Love it or hate it, social media marketing is here to stay. And while you may not see much use for it aside from Facebook profile updates or uploading your child’s birthday party photos, it is fast becoming a critical – and effective – marketing tool for meeting + event planners. Premier Transportation’s VP of Sales + Marketing, Nicole French, an industry recognized social media marketing expert, enthusiastically explains how to get the most from social media in order to make the most of your event and your career
Q. Tell me briefly about yourself and Premier Transportation.
A. Premier Transportation is a premier quality worldwide ground transport company providing chauffeured transportation nationally, as well as internationally. At Premier, we specialize in working with meeting + event planners. As the VP of Sales + Marketing, I’m responsible for all the marketing plans and campaigns including social media, print and the Web site. My job encompasses everything from making cold calls to representing Premier Transportation at industry events, working with media + event planners, and representing Premier as a MPI board member.
Q. Why would a planner want to incorporate social media into their marketing?
A. Social media can help planners with pre-event community building; find vendors and research brands to gain a better understanding of who they are and what they offer; promote sponsors of events; and even enable greater organization through the use of mobile apps that help eliminate bulky binders, handouts, agendas, presenter bios, sponsorship materials and more.
Q. How often do you engage in social media marketing and which platforms do you use most frequently?
A. I’m using all the platforms on a daily basis. However, when used correctly, Twitter is the most innovative way to engage with customers, especially compared with traditional forms of marketing, which can be both expensive and time-consuming. Everyone can afford social media and it’s an excellent way to start conversations with customers, clients and other industry experts.
Q. Since social media marketing is unlike traditional marketing, how do you measure its effectiveness?
A. Because it’s unlike traditional marketing, you can’t always point to it and quantify leads, for example, although there are instances when that does happen. Instead, you have to put a plan in place. Ask yourself, “What’s my end goal?” “How often will I use social media?” Return on investment cannot be measured in a traditional way, but when you approach social media correctly, you can see an end result -- more engagement with clients, for instance, which in turn, increases your market presence.
Q. Do you find that social media allows you to have more interaction with your prospects/clients?
A. Yes. Social media is one of those things you have to see as a way to give back; as a way to engage with your customers. Too many people make the mistake of simply posting to Twitter and not responding to their followers’ [posts.] I don’t consider it wise to hire an outside contractor to handle social media either, simply because they’re not involved with your company. Instead, put a plan in place. Ask questions of your clients and gain perspective. It’s like market research and public relations. For example, at Premier we’ve asked, “What make/model of car would you like to be seen in?” and give our followers a few options from which to choose. Or, we ask, “How important is it that the car be eco-friendly?” I can then take the responses from my followers to the board and present the results. This kind of engaged market research and analysis leads to good business decisions. That’s what I mean by “giving back” – it’s the “social media love.”
Q. Describe an average day of social media networking. How often do you post? Is one time of day better than another?
A. At the beginning of the week, I set a schedule for social media and spend time engaging in conversation with people. I do post at least once a day. If your target market is made up of business professionals and you post between 8am and 5pm on Mondays, your posts may end up buried in their feed. Most companies don’t allow their employees to sit on Twitter during the day, so you might want to consider posting at night. However, it’s worth noting that Twitter users do seem to be on at all hours of the day, while Facebook users seem check their pages more often at night.
It’s important to be thought-provoking and creative about your posts. Your followers want to feel personally connected to you, but be aware that there’s a fine line between personal and professional. If you want to get more personal and there are individual followers to whom you don’t want particular postings sent, you can adjust your settings accordingly.
As far as what to post, I receive Google alerts (e-mails sent from Google containing new results regarding a specific topic of your choosing) about the transportation industry, meeting and event world, so I’m reading articles, posts, blogs and other relevant information daily. Not all of it is just about our business, but pertains to our targets’ industries as well. They’re all topics that drive business to Premier and show that we’re experts in our field and on top of our game.
Within those posts, I’ll say something about Premier — we’ve been nominated for awards or we have a special going on — but you want to keep those kinds of posts to a minimum. Instead, you want to have a conversation. It’s a mistake to use social media as straight advertising, and in fact, if you do, you’ll fail.
Also, you can keyword search on Twitter for your industry terminology and utilize the results to engage with more followers.
Finally, there are tools in place that allow you to post to all platforms simultaneously and I highly recommend taking advantage of those. That can ease up the time constraints of your social media plan.
Q. What tips would you offer planners who want to incorporate a social media program into their own marketing plan?
A. At the end of the day, positioning yourself as an expert should be your primary goal. You also want to build your personal brand awareness, create loyalty and have peers view you as an industry expert. (This has the fortunate result of setting yourself up for career advancement as well.)
Additionally, you want to strengthen and build relationships via social media, even bringing current relationships to another level. Social media also helps you improve on your interaction with customers and increases customer service levels. Finally, you can use social media to engage with other industry professionals to find out what’s working for them.
Q. Any other advice?
A. Read up on social media marketing. When I first started using it, I read four books about the different platforms, tools and tips to using it effectively. Always present yourself professionally and position yourself as an expert. Using video helps do this, and allows people to get to know you personally. Post daily business activities on all the different platforms and then link back to your main site. That works to educate clients about your services and client advantages.
And finally, don’t be selfish--give shout outs to other companies, related organizations and peers.
