This Might Be Your Father's Olds... But Social Media Definitely Isn't!

Hang around anyone who talks about social media long enough, and you’ll invariably hear the word “transparency” thrown out like some new catch phrase designed to make the use of social media self-apparent to anyone within earshot.

In actual practice, however, as I work with my clients on social media strategy and training, it’s become apparent to me that the concept of “transparency” requires a little further explanation to make it relevant for most business owners interested in seeing a profit from their social media efforts.

What’s Transparency Really All About?

Usually the confusion starts when we begin talking about creating a Facebook page for business, and my client looks at me in horror as I explain to them that their business page will be linked to their personal Facebook profile.  “But, I don’t want my business contacts to see my personal stuff!” they exclaim.

As I launch into a description of the privacy settings on Facebook, I’m also compelled to explain to them that sharing a bit of their personal lives – their personality – is what social media is all about – it’s how we make connections with other people, build our networks, build trust and increase the number of referrals we receive.

Don’t Try to Be Something that You’re Not

Being transparent simply means being who you are, always.  Think of networking via social media as you would networking in person.  You naturally want to share a bit of who you are with others – it helps you connect and build relationships.  People do business with people they like, know and trust.

And that brings me to the title of this post.  About 22 years ago, Oldsmobile launched a new ad campaign with the slogan, “Not Your Father’s Oldsmobile – a New Generation of Olds.”  The slogan was everywhere – on television, in a jingle – the word was out that this new line-up from Oldsmobile was not what we’d seen previously.

Except – it was!

When people got to the dealerships and test drove the cars, they realized that try as hard as the ad guys wanted to convince us otherwise – this was still your father’s Oldsmobile.

And therein lies the difference between social media and any other type of traditional advertising – with social media, this lack of transparency about who Oldsmobile really was would have been exposed immediately and shared across networks far and wide. As it was, word traveled pretty quickly and many experts look back and state that this campaign was the beginning of the end for Oldsmobile.

Being transparent doesn’t mean revealing every private thought you’ve ever had; it does mean aligning what you say with what you do; it means connecting with people as your true self, whether that’s in person or online through social media. While it may seem daunting at first, it’s something that takes consistent focus (I work on ways to be more transparent with my network every day) -  I’ve found the business and personal rewards to be worth it!

Confused about how you can use social media to establish yourself as an expert and grow your business?  Affectionately known as a “marketing geek,” Caroline Melberg creates social media strategies and implements them for her clients, growing their businesses as a result.  To read more of Caroline’s musings on social media, visit her blog about social media strategies.  She believes marketing is a conversation, and she’d love to hear from you at 952-473-1007 or via e-mail at Caroline at Melberg dot com.

Identification of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOTs) involved is essential for deriving steps in the process of planning

SWOT Analysis is a strategic planning method used to evaluate the(SWOTs) involved in a project and/or business venture including blogs.

SWOT’s themselves are associated with two categories:

1. Internal factors : Strengths and Weaknesses
2. External factors : Opportunities and Threats

SWOT Analysis as applied to Blogging

Internal Factors: Internal factors in this case are mainly related to skills that a blogger possesses that will help them achieve the defined objective.
While analyzing internal factors identify all skills that are required and those that other successful bloggers possesses which help them in blogging. Among them the skills that you posses acts as strength while others acts as weaknesses (area where you need to develop your blogging skills).
One hypothetical individual, for example, might see him/herself as having the following blogging strengths and weaknesses:

• Strength:

1. Personal exposure to details or rare views involved  in your topic of your discussion
2. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) skills.
3. Technical expertise (knowledge of html, database, RSS etc.)
4. Design skills (web designing, Photoshop etc).
5. Creativity and Innovation

• Weaknesses:

1. Lack of blogging knowledge
2. Previous failure or lack of knowledge about online marketing.
3. Writing skills

External Factors: External Factors are related the environment in which the blogger exists.  Certainly, some of these external factors may be the product of  a blogger’s respective, customized strategy.  Others may be universal to all bloggers and beyond an individual blogger’s control. One hypothetical individual might perceive his/her blogging  as confronting the following opportunities and threats:

• Opportunities:

1. Identifying and exploiting new trends in blogosphere.
2. Joining a new network of people (influential)
3. Exploiting knowledge and ideas of your existing network (feedbacks and suggestions)

• Threats:

1. SEO Problem (change in blog ranking criteria on search engines)
2. Lack of time to blog (very common due to work pressure)
3. Technical problems (i.e. closing / ineffectiveness of a web community, server down time)
4. Change in govt. policies. Restriction on publishing certain facts online i.e. media restrictions (e.g. media and internet restriction laid down by China) may be beneficial for those countries and bloggers need to be aware of them so that they don’t violate certain rules

Keep in mind that the individual factors composing SWOT — Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats — may themselves lead to generation of additional beneficial blogging strategies.  So it is important not to dismiss factors until the elements of each are reviewed thoroughly. Use SWOT to meet your blog’s objectives!