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Customers don’t give a fig about pricing

Kylie Fennell

Your customers don’t actually give a fig about pricing!

More accurately, your ‘ideal’ customers don’t care about it as much as you think they do.
Many business owners, including myself, have spent hours agonising over price.
Women business owners particularly struggle setting their prices and being comfortable with their actual worth.
We ask ourselves: “How much would my customer be willing to pay?”, “Am I too expensive?”, “Am I pricing myself out of the market?”.
You could drive yourself around the bend trying to match your competitor’s pricing, but that is merry-go-round you don’t want to ride on.
For the vast majority of businesses, industries, products and services, your A and B list clients are happy to pay whatever price you’re asking, as long as they’re getting value for money.
Customers only need to be convinced they’re getting what they paid for, that is “It’s worth it” – and the beauty of value and worth is that it’s subjective.
To explain myself, value is in the eyes of the beholder, that is, pricing is directly related to “perceived value”.
As long as the perceived benefits you offer, stack up to the price you’re asking, then the customers you want will be willing to pay it.
The customers that don’t want to pay it, are probably your D-list clients – the ones that are going to be too much trouble to deal with and you don’t want anyway.
The benefits you can offer clients are almost endless but include:
  • Emotional benefits – does the customer feel good or happy buying your product or service
  • Social benefits – will it make the customer look good to others, or increase their social standing
  • Economic benefits – will it help them save or make money in the long run
  • Lifestyle benefits – will it save them time, make their life better
  • Moral benefits – will it benefit others, the community or environment
  • Feature benefits – what will the customer actually get and particularly can’t get from somewhere else
  • Risk reduction benefits – what do you offer that may reduce their fear or level of perceived risk buying from you or your industry.

Now I’m not giving you open licence to charge exorbitant prices. At the end of the day customers have to be convinced they’re getting value for money and the only way to do that is to match your pricing to your unique benefit statements.

Give them reasons to trust you and have a level of comfort buying from you.
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Why I’m Still in Mourning for Deadwood

Kylie Fennell

I am still in mourning. One of my favourite TV series, Justified, finished a little while ago after six seasons.

In Justified, Timothy Olyphant portrays Raylan Givens, a tough US Marshal enforcing his own brand of justice in his hometown of Harlan, Kentucky.

Raylan Givens is something of a 19th-century–style, Old West lawman living in modern times, whose unconventional enforcement of justice makes him a target of criminals, and a problem child to his US Marshals Service superiors.

The good guys are great, and the bad guys are awesome!

From Boyd Crowder, a master criminal and silver tongued devil in a tight-fitting suit, to Dickie Bennett and his hill-billy marijuana growing family and the mishap-prone Dewey Crowe, it is truly entertaining.

Like any good things though they must come to an end, which led me to search for another show to fill the empty space in my heart.

The most obvious next step was to revisit Deadwood, which also featured Timothy Olyphant, but only ran for three seasons (2004-2006). It may be 10 years old, but this series hasn’t lost any of its shine for me.

The TV Series was based on and inspired in parts by actual facts and real people from Deadwood, South Dakota circa 1877. The series featured larger-than-life characters like “Wild Bill” Hickok, “Calamity Jane” Cannary, the Earp brothers, and Al Swearengen.

I loved it mainly for the show’s unusual dialogue.

The show creators injected Shakespearean language into the American Wild West and peppered it with what’s been described as nothing short of “the most delightfully vulgar language you’ll ever hear on a TV show”.

Unfortunately Deadwood met a premature end (like many of the Deadwood inhabitants) for the same reason it’s fans loved it – the language. The venn diagram above explains more.

So yes I mourn the ending of Justified and Deadwood, but while there is Timothy Olyphant and show creators such as those that brought us these series, there is still some hope of bringing the Wild West, amazing characters and dialogue with a difference, back to life.

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Who ya gonna call?

Kylie Fennell

The true test of a business is how they handle themselves when things go wrong.

The best marketing efforts in the world can go come to a big fat zero if a business doesn’t provide great follow-up services.

Simply put, a business needs to let it’s customers know ‘who they can call’ when things go wrong.

These days it seems near impossible, especially with larger organisations, to get a name and a number or an email address for an actual person.

Customers are all directed to a centralised email address or number, and then you are shunted through a series of recorded prompts, dial 2 for X, 3 for Y, 4 for Z, hang-on there isn’t an option for me…what do I do now?

