Welcome to a video interview of Free Marketing Made Easy. As you know, we take the mystery and pain out of online marketing by helping entrepreneurs and small business owners make sense of Internet marketing techniques.

Kai

Our guest is, Coach Laura Rubinstein. Our theme today will be social media, but let’s start off on the personal side. Would you tell our audience a little bit about your background, your experience as a coach, and how that got you into social media coaching?

Laura

Sure Kai, thank you for having me. I got into marketing and coaching more than 20 years ago. Being the daughter of an entrepreneur and just having a lot of interest in how to grow a business, I started working in network marketing and coaching financial advisers on how to promote their businesses. I also got a certification in hypnotherapy and still maintain a small private practice. These things really help me understand the way people think, what motivates them, and how to build successful business relationships. So when social media really started getting popular three or four years ago, I took notice and thought “If I want to help my clients get in the game, I’d better get in the game first” and that’s what I did.

At this point, you are doing expert level coaching. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about that?

“Social Media changes on a daily basis”

Social Media changes on a daily basis. New things are coming out, new functionality is available on sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. New applications are available, and there is an increasing number of ways to promote or market your business – to make yourself more visible. An entrepreneur who wants to take her business to the next level needs to cover the basics, and at least fill in her accounts to start building a following. But then she”ll want to take it to the next level and really build the brand out on social media. That’s where I come in.

I guide small businesses through a process where we optimize your Social Media sites. We optimize not only for the search engines, but also for professional presence. And then we take interaction and integration to the next level. I want people interacting with their exact target market. I help them identify and get involved in conversations that will make a difference for their business online. We start monitoring their brand online, and give them some tips tools and strategies to do that. But if you don’t have a strategy or purpose for your presence online, you are just going to be fumbling around and wondering why you are spending all this time without seeing any results. So I start with a strategy and purpose first, then we teach the advanced techniques for each of the different platforms. In the strategy we determine which platforms you should be on depending on what your business is, what your target market is and which will deliver the best result for those objectives.



So let’s talk about two things in order to really nail this down for our viewers. First, let’s talk about those platforms and then let’s talk about real examples of business owners who are using different platforms in different ways. Before we do that I want to take a step back though, and put parentheses around “Internet marketing” and “social media.”

It seems like a lot of people who are new to online marketing think of social media as being Internet marketing. I would actually turn that around and say social media is a component of Internet marketing.

When creating Free Marketing Made Easy, I looked at the experiences that I was having mentoring startup founders, and noticed that they were all wrestling with the same things. Number one: how do we define our target market, figure out what they are looking for, and determine how to speak with them in meaningful ways? Number two: how do we integrate that content strategy into our platform – things like our website and social media – so we aren’t just doing what I call the used car salesman approach of “this is what I have. Buy it today. Hot special!” Most people don’t really care about that at all. I think this is critical to understand whether you’re talking about online or off-line marketing. Once you have this piece figured out, you can leverage your content through all of the platforms we discuss in Free Marketing Made Easy including your website, social media, video, blogs, press releases, e-mail marketing, podcasting, teleclasses and Web conferences. So our approach is really broad. We want to help business owners know what they don’t know, not so that they will become experts but so that they can make good business decisions about investing their time and money.

Your program on the other hand starts by saying “we are going to get you really good with social media to begin with and then if you want to get even better we’ll take you to expert level.” Would you say that’s an accurate overview?

“If you’re going to do it, it’s worth doing right.”

Yes, I am a really big believer in integration. So if you have a web presence and are using e-mail marketing, for example, social media can integrate with those perfectly to help make those other tools more effective. I have even had people ask me “How do I use social media for my whole marketing strategy?” and I tell them “You don’t.” You must have a comprehensive marketing system. Social media is not something you rely on solely, but if you’re going to do it, it’s worth doing right.



I completely agree with you about an integrated strategy. I often use the analogy that this whole topic is basically like a big puzzle. When you are putting together a puzzle you put together the corners and edges first so that you can understand the landscape. Then you go to the sections you are interested in working on first, with the understanding that this all needs to be connected at some point.

