YUG

Posted by cheryldraper This conference season feels a bit different, doesn’t it? Where we’re usually globetrotting from event to event, this year most conferences have either postponed their dates or switched to online, remote-friendly formats, offering video sessions by top-notch speakers or live streams with open chats. But what about everyone’s favorite bonus during conference season — networking? Thankfully, all is not lost! With a little ingenuity and virtual elbow grease, you can still forge new professional relationships over an internet connection rather than a cocktail. (And hey, nothing’s stopping you from enjoying a nice, frosty Mozcow Mule or tasty mocktail in your home office space, right?) In our current reality of social distancing, marketing conference networking will look different, but it’s not going anywhere. Read on for tips on how to effectively network while remote! Step 1: Look for networking opportunities Depending on which virtual event you attend, the networking opportunities will look different. Keeping a creative eye out for opportunity is key to your success! Live chats Much like during regular conferences, there are bound to be live chats happening. They may happen on the actual event platform, or they may take place on social media. Some events will use a platform like Zoom that allows viewers to chat with each other within the platform, while others may have more of a broadcast format where chats happen on Twitter with a hashtag. Joining Q&As A super valuable aspect of conferences is being able to speak to presenters after they give their talk. Sometimes this happens during a predetermined time slot, such as right after the presentation, or it may happen when you catch them in the lobby or at an event later on. Either way, this time to ask questions about their expertise is a huge value-add to the experience. With conferences going virtual and live chats happening publicly during the presentations, this Q&A time has shifted a bit. Instead of having to wait for the presentation to be over, in some cases, presenters will reply to questions from the live chat as they’re speaking. Some panels are pre-recorded, giving speakers a chance to interact on various platforms during the event itself. Some events will even have specific “presentations” that are more like facilitated Ask Me Anything-style interviews or panels where questions are taken from the audience and posed to the speaker(s). Birds of a Feather discussions Many conferences will offer some sort of industry or concept specific conversation facilitation. For instance, at MozCon, we host Birds of a Feather discussions. These discussions are headed up by an industry professional and have predetermined topics such as EAT, AI, Gutenberg, etc. Other times, these conversations may be organized and headed up by attendees. In a virtual setting, these will likely be smaller breakout groups using some sort of video chat software. Zoom, specifically, has created a way for conferences to organize these “breakout sessions” in advance. Birds of a Feather conversations are one of the best ways to connect as there is a common ground established from the get-go. These. Are. Your. People. Connections here will likely be the most valuable. Step 2: Get active No matter where the chats are happening, be sure you’re a part of them! The more you interact, the more likely people are to recognize your name when you reach out after the event. The only caution here is that you have to be sure your interactions are meaningful — don’t just comment clapping hands. Add something to the conversation. Add insight The best thing about people is that we’re all different and have fresh perspectives to bring to the table. Don’t be afraid to add on to someone’s thoughts. Let’s use a fun example. If someone says that the best mascot hug ever was from Mickey Mouse at Disneyland, you may jump in and ask if they’ve ever met Roger MozBot, famed hugger and robot dancer extraordinaire. Or you could build on the thought by saying something like, “Mickey is a great hugger, I think it’s because he goes over instead of under!” In both of these instances, you’ve joined the conversation and added value. Add clarification Speakers often try to fit a lot of information into a relatively short timeframe. That said, questions will likely arise in the live chats. This could very easily be your time to shine! If you’ve got knowledge to share, feel free to answer the question to the best of your ability and try to add clarification. This is absolutely one of the best ways to position yourself as an expert and form a relationship with someone you’ve never met. It allows you to prove you’re knowledgable and give the person something they value for free. Add sources Whether you are asking a question, answering a question, or just chiming in with added insight, adding resources in conversation is extremely beneficial. This could mean that you recommend a tool, a person, or an article link. These resources for the other viewers can be extremely beneficial and help you establish your credibility. Now, we don’t suggest trying to come up with a source for everything, but if you have one right off of the top of your head, dropping a link in the chat may really help someone. BONUS: Add people on social While this one’s not necessarily about adding value per se, it is about adding. Adding influencers, presenters, or other attendees after interacting with them (even if briefly) may increase your chances of getting a follow-back or accepted request as you’ll still be top of mind. Try to add people no later than 24 hours after your last interaction, and consider sending a friendly “hey!” with a note about what you spoke about to keep the connection fresh. Step 3: Perfect your follow-up After connecting with people during the online conference, you’ll want to follow up with them and stay in touch. The most important part of following up is the first impression. You don’t want to come right out of the gate with a request of any sort.