Eventually you may be connected to a person, who answers the phone with, ‘what’s your name, account reference, ID number, date of birth and shoe size’. You then explain your situation in great detail to a person who seems to be reading from a script of pre-prepared Q&As. Nine times out of 10 your query is outside of their expertise or authority, they put you on hold, where you wait for what seems like hours before you’re accidentally cut-off and have to go back to the beginning and start the whole process again.

Let’s look at it from the point of view of the customer:

  • They are “not feeling the love”
  • Their problem remains unsolved
  • They have wasted valuable time
  • They wonder if they made the right decision purchasing your product or service.
Now let’s look at it from the point of view of the person who took your call:
  • They don’t have the authority or expertise to help you
  • They don’t know you or have a relationship with you, so are less likely to be personally invested in solving your problem
  • They probably get abused by customers all day, just as frustrated by the process as much as you are.

Personally I love the idea of having Account Managers or Key Relationship Managers.

Customers love knowing there is someone they can call regardless of their issue. Someone who understands them and their needs, as well as relevant history and is personally invested in you.
Workplaces also benefit from account management models, where individuals are given responsibility or ownership of a function, account or region.
It makes their job more worthwhile and rewarding, clarifies areas of responsibilities, and enables staff to hone their skills and knowledge in a particular area.
The best model includes a back-up account manager, which provides continuity during staff absences, as well as enhances professional development of staff as they familiarise themselves with other areas.
If your customers don’t know ‘who they’re gonna call’ and aren’t feeling the love, you have a potential marketing disaster on your hands.
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What customers want – no sausages for you

Kylie Fennell 2 comments

It was a simple request. ‘Do you make up family packs of meat?’

The answer from my local butcher was a resounding ‘no’.

I persisted, after all I had been a regular customer for more than four years: ‘I’d be happy to take what ever is on special that week. Secondary cuts of meat, anything really and commit to ongoing purchases’.

‘No. We don’t do family packs. You can just buy whatever is on the shelf.’ (said in a very stern voice)

Taken aback, and feeling a little admonished, I quickly grabbed the first couple of items I could find on the shelf, paid and got out of there, tail between my legs.

From a personal point of view the situation was quite frustrating.

I’m a busy mum and I like to buy my groceries and meat in bulk. I also like to support my local butcher, so asking for a family pack was a no brainer for me. Not so for the butcher.

From a marketing perspective the whole situation was plain complexing. As far as I could see, it was nothing but a lost opportunity for the business.

Of course every business has and should have the right to dictate their products and services, but if you don’t listen to your customers and don’t take a ‘marketing’ approach to your business, you do it at your own peril.

Marketing ideas can come from many places.

Typically you can identify marketing opportunities by conducting market research, monitoring your competitors or reviewing sales figures.

However one of the easiest and most effective methods of identifying marketing ideas and opportunities is to listen to your customers.

What do your customers want?

If you are truly receptive to new marketing opportunities and ideas, your customers will give them to you – and the beauty of it is that if you have your listening ears on, you shouldn’t even have to come out and ask them.

Customers will often tell you what they want without prompting and if you listen carefully, you can create powerful opportunities for your business and ultimately make more sales.

Not every suggestion or a request from a customer is going to be worthwhile considering, but plenty of ideas are.

The key to this is taking a ‘marketing’ approach to your business, rather than a ‘selling’ approach.

What I mean by this is, ‘selling’ involves having an existing product or service and promoting what you already have to obtain sales. A ‘marketing’ approach means to refine or develop new products or services to meet market demands or target new markets – then of course sell them.

Using this approach means you are continually evolving, monitoring your internal and external environment and listening to customers.

Just because I only want to sell ‘X, Y and Z’ products, doesn’t necessarily mean that ‘X, Y and Z’ is what the market wants and will buy. You need to give customers what they want, unless they really aren’t the types of customers you’re looking for.

This brings me back to the butcher example. You may think, maybe the butcher doesn’t want customers like me – local mums buying meat for their families.

This could be the case, but for them they’ve lost an obvious opportunity. The butcher is located directly across the road from a school and I can tell you with all honesty if they had offered me a family pack of meat, I would have gone to school and told every mum I know about it.

Now though, I am looking for an alternative option. The convenience of having a family pack of high quality meat, outweighs for me the convenience of being just around the corner. I will happily travel now to the next suburb or further afield just to get my family pack of meat, which I will then in turn tell everyone about.