Now let’s talk about some success stories. Tell our viewers about some of the people you’ve coached, the nature of their business, what they were looking for when they came to you and the results “when all was said and done” – although we know this doesn’t really end –one of the keys to social media is consistency.



One of my favorite stories is from a company that sells glass jewelry. They were moving from a model of wholesale to selling direct to consumer online, and had no web presence. They began interacting on Facebook with their clients and prospects, which generated a lot of visibility because people could see their jewelry and ask questions about it. One of the things we did was to create an online event on Facebook: the owner was going to Italy to purchase and design some glass jewelry pieces, so we did the “Italian Tour de-Glass.” It was really fun for them to share pictures with their online community and start building those relationships to the point where people got really excited and created some buzz.

I’ve had other clients like a public speaker who had no conversations going online, and we used a Facebook fan page to grow his level of interaction and reach. This allowed him to build his e-mail list (which was a key objective for him) by putting opt-ins all over the place, in addition to invitations for various free events. We also put in a lot of questions that get people to think and respond.



You just talked about using Facebook to promote off-line events. That is huge. Meetup is another great tool to do that. So you are using an off-line community to build your online community and vice versa. Awesome.

I’d like to share an example of a company I talked with said that did something really well through Facebook. Atayne is an organic apparel manufacturer. Not only are they trying to figure out how to make money through social media promotions but Jeremy, their owner, figured out how to save money. Here’s what happened: Jeremy ran a contest on Facebook to choose the next racing cycle shirt that Atayne would produce. As it turns out, the model that Jeremy would have chosen if he did this alone came in a distant third with 20% of the vote. If you think about that this way, if 20% wanted that shirt, 80% didn’t want it. That’s 80% of his existing market who would not have purchased the product! He used social media to do free market research, got people engaged, chose a winner and let people know that it was coming in order to generate pre-orders, it’s a great story about generating revenue and saving money as well. You know, as small-business owners we’re open to taking risks but we need to mitigate those risks as well.

“How you think is not how your customers think.”

I always like to say, “How you think is not how your customers think.” You have to listen to them and that was a brilliant strategy.



Many of our viewers may be familiar already with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, so give us an overview of some of the other social media resources that are out there. Things like Ning, Digg, Squidoo, etc.



The first one that comes to mind is the review site, Yelp. Anybody who has a storefront in a local community should be on Yelp. Whether you are a chiropractor, massage therapist, doctor, restaurant, retail boutique of some sort – you want to be on Yelp and you want to get your clients to review you. Because when people are looking for different things – whether it’s a massage or a Mexican restaurant – so many of them look on Yelp first.



I recently wrote a blog about local search and learned that Yelp is currently ranked number 47 on Alexa’s list of top U.S. websites. This gives us some perspective of how popular the Yelp service is and how important it is for small businesses to be there. Plus, you are keying in on something about social media in general. Not only do you get to be part of the conversation by being there, but if you are not there people may be saying bad things about you and you will not have an opportunity to empathize, correct and overcome those objections and show people your commitment to customer service.



The same applies to Twitter and Facebook. And LinkedIn is another one. Everyone should be on LinkedIn. A lot of people feel that it’s for corporate, and yes there is a lot of corporate presence there. But LinkedIn is a great place to have your resumes so people can check you out, help you build your connections, and give you recommendations. It is a credibility builder, and I recommend that everybody have a profile. The other thing about having a complete Linkedin profile is that it is indexed by Google, so it gives you greater visibility on social media. To learn more about all of the sites that are out there (as you mentioned there are thousands), I suggest people go to www.knowem.com, which lists and categorizes all of the social media sites.



Now I want to ask you about your success strategies. I think this would apply to Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, growing your blog, etc. if I look at your Facebook page you have over 10,000 people who like you. My guess is, because I know you a little bit, that it isn’t just a big number but those are 10,000 relevant followers. I wrote a blog a little while ago called “blog as if everyone is reading” – that was a spin on “dance as if no one is watching.” Because there is a point where people start then get frustrated and stop because the magic doesn’t necessarily happen overnight, especially if you are looking for quality as well as quantity. Talk to that a little bit will you, in terms of the emotions you go through as your starting out and also the logistics of how you grow your brand through social media?

