My Good Food Friends –
Are you considering developing a Social Network Media presence? Here’s my marketing take on this newly evolving ‘SOCIAL Network Media’ tool.
Change Your Food - Change Your Life!™ is developing a light & lively, informative & FUN Facebook Page. We began with a limited, 'by invitation only', eclectic, select 50 ‘friends’ in order to develop the right tone on this NEW Social Network Marketing scheme. (But OF COURSE, any friend of NaturalFoodNet.com is qualified to be a ‘friend’ of ours! Facebook.com/DennisLWeaver We’ve posted a variety of Videos, Issue Statements, Event Announcements, Pics and just some Personal FUN.)
And to ALL, a sell, Sell, SELLING 2010!
Well, when I ‘posted’ that little note on The Organic Trade Association’s ‘OrganicItsWorthIt’ Marketing Forum, I got this response (Name withheld to protect the guilty):
Hi Dennis and all. I went to your Facebook link Facebook.com/DennisLWeaver
but it's a regular account. In order to see your posts I'd have to "friend" you
and then you'd have to "friend" me back and we'd see each other's
updates unless we took them time to turn them off. The problem with
that is a lot of us use our regular accounts in our names for our
personal stuff. I don't post anything I wouldn't want made public
but I'm sure you and others who might be interested in my soap and
OTA connection aren't necessarily going to want to see status updates
about what cute thing my daughter said today and links supporting my
political views.
What you want is a page that people can become fans of. This way, anyone who wants to can "become a fan" of my page and I don't have to approve them. They won't see my personal stuff and I won't see theirs.
In other words, she doesn’t have to ‘talk’ to her customers or ‘know’ who they are!
Well, this new Social Media is a SOCIAL ‘gathering’ FIRST and FOREMOST, people joining for a sense of an interconnected ‘human’ community. To wit, the EXPLOSION of Social Media consumption. A caution however: If you approach this ‘social scene’ too commercially, it’s off-putting.
Companies are collections of people, of individuals. People are interested in people.
People do business (read BUYING) with people they like. “I'm sure you and others who might be interested in my soap and OTA connection aren't necessarily going to want to see status updates about what cute thing my daughter said today and links supporting my political views.” But oh yes we do! Everyone loves little personal vignettes of life.
The warmer the business, the HOTTER the sales. ‘Customers’ are fleeting, but ‘friends’ are forever.
People LIKE to know WHO they’re doing business with, and that’s becoming ever more important as ‘Corporate’ facades appear so impersonal.
People want to KNOW that what you’re saying in public is also what you’re saying in private, and that you’re not one of those slippery politicians in private not supporting what you say and claim in public. And this transparency is especially true as we enter the age of ‘Ethical Marketing’. (See our Facebook Page Notes)
The Circle Networking Group, as one of the Northwest’s power group says, “More business happens when people put a face to a name. Our events lead to new clients, new business partnerships and referral opportunities.” So in this World of e-mails, texting, data transfers and https, it comes down to a ‘human’ need: “Who are you, really.”
And if you allow a free and unfettered conversation, which you must in 2010, you gather a LIVE, dynamic, continually updated survey of the public pulse: Mood, fads, trends and how to early connect the new dots.
Of course, any one of our ‘friends’ can certainly promo their business,
‘cause after all, we’re not doing this JUST for the smiles. But the promo has to be in the context of it having relevancy to others’ lives. A straight-up ‘ad’ falls flat.
Every time someone asks to be our ‘friend’, I personally “WELCOME” them to our FUN Facebook Page Facebook.com/DennisLWeaver with a Story about them, some pic of them, and sometimes very cheesy,
a riff or run-up. If we get a ‘friend’ request from someone without a pic, you know, with one of those generic avatars, I write them back: “No generic ‘friends’ allowed. We ALL WANT to know who you are before you can join with us in the FUN.”
I write mostly about others (See our Facebook Page Links),
Pearl appears in ROMP’S Organic Suede Fringed Catsuit!
but EVERYONE KNOWS who I am, Founder and Good Food Guide, Change Your Food - Change Your Life!, so effectively, every time I write, CYF-CYL! is present. And then of course, I ‘sell’ CYF-CYL! from time-to-time through an Issues Statement, a Position Paper, announcement of an Event, an original video or song or a “makin’ that healthful difference in the lives of others” story.
The Social Media Network MARKETING Campaign we’re developing will be a multiple number of Social Media Sites: Facebook(s), YouTube(s), MySpace(s), LinkedIn, Twitter, etc., each with a little different content. However, they are all ‘related’ one to the other and back to CYF-CYL! By having a multiple number of Sites, we improve the odds catching eyes, picking up eyes, and driving ‘em back to CYF-CYL!
This new Social Media ‘scene’ is COOL and HIP. So if you want to have COOL and HIP, you invite COOL and HIP on your Team! Our Lillyan George will fill THAT bill quite well! She’ll be knitting together our network from her little art studio in Marysville. For a check and a nice bottle of Organic Champagne, Lillyan can also get YOU off and runnin’ with a Social Marketing HIT!
Write me.
To Your Health!
Dennis L. Weaver, MBA, GFG
Founder
Change Your Food – Change Your Life!™
425.774.8971
www.ChangeYourFood.com
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