So are you giving customers what they want? Or are you giving them what you think they want? Or worse still are you guilty of giving them what you think they should want?

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Let’s get medieval again

Kylie Fennell

It’s coming up to that time of year again in South East Queensland.

Time to go medieval!

If you’re a fan of Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings or any other medieval fantasy you need to make your way to the Abbey Medieval Festival.

This year the Medieval Banquets will be held on 27 June and 4 July with Tournament Days on 11 and 12 July.

The event is hosted in Caboolture, an urban centre on the outskirts of Brisbane, or the Sunshine Coast (depending on where you come from).

The festival goes over a couple of weekends and features everything from jousting, banqueting, and fencing to medieval music, food and dancing.

I can tell you from experience that the Abbey Festival is a delight for the general medieval enthusiast, as well as the hardcore re-enactors who live on-site in tents: dressing, eating and sleeping as if they were in medieval times.

Think Game of Thrones inspired merchandise, delicious mulled wine, archery, jousts and delicious food.

What’s exciting about this year’s line up with the series of suggested itineraries for kids.

The Festival organisers have put together itineraries for: 


They suggest grabbing a spot at the Castle Arena for the Grande Parade, where you will be introduced to each historical reenactment group as they do a tour of the arena in all their splendour.
Then you should plan your day around the Jousts which are held at 10:30am 12:00pm, 1:45pm and 3:15pm. Tickets can be pre-purchased online or bought on the day, but get them early as the jousts are very popular! 

Combat displays are on all day from 11am at The Common (on the way to the Friar’s Folly and Joust Titleyard), with Medieval Life and Dance displays at the Village Green (next to the Stag Inn and markets place).

For the more academic among you, visit the University Pavilion to learn about such things as the making of chain maille, Medieval Surgery and Medicine and Soaps, Scents and Smells in 12th Century England. 

You can find the University Pavilion on the Western side of the field by the High Middle Ages encampments.

There will be Stained Glass Tours throughout the day on Saturday and in the afternoon on Sunday, with lute recitals in the morning at the Abbey Museum. They are free to all visitors of the festival and are held at the Abbey Church, a couple of minutes walk from the main site.

All you need to do now is dust off your suits of armour and count down the days until you can go medieval!

Thing-a-ma-jigs and whats-a-mets – customer and marketing tools you need now

Kylie Fennell

In Marketing like most other professions there are always acronyms, abbreviations and jargon that are commonly used and can leave the marketing novice a little confused.

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), CMS (Content Management Systems), COIs (Centre of Influence), Lead Magnets – you get the picture.

In the confusion some of these tools may as well be Thing-a-ma-jigs and Whats-a-mets for all the sense the abbreviations make.

Today I want to talk about a couple of those tools that you could benefit from having right now.

Specifically I want to talk about CRMs and Email Auto Responders.

A CRM is a Customer Relationship Management system.

It is a system for managing a company’s interactions with current and future customers.

There are thousands of options out there,  Capsule, Infusionsoft, Insightly just to name a few.

CRMs often involve using technology or software to organise, automate, and synchronise sales, marketing, customer service and communication.

CRMs can also be used to allocate tasks to follow up customers and track them. Additionally they can integrate with book keeping and sales systems.

When you’re first starting out a spreadsheet might be all you need to track customers names, details, sales history, and recent communication – at least initially.

However a good CRM becomes a critical tool as your business grows.

It can be invaluable for managing content, engaging with your customers and creating automated email campaigns. It’s incredibly important for large databases.

CRMs don’t have to be as complex as they sound or expensive. Some are free and many are low cost – thought you should always compare the functionality and features before committing to purchase.

