Coles - Social media for business: foolproof tips to help you promote your business or your brand

First published in 2018 by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd

42 McDougall St, Milton Qld 4064

Office also in Melbourne

First edition published under the title Learn Marketing with Social Media in 7 Days in 2011

Second edition published under the title Marketing with Social Media: 10 Easy Steps to Success for Business in 2015

Blue Banana 20 Ltd 2018

The moral rights of the author have been asserted

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (for example, a fair dealing for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review), no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, communicated or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission. All inquiries should be made to the publisher at the address above.

Cover design: Kathy Davis/Wiley

Cover image: Blue Button chat (Evgeniya Mukhitova/Shutterstock); Social Network Icons (Taner Sumer/Alamy Stock Vector/Alamy Stock Photo); Google Plus Icon (Yulia Ryabokon/Alamy Stock Vector/Alamy Stock Photo)

Disclaimer

The material in this publication is of the nature of general comment only, and does not represent professional advice. It is not intended to provide specific guidance for particular circumstances and it should not be relied on as the basis for any decision to take action or not take action on any matter which it covers. Readers should obtain professional advice where appropriate, before making any such decision. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the author and publisher disclaim all responsibility and liability to any person, arising directly or indirectly from any person taking or not taking action based on the information in this publication.

Sometimes its the fear of failure that stops you doing something you really want to do; the self-doubt rears its ugly head and you stall before youve even started. I wasnt sure if I could ever write a book, but now Im working on my ninth and its all down to the belief of one man my hubby, Paul. I hope this book spurs you on to conquer what might seem like a minefield of digital overload, but really isnt when you understand just a little bit more.

To your success!

Marketing is a state of mind that must exist in any organisation public service or private sector if that organisation is to identify and serve the needs of its various stakeholder groups, in any truly meaningful or effective way.

It is a common paradigm that marketing is a commercial tool designed simply to sell as many products or services as possible. One not uncommon definition is that marketing is the art of arresting the human intelligence for long enough to extract money from it. Its not that. Thats mugging.

Period.

As Ive often talked about, a business or organisation public, private, profit or not-for-profit is a marketing organism that requires a marketing state of mind in everything that it does to meet its customers needs.

Period.

And that means that marketing is about so much more than advertising or promotion. Its about understanding the needs and wants of existing and potential customers, and then making meaningful connections and developing relationships with each of those groups, time after time after time.

Marketing is the entire business of doing business looked at from the stakeholders point of view (all stakeholders, including staff, customers, shareholders, suppliers, communities, etc.). In this environment, marketers should bring a dynamic, powerful and effective approach to the development and implementation of marketing and/or communication strategies.

So how do we do this? Once upon a time it was by advertising, PR and promotions. Today, the digital and online world has generated social media. Social media is not a new what in marketing; its a new how. The core concept of marketing has not changed and will never change. Social media simply created a new environment in which relationships can be established and effective marketing communications can take place. Most of these social media platforms even have their own built-in data analytics tools, which enables companies to track the progress, success, and engagement of ad campaigns.

Social media is now at the core of effective marketing. Most marketing activity is a costly waste of money but if social media is fully understood and effectively implemented, it works.

There are an increasing number of social media channels and it is vital that marketers understand each one of them, how they are structured, who their participants are, what they are used for and how to penetrate those markets without seriously rattling their cages a real risk with social media.

One of the best and most impressive social media brains that I know is marketer and author Linda Coles. And she has written this book in a powerful and effective way that will help all marketers understand the concept and the practice of social media. Highly valuable.

She also brings humour, warmth and a big brain to the book which increases its value enormously.

The single biggest thing that social media has brought to the world of marketing and marketing communications is people. We now recognise and understand more than ever that people do business with people. Companies are no more than legal entities.

And in this environment, Linda is a star, connecting and communicating with people in a constantly impressive manner.

Read the book. Carefully consider what Linda has to say. Integrate it into your businesss activities. Do those things and your business will become even more successful than it already has been.

Brian H. Meredith

CEO of The Marketing Bureau, New Zealand

Former Director of Saatch & Saatchi, UK, and Acting Chief
Executive of the companys $50 million Manchester Agency

Hello! Im Linda Coles, an international speaker and author.

I run a small company called Blue Banana and mainly work from my home ofce in New Zealand. Paul is the love of my life, Stella and Monkey are my two cats, and Daisy and Britney are my goats. In my spare time I write thrillers and I run a writer needs to keep moving.

My background is mainly in retail management working for some of the UKs biggest retailers, but life in the slower lane beckoned and so Paul and I moved to pastures green south of Auckland. The slower life never really happened, and I continue to work with some really great brands, helping them to build relationships with their customers online.

I speak a great deal and write about building relationships an important part of being successful in business. I wrote the books Learn Marketing with Social Media in 7 Days in 2011, Start with Hello in 2013 and Marketing with Social Media in 2015. I also write regularly as a LinkedIn Influencer, along with Richard Branson, Barack Obama and Arianna Hufngton which sounds very grand and I am very honoured to have been asked.

I hated English lessons at school, and never became interested in writing until about eight years ago, when I started blogging and working with social media. I wrote my rst book to share my knowledge with thousands of others in order to make it simpler for them to understand. Had I known at my very rst job at Age 13, delivering milk early on weekend mornings, that I would become a writer, I would have paid more attention at school. Now, I write content for others, so they can pretend they are writing to their client bases, when really its me.