There’s a great post on unlocking fans using social media over at VentureBeat’s Entrepreneur Corner. The gist of it is below. Full post here.
Identify the right fans: Understanding and knowing who your true fans are. True fans aren’t necessarily people who are evangelists of your company. They could be proponents of the broader category of technology that you sell or could even be fans of your competitors.
Listen to your fans: Once you have identified and followed the fans of your company and your industry, listen to them. Establish a process for regularly watching the trending topics of the people who care about your space. In other words, fish your pond, not the ocean. Then, create a data feed from your fans outputs and then use search more effectively on broader terms.
Engage with your fans: Once you know who your fans are and what they’re talking about, you can more effectively interact with them. Reply to their tweets, comment on their blogs, or generate original content that addresses an emerging topic your fan base is talking about. All of this will strengthen the connections to your closer community.
Market to your fans: Your true fan list should be one of your most valuable marketing assets. As you establish these contacts, your marketing promotions can become that much more effective and viral. Keep your fans top of mind when you want to solicit product feedback, launch a product, promote an event, create a white paper or host a webinar or online forum.
Give tools to your fans: Give them tools so they can market for you. You can generate promotional items and marketing content that your fan list can get behind, promote to their own network and evangelize on your behalf.
Renee Blodgett is the founder of We Blog the World. The site combines the magic of an online culture and travel magazine with a global blog network and has contributors from every continent in the world. Having lived in 10 countries and explored nearly 80, she is an avid traveler, and a lover, observer and participant in cultural diversity.
She is also the CEO and founder of Magic Sauce Media, a new media services consultancy focused on viral marketing, social media, branding, events and PR. For over 20 years, she has helped companies from 12 countries get traction in the market. Known for her global and organic approach to product and corporate launches, Renee practices what she pitches and as an active user of social media, she helps clients navigate digital waters from around the world. Renee has been blogging for over 16 years and regularly writes on her personal blog Down the Avenue, Huffington Post, BlogHer, We Blog the World and other sites. She was ranked #12 Social Media Influencer by Forbes Magazine and is listed as a new media influencer and game changer on various sites and books on the new media revolution. In 2013, she was listed as the 6th most influential woman in social media by Forbes Magazine on a Top 20 List.
Her passion for art, storytelling and photography led to the launch of Magic Sauce Photography, which is a visual extension of her writing, the result of which has led to producing six photo books: Galapagos Islands, London, South Africa, Rome, Urbanization and Ecuador.
Renee is also the co-founder of Traveling Geeks, an initiative that brings entrepreneurs, thought leaders, bloggers, creators, curators and influencers to other countries to share and learn from peers, governments, corporations, and the general public in order to educate, share, evaluate, and promote innovative technologies.