They are often used in conjunction with an Email Auto Responder (such as www.mailchimp.com or www.aweber.com) for bulk and automated emails.
Many CRMs integrate with auto responder programs so the communication history will also be logged in the CRM and a customer’s sales actions may trigger a particular email in the auto responder program.
The goal of an auto responder email series is to convert the recipient to a purchaser or customer.
You will start by collecting an email address, which is added to a list(s) (subscription forms are often included along with unsubscribe features).
It may include an automatic welcome email (with a double opt-in process to confirm the subscription).
The contact will then receive ‘personalised’ emails as part of an automated series or specific campaign you have set up. Often there are ready to go templates you can just fill out for your email campaign.
However you must always follow relevant laws, regulations and terms of use when collecting and using email addresses, particularly ensure you’re across Privacy and Anti Spam legislation.
Once you have a contact in your CRM or auto responder you want to segment them so they can receive communication more specific to them or their actions.
Segmentation can be completed using the following or similar criteria:
  • Add them to specific groups
  • Tag them eg. lead, customer or key influencer
  • Segment them based on whether they have taken a specific action or not during an email series eg. Purchased or Not
  • Actions such as opened, clicked or not opened, has or hasn’t replied
  • Date of when they were added or changes to their profiles
  • Location, language or member rating, even birthdays
  • Purchase activity if integrated with E-commerce platform
  • Performance against visit goals you have set
  • Social data such as age, gender, followers/fans, social networks
  • Number of deliveries, opens, clicks, forwards, most visited locations, subscribers with most opens, locations, sales.
These tools often include great tracking and analytics. A snapshot can be seen above.
So now that I’ve demystified thing-a-ma-jigs and whats-a-mets it’s over to you to go out and get a CRM and Email Auto Responder and take your marketing to the next level.

How much does it cost?

Kylie Fennell

When it comes to marketing, everyone wants to know, “how much will it cost?”.

But a better question is “how much is a customer worth?”.

Marketing can be notoriously hard to measure in terms of return on investment.

Sometimes it can be difficult to prove a direct link between marketing activities and results.

In a previous post I explained some of the ways you can monitor and evaluate your marketing success. Some of these tips included measuring enquiries, sales, social media engagement, click through rates, customer surveys and media coverage.

Today I want to talk about cost per lead and cost per conversion.

The great thing about the formulas I’m about to explain is that they enable you to allocate a dollar amount to how much it costs to get a new lead and convert a lead.

This also helps you to identify the proportion of leads you’re converting.

Once you know these figures you can easily set yourself a benchmark and then regularly monitor and measure your success against the figures.

Your overall aim is to increase the proportion of leads vs conversions, overall number of conversions and decrease the dollar figure per conversion.

Once you know what dollar figure per customer you’re targeting you can also set yourself more realistic marketing budgets.

Some software programs and analytics programs have built in functionality to measure specific campaigns and their contribution to leads and sales, but this is mainly for online marketing activities and sales.

You can manually calculate how much getting a customer costs when it comes to all of your marketing activities with the following formulas. You will need to choose a time period for calculating the following figures and apply it across all the formulas. You could choose a 12 month period, a month or the period of a specific marketing campaign.

Marketing cost per lead (for X time period) = marketing costs (for X time period) / Number of leads (for X time period).

Marketing cost per conversion or sale (for X time period) = marketing costs (for X time period) / Number of conversions or sales (for X time period). 

You can take this a step further and calculate (from past sales data) the average value of each sale or new customer over the same time period and then calculate return on investment (ROI). If you have a type of business that typically holds onto customers for more than 12 months than calculate the average LIFETIME VALUE of that customer.

Your marketing ROI is the total value of your new customers or new sales over the time period or lifetime value of your customers minus the marketing costs OR

Marketing ROI = Sales revenue – Marketing costs (for X time period).

Of course the above formula only considers revenue so it doesn’t take into account other overheads that will affect overall profits but it does indicate the relationship between your marketing spend and sales. This is then another measure or benchmark you can use for future marketing campaigns and activities.

Finally you can calculate the Marketing ROI of each new customer by using the following formula:

Marketing ROI of each new customer = (Sales revenue – Marketing costs)/Number of new customers 

Finally you can also express Marketing ROI as a percentage with the following calculation:
Marketing ROI % = ((Sales revenue – Marketing costs)/Marketing costs) x 100

The percentage figures can seem a little on the high side but they once again will show the correlation between marketing spend and sales.

Below you can find a sample of these calculations for a fictional business over a 12 month period.

ANNUAL MARKETING COSTS $10,000.00

NUMBER OF (TARGET) LEADS IN YEAR		 1000

NUMBER OF (TARGET) CONVERSIONS IN YEAR		 300

MARKETING COST PER LEAD		 $10.00

MARKETING COST PER CONVERSION (CUSTOMER)		 $33.33

AVERAGE VALUE OF EACH NEW CUSTOMER OVER 12 MONTHS (SALES REVENUE)		 $500.00

TOTAL VALUE OF NEW CUSTOMERS OVER 12 MONTHS (SALES REVENUE)		 $150,000.00

OVERALL MARKETING ROI AFTER 12 MONTHS		 $140,000.00

ROI OF EACH NEW CUSTOMER AFTER MARKETING COSTS OVER 12 MONTHS		 $466.67
MARKETING ROI% 1400.00%

TIP: The above formulas are great for measuring marketing activities and their success but in business you also need to take into account your overall profit margins, so you may wish to ALSO deduct other overheads (NOT just marketing costs) when calculating ROI figures. This will enable you to make sure your marketing activities are well within budget.

