Farmers Union.

The purposes of MarketPlace is to unite local business owners and entrepreneurs in South Dakota and provide them with insight, education and a chance to network and learn about other resources from across the state.

We had several good conversations with people from all walks of life and all areas of the state.

One of our most unique encounters was with a woman from a small town north of Phillip; she owns a bed and breakfast called Missile Inn. As the name suggests, Missile Inn is located near an old missile silo. Sadly, however, guests do not stay in the abandoned shaft. The B & B has six different rooms, all decked with paintings, trinkets and artifacts the owner and her family have collected over time.

We also attended several breakout sessions and seminars. Through these experiences we learned helpful advice from industry leaders. One of the sessions, “20 Killer Marketing Ideas That Will Build Your Business,” was especially helpful.

From all the speakers, discussions and networking with South Dakota business owners, here are three most important things we took away.

1) Business is alive and well in South Dakota – what recession? SD business owners are fighting through the difficult financial times facing our country and most of them are coming out successful. This doesn’t just include established businesses, many small businesses are opening and finding a way to make it work.

2) The feeling of community is strong – even though we knew many of the vendors and business owners, there were still some new faces. The friendliness and love we received from total strangers was astounding. This wasn’t an event where businesses pushed their products at other people. There were no sales pitches or contracts – just an open environment to learn and grow.

3) Technology is at the forefront of business – the degree of attendees tech skills ranged from very advanced to complete novice but one thing was consistent in the minds of everyone who attended: technology is essential to marketing your business and product. Many of the session talked about social media’s influence on business. It was neat to see the openness and reception to technology that many people aren’t native to, or necessarily familiar with.

If you would like to join us at the 2012 South Dakota MarketPlace event, check the Center for Rural Affairs website or contact the South Dakota Farmers Union.

2011 MarketPlace promotes business in South Dakota is a post from: RSA Blog

Analytics? Bounce rate?

What language are they speaking?

I have to admit, I thought I might need a passport and a pocket dictionary on my first day at RSA. That day I attended several meetings with the search engine marketing team, and most of the words buzzing around me sounded like a foreign language.

I’m the first to admit, I’m a search engine marketing (SEM) newbie.

I applied for the interactive marketing specialist job at RSA because writing skill was included in the job description. That sounded ideal, since I love writing and studied journalism in college. Little did I know the job encompassed so much more, and I’d be grasping to understand parts of it.

I’ll let you in on a few of the secrets I’ve learned.

Luckily for me, I’ve discovered that writing is an integral part of what an SEM specialist does. The main goal is helping clients’ websites appear higher in search results when people look for them on Google or Bing.

We help clients improve in search results by writing and distributing press releases and articles that link back to their websites. Making sure the article contains pertinent keywords that people search for doesn’t hurt, either.

However, writing skill is certainly not the only skill require for success.

A significant part of SEM involves analyzing statistics to measure our efforts and recommend a course of action. This process is also known as analytics. After a few days of hearing the term described — and referencing my pocket dictionary — analytics started to click in my completely non-analytic brain.

Analytics measures everything from the number of visits to a website to its top traffic sources. We can tell clients with 99 percent certainty whether someone from Australia visited their site, or if most folks came from right here in South Dakota.

We can even tell clients how long – down to the exact second — a visitor stayed on a website. This is also known in the industry as the bounce rate.

Interestingly, the SEM team can tell when a person decided to leave a client’s website because they’d either found what they were looking for, or left for another reason. Maybe the site’s music was annoying or too many ads popped up. Though we can seldom tell the exact reason a person departed, we can hypothesize – and help a client fix the issue. We’ll do all we can to ensure site visitors find what they are looking for.

Before starting at RSA, I was unaware that so much information could be gleaned about website traffic — and that SEM jargon is indeed its own language. Although I’m still learning the ins and outs of SEM — and still have my RSA passport handy — everything sounds more like English now. I also know that the knowledge I’m gaining is invaluable to our clients.

It’s vital to be able to show them how their efforts are paying off. So much more work and analysis goes into the how than most would ever realize. But hard work leads to great rewards when we type a keyword into Google and see that a client is ranked No. 1.

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Photo courtesy of Danard Vincente

Confessions of an SEM newbie is a post from: RSA Blog

A while ago I wrote about the idea of being “transparent” or “authentic” in the social web. My theory is that full transparency is actually over-disclosure (and therefore undesirable), and authenticity just means don’t be fake (rather than meaning “show yourself without any sort of filter,” as the word might imply).

This theory applies to social business (use of social media for an organization) as well.

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Transparency in Business

No single person is obligated to tell anyone anything (outside the legal sphere), but good communication demands a certain level of honesty.

For business, depending on the type of organization, you may be obligated to share certain information with employees, shareholders, customers, and the government. The relevant question, however, is where and when to do so.

Much of the information you might communicate to shareholders or employees probably isn’t appropriate for social media. But when communicating with customers, potential customers, and the public at large, reasonably honesty goes a long way.