You need to spend some time upfront, setting it up and getting some momentum going. But it’s worth it.

Well, there are expectations to be managed. You need to spend some time upfront, setting it up and getting some momentum going. But it’s worth it. There are millions of people on social media every day, and you don’t have to spend money to reach them but you do have to spend time. Be patient, persistent and passionate. Be consistent and make sure that you are using tools like HootSuite that help you manage your time. Be clear about what you want to get out of it. We are not talking about an advertising media: these are social tools, so be very particular about who you follow and invite. Look for people strategically.



You just mentioned something that we cover in our Social Media Fast Start series: in order to start creating a targeted community of people who will be interactive and contribute back to the conversation, it helps to get by giving. So one of the things that I think really helps is figure out where the relevant blogs, LinkedIn groups and Facebook groups are. Go there and add comments. Be helpful. Participate in conversations. Don’t say “Hi I’m Kai – I have an Internet marketing platform and you should check it out.” Nobody cares.



But if you’re saying “Oh you’re trying to figure out Internet video – did you know that there are some free sites like Animoto and One True Media where you don’t even need a camera to create a video?” All of a sudden some people will think “hey that’s great, I didn’t know that!” Then they will follow you, comment on your blog posts, etc. Even though it is manual, investing your time up front to build that momentum really pays off.



Give a tip, even if it’s not directly related to producing sales, because you are creating that social capital. Networking online and off-line is about giving.



I want to know more about the people that you are training. Are they marketers, small-business people? Are you doing a lot of work with virtual assistants? I’m asking that second question because I think that Internet marketing and social media is an essential skill for business owners. You need to be functionally literate about Internet marketing, just like you need to be functionally literate about finance. But you don’t need to be an expert. You just need to be conversationally literate so you know how to make the right business decisions. And what I’m seeing now is, a lot of business owners want to get up to speed but once they understand this stuff they want to be able to hand it off to someone like a virtual assistant who can manage the day-to-day.



Well, you hit the nail on the head. A lot of business owners are like “I’m confused. Tell me what I do now that I have my basic profile set up.” So I will take them through my five week program called “Transform Your Social Net Worth”, and the business owner can come with or without an assistant who will be handling the implementation. That way the business owner can be in the know, but she doesn’t have to remember everything from the class. During the class we create the strategy, so the owner is there for that part, but the assistant will handle the input. Many times after the class the retention rate is 50% or so, so I will be hired to work directly with the assistant, who could be in-house or virtual.



I think we are both saying the same thing, which is that the business owner really does need to be involved in creating the strategy upfront. But there are options available: whether he or she chooses to handle implementation and maintenance himself or herself, have someone in-house do it or hire a virtual assistant, it isn’t like the business owner will have to dedicate another 10 or 20 hours per week for the rest of his life to social media.



Exactly. And some people do find that they want to spend more time on social media because they are getting good results. They may want to increase customer service through Twitter or Facebook, for example. Or integrate more functionality into those pages. But in the beginning we will work on putting a system in place and growing it.



I would love for you to explain to our listeners a little bit more about your model and the way you work.



I have a group course, which I call the “Transform Your Social Net Worth Intensive”. This is a five-week program where we meet 90 minutes online through a webinar platform where people can see me and my desktop or vice-versa. That way people can see step-by-step exactly what I’m doing. I also share documents including a weekly action guide, which includes a strategy piece and an implementation section. The really cool thing about the class is that it is small, with a dozen or less people typically. This is great because I hotseat everybody in the class, meaning I spotlight their social media work and give them suggestions. Not only do I give them suggestions on how to improve their sites, but I give them ideas for creative concepts for using social media. So it’s like individual consulting, but in a group format. The second way I work is one-on-one, using the same webinar system.



And of course you have a replay available, so it’s almost like looking over your shoulder in person but even better really.



Exactly.



For more information, check out Laura’s Expert Social Media program or email her directly at coach@transformtoday.com.