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Wait for it….

Kylie Fennell
Some days I am just soooooo darn tired from writing stuff for other people (by other people I mean clients who I absolutely adore of course) that I just don’t have the energy to write for myself. 
That day was today. 
It’s a real Catch 22 situation that I need to earn money to afford the time to write for myself, but the best way for me to earn money is to write for other people and then I’m too tired to write for myself…ahhh the trials and tribulations.
Fortunately though I came across this little gem of a picture, which I understand has been doing the internet rounds for quite a while, and I felt pretty energised all of a sudden. 
Unfortunately not energised enough to write a proper blog post this week. 
So this week please settle for this awesome image. I promise I will make it up to you next time.
In the meantime you can get some inspiration of your own from pictures just like this at the super cool image site Twisted Sifter. 
TGIF x

Forget black cats – avoid people who owe you lots of money on Friday the 13th

Kylie Fennell
So today is supposed to be unlucky.
If you’re the superstitious type you’re probably avoiding black cats and making sure you don’t walk under ladders. Why though is this day considered unlucky at all?
There is one popular theory (some say modern urban legend) that claims the origins of Friday the 13th comes from the Knights Templar.  And like any good story, it includes themes of betrayal, revenge, greed, injustice and secret treasures.
The original Knights Templar were a Christian military order existing from the 12th to 14th centuries and mainly associated with fighting during the Crusades.
They fought alongside the likes of King Richard I, or Richard the Lionheart, and were an elite fighting force. The Knights were highly trained, well-equipped and highly motivated. As part of their religious order they were forbidden from retreating in battle, unless outnumbered three to one, and even then only by order.
For two hundred years the Knights Templar were the most dominant force in Christendom.
The Templars were institutionally wealthy, paid no taxes, and had a large standing army, which by papal decree could move freely through all European borders.
They were a fixture of everyday life. They were significant landholders, employers and the head of an international banking system that allowed nobles to deposit funds and valuables for safekeeping.
However after their defeat at the Siege of Acre and the loss of the Holy Land, the Knights Templar’s influence began to wane and enemies began to appear.
King Philip IV of France had borrowed enormous sums of money from the Knights to finance a war with England, a war he later lost.
King Philip saw an opportunity to reduce the Knights’ power and avoid repaying his financial debts.
On Friday, 13 October 1307, King Philip ordered the simultaneous arrest of scores of Templars and the seizing of all of their property.
The Templars were charged with heresy, worshiping false idols and other crimes against the church. Many of them were tortured until they ‘confessed’ to their crimes.
Despite the dubious nature of the confessions and a questionable trial, the Knights were burned at the stake, leading to other arrests across Europe.
In 1312, and under pressure from King Philip, Pope Clement V issued an edict officially dissolving the Order.
Some stories claim that a group of Templars had managed to evade King Philip and escape with vast stores of treasure and holy relics.
Theories popularised in modern culture also claimed the Knights were keepers and defenders of the Holy Grail – we’ve all seen Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade haven’t we?


Even if Friday the 13th didn’t originate from the Knights Templar, and religious views and plausibility aside, as a fan of historical fiction I think it makes a pretty good yarn.

So have a happy and safe Friday the 13thand avoid any Kings that owe you large sums of money.