Some advice:

• Own up to your mistakes, and do it quickly
• Be as quick to acknowledge failure as you are to boast success
• Respond to negative feedback in a constructive way, without giving people the runaround
• Let people know who they are talking to – a person is much more attractive than a brand
• If you post or reblog someone else’s idea or content, give them credit

Authenticity in Business

Authenticity is just as important for business as it is for personal, social activity. If you want real relationships with real people in any arena, a certain level of genuine openness is essential. The difference for business is that authenticity is about the brand, not the people.

We all know what it’s like to see or hear ads that just seem fake, or hear people talk in ways that seem inauthentic (by the way, we’ll help you drive granular methodologies leveraging next-generation applications to integrate leading-edge infomediaries). Our reactions may vary, but I would guess most people recognize this kind of artificiality for what it is, and reject it. No one who talks this way is being authentic.

Some advice:

• Your mode of authenticity will depend on the brand you represent. If your brand is about “quality customer service,” well you better not be treating your customers like an inconvenience
• Likewise if you tell a customer you’ll fix a problem, then fix it – don’t give them the runaround
• Neither should you be telling people you do things you don’t really do. If you sell a product of moderate quality in order to keep to a certain price point, don’t tell people you sell a product of the highest quality
• Don’t lie unless you’re a liar and want to be known as such
• Authenticity doesn’t necessarily mean you have to show the negative side of your organization, but when you’re showing ANY side, make it real
• If you’re ashamed to be authentic in this way, you need to change your business

Growth of social media gives us a new opportunity to expose the real “us” – business or personal – to other people. This is a good thing – it builds trust and long-term relationships.

So if you’re going to embark upon any social communication effort, just get rid of the old business persona of detached, callous, robotic nonsense. Be real.

Social Media and Business: Don’t Be Fake is a post from: RSA Blog

We are excited to announce the winners of our first Good Ad, Bad Ad Facebook contest! Congrats to Jackie and Gina, who posted ads deemed the best and worst of the bunch by our esteemed panel of judges (our Search Engine Marketing department, clearly).

Good Ad: Jackie won the prize with the latest commercial in the “Search Overload” campaign from Bing:

Click here to view the embedded video.

We can relate – and now our office is jamming out to Freak Nasty’s “Da Dip.”

Bad Ad: Gina caught our attention with something very, very bad to win the Bad Ad prize:

Okay, it’s not exactly an ad, but close enough. Read more about this British Airways faux pas,  which appeared in an internal staff magazine with an article about mobile boarding. Whether it was a mistake or a prank gone awry, that’s one heck of a PR mess.

Congrats again to our winners, and thanks to everyone for playing. Be on the lookout for more contests in the future!

And the winners are… is a post from: RSA Blog

Gen Y can't get enough of their social media, cell phones and iPods

[This is a guest post by by Nancy Marshall of Nancy Marshall Communications in Augusta, Maine. It was originally posted on the Alliance of Marketing Communications Agencies blog.]

Recently my 17 year old son Craig attended a meeting of the Alliance of Marketing Communications Agencies with me and gave a presentation on “Marketing to Gen Y”  to our group of advertising and PR agency owners from across the country.  Since Craig’s generation is larger than the Baby Boomer generation (Generation Y is estimated at 77 million people—several million more than the Boomer generation), marketers need to start focusing on this generation. The consumer clout they wield is extremely powerful. In order to market to them effectively, I thought I would share some of his points with you.

First, some facts about his generation:

1. Born from approximately 1982 to 2001
2. Grew up in a technological revolution
3. To reach them, new creative strategies will be required
4. With more technology, they will be able to easily avoid advertisements
5. With new media comes new ways to advertise
6. They trust information from each other, not from traditional sources
7. They are addicted to cell phones, smart phones, or whatever type of mobile devices they can get their hands on

Craig’s thoughts on traditional advertising and marketing:

1. Television commercials are no longer as effective
2. Advertisements on websites need to be flashy to get their attention, yet convincing to be believable
3. With all the new news sources, it will be tougher than ever to cut through the clutter with press releases
4. Lies will be detected easier than ever and won’t be ignored

Other ways to reach Gen Y:

1. Identify your market and search them out by interest: there are more niche groups of Gen Y’ers than any generation before as their interests are splintered and diverse
2. Be active with social media but don’t be annoying
3. Crack the market with street teams, focus groups, and work from the inside
4. Hide your product in the media: example of Lady Gaga using an iPhone 4 with a Virgin Atlantic logo on the screen in one of her music videos
5. Make advertisements interactive, fun and authentic
6. Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS), or texts, are effective – gathering cell phone numbers will be a priority for companies

Craig did a fantastic job, although he just scratched the surface about Gen Y. Other research has found that Gen Y influences 81% of their families’ apparel purchases and 52% of car choices. Banks are also scrambling to upgrade their technology to capture Gen Y customers since they use technology to manage their finances and they are still on their way to reaching their peak earning potential (www.firstdata.com:  “Tapping into Generation Y: Nine Ways Community Financial Institutions Can Use Technology to Capture Young Customers,” April 2010).

