Social Media in practice #2: An update: SM 4 a London premium property site

This post is the second in a series about putting social media theory into practice.

A small premium property agency in London has been looking to update their web site. Over a two day period I created the following blog:

http://allyttaproperty.wordpress.com/

It features a listing of properties prominently and is almost a crossover between a property listing site and a blog.

I then created two Twitter accounts - this is one:

https://twitter.com/AllyttaProperty

This post is an update on the results in the past two weeks. 

The blog/web site has had 263 views in two weeks. The best day was last Thursday, when 40 views were recorded. Here is a listing of where people have come from who viewed the site over the last few weeks:

Two Twitter accounts will slowly follow people interested in property in London. Already, within two weeks, they have 627 followers. A few of these will be likely clients. I don't expect much of a return for the time involved in setting all this up, Tweeting daily, and reporting on it all, until about three months has passed 

The Twitter account tweets a 50% mix of links to the Allytta blog and 50% London/property industry news.

The main benefits so far are probably more about good client relationships, but I do expect real business to be generated from the site and Twitter feeds soon. What do you think?


Come back here each month and I will update you on progress on this real life example of the use of social media for an SME business in the UK.

Social Media in practice #1: A London premium property site & Twitter feed

There are lots of great posts about social media theory. This post is the 1st in a series about putting the theory into practice.

A small property agency in London has been looking to update their web site. They have been getting few hits on their traditional site, and have to advertise offline and online to drive telephone calls to their offices and increase sales of their rental properties and for sale properties.

Over a 2 day period I created the following blog:

http://allyttaproperty.wordpress.com/

It features a listing of properties prominently and is almost a crossover between a property listing site and a blog.

I then created a Twitter account:

https://twitter.com/AllyttaProperty

The parts that took up most of the two days were deciding on the Wordpress template, I tried four before picking that one, getting the most out of the template options, and putting all the images into the right format.

The Twitter account will slowly follow people interested in property in London. Already, within 6 days, it has 106 followers. A few of these will be likely clients.

The Twitter account tweets a 50% mix of links to the Allytta blog and 50% London property industry news.

Some say this should be a 25% ads to 75% news mix, but with the people the Twitter account is following being interested in property and there being no question that this is a celebrity site suddenly pushing cola - a bait & switch technique. I think such a percentage is reasonable. The Allytta Twitter account is 100% up front about what  you should expect if you follow it.

It will be some time, 3 months I have suggested to the property agency owner, before we know what impact such a linked social media to blog/site will have on sales. Come back here each month and I will update you on progress on this real life example of the use of social media for an SME business in the UK.

Now, the fact that it only took me two days to set up a reasonable looking site and social media strategy for a small business made me think about a few things:

1. Why do some web design agencies charge so much for sites?

2. Why are there still so many static web sites, which are not using Twitter to reach out to potential clients?

3. What else should I be doing for Allytta to show them the practical benefits of social media?

I have considered Facebook & LinkedIn options, and they will probably come in a few months, so it is really other ideas I am hoping you might contribute for us all.

Pinterest, if we have some great pics of some of the apartments with flowers and lovely meals on the table would be nice, I think, but would it generate sales?

What do you think? What have I missed? What social media strategy do you think works?

Supercharging social media with storytelling techniques: #10 Romance!

Romance, how the hell am I going to involve romance in a technique for social media?

Can you guess?

Romance can be used in a social media context. Romance is often either the main plot or a subplot in most popular movies, TV shows and books. Isn't it time social media postings included a little romance too?

We can use a little romance, a little bit of emotional openness, to engage blog readers and post readers. Here's a few examples:

1. Offer a 2 for 1 price on dinners at your restaurant, on the day you met your wife.

2. Similarly, you can offer romantic weekends, 2 for 1 gym memberships, his and hers perfume deals/jewelry deals or chocolates with books and flowers or whatever fits in with what you are involved in, on a special day for you, or a member of staff or whenever suits you.

3. Respect the power of love with links to romantic poetry, books or movies, at special times for you or others.

4. Celebrate family and/or couples with images pages on Pinterest or Flickr for anniversaries, special occasions etc. You can make these open only to people you know, if you are worried about privacy.

5. If you are a big stuffy corporate you can post images from any family day or barbecue event or wedding event you are involved with. Start by posting these on an internal private blog or Twitter account, as part of your internal social media program, and occasionally you might let the public see what is going on, if participants agree to the images going out.

Use a little of the magic of romance to spice up your posts occasionally and watch people come back for more.

Auto posting - chocolate cake on special today!