How to master your social media in 2015

Kylie Fennell
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles/freedigitalphotos.net


Any blog post I have written about social media has always been popular. This popularity is for good reason – it’s a highly effective tool for small to medium enterprises (SMEs) but it also can seem a little overwhelming.
I have written previous posts on the importance of having a social media presence and what social media platforms are best for your target market, as well as how to create valuable content.
Here I wanted to give you updates on some of the latest research on social media in Australia coming from the Yellow Pages Social Media Report 2014.
Here is my latest overview of the main social media networks and the demographics of social media users for each network.
The most interesting finding in this report was that 38% of SMEs that used social media reported increased sales, compared to 28% of those that didn’t.
Additionally SMEs with social media were also more likely to report increases in
profitability (35% compared to 22%) and increasing employment (13% compared to 7%).
The highlights from the latest report are as follows:
  • 71% of social media users are accessing it via a smartphone
  • 49% of people are researching clothing or fashion
  • 43% are researching electrical goods
  • 29% are researching furniture homewares
  • 46% of internet users access social media every day
  • 71% of 20-29-year-old internet users access social media every day
  • 45% of social media users turned off Twitter over the last 12 months
  • 19% dropped Facebook
  • 58% of social media users are accessing it after work (around 6.30pm)
  • More than four in 10 social media users reported using social media while watching television
  • News and current affairs was most popular genre for social networking while watching TV, followed by dramas
  • Almost three in 10 of those that used social media while watching television reported discussing the programs on social media while they were on
  • 63% of social media users researching a product or service on social media led to a purchase
  • With 47% of the resultant purchases made online
  • 33% of social media users follow brands or businesses
  • The majority of those following brands or businesses wants discounts or giveways followed by product info
  • Overall 30% of social media users have provided online ratings in the past year
  • Online reviews are mainly for accommodation, restaurants/bars, holiday destinations, stores, movies and mobile apps
  • On average, social media users read three reviews/blogs before making a purchase decision.
So here is an updated overview of the networks and who is using each of them, as well as post ideas for a sample cat grooming and breeding business to illustrate how to use each network.
Facebook
Facebook can be likened to a journal. If you only want to be active on one social media network, Facebook is the best choice for most businesses (though this can change for some businesses depending on their industry and target market).
Users create a personal profile, add other users as friends, exchange messages and photographs and receive automatic notifications when their friends update their profiles. Businesses can create company ‘pages’ that Facebook users can ‘like’, which means they will receive notifications of any updates to the company page. Updates appear on users’ newsfeed. Additionally, users may join common-interest user groups, organised by workplace, school or college, or other characteristics.
User demographics
  • 95% of users of social media use Facebook
  • Slightly preferred by females
  • 100% of 65+ social media users, use Facebook (they were the lowest user group in 2013)
  • Lowest user age groups are 40-49 year-olds at 92%
  • Used in metropolitan and regional areas but slightly preferred by regional.
Industry/business types
Facebook suits pretty much every type of industry and business, though fashion/clothing and sporting clubs represent the most brands/businesses followed on Facebook. It suits fast moving consumer goods.
How to use it
Businesses need to create a Facebook ‘page’. They need to be careful they are not creating a ‘personal’ profile, as this will limit functionality and ability of any users wanting to like your page.
Aim to update it around once a day. Frequency will depend on how engaged your audience is and when they are most likely to check Facebook. You can get a feel for the best times to post by checking your engagement statistics available via Facebook’s built-in analytics (it appears on the Admin panel on Facebook Pages).
The cat post
Here is a happy snap of my cat; Here is a picture of a cat groomed for cat show; Here is a touching story about a cat who saved his owner from a house fire; Here is a link to a funny cat video; Here is a funny cat picture; One day only 50% off voucher on cat products at our store
Twitter
Twitter users share ‘tweets’ or updates/comments/insights or links to other web content in 140 characters or less. You can also upload photos. It is immediate, real time news and opinions.
Users can follow other users if they want to be notified of updates in their Twitter feed. Users can ‘retweet’ content they like.
Hashtags are used to categorise content using keywords or trending topics.
User demographics
  • 19.5% of users of social media use Twitter
  • Preferred by males (25% males vs 14% females)
  • Majority of users aged 20-64 (20-29 is the largest user group followed by 30-39)
  • Predominately used in metropolitan areas
  • Twitter is very popular with celebrities, politicians and big brands. It can suit most businesses and industries as long as they are prepared to stay active on it.
How to use it
Due to the immediacy of twitter, prolific users may update several times a day or several times an hour. Brands that want to appear at the top of a newsfeed may re-post the same content over and over again. It is much better to tweak any content before re-posting. Try and establish when the best time of day for your business is to tweet. Do this by checking when people are engaging the most with your content.