Authenticity is a highly valued quality: Gen Y’ers see right through advertising hyperbole and shut it out. It’s a good idea to pay attention to the brands that are doing well with this generation to learn from them.

t’s also important to keep up to date on the latest trends in social media like Foursquare and the newest features on Facebook. Participating in social media is the best way to gain an understanding of how it works, and what doesn’t. This generation doesn’t read newspapers like Boomers; if you rely exclusively on press releases for news distribution, you won’t reach them. They are on the Internet. Getting online is key.

Thoughts on Marketing to Gen Y is a post from: RSA Blog

Toyota, apparently one of the most popular brands in America, and indeed one of the largest car makers in the world, seems to have a little PR problem. KOTA TV recently interviewed our CEO, Robert Sharp, asking him what his opinion on the whole debacle was. Robert has been quite open with all of us here about his view of the saga which has devastated the car maker’s finances, after having to recall millions of its cars and SUVs as well as its luxury brand Lexus which shares the parts bin with its bigger brother.

So what was Robert’s take? Well let’s start with honesty – it’s clear Toyota knew there was a problem early on, and with such a stronghold in the car market they should have reacted far sooner, leaving owners and potential customers in no doubt that their interests would be protected by this giant of manufacturing. Instead, it hesitated, confusing the media with mixed messages, many being perceived as dishonest, misleading and unprofessional. It seems that even those at the top of Toyota were not sure of how to react, and after several deaths, insurance industry investigations and lawsuit filings, they finally (kind of) admitted liability.

Unfortunately for Toyota, this episode in its long and successful history has left a sour taste in the mouths of many – and it’s still not over as we’ve yet to see the results of many claims against the company. Though in the longer term they are likely to recover, senior management of the company must be reeling at their own mishandling of the situation. It’s a lesson that many can learn from, indeed, I am sure many have. Domestic car makers in the US and Europe have no doubt capitalized on these recent events, as well they should.

The lesson here: don’t repeat Toyota’s mistakes – be honest with your customers, adapt quickly, and react in a constructive way. It may be embarrassing, but far less so than being found out and having to admit not only the mistake, but also the deception.

What is this, 3rd grade? Tell the truth, kids. Not only will your customers thank you, but you will also avoid giving your competitors an opening.

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Photo from automoblog

Toyota’s Customer Service and PR Failure is a post from: RSA Blog

Ericka Heiser speaks to 1000+

Yesterday a few of us had the opportunity to attend the first Day of Excellence in Rapid City. Hosted by Leadership Rapid City, the one-day conference focused on fostering personal and professional growth.

We showed up to the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center yesterday, coffee in hand, interested to see if the speakers would have anything to teach us (and praying they would be funny). More than 1,200 people had the same idea, and luckily, we weren’t disappointed.

Aubrey says:

Developing a sense of purpose for everything you do: Mike “oooooh-stir” Oster, Lieutenant Colonel for the South Dakota Army National Guard, began the day with an outstanding discussion on self improvement. Helping others realize their maximum potential is Mike’s strength and the crowd enjoyed it.

Through demonstration and audience participation, Mike showed us the effects of negativity on your mental and physical strength. He said some things are obvious (like not frying bacon naked), but others, like determining your goals and knowing your purpose, are more difficult. My favorite take away from the speech is Mike’s advice to start the day out right by “smiling yourself out of bed.”

The Five Powers of Leadership: As an experienced trainer in the practice of building partnerships, Malcom Chapman provided conference attendees with many useful tools – or powers – that can help anyone become a stronger leader.  Malcom expressed that if you are willing to change, then you can make it happen – a point that touched me and many other members of the audience.

Tarah says:

What goes around, comes around: I had read V.J. Smith’s book, “The Richest Man in Town,” a few years ago, but listening to him tell the story of Marty, a Walmart cashier who touched thousands of lives, still put a lump in my throat. V.J. impressed upon the crowd a few VIPs (very important points), including 1) you get what you give; 2) you don’t need money to be truly rich; and 3) never ever forget to say thank you.

Side note: If you haven’t read V.J.’s book, I highly recommend it! Aubrey even bought a copy, so if you ask nicely, maybe you can borrow hers.

I’m a Sally: Bryan Flanagan, a corporate trainer for Zig Ziglar in Dallas, took us through a series of exercises to determine our personality types (David, Irene, Sally, Charles).  While identifying a working personality is nothing new, Bryan did give practical tips for relating to other personality types – including what words and tones to use to communicate most effectively. Bryan also encouraged us to bring out other parts of our personalities in the workplace, meaning I need to work on bringing out my inner Irene.

We left Day of Excellence feeling happy and uplifted – and impressed that so many people in the Black Hills community turned out for the event. Leadership Rapid City was able to donate $44,000 to local charities, making it a truly excellent experience.

Did you attend? What was the best part of the Day for you?

Never Fry Bacon Naked….and Other Important Lessons is a post from: RSA Blog