Jay Baer On Social Media Strategy In 13 Sentences

Jay Baer is a social media strategist, author, speaker and President of Convince & Convert. Founder of five companies, he’s worked with over 700 brands. His Convince & Convert blog is ranked among the world’s top marketing resources, and was named #3 social media blog in the world by Social Media Examiner. These are some of Jay’s thoughts, insight and advice on social media marketing and strategy.

1. Listen! It’s the first commandment of every social media program.
2. Pay attention. Find out who is talking about you, in what capacity, and where.
3. To solve this listening breadth dilemma, what I recommend is to take the list of keywords that you have targeted in paid and/or organic search, and incorporate them into your social listening, too.
4. Remember, the goal is not to be good at social media, but to be good at business because of social media.
5. Social media and email are complementary tools, and it’s no accident that you can’t even SIGN UP for a social network without an email address.
6. Social media is growing up fast. No longer a niche plaything of the digerati, social media is firmly entrenched as a societal game changer of historical importance.
7. Don’t treat social media results like the nuclear codes. Sharing your results will inspire the internal discussions and ideas necessary to take your program to the next level.
8. What’s the one thing that defines you – and it’s not features and benefits. Volvo = Safety. Apple = Innovation. Disney = Magic. What’s on the other side of your = sign?
9. The best way to remove subjective bias and get started with content marketing is to create a social FAQ. Determine the questions that are asked about your company or category most often, and answer those questions in a multitude of formats.
10. Social business isn’t about tools and technology. It’s about giving Becky the freedom to work off-script. It’s about cultural DNA that values moments of delight. It’s about treating customers as humans, not transactions. It’s about winning hearts and minds one planeload at a time with a personal, shared experience.
11. The companies that engage customers on Twitter and Facebook within minutes are making a none-too-subtle statement about their embrace of the social telephone and the primacy of the customer.
12. Speed and brevity are the twin rails of technology and customer interaction.
13. At every price point, there are many outstanding tools available to help your company listen to social conversations. But they are just tools – empty vessels that only work their magic based on your commands.