They say, “The best things in life are free.” Which I never thought was necessarily true. I mean some of the best things are free — love, sunshine, fireflies, and whatnot. But there are a lot of awesome things that cost money — nunchucks, BMX bikes, DVDs of the movie Kung Fu Panda 3. So the line is kind of muddled when it comes to establishing whether free stuff is better than things that come at a cost — and the case of social media marketing is no exception. The debate between organic vs. paid social media isn’t exactly cut and dry. Both options have their strengths and weaknesses. Here, we’ll get more perspective on the difference between both kinds of social media and some pros and cons that come with each. Organic and paid social media each have their own benefits and pitfalls. Here are some pros and cons of each type of social media marketing. The Pros of Organic Social Media It’s more cost-effective. Maintaining an organic social media presence can technically be free. It doesn’t cost anything to post on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. Any costs you incur would come from the work it takes to engage with your community and create content to populate your social media feeds — whether that be through dedicated team members, outsourcing to freelancers or agencies, or having some employees incorporate those tasks into their day-to-day responsibilities. One way or another, organic social media plays don’t require immediate payment to implement. If your business is running on a tight budget, and you’re confident you can create thoughtful content, organic social media might be the right avenue for you. It allows you to directly engage with and assist your customers. Social media is an excellent forum for ongoing customer service and interaction. A well-maintained, active social media profile gives customers a legitimate, accessible location to post concerns, complaints, and compliments. If you can dedicate the time and resources to consistently respond to most — if not all — of them, you’ll get a lot of mileage out of your organic social media efforts. It can help you establish a brand identity. Your social media profiles allow you to project some personality. They can provide another layer to your marketing efforts with a solid sense of humor, consistently sound advice, or any other qualities you’d like prospects and customers to associate with your brand. For instance, Taco Bell’s Twitter page is notorious for the brand style it has established through its audience interaction and funny content. Image Source: Twitter The Cons of Organic Social Media It can be time-consuming. Consistently creating excellent content and actively interacting with your audience aren’t exactly quick fixes you can expect to churn out over lunch. They’re full-time pursuits that take considerable energy and effort. If you don’t have dedicated team members or outside help, maintaining your organic social media efforts can be a massive time-drain. Algorithms can be volatile and difficult to understand. What content your audience will see on social media is dictated by algorithms designed to sort posts by relevancy and potential enrichment instead of when it was published. The success of your organic social media strategies rests on your ability to get your content in front of current and potential customers, so understanding the algorithms supporting these platforms is crucial. But that’s far easier said than done. Social media platforms’ algorithms aren’t always easy to grasp and master, and if you do figure them out, there’s a good chance they might change. It can take a lot of effort to learn and stay on top of these algorithms to support effective organic social media efforts. It offers less flexibility when it comes to immediate reach. The immediate reach of your organic social media efforts extends as far as your followers take it — meaning you can only expect your organic content to reach your immediate audience and the people they share it with. You can’t zero in on and distribute your content to specific demographics or types of users like you can with paid social media. The Pros of Paid Social Media You can target specific users to expand your reach. Paid advertising on social media allows you to pinpoint and reach the specific demographics that will be the most receptive to what you have to offer. You can sort users by categories like location, age, gender, or interests and place targeted advertisements on their social media feeds. It gives you reach beyond your followers and the ability to touch base with specific audiences that will be receptive to your messaging. Its payment model works for any budget. Paid social campaigns are structured to suit virtually any budget. They generally charge on a pay-per-click (PPC) basis, meaning you only have to pay if users interact directly with your paid social media materials via impressions or clicks. Many platforms allow you to establish a spending cap on your paid social efforts, so your budget is never exceeded. And certain target audiences cost less to reach than others, allowing you to strategically place your advertisements to cater to different, potentially lucrative niches. You see more immediate results Organic social media efforts are a long-term play that requires considerable effort and strategy. With them, you have to create content that will abide by social media algorithms, rein in the potential customers that happen upon it, and actively work to retain your followers once you have them hooked. Paid social media foregoes that process by immediately placing your messaging on potential customers’ feeds. The Cons of Paid Social Media You might not see meaningful returns on your investment. Paid social media is just that — paid social media. No matter the size of your investment, you’re still spending money that might go to waste if your efforts are ineffective. If you’re constantly experimenting and failing with your paid social media, you’re essentially burning money. And that’s an easy cycle to fall into. If you’re a small business,