Your cake is here:



Facebook has, at last, introduced a feature called scheduled posts, for Pages only. This will allow people to decide when their posts will appear on their Page timeline. Watch for the clock symbol on the post and click year, then month, then day and time. You will be able to post up to six months ahead.

This has a number of practical benefits. For people like me who get up at 5AM and create posts early it will mean a post can be delayed until a more suitable time, or even for when I'm away trying to make some real money.

Such practical benefits will lead to fundamental changes on Facebook and also, eventually, on Twitter, blogs and every other social site. The idea that you have to hit the "post" button yourself will go out of fashion. The era of the auto post has arrived.

Sure, third party auto posting services have been available for years. I use Buffer to schedule Tweets during the day. But when Facebook and Twitter finally get around to allowing posts to be scheduled tens of millions will use their service. Setting up a stream of auto posts will allow people to Tweet and post more often too. And it will force people to think about what they're posting.

And it will lead to auto posts from devices, such as fridges.

And soon the parking meter will Tweet that it's free, if you've signed up for the coffee shop's posts.

And then your Ford will auto-post where you've parked to your friends on Google+, while you're on your way to the coffee shop.

And all that because the coffee shop fridge auto-Tweeted a special 70% off deal on chocolate cake an hour before closing. 70% off!

The temptation will be hard to resist, won't it? Would you like a bite? It's soft and crunchy all at the same time.





Your imagination is the only thing that will stop you enjoying it.

Who said they don't like auto posting?

Supercharging social media with storytelling techniques: #9 The Cliff Hanger

Everyone who reads popular fiction and watches TV knows what a cliff hanger is. It's literally cutting away from the story as the hero hangs from a cliff. The reader is hooked into reading on, fast, to find out what happens. Every genre uses the cliff hanger, so don't think it's just a pulp fiction technique either. Some are just more subtle about it than others.

But can the cliff hanger be used for social media posts? I suggest yes. In fact I recommend it as a way to keep people involved and coming back.

So how can you use it? Well, it will take a little thought, but with a dash of openness I am sure you can come up with some real cliff hangers about what you do. For instance try talking about:

1. The uncertainty about how many chocolate cakes will sell every day, when you need to sell 10 a day to do well.

2. The uncertainty about the features of a new product.

3. The uncertainty about your annual results.

4. The uncertainty about how many people will come to your exhibition.

5. The uncertainty about how a performer will perform at your club next Saturday.

6. Are you going to sell five million or ten million copies of your new book?

7. Are you going to become number 1 in your industry, at last?

With a little ingenuity I am sure you can come up with some real uncertainties, which aren't about any lack of confidence, but are playful, and which are honest too. Good luck and let me know if you have managed to create any.

You may not want to literally hang from a cliff, but a little uncertainty is good in life. For instance, what will this blog cover next? I hope you come back to find out.

Supercharging social media with storytelling techniques: #8 Using your senses

Sight, taste, sound, smell and touch are the 5 senses that connect us to the world. When you read about them the written world comes alive, and engagement increases.

But can you use senses in social media?

Here are five short post examples to whet your appetite:

1. The electric blue of our new logo was chosen to illustrate our speedy delivery.

2. You can taste success, champagne and lobster, if you choose our early bird special.

3. The silence in our service office is not just because of the few calls we get, it's also because our dedicated staff are focusing on helping clients.

4. The smell of coffee in our new staff canteen is wonderful!

5. When you touch our new shoes you will understand the pleasure our high quality leather brings.

I know you won't be able to use each of your senses every day, or anything like that, but thinking about incorporating sensory information in your posts, either small or as a jump off point for a larger post, will expand the range of things you talk about and increase engagement with readers by connecting you with their senses.

Think senses when you are looking around for something else to post about.

7 interesting social media stats for 2012

1. The number of blogs globally in April 2010 was 135 million. The number of blogs globally in April 2012 was estimated at 198 million (BlogPulse.com).

2. 80% of 18-29 year olds are using social media in the United States in 2012.

3. 50%+ of the UK population have a Facebook presence in 2012. 25-34 year olds are the largest group.

4. 58% of Fortune 500 companies have Facebook pages in 2012.

5. The number of Twitter users more than doubled in the UK from 2011 (12 million) to 2012 (26 million).

6. 62% of Fortune 500 companies have active Twitter accounts in 2012.

7. 81% of B2B marketeers found online marketing moderately or extremely challenging in early 2012.

Social media is not going away, if anything it is embedding deeper into our social and economic lives.

And it's challenging too.