Use hashtags for popular topics or trends but don’t overuse them.
The cat post
#my cat; link to newstory about cat that saves owner from burning house; funny quote about cats; short comment and/or link to laws requiring cats to be registered with local council; comment on cat story on #Bondi Vet TV show
LinkedIn
In many ways LinkedIn can be likened to an online resume. Users create a personal profile listing their current and past jobs, experience, skills and achievements. You ‘connect’ with other users and can endorse users for particular skills. You can also recommend or give a testimonial for users. Businesses can create company pages that other users can follow. You can also join groups where topics can be posted and you can join the discussion. Many jobs are posted on LinkedIn and companies have been known to recruit via LinkedIn by searching for users with particular experience or skills sets.
User demographics
  • 24.5% of users of social media use LinkedIn
  • Preferred by males (28% vs 21%)
  • Largely higher educated and higher income users
  • Majority of users aged 20-64 (30-39 is the largest user group)
  • Predominately used in metropolitan areas.
Industry/business types
Predominately used by white-collar professionals. It is an important tool for any business that relies heavily on networking, business-to-business and cross-industry contacts.
How to use it
Ensure your personal profile and company page are kept up-to-date at all times. Endorse the skills of ‘connections’ with the hope they will endorse you back. Post updates such as links to relevant industry news, reposts to other people’s content or you own comments. Nominate topics for discussion and participate in discussion where you can add value. You want to be perceived as being an expert in your field.
Post updates on average 1-3 times a week. Don’t overdo your posts as you don’t want to clog up your connections inbox; many of your connections are likely to be very, very busy people.
Only make connections with people who you genuinely want to connect with. It should be a mutually beneficial connection. Don’t just connect with strangers to boost your connection number.
The cat post
My skills include: grooming cats, animal welfare, breeding cats; Join a cat breeding association group and participate in discussions; Follow relevant industry company pages; Here is a link to a story on requirements for cat registration.
Instagram
Instagram is an online photo-sharing, video-sharing and social networking service that enables its users to take pictures and videos, apply digital filters to them, and share them on a variety of social networking services, such as Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. A distinctive feature is that it confines photos to a square shape, similar to Kodak Instamatic and Polaroid images, in contrast to the 16:9 aspect ratio now typically used by mobile device cameras. Users are also able to record and share short videos lasting for up to 15 seconds.
The service was acquired by Facebook in April 2012. 
User demographics
  • 21% of users of social media use Instagram
  • Preferred by females (30% vs 12%)
  • Most heavily used by under 30s
  • By far the majority of users are aged 14-29 (14-19 is the largest user group at 53%)
  • Use is spread almost equally across metropolitan and regional areas.
Industry/business types
As a visually based tool it is best used for creative industries or businesses that can provide interesting visuals. If your target market is 29 or under, particularly under 20 but you are not in a creative industry, you would benefit from creating visual opportunities in your work to engage this audience.
How to use it
The beauty of Instagram is that you don’t need brilliant, or professional images to make an impact, as you can use one of its many filters to spruce up an image. Take photos of visually interesting or entertaining items or people; showcase your products, clients, business or items related to your industry or interests.
If your industry is suited to this visual platform, aim to post images to your Instagram account or share on other platforms around once a day. However take your cues from your followers, as to how often they are engaging with the images. If your Instagram account is not your primary social media account you may like to use it less often, even once a week.
The cat post
Here is an arty vintage-style pic of me and my cat.
Pinterest
Pinterest is a pinboard-style photo-sharing website that allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections such as events, interests and hobbies. Users can browse or follow other pinboards for images, ‘re-pin’ images to their own pinboards, or like photos.
User demographics
  • 11.5% of users of social media use Pinterest. Usage is growing rapidly (it was only 6% in 2013).
  • Especially popular among women and mums (17% of female social media users compared to 6% of males)
  • The majority of users are aged 20-64 (20-29 is the largest user group followed by 30-49)*
  • Used two times more in metropolitan areas compared to regional.
Industry/business types
As a visually based tool it is best used for creative industries or businesses that can provide interesting visuals. If your target market is women but you are not in a creative industry, you would benefit from creating visual opportunities in your work to engage this audience.
The most popular categories are food and drink, DIY and crafts, women’s apparel and fashion, home décor and travel. Where possible it’s a great idea to include price on any products you feature.
How to use it
The focus is on beautiful images (mainly of things. People are not usually the focus of the images). Take photos of visually interesting or entertaining items; showcase your products or items related to your industry or interests.