Whether you’re providing social media management, marketing, or consulting services, the crucial step in winning a client is sending out a business proposal. A business proposal can help you prove to clients’ that you’re the most well-suited to meet their needs, and help you stand out from the competition. And, if you’re particularly interested in providing social media-related services, you’ll need to create a social media proposal. Here, we’ll explore best practices for creating a social media proposal that will enable you to exceed client expectations and expand your portfolio. But first, let’s zoom out and take a wider look at the social media sales process. There are quite a few stages you have to successfully complete — and things to do right — before even starting your proposal. Let’s dive into that, now. A Brief Overview of the Social Media Sales Process There isn’t a one-size-fits-all sales workflow that you should follow to win a social media job, but most of the times you’ll go through the following stages before closing a sale: Prospecting Discovery Proposal To ensure that all your prospecting efforts don’t go to waste, it’s super important to get as much information from a discovery stage as possible. One thing to keep in mind – a business proposal is just a presentation of the things you’ve discovered. If you skip this step, you won’t have anything to write about in your proposal. The discovery session could be a video call or an actual meeting at a hotel lobby as long as you get to chat with the prospect and understand what it is that she really needs. This task may sound simple at first, but in fact, you may realize the client doesn’t understand why she needs social media services, or across which platform(s) she needs those services distributed. This is where I suggest becoming a psychologist for an hour, and asking the following ‘Why’ questions: Why did you choose Facebook over Twitter for your social media activities? Why did you stop running Facebook ads? Why did you change your LinkedIn posting schedule two months ago? Clearly, you’ll need to do your homework prior to a discovery session, reviewing and analyzing the client’s social media profiles (as well as their top competitors), and what they’ve done on their social channels so far. If you can’t get to the root of the problem, you may use the 5 Whys analysis which involves even more ‘Why’ questions. Eventually, if you understand your clients and how they think, you’ll be able to write a proposal that speaks your clients’ language, addresses their needs, and presents the exact solution to their problem. That is the proposal that is very likely to win a client. The Anatomy of an Effective Social Media Proposal Next, let’s move onto the actual structure of an effective social media business proposal. You can create a proposal from scratch or simplify your life significantly by using a free social media proposal template that already has the pre-written texts and is broken down into sections. One way or another, it wouldn’t hurt to get familiar with the must-have social media proposal sections: 1. Introduction. Nailing the proposal introduction is winning half the battle. Remember the discovery session where you should find out the true meaning of what they’re after? Introduction is the place where you will repeat the exact words used by your client to describe their problem. No matter how tempting it may be, this is not a place to speak about your company and its history or mission. Introduction isn’t about you — it’s about your clients’ needs described in their language. 2. Scope of work. A well-written detailed scope of work leaves very little room for future misunderstandings. Here’s where you specify the exact list of activities that are meant to solve the client’s problem. Explain how your service is going to help tackle the issue and outline the scope of work required for that. Speak of the social media goals that you’re going to achieve with your service, and list the social media activities you’re going to be working on. Depending on the social media services you provide, you may want to mention: Content creation. Specify what kind of written and visual content you are going to create, how often and how it’s going to be approved by the client. Publishing schedule. Let your client know when, where and what time the pre-approved posts will be going live on different social media platforms. Launching social media special offers. Let the client know the nature of the special offer you are planning to launch whether it’s going to be a contest, special discount, giveaway or else. Specify the timing, frequency, assets and media budget required. Monthly strategy sessions and weekly calls. Plan out the one-to-one calls to review the last month’s activities and plan the month ahead. Let the client know if you are going to sync up every week to make sure you are on track. Monthly KPIs and reporting. Depending on the client’s goals, outline how you are going to measure the social media progress and which metrics you’ll use as indicators. Additionally, don’t forget to speak of the benefits your customer should expect. As Kinga Odziemek, CEO at social media marketing agencyBrainyBees, says: “Your clients need to understand not only what you will deliver, but also what’s in it for them.” Odziemek adds, “What does it mean that you will do A, B or C for them? How will this be reflected in their business? What are the benefits? Showing the benefits will encourage potential clients to take the next step more quickly than you might expect.” For greater clarity, finish up the scope of work with the timeline where you specify the exact steps you are going to take over the first month. This way it’s clear what a client can initially expect from you, and when. 3. Case studies. Prospects want to see what you have accomplished in