If your industry is suited to this visual platform, aim to post images to your Pinterest account or share on other platforms around once a day. However take your cues from your followers, as to how often they are engaging with the images. If your Pinterest account is not your primary social media account you may like to use it less often, even once a week.
The cat post
A collection of my favourite cat images and cat products.
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website on which users can upload, view and share videos. Video content includes video clips, TV clips, and music videos, and amateur content such as video blogging, short original videos, instructional and educational videos. There are also dedicated YouTube channels, which can be free to access or available via online subscriptions.
User demographics
  • 48.7 million users as at February 2013
  • >880 million users globally, >10 million Australian users (as at 2012)
  • Usage is spread almost equally across males and females (a slight preference by men)
  • The majority of users are aged under 18 or 45-54-years-old.
Industry/business types
YouTube can suit every business/industry. Due to the popularity and viral nature of YouTube, as well as search engine optimisation benefits, every business should look for opportunities to engage in YouTube.
How to use it
Create instructional, educational or entertaining videos and upload to YouTube. You can film Q&As with a staff member or industry expert. You can film a presentation from a staff member or industry expert. You can provide video on how to use your product. Provide links on social media accounts and on your website.  Depending on your resources, aim to create a new video anywhere between once a week and once a month.
The cat post
Cat playing a piano; An instructional video on how to groom a cat.
Google+
Google+ is a social networking service from Google. The idea is pretty similar to other social networking services, though Google+ aims to allow more transparency in who you share with and how you interact. It also integrates all Google services and displays a new Google+ menu bar on other Google services when you’re logged into a Google account.
Google+ also incorporates components such as Circles and Hangouts. Circles are personalised social circles based on work or personal interests. You can choose more easily what you want to share with who. Google+ users can also make public feeds visible to everyone (even those without accounts) and open to comments from other Google+ users. Hangouts allows you to signal availability for video chat and instant messaging. It also allows for group chats.
User demographics
  • 20% of users of social media have a Google+ account
  • Almost equal use by males and females
  • Growing in popularity in younger age groups. The majority of users are 14-19
  • Use is spread almost equally across metropolitan and regional areas.
Industry/business types
It can be used effectively by any industry or business type. While many businesses don’t use all of the features and post that regularly on this platform, it’s worth the effort from a search engine optimisation point of view.
How to use it
Post and share interesting content, join communities, create circles and host hangouts. Aim to update it around once a day. Frequency will depend on how engaged your audience is.
The cat post
Host a hangout with other cat breeders; Join a cat breeders community.
Snapchat
Snapchat is a photo messaging application where users take photographs or video ‘snaps’ and set a time limit for how long recipient or group of recipients can view their snaps. After the time limit, the snap will be deleted from the recipient’s device and Snapchat’s servers.
It has received some bad press for it association with users sending inappropriate pictures. However many businesses are embracing it as a valid social media tool, especially for younger demographics.
User demographics
  • 16% of social media users have a Snapchat account
  • The main demographic is 14-19 years of age, followed by 20-29-years-old
  • 0% of 50+ social media users had a Snapchat account
  • Preferred by females
  • Slight preference in regional areas.
Industry/business types
This is most suited to industries or businesses that have a teenager or young adult target market. It is extremely popular with younger audiences wanting to share pics and videos with family and friends and not have those images come back to haunt them later.
How to use it
Snapchat offers a sense of urgency, which is appealing to brands and marketers. It can be used to announce contests, offer exclusive or immediate giveaways or discounts, offer a sneak peek at a product or behind the scenes images.
The cat post
Limited time offer to get 50% off cat grooming services.
Other social networks
There are literally hundreds of different social networks to choose from that may be appropriate for your business. Some are industry specific or for niche interests. Some of them may be industry or business directories, such as TrueLocal, that allow for user reviews.
Here are some other popular networks or sites.
  • Tumblr is a microblogging platform particularly popular with teenagers and young adults wanting to express themselves.
  • Myspace has a heavy focus on music and other creative industries.
  • Foursquare uses geolocation to share information on where you are. You can check into places and get offers from business for checking in. Popular with 35-54 year olds. Most appropriate for retail stores, bars, cafes and restaurants.
  • Yelp is a business review site with social networking features, discounts, and mobile applications. It is particularly good for bars, cafes and restaurants and other services
  • TripAdvisor is a travel website providing directory information and reviews of travel-related content. It also includes interactive travel forums. 

Find out more on how to use social media and get help to manage your social media presence from Kylie Fennell .

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